BARNEY

Before I had a child, I used to think that I would NEVER let him/her watch Barney. He just irritates me. Boy, have I learned a lot! In all actuality, it truly is my fault that Kamdyn is now obsessed with Barney and his Christmas movie. I made the mistake of bringing home the Barney Christmas Movie from school thinking that Kamdyn would enjoy watching a Christmas movie. Little did I know that this movie would be on loop from that day forward. It's a VHS tape. She let's it play all the way to the end so that it rewinds on it's own and pops out of the VCR. Then, she knows how to push it back in and turn on the TV to watch it again! She almost has the entire movie memorized, songs and speaking parts, as does anyone who has stayed with her at our house over Christmas. It is crazy! How will I ever sneak it out of this house without her throwing a fit? Yes, we are still watching Barney and talking about Christmas even though I constantly remind her that Christmas is OVER! Today, when we got home, Kamdyn was singing Barney's "song" over and over again. She was also pretending like she was the little girl, "Hannah," on the movie by lying on the couch, covering up, and going to sleep while Barney sang his "song" to Hannah. I HAD to get it on video because she sounds so darn cute when she sings it (despite my dislike for Barney and his song!) :) My little actress!!!

Picnic

I can't believe that just a couple of days ago I was talking about not being able to get warm and lighting the gas logs. Now, it's back to warm weather and we don't even need jackets. Kamdyn and I took advantage of this and went to the park for a "picnic." Well, I guess you could call it a picnic. We did sit at a picnic table, but the picnic consisted of dried Raisin Bran and Honeycombs mixed together and strawberry milk. Sounds yummy, huh? That's what she wanted for her snack and we HAD to take it to the park for a "picnic."

Princess Panties

Yes, I am more than determined to get Kamdyn potty trained! She got princess panties from Santa for Christmas. This morning she was talking about using the potty, so I asked her if she wanted to wear her Princess Panties. She said, "Yes, Mommy." I put on her panties and reminded her repeatedly that she COULD NOT pee pee in her pretty princess panties. Instead, she had to tell me when she needed to go potty! She said, "Okay, Mommy!" When I put the panties on her, something jumped inside of her because she began running around the house like a mad woman (see video below). I don't know.....maybe she felt free! :) At any rate, she kept the panties on for over two hours without having an accident. I asked her frequently if she needed to potty and she adamantly said, "NO, MOMMY, I NOT!" I started getting worried that she needed to pee pee, but was just scared to use the potty. Sure enough, I put her diaper back on and she wet it almost immediately. I tried to look on the bright side of things. At least she knew not to go in her panties even though she wouldn't go to the potty. We'll keep trying! This is progress, I think!

P.S. She is wearing her Clemson Tiger shirt in hopes of us beating the #1 ranked North Carolina Tarheels tonight in basketball!! Go Tigers!!



It's a long video, but worth watching her
run around acting crazy!

Happy 30th Birthday, Uncle Matthew!

Since we couldn't be in Atlanta with you today, you'll have to make do with these cute pictures of Kamdyn "decorating" your birthday card. Yes, it will be late getting to you; however, since your party isn't until next weekend and you celebrate a 1/2 birthday, we didn't figure that you would mind celebrating your birthday all week long either! :) Your card will be arriving sometime this week. Kamdyn worked so hard on it!

ABC's

Let me start by saying that this post is by no means a "bragging" post. It's just a post of excitement and amazement. You see, Kamdyn is doomed her first 4-5 years of life with me being a PreK teacher. I look for everything and I compare everything that she can and cannot do to my 4 year olds at school. Yesterday, I was attempting to "organize" all of her toys (see previous post). In doing so, I pulled out some toys that my friend, Debra, had let us borrow. There were two toys that I thought were age appropriate for her and that I thought she would enjoy. One is the Elmo letter toy and the other is the shape pop up toy that you will see in the video. Anyway, I literally had it out for 10 minutes and had showed her a few specific letters (K, I, C, and E.) I chose these because she could relate to them since they are things that she likes. A few minutes later (3-4) I called her back over to me and asked her to show me where these letters were. To my extreme astonishment she remembered all 4 of them!! My amazement comes from the fact that a few of my students in my class still do not know 4 letters in the alphabet much less would they be able to pick them out after only 10 minutes of instruction. At least now I know that it's not because I'm a bad teacher! :) Also, I am not so naive as to think that Kamdyn will be able to pick these letters out in every book, magnet, situation, etc.; however, she did impress in this brief "mini" lesson.

You have to overlook her brief bouts of stubborness in the video. She is obsessed with seeing herself on the camera and refuses to do most things that I ask her to do when the camera is on.

What color is the fire?

Georgia has a "real" fire at her house every now and again when it is REALLY cold outside. This week has definitely been REALLY COLD! Kamdyn has enjoyed looking at Georgia's fire and telling her that "the fire is orange and lellow." I can't tell you the last time that we actually lit our gas logs at our house. Yesterday, however, it was so cold that Richard and I just couldn't get warm. To my surprise, Kamdyn and I came out from the back bedroom and Daddy had lit the gas logs. Kamdyn loved seeing the fire in her house. You can see a bit of her sneaky personality in these pics. I get these looks often! :)

Organizing Toys.....HELP!

I need any advice I can get on this topic especially after Christmas. I have bought baskets and a toy box. I have sorted toys. I have moved the toys from the living room, to Kamdyn's room, to the office/den. Kamdyn's closet it slammed full with storage tubs of clothing in case we have another girl! I have gone through the toys and put them away in storage tubs for when/if we have another baby whether it be boy or girl. I can't get rid of these things now, but I am running out of places/options! HELP! I have no more space left and I'm growing tired of seeing toys EVERYWHERE!!! What to do?

Happy New Year!

This was about the most exciting New Year that we've had in a while. For the past couple of years, we've been in bed before the ball even dropped. This year, we went to Atlanta to see Clemson lose to Auburn in overtime. Sounds like fun, right? Well, the game wasn't too fun, but the festivities before and after the game were definitely fun! We were actually racing to get to the restaurant/bar after the game in order to "bring" in the New Year. We made it with only about 10 minutes to spare. It was a great time! Matthew and Holly, you were great hosts!

Nanny and Pop Pop, thanks for keeping Kamdyn. Her sleep was interrupted by the millions of fireworks going off in our neighborhood from 11:00pm-1:00am. Needless to say, Nanny and Pop Pop didn't get much sleep either! :(