Spend the night with Georgia

Richard and I both had to go out-of-town on the same week. What are the chances? I had to go to Atlanta and he had to go to Salt Lake City. What in the world were we supposed to do with Kamdyn? Our families tried every way possible to help us out and we appreciate all of their efforts; however, Georgia graciously agreed to keep her instead. What a relief! See, I keep saying what a blessing she is! This seemed to be best for Kamdyn because it kept her from having to be driven all over the place in order for her to spend two nights away. She had a great time at Georgia's, as usual! She NEVER wants to leave Georgia's when I arrive at the door each day to pick her up. She always say, "I don't want to go with Mommy!" I guess I can look at the bright side of things.....at least she LOVES where she is while I am working. I don't feel as guilty about working instead of staying at home.

THANKS AGAIN, GEORGIA!!!

Here are a few pictures of her after her bath one night.

"Don't Look at You"

As stated in the earlier post about Kamdyn's temper tantrum with the cookies being covered.......Kamdyn had her "fit" for about 25 minutes. I had to go to Fitz-Symms (photographer) and order the pictures that we actually wanted. Yes, I had to take Kamdyn with me. I was trying to figure out how in the world I was going to have a civilized conversation with the picture people while Kamdyn was throwing a fit. In her defense, she has had a cold and hasn't been her normal self. I tried calling Richard to see if there was any way that I could drive all the way home to leave Kamdyn with him and then go back to Fitz-Symms. Richard couldn't leave work! So, I put on my best happy face and attempted to calm her down. I kept asking her why she was crying. She got madder. The madder she got, the funnier I thought it was. I looked back at her a couple of times with a smile on my face. Finally, she looked at me and said in her loudest voice, "DON'T LOOK AT YOU!!!!" Of course this meant, "Don't look at me!" Toddlers frequently misuse pronouns, as they are learning. This made me laugh even harder and made her even madder.

Long story short....she started yelling, "I get out and go to the picture place." So, I took this as my opportunity to nip this "fit" in the bud. I said in my calmest voice, "We are going to the picture place, but you MAY NOT go inside crying like that." She stopped crying for a few mintues. Then, we got to Fitz-Symms. As I got her out of the car, I said, "When we get in here you will sit down and wait on Mommy." She said, "otay." When I sat her in the chair, at first she started to yell, " I want down, Mommy," I looked at her and said, "Kamdyn, if you don't sit, we are going back to the car." She didn't make another sound and she sat in the chair like a little princess. Whew........I was amazed that this worked!!! I couldn't believe my eyes! Would I have really left if she had thrown a fit? Who knows, but I'm glad that I didn't have to make that decision. She continues to amaze me! Thank you, Kamdyn!

Decorating Cookies with Georgia

I know I've mentioned time and time again how great Georgia is to Kamdyn, but I can never say it enough. Yesterday, when I picked up Kamdyn, she was having a slight tantrum over the fact that she and Georgia had just decorated Christmas cookies and Georgia had covered them up with saran wrap so that Kamdyn could take them home. Kamdyn DID NOT want those cookies covered. She continued to throw her tantrum for about the next 25 minutes in the car (see next post). Georgia does so much with Kamdyn. I never could have dreamed up a better babysitter even if I tried. Georgia is truly a blessing! After Kamdyn calmed down, she couldn't wait to share her cookies with her Daddy. She ran all over the house looking for him, only to find that he was still at work. When he walked in the door she immediately handed him a cookie.

Here is Kamdyn with the cookies when we got home.
She was so proud of her work! She had to show them off!

Potty Time

I posted in the summer that I bought Kamdyn a potty. She picked out the Dora potty, of course, but we haven't really made a big deal about the potty. It's just been sitting in the bathroom. Occasionally she will make mention of the "potty," but for the most part she has been adamant about not using the potty. She will say, "I want Mommy to put on me diaper." I haven't pushed the issue because I don't want her to be scared of the potty. However, in the past week or so, she has voluntarily been sitting on the potty (with her clothes on, of course). We have praised and encouraged her immensely for this "accomplishment," small as it may be. Kamdyn LOVES stickers. Her Dora potty came with incentive stickers to give when she uses the potty. Today, Kamdyn, sat on the potty without her diaper. She didn't actually use it, but she sat on it nevertheless. I feel that we have made a HUGE stride in potty training. She chose an orange sticker, but later decided that she wanted a pink sticker. It was an issue at first, but I explained to her that when she sat on the potty again without her diaper and actually "used" the potty that she could have a pink sticker. I told her that Santa may bring her some "big girl" panties and that he may even bring her some pink Princess stickers if she started using the potty. She seemed excited about this, so we will see how she does. Before her nap today, she said to me, "No pee pee in the diaper, Mommy. Pee pee in the potty!" I was so happy to hear her say this. If anyone has any suggestions on potty training, please clue me in! I know that all techniques and tricks do not work on all babies, especially Kamdyn; however, I am willing to try.

Giving tangible rewards kind of goes against my grain as far as teaching and my classroom management philosophy goes. I will try the stickers now to see how they work with potty training. I want her to go the potty because its the right thing to do, not because she thinks she should get something everytime she goes! I feel the same for behaving! I'm just not really into "bribes" or the infamous words, "if you do ______, then I'll give you ________." Potty training may change my mind though!!! To be continued...................

Finally Pigtails!

I had my hair in a ponytail today. For whatever reason, Kamdyn loves playing with my hair when it is in a ponytail. She said, "I want a ponytail." Instead, she got pigtails! They finally look like pigtails even though her hair is still short. She wasn't being very participatory as I tried to take her picture. She was interested in playing with the calculator instead of posing for a picture! She also has a bad cold which explains the runny nose!

Mommy Transformation

I must say that I absolutely LOVE being a Mom. It was really tough those first few months and some days are still better than others; however, it is such a rewarding feeling. It's like nothing that I've ever experienced before. Each new day with Kamdyn is so amazing! She is a little sponge that soaks up everything that she sees and hears (most things good, but some things bad). She never ceases to amaze me, especially with all of the new words that come out of her mouth daily. Her newest word(s) is "Salt Lake City." Richard was there this week and she continues to talk about Daddy being in Salt Lake City and how she wants him to come back home.

I think back to Kamdyn's first words, "da da" and "ma ma." We were SO excited to hear these precious sounds! She babbled those words for about a month. Once she figured out that she could form words with her mouth, she really exercised this skill. I don't think she has stopped talking since! We joke now about the reason for her having colic. We say that as soon as she came in to this world, she wanted to be walking and talking just like the rest of us. It made her mad, so she cried for 6 weeks straight!

From "ma ma" and "da da," we turned in to Mommy and Daddy. My favorite sentence to hear her say has always been, "I love you, Mommy." There is nothing in the world that makes me feel better, especially when she says it out of the blue like when we are driving in the car. My heart truly overflows! Recently, I have noticed her calling me "Mama!" She will say, "No, Mama," "Ok, Mama," etc. But, I don't think I'm ready to be Mama. That sounds so grown up! I am happy with being Mommy. She is simply growing too fast and that's the bottom line. What to do?

From "ma ma" and "Mommy" to "Mama," I guess I'll be happy no matter what. Hopefully she'll wait a LONG while on sounding like a teenager with an attitude saying "MOM!" She's my little sweetie and I can't think of anyone else that I would rather be than Kamdyn's ma ma, Mommy, Mama, Mom or whatever. I guess I already dread the day when she becomes Mommy independent.

Necklaces and Bracelets Galore!!

Kamdyn is in LOVE with any kind of jewelry. On Sunday, I ran to the Dollar General near our house to pick up a gift for each of the students in my class. Stunt cars for the boys......fancy jewelry for the girls. It wouldn't do until Kamdyn had her own set. The entire time in Dollar General, Kamdyn said, "Open it, Mommy!" I kept telling her that I would open it when we got home. As we were waiting in line to pay, a lady was standing behind us, but was right in front of Kamdyn in the cart. Kamdyn said, "What's your name." The lady told her, then asked Kamdyn's name. Kamdyn said, "Tamdyn." I corrected her. Then, Kamdyn said to the lady, "You open this?" I cracked up as the lady looked at me not knowing what to do. You could tell that she didn't want to tell Kamdyn "no" for fear of a tantrum. I interrupted and said, "Kamdyn, what did Mommy say?" She politely said, "When we get home." Thankfully, that was that!

Here is Kamdyn tonight as she played with her "jewels" again. I was in Atlanta for the past two days for work. Kamdyn stayed with "Georgie." (Thanks again, Georgia!) She couldn't wait to get home to her bracelets and necklaces. That was the first thing she said when we walked in the door. Tonight, however, she was most interested in the noise that they made when she put them on the table and she enjoyed taking them in and out of the box.

Sweet Baby Girl

Here is Kamdyn posing for the 2nd part of her photo session. I am awful at choosing the ones that are the "best" so I tried hard to choose only a few to share. She is growing so fast! She looks like a toddler and talks like a toddler. Where did my baby girl go and where did the time go?