post entries about being K's mom

At night, along with her bedtime story, K likes me to sing her a song before she falls asleep. She always requests “Traveling Soldiers”, which is really Travelin’ Soldier by the Dixie Chicks.

Sometimes after she falls asleep I go into her room and lay with her, brush the hair out of her face, kiss her on the forehead. I know that one day too soon she won’t let me lay with her anymore. Even sooner than that the baby will come and will take up a lot of the attention that would normally go to K. I worry about how that will affect her. Her world is going to change so much then.

Last night we used the grill for the first time of the year. She stood by the back door and watched the flames as they lit up the briquettes. I promised her that in a week or two we’ll buy jumbo marshmallows and roast them over the grill. That will be a first for her. It will be good preparation for her first camping trip in a few months.

Yesterday was K’s half birthday and she chose to go to Chuck E Cheese for the first time to celebrate. She loved it so much that she wants to have her birthday party there in August.

M’kid is a meat eater, so for dinner I made her steak and that was the only part of the meal she ate. After dinner she made herself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She’s quite chuffed with herself that she can make sandwiches on her own now. If only she would keep the jelly off the carpet…

Today we took K to the Northwest Family & Kids Festival at the fairgrounds. She: played in bouncy houses, fed goats, made a Valentine for J and me, petted two dogs, won a bag of bagels, walked a balance beam, sat on a police motorcycle, explored the inside of a police car, explored the inside of an ambulance, rode a pony, decorated a cupcake, petted a couple of reptiles including a snake and was very well behaved and polite the entire time.

With my trip, working full-time, teaching Sunday School and seeming to continuously be sick, I haven’t been spending as much time with K as I should/I want/she needs. I told her that tomorrow will be all about her.

On our to do list:
-read
-paint our toenails
-do crafts
-go for a walk/bike ride
-play tag
-play Skylanders Giants
-play cards
-practice writing

The wee one is four today! She is becoming such a mature little girl and becomes more curious by the day. Yesterday J told her that I was going to be her teacher, so she brought me one of her preschool books, opened it and started pointing at letters. “Is this H, School Teacher?” “Is this F, School Teacher?” “And is this G, School Teacher?” She was so happy and excited to have me for a teacher! I love that child too much for words. ♥

The other day I bought two bubble wands at Target for 92 cents each. Yesterday K and I went out in the parking lot (since we don’t have a yard) and I made bubbles while she had the time of her life chasing them. It was such a simple thing, but she couldn’t get enough of running after those bubbles. I love it when she is carefree and laughing like that – I could stand out there with those bubbles all day watching her play. ♥

We started potty training K over Labor Day weekend in 2010 and she took to it immediately. For about four months she was OCD about using the potty and only wore a diaper during her nap and at bedtime. Even then, she’d want to take her diaper off and use the potty, but we would say ‘you have a diaper on, just go in it’. Then she started having accidents – just a few at first but then it got to where she would stand right next to the potty and pee. Eventually we put her back in diapers the majority of the time and put off the potty training. She still used the potty quite a bit, but not like when she first started potty training.

When she turned three last month, we started talking seriously about potty training again. We had her in diapers for nap and bedtime, and when we would leave the house to go somewhere, but at home she would go without a diaper. She starts Pee Wee Athletics tomorrow, so this last week we’ve been keeping her out of the diaper when we go on short trips out of the house too, so she would be ready to go without a diaper for her class. A friend of ours came over Thursday morning and I was telling her about our potty training experience and how K regressed after a few months. She said that J and I were probably to blame for her regressing (she said it much nicer than that), because we had been encouraging her to go in her diaper, and that when her kids started showing an interest in not wearing diapers, she stopped using them completely, even at nap and bedtime. She has four kids, so what she said didn’t fall on deaf ears.

When K took her nap yesterday, we didn’t put a diaper on her. She said she needed one and we told her she’d be okay without it. She slept for a little over an hour and she stayed dry the whole time. When she went to bed last night it was the same thing: she said she needed a diaper and we told her she didn’t. After she had been in bed for awhile, she said she had to go pee, went over and used her potty, wiped and got back in bed. Then she asked for some water and I got her some. She fell asleep a few minutes later and didn’t make a peep the entire night. J and I looked in on her in the morning and she was still dry. She woke up just before 8:30a and came downstairs. I went up and saw that she had used her potty after waking up and the bed was still dry. Our friend was right! We know that there will still be an occasional accident in bed, but from now on K will be 100% diaper free.

K woke up this morning and her floor was covered with balloons. I said ‘where did they come from?’ ‘From my birthday.’ ‘Yeah, but how did they get here?’ ‘From my birthday.’ ‘So they just magically appeared because it’s your birthday?’ ‘Yeah.’ If I would have known they would just magically appear for her birthday, I wouldn’t have killed my lungs blowing them up.

Breakfast was chocolate cake, as she requested. As a bonus, we put fresh strawberries on it. She ate all of the strawberries but wouldn’t touch the cake. J tried to give her a bite and she said ‘you know, I just don’t like cake’.

She opened one gift from us (the How to Train Your Dragon toy), her gift from MIL and FIL (Happy Birthday Barbie) and her gift from Wyvie (I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today and a book of fairy tales). She was very excited about all of the gifts and we got pictures of her holding each one with a big cheesy grin on her face.

She played with her Imaginext Dragon World Fortress (we call it the dragon castle) (we gave it to her early, on Monday night) and her How to Train Your Dragon toy together. Toothless can actually perch on top of the castle, which is pretty cool. Then we took her to see How to Train Your Dragon in the theater. There was a group of kids from a child care there and she tried to join them. She kept wanting to seat hop, so after taking her out twice to negotiate with her, we finally just left.

We took her to Cold Stone and they gave us a buy one get one free deal for her birthday, even though we were supposed to sign up online. She wanted strawberry ice cream with strawberries mixed in and sprinkles on top, so that’s what we got her. Of course she ate ours instead – banana ice cream with banana, graham cracker, pecans and caramel mixed in.

We took photo booth pictures, but they didn’t turn out very well because there’s a delay with the camera and K wouldn’t sit still. After that we drove home so she could take a nap. She threw a fit the entire way, because she wanted to go fly a kite, which is what we’re going to go do after she wakes up from her nap. We might take her to the arcade too, because she really wants to play games.

The package my mom sent her was waiting for us when we got home and we let her open her gifts before going to sleep. All 13 of them! Somebody went a wee bit overboard! It was mostly clothes, though, and those are always appreciated. She also got her a really nice blanket, a picture frame (that says ‘you’re a gift from above’, I asked my mom ‘above what?’, she said ‘from God’, I said ‘we don’t believe in that’, she said ‘but I do’, I said ‘yeah, but it’s coming into our home’), two framed pictures of angels, and four porcelain figurines (one for newborn, one year, two year and three year), plus $10 in her card.

For dinner tonight, I’m making honey lemon chicken (marinating now), mashed potatoes, green beans and black olives. She’ll have the rest of her strawberries too. And maybe a salad. Really hungry just thinking about it!

My wee little 5 pound 15 ounce baby is now a 38+ pound three-year-old! ♥

When K woke up this morning, I was downstairs, the laundry basket was in the hallway, and she called down ‘Mom! You need to put these clothes in the dryer!’ I said ‘I know, I will later.’ She replied ‘Okay. Good morning!’ I guess she got her dad’s cleaning gene.

I went to check the mail, while K was supposed to be laying down for her nap. There were two cop cars parked outside and I went upstairs and told K about them when I came back in. She said ‘I want to see the police’. I said ‘it’s not people, just cars’. K: ‘But I want to see the people.’ Me: ‘It’s not people, it’s cars. Here look…’ I opened the blinds a bit, but she couldn’t see them at first. She kept moving over until she finally saw them and then she said ‘Okay… I get it, I get it… cars!’

At Costco tonight, I had my wallet in my left hand and was waiting to pay. K pulled my right arm behind my back and said ‘you’re under arrest’, then she reached for my left arm and said ‘put down your wallet, it’s the police’.

At Fred Meyer, the lady at PlayLand gave K a dollar for her birthday, but K was in a mood and wasn’t being very nice to her. When we were leaving I said ‘you were being rude to Barb’ and K said ‘I just don’t want to talk about my birthday with Barb.’ The way she said it was really funny.

Oh… also at Costco… we had already gone to the dollar store so K could spend the dollar that Barb gave her (she bought a hat and said ‘I’m going to be a cowboy!’), K saw the cashier counting money and she said ‘I want my money again’. I told her she already spent it and she tried to look inside my purse and said ‘but it’s my money, Barb gave it to me’. I told her again that it was gone and she said ‘but I just want it’. I told J ‘I don’t think she really understands the concept of purchases…’

None of these things are probably funny in print, but they were very funny to us :)

You know your daughter’s swimsuit is too small for her when it gives her baby cleavage. We bought K’s swimsuit a few months ago, but today is the first day that we’ve put her in it. It’s a size 4. It’s too small.