Pikes Peak Parent Mommy Blog : Colorado Springs Gazette, CO

A kitty plays in the snow, and a farewell

December 4th, 2008, 12:06 pm by Heather

This is my last post on the Pikes Peak Parent Mommy Blog, and I just wanted to say thanks to those who have been following Kaylee’s adventures. I have had a lot of fun sharing them with you.

My last day with The Gazette is tomorrow, and after that I’ll be staying home with my little girl, trying to figure out ways to keep her busy seven days a week. I hope I survive.

I’ll continue to blog about Kaylee on my personal web site. Anyone who’s interested in following along can e-mail me to find out where that is. My e-mail: hmcdonnell AT gmail DOT com

And as promised, here’s that kitty:

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Flooding the world with STILL MORE cute

November 26th, 2008, 1:05 pm by Heather

Portrait Innovations, a new photography studio that just opened in The Shops at Briargate, generously gave me a gift certificate to try out their services. (Secretly, I think the company just believes the world needs more cute pictures of Kaylee. I would tend to agree.) So we made an appointment, dressed her up in a cute little sweater dress, and went on our way.

How’d it go? See for yourself:

The store is new, so I think it may still be in the process of working out the bugs. Although we had an appointment, we had to wait a while, and then the photo shoot itself was a bit frenzied because there were a number of people with small, squirmy children waiting to go after us. The employees were all friendly and they gave plenty of compliments about Kaylee’s cuteness — which is the fastest way to my heart — but they were also clearly in a hurry.

So my advice to locals: Give the place a try, because the photos are great. But maybe do it on a weekday, if you can.

Posted in: photos • product reviews | 2 Comments »

Daredevil

November 21st, 2008, 4:47 pm by Heather

Kaylee and I were playing on the stairs last night, when she initiated me into a game she’s been playing with her dad. (Did you get a sinking feeling when you read “stairs” and “game” in the same sentence?)

I was kneeling at the bottom of the stairs and she climbed about six or seven steps up — out of my reach, by quite a bit. Then she threw Kitty at me. I caught the cat, flipped it in the air a little to make Kaylee giggle, and then tossed it back to her. “This is a fun little game,” I thought. Then Kaylee threw Kitty at me again, and in the four-tenths of a second I was looking down at Kitty, Kaylee dove down the stairs.

I think the neighbors four houses away probably heard me yell “OH MY GOD” when I looked up and realized my daughter was falling through the air, completely trusting me to catch her.

Also, I think my heart stopped a little bit.

It restarted just in time for me to catch her right as her head started to hit the wall and just before she would have smacked her face on the bottom step. She made it through the incident completely unscathed, if a little whiny because I’d scared her with all my yelling. I am pretty sure that I, however, will have lasting psychological scars.

I think she and her dad need to come up with a different game.

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Your Wednesday ration of cute

November 19th, 2008, 6:04 pm by Heather

Do not attempt to take away that popsicle. Repeat: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO TAKE AWAY THAT POPSICLE.

Posted in: photos | 4 Comments »

Dear Kaylee, at 18 months

November 13th, 2008, 3:19 pm by Heather

Dear Kaylee,

I’m so excited that you’ve hit the 18-month mark, because maybe now it’s ok for me to stop giving your age in months. Maybe now I can just say you’re “one-and-a-half” until you turn two. Except, 18 months isn’t really the same as 23 months, so maybe I’ll have to keep on doing the mental gymnastics required to remember your exact age. Maybe, just for fun, I’ll keep giving your age in months for the rest of your life. When you’re 30, I’ll be telling everyone I have a 364-month-old daughter. Because I can.

Three months ago, I spent a routine visit at your pediatrician’s office trying not to cry. I’d just been told that you weren’t getting enough calories, your weight was too low, you were too short, and that if it continued they’d probably have to run a bunch of tests to figure out why you weren’t growing. So it was with some trepidation that I took you to your 18-month appointment this morning. Not only were you going to get a bunch of vaccinations, but you were also due for another weigh-in. Once again, they charted your progress and compared you to all the other kids in the country. And they didn’t say anything. Not a thing. So I had to ask, and I had to keep my voice from trembling when I said, “Last time you were worried about her growth … what do you think now?” The doctor peered through his reading glasses at your stats and gave me his verdict: Normal, just barely. Your weight is officially in the fifth percentile. Somehow, being in the fourth percentile was something to worry about, but being in the fifth percentile is ok. Whatever. At least I can let it go now.

This month, you’ve been surprising us with your ability to learn new things faster than we can consciously teach them to you. You used the potty before we realized you even understood what a potty was for. You say new words without us knowing you’ve ever heard those words before. You can point at and name every part of your face. You can blow kisses. You can shred a bagel in under 30 seconds. You can give candy away to other kids without worrying about having less candy to keep for yourself. You cannot stand being told “no.” You CAN stand telling other people, and the dogs, “no,” “uh-uh” and “AAAARRRGH.” You give the best hugs.

By this time next month, when I’m getting ready to write you another letter, things will have changed a lot for us. You and I will be seeing each other more, and I can’t decide whether to be excited about it or worried about how to keep you busy. It’s a little bit of both, I guess. We’ll see when we get there, but I promise I’ll try to make it fun, and I’ll do my best to keep the dogs from stealing your Cheerios and making you scream.

Love,

Mommy

Posted in: Dear Kaylee • photos | 4 Comments »

The word “potty” is used 13 times in this post

November 11th, 2008, 3:11 pm by Heather

My kid is a genius.

Somehow, I sense that you’re skeptical. So let me explain.

This weekend, we went to my parents’/brother’s/nieces’ house to hang out and enjoy some quality family time. Whenever we’re over there, it’s obvious that Kaylee really wants to be able to do everything her cousins can do, from running races in the yard to balancing a blob of mashed potatoes on the end of her finger.

On Saturday, Kaylee watched both of her cousins use the potty and then insisted on sitting on the toilet herself for about half an hour. Every once in a while, she’d take a piece of toilet paper, wipe her butt and hand it to someone.

We saw this as a sign that maybe Kaylee will be interested in potty training soon. She turns 18 months this week, which is the age we’re supposed to “consider” starting potty training, according to her pediatrician’s office. (Per their instructions, I had been considering starting potty training. I’ve also been considering writing the great American novel. I’ve made about as much progress on both.)

Since Kaylee seemed fascinated with the idea of using the potty, we stopped at Target and bought her a little potty chair and set it in the living room last night, thinking she could sit in it to watch tv for a couple more months, until we get around to potty training her. But as soon as she saw it, she started trying to take her pants off. So we let her try it out. Right as I was telling Rob, “I’ll be so impressed if she pees right now,” I looked back at Kaylee to see that she was peeing in her potty.

The way we reacted, you’d think she had just won a Nobel prize. We cheered, we clapped, we called the grandparents. You couldn’t have beaten the smiles off our faces.

I thought it was a fluke, but she peed in her potty again Sunday morning, and on and off throughout the day, she insisted on sitting there just for fun.

She had me convinced that this potty training thing is a piece of cake, and all the other parents out there are just whiners. I figured I’d have her out of diapers next week.

After we got home from Grandma’s house on Sunday, we sat her on the potty again, but she didn’t use it. So Rob and I wandered off, leaving her half naked because I was about to give her a bath.

And when we turned back, our little genius had sat down on the floor, right next to the potty, and pooped on the carpet.

Ok, so maybe it’ll take two weeks.

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Random cuteness

November 5th, 2008, 6:44 pm by Heather

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If Kaylee has candy, you might want to duck

November 3rd, 2008, 2:19 pm by Heather

We dressed Kaylee up for Halloween last year, but we didn’t bother with the trick-or-treating because she was just too young to enjoy it. This year, we decided to take her to a few houses and then come home to hand out candy to other kids.

The trick-or-treating went all right, but Kaylee spent most of the time confused. We tend not to randomly knock on our neighbors’ doors and ask for handouts, so she didn’t know how she was supposed to behave. She opted for shyness, but she did enjoy walking around the neighborhood at night, which she usually doesn’t get to do.

We only went to a few houses, and I thought she’d be perfectly happy to go inside and resume our normal evening activities (chasing the dogs and coloring). But an attempt to bring her indoors caused some screaming, so we stayed on the porch to hand out candy.

Here’s where Kaylee’s love of Halloween blossomed, and she found her place in the world.

This kid loves giving away candy. I mean, she LOVES it.

She camped out on the porch with me and we waited for trick-or-treaters to arrive. These are the statistics I gathered:

As kids approached there was a …

… 91% chance Kaylee would put a piece of candy in their bags.

… 9% chance Kaylee would get tired of waiting for them to reach the porch and choose to throw the candy at them.

… 39.2% chance Kaylee would follow them down the driveway and try to give them more candy.

… 21% chance Kaylee would stand at the edge of the yard and babble, presumably trying to entice kids to come to our house and let her give them candy.

Luckily, no unsuspecting trick-or-treaters were clocked in the head with a Baby Ruth, and none were tackled and forced to take more candy.

But when it was time to pack up the candy bowl and go inside, a temper tantrum ensued. Then we went over to Grandma’s house, where she got to hand out more candy. And another temper tantrum ensued when it was time to come inside there.

So anyway, I think Kaylee has found her calling at long last. She’s going to open up a candy shop, where she can throw candy at little kids. Obviously.

Posted in: firsts • photos | 3 Comments »

“Da bo dee”

October 31st, 2008, 3:37 pm by Heather

In preparation for Kaylee’s debut this evening as a sock monkey, we’ve been trying to get her to say “trick or treat.” At times, though, she seems to think that she can just say the same number of syllables that we say, and it’ll mean the same thing. So when I’m going through the alphabet, for example, it might go like this:

ME: A.

KAYLEE: A.

ME: B.

KAYLEE: B.

ME: C.

KAYLEE: Buuu.

ME: D.

KAYLEE: Nah.

So all efforts to get her to say “trick or treat” have only yielded responses like “ma no la” or “leb de ka.” Which is fine, of course, because she’s only 17 months old.

But then every once in a while, the kid surprises me with how much she can actually say. The other night as I was putting her to bed, she reached out, touched my nose and said, “Nose.” Then she touched my eye and said, “Eye.” Then, the next morning as we were getting breakfast ready, she said, “Bless you” when I sneezed. Well, holy cow. I had no idea she knew how to say those words.

So I’m still holding out hope that we’ll get a “trick or treat” out of her before the end of the day. We will almost certainly attempt to bribe her with candy. We are not above such tactics.

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If I get arrested, can someone please print out this blog post and bring it to the police station?

October 28th, 2008, 11:57 am by Heather

I may have mentioned before that my daughter likes popsicles. Except that by “likes,” I mean “loves” or “obsesses over” or “would murder me in my sleep to get.”

Here’s the usual procedure for popsicle consumption:

1. Kaylee points at the freezer and whines.

2. One of her parental figures says, “How do you ask me nicely?”

3. Kaylee says, “Hepeeez.” (Translation: Help, please.)

4. As we open the freezer, Kaylee launches into her popsicle dance, which involves jumping up and down and waving her arms frantically.

5. Kaylee then finds a spot on the floor and sits down. She can’t quite contain her excitement, though, and tends to bounce in place while she waits.

6. Rob or I sit down with her, bite off pieces of popsicle and put them securely in her mouth.

Rob’s mom found tiny popsicles somewhere and gave some to us over the weekend. “What a great idea!” we thought. “Kaylee can carry them around on her own!” And so we tried them out on Sunday. (I believe experienced parents may already suspect that much of our furniture is now sticky. They would be correct.)

The tiny popsicles worked reasonably well, especially if I happen to be following Kaylee around with a paper towel. She loves having the treat all to herself, and she can finish it on her own because it’s so small. And the dripping isn’t so bad. I mean, who really expects to get their security deposit back anyway?

The biggest problem is one I didn’t anticipate. As Kaylee slowly devours her popsicle, it inevitably melts and runs down her chin and all over her hands. Which is fine. Except that it stains her skin. Her first popsicle was red and left a trail from her chin all the way down to her diaper, plus it got all over her hands. She looked like she’d just murdered another baby and then taken a break to have open heart surgery.

She had a green popsicle immediately after the red one, causing the two colors to mix on her chin into a bruise-like shade that made her look like she’d been punched in the face. (Since then, I’ve also found that orange and blue are a bad color combination, as well.) We had to return something to Bed Bath & Beyond that afternoon, and I was convinced that the store employees would see her chin — not to mention the bite mark and the bruise from where she smacked her face on Rob’s desk last week — and immediately call the police. Fortunately, she still has a binky habit, and the pacifier covered up her chin.

Given this turn of events, I thought it might be best to return to the old popsicle ways and just put little bits of popsicle in her mouth again. Judging from the high-pitched wailing that ensued when I tried this, I may as well have asked her to throw Kitty in the trash.

So, the tiny popsicles are here to stay, I guess. We’ll just have to schedule Popsicle Time carefully around our public outings so we don’t get thrown in jail.

Posted in: my baby hates me • photos | 2 Comments »