Keys

Katey is really growing up fast. I think she's teething again, and knowing how long her teeth take to come in that means 3 or 4 months of chewing and biting on everything! She is at that great stage where she wants to pick objects up and put them inside things, which means I can get her to help around the house, sort of. Like asking her to help put my piles of laundry into the laundry basket or put dirty clothes in the hamper. Then, she claps for herself. Anytime she does anything, she claps for herself.

Kyle is still growing, too. We've decided to start him early on a chore, so he is responsible for setting the table. That includes plates and silverware (no steak knives, though), and placing any potholders I need for pots in the center of the table. He hems and haws a bit, but is willing to do it. In another year, he's going to be out of the stages (baby, toddler, preschooler) and officially a "kid". It's starting to show already with how he talks about things and the questions he asks. The other day we were feeding our neighbor's dog while they are out of town and I was locking the front door on our way out:

"I have to lock the door, Kyle. Wait for me, please."
"I want to do it! I want to do it!"
"Okay, here you go." I give him the key and he turns it and I help him pull it out. We turn to go. "Kyle, why don't you hang on to the key and give it back to me when we get home. You're pretty good at using the key so every day when we feed Chesty you can hold the key and lock and unlock the door, okay?"
"Yeah, I want to do that! And maybe I can drive the car now, too?"
"Uh…no, sorry. Driving the car is more than just using the key."
"Oooohhhh, but Mom, I can steer the wheel, too!" (Now, I'm just laughing!)
"Maybe when you're a little older, okay?" He makes a face.

Funny thing Kyle Said...

Jeff recounted this to me and I thought it was cute...

Kyle: Dad, I found my toy.
Dad: Oh, good, Kyle.
Kyle: Do you want to know where I found it?
Dad: Where?
Kyle: Up there (points to top of Tami’s dresser). Do you want to know how I got it?
Dad: How?
Kyle: I opened the drawers like this (demonstrates opening the drawers) and climbed up. You wouldn’t like me to do that would you?
Dad: No Kyle, you might break the drawers if you climb on them.
Kyle: Yeah, that’s what I thought. That’s why I climbed up when you and Mommy were downstairs.

Long Time, No Post!

Katelyn is amazing - she is running around the house trying to climb and get into everything! She just started using lots of new words in the last two weeks, like ball, Katey (which sounds a lot like Daddy so she was probably saying this one a while before I figured it out), more, doll, juice, bye, bottle. She is cute as a button. She finally dropped the whole screaming in the bathtub thing about three weeks ago, too, thank goodness. Sometime in the middle of March, completely out of the blue, she just screamed and cried during her entire bath and that lasted every time we bathed her for about a month and a half. I got pretty good at washing her fast!

She's also started this screeching thing when she's frustrated, which I think she has learned from Kyle because he will scream at her sometimes because he knows he gets in trouble if he hits or pushes her. It drives me crazy so I hope it doesn't last long. She drags everything all over the house, pulls all my tupperware out of the bottom drawer and loves to pull our books off the bottom shelves upstairs. Typical toddler stuff!

Kyle is doing great, too! He really likes school and is making new friends. He is learning letter sounds and starting to spell easy words occasionally, mostly due to a good Leapfrog video set we bought. He makes up his own knock knock jokes, but they usually don't really make any sense. Oh, and he has visits from his imaginary friends all day long - Dora, Diego, Pooh, Tigger, the Little Einstein characters, and Dumbo - I don't know how many times I need to answer the door to let in imaginary friends all day long!