My trip to see the redheads...part 3

At 2.5 yrs old, Kaelynn has several games that we "played", but never by THE rules, always by hers.  For example, here is a Hello Kitty game much like Candy Land.  Here are Aunt Sarah's cards...

And here are Kaelynn's cards!

 

We actually never got past that point in the game; I can't remember what interrupted us.  :)

Another thing she likes to do is stickers:

And while you can't tell from this page, most of the time, she likes to pile them all on top of each other instead of spread them out...I don't understand that.  She called her puffy ones "bouncy".  The mind of a two year old.

By far, my favorite game was the instructions for Hungry Hippo.  It was a loud game so we had to go upstairs so as not to disturb the baby.

I got this many marbles...

 

And this is what K had...

"Reading" the instructions...but she already knew them because before this picture, I said (so I would know her rules) "Kaelynn, how do you play this game?"

 

Her precious face got very serious and she said "No eat balls.  Get stuck in froat.  Make tummy sick.  Don't eat!"  I assured her I would not.  It was all I could do to keep a straight face, but I was glad she understood swallowing them was dangerous.

 

However, about an hour after this, she had a coin in her mouth...so, Mommy had a "that's not ok" talk about those.

My trip to see the redheads...part 2

So, Miss Kaelynn, age 2.5, has already very established opinions about what she will wear: tutus or dresses with leggings.  And not all dresses mommy buys, you understand.  Only certain dresses!

One morning while she was at school, my SIL, baby Alyssa and I went shopping for some more 3M sleeveless outfits for the baby.

One we found was this.  Ironically (or maybe not) enough, this is what Big Sister wore to school that day:

When we picked up K from school, this is what I saw:

Literally 5 seconds before this, the little boy in the far left corner had the Storm Trooper mask on and K was fake screaming and beating him on the head with a spatula!  Then Miss Priss I-only-wear-tutus-and-dresses took the Storm Trooper mask and put it on.  This is a great summation of her personality right now.  I am a girly girl, but you better not mess with me, 'cause I can be tough!!!  :)  I just thought it was funny!

Well, we got home and Kaelynn looked at the baby's outfit (she is nothing if not fashion-conscious), and seeing the maybe 8 inches of tulle declared, "A tutu!  Soooo cute!"  :)

Baby Alyssa loves to be on the big soft rug and stretch out and I thought this pic of the sisters looking each other was precious.  2 seconds later, big sister was smothering baby sister in a hug & kiss (they're still working on gentle kisses)...  :)

 

 

K loves to dance.  She is in a dance class and had her first recital in June.  She loves to watch the video and dance to it as evidenced above and below.  Notice the silver tutu above - it was something we found that day shopping.  We found some cute and inexpensive things at Osh Gosh B'Gosh (owned by Carter's) - among other things,  "My sister is my BFF" shirts for both girls, and for winter a sweatsuit for K - hoodie and pants.  It had glitter on it but when Mommy showed it to her, K saw the pants and said "I no want that"!!  :)

 



Best of all, for me, is when she dances with Daddy.  There is nothing that makes my heart melt more than watching my brother be a Daddy to his baby girls.  :)

 

 

My trip to see the redheads...part 1

Originally, I was to go out to San Jose to see my youngest brother Stephen, his wife Marni, their newborn daughter Alyssa Jane and big sister Kaelynn when the baby was about a month old, August 9.  Well, things at work were crazy and I was going to have to work the whole time.  In addition, I was still have fairly frequent migraines and didn't want to spend my time with them feeling miserable.  So I did what I've never done before and paid the change fee to push the trip back.  It was so worth it.

 

It was a vacation in the truest sense of the word.  I didn't work and I didn't study.  I just enjoyed the family.  Kaelynn, 2.5 yrs old, is so funny.  She is adjusting to being a big sister very well and says the funniest things!!!

 

She likes to push Baby Alyssa in the swing (though she needs to be reminded not to swing her too hard...) 

 

 

She loves to get down on the floor with the baby and touch her - usually before anyone is looking.  She's getting better about not touching the baby in the face.  Usually she wants to tickle the baby!  :)

She looks concerned here, but she's just thinking about her lunch order...we were in Monterrey on the bay and it was a seafood place so it said "chicken and chips" on the kids' menu.  She loves potato chips, and that's what she thought she was getting.  We had to explain in this instance, chips meant french fries!!  She loves to wear jewelry, but she doesn't like to stop lond enough for Mommy to turn the necklace around so the heart will face out. :)

This was the beginning of the day, before hair was combed and socks were on.  She has had an iPad almost a year.  They try to encourage that more than the "big black box" as my brother calls it, since the iPad is much more interactive and they are all learning games she had on there.

 

 

And here is ever-alert (when she's awake) baby sister.  She loves to be out and about and most days the week I was there, took her morning nap in the carrier while we were out.  She likes the car, as long as it is moving!  No red lights for her!  She is very much like her sister in that.

 

 

Doing water colors with Daddy.  Notice the liberal use of blue (her current favorite color).

 

 

First batch of funny Kaelynn-isms:
1) When the baby would cry, she would say - "hold on, baby Alyssa, I'm coming!" (as if she could do something about it!)  :)
2) Baby Alyssa gets hiccups a lot and at one point I said "poor thing".  K can't say "th" yet, so her echo came out "poor ting"  :)
3) When she was finished with a page, painting, stickers, coloring, whatever we were doing, she would say "dare, perfect!" (first word rhymes with and is substitute for "there")  :)
4) We listened to the "Frozen" soundtrack back and forth to Monterrey (about an hour and a half).  K knows the movie so well that she knows the part in the music where Elsa hits her sister Anna with an ice ray and hurts her.  K stopped singing every time at that spot and got serious and said, "that not ok, right, Daddy?" (instead of "no", at school they say "that's not ok") - and Daddy would say (every time) - "that's right, big girl.  It's not OK to hurt your sister.  Elsa did a bad thing."  Then K would go back to singing.

Stay tuned for more bald and red-headed cuteness!  :)

Visit to see the Redheads!

So firstly, the reason why I don't post more often is that I can't post pics from my iPad and I don't have much to say if there isn't a picture to go with it. (my life isn't all that interesting!)

However, last week was.  It was a glorious 8 day vacation with 0 work and 0 studying in CA when I went to see the redheads and their guy, my youngest brother.

This 7 week old went to daycare this week for the first time and did wonderfully, which was a relief seeing as of Friday night (8/29) she still wouldn't take a bottle!

Yes, it's a stretch now to call Baby Alyssa a redhead.  She's lost most of her reddish fuzz and it's coming in blondish, but don't tell her parents. :)

And then there's this little nut.  She is hysterical.  Wait till I tell you some of the stuff she said last week.  She had me laughing.  She is sweet to the baby and is totally potty trained during the day so she got to go to the 3 yr old room at school a couple months early!  She will currently only wear tutus and certain dresses - has a fashion opinion at a very young age (2.5 yrs old). She is pretty well behaved and is learning how to be quiet when the baby is sleeping, but that is something that is hard to remember. :)

 

 

More to come this weekend!  :)

2 Weeks from now...

...I will be with "the redheads", as we're fond of calling them, with this tiny one being the newest:

She's two weeks old in that picture.  First smiles.  I love that and that her little cheeks are starting to get chubby.  Apparently her big sister is giving her Daddy a run for his money:

So, Aunt Sarah is on her way...just not today as I had originally planned.  My migraines have been out of control and I have missed a lot of work, so I have been behind.  So, after praying about it and flexibility on the part of the chief redhead (that would be Mommy) and the non-redhead (that would be Daddy), I'm going to go two weeks from now.  Lord-willing all the work will be done (or enough of it anyway!) and the migraines will be more under control.

Because the thought of NOT seeing my redheads is just not one I could swallow.  I need some special big sister time with K and I need to hold baby A before she's no longer a newborn!

CA vacation, part 8 (the end)

Kristan and Dick decided we would go to Squaw Valley, the home of the 1960 winter Olympics, to go up to the top of the mountains.

A map showing how expansive Squaw Valley is:

It ended up being prohibitively expensive to ride the tram up, so we just walked around the little village that no doubt is buzzing during skiing season.  There were shops on bottom and condos on top.

I thought these stools were so cute at the gelato shop.

I was just in awe at the beauty of God's creation.  Growing up in the flat soybean and corn fields of Ohio, and now living in the flat, concrete filled city of Dallas, TX, I loved all the change in terrain and topography.  I so enjoyed my time with Kristan and her husband. The last morning I was there, I woke up to the outside temperature of 46, and the inside temperature of 61!  Love it!!  It will be another month or so before I can begin to hope for even a chance of weather like that here... It was hard to say good-bye, but I'm thankful for the opportunity to have been able to visit her and her retirement piece (and peace) of paradise.

CA vacation, part 7

It was such a gloriously beautiful day and drive up to Lake Tahoe.  We got Beau into his travel vest and settled in the back. (He has to be tethered to the vehicle because if not, he gets so excited to get out when the car stops that he bolts out and could be hit by a car or cause an accident.  This way, he is safe and has plenty of room to roam around in the back.)

I took so many pictures because I couldn't get enough of the views.

It was very windy that day, and the Yosemite wildfires had been burning out of control only a week ago.  We didn't know what it would be like closer to the top.   Thankfully, it was beautiful.  We ate at Gar Woods, which is right on the water.  I want to publicly document that on 5th day of September, I had a jacket on outside and was cold - thanks to the lovely CA weather! (it was over 100* back in TX!)

This was, by far, the most beautiful view I had for lunch ever!

Here's a view from the beach back up to the patio we had lunch on:

These beautiful black-eyed Susans were near where we parked.  I took the picture for my Mom since they are some of her fave wildflowers, and as pretty as the vibrant greens and blues of all the scenery was, the pop of yellow was welcome.

CA vacation, part 6

Lake Tahoe is about an hour away from Kristan's house.  Since I had never seen the mountains, that was one of the things on our list of things to do.  Kristan also wanted to show me the Donner Pass Museum on our way.

I never knew about this tragedy.  If you don't know about it, you can read about it here.

The idea that these pioneers had to take the wagons apart and put them back together to cross certain terrain just boggles the mind.

One of the survivors of that horrible winter was an 8 year old girl.  She had a doll that survived with her.  Somehow that made it just a bit more real - unthinkable.  And while this particular wagon train became famous for awful reasons, there were so very many we don't know the names of.  Yet many of the early pioneers came to various parts of our country without any idea of whether they'd live or die - with only the hope and determination that if they did their best, they would have a chance of a better life than they had at where they were before.  Sobering.

Rock with plague of all the names in the Donner Party.