Happy 3rd Birthday, K!

So this goofy Cinderella Ballerina, with this face, has gotten me through the past few hard weeks:

 

Whenever she is asked to hold her sister's hand, she actually holds her tiny arm, right above the hand, like this (notice the same face; no idea where this came from - haven't seen it before or since - but it's made my day many times!)

 

Then, this past weekend, she had her THIRD birthday party. Her day is actually the 28th, but that's a holiday weekend, so I think they went with something easier to get the friends and family out to.  Here is the guest of honor posing for Mommy:

 

 

Then here she is, walking down the sidewalk to her party.  I just love the look of wonder and joy on her face:

 

 

 

 

Happy 3rd birthday, sweet goofy K.  You have weathered this past year and all the big, big changes, very well and Aunt Sarah is so proud of you.  You are a very good big sister and are such a big girl - no more be-be (pacifier) and no more diapers! You are in a big girl bed and are in the big girl classroom at school. 

 

Time goes by so quickly.  It seems like just the other day you were as little as "baby 'Lyssa" (as you call her).  I hope you always approach life as you do now - 100% full speed ahead, ready for any and all adventures! I love you so much!  You were my very first favorite redhead! (shhh!  Don't tell Mommy!)  :)

Love,
Aunt Sarah :)

Announcing the arrival of...

...Alyssa Jane Moseley

Born 7/13/14 at 9:52 a.m.

7 lbs., 15 oz., 20 in. long

little bit of red hair

We praise God for a healthy baby girl.  There were some scary moments as at one point, the cord was wrapped around Alyssa's neck.  My niece and I share the same middle name, which is very special.  Jane was my maternal great-great grandmother, so that is three greats for baby Alyssa.

Welcoming Alyssa home was big sister (2.5 yrs old) Kaelynn - who was upset that her baby was crying, and that Mommy couldn't hold HER.  She's got lots of big sister books, though, and will soon understand that Baby Alyssa's only way to tell us something right now is to cry. (Here is K trying to hold sister's hand, and Daddy trying to soothe A by having the baby suck on his finger!!) Granny is going out tomorrow to lend a hand and I know that K will enjoy a little extra attention.  It's one thing to say "there's a baby in Mommy's tummy" and a whole other thing when the baby comes out and she does nothing but cry!!! :)

Cutest little Bluebird Ever!!!

So, yesterday was a rough day for a variety of reasons, and I was working at home in the evening, after a 10 hour day in the office, when I got this picture via text:

They are doing Snow White and K is a Bluebird!!!  Love...and it made my day so much better. :)

Sisterly Love

My SIL posted this to Facebook and it is so precious that I just had to share.  She said "K thought her baby sister needed a sticker this morning.  I haven't had the heart yet to take it off".

Isn't that just the best?  I love that she is sharing, that she is thinking outside of 2 yr old self (if even for a moment).  Next up: being OK with Mommy holding another baby (currently really NOT OK with that!!)  :)

I'm expecting another n_______

_iece!

This little pistol is getting a baby sister!  :)

I love my brothers very much, but I always wanted a sister, so I am excited that K gets one.  Baby girl is healthy (which is the most important thing) and she is due to arrive July 6, one day before her Aunt Sarah's birthday. :)  Praise be to the Lord!

“You created every part of me; You put me together in my mother's womb.  I praise You because you are to be feared; all You do is strange and wonderful.  I know it with all my heart.  When my bones were being formed, carefully put together in my mother's womb, when I was growing there in secret,  You knew that I was there—You saw me before I was born.  The days allotted to me had all been recorded in Your book, before any of them ever began.”—Psalm 139:13-16 GNT

Kaelynn comes to TX!

We had so much fun with Kaelynn and her parents the weekend before Thanksgiving.  One of the things I liked best was that she answered "yes" instead of "yeah" (I'm not even that disciplined).  Apparently they taught her that at daycare.  By far, though, I was most impressed by her newly (as in the last 7 days) acquired skill:

Daddy works at Apple and they had purchased an iPad for Kaelynn and Mommy had found a 2 year-old proof case/stand.  She knew how to push the button to make the screen come on, then Daddy would say "OK, swipe", and she would, with her tiny little index finger.  Then she could do her "ABC's".  It was an app that was a word puzzle.  It would display the word and then wipe the letters away to the side. She would then need to pull the letters with her fingers to the appropriate places.  If the word had an "L" in it, the "L" would sound "la, la, la, la" while she had her finger on it, until she dropped it in the proper place.  Similarly, the "S" would hiss like a snake - and on and on.  It was really cute. She wasn't doing just short words, either.  She did "xylophone" and "musician", which I thought was pretty good for a 2 yr old (though obviously I'm not biased!) She also had an app to build cupcakes (working on colors and shapes). K's parents limit her time on the iPad and it's not used as a babysitter.  She's learning and having fun at the same time.  While Mommy and Daddy went out and Granny, Granddad and Aunt Sarah had her, she wanted to do "hi-pad", so we got it out.  She wanted to do "tuptakes", but I couldn't find the app for it.  Turns out, she knew - it was buried as a game within a group of games and she found it!!

Another fun thing we did was that K went to "work".  She had a glow stick necklace, her gift bag of "cookies" (2 stuffed Cookie Monsters from Granny and Aunt Sarah), and then the Fisher Price record player that she called her purse.  She would make the relatively long commute from the kitchen to the front room, work for about 15 seconds, then commute back "home" to the kitchen.  I don't know how many times she did that, but we were all for getting out energy.  She loves to go "ou-si" (outside) and she couldn't because it was cold and wet, so we needed to tired her out before bedtime somehow!  :)

During their visit, Mommy and Kaelynn and Granny, Granddad and Aunt Sarah were in the room and Mommy was pointing to the person and asking K "who's that?"  Mommy pointed to my Mom and K said "Granny".  She pointed to my Dad and K said "Granny" (she called both of them that!)  Then when Mommy pointed to me, K walked over, took her little hands and cupped them around my face and whispered "Sarah".  It was like a moment of time froze and just the two of us were in it.  I hope I remember it forever, it was so sweet.

The next day we went to the mall for K to ride the carousel, one of her current favorite things to do.

Then, it was party time!  Since the TX family had never met K, we were having a 2nd birthday party for her a week early.  Here is our pretty girl all dressed up.  You can see how much she looks like her beautiful Mommy here.

Kaelynn likes Sesame Street right now, particularly "Cookie" (Monster) because he is her favorite color, blue.  So that was the theme of her party.

Cupcake cake with TONS of frosting holding it together...(it tasted great, though!  The adults scraped off the blue icing so we wouldn't have blue teeth!)

Last year, K didn't want anything to do with her 1st birthday cake - even after Mommy put frosting on her lip.  She actually cried.  Not so this year.  She's had a year of her friends' birthday parties to practice!  She dug into that cupcake with reckless abandon!  :)

When we started laughing at her after she had blue frosting on her face, she realized she was funny.  So then, she purposely tried to get more blue icing on her face.  This next one is one of my favorite pics, and one I posted earlier.  Because she wanted her Daddy to share in her blue fun, and because her Daddy adores her so much that he will do any reasonable thing to make his baby girl happy! Nothing melts my heart more to see my brother be a tender Daddy to his baby girl!

After cake, she got to open her presents.  She got a little Elmo game with colors that talked.  Apparently K thought it was something else.  Perfect example of what era we live in:

By far the best part, though, was just being with our sweet, funny, beautiful girl and her parents.

And my parents were over the moon to show off one of their grandbabies to their friends at church in person (vs. all the pictures they've seen from the brag book!).  I have very rarely ever seen my Dad smile this big!

We're so thankful our precious redhead and her parents were able to come for a visit, and we can't wait to she her again, probably after the first week in July when her baby brother or sister comes!!!

Thankful

I will re-cap last weekend's visit with my youngest brother, his wife and his daughter as soon as I can, but for now, here are a couple pictorial "teasers".  Miss Kaelynn turns two Friday and so we had an early birthday party for her when she came to TX to see Granny, Granddad and Aunt Sarah - and the extended TX family on Granddad's side.

I am so thankful for her little life - her health, her laughter, her smile; how she says "yes" instead of "yeah", how she has to know where all her people are at all times.  I am thankful for the most precious moment of last weekend when we were quizzing her, asking "who's that?" and pointing to the person.  When she got to me, she took my face in her little hands, cupped my cheeks and whispered my name.  It was like a moment froze and just the two of us were there.  It's hard to describe, but it was so sweet.  :)

I am also thankful for other loved ones whose privacy I must respect and not mention specifically here. 

I have so many blessings.  I try to be thankful not just on Thanksgiving, but every day.  Because our Heavenly Father, the Giver of all Gifts, is worthy of all our praise and thanks!

Happy Thanksgiving!

CA Vacation, Part 3

Not too far from where my bro, SIL and niece live is a cute zoo and amusement park geared towards small kids and toddlers called Happy Hollow.  Kaelynn has been there many times and loves it.  I'm glad that my last day on my visit with them, I could go and see this cute little place.

Have pink Hello Kitty sunglasses, have snack (raisins), will travel!  :)

While we waited for our turn on the carousel, the "big kitty" (the one she's riding on above) was straight ahead, and that was the one she wanted to ride.  We were not the first in line, so the adults in K's procession weren't sure how all this was going to play out if K didn't get her preferred animal.  However, somehow the stars aligned, and here she is on the "big keeeee" (kitty).

K spotting the cute little squirrel monkeys

Watching the tortoise or turtle.  Marni's parents are reptile lovers and had a reptile sanctuary when she was growing up.  I asked the difference between a tortoise and a turtle.  One goes in water and one doesn't but now I can't remember which is which. :)

Watching the meerkats.  I missed the pic that was so precious - a line of about 6 toddlers with this same pose against the glass, all different nationalities.

Despite the look on her face, she really did enjoy herself.  The funny thing about this is that Mommy and Daddy call her "Bug".  So, "Bug" is in a bug ride!  :)

Nothing warms my heart more than watching my brother be a Daddy to his baby girl.  I thought she looked so grown up here, holding Daddy's hand.  I have also always loved the analogy of a little girl holding her Daddy's hand with regards to how I should always hold tight to my Savior's.

The idea of holding her hand in the shape of a cup was lost on her.  But I loved how she laughed when the Shetland ponies, donkeys and goats "tickled" her fingers when they ate out of her little hands.  :)

Horse's reign = K's necklace.  Why not?

After the zoo and a little down time, we walked up to a great burger place for dinner.  K is a lover of ketchup.  I think she would eat it all by itself if she was allowed to!

This was her after dinner while Mommy and Daddy were talking to the neighbor.  When you're 21 months old and you don't take a nap, this is what you look like an hour before your bedtime!  One can never be too tired to swing, however!

What a joy it was to spend the holiday weekend with my red-headed sweetie and her parents.  I'm so excited that I get to see them again in about 2 months down here in TX when they come to see Granny & Granddad for an early 2nd birthday party for K and early Thanksgiving with our side of the family!

CA vacation, part 2

Kaelynn likes to color and play with stickers. She doesn't have the fine motor skills she needs to do the stickers by herself, so Mommy or Daddy has to help.  Most stickers are too small, but she had some big HK ones that worked quite well.

She also is getting pretty good at recognizing her animals.  She has a wooden puzzle and Daddy and Mommy were calling off the animals and asking her, "Kaelynn, would you take the sheep to Aunt Sarah?"  She would say "yeah" and go get it and bring it to me.  These are the animals I got, Mommy got the rest in the puzzle.  She knows the sounds most of the animals says too.  I thought that was pretty good for 21 months.

 

And then she is learning her shapes.  Remember this toy from Tupperware?  They still make it!  She can do (with a bit of help twisting to the right angle to drop in at the end) the circle, oval, square and triangle and is working on the others.

It was pretty hot outside (low nineties) by CA standards, so Mommy had a surprise.  Biodegradable water balloons!  Kaelynn had never seen water balloons before, and boy, did she think they were neat! :)  I love how she is carrying them here...

 

Thankfully she didn't get upset when we had one break.  The grass would pop those little suckers...

She has a little pink basket that goes in a riding toy and that became the mode of transportation for Kaelynn's precious "booooo" (blue, her current favorite color) and red balloons.  She had to take them from the hose through the trecherous grass and as you can see, the bucket is very small, so she could only transport a couple at a time.  It was very cute.  We had a problem, of course, when it was time to go inside, because she didn't want to leave the water balloons.  So the water balloons came and hung out in the sink of the power room downstairs overnight.  :)

The next day, when Aunt Sarah and Kaelynn played with water balloons and it was time to come in, she didn't want to leave them in the sink or outside.  So, since they're biodegradable, I thought fast on the fly and came up with a game.  We could "give the flowers a drink" by throwing the water balloons at them.  No more water balloons and we're not wasting water!  She liked that idea.  She would pick out the flowers for me to water and I would pretend the flower was saying thank you to her. :)

CA Vacation Part 1

Labor Day weekend, I spent with my youngest brother Stephen, his wife Marni and my 21 month niece Kaelynn.  It had been 9 months since I had seen her in person, since her first birthday, and she has changed so much!  She is not a baby any more, but a miniature girl!  She is talking and feeding herself and has very definite opinions about pretty much everything!  She is really a very happy girl. By far right now her favorite thing to do is be "ou-si" (outside) on her swing.  She is a swing addict!  My arm was tired from swinging her, but it was a good tired, and a precious time of watching her smile and laugh as her little feet flapped in the air.  The sun got in her eyes sometimes, so we had to put on her sunglasses.  The regular ones wouldn't stay on because she had sunscreen on (she's very fair so we have to be on that) so they'd slip off.  So we found her swimming ones that wrap around her head.

Speaking of swimming, she had a lesson while I was there.  Daddy was the one to go into the pool with her. While she didn't blow bubbles in the water, which was one of the objects of the lesson, but neither did some of the other kids.  She had a good time, though!  She was sporting quite the combo before she went in, however.  She insisted on wearing her puffy vest over her rash guard swimming outfit!  Here she is watching the "big kids" finish their lesson.  Mommy says she is always watching "big kids" wherever she goes!

Mommy says that for some reason Kaelynn will let her teachers at "school" do her hair (she comes home with all sorts of different hair styles!), but not Mommy!  Well, one day it worked to let her play with the hair ties!

We watched part of "Tangled" (Disney's Rapunzel movie) while waiting for Daddy to get home.  I thought she looked so grown up here, sitting on the sofa, watching her movie, eating her (veggie) chips:

Interestingly enough, Daddy actually makes an appearance in "Tangled" (according to Kaelynn).  Flynn Ryder (Eugene, eventually Rapunzel's prince), is Daddy for Kaelynn.  If you point at him and ask who that is, she'll say "Da-ee", which is how she says Daddy.  True, he's got the brown hair, dark thick eyebrows and facial hair.  I hope Daddy is always her prince.

I should, note, for the record, that she also (on the same day) pointed to an ad for the Monsters, Inc. movie that had Sully, the big blue and purple spotted monster and said that was Daddy, so...!  The mind of a 1 yr old!

Will post more about my trip when I get the chance.  More red-headed cuteness to come! :)