Toddler Speak Revealed

Here is what Kynlee's toddler speak means. Some of it makes no sense. 


"di-di"- cookie

"doodle-duh"- Donald Duck

"waa-waa" - Dog. Weird, I know. That's how she barks like a dog, so instead of calling it a dog, she says waa-waa. 

"wa-wer"- Water

"moo-moo ma-ma"   - More Mickey Mouse. When she wants to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse she says this with a little dance. Again, weird. 

"a-moo"- More

"a-bow"- Bow

"pweashh" - Please..This one is super adorable. 

"a-fun" - Funny

"a-pie" - Potty

"biyee" - Paci

The truth is she is actually very smart, I promise. She just has a few words where she likes to use her own pronunciation. My favorite is when she says fish or brother because it comes out so funny that she covers up her face because she's embarrassed.

I'm amazed and proud of the little girl she is becoming. We were at my sister-in-law's house one night and she was doing alphabet flash cards with her son so we could see all he has learned. Kynlee picked up a random card, pointed to the letter, and said "c". I kid you not, the letter on the card was a C. I wasn't going to jump to genius status yet because it could have been a fluke. She could have been saying "see" the card. When we got home I decided to see if she actually knew any letters. I went through and pointed to every letter to see if she knew them. She got I, O, U, C, D and E correctly. I was shocked! She had been playing with magnet letters that she got for Christmas that helps pronounce letters, and apparently teaching herself. The other day we were in the waiting room at the doctor and she pointed out "X" to us. Let me just say, hearing that child pronounce X is the funniest thing. I wonder how good she would be at the alphabet if I would stop being so lazy and worked with her more.

Potty training is actually going pretty well too. She thinks big girl panties are hilarious to wear. It would be nice to have her completely potty trained before Avett gets here, but I don't think that will happen. I have a feeling potty training will be one of the things she rebels against once she has a little brother. I figure when he is about a month old we can get serious with it again. 

I'm trying to spend as much time appreciating her this next month before he brother comes. I'm going to miss the time we have together, and I know it's going to be hard to give her special alone time with Corey working 80 hours a week. My hope is that after the initial shock of having a new baby, she will love her little brother and want to protect him and play with him. Only time will tell I guess!

Toddler Speak

I wonder if anyone besides me can decode the words that come out of Kynlee's mouth.. All of these "words" do mean something.


"di-di"

"doodle-duh"

"waa-waa"

"wa-wer"

"moo-moo ma-ma"   -this one took me forever to figure out. There are hand and foot motions that go with it.

"a-moo"

"a-bow"

"pweashh"

"a-fun"

"a-pie"

"biyee"


Those are the best ways I can guess how to spell them. Sadly, I do know what all of these mean. With Kynlee being my only human contact for the majority of the day, I feel myself getting dumber.

Taking Bets on Who Thinks Kynlee Will Try to Kill Avett

I'm not kidding. When people find out my due date, they say how wonderful it must be to be having my children so close in age. I agree completely, it was always a dream of mine. But the closer I get to D-day the more worried I get about how Kynlee will handle everything. This will literally change her entire world. I've come to the conclusion that as long as I can keep Kynlee from killing Avett then I have succeeded as a mother. I wish I was joking. I'm scared for my son's life.

You see this face?

That's the look of death.

That look says, "take that baby back where it came from, or I will cut you."

I feel like she is at an odd age to be having a sibling. She obviously knows what babies are, and she'll kiss my tummy and say "baby," but she has also called her's and Corey's tummy baby. When I saw the positive sign, I thought by the time the baby arrives Kynlee would be old enough to understand, but the closer we get, the more I'm worried that she won't. She just know's that mommy has a big tummy that can be used for a pillow, not that her little brother is inside.

There was one point a few months ago when she got very upset over Corey paying attention to our niece and nephew. Lately, it hasn't been that bad, but this baby will be in her life day and night, and she won't always have all of Mommy and Daddy's attention. I feel so guilty sometimes because I don't want her world to change. I don't want this to turn her into a psycho toddler.

I know it will be rocky at first, especially when we first come home from the hospital, but my hope for the two of them is the kind of friendship only a brother and sister can have. I think we'll just have to dress Avett up as Mickey Mouse for the first few weeks of his life, because we all know how Kynlee feels about Minnie and her friends. I also won't be leaving them alone in the same room :)

The Tongue of Legend

you've all heard about it. you've all seen it. the tongue. 

this has been her trademark since birth. 

there is the one month old tongue

...the 2 month tongue

...3 months

it miraculously disappeared for month 4 for a temporary replacement...the finger

the finger was still winning for month 5

this month also begins the signature blank expression

the blank stare really took off the 6th month..

...and the drool

...she was also a dog in her former life

i thought by 7 months it had been long enough without a tongue sighting that we wouldn't see it anymore. just the usual suspect..

...and then it happened

the tongue, duh duh duh

oh the tongue

now, at 9 months, it's unstoppable.

it's there when she smiles,

it's there when she cries,

...it's even there when she poops.

it.is.legend.

in the end, i must admit it is pretty freakin cute.

let's just hope it goes away in the next year....or not. she'll look real cute with her tongue sticking out in her prom picture. 

on a side note, i misspelled tongue every single time. oh well. 

There's a First Time for Everything

Milestones are always something a parent looks forward to. You're always waiting for your baby's first steps, first words, and various other firsts that make you excited to watch your child grow. What you don't think too much about  is your baby's first trip to the ER. Let me tell you, it's not fun. In fact, it induces all types of mommy stressors that are not welcomed. 

Baby K has had an ongoing double ear infection for 3 weeks now, and started her third antibiotic last Monday with the hopes that this one might do the trick. Fast forward to last night. She didn't sleep well at all. We just thought her ears were still hurting her. Little did we know that our girl was having an allergic reaction to her medication. 

Corey got up with K this morning so I could sleep in, but that lasted all about twenty minutes. He yelled at me to come look at Kynlee, and my little momma heart started racing when I saw my girl with red swollen ears, and hives starting to break out all over her body. When I say swollen ears, I'm talking my little girl looked like Alfalfa. 

We didn't know if this would stop at hives, or if her airways would start to close up, so we were out the door and on our way to the ER within 3 minutes. We're lucky that it takes us 30 seconds to get the ER, and it's not typically busy on Sunday mornings, so we only waited about 2 minutes before they took us back.

After all is said and done, Kynlee bear is allergic to the penicillin family just like her mama. Her oxygen levels were perfect, so we were just instructed to give her Benadryl throughout the day until it went away. 

My mother-in-law, who is a nurse, came up to help us keep an eye on her, just in case. I wasn't too worried, because she seemed like she was doing a little better with the Benadryl.

You think I'm kidding about her looking like Alfalfa

I couldn't believe how swollen her ears had gotten.

As the day progressed, she didn't seem like she was getting better. In fact, her hives were getting worse. They covered her body, and were starting to swell up. Corey's mom called an ER doctor at her hospital back home for a recommendation. He told us the hospital up here should have given her a shot of Prednisone, which is basically a steroid, so he called us in a prescription in liquid form. 

Needless to say we weren't happy with the ER today. They seemed very passive about the whole situation, and they didn't even keep us long enough to see if she was getting worse or better. I really wish her doctor's office had been open. 

Tonight I gave the poor girl a bath because she had such a rough day, and I was hoping it would cheer her up. Although her ears went down a bit, the hives were still pretty bad.

 {That's enough to hurt a mama's heart}

Now, here I am at 11:45pm with a baby that can't sleep. The last bit of Benadryl seemed to make the hives a little better, but they haven't gone away. We're taking her to her doctor first thing in the morning. Oh, did I mention I have a lab report due and an exam tomorrow? Yeah, that's not going to happen. 

I just want my girl to get better. This has been going on too long. I have no clue what they'll want to do with her ears now that she is allergic to the medicine, and they are still infected :(

If you don't mind, say a little prayer for us tonight, and hope our little bear gets better. 

A Heavy Heart

I came across a blog about a family who found out that their daughter, at 4 months old, had a rare form of SMA (spinal muscular atrophy). I won't go into the details about the disease, but I will say its a neuromuscular disease that significantly decreases a child's quality of life, and life expectancy. I read post by post about taking her to the doctor because something wasn't right, and it slowly progressing to staying overnight in the hospital, to getting tests done.

Eventually the child's condition got so bad she had surgery to remove skin in her throat because she was struggling to breath, and once that didn't make things better she was put on breathing tubes, and had a feeding tube placed in her stomach. My heart ripped with every single picture I saw of this poor baby hooked up to monitors and IV's. All she wanted to do was suck on her finger but she couldn't because of the tubes. She couldn't even cry because her vocal chord's became paralyzed.

About a month later the family was given the option of giving their little girl a tracheotomy and letting her go home, with the promise that she will slowly deteriorate, and become completely paralyzed, if she even lived a few more months, or take her off the breathing tubes, and letting her pass peacefully. The mom looked into her baby's eyes, and saw that she was worn down, uncomfortable, and tired, and knew that she couldn't put her through that pain anymore. So the last day, they gave her a bath, which she loved, and held her all day before the breathing tube was taken out, and they had to sit there while their little angle slowly slipped from their arms way too early.

I was broken for this woman and her husband. No parent should have to make the decision when to end their child's life. I couldn't help but imagine if this was our situation. If a doctor told me that I had to decide whether to end my daughter's misery, or keep her around for an uncertain amount of time in pain.

I feel like I am always saying, this will never happen to me, but I am sure that family said the same exact thing to themselves, and look what happened.

You never know how strong, how all-consuming, this love is until you have your own child. I would do absolutely anything for her. I never want to see her endure pain. I never want her to be made fun of, to have her heart broken, to go to the ER, to have a surgery, to have tubes stuck down her throat because she can't breath.

I sit here with puffy and swollen eyes reading this sweet baby's story, and imagining if it was Kynlee. It hurts. I am in physical pain at the thought of her enduring something like this.

I guess what I'm taking away from this is that life is so precious. I hold my girl a little tighter now. I watch her a little more closely, and I sure as hell soak up every second I have with her. I realize that complaining about being tired because of lack of sleep is completely selfish when a family like this would give anything to be in my shoes, if it meant having their angel back.

I hope Kynlee wakes up and wants to sleep in bed with me tonight. I'm feeling like I want to be extra close to her right now.

Sleep Saga Continued

It is no secret that Kynlee hates to sleep. You can read my blog to know that we struggle with having consistency in her sleep patterns. Sometimes she is awesome, sometimes I feel like a zombie because I didn't get any sleep, there is no in between for her.

The few weeks leading up to our Florida trip she had a pretty consistent schedule, but it was something that we needed to change before my mom watched her for a week. She would usually go to sleep around 8:30-9 and wake up around 3 or 4 to eat. That's not that bad, except that she didn't want to be put back in her crib after that, she wanted to sleep with us. I love sleeping next to her...in theory. You see, the hubs is a big guy, he's about 6'5''! That, plus a thrashing-limbed baby, leaves little room for the 5'4'' mama in the bed. Besides, we wanted Kynlee to get used to being put back in her crib, so my mom wouldn't have to deal with it.

We figured out a great solution. When we laid her back in the crib after she ate, we would roll her on her side and get her real close to the bumper, then put our head as close to her as we could, and patted her back until she went to sleep. We tricked her! We made her think she was sleeping next to one of us, but we would sneak away, and enjoy the rest of the night in our own bed.

Fast-forward to Florida. One of the things I was most excited about was the amount of sleep I was going to get that week. I could sleep all day if I wanted to (I did sleep until 4pm on one rainy day, no judging)! When we got back Kynlee was sick and had a double ear infection. Going from unlimited sleep to 30 minutes of sleep at a time was a harsh transition. It was a big welcome-back to motherhood.

She refused to sleep in her crib when we got back. We could lay her down for naps no problem, but come bed time she wanted to be in our bed, even if we weren't there. I was thinking it would be no problem because we could just go back to what we tried before. Little did we know that she discovered how to sit up by herself while we were gone. Now every time we lay her down, and she doesn't want to sleep in the crib, she'll shoot straight up, even if she is exhausted, and I can't leave her there for a few minutes to fall asleep herself because she doesn't know how to lay back down. I also had to lower the crib because I discovered her standing up after a nap. It was already hard for me to lay her down without bothering her because I'm short, now it's even worse because I have a longer way to lay her down. It's just a bad combination.

I guess all of this rambling just means I'm tired. I'm not complaining because I would much rather be tired and exhausted because of her being awake, than her not being here at all. I'm just having a hard time staying focused in school because I'm exhausted. I miss being able to sprawl out in bed, I would take up the whole thing If I could. I just hope she gets better soon, so we can all feel a little more rested.

Vday Baby and a Mustache

I take a lot of pictures of Baby K, but I've been wanting to do another set-up photo shoot with her, and I figured Valentines Day was the perfect excuse. 

After I finished I realized that if it wasn't February, you wouldn't know that these pictures are supposed to be for V-day. Oh well! They're still cute!

If you read my blog frequently, then you know that I'm working to be a self-taught photographer, and after learning more, and taking more pictures, my dream becomes clearer. I love this. I want to do this. For the rest of my life. 

The pictures turned out so well, but of course, I do have a pretty cute subject.

I hope you enjoy!

{My first homemade tutu!}

Yes, those are her real eye lashes. I could eat them up. Delicious!

{This was my favorite!}

Of course I am no professional, but with time and practice, I hope to get better, and turn my hobby into a side-job, or even a career!

______________________________________

A few days ago I received a necklace in the mail that I ordered from the Little Miss Momma Etsy shop,

and I loooove it!

Ashley at Little Miss Momma is so adorable. I blog-stalk her frequently read her blog occasionally. The first thing I noticed on her blog was a picture of her modeling a mustache necklace. I had to have one.

Lucky for me, she sells them in her shop, along with some freakishly cute rings that I would love to have some day. 

I was going to model it for you, but I'm having a lazy day, you wouldn't want to see how I look right now.

Besides, it looks cute on Kynlee too!

You should check her out!

My New Obsession...

...is a baby in leggings.

Particularly my baby in leggings..

to. die. for.

How delicious is that?

So delicious it has been a big distraction to me today.

...and this is her "why-aren't-you-playing-with-me-mommy?" face

(and I can't not start a sentence with and.)

Dear Hubs, I need more to feed my obsession. You know which one's I want :) Love you!

 

My Daughter Has an Arsenal of Faces...

...and I wish I could get a picture of each one, but that is not even close to possible, so here is my best attempt to document most of them.

 

Some faces may not be happy, and some are, but no matter what face my little pumpkin makes, it's the cutest face in the world, and it's another reason why I love her.