The Great Pumpkin

I love this time of year!!!! Of course, in keeping with your annual tradition, we just had to take K to a local pumpkin patch. Jourdan surprised us with a trip to the Dallas Arboretum, which is known for their pumpkin displays. It was awesome! Kayleigh is SO in to holiday stuff this year and she LOVES to be outside so it was a win-win for everyone. Though, trying to get her to sit still to pose for a picture was not so easy but I still think we got some cute ones.

Here is K with her little pumpkin she carries around. She has a scratch under her nose that looks like a Cindy Crawford mole. :)

All the types of pumpkins they had by the entrance. Of course, Minnie Mouse had to come too.

Check out these pumpkins, mom!

Loving all the pumpkins

Look at this funny one!

So many pumpkins, so little time

Awesome pumpkin houses

Really cool

It was Cinderella themed- check out the carriage

K had to sit in it too

Peek-a-Boo!

Checking it out

Boo!

She was like a pin-ball running around.

Chillin' with some pumpkins

Awesome displays

Chasing K around- as usual

Which one do I want.....hmmmmm

So many pumpkins....

Checking out the walkway and taking a smoothie break as we check out the rest of the Arboretum

Having  a blast ducking in and out of the water. She didn't want to leave this area.

Loving the frogs

View of the lake

Checking out the Texas Pioneer area.

Pioneer K

This place is awesome! :)

The Amazing, Disappearing Pants Trick

Kayleigh has always been really good about going to bed. Lately her game has been that she can't decide which lovey to bring to bed so she stalls bedtime. I give a warning that mommy is leaving and she says "Okay, Mommy, want elephant" then when I grab it, she says "No, not that elephant. No wantie". Stinker! But even with the evolution of this new 'game' I've always wanted her to be able to put herself to sleep without me and we don't go back in after we leave. She will sometimes talk and play in her crib (yes, we're still in a crib- and she'll stay there until she figures out she can climb out). but she almost always is just fine after we say goodnight. Last night she talked for quite awhile. She sounded really wound up on the monitor. Then she started calling for me. "Mommy, Mommyyyyyyyyyy!" She usually doesn't call for us, so I knew something was up. When I walked in this is what I saw:

Yes, that's Kayleigh proudly waving around a diaper. She looks a little insulted here that I left the room and came back in with the camera. So I see the diaper. Then I start wondering how the diaper got there. And I look down to see where the diaper was....

Yes, those are her jammy pants inside-out and both legs in one pant-leg, like a little mermaid. I busted out laughing and yelled to Jourdan to come up and check it out. Luckily nothing 'happened' in the crib while she had her pants off. But apparently she took off her pants, then her diaper and tried to rectify the situation herself.

Help Mommy!

And here we are correcting the situation. Yes, I know she's WAAY too big for her changing table, but we still use it out of habit because it's pretty much the only place I can change her and she won't try to roll around to get away from me.

I put everything back on and put her back to bed. She went to sleep without incident, but in the morning when I went to check on her she had taken her diaper off again. Hint, hint, mommy. Time to get on that potty training I guess... :)

An Ode to Our Sweet Kayleigh

How are you already two? I don't know how this happened, but you are growing like a weed! I cannot believe that we have been blessed with two wonderful years with you. Words cannot express how much we love you.

Here you are on your birthday. You were 5 days late. We couldn't wait for you to get here.

And here you are on your first birthday. You weren't walking yet but you loved to crawl everywhere.

Here you are on your second birthday. You are an independent woman with a mind of your own!

We just had your 2 year well-check and you are 35 3/4 inches tall! Almost 3 feet! You are in the 99th percentile for your height. You even have your Daddy beat. Grandma looked in Daddy's baby book and he was 35 inches tall and 29 lbs at his 2 year check and you are 32 lbs! You do much better at the doctor's now that you are older. You even stand on the scale like a big girl and let the doctors examine you. You cried during the shot, but by the time we hit the door, you were fine. You talk ALL the time and even the doctor couldn't get over how much you talk. You definitely got that from Mommy. Poor Daddy doesn't stand a chance.

Here are some things that you love:

- Mickey Mouse, Little Einsteins, and Bubble Guppies.
- You still love to make yourself dizzy and you especially love it when Daddy spins you around. You will go up to Daddy and say "Daddy, 'pin" and hold out your arm and leg for Daddy to grab.
-You love to color and draw and you love books.
-You know all your colors and you love pointing them out.
-You know your shapes (your favorites include circle, triangle, oval and rectangle)
-You are a hoarder. No lie. You are not picky about your toys, but you MUST take something to bed with you. This could include a stuffed animal, a book, foam letters from the bathtub, a brush, a hair band, an owl shaped piece of paper..... Oh my...... You also have to sleep with 2 blankies. You are not picky about which 2, there must be 2 though.
-You love to count. You are always counting things. Sometimes you get crazy and just start rattling off numbers and sometimes your count is accurate. We're working on it. You can count all the way to 13. After that it gets iffy- all the numbers sound the same- "Team-teen, team-teen, team-teen"
-You are starting to recognize letters and numbers- the ones you get most often are W, K, Y, B. Random! You always are surprising us with the things you remember. Just yesterday at the doctor you were calling out the numbers on the exam room doors.
-You love to sing. Your favorite songs include Wheels on the Bus, Twinkle, Twinkle, Red is Rojo, ABC's,
-You love music, dancing, and musical instruments. You even know the names of many instruments (thanks to Little Einsteins).
-You love spotting big trucks, flags, birds, the sun and moon, and other things while driving around in the car. You are still a great car rider. You don't mind at all.
-You love animals and you love all your stuffed animals too. Your favorite thing to do is to pick up an animal, have it give you an eskimo kiss and then you say "Mommy, what  (insert name of a stuffed animal) doing?" Then we say "What is that silly (giraffe,hippo etc.) doing?" To which you reply "KISSES!" As in, it's giving you kisses.
-You have such a sweet heart. You get upset and say "Mommy, baby crying!" with a concerned look on your face when you hear other kids crying in public. You love to give hugs to say sorry and you were even very upset the first time you heard Jack and Jill because you found out that they fell down.
-You love many things most kids love- being tickled, balloons, balls, running, playing at the playground, and just being silly.
-You will try to say any word. The other day while driving around, you spotted a car and said "Look, Mommy! White car!" Mommy corrected you and said "Actually, that's more of a champagne colored car" To which you replied "Yeah, Cham-pain car" Speaking of repeating things, you said your first curse word too. Thanks to Mommy. I couldn't believe it! Mommy usually has a good filter. We were leaving the mall and you had an Icee. As we were going down curb in the stroller you dropped the Icee and mommy ran over it in the stroller. Mommy said something that starts with S and rhymes with bit. Then you said "Oh Shot" (Your version of the curse word). Gulp!

Some of our favorite 'baby talk words that you don't say any more- big girl!
bickies- biscuit
tooey- turtle
"b"-bird- now you say "Bid" it's closer!
Ya-yo- Little Einsteins- You do still call it this but you can also say Einsteins and it is so cute. You still say "Mommy, watch Ya-Yo!"

Words you still say that we love:
No Wanny- I don't want
Mommy Came Back!- What you yell when I pick you up from school.
Mya-Mya- Miller
Yiddle- Little


You are our sunshine and we can't wait to see what this next year brings. We love you sweet girl!

Balloon Festival!

Kayleigh has always been fascinated with balloons, so when we found out we were moving the Plano area we knew we'd check out the Hot Air Balloon Festival they have every September. Kayleigh has always loved that Sherwin Williams commercial with the hot air balloons on it. We knew it would be crowded so we thought we'd try and check it out Friday night to see the balloon glow. Kayleigh had her 2 year well check right after school and if she was up to it, we figured we'd head down to Plano. She is 35 3/4 inches tall!!! Amazon baby! :) Anyway, after eating a little snack and regrouping, we headed to Plano. As we got closer, it started to sprinkle. We noticed people leaving the festival as we were in traffic waiting to park. No one was taking money to park because they had postponed it 45 minutes. We were tired and K was cranky (she had just got shots and then spent like an hour in the car). We looked at the weather app and there was a huge cloud overhead. We knew there was no way it was a 45 minute rain. We headed home. Fail! We decided to try and get up the next morning for the morning glow. The rain was gone. We got down there about 6:30 and they glow had been cancelled and everything seemed to be running a bit late. Most of the booths were closed and we weren't really sure what to expect. They had a cool inflatable area for kids, but everything was soaked. I didn't really want to let K run around because it was wet. Thank you to the local credit union who was handing out crayons and an activity book. That bought us some time while we waited.

Finally trucks started driving in the field and unloading balloons. Kayleigh got her arm painted while we waited. At first she wanted a cat but then the lady talked her in to a unicorn. I'm guessing that was her specialty.

Kayleigh loved watching them set up the balloons and she was in awe of them.

Once they were done setting up they allowed everyone to walk around inside the launch area. It was really cool to see them up close.

Kayleigh knows what Pirates are and knows they say "Arrrrrr!" When she does it, she makes her mouth all crooked- it's adorable, so we were both supposed to do our best Pirate impression. She duped me. :)

Kayleigh had a blast! We are glad we tried again.

Birthday Weekend Part 2

Today we got a cool front and the weather is AWESOME! We spent Labor day taking her new trike out for a spin and riding over the 2 parks near our house. It's a beautiful day. Kayleigh is still working on how to pedal- she can do it but I think she likes it better when we push (duh!), When we got to the park there was a little girl there, she was probably about 4 years old and Kayleigh instantly decided they were best friends. She looked at her and said "Go slide, come on!" Then they both had to climb up and slide down. She was much more agile than K, (climbing up sideways ladders etc.) so K tried lots of new things. She had a blast.

I'll just pick up my feet!

I'm cool

Let's go to the park!

Loves to slide

Hey you guys!

I see you!

Big step!

Here's a video of K navigating up the steps to slide down. She wanted to wear her helmet- we don't normally make her walk around with one, though it's probably not a bad idea if she inherited my grace. Also, please ignore me in the video :)