Big Girl Bed

Kayley will be 4 in June.  She still sleeps in her crib as a toddler bed.  We figured it was time to get her a big girl bed.  She has been VERY excited for her big girl bed to come.  It came Friday night.  Andy bought the mattress on Saturday and she got to sleep in her new big girl bed last night.  She told me yesterday, "I am so proud I am a big girl and get a big girl bed."  Please don't tell her all of the other kids her age have been in big boy/girl beds for awhile now!  She has no idea and thinks now is the time to finally get in the big girl bed.  Heather, if you are reading this, I am about 90% sure Kayley has the same Target bedspread as Morgan Kate.  Kayley really wanted the all pink one!

Andy wanted me to remember when we were picking out her bedroom furniture that we only have one daughter.  Exactly, I thought.  He meant that we shouldn't spend a lot on it because we don't have another girl to pass it on to.  I look at it a little differently.  We only have one girl so lets get her some nice stuff!  We compromised. 

Andy did voice his concern with getting Kayley white furniture and I definitely understand his concern.  We are taking bets on when we first discover finger nail polish or markers or crayons on her new bedroom furniture.  I talked to her about how important it is that she be really careful and she seemed to get it...

We had parent/teacher conferences for the kids this week.  Drew's teacher said he is ready for kindergarten.  He is still a little on the shy side, but nothing like he used to be.  His teacher and I think the first few days of kindergarten will be rough on him because it will be a new routine, but once he gets used to the new routine, he should be just fine.  Drew's teacher said he is nice to the other kids and likes to help them learn.  He still tends to be a bit of a follower during play time so we will encourage him to be a little more independent. 

Drew is learning to write and spell words.  His teacher said he is doing great, but he needs to work on correctly using upper and lower case letters.  He tends to use both upper and lower case when he writes a word.  And he needs to learn to tie shoes.  That would be a parenting fail on our part.  We still buy him velcro.  It is just so much easier!

We were very happy to hear that Kayley is on track with other 3 year olds now.  She has definitely made some progress since the fall.  She needs to work on her letters and numbers, but is getting better each day.  Her teacher remarked that Kayley is really good with scissors now and showed me one of the shapes Kayley cut out.  Given her hair cutting incident (we bought the safety scissors she ended up cutting her hair with because she was struggling with cutting at preschool), I found this comment to be particularly ironic!  I guess all of her hard work paid off!

Kayley's teacher and I talked a little about whether to hold her back for kindergarten or send her in 2013.  If she had been born when she was due, she would not be able to go to kindergarten until 2014.  She is only eligible because of her early birth date.  Her teacher thought she was on track with the other 3 year olds and could go, but we will wait and see how she does in Pre-K next year.  Her teacher said that Kayley likes to be done with her projects as soon as possible so she can go play and Pre-K will be a little more structured next year so we will wait and see how she does with that.

I also asked about her behavior and her teacher said she is, and I quote, "an angel."  While I am very happy she is well behaved at school, we just don't believe it!  She must use all of her energy to listen and behave at school and then when she gets home, she has to let it go or something because the term "angel" NEVER comes to mind when I think about her behavior at home! 

What do you want to be when you grow up?

We had an uneventful week and weekend and I consider that to be a good thing!  The weather has been in the 60s.  I'd really prefer it to be warmer, but it doesn't stop the kids.  They spend a lot of time outside in the evenings and on the weekends. 

Yesterday, while the kids were sitting at the kitchen table drawing pictures and practicing their letters, I asked them what they wanted to be when they grew up.  Drew said, "Whatever Sam is."  Sam is his very best friend from Pre-K.  I told Drew he and Sam could still be friends if they had different jobs.  Then Drew said he wanted to be a race car driver and be a mom and dad with a little girl from his Pre-K class!  Ha!  He always tells me she is his girlfriend.  It starts young, doesn't it?! 

Kayley then told me she wanted to be a "girl farmer and a doctor."  Grandpa Mark may have someone to take over the farm after all!  When I asked her what she would do as a girl farmer, she said she would drive the tractor and the golf cart!  When I asked her what she would do as a doctor, she said she would "give shots and make people feel better."  Then she said, "I am a big girl when I get shots, but not when I get IBs" (IVs).  :-)

Here are a few pictures from the weekend. 

They love to color and draw pictures

Cheese!

Time to play in the sand

Like my outfit?

Dr. Kayley giving her baby a shot

80s Girl

Kayley's hair is growing ever so slowly.  She came down from her nap the other day and I just about died laughing.  She looked like an 80s rocker.  By the time I thought about taking a picture of her, it had calmed down considerably so the pictures below don't do it justice. 

I just don't know what to do with her hair.  She has bangs now, but they start pretty far back because that is how far back she cut her hair.  She also took a huge chunk out of one of the sides and that is in a really awkward growth spot now too.  I could pull her hair back and she would only have a few bangs, but the chunk out of the side of her hair doesn't allow that.  She really did a number on her hair!  I think it is time to go back to the salon and see if there is anything we can do with it now.  Everyone tells me I will look back on this and laugh.  I still don't think it is that funny, but maybe with time...

In case you forgot, the picture below shows where we started OVER THREE MONTHS AGO.

Easter

We had a great Easter weekend!  I am sad it is over and we have to go back to work tomorrow.  Three day weekends are wonderful! 

We colored Easter eggs on Friday afternoon.  Andy and Drew liked to color half the egg one color and the other half another color.  Kayley was more into putting each egg into multiple colors so she and I had some interesting combinations.  After they colored the eggs, Kayley decorated hers with stickers and jewels while Drew colored on his.  They each colored 19 eggs and begged me to buy more eggs on Saturday to do it again. 

We didn't color more eggs on Saturday, but Andy did hide all of the eggs outside for the kids so they could go on a hunt for eggs before the real thing on Sunday.  Drew was the one that really wanted to do this.  He had Andy hide the eggs outside and then when they came in, he had Andy hide them in the house again.  :-)

They had a lot of fun hunting for eggs this morning.  I was a little worried Kayley would be left behind and wouldn't get many eggs, but she held her own and they amazed us with how nice they were to each other.  Drew gave any "girl color" eggs to Kayley and Kayley gave him the "boy color" ones she found.  (They fought later over a long lost toy we found in a drawer).    When they got done going through all of their candy, Drew hid all of his empty eggs for Andy to find and Kayley hid hers for me to find.  Then, Drew asked Andy to hide the empty eggs so he could find them again.  He was really into it this year!

Here is a few minutes of their hunt this morning:

After opening the eggs, Drew decided to organize his (truly my child!) and Kayley attempted to organize and count hers! She is a generous counter:

Some pictures from the weekend:

This is going to be fun, Mom!

Hard at work

Dad showing Kayley how to do half and half

It is taking too long.  Kayley's mad face.

Princess stickers!

Still hard at work

All finished!

Look at my basket!

The fun part!

Time to organize

Swings, swings, swings

The weather has continued to be beautiful and we have been enjoying it.  The kids were sad to see Grandma and Matt go, but they were pretty excited when Andy got home.  They have had him out at the swingset nonstop since he has been home.  I couldn't figure out why swinging was so much fun all of a sudden and I looked outside and saw they weren't really swinging, they were twisting the swing up.  Doesn't seem to be the safest way to play, but they really enjoy it.  Here are a few videos of Drew on the swings:

Andy and I had today off so we are enjoyed Good Friday as a family.  We colored Easter eggs when the kids got up from their naps and they have been talking about the Easter Bunny quite a bit.  The last few mornings they have asked me if today is the day he is coming.  They are really excited for Sunday!