Well….I already began this post…..not sure what happened….oh well. Here it goes again.

My summer has now ‘officially’ begun. I finished school the 21st of May…but had two more days to work on curriculum after that. Just after that we left for our vacation to VA and IN. It was a long drive at times…but overall the entire trip was enjoyable. We travelled 2,000 plus miles. K entertained herself in various ways…we even had a dvd player for her to watch Sesame Street on the way up. This didn’t always cut it. I even ate McDonald’s (something Ihadn’t done since high school) just to let her have some play time.

Once we arrived at out first destination…we enjoyed our time with our friends. It was beautiful part of the country and also nice to get out of HOT weather to a little bit cooler weather. The girls got along great. They interacted with each other as those at their age would do. CC is almost 11 months old and K is now 14 1/2 months. There is a little bit of an age difference…K is running and CC is crawling. Here are some pictures….

Building a block tower.....

We also went to a local meat farm…..saw some baby chicks and other animals (all of which K called “meooow”). This is our ride there.

Car ride to farm

We moved our carseat to our friends car. The girls both took a short nap…..

We also went to Sam’s club to buy somethings for Kayla to eat. They looked cute sitting in the buggy. At times…K would turn to CC and say something to her. It looked as if she was explaining the ins and outs of shopping (must think CC never goes shopping with her mommy).

Shopping!

 We grilled out for Memorial Day……the girls were dressed too!

Memorial Day

Not sure what K was doing….being silly. She never did look straight at the camera. Oh well.

When we left for IN….we didn’t now know how long of a trip it actually was going to end up being. It actually seemed longer when we went through OH….particularly when all we were listening to was Sesame Street videos (you know…the same ones we listened to on the way up….foh yea…you can just imagine how many times we listened to Elmo). SOOOOO once we finally got through the state line there was a Wal-mart and we stopped. The three of us were tired of being cooped up in the car (had been like 9 hours already)…..and the grown ups were tired of Sesame Street. So we went and picked out *cringe* Barney (K loves music) and Thomas the Train. We also let K walk around the toy section where she looked like she just couldn’t make up her mind what was her favorite thing to see!! Of course she decided this was the primer place to fill her pants…so mommy and K went to the car while Daddy checked out. So now stocked up with new videos…let’s go!! That part of the trip wasn’t so bad….and even though I’m not all for Barney (not really sure why….just because I guess)….but K enjoyed the music.

We also enjoyed our time in IN. We visited family..mainly to see my g/ma (now 91). Apparently she has alzheimers….which was pretty clear. She has a terrible short term memory – asking the same questions within a 5-10 minute time span. Mostly just short term but occasionally it was noticed a little bit of long term was there too. K really liked her though. She would start talking to g/ma (who couldn’t hear her)….and if g/ma didn’t respond K would point at her and talk louder – saying the same thing actually. K had fun playing with a VERY LARGE hamburger bun. My Aunt F made this for my cousin years ago. I vaguely remember it….K enjoyed it though. I am now making her one. I’ve started to cut out the pieces…just need to purchase the stuffing.

We also took K to the playground at the mall. She seemed to really enjoy herself. Mommy was nervous about the big kids that would jump from the top of things and land just in K’s pathway. Watch it you brat!! K on the other hand….wanted to play on the slide over and over. Some of the bigger kids didn’t want to let her take her turn….and would step on her fingers, etc. After a while…K proceeded to just push on past whoever was trying to go up the stairs to go down the slide. We ended this venture when K (who needed a nap by the way) decided the proper way to go down a slide is walking. That started the crying when Mommy didn’t let her. Time to go…here are some pics of her before the tantrums.

Kayla and her Great Grandma

Running past the pig...aka the thing a big kid jumped off of

The slide.....

Playing in a box....

So overall….a good trip. We stopped back at G/ma’s house on our way home for a couple of days. K loved it….she didn’t even act like it wasn’t home.

Now…Miss Bug is growing it seems. I haven’t measured her length. I know her feet have grown b/c all of a sudden both pairs of tennis shoes are too small. If she’d lay still long enough I would measure how tall she is now (30 1/2 at 12 months). I know she is somewhere between 22 and 23 pounds. G/ma’s scale indicated she was 23 lbs…the Wii said 22. The best I can tell is she is about 31 inches now…she was crying when I layed her on the floor.

Kayla’s interests now seem to be:

• Opening and closing doors
• whistling (I don’t know that she’s aware that she can do it)
• Rocking babies
• Putting said babies to bed
• Building with blocks
• Saying meow and uh oh (almost all of the time…need to work on these words!)
• Carrying her pink baby and silky around (probably need to get another pink baby)
• Talking on the cell phone
• Video chatting (in other words…playing and coming back to the screen when she wants to)
• Moving chairs around (I guess she doesn’t like the way I have the house set up)
• wearing shoes
• Running around the house

I am certain there are more things that interest her….but I can’t think of them when I want to type them. Oh….we are now on day 2 of no binky. Our morning nap was easy. Although I must say….I now ‘dance’ with her before bed time since she knows the rocking chair means bed….which then means tantrum in my arms. I’ve turned on her music and we’ve swayed and spun to the beats ….then put her to bed. What is funny is she sort of did this with her baby this afternoon.

I think that’s it….pretty good considering I hadn’t posted anything in a month’s time. Now that it is summer maybe I will.

Oh…FINALLY caulked the crown moulding in the living room. We put the moulding up 2 -3 years ago. I am also wanting to buy an old piece of furniture (like a buffet type) and repaint/repurpose it. I’d like it to store K’s toys since we seem to have created her playroom in there. Most of her toys are in baskets in one corner…but I think the buffet storage would look nicer. I’m also in the mood to paint our bedroom. I hate the furniture…..so I’m thinking of maybe a chocolate color on them…sand them in spots to make them look aged per say….then paint the walls a colonial blue….get a white matlesse spread and bam….it would look much better than it does  now. The room is so small so I’ve not been happy with the way it looks. Maybe it might make it more cheery….maybe. I’d rather add on to the back of the house but that’s just not going to happen.