Kelsi's 2nd Birthday Party and Other Milestones

Well it has taken me 2 months, but I have finally downloaded Kelsi's birthday party pics. Her party was on Sunday, Jan. 6th at our new house in Reeltown. It was the first time family and friends had been to the house.   If you know Kelsi you know she has had a passion for Nemo since she was about 4 months old, so this year we went with a Nemo theme. I had a lot of fun planning everything, and there was a great turn out. Kelsi is one blessed little girl to have so many people who care about her. This year I didn't even try to make Kelsi eat any cake. Lesson learned with that! Instead I had her a peanut butter cookie, her favorite. Maybe one day she will learn to love icing and cake like the rest of us! Here are some pics of her big day! I still can't believe she's already 2! Love her more everyday!

                             Kelsi with my 2nd Birthday doll that I passed down to her

               The night of the party Kelsi passed out in her highchair eating applesauce and yogurt.


                                                        Actual bday, Jan. 10, 2013

Kelsi's 1st pet- beta fish in Nemo tank. When we ask her the fish's name she says "Kelsi"

 We have been teaching Kelsi the "God is Good" blessing and the "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep" bedtime prayer. If we sit down to eat and forget to say the blessing Kelsi says "Blessing 1st!!" and crosses her hands. The way she says Lord is adorable! (lud)

                This was a pretty Saturday when we took Kelsi to Monkey Park in Opelika.

                                    Making Valentine's for Kelsi's 1st Valentine's Party

                                     
                                 This is what Kelsi's hair looks like when she wakes up!!

 When we were little Mama would fill a jar with slips of things we could do together while she was off and we would draw them out as we had time and do them. I decided to start this with Kelsi. On this night we drew out "play dress up". I headed for the Minnie Mouse gear, but Kelsi put this together instead!!

Kelsi absolutely loves to write with pens, pencils, markers, and crayons. She tries to draw circles. She wants so badly to write her name.

We started a little potty training before Kelsi turned 2, but after her birthday we started working even harder on it with her. She is such a big girl!! I can't remember the last time she had a poopy diaper. She earns m&ms for going to the potty. I'm thinking about trying her with panties soon. We just have to work on her going to the potty to tee tee every time. Sometimes when she's playing she doesn't always go to the potty to tee tee.

And that is our update until next time with this precious baby girl!!

Kelsi Turns 2!!

I have never had 2 years of my life go by faster than the last 2 have! People are always telling me don't blink and now I know why. I remember the day Kelsi was born like it was yesterday. The thing about being a parent is that you stay so busy taking care of your child and working that the days turn to weeks and then before you know it another year has passed. As we were getting ready for Kelsi's birthday party we were looking through the pics from her 1st birthday party. Another thing about being a parent is how you don't notice how much your child changes in a year because over the course of the year the changes take place before your eyes. When we looked back at the pics it was crazy how much Kelsi changed over the last year. I so badly want to hold on to every milestone she reaches and remember when she says new words for the first time and hold on to every little memory. I keep a calendar of the funny things she says and does. She is truly nonstop entertainment  Carol and I ask each other "Do you say that?" to try to figure out where she gets some of the stuff she says from. She is so observant. Here are a few hilarious things she has done throughout the last year and milestones along the way:

January- learns to walk, starts table food, shakes head no

February- waves bye, high fives, shakes your hand, says "Ahh" when she drinks something

March- Came off of the bottle completely, says words such as hot, fish, dog, and shoes

April- 1st Easter egg hunt at Grannie Susie's, starts going to daycare at Mrs. Carole's

May- cut last 2 teeth, had hand foot and mouth, starts hugging people, competes with Grannie and Grandaddy for the other one's kisses, does touchdown, put your dukes up, crosses arms really fast, thumbs up but not actually sticking all the way up, says color eyes is ba-lue

June- says pease, starts dancing, picked up my phone and said "cheese", when she wants to go outside she gets keys to stick in door, at the beach she walked on beach for first time, picked up shells after watching us pick up about 2, loved the beach and water, got airbrushed Nemo hat and shirt from G/GD, wore sunglasses the whole time, pulls on mama's shirt when we shop so I can give her a kiss

July- when you ask her if she loves ___ she giggles, hugs and pats back, holds your cheeks to give you a kiss, went to the GA aquarium, gets blanket and Nemo then wants to get out of crib, says wanna ride and wanna bite, tries to do turkey sound with tongue, says "I want to see it", "I dunno", "Cue me (excuse me)", "tunder" (thunder)

August- if eyes are closed she says "Sh, seepin", says "all done", "gone, gone", "Oh gosh!", "alright", "thanks", "We're home!", "No, I'm Not!", "Hmm, let me see", "oopsie", "awe-fum", "wanna read it", "pizza", "moon"; went potty for 1st time

September- know daycare friends by name in pics, loves rice, says "I did it!", got tricycle from G/GD, said "Missed you" and garbage instead of trash

October- went to pumpkin patch for 1st time, says "umbrella", "he-a" for here, instead of hold me she says "hold you", tries to do Donald duck impressions, passed out papers on coffee table and called daycare kids names out

November- says: daddy's at work, what happened?, when you ask her "Where's Daddy's little girl?" she puts her hand on her chest and pats it and says "He-a", cheeses for pics, know where everything is and says she found it, covers her face and asks "Where did Kelsi go?", what a mess!, you see it?, calls gummies "mummies", says "ta-da!", calls her dad TJ, told TJ "Stop that Daddy! Cool it!" when he was tickling her, bess you (Bless you), tried on my shoe and said "I like 'em!"

December- says: Let's go, oh man!, tink you presents (tku for the presents), I la you (I love you), any word on something like a coffee cup is a name- Kelsi Jeffares, when getting m & ms for going potty she asked "How many I get?", folded hands to pray and said "our fa-da"

January- very independent and moody and has started becoming very vocal the last few days; for example raising her voice and saying "No! Now!" I see a lot of time out coming in year 2!

This time last year Kelsi barely had any little sprigs of hair. Now she has a little head full that curls up in the back and I have to put her hair up in the mornings so that it won't get in her eyes. When she turned one we have pics of her taking those first wobbly steps to Grannie and Grandaddy. We held our breath the first several weeks as she tittered and tottered around. Now she runs up and down the hallway and all over the place just like a grown up. Last year she knew a few words and could say little things like animal noises and identify her body parts. Now she knows her colors, can count to 6 by herself, knows any animal she sees and the noise it makes and can act like them, the names of everyone in our family, fruits, veggies, she can identify triangles, circles  and rectangles, knows here first, middle, and last name and so many other things. She tells you when she needs to potty and what she wants to eat and when she is tired. She is so smart! She surprises us with the things she knows sometimes. If you really listen to her it's hard to believe that she makes all the connections that she does. I am very grateful that Kelsi started daycare this year. I was very nervous about her going to daycare for the first time. Mrs. Carole has truly been a God send and has taught Kelsi so much!

There are truly no words to express how much I love Kelsi. Sometimes it's still hard for me to believe that I am the mother of such a beautiful  sweet, smart little girl. Today when I was packing to leave work I saw one of Kelsi's pics on my filing cabinet and I took at a few seconds to look at her. Her sweet little face was staring back at me with her little pig tails...no longer a baby- now our little girl. I thought to myself at that moment I am so truly blessed.

And as I do everyday I left work to head to the best part of my day. Every afternoon when I open the door at daycare the bell rings and I hear Kelsi shout "My Mama!!" Every afternoon she is so excited like it's her first time seeing me. And everyday when she comes running to my arms with that huge grin on her face all the stresses of the world disappear. Many things in life may change, but one thing will remain the same- that little girl is my world.

Kelsi you melt Mama's heart and you light up my life. You are everything I ever hoped for, and you grow more smart and beautiful by the day!

Christmas 2012

Christmas was so much fun this year! At daycare Kelsi learned about the baby Jesus. Every time she saw a nativity she was sure to point out the "baby Jesus". So sweet! At the beginning of December we took her to see Santa at Bass Pro Shops. She did not want anything to do with Santa or anything that was fake in the North Pole there like snowmen or elves. She did however love "riding" all of the fourwheelers in the store. We also took her to Calloway Gardens to see Fantasy in Lights. She loved it! We went on a week night, and we were the only car riding through so we stopped so she could see all the lights. We were even able to get out and take pictures. She also got to stick her head out the sunroof with her Daddy, which she loved. Her favorite part of the lights was the jack-in-the- box. She kept saying "again". She also enjoyed helping Grandaddy drive through the lights since we were the only ones in the line. Another part of Calloway that she enjoyed was the gingerbread man cookies.

We celebrated Christmas at Grannie Susie's, Grannie Juanita's, Grannie and Grandaddy's, and Nanny Carolyn's. We also had our "annual girls' Christmas Party". And we exchanged presents with Braxton. We are very blessed to have so many family and friends in our lives during Christmas and year round. As a result of all the festivities Kelsi has enough babies to start her own daycare! This also includes 2 doll strollers, high chair, swing, and baby bed.

It was so much fun doing Santa with Kelsi this year. On Christmas Eve she was very concerned about leaving the milk and cookies for Santa, which we did .We also read "The Night Before Christmas" and watched "Shrek the Halls". "Shrek" has become one of Kelsi's favorite movies in addition to "Tangled" (which she lovingly refers to as Punzel). On Christmas morning the first thing Kelsi wanted to check on was the milk. We showed her it and most of the cookies were gone. She picked up the remainder of a cookie and started eating it on the way to the tree to check out all of her presents.

The presents were wrapped and Kelsi was sure to get every bit of wrapping paper off of each present before checking it out.  She also became very good at unwrapping presents. She loved all the presents, and in between she would say "Hmmm, I pick." After she opened all of her presents we showed her her "big" gift from Santa this year- her kitchen  Her reaction was priceless! There was a lot of "wows!" as she discovered the cupcakes and hotdog and cups, etc. She loves to put something in the microwave or oven and say "Cook. Wait (with arms crossed)" then 5 seconds later "Ready! Eat!".

                                       

She was also very excited when she discovered Donkey and Shrek in one of the boxes. This was a Christmas that we are sure to remember. It was the first one where Kelsi started to understand what was going on, and we had a blast!

                                     

Halloween & Thanksgiving 2012

Well, before I make a Christmas post I wanted to catch up! I'm always playing catch up, but that's ok! This year for Halloween Kelsi was Minnie Mouse. She was too cute! She dressed up at daycare and that night we went to the 2nd annual Candyland at FBC Reeltown. Her most favorite parts of the night were the jumpy house and when she got to sit on the table and eat Reeses. We also went to Lazenby Farms to pick out our pumpkin a couple of weeks before Halloweeen.

                                                            Visiting Lazenby Farms

Mrs. Carole dressed up as Mickey!

This is Kelsi playing pumpkin bowling at daycare. 

Thanksgiving was spent with my side of the family at Grannie Susie's, and on TJ's side we went to Nanny Carolyn's.

Summer 2012

Well, it seems that my blogs are becoming seasonal, but that's ok! People always say that teachers are so lucky because they are "off" all summer. I don't think that they take into consideration that if we are teachers as well as mothers we are never off! During the summer taking care of Kelsi is a full time job, but one that I LOVE!

This summer we have had so much fun! In no particular order--Kelsi and I have gone to the park up by our house and played in the mornings before it gets too hot.

We have swam and grilled at Grannie and Grandaddy's.

We went to the Georgia aquarium where Kelsi got to see all kinds of "Nemos".

We went to Uncle Jonathan's and Aunt Susanne's. They have goats and a donkey. Kelsi did not know what to think about them!

We have gone on play dates with Braxton and Olivia and Luke.

We had a get together with Haylee, Kaleb, Sawyer, Laura Kate, and their mommies and daddies. The older kids loved playing in Haylee's tent with each other and running around. They kept each other very entertained while the mommies caught up on things. For the 4th we went to the fireworks at Lake Martin. Kelsi wasn't too sure about how loud they were, and TJ ended up sitting in the truck with her. (Sadly no one had their camera.)

A few days we went to my school and Kelsi loved being in my
classroom. She climbed up in the big kid chairs and colored and "typed" on the computer. She pulled books, flashcards, magnet clips, and all sorts of stuff off the shelves and loved exploring everything. Then she napped in the stroller so Mommy could get some work done.













I took 18 month pictures of her in a pretty little white dress in the yard, and she went to her 18 month dr's appt. This was the first time she did not like the doctor. In the past she has just sat there and stared at them. This time she did not like anything the doctor was doing, and she was so upset about the shots. :( She is tall for her age and weighed about 23 lbs.

In June we went to the beach for about a week. We went to Destin, FL with Mama, Daddy, Shaye, Rachel, and Cody. We had a great time! We went to the beach last year around the same time, but Kelsi was only about 5 months old, so there wasn't much for her to do. This time she walked on the beach for the first time! She absolutely loved it. She ran up and down the beach slinging her little arms with her little sassy walk going.

She actually kept her hat and sunglasses on as she strolled up and down the beach. As she was walking she would come across older children playing and she would stop and point at what they were doing and start jibber jabbering at them. Then she would keep right on going. She liked letting the waves roll over her feet, and if we would've let her I think she would've jumped right into the water. When we were walking along the beach we pointed out the shells to her. There was other stuff on the beach like seaweed, pieces of sand dollars, etc. But after we pointed out to her what the shells were she started picking them up and handing them to us. She caught on to that very quickly. When she wasn't strolling up and down the beach (only because I wouldn't let her stay in the sun the whole time- if it was up to her she would've stayed on the beach for hours) she was in her wagon. We took all of our stuff and Kelsi down to the beach in her wagon.

She sat in it in the shade and played with her toys and snacked on goldfish when she was taking a beach break. While we were there Mama and Daddy got her an airbrushed Nemo visor and shirt and a stuffed Nemo. 







                         This was a beach trip to always remember and cherish!

 I keep a calendar and try to write down memorable things that Kelsi says and does. In the last week or so she has gotten even more of a personality. Sometimes she is just silly, and it is so funny. So I'm just going to list out some of the funny things she has done and milestones for this age so that I will have a record of them.

~Outdoor girl!- Kelsi loves being outside. She loves to swim in the big pool or sit in her little pool. Grannie takes her outside with her in the yard in the stroller, and she loves it. She loves to sit with Grandaddy in the boat and press the controls and beep the horn. She loves running around in the yard. As long as she's outside she's happy!

 ~Nemo- or as Kelsi so lovingly calls him "Momo". This child adores Nemo! When she was about 4 months old she would scream her head off in the car. It was bad. So I asked the doctor if she was too young to watch t.v. in the car. The dr said it was ok, so we got her a dvd player for the car. I only had a few kids' movies and one that I had was "Finding Nemo", so that's what we put in the dvd player. And from then til now she loves to watch it, and every fish she sees is "Momo". Grandaddy bought her a Nemo for the pool. She has a Nemo in the tub, car, crib, you name it. Every fish she saw at the aquarium was Nemo, no matter the shape, color, or size.

 ~Waking up- Kelsi loves to sleep in. I'm not sure where she gets that from. When she wakes up she grabs her blanket with one hand and her Nemo with the other. Then she waits on me to get her out of the crib. It's one of my favorite parts of the day. She is so happy and talkative when she wakes up.

~Petco- TJ took Kelsi to Petco for the first time and she loved seeing all the animals and fish.

~Animal noises- Kelsi knows about 10 animal noises. Duck-cack. Pig- ink. Horse- little longer ink. Snake-ssss. Cow- moo with a frown on her face. Dog- woof. Tiger and lion- roars. Cat- mow with no e. Bunny- she hops.

~Reading- She loves to have someone read her a book. Her favorites are animal books. She will bring you a book, listen to you read it, go get another one and continue this process for as long as you are willing. She can identify many objects in her books.

~Bath time- This baby loves her baths! Her favorite thing to do in the tub right now is take a container and pour water back and forth into another container. (Below she's shown doing that at her little pool.) If she is not ready to get out when you think it's time- well things could get ugly.

~Booboo- Any time Kelsi hurts herself we kiss her booboos. Tonight she pointed at a place on my leg and said "booboo". Later she came back and kissed it all by herself! So sweet.

~Phone- Kelsi is amused with seeing herself on my camera phone. Today we made silly faces and looked back at the pictures. She thought it was hilarious! Anytime she sees a phone she picks it up and holds it up to her ear and says "Hewo" or holds it front of her face and says "Cheese".

~Hide and seek- Definitely her favorite game to play. She loves to run and hide in her closet or behind something and wait til you ask where she is and then she jumps out giggling.

~Mirror- She likes to take the mirror door on my dresser and get behind it and say "Where she go?" and then put the mirror in front of her face and say "There she is!"

~Seep- Anytime she sees anybody in real life or in a book with their eyes closed she whispers "seepin".

~Excuse me- Mrs. Carole is working on manners at daycare. The other day Kelsi was trying to get by Mama in the hall and she said "scuse me"!

~Oh gosh- I'm not sure where Kelsi got this from, but she walks around saying "Oh gosh", and she sounds so funny when she says it. It's such an expression for older people that it just cracks me up when she says it.

~Do you love _______?- When you ask Kelsi "Do you love Mama, Daddy, etc.?" she grins and giggles. It's so sweet. It's like she's saying yes but with a sweet little giggle instead of saying the word.

~NO- Kelsi says no to just about every question you ask her. Even when she means yes she still says no. For example I ask "Do you want some gummies?" She replies "No" while grinning and reaching for the gummies. I always correct her when she means yes. I taught her to make fists and pull them down like you do when you're excited and you say "Yes!" In the last week she will say no and then correct herself and say yes and do her little fists. Her yes is more like "Says".

~Hugs and kisses- Kelsi has blown kisses for a long time, but this summer she started giving real hugs and kisses. Sometimes I tell her "Mama loves you. You're so so sweet." and she comes all the way across the room with her lips puckered up to give me a kiss. It's like it's her way of saying I love you too. She also gives hugs and pats you on your back while she's hugging you. When we are shopping she pulls on my shirt and puckers her lips up so I can lean down and give her a kiss. She does that without me prompting her which melts my heart.

~Roll Tide- TJ has taught Kelsi that football players are Bama, so any football players she sees no matter the uniform are Bama. Also, he took her to Academy and taught her every time she sees an Auburn logo to say "Boo". We went back the other day and he asked her what an AU logo was and she indeed said "Boo". She also knows how to call a touchdown.

~Other things she says/does- Pease/psss (please), wanna ride (for bike, stroller), outside, animal names, matman (batman), I don't know, I want to see it, wanna bite, thumbs up, high 5, grunts when she gets up/picks stuff up, fake laughs, tunder (thunder), rain, waves at random people in public and says hey or hello, knows body parts- eyes, ears, nose, mouth, teeth, tongue, fingers, hands, toes, feet, hair, belly button, says got it, and so much more!

I hear people say it, but it is so true I love her more and more everyday. It doesn't seem possible that I could love her anymore, but with each passing day I do. She is such a sweetheart. Her personality develops more by the day. She is constantly exploring and learning new things. She is so smart already.

It has been a wonderful, fun filled summer with our little entertainment committee- Kelsi Shianne. I hate to see it come to an end, but I am so grateful that I got to spend the last couple of months with my baby girl. On my birthday I will head back to work. Who will cry more when I drop her off at daycare everyday that first week- me or her? I'm sure it will be Mommy, but there's one thing about it- at the end of the day I have my precious little girl (and her Daddy) to go home to!! Life is good.