Cute... Kiely "reading" to Charlotte.
"I'm not so sure about this..."
Charlotte was a little jealous that Kiely was outside dancing
Kiely has hit a hard stage: toddler tantrums! UGH! We are not loving this stage, but we are learning things to do to help it not be so bad or last so long, hopefully! The thing is: Kiely is VERY particular about things... such as "I need a jink a water." (One thing we're working on is helping her say please every time. She does pretty well, but sometimes demands things... the other thing is helping her understand that she can't always get everything she wants.) So, I might be busy doing something, and James will help her with whatever, then the tantrum will start: "NO! Mama will get it!" (Or whoever she may be attached to at the time... especially if we are with other family members: Nae, Allie, Chalea, and Evie are some of her favorites.) To help her overcome some of these things, we are learning how important distraction is! It works pretty good sometimes, and other times, not so much... One time she wanted me to put her in her carseat, but James had already done it because I was busy putting Charlotte in, or it was just easier that way. She cried most of the way home saying, "Mama will put me in my carseat!" She would stop for a bit, then remembered she was supposed to be upset, and started saying it again. To help ourselves not go crazy during these fits, sometimes we try to distract ourselves, or we'll rate her fits: on a scale of 1-10 how bad is it? I have also been trying to do better with giving her snacks, and making sure she has food in the tank, otherwise it can be worse.
Even through all these tantrums, I still think our little Kiely is great! People also often tell me that she is a good little girl. That makes me feel better when there are hard times. Some things she likes to do: read books from the library (Dooby, Dooby, Moo by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin is one of her favorites. I need to purchase it sometime. I love all of her books. Hilarious!) She also now calls pretty much every book with a cow, duck, or other animals on it "Dooby, Dooby, Moo." Kiely loves to turn on the radio and dance/sing. (This is very cute, and I need to take more pictures of this: she stands in front of the TV and uses it as a mirror to watch herself dance. We will definitely be putting her in a dance class within the next year or two, I think!) Going on walks and picking dandelions and "blows" (seeding dandelions) is probably one of her favorite activities. Kiely also enjoys visiting her aunties and uncles, and grandparents on both sides.
One of the things she says right now when she wants to do something is, "Should we...." (instead of "we should...") This makes it fun because if I don't want to do that, or I'm busy, I say, "no, we shouldn't." Often I get a response like, "No! SHOULD WE...." :)
A few days ago, she came up to me and said, "Should I sweep the floor for you?" To which, of course, I replied, "Yes. You should." So I helped her get the broom out, and she tried REALLY hard to sweep the floor by herself! She was actually more successful than I thought she was going to be, and it was really cute watching her try to get the dirt into the dust pan!
A couple weeks ago (probably... I don't remember exactly when it was) I became determined to help her learn how to spell her name. And now she can! :) I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to do this, but I knew it was possible. She's smart. Very smart. And she has an incredible memory. So how did I do this, you ask? Well, she already knew that her name started with a K, so I thought of how I could do it. Her name has five letters in it, so I just put it to the tune of BINGO. "There was a mama had a girl and Kiely was her name-o K-I-E-L-Y!" Now she'll randomly say, "K-I-E-L-Y spells my name-o!" (or "spells me!") I was one proud mama the first time she did it on her own! She also knows that Charlotte's name starts with C, Mom starts with M, and Dad starts with D. I think our goal of having her learn to spell a few words before she's three is possible, after all! Kiely also knows all of our birthdays, and DaNae's birthday, too! :)
When she can't do something, or needs a little assistance, Kiely says, "Can you help me?" and when we ask her to do something, and she's unsure of it, feels like she can't, she'll let us know, "No, I can't!"I always tell her to at least try...
She will now sometimes go to the bathroom by herself (which means go in, turn the light on by herself, and get on the toilet by herself...) I don't think she's done it all for herself yet. This means she is fairly comfortable doing everything besides getting the "wipe" by herself.
Kiely still loves Princesses, and we tell her a "princess and the frog and the castle" story every night before she goes to sleep. These are very quick, short stories about the princess doing things like going on walks, going swimming, picking flowers, and/or painting. (Oh yeah, Kiely has recently become fascinated with painting, and this past week, I got brave enough to take my expensive watercolors out and let her use them. She loves it, and she is very careful!)
One of her other favorite things to do is playing with James. It's one of my favorite things to watch. SO adorable. And so precious!
A month ago, we went to "Dizzyland" (Disneyland) and took DaNae and Kevin with us! It was a very fun trip, one of the greatest, with tons of memories to last forever! I won't go into any details of it right now, that will be the next post, another day, but here's a picture of Kiely and Princess Tiana at "Dizzyland" from our trip for now!
