Kaylee's Growing Up - Happy Birthday Baby!

Well, Kaylee turns 2 today! I can't believe it's been 2 years already since she was born. Everyday I thank God for the miracle of her and of the blessings that God has showered us with because of her. I think not only has she grown, but Tim and I have grown as well, but that would be another topic for discussion. (Not that we've grown up, we've just grown!)

Well you can definitely tell that Kaylee has grown up! I looked at her 1 year-old picture this morning and compared to what she looks like today (or at least yesterday, since it was before she woke up) she has lost the baby chub and has gotten much taller! It's like she's started growing into a bean pole! I'm sort of glad she doesn't have my genes, because if she did, she'd be short and round and not growing, and... well I could go on, but then I'd have to list all of my faults and it is way too early in the day to do that!

The other way I know she's growing up is she has developed a fear of the dark. Yes the Boogie-Man has hit our house! The last few days she has been saying "dark". Me being oblivious as usual, I figured, "Ok, so she's figured the difference between light and dark and the light being on in a room and the light being off. She's starting to verbalize this along with everything else in the world." (We can't get the child to stop talking anymore... sound like anyone familiar:)) Anyway, so I'm Ms. Oblivious here and figure she's just talking more and verbalizing, when what she's starting to do is realize the dark is scary to a two year-old!

Needless to say, last night we had a crying fit for almost an hour because she was afraid of the dark. We hopefully somewhat solved the problem by putting on a small night light, that is located in her baby monitor, and giving her a little flashlight, like the one she has at Nana's house. She still cried, but at least it helped her cry less and she at least was able to tell me she understood that she had options when I left the room. I felt terrible, as any parent I think does at those times, but what else do I do, stay in the room all night? That wouldn't help anything. I figured that a night light, Mr. Stripes, a flash light that she can turn on and off, and baby doll could comfort and keep her occupied until she tuckered herself out enough to fall asleep, which happened in about 5-7 minutes after I left the room.

I have to admit, feeling helpless while your child is really scared, really sucks! Finding solutions to problems that make you feel better is easy. Finding solutions to the problems that make your child feel better is really hard, especially when, to them, the world is ending RIGHT NOW! I hate feeling helpless! I guess that's why they say parenting is hard. Wow, did it take me two years to figure that much out? I guess I am growing up... Nah, just a passing thought!

Anyway, Happy Birthday Baby! May you grow big and strong and may God continue to bless and keep you. May the wind be always at your back, the sun shine on your face, and may God keep you in the palm of his strong, faithful hands. Love you, Nutter!

Mama

Some Vacation Pictures

Not much time for commentary. Just some good pictures of Kaylee and Ethan.

4.5 inches of rain in 3 days; I've got a snorkel in the truck just in case

I turned the sprinkler system off. Figure I don't need it right now. :)

The tough part was yesterday, though, when Kaylee went to the back door and said "Outside? Outside?" Tough to explain to a 2 year old that the ground is so wet she'd sink into the lawn.

We're back from Vacation

Now that we're back from vacation, there will (hopefully) be a flurry of posts. Figured I'd share some stuff from Jen and my night on the town in NYC. Beth and Pat bought Jen tickets to Wicked! for her birthday, and we went into town on Tuesday night to see it. We had dinner at a little hole in the wall Irish pub (no TGI Fridays this time for us!), and then went to the show (which was excellent).

Afterwards, we went across the street to this diner that Jen spotted to get some dessert. It had a sign that said "Home of the singing waitstaff". We figured it was just some cheesy thing, like when the staff at a chain restaurant gets together and half heartedly sings "Happy Birthday".

We couldn't have been more wrong. All of the wait staff are aspiring Broadway actors and actresses. They took turns belting out showtunes and other music all night long. I got a quick video of one waitress doing (fittingly) one of the songs from "Wicked!"



If you watch the related videos, most of them are of other waiters and waitresses from the diner. Ryan, our waiter, does a Barry Manilow song that is absolutely hilarious.

We knew we wanted to take a cab back to the train station--we walked up to the theater, but needed to get off our feet. A guy driving a bike rickshaw pulled up to the curb, and I figured "Why not?" I haggled him from $25 to $20 (I only had $20 cash on me), and he biked us all the way back to the station. Our path took us right through the middle of Times Square--going through Times Square on a bike is an interesting experience, to say the least. I was able to get a pretty poorly lit picture of us being deftly manuevered through NYC cab traffic.