Monday, September 27, 2010

Halloween Costume

This is another post that I had decided I was not going to share until I had my "startling revelation" while reading back through my blog the other night.  :)  Kaelyn is going to be Jessie from the Toy Story movies for Halloween. I figured I would be posting enough pictures of Kaelyn in her costume when she actually goes trick-or-treating and well, it doesn't really matter all the other reasons why I decided I shouldn't post the pictures even though I thought they were just so cute.  Normally, she has only dressed up before because she loves the character that she's dressing up as but she can barely tolerate the feel of the costumes (dresses) because of her sensory issues.  She will leave them on for a bit and then she's done with it all.  So her Jessie costume came the other day (we ordered it online) and she wanted to put it on.  After I got it on her and took some pictures of her, she said, "Maybe we can just wear our Jessie costume at the brown house."  She calls home the brown house because ---- our house is brown of course.  :)  And "wearing the costume at the brown house" meant she wanted to leave it on.  So she wore it all that afternoon and evening.  When Kevin got home from work, he referred to her as Jessie and made some comment about thinking she was Jessie.  She was very amused and believed that he really thought she was the "real" Jessie.  She said, "No, I'm Kaelyn."  :)  It was kind of cool to us that she actually enjoyed wearing the costume and she remembers going trick-or-treating at the mall last year so she actually kind of knows what's going on this year.  She has gone a little bit the other direction with her interest in the costume:  she wanted to wear it to bed that night - "no";  she wanted to wear it to school the next day - "definitely no" (she settled for putting it on as soon as she got home from school Friday); she wanted to wear it grocery shopping Saturday - got in trouble for acting naughty when we said "no"; AND she wanted to wear it to church Sunday - "definitely, definitely NO!"  :)  This year, we are going to "Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party" at Magic Kingdom for our trick-or-treating so she's doubly excited.  She will get to see some characters that normally aren't there and some of the traditional characters will be "dressed up" in costumes.  Then you basically walk around to lots of different spots in the park to get candy.  We are actually going this weekend since the crowds get larger and larger the closer to Halloween it gets.  So I'm sure there will be a lot more fun pictures but here are a few I've taken in the last few days.


When we were at Disney last time and Kaelyn got to see Jessie, Jessie was posing for some of the pictures holding her fingers up like guns.  Kaelyn didn't really know what it was supposed to be but she was amused and fascinated with it so naturally as soon as I got the camera out to take pictures of her, she tried to figure out how to hold her fingers like Jessie.





She was watching a movie here.  She saw me come over with the camera and obligingly gave me a grin meanwhile never taking her eyes off her movie.  I wasn't trying to get her to look at me anyways so it was okay.






I just LOVE this one that I caught a bit later.  The hat is not very "deep" so we are going to have to put some string or elastic on it to get it to stay on.  Despite the fact that it kept falling off, she insisted on wearing it even though we kept having to put it back on her.



Our Little Reader

I was going back through old blog posts of mine from a year and two years ago and I had a bit of a startling revelation.  I realized that I used to blog much more because I enjoyed it so much - and I enjoyed it so much because I was rather uninhibited.  I posted pictures and stories and happenings that I thought were cute and wanted to share rather than worrying about or trying to figure out what others might be interested in or find cute or NOT find interesting.  I loved it because I enjoy writing (at times) and tend to express my thoughts and feelings FAR BETTER writing (or typing in this case) then I ever can using actual words.  Anyway, some of my thoughts, stories, and things Kaelyn said or did that I shared in the past were neat to read on my blog if for nothing more than my own sake - having those memories preserved.  I don't do well at journaling or documenting those kinds of things just on my own so as I read back over my blog, there were memories that I was reminded of that I had already forgotten.  I don't know how much or if I will be able to "come out of my shell" again as far as blogging but I thought I would start by sharing this video of Kaelyn reading.  I had already come up with about 10 reasons why I shouldn't share it - all these things that people would surely think if I posted it - one of those things being that people might thing I'm a too proud etc. etc. but honestly, I am proud of her and it thrills me to overhear her sitting in her room or on the couch reading!
I just bought her some of the "Early Reader" books.  I'm not sure that's what they are called but they are numbered by reading stages.  She has a couple Toy Story one and a princess one which just helps add to her interest in reading them.  The one she is reading in the video is part of a Level 2 book.  She had read it 3 or 4 times with me before this particular time that we videoed her so you will notice that some of the harder words she has memorized now.  Obviously, she didn't read it quite that smoothly the first couple of times but she DOES do fairly well at trying to sound words out - even the bigger words.  We didn't record her reading all of the book as that takes quite a while at her reading speed as you can imagine.  :)

(When I played the video after posting it on here, there was only sound the first time with no picture.  I clicked "play again" after it finished and then it showed the video as well.  So the sound may load and start playing before the whole video can load - or maybe it's just mine that's doing that.  :)  Also, it took a while for it to load for me but it did eventually play.

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Friday, September 24, 2010

My girl is happy again!

These pictures were taken Wednesday of this week.  We had just walked into the house from school and Kaelyn wanted me to take her picture.  I'm not really sure why except I mentioned that it was picture day at school the following day so she was possibly confused about that.  Anyway, she looked cute and SO much happier now just getting home from school than she has for the previous 4 weeks of school.  I can't believe the change in her already.  I have felt so much happier and relaxed this week myself!  I'm thanking God every day that she is finally where she needs to be and is doing well already!



Sunday, September 19, 2010

This Past Week

The end of this last week was a bit crazy for us - not all bad and not all great.  From Wednesday to Friday: we went to a circus and Kaelyn went for her first elephant ride, Kaelyn lost her first tooth, we found out that Kaelyn would be switching schools so she can be in an ESE kindergarten (things were going even worse at school than we realized), we visited her new school and she had her last day of school here in Hobe Sound Thursday, and we went to Disney on Ice.  Like I said, it wasn't all bad but it was enough to leave us a little... dazed maybe.  So Kay starts at her new school tomorrow, which means we have another rough transition time ahead of us but ultimately, I think it is a better situation for her.  I could expound on each one of those happenings much more, particularly the draining meeting at the school and the emotions we have gone through but I will spare you all that.  I'll try to keep the comments brief as I have a LOT of pictures to share.  (Fortunately, I think there are a few grandparents and other relatives who just might like seeing LOTS of pictures.)  If you are on facebook, you [may] have seen some (but not all) of these pictures earlier in the week.

Mommy and Kay at our first circus.


She wanted to ride an elephant SO desperately bad!


She was yelling down, "Hi Mommy!"  :)




This was very exciting to her.


Daddy and Kaelyn in front of the elephants.
(By the way, see the sphere in the background?  Two and then three guys on dirt bikes rode inside of that riding completely around the sides in a circle and then circling each other going upside down from top to bottom!  I should have posted a pic. of the girl who did 80 hula hoops at one time too!)



I can't believe she's old enough to be losing teeth (though I think she is a bit younger than some kids are when they start losing teeth).



We were afraid she would flip out when it came out because she doesn't know anything about losing teeth.  I only noticed it was loose about 2 weeks ago so I had been trying to explain to her what would happen.  Then I guess it just fell out when she was eating lunch at school Thursday.   When I went to pick her up, her tooth was out.  No one saw it I guess and they didn't know where it went.  She was actually excited (we had explained about getting a quarter) so it went much more smoothly than we thought it might.


I keep having her say "sister Susie sittin' on a thistle" because she sounds so funny and cute.  She doesn't really understand why but she realizes it's entertaining and now, she gets a kick out of saying it.  :)



Disney On Ice.  As usual, a great show.  We had never seen this one before.  It was "Little Mermaid, Lilo and Stich", "Lion King" and "Peter Pan" along with, of course, the "hosts" of the show Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, and Goofy.


Waiting for the show to start.




I just LOVE this picture!


Goofy takes a tumble.  (This wasn't an accident of course, it's because Goofy's always clumsy so naturally he falls on the ice several times)  :)



Micky and Minnie get ready to "go to Hawaii" for the Lilo and Stich part of the show.



The Darling children and Peter Pan "fly" off to Neverland.



Captain Hook and Smee search for Peter Pan and the Lost Boys.


Kaelyn after the show.  (changed into her pajamas and ready for the late and long drive home - about an hour and 15 minutes)

Saturday, September 11, 2010

More catching up from the summer

I am working on "cleaning out" some "blogging pictures" folders from my desktop.  These pictures are a few pictures of rather random things that I wanted to blog.  They are mostly from July I believe.

One day after I cleaned out the oven I pulled out the bottom drawer to scrub out the drawer as well as to clean up under the oven.  Apparently since food occasionally gets dropped down in the cracks between the stove and the cabinets when I'm cooking, there is a "buffet" of crumbs and things a dog would like.  :)  I had to keep moving Buster away so I could get the broom up under there to clean.



We went to the zoo on July 5 (I have a folder of those pictures to post too).  We let Kaelyn get this little monkey that can hang around her neck.  For whatever reason, she just LOVES it and it has become a favorite toy.  We often see her going around the house carrying it "piggy-back".



This is how "he" rides around most often - with her hanging on to his arms.






A playday at an indoor park.  I thought her expression here as she peeked through at me was really cute.






Another day playing with her monkey.



She says his name is "Jungle Monkey".  She asked us several times what the tag on him says and that's what it says so thus the name.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

A pictorial walk through September :) (How's that for a title?)

Gotta' get rid of the school-ish background.  Right now it feels like it's mocking me given how "our" school year has started off.  'Sides, I love fall anyway! (even though we don't get it here).  All I'm posting here are tons of pictures from Septembers gone by.  Some of them you maybe have seen in the past if they were taken since I started my blog. 

September of 2005 - Kay's first September.  She was 4 months old here and we got such a kick out of her siting in her chair watching "Baby Einstein" videos.  She still uses this chair but she fills it up a little more now.  :)


September of 2005 - 4 months old.  I absolutely LOVED this hat of hers!


Moving to September of 2006 - She looked adorable in this little fairy costume, which was actually WAY too big for her at the time.


September of 2006


This picture just epitomizes... something - I'm not sure what - maybe the innocence of childhood or the joy that children find in simple things.  :)  September 2007


Love this picture as well!
September 2007


I have LOTS of thoughts going through my head as I look at this picture - such a sweet little princess!
September 2007


Where did this little girl go?  She has changed so much in three years time.
September 2007


September 2007


September of 2008  :)


 Me and my girl.
September 2008


Love this one for some reason.  :)
September 2008


One of my all-time favorite pictures of her!
September 2008


September 2008


Pre-school helped her personality emerge wouldn't you say?  :)
Last September 2009


Okay, random I know (compared to the other "subject matter" of most of these pictures) but so what?  :)  This is Joy and I at Kennedy Space Center last fall. 
September 2009


Let the randomness continue:  Kevin painting his "contribution" to the mural on their office building.
September 2009


Kaelyn and Kevin resting.  September 2009