End of Summer Fun

The weeks are flying by...wow.  It is the last day of August, which means that summer is officially over...I think.  However, the tomatoes ripening in my garden and the threat of 90 degree weather tomorrow may convince me otherwise.

I'm so very ready for fall.  It's my absolute favorite season.  I love the cooler temperatures, the crisp snap in the air, the crunch of leaves, the smells of apple cider and pumpkin pie.

I did some very thorough end-of-summer cleaning this last weekend.  Kyla's such a good girl.  She helped Mommy scrub window screens!

When she took a break, Rowdy came over to give her a quick kiss, which was not so appreciated.

When I cleaned the floor, she got out her broom to help also!

Of course, life is not all work around our house.

Kyla got to spend some time with Daddy.  I do believe she told him exactly how it is.

Who needs pants, even a shirt, when you have black patent leather shoes?

All of that hard work and hard play wears a girl out!

At the end of the day, don't forget to treasure those fleeting moments.  Here's a last shot of Kyla sleeping next to her baby.  Wow, those maternal insticts start young!

Late Night with Nothing to Do But Blog

Ok, so here I sit at 11:37 p.m., blogging.  Not particularly on my list of things to do after 10 p.m. typically.  But, apparently I am experiencing yet another one of the things that was certainly part of the curse.  An awful, horrendous, big-and-bold UTI.  Ick.  Seriously, ick.  I had no idea.  So, while my sweet, groggy husband drives 35 miles to the nearest Wal-Mart to buy some Azo, I, trying feebly to ward off my inner chills, sit here blogging.

I admit, I haven't been very good about taking pictures the last couple of weeks.  Horrible, actually.  For some reason, I just haven't.  Thus the reason for no blog posts, I guess.  So for the most part, I will just recount the latest Kyla news tonight.

Something for which she is quickly becoming infamous (and will be more so after this blog post hits the web) is her ability to quickly take off her underthings...namely, her diaper. 

It started right after we took away her pacifier.  Could it be her way of geting back?  Or perhaps without the pacifier to soothe her to sleep, she has extra time to kill before drifting to dreamland?  Whatever the reason, she has quickly discovered the joy of being (practically) naked.  I told her doctor about Kyla's habit of ditching her diaper.  Doctor replied, "Well, hopefully she'll grow out of that phase."  To which I replied, "Well, I'm hoping she'll grow out of diapers, eventually."...which brings me to my next topic.

The POTTY CHAIR!  We decided this week that it was time for Kyla to meet her potty chair...not just any ordinary potty chair, either.  It's a "Cheer for Me Potty!"  It actually sings for you when you tinkle in the potty.  It has a flusher handle and a pull-out toilet paper dispenser that can hold a real roll of toilet paper (if you happen to have one of those remarkable toddlers that wouldn't unroll the whole roll just for the fun of it every time he sat down on the potty chair). 

The reason we decided it was maybe time is that Kyla will tell us when she needs a diaper change...whether she's wet or poopy.  She is getting particular about having a dry diaper.  So, we thought we would just slowly work into it.  She's still very young, and I'm really in no hurry to quit diapering.  Diapers are easy.

Kyla just loves her potty chair.  It took her not quite 24 hours to learn the word "potty."  Speaking of new words, she now says "banana."  Super cute.)  The first night we let her sit on it, that's all she wanted to do from then until she went to bed.  She screamed when we finally made her get off.  I just read that a parent should never attempt potty training until the child has formed a good feeling toward her potty chair.  Guess we have that down.  Now for the actual potty part... :)

She's such a funny little copy-cat.  Whatever she sees us do, she will certainly attempt to do, given the chance.  Last Sunday, I was sitting at the kitchen table with my aunt, working on her computer.  I had gotten a Mountain Dew and had poured part of it into a glass with some ice.  I left the half-full can sitting on the table.  Suddenly I looked up to see Kyla had climbed onto a chair, grabbed the soda can, and was proceeding to pour it into Bryan's glass that was left on the table from lunch.  Of course, she's much more adventurous than I.  She held the can a good 18" above the glass.  I couldn't believe it.  Other than a few drops that splashed out from the force of being dropped that distance, all of the soda she dumped (before I grabbed the can from her) landed smack into the glass!

Whenever we pick her up or do any motion involving her that would take some effort from us, she grunts.  A full-blown, "uhhh-hhh."  As if it takes any effort on her part to be lifted into our laps!!  Now, where did she hear that?  Who, you say?  Certainly not!!

Kyla and I went to Sioux Falls today with my friend Crystal and her daughter Ella.  Before leaving town, we hit one of the new treat spots in town:  Cherry Berry.  It's on South Louise, just a couple blocks south of 49th Street.  It is similar to Freeziac, which we tried once in the Mall of America.  There's about 14-16 different types of frozen yogurt and lots of different toppings.  Fill a bowl, pay by the ounce, and find a seat in one of their ultra-cute seating options:  green couches, space-age chairs, etc.  I had....umm...watermelon sorbet, snickerdoole cookie dough, birthday cake, cheesecake, espresso, and I'm not sure what else all in one bowl.  Then there were the toppings.  Yum!  It was soo good...maybe partially because it was 4:00 and I hadn't eaten lunch.  But it really was good...topped Cold Stone by a mile.  So, if you haven't given it a try, you should.  And as a really usless aside (unless you're one of those geeky trivia buffs...like me), a cherry is not actually a berry.

Sweet, groggier Hubs is back with Azo.  Now, off to eat something close to the meal that the box insists I must eat before taking those 2 little, brown pills.

Camping!

Whoever said camping with a toddler is difficult....was right.  By the end of our trip, we had one very bug-bitten, skinned-up, crabby-pants little girl.  But it was totally worth it.  :)  And I do believe she loved it...or most of it.

First of all, I want to say thank you to the very kind nameless lady who drove way out of her way to show us a "local detour" around a road that was closed.  She led us down windy gravel roads all the way back to the main highway then turned around and went back the way we'd come.  Such a nice lady...did I mention that?

Going Bananas Over...Bananas

On the way home from work last week, Bryan suddenly looked in the rear-view mirror and started laughing really hard.  What was so funny?  Take a look and see what I saw when I peered over Kyla's carseat.

Kyla had gotten into the bunch of bananas that I'd purchased at the store that day and decided to help herself.  What a mess, but oh so funny!  She'd peeled 2 of them and wasn't wasting any time!