Need Your Help!

Hokay, there’s good stuff and there’s bad stuff. Good stuff first because it sounds better that way and hopefully if you have any tips for me with the bad stuff, you’ll leave a comment when you’re finished reading!

Kaylee starts Kindermusik on Monday! She’s doing the Village session (Thanks Groupon!). We’ll be traveling to Regina every Monday evening until first Monday in November. I'm pretty excited that she'll be seeing other children on a regular basis and maybe I'll make some more mommy-friends!

Last week, Grammy and Kaylee and I went back to Lumsden to the market garden, and also to an attraction called Pumpkin Hollow (thanks again Groupon! :D ). There was promise of a huge pumpkin patch that we could take pictures in, but the pumpkins weren’t ready yet. While we were there, Kaylee got to see a petting zoo instead!
Kaylee's first time on a horse! It was a miniature, perfect size for Kaylee :)

These goats scared Kaylee. I'm not really sure why....

She was okay with the next goats though, and they were okay with her!

There were also some cute calves! By this fence there were some thistles and I dragged Kaylee's leg through them before I noticed them. I only noticed them because they got my arm. She had a little welt on her ankle, but she didn't fuss at all. What a toughie.

While choosing some cute pics to post, I noticed all these ones were from the same day…. So here’s a day in the life of Kaylee. This is not a typical day though, as there is no such thing as a typical day!

Good morning, it's time to play!

Shake shake shake!!!

Mum, are you paying attention?

Can I read my book now?

Don't bug me mum, I'm texting! (It starts early...)

Refueling on blueberries, one of
Kaylee's new favourites!

Yeah... she explores everything and anything that
anyone has.

Look at me! I get my toys by myself!

Now what would I like...

This is my favourite toy right now....
Thanks Auntie Pearl!

My teeth hurt... I know my Anbesol is
in here somewhere!

Leaving the scene of the crime!

Kaylee has one more tooth than last time, but I can tell she’s definitely got another working its way through somewhere! Yesterday was kind of a rough day and although today seems better, she’s still drooling puddles everywhere and is sleepier than yesterday. Teething.

Kaylee can reach so many things now… Go Go Gadget Arms!!! A few nights ago, I was wondering why she wasn’t going to sleep in her crib so I go up there and she’s playing with the lightswitch! She can reach that now… so that night her crib was put to the lowest height and moved away from the wall a bit. Then two days ago when she’s “napping”, I hear a crash on the baby monitor and then nothing. I run upstairs to see what happened…. To find her playing with the power cord for the monitor. She could reach the cord, so she pulled it off the shelf (crash!!) and was left with the cord. :S  Baby monitor and all other things in reach were moved. Yesterday I needed to leave her in the playpen for a few minutes while I got the rest of the groceries in the house. When I come back, she’s got a hold of some bundled VCR cords that were on the entertainment stand beside the playpen! Playpen is moved. I wonder what she’ll reach today… besides the mail she dumped off the table earlier with her fingertips :)

I don’t know what I’m doing yet in terms of a party for Kaylee. I think lots of people around will overwhelm her and I wouldn’t want the party to last too long…. Just long enough for people to have cake and for me to take some pictures. I’m thinking about not having a big party – just a little one for her with my immediate family. I think that’s what Kaylee would enjoy best. Maybe I can have a separate thing (potluck in a park?) for celebrating her birthday with my friends and relatives. This is what I’m leaning towards, but something about it still feels off. Any suggestions? 

I have a few more links now too....

•  Free growth chart (I already got mine – in Cree!)
• Start collecting bits of crayons now! DIY recycled crayons. I like it because the crayons you end up with are easier for little hands to hold… at least for very first art pictures! 
• My friend Daniel found this one – Do you like David Bowie? How about Space Oddity as a children’s book….  It was taken off the author’s website since I first saw it, but I downloaded it when it was up, so here’s a link to the file.

Advice time. I’m having two issues lately that I would love some ideas about from other parents and idea generators!

1)      Squirmy diaper changes!!! Lately Kaylee does NOT want to lie still for a diaper change. This combined with her frequent mooping (messy pooping) the last few days has got me frustrated. I can’t even wipe her off before she’s actually trying to crawl away or sit up. I can barely put another diaper on her (I have to sorta pin her down!), nevermind the petroleum goo! (which sucks, because it just makes the next moop harder to clean!) I’ve tried giving her things to play with while I’m changing her, and that used to work but it doesn’t seem to anymore. My change pad has a strap to keep her on it, but she can still roll over in it. I just don’t know what to do next, and it’s really frustrating! I feel like I need to be a Hindu deity with a few extra pairs of arms!! But since I’m not... any ideas?

2)      ‘Rubber ducky, you’re the one! You make bath time so much fun!’ Maybe I need a rubber ducky, because bath time is SO NOT FUN! She’s too big for the sink now so she baths in the bathtub, but she doesn’t want to sit down. Today she was standing through her entire bath. That means I only have one arm to bathe her with because my other arm is supporting her so she doesn’t fall and hit her head or go underwater. I do have some of those bathtub bottom sticky things that might make it less slippery for her and I haven’t put them in the tub yet… but any other ideas? She also cries and screams when water gets in her face when I’m washing her hair. I feel like I’m the meanest person ever when I have to rinse her hair. Any more ideas? I dread bath time the way it is now.