Score!

I love shopping deals. So when I received the $10 card in the mail from Kohl's to spend on anything in the store, of course I was excited!

But do I EVER spend it on myself anymore? Um, NOOOOOOOO!

I spent it on Keifer! And soon, Kyla!

I found this adorable spring jacket there today at lunch time on clearance. With the $10 card, and no tax in our state on clothing (YAY), I ended up spending $2.60 for this! YAY!

Last weekend, I scored this for her:

She already has it in the long sleeves, but with summer approaching, there will be no long sleeves in our house, with our little sweaty girl!

She also has this in her closet, thanks to Nana Dian (to match the butterfly bike shorts and butterfly socks of the same line):

Yes, I'm THAT mom who cannot wait for photo opportunities of Keifer holding her baby sissy in her arms.........and already daydreaming about their outfits! *sigh* Having two girls is going to be torture to my (and my mom's ) bank account

*I also found an adorable onsie for Kyla for only $3!! It's so hard to resist baby clothes!!! Ugg!*

The idol & other music notes

Elaine told me yesterday that during circle time at daycare, they have "Childcare Idol" and each and every time, Keifer chooses to sing the "ABC" song. She also said she does a very good job of it! I don't know what is cuter - that they have this "idol" singing thing or that K chooses the ABC's and actually sings them all for her friends! LOL

I have to learn the prayer that they sing at Elaine's previous to lunch time. The past few nights, K has been attempting to sing it, and it's so adorable to watch her fold her hands in prayer and sing - all I can get it out of her mutterings is "The Lord is Good to Me" - but have no clue what the other words are. Our prayers before meals are pretty simple, so this is great that K is learning more extravagant ones to be thankful.

I mentioned last summer that K LOVE LOVE LOVED the song "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz. Well, apparently she likes Mr. Mraz. The new song he has out with Colbie Caillat "Lucky" was on the radio the other day and Keifer actually STOPPED TALKING and seemed mesmerized by the song. She must like the pitch of his voice? And...we hadn't heard/listened to "I'm Yours "in quite some time, but when we heard it a few weeks back on the radio, she started singing along with it as if she sings it everyday. So sweet.

However, we still insist upon either the Putamayo Kids CD in the car ("Bang, bang, mama" (Bling Blang) or "Nana phone") or the Sesame Street CD. One can get very tired of these songs, but as mentioned before, it is pretty neat to listen to her sing along with all the songs. And, the other morning, she asked me for "Hello, baby"! So funny.

When Keifer was a baby, the song I relate to my time home with her initially that spring is Gwen Stefani's "Sweet Escape". I heard it the other night and was instantly brought back to that spring, of exhaustion and love and pain and uncertainty. If I was to think of last summer, I immediately think of the time my girl and I watched our music videos and I think of her favorite Jason Mraz song. I now wonder what THIS summer will hold for music for me and my girls? Hmmm.

Life with Keifer

Keifer is a busy, busy, busy girl, as always. She loves to be mommy's shadow (or daddy's if she gets tired of mommy), and wants to do everything we do, including cooking, cleaning, etc.. Here she is (above) putting some laundry in her "washing machine" sans pants. LOL. I don't remember, this must have been either before dinner or after- sometimes for meals, I strip her down, as the amount of OxiClean we go through is insane these days. Oh, how I miss the days of clean clothes! Poor Kyla- anything from Keifer that has been worn since food was introduced is FULL of stains on the neck/front and arms. Oh well, that just shows how much our girl enjoys eating.

Let's see, lately our girl has been spelling her name for us every night. She initially kept telling us that she spelled her name "K-I-F-E-R" - but now she's adding in the first "E" - so it's K-E-I-F-E-R. Amazing to me. I credit Elaine and her friends at daycare for all this knowledge she is acquiring. Spelling her name, rote counting, identifying shapes and colors, as well as letters, and now some numbers. She picked up a block the other day and said, "that's a 4, mama". Um, yes, it was a four! HOLY CATS!

She is using 4-6 word sentences all.the.time (CJ and I joke that we know our girl is either tired or not feeling well if she's quiet), which is wonderful. She has the vocabulary of a four year old, and continues to sing EVERYTHING. There is nothing better than driving somewhere, hearing my girl sing in her sweet voice along to songs on the radio, or songs on CD, or songs from memory. I especially get a kick out of 1)when she tries to sing in a high falsetto (giggle), and 2) when the climax/end of a song is gearing up, and she reallllly belts it out, such as the end of "that's, Elmo's songggggggggggg" - with her mouth open really wide and she's practically screaming the end of the song. Hee hee. What is cute is, we'll be driving along and she'll see a farm yard or corn field and say "what's that?" and so I'll tell her it's a farm, and she breaks into 'Old McDonald" or "The Farmer in the Dell". It never fails. We live in a suburb that is surrounded (now) by farm yards, so this happens a lot. It's become her pattern.

Last week, we were talking about how daddy has a name (she calls him by his first name quite often: "where __, go?"), and we told her MY name. She repeated it, and then said "My Carrie!". Ahh, sweetness! When we asked her what HER name was, she thought for a minute, then smiled proudly and said "Princess!". CJ and I had a great laugh over that one. It all made sense the next day, after I asked Elaine about it. Apparently, that day at nap time, all the kids were asking to be sung to goodnight and to be called "Princess", so Miss Imitator also wanted to be called "Princess" like her friends.

Each month, we receive a magazine for toddlers in the mail - a gift from Nana Marge. We love it- and I wish I could show you the look in K's eyes when I tell her she has mail and when I hand back the magazine to her. It is priceless!!

Our girl continues to love her Meghan and ballroom dancing. It has become a routine for her to also ask me each day in the morning, "go dancin', mama?". I feel so bad that we only go once a week! As always, we pull into the parking lot, and she lights up, and starts saying "shake, shake" (the parachute), and now, will ask "see Annie?" - in reference to her little friend Dani (elle), who has attended ballroom each week along with us. K loves to see Dani and her other ballroom regulars :) Then, when we are there, she quickly runs to make a circle and sits down to perform/sing all the songs and finger plays. She's also trying very hard to imitate all the ballroom steps we learn- and has been doing very well imitating the waltz (up two three, down two three, etc.). The hardest part has been not being able to lift her up (all 35 pounds of her)all the time when she wants mama to hold her and dance. And, the little mama's girl does not like when anyone else tries to pick her up to dance, even though she loves them (such as Meghan or Dani's mom).

And...now that spring has finally decided to be kind to us, K is enjoying going to a park and playing on the swings and slides. Another question I get on a daily basis is "go slide, mama?". She loves to climb and swing and slide. It makes me very excited for this summer- to be able to enjoy activities with her such as this, and hopefully baby Kyla will enjoy tagging along with mama and her big sissy!

The trials of the new toddler bed

The past week has been a doozy. Last weekend, CJ and I spent Saturday rearranging the furniture in Keifer's room, to make room for the new toddler bed. We are planning on having Kyla eventually in the crib, and wanted to give Keifer some time to adjust to the new big girl bed. Keifer was beyond excited to get that bed up-she knew it was for her! **and the reason that they will be sharing a room: our 3rd bedroom is downstairs- as in the basement, which is not just a split level away, but an additional 3rd stairway away- so 3 long stair cases away = too far away from mama and daddy for our girl**

Here she is, happy and thrilled that we are putting her bed together (and she insisted on wearing her jacket around inside, not sure why! LOL)

Ahhh, bliss in the new bed?
Our girl even went downstairs and attempted to drag her little vacuum up the stairs all by herself so SHE could help vacuum, just like her main man, Daddy!

Well, the first day (a week ago Sunday) of napping in the bed. This was saying goodbye to her pre-nap. Yah, it doesn't show the hour after this of fighting with her to stay in the bed, keep the light off, or stop crying/screaming at the gate that we put up on the other side of her door to keep her in the room
This was the first night: last Sunday. She has decided on her own, that the pillow/her head will go on the other end of the bed (than vice versa, as mommy and daddy had planned). This -well, this was a good night in the bed!

From here on out, each night is a new night for us at home with that bed and our girl. Some nights, she goes to bed fine for us. Other nights, we fight with her for almost an hour a night- between lights on and off, CD player on and off (we've since moved it out of her reach, which she got very pissy with me about), and just simply staying in bed. We've tried silence, ignoring, and having her repeat after me "I stay in bed, mama". The mornings are the same way. Some mornings, she wakes up at her usual 6:45 -7:00 AM time, other mornings she's up at 5AM and wanting to go downstairs. We've encouraged her to play in her room, as she can turn her light on, but our girl refuses, and instead, will stand at the gate and scream and cry for one of us to come and "take her downstairs". Ahhh, such fun.

Yesterday, we also fought for nap time- she cried and screamed for a little over a 1/2 hour before I found her passed out ON HER BED. That night, again, 45 minutes of duking it out. *sigh*. Mama is tired, and it's impossible for me to lift her with my PG and keep sticking her back in bed. Between mama and daddy, we just want our girl to get used to this and stick with the idea-- I know, I know. Time. It'll take time.

2 year stats/check up:

Keifer had her 2 year check up with Dr. J this AM (gotta love Saturday morning appointments!). She did great, and is advanced (no surprise) in her verbal and fine motor skills. Gross motor wise, there are still some issues but she'll be fine - such as always needing to go FAST, tripping (walks towards the ball of her foot more), and hesitancy with her riding toys. At least she can jump, and gallop and loves to dance (which I think is helping with those skills). When you're a big girl, it takes time to get that big ol' body under control, right? :)

Anyhoo, our girl is off the charts for her age - also not a big surprise. We always knew she was a BAB (big ass baby) but man oh man, no wonder the shirt in the above picture is a 4T and fits just perfectly!

Stats:

Weight: 35.4 lbs

Length: 37 inches

Head: 50 1/2 cm (no wonder 2-5T hats barely fit her melon!)

Things we'll be doing: switching from whole milk to regular milk (1% or 2% I'm sure), trying some Zyrtec, as our girl seems to have some awful allergies JUST like mama (which amazes me, as she's not 'genetically' mine), and continuing to work on the potty training. Our girl loves to try to go potty, but has recently decided she loves the flushing part of the potty training more. Hence, we have a child who will hop on the potty seat, sit for 2.2 seconds, jump off and flush. Dr. J warned us (as we know) that when baby Kyla comes, we'll be seeing some regression with Keifer in some areas, so potty training isn't AS important at this point as it will be in the future. Still, I'm happy our girl is interested in it!

The worst part of the visit was the end, when K had to get a shot in her leg - the 2nd part of her Hepatitis A vaccine. She screamed and cried, but luckily the cookie monster sticker took her mind off the owie. Mama always tears up during shots, too: I hate to see my girl in pain. Ouch.

Let 'em rip.....32 week appointment

I had my 32 week appointment yesterday. It seems as though I was JUST sitting in the OB office, waiting for the 30 week check up. Luckily, no internals until 36 weeks, so we just go over the basics, blood pressure, etc., and this time, I had to ask for some nasal spray. It's full blown allergy season here in MN and I have been a wreck. The over the counter "regular" medicine for allergies have NOT been doing a damn thing for me, so I've been an itchy, sniffling, sneezing, coughing mess! My OB is wonderful- and she prescribed me some nasal spray. I waited at Target after my appointment until the prescription was filled! Bliss, sweet bliss! I'm not sneezing nearly half as much! YAY!

Anyhoo, all is fine on the baby front: my blood pressure is fine, I've gained exactly 32 pounds (32 pounds at 32 weeks, ironic, huh?), and the heartbeat was again in the 150's. Kyla kicked at my OB when she was measuring the belly! The girl doesn't like to be bugged inside mommy, just like her sissy! :)

And, a little funny story for you. Previous to my OB appointment, I had a chiropractic appointment. I've been finding the adjustments to be soooooo relaxing and much needed, especially in my neck and lower right back. Dr. Nicole had me lay on my left side, so she could bend my right leg and "pop" my lower back into place. As she pushed down, I let out the loudest TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT I've ever done (well, at least in public, which I cannot remember ever doing!). I was mortified! LOL. However, not knowing I had to toot, and then tooting so damn loud, had me giggling nonstop. Dr. Nicole just said that it happens all the time, and that when she was PG, she was very gassy. *giggle*. It's always my nightmare that I'll toot or something during an OB check up, but I had never considered if one escaped during the chiro!

Here's what babycenter.com says about Kyla's growth: How your baby's growing:By now, your baby weighs 3.75 pounds (pick up a large jicama) and is about 16.7 inches long, taking up a lot of space in your uterus. You're gaining about a pound a week and roughly half of that goes right to your baby. In fact, she'll gain a third to half of her birth weight during the next 7 weeks as she fattens up for survival outside the womb. She now has toenails, fingernails, and real hair (or at least respectable peach fuzz). Her skin is becoming soft and smooth as she plumps up in preparation for birth.See what your baby looks like this week.

31 weeks......but who is counting?

Seven weeks from tomorrow (Thursday) I'll be checking in for my scheduled Csection, unless baby Kyla decides to make her debut early. Oye. I'm feeling large and in charge as usual, but people around me who went through the PG with Keifer with me, say differently. They ALL say I'm not even close to as big as I was with Keifer. I feel like I am bigger, so who knows. It's all relative in the end.
I do have a really hard time bending down - my knees are aching and don't want to cooperate in helping lift my body up! My feet are always sore, though because I'm watching my sodium intake, not as swollen YET as the first time around.
Keifer is still insistent that she has a baby inside HER tummy, so Lord knows what will happen with her when the REAL baby Kyla arrives into her world.

Babycenter.com tells us: This week, your baby measures over 16 inches long. He weighs about 3.3 pounds (try carrying four navel oranges) and is heading into a growth spurt. He can turn his head from side to side, and his arms, legs, and body are beginning to plump out as needed fat accumulates underneath his skin. He's probably moving a lot, too, so you may have trouble sleeping because your baby's kicks and somersaults keep you up. Take comfort: All this moving is a sign that your baby is active and healthy.See what your baby looks like this week.

Here are some pictures of my large 31 week belly. It was really warm last Friday, so I had this tank top on and broke down and put on the maternity shorts that I had borrowed from a friend. The "over the belly" panel shorts. I cringed putting them on, but as I stood up, I realized they were SOOOOO comfortable, that I just may live in them in the hot weather until Kyla arrives! LOL.I also warned CJ that I'll be wearing the pictured tank top A LOT this summer, as it is very stretchy and gives ample coverage, so be warned, readers!

Wordless Wednesday: She loves her daddy!

This morning.....

...in an attempt to be "just like mama", Keifer attempted to:

*imitate me by putting her little leg up on the toilet to put on lotion (just like mama does)
*took the top off my deodorant and rubbed it along her arm - "I do it"
* just about dunked my brush in the toilet in her attempt to imitate me cleaning my hair out of my brush (over the toilet, of course). Luckily I had quick reflexes and caught the brush BEFORE it was dunked.
*tried to flush the toilet various times, even when empty, because she loves the sounds of it and being able to do it by herself.
*and.....woke up at the butt crack of dawn and would not lie back down in her new bed to go back to sleep. Oh, no. "Turn on light, mama". "Go downstairs, mama". "Watch Annie, mama". Followed by screams and crying when her attempts to get us to do just those things were ignored.

Keifer: the birthday bash weekend

And here it is. The birthday bash at the hotel where Keifer celebrated her birthday with her family, and had the time of her life! :)

First off, this is K right before we left. She didn't WANT to get into the car to go to a hotel. She had just woken up after a very long nap, and was not sure what we were doing.

Then we got to the hotel, and she was as pleasant and excited as could be! Here she is in the kiddie pool with her cousins, Abby and Aubrie (a delight! It was completely 4-8 inches only, and had so many fun things to do for the kids)

We heard LOTS of screeches of delight!

Taking a pizza break with Nana Di

I added this pic just for the belly shot. You can see how large I am? Well, after 4 hours of being on my feet at the hotel with K -and all AM in the kitchen prepping food, I could NOT walk. This is why (KYLA!)

The Cake, the Cake! K was so excited when we showed her ELMO! Sam's Club did an excellent job, huh?Here we are singing to her! K actually used her fork for the cake this year! She loved it- she couldn't shovel the cake in fast enough!! LOL

Here is a flashback of our girl on her 1st bday, after enjoying her bday cake!

Mama attempts to wash her hands off from the food dye, as she continues to shovel cake in!
We opened gifts- so many generous family members! :) Thank you! K had a short lived attention span: she wanted to swim!

She also wanted to play on this cart with her cousins!
I love his one of my nephew Mason, and Aubrie- 2 of K's cousins (one from each side of the family)
After a fitful night of sleep (K does NOT do well when we're not home) we were at the pool when they opened it up at 8AM. Here is K taking some more splashes down the slide!
Then, we went back and had an Easter egg hunt- Naked baby found an egg inside Auntie's shoe!

We enjoyed an Easter brunch (and were so tired we didn't get ANY pictures of our girl on Easter! Blah) - here mama is cutting her food- she was ravenous from all the fun she had the night and morning before!

Our girl and her favorite pals in the whole world: her cousins: Abby & Aubrie. Doing her favorite new "thing" to do in public: show off her baby belly. Weird girl.LOL.

And that is all, folks! Thanks for enjoying our girl as much as we do!

Keifer: 2 years later

Our angel girl was born on April 10, 2007, after a long day for mama and baby. We had waited a long time to meet this angel girl- a combined effort of me and Chris, with doctors, medications, and finally, our egg angel, Michele/Mooshie!

Our angel girl at 1 years old: the morning of her 1st birthday Our angel girl the morning of her 2nd birthday: playing around on mama & daddy's bed!



Mama meets her angel girl finally!
Mama & K at 1 years old at the exact time our girl was born!

Mama & K at 2 years old at the exact time our girl was born!
We took her to Teresa's , our favorite place to eat for her birthday! She was OK wearing the sombrero that day!

and she loved the free ice cream treat!
We took her back the evening of her 2nd birthday, and she was OK wearing the sombrero for a little bit, and she LOVED the ice cream treat (again!)

HERE IS THE VIDEO clip of the wait staff singing to our girl!

Yum!

Little did our girl know, the next day, she was having yet another party............

She did it! Big girl bed!

She did it, she did it! Keifer slept ALL night in her new toddler bed last night- and had no issues with it! WHOO HOO!
Let's cross our fingers and hope it wasn't a fluke!
She attempted to try napping it in yesterday, but that was a disaster. First she wanted to be on the floor instead, and then she just walked around and played in her room. No nap= cranky child.
When we tried to put her in her crib for bed last night, she screamed and said "no, bed!", so we reminded her that if she goes in her bed, she must stay there all night. She agreed, and I had her repeat after me "I sleep in my bed". LOL. She looked so proud of herself this AM when we got her up! :)
I have pics of us getting the nursery rearranged from Saturday and of our girl in her bed from last night...stay tuned!

Keifer's 2 year pics + my "belly' shots

We had K's 2 year pictures taken this weekend at Flash! in a nearby mall. We have taken her there for her 1 year pics, and her 18 month pics (thanks to great coupons!). Well, this session on Saturday was not a walk in the park. Our girl pretty much refused to do anything and we are lucky we got ANY pictures - you would never know it from the pictures that she was crying in between most shots and we bribed her with stickers, promises and cheese puffs. LOL.

We also did what is called maternity pictures - basically belly shots. I liked some of them, and really love one of them. Again, we used stickers on my belly to get K to cooperate! We ended up ordering a few of these, and my favorite is the one you'll see of the two of us standing up together- which was a total random shot that the photographer happened to catch (thank goodness).

Picking out what we wanted to order was tough, but we did it :)

If you would like to see them, here is the link:

http://www.photoreflect.com/scripts/prsm.dll?cobrand?i=01WA
then click on last name-
You MUST know our last name to proceed- and my first name :)
the session is 4/18/09

Happy Birthday to You!

Here is the singing procession of "Happy Birthday" to Keifer last Saturday at her birthday party :) She was a bit shell shocked.........but enjoyed blowing out the candles. You just WAIT until you see the pics of her DEVOURING her cake...........mama is slowly but surely getting there on posting that!

If you click HERE, you can see the many video clips we have of our darling Birthday girl on her birthday weekend-- starting on Friday, April 10, until Sunday, April 12. She was a swimming FOOL on her big day :)




Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

I passed!

Whew. I took my Gestational Diabetes test last Thursday during my 30 week check up and hadn't heard anything until yesterday. I was crossing my fingers that "no news was good news" and alas, it was! I received the notice in the mail that I was within normal limits. No finger pricking and watching my carbs for this PG! Thanks, Kyla :)

But in the meantime.....

K's bday was here and gone in the blink of an eye. We celebrated Friday night (her actual Bday) at our fave Mexican place with our Finn friends joining us. K was a happy girl, proudly displaying the baby inside HER belly, and was a bit shell shocked to have the wait staff sing "Happy Birthday" to her. LOL. Pics to come.........

Saturday, mama and daddy ran around: mama in the kitchen making dips and prepping snacks for the party, and daddy to the stores to pick up the food and cake (and Elmo balloons, of course). K took a great nap, and had the greatest time of her life at the hotel we stayed at. The party was a hit with our family, the kids loved the 4-8 inch kiddie pool (yay for the awesomest pool ever), and K was over-the-moon to be playing with all her cousins: Abby, Mason & Aubrie. However, K did NOT sleep well that night (hence, mama didn't either, and it didn't help that daddy was snoring away in the same room). She was up early on Sunday ready to swim, and we did so for awhile. We all had Easter as a family (2 families combined) at the attached restaurant - um, YUM. Mama ate her fill of the $$ we spent on it. We were all exhausted beyond belief on Sunday, but our sweet girl was overtired and refused to nap. Instead, she spent the afternoon screaming and crying. Lovely.

Thankfully, yesterday (Monday) we were all back in our schedule- back to work and back to Elaine's house. K had a good day, so I took her to Ballroom last night, where she continued to entertain the crowds with her enthusiasm. LOL. Mama is STILL dragging today- due to the lack of sleep this weekend, the excitement dying down, and maybe, just maybe, the extra 30 lbs I'm now lugging around in front of me?

Pictures and video clips to come - oh yes, plenty of them. I've just had ZERO ambition to upload them! Forgive me?

To tide you over....here is a picture of Keifer with her beloved Abby (idol) cousin, and Uncle Corey. This was on Sunday night: we went over to visit with Nana Marge, and Carl and Wanda, who were in town until yesterday AM. K clearly is smitten with her family! This pic was taken on CJ's IPhone- I think it turned out pretty darn well for a cell phone!

30 weeks!

I feel like we're coming down to the wire - in between all of K's bday celebrations (and her not really grasping the whole "birthday" idea yet), I am officially 30 weeks PG! YAY! As I type this, K's birthday party preparations on hold, Kyla is dancing away under my belly button! She is still very active, which I appreciate.
My bladder doesn't really appreciate it, though....I constantly feel like I have to pee, and it turns out I usually only have a dribble or two. LOL. But....that's OK. So far, I haven't wet my pants like many people I know at this point. Sneezing is tricky, but we've been OK!

I am still wearing the splints on my wrists to bed, and waking up with somewhat numb fingers. This AM, I tried to snap to the beat of a song Keifer was dancing to, but I couldn't! My fingers wouldn't work! My feet aren't looking TOO much like Shrek - yet. I treated myself to a pedicure the other night since I can't even bend over to take care of my toenails: it was heaven. Reading in a massage chair as the woman worked on my feet. *sigh*. Bliss. Plus,I figured I needed cute toes for K's bday party that is pool-side today (indoors, but still.....).

Babycenter.com tells us about Kyla this week: Your baby's about 15.7 inches long now, and she weighs almost 3 pounds (like a head of cabbage). A pint and a half of amniotic fluid surrounds her, but that volume will decrease as she gets bigger and takes up more room in your uterus. Her eyesight continues to develop, though it's not very keen; even after she's born, she'll keep her eyes closed for a good part of the day. When she does open them, she'll respond to changes in light but will have 20/400 vision — which means she can only make out objects a few inches from her face. (Normal adult vision is 20/20.)See what your baby looks like this week.

Here is an idea of what I was talking about earlier when I said that K will take her pretend food and hold it up to my belly. I truly do NOT know what she thinks she is doing -other than maybe imitating the doctors she has seen listening to Kyla's heartbeat. Our Keifer girl is a hoot! If you click HERE, you'll see the follow up video to this one posted, plus see how K reacts when she hears the garage door open when Daddy gets home!



Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Just the beginning of the birthday SLEW of pictures........

The birthday party fun started on Wednesday, at Elaine's house for K. Mama brought 2 packages of freshly made "mini muffins", and the kids devoured them! We all sang the "happy birthday" song to Keifer, and she blew out her own 2 candles! All the kids had muffins and I think most of them also had 2 mini-ice cream cones! :) K was so lucky: Elaine gave her a new book, a new basket of pretend food for her kitchen, and a cookie notepad, that K was confused about! LOL She kept biting it!

Then, the kids played outside.....and mama took Keifer home, only to present her with an early gift from mama and daddy: a new Princess dress. I told her this was her "dancing" dress, so she put it on, and promptly spent much time dancing with mama to "Dancing with the Stars". Our girl, being our girl, was a little huffy because they weren't doing the Lindy Hop like they were last week, but she liked the Paso Doble when Melissa & Tony did it.

If you click HERE, you can see the sequence of video clips of K being sung to by her friends, opening a gift, and dancing in her new dress. The last video- you'll hear her say "No, pop, POP!"- which means "Lindy Hop!" Yes, she has a mind of her own!

Eating her birthday muffin

LOVING the ice cream
Big girl playing outside

Trying on her new Princess Dress

Getting ready to dance (shake it!) in her new dress