Monthly Summary – December

December was a VERY full month…Kye welcomed a new sister into the world and celebrated Christmas. Even with all the craziness, Zach and I tried to focus on Kye and make sure he got special attention during this big transition period. Here’s what Kye was up to in December:

Kye’s House: I’m a hoarder with stuff and I totally keep boxes. I mean you never know when you’ll need them right? For once it came in handy and Zach had the fun idea of making Kye a house out of the boxes. It was pretty awesome! Kye had a BLAST coloring it and playing in it. The downside was when Zach realized he made it so big it wouldn’t fit through the doorways. It couldn’t stay in the MIDDLE of our kitchen though either. It was a pretty humorous site to see Zach and I lifting the house and carrying it over the kitchen bar then over the stair case to put it in the dining room. It stayed there until we took down the Christmas decorations. I was nervous to take it down, that Kye would get upset, but we just told him it was a “Christmas house” and that he can get another one next Christmas. Worked like a charm!

Coloring his house

He told me that he’d have to go tee-tee on the grass because his house didn’t have a bathroom 🙂

He loved it! Here’s a video and one more video

Church: I tried my best to enjoy our times at church before Brittlynn was born. It takes a LONG time to get a baby adjusted to behaving at church services and I’m so thankful that we’re at that point with Kye. He LOVES class and behaves, typically, like an angel through services. We take a lunchables and some snacks and he’ll eat and color and play quietly. I’m always so proud of him and love how much he loves it. It’s true motivation to get our butts in gear on days when it’s tough to go ya know?

Crown he made in class

It is SO awesome to have my mom at church with us!

Check You: I think after visiting the hospital Kye is all about checking people. He has had this stethoscope in his briefcase with his other work stuff forever but recently he’s started to tell us he needs to check us. Brittlynn is a great patient for him. He always tries to check the dogs but they aren’t having it!!!

Big Brother: Kye jumped into the big brother role with ease. He LOVES his little sister and is so proud of her. He constantly wants to kiss her. Sometimes he asks to hold her, but not really as often as I would have thought. Mostly he says he wants to kiss her or play with her. And he means it when he says he wants to play! He’ll get right down with her and show her toys and such. He says “Hey sweet girl” ALL the time and it melts my heart. After Christmas we asked what his favorite present was and he said, without hesitation, “Brittlynn” and I truly think he means it! If we talk loud or the dogs bark he’ll be very serious and say “shhh the baby is sleeping!” I didn’t notice any jealousy issues with her and he really enjoyed all the constant company we had over. We told him they were there to see him and everyone that came did a great job visiting with him and giving him attention too (not like he would let them get away with ignoring him!). One night he even prayed “thank you for my sister, I love her.” So precious

While he loves his sister, he’s not as helpful as I thought he’d be. He’s only carried like one dirty diaper to the trash for me. He’s more interested in entertaining her than helping me! One way he likes to “help” is by watching her monitor when she’s asleep. He’ll report to me constantly that she’s sleeping or awake and if she’s crying he’ll tell me I need to go in there with her.

Treasure Box: On Friday’s at school they do a treasure box prize as a reward for good behavior (and of course Kye’s never had a Friday pass by without getting a prize!). Kye LOVES the treasure box and this month he became all about doing his own treasure box for us at home. His book bags and lunch box and any other storage type container turned into a treasure box and he FILLS them with all his little toys (or anything else he can get his hands on) then comes up to you and tells you he has a prize for you and let’s you pick one. It’s cute and a great way to keep him busy, although cleaning up all the treasures can be a bit of a pain! Here is a video of him singing the treasure song (and calling me Kelly for some reason???)

Jingle: Have you seen the interactive storybook characters at Hallmark? I’m a total sucker for cute stuff and I thought Jingle was too neat! We got him for Kye as a gift when Brittlynn was born and we dvred the interactive movie on Hallmark channel. The dog is supposed to respond when you read the story and when you watch the show. It doesn’t work the way I thought it would…Jingle didn’t make one sound during the entire show! Kye loves to play with him, and the poor kid tries to make him bark but he’s never very successful. Here’s a video of Kye trying to get Jingle to talk to him (and Zach and Jordan playing along)

Friends: Have you ever read the book Let Me Hold You Longer? It is one of my favorites and it is about how time passes us by so quickly and we forget to savior the last moments in life as we are too busy looking ahead to the firsts. Someday Kye will be done with his friends and I will probably miss the days of him having to have them to sleep. Of him requesting us to fix his blanket just right. Of him having to sleep on that dang little pillow each night. Of him waking up crying when he can’t find Smyrna. Of me having to rush to get them all washed and dried in time for nap when they need to be cleaned. Here we were playing together in the living room and pretending to go night night 😉

Love that smile!

Room time: Kye does about an hour of room time a day. He’ll go upstairs in the playroom and play on his own. The thing with independent playtime / room time is that I decide when it takes place and how long it lasts and he does it completely on his own. He does WONDERFUL with it and truly enjoys it! I’ll usually call up there to tell him the timer is about to go off so he can start cleaning up and often times the room will be almost completely picked up when I get up there to get him (he knows where each thing goes and everything!). He also loves playing so much that he’ll often ask to stay up longer. I’m SO thankful we got back on track with this as it’s a godsend now that Brittlynn is here. I’ll have him go up to room time during the second half of one of her naps then we can enjoy his movie time together while she nurses at the next feeding. Works out great!!! Here’s a video of him cleaning up and signing the song.

potty break from room time

enjoying movie time like a TRUE MAN!

I sent Zach this picture on my phone and said “who does this remind you of?!” It’s EXACTLY how I’ll find Zach laying on the couch…even the feet crossed like that!

Hiding: Kye loves to hide! Zach isn’t the best at playing along as he gets annoyed with Kye hiding in the same spot over and over again (I find myself often saying to Zach “he’s only two!!!”). One afternoon Zach was upstairs working and Kye decided to hide from him. He came up with the BEST spot all on his own! He practiced the hiding spot on me and I really couldn’t find him! I texted Zach and told him to come downstairs because Kye was hiding from him and he took like literally over 20 min to come down (he was on a phone call) and Kye just kept on hiding there. When Zach came down it took him AGES to find Kye!!! It was an AWESOME hiding spot for sure!!!

Where’s Kye?

There he is!

He wanted all of his friends in with him and told me to put the lid back on so he could sleep in there

Woody Party: Kye learned at school when his birthday is and will tell you that his birthday is in March. He is SO excited about his party and soon after our Disney trip I asked him what kind of party he wanted (I was hoping he’d say a pirate one) and he said a Woody party! I’m, of course, going with what he wants and plan to do a Woody party for him. He’s been PUMPED about it (we talk it up hardcore because I want him to LOVE it!) and these pjs Dad and Audrey bought for him as his Christmas gift are the perfect thing to help build the excitement. Aren’t they too cute???

My Woody!

Big Helper: Kye may not be much help with Brittlynn, but he enjoys helping Zach and I in other ways around the house. Now he will put his plate and such on the counter by the sink and put his leftover drink back in the fridge! One less thing for me to worry about! Zach was super pumped about how helpful he was when taking down the Christmas lights. Zach said “it’s the first time he’s REALLY helped!” Usually Kye just thinks he’s helping with stuff but he really did a good job with those lights!

Disaster Zone: Kye is going through a stage where thinks its SUPER fun to take out every. single. toy. in the playroom! Since I’m not up there during room time I’m not sure if he actually plays with it all or not but, thankfully, he does a decent job cleaning up. I love to go up there and see what I find him doing. I LOVE that he’s at that age where he does pretend play and makes all of his toys talk to each other and live out different story lines. It’s beyond precious to me.

Christmas: The entire Christmas season was SO awesome this year, thanks to Kye and how much FUN he was. He loved every part of Christmas and it made me so thankful that we have so many fun traditions to enjoy together. He especially loved our Christmas tree and talked about it all the time. He also adored Christmas songs and we played music on the reg around our house. He learned many of the songs and enjoyed singing them all the time! Here’s a video of Kye singing Jingle Bells and here’s a video of Kye singing “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” (which is OUR song…he’ll tell you that…we especially love the Bruce Springsteen version).

Zeke enjoyed the tree too

CHEESE

He MADE Christmas so wonderful this year 🙂

Here is other stuff Kye was up to in December:

• I asked him what Isis’ song should be when he/she was born and he said, right away, “I’ll love you forever” So sweet!
• We were talking about Zeke (a common topic around here, he loves that cat) and Kye said “Zeke’s feet are gray like Mommy’s car!” Maybe these colors are starting to stick
• If you ask Kye who is best friend is he’ll say Zeke and he likes to call him “Zekey”
• When we tuck Kye in bed at night he wants to do BIG cuddly hugs with us both at the same time. He spreads his arms out wide for us to cuddle him. 
• He LOVES to play with his sister and in this video he’s wrapping her up…I also love hearing him say her name and the way he says “pjs” (he calls them page-ons because he always hears us say “It’s time to put your pjs on.” haha!
• For the first time EVER he actually made his lunchable into little sandwiches to eat it 😉
• When Kye hugs me he’ll now pat my back at the same time
• Kye still enjoys playing like he’s at work and talking on the phone. In this video he’s “talking” to Jordan
• During roomtime he’ll sometimes yell stuff down to us. One time he said “Daddy come see my pictures when the timer goes off okay? Then I’ll watch a movie, put on my jacket, and we will play outside. I love you so much!” He understands that neither of us are coming up there until that timer goes off and he understands order of things. He said all of that on his own and understood that he couldn’t do anything else until after he finished the roomtime. Plus I love that he says “I love you so much” now 😉
• When we pray together Kye will often say “thank you for our families”
• We have to watch what we say more now as Kye said his first “bad” word. He and I were sitting at lunch and he said something was “stupid.” I just told him that it’s not a nice word and not to say it again and he hasn’t
• Kye enjoys singing to Brittlynn, in this video he’s singing his ABCS to her!
• Zach teaches Kye little phrases all the time (remember “Daddy’s the man!” ???) the newest one is “swagger” Here’s a video of Kye saying it. They take turns saying “swagger!” “Ballin!” haha
• I finished up Christmas shopping SUPER early this year and had already told Santa what Kye wanted when Kye decided (like less than a week before Britt was born) that he wanted a bike. We had to have a talk about how we don’t always get what we want right away and that his birthday is going to come up soon. I knew he’d forget about it on Christmas morning and, thankfully, he did! 
• Zach was singing (it’s where Kye gets his constant singing from) “can’t touch this” one afternoon and Kye watched him very seriously then reached out and touched him haha
• Kye is all about secrets and he always wants to tell us secrets about Disneyworld 😉
• We ate out a lot more in Dec so much so that Kye started saying “I want to eat out of the box” thankfully, we’re back to home cooked meals more now 😉
• I’m eager for Britt’s schedule to get consistent enough (well that she’ll SLEEP consistently!) so Kye and I can play outside more. He LOVES it and I could use the fresh air. In this video he’s showing off his baseball skills
• Being sneaky is one of Kye’s favorite games, especially after his bath. If I see him he’ll tell me to go away so he can sneak up on me in his towel. Here’s a video of my little monkey
• Kye can go to the potty completely on his own now…pulls down his pants, flushes it, pulls his pants back up!

I’m very proud of Kye and how smoothly he adjusted to having a sibling! We had a GREAT month to finish out 2011!