Kye Monthly Review – May

I know we’re living in July…but in blog world I’m just finishing up with May. I PROMISE the next two weeks you’ll be seeing lots of extra blog posts in order to catch up, I’m excited to post all the fun things we’ve been up to 🙂 But here’s what Kye was enjoying and experiencing during the month of May!

Cars: Still very into toy cars. By far his favorite toy! He especially enjoys lining them all up facing the tv and making them fall off the couch.

do you think he has enough toy cars?

“Chores”: I’ve started to let Kye help with some house responsibilities. He is old enough to help contribute to our home! He helps give the dogs their treats when we go somewhere (he loves it so much that I often let him give them treats at other times like in this video), he is THE official door opener when we get home, he clears his own plate/cup/etc from the dinner table, he likes to sweep and wipe things up (here’s a video of him sweeping) and I’ve even let him start helping set the table. Here’s his first ever attempt!

Daddy Time: When I was going through pictures to see which ones I hadn’t already posted from May so I could include them here…I found these pictures. I’m PROUD that Zach thought to take pictures of him and Kye together, not so impressed with how the turned out but it was cute to see that his Daddy wanted to capture a moment with his son!

Sword: Back at Christmas Santa got Kye a trunk filled with dress up clothes. I envisioned us playing dress up and pretend together…instead all he wants to do is play with this random sword that Santa stuck in the trunk. I will strip him down and say “let’s dress up!” but as soon as that trunk comes down from the closet off he goes with his sword. Maybe he’ll learn to love dress up? Or maybe I just need a daughter at some point? 😉

here’s a video of Kye with his sword

Pool: We are still enjoying our pool just as much as we were right after he finished up with survival swimming. I LOVE taking him places and swimming with him because it’s so rewarding to hear people whisper to each other about what a great swimmer he is 😉 He really enjoys all of his pool toys and especially throwing them over and over again. Gives me a decent work out picking them all up!

Personality: Kye’s little personality is really blossoming. I love hearing the funny things he comes up with or discovering a new “game” he’s decided to start playing. If we leave ANY of our shoes laying around they will end up on Kye’s feet. I was fixing lunch and in walks Kye…he’s a size 6 1/2 shoe but hoping to someday be able to fit into Daddy’s 14s 🙂

Friends: I thought after the paci that Kye would stay attached to his friends for a little while then kinda get over them. I was wrong. It seems that the longer he has them, the more he loves them. He will say “my friends!” and run to his room to get them. I think it’s sweet but I’m also not a big fan of kids whining for a blankie or something. We call them his “friends” for that reason…to me it just sounds less babyish haha. We allow him to play with them in the house but not in the car (unless on a long trip) or upstairs or outside. So they aren’t a huge issue. He HAS to have them to sleep (yes, all three…always nervous we’ll lose one!). But I know he won’t still have them when he’s 40 (unless he takes after his Aunt Danielle…) so I don’t really mind it much!

Copy Cat: It’s AMAZING to me how much children listen to us and watch us! Kye copies what I say constantly (the good and bad!) and Zach and I will often learn things we say because we hear them come from Kye. Who knew we said “huh” so much!!! I recently couldn’t find Kye so I went on an around the house hunt and found him in Zach’s closet hiding to “text” on my phone. It was so funny to me because he started texting not talking when he found my phone. He doesn’t see me talk on the phone NEARLY as much as I text on it. I snapped a few pictures before getting on to him for it 😉

intense texter like his mama

CAUGHT!

Public Behavior: Kye’s behavior was ROUGH there for awhile and we even had several issues in public. I’m planning to write a post on that topic soon, but I’m proud to say he’s doing MUCH better. I’ve also started cutting back on the amount of errands we run together to minimize risk of fits. I thought it was ironic that when we went to Carter’s HE was the one that didn’t want to leave. He LOVED this lego table and sat at it and begged me to stay so he could keep building. I was a little nervous that a fit would occur but he did great cleaning it all up and saying bye-bye to it! Good gift to add to his wishlist this Christmas 😉

Reading: I’ve started reading to Kye on the potty before nap and bed instead of actually in his room to help him have time to push out all his tee-tee and poops. He has SO many favorite books but I love watching him read them to me! Here’s a video of him reading Goodnight Gorilla and another video of him reading The Escape of Marvin the Ape (can you tell he likes monkey stories?)

Other May Notes:

• He will sometimes call me “Mom” instead of “Mommy”
• Kye can count to 10 but will typically skip 9 for some reason
• We are working on colors but it’s tough! When I ask him what color something is he typically replies with “black” right away (Zach wonders if he’s colorblind so that’s the only color he sees but I think it’s more likely just one he likes to say)
• We allow him to watch pretty much any Disney or Pixar movie they make but a few we limit. For some reason Finding Nemo and Monster INC scare him the most. I don’t EVER watch Nemo. However, he will ask to watch “Monsters” sometimes. It does cause him to occasionally check in his room for monsters and talk about monsters not being scary. I just explain to him that they aren’t real and only live on the tv 🙂
• Kye LOVES to jump. He will try to get away with jumping on the couch so we’ll just tell him to jump on the floor instead and he’s just as happy with that. He does jump on his bed. I KNOW it’s so not “me” to allow this!!! But all of his friends are allowed to jump on theirs so I kinda just let it slide for now. I figure he’ll grow out of it anyway?  Pretty soon he’ll hit his head on the top bunk if he jumps!
• Speaking of his friends, he can name them all and tends to say “Stebie” the most as his favorite friend (he will pray for all of them by name which is precious to me!) 
• When we go out in public he will tell people “bye bye see you next time!” and enjoys shaking hands and saying “nice to meetcha!” I LOVE how wonderfully social he is 🙂
• While driving in the car his favorite game is to count the cars we pass and point out all the trucks, tractors, etc. It makes the time go by quicker for sure
• I have an awful singing voice but it’s such a self-esteem booster that he enjoys hearing me sing and will ask for me to sing to him! Our song is “Lean On Me.” My parents each had a song for me growing up (my mom’s was “You are my Sunshine” and my dad’s was a song about suicide, RANDOM!, called “Endless Sleep”) so I knew I wanted to have one for each of my children. When I was watching a lot of tv during late night nursing sessions the movie 28 Days came on and they sang “Lean On Me” a TON. I felt like it was a good choice b/c it’s easy to sing, remember and does have a nice meaning behind it 🙂
• Being a social child, Kye LOVES to eat together as a family. Since Zach works (and typically chooses to eat his breakfast either on the road or in the bedroom), Kye and I eat breakfast and lunch together just the two of us. Every time he sits down to eat he’ll look at me and say “Mommy eat too?” We will eat together, talk and even just browse magazines. It’s just nice to sit together for our meals!
• During May we really tackled the nap/night potty training (post to come someday!) and Kye would often talk about being “dry and clean.” He would check himself and be very proud when saying “dry and clean mommy!” 
• One cute moment of the month was when Kye was being loving and I said (a totally lame saying only us moms would say!) “you’re my angel baby.” Kye was so quick to respond “No ma’am. I’m Kye and I’m 4.” Since then Kye will gladly tell you that he’s Kye and he’s FOUR.
• Another funny moment was when I was joking with him about the Toy Story Characters. He has these memory cards we got from Disney at Christmas and they feature each of the characters. I’d pick a card and say “Is your name Woody?” or “Is your name Rex?” etc. I did it for many of the characters and each time he’d laugh and say “no!!!” then I asked him “well what IS your name?” and he looked at me so seriously and said “I’m Ken!” 
• His favorite movie to watch (or at least the most requested) of the month was 101 Dalmatians 2. He loves Patch the little puppy! It’s funny b/c we bought all our Disney DVDS from some Japanese import place (so they are probably not 100% legit…) and the picture on the DVD is of the 101 Dalmatians with Glenn Close but when you play it it’s actually 101 Dalmatians 2. Luckily he likes it!
• When we went on our cruise we got a signed football from Bobby Bowden for Kye and displayed it in his room. I need to get a glass case for it because that child LOVES to play with that football! It was so funny he came out of his room with his and was doing the Seminole chant while throwing it! Of course right when I got out the video camera he wouldn’t do it but here’s the video anyway 🙂
• Last, but not least, here’s a video of just a taste of how adorable Kye is when he prays. I LOVE hearing him pray and he gets so into it!!! I hope this instills a lifelong dialog with the Lord in his life!

More Cute Kye Pics: Kye was in a SUPER cute mood one day during lunch and he actually asked me to take pictures of him. They were too cute!!!

“cheese!”

being silly on purpose for the camera

I ADORE when he does his crooked smile 😉

had to end with a nice “ROAR!!!!”