Well, it's been so long since I posted an update, I don't even know what the last one was about. I apparently had started a wonderful, "my child is the best thing since sliced bread" post, that unfortunately is going to the trash. You all know by now my children are the best things ever, so do I need to point it out again? I joke, of course, every quality parent thinks their child is absolutely brilliant, wonderful, smart, funny, etc. The whole package. And not to be outdone, my children are absolutely all those things.
I will now be basing what this post needs to be about and where I left off on the pictures I found on my camera...from who knows when. And the sad thing is, it's been almost 2 months, I think, since I did a solid update. At least.
Kaylee is doing great. She is trying so hard to keep up with Emma and Lily, and the majority of the time, they are thrilled to have her in the mix. Kaylee is going up stairs like a pro and down a bit more timid, but she's definitely getting the hang of it. I was talking to a friend, and I commented that I always felt so much better once the girls were proficient at going up and down stairs because I didn't have to worry about them near stairs nearly as much. Sure, they still fall, but honestly, so do I, and how long have I been going up and down stairs? She also thinks climbing on everything she can is pretty great. Fortunately, she has a big sister who thinks picking her up and setting her back on the floor is also great, which makes it easier on me haha thanks, Lily! Kaylee is picking up sign language pretty quickly, so I'm trying to throw some more into the mix, which I really need to step up my game so that Lily and Emma can be learning also. At a few days shy of 14 months:
- she eats everything, though Goldfish and pizza seem to be her personal favorites;
- is trying to run which is HILARIOUS and about my favorite thing until she starts to jump, because I also love jumping;
- speaking of jumping, she can certainly bust a move when the girls all do their Monkey Dances for us. I'll work on a video. Yes, I am referring to the Monkey Dances where if you get locked out of a room/house/car, you must dance to gain entry...that is alive and strong at the Hildebrand house, for all you MVNU soccer alumni who were curious;
- LOVES to be outside. Not that I'm surprised, her sisters did too, and we are outside a ton so they don't really get a choice. I've heard of kids not liking the feeling of grass, and I don't know if that's just because I'm unsympathetic and throw my kids in the grass early on and barefoot or I just lucked out, but we have no problems with grass, dirt, mud puddles, rain puddles... She does have sensitive piggies walking on the gravel, but I'll let that slide. Actually, I bet by the end of summer and she's running across it like the other two;
- babbling up a storm. She is pretty proud of her sounds and if you use your imagination, there are a few words in there. Lily and Emma didn't talk early, and while incredibly vocal, Kaylee doesn't seem too interested in using words either. So besides, no, oh! and Zzzz (Zeke), we don't go for much in the way of words. And no, besides "Zzz" I don't count it unless my kids intentionally say a word and put it with a person/place/thing. If she's babbling and says Momma or Dadda and is looking at the wall, doesn't count. So there.
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| we've been building a lot of forts. this particular one took place in Kaylee's crib with a fitted sheet over it. she was incredibly confused. |
So we also got snowed in. In February. We had a great time playing in it and I cannot believe I never posted anything about that. It was frigid cold, we did nothing but stay inside with short busts of outdoor play, but since the snow was Emma's waist, the girls didn't last too terribly long out there.
I also had a birthday in March. Woohoo. I joke that I feel it's just a little too sad to make my own birthday cake, and typically, Jesse will bring me home a cookie cake or ice cream cake or something. However this year, I made a cake and let the girls decorate it. And it was so much fun, I think it may be a yearly thing. They always want to help decorate when I'm doing their cakes, but I always have a picture in my head of what I want and don't want their help- just being real here. They LOVED decorating my cake, and it looked just as good as you'd imagine.
Emma is so much fun. She is funny, has a very easy laugh, loving, energetic, compassionate, adventurous...the list just goes on and on. When she's tired, she turns a little Mr. Hyde, but at least we know what to expect. I can't believe she'll be 3 in June. Her vocabulary has really taken off the past 6 months, and her enunciation is just are incredible. She still struggles with some sounds, like "L," but she really makes a great effort and you can hear her working it out. She still calls Lily, "Yil-Lay," which only Emma may call Lily- I've tried and she glares at me- and Kaylee is either "sweet baby Kaylee," "Trouble," or "Kayla." Eh. Whatever. She loves playing with Lily and doing everything she does, so we've hit a bit of a snag here recently when Lily has started doing things Emma isn't old enough for. Up to this point, they have done everything together, for as far as Emma can remember. There have been a handful of trips to the store with just Emma and Daddy, but 99% of the time, they are together and know that's how it should be.
Lily just is so mature and grown up. Some days, I look at her in these big girl clothes and just can't get over the fact she's so big. She is brilliant, obviously, sweet and caring, the best big sister to Emma and Kaylee, and so so silly. We did a short stint of swimming lessons with her...sometime...I don't remember when. She wasn't impressed. She wanted to get in the water and swim, and not be kept waiting for instruction. We are starting her in soccer next week, and I'm ecstatic. We went shopping for some soccer equipment and oh my word the tiny little soccer shorts. Too adorable. New favorite things. The smallest socks I could find still go up to her hips, but she looks pretty fabulous in her purple shorts, red socks and pink soccer ball. For reasons unknown, she refers to her cleats as "soccer team players," and I obviously am not correcting that one. I'll probably be THAT mom who takes a bazillion pictures at the first practice and game, so be prepared.
That isn't an apology.
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| Mom and Dad swung by on their way home from visiting their 50th state! |
Everything is going just fine here, nothing too exciting to report. We're all loving the nicer weather, and the girls and I have been outside playing as much as we can. The girls and I have also been going on walks down to a bridge up the road, with Kaylee in the backpack, and Emma and Lily walk the whole way. I need to actually see how far it is, but I'd guess we are walking somewhere between 3/4-1 mile, which is great for a 2 and 4 year old. Lily walks Zeke for me most of the time, and we stop to admire the water running down the hills, different leaves and rocks that we see, listening to which birds are making the calls, examining deer prints in the mud, counting signs, looking at colors...everything we can think of. On one particularly nice day, we heard a huge commotion of what I guessed to be frogs, but man they were loud. A whole batch of them must have hatched not too long before, because I'd never heard such a frog racket before. The pond they were in was pretty far down a hill, but I tried pointing out the dark shapes swimming in the water to the girls anyway.
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| I was making dinner in the kitchen and heard giggling. I looked out the window and saw these two jokers. |
That's about it, I guess!
