The month of April was another crazy one for us. Thankfully life got SO. MUCH. BETTER in May 🙂 During the month of April I had my foot surgery, we were in the scary “unknown” stage of Kye’s growth delay stuff, and we were in hardcore potty training mode with Britt.
Here are some of the other things Kye had going on this month!
Pen Pal: My heart totally MELTED when I checked the mail and saw a letter addressed to Kye from my sweet niece, Julia!!! It was SO THOUGHTFUL! She sent him a super encouraging note including a bible verse for us to read together. Kye was SO excited and was eager to respond to her. He wouldn’t even let me help him “write” the letter so I hope she could read “preschooler language” haha
He also colored a picture to go with it
And asked me to spell her name for him 🙂
And had fun sending it off in the mail!
Kye was REALLY into writing and drawing this month. It’s always fun to see what he comes up with! Soon after my surgery he drew this for me on my daily calendar of us together 🙂
And I ordered some stuff from Zulily this month. They ALWAYS include a little coloring page with their stuff and this time it was a connect the dots. I cracked up at how Kye connected them all 😉
I love how he’s standing contemplating what to draw next
I couldn’t believe how perfect this “R” and “C” were! Hard to believe a 4 year old wrote these huh?
And this just cracked me up for obvious reasons…
Now that he’s older I’m letting him use markers more often 😉
Wacky Wednesday is Kye’s FAVORITE day. He still talks about Wacky Wednesday from last year all the time. You can see the pics of him here! This year he and I went through his wardrobe for like 30 min the night before to pick out his tackiest, wackiest stuff. He wore two hats (one with the bill in the front and one with it in the back), two shirts, a scarf, and mis-matching shoes and socks. He was def Wacky and def LOVED every second of it!!!
During my surgery recovery Kye was SO sweet. He was very concerned about me and checked on me often when he was at home. Zach said he asked about me constantly and always wanted to go talk to me but that Zach tried to let me rest as much as possible. I did try to spend time with him as much as I could manage. We watched a couple movies together in the bed and did story time in the bed as well. I know it was a tough time on him, more so than Britt, because he understands more and didn’t like to see me in pain like that. He was such a trooper though and really stepped up to help with Britt and make things run smoother around the house in my absence! Here he is “hunting” for me 😉
This Spring has been SO COLD. Usually we are able to use our pool as early as late Feb/early May! This year we attempted to do our first family swim in April and it was FREEZING. Poor Britt turned, legit, PURPLE and Kye was so cold he started crying. We did not last long and decided not to officially count it as our first swim of the year. Although I did snap these pre-tear pictures haha
Randomly Kye has been asking to have spaghetti for dinner. It’s not something I ever cook as Zach doesn’t really like it. So I went on a hunt and found a spaghetti crock pot recipe! I cooked it just for Kye one night and he was so excited to eat it up! He enjoyed it and it was a decent meal, but not one I see myself cooking often! I guess we just aren’t spaghetti people?
Zach has ALWAYS wanted Kye to have long hair. Not like to his shoulders or anything but long enough to be considered “shaggy”. I used to agree with him until Kye got older and it was so dang hard to style. For a long time his hair just wasn’t thick enough for a longer style and now that it is thicker it’s a pain to manage. Kye’s hair has been a decent issue in our household for the past four years haha. It’s caused many a debate between Zach and I and I was SHOCKED when the guys came home from their hair cuts and Kye was rocking a short Zach-like style. I LOVE IT and it’s one of the very few times I can say “I told you so” to Zach as he’s usually always the “right one” about stuff in our marriage haha! But seriously, isn’t this a TOTAL STUD hair cut???? Kye loves it and is very particular now about how it gets fixed and he will tell me that I’m okay at doing his hair but that Daddy is GREAT at it. Boys and their hair 🙂
I bought an umbrella for Kye back when we went on his first trip to Disney…but we rarely get to use it. Before I had Britt I’d always scoop him up and carry him in the rain so why would he need an umbrella? Now that he’s older and more independent (and, hello, I am having to carry Britt in the rain…kinda hard to scoop up two kids and a diaper bag and hold my own umbrella!) he’s gotten a lot more use out of his umbrella and he loves it. Usually going out in the rain is such a pain but seeing how much he loves it and enjoys it makes me enjoy it more too. The eyes of a child are such a blessing!
A beautiful thing about having a preschooler is how independent he is. I have always focused a lot on independence in my children and I feel that my work in that area has really paid off in a big way. Kye enjoys playing on his own and I COMPLETELY trust him. I can be across the house from him and I know he’s making good choices without me having to be standing over him all the time. He does a great job of playing with things then cleaning them up and putting them back where they belong when he’s finished. He really enjoys his solo time and will often go into his room on his own to play. He still does an hour of room time each day (on days when he does not have school) and I think it helps him to keep this skill! It’s such a blessing that he’s able to entertain himself as Britt is at a stage where she requires a lot of attention so he makes my life MUCH easier 🙂
He loves playing army guys!
Even baby toys are fun!
He was so pumped to show me the number order he did completely on his own!
He also likes to surprise me by building me towers 🙂
He’s learned to build things on the dining room table so Britt can’t knock them down haha
Even though he enjoys solo play, he also enjoys playing with Britt. He is SO good with sharing with her. Really sharing is only an issue for Britt. I feel guilty in a way that she’s forced to share when she is so young as Kye didn’t really have to share stuff until he was so much older. It’s a hard concept for her to understand but I still make her take turns with things. She truly wants to do everything Kye does and follows him around like a little puppy! He is so patient with her and tries to teach her new things all the time. I love watching them together, it brings me such joy! Here’s a video of my wonderful life…my happy silly children 🙂
Here’s a video of Kye “teaching” Britt 🙂 And one of them playing in the tub together
Kye asked me to take a picture of his handsome outfit before church one Sunday. How do you like the Crocs for church? Haha! He didn’t have any dress shoes that match his outfit 😉
Other Stuff Going on with Kye this month:
- Zach and Kye love to sing the most RANDOM songs. Lately the hit around our house has been “Go Get ‘Em Girl” I have actually never heard the full version of the real song as Zach is careful to only let the kids listen to the clean parts…I’m actually not even sure who sings it? I think Zach said it’s by Drake? Anyways…Kye is obsessed with it. And we all walk around singing it constantly. Here’s a video of Kye singing the song (or at least the portion he’s allowed to listen to)!
- With Britt potty training Kye said to me “Now that Britt is a big girl you need to have another little sister for me!”
- I wore my hair curly a lot this month just b/c it’s so much easier. I went to tuck him in one night and he said “I’m going to marry you Mommy but NOT with that hair. I want you to have pretty hair for the wedding” Trust me. I haven’t worn my hair like that sense haha!!!
- Kye is very equal in all of his likes. If I ask him what his favorite is of something his reply is ALWAYS “they are all my favorites” He likes all the rides at Disney equally, he likes all of his movies equally, he likes everything equally!
- He spent a lot of time at G-Mama’s this month with my surgery and healing process and when he got home he raced into the bedroom and announced “My G-Mama SPOILS me!!!” It was so funny!
- Kye really enjoys talking about plans in the future (wonder where he got that from?) so we were talking about school and how when he’s in the “six year old class” (meaning 1st grade) he will go to school all day. He started crying! Such a sweet boy, he was all upset about it and said he doesn’t want to go to all day school because that is too long and he will be too sleepy and too sad haha
- One night he said his prayers and prayed about my TUMMY and said “Mommy’s tummy is growing so big because there is a baby inside it” Um. First my hair, then my stomach?!?! Let’s just say I wasn’t feeling to great about myself this month!
- I had to give Kye a spanking and afterwards we were talking about it and I said that it made my heart sad to have to spank him and he replied “well it broke my heart!”
- I made the kids smoothies for breakfast one morning and Kye said “Whew! That must have been hard work! Thank you Mommy!”
- Kye is constantly spelling out words as he sees them and calling out all of the letters. He has awesome letter recognition and only occasionally messes up on m and w and d and b getting them mixed up with each other.
- He also likes to use BIG numbers a lot and tends to say “26” and “69” the most often. Which, for obvious reasons, cracks Zach and I up when he says 69 all the time haha
- Kye started to struggle this month with a bit of an attitude and back talk. I’ve talked to some friends about it and it seems very typical for this age. I know Zach really struggled with disrespecting his mom, especially during his teen years. I want to prevent those kind of issues and have really had to crack down on him about this. It’s also so great that ZACH is so hardcore about Kye being respectful to me.
- Another thing I’ve found to be common among kids his age is SLOOOOOOWNESS. Like dude takes forever to do everything. Zach doesn’t have much patience with it as Zach’s a go-go-go person but I’ve kinda figured out ways to deal. I have started the getting ready for nap process way earlier. Now that Kye has to fully change his own clothes into his pjs on his own it takes a LOT of extra time. So I have him do that while I’m doing things with Britt. Pretty much anytime I’m working with Britt on something, like taking her to the potty, I’m telling Kye to go ahead and be doing something else. That way I’m not stuck waiting on him to finish! I joked with a friend this month that I feel like the word I say most often in our house is HURRY! I know this is a phase that will pass, I’m sure he can’t possibly move at a snail’s pace forever 😉 I try to be patient with him the best that I can as i know he’s learning a lot of new skills and with his independence and responsibility comes me accepting that he may not do everything the way I’d like it done (as in FAST haha). This also isn’t something that we discipline for. Discipline, to us, is only for direct disobedience issues. When he talks back or is disrespectful then we will discipline (often it’s just him going to his room and then us talking it out but sometimes a spanking is needed depending). The slow thing isn’t disobedience. It’s just a lack of time management skills 😉
- Zach has started to work on the kids new playroom. Our plan is to have Kye move upstairs (the current playroom will become his “forever” bedroom) and for his room to become the nursery for the next baby. Although we are NO WHERE near getting pregnant again, I am all about preparation and I want him to be excited for his new room and not feel like a new baby is taking over his space, ya know? So we’ve been talking it up and planning what he will do in his big boy room. His decoration concept? LIGHTNING MCQUEEN. Ugh. I’ve tried and tried to change his mind (we’ve had like hour long discussions about this) but he’s not budging. So I’ll probably do it. I mean, it is HIS room ya know?
- Kye is an AMAZING listener. He has wonderful listening skills and really takes everything in. This is obvious especially when it comes to his prayer life. His prayers have become so mature in so many ways! He often prays that we will fight satan, that we will go to heaven, and about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. He also has started to say “in Christ’s name, Amen” rather than just “Amen” at the end of his prayers
- We are still working with Kye on learning to pedal his bike…it’s a goal for this summer for sure 🙂 Here’s a video of his progress with it though!
- Kye is also mature for his age in that he simply does not enjoy being around bad behavior. It’s so interesting to me how he’d rather play alone than join in when kids aren’t making good choices. He will come home from school talking about how so and so made bad choices and how he didn’t play with them because that bothered him. I hope that strong conviction to do what is right is something that will stick with him throughout his life!!! Zach has always been that way. He didn’t mind that he wasn’t “popular” in school since he never partied. Or that he wasn’t ever a team captain for a team b/c he wasn’t one of the “guys” He would have rather been “alone” than fitting in where he knew poor decisions were made. I think that’s awesome!
- Since the beginning of school Kye has always hung out with Payton and Kailyn but it’s obvious that we are reaching that age where girls play with girls and boys play with boys. For awhile Kye would come home upset that Kailyn and Payton didn’t want to play with him anymore but I talked to him a lot about finding new friends to play with and how they just might have wanted to play girl games 🙂 He has started talking a lot about another boy in his class and has fun playing imaginary chase type games on the play ground with him!
- We need to work on him wiping himself when he poops (WHEN will he master this?!?!) as well as work on buttoning and unbuttoning things…it’s tough with his pants when he can’t undo them or redo them!
- Even though I tried to prevent it the best I could, Kye is def a little football player already. I love watching he and Zach “practice” and it’s fun for Britt and I to be his cheerleaders! Here’s a video of his quarterback potential. Zach says he has an arm, but it’s his own kid so I mean DUH he’s biased haha Kye (and Britt!) also LOVE to practice tackling. “Bruce” (the blow up guy we got Kye for his birthday) has been the most used “toy” in our home. It’s hilarious! Here’s a video!
- Whenever we have to spank Kye we always talk to him a lot afterwards and pray together to ask God to forgive him. I try very hard to immediately show him forgiveness for whatever he has done (sometimes that’s hard!) because I want him to understand that God immediately forgives us and I know that my actions towards Kye are a reflection of God’s as well to him. I was SO proud this month when Kye had to go to his room (I don’t remember what for, but it wasn’t a “spanking needed” thing) and asked me to forgive him without me having to spank him. He asked to pray and asked me how God forgives us. We talked a LONG time about Jesus dying for us and how we are washed clean through Jesus. And we also talked about the Holy Spirit (our conscious) and how we know deep down right from wrong and how that bad feeling in our hearts is God’s way of reminding us that we need to repent. It was THE most precious thing to see the PURE JOY he had about being forgiven and how excited he was. It made me really, really understand why the Gospel is referred to as “the good news” because it is SO GOOD 🙂
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Ian is the same way that you described Kye especially getting dressed and trying to get out the door. It's been helped recently by making everything a race. Usually it's him getting himself dressed and me dressing Megan trying to race Ian to finish first. That seems to work.
He is just SO HANDSOME!! And I'm MEGA impressed with his drawing skills – LL's still look more like Britt's – haha.