The Journey of Parenthood…

Kye Monthly Summary: February

Kye’s last month as a 5 year old! This post is all about the random things he was up to during this month!

I keep reading that kids at a certain age stop wanting to do chores and be helpful. I’m not sure when that age will come? I am interested to see if it ever does with Kye. I truly think he is just a person with a servant heart. He LOVES helping and acts of service is FOR SURE his love language! I am really comfortable with him doing just about any chore in our home and he loves the responsibility…and I love the help!

This month Kye and I had to prepare food for his Kenya project. This experience was a big moment for Kye for a couple reasons. The first? He didn’t need a stool to help me!!! He told me he could reach and I totally didn’t believe him at first…but yup, he can. 

The second “big moment” was when I told him he could have a glass of sweet tea for the first time ever! Yes. He was a couple weeks away from turning 6 and hadn’t ever tried sweet tea. He also still hasn’t tried chocolate milk. Why start drinking something that isn’t good for you? It’s easier to eat healthy when you don’t crave the junk food! 

He tried the tea and said he liked it okay, he did drink a little more at the party at his class but it’s not something we will be offering to him and he hasn’t ever asked to have any again (although we don’t drink tea too often either so it’s not like he’s even seen it very much!). 

I don’t want y’all to think I’m some un-fun mom…but when it comes to drink options our kids can choose white milk or water. Kye is also allowed to choose lemonade as a “fun drink” choice and occasionally they will both have juice (v8 fusion mixed with Naked Juice Green Machine and water!). They have never complained or even asked to have anything else! I’m interested to see how long I can keep it going 😉

Kye really enjoys building things and comes inside from the storage shed with all sorts of creations. This one he made for me and it is still sitting on my desk. He told me it’s a paper clip holder. He actually set it up for me at my desk and got all my paperclips out and put them on the hook. So if I ever need a paper clip I have it handy 😉 It makes him so happy to see when I use the paper clips. He takes a TON of pride in his work and I love that Zach is raising him to be a handy husband. When I married Zach I had NO CLUE he’d have such a handy side to him and I LOVE IT and am always so thankful for it! 

As part of Kye’s love for service to others…he enjoys “fixing” things around the house. One of his favorite things to do “for Tess” is to take a ton of her toy links and attach them all to her play mat and hang a ton of toys from it. It’s a bit of a disaster to dissemble and it’s actually made us use the playmat less haha!

Kye licks his lips A LOT and gets chapped lips easily. This winter we kept having some really WARM days followed by SUPER cold ones. My lips got super chapped too! Kye ended up having this spot on his lip that looked AWFUL. I immediately assumed it was a fever blister as Zachs family members get them often. We got some (expensive!) fever blister medicine to put on it and it helped some. I still sent him to school and everything because it’s not like it’s contagious as long as he wasn’t kissing people…which he shouldn’t be at school anyway! I felt bad for him, but thankfully he’s not at the easily embarrassed age yet. 

When Zach took the girls to Tess’s 6 month visit he took this picture with him to ask our pediatrician about Kye’s lip and they actually said it’s NOT a fever blister. It’s from that area being so chapped that it eventually got infected. We now have prevention lip ointment and another ointment to help clear it up if it ever happens again! 

This month it finally happened. Kye pulled a clip! He went the entire school year last year without pulling one. He pulled one this year early in the year but wasn’t punished for it (he pulled the clip for cheating and the note home said he was looking at the teacher’s paper? He’s in kindergarten so we just felt like it wasn’t a punish at home type offense…). But he finally pulled a clip for a legit punishable reason: talking. 

I knew by the look on his face when I picked him up that the time had arrived. He was SO upset. We have told our children that if they get in trouble at school then they will also get in trouble at home. We talked about it and I talked to Zach about it and we all agreed that it was a punish at home type of situation. He knew better than to be talking during instruction time. On top of the discipline (we spank) he also wrote a note to his teacher to apologize. 

School, other than the clip incident, is still going well for Kye. He doesn’t love it, but I don’t think Zach ever loved school either. I am surprised to see a switch in Kye recently. I used to think he was JUST like me but he’s becoming more and more like his daddy. His school work was coming home with missing sections or sections where he didn’t follow instructions. He’s in such a rush to finish that he misses parts of his work! We started having him redo all the missed sections and when it happened again he had to miss his Mario Kart night for the week. It was a great punishment as it hasn’t happened since!

Kye has a tote for his school bag and he wanted to decorate it 🙂 

Kye is reading more and more and coming home with some LONG books to read aloud to us. Britt loves listening to him read and it’s so awesome to see how far he’s come so quickly!

This month the kids had a couple days off school so Titus came over to hang out. It’s so fun seeing Kye get to hang with a BOY for a change! I did have to get on to the boys for not including Britt and I think it hurts her feelings to not be Kye’s #1 but Titus gels so great with our family and it’s true what everyone says: once you have 3 it doesn’t make a difference how many you add to the bunch! When he’s over I really don’t notice any change to our day or to my stress levels!

Speaking of friends… tell me these two aren’t SO adorable! We stayed after church one Sunday for lunch and Kye loved getting to spend time with Kailyn and they were even coordinated 😉 They have passed a couple notes and Kye has the note she wrote him on his dresser. So precious!

I am REALLY trying to cherish the school days I have left with Kye being in half day school. It can be stressful in the mornings to get the kids dropped off and can be a rush to get them picked up on time, but I’m trying to savior these car rides and the time I have with my big boy. Next year I’m hoping he will be able to be dropped off in the mornings by either Zach or I but he will most likely have to ride the bus home in the afternoons because pick up time conflicts with the girls naps. And honestly I just feel guilty forcing poor Tess to be in the car that much every day! Dropping him off, dropping Britt off, picking Britt up. That’s already a lot of time in the car! Picking him up would not only be right in the middle of her nap but also would be probably another hour in the car. I’m MEGA nervous about the bus and am hoping to maybe find someone willing to car pool or something in our neighborhood! We will see! For now though I’m thankful for these days with my baby boy and am not in anyyyyy rush for next school year to arrive!

We always get Tess out of the car seat while we wait in the drop off line. I feel guilt having her have to spend majority of her awake time in the car seat! Kye loves entertaining her while we wait 🙂

Kye loves music and loves to make up songs and perform songs he already knows. I’m just waiting for him to ask for some music lessons! 

Other Stuff From This Month:

  • Kye told me that he and this little girl in his class, Emma, smile at each other a lot and then look away. He told me it’s called “shy love” 
  • Kye’s favorite toys are his cars and trains
  • Most days after naps he wants to do arts and crafts
  • Zach has been playing in the backyard with him a good bit with sports stuff and Kye really doesn’t like instruction a lot. He gets frustrated and just wants to give up when there is a lot of criticism (I am the same way)
  • He’s getting pretty bossy with Britt…I need to look up some tips on how to work on that
  • When we hear Kye say “ugh oh what’s wrong?” when Britt is crying then we KNOW that he did something to cause her to cry! It’s the dead giveaway
  • I mentioned something about my agenda book and he said “ohhh I thought that was your vacation book because it’s where you always write down our vacations” Can you tell his mama loves to plan some vacas? 😉

Videos from this month:

Just for kicks I thought I’d include Kye’s daily schedule at 5 years old:

7:10 his day starts and he knows he can get up when his lamp turns on
He gets dressed on his own and then comes downstairs
Eats breakfast, brushes teeth, has some playtime before leaving for school
7:55-8:05 we leave for school
8:30 drop off starts
12:10 picked up from school
We rush home and they eat lunch
1:00 down for nap…I put the girls down first and then tuck him in (he typically doesn’t sleep but is allowed to read during this time)
2:45 his lamp comes on to let him know he can get up
He has free play to himself until Britt gets up (anywhere from 3-5 depending on how long she sleeps!)
We often play outside or some other activity together (crafts etc) once Britt is up and Tess is done nursing.
5ish typically Zach gets home and I make dinner while the kids enjoy Daddy
6:00 we eat as a family
6:30ish kids take a bath
7:00 story time and prayer time then the kids play a game with Zach while I nurse Tess
7:45 Kye goes to bed and if I’m done nursing we will then read some of a chapter book together, lights are out by 8!

My handsome, handsome boy!

Emily Parker
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