The Journey of Parenthood…

Kye Monthly Summary: January

This is a summary of Kye’s month from January 2015!

Errands: Now that I have three kids…errands have become “special treats.” Take a kid with you to get something done and it kills two birds: you get the stuff done and you get solo time with that child! Kye very rarely sleeps at his naps so we will let him skip on occasion and it works out great for him to be able to get that special time. Since he goes to school every day, he and I don’t get the alone time that I get with the girls! 

Publix outing!

It was awesome because we had a great time together and he pushed the cart the entire time for me. Easiest trip ever 🙂

Check out the beautiful sky!

We also had a fun donut morning this month! I took all three kids to get donuts when the big kids had a day off school. It was a little crazy but well worth the effort! Kye and I did have to have a BIG talk about being appreciative and thankful for what we have. It was a lot of work for me to take them to get donuts and each child got to get one donut. Well….Kye was upset that he wasn’t allowed to get two. My #1 pet peeve is entitlement (I even wrote a post about it here!). The experience was a VERY good reminder to me…with adding Tess to our home the older two have become a little more spoiled than usual and it was a wake up call for me to get back on track!



Games: Britt plays games now on most nights but sometimes she’ll go to bed earlier (if she didn’t have a good nap) and Kye gets to play solo. 99% of the time I can’t join in b/c I’m nursing, but on occasion Tess will eat quicker and I’ll be able to play. I FINALLY got to play a new board game with him that we got for Christmas from G-Mama. It’s awesome. You play as a team which is so fun and unique! There are several different themes but we have World of Disney Eye Found It . It’s Zach’s favorite family game and once I’m able to play more often I’m sure it’ll be mine too! 

Trains: Kye has enjoyed wooden train sets since he was under 2 years old. He’s collected a ton of sets over the years but the great news is that he can FINALLY assemble them 100% ON HIS OWN. WHOOOOO HOOOOO! He takes a lot of pride in the tracks he creates and gets very territorial about them (which who can blame him? Britt kinda messes stuff up on the regular haha). 

Watch: Kye really loves to wear a watch. It’s great that he’s learning to tell time (even easier since it’s digital) but oh my goodness when he wears it we get an update on the current time every minute. 

Helper: Kye still continues to enjoy helping around the house (as I’m writing this he’s actually upstairs vacuuming the entire 2nd floor of our house haha!). I’ve heard that this stage ends at some point? I’m interested to see when that will be with him b/c I truly think it’s his love language. When he wants to surprise me he always cleans the toilets haha! He just knows the way to Mama’s heart is a clean house I guess! When I’m vacuuming he always asks if he can do it instead and he just enjoys it! Future daughter in law: you’re welcome 🙂

Building Shows: I am mega anti-tv watching for our kids. Zach agrees with me but he loves to watch HGTV and has started wanting Kye to watch certain “building shows” with him on occasion. He DVRs the shows so he can fast forward commercials. I’ve caught a few inappropriate things on them that we don’t approve of (language, life style choices, etc) but Zach is mindful of such things and sometimes you just have to trust your husband (even when it’s hard!). Kye LOVES working in the storage shed with Zach on projects and he now LOVES watching building shows with him too. I do hear Zach talk to him about the projects the people are doing and he says it’s an educational experience. Kye cracks me up with how he plans to “break down” our house. Awesome. He has drawn up plans of things he wants to change and likes to walk through it all with me. Don’t give the kid a hammer b/c he wants to tear down a lot of my walls! He has plans to build two outdoor kitchens (Daddy’s influence, no doubt) and to have “lots of passageways”

Going through his plans

Gifts: Kye really enjoys making notes for his family. He writes us little letters ALL the time, draws us pictures, cuts designs out for us, and even has started making his own wrapping paper. It surprises me that he hasn’t stopped liking crafts, but he still very much enjoys them! Neither Zach or I are very “artsy” so I’m not sure where he gets his creativity from! 

“Dear Mom and Dad: thank you for all the presents you gave me. I love you!” 

(thank you note from Christmas!)

Card he made for Grandpa’s birthday!

Workin’ hard!

Naps: Kye doesn’t really sleep at naps at all anymore. I’m not sad about it b/c he still has nap time haha! He is the last kid that I tuck in so it’s often 1:10-1:15 by the time he’s down for nap. His lamp turns on (it’s on a timer) at 2:45 so he usually has about an hour and a half of rest time. Even though he’s not sleeping this rest time is critical for him! He has told me he’s nervous about being too tired at all day school next year! He reads books (I have easy-readers on a shelf in his bed for him to read) and lays down. He also has started being allowed to have a football to toss in the bed. Of course he often tosses it “too high” and then loses it b/c it’s on the top bunk haha! He isn’t allowed to get out of his bed until his lamp comes on. It’s a good system for us and he likes his rest time. We skip it occasionally but I can tell a difference in his attitude when he doesn’t get it…and there are days when he does fall asleep!

Party-Saurus: I heard that Toy Story had some short movies released on TV so I hunted and found a couple of them. Our favorite is “Party-Saurus Rex” it’s 15 min long and is a little story about Rex, the dinosaur from Toy Story. It takes place in a bath tub and they sing a catchy song and it’s adorable. The kids and I have started singing the song a lot  and it’s made Kye want to take baths just for fun b/c he wants to have a “party.” He was SO pumped one day when I told him after nap he could take a solo bath haha! The struggles of having siblings…you never get to bathe alone 😉 He loved it and stayed in for over an hour! The water was COLD when I finally made him get out! 

Lips: Kye licks his lips a lot and gets chapped lips easily. I remember my brother being the exact same way as a kid! He’d smear Vaseline on all the time to keep them from getting chapped. Kye and I both had a lot of dry lip issues this month. I had like dryness in the corners of my mouth? Which I’ve never had before either? One morning he came down with his lip looking like this. I FREAKED. Zach’s family has fever blisters all the time and I assumed that’s what this was. Zach ran to the store and bought medicine to treat it like a fever blister. It lasted for weeks. When Zach had Tess’s 6 month appointment (SO much was covered at this dang appointment which frustrated me to miss it!) he showed this picture to our PA and she said it’s actually not fever blister. It’s a dry spot that got infected. She gave us both a preventative measure for the future as well as a medicated ointment to treat it if it gets infected again. I also bought some SPF chap stick for him to start wearing when he goes outside and we keep Vaseline by his bed for him to put on. It’s been 6 weeks and the area is still red but much, much better than it was. Now it’s just a dry spot! 

Music: I have NO clue where Kye’s enjoyment for making music came from. I have a very talented Aunt (my mom’s sister) who sings beautifully but other than her I can’t think of anyone very musically inclined in either side of our families? We just aren’t musical people. The kids both LOVE to make music but Kye especially loves it. He’s always playing some random instrument and making up songs. I’m thankful that I found my spark and rehydrate combo to ensure I don’t get headaches! 

Outside: As much as Kye loves crafts and music, he is still very much “all boy” when it comes to outdoors. He doesn’t care how cold it is, he enjoys just being outside! He cracks me up when he comes downstairs from naps ready to face the cold. I always think of Friends…could Kye be wearing any more clothes?!?!?

Basketball is probably the sport Kye plays most often. It’s the easiest one to play since he has a goal in his room, in the playroom, and in the back yard. I think it’s adorable how he always puts on a jersey before he practices 🙂 

Underwear: Child LIVES in his underwear. I really do wonder if it has to do with the fact that as a baby I never put clothes on him. He spit up CONSTANTLY and he also slept in a fleece swaddle (it’s the material he liked best) and his room had a huge window in it so it got hot. I kept him in the diaper rather than always changing clothes due to spit up or having to strip him down before naps so he wouldn’t get hot. Of course when we went places I put clothes on him…but at home he rarely had them on. Now he’s the same way. He walks in the door from church, school, or any other outing and immediately takes of his clothes all the way down to his briefs! We had to have a talk about when company comes over that we have to wear clothes haha! People used to joke about me and my love of being in the buff as well…I just have always been comfortable in my own skin and never was shy about it. Of course I’m modest in public but at home or with close (girl!) friends I’m cool with being naked. I’m the girl who always shares a dressing room with my friends when we go shopping and the one who never closes the door when going to the bathroom ha! I truly believe being naked at home builds confidence. You become comfortable with your body and that confidence carries over to when you’re dressed too 😉 

Not much has changed! 

Big Brother: Kye may really be hoping to have a little sister someday but this boy has his sisters WRAPPED around his finger! They ADORE him. Tess lights up when she sees him and Britt will do anything he tells her too. I already feel bad for the girls who date him later in life because he’s very accustomed to girls spoiling him!!! 

Yes, she followed him around scratching his back for him 😉

More about Kye this month:

  • I asked Kye what his favorite part of winter break from school was and he quickly answered “spending time with my family”
  • We had some fun with friends at the park and also had Titus come over to play and both times Kye talked to the parents about buying some of his bookmarks haha always hustlin’ 😉
  • We have been praying A LOT about where to send Kye to school next year…he is nervous about the big change and has asked about getting to go to a school where he will learn more about Jesus. 
  • Kye does not enjoy school this year which really hurts my heart. I don’t regret keeping him where he is, but I wish he enjoyed it more. 
  • He gets easily frustrated and aggravated by Britt. They are VERY different personalities and often times it results in clashing. 
  • Kye is an excellent reader and has THE best handwriting!
  • He only has one other boy in his class (who is moving in March!) and he talks a lot about how girls drive him crazy 😉 
  • He says he does not have a girl friend. There is a girl in his class who he likes but he wishes she dressed more like Britt (ha!) and he said he’s looking hard to find a good girl who will help him make good choices. 
  • Videos from this month: 

Another great month with my sweet, handsome boy!

Emily Parker
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