Kye is truly such a joy and is at an age where everyday he becomes more fun!!! I never want it to end!
Here’s what he was up to in July:
Lizard Friend: I LOVE our house location. Even though we are in a neighborhood we have quite a few animal visitors. TONS of squirrels and birds and lizards! They are adorable (like legit, I love them) and they hang out on our back porch all the time. I guess they are all friendly with each other too because now we have baby lizards! This cute little guy is super friendly too. Kye was pumped to get to hold him and it was so neat to watch him change colors right before our eyes. He was bright green and by the time we stopped visiting with him he was brown!
SO cute!!!
Memory Verse: I am SO thankful we attend Central Av Church of Christ!!! I couldn’t be happier there for myself but especially for Kye. He moved up to the “big kid” classes this month. He now has memory verses to learn and I am SO impressed with how seriously he takes it. He lovessssss Bible Class. All the kids (from the youngest, Kye’s age, to the oldest) all meet up prior to class and sing some songs, pray, etc. I’m so proud that Kye enjoys praying in front of EVERYONE as well as sings with true joy in his heart. Everyone brags on him to me and it is a proud mama moment for sure. I’m so thankful my children will be raised in a home that puts God first in all things! Here’s a video of Kye doing his first memory verse…it’s legit!!!
Brave: I’m a big believer in spending quality time with each kid one on one. One on ones with me and Britt, me and Kye, Zach and Kye, Zach and Britt, Both Zach and I with Britt and both Zach and I with Kye! Whew…it’s gonna be a lot more complicated as we add more babies huh? When the movie Brave came out I wanted to take Kye to see it and Zach wanted to go with us so we planned an afternoon movie date! He was PUMPED. We went by Walgreens and each got a snack (this is prior to my Advocare life haha). We let Kye get some candy. I know. Try not to pass out. Zach picked out some kind of Hershey’s Drops for him? They are new and they are chocolate but not messy. I wanted to get him something more sugary as that’s what I like (I got orange slices for my candy) and Zach wanted to get him something chocolate because that’s what he likes (he got chocolate covered cookie dough bites as his candy). We like legit argued about what kind of candy Kye should get haha. Zach won out in the end but, just as I expected, Kye wanted to keep eating MY candy the whole time. He never has chocolate so it makes sense that he wasn’t super crazy about it.
Showing his candy!
The movie was really good. I have only ever seen ONE Pixar movie that I didn’t like (Cars 2. Ugh.). The story was great. Especially for a mom. However, Kye was too young to see it. He doesn’t scare easily and can handle a lot more “scary” stuff than other kids his age can but it was too much for him. The concept was too deep for him to really understand and there were many scenes where he was afraid. I didn’t know that it would be that scary, but it’s for sure more suitable for like a 7 year old. Oh well! I asked him if he wanted to leave and he said no but he did end up sitting in my lap which hasn’t ever happened during a movie!!! He said he really liked it though and said his favorite part was the horses. Um…they were in the movie for like under 2 minutes haha.
I love all three of these pictures 😉
Pirate Shirts: When going through my pics from this month I realized I forgot to include the pics of the kids wearing their St Augustine shirts we got for them on vacation! Oops! So here they are!!! 🙂 Kye was super jealous of Britt’s shirt because it’s pink but his is still cool too!
Big Helper: I love that Kye has a servant heart. He loves to help others and that’s something that Zach and I both think is such a valuable trait. He seriously is ALWAYS wanting to help out. He enjoys helping! If I sweet, he sweeps. If I vacuum, he vacuums. If I need something across the house he’s eager to go get it. It’s precious. He really enjoys helping unload the car when we get groceries and has also started to help putting the groceries away, here’s a video! He picked ALL of these weeds himself and spent over an HOUR doing it while Zach mowed the grass. Isn’t that awesome??? We made sure to pump him up big time as it really was a HUGE help to Zach! Now I’m ready to get Brittlynn going on dusting for me 😉
Eat Outside: Something we have done regularly since Kye was young is eat outside. I LOVE our covered porch and fans and enjoy eating outdoors. However, now that Britt started solids we haven’t been eating out as much. It’s just too tricky with her eating too. Her high chair is bulky and a pain to get through the door and I just can’t imagine taking my food, Kye’s food, and her food all out there and then bringing it all back in. Not worth the effort. I did allow Kye to eat outside though for breakfast a few times. He really wanted to eat out there and I can see him in the breakfast nook so it was perfectly safe. I felt sad for him out there by himself but he kept smiling and waving at Britt and I and seemed to enjoy it!
Dancing: Kye LOVES movies. He doesn’t watch them on a daily basis but he especially loves the opportunity to watch an entire movie. He always says “Can I watch the pictures?” He means the credits 😉 He will get up and dance to the music. I let him watch Pinocchio recently and it was so cute how he enjoyed dancing to the dvd menu screen music. He legit danced to it for a solid 30 min. He even got out the Pinocchio we got him from Italy to dance too!!! (Pardon his outfit…our washing machine broke during this month so we had to make do!). He kept saying “you’re a real boy!” it was precious (here’s a video). Here’s another little video of him dancing…he wasn’t a fan of me filming!
Food lover: Kye still really enjoys eating. Now that Britt is eating solids he will ask me to take pictures of him eating too 😉
When I started doing my Advocare 24 Day Challenge I drink a Meal Replacement Shake each morning for breakfast. Kye, of course, wants to share with me so I started making him smoothies after he finishes eating. He LOVES them. I blend together Naked Juice Green Machine, V8 Fushion, frozen grapes, strawberries, frozen bananas, a little yogurt, maybe even sneak in some butter beans or peas…just whatever I have lying around. It gets him super crunk! And keeps him from begging to share with me the entire time 😉
Play: It’s been a LAME summer for Kye. I feel so guilty thinking about it. Britt’s schedule comes first and I don’t have any regrets about that but I’m eager for the days when she only has one nap a day so we can go and do more together. Poor kid was stuck at home all summer! He never complained or seemed to get bored. I’m thankful he has so many fun toys to keep him busy!!!
He really enjoys these letters. He likes to take them all out then put them all back in
He thought it was hilarious to dress Smyrna and Monkey up in his clothes!
Special treat…a bath in my bathtub (that little tush is too cute!)
Here’s a video of him going under the water 😉
He’s just now old enough to really build things on his own with the lincoln logs (they should be ages 4 and up in my opinion). He takes it VERY seriously!
Each army guy had his own little station
He also loves running around with the bucket on his head…yes, I put a stop to it!
Here’s a video of him…and you can tell I’m holding Britt while filming. It cracked me up!
He’s getting a lot more into dressing up too..mostly just likes to wear funny hats and my shoes
Jingle: We bought Kye Jingle as a gift when Britt was born. Have you seen the animals from Hallmark that react when you read their stories?!?! Jingle is one of them. He had a couple of books and even a TV show at Christmas time. He’s SUPER cute but it’s also a mega rip off. Like he was supposed to respond to the movie and he didn’t. Not once. And he only responds to us when we say exact phrases, SUPER loud, and SUPER clearly. Poor Kye tries and tries and tries. He has never once been able to get a reaction from Jingle.
The Stairs: The way our stairs were designed we have to have the baby gate up a couple of steps. This has turned into quite the popular spot in our house. Kye sits here constantly. He often sits in this spot to take off his shoes (and he’s well trained…he then takes them to his room and places them in his red chair so I can stick them in their correct spot later). He’ll also sit here just to do some thinking. It’s pretty adorable!
Socially Aware: Kye’s become very aware of other people’s actions. I think this is
a great thing! It’s never too early to start learning that sometimes
other people set the example of how not to behave. At Disney
there was a girl messing with the ropes while we were in line and Kye
wanted to do it too but I told him that it wasn’t a good choice. He
mentioned that the girl kept doing it and I told him it was up to him to
set a good example of how to behave for her. He has also left from play
dates and mentioned the behavior of other kids and how he didn’t like
certain things they said or did so I try to ask him how it made him
feel. I know this age it’s so valuable to start understanding emotions
and it’s also important to learn how our actions affect other people.
When Kye says or does something hurtful towards me I let him know and
ask him how it would make him feel if I did the same thing to him. He’s
really starting to understand empathy!
He’s also doing better at taking responsibility for his actions…for example: One night there was a little mix-up at Mema’s we were eating dinner
there and Kye said he wanted his hot dog “big” like he ate it at
G-Mama’s. It wasn’t a big deal but Mrs. Charlotte didn’t realize that
it’s still important to cut up hot dogs into small pieces so I told Kye
we couldn’t have the hot dog “big.” He got very upset about it and I had
to pull him away from the situation (I was there without Zach) to talk
to him and explain it to him. He was fine after our talk and surprised
me because the next day he brought up the situation completely on his
own. He said “I was sad at Mema’s because of the hot dog but I’m sorry
about that.”
He’s also getting really great at conversating with others. He’s always been eager to be included in on the conversations but now he’s actually able to conversate haha I thought it was so sweet how attached Kye got to Katie’s mom while we
were visiting them in St Augustine. They had REAL conversations! On our
way back to the hotel he told us all about her family and how some of
them live in Heaven and some of them have their own houses. She was
super impressed with his conversation skills which makes me proud. I’m
hardcore about him being socially well-rounded 😉
Rhino: Kye loves little toys right now and still enjoys making them our “treasures.” He was showing me all the animals and explaining to me what they do. THIS is what he says a rhino does with it’s tusk (is it called a tusk??) And yes, I also took a video 😉
Routines: Kye is at an age where he likes everything done exactly the same way every single time. I remember back when I first started doing Babywise that people would say to me that I was going to raise children who were going to be anal retentive. I told those people that if that’s the only negative they could find of Babywise then I’d take it!!! It IS true though. Kye thrives with routine. He expects it in every area. It can be a little annoying. I recently read a quote about happiness in children and that our goal shouldn’t be to always make them happy. Sometimes they won’t be happy. We have to make decisions that are best for the family unit, regardless of their happiness about it. So I don’t always do things in the same order, or say the same things at the “right” time, etc. If I need to go wake Brittlynn up without him, I do it. If we forgot to have Jingle with us for story time, oh well. He does get upset when things are off balance, but that’s a part of life.
Just some examples: He likes to help put Britt to sleep every time she goes down. His job is to turn on her fan. Then he runs around it three times before kissing her goodnight. We say prayers as a family and he says whos turn it is. It’s always Daddy then Mommy then Kye. He opens the door whenever we get home. He also opens the door whenever we wake Britt up. Also when we wake her up he gives her a kiss right when she gets out of the crib. Once we tuck him into bed he always says “make sure the dogs don’t bark and that table doesn’t fall and the light doesn’t break” (no clue what the heck he’s talking about but he MUST say that exact phrase). Those are seriously just a FEW examples! Part of me wonders if I should worry about OCD tendencies with him! I do think it’s a lot to do with his age and probably having a new sister made him even more attached to routine and structure!
waking Britt up from her nap
He also always wants to have a bath with Brittlynn every night!
Not Sweating the Small Stuff: Kye has been the type of kid who will have a melt-down over some spilled milk. But lately he’s been doing SO much better with this type of thing!!! I think he is finally starting to understand that if the milk spills, it’s okay we have more. If the cracker breaks or the sandwich isn’t cut perfectly that it doesn’t really matter.
Games: I keep all of our family games in our front hall closet. Kye LOVES to play with them and it’s a quick, fun, easy thing to do together when Britt goes down for her morning nap. We’ll often play a couple rounds of something before he goes upstairs for roomtime. Hungry Hippos is a fav for sure! I am a baller at it and pretty much always win 😉
Asking Nicely: We’ve been working SUPER HARD this month on asking nicely. Sure Kye will
say “Can I have more milk mommy?” Then I’ll say “what do you say?” and
he’ll reply “please!” But that’s not the goal is it? The GOAL is for him
to ask the first time “Mommy can I have more milk please?” (I’m not
messing with the whole can I/may I mess…can is fine with me. It’s the
please I’m after!). If Kye doesn’t ask nicely the first time then I tell
him to ask it all again nicely. I make him repeat the entire phrase
rather than just adding the please. By the end of the month it was
becoming a natural thing for him and I made sure to give him props every
time he did it on his own without having to be told!
No Ma’am Britt Britt!!! Britt is at that age where she’s interested in everything and is mobile enough to get into it ALL. It’s a tough thing to deal with as I feel limited with what three of us can do together??? Kye spends a lot of time telling her “no ma’am” when she tries to get his stuff haha I caught it in action a few times this month:
Table: Our little activity table was Kye’s FAVORITE as a baby and now Britt LOVES it. It’s been interesting because although Kye didn’t play with it often prior to her being born, he knows it’s HIS. I’ve explained to him that it’s a baby toy and that now it’s hers and he does pretty well with it. But he’ll often try to dominate which songs we play from it (yes, I have pretty much every button memorized to what song it’ll play. My personal favorite is: “Hello! The phone is ringing so I say HELLO!” haha) You can tell he’s dying to shove her out of the way here!
Throwing in the House: Up until now we’ve allowed throwing in the house. It’s never been an issue. But Kye’s getting older. The toy balls are getting harder. He and Daddy are getting rougher. We have a baby in the house and plan to have many more babies in the house in the future. Zach and I had a big talk about it and decided our rule for throwing things will be either outside or up in the playroom only. This has been the first major parenting decision that has been tough on us. You don’t really realize how often you toss a pillow onto the couch, toss each other the remote, throw toys in the basket to clean up, etc until you have a three year old reminding you “we don’t throw stuff!” all the time haha.
Kye and Brittlynn: Kye ADORES his sister. He hates to see her get any type of punishment. He always wants to play with her. He does well sharing…like she tried to get into his Lincoln Logs so he gave her a piece of the track to play with. They do the whole play together yet separately thing where they are in the same space but play with their own toys. Now that she’s mobile I feel like she’s a little less breakable and they play pretty rough together. It’s funny b/c she’s quite the drama queen with most things…but not when they are playing. I think she likes to play tough with him 😉 I love that their friendship is already blossoming!!!
Other Stuff Kye was up to this Month:
- Kye LOVES to make up songs. One was pretty catchy: “follow this fan in my hand…follow this fan in the land!!!”
- Every night after we have family story time and prayers he asks to “play with Brittlynn for a minute” They both laugh like CRAZY and we all get super hyped up only minutes before putting them to bed…they both always fall to sleep right away though!
- Kye does NOT like ANY of the animals in his room when he goes to bed. He’ll call out to me if one of them happened to hide in there. He actually doesn’t like Levi at ALL. Like ever. He always says “Levi you are annoying” He will intentionally pet and love on Sadie in front of Levi!
- After roomtime each morning while Britt naps he’ll get movie time. When it’s time to wake her up from her nap we pause the movie to get her (then we watch it while I nurse). Whenever I come back out from changing her diaper he always says “I waited sooo patiently”
- Kye has ALWAYS been all about being a “big boy” and that is still the case. He has even started asking to eat off the same plates we do
- One afternoon just Kye and I were driving somewhere and he started asking me a typical “Kye question” regarding things we had planned. He kept asking me “what are we gonna do next?” I’d tell him and he’d ask it again. I ended up going through 5 days worth of plans. He started CRACKING UP and said “Mommy! You are a MESS!!! You just told me ALL that!!!” Guess he was just testing me to see how far along I’d go? haha
- He really started to miss school this month. He has started asking not to get a new class because he wants to see Mrs Autumn again
- He can now completely dress and undress himself!
- He will say stuff is “freaking him out” haha
- We decided this month that his hair looks best if we just DO NOT MESS WITH IT. For some reason it just falls naturally on it’s own better than if we mess with it
- If Zach isn’t home at bedtime prayers Kye will ask to call him and he’ll say his prayers over the phone with us
- Before bed each nap and night he asks to “cuddle for a little bit” and I LOVE this time together. If Zach’s home them the three of us will cuddle up and talk together. It’s a good chance for him to have a couple minutes of undivided attention from us. 🙂
- When he talks to someone on the phone he likes to put them on speaker
- He often tells Britt to “hush”
- When he is surprised he will say “What?!?!” it cracks me up!
- His memory BLOWS US AWAY. He will recall stuff randomly that just shocks us. For example he asked if we could watch the Santa movie that we watched when we drank coffees. Um. We watched the Santa movie only once and it was back at Christmas time when we let him have a little hot chocolate for the first time!
- Kye said “God lives under my chin” 😉
- I took Kye to Walmart with me this month to get a few groceries and things we needed. It was SO FUN. I loathe Walmart but seriously we had a blast together. He walked the entire time around the store beside me and loved being my helper. He’d pick up what I told him we needed and would put it in the cart. He didn’t ask to buy a single thing (although he did want to show me a LOT of stuff) and he walked around like he owned the place. It was hilarious!
- He really adores Colt. He made a list of things about Colt that he likes and said that Colt is his best friend, is the prettiest boy and is so fun
- Kye doesn’t make the “l” sound when speaking but instead makes a “w” sound. Like Levi is “Wevi” I think this is a normal thing for his age???
- Kye LOVES to entertain his sister…here is a video of him dancing like crazy while she finishes up eating 😉
- For school this year Kye will have to be able to go potty 100% on his own so we’ve been working on teaching him how to wipe when he poops. Tough concept kinda!!!
- Kye is VERY into the “I’m gonna marry Mommy” stage. I don’t correct him about it, it’s too sweet to tell him any different 😉 He said that He will marry Mommy and that Daddy can marry Jordan 😉
- Started saying “I love you very much”
- I took this video of Britt and I waking Kye up from his nap 😉
- One day before nap he was cuddling SO SWEET. He found my weakness as he laid down beside me and scratched my arm so sweetly and even scratched my back! I sat in there talking with him for a good 20 min b/c it felt nice to be a little pampered haha. He told me he wants to grow up to be a dentist, it was the first time he’s ever mentioned being something when he grows up
- Later in the month when Zach would let him watch a little of the Olympics Kye changed his mind about the dentist thing and now insists that he wants to be a swimmer when he grows up 😉 Next Michael Phelps?!?!
It was another wonderful month with my sweet boy 🙂
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Reading these posts about Kye make me so excited for Brianna to be his age! Not that I'm wishing time away, it's just nice to have things to look forward to. We felt the same way about Brave. . . it definitely scared Brianna!
This IS such a FUN AGE! Macy dresses her dolls in her clothes I think it is so funny. Haha