The month of July was VERY busy! I try hard to make our summers really, really fun and filled with many exciting things for the kids so there wasn’t much “other” stuff to put in this post 🙂
Work Ethic: I am always very proud of Kye’s work ethic. He likes to help, he likes to step up and get things done, and he puts a lot of effort into everything he does. I am pretty hardcore about my kids helping around the house…however, we don’t make beds. I know, I know, there’s like all these reasons out there that we should make our beds each morning. And maybe someday we will. But as a whole, it’s just something our family doesn’t do! Kye still naps so why make his bed twice a day? And I typically get up earlier than Zach and once he’s up I never think about the bed! It gets made when we have company but that’s about it! One day Kye woke up early from his nap and was SO pumped when I walked in to show me how he’d made his bed 🙂
Kye this month also started to be REALLY into the yard work. He ASKS Zach if he can help him. When we went over to Courtney’s one night he asked Brad if he could pick up the pinecones for him in their yard. Kid just ENJOYS working. Zach told him he’s allowed to “work” on the edge of our property line and he will happily dig and dig and dig! I also love his “work clothes” he came out wearing 🙂
Balance: We all know Kye has inherited his mama’s big head. And it turns out that beast comes in pretty handy! This month Kye discovered he can balance stuff on his head. He walks around the house with random stuff on top of his head…this was in the bathtub and it was a cup filled with water and it stayed like this for SO LONG!
Friends: Ever since Kye weaned from the pacifier (shortly after his 2nd birthday) he has been sleeping with the SAME “friends.” Every nap. Every night. Monkey, Smyrna (a stuffed bear Zach and Jordan brought home for him), his blanket (that Aunt Katie got him!) and his pillow (the decorative pillow from his nursery). Those four. Every time. This month things started to change!!! I haven’t pushed anything on him and knew that, with time, he’d eventually give up his friends. So far Monkey and Blanket are still consistent. But he’s now retired Smyrna and instead asks to trade him out for a different friend. Sometimes it’s Goofy. Sometimes Mickey. Just whatever stuffed animals he’s in the mood for. And pillow? He now has a new one! My SIL (Joy) made him a Toy Story pillow cover and Julia brought it for him when she came to visit and he LOVES it! He asked to sleep with it instead of his regular pillow which shocked me! I’m not sure at what point all the friends will stop being so important to him? But I don’t feel like it’s a big deal right now so I’m just going with the flow about it 🙂
I found Sadie like this in Kye’s bed! Guess she’s not ready to give up pillow or Smyrna yet 😉
Games: Kye’s competitiveness has gotten MUCH better. He typically won’t get nearly as upset anymore when he loses. We always shake hands and say “good game” after every game we play at night and we don’t allow gloating or overly celebrating when he wins as well as we don’t allow him to get all pouty and ugly when he loses. We do sometimes talk a little trash though 😉 One night we were home solo and played Who Shook Hook (a fun one if anyone is looking for a good gift!) and Kye hooked two treasures on one turn! We sent Zach a picture and, of course, Zach made sure to point out that it’s not allowed in the rules haha!
Coloring: It may have been summer time but we still did a LOT of coloring and writing! Kye just really, really enjoys that kind of thing and I know they are skills he will be working on in school so I def encourage drawing and such at home too!
He made this at church and thought it was so funny haha
Proud of his block city 🙂
Chewing: I know everyone has different “pet peeves” but one of mine is hearing people chew their food. I didn’t realize how MUCH it gets under my skin until recently with Kye. I guess he’s at an age where he started smacking when he eats? Ehhh so gross. One of the things we worked on this summer was “chewing with mouth shut” and he has come SUCH a long way in a short time. Whenever I hear him smack I just remind him “mouth closed while you chew!” and it hasn’t been an issue at all. Kye is ALL about food. Always has been and, if he’s anything like his Daddy, probably always will be. I want my children to have proper table manners and to help out with the family meal time. Kye always takes his plate and cup to the sink and also gets out his own silverware before each meal. He is at a stage where he tends to pick at things and says he doesn’t like what’s served, but that’s too bad. You get whatcha get and you don’t get upset 😉 I always try to give the kids at least one or two things I KNOW they like but they have to eat a little of everything and if they want seconds then they need to eat more than just a little of everything in order for me to get them more of something. It’s a good system that works for us and Kye has stopped complaining as much about having to eat things and just gets it done!
Movie: Our local movie theater offers summer movies. They do a morning showing of an older movie and it’s like $1 to get in and $1 for popcorn or something?!!? It’s a GREAT DEAL and I knew I def wanted to take the kids! I thought we’d go more than just once, but that’s all that ended up working out for us. We went with Robyn and saw The Lorax. We own the book and I knew what to expect prior to seeing the movie. So I was prepared! If you’ve never read the book it’s got a HARDCORE political agenda and I knew the movie would be even more obvious about that agenda. Which it was! I mean there was an entire song devoted to how bad and horrible people are who cut down trees. I mean seriously?!?! The kids did GREAT during the movie (I think the fact that we had to sit super close to the front helped keep Britt’s attention the entire time!) and on the way home we had a nice long talk about it. A lot of the reason my kids don’t watch tv and such is because our culture is so, so liberal and so much of our entertainment is filled with political agendas. I explained to Kye (which we also explain to him whenever we read the book) that the problem the guy caused when he cut down the trees wasn’t that he cut them down, it was that he cut them down too quickly. He had a poor business model and didn’t allow for future growth of his business because he didn’t replenish the trees that he was cutting. I showed him a car dealership near our house and how there are tons of trees all around it. I pointed out that you can be successful with business AND still have the environment be okay too. I also told him that there are laws where people HAVE to replant trees they cut down and that actually there are more trees now than there used to be. I def got my point across and it CRACKS me up because Kye is now the exact opposite of what the movie was hoping he’d be after watching it. Instead of being a “tree hugger” he always talks about how he needs to go chop down trees haha Maybe I influenced him a little too hardcore towards the other side 😉
Date Night: Kye and I also had a date night this month. I really, really cherish our quality time together. We went to Zaxby’s then to The Mix and just talked and laughed the whole time. I asked him what he wanted to talk about and he said he wanted to talk about God!!! It BLEW me away. We talked about sin and about how that separates us from God and how Jesus died on the cross for us. I asked him what he thinks God looks like and he said “like Jesus” so I asked what Jesus looks like and he said “God…well actually they both just look like my Daddy.” So sweet! He also talked a lot about how he wants to be a soldier (thanks Mulan for that influence!) and how he wants to be a hero and protect people. A man was sitting near us and heard our conversation and came up to us after we were done eating and showed us a picture of his son in his military uniform. It was a precious moment and he talked about how proud he is of his son and how his son is fighting for our country. It made me sad to think about as a parent how difficult it would be to have your child away from you fighting like that. On the way home I was joking around with Kye and how I don’t want him to grow up and he said “Mommy. I have to grow up. I have to become a soldier so I can fight for the Lord!!!” So true, and I KNOW that he’s going to grow up and be on fire for the Lord and that makes me so proud 🙂
Photographer Kye 😉
Hair: Growing up I had the kind of hair that other little girls always asked if they could play with. I remember being in school and sitting on the floor and having my friends take turns playing with my hair. It is one of my all time favorite things! Whenever I get a massage I ALWAYS tell them to focus on my scalp. I’m not into foot rubs…I’d prefer a head rub haha. I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for Kye to get to an age where he might be down to play with my hair. And the time has arrived!!!! Zach was out of town a good bit during July for work and Kye and I started a new “us time” tradition of brushing hair (Zach told him before he left that he needed to be sweet to his mommy so he wanted to brush hair to be sweet!) He loves getting out all the brushes from my bathroom and he brushes my hair and fixes is so it looks pretty. He takes it (shocker) super seriously and we talk and talk and I just basically am in hair Heaven. I doubt his enjoyment of this will last too long so I’m taking FULL advantage of it while I can!!!
My View: I keep my review mirror set to wear I see Kye’s handsome face every time I look in it! I love that view and love our times in the car together talking and singing songs 🙂
Golf: Kye REALLY loves golf, especially with his Daddy! I love that they have something they share together and am glad they had a couple opportunities to go golfing during this month!!!
Big Brother: Of course Kye is still a FABULOUS big brother! The older Britt gets the more and more they play well together. They do bicker and argue often of course (usually over toys and whose turn it is to play with something) but overall he takes great care of his little sister and they are so cute together!
Riding the four wheeler
Being silly playing games 🙂
Other Stuff Going on With Kye this Month:
- Kye struggled a bit with attitude issues and it was something we worked on. Him being home all the time with me and Britt was hard for him because he does have to compromise a LOT with her and I think he gets sick of me too after awhile (just proof that he’s ready for school huh?). He randomly came up to me one day and said “You are the best mommy. I would always pick you to be my mommy. I’m really sorry for the times I hurt your feelings.” Melted my heart!
- One night I kissed him goodnight and after we kissed he said “that’s all I got baby!” haha
- He calls me sweetie a lot. Like kinda in a condescending way haha. Like if I’m flustered he’ll say “it’s okay sweetie.”
- Since he was a TINY baby Kye has ALWAYS sneezed three times in a row. He never, ever just sneezes once. It’s one of those little things that make him special and I love it about him! He lately has been sneezing EVERY TIME we sit down to eat! So random!
- Kye says that his job is to help protect our family and that he will protect me forever.
- His favorite thing to do in the pool is cannonballs!
- One of our summer goals was to get Kye to wipe himself when he goes poop and he’s getting REALLY great with it! He wipes himself then has one of us “come check” just to make sure he did an okay job. I read somewhere that we should continue checking him until he’s like six. Gah that’s a LONG TIME.
Austin: This month was the month that Austin passed away. I may do a blog post at some point about handling these kinds of things with kids as Kye has been dealing with multiple “tough things” lately and I do think a post about that may help others. When Austin was first lost, Zach and I decided to tell Kye so that we could all pray about it together. I believe in being honest with my children, but only giving as much detail as is necessary and nothing more. So we told him Austin was lost and we needed to pray that they’d find him. I got the call of Austin’s passing while I was swimming in the pool with the kids. I had to quickly get them both out of the pool which was upsetting to them. I didn’t really consider not telling Kye what had happened. I knew he’d see us upset. See Zach upset. That things would be very different and chaotic for awhile and that he’d find out so I told him right then. I actually talked to Kye before I even talked to Zach about it all. I got down on his level and simply told him that God answered our prayers to find Austin. They did find him and we can thank God that he was found and that when they found him he was already in Heaven. That he would see us upset and that it is okay if he’s upset too. That we were all sad that Austin was gone because we will miss him but that we are also SO happy that Austin gets to be in Heaven and we will get to see him again when we get there too! I have always had a lot of personal issues with death and fears about death and it’s something I do NOT want my kids to have issues with. So I focused a lot on Heaven with him and a lot on the good about dying.
Kye handled it all SO well. He was very sweet and loving towards us about everything and he did well with all the craziness in the weeks surrounding Austin’s passing. He did, however, have some anger issues. Robyn helped us by keeping the kids the day of the funeral (we didn’t feel it was appropriate to have them there) and Kye acted out a bit with her and then cried to her and said he was sorry and that he was just mad that Austin died. I’ve told him it’s okay to feel anger and have tried to ALWAYS let him talk about any feelings he has. I never want to minimize his feelings or make him feel like he has to hold stuff inside. I know it’s best to get it out so whenever he wants to talk, we talk. He asked to paint a picture for Steven and Debby (Austin’s parents) and painted a beautiful rainbow for them which was so fitting once we found out about the rainbow pictures! People at church also came up to me on several occasions and said that Kye had prayed about Austin and said in his prayers that Austin died and that is sad but that it is also happy because he is in Heaven.
After the funeral I played the songs for the kids to listen to and sometimes when we get in the car Kye will ask to hear “Austin’s song” (The Dance by Garth Brooks). He still gets upset at times about Austin and that’s understandable because we do too and we probably always will. We have talked about taking Kye out to the cemetery and we asked him if he’d like to go. He said he didn’t want to and I do respect that but I’m sure at some point we will go there as a family together. I hate that all of this has happened. It’s all such a horrible, horrible thing for so many reasons and it’s been so difficult for so many people. As an adult it’s hard enough to cope with it but then having to worry about children dealing with this kind of pain is very difficult too! In relation to Kye (seeing as this his a post about him) it’s the first real experience he’s had with anyone he knows dying. He has been to many funerals as a little baby but doesn’t remember any of them nor does he remember the people who passed away. Death is a part of life (a horrible part) and it something he will have to deal with over and over again so I’ve tried to deal with this the best I possibly can to hopefully help him cope okay in the future when times like these, sadly, occur.
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I love how you phrased everything when you spoke to Kye about Austin passing- so age appropriate, honest and transparent. Prayers for your family as you continue to work through this.