Monthly Summary: February

February was Kye’s last month being 2! It’s CRAZY how fast this year flew by and I really think Kye took advantage of having the “terrible twos” as an excuse this month 😉 He was a little more testy than normal. I think the newness of having a baby sister wore off and at the same time Kye started to realize he has the power to make decisions – regardless of if they are what we tell him to do or not. I’m not saying it was a horrible month or that he misbehaved too often, but it was more often than the norm for him. 

Mess: A “new” game Kye started playing was “let’s make a huge mess.” This especially happened while I was nursing. We don’t make Kye stay in the same room with us at all times. He has ALWAYS been responsible and independent and, above all, trustworthy. I’m fine with him going to his room to get something and bringing it back out to the living room while I’m nursing. What isn’t okay is when I walk into his room to find ALL of his toys out and he’s sitting in the middle of the mess. This was the first time and it was pretty minor, only one bucket of toys was dumped.

 He enjoyed showing me EVERY toy he had in that bucket

This was the second time it happened…every stuffed animal was on his bed

It took us, no joke, 45 minutes to clean this up!

After the BIG MESS in the bedroom we had a BIG talk to go with it about how we take out ONE toy at a time then put that toy away before getting out more toys. He hasn’t done it in his bedroom again. However, he has 40 minute long play room time each day and I’m not in there to control what he is doing. I was probably the most furious I have been when I walked up to find this.  Another LONG clean up and this time there was an even firmer talk about how the get one toy out at a time thing applies EVERYWHERE. I told him if he ever does this again he WILL be getting spankings. For sure. Now when he goes to room time I remind him to get out one at a time and clean it up afterwards and I shower him with praises when I go up there to find a perfectly cleaned space! He hasn’t done any of this junk since, thank the Lord!

Potty: As you know from this post, Kye has potty issues. We really didn’t realize what was wrong with him until the end of the month, so the beginning of the month was frustrating. He had lots of accidents and we thought he was doing it for attention. We never spanked him for it but we did put him in pull-ups one night and made him sleep in them. He scream and cried for an HOUR in his bed about having to wear them but we were at a loss as to what to do and honestly thought he was acting out. The more I researched it the more I thought maybe he was constipated so we went through a week of giving him legit apple juice, tons of prunes at each meal, etc to get him to poop well. He did and we thought maybe it helped the situation, but it really didn’t. Now that we know what’s going on he RARELY has an accident because we are so quick to take him potty when he asks (he has to ask us to go from his bed, he’s not allowed out of the bed unless we get him out).

He does a GREAT job of initiating going to the potty on his own and now that he has a better toilet seat, he can do it ALL without ANY help. We have been using a little potty chair since he was potty trained a year and a half ago. Sometimes I get stuck in a routine and forget that things should change. It never occurred to me that it might make life easier to have him go on the toilet rather than have to dump the potty every time. Kelly mentioned she bought this seat for her toilet so we made the investment as well and LOVE it. SO much easier and it allows him to keep things clean (he was dumping the little potty himself and it made quite the mess).

Along with this potty independence came some typical toddler potty issues…one day Zach went into the bathroom and couldn’t find the toilet paper holder. Kye informed him that he flushed it down the potty! Zach tried and tried to get it out with the plunger but didn’t have any luck. I’m shocked that thing went down and didn’t clog the toilet! It was one of those things that was so funny it was hard to be serious about, but Zach had a long talk with him about how ONLY tee-tee and poo-poo go into the potty.

Kye also discovered how fun the toilet paper is and would unroll the whole thing or grab a TON of it to wipe himself and we’d end up with a mess. Another talk happened (it was a big learning month can you tell?!?!) about how we only use ONE SQUARE of the toilet paper (Cheryl Crow style haha). Kye has learned to ask me to come help wipe him when he poops. He had tried to do it himself and we often end up with a decent amount of mess in his underwear. Not fun to clean for sure!

He’s showing me the one piece

He kept covering his face with is and thought it was hilarious

Nap Issues: Kye goes to bed at 7:15 each night and wakes up at 7:00 the next morning. His nap is from 1:00-3:30. During this month he started taking a LONG time to fall asleep during naps. Sometimes he wouldn’t fall asleep until 2:30 or 3:00 then he’d sleep until 5! I worried that maybe he needed shorter naps or something so I re-read toddlerwise and preschool wise and, nope, he should still be napping the same. It did say to WAKE him up though at the normal time no matter when he falls asleep as to not mess up sleep later. I don’t have the heart to wake him at 3:30 if he just fell asleep at 3, but I will wake him at 4:00 if he isn’t awake already. Kye is NOT a sweetie when he is woken up (he gets it from his mama…) so I try to be super gentle and sweet about it 🙂

can you tell this is gonna be a grouch?!?!

School: School is still going very well. We decided to sign him up for the three day class again next year as I want to have him home with me for as long as possible. I heard that at age 4 it goes to every day so I’m just not going to think about that yet 😉 He never gets any bad reports or letters sent home or has a day where he doesn’t get a sticker or a stamp. I’m thankful we set the foundation we did and that, so far, he has wonderful behavior in the classroom. With Britt’s schedule I still have a lot of help to take Kye to and from school. Typically Zach can take him in the mornings but if he can’t Mom usually can. I will pick him up on Mondays and Fridays and Mrs. Charlotte gets him on Wednesdays for me (she gets Colt that day too and since they go to the same school it’s easy for her to grab them both). It works out well and I REALLY appreciate all the help!

It’s funny because they often do a stamp for good behavior and Kye’s always rubs off all over his face! He looks like a Ninja Turtle!

Workin’: I think a lot about how celebrities and sports stars will say they were Kye’s age when they realized what they wanted to do with their lives. I seriously think that’s such a lie!!! Kye has NO CLUE what acting is, what careers are, that he would even have the option to play a sport on a professional level. He does, however, LOVE to work. I think it’s nice that he wants to be like Daddy and I think, if he understood the concept at all of being something when he grows up, that if you did ask him what he’d like to do with his life that he’d say he wants to work like Daddy. He takes a lot of business calls and even copies some of the people he hears Zach talking to (like Mr. Alex). It’s cute and I hope he grows up to have the strong work ethic like his father and that he will provide for his family the way his daddy does for us.

Another job Kye would probably choose right now would be to be a waiter. He LOVES to take our orders and write it all down. It’s pretty much always a choice between chicken, fries or hot dogs. You’d think we eat out a ton with how much he enjoys doing this, but we rarely go out to eat! Here’s a video of him reading off some of his orders and who he took them for.

Food: Kye still enjoys sandwiches but right now, hands down, his favorite food is yogurt raisins. He will ask for them practically every meal and would eat them non-stop if I allowed it! I typically make a quesadilla for lunch for myself. I know that’s pretty random but I use two wheat tortillas, some refried beans and a little cheese and it’s a filling, yummy, low point lunch! Kye always wants to share whatever Zach and I are eating (although he does not like my granola bar with peanut butter and tuna fish lunch haha) and he started asking for his own quesadilla. I made one for him and he LOVES them and will eat the entire thing!

I guess he knows he’s growing up because this month he completely stopped using a bib at all for eating. He also started to put his booster seat on the floor when he’d sit to eat and never wanted to use it so I packed it away. He typically just sits on his knees now at the table. I’m also trying to wean myself off of the sippy cups. I know he’s old enough to handle a big boy cup but I am not ready to deal with the mess. I got some of the take and toss cups with straws and he’s using those now. I also give him water in a regular cup. I’m just not ready for milk yet 😉

Fix Mommy’s Hair: I LOVE having my hair played with and I LOVE that Kye is finally to the age where he enjoys playing with it. I don’t care that he’s a boy, he’ll be allowed to do this as long as possible 😉 I let him pretty much destroy my hair because it feels so good and is so relaxing 😉

Sleep/Shows: Kye is all about preparation. He enjoys the preparation work more than anything else with things he does. He will go on and on about getting ready for his show…however I have YET to see any type of show actually take place. It’s a lot of work to prepare for it and by the time he’s done preparing I think he’s just too worn out to actually put on the production (guess he’s def not gonna be an actor when he grows up huh?!?). The same thing goes for the “lets go to sleep” game he likes to play. He has us get in our bed and will take ages to adjust pillows, cover us properly with blankets, cuddle with us, etc and never actually lays down to “sleep.”

Preparing for his “show”

“Sleep”

Sleeping for like two seconds before Kye realized he had to fix something else

Britt’s Bottle: Kye is VERY loving with Brittlynn but it’s very interested in actually helping us with her. He doesn’t like to help with diaper changes, clothing changes, etc. Recently I was going out (I think to the kids sale) so I wanted to get some pictures of Kye helping feed Brittlynn her bottle for the first time. He was actually interested in it! At least for a few minutes 😉

Cake: In the anticipation of his birthday Kye “made” a lot of cakes. He uses these little peg games I’ve had for ages and calls them our cake. He will sing to us, have us blow out the candles, and “eat” it. It keeps him VERY well entertained so I don’t mind this game one bit. He’s played this off and on for awhile but this month he started to put all the same colored pegs together. He’s very into matching and I take it as a good opportunity to focus on learning colors. He cracks us up when we try to talk about colors, his answer when we ask him what color something is is usually “i don’t know”. Here’s a video of him with his cakes!

Big Fall: When Kye gets up to use the potty during naps, I try to keep it as uninteresting as possible. I leave the lights off. I tell him he can’t talk. I typically even leave the bathroom so he’s not distracted by me. Well, not anymore. I went into our room to put away some clothes while he was going to the potty and I heard a crash and crying. I ran into the bathroom and he had climbed up onto the counter and had fallen from it and hit his head on the tile floor. Of course I was concerned but I googled concussion symptoms and he didn’t have any of them, thank goodness. I have NO CLUE what he was doing up there, but we had another long talk about how he can’t climb up on the sink without someone in there with him and how when it’s time to go potty he ONLY goes potty then goes back to bed. I also have stopped leaving him alone when he goes during nap or night time. While I hate that he got hurt, I am also thankful for the natural lesson learned. Sometimes natural consequences for our actions are the best ways to learn not to do something! It was also very sweet because when he went back to bed I asked him if his head was hurting and if he needed medicine (thinking he may have a headache and need tylenol) his response was “My head hurts but Jesus will make it better.”

Obviously this picture wasn’t taken at the same time as the fall but he is just really into seeing himself in the mirror and I think maybe that’s what he was doing when he fell? Here’s a video of him trying to see himself.

Umbrella: We had some nasty rains during February and Kye got some good use out of his umbrella. I bought it for him for our Disney trip back in September thinking it would help him not mind the rain…it didn’t work then but I’m thinking it will in the future because he LOVES getting to use it now. This particular day was one of the times Zach was out of town and poor Kye was bored to DEATH stuck at home with Britt and I. He asked to go to Gramma’s so we called her and she said yes. We were waiting for her to pick him up and he got a little rain time play in…don’t you love how he’s dressed?!?

Keeping Busy: Kye, typically, behaves BEAUTIFULLY while I’m nursing. Brittlynn is a sloooow nurser so I’m thankful that Zach and I instilled independence in Kye at a young age. He can entertain himself for the entire hour that she’s eating without any issues. I always pull out a toy or two from rotation (we keep several in the front hall closet and in other baskets around the house so I don’t have to go up to the playroom each time to bring things down) and he’ll happily play while I feed Britt. He’s gotten so responsible that he’ll even get some of the things out himself. He can get out this rather large car mat and set it up on his own now!

When Zach was gone I kept the easel set up in the kitchen for easy coloring…he loved it!

Party Anticipation: Zach and I (okay..mostly I) LOVE anticipating fun things. I think a big part of the reason Kye LOVED Disney so much was that I talked about it constantly. I still do. We talk about Disney at least once a day. I want him to KEEP that magic alive and keep on lovin it. 😉 This year was the first year Kye understood he was getting a birthday party. After our trip to Disney he picked the theme of the party (so this was back in Sept!) and we have talked about it ever sense. Obviously we didn’t talk about it daily at first but as it’s gotten closer we talk about it more and more. The entire month of Feb we had a boy who was BEYOND thrilled about his upcoming birthday. I know that building stuff up like that could be an issue because it could make him disappointed, but at this age ANY birthday party would have made him happy. He doesn’t have expectations that I have to be concerned with not living up to, ya know? He was very hands-on in the party process and loved discussing everyone who would be coming (and I was honest with him when he’d list people who wouldn’t be there). He re-organized these yogurt raisins for the party about 100 times. I was proud of him because he never opened a single box.

Other Behavioral Issues: Kye started saying “shut up” this month. I’m not sure where he learned it (although we assume school from other kids???) but he used it the proper way multiple times. Especially towards me. It only happened about 5 times total and hasn’t happened sense. I think it was another way to test his boundaries with us. The first couple of times I kinda ignored it because I thought if I gave attention to it that it’d make it more exciting to say it ya know? But once he said it TO ME it was on! I told him that we NEVER say that to anyone (even the dogs as once I caught him saying it to them) and that if he said it he’d have to get a spanking. Also this month he started having some respect issues with me. I know this is something Zach struggled with with his own mom and I know I have to lay down the law while he’s young so it won’t be an issue when he gets older. He’d make this little spit type sound when I’d tell him to do something. I can’t STAND that. It’s rude and it’s unacceptable. I started spanking him for it and it quickly stopped. I require him to say “yes ma’am” when I give a command (I had to get back to re-enforcing that as well as he started to say “no” or “I don’t want to” this month) and I don’t ask him to do things, I tell him to. I make sure he knows I am in charge, not him. I think I slacked a little after Brittlynn was born because I felt guilty, but I tightened the reigns back up and now none of these things are an issue. Sometimes I’m thankful for little outbursts of bad behavior as they help keep ME in line and on the ball!

Big Brother: I know these pictures were shown in Brittlynn’s weekly updates, but I am probably going to repeat my favorite pictures of them together in his monthly posts as well. Someday I may decide to make each kid a blog book of just the posts about them so I want to be sure each kid has the best pictures of them with their siblings too 😉 Kye is still wonderful to his sister and truly loves her. It’s such a wonderful sight to see! Here are my favorites of them together this month:

And of course one of me with my babies!

 Other things Kye was up to this month:

• He’s more interested in time and always says “It’s 25!”
• He makes all of his toys talk..even sometimes his food…and they ALL talk about Disney World 😉 I tried to get a video of him talking to himself/his toys in his room and this video seriously makes me laugh so hard out loud. His reaction when he sees me is hilarious!
• Kye can now reach the counters in the kitchen and can get things down. It’s hard to get in the habit of keeping things out of reach!
• He is always on Britt patrol and likes to have the video monitor in his possession so he can keep an eye on her
• Kye made the comment “I don’t love Daddy.” And we had to talk to him about how we love everyone even if sometimes we are upset with them. I think Zach being gone for much of the month was hard on Kye, he ADORES Zach and I have always felt like their bond is so close, even closer than mine with Kye probably is. 
• After Disney Kye often joked that he gave Jessie mommy’s kisses…now he tells me that he gives my kissed to KAILYN! um, a fictional character I can live with…but a legit girl?!?! I’m not ready for this!!!
• Kye’s favorite thing to do in the playroom during roomtime is to get all of his play food out and cook for us. When we come to get him he has our seats all set up and ready for our meal. Here’s a video.
• Instead of saying “what” or “huh?” we are working on training Kye to say “ma’am?” or “sir?” 
• I love how Kye will sit at the table while we eat and say “sooo how was your day today mommy?” 
• When he makes a mistake or something “bad” happens Kye will say “Oh man!” and (my personal favorite) “Oh greeeat!”
• I asked Kye if he wanted to help me cook dinner one night and he said “I can’t help cook dinner mommy because I’m not a man yet.”
• Randomly Kye said “Britt is my best friend!” then he turned to her in her room and said “Britt you are my best friend” and then he sang “I’ll love you forever” to her. All on his own, so sweet!
• I always like to ask what the favorite part of Kye’s day was and one day he told me it was helping to put Britt to bed
• Kye says “e-cause” instead of “because”
• Kye enjoys playing basketball in his playroom and I’ve heard him many times say “boo yeah!” when he’s playing. Here’s a video, but he was being pretty silly because he had an audience 😉
• He is ALL about being a big boy and we can no longer call his wipes “baby wipes” he corrects me and tells me they are “big boy wipes”
• Kye was reading his Bible and I asked him what the Bible is and he said “it is God’s Word!”
• Kye’s favorite song to sing to Brittlynn when we tuck her in is “Jesus Loves Me.” Here’s a video!

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Emily Parker

Hey Y'all, I'm Emily! I'm a stay at home mom and consider parenting to be my passion. Disney is my happiest place and I love making memories as a family together. I'm a big believer in transparency and share all of my real-life moments as a mother of four.

My work has been featured on Love What Matters, Today Parenting and Babywise.Life. I'm also honored to be a member of the Babywise Friendly Blog Network.

You can read more about our family on my About Me page. Also be sure to follow along with me on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest!

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