Monthly Summary – September

September was a month FILLED with travel (Labor Day, Vegas, and Disney took up more than half the month) so I didn’t capture as many pictures around the house as I normally do since, well, we weren’t at the house!

Here’s some of the things Kye was up to in September:

Behavior: I feel that Kye is at a GREAT age right now. He really minds well and we rarely have to spank him. He does well in public as well as at home, it’s such a blessing and I feel like it’s all our hard work paying off already! We went to Carter’s Outlet and he LOVED the lego table they had. He begged me to keep shopping so he could stay! We put ALL the legos on the table and then cleaned them all up so well. I was really proud when the ladies who worked at the store went on and on about how wonderfully behaved he was 🙂

Red Lobster: Chick-Fila is still, hands down, his favorite place to eat but I think Red Lobster is his second favorite. He LOVES getting to watch the lobsters and they often will let him touch one too. Again, this was another time when I felt so proud of his behavior. While we were there he was being SO sweet to another little girl his age and asking her to look at the lobsters with him, etc and she wasn’t having it. Her grandmother actually asked how old he was and when I told her she went complimented me over and over again about how well behaved and how social he was. When we left Zach and I had a long talk about how thankful we are that we found Babywise (thanks to CRISSY!!!) as it truly has blessed our lives!!!

Juice: I’m very anti-juice. My child never had anything other than milk or water touch his lips until recently. He’s gotten clever about me sneaking veggies into his food and he just isn’t a vege fan (I plan to post on this eventually but Zach and I don’t really eat them much either so I can’t really blame him). He LOVES Plum Organics (which is just baby food in a cool, shippable, package) so he gets veggies that way and he gets them at meals where he has to eat a couple in order to get more of something he does like. I also started giving him juice to help supplement more vegetables. We give him a mixture of Naked Juice, which is a green drink that is FILLED with vegetables and is organic, with V8 Fushion. Not the Splash, but the Fushion version has higher vegetable content and less sugar. I mix the two about 3/4 of the way up the cup then the rest with water. I still have him on the “no juice” list at school because they give apple juice…and I’m still anti-most juices 😉 Kye eats TONS of fruits (I have yet to find a fruit he doesn’t like) so I only do the juice I do for the vegetables 😉

Coloring: Kye is still VERY into coloring. He will color all day long. I only allow him to use crayons and a pen. For some reason he likes pens! Random! He will ask me all the time if he can color on different pieces of paper I have and he typically enjoys a plain sheet of paper over a coloring book page. Here’s a video of him drawing and telling me all about the things he’s drawing in the picture.

School: School is going REALLY well! He really, really loves it! He’s had one timeout, that I know of anyway, which I think is pretty good for a 2 1/2 year old. He told me many times that he had timeout but it turned out he actually hadn’t! A lot of his friends had timeout and Kye actually asked to be in timeout with them haha! He talks about his friends at school and has learned SO MUCH already there. I’m really glad we decided for him to go when he did and I’m confident it was the right decision. We’ve had a small issue with another child picking on Kye but with prayer, patience, and awesome communication with his teachers I think we’re past it! He gets a stamp on his hand every day to let us know he was good and it cracks me up because SO often the stamp will get wet somehow and end up all over his face 😉 Zach freaks but a quick baby wipe swipe takes care of it!

Like Father…Like Son: I see myself a lot in Kye with our personalities. He is a perfectionist in a lot of ways and is a lot more mellow overall than Zach is. However, he’s still his daddy’s child. This video (taken over Labor Day) totally says it all! How many two year olds kiss themselves in the mirror this much?!?! He also LOVES to play rough with Zach and they especially enjoy playing “down set hut.” We’ve taught Kye that this is a game that he can only play with Zach…can’t you just see him at school tackling some kid?! Here’s a video of them playing together.

Trying Snacks: Before our trip to Disney I stocked UP on allll kinds of food and snacks for the trip. While I was packing them up, Kye and I had a taste-test session where he got to try the new snacks and tell me if he liked them (dried apples were not a hit!). I was busy running all over the house packing and found him in my bedroom on the floor with his own snack sampling. Someone is tall enough to reach the counter top 🙂 He was just in chill mode acting like he didn’t break a single rule! (Getting the snack without asking and eating outside the kitchen were both the rules he was breaking!)

Responsibility: My MAIN goal as a parent is to raise an adult. I think it’s easy as parents to forget that really, that’s our job! Someday (all too soon!) Kye will grow up and be a man and it’s up to me to make him the best man possible. I’m a BIG believer in independence and responsibility. I’m so not a helicopter mama 😉 Kye has had the job of giving the dogs their treats (we lock them up in their crates whenever we leave the house) for awhile now and as he gets older I keep teaching him new things and adding to his responsibilities. I’ve thought about those little charts with stickers but, honestly, I don’t think I need to be rewarding him for the things he does. A) I don’t get rewarded and Zach doesn’t get rewarded for doing household chores, we have to do them! And as a member of our family our children need to do them too and B) when you reward someone for something it makes that thing seem like a chore instead of something fun. Kye LOVES helping, the pride in helping and the praise from us is prize enough 😉 It takes a LOT of extra time and patience to let Kye do these things, but I feel like it’s well worth it 😉

In addition to giving the dogs their treats in their crates Kye also: takes his plate/silverware/drink to the sink when finished eating, helps me sort laundry (I hand him the item and he puts it in the correct persons basket), lets the dogs in and out of the house (including unlocking the door…with my permission only), helps unload the dishwasher (he hands me the stuff and I put it away), puts away his clothes (mostly just the underwear and socks), cleans up (has his own “vacuum” he uses when I do it, has his own broom and helps me sweep, I will give him a baby wipe and let him wipe down things when I’m cleaning too), he helps me cook dinner (usually just mixing things, handing me things, or pouring things for now) and sets the table. He’s getting pretty good at the table! He did this all on his own! 🙂

Putting Things “Away”: I’ve heard that at a certain age your child will start hiding things and you won’t be able to find them. We’re at that age! I TOTALLY appreciate Kye trying to help Mommy…but his help is often not very helpful. Like when he takes all the clothes out of one drawer and puts them all in another. Not fun for me to re-organize and fold! We find his toys “put away” in our clothes drawers often and still cannot find our remote to our bedroom fan/light. In these pictures he was “helping” me put away the clothes I was trying to pack for Disney and he ended up dressing up like Mommy. All on his own he kept asking me to fix his “dress.” Too funny! I ended up finding all these clothes “put away” behind my nursing chair in the bedroom.

Bath: Zach has pretty much always done bath duty. I have fond memories of my dad doing bath duty and I think it’s important for something in our daily schedule to be with just Daddy. Now that I’m nice and pregnant I physically can’t bathe him (picking up a wet, wiggly toddler from a bath is not a good idea!). Kye LOVES to watch the “tornado” when the water goes down the drain and has really started to enjoy all of his adorable hooded towels. He always comes to find me after his bath and show me what animal he is that night. 🙂

Singing: The BIGGEST change to take place since Kye has started school as been the amount of signing that takes place in our home. He used to sing pretty often, but now it’s constant. We sing ALL kinds of songs (some I had to look up online to learn the words to!) and I really love how into it he gets. He also will make up his own songs often just about whatever he’s doing. Such as “I’m eating a banana I’m eating a banana” over and over 😉 I have SEVERAL videos of him singing songs: no more monkies jumping on the bed video, ABCS video, aligator song/no more monkies/abcs video, I’m in the lord’s army (while on the potty video, singing “I’m in the Lord’s army” to his toy video, and his own made-up song called “just two minutes” video

Big Brother: I’m doing my best to prepare Kye to be a big brother. I’m surprised by how much he is able to understand and how excited he is to meet his brother or sister. I’ve mentioned in an earlier blog entry but he has named the baby “Iesis” (here’s a video) and practices his big brother duties with a little stuffed monkey we have. In this picture he’s kissing the 4d ultrasound of the baby!

Mr Fix-It: Tools are one of Kye’s favorite toys and ANYTIME he can “fix something” he’s all about it. I have to keep a close eye on him as he’ll fix anything which can mean damage to stuff pretty easily. He now knows to ask me before fixing something 😉 We had an incident several months ago with a screwdriver tool (that he totally shouldn’t have been given…) and a wall in the playroom so we’re much more mindful now 😉

Tongue: I’ve noticed that Kye sticks out his tongue anytime he’s in deep concentration or really listening to something/someone. It’s cute and it lets me know when he’s serious about what he’s doing!

Reading: Reading is one of Kye’s favorite things to do and it cracks me up to hear the things that come out of his mouth from his “bible.” Here’s a video of him reading from my agenda book (mostly talking about some tractor coming?) and here’s another video of him reading from my devotional book all about Colt, Payton, the park, and Jesus loves me.

Pretend Play: Kye is very into pretend play now which I’ve been waiting for! It’s so fun to play pretend and his favorite thing to play with right now is his play food in the playroom. He asks to go in the playroom all the time so he can cook for me. It cracks me up! Here’s a video I took of him eating the play food and here’s a video Zach took of him “dancing” in his playroom and playing with the food too!

chuggin his “jelly”

“Love ME Mommy”: Kye finally tells us he loves us on a regular basis. He often mixes it up and will say “I love me mommy!” instead of “I love you” and when he does say “I love you mommy” he gets rather offended when I say “I love you too kye” I don’t know if he thinks I’m playing a game with him or if I’m saying something that I’m not or what but I often have to just say “thank you” in order for him to actually stop saying “no, I LOVE YOU Mommy!” haha. Here’s a video of a bit of it 🙂 He will say he loves me before going to sleep and will grab my face with his hands and pull me in for a kiss over and over again. Such sweet little pecks!

Disney: Prior to going to Disney I made a HUGE deal about it ALL THE TIME. Probably too big of a deal. Before even ever seeing the park he cried because he wanted to go to Disney World so badly 😉 After coming home he’s been all about some Disney and talks about it on a regular basis. He mostly brings up meeting Woody, Jesse, and Buzz, getting kisses from Jesse, and riding pirates. His most used Disney reference is to say “guess what Mommy?” “What Kye?” “We’re going to Disney World!’ It always breaks my heart a little to say that, no we’re not going to Disney World. Hopefully we will again soon though 😉 It also cracks me up that he refused to wear his “First Visit” pin while at the parks but requested to wear it multiple times after we were home and wouldn’t take it off (like when we were at the neighborhood park!)

Riding the “tractor”: As I mentioned earlier, Kye loves to help (great timing on the whole new baby thing right???) and he especially likes to help Daddy. Actually anything with Daddy involved makes him happy! It makes me NERVOUS to see him ride the riding lawnmower with Zach because I have these visions of him falling off and getting ran over or something but I have to trust Zach to watch him and it is cute to see Kye so focused on driving. They often ride it around the yard even without actually cutting the grass 😉

Naps: Kye naps from 1-3:30. I know many kids at his age don’t nap at all and I can’t imagine that! Until my kids all get into kindergarten they will have a nap or at least rest time where they have to stay in their beds. Kye is very obedient and never gets out of his bed but he’ll often wake up early from his nap. It’s pretty funny to hear the things he’ll come up with to try to get me to come into his room and get him…here’s a video of his monitor where he’s saying “Mommy…come here…I gotta tell you something” (Btw when it was 3:30 and I went to get him and asked what he had to tell me, he couldn’t remember…shocker…).  He also has woken up before and yelled “Mommy I need a sandwich!” His bed has shelving on one side and I have several things on the shelves…none of which would be an issue for him to play with but they are more for decoration than for play. Occasionally when I go to get him he’ll have some of the toys from the shelves in his bed with him. One night we actually heard Woody talking on the monitor and had to go in and tell Kye to put Woody to sleep! haha! I have also found him sleeping with his hat on from his shelf 😉 Once he does get up, Zeke is ALWAYS the first one in the door. It’s funny to me how much this cat and boy have bonded. I thought dogs were a boys best friend…not cats?!?! Kye really, really loves Zeke and it’s sweet how much Zeke loves him right back! Of course when I went to take a video of the two of them together, Kye wanted nothing to do with the poor thing. Here’s the video! 

 cuddle time with Zeke

Other Moments from September:

• Kye’s top lip is often split down the middle and will
  bother him. I think it’s from licking his lips so much when he’s
  concentrating? 
• His color recognition has been getting a lot better..he’s correct
  more often but I still wouldn’t say he knows his colors at all yet!
• We read a bible story every morning at breakfast and recently read
  about Jesus going to Heaven. It was SO sweet because he asked about
  each and every person in our family and if they will get to go to Heaven
  (I pray they all do!) and he also said to me “I’m going to go up in the
  sky!” I asked him “where will you go?” and he replied “Heaven!” then I
  asked him “who will you see there?” and he said “Jesus!” So proud 😉
• He’s started to say “oh my gosh” a lot which is funny, and better
  than “oh my god” but still makes me want to be more careful saying that!
  I try to say “oh my goodness” instead
• He’s gotten more particular about the things in his bed when we
  tuck him in. His blanket has to be a certain way or sometimes he’ll wake
  up and call out “fix my blanket please!” 
• Kye’s starting to be able to pull down his own pants to go potty!
• He has enjoyed learning everyones names and thinks it’s fun to say them
• The whole first-born-bossy thing is starting to come out and I
  have to often remind him that Kye is not the boss…Mommy and Daddy are
  the bosses! If he gets a bossy tone I’ll ask him “who is the boss?” and
  usually that nips it
• He has started saying “that is so cool!”

Since Kye turned 2 1/2 this month I thought it’d be fun to crack open the What to Expect The Toddler Years book since I haven’t done that in awhile (plus I’ve already spent over 3 hours on this blog entry today…why not make it even more? Especially since I’m SURE so many of you are reading this far down!).

At 2 1/2 years old Kye can do all the things he “should” be doing including:

• identify 1 picture by naming
• put on an article of clothing
• jump up 
• name 6 body parts
• identify 4 pictures by pointing

He can do most of the things a 2 1/2 year old “will probably, may possibly, and may even be able to do” including:

• identify 4 pictures by naming
• draw a vertical line in imitation
• identify a friend by name
• describe the use of 2 objects
• use two adjectives

The things we need to work on (or I need to just see if he can do) include:

• balance on each foot for 1 second (I’ve never even had him try?)
• balance on each foot for 2 seconds
• identify 1 color (he knows them all but I don’t think he honestly knows one for SURE that is right all the time)
• broad jump

Some interesting stuff I read about in this chapter of the book that pertains to his age:

• I guess a lot of kids have social type issues at this age, thankful we don’t deal with that!
• It said a lot of kids will talk to themselves…I do this more than Kye does b/c he constantly calls me out on it: “what are you saying mommy? who are you talking to?” haha
• Family nudity was covered which is something I don’t really think about (we don’t make a big deal about being naked, especially since I’ll be nursing Blitzen!) but it does say that by age 3 some kids are unconsciously sexually stimulated by seeing their parents naked so it may be smart to start covering up. I think that’s kinda strange? It’s not like I walk around naked 24/7 or something and we don’t bathe together. But if I’m changing I just change and don’t worry about it if he’s there or not. I think we’ll be fine with the situation longer than age 3 but we’ll see. 
• Lots of discussion about parents wanting their kid out of the “family bed” and into their own bed at night…another thing I’m glad we’ve never dealt with
• Had some good tips to help with how long it takes a toddler to get ready and out the door in the mornings (something we deal with on school days!) I personally get up earlier on school days (only by 15 min or so) so I can be ready to go before he wakes up thus making the morning run smoother. I do all the tips they suggest: I limit distractions, I get him up over an hour before we need to leave, I pre-plan the night before on many things, I cuddle with him and don’t rush him out of bed and I have appropriate expectations. I haven’t used a timer yet in the mornings but it could help with some things…although our biggest slow down is how long he takes to eat and I don’t feel I should rush that!

Everyone enjoys pictures so to finish out the post here’s some extra pics I snapped of Kye in his bed after nap one day 🙂

I LOVE this age and can’t wait to see all the fun we’ll be having as he approaches the age of THREE!!!

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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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