Dusting Off

Well looky here Pure Joy still exists. It's covered in a nice layer of dust, but I might pull out some Pledge if I can remember how this works. =)

It took more effort than I felt necessary to get blogger to allow me to log on. Of course this all stems from me logging into Kaitlyn Joy's email account then my blog and the two were suddenly linked. =( Apparently it's an unforgivable action for Google.

Moving on...

We have reached the point in the summer where you start to question if God notices us down here in central Texas baking. It's 104° right now. We recently spent two weeks in Minnesota where people complained of the dreadful 85° heat. I'll just insert a head shake right here.

Kaitlyn Joy had a great time on both Clearwater and Gull Lake.

Neal enjoyed seeing both sides of his family. The girl in The middle is Neal's cousin.

I took some of the downtime and crocheted...

...surrounded by people. 

I was alone until they suddenly found me and started joining my quiet space.

We may have done a bit of this too.

Summer Swim

Kaitlyn Joy joined a summer swim league this year. Despite taking three rounds of swim lessons when she was 4-6 years old, Kaitlyn Joy began the summer doing what looked like controlled drowning. It was seriously sad. She definitely improved a lot an even managed to win a couple ribbons. They have a wonky rule that each team will only receive three ribbons for each race, 1st-6th.  There were times when she came in 4th, but didn't get a ribbon because 1st-3rd were her teammates. Oh well... Next year she plans on bringing home more ribbons. She has joined a club swim team that practices three times a week all year long.

 

Here she is doing her best stroke which is the backstroke.

I have no doubt she'll master the breaststroke soon because they have her do it for most of the club practices.

 

The best part of swimming this summer was competing with three of her friends.

Speech Meet

Kaitlyn Joy will once again being going to the District Speech Meet. She's quite excited.

She'll be reciting The Fox and The Crow.

 

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving. Ours was pretty laid back. We skipped the Black Friday Thursday shopping other than buying a couple things off Target.com before the doors opened. Neal and I did go to a couple places on Friday, but we weren't out early hunting for door busters. We're honestly not in need or a real want so we gave up our shopping quickly. It was amazing to see the difference a day makes in how people tackle the stores. I feel bad for the poor employees that have to organize everything all the Black Friday mess left by the shoppers.

Risk Taker

Some days you just have to be a risk taker... 

...and strap on those heels.

.

Change

Change... I'm not a fan. Sure some change can be good, but when it comes to your child quickly growing up change can stink like those wretched diapers she was making just six years ago.
She's been using deodorant out of need since August. She was 7 years 8 months old at the time her and I went to Target and bought Tom's of Maine deodorant. I was a bit surprised Tom's of Maine was the only deodorant I could find that didn't have antiperspirant. From everything I've heard it's not good for kids to wear antiperspirant. If Target didn't have something I was going to go to another store I know carries Jason's deodorant. So far Tom's is working just fine.

Car seats... Yesterday I noticed Kaitlyn Joy's seat belt wasn't going over her shoulder properly. I raised the back of her high back booster hoping to correct the seat belt issue, but then I noticed she fit snugly into the back. Ahhh! Off it must go.

Up until 10 months ago (7 years old) she still used the 5 point harness. Now we're down to something that just boosts her a little higher. =/

Chicken on the bone. For most this probably isn't an issue, but for my kid she could be starving, but will refuse to eat chicken if she must pick it off the bone or if someone picks it off for her.  However today she ate rotisserie chicken with me. This is BIG! I'm not a fan of cutting up whole chickens nor handling raw chicken that's on the bone so I don't buy it. Because we don't normally eat chick on the bone, my child has never had the pleasure of touching the gross parts until... last year maybe.

Love It

We have a slight fetish with Taco Bell Freezes. We love their icy deliciousness. 

Short Hair

Kaitlyn Joy finally got her hair cut. She has been sucking and rubbing her hair between her fingers until it's a nasty matted mess. I kept telling her if she didn't stop I would have her hair cut short. I don't think she believed me.

Normally we talk about a hair cut for 2-4 weeks before she gets it. She had from the time I checked her in till they called her back to process it was about to disappear. 

I should have taken a before picture. You'll have to settle for the photo I took of her this evening. She was modeling her jog-a-thon shirt from K3 or preschool for three year olds. On that note, her still fitting in the shirt may make her sound small, but she's right around 54". You know what they say, "Everything's bigger in Texas."

 

She likes her hair long, but she has warmed right up to having it short.

First Face Mask

Who thought there would still be a first to hit at four?  Okay, she still hasn't driven a car, voted, or heaven help us - dated, but on the smaller scale whats new for a four year old?  Anyway, we put on a face mask last week.  Now I want to say I don't think it's far she typically wakes up with great hair, she looks wonderful without an effort, and with a clay mask on she's still adorable.  Don't you wish we could all say that?  One night I took out her braids and sent her to bed without washing her hair (yes, she took a bath).  I couldn't believe she didn't have ANY braid waves the next morning.  My hair would have looked like I just took them out.  *sigh*  Not fair.  Mom was my hair like that as a preschooler?

Perhaps I should put more on her next time so she won't be able to move her face.  LOL...

Memory Verses

Kaitlyn Joy has been working on two memory verses. The first one, which she normal says the full verse, is one from school. Because her class is only three, they don't expect them to actually remember it, but her teacher repeats it to them all the time. Kaitlyn Joy quickly picked it up and can say Genesis 1:1 with one hand tied behind her back. Since Tuesday we have been working on Philippians 4:13. She can say the verse, but until I shot this video, she couldn't or wouldn't say "Philippians". Well, enjoy. She says the verses in the order she learned them.

Long Overdue Picture Post

I have been doing my posting from Neal's laptop which is why they are picture free. Now that I have dumped my pictures I thought it was time I get on here and show you some of them. It's surprising what you find when you haven't cleared your memory card in a while.

While Nana and Papa visited Kaitlyn had to sport her tutu. Notice the candy bracelet, that would be Papa's doing.

Where are her pants you may wonder? I have no idea. With Kaitlyn most anything is possible.

Kaitlyn's new adventure is learning how to work a computer mouse. She is actually really good at it. She's wobbly with the pointer and turns the mouse sideways sometimes, but she gets the job done. What's she doing you may ask? She's playing Fisher Price toddler games. They help her learn her colors, ABC's, numbers, and shapes.

Last Sunday Kaitlyn was running to the nursery when she fell down and hit her right cheek and eyebrow on the hard ground. With the pictures being smaller you can't see the red spot on her eyebrow. I took this picture hoping to show the black eye that came from the fall, but it just won't show up in the pictures as dark as it really was. It's been a week and she still has it.

The next night I thought I would try again to get a good black eye shot and this is what she gave me. For the record, I don't believe I have ever done this to her. I think she just has a little bit of Uncle Travis in her.

Here's the new wings that Grammie and Grampa sent her. She has a costume that goes with it, but I haven't been able to get her to try it on yet.

Like Father, Like Daughter

Kaitlyn Joy... She may look a lot like me, but she can be so much like her daddy. Oh, what am I saying she's a blend. Since she was born she liked to scare/surprise you. At just a few months old she would quickly straighten her legs while you changed her diapers then laugh at your response. That would be me in her. LOL...

This morning though... This post stemmed from this morning events. Like ever morning Kaitlyn came into my room and crawled in bed with me. After a couple minutes she said, "blood!" I quickly grabbed some tissues and put them on her nose. I looked over at my pillow that I had abandoned for her, and it had blood all over it. Ahhhhh!!!! I striped my pillow then went to check out her pillow. Not as much, but sure enough there was blood on her pillow too. I'm assuming she was bleeding because she picked her nose. That's usually how it starts. Neal has nose bleeds though. If I find that it starts on it's own I'm taking her to the doctor. I would rather her not have to deal with nose bleeds if she doesn't have to.

Other random morning news... I was trying to move all the laundry around so I could wash the bloody pillow cases. All the while Kaitlyn kept saying, "I'm hungry mommy. Mommy I'm hungry...." I kept telling her to give me a minute and I would get her breakfast. I sent her to the bathroom to wash her face to buy me a little bit more time. When I walked in the house with the laundry she was eating a banana. I thought about being upset with her, but figured she took care of the hunger problem herself so I would let it go.

Kaitlyn woke up with a dry diaper today!!!! Hip-hip-hooray! If she keeps this up she can sleep without a diaper on. She begs every night to sleep in panties. I have to tell her she isn't ready. Then I tell her Randi (my cousin's daughter) still wears diapers to bed because she wets the bed sometimes. Actually... Randi may be done with them by now. Hmmm...

Kaitlyn Joy... *shakes head* She just came in here spitting all over me. She was washing her hands when she got soap in her mouth. How did she get soap in her mouth you may be asking? She's two use your imagination.

Kaitlyn found her old pacies over the weekend. She hasn't used one in over two years and had no idea she was sucking it upside down. Seeing how this one was 0-6 month size it wasn't much fun to suck on. When she was a baby I decided she wasn't going to be an older child with one of these in her mouth. I told Neal if she wanted to suck them when she's a year old she will have to do it with a 0-6 month size. However we didn't let her go that long. Babies lose their need to suck around 4-6 months. When she was four months old I noticed she wasn't using them much during the day. I kept it around a bit longer because we were about to fly back to the States (from England) and I wanted it to make her ears pop. When we got back from our trip I put them away and she was fine with it. It sure went much better taking them away when she was done sucking at 4-5 months then for parents who wait until their children are 1-3 years old. We had maybe one mildly fussy night. She was really fine with it.

Houston Zoo

Last week we went to the Houston zoo. Kaitlyn loves the zoo. While we were in San Antonio she kept talking about going to the zoo and wanting to see snakes, giraffes, and elephants (among other animals).

Kaitlyn has never been able to play in the water area before so I let her this time. I figured I had a couple extra outfits with me so why not. She had a blast!

Kaitlyn liked this little frog that spits water. A hovering mom came in right after this shot was taken and wouldn't let Kaitlyn near the frog. I hate hovering moms. Okay, I stay close to Kaitlyn some times too, but if a kid comes up wanting to play with something I tell her to share. This lady would make Kaitlyn leave. Her child had been playing with the frog for a while too. More on hovering moms below.

As you can see, she was completely soaked. Thank goodness for the extra clothes.


Moms who hover... Or rather mean moms who hover; I don't like you. You know who you are. Me, my child and no more. Women like you should be banned from public places. Alright I'm being a bit extreme. I find when a mom sticks close to their child they will either be mean to other children or they're friendly and helpful. I watch hovering moms like a hawk to find out which they are. If they are mean, I stay near Kaitlyn to protect her from the jerk mom. We were at a park the day before going to the zoo and a special mom was there. She had a riding toy nearby that no one was allowed to play with. She wouldn't keep it near her because she was hovering up in the play equipment. She wouldn't put it away because she was lazy. Instead if Kaitlyn would get on it she would run over and make her get off. I was getting hot. I understood she didn't want Kaitlyn riding it and I did try (from a distance) to keep Kaitlyn off, but I felt the woman wasn't being fair. If she doesn't want a child to play with an unattended toy she needs to put it away. As I called Kaitlyn to leave the woman started telling me how she had to keep making my daughter get off the toy. She tried to make it sound kind. So in like fashion I in the sweetest way I could said, "She didn't understand why. We normally go to a park with sand (this one had wood chips) and everyone brings toys. We just put them down and it's a free for all. She didn't understand why she couldn't do that today." At that I grabbed Kaitlyn and started walking away while the lady babbled something about the toy not working well on wood chips. My thoughts... Shut up lady and put your dumb toy away. On a riding toy note. When we were taking Kaitlyn to the park with sand she would ride a toy out to it. She stopped at the sand and got off the riding toy. I took the riding toy with me and would dump toys in the sand. I kept the riding toy with me far away from the sand and other children. Doing this we never had problem with other children coming to play with her riding toy.

Raining

It's raining, it's poring, the old man is snoring... Okay, he isn't snoring. He's sitting on the swing, talking on the phone, while my two year old plays in the rain.

To think we left her in his care and this is what I get...

A wet toddler.

Naps

Yesterday Kaitlyn was taking a really long nap. I finally decided I better go check on her (again). I walked in to find this...

She had found her colors, a coloring book and her burger from lunch. I asked, "Kaitlyn what are you doing?" She said, "I'm eating a burger." LOL... We had gone out to eat. When we returned the burger was in my purse. I took it out and laid it on the bed. I guess she did a little snooping.

Swimming

Kaitlyn loves the pool and enjoyed it even more the last time we went. She kept crawling in whenever it struck her fancy. Here's some pictures of her adventure.

Here she is climbing in for another dip.

She hated getting water in her ears.

National Anthem

Kaitlyn loves standing at the open hotel door when the National Anthem and Taps are played each weekday. Yesterday I filmed her during the Anthem. Normally she stands still while it plays and has her right hand on her heart. With me not kneeling beside her things were a bit wonky. Don't mind the chili on her face. We were eating Frito pies beforehand.

Sorry it's sideways. I totally didn't think about it. At the very end you see her lips moving; she's trying to sing the words to the song.

Here's she's telling you she just heard the National Anthem.

Father's Day Beach Trip

For Father's Day we went to the beach. I think we all had a blast. Kaitlyn was scared of the water at first, but once she warmed up to it she wanted in all the way. Neal said last night he thinks if he had gone in to his neck she would have been thrilled. I on the other hand... things live in that water. Sharks can swim up to knee deap water. I know what you're think... whose knee? Just count on about two feet. Those who scoff and say it will never happen, well that's their famous last words.

Because Kaitlyn wants me to keep helping her put together a cat puzzle we picked up from Walmart today I'm going to leave you with some pictures.

First setting foot in the water.

Checking out the water and testing the undertow; which was fine by the way.

Playing in the sand with daddy before heading back out in the water.

2.5 Birthday Party

Kaitlyn's 2.5 birthday party was last Saturday. My sister-in-law Laura and I made Kaitlyn a Hermie cake; it turned out pretty well if I do say so myself. The bottom lip was Brenan's (my brother-in-law) idea... I don't think I'm a fan. Hehehe... Don't you love Laura's legs?! I wanted to write "God's not finished with me yet" below or above the cake with the black icing, but Hermie took up so much of the cutting board I gave up the idea. If you've ever seen Hermie: A Common Caterpillar you would have heard the quote many times on there.

To make your own Hermie or worm cake like this one you will need a 9", 8", and 6" round cake pan. I made 1 - 9", 2 - 8" and 1 - 6" cakes. After making the cakes and letting them cool, I put them in the deep freeze. When I was ready to put it together the cakes were nice and firm so I could handle them. I would lay one cake on top of another where I wanted it to overlap and use it as a guide to cut. I did this for each cake and it worked like a charm. On his head (the 9" cake) I slimmed up his forehead a bit. I cut an angled piece off by his eyes on each side of his head. You can kind of see this in the first picture. Honestly he was super easy to put together. The hardest part was getting the icing to stick before it dried. I made the icing and it seemed a bit thick even thought I made it from a recipe I've used before. Next time I may cut back on the sugar. A couple different times I added more milk to thin it out. Thankfully Laura was quick to jump in and help spread the icing. She's the one who figured out how to make it so nice and smooth. If you don't think this is smooth you should have seen how I had it before. Hehehe... It wasn't so pretty. We formed the eyes, legs, eyebrows, nose, and mouth by hand and the pupils were dabbles of black icing. Hmmm... what should I make next year?Can you believe I made Kaitlyn a Strappy Sundress with bug fabric for the party and this is the best picture I have of it?!!! I'll have to take another picture of her in it.
We rented a bouncy castle for the party. Kaitlyn loved it so much she's still talking about it. We put her down for a nap just as the people came to take it away. She woke up wanting to jump. =(
Kaitlyn loved opening her gifts. Here she is after opening the last one.

JAX Zoo

Kaitlyn and I went to the Jacksonville zoo while we were in GA. It's actually a really nice zoo. I didn't take many photos, but here's a few for you to look at.

Run, it's going to stomp you.

Edit: There's always a smart cracker in every group. Mr or Ms Anonymous, we were in GA when we drove for about an hour to Jacksonville, FL to go to the zoo. This happened on our GA trip though. We did end up spending two nights in Jacksonville before leaving for home, but we didn't go to the zoo at that time.