BOunCE!

Since my mom was in town, she decided that she wanted to spend one more day with Kyler. Today she stopped by Diane's and picked him up for a very special day. He was going to "Bounce" (a place where they have all those blow-up bouncy things for kids) with his cousins Jilly and Madi. Unfortunately Josh and I had to work, but we heard all about it! Apparently Kyler had a ball! He was definitely in his element - he LOVES running around and jumping and playing hard like a boy should.



Crazy Courtney!

Wanna race?

Weeeee! I won!

Thanks Mema! You're the BEST!

Weekend away!

Thanks to my mom being in town, Josh and I were able to get away for a grown-up weekend. We went up to the lovely, quaint town of Breckenridge, Colorado. Josh had entered in some contest to win a motorcycle, but instead he won a weekend in Breckenridge, with one small stipulation - we had to sit through one of those timeshare presentations. When I first heard about this "small stipulation", I could have given him a gut-punch, but it really wasn't as bad as I had anticipated.

We headed up to the mountains on Friday night after school - making one short stop in Loveland for dinner at the Rock Bottom Brewery. Then on Saturday morning our internal alarm clocks (set to Kyler's schedule) went off at 6:30, so we decided to get up and seize the day. We had a few hours before the Oktoberfest Celebration got underway, so we decided to take a short drive up to the Continental Divide and hike around a little bit.




At about 10:30 we headed back down into town because Oktoberfest started at 11:00. Once we were in town, we got on line, purchased our one-liter beer steins and drink tickets and started celebrating! We were even able to meet up with some of our buddies! Our friends, Jeff and Jaime have access to a condo in Keystone, so they were up for the weekend too. (I'm still waiting on a picture from Jamie of me dressed up as a German girl.)



After drinking it up at Oktoberfest we went over to our timeshare presentation. I think us walking in with our beer steins told them that we weren't really there to buy a timeshare, but we were there for the party. They weren't obnoxiously pushy, in fact, the didn't even try to sell us anything! We had a great time, but I surly missed Ky! When we got home he was glad to see us and we were glad to see him!

Dancing Machine!

One of Kyler's favorite things to do is put on the "Kid Tunes" music station and really let loose! Actually it is one of our favorite things to do together. Hopefully he gets his daddy's rhythm, because we all know that I have none whatsoever!



Kids are just so carefree and innocent. Where does that go over time? I don't think I could put on a onesie and just twirl around the house without a worry - nor do I think Josh would appreciate that.

Kyler, just keep dancing like nobody's watching! I will love you no matter what!

It is just so crazy to me how kids develop such a connection to music at such a young age. As soon as the music comes on Kyler knows exactly what to do. Not only does Kyler love listening and dancing to music, but he also loves it when we sing to him (off key of course - but he doesn't care) and he is even starting to sing to himself. Music is such a crucial way of learning for children, and unfortunately many kids are missing out on that (but not Kyler, or Mrs. Kinyon's kindergartners!).

Sushi

Kyler had his first ever taste of SUSHI! Well, not real sushi, but he did have what is called the Ambrosia Roll which contains shrimp, cucumber, and avocado. We ordered this especially for him knowing that he LOVES cucumber and avocado. Once the waiter brought out our entire plate of sushi, Kyler started doing the sign for eat and saying, "At, at!" (that's his pronunciation for eat). Josh then placed an entire roll onto his plate. He picked it up, examined it closely and tried to take a bite out of it. He loved to rice on the outside but once he got to the seaweed paper he crinkled up his nose, yet continued to eat it. As we had predicted he ate up all of the cucumber and avocado leaving just a few scraps of shrimp on his plate. All in all he did a great job! Papa John would be proud!


Once we were finished with diner, the waiter brought us all a fortune cookie. Kyler gobbled his right up and then we read his fortune:

Isn't that the truth! Josh and I just had to chuckle!

Sushi night was a fantastic night - we should consider doing it more often!

Big Boy Bed

Today we decided that it was time for Kyler to start learning how to stay in a big boy bed, so we took off the traditional crib railing and replaced it with the "toddler bed rails". As soon as I was finished putting it together I brought Kyler in the room to show him his new bed. When he caught a glimpse of it, he immediately got a huge grin on his face and raced over to it to practice climbing in and out. He was in love! He could easily get up and down with out any trouble. Had I done the right thing, or would we have a little munchkin wandering about the house throughout the entire night? Oh great!

When it was nap time, we went into his bedroom and I placed him in the bed as usual. As soon as I turned my back to leave the room, he was right there behind me. Again, I picked him up and put him right back into his bed, kissed him goodnight and went to leave the room. But there he was - right behind me again. We did this about 5 more times before he realized that he needed to stay in his bed. Once he realized that it was not a game we had SUCCESS!

First nap in my big boy bed!

He slept his entire nap without even getting up or falling out.

Tonight for bedtime we did our normal routine (brushed teeth, read a story, gave kisses and got into bed) and Kyler only got out of his bed once. Now that he is watching sugar plums dance in his head, we can only hope we don't hear a "thump in the night"!

Spoiled!

Tonight Josh and I both had "Back to School Night" (we have NEVER had it on the same night before), but luckily my mom was in town to watch Kyler. She picked him up from daycare and took him out to dinner at Roma's (our favorite Italian place - gotta love the Carolis)! After a delicious dinner she took him home to our house and decided to bake us a chocolate cake. Kyler got to lick the beater!

Mmmmm!

Kyler is definitely spoiled by his "Mema", but that's what Grandmas are for - right?

Growing up!

Kyler just amazes me each and every day. He is just getting so big as he morphs into his own little person.



In addition to feeding himself at every meal, Kyler is: sitting in a "big boy chair" at daycare and restaurants, napping on a mat at daycare, walking EVERYWHERE, saying many words and doing signs that go along with them, brushing his own teeth, giving hugs and kisses (which I LOVE!), turning the pages in a book, pointing to pictures, dancing to music, and even trying to sing his ABCs (which makes the teacher in me jump for joy!). Kyler is my little man!

I just can't believe just how fast time truly flies by! This time last year I was still on maternity leave!

Mommy's Little Helper

One of Kyler's favorite chores to help out with is laundry. When I am folding the laundry he likes to come into the laundry room, take all of the warm, dry clothes out of the dryer and put them into a pile on the floor.

"See Mommy, I can do it!"

"All done!"

The other day I had to convince him that the wet clothes had to stay in the dryer. He tried taking them out before they even got a chance to dry!

Kyler likes to help with a lot of other things around the house such as: emptying the dishwasher (or cleaning the plates with his tongue), wiping up the table after he's finished eating, putting the liquid soap on his washcloth during baths, and placing his blocks back into the basket (we kind of make a game out of it). I can only hope that he got this desire to "clean" from his "neat-freak" mother, and that the behavior will stick with him! What a good little helper!