Coloring

Coloring is one of Kyra's new favorite activities. It keeps her busy for a good long time, and she has created some wonderful fridge art. She loves to have her hand traced, and to trace her own hand.
One of her favorite places to color is on an old TV tray that we had stashed away.

Something new with something old...

Kyra loves her Tupperware cupboard.

The Tupperware cupboard is all hers to do with as she pleases. I bequeathed it to her after the realization that no power on earth could keep her out. I could either be constantly frustrated, or I could give in. I gave in.
As a consequence of this action, there are random plastic containers and lids all over the house. I've also had to buy a separate stash of plastic containers that I keep elsewhere. But, at the end of the day, we've have a lot of fun.












In the first two pictures we are playing peek-a-boo with the lettuce bowl from the aforementioned cupboard. This is one of Kyra's favorite games.

The next picture is taken after she got tired of the game and turned instead to wearing the bowl as a hat. Her biggest frustration was trying to keep it balanced on her forehead so it wouldn't fall down over her eyes.





The last picture is what happens when you're wearing something new, and try your darnedest to look at yourself (without a mirror).

Live to Learn

What happens when you live your life to learn, and not just live and learn?
This......














Kyra's world is one of constant exploration. Everything is interesting, and everything merits a complete dissection. Even yogurt.

Kyra didn't just want to know what it tasted like, she wanted to know what it was to BE the yogurt. How does it feel? How will it look on me? Will it get in my eyes or just stick to my eyelashes? What does it feel like when I squish it in my hand? How does it taste on a banana.... or bread... or my tray? Will it make my hair shinier and healthier than before? Does my skin have a more rejuvenated look and feel? How long can I continue doing this before mom notices and promptly throws me in the tub? and if I pretend that I ate it with my spoon the whole time will I be believed?

Halloween

Ask her to say "Bumblebee" - it's cute!



Kyra was a bumblebee for Halloween. The best part of her costume was the stinger, hands down. She loved the candy, but didn't understand the concept of the wrapper. We have some cute candy bars with teeth marks on them.













Here are some pictures from our ward trunk-or-treat and from Halloween. At the trunk-or-treat she pretty much had her thumb in her mouth the whole time. I think she enjoyed it, it was just a little bit different from anything she's seen before. She did find a honey pot about her age though -it was love at first sight.

Puppy Love

Kyra definitely has a new best friend
(sniff..I've been replaced)!

She is so adorable with this puppy. Besides carrying it around the house with her, and singing with it all day, and taking it with her for naps, she now feeds it. It's very cute.

Visits - and a new best friend!

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit us from California!

Kyra had a great time with Grandma and Gramps. Walks every day, lots of books, she was held anytime she wanted to be, and they practically lived at the park. Unfortunately we didn't take many pictures. So here are a few that we did take.

One of the words that Kyra can say now is "eye" and she loves to point them out and say "eye" (she's demonstrating on Grandpa).



She can also say "ear" and she makes a number of different animal sounds (bee, duck, pig, cow, and sheep).

While he was visiting, Grandpa bought Kyra this little puppy. It sings the ABC song while it moves its little legs, and it is currently Kyra's best friend in the world. She carries it everywhere, and sings along with the ABC song. She's even getting some of the letters; mainly Q and W and then Me at the end.

Corn on the Cob

It is so fun to have teeth!

You can start to eat all sorts of new foods. The best part about corn on the cob is that you only need your front teeth (and your tounge if you're Kyra)!

The new and the old

Things that have changed:

Kyra climbs onto couches and chairs all by herself

She's added the words "dog" (sounds like "awgh"), "car" (sounds like "cah"), "up" (sounds exactly like up... I vote this as the most frequently used word in her vocabulary), "ball" ("bah"), and (inevitably) "no, no, no" which she uses when she is in the process of doing something that I've recently told her she shouldn't do - i.e. open the cabinets - (see below).

She's learned how to open the child-proof (ha!) locks on all the cabinets

She twirls (my favorite)

She's realizing that I don't have to be her only friend. Previous to now, it seemed that if I was in a room, then to Kyra I was the only person in the room (there were alwasy the exceptions when we were with grandma and grandpa and/or daddy). But, now that I've started teaching piano lessons 3 mornings a week (I teach at the students' home), Kyra is slowly learning how to play in the same room as me with people who aren't me. Hooray! As a side note, I credit piano lessons for the fact that one of her first words is dog (two of the three lessons have dogs in the house), and for her new trick below.

She loves to play the big piano (ok... it's a keyboard, but humor me). In days not long ago, she enjoyed sitting on my lap at the piano while we both played. Now, she pats the chair at the side of the piano until I sit in it, and then she opens a music book and plays while I listen. I've attempted to play along, but she stops, and puts her hands in the air until I follow suit. Once my hands are off the keyboard she gives me a smile and continues to play. These little piano lessons just melt my heart.

Things that remain the same:

She loves the word "Hi" and uses it all the time

Old MacDonald is still a favorite - (and there's still no O at the end of EIEIEIEIEIE)

Her little piano has not been replaced by the big one. It is still a daily source of entertainment.

Dirt and rocks are still way more fascinating than anything else outside, though water comes in at a close second (however, she has yet to discover mud - the best of both worlds - I've intentionally kept her away... I figure she'll discover it soon enough).

Let me know if you get tired of cute stuff...

Here are just a few things that make me smile.

Pulling Faces

She loves to copy people and to get people to copy her.
One of her favorite games is to look at you and start clicking her tounge or making fishy noises. She'll continue until you copy her back, and once you have she changes it up.
This is a picture of Kyra with her great- grandpa ... having fun making faces at each other.

Finger Puppets

I'd have to say that there are few things more smileable than watching Kyra play with finger puppets.
She has a set of 10 forest animals and a set of 10 water animals (at least there were in the beginning). She loves them all, but carries one at a time on her pointer finger, and they chat and have a grand old time.
It's amazing how much entertainment $5 at IKEA can buy.

A place of her own

It must be hard living in a world where everything is too big for you.

At 15 months even little kid chairs are just a few inches too high to scoot up on.

I think it's only natural to find something that fits you. You know, a place of your own.

Kyra found that place. It's in the fridge. In the heat of the Texas summer, I thought it quite a smart choice. How many of us have stood in front of the fridge or freezer on a hot summer day and just reveled in the eminating coolness? I know I have.

Besides, it fits her little bum just perfectly.

Other favorite "retreats" include her wardrobe and the tupperware cupboard.









The end.

Mirror, mirror on the wall who's the cutest of them all?

The funniest, the cutest, and the all around most entertaining ... ever!

Kyra is a riot. One of her favorites playmates is her own reflection in the oven. Whenever I'm in the kitchen she will come by, pull the kitchen towel of the handle of the oven door, and then talk, sing and give kisses to her little friend. The other day we were playing ball in the kitchen and as she was getting her usual running start before throwing the Ball she passed her reflection. After a moment's thought, she turned around and went back. She smiled at herself, and then threw the ball with one hand and pointed after it with the other. She wanted that baby to chase it and bring it back! She is the funniest girl I know.

Golf

One of her favorite pastimes with Jon is to play golf. He putts, and she runs after it. She was pretty good about bringing it back until she figured out that golf balls bounce on tile

Singing a song is fun to do

Her favorite songs include: "Five little monkeys jumping on the bed" (she knows all the hand actions) "Old MacDonald had a farm" (EIEIEIEI is her favorite part to say - there is no O just yet - but she can also Quack Quack like the duck) "How much is that doggie in the window" (she knows just when to bark... it's adorable!) and "Ency Weensy Spider" (at the end when we say that the spider "climbs up the spout again" she throws her hands up in the air and yells AAAHHGHHAHHH... which pretty much means "again!"). Singing with Kyra in and of itself is a way to keep on smiling all day long.

And her first word is ... Hi!

Jon and I agree that "Hi" is officially is her first word. She loves to say Hi, and has received such praise for using it that she has learned to put it to use in more than one situation. Hi means, of course, hello, but it has also come to mean "I love you"; "I'm sorry"; "Please pick me up"; "I want to eat what you're eating"; and our favorite "I did something wrong, but boy am I cute, so don't get mad."

So much to do in California

The park

Ah ... the park.

How do you even to begin to write a story about an adventure as big as the park?

At 13 months she was going up the stairs and down the slide all by herself. NO help. She went for hours and hours each day.

When she got the the bottom of the slide she would stand up and throw her hands in the air with a squeal of delight.

She also loved to stop on the stairs, just to look around, or put her fingers in any little nook or cranny she could find. She is definitely a detail person.

And then there was the sand. This was her first experience with sand. She put in her toes and feet, but wouldn't stand up or run around in it. She loved to touch it with her fingers, but with so much else to do, she just couldn't invest the time to really get to know the sand.

Probably the cutest part of the day was after an hour and a half or two hours when she had worn herself completely out. She loved to sit in the swing when she was tired, but wasn't tired enough to go home. She'd swing back and forth and back and forth, just looking and watching. What a doll!

Kyra was a blast in California

Say, say oh playmate...

We went for Whitney's high school graduation. I was a little worried about how Kyra was going to react with an unfamiliar house full of people. I shouldn't have been worried. She could not have had more fun. She began to make it a habit to walk around the house poking her head in every door, and saying "Hi!" Chances were there would be someone in the room to answer back, and she LOVED that.

The backyard-again, and again, and again

In the garden of Gramps and Grandma Jill, Kyra had endless hours of fun (and mommy took quite a few hours worth of naps!). There were peas in grandpa's garden, a bench swing for sitting, shade at any time of day in some part of the yard, and a gorgeous 20+ year-old cherry tree.
In fact, thanks to Gramps' garden, peas are no longer a food to be thrown on the floor. Indeed not! Peas are now eaten by taking a few in each hand and then putting both hands in the mouth at the same time. Not only did Kyra love the fresh, sweet, baby peas right out of the pod, she also loved the snow peas, pod and all.
I didn't think that with only 6 teeth (and all of them in the front) it would be possible to eat a pea pod. I guess that enough determination makes up for whatever else lacks.

P.S. Did I mention there were magnolia trees? Kyra has always been fascinated with crunchy leaves, but in Texas she's only gotten her hands on the small ones that come off our trees and bushes. Imagine her delight when she found this leaf to crunch!

Hi Ho! Cherry-O

The old cherry tree in the backyard, (thanks to a bird net) was absolutely dripping with Lambert cherries. These were sweet and juicy, and they just happened to be ripe for the picking.

Now, Kyra likes fruit (she is certainly her father's daughter), but Kyra LOVES cherries. She even got one down, pit and all. Grandma was showing Kyra what the whole cherry looked like with a stem right off the tree. Kyra smiled, picked up the cherry by the stem, and then faster than I thought was possible, put the whole cherry in her mouth. We got the stem, but that was all. I think that the act of trying to get into her mouth made her all the more determined. She chewed once or twice, but in the interest of not letting me take it from her, she swallowed it, pit and all.

We picked THOUSANDS of cherries off that tree. Yet, I'm still convinced that she could have eaten every one had we let her.

Happy Easter (picture chaos)

Kyra got a cute new purple Easter dress.

It was adorable, and she was adorable in it. We decided to take some pictures of our adorable little Easter princess. After all Kyra's favorite thing has been to smile and pose for the camera. We figured the pictures would be quick and effortless. The pictures didn't go as planned.

Kyra would not hold still, she would barely look at the camera, and she certainly wouldn't smile without her thumb in her mouth. Have I mentioned that Kyra is a thumb sucker. Her thumb is constantly in her mouth. I figure this is both a bad and a good thing. You can't really sanitize a thumb or control when it goes in the mouth, but you can't lose it either.


Our next attempt at great Easter pictures involved props.

"Flowers," we thought, "that will spark her interest long enough to get a decent shot." Ah, the naivety of first time parents!


The props ended up being weapons with which she warded off her parents who were trying to straighten her dress, make her smile, or just get her to hold still for 5 seconds.
I didn't think that little girls used swords. This girl is a world-class fencer.


What have we learned from our picture taking experience?

We learned that we are in big trouble. We have no real ability to control our child. There is no discipline, there is no law.
All I have to say is, YOU look at those big blue eyes and try to explain why you're right and she shouldn't be getting into whatever mischief she is getting into.
Yes, indeed. We are in big trouble.

Garden Party & Rain Storm

Kyra was a riot in the garden.

I always thought that kids didn't like grass... especially when they, out of necessity, had to crawl in it. Kyra proves to be the exception to my preconceived notion (yet again). This girl LOVES grass. She loves to pick it, crawl in it, lick it, throw it and eat it. Thursday we went out in the back yard, spread out a blanket and put up an umbrella for shade. We brought out a few of her toys, but those were soon abandoned to the sights and sounds of the "wild" outdoors.


I think the discovery that she could get into my flower pots was the culmination of this experience. She got a hold of my crocus pot, and first discovered the green leaves (she had discovered the blooms a week or two ago..), and then the dirt, the rim of the pot, and then the holes on the bottom of the pot. This led to root systems, bulbs, and then the dismantling of all of the above to the best of her ability. She had a blast.

We've certainly had some fun weather lately in Dallas.

And the rain rain rain came down down down... so of course Kyra and daddy had to go play in it in their rain jackets.
Kyra did not want to come in, even after her dad put her under the downspout of rain pouring off the roof.

Kyra is 1 year old!

We had a blast at Kyra's first birthday party.
(What a mess!!!)

Grandma and Grandpa Texas were there, and Grandma Jill got to be there as well. Kyra got a whole bunch of new stuff (spoiled spoiled spoiled) including cute, cute clothes, quacking ducks, a puzzle, a baby doll and a piano that sings and has flashing lights. Needless to say, her wardrobe is filling up and we certainly can't contain the toys any longer under the side table next to the couch. Pretty soon Kyra will need her own "office."


Kyra loved her very own birthday cake. She started out eating with just her pinky finger, but by the end she (of course) had it all over the place. The amazing thing was, she never really got any in her hair... go figure.


Here are some pictures...