Three Months...in between posts...oy!

Yep. I knew it would happen at one point or another...Life with a toddler would get incredibly busy and this tired mama would not make time to update her precious one's blog. I have stored so many sweet memories in my heart these past few months, so I will attempt to share just a few of them here.

Kairis is potty trained! She started this on her own without pressure from me this past spring/early summer. She mastered it by early fall, or around her 2nd birthday. We are a diaper free home now, and it's rather bittersweet to not be lugging a diaper laden bag around where-ever we go these days. Geez, those cloth diapers took up a lot of space! ;)

Kairis is putting 3-4 words together into sentences now. Around the middle of November, she started putting 3 words together, and around September, she was putting 2 words together, like "get it", "want it", etc.

Her favorite word is "mine!" Yes, we are in full on toddler hood and "terrific two's", though we have our challenging days from time to time too! The moments she listens to me and says "thank you" and "please" at the right times, and actually chooses to not engage in bedtime dramas are a gift from God to Tim and I, and happen more often than not--another gift from God!

Kairis loves to pray. She always stops us as we end our prayer at dinner time if we didn't pray for her "nana"--she insists that we pray for her in-particular each and every day.

Kairis likes routine and order. She has a huge imagination and sometimes will get upset if I interrupt her in the middle of something she's creating.

Kairis loves to pretend cook! Her favorite foods to make are blueberry muffins, eggs, hot cocoa and popcorn. :) Wonder where she gets that from?? :)

Kairis loves to mother her dolls. She sleeps with some of them at night and is unusually responsive and sensitive to their needs. I love seeing how she takes such good care of them. It makes me excited for if and when we have another baby in the house someday--I think she'll enjoy it.

Kairis loves to run! She is so hard to contain most days when we are out running errands. She's very active and doesn't usually walk, but instead takes off RUNNING everywhere we go.

Pictures to come!

What Kairis is doing right now...

Kairis is talking so much these days! She's repeating nearly everything we say and putting a few words together too. It's fun to be able to have conversations with her. She loves to play house with her dolls and now grabs for my hand when I'm in the middle of folding laundry or washing dishes and says "come", "sit", "play". It's totally adorable. I usually do. She asks me to rock her babies, to eat pretend meals she prepares for me, to kiss her dolls that she throws on the ground and makes "cry"...yes, you heard that right. One moment she's nurturing them, the next, she's making them cry. It's a rather funny love hate relationship she has with her dolls sometimes. It's interesting to watch her rein-act stressful events and work through them at her young age. I've enjoyed reading a book called "Playful Parenting" that describes some of this play like behavior in young children and how important it is for parents to participate in and facilitate play time with their young. Kairis says her name when I ask her to point to her picture. She can list off the names of most of her extended and immediate family members in her picture book too--pretty cute hearing her talk about these people that she really doesn't know well, but is able to identify. Her memory is flawless. She remembers and asks about "nana" and never forgets to bring up the time that she was sick, despite how many weeks ago that was. When I ask her who she'd like to pray for at night, she always, with a smile on her face, says "GG". She LOVES her great grandma kay, her GG. She prays regularly for daddy, nana, gg, lana (solana), auntie linda, grandpa, lady, kara and lani. She loves to read her bible. We try and start our morning out with breakfast and listening to some worshipful music together. She likes making music with her instruments and then we read a Bible story or sing some songs and pray together. Instead of saying "Amen", she says "Hamen". It's adorable. The other day, Tim was reading about baby Jesus to Kairis, and she pointed to the picture of baby Jesus in the manger and said "Pete!". She has a favorite boy doll named "Pete", so I guess to her....baby Jesus reminded her of baby Pete. :) She also calls Abraham "ham". I was reading to her the story of The Tower of Babel and she was asking me a lot of questions about heaven. I guess she picked that word out of the text and found it interesting. It's really a privilege to get to share God's promises and love for her and see her vulnerable heart soften and become excited for Jesus. She's been potty trained for awhile now, q few months at least. We're working on leaving the house with panties on instead of diapers and staying dry during nap times. She's definitely my little helper. She loves to follow me around the house cleaning, washing dishes, putting dirty laundry in the washer, folding towels....it definitely takes me more time to "teach" her and let her learn, but it's SO worth it. I just need a gentle reminder from time to time of this. :) She loves to try on my makeup (I just let her use the powder brush), is fascinated with the mail man (he comes to our door now with mail) and is insistent that we keep the gate locked in the front part of our house. She likes routines and predictability. That's a bit harder for me for some reason, but I'm working at keeping things more "routine" these days. She says "morning" to the fish each morning too. She really doesn't miss a beat!

Anyway...that's a small recap of what our little sweetie-pea is doing in her 25th month of life.

The Gravenstein Apple Festival

We enjoyed our first outing to Hood River, Oregon as a family exploring the famous, Fruit Loop during their Gravenstein Days Apple Festival. We toured nearly 30 orchards and local farms all boasting of their apples, peaches, pears, cherries and other fresh produce. Kairis got to ride her first horse, Billy, a 20+ year old whose days at the rodeo were long gone. We enjoyed beautiful views of Mt. Hood and ended our day exploring downtown Hood River and eating Chinese food.









These ones are for you, Grandma and Grandpa Thomas! Future Farmer of America! ;)







Playing "The Cows Are In The Meadow Game" with Daddy...Kairis, you seriously have the best daddy ever!






Kairis riding "Billy"....she LOVED this!





Check out the mountain views from this garden and swing....







My beautiful farmy dream house!!!! Wrap around porch, views of the mountains, cows, gardens, ahh....so perfect.




Kairis won the "pie walk" She (and her mommy and daddy) LOVED the gravenstein apple pie!















Kairis looking at daddy's giant sun tea bottle...




This is Kairis' "please" face....or expression when she's asking for something. So cute! :)

Just Another Hot Day in August...

Kairis and I spent a lot of time outdoors this summer. Mostly because we moved to an area where we have lots of outdoor space to roam....we enjoyed swimming, sliding and just traipsing around the small corn field and christmas tree farm. I especially love these photos Kairis....reminds me of how much she hates to have her mouth wiped clean. Hence, the yogurt stache. ;)

Clowning Around...

I found these old clown wigs from when I was a clown for Halloween back in grade school. Tim insisted we keep them for his "teaching manipulatives" to which I objected. But, he overruled and they stayed. Inevitably, Kairis found them and thought they were hilarious. I have to admit...they are!

Kairis' 2nd Birthday Party Celebration

We enjoyed the company of Christine and her daughter, Daylynn and Kara and her daughter, and your best friend, Solana. These three girls had the best of times together....splashing in a pool on a hot day, eating home made chocolate cupcakes with fudge frosting, throwing water balloons, eating wiener wraps, feeding horses....it was a wonderful little party celebration.