My cousins are here!

This past July, Sarah and Mike (my sister and brother-in-law) along with their three boys moved backed to Augusta! About four years ago, they moved to Virginia for Mike’s job and have moved every year since! As you can guess, all this moving has taken quite a toll on not only Sarah and Mike, but the kids as well. When Mike was offered a job in Augusta, he and Sarah decided this would hopefully be there final move. Needless to say, we were overjoyed! We have missed them so much! When I told Kailyn about the move she didn’t understand at first. She just thought they were coming for a visit. However, within about two weeks she understood and thus began the endless requests to go visit her cousins. These requests started out maybe a few times a week and have progresses to something she asks me everyday! I have to say that I am so happy she loves her cousins as much as she does…I mean who wouldn’t they are absolutely perfect! But it’s not just her cousins she loves…its Aunt Sarah and Uncle Mikey, too! Since she is the only girl, she is treated like a princess! I know I spoil my nephews every chance I get…I love those little boys so much, and it appears that now it is my sister’s turn to do the same with our daughter. In fact, lately Kailyn doesn’t ask to see her cousins, she asks if she can go to “Aunt Sarah’s house.” I have to close by saying I am ecstatic to be able to have Kailyn grow up with her cousins, it is something I have always wanted and now have. Thank you Jesus for answering prayers!

My work

This summer I watched my aunt’s children for a few days each week, while she worked. There are three of them, two boys, Joseph and Andrew and their sister Beatrice, Kailyn’s favorite cousin. Since Beatrice was going to start kindergarten that year, my aunt asked that I work with her on her letters and sounds. Little did I know what I was getting into! That first week, we started slow with just some simple flashcards of capital letters. Beatrice wasn’t too excited, but for some reason Kailyn was. I totally did not expect Kailyn to pay attention, much less participate. However, after only a few minutes I had the two of them facing off to try and guess all the letters. I was amazed…when did Kailyn become so intrigued by learning? Throughout the previous school year, I had been working with the girls just a bit on letter recognition, but nothing to serious. We usually just played a bit of game to try and find the capital letters. Anyway, I went home that night and decided that if Kailyn was willing to learn, then I was ready to take full advantage of that! The next few days I went to the store and bought little apples and busses to make upper and lower case flashcards as well as numbers. I also found several workbooks for pre-k children. After making the flashcards, I laminated them so that they could withstand bending and anything else that might try and destroy them. I also bought some stickers, for a bit of motivation if Kailyn ever got tired of learning. So that next week, I pulled out the flashcards and the girls went crazy! I have never seen two little girls so excited to start learning! At the beginning, Kailyn knew almost all of her uppercase letters, but really struggled with the lowercase letters, simply because she didn’t see them much. To my complete amazement, within less than a month she knew all her uppercase letters and almost all the lowercase. She could pair the uppercase and lowercase together and had begun the workbooks and was doing fabulous! Well, needless to say summer ended and Beatrice went off to school. One morning shortly after the school year had started, Kailyn came up and asked me if she could do her work. I looked at her a bit baffled and asked her if she meant her letters. Sure enough, she did and since then, at least three times a week (the days that she doesn’t go to her mother’s day out program) we have “school.” We go through both the letter and number flashcards and then do a page or two in her workbook and then if she still wants to do more, we practice her name and writing numbers. One of our latest and funniest endeavors is to get shaving cream and smear it all over the kitchen table and write letters in it, she absolutely loves this! Now, I know that this sounds like kind of a lot of work for a four year old to do almost everyday, but it is something Kailyn takes very seriously! One morning, I had a lot to do and we were running around a bit. Suddenly, Kailyn stopped me and said very earnestly, “Mom, I have to do my work. I haven’t done it today!!” I was so taken aback. Here our darling girl was asking to learn her letters and how to write them and do things I certainly looked at as work, but not fun work. It was clear, to Kailyn this was fun. She loved being able to show Tony what she did or point out letters and know what words started with what letters and what sound each letter makes. She was and still is thirsty for knowledge! So I have decided, as long as she is willing to learn I am willing to teach her! Maybe by the time she starts kindergarten next year, we can have her reading War and Peace…ha-ha!

That's not where it goes...I love Starbucks!!

As our children grow up I begin we start to see little glimpses of ourselves developing in them. Certain quirks or habits that they pick up from us…some good and some not so great. One of these little quirks that I have begun to notice in Kailyn is her organization. A few weeks ago, she was cleaning up her room and Tony, being the great dad that he is, asked if she wanted some help. They began putting all the toys away and suddenly, Kailyn looked at Tony and very seriously said, “Ummm…Daddy. That is not where that toy belongs.” Tony looked at her a bit shocked and simply said, “Well, excuse me. Where does it go.” She picked the toy up and put it in its proper place. Tony looked up at me and all he said was, “What have you done to our daughter!” Meanwhile I was whelling with pride and almost to tears because of how excited I was that she liked things organized! Needless to say, Kailyn does like order. Everything in its place!

Another thing that Kailyn has started to love is Starbucks. Like I said earlier, some of the things our children pick up are wonderful and some of them aren’t so great…like addictions to coffee! I am by no means saying Kailyn is “addicted” she just loves her Starbucks! Our special visits to the bookstore to get a “pink coffee” as Kailyn calls her Strawberry Frappicino (which actually has no coffee in it at all) have now become less and less and when we do go, she often asks if we can go the coffee shop and sit and have a drink. So grown up!

So, as Kailyn continues to grow at record speed, I realize that I am continually amazed. Amazed by her ability to do all that she does and amazed at how much fun and joy it is to watch her grow into something so wonderful and beautiful.

Girls and boys are most definitely different!

Last week, I asked three of my younger cousins (Kathryn, Hannah and Katrina) to come over and play with Kailyn for a bit. They have been asking for months to come over and play. Often Kailyn will look up at Hannah (who is only 9) and say, “Hi, second mommy.” She loves them all, but especially Hannah…she will do whatever she says!

As I stated in the title, it wasn’t until I had just girls at my house that I realized the difference! In recent visits from my three nephews I was used to the opening and the dumping of essentially every toy of Kailyn’s onto the floor making it inevitably invisible. However, when I went in to check on the girls, all I found was a beautifully set pony village and peace and quiet! They were all off in pony world peacefully playing…no arguing! Bizarre!