February Visit from Nana Jo and Papa Dean

Kev's parents came up to visit Kev and Maylee while I attended a teacher conference in Portland.  This was the first time I was away from Maylee for two nights.  She kept asking to "go to Mama's school" because she know that is where I work so I must be there.  She is always asking to wear my necklaces so I found her one in Portland to give to her when I got back.  In this picture, she is wearing the necklace, and she made her dad sport her new Dora sunglasses from Nana Jo and Papa Dean.

Nana Jo and Papa Dean gave Maylee her Valentine's Day present...

 

 

 Cinder loves presents...she grabbed some tissue paper which got stuck on her jowl. 

Maylee thought that was funny...

 Maylee was excited for a new baby doll blanket (dish towel)...

Being silly...

They gave her Dora gardening things... 

 

 This was the same day...she put all her mini woodland stuffed animals to bed in her tent.

 She spred the new baby doll blanket out on the floor then turned around to grab a baby.  Her plan was to swaddle the baby doll, but Cinder thought Maylee spred out the towel for her to lay on instead.  At first, Maylee started to get upset at Cinder until she saw Kev and I laughing so then she joined us.

Shingles

Kev came down with shingles at the end of last week.  A small rash showed up on his leg and then another spot popped up the next day along with tingling in the entire leg.  I finally convinced him that going to the doctor does not make him a pansy.  We were both shocked to find out that he has shingles!  We didn't know you could get it at this age...but then again he is not in his twenties.  (Hee hee)  The chicken pox virus goes dormant in the body and a weakened immune system due to stress, old age, etc. can trigger it to wake up and become shingles.  We are guessing that his body became weakened due to stress and lack of sleep during the week of Valentine's Day.  Maylee had croup and for five nights straight, she woke up every 30 minutes.  So, his doctor and his uncle, who is a doctor, are hopeful that he can get over this quicker than most since we caught it early.

Soooo....
Thankfully, you can't get shingles from someone who has shingles (according to WebMD) and Maylee has had the chickenpox vaccine.  He stayed home from teaching so he couldn't give chicken pox to those who have not had the vaccine or the pox.  Plus, he has a lot of pain if he is on his feet too much.  While he stayed home, Maylee stayed with him.  I left Maylee two scratch papers to color on and dumped the crayons into a pile on the table.  When I returned home, Kev said while Maylee was coloring he worked on something else, but he was impressed that she put all the crayons back in the box when she was finished.  I was surprised too, but knowing how her little brain works, I asked, "Out of curiosity, did she put all the crayon tips facing up?"  He grabbed the box off the table, opened up the top, and sure enough she had!  She is very observant and orderly.

Have I mentioned that she also sorts and organizes her toys in her room too?

Maylee's Learning (almost 2 1/2 yrs old)

Alphabet Letters

Maylee knows many alphabet letters. She just remembers them from her toys, puzzles, books, and talking with her. Maylee likes to connect a letter to a friend at her baby sitter's house or relative who has that letter in his/her name. She really knows: A for Ammie and Andrew, B for Betty, C for Carol, D for Dani, E for Emma, F for feathers, H for Holly, K for Kevin, L for Lily, M for Maylee, O for Owen, P for Papa and Porter, S for Sarah, and T for Ty. These letters she is always finds and naming on everything she sees. 

This month she saw a "wet floor sign" that has the word CAUTION on top. She started naming the letters but not in order. I figured she would say C, A, T, and O, but she named all of them correctly! I'm not sure when she learned U, N and I with no crosses at the top and bottom.

*Note: After surprising me with knowing more letters, I decided to ask her which ones she knows.  On 2-26-12, I wrote all 26 capitals in random order and she named 20/26 correctly...she did not know G, J, Q, X, Y, and Z. However, when we do her ABC train puzzle, I help her flip all her pieces over and tell her what letter comes next. She is always able to correctly find each letter on the first try to add to the train. She has another wooden ABC puzzle and she likes to have the pieces flipped upside down and for you to tell her which letter to find. Again, she will get all letters correct even though they are reversed when upside down.

Dreams Story

Sometimes I ask Maylee was she dreamed about when she was sleeping. She almost always says, "seven and eight." One night I said, "Goodnight Maylee. Happy dreams about seven and eight." She said, "No Mom. Not seven and eight. Forty nine."

Numbers

Maylee has been into numbers lately. She has noticed the clock on the stove has numbers so she likes to tell you what she sees. She is very consistent with knowing 0, 2, and 8. Number 9 she calls a P.

*Note: On 2-26-12, I wrote numbers 0-9 mixed up on a piece of paper and asked her to name them, she got 0, 4, 3, 2, 8, 7 correct! ( 1 she called "l" and 9 is still "P.")

I swear we don't drill her on these skills. Her brain is a little sponge that wants to know what everything is called and she does not forget anything...even months later. Three doctors have said she is very advanced with her language/verbal skills. As a teacher and a parent, I hope this means she will continue to have a love of learning, a desire to always inquire more of what interests her, and hopefully she can get some college scholarships. :-)

Maylee Typing

Maylee has been watching me type to get caught up on the blog, so I told her she could have her turn.

 TTTT TTTTT TT ("T for Ty Ty")

"I push H for Holly"...
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Now, M for Maylee"...
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM ("That's lots of Ms for Maylee")

NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN  ("N for nails.")

555555555555 R5F5RC5C 5F CF5RC X5 C5C 555CF5 5C 5 5F C5R C5C 5R555CC55

"I push D for Dani"....
DDD DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD ("I got lots of Ds.")

"I do A for Andrew"...
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

0000 ("zero")

"F for feathers"..."
FFF  FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF F F FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF ("I need to do lots of Fs.")

       [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[['[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{

"I do lots of Ps"....
PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ("I do lots of Os")

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ("O for Owen.")

Water park Fun

Maylee had a great time at the water park.  We went after dinner on a school night for about an hour and a half.  One of my parent volunteers got us in for FREE...thanks Katy!

Maylee went down the yellowish-orange tube slide with me in the kiddie area twice.  She also liked the "hot water" of the hot tub.  We went around the lazy river four times.  The first time was in an inner tube, the second time with me holding her life vest, and then the last two times by herself with my hands close by because "I do it by myself, Mom."  She loved swimming!  She kept giggling and laughing while she was swimming so water kept getting in her mouth.

 Her yellow life vest and the hot tub lights made the water yellow...her favorite color!

 

 This isn't her best smile, but when she saw this picture she said,

"Look! My bellybutton is sticking out!"



This is towards the end of our fun (almost bedtime)...she just liked to sit...

February Stories and Moments

Beautiful House Story

One weekend morning, Kevin put Maylee in bed with me while I was reading so he could go shovel our new snow.  I was trying to finish my book and told Maylee to just lay down and watch the snow fall.  She didn't know it was snowing so she excitedly stood up on our bed, looked out the window and exclaimed, "It's so beautiful at my house!" 

Then she went out to the living room to get a closer look...

 Helping Dad...

 

Eating Snow Story

This is a conversation while riding up the chairlift.  Maylee was holding onto the pole and requesting for me to feed her the snow on her skis. 

Me - "Maylee what would happen if you ate all the snow in Carol's yard?  Then what would you do?"

Maylee - "Eat the snow in my yard."

Me - "What if you eat all the snow in Carol's yard and all the snow in Maylee's yard?"

Maylee - "Um...eat the snow in Ammie's yard.

Me - "What if you eat all the snow in Carol's yard, all the snow in Maylee's yard, and all the snow in Ammie's yard?"

Maylee - "It's going to rain Mom." (stated in a matter-of-fact voice)

Band-Aid

Maylee saw the box of Barbie Band-Aids in the bathroom and was insistent that she had an owie on her forehead.  I could not convince her that she did not have one.  I set her up in front of the mirror to show her that there is no owie.  She found a little, red dot and that massive owie just HAD to have a Band-Aid.

 

Croup

Maylee came down with croup along with a constant high fever for five days.  We did not get much sleep for a week because every night she would wake about every 30 minutes.  After so many days of this, Kev and I decided to reschedule Valentine's Day for us.  This is a picture of her at Carol's house.  She had the energy to dress like a pirate, but you can see in her face that she doesn't feel well.

Play Structure Time

Maylee had some Dada Time in the backyard, while I slept in.  I was up late with her being sick.  The cold air seemed to help her croup.

Emma and Sarah came up to go skiing, but they also spent time playing with Maylee in our backyard.

It was taking the camera longer to take a picture due to low light and coldness.

Maylee didn't understand that I needed her to smile for a really long time. 

She would say "Cheese" quickly and then be ready to play some more....

Teasing Aunt Shelly

We took these two cell phone pictures while we were shopping and sent them to Aunt Shelly.

I decided to add them to the blog because they are great pictures of Maylee's usual happiness.

Shelly likes moose, but also talks about how their apartment does not have room for large items.

We send her this picture claiming, we found her the perfect birthday present...She said she could kick Kevin out and make room for it.

 Aunt Shelly is a HUGE WSU Cougar fan so we put this t-shirt on Maylee and sent it to Shelly with the text, "Do you still love me?"  She replied back to take it off quickly before it burns her skin.

Playtime with Ty
Ty is another good friend from Carol's house.

Happy Valentine's Day

We had to reschedule Valentine's Day due to Maylee's bad case of croup, so this picture wasn't taken on Valentine's Day.  She had a party at Carol's house with valentines from her friends.  She gave her friends baggies with gummy bears, Teddy Graham bears, and an orange that said "ORANGE you glad that you are my friend? I am BEARY happy to be yours.  Happy Valentine's Day!"  Even though she did not feel well, she was also really good about telling everyone she talked to "Happy Valentine's Day! I love you!"

These are the projects she made for Valentine's Day...

She also made these cookies at Carol's house...

January Snow Storm

We had a massive storm dump 14" on us in a matter of a couple days.  When it stopped snowing, we worked on snow removal.  I cleared out a path to and around Maylee's play structure.  Then I worked on building Maylee some sled runs in our backyard, while Kev worked on more important snow removal areas like our driveway and deck.  She had two tracks to choose from which merged then went into a bumper to prevent her from going too far down to the road.  She loved sledding!

 

We have two cute videos of her sledding, but I can't figure out how to add them to the blog.

Maylee's 1st Science Experiment

"Hot Snow"

Maylee loves eating snow! She is always picking it up to eat whenever she is outside.  On this particular evening, Kev was outside shoveling the deck and she was watching him.  Then she told me that she wanted to eat "hot snow."  I asked her, "How are we going to make it hot?"  She said, "Cook it Mom."

1) Together, we went to the cupboard and she chose a pan.  Then we opened the door for Kev to put clean, fresh snow in it.  Given she was hanging out in panties, she had to have her dad collect her sample.

 Can't cook it before taking a few bites of cold snow...

2) Next, Maylee told me to put it on the stove to cook it.

3) She watched the snow melt, which she didn't have the word "melt" in her vocabulary so she was saying "Look! It is going down!"  Then, when I poured it in a glass for her to see, she said "It's water!" 
4) Investigating the water...

January Stories and Moments

Sight Seeing
Kevin remembered that I needed to stop by school after church so when he approached the 4-way stop, he got in the right lane to go straight.  I asked him if he wanted to drop off the recycling while we are this close to it so then we don't have to come back this way when we go home after school.  He said, "Good idea.  I'm in the wrong lane so let me turn around."  As soon as we turn right (a street Maylee has never been on), Maylee says "Dad, are you sight seeing?"  Both of our mouths dropped, because we don't know where she learned that term but she used it in correct context.

"No way Hey Jose"
While we were waiting for Kev to set up his family fitness event, Maylee and I ate dinner in the teacher's lounge.  One of the custodians was talking to Maylee and used the expression, "No way Jose."  Since then, Maylee will use that expression during silly play but always adds "hey" before Jose.  I think it is too cute, so I don't correct her.

Maylee's Dinner Guest

Aunt Shelly and Uncle Kevin gave Maylee Mrs. Potato Head for her birthday.  On this particular day, Maylee was insist that Mrs. Potato Head sits beside her to eat her food too.

Dress Up Moments

Cousin Kati gave Maylee her old dress up clothes, which Maylee plays with weekly.

Puppy Time

Maylee has a collection of black lab stuffed animals.  She has a "dog bed" (basket) for them under her crib and they are all named "Cinder" or "Puppy."  In this picture, we were leaving the house and Maylee told Cinder to watch her puppy and for the puppy to go to sleep.

Technology

Maylee loves playing the educational toddler games I put on our iPad and Kindle Fire...

Children's Sermon
When we are at church, Maylee can't wait until we tell her, "Time for the kids."  She runs up to sit on the steps with the older kids and "listens" to the pastor's wife talk about the lesson, who does a great job connecting the lesson to something tangible the kids get to take back to their pews.  Most of the time it is food, such as Goldfish crackers for the lesson about the fishermen. 

I think Maylee knows if she sits nicely with the kids, then she gets a treat.
She also like to people watch and yell "Hi Mom! Hi Dad!" while waving to us.