Sliding into the Pool...

We've been putting her slide into her little pool lately and she has fun with it. She climbs out, carefully climbs the steps to the slide and then sits there for a bit before she slides into water. I got the bright idea to bring the slide over to the Big Pool with us. I wasn't sure if she would like it as much, but she does. She did it a bunch of times before I finally realized I needed to go get the camera.

Snuggling up with Daddy...

4th of July

For the 4th of July this year we went to my parents house (nana/papa's house). My sister and her family (1 week after Ian was born) decided to drive down to join us. We also had a special guest, Kelsey's best bud Jack, who came for a sleepover since his parents had to be in/at a wedding. We got to Gma/Gpa McD's house in the morning in time to take Kelsey for a boat ride before lunch/nap. Lou and I took the waverunner out to the sandbar while Kelsey was napping, it was a beautiful day until we got nailed by the rain when we were almost back. Jack was dropped off right at the end of Kelsey's nap, so she was super excited to see him. All of the kiddos played outside on the bikes and with the balls and bubbles. Then we went swimming and had baths and picked tomatoes! After dinner we let the kiddos play for a bit. We were going to try to take Kelsey and Jack with us on the boat to go see fireworks, but the skies were cloudy and we didn't want to take the chance of then getting rained on. Good decision, because we did get rained on! In the morning, I made pancakes and scrambled eggs and after breakfast the kids decorated little step stools with foam stickers. I think they had a wonderful day/night even though they did not get to see any fireworks. (Sorry for the small pictures..I stole them off of Kellie's Facebook. When she emails me the originals I will repost them.)

Bathtub Beach

What a treat...Lou had off on the Friday before the 4th. So we packed the car the night before, got up early and were out of the house by 8:45 and on our way to Bathtub Reef Beach. This is a really neat place and great beach for kids. There is a reef about 100 ft out, so all of the waves break there and leave a calm "bathtub" from the reef to the shore. The water was so clear and pretty shallow. Kelsey was able to walk in almost all of it. It was so calm and there were little fish swimming around that she could see. On our drive there we stopped at Publix and bought an inflatable boat to put Kelsey in. She loved having a boat like Papa. It was a little overcast in the beginning, but that was actually nice. Lou went over the reef and snorkeled for a bit while Kelsey and I walked around in the water and played in the boat. Kelsey thoroughly enjoyed picking up seashells and placing them in her bucket on our walk. We stayed for a little over 2 hours and then drove to another beach to shower off quickly (the bathrooms/showers at Bathtub Beach have not yet reopened) and then drove a little further north and found a shady picnic table to eat lunch. It was such a wonderful day!

She loves tunnels

Lately Kelsey has loved tunnels. She calls the bike rack outside the gym tunnels. She and Madeline used to play in the "tunnels" everyday when we would leave the gym. This weekend daddy built her tunnels using the ottoman coffee tables we have and his UF blanket (since I made it for him, it's allowed downstairs in view of the public). Today I couldn't reach the blanket, so I used pillows instead. That meant I couldn't push the ottomans as far away from each other as daddy did. The first time she went down she said "i don't fit" and stood up. I told her to try again and she did and then came back up and said "I'm too big". At this point I knew I needed to get the camera. I pushed them a little farther apart and started filming. I only intended for it to be a short video but then she'd do something cute or start talking more so I just kept filming. 5 minutes later...here it is: (don't forget to hit the triangle play button if you want to watch the video, and make sure your sound is turned on)

PS...I have a bunch of posts in draft, so when you check back, make sure you scroll down past this post

Cute things she says/does...

As I am putting Kelsey in the car after the gym, she looks at me and says "mommy put the air on" I told her I would as soon as I got her all buckled in. She then said "I'm hot. I'm so hot"

She is very polite and says "thank you" and "please" unprompted alot. We still prompt her occasionally, but it's nice to hear her say thank you all the time.


For the past 2 months now she has been using 3-5 word phrases and sentences. This is such a neat stage. You can truly communicate with them.


She lays in her bed and sings the entire song of "twinkle, twinkle" along with her frog. She also can sing her ABC's with frog and mommy/daddy.

The other morning I quietly watched her in her bed singing to herself. She sang "the wheels on the bus" (including our own verse about what the daddy's on the bus say "I love you"), then she sang her ABC's, then she started counting and then sang twinkle twinkle as I came in to see her.


When daddy leaves for work I have her say "I love you daddy" and "Have a good day, daddy" So the other afternoon she pushes through the gate and heads towards the front door and says "Bye. Have a good day mommy"


She likes to run around (outside/at nana & papa's house/ through our gates) and look back at you and say with a huge smile "I'm running away"


She learned the words "no way" from her friend Jack. We really don't like it when she uses it, but sometimes you just want to bust out laughing when she looks at you and says "no way, mommy (or daddy)"

She's always saying "oh man!!" Especially when something doesn't go right.

Her newest line is "I'm a lion...rrroaaar!" Then Lou will say I'm a cow and she says "I'm a cow too." Lou says I'm a bunny, K says "I'm a bunny too!" We're not quite sure where this line came from. But it's very funny to hear it on the monitor out of nowhere.

She is obsessed with boats. She LOVES to go for rides in Papa's Boat. Every boat we pass while we are in the car she tells us. When we drive past marinas where there are lots of boats, she counts them. We bought her an inflatable boat which she calls "my boat" and she likes to use it in the pool and at the beach.

Building Towers

Kelsey really enjoys playing with her blocks. She likes to build big towers, and then like any other child, she likes to knock them down. The other day we were playing and we combined our towers to make a really TALL tower. She liked it, but immediately made it crash and laughed out loud at it!

Baby got back....

I turned my back for one second and the next thing I know my fully dressed child (diaper and all) is sitting in her little pool playing with the hose and her buckets.

I decided to let her be and just have fun. I did take her dress and necklace off though. When she was done, my girl had grown a "Big Bootie"!

Chillaxin'.....

with her nightly milk.

I didn't sign up for this....

Since we have been going in the pool almost every afternoon (when there is no rain), I have been flying through swim diapers like it's nobody's business. Some of my friends told me they just use the regular non-disposable swim diapers when they are in their own pool and use the other ones when they go anywhere else. Brilliant!! So I went to Target..none there...Walmart..no chance...Babies-R-Us...BINGO, and they were on sale to boot!! So I bought 2 (plus she needed them for her swim lessons as well)
OKay, base of the story is established. Now for the part I did not sign up for. HELLOOOO..what happens when they poop in these non-disposable diapers (mind you I am not a cloth diaper momma....and this is why) The first time it happened I was taking her swim shirt off and was like.."what's that stuff on your back" (You see..it had migrated somehow out of the diaper and floated up onto her back in little pieces that looked like dirt.) I was perplexed, by chance I decided to check behind and WHOA what did I see, but something that made me say "crap, what am I supposed to do now" I am not one who is very good with poop. In fact I hold my breath (and always have) while I am changing her or anyone else. Thankfully I was outside and near a hose, so I ran her over there, carrying her by her armpits, turned the hose on, pulled those swim pants down and sprayed (ooops, it was on jet! I changed that quickly to shower) I felt so redneck hosing my daughter down outside, but what else was I supposed to do?
Now this has become a regular thing. Pretty much every time we go swimming in the Big Pool, or in her little pool the same thing happens. Luckily Lou has gotten to experience this with me as well. After the first few disgusting times, it's actually kinda funny now!!

A Father's day gift for K...

Before dinner on father's day we ran out to the store and bought Kelsey a father's day gift. Lou's been wanting a wagon for a while for when we take her on walks at night. So I gave in and Kellie drove us to the store. We returned to my parents house, after spending quite more than we thought it would be, and Lou proceeded to put it together so we could take Kels on a walk before our dinner (she had already eaten).

Helping daddy hammer the last wheel on First time sitting in the Wagon..she likes it!Getting ready to go on a walk
Kelsey and Daddy stopped to check out the bunny rabbit

Drinking her milk while taking a cruise

We are very happy with the wagon; however, she constantly tries to stand up and walk around and plays Houdini and gets out of the seatbelts. In that sense I still feel like she is a little young for it. We like the addition of the adult cup holders. And it has some neat functions, like when only using it with one child, it has a tray table option or covered storage. It's really neat. We consider this an investment since we will be able to use it still when we have another child one day.

Father's Day 2009

Even though he did some house chores in the AM (the lawn needed to be mowed), I think Lou had a nice, relaxing father's day. We went over to my parents house before lunch and went on a boat ride w/ Gmpa McD (known to Kelsey as papa) and Aunt Kellie. While Kelsey was napping we took the paddle boat next door to the Tiki bar w/ Kellie and had some beers (after going in circles for a bit). Then we spent a while in the pool as well. And Kelsey got to pick a tomato off of Gma's vines. My mom made ribs (one of Lou's favorites) for dinner. It was a very nice day. Kelsey got her daddy some new running clothes and a white running light so he and Jenna can both have one when they run at night.

Daddy and Kels chillaxin' in the pool at Nana & Papa's House

Playing with "Papa"
Getting ready to swim to mommy!

Playing with Aunt Kellie in the deep end

Papa McD, Aunt Kellie, Daddy, Mommy and Kelsey Bear in the pool

On a ride on Daddy's Shoulders

Kisses for her Daddy!!!

I was tackling Lou while he was shooting at mom
Mom got hot and decided to jump in clothes and all (Typical!) Here's Kelsey swimming underwater to Gma McD.

Holding her tomato that she picked all by herself! She was so proud to be holding her tonemo.

New Pool..

Even though we have an inground pool, I recently bought Kelsey an inflatable pool at Wally World. I bought one big enough so if her buddy Jack (or anyone else) is over they can play together in it. Lou was a little skeptical on the purchase at first (I mean, like I said, we do HAVE a pool already), but he's totally on board now. She has a blast in it. It's so nice because she can just play in the water (which she loves to do) and we don't always have to go in the "Big" pool with her. She calls it her bathtub! We even brought it around front and let her play in it while we painted the driveway!

Unplanned trip to the Dr.....

While in the gym daycare today, Kelsey fell and banged her head on the edge of the bookshelves. I came in to get her a minute or so after it happened. She had a lump on the side of her head and a blood line, luckily the skin didn't break so there was no blood everywhere. My poor baby was hysterical. I sat on the floor and held her and "tried" to put ice on her head, which just makes her scream louder. Since our Dr has opened a new office across the street from the gym, I decided to go by just to get her checked out. He felt around and tried to see if it was going to break open and it didn't. He thinks she is going to be fine. He told me to just give her tylenol/motrin every 6 hours for the pain, try to ice it some more (yeah right), and watch for signs like vomiting, passing out, not acting like herself at all. I was glad they got me in as they do not take walk-ins, but the front told me for something like this they will.

Since I was already paying a $20 copay, I also asked about her eczema which I was gonna try to schedule an appt for next week. He said to keep doing what we're doing and that it does get worse in the summer and winter. I wish there was a magic cure. They also weighed her and she is 29.25 lbs!! Whoa baby!!

Lunch at the mall....

After going to the Playmobil Funpark, we went with our friends to the mall for lunch. I know I am crazy, but Kelsey still has not had chicken nuggets, so the Chik-fil-a that all of the other kids ate was out of the question. Instead Kelsey got a Chicken Ceaser Panini w/ a small side of tomatoes. And I got the chik-fil-a kids meal for myself!! LOL

After we followed everyone to Gymboree. This was my first time in the store. It was nice that they had an area for the kids to be entertained. After about 45 minutes (with Katy and Shannon still shopping), Kelsey and I left to go home for her overdue nap.

Kelsey, Madeline, Chrystelle, Luca & Melyna watching TV in Gymboree

Holy Melons Batman!!

I can't believe the growth of the cantaloupes from just 1 week ago!!!

There are 4 in this picture. (I wish I had arrows and could insert little pointers!)

Look how far they are growing outside of our yard.... (note the garden is on the other side of the bushes)

Playmobil Funpark

According to my friend Megan (and the website), there are only 2 of these in the country: 1 in Orlando and 1 in Palm Beach Gardens. I was dreading driving down there (meant I had to skip the gym), but since it's Tricia's last week I made the sacrifice. I am so glad we went. It was only $1 per person (so I spent $2). It's basically a really big room divided up into areas with the different play sets for the kids to play with. There were 2 rules: no running and do not take things from one play area to another. Kelsey is quite content playing by herself, but played with the dollhouses next to Madeline for a while. Then we moved around from area to area for the next 1- 1 1/2 hours. If you are ever near the one in Orlando or Palm Beach Gardens I highly, highly recommend going here. All this fun for only $1!!

In the dollhouse area they had these cute throne-like chairs for the kids to sit in. Kelsey had so much fun in this section. We came back a few times. Kelsey & Jack in the pony/farm area

Kelsey playing with Jack & Drew

Melyna, Luca, Kelsey & Kimber playing with the islands

A lot of the table had these low cushion benches that the kids could kneel/sit on to play.

Kelsey & Jack playing with the dinosaurs

Kelsey & the "princess" mirrors

Kelsey in the camping areaKelsey & Madeline (& Jack walking away) chilling w/ the Clown figureWatching Drew play through the windowKelsey hanging w/ the pirate dude

Kids Adventure Zone

We went to Kids Adventure Zone, a local indoor bounce house place, this week with the moms group. We get a group rate ($1 off) since we have a decent # of people. I was worried that Kelsey would not like it, and that's I'd be wasting $4, but she had a great time. She climbed right in the first bounce house with her friends, climbed up the ladder (b/c everyone else was) then wasn't sure what to do at the top. I had Drew (my friend Megan's 8 yr old) help Kelsey to go down the slide. Her face was in shock on the ride down, but she was all smiles at the bottom and no tears!! She played on almost all of the bounce houses, but had the most fun in the toddler area where there was a pool filled with balls. She kept telling me she was swimming and would lay down in the balls and kick her feet. Needless to say she got smooshed a few times b/c other kids came in the pool and didn't see her.

Marco & Kelsey (this was right before he started rolling onto her and she would say "No Marco")

Notice the child in mid-air getting ready to jump in ON Kelsey

Kelsey, Madeline & Melyna in the ball pool

I took her down the large slide with me 3 times. The third time she didn't want to go, so I told her she could go on her belly (feet first) and she was happy. I decided to go on my belly as well and put my arm around her back...bad idea!! 26 (+) lb baby on top of wrist, sliding down plastic slide= raw burned wrist and knees. OUCH!!! Almost like a rug burn, but waaaay worse!

Our good friends are moving away...

...and we are very sad. Last week we had a baby shower/going away party for Tricia and Madeline. We've known for a long time that this was always a possibility, but now it is a reality and they are leaving this weekend. What am I going to do without my motivation for the gym? Even though she's preggo now, Tricia has still been a major motivation for me, whether she knows it or not. It sucks, but we are taking advantage of this week and spending as much time as we can with them.

Kelsey and Jack are going to miss Madeline very much...there will no longer be a "3" in the 3 amigos.

Kelsey and Ms. Megan (Jack's Mommy)

Things are growing...

in Kelsey's garden:
The cantaloupe plant is overtaking everything. It's gotten so big I have it growing into the empty lot behind us. And it is trying to crowd out the eggplant (lower right side of pic)
Here's one of the cantaloupes!! So exciting! I've never grown anything really beside tomatoes, herbs and green peppers.

There are 8 tomatoes. I keep reminding her she can't pick them until they are RED.

She loves to go out and water the garden, so we bought her a water pail. Found it for $1 at Wally world