Failed Attempt

The other day I saw a huge pile of leaves in our neighborhood.  So I ran home to grab the camera to take some cute pictures of Kaylee playing in the leaves.  However, Kaylee did not want anything to do with them!  The first couple pictures I took all looked something like this:

She was trying to hold up both her arms and legs as high as she could so she didn't have to touch the leaves.  Even when she didn't have to sit in the pile she didn't really want to play with them and would barely touch them when I was trying to get her to throw them up in the air.

She was slightly less hesitant about them when her friends came over and played in them too, even when she got them dumped on her head.  

But mostly she was just happy to watch the leaves from a safe distance :)  

 Oh well.  Maybe we'll get some cute leaf pictures next year?

Beautiful Fall

After a teaser week of freezing cold wind and rain, Ohio has decided to show us why fall is so great on the East Coast.  

 

 I don't remember ever feeling such perfect weather in my life.  If only it would stay this way!  Kaylee and I have been trying to take advantage and spend lots and lots of time outside.  One huge perk to being here?  Apparently Utah got snow this week.  And quite honestly, I took extreme satisfaction in going outside that day in shorts to play at the park. :) We love fall!!

Just to make you smile

Kaylee wanted to try on her new coat and show it off to Daddy.  Daddy, being the crazy guy he always is, was trying to get her to make funny faces.  So I grabbed the camera and tried to capture a few...and was pleasantly rewarded with this:

and this:

I was laughing pretty hysterically for a long time after seeing this picture and every time I look at it now it makes me smile.  Who knew an 18 month old could entertain me for so long? :)

And so it begins

As of Sunday, we have officially been in Ohio for 48 days.  Also as of Sunday, I was officially homesick for the first time.  I'm going to take a wild guess and say that won't be the last time that happens.  And so it begins...

Franklin Park Conservatory

I just realized that I never blogged about Richard's birthday...oops.  His birthday was on Sunday so we tried to celebrate a little bit Saturday night.  Richard told me he was up for anything because whatever we do here is fun because it's new.  Well I really took that to heart and we ended up going to the Franklin Park Conservatory.  We weren't 100% sure what was there, but it got really good reviews online so we decided to check it out.  Honestly, it was really boring except for the butterfly room, while had the best butterfly place I've ever been to.  Kaylee had so much fun watching, chasing, and running from the butterflies.   

They also had enormous Koi in the pond and she watched them probably longer than she stared at any of the butterflies!  Because of that room, it ended up being a lot of fun and we were glad we went. 

Outside they had a bunch of fruits and vegetables made out of blown-glass. They were pretty cool and were in all different colors. Kaylee's favorite? The purple pumpkins of course! (Purple is her favorite color)

The rest of our celebrations were very low-key and we didn't do a whole lot more than eat all of Richard's favorite foods.  The good part about having his birthday on Sunday was he got two full days of special meals made just for him :)

Parental anecdotes

Kaylee does so many adorable things. There are a lot of good things she has learned that I absolutely love: Some of my favorites are when she does things to imitate us like patting herself on the back and saying "Are you ok?" whenever she coughs.  Or the fact that she has the best manners of any kid in the world and always remember to say thank you, excuse me, and please don't without being reminded. There are, however, a few good things that Kaylee does that I wish she had never learned :)  I can't hold them against her though- they are adorable and make me smile. 

MORE: The word more.  I didn't think I could get sick of a word, but some days I really wish I could never hear this word again. I think Kaylee says it about 50,000 times a day.  Mostly she says it over and over again if it's something we can't control; like her burping, or an airplane flying overhead, or a squirrel in our backyard.  When that thing is gone, she'll just say more, more, more over and over again.  No matter how many times we try to tell her that we can't bring it back, she insists that by saying "more" 25 times in a row, it will magically make that thing appear again!

BRUTUS:  No, she is still not over her Brutus fixation.  Every time we get in the car, she asks for Brutus, as well as at other random times in the day.  It's actually hilarious but I have no idea why she is so obsessed with him.  The other day she kept repeating mommy and daddy so I asked her, "Are those the only words you know?"  She said "No" and so I said, "Ok well what other words do you know?"  She paused for a minute and then said "Brutus".  Ha ha ha- my funny little girl! 

PLEASE DON'T:  Instead of having her say no every time something doesn't go her way, we've been trying to teach her to say "please don't" and she's done amazing at it.  However, when you're trying to tickle or play with her and she says "please don't" it sucks out all the fun!  She even says it when she has taken something from us and we are trying to get it back from her.  Ha ha. How can you keep doing something when your sweet little girl looks up and you and says "please don't"?  That's what we get for teaching her to be nice ;) 

I seriously couldn't ask for a better little girl.  She just makes life so much fun!

Bring It On

Bring on the fall weather.  

We are ready for you!
(Isn't she the cutest??)