First Day of Pre-K Blue

Today is the first day of school for Bailey. Three-year-old preschool. Some days she tells me she wants to stay home with me and Sydney. (I can't blame her. I dropped out of 3-year-old preschool because I wanted to stay home with my Mom and little sister!) She is in the Blue room and will be with the same two teachers for the next two years. Miss Whitney and Miss Chinoah will help Bailey and her classmates prepare for Kindergarten. We are looking forward to learning a lot and having a great year!

TJ goes to South Africa

TJ was gone for 9 days on a work trip to South Africa. It was a special course on spatial frames and he got to do a lot of hands on learning. The girls and I had a busy week without him, but we were so glad he returned home safely. And Bailey was so excited because there were presents in the suitcase!

Bailey Quotes

Bailey and Sydney and I went for a walk this morning. Bailey saw a bird in this pine tree. She tried to point it out to me and said, "In that pineapple tree!" I proceeded to take the picture of the tree to put here on the blog...and afterwards, she said, "The tree isn't smiling Mommy!" Oh right. Why would I take a picture of something that isn't smiling? Her comments made me giggle.

Bailey was wanting to play with her DeeDee while I was feeding Sydney a bottle one late morning. She had a corner and wanted me to grab the other corner with my feet and hold on. I did and she would laugh as she pulled and then I would let go. She would say, "No DeeDee for you!" I responded "No soup for you!" -- the famous line from one of the Seinfeld episodes. She ran to the kitchen and returned with a Cars the Movie can of Chicken Noodle Soup and shouted, "Yes! Soup for me!!!" We ended up eating the soup for lunch.

I started to do an Ab routine on an App from my iPhone one day. Bailey asked what I was doing. I commented how I was working on getting rid of my tummy after being pregnant with Sydney. She came over and lifted up my shirt to take a look at my belly. About 5 minutes into the routine, she came over to me and lifted up my shirt again. "Is it all gone Mommy?!" she exclaimed!

On a side note, Bailey has started to call me Mommy instead of Mama. Pretty much around her 3rd birthday. Not sure where she heard that...I kinda liked Mama. But Mommy is good too!

Bailey's 3rd Birthday - Part 1

We had a couple of parties for Bailey's birthday this year. We had a family BBQ at our house on the 7th.

Bailey Swim Lessons

We signed up Bailey for Parent-Child swim lessons through the Boise Parks & Rec for 2 weeks. Four days a week, 30 minute sessions. She had a great time and learned about "ice cream scoops" for learning the crawl, kicking, blowing bubbles and listening to the fishies (putting her ear in the water). We played Ring-Around-The-Rosie, Sharkie-Sharkie, and Motorboat. The water was cold, but it still was a great experience to get her in the water. Aiden and Kenzie had lessons at the same time, so Julie was able to watch Sydney while I was in the pool with Bailey. Thank you to Grandma Kemp for coming and cheering her on and taking pictures!

Bailey Quotes

Sisters in the crib.

Like Mother, Like Daughter....Bailey wanting to "pump." I turned it on her belly for a second...she thought that was so funny!

Bailey's Beta fish Dorothy died recently. She received the fish from Uncle Ryan and Britt on her 2nd birthday. She didn't notice she was dead until her cousins Max and Magnus came over and saw her at the bottom of the tank. Bailey got real sad and kept saying, "Poor Dorothy." Magnus told her she should get a rainbow fish. A week later, driving in the car, Bailey says to me, "Um...she's (Dorothy) dead, and when she goes flushed down the toilet, there's some guys down there, and they're making her a rainbow."

Bailey's imaginary friend is Dugoff (DU-goff). We learned today that he has dark, curly hair and wears a suit. He comes over when she is eating at the table and I let him in the back door. They play at "Old MacDonalds" (McDonald's), which is currently our devoid-of-furniture living room. She loves to run races in circles, spin and twirl, and shoot hoops. She pretends it is closed and runs out and stands in front of the office doors in the foyer. Mama and Daddy have to run out too. Then she'll shout, "It's open!" and we run back in and run in circles. This comes from our February trip to Bend, when, on the drive home, we stopped at McDonalds and the playland was closed because the roof above it was leaking. We kept on the road and the next time we stopped -- at Carl's Jr's -- she got to play on the playland. She was running around shouting, "It's open! They fixed the leak!!"

On an especially tiring day, I say to Bailey: "You're driving me crazy!" She replies, "I'm not driving!"

6-27-11: Bailey started a movie on iTunes all by herself. The movie was already set up, so she just had to push the spacebar to unpause it. She says, "I got the movie already myself on!!!"

Seeing a spider on the ceiling above the kitchen table: "Go away spider or Mama will get the vacuum and vacuum you in the dust!"

Bailey Quotes

Upon Daddy returning from an evening bike ride: "Daddy, your feet smell today." Daddy lifted his foot up to her face for her to smell and said, "Smell 'em." Bailey looked up at him with a furrowed brow and said, "I don't think so!"

The Royal Wedding

Bailey woke up earlier than usual today...around 7 am. We came downstairs and cuddled on the couch. Prince William and Kate Middleton got married overnight, and the festivities were still going on early in the morning. We turned the TV on to NBC and saw the kiss on the balcony at Buckingham Palace. Bailey is at the stage where she is asking a lot of "Why?" questions, so I talked to her about marriage and weddings, and the flags in England. I told her Mommy and Daddy were married, and she asked Why? I said "Because we love each other and want to spend the rest of our lives together." She thought about this for a few seconds, then said, "Can I come too?" I thought that was so adorable.

The TV would go to commercial and she would freak out..."where's the wedding?!" She really was enthralled by the whole thing. It was on the news this evening and she'd hear the anchor mention the wedding and she would come running from her play room to see the TV. Pretty funny.

Potty Training

Bailey's first time going #1 on the potty actually occurred last year, March 2010, while we were living at the condo on Camelot. She sat on the little plastic potty chair and peed on the toilet paper that she already put in the bowl.

We started seriously working on it around the beginning of March 2011 at 2 years, 8 months. We had some big girl underwear (elmo- and princess-themed) and if we were home she would have them on. We still used a diaper when we would go out on some errands or be in the car. There were many accidents, of course. Her daycare at the ELC also encouraged us to send her in underwear, with extra clothes of course, and they have helped her along the way as well. They go to the bathroom in groups and I think having Bailey see the other kids use the potty has encouraged her to do it herself.

Now, it is the end of April, baby Cookie will be here in about 3 weeks, and Bailey is doing so well! She is letting us know when she has to go: "I have to go potty." And we get up and run to the bathroom with her. She can pull her pants and underwear down, hop up on the stool and sits down and goes pee-pee. We still cheer and clap and she gets a big smile on her face. We have stopped doing treats (2 M&M's) for #1, and have saved those for #2. Up until about 2 weeks ago, she wouldn't tell us she had to go #2. She would tell us AFTER she had already gone in her underwear. But 2 days ago, she told me, "Mama, I have to go poop!" and I started to run to the bathroom with her but she stopped. She turned to me and said she could do it herself. She came out a few minutes later and I went to check how she did. She had gone poop, wiped, and pulled her underwear and pants up. She showed me in the toilet that she went. She just needed to flush and wash her hands! Daddy and I are so proud of her. And the timing couldn't be better...

Bailey's Imagination

Bailey sure keeps us laughing. Lately, she is into making up friends' names, and even names for herself. Last night, she said her other name is "Do-off." She also had a friend named "Boog-off" come over to play. We opened the front door and invited him in. She played in her toy room with him for a few minutes, but quickly forgot and ran off to do something else.

She'll also talk to parts of her body. For instance, she'll be sitting at the table and see her feet dangling. She will look at one foot, and say, "hold still foot!" Or to her hand, "Hand, do you want some tic-tacs?......OK!"

Two nights ago we walked to Blue Cow Frozen Yogurt and as TJ was looking to add some toppings, she would get so excited about each new bin her eyes fixated on. "Ohhh! I LOVE strawberries!!" and "Ohhhh! I LOVE gummy worms!!!" and "Ohhh! I LOVE cookies!!!" Daddy and Bailey's bowl was quite a concoction.