My oh my, this has been a busy busy month for Kamy. She has a slew of new interests and skills, so bear with me for a long post here. =)
- In addition to the standard “please” and “thank you,” we’ve begun working on saying “yes please” and “no thank you” as a response to questions. While please is still the magic word, it is not a trump card. It is required in order to get whatever she is asking for, but that won’t change the answer if it was no anyway.
- The newest intellectual thing we’re working on with Kamy is Spanish! Since vocabulary is no problem for her at all, I’m introducing some Spanish words to her in conjunction with English. From the reading I’ve done, now is the best possible time to introduce a second language, and she has had no trouble understanding that there are Spanish words for everything. She loves to count in Spanish, and if we are counting something she’ll often start in English, get to two, say “count in Spanish” and start over again at uno. She knows through fifteen (quince). She also knows fork, spoon, table, chair, plate, bowl, cake, ice cream, teddy bear, cat, dog, bird, book, and several more. We’ve been using some flashcards I found online, but Keller says there’s a good Google Translate application for our phone that might help me teach her new words. Considering I don’t really know any Spanish myself, I’m learning it right along with her.
- We’ve also introduced a “word of the day” for Kamy. Since she’s shown some interest in spelling words, I bought some magnetic letters for the fridge. Every couple of days I put a new word on the fridge. Of course, Kamy’s not really interested in the normal “beginner” spelling words … no, she wants to know how to spell “birthday party” and “hummingbird.” Lol! I’ve been picking a theme word for something that we’ll be doing that day and focusing on that. For instance, I put up the word “book” the day we were going to the library. Kamy’s been pretty interested in the letters, and while she hasn’t solidly memorized many more words yet, she still attempts to spell words from several weeks ago, so something is sticking in her brain!
- We’ve been spending a lot of time outside lately … especially before the weather started getting hot in the middle of the day. Miss Kamy must taste super sweet, because she calls nearly every mosquito to her from miles around. Despite coating her arms, legs, back, hair, and tummy with bug spray, she nearly always ends up with a few more bites. Fortunately they don’t seem to bother her too much and she rarely scratches them. Poor Kamy got a mosquito bite at the outside corner of her eye last month and her whole eye was swollen the next morning! I felt so bad for her! Thank goodness the swelling went down around lunch time, I was a bit concerned about it when she first got up and could hardly see out of her eye. =( She got another one about a week later and made it look like she had a black eye. Thanks to the sun, she’s picking up a few freckles on her arms here and there. She’s had flawless, clear skin since she was a baby, so these new freckles stand out to me. I think they’re cute!
- Kamy is still doing really well with her big girl toddler bed. She’ll stay in bed at night without protest and she mostly stays put during nap time too. Early on, she had a hard time staying in bed at nap time one day. The third time I put her back in bed, I told her “stay in bed and take a nap.” Now almost every time I lay her down, she says “stay in bed, take nap.” Yes ma’am! It’s super cute and makes me smile each time. It’s amazing how she latches on to one thing I say out of countless comments throughout the day … what makes something stick like that? Bed time and nap time are still the same routine, with a few tweaks — pick out an animal or two to lay in bed with, Kamy climbs into bed, put two waters in the corners of her bed, and lay her three blankets across her and her animals. Then she says “stay in bed, take nap” and we’re set. She remains the world’s easiest toddler to put to bed. However, this is what can happen when she opts to play instead of taking a nap … the Kamy-bomb!
- Kamy is really big into “Kamy do it” right now. It doesn’t matter what it is, but she wants to do it herself. While this level of independence is certainly helpful at times, it wouldn’t exactly call it … speedy. =P Kamy can climb into the truck on her own, into her car seat, and then will buckle herself in. The only thing she can’t do is tighten the straps, and she’d do that too if it was possible (strangely enough, the designers of the car seat didn’t want a toddler to adjust the straps!). She also likes to climb into Caden’s car seat and buckle herself in.
- Along the same lines, Kamy is fully responsible for dressing herself each day. She’ll pick out her own clothes and can mostly get herself dressed … with pants on the right way and shoes on the correct feet most of the time. Wardrobe changes throughout the day are not uncommon, and my eyes have stopped twitching over some of the clothes combinations she chooses. We’re working on the concept of “matching” and making good progress. Some days she does get a little carried away though … she gives a whole new meaning to the word “clotheshorse!” (For the record, there were five shirts and twelve pants on Miss Kamy – plus the jammies on the bottom.)
- My little helper is in fine form right now. Her favorite things to help Momma with right now include setting the table for dinner, sweeping the kitchen floor, and helping me bake. She loves to stand on the ladder in the kitchen and dump ingredients in a bowl. She also knows most of the standard baking ingredients and will get out the flour, sugar, brown sugar, etc when I need them. As with “Kamy do it,” the point of her helping is not that something is faster or done better, but I want to encourage her involvement and help.
- Miss Kamy loves to call people on the phone to talk. Out of the blue, she’ll say “call Oma / Min / Opa / Granpops?” If we’ve got a few minutes, I do my best to say yes and we’ll try to get a hold of whoever she was asking for. Kamy is getting much better on the phone and will certainly answer questions … but don’t expect her to carry her side of the conversation! If you ask a lot of questions with “yes” answers, you’re golden! She’ll also double check that you’re still there or if it’s on speaker during the conversation, so don’t be surprised when she disappears for a moment or three. She looks so grown up here, where’d my little girl go?!
- Also of note, Kamy now knows her phone number. Thanks for the recommendation Nana, she picked it up in no time at all! Between being able to spell her last name (and being the only Giacomarro family out this way) and her phone number, she should be able to find us if Daddy or I ever get lost. =P
- Climbing is quickly moving up on the list of things Kamy loves to do. She really likes to climb on the playground. She’s mastered climbing up on “rock” handholds and can also climb the bars. It makes both Momma and Daddy hold our breaths watching her do it, but she’s got to learn some time. She hasn’t taken a hard tumble yet though, she seems a bit more careful about what she’s doing when she’s climbing, which is a good thing.
- When Oma and Opa came out to Linden a few weeks ago, we spent the afternoon with them at our house and then the next day at the lake. Kamy went fishing in the canoe and had a great time. She keep bringing up “fishing with Opa” and can’t wait to go again.
- Kamy is doing so good with Caden. We’re still working on sharing “her” toys, and she needs lots of reminders that it’s okay for Caden to play with the toys too. She’s getting better though, and is much less likely to take something away from Caden than she was before. She’s starting to be interested in whatever he is doing and will actually play with him a little bit. I hope they’ll be great playmates when he gets a little bit bigger. Then they can wear each other out for me! Here she is saying “load you up Caden, load you all up” because we “load Kamy up” with toys in the car if we’re driving in the car. It was so super cute!
Another month, another set of milestones. It amazes me how much she can change in just a few short weeks. It certainly makes the time go quickly, and now chasing after two little ones, my days are such a blur. I’m so glad I’ve kept this blog because not only does it keep me accountable to paying attention to all these little changes, but I will always have a record of Kamy and Caden growing up.
