Kamy has been doing really well lately. She is still my sweet little girl and I love her so much. This month we took another trip down to visit family in Liberty Hill and let all the cousins play together. We also had Min and Pay come visit for Keller’s birthday, plus we got to see Oma and Opa one more time before they moved up to Colorado.
- Kamy’s responsibilities and privileges have grown. She no longer uses a bib at meal times, though she still needs some reminders to use her fork more and her fingers less. She’s also responsible for clearing her place at the table after our meal – plate, fork, and cup to the kitchen counter and putting her napkin in the laundry. As a treat, Kamy got to sleep in her cousin Kaylie’s room when we visited. She was so excited to spend time with her cousins and they had “Big Fun!”
- Her coordination is getting better as well. She has figured out the mechanics of riding her bike and can peddle and steer alone. She still needs some help here and there thanks to our bumpy driveway — occasionally the back wheel gets stuck in a hole without traction with the training wheels holding it up. I wish we had a better place for her to ride, but you work with what you have. =)
- To encourage Kamy to take naps in the afternoon, she now has a carrot! If she takes a nap during nap time (ie – actually goes to sleep, not just rests in her bed), she doesn’t have to do quiet time the next morning. Instead she can stay out in the living room and play or color or work on a puzzle of her choosing. Occasionally Daddy is up and about and she can play with him too. It hasn’t radically changed how often she actually takes a nap, but she tries more frequently than she did before.
- Kamy has been so desperate for Keller’s attention lately. He has been working long hours the last month or so and is probably looking at 60+ hours of over time in September. As a result, she is soaking up any time and attention he can spare. When she is searching for attention, I usually hear her ask, “Who is available to pick me up?” Most of the time she asks while I’m cooking so I have a hard time stopping to pick her up. I say no more than I want to. I am trying to take advantage of this time and her desire for my focused attention and make a point to stop if I can and hold her for a minute. She really doesn’t want much of our time — two or three minutes will satisfy her and she’ll happily go back to playing while I go back to my project. I’m not great at it, but I’m trying.
- One of the biggest intellectual jumps I’ve seen from Kamy is in her puzzle skills. She’s always been good at them and could put puzzles together much earlier than “usual.” Now when she does a puzzle she can place pieces ahead of where she is working, including meeting at a corner where she can’t connect the pieces yet. Developing the spacial awareness to relate those two pieces was very impressive. Just out of curiosity, I gave her a couple new puzzles she hadn’t done before and stepped back to watch. She had no trouble putting them together, despite never doing them before and having no input from me. In the past she’s always memorized where the pieces go, so I was very proud to see her take all the “clues” in the pieces and put it together.
I am so proud of my sweetheart. She brings so much light and joy into our daily lives. I love my mini-me!
