Kamy – August

Kamy spent two days with Min at the end of July — just the two of them.  They went out to eat and worked on quilts and just spent quality time together.  That Kamy loves her Min and they have so much fun together.  I don’t think she misses me at all when I drop her off.  =)  Kamy really likes to take baths in Min’s jetted tub … they call it an Air Bath.

We have switched Kamy to a new dance studio in Longview.  The studio we were at was the only one that offered a 4 year old summer class, so it was a great way to try out dance and see if it is something Kamy would really be interested in.  Not surprisingly, she loves it.  She is now enrolled at the Tina Grider studio and is in a class of ten little girls.  She committed to the full semester, so we’ll be there at least through December.  They spend 30 minutes on both tap and ballet, plus another fifteen minutes on tumbling.  This new studio is a more “professional” environment (ballet bars and two teachers in the class) and is 30 minutes longer for the same monthly cost.  I consider that a win!  She is so excited to go to her new dance class!

Daddy and Kamy have been playing a new game together — Carcasonne.  It is a tile building game where you have to place tiles next to each other and match up all the sides.  Where you place the tile changes your points.  We have changed the scoring a little, but Kamy is learning how to play strategically — how to get the most points!  She is also doing great at figuring out how many points she earns and adding it to her total score.  I love watching her thrive in situations that push her a little, and this game allows her to be successful and still is challenging.

Speaking of games, Kamy still loves playing the Wii and WiiU with Daddy.  Her current favorite is MarioKart 8, aka Donkey Cars.  =)  She’s getting much better at driving and is learning how to make little adjustments to stay on the track.  They’ll also play SuperMario occasionally, where Kamy gets to place blocks for Mario to jump on.  Daddy introduced a new game to Kamy this month too — ScribbleNauts.  It is an open ended puzzle game where you’re given a problem (Matt is hungry) and you type in words to create an object to solve the problem (type “apple” and then give the apple to Matt).  There are a lot of different solutions to the same question but it is really interesting to see how Kamy comes up with an answer.  Sometimes she has the same idea I do and other times she thinks way outside the box.

Kamy continues to show an interest in math, so I make a point of asking math related questions about everything we do.  I think her brain works a lot like mine, because I am always trying to figure out relationships between things and find patterns … both of which she seems drawn to.  She has been doing great with addition, but she is starting to understand the concept of subtraction.  The best example is from our game in the car where we call school buses, water towers, and boats.  Kamy constantly gives recaps on current scores and I heard her say, “I have six points and Caden has two points, so that means I have FOUR more points than Caden!”  Okay, so the bragging attitude is a work in progress, but I was surprised when she came up with that all on her own.  Caden may not know what a 7 looks like, but my Kamy knows her numbers!  She can count all the way past 100 now too.

Speaking of the car game, Kamy came up with a new prize for calling the most points — you get to be a fairy!  What color shirt you happen to be wearing influences which fairy you become, but you get to be a fairy at bedtime that night (not that it changes anything at all).  She decided that if I called the most points on the way to town and Kamy called the most on the way home, then I get to be the fairy that night and Kamy gets to be a fairy tomorrow.  However, there’s a little breakdown when we are in the car two days in a row.  =)  Kamy hasn’t logic-ed out that one yet.   She remains my super-competitive child and looooves to win.  It doesn’t really matter what she wins, the winning is the important part.  Even when we play cooperative games she’ll ask who is winning.  There are definitely more co-op games in our future …

I’ve been harping on Kamy to take her fingers out of her mouth.  She’s got all her teeth, so it’s not at all related to teething, but she just chews on her fingers all the time.  They’re in her mouth and by her eyes all the time and then I don’t really want to hold her slimy wet hand.  We’re trying hard to break her of that habit but it seems to be slow going. Oh well, we’ll get there!

Lastly, here are some photos from our time in Linden with Oma and Opa and then swimming with Granpops (when Caden jumped in without floaties).  She is such a little water bug and she loves to swim!  Jumping in is not her favorite though, she’d much rather climb in gradually.  The crying photo below was after I dropped her in the water because she wouldn’t jump.  I’m so mean.  =P