Repeat photos posted again — just my favorites of Kamy from Holland since apparently I didn’t take any photos other than on our trip.
Most of September was spent in Holland, but Kamy has several updates this month outside of our trip too.
While in Holland, Kamy got much better at riding a bicycle. It’s amazing what a little motivation will do for a four year old! It didn’t take her long to figure out how to scoot right along on her bicycle and she was always asking to take the bikes out. She had one big tumble going down a “hill” before she really understood her brakes, but fortunately she rolled into the grass. Now she is all over the place and is comfortable going really quick! She’s itching to take off her training wheels too, since clearly that’s the next step for her. She literally asked me to take off her training wheels the first day we were in Holland.
Miss Kamy is my competitive child. She loves to win at whatever she is doing. She wants to win if at all possible. She’s getting better at losing gracefully and we have talked a lot about enjoying the process of playing instead of just the final score. We play a lot of cooperative games to work on this too but even then we hear, “Who’s winning?” One of her favorite things to do with Daddy is play MarioKart on the Wii. Because we know how she feels about winning, we do NOT let her win in those races. Or really any game for that matter. If we are going to play, we don’t want her to ever wonder if she actually won or if we let her win. When they race on Donkey cars, Daddy always wins. If I’m really lucky I can beat Daddy at a race, but they are few and far between. It makes victory that much sweeter! <wink> But Kamy is getting much much better at racing! Something clicked in her mind and she is learning how to steer and stay on the track. She’s been steadily moving up on her races and has even earned 4th out of 12! Considering she started out always ending in last, it’s been a huge progression and I’m so proud of her! She does tend to place better when racing against all computers because she has the whole screen to see where she is going instead of a split screen with Daddy.
Keller also lets the kids play with his mini BopIt! It is a reaction game where you have to listen to the task (bop it, twist it, pull it, shout it) and do it within a short period of time (maybe a half second?). Kamy’s been working on that too and has a high score of seven! The first four are consistent but the rest are random. Her reaction times are getting quicker and she is so proud of herself when she gets a high score.
The newest policy in our house is added freedom! The kids did so great playing outside at Great Oma’s house that we have been allowing the kids to go outside and play outside without an adult. They must stay in the back yard and cannot go around the side of the house or past the carport. They’re also required to ask before going outside so I know where they are and come inside when told. =P We have had a couple of incidents where someone strayed outside the boundaries, but two days of not playing outside while the other went has mostly nipped that in the bud. The fall weather has been so nice lately, the kids have really been a lot of time outside. They love to be out there!
We love you Miss Kamy-girl!