October was very busy — Payton and Corinne’s wedding was mid-month down in Houston, so we traveled to DFW for a weekend for birthdays and a wedding shower, in addition to spending a weekend in Sugar Land for the wedding. Kamy was invited to come to the shower in DFW. She had a lot of fun and was a huge help! She was in charge of bringing the next gift to Payton and Corinne to open. She’s such a great helper. =)
Kamy and Caden were both in the wedding and Kamy was SO excited to be the flower girl! The evening of the rehearsal and the day of she practiced dropping flower petals over and over again to make sure she did it just right. I don’t have a lot of photos from that day (since I was busy corralling the kids), but hopefully the photographer got some good shots. Another wedding guest shared this one and I love it. They did a great job and were so proud to be in Payton’s wedding.
Speaking of helping, Kamy has really been driven to help however she can. I hear, “Can I help?” multiple times a day. I need to get better about saying “Yes” as often as I can. At this point helping isn’t always faster than doing it myself, but that’s totally beside the point. She loves getting positive feedback and seems to flourish on encouragement and thanks. Knowing she can do something, just like Momma, is a really big deal for her. =) She helps me run and put away laundry, vacuum their room, and unload the dishwasher. She especially loves to help me in the kitchen. She measures and pours ingredients, pulls out what I need from the pantry and fridge, and has even started washing dishes for me too! Who can complain about that?! I am so thankful for her helpful heart and I hope she continues to feel fulfillment and joy in helping. This month we roasted pumpkins and pumpkin seeds and made apple sauce. The pumpkin seeds were going really well until Caden poured out the bowl in the sink and half went down the disposal. Oops!
Our weather this month has been beautiful, so we have spent a lot of time outside — riding bikes, taking walks, and going to the park. Like Caden, Kamy is doing great playing outside unsupervised. I know Kamy can handle it, and she’s proven that she can be responsible and reliably follow the rules. We really want to continue to give the kids more freedom and responsibility and trust them to make the right decisions. Clearly we are only 4 years down this parenthood-path, but so far so good. We’ll see how we feel in another 12 years, right?
One of Kamy’s biggest milestones this month is learning how to ride her bicycle without training wheels! She came home from Holland super motivated to learn and has worked hard on figuring it out. We spent quite a bit of time across the street on our neighbor’s level, concrete driveway where Kamy could start off on the smooth drive and then ride into the grass. Riding into the grass seemed to help conquer her concerns about falling since she was less likely to hurt herself. She’s got it figured out now! I’m so proud of her and she’s mighty proud too! We’re still working on starting independently, but I have a feeling it won’t be long before she’s got it down too.
Kamy keeps improving in MarioKart. She’s even placed second! She loves to play with Daddy, and while he doesn’t let her win, we know it’s only a matter of time before she can hold her own against him. She’s consistently placing in the middle of the pack against the easy computers. Kamy seems to do markedly better when she plays alone or just with Daddy too — the bigger viewing area (either full screen or split horizontally) really helps her stay on the track.
Somehow we ended up on a mailing list that included a free copy of Highlights magazine. I remember getting Highlights when we were kids, so it really brought back memories when I saw it in the mail box. Kamy loves to find the hidden objects that are in the pictures and she’s getting pretty good! Kamy loves to learn and intentionally helps Caden learn too.
Lastly, bedtime comes early these days for Kamy. As I mentioned in Caden’s post, bedtime routine starts at 6pm and Kamy’s heading to bed at 6:45pm. When daylight savings hits in November, it’s really going to make for an early night!