Andrej, Jessica, Kaiya and Tobi

The other day Kaiya was spinning in circles around the kitchen. After quite a few rounds she stumbled over to me and started frantically crying. I bent down to see what was wrong and in between cries she said, "Mama, get me! Get me! The house is falling over." I was laughing so hard I could barely explain to her that the house wasn't falling over, she was just dizzy. At 2 1/2, our sweet Kaiya definitely keeps us laughing and makes us so proud to be her parents.

Kaiya's latest and greatest accomplishment has been successfully potty training. Over the last six months or so we have been trying to get her to use the potty consistently. It had become quite a battle of wills with Kaiya outright refusing to use the potty at times and leaving us all pretty frustrated. We had decided to back off because it was stressful for her and for us.

Then one morning a few weeks ago, I was sitting on Kaiya's rug about to change her diaper when I realized the diaper drawer was empty. Too lazy to stand up and get more diapers from the closet, I asked Kaiya if she wanted to wear some of the pretty big girl underwear that she got for Christmas. She told me no and that she wanted a diaper, but I persisted. I opened the drawer with the underwear and made a big deal out of all the pretty colors, and the ones with hello kitty on them. She came over to see what I was ooohing and aahing over. I offered that she could choose any pair she wanted. I'm not sure what made this morning any different from all the others, but Kaiya reached in and pulled out a pretty flowery pair. We put them on and have not gone back to diapers since!!!

Well, we are still using diapers at night because she has yet to wake up dry, but during the day she wears underwear and gladly uses the potty so she can add stickers to her potty chart, get skittles and earn surprises like trips to the mall to ride the carousel. She rarely has accidents and is getting so good at just going on her own without being constantly reminded or asked if she needs to use the potty. She will announce, "I need to use the potty and I do it all by myself!" Hooray for our big girl!

In addition to potty training, Kaiya has recently taken another developmental step into preschooler-dom. However, this one I am MUCH less excited about. Over the last few months, Kaiya has been dropping her afternoon nap. I think a 2 1/2 year old still needs a nap, for sure I think MY 2 1/2 year old still needs a nap. Unfortunately for me, my 2 1/2 year old disagrees. Kaiya will talk, sing and play in her bed for as long as I leave her there. She won't try to get out of bed, but most days she will not go to sleep. I've left her in there for as long as three hours with no success. I tried fighting it for a while by constantly going in and sternly reminding her she needs to go to sleep, or taking away her precious stuffed animals, but neither tactic worked and only ruined my afternoon break.

Currently, I leave her in her bed for two hours while Tobi naps, and if she sleeps she gets to stay up later at night. We really make a big deal out of it if she naps, and do fun things with her after Tobi is in bed each night. If she doesn't nap, then I rescue her from her bed after two hours, but she has to go to bed earlier that night. We do have to deal with a cranky, overtired, hyper Kaiya in the evenings, but overall it's not too bad. It has made me appreciate the days she does nap soooo much. It is such a blessing to have a few quiet hours in the afternoon.

Here are a few other fun facts about our 30 month old:

Kaiya has started taking a pre-ballet dance class and she LOVES it! (More on this later)

"Playing stickers", coloring and painting have become some of her favorite indoor activities.

Her imagination has really taken off and she plays many games of pretend throughout the day. One of her current favorites involves packing a backpack or bag with various objects and telling me that she is going to work. She will tell me bye bye and to have a good day and she heads off to work. From another room she will call out, "Mama, I'm working hard." She also has an imaginary friend named Sax. So far, I've learned that Sax is a boy. He wears a red shirt and some days he lives in a tree and others he just lives in the "skies".

She LOVES playing outside in the snow and helping daddy shovel the driveway. She hates to come inside even after hours of playing in the winter wonderland. Her nose and cheeks will be bright red and we know she's freezing, but it's a battle to get her inside. I really can't blame her as I'm pretty sick of being cooped up inside as well.

She LOVES wearing pajamas. It can be quite challenging to get her out of them and dressed each day. Recently Andrej has started letting her choose which jammies she wants to wear at night. She pairs the most interesting pants, shirts and socks that do not match. I didn't think much about it until I started to notice her ensembles in our pictures and thought I should mention that those are her expressions of style and not ours :-)

At 2 1/1 we are right in the middle of the so called "terrible twos", and for the most part they really aren't that terrible. We do have challenging days, where Kaiya spends a good bit of time in timeouts, but even then she makes us laugh when she calls out after sitting on her bed for a few minutes, "Mama, I'm ready to obey!"

We sure love our Kaiya and love experiencing life with her. Whether it's as big as learning to use the potty, or as simple as explaining that the house isn't falling over she's just dizzy, watching her learn and grow is so incredible.