Kaiya has never asked me what email is or why I’m checking it. She actually had never mentioned the term until a few weeks ago when my mom was visiting. Mom was on her computer printing boarding passes for her flight later that day. Kaiya came into her room and asked, “Babka, are you checking your email?” Mom explained what she was doing, but Kaiya wasn’t interested in boarding passes. She told Babka that she needed to check her email. Babka decided to play along and opened up an email my dad had sent with a picture of him and some of the fish he had caught during his trip. Mom printed off the picture and told Kaiya that it was her special email from Papa. They hung the picture on the fridge and Kaiya proudly told anyone and everyone, “Look at my email that Papa sent me! It’s on the ‘frigerator!”

The next day, I was washing dishes and Kaiya ran into the kitchen exclaiming, “Mama! Mama! I sent you an email!” I questioned, “You did? Where did you send it?” Looking at me like I was crazy for not knowing about email, she replied, “It’s on your computer. I sent you an email on your computer.”

Curious as to what kind of email she sent me, I followed her into the living room. Sure enough my computer was covered in green post-it notes. Each one contained several scribbles that she had carefully written my “emails” on. We laughed together as we read each email.

A few days later, my dad sent Kaiya an actual email. I pulled her up in my lap and showed her that the email was for her by pointing out her name at the top of the email message. After reading it to her, I asked if she wanted to send Papa an email. She happily exclaimed yes and before I could hit the reply button, Kaiya jumped down from my lap and ran into her room. She emerged moments later with a green post-it note with little scribbles all over it. With a huge grin on her face, Kaiya said she was ready to send Papa his email. She then went promptly into the kitchen and attached it to the refrigerator.

Kaiya was very excited to see Babka, but missed Papa terribly. Even though we kept explaining to her that Papa was on a fishing trip and wasn’t coming this time, she just couldn’t grasp why Babka was here and Papa wasn’t. She asked several times a day if we were going back to the airport to pick up Papa.

During mom’s visit we played, shopped, ate well and Andrej and I took advantage of free babysitting and went out a few times sans kids. Mom also tackled another one of my craft projects. While she was here for Thanksgiving, she sewed basket liners for the baskets under Tobi’s changing table. During her visit at the end of February, she painted and decoupaged wooden letters to spell Kaiya’s name to hang on her wall. Then this trip she took an idea I had for a wall hanging with Tobi’s name on it and made a work of art. I’m so thankful to have such a talented and crafty mom.

Also during Babka’s visit, I finally decided to do something that has needed to be done for a while, but for some reason I just couldn’t do it. We took Kaiya to a fun hair salon just for kids called Snip-its and got her hair cut. Yes, Kaiya is almost three and just got her very first hair cut ever. I was so nervous that Kaiya wouldn’t cooperate, but she did great. She asked about half a million times if it was going to hurt, and no matter how many times I reassured her that it wouldn’t, she continued to ask until the hair dresser handed her a fun Dora toy to play with and turned on a video for her to watch. Other than asking a couple of times to get out of the chair before the cut was over, there was no drama in Kaiya’s first haircut.

Once Kaiya’s hair was cut and styled, I could have kicked myself for waiting so long. She looks adorable with her new bob and it is so much easier to manage. Lastly, Kaiya was able to put a lock of her hair into a machine that sucked it in and spit out a prize for her to take. It was a fun experience and one I’m glad we were able to share with my mom.

Once my heart stopped racing and I had assessed the situation, I assured Kaiya that her letters were indeed still on her wall and NOT falling. I reminded her that Papa had worked hard to hang those letters so they would be safe and not fall. I told her that it was still night-night time and she needed to go back to sleep. Still a little shaken, she reluctantly complied and curled up with her lovies. I covered her back up, kissed her and bid her a good night. I crawled back into my own bed a little annoyed at how awake I was, but glad the situation was resolved. Not even two minutes had passed when the frantic screams started again and in between cries I heard, “They are falling! My letters are falling!”

Once again I trudged back across the hallway into Kaiya’s room, however this time not quite as compassionate. I told her to stop screaming and flipped on her lamp so she could see that her letters were not in her bed but on the wall as they should be. She rubbed her eyes and stared at the letters in disbelief. I’m not sure why I didn’t have more compassion for her because I myself have very vivid nightmares and have needed comfort and reassurance from Andrej many nights before I could fall back to sleep. Blame it on the hour or that I wanted nothing more than to be asleep at that moment, but I told her if she didn’t go back to sleep I would take the letters down and they would be all gone. Not one of my finer parenting moments, however I did open her closet door to shed a little light into the room as a night light before switching off the lamp and going back to bed.

By this point Kaiya was wide awake, and with the closet light on in her room she was ready to play. We listened to her talk and play for a little while before Andrej headed across the hall. Without knowing what I had told her, he removed the letters from her wall, kindly asked her to be quiet and go back to sleep and closed the closet door so her room was dark once again. He barely got out of the room before the howling began again. We agreed that her talking in bed was preferred to the howling, so Andrej returned to open the closet door once again. When he entered she told him that there were sticks in her bed. She has had only one other bad dream/nightmare, which was months ago, and it involved sticks in her bed “sticking her”. We both thought it was strange that she remembered that and brought it up again.

Andrej pulled back her covers, checked out her bed and assured her there were no sticks in her bed. She then told him that the camera was getting into her bed. By this point even Andrej was losing his patience and told her that nothing was falling or getting into her bed and to go to sleep! He left her, with the closet light on, still whining about the camera getting into her bed.

Soon her whines turned back into chatter and Andrej was able to fall asleep. I listened to her carry on for at least another hour. Finally around 5:00 am, after two very LONG hours, Kaiya was silent and I too went back to sleep.

Needless to say the next day, both Andrej and I were dragging, but not Kaiya. Oh no, she was well rested because she slept in the next morning until 10:00 am! Since then she has requested her closet light on every night and talks about her letters falling, the fan falling, the camera getting her and sticks in her bed, but thankfully hasn’t had anymore bad dreams about them since. Oh the imagination of a two year old! We are currently in the market for a night light to add to her room because I have a feeling that her nights of sleeping in the dark are over and it probably won’t be long before her fears move from wall hangings to lions or tigers or bears…oh my!

1. Kaiya’s self-styled ’80s Olympic runner hair style
2. The fact that she calls her Mr. Potato Head, “Tomato Head”. (This is even funnier due to the fact that her father also frequently calls potatoes tomatoes and tomatoes potatoes)
3. Her placement of Tomato Head’s body parts.

All three had both Andrej and I in tears from laughing so hard at our silly girl. She does have a cold so you’ll have to ignore her stuffy runny nose, but we couldn’t let those things stop us from sharing the video. Turn the volume up and enjoy!

Before Kaiya’s first class a few weeks ago, I was a little worried at how she would do. Being that it was her first time in a class where she had to follow a teacher’s instructions, I really didn’t know if she would sit/stand still long enough to listen and understand the teacher. During the first few minutes of the class my worries proved legitimate as the first words out of Kaiya’s mouth were, “I’ll show you how I like to dance.” Then off she went hoping, running and spinning around the room. I spent most of the first class wrangling her and explaining that she had to listen to Miss Kat, her dance teacher, and do exactly what she was doing so she could learn new dances. Thankfully, the class is made up of all two and three year olds so Kaiya wasn’t the only rebellious student doing her own thing.

Even with all the wrangling I had to do, the first class was a lot of fun and Kaiya and I both enjoyed ourselves. I wasn’t sure how much Kaiya actually learned, but later in the week we decided to practice what we had learned at class and to my surprise Kaiya showed me many of the moves Miss Kat taught without me even reminding her. I was so pleased to know that she was paying attention and learning even though it didn’t seem that way during the class. She even remembered words to a song we learned and the motions that go along with it.

Our second class went much better as I think Kaiya started to grasp the fact that she is supposed to follow the teacher and not run around like a crazy girl. She was so cute practicing first and second position, plies and doing the motions to the songs Miss Kat taught us. Kaiya kept yelling out, “I’m doing a good job!”

As I mentioned earlier, the daddies went with the girls last week and I’m glad Andrej was able to experience dance class and snap these funny pictures of our little ballerina in action. Tutu cute!

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.

Andrej: Would you like some of this apple?
Kaiya: I would like some.

Andrej: Did you take a nap today?
Kaiya: I didn’t. I played!

What’s next? “Thank you, I don’t care for any?” :-)

When Kaiya wakes up in the morning or after a nap she almost always calls out for us with something like this: “Mama, Daddy, Tobi…come in here! Maaamaaa, Daaaaddyyy, Toooo-biii…where are you? It’s time to wake up! Somebody…come in here!”

A few nights ago we had a dear friend over for dinner and at one point us adults were all laughing pretty hard. Kaiya, feeling a little left out of the conversation said, “Hey guys! Calm down. Calm down guys!”

Then during another dinner with more friends, Kaiya suddenly piped into the conversation saying, “Hey guys? Do you want to do something after dinner?” Andrej answered, “Sure Kaiya, what do you want to do?” Very excitedly Kaiya replied, “We can play with toys for a little bit.”

Potty training has provided Kaiya with lots of opportunities to crack us up. She recently pooped in the potty for the first time and she jumped up, looked inside and said, “Mama, what’s that?” Then, as we flushed the toilet I told Kaiya we were going to flush the poop and say bye-bye. As she watched it go down, she said, “Bye-bye. Have a good day.” Tonight as she went in to use the potty before bedtime she looked at the potty and said, “Potty, do you want some poopies?”

Kaiya sure makes life fun and funny!