1.583333 years

 At Kaia's 18-month well-baby visit the interim pediatrician entered the room and said, "here is the little wunderkind."  He was referring to the report he'd just been given by the P.A. student who performed Kaia's exam.  Apparently he was impressed by the fact that she's blowing every toddler milestone out of the water. She is pretty amazing.  She continues to entertain the entire family with her antics and is learning new concepts and words every day.  Here are a few things she's learned to do since my last Kaia post:

• Buckle things.  A favorite activity now.  She has to buckle her booster seat when she's done eating and gets mad when I won't let her buckle and re buckle her car seat when we're trying to go somewhere.
• Say even more.  She talks pretty clearly and uses full sentences often.  She'll hand me something and say, "here you go Mommy," or, when Kenzie is getting some veg-out time watching Dora Kaia, hoping to join her, will say, "want to sit on couch. on couch."  She sings verses of No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed and Ring Around the Rosie.  
• Ask questions.  She is always inquiring, "Mommy doin'? doin' Mommy?"  And her new favorite request since Halloween, "candy, mommy? candy?"
• Be overtly defiant.  Up until now we could write off Kaia's lack of obedience as immaturity. Now it is clear that when we tell her "no, we do not throw food.  Do not throw your food, eat your food," and she looks me in the eyes and throws another spoonful of noodles, she is making a choice.
• Count to six, or ten, or three.  Depends on how she's feeling.  This is a product of many, many games of hide-and-seek with Sister.  The first time we heard her count to six Dustin and couldn't believe it.
• Snuggle.  She is a little cuddle bug, and not just with me.  I catch her and Kenzie snuggled under a blanket on the couch all the time.  Kaia copies her big sister and puts "babies" to bed (stuffed animals and the like) and will lie with them and cuddle.  When Kaia gives a hug she gives it with love.  Every time.
• Pretend.  She's been pretend eating for a while, but she's beginning to create pretend situations now.  The other day she pretended to cry then looked at her teddy bear and said, "baby cry, baby sad."  She pretended to cry again and picked up her bear and told it, "okay, baby, okay baby."  
• Fall for her first crush.  The girl is in LOVE with her cousin Josh.  She lights up when ever he is around and talks about him all the time.  Randomly she'll smile and say, "Joshy tickle me."  She's gaga for him!

We love our Kaia boo.  She is the silliest of us all, and we're a pretty silly bunch.

Meeting Great Grandpa

My sweet, inquisitive McKenzie and I were driving in the car a few weeks ago when we passed a cemetery. She wanted to know what it was and I explained it in the simplest possible way.  She seemed to understand and asked many questions.

A week or so later she saw a picture on the computer of Great Grandma Ricci dancing at our wedding.  She wanted to know who she was dancing with and I told her that it was Great Grandpa Ricci, who died before she was born.  She wanted to know if he was in a cemetery.  When I told her he was, she wanted to know if we could go visit him.

I took McKenzie to meet him last week. On the way there Kenzie asked, "when we talk to the stone, can grandpa hear us?"  She listened intently as I answered. Kaia was napping in the car while Kenzie and I talked to grandpa's headstone.  We told him about Dustin's girls, who he never had the pleasure to meet.  We talked about how much we love visiting Great Grandma and how we miss him so much.

McKenzie was pretty quiet on the way home, mostly because she was tired, I think, but perhaps also because she was deep in thought.  When Kaia woke up before we were home I heard Kenzie whisper to her, "Kaia, honey, we met great grandpa."  Be still my heart.

Conversations with Kenzie

The night before Kenzie's outing to a local farm with Grampa, Grammie and Auntie Jenni she talked about feeding the sheep at the petting zoo:

McKenzie: Last time I didn't want to feed them because I was afraid that they would bite my little hand.  But I'm bigger now and my hands are bigger so I'm going to feed them this time.

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We drove by a cemetery and Kenzie asked if it was a field for running in.  I explained what a cemetery is and was greeted by many questions, and this gem:

McKenzie: But I don't die, mommy. (pause) Unless I get hit by a car. 

This exchange was followed by many questions about Kenzie's cousin's dog, Shylah who was hit by a car last year.  She wanted to know firstly where Shylah was buried, and also exactly how she got there.  I tried my best to answer her questions without providing too grim of a visual.

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The girls and I were at TJ Maxx to make a quick return and they were walking with me.  Kenzie started to hide under a rack of clothes when this conversation ensued: 

Me: Honey, please stay right where mommy can see you I don't want you hiding here.
McKenzie: Why mommy?
Me: Well, there are some bad people and I just like to know where you are all the time. So please no hiding here.
McKenzie: What kind of bad people?
Me: Just bad people.
McKenzie: Like Daddy?
Me: No! (laughter) Not like Daddy.  Just stay where I can see you okay?

Where that came from I have no idea, but I hope the worst bad person she ever comes in contact with is like daddy. 

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I overheard this conversation the morning after Lily slept over.

Lily: I missed my mommy last night.
McKenzie: Lily, when you have a sleepover you don't have your mommy. You have someone else's mommy and daddy, but you don't have your mommy.  That's what a sleepover is, Lily, you have someone else's mommy but not your mommy. 

I couldn't see them, but I suspect that Lily, who is older than Kenzie knows what a sleepover is, probably had that deer-in-headlights look on her face because she couldn't believe that Kenzie would go to such great lengths to explain something so obvious.

"Doin' mommy? Doin?"

Kaia always wants to know what I'm "doin'" and I thought you might be interested too.  The past couple months have been busy and fun (and busy), so here's a little recap of Ricci family happenings:

• Dustin began working on a master's in educational technology this past summer and he is now taking nine graduate credit online classes.  It's the Two Summer's program at UCONN so he'll be completed with the program by the end of next summer.  It's crazy, though, he's so busy.  He's also working with a colleague to head up a club of students who are building an electric car to compete in Connecticut's Electrathon.  It's a big commitment.  AND, in his free time (ha!) he's building a kitchen for his brother's new house.  He's super busy and we are looking forward to his winter recess (from UCONN) so he can take a little break.

• We went to the zoo! Roger William's Zoo didn't disappoint.  The giraffes and elephant were our favorites.

• Kona had surgery to drain an abscess on his neck.  Then, when it didn't heal properly he had it again.  What fun!  The cone of shame was more like the cone of annoyance for Kona, but he dealt with it like a champ.  The first couple days he couldn't go up stairs without slamming his cone into something, but by day three was chasing the ball as usual.  The vet was happy to see that he actually wore the cone, it was obvious because it was covered with dents and scratches and had pieces of grass poking out of the Velcro.  That's our boy.

• We have been spending more time with my friend Robin and her daughter Maddie.  We met at a playgroup earlier this year and Maddie is only three weeks older than Kaia.  We've had a lot of fun getting to know each other.  We all had fun picking apples in early September.

• We hosted a 60th birthday party for my mom.  She was so touched that people traveled from so far to be here for her.  It was a great day and it was so nice to spend some quality time with my uncles, who I see far too seldom.

• The girls and I spent some time visiting friends and family in Greenfield.  Mindy's boys are so sweet and the girls love to see them.  After this visit Kaia asked for Benjamin daily.  She would ask, "Ben? Ben?" then sadly say, "home."  He seemed pretty smitten with her too.  They had fun playing in Benjamin's new tent.

• We celebrated Halloween.  McKenzie chose to be a cowgirl and Kaia was a duck.  McKenzie knew the trick-or-treat routine but we were curious to see how Kaia would react to the free candy.  She was so focused on opening the first piece of candy that she got the she didn't really care about going to the next house.  Things like this really show the difference between the girls' personalities.  When Kenzie went trick-or-treating for the first time it didn't take her long to figure out how it worked.  She didn't even ask for candy, she just kept going from house to house collecting more.  It wasn't until the car ride home that she had her first piece.  She's a thoughtful planner. Kaia, on the other hand, is all about instant gratification.  She rarely (if ever) seems to think about the outcome of her actions, even after the fact.

• Sweater weather is my favorite time of the year.  Two of our favorite outdoor activities are playing in the leaves (which we haven't raked or mowed all season so there are a LOT) and mushroom hunting. We have some pretty funky mushrooms in our yard and woods.  The general rule is that the girls can poke them but not touch them.  Sometimes we collect them, though, to show daddy.  Puffballs are the best.

Eggs!

I promised pictures of our beautiful, farm fresh eggs.  We now have two laying hens and four little girls that will be egg layers in the future (they replace the surplus of roosters were were erroneously given).  We successfully rid ourselves of the final rooster, Big Red, with a craigslist ad and one awkward exchange in the Grand Union parking lot.  

Our two hens, Fiesty and Egg, each lay one egg per day.  It's enough for a few breakfasts, but it will be nice when we no longer have to purchase eggs from the store and we will have extra to give away to friends and family.  While we are happy to have undertaken the challenge of raising chickens, it's not as carefree as we hoped (yet).  Next summer we should have six laying hens, and more eggs than we can imagine.  Then, our labor will be worth it.

Our lady Egg is an inconsistent layer.  The first two eggs (from the left) are from her (notice how jumbo the first one is, poor thing), the third is a Feisty egg, and the white one is a store bought egg.  The yolks in our eggs are bright orange, as opposed to the dull yellow of a store bought egg.

Babies, Babies, Babies

McKenzie loves her babies.  I use that term, "babies," broadly.  Her babies include her three baby dolls, a couple stuffed turtles, many teddy bears and other stuffed animals, and too many little plastic people to count.  She spends time every day putting her babies to bed.  She will lay out every pillow we have and whisper sweet nothings to her darlings as she lays them down to sleep. I can't hear what she says, but it's so sweet to watch her.

Lately she's been asking me if Kaia can go take a nap just so she can have some quiet time with her babies.  Kaia doesn't march to the same drummer as Kenzie.  Kaia enjoys grabbing babies and running while Kenzie screams at the top of her lungs,"Kaia has my baby!!!!"  After a little intervention Kaia will give the baby a hug and kiss and give it back to mama Kenzie.

Playing with babies showcases Kenzie's creative side, but you can certainly still see her Type A organization when you check out these baby pics.

Apparently phones, letters and purses need naps too, sometimes.

Inside the fort we built in the living room.

About a month ago we had a nice visit with Mindy and her boys and Kenzie was in baby heaven.  She sat with Lucas (a real baby!) for an hour playing music, singing, and talking.  She couldn't get enough of him.

Rockin' 15 Months

Kaia is hilarious, crazy, brave, smart, adorable and so much more.  She makes us laugh every day.  Just the other night she was walking around with a wide stance, back hunched over.  It looked so funny and we all laughed.  Of course, being the clown that she is, the more we laughed the more she walked.  Now it's called the "silly walk" and I can get her to do it by simply asking.  It's so cute.

Kaia is talking like we can't believe.  We've read that the majority of kids her age (75%) can say mama, dada and a few other words.  Kaia not only has a lexicon of over 50 words, but she's saying two and three word sentences.  It's absolutely astonishing.  I'm sure her amazing vocabulary can somewhat be attributed to her role-model big sister who, to put it bluntly, never shuts up.  We love it, of course, and celebrate every new word.  While Kenzie's first words were mostly animal sounds, Kaia has mastered everything from "milk" and "more" to "diaper," "sister" and "rock" (both the noun and the verb).  I know, I know, enough of the blatant bragging.  I can't help it, I'm impressed.  She rocks.

It's hard to get all this on film.  Sorry for the poor quality of this video (it was night and the house was a bit dark) but I think this captures a little bit of the Kaia I've described.  This was on a rare night when she stayed up after Kenzie went to bed.  I think she was enjoying having the place to herself.

(P.S. She came back with the hat)

And, man, she can  climb.  If you enter our house at any given moment you are bound to find various chairs and toys tipped on their sides to deter Kaia from climbing on them.  She is constantly climbing onto the computer chair, standing, and rocking it back and forth on two legs.  She'll stand on a rocking chair or her rocking horse without holding on and she thinks it's so funny when we tell her to sit down.  The other night Dustin found her sitting on the dining room table.  She's crazy!  We've decide that instead of focusing our efforts on telling her not to climb, our time is put to better use if we teach her how to safely get down from whatever perch she may find herself.  We put the gate on the third stair so she can practice going up and down.  If she falls, it's better than falling from the top.

She's got good fine motor skills too.  She can use a fork or spoon independently (although yogurt is more worn than eaten) and can drink from a "big-girl cup" on her own.  She can push small buttons to make toys talk. She's understanding so much.  I can ask her to get something from another room and she has the attention span to go find it and bring it back.  She asks for sister ("didter, didter?")  if she's not around  and knows how to tell us when she needs something (including a diaper change).  She's also mastering the art of the temper tantrum.  Why is it innate to stomp ones feet when told no?

Kaia is such a joy.  I can't be down when she is near.  My heart is full.