Kayla is a big sister now and she is proud of it! She loves her new baby sister and likes to hold and rock her. She is a big help. Kayla is one of the most active children in her preschool class, and loves to ride her bike around and around the block. She is OK at playing catch, shooting mini-basketballs and kicking the mini-soccer ball but tends to get bored easily. We are working with her on this and it will be easier because we just bought our first house so she can play in the yard more.
Kayla likes to tell people about things she has done. We listen to her telling stories with great interest and ask questions to prompt her to fill in more interesting details. She is receptive to new words and phrases and has a very expressive vocabulary. Sometimes she likes to imitate the baby’s sounds back to her little sister which is cute but we try not to let her do it too much so it doesn’t affect her own language development.
Kayla brings such joy to our lives. Recently though we had a situation that scared us both where she started playing in the clothes racks at the department store and got lost. Someone that worked in the store found her and as we were franticly looking for her herd over the loud speaker "A little girl named Kayla has been found." Needless to say she was a little clingy the next few weeks and won’t ever do that again. Kayla is pretty cooperative and friendly, and able to focus well on tasks, but sometimes she is somewhat anxious and unsure of herself in basic social situations. She can be a bit clingy with her preschool teacher, and reluctant to join in some of the activities. But usually after some encouragement she will join in. Kayla has one or two special little friends in preschool and plays cooperatively and non-aggressively with them which we are happy with. I think we just need to have more play dates at home to encourage better friendships. I think Kayla falls in between the over controlled and resilient categories for personality types.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Kayla's 2 1/2
Some of the environmental events that Kayla has been through the last couple of moths are her slightly below average ability to climb which I think comes from her falling off of the chair and hurting her head. I think we have all tried to be a little more cautious because we don’t want to have that happen again. But I can see the need for her to be able to do that safely so we are going to have to find some safe climbing opportunities, maybe at the park where she can practice but we can be right there. She also has a little trouble throwing and catching a ball and since money is tight, because we are saving to buy a house, that might be a fun in inexpensive activity that Dad and Kayla can do together.
I have big news – I am pregnant again! This will be an interesting time for Kayla we try and help her learn she will have a sibling that she will have to get along with. She does pretty well with other children except when they try and take toys from her, she still doesn’t like that but we are working on sharing, a very important life skill. We are going to try and have a few more play dates so that we can help Kayla with this. She is doing so well with potty training and this is a huge blessing because with a new baby coming I know having 2 in diapers would be difficult, time consuming, and very expensive! Kayla is a very bright girl, we have been working on her being a little more responsible for herself and she’s loving it. She seems to take directions from us pretty well.
It is so amazing, she can remember so many things and even provide simple descriptions of what happened like a trip to the petting zoo or the amusement park. I wonder if she has always had this memory and just couldn’t fully express it until now? This reminds me of Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory where her language growth helps her to be able to communicate with us on a much higher level than before and it just keeps increasing. One of the social learning theories we heard about that we thought we would try is where we demonstrate a behavior and then try to get Kayla to copy us. We have been using a lot of extra polite words like please, thank you, your welcome, and Kayla seems to be picking up on not only the word its self but the proper way in which to use it. Also we have noticed that when we build with her blocks, Kayla likes to model her design after what ever we have built. Since Kayla is both at home with us and in day care we have also heard about the Ecological Systems theory and agree with the idea that these environments along with spending time with extended family all help influence her growth and development. We feel so lucky to have such a good support system and know that is why Kayla is developing and growing into such a wonderful little girl!
I have big news – I am pregnant again! This will be an interesting time for Kayla we try and help her learn she will have a sibling that she will have to get along with. She does pretty well with other children except when they try and take toys from her, she still doesn’t like that but we are working on sharing, a very important life skill. We are going to try and have a few more play dates so that we can help Kayla with this. She is doing so well with potty training and this is a huge blessing because with a new baby coming I know having 2 in diapers would be difficult, time consuming, and very expensive! Kayla is a very bright girl, we have been working on her being a little more responsible for herself and she’s loving it. She seems to take directions from us pretty well.
It is so amazing, she can remember so many things and even provide simple descriptions of what happened like a trip to the petting zoo or the amusement park. I wonder if she has always had this memory and just couldn’t fully express it until now? This reminds me of Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory where her language growth helps her to be able to communicate with us on a much higher level than before and it just keeps increasing. One of the social learning theories we heard about that we thought we would try is where we demonstrate a behavior and then try to get Kayla to copy us. We have been using a lot of extra polite words like please, thank you, your welcome, and Kayla seems to be picking up on not only the word its self but the proper way in which to use it. Also we have noticed that when we build with her blocks, Kayla likes to model her design after what ever we have built. Since Kayla is both at home with us and in day care we have also heard about the Ecological Systems theory and agree with the idea that these environments along with spending time with extended family all help influence her growth and development. We feel so lucky to have such a good support system and know that is why Kayla is developing and growing into such a wonderful little girl!
Monday, September 15, 2008
Kayla's 19 months
I can't believe how fast Kayla is growing! At 8 months she was just crawling and discovering the things right around her. She has been walking since just before we celebrated her first birthday and we even had our first trip to the hospital after she climbed up on a chair and fell head first onto the concrete porch. She cried (of course) and vomited so we rushed to the emergency room and the pediatrician said she had a mild concussion. We had to keep her calm and gave her baby Tylenol while we monitored her for several days. I hope we never have to go through that again and I am glad that there seem to be no long term effects.
Kayla is very comfortable with me and has become more willing to try new things when I am around. Now that she is so secure we are working on building that same relationship with her father. We tried this thing called the object permanence test with Kayla a few months ago so we thought we would try it again and see if it went differently. Boy did it. This time, Kayla was able to find her doll even after looking a long time and seems to think that this was a great game! It is so simple! All we do is hide her doll under her pillow or in her dresser. When she finds it we hid it in the other location and switch back and fourth. She no longer has the problem we saw earlier of searching at the more common of the two hiding places. We can't even trick her by hiding it in our hands or behind our back.
When Kayla turned 15 months we notice she often studies things around her and performs simple little "experiments" with them. She is almost like a little scientist. For example, she pushes her bath toys under water at various depths and delightedly watches how high they pop back above the surface.
At around 18 months Kayla starting showing an interest in the toilet so we thought we would start to introduce the potty training process. We just praise her for small steps such as trying on the training pants and sitting on the potty chair, even if nothing "happens" so that when she is ready they will be familiar to her. Sooner the better so we don't have to worry about diapers.
Kayla is also very interested in music. She often dances to our favorite music, and tries to clap or sing along with songs that we sing or that are even played on TV. We have been working on some short little preschool songs and we all enjoy dancing or moving around together to the music. I also really enjoy showing Kayla how to take care of the plants on the sunny balcony of our apartment.
Kayla has been showing some interesting new behavior. She has developed a wonderful vocabulary which probably accounts for her socialness with other people. But she uses the word "me" a lot, and wants to do things herself. It is good she is discovering herself as a person and want her to have that healthy independence, but we are also making sure she knows there are certain rules she has to cooperate with which helps her practice her self control. It is as always a balancing act but she seems to be developing well in this area so we will keep doing what is working.
At 19months now Kayla is able to imitate actions or words that she has seen or heard days before. This is really cool and it is great to see her increased ability to learn new things. Kayla also seems to be aware of basic categories, such as big or little, and blue or red. You can tell because of the way she is sorting her toys.
Although we are going to continue going to our regular play groups we wanted to start looking into a preschool and one we liked had an assessment that Kayla was able to do. We didn't want to put her in a situation when she wasn't comfortable but she was excited to be there so we went thorugh with the assessment. Some of the things we learned were that Kayla was not very aggressive with the other kids, unless one of them tried to grab a toy from her and then she resisted. Typical. I would resist if someone grabbed something from me. We need to work on better communication with Kayla in that we try to read her reactions more carefully. We also need to make sure that we use clear and simple explanations for rules, warnings and time-outs for misbehavior. In return we need Kayla to 'use her words' if she wants something. The specialist noted that Kayla readily engaged with her socially and made good eye contact. Yea! Most importantly Kayla seemed at ease with the examiner and seemed friendly and outgoing with children in the group. We all agreed that she should adapt well to preschool. Although she had a lot of energy running around with the other children, it was all used up because she took a nice long nap when she got home.
Kayla is very comfortable with me and has become more willing to try new things when I am around. Now that she is so secure we are working on building that same relationship with her father. We tried this thing called the object permanence test with Kayla a few months ago so we thought we would try it again and see if it went differently. Boy did it. This time, Kayla was able to find her doll even after looking a long time and seems to think that this was a great game! It is so simple! All we do is hide her doll under her pillow or in her dresser. When she finds it we hid it in the other location and switch back and fourth. She no longer has the problem we saw earlier of searching at the more common of the two hiding places. We can't even trick her by hiding it in our hands or behind our back.
When Kayla turned 15 months we notice she often studies things around her and performs simple little "experiments" with them. She is almost like a little scientist. For example, she pushes her bath toys under water at various depths and delightedly watches how high they pop back above the surface.
At around 18 months Kayla starting showing an interest in the toilet so we thought we would start to introduce the potty training process. We just praise her for small steps such as trying on the training pants and sitting on the potty chair, even if nothing "happens" so that when she is ready they will be familiar to her. Sooner the better so we don't have to worry about diapers.
Kayla is also very interested in music. She often dances to our favorite music, and tries to clap or sing along with songs that we sing or that are even played on TV. We have been working on some short little preschool songs and we all enjoy dancing or moving around together to the music. I also really enjoy showing Kayla how to take care of the plants on the sunny balcony of our apartment.
Kayla has been showing some interesting new behavior. She has developed a wonderful vocabulary which probably accounts for her socialness with other people. But she uses the word "me" a lot, and wants to do things herself. It is good she is discovering herself as a person and want her to have that healthy independence, but we are also making sure she knows there are certain rules she has to cooperate with which helps her practice her self control. It is as always a balancing act but she seems to be developing well in this area so we will keep doing what is working.
At 19months now Kayla is able to imitate actions or words that she has seen or heard days before. This is really cool and it is great to see her increased ability to learn new things. Kayla also seems to be aware of basic categories, such as big or little, and blue or red. You can tell because of the way she is sorting her toys.
Although we are going to continue going to our regular play groups we wanted to start looking into a preschool and one we liked had an assessment that Kayla was able to do. We didn't want to put her in a situation when she wasn't comfortable but she was excited to be there so we went thorugh with the assessment. Some of the things we learned were that Kayla was not very aggressive with the other kids, unless one of them tried to grab a toy from her and then she resisted. Typical. I would resist if someone grabbed something from me. We need to work on better communication with Kayla in that we try to read her reactions more carefully. We also need to make sure that we use clear and simple explanations for rules, warnings and time-outs for misbehavior. In return we need Kayla to 'use her words' if she wants something. The specialist noted that Kayla readily engaged with her socially and made good eye contact. Yea! Most importantly Kayla seemed at ease with the examiner and seemed friendly and outgoing with children in the group. We all agreed that she should adapt well to preschool. Although she had a lot of energy running around with the other children, it was all used up because she took a nice long nap when she got home.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
kayla's 9 months
Kayla has turned 9 months old! The pediatrician said after a routine physical exam and with some observations of Kayla that she is healthy and developing well. She is a good eater and I can now give her a variety of baby food and ground up fruits and veggies. Yumm! She is sleeping well and it is so exciting to see her development as she crawls, sits and stands. She is so close to walking it could be soon. Then nothing will be safe! As for her temperament I would have to say that Kayla is 'slow to warm up.' Although she readily accepts new people and situations she can get upset and sometimes is difficult to calm down. Kayla has a little separation anxiety but I wonder if that comes with the age. She does prefer her mother, but is comfortable with her father, we are trying to engage the two of them in activities without me around to build their relationship.
kayla's 3 months
Kayla is growing and developing quickly. She is such a sweet, yet active baby. The lacking sleep thing on us parents is a little hard, but we are working on that.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
kayla
After a time consuming process I got my baby Kayla set up. She is a cute healthy baby. I find it intresting how raising this virtual baby couldn't be further than that of raising a real baby.
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