Someone had a case of the Mondays!

After taking my sweetie to church yesterday in a sleeveless dress and sandals (we fell victim of the "I didn't realize how chilly it was outside" syndrome because our car is in a garage) I decided to dress her more appropriately for today's fall-like weather! I added jeans to the Sassy Chic onesie that Daddy dressed her in this morning while I was drying my hair. She apparently had forgotten what stiff jeans felt like on her knees ~ she hadn't worn jeans since early June ~ and cracked me up as she walked around like a toy soldier. Eventually she adjusted to the feeling of denim on her legs again and then was re-introduced to socks.

Umm, that didn't go so well. I guess Kylie is more like her mommy than I realized. (My ideal climate would be anywhere that I could wear flip-flops and sandals year round!) She was really torqued out about having her little painted piggies covered! And then I added insult to injury by putting shoes on over the socks...

After she finally forgave me for the shoes, we took Maya for a walk. Man did it feel good to walk in the sunshine without feeling hot. It was one of those beautiful blue sky days where you catch yourself staring at the intense blue color of the sky and we smiled, laughed and "talked" to each other the whole way.

Latest development news: (both physical and mental) On the future gymnast front Kylie put one of her long rectangular wooden blocks (her Uncle Josh found an old set of Ian's wooden blocks at his dad's house and gave them to us back in May) and put it on the floor. Then she stood on top of it with both feet and slowly shuffled down the block as if she were walking a balance beam. She's already turning forward somersaults on her own, guess we need to be thinking about preschool gymnastics for next summer! Later she pulled Are You My Mother? out of her toy box and brought it over to me signing "book" to tell me she wanted me to read it. I asked her if she wanted me to read the book to her and she pointed at the book and said ~ very clearly I may add ~ "bock." To make sure it wasn't a fluke, I asked her what it was and she both signed and said, "bock" at the same time. I'm just waiting now for sentences to come out of that little mouth!

Of course there were errands to run this afternoon after nap time, the last of which was at the grocery store. Harris Teeter gives away free balloons and Kylie was elated! When we got home she went into the hallway, layed down on the floor and watched her balloon bounce off the ceiling when she'd let it go. She giggled so much that I found myself laughing along! Then she stood up and would throw her head back and belly laugh as she let her balloon go. Luckily she stayed in areas that the ceiling is just one story and then she'd eagerly grab the string (thanks for putting LONG strings on your balloons Harris Teeter!) and do it again. I had so much fun watching her cause she was clearly enjoying herself! After about 15 minutes I realized that I'd better get dinner going, and her green balloon provided almost enough entertainment for me to get dinner (a stir-fry) ready for the Wok.

I say almost because she ~ as usual ~ eventually missed being at my side and joined me in the kitchen. When she realized that I was busy (hard to hug your precious child when you have your hands in raw chicken), she made herself content messing around in the "okay" drawers ~ the ones with Tupperware, measuring cups, and pots. You may recall her cup engineering from last week, here is attempt #2. Honestly she cracks me up! I have no idea why she wanted to hold the cup using a measuring cup, (note that she is holding the handle of the measuring cup and only lightly supporting her princess cup with her other hand) but she clearly thought she was rather clever as she proudly carried her cup and drank this way for about 15 minutes. Daddy likes to think that she may decide to study engineering one day...

I never know what she's going to do next, but one absolute I have learned is that there is never a dull moment with an 18 month old in the house! (No, not even nap time, because then I'm scurrying around trying to clean up ~ or post ~ while my little mess maker is resting!)