Kicking Off 2017 (Q1)

As of April 30th, my baby was 3 1/2! And WOW, what a difference 6 months makes! She is something else to say the least. She is a big girl now. I heard someone say threeteen, to that I say exactly!

She is a lot like me in so many ways. She loves to go go go, anywhere but home (and sometimes school).

Since we lost my mom (aka Grandma Rhonda) we have been maxing out and making the most of our time.  It's fun, but it can be exhausting.

So here's what's going on...

Cacy is holding conversations now. She is still hilariously funny and entertaining. She knows so much more than I think she knows. Every day she says something that surprises me. Most of it good. No curse words yet, fingers crossed. Here is a recap through April 2017:

We headed to Louisville for the first time in about a year and Cacy got to see dad's side of the family. Unfortunately during that week Aunt Fat (Donna Streater) passed away. Needless to say this was a difficult time for our family. I can only find solace in the fact that we were able to spend some quality time with those two ladies over the past year.

On December 29th I found a white feather in this house. We have no idea how it made it inside. So of course I looked it up. It is supposed to be a symbol that there is peace and everything will be okay. I was very happy to have that in my house.

Cacy and I went to our very first Gamecocks basketball game. Daddy was there too. She had fun, but she fell in love with Cocky. She looks for him all the time now.

I was finally able to have a tea party with Cacy using the set she got for her birthday. So that was fun.

We visited the River Front Park for the first time.We also visited Cromer's for the first time.

We went to the Marionnette Puppet Theater to see Little Red Riding Hood.

We signed her up for gymnastics and ballet. I just wanted to try some things out to find her niche. I think she likes gymnastics, but she is not strong in the category right now.

The new library opened up. She loves the new library (and so does mommy). It's much larger and there is a dedicated kid’s area. This means we no longer have to constantly fail at remembering to whisper. Cacy refers to the new library as the blue library. It is indeed blue.

We watched daddy play in Mayor Benjamin's Black History Month basketball tournament. Richland County lost to the Police Dept by 1 point.

We had a very very late snowfall in March.

We saw the long awaited Beauty and the Beast!! Unfortunately Cacy fell asleep half way through until the end. I was a little sad for her, but I know we will own it so it's all good.

She had her first sleep away weekend with Aunt Bolivia! Big deal indeed.

We went to the zoo when family came for a visit (Hey MeShaunda, Braydon, Olivia, Mackenzie, and Aunt Bolivia!)

We went home for Easter.

Our cousin Honey got married, another trip home.

We went to Pageland to see PawPaw for the first time in over a year.

A ton of new restaurants opened in NE Cola, its growing!  We have been restaurant hopping. And we have a Fresh Market. To quote Cacy, "Oh Yeah!".

Whew!  That's all folks!

Au Revoir 2016

Cacy is now 3!! She is getting to be a big girl and kind of tall. This has been a tough year for us, but it has had some positive side effects. We have had more quality time with our family. Here are some highlights:

- Cacy is fully potty trained and has been for a little while now. YAY! We are truly excited. I was starting to think it would never happen. But it did and now it's done.
- She just got a big girl bike and she is doing a pretty good job of learning to ride, for a 3 year old.
- She is now holding conversations, so that's tons of fun.
- She also knows her colors now. This is another biggie I thought might never happen, but it did - overnight.
- For Christmas she received an easel with a dry erase board on one side and chalk board on the other side. We are hoping to use this to help with letter and number recognition.
- Sometimes she is such a girlie girl. She likes to get her nails painted, she loves wearing dresses, and she wants to put on makeup when mommy's wearing it.

We lost Grandma Rhonda this year the day after Cacy's 3rd birthday. We like to think she was hanging on for that reason. We both miss her, but we are dealing quite nicely I think.

Well, that's all for now, until the next post....

Just Checking In

Not much has been going on, so I haven't been posting. We are still trying to potty train. How's that going you say, well every couple of days I tell Cacy she needs a job to help pay for Pull-ups, ssooo... She is talking up a storm, and doing a very good job of forming sentences. She is a great source of entertainment. Cacy recognizes where she is geographically now. She knows when we are headed home and tells me I want this ways mommy (i.e. - let's go in any direction direction but home). She knows when we are passing two play grounds, she knows when we are close to Target and Pet Smart. And she knows when we are passing the library.

Now that we are traveling to NC every weekend, our schedule is a bit restricted. We have done a few things.

• We go the the park (before the 100 degree afternoons)
• We take a run in the stroller (late and not very often)
• We go to the gym - Cacy seems to like The Kids Place
• Gardening ;)
• We went to the zoo (Riverbanks is now completely renovated YAY!)
• We went to the beach
• Most importantly, we spend time with our family!

We try to stay active and make the most of the time we have been given.

Cacy and Aunt Donna in the garden

An afternoon at the park

At the gym

Hanging with my cousins, Summer and Olivia

Supervising yard work with Grandma

The new sea lion exhibit at the zoo

Gardening with Aunt Bolivia and Uncle Ronny

Cacy's first flower bloomed, she picked out the seeds and planted them

Admiring the roses outside of Grandma's window.

A Little Update

It has been a long time since I posted an update. We have been finding some silliness in these trying days we have been going through.

Cacy is 2 and a half years old today. Wow, the time has flown by. My youngin is growing up. So many changes to talk about, but I will just highlight a couple. She is doing a better job of communicating, she is putting together phrases. We are still working on potty training.

Here are some pictures...

Guess Who's 2!

I'm a week late, but here are pics of how we celebrated.

FAQ - I did make the cake, I wanted something small.

The Terrible Twos are Around the Corner

If Cacy had her way, this is what the food pyramid would look like.

What Has Mommy Petrified?

I will tell anyone that we have been blessed beyond measure for many reasons with Cacy - and not just the obvious ones. No real transition to her sleeping through the night, or even in her own bed (it was probably harder on mommy than anyone). We took the pacifier away with little heartache. Teething has been okay, I know she has had some painful days and nights, but she is a trooper and I thank God for that daily. It's only hard to drop her off at daycare when she is not feeling well. Hard for both of us, but much harder on her of course. She is a very happy baby.  With all of that, I am so very intimidated by the next big thing coming our way. POTTY TRAINING... dun dun duunnnn.

I think that potty training will be the hardest thing I have yet to do, outside of giving birth, in her very short lifetime.  All anyone can tell me is, oh girls are easy to potty train. Um, I'm sorry, but that really doesn't make me feel better.  I have no idea of how to communicate with my almost two year old on how to let me know in advance that she needs to go potty. One of the latest developments is she says, "I boo boo.", after she poops. If she lets us know in advance, I run her to the potty. She sits and plays with me, sings songs, and has conversations. But she has never done anything in the potty or toilet.  I have made a song, it's called "Boo Boo in the Potty". She sings it randomly. But we can't connect the potty to the boo boo. But we have two more months until she is officially two, and I need to really get serious.