Wow, it's been a year

You can tell it's been busy, since it's been a year since I've gotten to write about Kaya. So much has happened in the last year. For one, she's given up "dis dis dis, ha ha ha" although she still likes to see it and check up on it every once in awhile, which is funny. That's just been within the last month though! She talks all the time now, and says the funniest things (or at least I think they are hysterical):
- Where is HIM?
- Pass the 'mercials.
- I want to go to 'Muda.
One day on the car ride home recently, Kaya had a 10 min conversation with me about motorcycles. She said that she wants to ride a motorcycle "someday" and that it will be a quiet motorcycle, not a loud one. She told me she would ride up front, and I could ride in the back! When I asked her what color hers would be, she said hers would be yellow, momo's would be purple, and papa's would be pink! then she changed her mind and said papa's could be red.

What else has happened in the past year? let's see...
Kaya started at a new school - Bright Horizon's - and she's very happy there. She has a boyfriend named Ryan, and she hugs his mom every day. Her teacher is Ms. Tina, who is awesome. Kaya also went on some great vacations - to the Caribbean on a cruise with Nanae, Pop Pop and Uncle John, to Disney with Mom and Dad, and to Bermuda with Momo and Poppop. Not a bad year! Over the winter, it snowed a few feet, and Kaya got to go sledding in the back yard for the first time. she loved it when I would pull her down the hill really fast and we would crash (meaning the sled ended up on it's side - Kaya really liked to crash. )
Kaya is fully potty trained now (except at nights). But before she was trained, she was very particular about the diapers she was wearing. For example, there was a phase of only wanting to wear the Dora in the Yellow Dress diaper, followed by cinderella only, and now sleeping beauty (those are the overnight ones). Back when she was potty training, she had an accident on the bathroom floor at school, and she looked at her teachers and said "That was NOT cool".
These are the things I like to remember.

The year of age 2 to age 3 has been such a fun year developmentally. Physically she's lost alot of the babiness about her and looks like a little girl now. Her face is slimmer and her legs are so long. but mentally has been the best. The conversations we have are fun, and it's evident that her thought processes are more mature. She says things like "someday" or "not yet". And she argues every single point - if I say the sun is up, she'll say it's down. If I say her hair is wet, she'll say, "It's not wet, it's dry!". And she can be quite a drama queen about things, but we love her anyway. ha ha.
Favorite shows right now: Dora, Diego, Bolt, and Up. And Blues Clues.
Favorite foods: Pizza (but only the take-out kind), Popsicles, Italian Ice
Favorite clothes: Polka dot dresses (one is getting waaaay too small) and dresses in general.
Favorite activity: Art. She loves to paint with brushes, and she also has filled up about 10 Dot Art books too.
Favorite Color: Yellow and/or Purple (she seems to alternate, but we love the way she says "YellYo".
Her cats: "Guig-giss" and "Fifi". Too funny. They are less afraid of her now, and actually play together.
In the shower: she has a zillion toys, and talks to them constantly the whole time she's in there - she likes to make them all wear necklaces. She calls the cat's collars "necklaces" too!

what I want to remember

"Dis, Dis, Dis, Ha ha Ha".

"Mommy you were running! Go Mommy Go! Go Mommy Go"

"Put your ponytail on"

"Big Hugs"

How she always wants to grab my pony tail.

she draws pictures with soap on the walls of the shower

how she wants to jump everywhere like a frog, saying ribbit ribbit

how she plays with her hair, or mine, when she's sleepy.

carbunny and moose are her best friends. sometimes they have to wear diapers. lately carbunny gets wrapped up in a tiny pink blanket.

how she calls diapers "Biapers"

The Barnstormer and Disney

Kaya got to ride her first roller coaster in Disney on this trip! She went on Goofy's barnstormer. Kaya was very excited to ride and was so behaved while in line. Then, while she was riding with Mommy (Mommy held her very tight) she was so quiet with this huge smile on her face the whole time. When we were done, the first thing she said was "I need more!". We knew she was related.

She also loved meeting Princess Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Belle (while wearing her Cinderella dress). She loved dancing the to futuristic music in tomorrowland - she'd get out there in the square and really start to boogie it down and run in circles. And she loved meeting some of the other characters at Epcot when we took her there for the late night meet and greet. She ran right past Goofy though!

this particular disney trip was very cold however (and mommy had just run the marathon) so we spent a fair amount of time in the hotel room watching Nemo the first few days.

Mickey's Marathon Kid Fest

I'm writing this after the fact, but Kaya ran in her first kids race today. She ran in the 1-3 year old race at the Disney Marathon kids fest! It was 100 yards, and Kaya and I got to run while holding hands, while daddy took pictures and video. Mommy also managed to capture a video using her phone while running. Kaya was very cute while running (but very cold, as it was below freezing and drizzling that day - crazy weather for FL)! She got a T-shirt, mickey ears, a certificate, and a race medal. Great job Kaya! Mommy was so proud.

First Cruise - Emerald Princess to the Caribbean

This vacation started out crazy, as Kaya, Mommy and Daddy spent over 7 HOURS on a plane to get to Florida. When we got to the airport that morning, it was lightly snowing, but we had an early flight and got boarded and in our seats by 7:30, no problem. The problem started when it started snowing harder, and peopld who work at the airport couldn't get there due to the weather. Then we couldn't get a push back because we had to wait for a plow. Then we had to get in line to get de-iced. Then we finally made it to the runaway (3 hours later) and the runway was deemed to be in unsafe condition, so we drove back to the gate! Then we finally pushed back again, got de-iced, and were allowed to take off in a zero visibility blur of snow. Definitely the scariest take off ever for us.

But through all of this Kaya was so well behaved. She read books and played with stickers, ate snacks, and was so quiet that some people didn't even realize she was on the plane until the 4th hour! And even then, she just wanted to stand on the seat and wave at them. We were so proud (and thankful) that she was such a great kid during this - because we were way stressed!

Once we made it to Florida, everything was smooth sailing. Kaya loved running around the big cruise ship and going up and down the stairs and the hallways. She liked swimming at various beaches on the islands we visited, and she especially liked the "taxi" we took in St. Thomas. Basically a van pulling what looked like the type of vehicle you'd take on safari. We sat in the back, and every time we would go over a bump, Kaya would say "Wheeee!".

On the boat itself, we had three connecting balconies, so Kaya loved running back and forth to go to Uncle John's "house" or Nanae and PopPop's house.

Words

Some new words Kaya has used in the last month or so:
Motorcycle (she loves to tell Mommy when she sees or hears them on the road
Teradactyl. best dino ever.

she also loves to point out yellow birds at the bird feeder, yellow cars on the road, and yellow school buses! and water fountains (the kind in lakes).

She is in a size 7 shoe now and wearing pink and white saucony sneakers - her first official pair of running shoes. and she is pretty fast.

Mommy entered her in a disney race in January - it's 100 yards for 1-3 year olds. let's see how she does!

Kaya has been having a great spring and summer. In May she went to Baltimore for the first time and got to visit the aquarium, science center, and children's museum. She spent 2 nights there. She also did very well dining out with Mommy and Daddy, and they learned that she can drink through a straw - and that she loves milkshakes. She has also been talking alot more - she uses tons of words now, and even some short sentences. She says "I wuv you Gui-gess" to the cat while she chases her and tries to pull her tail. She also loves to sit and read to herself which is very cute. She loves to order Mommy and Daddy around, telling them to sit down, and "push" when she wants them to move somewhere specific.

Daddy taught her to say Boom Boom Pow after the black eyed peas song, but Kaya says "Boom Boom Cow" and means it - as she brought Daddy her puzzle piece of a cow right after she said it.

In July, Kaya went to the beach with her cousins and parents and grandparents, and she loved the water and the sand! She wanted to run directly into the waves, and didn't want to leave the water at all even when she started to look blue. Mommy was hoping she'd be at least a little afraid of the waves, but no such luck!