Kya Lyn...not a baby anymore!

This little Miss is 19 months old and she is turning out to be quite the little gal! Any family member would definitely agree with us when we say she is our busiest toddler we have had so far. She started talking at 9 months old and hasn't slowed down. At 18 months old, she will repeat anything we say, and has started stringing 2-3 words together, sometimes more. One phrase she learned from her mother, father, and siblings is "Dang it!" It is pretty funny. Some other cute phrases/words she says are: "Excuse me" when she is trying to squeeze thru a tight spot, and she says it whenever someone toots or burps. She can make herself toot on demand, which she is quite proud of, and she mimics burping too...always followed by a polite "Ssscuze me!" She pronounces loudly during church "AMEN!" after songs and prayers, and is very vocal about wanting the bread and water during the sacrament, always saying afterwards, "More! More!" She also sings "shake your booty" while attempting to shake her bum, and that is hilarious! She says and does so many funny and cute things it is hard to post them all!

When she gets scared, she touches her stomach and tells me "scared, tummy, scared" and is always begging to play in the "dackdard" (backyard) so she can "dig darden" (dig in the garden) where she literally covers herself in dirt. Somedays, she goes through 2-3 outfits because she gets so dirty.

She also loves to swing, and can now swing all by herself in the big kid swings. She loves to "dump on dampoleen" and slide, pick flowers, and point out any sounds she hears and tells me what they are, the list is usually a "doddie barking", "Bird flyin sky", "airplane", motorcycle or lawnmower, which she says in such a cute way, and she loves it when she spots a "budderfly, yadybug or bumbabee"!

We have gone to McKee's Pet Store a couple times now, and they have a "petting zoo" in the back where kids can go and see goats, sheep, chickens and roosters, a reindeer, an emu, mini horses, and pigs. Ever since we went, she talks about the "aminals" at the "pet tore"! Her first time there, she was right up close to a goat, her face only inches from it, when it let out a loud and surprising "Baaaaaaaaa!" It scared her half to death! She didn't cry, but she kept her distance after that! The next time, she was actually brave enough to pet them through the fence.

Kya makes to funniest faces, this picture just makes me laugh....I LOVE it! She has been teething since before Halloween last year, so we've had some fun times with that. She has been getting her molars and canines over the past 2-3 months and we will all be glad when they are all in! I was still able to wean her off the bottle between 15-16 months old, and it was actually really easy. Kya can also drink from a regular cup and she LOVES to drink from mine at dinner!

 Another favorite activity is pulling her stool, a chair, baby stroller...pretty much anything she can stand on, up to the bathroom sink and turning on the water and sucking on her toothbrush...or any toothbrush for that matter! She loves the taste of toothpaste too....I know....wierd.

Kya can throw quite the tantrums, and they are often very dramatic. One afternoon she got upset...I still don't know the reason why...and threw herself upon the floor, face first, and cried! It was hilarious! I have found that the best thing to do when she is having such fits is to just ignore them. She carries on much longer if I give her more attention.

She loves to wrestle with Carter and she definitely plays rough!

Another funny face that makes me laugh!

Tickles. Gotta love em! She is very demanding when it comes to tickles. She will come up to me or Russ, lay down and demand "TICKLES!"

She can makes major messes! This is just one of them out of MANY! Anything that has a lid she can pry off, she will explore the contents inside and they eventually find their way on the floor! So frustrating sometimes!

Kya loves to be read to and is also very demanding about it. She will find a book that interests her, find me, slap the book in my lap and say, "Read it!!!!" If I delay in any way, or heaven forbid she has to wait, more than likely she will break out in major tears and protest by rolling around and kicking her feet! The fits don't bother me since she is the third child....we are getting quite used to them by now!

Kya LOVES Carter. They play really well together and Carter is so good about spending time with her. Kya loves to rough house and Carter handles it much better than Anna does, though Kya still manages to pick on the older kids and get them all upset more than the older ones ever get the chance to do it to her! We have had to start putting Kya in "time-out" now because sometimes when she is grumpy or mad about something, she will just take it out on the person nearest to her, hitting or pinching or pushing. Surprisingly, she stays in the corner, and when her time is up I talk to her about being nice and then she gives hugs, kisses, and says sorry to the person she hurt.

The only thing she will watch on tv is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I am glad she isn't too interested in television anyways. It can be a good distraction, but the older my kids get, the more strongly I feel about less tv and video/computer games and more of all the other kinds of things kids need to be doing.

We have started potty training, and that is going really well. I am not pushing it too much, since she is still pretty little, and just taking it easy. When she wants to go she will tell me, and she is to the point now where she is learning to control those muscles enough that when she sits on the potty she usually will go pee. If she goes pee, then she gets a little square from a Hershey chocolate bar, and she really likes that. I think that pretty soon she will be to a point where I can start taking her at more regular, consistent times during the day, and once she starts staying consistently dry, we will move on to pull-ups/underwear! I usually dread potty-training, but with Kya it has actually been really stress-free and seems easier.

Along with Kya learning to be more of a "big girl" we put away the crib and she is sleeping in the bottom bunk bed in her room. We bought a railing for the side so she doesn't roll off, and she has done really well transitioning. There was one night she kept crying and getting out of bed for about 2 hours, but other than that, she has done awesome! Some nights, after we put her in bed, she goes right ot sleep, and other nights she will get out of bed and cry a little by the door, but all we have to do is have her climb back in bed, say goodnight, shut the door and she goes to sleep. She gets out of bed at the most 3 times, and it is happening less and less. When she was in the crib, she was waking up during the night, but since she has been in the bed, she is starting to sleep all night long! Thankgoodness!

We absolutely LOVE this little girl to pieces and I could never be able to write in words all about her fun and cute personality. She brings so much to our family, and even though some might have thought we were crazy to have a third child, we are glad we did! (Now people are thinking we are crazy having a fourth! haha! Raising kids is hard, but there's more blessings than hardships, depending on your attitude and perspective, right?)

It has taken me about 3 weeks to write this post and finally get it on my blog, life is busy and when it's not busy, I am just too tired! I have so many other pictures I want to post and so many more things to share, so hopefully I can get it all done before baby Brennen comes in 8-10 weeks! woo hoo!