Movin' and groovin'

Bryn is feeding Kaia breakfast this morning, so it is my chance to catch up:)

The weather in Newport keeps teasing us. We have a day or two of beautiful weather and then it is suddenly overcast and gray. People keep telling us that May is when it gets beautiful in Newport, but they didn't mention it was only for a few days:( The beautiful days have allowed us to spend a lot more time outside and we are checking out a bunch of the local parks. Kaia use to fall asleep when we went for walks because she was so bundled in her stroller there wasn't much else to do. Now the birds are singing and there are so many people out and about that naps in the stroller are becoming a lot less frequent. Kaia has ridden her share of swings, but isn't so into it. I think she loved the first swing in FL the best. It was also a bit smaller than the other ones we have encountered. We have a great park by the library with a ton of open space and grass as well as swings and a playground. Kaia's favorite thing? The wood mulch used on the playground. All she wants to do is sit down in and play with it. When she is done and wants to walk around she has to have at least one fist full of it. Did I mention that is my least favorite thing about that playground:)

Kaia is motoring these days. She is crawling (really creeping - the up on all fours kind) so much faster and more efficient. She is still walking by holding on to one of our fingers, but she is trying to take more steps on her own. When she first did it, I don't think she realized what she was doing. Now that she has it is taking a little time for her to get her confidence back. It amazes us how long she can stand without loosing her balance. She will pull up on something and let go. She just stands there forever while she is doing something with her hands like banging blocks. When she starts to loose her balance she will start to bend her knees and/or put her hands out in front of her. She has also figured out that she has to sit down when she is done standing. OK, that might sound silly, but the other option is to fall down onto her butt.

With all of her moving, Kaia amazingly got some new signs this past week. She has now done dog, bubble and bear. We are constantly introducing new signs to her. Signing is just a part of our regular day. We don't set aside time - it is just always there. She is also learning other concepts from signing. At swimming we were playing with some toys and I signed for her to take turns with another little girl...and she did!!! She pushed a toy back and forth when I told her who's turn it was. Another big addition to her accomplishments is the idea of putting things in. Kaia is great at destruction and demolition and dumping/taking things out. This week she has consistantly put things back in. We havent gotten to stacking instead of knocking down, but we will get there.

Sounds like breakfast is over so it is safe to enter the kitchen. Eating has become a chore lately so I didn't want to rock the boat since they were on a role:)