When I pulled the photos off of Ry’s camera to “score” her scavenger hunt, I found this photo…
…yup, I’d say she’s ready for instagram.
Wordless Wednesday: Ready for Instagram
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Author Archives: katherine
Getting Ry Ready for Kindergarten with LeapFrog
Thank you to LeapFrog for sponsoring this review. For more information about LeapFrog Tag Get Ready for Kindergarten, please visit their website #LeapFrogTag #spon
I swear everywhere I turn lately I’m hearing about “Kindergarten Readiness”…on the news…in Andy’s teacher magazines…Ry’s preschool’s newsletter. So, when I learned about the opportunity to try LeapFrog’s Get Ready for Kindergarten book, I jumped at the opportunity.
At 4 years old, Rylee has got a good grasp on numbers, what sounds different letters make and she’s been writing her name since she was 3 and a half. Andy worked a little bit with her on reading this summer…she’s still got a ways to go with that, but is starting to put letter sounds together and every once in a while she’ll surprise us by reading a word.
She loves all things technology lately and she loves to play school and pretty much all things learning related so I knew she’d love the Tag Reader system and the “Get Ready for Kindergarten” book.
When it arrived, she was napping and I’m not even kidding within 2 minutes of waking up she was excited to try it out! She played with it until it was time for dinner.
The entire system was really intuitive for her and every page there was something new to discover!
I love how sturdy the pages are…not easily torn.
Her favorites pages were…
“Monster Math” where she worked on basic addition & which monster had more candy.
The “ABC Snacktime” where she worked on her letters and letter sounds.
And “My Community” where she identified what kinds of activities/who works at different places in the community such as a library, zoo and hospital.
A few of the other pages were still a bit above her head, but that just gave us opportunities to work on the skills together.
Long story short, the girl loves it. She loves it so much she’ll ask to turn off cartoons so she can “play her special book”. She even packed it up to take to Grammy’s house the other day just so she could show her how “TOOL” {aka: cool} it was.
I was selected for this opportunity as a compensated member of Clever Girls Collective and received free product from LeapFrog to review. The content and opinions expressed here are all my own. #LeapFrogTag #spon
Trying to keep things fun for the Monster
Since Reese has been born, I’ve tried to make a conscious effort to spent one-on-one time with Rylee.
Sometimes it works out, other times? Not so much.
The other day Andy was busy running errands or something. It was just the girls & I pretty much all day. Things started out okay, but then took a turn for the worse when I was feeding Reese and Ry needed or wanted something and/or wasn’t happy with the answer I was giving her. I was determined to make sure the rest of the day didn’t keep that momentum so I thought fast and decided that as soon as I was done feeding Reese, we’d head outside and do a photo scavenger hunt with Ry and her camera.
I quickly thought of some clues, scratched them them out on a piece of paper and explained the rules to Rylee. I would tell her the clue. She had 60 seconds to find the item/take a picture of it. Each photo was worth 10 points. If she got 100 points she’d get a “special prize”.
She LOVED the idea. So much so, that she wanted to do a practice run while I was still feeding her sister. Her attitude did a complete 180. I found some extra stores of patience. She ran out some major energy. Reese napped in the Ergo the entire time. And the day turned out awesome.
She came up with these all on her own! And for the record, she won the special prize of some Hello Kitty nail polish.
Somethings taller than you…{a tree}
Something Red…{the Buick}
Something Pink…{her sunglasses…I took this pic, so she only got half points. ;) }
Something Hot…{the sun} {Apparently Ry’s toddler tough camera is not a fan of the sun}
Something Yellow…{on my shoes}
Something you can eat…{pears from our pear tree}
Something you can climb on…{her play structure}
Something that smells good…{a flower} {this is totally a weed but I gave it to her anyway. haha}
Something Stinky…{her feet…she giggle uncontrollably while taking this photo!}
Something Blue…{the farm truck}
Something smaller than you…{SISTER!!}
Something you can drive…{the tractor}
Something that crawls…{this fly}
Something Brown…{the chair}
Something Round…{the brick}
Conclusion: Best spur of the moment made up game ever!
Boobs = NBD
Just a week before Reese was born, I sent out a plea for help to the interwebs. How should I explain breastfeeding to Rylee!? I was freaking out.
Turns out? You guys are way smarter than me. But, of course I knew that already, hence me asking you for your advice!
I opted not to “prep” Rylee with any sort of talk before Reese was born.
On the day Reese was born, immediately after she was…uhh…out (?)…we had skin to skin time and she began to nurse right away.
She nursed and nursed and nursed.
It didn’t seem like she’d ever stop, and Rylee was anxious to see her baby sister so we let her come in the room. She asked what Reese was doing, I explained that she was eating. Rylee looked a little confused so I explained to her that some mommies feed their babies this way and others use bottles. She seemed content with that answer and asked when it would be time to give Reese her bath.
Since then, it hasn’t been a “big deal” at all. She is curious, like any 4 year old would be. She asks questions. Especially when it comes to pumping. I answer them honestly and as thoroughly as I can. When she’s happy with the answer, she moves on and never mentions it again.
She’s caught me off guard with how nonchalant she’s been about the whole thing.
Like…when I was telling her I needed to go into the office one day last week, not realizing I was taking Reese with me, she became super concerned and said “But what if Sister gets hungry!?” Then when I told her I was taking Reese with, she was concerned about my coworkers seeing me while I fed her.
And one day last week I was in the bedroom feeding Reese when Rylee came in and sat next to us on the bed. Reese must have had a gas bubble or something because she unlatched and started crying. I brought her up to my shoulder to try and console her. Next thing I know, Rylee is looking at me, at my boob and back at me. Points to my nipple and says “uhhh…mom…you’re…dripping.”
The other day, as I was helping her get dressed, she asked me if kids have milk in their breasts.
Pretty much any time Reese cries, Rylee will shout to me “Mom, I think Reese is hungry again!” or “I think you need to feed Sister!”
And my favorite question so far…{asked as she’s motioning toward my chest} “Um, mom? What’s the nice word you want me to use for those things again?”
Moral of the story? I never should have underestimated my kid. Because she’s awesome.
Why yes, our 4 year old did name our baby.
I talked a little bit about our baby name struggles here a while back.
We struggled. A lot.
And by we, I mean me.
Completely.
Andy & I had talked about Reese Kallen as being “THE” name for a while. But I wasn’t quite convinced.
I’d loved the name Reese for a long, long time. Andy randomly found the name on a baby naming website one night and threw it out there. I was so shocked that he liked it that it instantly became the front runner.
I had come up with Kallen before I was ever pregnant with our second. I love the idea of family names (Rylee’s middle name is Vivian, after my grandmother). My sisters are two of my very best friends & so special to me that wanted to incorporate their names somehow, but didn’t want to choose just one sister. Kallen is a combo family name that I sort of ‘made up’, but fell in love with {KAtherine + KeLLi + KristEN = Kallen}. I threw the idea out there to Andy and he thought it was great.
So, Reese Kallen…we both liked it, but like I said, I still wasn’t convinced.
Not long after that post about having not name and my head pretty much exploding, Rylee was being her cute self and stuffed her beloved blanket up in her shirt and declared that there was a baby in her belly.
I asked her what she was going to name it. She told me she didn’t know. Then I asked her, “well what should we name the baby in my belly?” She looked at me point blank and said “Reese.”
I was convinced that Andy and put her up to that…I shot him “a look” and he swore up and down she came up with that all on her own. I didn’t know she’d ever really paid attention to the conversations Andy & I were having.
I sort of brushed that whole thing off.
Then a few weeks later, during dinner one night, out of the blue, Rylee said “I can’t wait for my baby sister Reese to be born. I think I’ll call her Reesie sometimes.”
Andy & I locked eyes.
And just like that, we knew her name would be Reese.
