Smarty pants

A few months ago, Graydon learned the alphabet song. I was pleased enough that he knew all of the letters and the order they came in. The other day, he took it a step further.  While reading a letter book, he started saying the letters before I got a chance to.  He named each of them correctly except "G" and "X".  I'm impressed!

Bella has been into "Knock knock' jokes lately.  They go a little something like this:

Bella:  "Knock knock!"
Me:  "Who's there?"
Bella: "Window"
Me:  "Window who?"
Bella: "Window - You forgot to look out your window last night"
Bella: (hysterical laughing)

Her Knock Knock jokes always follow the pattern of something that I forgot to do last night.

Well, Graydon came up with his own Knock Knock joke.  I'll let him share it with you himself.


The counting is a pretty recent development as well.

So proud of this little guy!

Sunday morning. . .

. . . was our church Christmas program.

Bella looks pretty Christmasy!

Her line this year:  "We'd like to welcome everyone here.  We hope our program will bring you Christmas cheer."  This group can sure belt out a tune!
In the actual Christmas story (which the kids did later in the service) Bella was a cow.

Later in the evening Curtis and I got some quality snuggle time on the couch. 

A couple of days later, he woke up coughing and sneezing. 

Poor baby has his first cold (and yet he's still smiling)

And this I must share. . . This afternoon I had plans to fold some laundry.  I just opened the dryer door when Curtis started crying.  I left to tend to him and came back to find this. . .

Bella folded all of my laundry!  She even did a pretty good job with the sorting!

She's definitely a keeper.

I didn't seem to get many photos of Graydon this week, so I'll share a video from last month.  He's getting so smart.

This one makes me smile. . .

Untitled from Karen Kilps on Vimeo.

Bella's First Day of Preschool. . .

We enrolled Bella in preschool last fall. Initially, preschool wasn't something that was even on my radar. I never went. Plus, I'm a stay-at-home-mom. In my mind, preschool was for kids whose parents both worked.

But we had a pretty shy little girl on our hands who very rarely wanted to be separated from us. I had visions of dropping Bella off on her first day of kindergarten and her clinging to us in fear of this new and potentially scary experience. That's when we started to consider preschool. It would give her an opportunity to do something apart from us and to meet some friends that may carry over into her kindergarten class (I specifically looked for a preschool that would feed into our elementary school).On that October day last fall when we went to look at the preschool and meet the teacher, Bella was very quiet and had tears in her eyes. Later I learned that she thought I'd be leaving her there that day. In the months that followed, we talked up preschool as much as possible. Some days she felt brave and excited. Other days she cried and told me that she didn't want to go.During these past few months, however, I've noticed a big change in Bella. She's really started to come out of her shell. She's more talkative with others and more willing (and even wanting) to have a babysitter. Ever since July, she's been ready for school to start. It helped that we found out a church friend would be in her class.

Here she is in her classroom today - her very first day. This was the only photo that she'd allow me to take there. I left a happy little girl at preschool. One who was ready to venture out into this world (or at least a small part of it) on her own.

The only tears were mine.

It's the beginning of letting go.

Here are Bella's thoughts on her first day of preschool:

First Day of Preschool from Karen Kilps on Vimeo.

Wisconsin Recap

I've got lots of pictures for ya. Too tired to write out all of the details, so I'll just let the photos tell the story.

Day 1

Sunday morning. On the road. Wisconsin bound.

I experimented with my new birthday present on Bella. (We're in a moving van, so it is kind of bumpy.)

Silly Bella from Karen Kilps on Vimeo.

Day 2

Auntie Jodi and Ava come over.

Bella and Ava are silly girls.


Auntie Lori came into town.
Popsicles are yummy.Day 3

We escape to Aaron and Jodi's place.

Bella shows off her writing skills. Curtis sleeps the day away. Ava's post-bath jam session. Day 4

Picnic at the park.

Lori on auntie duty
Ava's eyeing up something.Grandma & Grandpa Kilps stop by for a visit.

Grandpa Dave meets Curtis for the first time.Scott's turn for uncle duty.
Day 5

Visit Auntie Kristen at her work. (She manages a pool).

Bella plays dress-up in Great-Grandma's wedding dress. Day 6

Feeding the ducks (and seagulls and geese) This was Bella's first time.

Graydon thought the food was for him.Jeff and Sydney arrived in town that evening.

The kids hit it off right away.

Sweet AvaDay 7: Benetti Day!

Lori goes sky diving

She jumped from 14,000 ft.

Afternoon at Apple Holler

Feeding the animalsTaking some photosPony rides!Train rides!Moon bouncing!It was a hot day. Had to keep hydrated.
Back at home, post bath time. Graydon took a doll bike for a spin.Day 8

Grandpa's 80th birthday celebration

GG & GPa with the great grandkids.

Grandma & Grandpa with the grandkids. The whole Benetti crew (minus Andy & Steph) Aunt Cindy got out the lawn mower and pulled the little ones around the yard.Good times! Curtis got passed around:We spent the entire day at my grandparents' house and when we got back, it was time for me to pack up all of our stuff.

That meant more uncle duty for Scott.
The next morning we were out the door around 7:30 am.

Andy met up with us in Cleveland. He opened the van door to greet Graydon and immediately commented on the peanut butter snack all over Graydon's hands and legs. Peanut butter? Not quite. Try a blow out all over Graydon.

Welcome back to life with three kids!