Kenya LOVES her sister. That is what occupies most of her time right now. I don't think she can go more than 10 seconds without the urge to touch Jasmin. The most common thing heard in this house for at least the last 6 months is...
"Leave her alone." or "If you touch your sister again you are going to your room." (often followed by Kenya going to her room because she just could not resist!) or "You know you are not allowed to pick your sister up, so why did you." and MANY similar sounding phrases!
My goodness Kenya loves her sister! It never helps with Jasmin is laughing or smiling and Kenya always follows up with, "But she likes it," or "But it makes her laugh, I just want to make her laugh."
Well with that all said, I will tell you about what she does while Jasmin is sleeping or the other 2% of her time when she is not
bothering playing with her sister. Kenya love playing outside. Since the weather has been so much nicer we are outside at least a few hours a day. She rides her bike, plays with neighborhood kids and plays chase. She is super into pretend play. Her favorites are, playing baby, anything type of animal that is a pet on a leash, playing making friends (she pretends we have never met and then we pretend that we are becoming new friends), and whatever else in her amazing imagination that day. Outside she loves to play in water, play with bubbles and write/draw with sidewalk chalk and play at the park. She like to go to story time at the library too.
When we are not outside some of the things she does are: play dress up, help clean, play with play dough, write/draw, cooking, dancing, reading books, and really anything else she see other people do. Her imagination had really taken off in this last year and it is fun to see what she thinks about what she decides to play. She has begun to play card and board games too!
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| Dress up and dancing with Mommy! This is super common in our house. |
This next picture is too funny. I mentioned that she enjoys cleaning and mopping is one of her favorite. One day she was playing dress up and I needed to mop. So she came out of her room and asked to help. Of course I let her. Then as I sat back and watched her I notice what she was dressed up in. Yep, that is it, Cinderella. She was dressed up as Cinderella and mopping my floors. Oh, the hard life she has. Too ironic!
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| She got to "meet" Dora and Diego. Seriously it was less than 5 seconds that she was near them and they did not even say a word to her. We were all disappointed to say the least! |
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| Doing what she does best. Sharing and being with her sister! @ Yellowstone Bear World. |
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| She got to ride in the front of the car without any seat belt or anything as we went through Bear World. She was so ECSTATIC! Just like a big person! |
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| Again with her favorite person in the world! @ the kite festival. |
Kenya loves learning new things. We grew some pinto bean plant a couple of months ago and she loved watching them grow. So we were both super excited about planting our starters for our garden. So here we are below planting seeds. She still love to water the plants and see the progress of our garden. (Almost all of our seeds are planted and are ready to transplant into the ground. Now we just need to find some land for them.)
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| This was actually cooking with Daddy. They made me these yummy cupcakes for Mother's Day. It is an orange cupcake inside the peel of an orange. |
These are pictures that Kenya took one day. I came out from putting Jasmin down for a nap and she was quietly playing with the camera taking pictures.
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| Playing around with Daddy! |
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| This was just on Memorial Day. Outside playing frisbee at a friends BBQ. |
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| And this was yesterday. She just asked me to take a picture of her and so I did. She was saying "cheese' while grating cheese for dinner. How cheesy!!! |
There are so many wonderful things to write about Kenya and so many amazing things she says and done. But this has gone on long enough. There is just one last story that I have to share that melted my heart today.
She got in trouble at the store for doing something she knows she is not suppose to do. So, we just left the store and I was trying to show her I was pretty disappointed in her for what she had done. So, I told her we were leaving and explained to her that she got certain things taken away for the rest of the day because of her behavior. She could tell the my mood had changed and asked me if I was happy. I told her no I wasn't because she had chose to do something bad. So after we got in the car and we were on our car ride home she pointed out to me that I was "happy with Jasmin, but not happy with
her." Yep, that was right! Then she began to tell me things like this-"Mom, I like it when you are happy with me and we play together. I love it when you are happy and we cuddle and you read me books. I like it when you are happy with me." I told her that I like it too. Then she asked me to look at her. (I hadn't really been looking at her because I was driving, but also because I was trying to show her that I was upset.) I asked her why after she persisted to ask. She then said, "Look at me because I want to smile at you." (My heart was already melting, but I asked why she wanted to smile at me.) "It makes you happy when I smile at you!" Yes Kenya, it does make me happy! I turned and looked at her and she smiled a sweet half grin. I am sure she saw my face light up. This is by far one of my proudest parenting moments yet! Then there were some other sweet words exchanged. I just hoped that was a lesson learned and memory we will both never forget.
