It only took her 8 months...

Ryan. She is shy, quiet, and ohhhhh-so-sensitive. Anything out of the ordinary makes her little heart jump and quickly she is in tears. The most unusual thing to make her cry? The click of a pen. Yes, really. I was updating my planner the other day and clicked it to write another appointment down. She jumped, startled, and burst into tears, crawling up my body like the thing was going to then chase after her.

People know Kylee. She has been this outgoing, hilarious, sassy-but-sweet baby from day one. I have a video of her around 4 months old screaming so loudly with laughter that was such a foreshadowing of what the next 4 years would hold. Ryan is such the opposite. And people tell me, "well, duh, they're two different people." Okay, yes, they are, but it's amazing to me how early on you can see how different they are. I feel like we could tell within the first couple of weeks how different they were in their personalities. People that don't know Ryan ask how she's different I try so hard to describe her but it's hard. While she is all of those things I mentioned above, she, for the most part, will let anyone hold her, she smiles at every person that speaks or makes eye contact, and she is very playful. She is so content and laid back.

She is such a happy, joyful little baby.

But the one thing she's never done? Laugh. Not once. We have tickled her, played peek-a-boo, and thought of everything under the sun to make that little joy-baby laugh. But she just wouldn't give it up! The best I could get out of her was a one syllable giggle.

That is, until today.

The girls were eating lunch and I had run into my room to put some things away. I came out to hear non stop laughter from the both of them. The moment Ryan saw me, she quit doing it. So I "disappeared" behind her, and she started up again. Luckily, I caught it on video so Travis would believe me. Ha! You better believe I got it on video! After all, if I don't have proof, it didn't happen! I should have known that the comedian of the family could pull it out of her. I just didn't think it would take something so simple to do it.

Disclaimer #1: For all you video recording Nazis out there, I realize my camera is vertical. My iPad case is not conducive to recording horizontally unless I take the time to take my iPad out of it's case and I ain't got time for all that when my baby is LAUGHING! I'm 93% sure you will still live after seeing it.

Disclaimer #2: Disclaimer #1 is mostly for Travis WalkingStick. :)

Enjoy. It's pretty freakin' adorable.

The Greatest Story Ever Told

My Kylee. She is such an inventive, imaginative, creative child. Tonight while I was feeding her sister dinner, Kylee sat in front of her whiteboard and worked on writing her letters. That dreaded K and Y she has struggled writing became a little clearer tonight and she showed me how she has mastered ones we have already been working on. Soon the board was plastered with various letters in no particular order.

Can I side track for a minute and just say I've seen her just blossom at her school. I cannot speak highly enough of that place and her teachers. I really wish she could stay in the Frog class for forever! She adores her teachers, her teachers adore her and that just means that I, OF COURSE, adore them.

Okay, back to my story.

Dinner ends and Travis had still not made it home from work. I simultaneously got both girls in their pajamas and Kylee wanted to continue writing letters. Since Ryan is easily distracted while nursing, I asked her if she would mind sitting in her bed while she continued to practice. She happily obliged and off she went.

I get Ryan to sleep and walk in to Kylee's room next door to see her white board again plastered with various letters. She declared she had written me a story and couldn't wait to read it to me. Before that precious girl took off "reading", I knew this was a moment that needed to be captured on video. Before you watch, just know, none of it makes any sense whatsoever. She combines macaroni, the movie Frozen ("Let it go"), throws in a song just for some extra flair and says something about your mind over and over???

So without further delay, I give you The Best Story Ever Told by Kylee WalkingStick.

Yes. You just heard her say that "macaroni will still be here." She knows how to cherish the things that matter in life. Macaroni and Frozen. Good parenting, I say! 

You know what's awesome?!

I dropped Kylee off at school today. Late. As usual. And then Ryan and I had some great bonding time in the parking lot of Junk Street Market. For those of you that don't know what Junk Street Market is, take a gander here. It's awesome. I showed up 45 minutes before they opened. But rather than go home, and have to get Ryan back in the car again for the one small item I needed, we hung out, had some fantastic bonding time. I made her smile a lot. I almost got a laugh. She's almost 8 months old, y'all, and has yet to laugh. She walks along furniture but doesn't laugh. She can clap, wave, and crawl! But no laughter. But I digress. The store opens, I make my purchase, and we go home. We bond again while I nurse that sweet little angel baby to sleep. I work on my little painting project. She wakes up. We bond. We pick Kylee up from school, where we come home and bond while I nurse her to sleep. She wakes up. We bond while I change that stinky diaper. We play while I cook her dinner. We bond. I feed her dinner. I bathe her. We bond. I get her pajamas on and read her a story and then, again, we bond while I nurse her. Do you sense the theme here?

So what does this little angel baby do when the night is done?

Ryan: *looks lovingly into my eyes* Dada!
Me: Noooooo. Mmmmm-mmmm-mama!
Ryan: *smiles* Dada!
Me: No dada. Mama! Mmmmm-mmmm-mama!
Ryan: *reaches for my cheek* Dada!
Me: Do I look like dada to you? Uh. No.
Ryan: Dada. Dada. Dada. Dada.
Me: You know, I feed you. Play with you. Give you a bath. My body literally produces the food you need to survive and you want to look at me and say dada?!
Ryan: *smiles* Mmmm Dada!

The Simple Things

Christmas for us this year was very hard. What presents does Santa bring for a 7 month old baby who's mother kept every baby toy they ever purchased? And what does Santa bring for a 3.5 year old girl who truthfully never wants and asks for anything. She saw the Nutcracker this year and her only request from Santa were "winder uppers". Uhhhh...where do you get THOSE?! Santa had to be creative. They both ended up having a fantastic Christmas. Between Santa gifts and mommy/daddy gifts, I was only out $200 for the BOTH of them! Can we all just relish in that for a moment? Because we alllllllll know it will not be like that in the future. Let us take a moment of silence to remember this inexpensive Christmas season.



Okay great. On to my point. Of all the gifts Kylee-girl received, here are a few favorites. Moms and grandmas, lock these away for birthdays or next year's Christmas gifts:

1. A $5, 8x8" blanket, of which she refers to as a "stuffy". Ryan now has 4 of them, and she's always called them that. Not exactly sure why or from where that terminology came but yes. A $5 blanket she can hold at nap and bed time. They are the softest darn things I have ever felt, too. I just have to give a shout out to Julianne for this little piece of material that has made my Kylee the happiest child on the planet. This one is, by far, her favorite. And the most inexpensive. Go figure.

2. The Taylor Swift 1989 CD. Let's be real. This was a present for me just as much as her. The girl knows Shake It Off by heart and it went along perfectly with her karaoke CD. She trades off belting out Let it Go, Do You Want to Build a Snowman and Shake It Off. The 5 year old neighbor comes over and they both proudly (and sharply I might add) sing together. I prefer the latter at this current juncture but I'm certain that song will soon be overplayed in my house just like the former two.

3. Easy bake oven. For the record, the easy bake oven says for ages 8+. Um, why? It's not something I send her off to her playroom to do on her own. The girl wants to bake every. single. day. And I absolutely love it. Strangers ask her, "did you have a great Christmas?" To which she always answers with a loud, boisterous, "YES!" They proceed to ask her what she got and this is almost always the first thing she mentions. Said strangers then proceed to sarcastically say how thrilled I must be that she received such a drawn out, messy present. I must be missing something. Because the easy bake oven is just that. EASY. No mess. No drawn out ordeal (minus the 10-20 minute preheating). I love it, she loves it, and it's something she and I can do while sister takes a nap. I lied. It's messy. I forgot I have to hand wash a 3" x 5" pan. *Gasp!*

4. This last gift cannot be bought anymore in stores. Travis's cousin, whom I now just call my cousin because I love that family like they are my own blood, saved the dollhouse her daughter played with for several years as a child. It's been 15+ years that it's been stored away, and this Christmas, she gifted it to Kylee. Y'all this dollhouse stands as tall as Kylee, and has about 420,000 pieces. Not even kidding. It's a vintage Playskool doll house with pretty much every piece that could have ever been made for it. Ever. A van, an RV, a wheelchair, several people (including 3 different races of families so we can be sure she's a diverse child), strollers, babies (even a set of twins), animals, furniture for every room in this Playskool mansion...you name it, it's there! This is the house without ANYTHING in it.

I mean, just look at her face. We didn't see her the rest of the day. She played for hours with this thing in her room. Anybody remember the last time their 3 year old played for HOURS with one toy? Yeah. Never. It is the best material gift Kylee could have received this year. Not only is it awesome, but remember when they made toys that didn't break in the first 3 minutes of playing with them? Yeah, that's this toy. And all it's counterparts. She's in heaven. 

Moving on. I was just informed by my bossy 3 year old that I need to "hurry up and get off the computer". So I guess I better wrap this up.

4 years ago, Travis bought me my beloved Expedition. I know this sounds ridiculously silly but I love my car. 3rd row seating, DVD player, fully loaded...An Eddie Bauer Expedition is my mom car. And I am proud of it. At least I don't have a mini van! ;-) 

I'd just like to digress for a minute and say mini vans have features that are pretty awesome, especially for parents of kids. But at the end of the day, IT IS STILL A MINI VAN. The day I buy one of those is the day that...well let's not even go there. Because I will never, ever, in the history of ever, buy one of those. It's like a buying a leash for your kid. Just don't do it!

Back to the clicker. We bought my car used and it didn't come with a clicker to (un)lock my car. So for the last 4 years, I have used a keypad entry to get in and out. It's been fine. But now that I have 2 girls, my hands are always full, and my keypad entry is slowly wearing out, my husband thought he'd drop a big penny on a clicker. We had to save for it but, he FINALLY splurged on the 2 keyless clickers for $9.95.  Big spender! I could kiss him over and over again! It's the simple things y'all. Amazon for the win!

I've saved the best for last. This morning, the most beautiful words were uttered from my sweet little Ryan's mouth. She FINALLY said "mama!" Travis swears up and down that she said it last night but, of course, when we ask her to say it, she just looks at me and smiles. Kylee and her friend Katey claim she had said it before but I believed that like I believed the bear stole Kylee's ring the other day. We live in Katy, TX. The only bear you'll see is the stuffed one you sleep with, my dear. My philosophy was that if I didn't hear it, she didn't say it. This morning, while I snuggled up with Ryan, she reached up, held my cheek and said, "Mama". I yelled. I was so excited. So excited that I did what I normally do. I took a picture. 

That's what mornings look like in our house. Frizzy, messed up hair, PJs, and snuggles. She may or may not have said, "Dada. Mama." But I choose to ignore the first part. Ryan is most definitely a daddy's girl. I'm just happy she's a daddy's girl that finally decided to show her mommy some love! If you don't have kids, can I just tell you that there is NOTHING sweeter than hearing your child say "mama", "dada" or "love you" for the first time. There are sooooo many sweet moments but those are the firsts that you want to hold onto forever.

Lastly, I leave you with a Kylee-ism. Every morning, Kylee rolls out of bed, comes into whatever room I'm in and immediately asks, "can I have your iPad?" Not, "good morning", "hello beautiful mother, can I snuggle you for a bit" or "how about you go back to sleep for another hour while I play quietly in my playroom". That'd be nice. Some mornings I say yes, most mornings I say no. Today, I was in Ryan's room changing her diaper when she walks in.

Kylee: Mommy, look at my face.

Me: *stops changing the diaper and looks at her*

Kylee: Can I have your iPad?

Me: Kylee, no baby. You got LOTS of toys for Christmas. Go play with some of them.

Kylee: Can I play on your iPhone? Please? You'll be my best mommy!

Me: I have news for you, sister. I'm your ONLY mommy.

Kylee: ha. riiiiiiight.

Just what does THAT mean???

Crying Over Ice

I struggled with my blog name for weeks. At first I thought it'd be fun to have some pun-y name that also incorporated our last name. (Like my good friend Jamie here has done: http://www.allthatsrocks.com/) Yeah. You try to come up with one that incorporates WalkingStick. Go ahead. Give it a shot. How about I help you? IT'S IMPOSSIBLE!

I finally came up with a really great one that was going to be about this loving mother (that'd be me) writing these precious little letters to her darling angels that would be signed at the end with "Forever, Mommy". Nope! Name was taken! And I was all...

Really.

Back to the drawing board.

And then it hit me as I listened to Kylee cry over something so silly and (excuse me) STUPID, that it hit me. Every day, there's a new saga. Something new she is either totally and completely amazed by or something she is totally and completely broken-hearted by. A friend described her as "feel all the feels". Amen, sister! (shout out to you, Emily!) So here we are. The Daily Saga. It's life with 2 dramatic, "feel all the feels", emotionally charged girls. But in totally different ways. Kylee is outgoing, wears her heart on her sleeve, a comedian and performer. Ryan is extremely sensitive, quiet, laid back. Emphasis on the sensitive. It's super fun, exhausting, and always filled with entertainment.

Ready for the daily saga?

Today, the TV did not get turned on. No child had an iPad or iPhone, no video games were played.

I know what you're thinking. *Sarcastically* "What an accomplishment." And I say to you, you must not have children...

Instead, we cleaned up our house, organized the desk area, did some laundry, hung some things on the walls, packed up the baby swing (insert mommy tears >here<)...it was awesome! Lunch time hit early for us and Travis decided to make some sandwiches. Kylee ate her leftovers from last night. Despite declaring at the table at dinner, "Mommy this is absolutely delicious!" She ate none of it. So leftovers she had. Travis asked what she wanted to drink and he promptly filled her cup up with her requested Sprite...with ice.

Y'all. She cried. Buckets of tears. Because if you know my child, you know she does not like ice. In anything. Just don't give it to her! And because there was ice in her drink, the world would cease to exist. So I did what any mother who really doesn't feel like listening to her child cry over some stupid ice in a cup would do. I got the ice out. Travis and I ate our sandwiches. Kylee sat and played. And again, we did what any parent would do when their child BETTER eat their lunch. We got up from the table, took Ryan into her room and left Kylee sitting there. All by herself to finish her food. And again, the world was ending. It took her another twenty minutes to eat approximately 8 teeny tiny bites of chicken, but she ate it! And the world began to spin again.

Fast forward. Kylee had gone to play at the neighbor's house with a couple of dress up rings on her finger. She came home all upset because she had lost one of them. So as I stand in her room, hanging up her clothes that I had just washed and dried, she tells me she "lost it and it's gone forever!" She also told Travis that "maybe a bear came and got it". But that's beside the point. Travis decided the only way to cheer her up was to serenade her on her brand new karaoke machine.

Here's how that went:

Awww! Sweet, laid back Ryan admiring her father's singing.

Annnnd Kylee. Who couldn't wait for the song to be over.

Nobody feel bad for her. She's happy as can be now at the movies with her nana seeing Annie and being loaded up on M&Ms, Sprite and popcorn. And while today has been the most productive, exhausting day, Travis and I will get to enjoy a date night out. Dinner, maybe a movie, maybe we will just sit at the restaurant and talk because you know we don't get to talk at all without being interrupted with, "Hey mom! Hey dad! You know what?" followed by 30 long seconds of nothingness. Because all she wanted to do was hear herself talk.

I love that girl of mine. Even in her most dramatic moments.

Until the next saga...

New Year's Resolution

I actually hate making these things. Let's be honest. How many of us actually stick to our resolutions? I can't remember the last time I made one. I think we all start out with the best intentions and then life happens. Or we realize how highly unattainable our resolutions actually were to begin with. Well, this year, I decided to outdo myself. I made 2! And this blog is fulfilling one of them. My husband, the always-supportive, unfiltered man that he is, looked at me like I was crazy. Because blogging is exactly what I need to add to my plate.

Well, here's the goal. If you follow my personal Facebook and/or Instagram page, you are well aware that I post (maybe too) frequently. But whatever. What you may not know is I use my Facebook as a means of documenting the things Kylee says and does so that I can then turn around and journal the date and age in which she said/did it. I'd like to be able to use this blog as a way of documenting the daily saga that is my life so that all I have to do is simply print and put in a binder. Because my children (especially Kylee) will have binders full of stories of things they did. And I can't wait to give them these gems.

People have told me to start a vine. Which would be GREAT! Except 99% of the time my kid does this stuff off camera. And even when I try to convince her to do/say it again while I have my always-handy-iPhone ready to press record, well, would you believe that she has an opinion and a high dosage of independence and tells me no? So there goes that idea. I, personally, believe that TLC needs to come to my home. Every day. Because, FOR THE LOVE, I sometimes laugh so hard at the things she says that I wish I had a camera right in her face. I share some of these gems with Facebookland but text is all you get. It doesn't do her justice. You miss out on the facial expressions, the hand gestures, and the overall feeling of what on earth just happened in my living room. But calling TLC would make me THAT mom that thinks her child(ren) is the cutest (she is), funniest (she is), smartest (she is), sassiest (she is), sweetest (she is) little girl on the planet.

So a blog will do, I guess.

Oh, and my other resolution? To run more. I've already failed on day one. It was raining, though. And I really am not down for being sick. Ain't nobody got time for that!

Happy New Year! It's 2015!