Snow Day

No School TODAY! We got pounded with snow, 12 inches from midnight to 9:00 this morning! So after John and I spent 2 hours clearing the cars and sidewalks Em and I had a homebound day of fun and relaxation. Emily was a little artist again today. Em had picked out some little plaster ornaments at the craft store last week and I thought today would be a great day to paint them. I couldn't believe how patient she was. She took her time and tried so hard. Just look at her great fine motor skills at work. She's able to hold the paint brush correctly and steadily. She was so proud of them and couldn't wait to show John!

Little Artist

John had off today so Em stayed home with him. When I got home he had to show me her drawing. Check out her awesome stick person. It has come along way. Last month she was making her people by drawing a circle for the head which had a few dots on it and a line across for the face and then 4 lines coming off of the circle for arms and legs. Now look, she's even drawn a torso!

No Need to stop here Santa!

I asked Emily what she wanted Santa to bring her for Christmas. Her response, "I have my tree and ornaments and lighst and my socks (socks being the stockings). That's all I need." Now if only that thinking would last for years to come! :)

Christmas Party

This weekend we went to RFC's Christmas Party. This year it was Breakfast with Santa. If you ask Em, she could have done without Santa. She was fine until he walked in. Then she wouldn't let here eyes off of him, and I don't mean in a good way. She was terrified. We sat at a table in the front hoping that by seeing other kids going up there by him and getting presents that she would want to too. It took her a while but she wanted a present so her and I went and waited in line. She seemed fine until it was our turn. That's when she lost it. She wanted nothing to do with him. She had her arms wrapped around my neck and her legs twisted around my waist. Oh, and the scream that came out of her mouth, I'm sure she stopped everyone in their tracks! She told Santa to give me her present while crying. I asked her what should she say, and she thanked him, still crying. Then we turn to go. We weren't even off of the stage yet and the crying stopped. She had a huge smile on her face and with excitement she says "Santa gave me a present and candy cane mama!"

Gingerbread Fun!

Tonight we went to an RFC craft night and made a cute little gingerbread house. Emily was so excited to see her friends! (And loved eating the candy!) We used graham crackers to make the base of the house and then added frosting and candy to decorate it. I think I got a little too carried away with it and took the "design element" from Em but she seemed happy with letting me lead :) I think we're going to have to make a big one at home so she can be in charge :)

Say Cheese

Today I took Em to get her pictures taken for Christmas. We tried a new place in Kenosha called Picture Innovations. I think they did a great job but there was some miscommunication. When I called to make an appointment, I inquired about their special picture package. They told me one thing but when I actually picked out the poses I wanted and told her which one I wanted for my main pose (which should have been for the package) she didn't ring it up that way. Apparently, just telling them that you want the package when you make an appointment is not enough. You actually have to say the words I want this pose for my special promotional price. I mean for pete's sake. They are new to the area they should have asked if what I meant to say is I wanted the special when I said I wanted this pose as my main one. You would think that it would be on my appointment sheet!

Anyway, Emily started her session by crying but the photographers did a great job at getting her to smile. They all turned out great. Here are a few of my favorites.

HELLO December

Here she is all ready to play, to bad Mom has to go to work :(

One thing to add: Em's new saying, "That's what I'm talkin about!" It just cracks us up when she says it.

Sesame Street

So November has just zipped right on by. I can't believe it's going to be December already. Not too much excitement here. Em is definitely not ready to be a big girl. She hasn't shown any interest in using the potty since my last post. My goal is to try again next month during our Christmas break since I'll be off for two weeks. We'll see what happens with that. We did make a cute Thanksgiving craft this week. We traced Em's foot and cut it out. Then she glued feathers, googly eyes and a beak on it. She loved doing it so much we made 4 of them!

This weekend John and I took Emily to see Sesame Street Live at the Bradley Center. We kept it a secret from her until we actually got there. She kept asking us what her surprise was but we told her she'd have to wait and see. When we got into the building she noticed a few kids were carrying stuffed Elmos and said, "Hey momma, she got an Elmo just like me at home!" Once we got up the escalator she knew something was up because of all the Elmo things so we told her what we were going to see and her face lit up with excitement.

We had awesome seats. We didn't want floor seats since it would be hard for her to see so we got first row of the lower section. Emily absolutely loved every minute of it! She was so focused on the show and was dancing in her seat. The show was called Elmo's Green Thumb. The story line was Elmo was trying to find a place to plant his flower. I didn't expect Em to really be able to follow the actual story but a few days after we had seen it, she was telling a friend

all about it! How awesome is that?!

On her way to being a BIG girl

Just had to post that my little girl took a leap to being a BIG girl. I have been trying to encourage her to use the potty for a few months now but she wasn't showing any interest. Well this past week we went shopping with my mom and she bought Emily a Dora seat that goes on top of the toilet. She thought that maybe she'd like that better than her little potty. Em tried a few times to go but as she says, "My water won't come out." Well just a little bit ago I was downstairs on the computer when she yelled down to me that she needed to go to the bathroom. I figured sure we'll give it a few minutes so I helped her get on. Of course she thinks it's fun time and wants to play with her tub toys while she's sitting there. After a few minutes I asked her if she was done and she said that she was waiting for her water to come out so she could get a MnM (M&M). So we sat there, and all of a sudden she started going. My poor baby had this scared look on her face like she had no idea what was happening. I smiled and told her she was going potty and clapped for her. And with a big smile on her face she said, "My water, my water come out mommy!!!"



So I know this is only the beginning, but still, I'm so proud of her and happy that I never pushed the potty training thing. This was all her!

Bad Mommy!

I feel like a terrible mother. Today I had to take Em to get a flu shot. When I picked her up from the sitter’s I told her that we had to go to the doctor’s before we went out to eat. Just then she lost it, crying all the way to there in the car, in my arms as we walked in, and kept crying as she was standing next to me as we were checking in. I was able to get her to calm down and then the nurse called our name and she took off running from me crying, “No doctor mommy!” So we get her in the room, hold her down and give her the shot. It wasn’t until we were in the car that I realized how bad I really was, I had forgotten to give her any pain reliever before her shot. It honestly never crossed my mind. Well as a reward for Em and a comforting mechanism for me, I let her choose where we should go for dinner. I thought for sure she’d say Culver’s so she could get ice cream but to my surprise she said fruit cup, which means Chancery! Unbelievable! I know that her two favorite things to eat are chocolate ice cream and fruit but what kid would choose fruit over ice cream? Only Em :)-

Later on that night, still trying to soothe my mommy guilt, I asked Emily if she wanted to do a project. Her eyes lit up and she was thrilled. I had a simple craft that I actually had put together for October but we never got around to it. But hey, pumpkins are for November too. I gave her a paper plate and little square pieces of orange construction paper. She glued them on and when finished we added the stem. Look at her completed pumpkin, she is so proud of her work. All she kept saying was, “I show daddy when he gets home.”

Halloween Fun!

Halloween has been a blast this year. This of course was the first year that Emily really had fun with the holiday. Besides hitting up all the pumpkin farms around, we also went to the RFC Halloween Party and a Halloween craft night. Emily just loves doing artsy things but I think she liked the cleanup time more with her bud, Cam. While the two of them were washing brushes, I caught Em hoisting herself up over the counter edge and putting her mouth under the stream of water to get a drink. Note to self: Let Em have fun in the kitchen sink more. :)

We had been asking Emily for weeks what she wanted to be for Halloween. The poor girl is taking after her mother with indecision. Things she named: monkey, monster, Minnie Mouse, butterfly. What did she end up choosing, Daisy Duck! Now lets just say that took some coaxing. We were at the Disney Store and I had her try on a Minnie costume. She looked so cute but her comment, “It no fit me.” (even though it did.) The reason, she kept eyeing a Donald Duck costume. I said that Donald was a boy but that she could be Daisy, so in other words, she settled but was happy. Here’s a pic of Em as an adorable Daisy. (Like her potato head pumpkin masterpieces?)

This was Emily’s 1st year trick or treating. John and I took her around the block. She carried a little pink and purple basket that looked cute with her costume, even though John teased me that it looked like an Easter basket. Once we went around the block she said she was all done since her basket was full so we went home and passed out candy and played in the front yard.

More Pumpkin Farm Fun

So October is at an end and I’ve been really bad at keeping up with the blog, go figure. So let me play catch up…… We ended up hitting at least one pumpkin farm every weekend just like I was hoping to. Em and I went with our good friends, Jennie and Aiden and Aiden’s grandma Sharon, who is also Em’s sitter, to Swan’s Pumpkin Farm on the 12th. Emily took her 1st hayride and loved it. One thing that she could have lived without, the animals. She wanted nothing to do with any of the animals and just kept trying to hide behind me. Aiden on the other hand, loved them!

The next weekend John and I took Emily and Aiden to Jerry Smith’s. What a great Pumpkin farm! We had never been there before. They have little scenes set up with the characters having “pumpkin heads”. Emily’s favorite was the JoJo’s Circus scene. (JoJo’s circus is one of her favorite cartoons on Disney.) We did a no no and let Em go in the scene so we could get her picture taken with them. I know, I know, what bad examples we are, but it was the only way I could get her to look at me for a picture ;)

Then the third weekend we finally got hit with the October cool weather. We had been so lucky up till that point! Of course, the weekend I decide to save for going to the Land of the Giant Pumpkins, out on Hwy 11 in Sturtevant, was the windiest and coldest, but Em didn’t care. Nana (my mom) came with us because I had to pick up 50 small pumpkins for the RFC Halloween party in addition to the pumpkins for our house. Emily had fun picking out pumpkins for her friends and playing in the small houses and hay maze. Em had a blast going to all the different pumpkin farms! If anyone might know of any pumpkin farms that we missed, please let me know so we can add them to our list for next year.

Fall Fun

It’s Fall! One of my favorite times of the year. I love the the fresh crisp air and the change of colors. I can’t wait for the leaves to fall so we can make big piles and Emily can have fun jumping into them. Speaking of which, mental note needed: Have John pick up a kid’s rake from work. ;)

We started October off right with a trip to Apple Holler on Saturday. We have made it a tradition to go there each year. We get up early (yes all 3 of us) and head there for their apple breakfast. The Apple Walnut French toast is sooo yummy and the apple smoked bacon is Mmm. After breakfast we go to the pumpkin patch and take Emily’s picture in front of the height chart. This year she’s really made it difficult to get any good pictures. She refuses to look at me when I’ve got the camera out. Here’s a picture from each year. It’s hard to believe that this is her 3rd Halloween. Oh, how time flies!

This was the first year that Emily really “did” anything while at the pumpkin farm. She rode the kid’s train and did the corn maze. She was so cute while doing the maze. John and I let her lead the way. Each time we got to an “intersection” in the maze she’d say, “ooh, this is a good way” and lead us on all while eating an apple and trying to eat the dried corn throughout the maze.

Speaking of apples….my oh my did she ever get us going. For those of you who don’t know Em is a fruit and veggieaholic! No seriously, she can put them away like nobody’s business. Well while we were trying to take her picture by the growth chart she saw another little girl eating an apple and persistently begged us until we finally got her one. I was a little concerned because usually I cut apples into slices but figured she would be able to handle it. I showed her the part she shouldn’t eat and John and I kept reminding her while we were walking around. When it was time to go she still had half of her apple so we let her take it in the car. (Yes I know, it could have been a choking hazard but you try taking fruit away from an addict J ) Anyway, on our way home we kept checking on her and reminded her not to eat the stem or seeds. Do you know where I’m going with this……….. Yeah, we get home and John lets her out of the truck. He asks her where the rest of her apple is and she gives him a blank stare. He asks her again and he says in a happy voice with a big smile on her face, “I ate it!” We ask her again, “No Emily the part with the stem and the seeds, where did you put it? Under the seat?” She repeats laughing this time, “I ate it.” Again, with disbelief, John asks “Em, no seriously, where did you put it?” Her final answer almost shouting with one of her hands on her hip, “Daddy, It’s in my BELLY!” as she’s patting her belly with her other hand. So are you wondering what happens when you eat an apple core? Nothing at first but a few hours later the stomach ache sets in and it resurfaces if you know what I mean.

So my plan is to check out a few different pumpkin farms this year. Hopefully a different one each weekend while the weather’s still good. But one thing is for sure, I think we’ll stay away from the apples!

So Smart

My baby is learning so much! Today I had to take a half day at work. Well I was in such of a hurry when I left that I forgot my purse in the closet in my classroom. Of course it had to be a Friday and I would defiantly be needing my things for the weekend so once school was over, I took Emily with me to go get it. My goal was to just be there for a minute but that never happens. Emily wanted to stay and play. She was busy sorting some plastic colored animals that I had at the math center. When I went to check on her I couldn’t believe my eyes. She had sorted them by color! How crazy I thought! What was more crazy was when we finally were leaving I tried to get her mind off of the fact that we were leaving so I asked her if she wanted to count the frogs on the lockers (they’re the locker name tags for one of the 2nd grade classes). I expected her to go to 7 since that’s what I’ve heard her do at home but to my amazement she counted to 11 and with one to one correlation! (meaning that she pointed to each frog as she counted it)

In addition to counting to 11 and sorting by color she can identify colors and names of shapes (circle, triangle, square, heart, star and diamond). Now before anyone starts questioning how she knows all this, listen up, we haven’t taught her any of it! She’s basically learned it on her own and even though I’m ashamed to admit it, Noggin has had an influence too. I’ve been selective with the toys that we’ve bought for her, lots of simple things that encourage her to learn these skills on her own. Em is also a great artist! She loves to draw and paint which has taught her the colors and shapes. I can’t wait till Christmas. I’ve got some great ideas of what I’d like to see her get!

Here We Are

Ok, so we’re not really all that Krazy. But I’ve been wanting to get a blog up and running and decided to stop struggling to come up with a clever name. And yes, I know its spelled wrong John but it looked good with our last name! So here we are,The Krazy Kildahl’s.

It’s September and with that comes the start of a new school year for me and back to the sitter for Em. But before we go there, I wanted to take a look back at some of the fun we’ve had this summer……

We went on our 1st camping trip as a family in June. Actually it the first for John and I together. I still can’t believe that he agreed to go. Thanks goes out to our friends for convincing him it would be fun! We went up to the Peninsula State Park in Door Co. for 4days/3nights. Staying in a state park was a 1st for me too. As a kid we always went to the luxury campgrounds like Jellystone which offered all the amenities. Never had I stayed at a site the had no grass, not even as a Girl Scout. But we made the best of it and all the dirt/mud that came with it.

We had a blast! I still can’t believe that Em was able to sleep all night and take naps in the tent! She had so much fun hangin out with our “extended family” as I like to call them. They are all too good to her! (Especially her “uncle” Steve!)

One of the things on our “to do list” while camping was to bike the trails. It was a good thing the park rented out bikes because for one thing we would have had no place to put them to get them there and for a second, yeah, neither of us owned a bike let alone a trailer for Em. We made it a whole 4 minutes on the bike and Emily was having a nervous meltdown. So John and I started riding back while our friends Steve and Sara continued on the trail. I finally convinced John to just catch up to them and do the trails, that there was no reason for both of us to skip it. So we switched the bike trailer onto my bike and Em and I gave it another try. It didn’t take me long to figure out that the only thing she didn’t like about biking was the rough trails. As long as she was on paved ground she did fine. By the end of our 2 hours she was worn out from all fun. John was worn out too……He never ended up catching up to our friends. Instead he took the trail by himself and ended up on the opposite side of the park, which was about 4.5 miles away. We figure he must have biked over 10 miles that day and let me tell you, we were all resting well that night! Needless to say, we came home and bought bikes and a trailer and have been riding all summer!

Summer recap Part 2

The rest of our summer was filled with simple fun around town. Emily and I found our new favorite picnic spot. It’s a nice shady park tucked away here in Racine that’s only about a 20 minute bike ride from our house. We discovered it when we went to a Kid’s Event with RFC (Racine Family Club). Since then we’ve gone a couple of times and was even joined by some of Emily’s friends too. It’s funny, every time we go to that park now, she asks if her friend Neela will be there. And if John takes her, she goes on and on about the time they were there together. We just get such a kick out of her memory. It amazes us how she can remember the tiniest detail that happened a month or two ago.

We did a lot with RFC this summer. Maybe, too much. You see I just go through these periods where I feel guilty that I don’t spend enough time with Emily. So when summer comes around I end up trying to do too much. Our July calendar had something on it everyday. We had play dates at the park, crafts with friends, backyard get togethers. The list can go on and on. I know she had a good time but I always second guess myself about if I’m over stimulating her.

We decided to get a membership to the Betty Brinn Children’s Museum. If you haven’t been there you should really check it out. They have all sorts of hands on things for the kids to do. The museum had a special exibit this summer having to do with Mr. Potato Head which Emily loved! Her other favorite thing there is the pretend city. She pretended to be a news anchor in a studio (ok, so she didn’t really know what she was doing but liked being on tv and having a microphone, go figure!) and also played for a long time in the supermarket they have. I just love how children can learn through play. She was busy telling me what she was shopping for naming each item as she put it in her cart, using her manners as she gave her groceries to the little girl who was pretending to be the clerk at the register and the best aha for me as a teacher was when she took her cart to go put everything away and had to sort through all the groceries as she was classifying and matching up the food to the pictures on the shelves ! All we can say to that is Awsome! (One of her new found words :) )



Em and I went on some zoo outings too. We did the Milwaukee zoo with her best buddy Aiden. I swear those too are hilarious when they get together. They are both so happy to see eachother it’s almost scary! Emily just loves her Aiden and talks about him all the time. It’s a good thing fall is here and she’s back at the sitter’s cause now she can see him everyday.

We also got to feed the new giraffe at the Racine Zoo thanks to our friends Shannon and Cameron. Em and I talked about it for days before we actually went and she was so excited! But what do you know, when the time comes, she just wanted to leave. So I convinced her that we could do it together.






One of our last outings for the summer was going to Fired Up in downtown Racine. It’s a ceramic place where you can paint a piece of pottery and then they glaze and fire it in a kiln for you. I wasn’t sure how she’d do but I really wanted to give it a try and I’m so glad I did! She had a blast! We picked out a piggy bank and then I let her pick out whatever colors she wanted. She did such a great job and wanted to keep painting that I let her do a second piece that I picked out, a pencil/pen cup for my desk at work. It can be costly to go there but I’d still like to go every once in a while. I can’t wait till she’s old enough to participate in some of the art classes at the art museum. She just loves doing arts and craft things at home.