Friday, December 30, 2011

Mommy Panda or Daddy Panda

Kimmie has always used the word "Daddy" a lot. She often uses it in place of "man". For instance, she preceeds many male names with "Daddy." She will sign "Daddy Aladdin" or "Daddy Blue Genie." She has done this since she was very small.

"Mommy" she only uses to refer to me.

As most of you know, Kimmie has a passion for pandas. We have multiple documentary DVDs on pandas that she watches over and over. We have many books about pandas. She has plastic toy pandas. She has many stuffed pandas and a wardrobe of panda shirts and pajamas.

A common theme on the DVDs, in the books and in the toys is baby pandas with their mothers. Kimmie, however, always tells us that it is Daddy and baby. When we correct her and tell her that it is Mommy and baby, she gets mad at us and yells.

We were talking about this a while back and I told Dad that I thought she felt threatened by the idea that someone else was "Mommy." I suggested that for Kimmie there is only one Mommy. Dad thought about it and agreed that could be the explanation for her insistence that the adult panda is NOT Mommy.

--Mom

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Daddy's Girl or Grandpa's Girl

We have decided that Kimmie is more Grandpa's Girl than Daddy's Girl.

You see, Daddy's favorite sport is basketball. Kimmie doesn't like to watch basketball. She fusses at Daddy when he turns to basketball.

Grandpa's favorite sport is football. Kimmie likes watching football. She will even ask to watch it, sometimes.

Kimmie's favorite sport is baseball. She will sometimes ask to watch baseball, especially when she's laying down and ready to go to sleep! Since Mommy's favorite sport has always been baseball, I think Mommy trumps both Daddy and Grandpa!

--Mom!

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Eeyore Stories

Kimmie has been telling us Eeyore stories. I'm not sure if she has seen these stories in books or on TV or if she has made them up.

One of the stories is about Eeyore flying. Her story goes something like this: "Flying, blue Eeyore, blue magic shoes, back, Piglet, back, red-shirt Pooh bear, flying." He always has his blue magic shoes when he is flying. Sometimes Kimmie is flying on Eeyore's back, but lately it has been Piglet and Pooh that are riding on Eeyore's back. Eeyore has magic shoes. We have asked her if he wears the magic shoes on his feet. She tells us, "No, back." Everyone is happy in this story.

Another story is about Piglet being scared of Eeyore. Piglet is scared of Eeyore because Eeyore is making a dragon sound. Sometimes Eeyore is in a cave making a dragon sound. I thought I saw this in a book, but have been unable to find it again. What I recall is that Eeyore was sleeping and snoring. As it echoed through the Hundred Acre Wood, Piglet was afraid and thought it was a dragon or other ferocious animal.

Kimmie hasn't been sleeping well and the other night she was awake in her bed a lot. Of course someone always has to be there with her if she is awake. I was laying down with her that night. The next day I asked her why she was awake so much. She responded, "Scared, Eeyore dragon sound."

We asked her if Daddy was making a dragon sound. "No."

We asked her if Mommy was making a dragon sound. "No."

We asked her if Bethany was making a dragon sound. "No. Eeyore."

--Mom

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Christmas Gifts

Ever since we put the tree up and lined the gifts up underneath, Kimmie has been going in the living room, sitting and pointing to them. She tells us, "Open presents."

We have told her we will open them on December 24, Christmas Eve. Every time she tells us it is time to open the presents, we ask her, “When are we going to open the presents?”

She replies, “Twenty-four.”

Bethany asked her one day who those presents are for. Kimmie answered, “Kimmie.”

Bethany asked her if they were all for Kimmie. Kimmie answered, “Yes!”

I asked her the next day, “Whose gifts are those?”

Kimmie answered, “Kimmie.”

I asked her, “Who else?”

She answered, “Mommy.”

“Who else?”

“Daddy.”

“Who else?”

“Reed.”

“Who else?”

“Bethany.”

I stopped there. I thought that was good enough, just needed to make sure she knew they were not all for her.

Another day she was sitting next to the tree pointing at a gift. I asked her who that gift was for. “Kimmie.”

I turned the tag over and looked. I told her it was for Bethany. That made Kimmie mad. I pointed to another tag. That one was for Daddy. That didn’t make her any happier. Then I found a couple with her name on them. She still wasn’t too happy, but I wasn’t going to go around the whole tree.

Three more days to wait . . . .

--Mom

Friday, November 11, 2011

Folding

I have some new fabric. As I always do with new quilting fabric, I washed it. One of the pieces of fabric was a Pooh Bear flannel that Kimmie spotted at the store and just had to have. She had been playing with it, but I grabbed it and tossed it in the washer with the rest of the fabric I was washing. When I took the fabric out of the dryer, I put it on the couch. We were getting ready to eat supper, so I waited to fold it.

After supper I started folding the fabric. Kimmie was still sitting at the table finishing her supper. She was watching me fold. I noticed that she had managed to pull the Pooh fabric and another one out of the pile before supper.

When I finished with my pile, I picked up the piece she had pulled out with the Pooh fabric. She started fussing at me and I told her it was my piece of fabric and the Pooh one was hers.

I walked into the kitchen and she jumped up from her chair, rushed into the family room, grabbed her Pooh fabric, and promptly folded it up. I stood and watched her and was amazed at how well she did folding it.

I decided we need to put her to work folding towels!

--Mom

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Boss Lady

Almost every year we have a new bus driver and aide. I think once we had the same driver for two years in a row. (To put that in perspective, she's been riding a school bus for 17 years, since she was 3 years old.)

We like the driver and aide we have this year. The driver is a lady and the aide is a man.

Every day when Kimmie gets on the bus the aide greets her and calls her the "Boss Lady." We think that's so funny! It sure fits her! She's always wanting everything HER way!

She carries a panda bear back and forth between home and school. He tells me that almost every day she throws the panda on the floor. That probably happens when she is fussing about something because she always throws whatever is in her hands and then her glasses!

Last week, for some reason she was especially happy to see me when the bus rolled up. As a part of her excitement about being home, she had to hug someone. He was the closest person to her, so he received the hug. He was so thrilled he was dancing up the aisle chanting "she hugged me, she hugged me." He was so excited he hugged the bus driver!

I'm not sure who was more surprised, the aide when Kimmie hugged him or the bus driver when the aide hugged her.

--Mom

Saturday, November 5, 2011

"Ball"

There's baseBALL. Kimmie likes to pretend to play baseball.

There's footBALL. Kimmie likes to pretend to play football.

There's basketBALL. Kimmie's not as interested in basketball, but she does sometimes pretend to shoot the ball. She has pretty good form, too.

Tonight Kimmie was doing something different. I asked her what she was doing. She told me she was playing golfball.

Then she started doing something else and told me she was playing tennisball.

Personally, I think she's a goofBALL!

--Mom

Monday, October 10, 2011

Moses

We have this basket at our house that we use for bread. When we have dinner rolls, we put a cloth in it, drop the rolls in and wrap them up. Often after we have had rolls with supper, the basket is put on the island and sits there for a couple days before being put away or used again.

Kimmie has never bothered the basket or shown any interest in it until just a few days ago. (Bread is NOT a food group she eats.) A few days ago, Kimmie paused at the basket, poked at the cloth to determine if there was anything in it, then picked it up and carried it to the table. She set it down in front of her chair. She went in the family room, rummaged around and came back with one of her little panda bears. The panda was wrapped carefully in the cloth and placed in the basket. She patted on him, kissed him, and told me to be quiet because he was sleeping.

I asked Kimmie if he was Moses. She said yes, but later changed her mind and told me he was "panda bear." She made sure he was tucked in and went off to play with something else.

One by one other family members came in the kitchen. After a while they would notice the panda bear in the basket and laugh. I continued to call him "Moses" which annoyed Kimmie. She would tell me, "No, no. Panda Bear"

That panda spent a day and a half in the basket before Kimmie retreived him. It was too cute for any of us to mess with. He fit so nicely in the basket.

--Mom

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Baseball

Last summer we bought tickets to a couple of our minor league team's baseball games. Kimmie seemed to enjoy going, and Dad and I did, too, so this year we bought tickets to 5 games.

Kimmie does very well at the games. She looks at her books. Occasionally she looks up at the game when we point things out to her. She likes to go to the playground and sometimes rides the carrousel.

At one game Dad took her down along the wall near where the players were warming up. They waited a while to see if one of the players would come over to the wall to greet them. Kimmie became tired of standing, though, and they came back to their seats.

A little later I noticed that a couple players had come over to the wall and were talking to some kids. Kimmie and Dad jumped up and hurried down there. Kimmie gave one of the players a big hug. He asked if they wanted an autograph. Dad said no. Autographs don't mean anything to Kimmie. The player handed Kimmie a ball they used when warming up. Kimmie held it like a treasure and came back to her seat to show me.

The next day that player was called up to the majors! We should have gotten his autograph on that ball! His last game in the minor league!

Maybe more of those players should want a Kimmie hug!

--Mom

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Mommy's Little Baby Girl

We had a little trauma this week. Kimmie's dentist appointment.

Kimmie has an almost constant fear that she's going to the dentist. Whenever anything is out of the normal routine, her first response is, "Dentist none, no, no, no."

And since she can read the calendar, she sometimes figures out when there is a dentist appointment.

When I confirmed that she had an appointment, she started signing "Cry, cry" and working herself into a sob.

I tried to remind her that she is a big girl. I told her that big girls don't cry when they go to the dentist, they cooperate.

Later we were eating supper with Dad and she started in again with crying. I repeated that big girls don't cry, they cooperate. Dad asked her, "Kimmie, are you a big girl?"

Kimmie's response, "Little baby girl, Mommy's little baby girl."

We had to laugh. She's never called herself a little girl or a baby girl, and has sometimes corrected me with "big girl" when I've called her "my little girl." But this time she was able to follow the logic that she needed to be a little girl to cry at the dentist's office.

She actually cried before and especially after, worked herself into quite a sob when they were finished with her. I guess she needed to make sure they knew how she felt about the whole ordeal. It only took two of us to hold her in the chair while the hygienist and dentist did their stuff. That is an improvement. Little by little she fights less and less.

Mommy's little baby girl!

--Mom

Monday, August 1, 2011

New Eeyore Pajamas

One of Kimmie's birthday gifts was Eeyore pajamas.

When we were celebrating Kimmie's birthday, she opened all her gifts, played with them all a little, and then she wanted the tags off the new Eeyore pajamas. I took the tag off the bottoms and was taking the tag off the top when I realized she was putting the bottoms on. Thankfully, she was putting them on over her clothes. She proceeded to put the top on too, over her clothes. She wore them that way the rest of the evening. We were able to get them on properly before she went to sleep.

The next day she didn't want to take them off until we told her we were going shopping at the mall. But when we arrived home, she wanted those pajamas on again.

While we were eating supper, we were talking about how she needed a bath and that would mean she'd have to take off the new pajamas. She signed, "No, no, no."

I said, "We might have to buy another pair of these so you can wear one set while the other is being washed." Dad agreed.

So now Kimmie has two pair of purple Eeyore pajamas and whenever she is at home she wants to wear them. They are really cute and comfy looking.

--Mom

Friday, July 29, 2011

Kimmie's 20th Birthday

Kimmie turned 20 this past Saturday. I think she would agree that she had a very nice birthday.

Her birthday celebration started on Friday when the day program had a birthday cake for her.

With "Big Sister" leaving for camp on her birthday, we also celebrated on Friday. She told us she wanted a chocolate cake with sprinkles, so that's what we had. I didn't buy any sprinkles because I thought I already had some; however, all I could find were Christmas sprinkles. Kimmie didn't care. It was a chocolate cake with sprinkles. She was happy.

For several weeks she had been getting in the cupboard and getting out the number candles that we have from previous birthdays; 18. She knew she was going to be 20, so we are not sure why she was getting out the 18. We decided she wanted those kind of candles for her cake. So we had a 2 and 0 for her cake.

Kimmie has gradually done better with the birthdays. She waited patiently through her sister's birthday and her brother's birthday and did not try to make them her birthday. She even waited patiently for everyone to finish their cake, because, of course, the most important part of her birthday is the presents!

Thanks to the dollar store and some finds in Michaels dollar bins, Kimmie had lots of gifts to open which made her very happy. She seemed to like and play with everything she received.

On Saturday, Kimmie's birthday, we dropped Bethany off to leave for camp and then took Kimmie to one of her favorite places, the M-A-L-L. She tells me every day that she wants to go shopping at the M-A-L-L. She doesn't actually want to go shopping at the mall, she wants to go shopping at FYE at the mall to add to her movie collection.

After she picked out a new DVD, we took her to see the new Pooh movie. Kimmie sat on the edge of her seat with a big smile on her face through the entire movie. Well, she did grab me and hang on during a scene when Piglet was scared. But she did enjoy it and we practically had to drag her out of the theater.

We went home, she put on her new Eeyore pajamas and watched her new DVD. The one she bought at the M-A-L-L and held through the entire Pooh movie.

Happy 20th Birthday, Kimmie!

The next day she was in the cupboard and came out with the 2 and the 1 candles. She laid them on the table, 21. She's ready for next year already!

--Mom

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Hiccups

Kimmie gets the hiccups frequently, and usually they are pretty strong.

Recently she had a very loud case of hiccups. I said to her, "Do you have a bad case of the hiccups?"

She signed, "Frog." She did sound exactly like a frog, and when she made that sign at her throat, right when she had another hiccup, I could picture one of those frogs that has the neck that swells out.

I said to her, "Do you have a frog in your throat."

She shook her head no and told me she was a frog.

I told her that if she was a frog, she'd have to eat bugs like they do. She'd have to stick her tongue out real fast and catch a bug. I demonstrated this for her.

She signed yes and proceeded to work at sticking out her tongue. This is not an easy thing for her. It relates to why she cannot speak. She isn't able to manipulate her tongue and mouth into all the appropriate movements to make the different sounds. That along with not being able to move enough air over her vocal chords is why she cannot speak.

But, back to Kimmie being a frog. . . She worked real hard at getting her tongue out, and she did get it out a little ways. Then she pulled it back in and rubbed her tummy to indicate it was yummy.

I asked her if she caught a bug. Yes.

I asked her if it was good. Yes.

My little frog.

--Mom

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Singing/Signing in the Bathtub

Kimmie: "Little Lord Jesus sleep hay, reindeer bright nose . . ."

Hmmm.

I wonder if she realizes that Santa Claus and Rudolph are not in the Bible?

--Mom

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Pandas Get a Bath

Panda bears are one of Kimmie's loves. She has quite a collection of panda books, movies and stuffed animals. Her stuffed animal pandas range in size from a giant plush to the Ty beany baby size. The ones she plays with the most are the little ones. She has seven or eight of these little ones. I think there are four identical Ty ones, a couple other Ty versions, and then a couple other brands.

She often takes these little ones out and about with her and they were starting to get quite grubby. I told her they needed a bath. Brown Bear needed one, too. His fur was quite matted.

So, the other day I threw them all in the washing machine with some towels. Brown Bear survived the washer and dryer. That's always our first concern. I was sitting with Kimmie when Dad pulled that load from the dryer. He brought the little pandas in and gave them to Kimmie still warm from the dryer.

Kimmie very carefully picks up each panda bear and sniffs it. She held them by their front paws and sniffed each one's tummy. One by one she did this until she'd smelled each one three times, just like a momma bear sniffing its babies.

Then she started examining their faces. She held each one around the neck and looked and looked at their faces. The way she holds them around the neck it looks like their heads might pop right off. Before the bath she could tell them apart by the dirt marks, and she always picked the dirtiest one to play with. Now she had to figure out which one each was by some tiny difference. It's amazing how she can usually tell them apart, just like she can tell identical shoe strings apart that came out of the same package just ten minutes ago!

She's so funny! I sat there watching her and laughed. The sniffing I'd never seen her do before and it was too funny!

--Mom

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Tonight

Tonight, out of the blue, Kimmie signed, "God love." Then she made motions like she was sharing God's love. We tried to get her to share with us, but she shook her head "no." I asked her who she was sharing God's love with. She signed, "Jesus."

For several minutes she sat there with a far away look on her face and signed, "God love . . . God, love."

I just had to wrap my arms around her and give her a hug.

--Mom

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Sleep . . . .

Well, for about 3 or 4 months now Kimmie has taken another spell of not sleeping through the night. She has slept through maybe twice in all that time.

We get up, find Brown Bear, rearrange her blankets, and anything else we can think of, but as soon as we go back to bed she is screaming again. If we don't get back in there fast enough, then she throws everything on the floor--blankets, pillows and Brown Bear.

It doesn't seem to be a scared scream, more like a mad scream.

It amazes me that she slept for three and a half years with the back brace on. She slept amazingly well in that awful brace and all night nearly every night. Oh, occasionally her blankets would get caught by the brace and we'd have to go in and free them. She'd go right back to sleep, and we'd go back to bed. But most of the time she slept through the night.

Now, no back brace, big queen size bed for her to roll around in, and she's up every night.

After her surgeries it took her quite a while to get to where she would sleep through the night, but she had been sleeping through for about 7 or 8 months when this last sleepless spell began.

I guess we'll never really figure this girl out. She's our puzzle.

Right now, the easiest thing to do is lay down with her, but that's become a problem in itself since she's getting too used to having someone sleeping with her.

--Mom

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Shoe Shopping

The other day Dad took "his girls" out to eat. Afterwards, he said there was a store he wanted to stop at. Kimmie was in need of new tennis shoes, and there was a shoe store next door to Dad's store, so Bethany and I took Kimmie to look for new shoes.

Shoe shopping with Kimmie is an experience everyone would rather skip, but it has to be done--in spite of the hysterical screaming.

We took Kimmie through the girls' shoes and found a pair that looked promising. We sat her down and I proceeded to try to get one of the new shoes on her feet--an impossible task. Kimmie was fighting me and screaming loudly. She could wiggle and kick the shoe off before I could even get it on all the way.

Kimmie was screaming so loudly I told Bethany that Dad would not have any trouble finding us. Bethany and I were laughing so hard we were crying. People were walking past us . . . looking and looking and looking. They would eventually smile when they realized we really weren't hurting Kimmie.

Finally I decided to get the second shoe out to have it ready to put on her. While I was getting all the stuffing out of it, Bethany picked up the first shoe. We each grabbed a foot and while Kimmie howled at the top of her lungs, we put the shoes on. We quickly grabbed her hands and pulled her to her feet before she could kick them off.

I made her walk, screaming as we went. We walked up one aisle and down the next. We started back up the aisle when Dad came around the end smirking at us--Kimmie was still screaming so he had no trouble finding us! And, yes, he was trying not to laugh. He stopped and waited for us to reach him.

I showed Kimmie a mirror where she could see her feet. She finally stopped screaming, deemed her new shoes "pretty," and told us she wanted to keep them on instead of putting on her old shoes.

She can go from screaming to happy in a blink!

--Mom

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Trip to Ben Franklin

After stopping at the dollar store, we went across the parking lot to the Ben Franklin. Kimmie was really, really good in the Ben Franklin. She actually stood for a long time holding and looking at her new Aladdin coloring book, while I looked through the fabric.

However, when she spotted the rack with Winnie-the-Pooh fabric, she tried to put every bolt in our shopping cart. I finally convinced her that we would get one of the fabrics.

She was very patient--something that is not usually her strength!

When the fabric that I'd picked out was being cut, Kimmie kept track of the Pooh fabric. Once it was cut, she had to hold it. She had to carry it to the register. She had to carry it to the car. She never let go of it until she laid it on the seat of the car.

After we were at home, Kimmie had to have the Pooh fabric to play with. She slept with it for three nights. She probably would have slept with it longer, but I slipped it away one morning and put it in the sewing room.

She may love Aladdin and Ben10 and Danny Phantom, but I think she still loves Pooh Bear most of all. She's loved him for a very long time.

--Mom

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Dollar Store Treasure

The other day Kimmie wanted to go shopping at the mall. It's always either the mall or Target. I didn't really want to take her to the mall, so I suggested Joann's. Her answer was, "No, no, no!" I then suggested the dollar store. (There happens to be one in the same plaza as a Ben Franklin.) She was really excited about going to the dollar store.

We went in and wandered around for a couple minutes looking for the toy aisles. When she spotted the aisle with books and coloring books, she was off at a run. She dove right into the section of coloring books and dug through them. She popped out with a Pooh Bear activity book. She worked her way through that aisle and we headed around the end to go up the toy aisle. On the end rack were more coloring books. Kimmie started flipping through them. She pulled out a Disney one with Hercules on the front and a small picture of Aladdin. She was happy. It went in the cart.

We wandered through the toys and didn't find anything. As we were going around the end rack on our way to the check-out, Kimmie started rummaging through the coloring books again. I was telling her that she already looked through those and had one in the cart, when she pulled out one with a big picture of Aladdin on the front! Hercules went back in the box and Aladdin went in the cart!

As you may know, the items Kimmie wanted to shop for at Disney World were Aladdin playing cards and an Aladdin coloring book. Well, we took care of the playing cards when we special ordered some, but the coloring book we gave up on.

Who would have thought we'd find a Disney Aladdin coloring book at our local dollar store!

Kimmie has a new treasure.

--Mom

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Daddy Black Monkey

This created a bit of a dilemma. What do you tell someone who just received a really good Kimmie hug, and then Kimmie signs "Daddy Black Monkey?" He is standing there asking us, "What is she saying?" while we are trying to figure out how to tell him that she just called him a "Daddy Black Monkey." Kimmie is happy and excited. "Daddy Black Monkey" is what she signs for Monkey Fist, a character in the Kim Possible cartoons. She loves Monkey Fist, even though he is one of the villains. It's not a bad thing to be called a "Daddy Black Monkey." It's a Kimmie thing.

Kimmie likes a lot of the villains. She likes people to be happy. The villains are usually happy through most of the cartoon because they think they are going to win. Then in the last few minutes of the show the heroes are happy.

Kimmie pretends she is a cartoon character all the time, and she pretends we are, too. We are used to being called all kinds of characters. We have learned that if we go along with it, we can get some really good hugs. We actually ask her, "Who am I today?" Then we try to get a hug. Or, "Can I be Gwen?" "Can I be the Blue Genie?" "Can I get a Gwen Hug?" "Can I get a Blue Genie hug?"

If you are ever called a "Daddy Black Monkey," remember that it's a good thing. You have made it into Kimmie's pretend world of animated characters!

--Mom

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Addiction

I thought that title might garner some attention!

We have decided that the really good hugs Kimmie gives are addictive. If you've had any of her really good hugs, you know what I mean. There's just something about those little arms squeezing your neck or your chest . . . and her soft hair against your chin or your cheek . . . Or when she holds on and won't let go, or does her triple squeeze, coming back for more. It just warms the heart and you want some more every time you see her.

There's a man at church who comes to get his Kimmie hug every Wednesday evening. I told him a couple weeks ago that Kimmie hugs are addictive. He just grinned . . . and keeps coming back for more!

Of course, I have to get my fix every morning during breakfast. It keeps me warm all day long. I love wrapping my arms around her and holding her real tight with my chin against her soft hair, especially at breakfast before we go our separate ways for the day.

--Mom

Thursday, January 20, 2011

A Pup Named Scooby-Doo

A while back Kimmie took a liking to the Scooby-Doo series “A Pup Named Scooby-Doo.” She picked out one of the DVDs and carried it home. She loves to carry this DVD box around, point at Shaggy and sign, “boy Shaggy.” She loves it so much that we bought a couple more of the DVDs.

A few weeks later I was at Target with her. We were looking through the movies and she picked this “Pup Named Scooby-Doo” one. I looked at the box, decided we didn’t already have it, and so I let her buy it along with a new pair of shoestrings.

On the way home Kimmie was working on opening her new pair of shoestrings and didn’t get around to opening her new movie. When we arrived home, I looked in the DVD cabinet to make sure we didn’t already have this movie . . . well, there it was. We already had it. I quickly pulled out the movie from our cabinet, gave it to Kimmie, and hid the new one so I could return it to the store.

The next week, Dad took Kimmie shopping with him. When he came home with her, he reached in a bag and pulled out a new movie he had let her buy. He says, “We don’t have this one do we?” It was the same “Pup Named Scooby-Doo” movie, in the red box, that I had just returned to the store two days earlier! Bethany and I immediately said, “Yes, we have that one.” Again we gave Kimmie our movie, so we could return the unopened one.

I hope the store doesn’t have some way of tracking WHO buys and returns items, because I’m sure they would think we were crazy to be buying and returning the exact same movie multiple times in a two week period.

--Mom

Monday, January 17, 2011

Kim Possible

A few years back Nickelodeon had a cartoon on named “Kim Possible.” Kimmie really liked this show although it created a bit of an identity problem for her. Actually, we all really liked this cartoon.

Recently she pulled out of the DVD cabinet one of the “Kim Possible” movies. She has been carrying it around and telling us that she is pretending to be “K-i-m-p-o-s-s-i-b-l-e.”

We are very excited about this! This is the first time Kimmie has pretended to be a GIRL character! Usually she is pretending to be Aladdin or the Blue Genie, Abu the monkey or Superman, Shaggy or Scooby-Doo . . . .

I also think she’s really proud of herself because she can spell “Kim Possible,” and she loves to spell it. She spells it two or three times every morning at breakfast.

She seems to have gotten over the unease of sharing her name.

--Mom

Friday, January 14, 2011

Movie Collection

I’ve talked about Kimmie’s propensity to be a collector. I’ve told you about her Care Bear collection and Star Wars sword collection, but I don’t think I’ve told you about her biggest collection—MOVIES.

Kimmie loves to buy DVDs. Kimmie loves to shop and whenever we go shopping she thinks she has to buy a movie. Unfortunately, she has so many movies that we often have trouble finding one she doesn’t already own.

Kimmie always wants to be the one to choose which movie to buy, but she will often pick something that we already have at home. This creates A LOT of drama. When we tell her we already have that movie, she simply doesn’t understand and cries when we won’t let her buy it. We don’t know if she thinks it is her movie that is somehow at the store instead of at home or what? It seems to be one of those reasoning things that she can’t quite understand.

When we buy a movie, she usually opens it in the car on the way home. She likes to open the box and see the round disk inside. And she likes the disk to be straight up and down, lined up just right in the box. She fixes it that way if it is not.

Now, when we get home, she may or may not watch the movie. Sometimes she just wants to look at the pictures on the box. Sometimes she will simply carry the box around, look at the pictures, point at them and talk about them.

She will often open the DVD cabinet and sit in front of it, pulling out boxes, looking at the pictures and talking to herself.

She’s a funny girl.

--Mom

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Aladdin Playing Cards

Kimmie has wanted a deck of Aladdin playing cards for a long time. As I wrote about earlier, she was very disappointed that we could not find them at Disney World.

Well, we resolved the problem and Kimmie now has a deck of Aladdin playing cards. They are actually Aladdin and Kimmie playing cards.

For Christmas we had a personalized deck made using one of the pictures taken when we saw Aladdin at Disney World.

Kimmie loves her new cards. Well, she loves the ones with numbers on them. She’s not a fan of the “letter” cards, Aces, Kings, Queens and Jacks. She throws them and the jokers off to the side.

--Mom

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Christmas

Christmas has come and gone. And I think that it’s good to have it over with.

Christmas seems to be very difficult for Kimmie. The anticipation begins so early each year and lasts so long, causing her to be anxious and excited and just a bundle of nerves.

By the time the big day arrives she is so worked up from the waiting that she can hardly enjoy it.

Overall, I think the whole experience of Christmas is hard on Kimmie.

We have talked about whether there are ways that we can tone down the anticipation, but we haven’t figured out how to do that when so much of it is out of our control. The stores, the television shows, school, church, lights and decorations around town . . . There’s really no way to delay the beginning of the anticipation that escalates and lasts way too long for a little girl who has trouble coping with all those feelings.

--Mom