Kailey's two, and ready or not, Christmas and Eli are almost here

It has been nearly three weeks since I've posted, yikes. Since then, Kailey turned two, and moved up to a "big girl bed" on the same day. She got a tricycle, an art easel, a Winnie the Pooh seat, and a few other gifts. She was really excited about all of her gifts. She calls her tricycle the "cycle," pronounced like the tool that cuts wheat, and the same word as popsicle for her (can be tricky for me, when she says, "I want cycle/sicle," I'm not sure if she wants a popsicle or to ride her tricycle) She went in for her check-up and shots last week. We really love our pediatrician, Dr. Flechas, we never wait long, never too quick to prescribe meds, and great personality. Kailey is in the 90th percentile for height and 25th percentile for weight (25 lbs and 35 in.). She had to have the flu vaccine (nasal spray, thank goodness) and a shot. I was so shocked because she didn't even flinch when they sprayed the solution in both sides of her nose, and didn't cry at all when they gave her the shot. The nurse was and I were both shocked and impressed.

The other day I was thinking about some things that I love about Kailey at this age:
When she wakes up from a nap, and is ready for me to let her out of her room, she yells, "mom....mom!" it just sounds really funny because she usually calls me mama or mommy, and she says it so loudly and abruptly.
I can have simple conversations with her.
She is starting to understand emotion and sympathy more, so if I seem bothered by something, she will ask me what's wrong, and after I tell her, she says, "awww".
She remembers people's names and gets excited to see people that she remembers.
She pronounces the letter J like she is from South America, she pronounces Jamie as yamie (she sometimes calls Jamie "my yamie," which is funny to me, and Joe is yo.
When she does something wrong, she says, "sorry" and this is pronounced, soffree.
She calls herself Kaikey (pronounced cake-e), a combination of Kailey and K-K, I guess.
She loves to help me feed Rickey, the dog, and will even tell me throughout the day, "mommy, puppy unggee (hungry)," in hopes that we can go feed her again.
She is very energetic and free spirited. I don't always love this side of her :)

We have been doing lots of Christmas shopping. I developed a theory on why I do last minute shopping. For so many years, I was in school or working and didn't have much time to shop, so it usually got put off until Christmas break, so now I just do the same thing, wait until a week or so before Christmas to do my shopping. I came up with this theory when Jeni, a friend in our ward, was saying last week that she had some shopping left to do, and was waiting for time off from work. I have decided that next year, I'm going to set a goal to get my shopping done early. Wait, who am I kidding, the main reason that I don't get my shopping done is that I am a procrastinator. It is something that I try to work on it. In college I would do anything to avoid doing homework until the last minute. My favorite thing to do instead of homework was scrub the bath tub, because I felt like I was really getting something done, and it relived stress because it is a physical, mindless job.

Kailey, after a long day of shopping (this was taken at 6 p.m., needless to say, this little nap ruined her 8 o'clock bed time)

This is just a funny picture that I took the other day. She loves to run from me, after I dry her off, but before I get clothes on her, and this time she didn't get very far when something on tv caught her attention)

Like I mentioned before, we moved Kailey to a big bed, and this is her sleeping in it for the first time. I was pretty nervous about how she would do, but she has done great so far. The first week, we had no problems at all, this week she got out of bed and cried a few times after we put her down for the night, because she had late naps that messed her up, but she is back on track now.

Jamie, Jeni K. (I know quite a few Jeni's, hence the initial), Lisa, Allison, Kailey, and I drove to Houston on the 8th for some Ikea shopping. I planned the trip to pick up Kailey's bed and dresser, and when Joel mentioned it Friday night at the ward Christmas party, Jeni and Lisa decided to join us. It was fun to have their company; I'm glad that they came. I hope that they were glad that they came. 8 hours in the car with a two year old and a one year old can be kind of tough sometimes, and we had some difficulty with the cargo. Kailey's bed frame was in a huge box, as expected, but not only was it huge, it was wide, wider than the van, which made it very tricky to secure to the luggage rack on top of the van. We had to pull off of the interstate twice to try to resecure it after it started sliding off. We finally took the frame out of the box and tied half of it to the rack and shoved the other half inside of the van. We had so much stuff packed inside the van, I don't know how we made it home with everything. Poor Lisa and Jeni had to climb back to their seats and had very limited space. It was a long day, but worth it, I love Ikea!
Where else can you get an iron bed frame and dresser for $150 each?

I can hardly believe that we have less than a month and a half before the new baby gets here! I've gotten a few things done that need to be done like working on potty training with Kailey and getting her out of the crib, but I still have lots to do!