Little Miss Kayleigh is as healthy as can be. She is finally talking and as suspected, she's jumping right into sentences. The "mamas" and "babas" are still rare, but we get a lot of "D'ere a go" ("There you go") and "I oh no" ("I don't know").

Like Abby, her first words are a mix of Chinese and English, whichever is easier to say:
Go-Go (dog), Yu (fish), Mao (cat), Diu (throw), more, thank you, ball, plane, moon, bird, baby, play, no, go, snow, cracker, sticker, bowl, juice, yogurt, apple....

She is growing up so fast. In a blink of an eye, she has transformed from a tiny, helpless baby to an individual with a very, very strong will and mind of her own.

Kayleigh always gets her way or will at least do everything in her power to try. From bounding up to you and giving you a snuggle and dimpled grin to smacking you and giving the evil eye, she is an unstoppable force. She has a bag of tricks and she knows how to strike.

Abby and Kayleigh get along great most of the time. Abby is an amazing older sister, kind, caring, willing to share. Kayleigh adores and admires Abby. We are currently going through the "whatever Abby has I want as well" phase and it's endlessly exhausting to keep coming up with new ways to redirect Kayleigh's attention.

Separation anxiety hasn't been an issue with Kayleigh. She goes down to bed without a fight at night (just need to say "night-night" and give her her teddy bears to snuggle with) and drop-off at daycare in the mornings isn't an issue (she lunges for her teacher and immediately turns to you with a grin, waving bye-bye).

She's strong, she's smart, and she's sweet.

Perfect.

(I felt so silly forgetting that Kayleigh needed a 15 month well-baby checkup. I showed up a month late and her doctor comforted me by saying it's the one checkup most parents forget about and if it's not for the first child it's almost always forgotten.)

I found this picture while sorting through our photos on the computer. It was taken for one of Abby's math homework assignments when she was in preschool about 6 months ago.

Math homework? For 3 year olds?!

Yep, Abby has had some great teachers and these simple home assignments were meant to involve the parents and provide an extra spark to interest the kids in whatever topic is being taught.

This particular assignment was to use a ruler to measure a group of things from home and then identify the longest and shortest items.

Abby chose to examine our family's shoe sizes and she proved to know how rulers worked quite well. I thought she had a really cute idea. To prove accuracy in her homework responses, I helped Abby take a picture and attach it to her submission.

She received a special recognition from the teachers for an assignment well done. :)

Kayleigh has really hit a turning point in communication. She still stubbornly refuses to speak when she doesn't need to - preferring to physically drag you to where she wants you to be rather than saying something like, "Mama here!"

However, lately, she has been trying so hard to respond appropriately with a nod or a shake of her head while saying, "No! No! Noooo!"

Last night, she really wanted Abby's share of kiwi fruit after finishing her own, so she stomped, cried, and started hitting Abby to get what she wanted. We kept offering her the remainder of her dinner to which she kept shaking her head. Finally, not putting up with the hitting anymore, we threatened, "Kayleigh, do you want a timeout?!"

Obviously thinking we were offering her food (but certainly not the dinner remains we had been insisting on), she nodded emphatically.

Boy, was she ANGRY when I led her to a step stool and asked her to sit there until she calmed down. Full-blown Kayleigh temper tantrum followed with her on her knees, forehead on the ground, screaming.

It's funny how quickly toddlers get distracted, though. While face-down on the floor, she spotted Abby's dress-up slippers next to her, so within 1 minute of her tantrum she was happy again, laying on her back trying to get her foot into a shoe.

And that was the end of the episode.

We've been told by A LOT of people that Kayleigh looks JUST LIKE her older sister at this age.

I don't know.

Do you see any sibling resemblance?



Left: Abby 15 months old (10/2008); Right: Kayleigh 17 months old (9/2011)

I love the moment captured in the following picture. We were playing putt-putt with some friends and Abby and this adorable friend of hers attacked the course very seriously, finishing far ahead of the adults.

When we finally reached the green they were playing at, I watched them grab the golf flag pole and heard Abby say, "Hey, let's pretend we just landed on the moon!"

It surprised and delighted me that a 3.5 and 4 year old wanted to reenact history in their pretend play and that they even knew about landing on the moon!!

It's depressing that the days are so much shorter now, but the up side to having to drive through darkness at the end of the day is that instead of listening to my girls fight over who gets to read "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" in the car, I get to hear Abby playing teacher and giving us very important lessons.

Tonight, Kayleigh and I got two lessons - one on sharing and one on policemen/safety.

Abby: Kayleigh, are you playing with the Barbie doll? If you're not, you should share. If you're not playing with something you need to share it with someone else because it's not nice to always hold onto something that you're not going to play with and not share.

[pause]

Kayleigh, will you please share? Kayleigh! Listen to me! No, look at me! Is this a face that's a smiley face? I'm not very happy with you because you're not sharing.

[Of course, Kayleigh doesn't utter a sound in response, sucking contently on her pacifier. At that moment, a car merges in front of me and Abby gasps.]

Mama! That car just cut in line. That's not very nice at all and it can be dangerous! That person can get a police man's ticket for cutting in front of the line. You can also get a police man's ticket for driving really, really fast, right? Or if you cut in front of other people. It's not safe. If you don't follow the rules, the police will give you a police man's ticket and we don't want that, do we? Kayleigh, do you want me to teach you about safety? Pretend it's safety week and I'm teaching you about how the police keep people safe. If you are a bad, bad person, they put you in a locker. They also put lockers on your hands like this if you're bad. So, if I were bad, the police man can put a locker around my hands and lock me up forever! A police man also gives out police man tickets if you drive bad. If the car in front of you stops, you have to stop. If the car in front of you goes, you need to go. You also have to watch the lights. Red means stop, green means go, and yellow means go slow. Mama, I want to drive when I turn....ummm....7!

Me [first time Abby paused long enough for me to get a word in]: No driving until you're 15 or 16.

Abby: Oh, ok! 16 then. After I turn 16 I'll turn 17, then 18, then 19....And 19 is when you turn OLD!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Kayleigh is lounging on Paul's arm, making it difficult for Paul to eat his dinner. Abby explains to Kayleigh: Kayleigh, daddy is not furniture. People are not furniture; we talk.