Today was a big day for Kacey. Jamie decided to take her to the park and start teaching her how to ride a bike without training wheels. I was at a meeting but met them there after they had been trying for a little bit. Kacey was down on the idea and Jamie was frustrated. Kacey told us she was not ready to learn and wanted her training wheels back.

I had just that morning received a tip on how to teach a kid to ride a bike and asked her if she wanted to try my secret idea? She said no. I bribed her and offered her a treat if she would try my new idea. OK. So I told her the idea was for me to hold onto her waist INSTEAD of holding onto the bike. The theory being that she will learn how to balance the bike with me stabilizing her. Otherwise, if the parent is holding the bike, when they let go, it's unstable and throws the kids balance off. So we tried it and she LOVED it. She said she could go faster and after a couple tries she was even telling me when to let go! Her big problem was that when I let go, she'd stop pedaling but we're working on it. She fell down a few times and got back up. She ran into the grass a couple times and stopped herself without falling. All in all I think it was an excellent first time! I made a big deal of telling her how proud I was and she was so excited and proud of herself.

The second big deal was at gym class. She has been wanting to learn a cartwheel for a while and just can't get it. Today the teacher had these big blocks set up and the kids were to put their hands on them and flip their legs over just like the beginnings of a cartwheel. Kacey did it a couple times and just flopped over. The teacher saw her and made her do it again and worked with her until she finally got it!! It's a half cartwheel but it's the best she's done. She ran out to the lobby and got so excited and made sure I saw.. Again, so proud of herself. Just beaming. :)

In the back of the car this afternoon Kacey and David were having a "conversation" It went like this...

Kacey: "David, you can get a train job."
David: "I do not want a train job. I want a strawberry."
K: "Well you have to have a job to buy strawberries."
D: "I do not want strawberries, I have 2 bananas."
K: "I am not talking about bananas, I am talking about when you are a grown up."
D: "Bananas are grown up."

Kacey gave up after that and the backseat was quiet.

Downloaded pics from my phone and came up with these...

Adorably asleep. We have a booster for Kacey in Jamie's car and took it with us on this trip as it's a ton easier than the big Britax. 
With Nana, watching the planes. I love the sky in this one.
Whee. David kept saying "I am the engineer!!!"
Kacey with her little cousin Ria. Ria LOVED Kacey and followed her everywhere.
Me, Nana and Kacey posing in front of this very cool ice sculpture. I think this was one of the days where the 3 of us ended up being the only healthy ones so we had to rush back to the condo.
See Kacey? Rudolph is at the front.
At the outdoor ice skating. Kacey's first time skating and she loved it. She and Nana were taking a break.
I like this pic.
More ice skating
More frozen river...
More ice skating. Kacey started out with this walker type thing but abandoned it after a while.
Uncle Dave!
A pretty shot off the balcony.
The Nana's with Cousin Ria
Kacey saw these and wanted her pic in front of them
So cool.....

More frozen river

This boy is growing. He has so many more words and sentences, you can have mini conversations with him now. I have even had other people tell me about how well he is speaking and if other people can understand a kid then you know they are doing good!

He has also discovered that after I put him to bed, he can get up, turn on the light, turn off the noise machine and play with his toys. He's done this the last 2 nights and I've gone in 1/2 hour later to find him sound asleep on his bed with toys all over and the light on. I know it will be annoying later but right now it is cute :)

He likes to respond "OK" when he asks for something and you say no most of the time. Not sure how long that will last.

He is very into going pee on the potty and getting a treat. He will never do it on his own, just when he knows you are going or when you ask him if he wants to go. He's still miles away from potty training but at least now I have hope he won't be wearing diapers in college.

We are attempting to drop his afternoon nap. Most days he will nap for 2-3 hours but it requires me putting him in the car to knock him out. I then transfer him to his bed and we are stuck at home all afternoon. He usually wakes up cranky and then the evening is shot too. Fortunately he goes to bed well but wakes up at 5. I am hoping by dropping the naps, we can have afternoons to do fun stuff, he won't be cranky in the evenings and he'll start sleeping until 6. It's been a rough week as nap transitions usually are but I still think this is for the best.