Almost 5 years old!

Keira is a month away from turning 5 and she is become more mature every day. She is doing great in Kindergarden and is not as quiet as she used to be. She has two friends that she adores...samuel and Fiona. She went to her first "friend" birthday party for her classmate, Leia, a week ago at Pump It Up. She had a blast, but threw a mini temper tantrum toward the end of it because she wanted the birthday girl to open her present in the middle of the party. She can be stubborn at times and we are working that's not good since she wants to go to Disneyland. The girls both need 50 happy faces by the end of November to make it to Disneyland. lol

She has been making huge improvements in her speech and I really think she is caught up now. It was so worth it for us to hire a private speech therapist for her. It wasn't really in our budget but Rick and I made it happen and it was worth the extra cost. I have also been doing Hooked On Phonics with her and it is amazing how much she has already learned. She is doing so well for her age. A lot of other kids can't even read yet so I am glad Keira is a bit ahead. She loves to learn and she has great pride when she finishes a lesson and gets that star! This is the great thing about being a stay at home mom....I get to invest time in my kids to teach them things I wouldn't have the time to do if I was working. I see the difference it has made in all of my kids and am so thankful that my family has this blessed opportunity.

Keira is such a loving girl. She is at Daddy Franny's house right now but she really wanted to stay with us. It was sad when we told her it would only be for a few days. I miss her so much when she goes and I know she misses us. I can see the love in her eyes for her brother too. They have a very special bond and that makes me so happy.

Keira is now in LF Preschool Kindergarden

Keira has grown up so much in the past two years. She lost a lot of her baby fat, but is still my baby! Okay, okay...so she's not a baby anymore. She's quite the talkative, funny and beautiful little girl. She is my princess and is still so lovable. I would say she is the most lovable little girl I know. Mya is lovable too...don't get me wrong. Keira has so much personality. Every time I pick her up from school, she runs over to me and Chace and hugs and kisses us. She tells me that she loves and misses us all the time and I tell her that we miss her! I really wish she could be with us every day.

Keira has become much more mature in the past year. We are slowly seeing the "crying" disappearing. Oh, what a relief! Mya and Keira are very competitive as sister's sometimes are. So Keira would sometimes get upset when Mya would be the first to do something. Keira always wants to be first, but she is learning that you have to take turns and share. She did a great job this past week as Rick and I set up a new system for who gets to do something first. They seem to be adjusting to it and it has been pretty peaceful since!

She lost a lot of her shyness, but is still quiet at school. I was a bit worried that since Mya was moving on to D.E. that she would regress...but she proved me wrong! I think she likes going to school and I am glad we invested in her education as early as we did. She is learning a lot and I think that Keira is a fast learner. Her teacher's tell me that they only have to show her something once and she picks up the lesson pretty fast.

At home I have been doing phonics with her and she is doing a great job with all the lessons. She is able to read short stories on her own! =) When she gets frustrated she stops, but she never wants to quit. She wants to keep going until she reaches the goal. She sometimes wants to go to the next lesson to fast. Keira is definitely not a quitter and I really like that quality in her.

We went to see a pulmonologist/allergist a few weeks ago because Keira was breathing funny. We found out she's allergic to a bunch of things...cats, dustmites, nuts, trees, grass among other things. She's on singular and allegra right now until the allergy season ends.

Keira has been doing well in ballet/tap as well. She has been doing it for over a year now and I was proud of her in the recital this past june. She really showed us that she can do anything as long as she tries. She looked absolutely beautiful in her costumes. When I watched her dance with Rick I almost cried. It was so touching. My little girl is growing up so fast and I feel so blessed that I have her. Thank you God for my miracle.

Keira's 2nd week of school

Keira had a tough drop-off at school today. She did fine yesterday as her report card said her mood was quiet and happy. She ate some of her food and enjoyed playing with her toys and participating in the activities. When I picked them up from school, Keira was happy playing with another toddler in the circle room. I was there for a good 5 minutes talking to the teacher and she didn't even notice me. When she did, she lit up and walked over and hugged me.

Yes, I sense she had some apprehension at school yesterday as last night she woke up in the middle of the night and was crying. She wanted me to sleep with her which is weird since for the past three weeks she has been loving her new room with Mya. I think she wants me to stay at school with her and knew that she was going in the morning.

This morning Eliza played with her in the circle room and a bunch of kids went over to her and wanted to play with her. She did not want to interact with anyone except me. A lot of the kids would say, "she's so cute", but Keira would look at them and say "NO!". The teacher told me to just leave, but it broke my heart and it was so painful for me to hear her cry as I left the building. I am having separation anxiety just as much as she is. It has been very difficult to think about anything else right now.

I called the school about 30 mins after I left and they told me that after about 10 mins. of crying, she was listening to an audio book and laughing in the library. That made me feel a lot better. I need to suck it up and be firm when I leave her at school. A hug and a kiss goodbye and that's it. Otherwise, I just send the wrong message to her.

Keira’s first day of school – April 1st, 2008

28 months:

Keira is a snowflake. We showed Keira her school room and she was excited to see all the toys.

As we moved to the circle area, Keira was distracted by the toys.

After about 5 mins, I thought it was a good idea to slowly sneak out of the room.

Keira had a good first day. She ate a good portion of her food at lunch (chicken salad with pinapple) and slept easily during naptime at 12:15pm until she woke up at 2:30pm.

They had to work with her to sit at the table and eat, instead of walking around with her food.

She did not let Lori change her diaper easily. She had a hard time when transitioning from room to room. She wanted to continue playing.

Overall, she was active and sensitive during the day. She is still getting use to her new environment but she is learning a lot and having fun!

I am glad that she did not cry on her first day.

She was in the playground when we picked her up and she was very happy to see us!

almost 1

I just took Kiki to the doctor today for her regular wellness check. The doctor was concerned that she wasn't eating well and wanted to see her another time before her 1-year visit. Keira has been eating herself silly for the past couple of months, but it wasn't always that way. For the first few weeks of eating solids, she wouldn't even open her mouth. I always had to trick her by pretending to give her a pacifier in one hand, and stuff a mouthful of food in a spoon with the other. Now, I can't get her to stop eating.

She topped out at 17 lbs. and 27 inches long. I couldn't remember her head circumference, but I do remember remarking how big Mendoza heads' are. For her birthday, we're going to have immediate family and ninongs/ninangs come to chuck e. cheese. I don't like making a spectacle out of a 1st birthday, and we're going sort of all out for Mya's bday the month afterward. I think a 2nd birthday is when a kid starts to value having a birthday anyways.

That countrywide home loan guy is on TV again. Each time he comes on, Keira stops what she's doing, gazes at the guy, and just laughs and smiles. Go figure.

Almost 5 months old!

Nothing really new with Keira except that she is now rolling around everywhere. She loves to turn to her side and even arch her back. She is still a wiggly little worm. Heehee. She's so adorable. She is discovering her hands and feet. She often looks at them in wonder while she slowly moves them. And she kicks SO hard. She does not like to sit still anymore. A part of her body is always moving when she's awake. She loves to grab things, too...especially hair. And if you have a necklace on while you carry her, beware! She'll hold on to it for dear life. If she does sit still, it's usually because she's watching Backyardigans with her big sis Mya. She is also still babbling so much. Sometimes they end up having a conversation in the mysterious Mya-Keira language. She is growing in length and is quite tall. Still very, very skinny. Her hair is growing as well. I love it when she smiles or laughs at you and then shyly looks away. Aw, I love it =)

Very Wormy

Keira turned over by herself yesterday. I was so surprised. She's always been very active. I call her my little worm because ever since a month ago, she has been able to move all around by moving her neck and feet. Her movement really looks wormy. Haha. Seriously, you can't leave her on a sofa or even in the middle of a bed for long because she would reach the end in a matter of minutes. She also enjoys her Gymini a lot. She likes to look at herself in the mirror and play with the toys. And of course listen to the lullabies.

As of last week, she weighed 11 lbs. 7.5 ounces. Today, Keira stayed with her Lola Penny while Mya and I watched Finding Nemo's Disney On Ice. Mya loved it! =)

And the cutest thing of all? Keira started laughing out loud about 2 weeks ago. But this week she has been laughing SO much. Especially if you kiss her belly or if you put her in front of a mirror and smile. Very cute.