Happy Birthday Kylie! Today you turn eight years old. I know I say this every year, but I can’t believe how fast you are growing up. It’s amazing how when we are young the time seems to move so slow, but as we get older the years seems to move too quickly. I know you don’t realize it yet because you are young still, but time does fly by. This year was a pretty hectic year in terms of things going on around you, but pretty calm for you directly. However the things going on in your environment are going to cause larger changes in your life as the time moves forward, those changes mainly involve the expansion of your family. With Mommy and Neil getting married in a few months and Melissa and Daddy finally getting engaged, you are officially going to have step-parents and all the additional family that comes along with it. You seem to be very excited about these changes though you have expressed some nervousness from time to time. One thing is for certain however, you are surrounded by people who love you and care about you. We can’t wait to see all the great things that you are going to do this year!
Category Archives: Kylie
Father’s Day Slumber Party
Happy Father’s Day! Today we spent the day at Chris and Tracey’s new house for a nice little cook out. The new house has a lot of shade in the backyard which really helped to cut down on the heat and made being outside really enjoyable. The kids all had a blast running around and playing together. Unfortunately Kylie doesn’t get to hang out with her cousins as much as we would like to, but that makes days like today really special. Watching the kids all playing together and having such a good time is always great. After the day was done Kylie got to stay and have a slumber party with her cousins, she had been looking forward to this for a while and was so excited that she didn’t even remember saying goodbye to Melissa and I when we left. She called me from Aunt Tracey’s phone a while later to say that she didn’t remember me telling her we were leaving. I found this kind of funny in a way. She was so excited and so wrapped up in wanting to play with her cousins that she didn’t even remember giving Melissa and I a hug and a kiss and telling her all the usual “be good” and “listen to your Aunt and Uncle” before we left. It wasn’t until after she had a shower and they were calming down and relaxing, trying to prepare for bed, that she “realized” that we were gone. Needless to say, she had a great time and no issues being away from home. She is already looking forward to the next time she has this opportunity.
Third Grade Bound
It’s official Kylie has passed second grade and is going to third grade! This year had it’s rough patches and we are still working on the math issue, but all in all it was a fantastic year. We are looking forward to what next year brings, and hopefully we can get the math issue back on track some before then! Kylie is very excited as are we; in addition to being very proud of her.
Ballet Recital
Today was Kylie’s annual Ballet Recital, and like the previous years, it was excellent. It’s amazing to watch the entire recital and see the younger kids perform and remember when Kylie was that young. Then to see her come out with her class and watch them, it’s so exciting to see how much she has progressed through the years. I know she really enjoys doing ballet and you can really see all of the hard work that goes into learning the routine and the new positions and movements. The change from the beginning of the year through today is incredible, and being able to see how she has built upon the previous years is fascinating. After the show we once again went to Stroh’s for some ice cream to celebrate. I can’t wait to see next years accomplishments!
Sylvan Update
We had a meeting with Kylie’s instructor’s at Sylvan and it turns out that in their opinion Kylie has been improving very well. She is now dropping to one day a week for the Summer because she is right about where she needs to be for her grade level. The hope is that one day a week over the summer will allow Kylie to maintain the math skills and not forget to much of it over the summer months. We also decided on one day a week to help keep some of the structure and routine she is used to during the school months. We are also hoping that the once a week lessons will not only help to keep Kylie’s math skills focused, but they may also help to pull her slightly ahead. All in all we are very pleased with Kylie’s progress and have no doubt that she will continue to do just fine.
Severe Allergic Reaction
Lately Kylie has been getting a rash after going swimming, but it’s never consistent. Tonight, however, her reaction was 
really bad. We are not sure if there was a higher concentration of chlorine in the pool at the YMCA or if, perhaps, they had just shocked the pool before she got in. Regardless of the situation the rash was bad enough that Mommy took her to ER and they gave her some medicine that contains steroids to bring down her rash. We are going to need to keep an eye on her reaction when swimming, perhaps give her a shower right after to get all the excess chlorine and other chemicals off of her.
EDIT: Mommy got in touch with an allergy specialist to see if we should have Kylie tested, however, after explaining the situation to him the doctor said we should skip the testing and just give Kylie some over the counter allergy medicine during the summer and wash her off after each dip in the pool. He said that, due to the nature and variations of the chemicals used in pools we may never find the right balance of them that trigger her allergy.
Parent Teacher Conference; Math Problems, part 4
Tiffany had Kylie’s parent-teacher conference tonight and we got some good news. Her teacher stated that Kylie is doing very well for the most part. From September to January her reading level has gone up again, however it appears that her math skills have actually gotten worse. The good news is that her teacher is not worried about this. She thinks that the day Kylie took the test she was just having a bad math day. She says that since Kylie has started to go to Sylvan Learning she is seeing an improvement in her overall math comprehension. Now when the teacher explains something new to the students she notices that Kylie no longer has a lost and confused look on her face, and when she walks around the room to check on the students while they are working on the problems, Kylie is doing more of them than she had been previously. She has also noticed that Kylie doesn’t seem to have as many questions when they are going over the math concepts. She has also been having Kylie take her math exams outside of the room, in the hallway with a teachers aide, and Kylie has been performing much better under those circumstances as well. So on a positive side it would appear that we are seeing an improvement from the Sylvan Learning center already. Our hope is that it will be enough to get her slightly above grade level by the end of the school year.
Trip to Lansing-ish
Today we went to Melissa’s twin nieces Jorga & Riley’s 3rd birthday party, and as an added bonus Kylie came with us. This is the first time Kylie has ever chosen to go to one of Melissa’s family events. Normally when we ask her if she wants to go she says no, so I normally stay home with her and do something else while Melissa goes. I am really happy that Kylie finally decided to come, because she had a really good time running around with the girls and playing with everyone. Hopefully over the summer she will be willing to go out there again.
Math Problems, part 3
Tiffany was able to have a discussion with Kylie’s teacher and the teacher thinks the development plan that Sylvan has outlined would benefit Kylie. She says she has seen other students go through Sylvan and come out with positive results. As such Kylie is going to start going to Sylvan twice a week for an hour each visit and they will begin to help her with her math skills and confidence.
Math Problems, part 2
We had our follow up with Sylvan to go over Kylie’s evaluation and they found that she is having difficulties in certain areas of her math skills. They were also able to determine that some of it is a confidence issue and that the pressure of timed tests impacts her and makes her nervous. These were all the things that we had already suspected and they were able to validate. They have given us an outline for what they would recommend for Kylie’s development plan. Tiffany wants to have a talk with Kylie’s teacher before we make the final decision on if we should enroll her or not.