Christmas Hat

A few days after Christmas, Kayleigh waned to dress up as a little elf. She loves wearing hats, and Christmas hats at that! She really enjoyed all the gifts that were given to her and she really loved seeing everyone on the webcam!

Christmas Time!

This is Christmas Day when we had the Dean's over and had breakfast together.
We then opened presents together, Kayleigh went first and opened her gifts form us and from the Deans. She had a great morning as you can see.

Playground (Part 2)

Kayleigh is playing on the slide here. After being exhausted we headed over to KFC for some lunch and cupcakes to celebrate Juliana's birthday. Kayleigh was on her last leg here and almost fell asleep in the high chair!

Playground (Part 1)

We just celebrated Juliana's (Kayleigh's friend) birthday today. We found an indoor playground at a local shopping mall that kids can play in for a small fee. This includes a huge jungle gym with tubes, two levels, slides and a big room full of balls. As you can see Kayleigh absolutely loved playing in this area. We are very glad we found this place. I have a feeling we have not seen the last of the indoor playground!

Éclair Hand

This morning we had a little bit of a Chocolate Éclair left over so we let Kayleigh try some. After polishing off the chocolate inside she ate the rest of the bread.

Kayleigh's Personality

Lately Kayleigh has started to voice her opinion more and more about things she does and does not want to do. (More than her mother would like!) Today she got mad at me for not going to the slide when we were outside! She really likes things a certain way which is interesting. She doesn't like her highchair tray to be messy and wants me to give her a napkin to clean it off. She also does not like to have her sleeves rolled up which becomes a problem while eating because she gets food all over her sleeves! The other day I had to clean her bedspread and so it was not on her bed. She kept going into her room, pointing to her bed and saying "uh-oh". We are enjoying watching her as each day I feel like her personality comes out more and more.

Speaking Words

The last few days Kayleigh has been putting two words together, which is a big step in her development. A few examples are:

"MaMa where?"

"ByeBye DaDa."

Other words she says regularly are:

"Yea!"
"MaMa"
"DaDa"
"PaPa"
"Where?"
"Shoes"
"ByeBye"
"Hey!"

There are other words she says that we cannot make sense of. We think a little mix of Chinese and English because she hears both languages regularly.

Back and Forth

Yesterday and today all Kayleigh wanted to do is this. All day! Now that she is walking everywhere, we have entered into a new phase in our parenting where we must follow her everywhere. There are times when we let her go wherever without supervision and then it gets really quiet. We know then that she is getting into something! We feel blessed to have had this long without having to follow her everywhere she goes.

Kayleigh in the Camera

This is the first time Kayleigh has seen herself in the video camera's preview screen. She certianly likes to see herself.

Kayleigh Moments

Kayleigh right after a bath. She loves to be warm and clean! When Alisa and her cousin Katheryn were little, they wore PJs that were very similar to the ones Kayleigh is wearing here.

Kayleigh styling her new winter hat that fits her too well for the hat being 2T-5T! Man she has a head on her. Let's hope there are some brains that came with it.

As you can tell Kayleigh really loves her Spaghetti. She loves it so much she wanted her cheeks to enjoy it as much as her mouth does!

This is Kayleigh's Ayi (ah-yee). We have her come and help Alisa clean the house, watch Kayleigh, occasionally fix dinner, and other odds and ends around the house. Kayleigh absolutely loves playing with her every time she comes. We are very thankful for her as she blesses our family each time she is here.

Kayleigh Stands Up and Walks

This is the first time Kayleigh has gotten up on her own and walked to someone. We are excited about how quickly she has progressed in her walking. She continues to take more and more risks daily. Kayleigh still finds it a little difficult to walk from the carpet to the hardwoods, or from the hardwoods to the carpet, but she is getting better at it. It is so fun to see her grow up!

Thanksgiving Bounty

This is our fourth Thanksgiving in East Asia and I think it was the best food we have had in those years. As you can see we had about 14 dishes made by 6 people. Kayleigh enjoyed the people much more than the actual food which again gave mom a huge headache! But she endured Kayleigh's fast and eventually had a great time. We have a tremendous amount to be thankful for. Thanks be to God who gives us everything we have, especially great food in a land that does not serve Western Food.

Kayleigh Walks!!!

This is incredible! Kayleigh is now starting to walk on her own for the first time in her life! She took her first steps Thursday afternoon on the 15th. Below is a video of her walking with Mom.

Murder Mystery

John and I went to a Murder Mystery Party last night. It was a 1920's gangster theme. We had a great time. John was one of the people murdered so we had to figure out who the killer was! The good news is if you get killed you get to come back as another player. We had a blast. It was really fun to dress up and play the game.

This is the morning after. We spent the night with our friends that hosted the party and Kayleigh was wearing someone's boa around. She really liked it!

Kayleigh's New Tricks

Not much has been happening around the Greene house today. I did want to share a story from the other day though. Kayleigh's new thing is to give everyone a high five. Since this isn't a custom in Asia sometimes she gets some unusual looks when she raises her hand at people. The other day we were in a taxi and she started to give John and I a high five. She loves big trucks and there was one behind us in the taxi. She kept raising her hand wanting the driver to give her high five. We couldn't seem to explain to her that he wasn't going to get out of his truck to come give her a high five. She is a funny little one! We enjoy watching her personality come out more and more everyday. It is also fun for John because he can teach her news tricks all the time!

Harvest Festival

We took Kayleigh to a Harvest Festival for Halloween. We dressed her up like a flower child. Check out her boots if you can see them they are covered in flowers! She couldn't participate in much of the games but enjoyed watching all the other kids run around. There was one little girl that was dressed up like a strawberry that kept coming up to Kayleigh. I think she really liked her. This news doesn't pertain to the Harvest Festival but I want to share it. Kayleigh stood up by herself for the first time today! I got so excited I think it scared her. We'll keep you updated if there are any steps taken!

Chillin'

We just returned from our weekend retreat yeaterday and had a wonderful time. Kayleigh was chilling out in one of our hotel rooms and thought it was a little too bright for her liking. We had a great time swimming in the hot springs and playing games at night. The retreat was a great time to bond and hang out outside of everyday life and ministry. Kayleigh also enjoyed the hot springs and certainly did not want to get out whenever we had to go. She loves to swim, especially when the temperature fo the water is like a warm bath.

Ellie and Kayleigh at the Winery

This is a picture of Ellie and Kayleigh at the Winery we visted on our team retreat. We had a great time. Kayleigh found this umbrella and wanted to hold it! The location we went to had hot springs so we went swimming in October! Kayeligh loved it and didn't want to get out of the pool.

Bundle of love

Kayleigh is starting to tell us to bundle her up in blankets and in pillows. She loves to roll around and jump into soft things like our couch in the living room and our bed spread in our bedroom. Here I wrapped her up like I did when she was a little newborn. She loves to waller around in soft stuff. As her personality is comes out more and more, we think we are in for a wild time with this one!

The crazy things Kayleigh does!

This is a picture of Kayleigh and her friends eating dinner together. Notice that Kayleigh is licking her plate. A trick that her Aunt Holly taught her while we were in the States! Thanks Holly! The other day I was in the shower and when I got out I couldn't hear Kayleigh. Most of the time when she is quiet I know that she is into something. I opened the door and she was standing in the living room shredding a kleenex into a million pieces just smiling. Sometimes I just have to laugh! Hope all is well with each of you.

Going to the store on a cold day

This is the first day that has been really chilly. I think it is around 50 Degrees right now and rainy. Kayleigh is starting to get suited up in these pictures for an outdoor excursion to the corner store. Her head bearly fits into her little red hat! Her head size is till in the 98th percentile in size so we are starting to look for new hats.

We made it!

We touched down in East Asia last night and we were tired. Kayleigh did incredibly well and slept half of the flight from Atlanta to Korea. We are very thankful for the smooth flights and the transition we had back into life here. Thank you for your prayers because they were answered!