We celebrated the birthdays of two of our dearest friends, Kathy and Richard, with a party in the park. It was a perfect day. The kids played in the grass and with the toys. Unfortunatly Robert also played in the ants. Keith brought his beautiful black lab, Annie. When Katherine saw the dog, she started crawling as fast as possible towards her yelling , “Da, da, da” or “Dog, dog, dog”.
We had dinner with our good friends Jen and Richard after Richard and Kathy’s birthday party (post coming later). They ahve a wonderful glass top dining room table that really confused Katherine. Daddy put his tea on the table and Katherine wanted it. She just was not quite sure how to get it.
We belong to the LHAECPTA (Lake Highlands Area Early Childhood PTA). There is a monthly moms meeting, weekly playgroups and monthly kids activities all helping me to meet neighbors with kids.
So far Katherine has been too young to participate in the kids activities (like pumpkin carving and bowling). This month there was an Easter egg hunt and she was able to participate. They had it divided by age and Katherine was in the under 2 division. It was really not so much an egg hunt, but an egg gather. All of the eggs were inplain site on the flat lawn.
Katherine did not really get the concept of gathering as many eggs as possible. She would pick one up, shake it, look at it, put it in her bag, take it back out, shake it some more. It took some help and encouragement to load up her bag with eggs. Mommy and Daddy have been enjoying eating the candy out of them.
The Easter bunny made an appearance but she was not to excited about it. I guess a person in a big fuzzy costume is a little scarry to a toddler.
Katherine loves to swing. I am so glad that we have a good tree in our front yard so we can hang a swing. We go out there almost every day when we are waiting for daddy to get home from work. It is a good way to make it through that difficult last hour.
You can see though that in true Katherine form, she is trying to get out of the straps. Even though she loves to swing and is obviously happy, she wants to get loose from the straps.
The Easter Bunny came to the Arboretum
Today our playgroup went to the Arboretum (4th time in less than 4 weeks for me and Katherine). Attending were Jen and Evie, Kathy and Sammy, Janna and Robert, Sara and Eden, Meg and Hannah, Madi and Ben, and Danielle with Zane and Caldwell.
We started off with lunch on our picnic blanket. Katherine was not really interested in eating her lunch. I even brought a very large variety hoping to find something she wanted. No such luck. She was interested in everyone else’s food but she would pick it up and not actually eat it.
She is so mobile. She would crawl away from the group to investigate a patch of grass, a tree or a pile of dirt. Even though she would not eat lunch, I knew she was hungry because she would try to eat the dirt, leaves, grass, etc.
We took a partial gropu photo of the kids intheir strollers. Notice who is not in her stroller. I could not keep her in there. It is really becoming a problem. She was fully strapped in, very tightly. She rolled over and pushed herself up out of the straps and was starting to try to climb over the side.
I also tried to carry her in the sling, but she was so squirmy trying to get out that I thought I was going to drop her. So, Katherine and I cut our trip to the Arboretum short and told our friends good-bye.
We are having a little problem with Katherine. It seems that she does not really like to be contained. This is a problem because she must be safe. No matter what we strap her into, she tries to get out and sometimes succeeds. It has always been difficult to keep her in restaurant high chairs. She ends up in one of our laps for most of the meal. Now we are having a problem in about everything else. If I am shopping, she rarely stays in the shopping cart even strapped in. Sometimes I carry her, sometimes she ends up in the basket. She can easily get out of her stroller and on one walk around the block I heard her fussing and looked to see what was wrong. She had stood up in her joggind stroller and was trying to get her foot untangled.
Today she got out of a friends high chair but has not figured out how to get out of her own yet. She does try though. Today she also tried to get out of her pack and play. The worst was when I went to get her out of her old car seat and she had gotten both arms out. Luckily her waist and crotch harness were still secure but it was still dangerous.
I am not sure if all kids go through this. It could be a personality trait. It could be that she is so mobile and still so skinny so she can wiggle out of spaces most kids can’t. I would love suggestions from any other moms out there on how to deal with this.
Last week our family was apart, Katherine and I in California and Sam here at home. So, today we spent the day together having fun. We started off with a trip to the Arboretum. It was perfect weather and we were there early enough that it was not too crowded. Katherine is on the verge of walking and so we were able to capture a lot of photos of her standing and taking a step or two before falling down.
Then we went to Hannah’s first birthday. The birthday girl was stylin’ in a cute outfit sent by her grandparents. Hannah and Katherine are great friends since they play together every week. Today Hannah kept wanting to give Katherine a hug, but Katherine was not really in the mood.
Once we were home, we all three spent sometime outside pulling weeds. I am sure that our next door neighbor who has a golf course type lawn was very appreciative since our backyards are separated by a chain link fence. We put Katherine in the pack and play in ths shade and she had a great time reading and playing with her toys.
Here are more photos of our trip to visit Sophia. She is so cute. I can’t wait to see her again.
Will and me with our kids
Family portrait
Reading to Sophia
Katherine, I do not think that you can get any more fun! Do I say that every month? I really think it is true each time I say it. You truly are so much fun. You are my little friend and I truly enjoy spending my days with you.
You do so many cute things. The other day your dad and I were trying to decide what the cutest thing you do would be. We could not decide between clapping, waving, kissing, wiggling your tongue or laughing. Since then I have been thinking of all the other cute things you do. It is also so cute when you sign, try to feed your mommy, pretend to chew something, stand by the door looking out the window and point at everything asking “Da” or what’s that? Katherine, pretty much everything you do is cute.
Not only do you love to laugh, but you love to make us laugh. One morning you sat on our bed and would laugh, making us laugh. Then you would laugh at us. We kept going in this laughing cycle for at least 5 minutes. We all had so much fun.
You are so curious. This is a good thing but sometimes gets you into trouble. In fact, just today you discovered the kitchen trash can. It has been on my list to buy a fancy trashcan that stays shut and it just got moved higher on the priority list for the weekend. You love to investigate everything. I will see you crawl across the room to pick up and investigate all kinds of objects.
I see this curiousity as a part of your learning to love to learn. You are learning to problem solve. You have had a lot of sorting toys that have been sitting there unused. Now you are learning how to put the circles in the circle shaped hole and the squares in the square shaped hole . . . You also problem solve by figuring out how to get what you want. You are great at opening doors and drawers, using your walker to go where you want to go and hiding and finding things.
You are getting so much more mobile. You are not quite walking, but you are so close. You can take 2-3 steps with no problem and today I saw you take 8 steps! You did not realize what you had done until you sat down and I got excited. You still prefer to crawl and are very fast. You can cruise along furniture quickly too. Sometimes you are barely holding on but it gives you that extra confidence that you need. You are so cute when you use your walker. You can go all over the house. I laugh because it reminds me of an older person that has to use a walker. Funny how our life ends the same way it started.
You love to be outside. Every time I open the front door to get the mail or the back door to let Hooligan in or out, you crawl as fast as you can, hoping I will let you out. If I shut the door, you just cry. If I leave the door open, you think you have found your freedom. You will crawl as far as I will let you and go down the steps to the back yard. One day I put you in the pack and play in the backyard so I could pull weeds and you really enjoyed it. If only I enjoyed pulling weeds as much. Because you love to be outside, we try to swing and go for a walk every day. It is good for mommy too.
You are doing so much better with eating solids but there is still room for improvement. You are curious about the “real” food that mommy and daddy eat, but yet you are not interested in actually eating much of it. As far as table food, you love any kind of bread and most fruit, but you don’t like dairy, meat or veggies unless it is babyfood. Every time I go to buy you baby food, I hope that it is the last time.
You do have many mealtime antics. You love to drop food over the edge for Hooligan. I know that you know it is wrong because you look right at me before doing it. I tell you no and sometimes I swat your hand, but so far it is doing nothing to stop you from doing it. When you drop your cup (on purpose) you say “Uh Oh”. It is cute but I cannot laugh and encourage the behavior. You have learned that if you like your food you say “mmmmm”. You are getting better at signing “milk” and “more” but you usually have to be prompted. You are also good at letting me know when you do not want something by shaking your head and using your hand to push the food away. You are still nursing about 4 times a day. Now that you are over a year old I am getting more people asking me when I am going to wean you. I guess one year is the magical number where people think that it is time to stop. I am in no hurry to stop and neither are you.
You are getting better at sleeping. At night you usually go down with no fuss. I nurse you and then daddy gives you a bath, changes you, reads, prays with you and then puts you down. I am so glad that you all have that special time. You really love your daddy. Your naps are still inconsistant as far as what time you take a nap, but you do have a nap every day and it is now in your crib most of the time.
Today you hit a major milestone! You finally graduated out of your infant carseat. You technically can still use it since you only weigh 17 pounds and your head is more than 2 inches from the top. But your feet hang off and I would be so upset if you were hurt in a wreck because I wanted to keep the convenience of the infant seat. While we were in California, daddy installed your new Britax Decathalon. I think you like it.
One thing that we discovered this month is that your hair actually has some curl in it. It has been too short to tell before. It is still straight most of the time, but when it is wet or the weather is humid it curls at the end. I have the straightest hair known to man so it will be nice if there is just a little curl.
One of the highlights of your month was going to California and visiting your new cousin Sophia. You were not sure what to think of the baby. It will be so much fun to see you all interact as you get older.
After 10 hours and 4 flights on Southwest, Nana, Katherine and I finally arrived in Sacramento. We chose to travel that way because it was free since my brother is a pilot for Southwest. I am not sure if it is better to go free but take a long time or go ahead and pay for a direct flight, especially when traveling with a toddler. Katherine did great and there was very little fussing. Of course there was very little sleeping as well, but she remained pretty happy.
Sophia is such a cutie! She is one month old now so she has filled out a little and can focus her eyes a little. She has such dark hair and skin but her eyes are actually blue right now. Wea re not sure what color they will end up.
Katherine likes Sophia but is not sure what to think of her, especially when Mommy is holding her. This morning Katherine seemed especially intrigued by Sophia’s bib and wanted to try to take it off. She also was giving Sophia one of her toys. I have to watch her carefully when Sophia is in thehbouncer because if we are not careful, Katherine will try to turn the bouncer into a catapult!
Will and Jaime live close to a walking trail and park so we take walks each day. Katherine really enjoys the swing and slide.
