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Sunday night we met our great friends, Gary and Alysha and their kids Ethan and Caleb at the Dallas Arboretum to see a kids concert, Trout Fishing in America. It was great weather which is amazing for this month in Dallas since we have received SOOOO MUCH RAIN!

The kids had a lot of fun running around on the grass. Katherine decided that she was very comfortable with being independent and wandering off. Luckily there was not really anywhere to go but much of the time one of us was not with the group so that she would not get too far away.

It happened that our other great friends, Clark and Erin with kids Andrew and Corrine were also at the concert. I knew they were going to be there but is was coincidence that we actually ran into them and were able to sit together.

This past weekend Katherine and I went to Pittsburgh to visit my childhood friend, Alison. We have known each other since second grade. We attended the same church, school and college. We have been in each other’s weddings. Her parents still live in the area but her family only comes to town once or twice a year. There are so many people to visit that we have a short amount of time to spend when she is in town. So, we decided to go visit her. Four days of quality time. It was so much fun!

This past weekend Katherine and I went to Pittsburgh to visit my childhood friend, Alison. We have known each other since second grade. We attended the same church, school and college. We have been in each other’s weddings. Her parents still live in the area but her family only comes to town once or twice a year. There are so many people to visit that we have a short amount of time to spend when she is in town. So, we decided to go visit her. Four days of quality time. It was so much fun!

Alison and Jason (whom I have known since 7th grade) have three great kids. Macy is 7, Dallas is 5 and Kayley is almost 3. It was fun to spend time with kids that are a lot older than Katherine to see what is coming in the future. The first day we were there, we went to a park to play. Somehow Alison and all three kids fit on the teeter totter.

Macy is a cutie and a great helper to her mom.

Kayley is precious. She is the  most verbal almost three year old I have ever met. She really enjoyed having Katherine around and not being the youngest.

I thought this was a pretty cool pic. You can the see the motion of the kids on the swing.

The second day there we went to the science museum. It was incredibly crowded. We found out that since it was the first day of summer you could get into the museum free if you brought a snowball. Apparently a lot of people knew this and have been saving snowballs in their freezer. We spent most of our time in the play area where Katherine explored the water table.

Then we went outside where we had a picnic and Katherine ate her first peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She liked it and it made a huge mess! 

Friday we went to the Zoo. My Dallas Zoo membership got me into the Pittsburgh Zoo FREE! When I bought our membership, I saw that there were a lot of other zoos that you could get into but I thought I would never use it. I am so glad I had it with me.

Before this trip I got my new favorite piece of baby gear. It is a Patapum brand of a soft structured carrier. It is similar to a baby bjorn except you can wear your baby on your front or back. For a baby Katherine’s size, you really need to wear them on the back. It worked great at the zoo. She was in there for 3 hours as happy as can be. If she had been in the stroller, she could not have seen the animals over the fences and she would have been trying to get out. It also worked great in the airport since I was traveling by myself with Katherine. I did not even have to take her out to go through security.

These monkeys were so funny. They were just chillin out like a group of teenagers ready to cause some trouble. In another section there was another very entertaining monkey. A mouse had wandered into the cage and the monkey was playing with it. The kids were all amused until the monkey killed the mouse. 

They just opened the polar bear exhibit. They were pretty amazing. They are only 2.5 years old and weigh 600 pounds. Full grown they will weigh 1800 pounds. They are the largest carnivores on earth. The other bear was playing in the water with toys. There was a tunnel where you could go below and watch them in the water. It was cool.

Saturday we went to Macy’s softball game. She is the one in the yellow shirt. Katherine was wandering all over the place but interested a little in the game.

As a typical one year old she was just as interested in a rock that she found.

While we were trying to cook dinner, the girls were all bored. So, we gave them pots and pans so that they could drum. It was loud but a lot of fun.

Both the flight to Pittsburgh and the flight to Dallas were delayed. It was a lot of fun *NOT* to entertain Katherine in the airport. In Dallas she wanted to run in the middle where the carts were zooming by. Finally we went to an upstairs hallway where she thoroughly enjoyed the moving sidewalk. We made several laps and she even discovered how to go the opposite direction so you stay in one place like on a treadmill. On the way back she liked to talk on the payphone. These are two of the photos I took on my camera phone that I cannot figure out how to rescue and get onto my computer (see other post).

I have a Razr phone. I have taken photos with it every once in awhile. Mainly they have been to put a face with a name in my address book. Well, I have taken some pictures with the phone that I want to use on the blog. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get the photos from my camera to my computer. There are no directions in the manual. I plugged the phone into the computer using a USB cord and it said I needed to install software. There was no software included. I searched online and just got more confused. It seems that the easy answer is to email it to yourself but that costs money. I tried it anyway and they did not appear in my inbox.

So, if you have a Razr and know how to get pictures from the phone to the computer, I would love some input. Either post a comment or send me an email.

This past weekend when in Pittsburgh at the Science Museum I saw this:

The small sign says, “nursing area”. This was found on the top floor in a corner. I am so glad I did not actually need to nurse Katherine while there if this was the option that was given to me. I am actually quite fine with nursing in public as long as I have my homemade Hooter Hider/nursing cover with me. I have nursed Katherine in many restaurants, parks and museums. I have never been asked to stop or to move.

Where is the most unusual place you have nursed? Has anyone ever been rude to you about it? Hmm. I thought I would start a conversation.

I am a little behind on my monthly post. Sorry there are not more pics. I don’t really have any that I have not already used on the blog. Katherine turned 16 months last week while we were out of town. Have I said before how much fun Katherine is and that this is the most fun age ever? I feel like a broken record still.

There are again just so many fun things that You is doing. I really want to document them all but it is so hard to take the time to do just that. So here are some of those memories that I don’t want to forget.

Katherine, you are continuing to grow more expressive. You are “talking” all the time. Sometimes we can make out words and other times we are sure you are speaking another language fluently. The cutest is when you says “wheeeeee”. You say this when something is fun or exciting. You are also producing a lot more signs. It took awhile for you to start signing but now you are really catching on. The other day you actually signed “more, please”. I have not been working on “please” yet. I figure that just signing “more” is a lot more polite than grunting. You haev also also learned that signing “please” is a quick way to get what you want. You currently sign more, milk, eat, all done/finished, please, thank you, no, hi, hat, bird, duck, frog, dog, bath, phone, sleep/tired, baby, and dirty. You will also copy a lot of other signs but not produce them on your own at the right time. You have started to shake your head yes and no a lot though I am not certain you always say what you mean. Usually if I ask you a question you shake your head no and yet sometimes really mean yes. It is funny and a little frustrating though when you do express when you do not want something. Like tonight I said, “are you ready to go to bed” and you shook her head no.

You are starting to learn to identify more things. You currently can point to your nose, ears, mouth, teeth, tongue, eyes, toes and belly button. Your belly button is your favorite and it is really cute when you lift up your shirt and look down to touch your belly button. You get frustrated when you are in a onesie and can’t lift up your shirt. It is a little akward when you try to find someone else’s belly button because you try to lift up their shirt. The other morning I asked you to find daddy’s belly button while he was still in bed. You lifted up his shirt and were a little confused by the hairy belly (and Sam is not really a hairy guy at all). You shook her head no and put his shirt back over his belly button.

You are also starting to identify animal sounds. It is not something I consiously have been working on but I guess I have been saying animal sounds. The other day I handed you the Little People polar bear and you said, “grrrr”. When I opened a book to a page with a cow, you said “mooooo”. You have already been imitating dogs by saying “woooooffff”. It is pretty cute.

The other day Sam was on the patio firing up the grill. I was in the kitchen with you. I asked, “where’s daddy?” You walked into the den and I thought you were going to the door to the patio. You returned to the kitchen saying, “dada dada” and you were carrying your “Who Loves Baby” photo album, opened to the picture of daddy. I thought that was pretty smart.

Katherine, you have a new favorite toy, a teddy bear that has all kinds of things you learn to do like zip, velcro, button, snap, etc. Your face lights up when you see it and you carry it around a lot. You are also starting to participate in more imaginative, pretend play. When eating a snack, you try to feed your dolls and animals. When we were at a friends house where there was a great toy kitchen, you had a ball cooking and playing with the baby in the high chair. You also LOVE to read your books. As a teacher, this could not make me happier.

We are still working on eating more. Your new favorite food is blueberries. You would eat them all the time if I let you. They do funny things to a diaper though. So much that we are actually in disposable diapers until the issues is resolved. You are trying to feed yourself more and love to dip things. You love to dip crackers into hummus but you try to lick the hummus off and stick the same cracker back in the dip. You are a double dipper! I tried to give you your own bowl but noooooo, you wanted to dip into mommy’s bowl. You still does not like to eat meat so we are still having to feed you babyfood to get meat in you. When I have time, I make my own casseroles so that the meat will be a little chunkier. I am really ready to stop buying special food for you. I guess I can stop and just force you to eat what we are eating but I’m just not willing to let you go hungry.

I am still nursing you. Some days I really loved it and other days I am ready to give it up cold turkey. Now that you signs “milk” well, you do it almost every time I pick you up. I also notice that you sign “milk” if it has been awhile since you hve had some quality time with mama. So, usually when you sign “milk” I try to sit and read a book or play rather than feed you.

It is really fun to see you following directions. If I ask you to go get a book or shoes or sit down, you will follow directions and do it. I know you understand so much more than we give you credit for. Just your ability to understand what we are saying and then to communicate back to us is so amazing.  

You love to play, especially if it is outside. I think if you were outside all day long you would be so happy. You really are a good climber which makes me nervous. You are not afraid of stairs and are actually pretty good at them. I just get so scared that you will lose your balance and fall.

You are really starting to test boundaries and experiment with disobedience. I do not like this part of parenting! I want my sweet little girl to always obey and be perfect but I know that you have a sin nature and will disobey. I pray with your daddy about how we can most effectively and fairly discipline you. It is not fun! The common offenses are throwing food off the highchair, trying to get off the diaper changing table, trying to get out of your stroller, not holding mommy’s hand when we are walking and throwing a fit when you do not get your way.

You are finally becomming a better sleeper. You are napping better during the day though it is still not at the same time every day. You also go to sleep at night with very little fussing. Due to traveling and teething, you have been waking up in the middle of the night again. Mom has not been getting enough sleep and has been so busy so I have been lazy in trying to train you to sleep through the night again. It is so much easier to just nurse you. When we return from our last vacation this summer I am going to work on that again.

Katherine has been attending Mothers Day Out since January. It took her a little while to adjust to being away from mommy for 5 hours but she does great now. She had been in the youngest room with Ms. Peggy, a sweet grandmother who was so great. One challenge at MDO is getting Katherine to nap. The only way that Ms. Peggy could get her to nap was to rock her for about 20-30 minutes until she fell asleep and then put her in the swing. I could not believe it because we gave our swing back to the friend who let us borrow it about 8 months ago.

Katherine is practicing (not) sleeping on her nap mat.

At the beginning of June she moved up to the Toddler 1 class. In this new class they take naps on NAPMATS! You have got to be kidding! I have a hard time getting Katherine to take a nap in her crib, Ms. Peggy has to rock her and put her in a swing and now she is supposed to sleep on a napmat. I laughed at the suggestion.

So, we went to get a napmat. We practiced at home. She would lay on it all of 2 minutes if I was laying right beside her. So, last week was the test, would she sleep on the napmat? They tell me that they all eventually do.

NOT KATHERINE!

Apparently when they put the mat on the floor she starts screaming. She knows that means she has to take a nap and she is not interested. The first week they pulled the swing in from the baby room and she did take a 45 minute nap. Every other kid fell asleep on their nap mat on the first week. Hmmm, I think I have a stubborn one. This week they pulled in the swing and she took a 10 minute nap and then just talked to herself the rest of the time. The teacher commented that Katherine talks more than any other toddler she has had (she was worked there for over 10 years). She said it sounded like she was speaking another language with all the correct intonations and expressions. Thats my girl!

In the toddler room they do color. Each week her picture has been neatly labeled with her name and put in her bag. Either they only have red crayons or that is Katherine’s favorite color.

I wanted to share my new favorite thing about blogs for my blog community out there. It is surely old new to many of you.

I am technically challenged. I am so glad that my hubby and my brother in law are around to help me out. My friend Amy (La Villa Gringa) also has a husband who is more technical than her. She told me that he set it up so that she could read all of her blogs from one page. I vaguely knew that she was talking about subscribing to their RSS feed but when I had tried it before, I could never figure out where it went. Again, technically challenged. So, my sweet hubby helped me figure out how to set up Google Reader.  

Google reader is so cool. Go to www.google.com/reader to set it up. Literally follow the directions. You add subscriptions to the blogs you read. Then instead of checking all your blogs each day, and then wasting time on the ones that have not been updated, you have all in one place all of the updated blogs. So I open the page and without navigating away can read all of my updates. Sooooo cool and a big time saver for those of us who like to follow a lot of blogs. For some reason some of my friends blogs will not subscribe (Chrys, Kane, Shannon) so I have to remember to go back and look at theirs on my own. Regardless, I thought I would pass the tip on and maybe it would help some of you out as well.

Today alone there were so many funny things that Katherine did. While cooking dinner, she was in her box. I have to be careful because she can reach things on the counter. She grabbed the plastic cutting board and held it so that Hooligan was licking it. She thought it was hilarious. Later tonight, she crawled up onto Hooligan’s bed with her so that she could pet her dog. She laughed when Hooligan was licking her fingers.

Tonight for dinner we had omlets and waffles. Katherine was sitting on my lap (due to previous tantrum) and she discovered dipping her super healthy, organic, whole grain waffle in SYRUP! When she did, her reaction was hilarious. She squealed and almost started dancing. I hate to tell her that it will not be a regular part of her diet.

Her antics are so funny. She has started making a fish face. I don’t know where she learned that. She loves to spin around and says “wheeeeee” when she does.

She has the cutest gesture while looking for something where she holds both hands out. I first saw it at a friends house when she had scared their cat off and she was looking all over for it.

She has decided that she does not like baths. I do not know what has happened to cause this. In the photo she is doing the sign for “all done or finished” so she was letting me know that as far as she was concerned the bath was over!

Every day is so much fun. I constantly am looking at Katherine with amazement. I laugh as there is never a dull moment with a toddler around.

Today I had some special visitors. My Grammy and Grandad came all the way from Wichita Falls to visit ME! They were here all day. We read a lot of books, played with my zoo and played outside. They also enjoyed watching me walk around and play with all my toys. For dinner all of the adults were having pizza and I wanted some so Grandad let me have a bite of crust. It was yummy. Thanks for coming to visit me.

Another special visitor I had today was Daddy! He has been in Mexico for a wedding since Wednesday and I really missed him a lot. He brought me a really cool hand embroidered Mexican dress. He bought the smallest size they had and it is still too big for me but I will wear it next year.

Katherine is borrowing a fun item from her friend Jaden while his family is in Colorado for 6 weeks of training. It is a box that his dad made. It is hard to describe but oh so cool. Basically there is a platform for Katherine to stand on so that she is raised to a level that allows her to watch what I am doing in the kitchen. It keeps her at that level but safely where she will not touch any knives, hot burners, etc. We put her snack where she can reach it and give her a book or two. She pops up and down to play peek-a-boo and sometimes drops her snack over the edge to Hooligan. I try to ignore that . We have only had it for 2 days but so far has really helped out while I am getting dinner ready.

We use the pack and play in the den for a time out when Katherine throws food ove rthe edge of the high chair to the dog. It is immediate and she has not been too fond of it. She has learned that she does not get out until she is quiet so she usually does not fuss at all. Well, this week you will see that she was fussing to get into the pack and play. It was because her ball was in there but she wanted in. Then she kept pointing to her pile of books and asked for me to give them to her. She was quite happy in there for about 10 minutes. It may no longer be an effective time out except that we do remove all toys when she is there for discipline.