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Katherine, you continue to be a joy and delight. You are so much fun. I love having a toddler in the house. It is such an adventure.

A few funny or new things that you are doing this month:

• You babble all the time. Sometimes you are quite annimated with hand gestures as you are telling your story. It is especially funny when you retell something like when you got hurt. You point to the offending object such as the wall you ran into or the floor you fell on or the shoe you tripped over and you go on and on about what it did.
• You have started the annoying toddler girl scream. I have no idea where you picked this up since I do not recall you being around any screaming toddlers. For no reason you will just scream out. It is usually when you are excited about something. If it is just you and me, I choose to ignore it and that usually works. If we are where you bother others, I try to get you to stop but you find that funny and just do it more.



• Daddy started a new game with you. You often point to and name those in the room - “Mommy, Daddy, Mommy, Daddy” so daddy started having a roll call. Now when he says that you point to and name each person and they raise their hand and say here. You have added yourself though you say “oooou” meaning “you” instead of “me”. We are still working on the pronouns. It is a difficult concept.
• In the morning you usually end up in our bed. When you are ready to get out of bed and on with the day (earlier than mommy and daddy are ready) you say, “mommy, daddy, up, eat, bagel, juice”. It is very clear what you want!
• Recently you are really into Baby Einstein DVD’s and you get to watch one a day. You love it and beg for it. You point to the computer or DVD player and say, “mooooooomeeeee” meaning “movie”. You say it really drawn out and almost sad.
• You love to help mommy clean. If you can get your hands on a towel, washcloth, paper towel or baby wipe you will wipe the floors, walls, chairs or any other available surface. When you spill (accidental or on purpose), you say “mess” and then want to help clean it up.
• This week you started to tap your foot. You are not really doing it with music and it does not seem you are impatient with anything, you just tap away.
• Whenever you get on our elevator and you are not in the stroller, you run in, go to the back, turn around and start to stomp and turn around. It makes a fun noise.
• You have started to say “thank you” or “tuu tuu” when I give you something without me telling you to. What a polite little girl.
• You love to tickle. The tickle monster comes out when you tickle mommy, daddy, baby, the choo-choo train and even yourself.
• When we get home you point all around the room and tell me to turn on the lights.
• You love your baby dolls and are very nurturing towards them. It is fun to see you bundle them up, carry them around, kiss them, feed them, tuck them in and take care of them.



• In the morning I go to your closet and ask you what you want to wear. You always say blue. You don’t have many blue things so I guess we need to go shopping.
• When we were in an art museum, I asked you what color you saw the most of. It was 4 geometric pieces arranged in a single frame. Blue was the dominant color. But, you said “white” then I realized. White is the most if you count the mat around the 4 pieces. Smart girl!
• The other night a friend came over and kept making cat noises. I guess they sounded real because for the next few days you were convinced that there was a cat hiding behind the couch.
• You have started to put things in the trash that do not belong there. One night I went into the bathroom and saw a plate, ball, pacifier and burp cloth in the trash.
• You often do not like to wear a diaper and would prefer to go with nothing. I bought you some big girl panties and you really like them. The inevitable happens though and we have a mess on our hands.



• You are starting to really enjoy singing and have really cute motions to the “Itsy Bitsy Spider” and “The Wheels on the Bus”. Mommy needs to brush up on her songs because I am getting tired of the same few.
• You have the cutest run. Your entire body swings back and forth.

This had been a big month for you. We finished our 14 week trip in Norway. You had to tell all your friends goodbye. You were a trooper on the way home. We had an 8 hour flight, a 3 hour layover and a 4 hour flight. I think you are finally adjusted to the jet lag.

On your 21 month birthday you were able to visit with a lot of different family members. You saw both sets of grandparents, Uncle Ryan, Aunt Carissa, Ty, Uncle Will, Aunt Jaime and Sophia. It was a lot of fun and we have a lot to be thankful for.

I completed Katherine’s first year scrapbook! Only 8 months after her first birthday but since my mom is currently working on some year in the 1980’s I figure that is pretty good. It is not 100% done as I still need to do some labeling and journaling but all of the pictures and main decorations are done.

I am not talking about the weather though there was no precipitation today. I am talking about diapers folks, yes diapers. With the exception of the first diaper of the day which was on overnight Katherine had no wet diapers today. She successfully used her toddler toilet all day long! This includes after an almost 3 hour nap and after a bath. I know she is a long way from being potty trained but I tell you what, if I can continue to avoid changing poopy diapers even half the days, I am pretty happy.

Tonight we had dinner at one of Sam’s coworker’s house. It was NOT babyproof and we were in such a rush to get there that we did not remember to bring her any toys. She actually did quite well. She was a little interested in the Jade statue of horses but it remained safe. She also enjoyed pushing all of the books further back on the bookshelf.

Her favorite was punching the on/off button on the Roomba. I was watching and quietly waiting to see if she would get it to start. Nothing happened for a long time and then all of a sudden the little robot came out of it’s dock and moved right in her direction. She ran and was quite scared. Everyone thought it was really funny and really cute. The funniest part was her reaction over the next 15 minutes. While Sam was holding her she would furrow her brow and babble on and on in a serious tone while shaking her finger. Then when we put her down she went near the Roomba and was literally scolding it. That is what the picture is of. I wish I had a video. It was so hilarious.

I have mentioned before that Katherine has had a language explosion. It is so fun. I have had a list of her words for some time and today I added all the ones I could think of that she says. The list has 110 spoken words and 50 signs. I am sure there are even more. Of course some of these words would be hard for another person to recognize, but these are words that are pretty close and said in context, either while pointing to the actual object or to a photo in a book. And this is not repeating words, I am not cheating to increase my daughter’s vocabulary. She is talking all the time. The cutest is when she picks up the phone. She is also learning all of her names. By looking at pictures of family and friends she can either name on her own or point correctly to her entire family on both sides and about 5 friends. The photos above are of her saying and then signing “cheese” when she was having her picture taken.

I am happy to report that yesterday the problem molar broke through, the swelling and other issues with the erruption cysts seem to have taken care of themselves. While poking in Katherine’s mouth I noticed that her top left “I-tooth” has also broken through and her bottom left one is right there and will probably break through today or tomorrow. So that is 3 teeth in three days. That may explain why yesterday was a rotten day with no nap until 6 pm and LOTS of screaming by Katherine and subsequent crying by mom. Let’s hope that now that these three teeth are through that will get better!

The other night when playing with Katherine I saw a large swollen spot in her mouth where a molar has been threatening to poke through for almost a month. It did not seem to be causing pain but it looked horrible. We took a few pictures. That was not easy. I opened her mouth and got her tongue out of the way while Sam tried to focus and get a good shot. Finally we had a few that showed the ugly mystery. We were not sure what it was. I was going to post it here to see if any other moms had any ideas but Sam suggest we email the photos to our friend Bri who is a 4th year dental student. The prognosis - eruption cysts.

Here is the definition she gave us:

Eruption Cyst: cyst develops as a result of separation of the dental follicle from around the crown of an eruptiong tooth that is within the soft tissues overlying the alveolar bone.  Features: The eruption cyst appears as a soft, often translucent swelling in the gingival mucosa overlying the crown of an erupting deciduous (baby) or permanent tooth.  Most examples are seen in children younger than age 10.  Surface trauma may result in a considerable amount of blood in the cystic fluid, which impart a blue to purplish-brown color.  Treatment and prognosis:  Treament may not be required because the cyst usually ruptures spontaneously, permitting the tooth to erupt.  If this does not occur, simple excision of the roof of the cyst generally permits speed eruption of the tooth.  From Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology by Neville,  et. al.m 2nd edition. 

I sure hope it takes care of itself and we do not have to excise the roof of the cyst. At least it does not seem to be causing any pain beyond normal teething.

19 months old! Having a toddler sure is an adventure. There are so many fun things that Katherine is doing. I can’t remember what I have posted before so forgive me if some of this is a repeat.

Katherine, you are certainly becoming more independent. This is both good and bad. Actually it is all good, it is just hard sometimes as that independence brings frustration, stubborness, injuries and tantrums from time to time. Almost every day you have a fall and come away with a bruise or scrape as you are climbing, running and getting into thngs. I hate seeing you get hurt but it is unfortunately a part of growing up. Tonight you had one of the worst tantrums I have ever experienced. You did not want to take a bath of all things. How unpredictable. Last night you did not want to get out. You came close to winning the battle but mom did get a quick bath in. You love to say “no” though Nana discovered that you actually can say “yes”. We are entering new terrortory as you are beginning to show deliberate disobedience. It is not fun having to discipline you but it is for your good.

There are fun parts of independence too. You are now more interested in what you wear. You love your shoes. What a girl. You have actually learned how to put your shoes on by yourself. It is hard and you can only do it with your black or brown shoes with velcro but you sure have fun trying. You not only love to try on your shoes but you love to carry them around, bring them to me and trade which ones you are wearing. Today you insisted on wearing your pink Merrel hiking shoes with your maroon (with pink flowers luckily) jumper. Technically it did match but it was not really the right style. I decided to let it go because shoes is not a battle I want to fight with you. It is not important.

You also like to request and play with your bows, hats and belt. The other morning you had me help you put on your hat and belt with your pajamas still on. It was pretty funny looking. You love your bow and it is finally staying in - that is until you pull it out. You ask for it and then you take it out and get upset.

You are doing a lot of fun things. You love to tickle and be tickled. I love your laugh. When the tickle monster starts coming you get all giggly. It is really cute when you tickle us. You laugh as you tickle and it is pretty soft. It is amazing though how you do actually make me laugh.

You enjoy playing hide and go seek. I will run and hide and call your name and you will find me. Then you will hide, usually in the place where I just was. My favorite place to hide is under the covers. You think that is pretty funny. When I find you, you like to say “boo”. Anytime I can’t see you and then I can you say “boo”. The funniest is when getting dressed. When the head pokes out of the hole I am met with “BOO”.

You are incredibly friendly and outgoing. You tell everyone “Hi” and “Bye-Bye”. People think it is so cute. You actually tell everything “bye-bye”. We can be leaving a store and you will say ”bye” to the clothes, the door, the shopping cart, the cars, whatever we are leaving.

You observe everything and learn so much. You know exactly what buttons to push on the computer or TV remote to get your DVD to come on. You know what to do with the computer mouse though you have not connected it to what is happening on the screen exactly.

You are having a language explosion. It is so fun to see what words you know. Sometimes they surprise me and I wonder where you learned them. When reading books you will point to a picture and tell me what it is. Some of your new words this month are walrus, worm, tower, zebra, zoo, zipper, moose, owl, jacks, mole, tights, troll, umbrella and map. I am sure there are more but those are the ones I can think of. You probably have over 100 words now. You are continuing to use sign language too which is a life saver. It makes me realize how much you observe. My favorite new sign this month is octopus. It is pretty cute.

We are starting to work on your colors and numbers. You can say them all by repeating what we say. You are pretty good at labeling blue and yellow (you say lellow). We are working on green and red. You can count to four on your own.

You copy me in everything I do. It is good when that means that you help. If you spill something, I hand you a towel and you clean it up as you say, “mess, mess”. You like to help with the laundry by handing me the clothes in the washer to put in the dryer.

You are still nursing more than mommy would like but it seems that things keep coming up that make it difficult to cut back and wean you. I really enjoy the time but it can be akward sometimes. The funny thing is that you now nurse your stuffed animals and dolls. It is really cute. Here you are nursing your moose.

You are doing better at eating solids. When something is hot, you blow on it but I am not sure you do much good. It is cute.

Whenever you see someone sleeping, be it daddy, the baby doll or the mice at a pet store, you sign sleep, say sleep (actually “peese”) and you put your finger to your lips to say “shhhhh”. The one exception is when you see mommy asleep or pretending to be alseep. Then you shout in her face and even hit her face. I don’t know why I am not allowed to sleep.

For some reason you like to hit. I observe other kids your age and it seems to be common. We are working on being soft. When I tell you to be soft, you say “soffff” and stroke gently three times and then hit. It is progress but we still have some room to grow. At church yesterday there was a 3 month old baby and somehow you understood that you needed to be soft without the hitting. I was so glad.

One of my favorite times of day is in the morning. Usually when you wake up, you join us in our bed. We all cuddle until you fully wake up. Then you get all excited that daddy is there and you crawl on to his belly to bounce.

You have started to sing. It is so cute. You are not really singing any specific songs yet. When we get out the snuggle puppy book, you say “ooooo puppy” because it is a book that we sing to you.

You enjoy drawing. We have an entire notebook filled with scribbles. We don’t worry about staying in the lines, we just hope to stay on the paper and off the furniture.

You are still really small. We are having a hard time with clothes falling off of you. You actually are still wearing your 6-9 month pants from last winter and they fall off your bottom but are too short. I don’t know what we are going to do.

We are having so much fun every day playing, reading, singing, and dancing. It is fun to see you start to develop your personality. I can’t wait to see what the next month holds.

It is quite possible that Katherine has finaly broken the 20 pound mark at one week shy of 19 months old. Is it possible that she could be ready to face forward in her car seat soon? The reason I don’t know for sure is that I weighed her at a friends house today using the old method of weighing myself and then weighing myself holding her and subtracting to find the difference and therefore her weight. To further complicate things, we were at Karen’s house and Karen is German so her scale was in kilos, not pounds so after finding Katherine’s weight I had to multiply by 2.2 to find the proper weight.

These photos have nothing to do with her actually being weighed but are a few recent cute pics. They do show how big she is getting. Don’t you love that ponytail? It did not stay in very long.

When Katherine was an infant, I felt like we were in a constant “eat, sleep, poop” cycle. Funny how 18 months later those things still seem to consume my time and energy of raising a toddler. We do get to add “play” and that is fun. Here are the funny updates.

Eat - Of course for us there are still two parts to the “eat” - nursing and solids. Yes, we are still nursing - A LOT. My plan had been to nurse for a year and see what happens after that. Well, I think that method is going to have to be modified at some point because Katherine LOVES to nurse and if left to her choice, I will have to go to college with her to nurse her. Seriously, I do really enjoy it and I know that even at 18 months it offers many benefits but you do start to feel a little self conscious when people realize you are still nursing and they act surprised. In the late spring and early summer we were working towards nursing less with weaning in the futureand it was going well, nursing only 2-3 times a day. But, later in the summer with traveling and some stresses and changes for Katherine it has gone backward. Currently if I let her, she would nurse at least 8 times a day.

There are some funny things that go along with nursing a toddler.

• She can lift up my shirt on her own.
• She knows sign language and is verbal so when she wants to nurse she squeezes her fist like she is milking a cow (ASL sign) and she says “moo” which is her attempt to say milk. Thanks Katherine, am I your milk cow or something?
• When I am changing clothes and she sees me without a shirt, she says and signs for milk.
• She has started to pretend to nurse her dolls and stuffed animals by lifting up her shirt.
• She is a wiggle worm. i am amazed at how much she can move around while still nursing and not hurting me at all.
• When she falls asleep nursing and I quit her nursing, she will actually start signing milk while still asleep.

As far as eating solids, I am happy to report that Katherine has been totally baby food free for about 2 weeks. I know it was late to give up baby food but she is so skinny and so picky that I just kept giving it to her. She is still skinny and picky but we are working on expanding her diet and her tastes. My new goal is to not only have her eating real people food but to have her eat what we eat. I am still making her meal separate from ours. Her current favorites are cream cheese and ranch dressing. If you have any healthy ideas for these food items, let me know. She likes to pick the cream cheese off the bagel and lick the ransh off of the veggies so I am a little frustrated.  

Sleep - Not much has changed at night. She still wakes up earlier than I wish and about half of the nights she wakes up once in the middle of the night. Naps though have seen much improvement. All of a sudden she is consistently taking 2 hour naps almost every day. This is a HUGE change for Miss Katherine. Mommy is working really hard to make sure she is active and gets all her energy out so she is tired for a nap.

Poop-We are slowly working on potty training. Basically we have a toddler potty and when mom thinks about it I ask her if she wants to use it and we give it a try. I don’t have the desire to really push it right now. The good news is that over half of the time she does actually use it - both #1 and #2 which I hear is sometimes hard to get kids to do. Here is the funny part. When I take her to use her potty, we take off her pants. Otherwise, they might get dirty. Well, to take off her pants, we usually have to take off her shoes. Then she wants me to take off her socks. No big deal, I do. Last, she wants me to take off her shirt. So, basically, Katherine things that in order to go to the potty she has to be naked!

Play - This is the fun part. Katherine is really changing and developing. Her gross motor skills have improved to where she can go up and down stairs with little assistance. She is a champ at climbing the stairs on a playground to go down a slide. She runs which is so cute.

Her fine motor skills are improving so that she is able to use her fork and spoon very well as well as color using pens, markers, crayons, etc. Her favorite thing to color is her other hand. We are working on keeping the marks on the paper and not on the furniture and floor. Thank goodness the are all washable these days. She has really started to get into imaginative play which is fun to see. She likes to play with her dolls and with her kitchen set. Her vocabulary is exploding. I would say she has 100 words now. It is fun to see her communicate.

So, that is an update on Miss Katherine. I am having a blast with her.