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This is my final post on this blog. We have been writing on another blog for the past 4 months while we were out of the country in Norway. We did not mention this trip on this blog for security reasons. I was not as careful in the beginning of blogging about privacy and you never know who is reading your blog. So, my faithful readers already were aware fo this and have been reading on my other blog for some time. If you were not aware of this change and you do not have that blog address, either email me or leave a comment so I can email it to you. I am not posting the link.

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 have a confession to make - I am addicted to reading blogs. I have a google reader account to manage all of the blogs that I follow and I currently have 39 friends and 3 family blogs that I subscribe to. There are about 5 others who will not work with the subscription service for one reason or another. That is not bad though, I know all of those people. What is bad is that I also follow the blogs of many complete strangers. I follow 29 different photographers for inspiration and 50 other blogs that interested me in some way either because they are about parenting, travel, nutrition or other cute kids.

Two of the random blogs that I have been following for a month or two are some parents of quadruplets. One of the couples, the Steeces are from my area and even graduated from A&M. They are so cute. Last night I spent more time than I wold like to admit reading blogs of several other families who have had quads or quints in the last year. It is so fascinating. If you are interested in reading about them, just go to the blogs of the Steece quads,  the Murray Crew, Billy and Monica, the Burkett Quadsquad, the Goodfellows, the Tubre quads, the Wright Five, JonZReaTom, and the Wilson Quints.

What have I learned from this time “wasted” on the internet? If I learn something, then it was not really wasted was it? I have learned that I am so thankful for what I have. These parents had much more difficult pregnancies, usually being on bedrest from about 18 or 20 weeks on. Some were even hospitalized that early. Many traveled to Phoenix to deliver with a perinatologist who specializes in high risk multiple births. I had an amazingly easy pregnancy. At 18 weeks I was barely beginning to show that I was pregnant and I was still able to work out at the gym the day before I delivered. These babies were delivered between 27 and 34 weeks. 34 weeks is about as long as a doctor will let them go. Katherine was born at 40 weeks 3 days, just past full term. As you can imagine, a baby born 3 months early has a lot of complications and has to spend a lot of extra time in the hospital. When you have 4 babies in the hospital it must be exhausting. They don’t get to come home with you and they don’t come home at the same time.

Once they are home, the adventure just begins. I sure was whiney for awhile when Katherine was crying a lot, I was trying to learn to nurse and she wold not sleep. Imagine with 4 babies how hard it would be to have any personal time and just think of how much crying there would be. The positive would be that your family is complete in one pregnancy (for most people it would be) and as they get older they are able to entertain themselves. You pretty much have your own playgroup every day.

Katherine was a huge change for my life. It has been 20 wonderful months. We want to have another someday. If we have problems getting pregnant next time around, these families will make me really evaluate whether I am up to the risk of fertility treatments. Obviously God knows what he is doing but I just hope that I don’t have quads next time around.

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.

In a little over a year we will elect a new President. That means a year of political ads and campaigning. I ran across a quiz on the internet where you can answer questions and see which candidate best fits you. I selected Tom Tancredo. To be honest, I have never heard of him but I left his website open to read over more tomorrow.

By the way, I guess I have always thought of politicians as pretty old and out of it. Tom Tancredo’s webpage has links to his profile on myspace, facebook, flikr, youtube, meetup and eventful as well as his blog. I don’t know why that is surprising to me. They all have PR staff that help them to reach as many people as possible and the internet is the best way to do it.

– Take the Quiz! –

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.

As I was surfing blogs last night I ran across one from a family who recenly lost their 8 day old daughter to a disease called trisomy-18. I got hooked and read their entire blog. They found out about this disease 3 months ago and knew that the baby would possibly not make it to term and if she did, she would not live long. They have posted a video on you tube that includes a song written by a friend of theirs. It is amazing, you need to watch it. I cried.

This couple has an amazingly strong faith in God. I praise Him that I have a healthy toddler and pray that if such a tragedy were to come to our family I would trust God so completely.

Tonight, I asked Katherine if she would like me to read her a book. She picked-up two books and followed me to her bedroom. I read her 4 books and prayed — all very typical bedtime ritial to this point. During my prayer, she layed back in my arms and looked up at me. At the end of my prayer, she repeats my “Amen” with “Amem”. She then waves at me and says “bye-bye”. I smile and give her a kiss. I carry her to her bed where she was happy to see her baby doll as I put a blanket over her and said good night. I turned the light out and walked out of a quiet bedroom. I am continually amazed with how smart and sweet Katherine is!!!

I am having a very hard time with Katherine this week. She seems to be very clingy. It is really making me tired and honestly at times I just want to get away from her. She did have a fever on Friday and Saturday but seems fine now. We are going to go ahead and go to the doctor tomorrow just to make sure there is no ear infection or sore throat or something I can’t see since she is just not acting herself. Then again, it could just be that she is at the age where kids often have attachment and separation issues and she wants to be with her mama all the time. I know that I have been really busy lately and we have not spent as much quality time together as usual. Sooooo, all those factors are making for a very clingy toddler and a very tired mama.

An update on another recent frustration. We got a call that our camera has been fixed and is ready for pick up. It was supposed to take 4-6 weeks and it was ready in only 3. Yipeeeeee! I have really hated being without a camera for the past three weeks and am excited to have it back. Get ready for more exciting blog posts with pictures. 

Our poor dog Hooligan is so neglected. We have been so busy lately that we have taken her on very few walks. She seems sad. To top it all off, her birthday was last week and I forgot until 2 days later. What a bad mommy. At least she was not aware of the neglect. We made it up to her and gave her a yumy dog treat.

Hooligan really is a great dog. She protects us and loves us. She is great with Katherine.