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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.  

We have started allowing Katherine to watch a little Baby Einstein. It started on a trip. Now whenever she sees me get on the computer (Where she watches the DVD), she does the sign for dog and duck since they are the host of soem of the shows. We have not had her watch much TV and in general I think kids need to avoid TV most of the time because there are so many better activities out there. BUT, sometimes it sure helps me get a few minutes to shower or cook and I think that the Baby Einstein videos are pretty good. The problem is that Katherine not only wants to watch the DVD’s when I pull out my computer but she will go to where it is and throw an all out tantrum hoping to get to watch the DVD. Needless to say, she does not get her way and we just let her thrown her tantrum.

Wow! You are so grown up. Today is your half birthday. It is a tradition on your mommy’s side to celebrate half birthdays. As you dad said, today you are three halves old so we are already learning our fractions!

I have really seen you change a lot this month. Your little mind is just working away learning so much. It is such a sponge. You imitate everything that you see. You grab any phone and punch the buttons and then say “hello”. You pause for the person on the other end to reply and then you start to talk again. Where did you learn that?

You love to play with your baby and your stuffed animals. You practice feeding them by putting them in the high chair or other chair and then spooning them food.

Today when it was time to change your diaper you went to get baby and then you changed her diaper. You were so proud. I am just glad that baby does not actually need a diaper because it was not on very securely.

Yesterday you tucked your bear in under a blanket and then put your finger to your lips to tell me to be quiet and then you signed “sleep”. Then you talked to me in a whisper. It was so cute. I had not heard you try to whisper before.

You are getting so creative and you love to play games. You love to hide and then when I pretend that I don’t know where you are you pop out and say “boo”. I love all of your non-word expressions. You say “wheee” when you spin around or go down a slide. You say “whooah”. Of course there is “Uh-Oh” when something is dropped, and then you are starting to tell my you like your food by saying “yummy”.

One of your new favorite words and games is “ouch”. I think your daddy taught you to say “ouch” when you bump or get hurt. Now you do it on purpose because it makes me laugh. You will be in your stroller and kick yourself in the head or hit yourself and say “ouch”. Of if you are in my lap you will bump my head with yours an then sometimes I want to say ”ouch”. 

You like to try to do things to make me laugh. You love to tickle my feet. I used to pretend that it tickled but you have really gotten good at it and it really does tickle.

We are looking for a new favorite breakfast food. Youhave been eating a bagel with cream cheese every day for a long time. Now, however you seem to like to fingerpaint with the cream cheese and leave the bagel on the tray. Speaking of food, I realized today that you have not had any baby fod in a few days. I am so proud that you are finally eating real food all the time. This week you finally decided to eat some meat. You also discovered that you liked pizza much to my sadness. I have been very good about only feeding you healthy and usually even organic food. But we were out late and had not brought food for you when we got a pizza. You were hungry and we couldn’t not feed you. You probably ate almost a whole piece. Your favorite things to eat are peas, green beans, black beans, grapes, mandarin oranges, bananas, blueberries, cottage cheese and yogurt. Now you are wanting to try whatever mommy is eating so I usually end up sharing. You are still nursing more than I would like so we are working on that.

You are quite the communicator. I have actually quit counting your words but at last count you had about 45 sign lanugage signs and about 50 words. Only about half of them overlapped. You are starting to put 2 to 3 words together in phrases. I like that you are able to communicate your thoughts to us.

You are a very independent girl (like your mommy). You usually want to do things your way and by yourself. Tonight on a walk with your daddy you did not want any help going up a very big hill. you were determined here to carry your basket of books all by yourself.

This independence sometimes causes problems when you want something different than what mommy wants. You can really throw a tantrum when you want to. You have actually thrown yourself on the floor to kick and scream. I try to ignore it and not give you the reaction you are looking for. We pray that we can discipline you with love in such a way that you will be obedient to us and to God.  

Today when we were looking at pictures on the computer Katherine saw this one and said “E-E”. What is that you ask? It is her saying the name of her friend “Evie”. Evie is 10 months younger than Katherine so they do not really play together though we are very close friends with her parents so they are together a lot. Ten months is not that far apart in the grand scheme of things but at this point it means that Katherine is running and Evie is a wobbly new sitter. I thought it was so cute that she recognized her photo and got excited.

Katherine only has one other friend that she calls by name and that is her beloved mothers day out buddy Ben. When we pull up to Ms. Lori’s house she starts to say “Beya” (I can’t figure out how to type the phonics of what she says, sorry). Ben also loves Katherine and refers to her by “Kaprine”. They have a funny love/hate relationship. They fight like brothers and sisters but then miss each other when they are apart. It is so cute to see her forming friends.

I love to read. I have a basket of books in every room of the house. My favorite books are the ones about lady bugs and all of the Eric Carle Bear books. I read them over and over again. When my friends Hannah and Sammy were over we read books together on the couch.

This post is long overdue but things have been busy at our house. A few weeks ago Ashely, best friend and roommate from college, came in town with her kids Campbell and Helene. The first night she was here we met Diana, our other roommate and Sandra, another Theta sister, at Papasitos. It was a fun time with good friends. We were all sorority sisters but they are 3 of the 6 Thetas that I still keep up with. I sure miss hanging out with them a lot. I don’t think we have changed a bit.

The next day we took the kids to Frisco to the Wiggles Play Center. They had a lot of fun. Katherine really impressed me with how much she was able to do by herself. Shannon and cousins Emily, Nathan and Hannah met us out there. They are about the same age as Ashley’s kids.

Katherine is such a communicator. She is constantly babbling, talking, and signing. This week her two new things are saying “happy, happy, happy” over and over and over again. She truly is very happy. Her other new thing is saying and signing ”up” and “down”. For a long time she said ”up” no matter which way she wanted to go but now she has it down. I will hear her in the back seat saying “up” and “down” over and over again and when I look in the mirror, her fingers are pointing up and down as well. She is practicing.

Today we colored. Luckily she had just taken off her shirt - a newly acquired skill - because she managed to get marker on her face, belly and fingers in addition to the paper and table. She is so cute when she colors, her entire upper body moves back and forth. She is also fascinated with the lid of the marker and wants to take in on and off again and again. Notice in the photos that she is using both her right and left hand. I think she is favoring her right hand but she does switch at times.  

Katherine - August 15, 2006