1.5

I'm guessing it never stops, but I just can't get over how fast Kathryn has grown.  It amazes me that she & Quinn actually "play" together now, as opposed to Quinn just pushing or pulling her around.  She is doing great in school and her teachers are constantly telling me how wonderful she is and how impressed they are with her adjustments to different activities.  One of her teachers told me "she is so sweet, but she definitely holds her own with the big kids out on the playground".  Guess her big sis has been giving her lessons ;)

She is doing great with her communicating-- some of her latest include:
Ninn (Quinn)
Daddy's (she is quick to let me know if I am drinking out of Dean's cup or touching his computer)
Mommy's
Glasses
Love u (so cute and most of the time she only says this for Dean)
Via (Olivia)
Alminds (loves almond slivers)
raisins

and she will even give us a short sentence every once in a while.  the other morning Dean was coming down the steps and she said "Daddy, sshhh baby   (she puts her baby doll to bed before we go downstairs in the am and loves telling everyone to shhhhh because the baby is sleeping)

She is still a Momma's girl, so we are working on detaching ourselves while we are at home, but that is our biggest challenge these days.  Overall, she is such a happy sweet girl and very easygoing.

Kathryn hasn't had an ear infection since the last batch and when we met with Dr Smith earlier this week, he said if she can make it to April, we might be able to skip the tubes.  He also has predicted her to have her Mommy and Papa's feet-- he said she'll be flat footed and predicted some pain and issues by the time she is a teenager.  Hoping he is wrong on that one...

She loves climbing and diving and I think she would do a headstand or summersault if I didn't have a panic attack every time she tried to stand on her head.  Since she only goes to school on Thursdays, I've signed her up for a tumbling class on Tuesday mornings this Spring while Quinn is in school... should be interesting!!

Here are her 18 month stats Height: 30" and weight 21.8* (*note this was 1 day after recovering from a stomach bug;) both have her at the 10th percentile.  head is 45.2cm

and here are some pictures of our little love bug, on possibly the worst day of her life (she had to get extra shots at the dr. office because mommy missed her 15 month checkup).  Can you tell how cranky she was?!  Love you sweet girl!!

Kathryn catch-up

well, I completely missed Kathryn's 15 month check-up... not sure how that happened, but I'm guessing it was a mix of ear infections and the holidays.... anyway, here is what she has been up to, and I'll get you the stats after her 18 month check-up in a few weeks!

She is still a very happy girl, and you can hear her sing "happy happy happy" multiple times throughout the day.  She is still a great talker, some of her newer words are, ooze (shoes), welwo (hello), apple, yogu (yogurt), beebee (baby), gook (book), ooouuff (off), ouch, pease (please), and bubby (buddy). She currently seems to have a little attachment growing with her blankie, which I think she is calling "meme" at the moment.  Time will tell if that is just a phase or if we have a little "Laur" on our hands!

We also have a decision to make for Kathryn... we are trying to decide on tubes for her ears or if we should tough it out..it was hard to believe when we counted them but she has had 7 infections in the past year, several taking 2 rounds of antibiotics and the most recent took 3 rounds.  We'll let you know what we come up with...

here is a video message for Nana's birthday-- I wish I had a better video of her "no, no, no" she gets very serious about it and shakes her finger, it is hard not to laugh.

As you can see from the pictures below, she is still the messiest eater out there, these pictures were of lasagna night....She is really into hats right now, and as hard as I try to break the habit, she is constantly trying to turn EVERYTHING into a hat.  

And right after she "carbed up", she did it, our baby decided to take a stroll across the kitchen floor!! before this, she had only taken one or two steps at a time, I was so excited I was able to catch her first real steps on video! (of course, had I known I might have cleaned her up a little better, put a cute dress on or something... or at least moved some of the "magic wands" out of the way! but to my defense it was girls' night and we were headed up for a bath... :)

I just love the way she cheers for herself halfway across the room, such a cutie-- I couldn't be more proud!!

And since she is a "walker" now, she was able to start school on their first day back from Christmas break.  As you can see, she was thrilled to get her own school bag..The teachers said she did great, socially she was on the same level as the rest of her class and did not cry once! She still needs some practice walking though, she was full of wood chips when it was time to go home-- she didn't seem to want to walk on the playground.  

Happy, Happy Girls!! 

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas!! Sorry this is a little late, but we were lucky enough to have Dean working from home for the past two weeks.  While we absolutely loved spending some much-needed daddy-time, the only downside was that I couldn't let the girls destroy the basement while I worked on pictures :) But, he is back to work today and has left us to fend for ourselves, so enjoy!!

we finally convinced MomMom to come out for a visit-- it was so great having her here!!

on the way to church on Christmas Eve.  we went to service at Quinn's school and it was wonderful!  Kathryn stayed home with PaPa and the rest of us enjoyed the family service right before dinner.  short & sweet with lots of great music & singing.  They gave out glow sticks to the kids in place of candles and that sealed the deal for Quinn.   

Dad was loving this-- we were "facetiming" some of our family back in PA-- it was so great to get to see them!!

making the reindeer food

more facetime--we got to catch up with family we haven't seen in years, gotta love technology!

putting out the reindeer food

Kathryn & Daddy stayed in where it was warm

we each opened Christmas Eve gifts, you'll never guess what they were!

Santa didn't miss our house

here we go...

love at first sight-- Quinn named this barking doggie Teya (after the neighbor's dog) and Kathryn has been IN LOVE since she first noticed her-- it is the first thing she asks for ("yaya") in the morning and the last thing she talks about at night.  If Quinn tries to play with Teya, you can almost see Kathryn's heart break 

everyone had to take a turn in the tent

our only group pic for the weekend, and don't you love it?! matching pjs and a bow for Nana!

we opened gifts and lounged all day and by dinner time, the girls were exhausted!  Quinn said the blessing for the first time and we were all so proud of her!! 

had to have desert on Jesus's birthday!

gotta love Christmas cookies...

 

What a GREAT Christmas, and we are beyond thankful for "our visitors" making the trip out to see us.  It was so nice to have everyone here to celebrate and we hope to see you all again very soon!!

Countdown to Christmas

The week before Christmas was certainly a busy one!  Luckily Aunt Laur came early for the festivities and to help us get ready for the big day.  

Here is a quick iphone shot of the live nativity they put on at Quinn's school.  I had never been to a live nativity before, so wasn't sure what to expect, but we were not disappointed.  The story was about 15 minutes long and there were a ton of live animals.  Both girls are very into the story of baby Jesus-- Kathryn has even taught herself to say "Jesus" and loves to say "hi Jesus!" every time she passes by the nativity set in our house.  Quinn can be found in her bed re-enacting the nativity scene during any given nap time.  And she loves to be "wrapped up like "baby Jesus" at bedtime.  At school, their class did a reenactment and Quinn got to play Mary.  We told her what an honor that was; however, she was a little sad that she couldn't be the angel...

We put Aunt Laur in charge of the gingerbread house this year.  She looked at me like I was crazy when I handed her the box, but she did a great job!!

how cute is this?! Quinn made sure everyone who entered the house saw it and said how beautiful it was!

we went with Blair and Tara to see the Rudolph puppet show

our annual Christmas dinner with the Verdigets

Making cookies for Santa.  Quinn said,  "Mommy, Aunt Laur says she is not a very good baker??!"

Oh, and throughout the Christmas pictures, you'll see random headbands-- No, we haven't lost our minds, Quinn was just very into dressing all of us up.  He'll deny it, I'm sure, but I even saw PaPa wearing one at some point during the weekend!

might have been another first for Laur, but you wouldn't know it-- they looked great!!

Kathryn wasn't into the decorating, she just wanted to eat the cookies!!