Christmas 2011

We had a great Christmas this year, celebrating the birth of Jesus with our family.


Having a toddler around makes Christmas way more fun, so of course there are lots of pictures of her!

Saying hello from inside her new pop-up tent!


Probably her favorite thing she got....a stroller to push around.


She had fun opening presents. She would pull off a small piece of paper and hand it to me or Paul over and over.


Opening her stocking at my parents house.


Checking out a new toy with her Grandma.


Playing with her cousin.


Being kinda silly.


It was so nice to spend time with my family. I'm already looking forward to next Christmas.

Peas Please

Kaitlyn has always loved eating peas. As a baby she loved her pureed peas. And now she loves eating whole peas. But somehow in the last few days she has developed a new way to eat them. She finds one pea that looks good, sticks out one finger and goes in for the smush. Once the poor pea is totally squashed then she gathers up the remains and eats them.

It is kinda funny to watch. Yes, it is playing with food. But she is eating them. And developing her fine motor skills at the same time.

Now if I could only get her to eat her carrots.

Merry Christmas!

The Nativity

This week I got out our toy nativity set that we recently got passed down to us from my sister and her family. I thought it would be fun to tell Kaitlyn the story of Christmas, though I know she can't understand it yet. I figured we would play with it for about 10 minutes and then be done with it, since Kaitlyn is still so young. Boy was I wrong.

Kaitlyn LOVES the nativity set. We now play with it for hours each day. She loves to set up all the pieces on our end table, and then throw them all back in the bucket. She can repeat this game quite a few times!

Kaitlyn's favorite piece is, of course, the baby. She does not understand who this baby is right now. But I pray that one day she will know the story of this baby as the way her Saviour came into the world.

We Moved!

We spent the weekend after Thanksgiving moving. We didn't move very far, we stayed in the same apartment complex. But we finally moved into a larger apartment, which we had planned to do more than a year ago after Kaitlyn was born.

While moving has never been fun in the past, moving with a toddler around proved to be even more painful. Kaitlyn was not so helpful during the packing stage. She would start taking things OUT of boxes while we were trying to put things IN. But somehow we made it. She did enjoy the huge pile of empty boxes that we made while we were packing though. Here she is in a box from McDonald's:



She did help her Daddy pack one box...


And here she is in our new living room on the day of the move with random furniture everywhere:


Another tough part about moving and cleaning our old apartment was that someone always had to be taking care of Kaitlyn. My parents were so wonderful to help us two days in a row with moving and playing with Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn was not so happy that Mommy and Daddy kept leaving her, but she was happy to get to know Grandma and Grandpa better.



We are slowly getting settled in. We don't have anything up on the walls yet, but we are sure enjoying having more space. Our living room has so much more room to play and for Kaitlyn to run around. Here is a picture of Kaitlyn in her corner of the living room. I love how the windows around her corner are really low so that she can look out them when the blinds are open.

Catching up on Pictures

Two Videos

This is what might happen when Kaitlyn finishes her breakfast and is wearing a shirt that is too big...



And this is what often happens at our play group: the two-year-olds run and the one-year-old thinks it is the funniest thing ever.



I just played these two videos about 5 times each for Kaitlyn and she was laughing so hard at them! She cracks herself up!

Halloween #2

Kaitlyn celebrated her 2nd Halloween this week. Here is a picture of her last year as a giraffe.

And this year she was a butterfly!




Kaitlyn went to three Halloween parties and had lots of fun playing with the other kids!

October

This week Kaitlyn started clapping! We have been trying to get her to clap for months, and finally on Monday she was just walking around and started clapping. She was so happy about it too, it was very cute. She even knows the word "clap" now, so I can ask her to clap and she will do it!

Yesterday she climbed up on the couch by herself! She was working so hard trying to do it and getting frustrated because she couldn't quite make it. And then she did it and was sitting on the couch giggling. A few minutes later she got off the couch and grabbed her bottle of milk. Then she climbed back up on the couch while holding her bottle and was so happy to sit on the couch to drink her milk. Silly girl.


This morning Kaitlyn and I went to a big sale of kids stuff. For $40 Kailtyn got a Christmas dress, pj's, sweater, skirt, pants, 2 jackets, 3 long-sleeved shirts, 2 pairs of shoes (Nike's and Croc's), 2 books, and a toy piano! I think we did good shopping!

A New Job

We are so thankful that Paul got a new job about two weeks ago. He is still working part-time as a math and computer programming tutor at our local community college. And he is now working as an Xbox game tester. Between the two jobs he has worked between 45-60 hours a week the last few weeks, and it is quite an adjustment for all of us.

Kaitlyn has shown that she does not like having Daddy gone for over 12 hours at a time. But she just laughs and laughs at him when he does come home. Everything that he does is funny.

We don't really know long the new job is going last, which means he doesn't really want to quit his old job yet. They also asked him to apply for a better game testing job and we are waiting to hear about that.

We are trying to adjust to being more busy and not seeing each other as much. And we are trying to be thankful that he is working!

Our Big Girl

Kaitlyn is becomming less of a baby everyday. She is gaining more skills and getting more of an idea of what she wants. Here some things I don't want to forget about this last month:

~ Kaitlyn think watching me brush my teeth is SO FUNNY. One time I was standing at the sink brushing my teeth and she was pushing on my legs and getting upset. I couldn't understand what she wanted. I stepped back to look at her and she started laughing at me. Then I realized, she was trying to push me back so she could see me brushing my teeth! Now she does this everyday, and I think it is so cute.

~ Singing songs with motions is now very fun with her. She loves songs that involve me moving her around or doing hand motions. She cracks up during The Wheels on the Bus when the Moms say "SHH" and when the Babies say "WAAAH". Since those two things on the bus get the biggest laughs I repeat those verses a lot.

~ Kaitlyn has now started playing with two puzzles that we have. She loves taking the pieces out and playing with them and handing them to me to put back in their holes. I'm sure it won't be long before she is putting them back in herself.


~ Another fun toy lately has been a toy radio that hangs on the fridge. Kaitlyn recently learned how to push the button for it to play songs. She loves to push the button and run around while the music plays. As soon as the song is over she runs back to push the button again!


~ Kaitlyn is a great walker but still manages to fall down often. Recently we were outside walking on the sidewalk and she fell down and hit her face. Poor thing was not happy, but thankfully kids heal fast.


~ Kaitlyn now thinks that if someone is getting something out of the kitchen that she should get some too. If I get a drink of water out of the fridge, she complains that she wants some milk. If Daddy gets a glass of milk, oh my, she must have some too. If someone gets a snack, where is hers? Oh and a new method of telling me she wants some milk is to find an empty bottle on the floor and come and dump it in my lap.

~ Kaitlyn likes to bring books or toys over to me and put them in my hand or lap to play with. If something is already in my hand she will take it out and throw it on the floor so that she can put the new thing in my hand.

Labor Day Weekend

For Labor Day Weekend we headed over the mountains to Paul's parents house. Kaitlyn had fun playing with Grandma.


And playing in the backyard.


Kaitlyn watched her Daddy and Grandpa play pickleball. She's almost ready.


And what's a Labor Day Weekend without a little BBQ?


Most of all, Kaitlyn spent the weekend WALKING EVERYWHERE!

Fun Things

Some of Kaitlyn's new favorite things are:

1. Playing with 2 metal mixing bowls. They are very noisy to bang together and drop on the kitchen floor.

2. A basket of clean laundry that I haven't gotten around to putting away for a few days. She takes one thing out and brings it to me, and gives me a big smile all proud of herself. Then she runs back to bring me one more thing. The game goes on and on.

3. When she hears the flush of the toilet she runs over to watch the water swirl around and go down. Thankfully she has learned not to touch it, just look.

Such a crazy kid :)

Playing Piano

When we went to my parents house last weekend, my mom had the idea to let Kaitlyn try out their piano. First I played a song for her, and then she played a song for me! She was very serious as she played quite a song! Good idea mom!

One Year Pics

Big Weekend!

We didn't have any plans this last weekend, but it turned out to be a big weekend for our family.

Friday Kaitlyn started standing up and walking on her own. This was a big change from the 1-2 steps she had been taking for several weeks.

Saturday Kaitlyn got a new tooth. It is #8.

Saturday Kaitlyn tried her first casserole and LOVED it. It was chicken, rice, broccoli, and cheese. I wasn't sure she would even try it, but once she had a bite she kept eating and eating. She enjoyed leftovers Sunday too.

Saturday we took Kaitlyn swimming. She loves the water, and while she still wanted to hold onto my hand, she was walking all around the pool.

Sunday morning Kaitlyn slept in until 8:00! She normally gets up between 5:00-6:30. I woke up at 7:45 and was freaking out because I hadn't heard her yet. She woke up at 8:00 and started playing. I knew she slept well because she was giggling a lot that morning.

Sunday Kaitlyn tried goldfish crackers for the first time. Another win! This girl loves anything with cheese in it.

I wonder what will happen next weekend?

Kaitlyn is Walking!

Kaitlyn has been taking 1-2 steps on her own for a few weeks now. But I didn't really count 2 steps at a time as really walking. Today she stepped it up to the next level. First she started standing up on her own without holding onto anything. She did that at least 3 times today. And she has taken 5 plus steps multiple times, so I think we can now say she's walking.



Tired of performing, and ready for bed, I get her to go again!



The funny part was how much Kaitlyn laughed when she watched the video of her walking and crying. I played it several times for her and she thought it was hilarious!

My baby is walking!

I'm Not Sleeping!

Spying On My Daughter

Reading, talking, and getting sleepy :)

Hugs & Kisses

I LOVE that Kaitlyn can now give me hugs! She will be playing happily by herself, turn around and see me, and crawl over to me. She will stand up and throw her arms around me in a big hug. Of course she has always cuddled with me, but now she can throw her arms around me. It makes me very happy.

Her kisses on the other hand are not so sweet. She opens her mouth wide and comes in like she is going to eat me. It is very wet, sometimes noisy, and can result in her biting me.

I guess I'll take what I can get!

Birthday Party!

Katilyn had a great first birthday party yesterday. She seemed to have a lot of fun.

First she got to eat lunch.


Then it was time to open presents!







She loved having Daddy throw her down into her new bean bag chair.


Then it was time for cake! She didn't eat a whole lot, but did taste the frosting a few times.




Here is the cake I made for the party.


Kaitlyn was very lucky to have both sets of her Grandparents at her party. Here she is with my parents and then Paul's parents.



My sister, brother-in-law, and niece were there too!


And of course her Mommy & Daddy!


Kaitlyn had so much fun and got so tired she fell asleep in the middle of the floor!


We had a great time celebrating our little sweetie. It's hard to believe how much she has grown. This morning I was working in the nursery at church and was amazed at all the new things she can do in there now. She crawled into the play house and was opening and closing the windows playing peekaboo with the other kids. She was climbing up the slide, and opening the microwave and cupboards of the play kitchen.

I am so happy to be her Mommy, and can't wait to see what the next year with her will bring.