¿Unibrow? ¡Ole!

Kate's class celebrated Cinco de Mayo today!  (Brian's day and my day weren't nearly as exciting, though we did put a little more effort into May 5th in 2012!)

Playing with a piñata!

Now that is a WHAP!

Bean bags??  I'm not entirely sure
on this one!

But this is the main reason for this post!
Kate insisted on using her mustache as
a unibrow!  Apparently the teachers showed
her where her mustache belonged but she
continued to put it above her eyebrows!

There that stash goes!  Working it's way up above her eyes!

Our little girlie is developing quite the sense of humor!  Perhaps we should all adopt the unibrow instead of the stash next year!

GG & Papa Come to Columbus

This past weekend, my Grandparents came into town for a little Columbus, OH rendezvous!  My Grandparents are world travelers and they always like to take the time to visit Ohio!  They've been here several times before to just enjoy the weekend and get some good, quality, un-interrupted Grandparent/Grandkid time in!  Nowadays, they get some Great Grandparent/Great Grandkid time in and I know that is so special for them!

My Grandparents are two very special people.  They have always been my anchor when the seas have been rough.  They've always been two people I could turn to barring none.  They still are for that matter!  And they both hold a very special place in my heart.  While this visit was special to them, it was also very special to me!

We enjoyed the weekend immensely, especially with a stop at The Book Loft in German Village.  None of us had ever been to this book store that boasts 32 ROOMS of books!  They weren't kidding! Granted, some of the rooms were very tiny, but they did have tons of nooks, steps, little pass-thrus, and entrances into other rooms that made this maze quite fun for us all to walk around in!

Playing with Papa while waiting for the rest of us to get ready!

Walking through German Village to find the book store!

Brian was dying to use this massive umbrella!

The Grands!

Me and my Gram!

GG will show Kate the way!

...Actually, Kate will show GG the way!

32 rooms?!  Yes, that's right!

And puzzles?!  Who knew?!  Believe it or not, I don't think I saw
one puzzle on our adventure through the book store...I must've
missed that room!

Ahh, books at Kate's level!  What fun!

Surely this would be a good one to take home!

Exploring room number 13!

Zipping through room number 21!

The Grands are lost in their own world in room number 28!

And we find a nice spot to rest in room
number 32!

Walking back through German Village to
our car!

I love when family or friends are able to come out to Ohio to visit us.  We all get pure, uninterrupted family/friend time.  When we travel to Maryland, it feels like we are always running around seeing lots of different faces but only spending a little time with each.  When we have visitors, it's just the best quality time!

To see the other visits GG & Papa have made, click here for the 2011 trip and here for the 2010 trip!

Thanks for making the trip out to Ohio, Gram and Gramps!  We love you and can't wait to see you soon!

School Photos

A few weeks ago, Kate's school had a photographer come in and take photos of all the kiddos for class pictures.  This was the first time that they did this since we've attending this school.

To be honest, come picture day, I COMPLETELY FORGOT that it was picture day...but I didn't sign Kate up for pictures anyway because I didn't think we needed them.  The photographer ended up taking pictures of all the kids whether they were signed up or not, probably because of parents like me.

Well, we just received Kate's photos and I am SO GLAD that they took photos of our darling love whose Mama forgot picture day and wasn't planning on signing up her daughter anyway because now we have this:

Kate's 1st class photo - age: 18 months!

The innocence kills me!  I am beside myself at the cuteness and while the photography company took photos of all the kiddos under no obligation to the parents to purchase anything, they totally knew there would be several more parents like me that they could hook into spending some money!  (Hook, line, and sinker!)  There's no way that I could say no to these!  I have a framed one that now adorns my office desk, all sets of grandparents have been delighted with a copy or two, and I have a couple extras!

The photographer also took a couple of photos with props in the background.  Here's one for your viewing pleasure:

Our little cutie!

And, on a separate day, they did a class photo:

Miss Jordan, Miss Maria, and Miss Meghan are Kate's teachers!
I would try to name all the rugrats but I can already tell you that
I'm gonna fail.  I know Sam (Samantha), Everett, Libby, Griffin,
Kate (obviously), and a couple Reid's.  We got a class list once
but I didn't keep that...This post is making me sound like a
real winner of a parent...

Despite not initially being interested in school photos (at Kate's age), I am now a huge fan and hope the school does this EVERY year!

18 Months Old

Kate had her 18 month well baby visit today!  18 months old!!!  Where does the time go?  Seriously.  I'm literally looking forward to an answer.  Never in my life has time gone this fast.

Nevertheless, Kate is right on track with where she should be!  She weighs 22 lbs and 14 oz (55th percentile) and is 31.5" tall (40th percentile) and her head circumference is 47.5 cm (80th percentile).  Is this the first time I've actually remembered to get her head circumference correct?!  Yeah, and it only took me 18 months...

18 month old Kate!  She was ALL ABOUT her
Minnie shoes today and showed everyone she
saw!

18 month old Kate is a trip!  Her little personality is really starting to shine.  When she finds something she is interested in, she sets her mind that she will do it and it will occupy her for a long time!  One such example are buckles.  She loves to buckle things - like high chair seat buckles, stroller buckles, etc.  She will buckle, ask you to open them ("Ohp" in Kate speak) and then re-buckle them as long as you will un-buckle them!

She can sometimes have a short fuse with her inability to do something she is trying to do.  It's like her mind is working faster than those little hands are and she gets frustrated.  We try to remedy the situation by explaining that she just needs to ask for help and once we can get past that, she is good!

Kate's Loves:
Kate loves pushing her stroller around sans baby.  We typically find matchbox cars and baby bottles in her stroller because she has yet to want to put her baby in and push her around.  Kate also loves Leapfrog's Letter Factory - a thirty minute cartoon about all the different letters in the alphabet.  She quite often refers to this as "Tad" and points to our television.  She also loves a series called Word World that we stumbled upon when I found a DVD on sale for $4.  It's pretty cute if I do say so myself!

I would argue that Kate's favorite meal is chicken biriyani from the Indian take away that we get every once in a while.  I am AMAZED at how much biriyani this girl puts down!  Applegate All Natural Turkey Dogs are probably a close second!  She has just recently tried ketchup and loves to dip her turkey dog bites in her ketchup!  She also loves cottage cheese, applesauce, all fruit, cheese, cheerios, goldfish, and the fruit and veggie squeezes that we get.  You can't go wrong if any of those items are on Kate's plate during mealtime!

Kate loves her blanket and her bink.  That combination of items solves nearly every problem in Kate's world right now. It surprises me how much she enjoys her bink when the first year of her life showed little to no interest whatsoever in a pacifier. Still, I figure there is a reason she likes it and I'll let her tell me when she is ready to give it up...within reason.

Kate also loves the "transportation" page of her Baby Einstein's First Words book!

Like, LOVES!  Which totally surprises me!

Speaking of books, 18 month old Kate totally prefers Grover over Elmo when it comes to Sesame Street.  We read her Sesame Street book all.the.time and she is constantly pointing out Grover without even batting an eye at Elmo!

Kate's Schedule:
On weekdays Daddy takes Kate to daycare in the mornings around 7:30 am.  She plays with her friends at daycare until around 4:30 when Mommy comes to pick her up.  When we get home it's dinner, clean up dinner, a teensy bit of play time, bath, books, cuddle time, then bed.  Again, as long as Kate has her bink and her blanket she is good to go.

On weekends we try to enforce sleep in time/family cuddle time but around 6:30-ish Kate is pretty much up for the day.  There is no convincing that we can sleep in a little.  I've tried to bring her into our bed on weekend mornings when she gets up to see if she might want just a bit more sleep, but I've found this typically back fires.  She just ends up wanting to play with everything on my night stand - my phone, the light remote, books, etc., so I usually get up when she gets up.

Our day then revolves around making sure she gets her nap in because at this point in our lives a happy baby equals a happier evening and an easier time getting to sleep at night!

Bed time is typically around 7:30, though it's taking her longer to fall asleep now than it has in the past.

Kate's Personality:
Kate is still very much a Mama's girl, and I love that!  Like I've mentioned before, there will come a time and day where Kate doesn't want me around as much so I am soaking up every ounce of Baby Kate that I can. If she wants me around than I will be there.

Kate is also very independent.  She loves to help and do things by herself.  Putting a little soap tablet in the dishwasher is a great example.

She is a very smart cookie.  I long for the time to work with her more but our time is so very limited during the week and weekend that I want to be sure we have a good balance of learning and play time.

Kate is also a very good listener.  Even the teachers at her school say she listens well and understands so much for kids her age.  It makes us so proud when we hear things like that!

18 month old Kate continues to surprise us.  I can't name an animal that she doesn't know the sound and/or motion to!  She has made life an absolute joy and the love that we have for her is deeper than any love we've ever known.

Happy half birthday Kate!  We love you!

Squirrel Feeder

Once again, in honor of Earth Day this week, Kate participated in an Earth Day project at her school!  They made homemade bird feeders!

That face is part enjoyment, part disgust!

After we had talked about her bird feeder when we got home, we moved our current bird feeder and let hers have the main feeder spot until the birds had eaten all of the seed.  We set the feeder out on Friday night.

Feeling the seed!  It's a sensory toy too!

Placing the feeder in our bird feeder spot.

If I were a bird, I would definitely dig into that!

Of course Jack goes crazy because it's something
different...Ugh, that dog!

On Saturday, we noticed that some birds (or so we thought) had started nibbling on the feeder!  There was a patch of seed missing.  Our feeder spot is right next to the window so we quite often get a very close look at the birds in the area.  We noticed this squirrel on Saturday but didn't think it was possible for him to get to the actual feeder.

Too daunting or not too daunting?  That is the question.

By Sunday, Kate's feeder had been licked bone dry!  And we were amazed at how much the birds liked that seed!

Do birds even have tongues?  (Yes, they do, for
those of you that were wondering.  I just googled it.)

And then we noticed this sly squirrel, feasting on the remains of the sunbutter that coated the bottle initially... 

I believe he stayed up there to lick his fingers
when he was done too.  (And, yes, squirrels have
fingers.  I'm making an executive decision on
that one.)

And we realized that it wasn't the birds at all that feasted on Kate's bird feeder all weekend...it was the squirrels.

Those little rascals!  We have since moved our super squirrel preventer feeder back to its original spot and aren't looking back.

Happy Earth Week!

Lollipop Love

We've just recently introduced Kate to lollipops.  They are her new love!  She calls them "pops", and she gets SO EXCITED when she has one!

(Note: Please excuse the blurry/non-blurry moments.  Our camera has a mind of its own and auto-focuses randomly while you take a video...)

What a sweetheart!

That is lollipop love!

In other news, Kate's school has been celebrating Earth Day this week!  They have been learning about the Earth, doing Earth day art, and making things that are Earth friendly!  Today she came home with a hand planted flower and it is the prettiest flower I have ever seen!  This is the first time Kate has come home with something like this and it was the sweetest surprise.  Seeing her hold that little flower in the milk container nearly melted my heart!  My baby is getting SO big!

A lovely way to celebrate the Earth!

Kate helps re-adjust her name stick!

Only Mother Earth creates a yellow so perfect!

These types of things are some of the reasons we love the daycare that Kate attends.  It is harder than I have the words to describe to have someone else watch/raise my baby when I am away at work.  Trust me, if I had it my way, I'd be doing the watching/raising 24/7!  But this is the situation that we are in, I have to work, and having a place like Kate's current daycare makes it a teensy bit easier to let go of the reigns while I fulfill my adult responsibilities.

Perhaps one day things will be different, but, for now they aren't, and I plan to cherish these simple projects that Kate brings home.  They are such a nice surprise after a long day at work!

Hoppy Easter!

Happy Easter!  We spent our Easter Sunday visiting with family and attending TWO separate Easter Egg hunts in addition to finding our own Easter basket at home!

I made the mistake of asking Kate to help me fill Brian's Easter basket first thing in the morning.  I brought Brian's basket into her room when she first woke up and started filling it with sweets.  And who is Kate not to perform a little quality control?!

Easter sweets pre-breakfast...

All of Brian's peeps had a bite taken out of them.

...Or two...

We hid his basket in the downstairs bathroom
sink.

The master basket hiding location caused a meltdown.  Kate knew what she had just bitten into and didn't want that basket out of her sight!  When Brian came downstairs to look for his basket, all he had to do was ask Kate why she was throwing a fit and she pointed to the bathroom...

...like I said, mistake.

We pacified the situation by calming Kate down with the promise of a peep for good behavior.  (Bribing is not our normal parenting technique but it was for Easter morning...)  I mean, I tried to explain, like, SEVEN times that she has a way cooler basket somewhere in the house that she needed to find.  That concept just went over her head this year, so we walked into the living room where all her toys are housed and let her look around!

The little happy dance when she realizes that she gets to dig into that basket cracks me up!  And, what, do you ask do we put in an Easter basket for a 1 1/2 year old?  Well, over the last month I gathered up lots of on-sale items and put together a splendid basket!

Please ignore the guard dog paws keeping an eye on the loot at
the top right...

There's an Easter cup, a plush bunny, a couple headbands, bead necklaces, bunny stickers, bubbles, wooden animals, a new bath toy, re-freezable ice cubes that we have dubbed our "jewels" when we play with them, a pair of new sunglasses, a pack of six bouncy balls (a HUGE hit!), an Easter rubber ducky, a couple of card games, Easter socks, a floppy wooden bunny, a bracelet, a Koosh ball, and a few lollipops (also a hit!)!  Believe it or not, that Easter basket cost me about $18.  I was so impressed that I was able to find so many cool Easter-y things that weren't candy.  I think we will continue with the non-sweets tradition in the basket!

Our Easter cutie!

 

And, just for fun, check out last year's Easter basket photo:

My, how much she has grown!

After our own Easter shenanigans at home, we headed over to Brian's step-brother's house for an Easter lunch and hunt with his Dad's side of the family!

Courtney & Gina waiting for Easter lunch!

Mastering her egg huntin' skills!

I think this was the best pic I got of her outfit
which I adored!  I just couldn't get her to sit still!

Hunters - Kate and Carter.

The cousins - Audrey, Carter, Gina, Courtney, Kate, and Wyatt!

The sibs - Brian, Kurt, Katy, Brent, and Mike.

The whole crew!  Trust me...I'm not going through names!

After Easter with Brian's Dad, we headed to his Aunt's house for an Easter dinner with his Mom's side of the family where Kate's egg hunting skills were truly honed in with the assistance of Aunt Judy!

Kate with her Great Grandpa Jay! 

We had such a wonderful time celebrating Easter this year!  It was a long day but it was really nice to see both sides of Brian's family and have such a fantastic day for an outdoor gathering!

Happy Easter Everyone!