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!

Easter-palooza

Today was all about Easter in this house!  We started the day off in our Easter jammies which we have been donning for the past week now!  Once we got the sleepies out, showered, and got ready for our day, we headed on over to Thompson Park for our local Easter Egg hunt where we met Mimi, Papaw, Aunt Jill, and cousins, Audrey and Carter!

We weren't entirely sure what to expect from this Easter Egg hunt but we decided to give it a try!  And we were so happy that we did!  Not only did we get to collect a basket full of sweets, we also got to see the Easter Bunny!  This will definitely be a tradition in our household and we are already looking forward to next year!

When we met up with our group, we found Kate's age group which included all kiddos under age two.  (Fortunately, Carter was born two days after Kate, so he was in the same group too.  Audrey turned three in April but we let her slide so we could search for sweets together!)  The under two group met in a field at the park.  There was a HUGE spray painted circle on the grass.  All children and parents gathered around the outside of the circle and waited for the ok to go signal.  Inside of the circle were scattered sweets, treats, and a few Easter eggs with little surprises in them.  Kate, for example, got a little green rubber snake which she promptly went 'ssssssss' too!

Kate absolutely loved picking up the treats and putting them into her Easter basket!  There were lots of kids and lots of treats so everybody got to get in on the action!  We even let her sample some when everyone was done grabbing their loot!

Game planning with Mimi - pre-game!

Waiting for the GO signal!

On the outskirts of the circle of sweets!

Let the games begin!!

She's a pro!

Searching...searching!

JACKPOT!

Audrey is making a killing with all these slow pokes!

This is Kate's beeline move!

Aunt Jill, Carter, & Audrey!

Sampling sweets this early in the morning is a sure
sign of Easter!

Even after all the treats were picked up, Kate was still interested in
searching for more!

The whole crew at the Thompson Park Easter Egg Hunt - 2014!

When the time came to see the Easter Bunny, Kate was a bit hesitant!  She didn't want Brian or I to leave her side, so we got in the photo with her!

Family photo with the Bunny himself!

Positively pooped from all that hunting!

Kate fell asleep on the ride home, so we put her down for a little snooze while Mimi and Papaw made their way over and had lunch with us!  The intention was to come over and dye Easter eggs, so we hung out for a little bit while Kate caught up on her zzzz's and decided we would dye eggs when she got up.  (I told you today was an Easter-palooza day!)

I only made six hard boiled eggs for dying this year.  I didn't want them to go to waste and I didn't expect company for dying, so when Kate did wake up, we all got to dye one egg (including Jack).

We tried to match the tablets to the coordinating color cups but
that was way easier said then done!

Papaw chose green!

Kate was finishing up her peas while we showed her the egg dying ropes.

She dyed her egg pink!

Placing the egg into dye as gently as a 1 1/2
year old can!

Helping Mommy take her orange egg out!

Stirring her pink egg and making sure it's gettin' dyed!

We break out the bunny ears while we wait for
our eggs to darken!

Family bunny selfie!

The bunny ears are another Hendricks Family tradition!

Jack joins in too!

And the ears stayed on for quite some time!

Egg dying success!

Our six Easter eggs!  :)

After our Easter egg dying, Mimi and Papaw headed home and we topped the day off at the park!

If you're wondering what Kate is doing here...

...she's giggling at you out of the tunnel hole!

Our big girl!

It was a beautiful start to an Easter weekend!

EASTER-PALOOZA!