She was having a ball eating chip crumbs out of the bag. We tried to take it away by setting it out of reach on the couch…and she immediately climbed right up to get them!
And of course Maggie wasn’t too far away…which led Katie to feeding her.
Year: 2013
She loves laying on her brother.
The cats still surprise me.
Even after 25+ years of cat ownership, it still surprises me—and makes me laugh—to find one of them like this.
Amazingly, post-nap happiness.
After the usual screaming, of course.
Katie and Charlie Skyping
Tom was Skyping with his mom and brother when Charlie jumped up and Katie just started going crazy with her. Charlie was pretty good—but you can tell she definitely wanted the attention.
Happy first birthday, Katie!
First outfit of the day…a white onesie (with design that could be covered up by the sticker) from Gramma Jean. I didn’t put her in the matching pants because they clashed with the sticker. 🙂
Here you can see the actual onesie. She started ripping the sticker off after the first 100 photos. 🙂 This is also where she loves to play—the coat rack. I’m not sure what she’ll do when we finally get hooks attached to the bottom level for their coats!
Post-nap outfit change! This one is from Grauntie Sue! It’s scary because it’s size 18mo and fits pretty well.
Katie’s Birthday Peek
So, this happened on the 10-minute ride to dinner.
Katie’s first five steps!
So all day I’ve been trying to get Katie to walk—to no avail. Tom comes home and was playing with her and I was in the kitchen and he yells “She’s walking! She just took four steps!”
Of course she did. 😐
I’m home all day every day yet she chooses to walk in the first five minutes she’s alone with daddy. Stinker.
So we immediately tried to get her to so it again—which is usually the kiss if death—but she did it!
So she took her first real steps the day before her first birthday!!
Trying to play peek with Katie
Of course she was doing it perfectly and super cutely BEFORE I started recording. But she still gives me some über cute faces. 🙂
What’s behind YOUR couch?
I rarely look back there unless we’re specifically looking for a missing item…but I vacuumed today and re-plugged in a lamp that Katie had unplugged weeks ago…so I almost HAD to look from my vantage point on the couch.
Egads.
Our own wavy tube man!
Owen LOVES this tunnel…and he came up with this ALL on his own.
Then repeating it for me so I could record it. 🙂
Smile & Standing
Someone feels better today.
Standing up like it’s cool!
She’s getting SO close to walking!!
Katie sharing with Charlie
Seriously, USPS?!
At least it was just a shirt. And it’s not really a rant so much as a WTF?! I mean, that box was TRASHED.
Dual Trance
I think Sesame Street was on and they were both in a trance. Since Katie still wasn’t feeling well, I was just happy she was calm and content for a few minutes (instead of screamy, sneezy, and snotty).
Screamy, Sneezy, and Snotty
Guess who woke up with all three Ss this morning?! Plus drippy, too, I guess.
😐
Best we can tell, it was allergies of some sort (the snot—though plentiful—was clear). And she was definitely pathetic looking—red-rimmed and runny eyes, sneezy sneezy sneezy, and continuously dripping (and sometimes spraying) snot.
Good times.
Busy Brother
Katie was up—and screaming—so I asked Owen to go in and keep her company for a few minutes while I took a quick shower. This is what I walked in to see (though in the pic I’d already grabbed her from the crib):
He had dragged his big bear AND his turtle into her room…and was reading from her books (well, reading in so much as it’s a picture book that has “one star, two cats, three balls, etc.” in pictures on each page).
Then when I got her out of the crib…I saw his two other bears in there!
What a busy brother he’d been during my five-minute-or-less shower!
And down our street as well…
So, since the satellite view was new, I just decided to check out the street view as well…
My first simultaneous thoughts were “YAY! A picture where the grass is finally green!” and “Wow, it’s been since we got the new car!” (Which seems like yesterday but it’s already been 1-1/2 years!)
The clues:
- We got the car in January 2012.
- Old photos show the water-sprinkler seal in use on April 17, 2012; this corresponds to when my mom and Dave were visiting—April 14–21, 2012—as she gave him the seal.
- The backyard pool went up on May 5, 2012, and I think we got rid of the seal then.
So, the best I can date this photo is April 17–May 5, 2012.
ETA: I checked the street view online (vs. mobile) and it says it was generated in October 2012…so I went back and checked my photos and yep, we had the seal out then, too.
More pool fun with the kids
Daddy and Owen went in the pool tonight…and after awhile, Katie peeked behind the curtains and saw them out there…and went CRAZY so I took her out, too.
Now, he LOVES going under water!
Katie butt!
It only took about 25 shots to get this one!
Someone was tiiii-red
Katie was hungry AND tired when we got home from Costco. She was actually covering up her face with the B as she was drinking. Like brother, like sister.
Chicken x 2!
Owen tried BBQ chicken the other night. Holy cow. He liked the chicken but didn’t like the sauce, so we rinsed off a bite and he ate it! So TWO bites!
So we ate a quick lunch at Costco today after shopping—Owen had pizza, but Tom and I shared a chicken bake and he tried a piece of the chicken from it! And said he liked it!
Of course I don’t expect him to make a full meal out of it anytime soon…but baby steps.
A big thank you to Daniel Tiger’s Neigjborhood that has an episode where they try new foods. I can never remember the jingle so I make something up and Owen always corrects me by singing it himself!
Here’s the full song (not the best quality since it’s not direct from the show):
How Owen helps at Costco
Google maps has been overhead recently
I was checking Google maps today to see how many in-ground pools were in our subdivision (for no real reason other than it’s a question that popped into my head while driving to Costco) when I realized that our satellite view has been (somewhat) recently updated.
I love how much I can determine from what we can see:
Previously, our view was fenceless. Now? The shed is there (so, after April 2012) but there’s a dead spot in the backyard grass where the pool was (so, after October 2012) but wait!—that’s not Tom’s car OR my car in the driveway!—whose is it? Aha! Dad and Linda’s minivan! And they were there in February 2013. And from the amount of stuff on the curb, it looks like garbage pickup day so it’s a Monday morning. And Tom’s at work (hence his car not being there) and since my car isn’t there I’m guessing I was running errands.
Looking back at my calendar, Katie had a 9:00 appointment for her flu booster on Monday, February 18…so that’s when Google got us.
Creepy or cool?
The urge to throttle a child.
Ugh.
We had a birthday party at a gymnastics club today for one of the kids in the mom’s group. It was scheduled for 1–2:30—perfect timing since Owen no longer naps. I was excited because Tom was going to stay home with Katie so it would just be me and Owen.
So what happens?
Owen falls asleep at 11:30. I gently start waking him up at 12:30 and it’s not happening. I get ready…keep checking on him…and finally he’s up, but he’s a HOT MESS. Whining, pouting, being grumpy and obstinate. After many rounds of “Do you want to go play with kids [his FAVORITE thing] or go to your room to take a nap [well, finish it]” he wouldn’t stop crying so I just sent him to his room.
Yes, technically it’s my fault since I woke him up but still. He RARELY naps. What the hell?!?
So I was pissed because I was REALLY looking forward to getting out without Katie AND seeing how Owen liked the gymnastics stuff to determine if we should get him in a class. And of course Katie was waking up from her nap and screaming during the middle of all this. And Tom was outside working…and didn’t really seem to care that she was up and I should have been leaving.
Tom tried to talk to Owen to get him to come downstairs but that didn’t happen, either. So there I sat. Pissed. And dealing with the screaming baby that I had hoped to get away from for two hours. Isn’t parenting fun?!
Fast forward an hour…
Owen wakes up and wants to put his shoes on to go to the party.
“Sorry, buddy, the party’s over. You missed it because you were whining and wouldn’t put your shoes on.” (Technically it wasn’t over yet, but by the time we would have gotten in the car and driven there, there would have been about 15 minutes left.)
More whining. More asking to put his shoes on. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Fast forward again…
Owen: I missed the party because I wouldn’t put my shoes on.
Me: That’s right.
Owen: Why?
So we had a discussion about how parties are scheduled for certain times so you have to be there AT that time—you can’t just decide when you want to go and think the party will still be there.
Owen: I’m sad.
Me: Why?
Owen: I missed the party.
Me: Yes, I’m sad we missed the party, too.
Owen: I’ll put my shoes on the next time.
We’ll see if he remembers.
Owen advances in the pool!
So Owen and I went in the pool when Katie went down for her morning nap. I worked with him on sticking his nose under to blow bubbles…which he eventually did. I really tried to get him to stick his whole face under—even tried getting him to plug his nose to do so—but he was having NONE of it. Okay, fine, I was content with what we had achieved.
Fast forward to Katie going to bed for the night and all three of us get in the pool. I had gotten a new waterproof camera so I wanted to test it out.
I told him to stick his face under—and you can see he barely got his chin and the very tip of his nose.
So then I told him to show daddy what he learned with me today—and imagine my surprise when we witnessed this:
WHAT?! He went under JUST like that! Like he’d been doing it all summer or something. The stinker!
Testing the stop-action setting with splashing!
And Photoshopped to adjust the colors (though it washes out the rest of the picture—I’m sure it could be done better, but I’m NOT a Photoshop wiz):
Photoshop version:
Katie takes a surprise tumble.
I was just snapping test shots of her on her downstairs basket…
When this happened.
Katie and her basket
(These are all photos from the new camera.)
She loves—LOVES—playing in these wicker baskets upstairs in the living room. In and out. Around. Over. Back in.
She’s also getting really good at standing!
And she loves cuddling in the big frog!
Macro Nap
Using the new camera’s macro setting…not quite what the macro setting is for but I liked the shot. 🙂
July 4th Party
We were invited to a BBQ today…and Owen had a blast since they had not one but TWO waterslides there! He spent the first part of the day on the little slide and was just having a ball running around with the other kids and playing on this slide.
We asked, but he didn’t want anything to do with the big slide…but then when I came back outside after saying goodbye to Tom and Katie (he took her home for a nap) I couldn’t find Owen anywhere. Turns out he was on the big slide!
And he played. And played. And played. And played. We got there at 3 and he went straight to the slide…and he was pretty much going non-stop until we left at 7. (He did take about a 10-minute break to have a snack of graham crackers and milk and then maybe a 5-minute-total break to have a few bites of chocolate cake but that was IT. He didn’t even take a potty break, even though I asked every half hour or so.)
A closer up look at that happy face!
He did take a brief break from the big slide to hit the small pool—which he enjoyed flopping over the edge to make a big splash!
And then it was back to the big slide…with a gun!
And then a few more trips down the little slide before it got put away.
On the ride home, Owen admitted he was tired. We got home and I was exhausted. From simply sitting around at an outdoor party. SITTING. (Well, there was some walking around and eating, but it was mostly sitting.) And it was warm but actually okay in the shade and there was a breeze.
Even though Owen is actually old enough that we could let him run around without actually having to keep an eye on him 100% of the time, I didn’t get to visit with everyone as much as I’d hoped. But it was wonderful being able to just sit and watch him play and have soooo much fun WITHOUT having to worry about watching Katie at the same time.
All in all, a very good day!
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