We got a box from Amazon that just called out to be made into a house. 🙂
Katie loved it, but it got CRAZY when Owen got home…
It’s perfect for Katie but just a bit too small for the both of them together…but they don’t let that stop them!
Look at all the cool stuff on it!
I’ve been slacking in taking pictures of Katie in her totally adorable Beson cousin hand-me-downs. This one was sooo cute I finally had to take one. 🙂
Grauntie Sue sent a dolly and some bears for the kids. Katie was enthralled with her dolly—as soon as she saw it in the box, she was saying “MY DOLLY! MY DOLLY!”
See part 1 here!
Today Gramma Jean and I tried to get a better shot of Katie in the dress with the doll—and with the bonnet that I found (and didn’t lose after we moved!).
First, Katie was thrilled to get new shoes (I’ve had them forever and finally had a reason to get them out). Second, she loved her “long socks” and sat very patiently while I put her tights on. Third, she was excited to finally hold “her dolly” that she had seen sitting on the table waiting. 🙂
Here’s a comparison shot with the original picture and the closest one from today (out of 147 shots):
And a collage of the rest of the best:
Two of my favorites:
Some pics mom took:
Showing grandpa her long socks!
Heading to the bus stop to get Owen, with a brief detour to see the pumpkins and try for more pics:
As always, excited to see Owee getting off the bus!
Back at home, refusing to take off any of the outfit:
Mom and I went to Kohl’s this morning and Katie was enamored with the mannequins. She kept saying “He’s over here! He’s over here!”
Katie was SUPER excited to go to the playground and knew right where to go from our house.
After all that running around and sliding and swinging, she took an 8-second rest with Gramma.
Every time I would sit on the bouncy animal, Katie would say “NO! My horsey!”
We took Gramma Jean and Grandpa David to the park to go on the nature trail! It was a gorgeous morning!
Where’s Katie?
Here I am!
And the route we took. I knew it was up and down but a few of the big jags really surprised me. And aren’t GPS apps cool?!
Ignore the messy office…look at the little girl. She just sits and clicks and clicks and pounds the keyboard until 27 windows are open and it starts beeping from errors. 🙂
Gramma brought Owen a kazoo but he couldn’t get it to work—in fact, none of us could. Then Katie picked it up, figured out how it worked (we had all been blowing into the wrong end), and WOULD NOT STOP PLAYING. 🙂
We eventually had to hide it from her. 🙂
I had emptied out the crate [that she had loved sitting in the other day] and her first response when I showed her was “YAY!” 🙂
Then she climbed right in and said “Mama! Pick up my box!”
No, daddy will have to do that!
Tom took the kids to get donuts this morning before I got up!
Owen wanted to go out and wait so I let him by himself. But then Katie wanted to go with Owee so Tom went out with them. Owen gets SO excited it’s crazy.
Then as she was waking up, I noticed that she was busy before she fell asleep—she put on her tutu AND her baby legs stocking on her arm! 🙂 And we went like that to the bus stop!
She couldn’t get her shoes off.
Parents and siblings are welcome at Owen’s school every Friday for the morning program (it’s for grades K-2 only). Today was the first time I’ve been able to go.
He was SUPER excited that we were going, and was thrilled to see us when his class walked in. There were about 10-14 parents there.
Katie didn’t do too badly, but kept inching closer to the kids. 🙂
They sang a patriotic song about the flag, learned a new dance, listened to a brief talk and watched a few role plays on RESPECT (this month’s topic), and handed out Respect awards for the last week.
We’ll definitely go again. 🙂
>>> October 2014 pictures are online at Shutterfly!
The dangers of taking Katie shopping with me. 🙂
I rearranged the furniture and to get the things where I wanted, I had to put the nightstand a little too close to her bed. 🙂
She was also VERY excited about her new Doc McStuffins wall decals! (This is edited a smidge since it was post-bath and Owen was walking around naked.)
I love when they make me smile.
Short story: I had lunch with a new mommy-group friend and then went out to dinner with the fam.
Long story: The original plan was for me and said friend (and our two toddlers) to drive/metro in to DC’s Union Station to see a free 30-minute Joshua Bell violin concert. (Joshua Bell is playing in the Metro again. This time, maybe you won’t pass it up.)
The stunt was seven years ago, but no one will let him forget it.
Hey, did you hear about the famous violinist who played in the Metro and no one paid attention?
Yes, Joshua Bell must say. That was me.
Technically, 27 people did stop the day The Washington Post asked the Grammy-winning violinist to don a baseball cap and pose as a street performer playing for change in the Metro. It was a social experiment for a magazine article: If a world-famous musician and his $3 million fiddle brought some of history’s most beautiful music to a rush-hour crowd, would people stop and listen? “In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?,” the story wondered. The answer: 1,070 people passed Bell without paying him any attention.
Now, after being asked about it nearly every day since, Bell is bringing his violin back to the Metro. This time, on his own terms.
I had heard about the 2007 stunt and thought how cool that would have been to be there, so this time, I figured since we lived THISCLOSE and it would be a cool thing to do—and it would be on my birthday—I wanted to go. HAD to go, in fact. But I also get SUPER anxious doing new things like that so I was sure I wouldn’t actually do it. But then this friend said “I’d love to go! We’ll do it together!” And so we planned. And commiserated about having to take the kids. And planned some more. She would pick us up after her doctor’s appointment, we would drive to the closest metro station that didn’t require an extra transfer (a 20-minute drive), take the metro in (about 40 minutes), watch the concert, then reverse the process home. It was going to be tight, but we were confident. (Well, I was filled with anxiety but was mostly confident!)
So the morning of, things were on schedule and I felt like I was going to throw up from anxiety. And then the doctor’s appointment went awry…he had never run late before but of course ran late today. So we didn’t go. At once I breathed a huge a breath of relief…and also felt a bit of sadness because I really did want to see the concert. But it was all good as we went out for lunch and had a great visit…which I am so thrilled about because before today, we had literally only met once and talked for maybe 30 minutes total at a playgroup at the park. She lives close (maybe two miles at most) and we really get along and are very similar in a lot of ways. So it was a good day, even considering we missed the concert. 🙂
These are our girls at lunch (her daughter is five months older than Katie):
If you ask Katie if she’s a stink bug or a loosey goose or anything like that, she says “No, I’m Katie Bug.” It’s ADORABLE.
I wouldn’t let her go outside with Maggie.
It was a nice cool morning so we decided to take the kids exploring at the park down the street (literally less than a mile away, right down from the entrance to our subdivision). I had intended to just check out the playground and the lake, but we thought “Why not just walk along the .4 mile path?” Well, we didn’t see signs for that path, so ended up on the 1.4 mile path. But it was really nice—through the woods on a well-worn path, up and down hills, over the stream, etc. Of course it was a little too rough for Katie so she spent most of the walk on Tom’s shoulders (so he definitely got a workout) and we were all sweating by the end. But Owen did really well and he loved it and wants to go again! It really was fun and I can’t wait to go back, too!
Excited about the surprise trip!
Heading down the path!
Checking out the pond!
Owen learned what dismount meant!
Walking across the rocks to cross the creek!
Of course Owen picked up some sticks guns to help protect us.
The living room is torn up since Tom was painting, so things were on the floor. Katie spotted the mirror right away so I put it on the floor so she wouldn’t drop it on herself (it’s HEAVY). She spent a good amount of time looking at herself.
Then she noticed the petoskey stone print: “Mama! Those are big rocks!” 🙂
Then since she seemed to be having lots of fun, Owen had to get involved.
We had been in the basement (I was keeping the kids busy while daddy painted upstairs) but we snuck up to get them changed before kickoff! (Of course, I hadn’t thought of it early enough to make sure I had Owen’s jersey. It has apparently disappeared and was nowhere to be found. I was then going to put him in Tom’s jersey but I couldn’t find that one, either! So the Rose Bowl tee had to suffice!)
I told them it was a surprise, so once downstairs, Katie went right up to Tom and said “Surprise daddy!” 🙂
