You're officially 1 and a half!

Well, Katelyn, here we are...halfway between your first and second birthdays! We've got a busy few months ahead of us, so I guess it's time to start party planning! I just checked the calendar, and it turns out your birthday falls on a Saturday this year. So at least the date's already picked! You go for your 18 month well checkup appointment in the morning, so I'll update on how much you've grown tomorrow. You've outgrown your summer shoes already, so I'm expecting pretty high numbers!

Speaking of shoes, you still love them! You want them on all the time and even bring Mommy, Daddy, and Brother our shoes quite often.

You also want to get dressed first thing in the morning. You have recently started trying to take off your jammies and you bang on your closet door. Like I said last month, we will be broke by the time you are 10.
You are still doing well in the booster, but your appetite has decreased a bit. You want to feed yourself all of the time and you are doing well with a fork and a spoon. You love "yogurt shake its" (yogurt smoothies) and the occasional capri sun. Your other favorites are cereal bars, yogurt, cheese, any kind of dressing or dipping sauce, all fruits, yogurt raisins, and croutons.

Sleep? Yes, you still love it. Thank you for the 3-4 hour naps this past week. Although I sort of missed you :)

You are definitely a daddy's girl. When Daddy is at work, any noise you hear is "dada?" You love to wave bye bye to Daddy in the morning and watch his truck pull in the driveway in the afternoon.

You love to play outside and upstairs in the playroom. You love bubbles and riding in brother's truck. You are afraid of the water hose, but you love to splash in the baby pool.

You are running! And walking backwards.You are trying to talk a little more. Today I got you to say "out" twice! Once to get out of brother's fire truck and once to get out of the exersaucer. (Yes, you STILL will sit in it long enough for Mommy to get a shower.) Your other consistent words are dada (obviously), uh oh, yucky, yuck, bath (another favorite), belly, and bai (for the cat, Bailey). You don't say mama all that much anymore. You have also said ball and dirty.

You still love to look at books and you are very smart! You can point to almost anything in a book when asked. You follow lots of directions and understand just about everything we are saying. You love to "get a bath", "brush your teeth", and "throw this away".

You HATE to be strapped in anything. Car seat and stroller especially. Hence your strong dislike for shopping.

You are still really good at destroying the house. I have completely given up. Daddy comes home quite often to a disaster.

But it's a beautiful mess!

L.O.V.E.

Finally Collin let me take some pictures of him the other day so now I can do a little blog post just about him (because what's a blog post without pictures, right?) So here's some of the newest things I love about him and some of the little things I want to remember about this (rather interesting) phase of his life.I love that he loves to play hide and seek, tic tac toe, tag, and the "kid game" all of the time. (Kid game = mommy or daddy get tucked into his bed and he listens out for us on the monitor; we re-enact his long, drawn out bedtime routine of asking for a hug, water, blanket, fan, music, etc. etc.). I love that he sings the theme song to "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" at the top of his lungs. I love that he carries around a piece of a magnet puzzle to determine if random objects are metal and puts a mirror in a glass of water to make rainbows with a flashlight. I love that he turns over different objects 50 items a day to see if they can be recycled.I love that he practically stays attached to the stepstool, just in case there is a task to "help" me do. I love that he cleans up the toys every night even though we all know he's not the one who drug them all out. I love that he has figured out the child locks on the doors and can now do things like let the dog out/in or throw a diaper in the garage. I love that he really does help me all day long.I love that he loves his sister. I love that he will not let her go down for nap or bedtime without giving her a hug and kiss. I love that he sings the ABC song to her almost every time she is crying.I love that he asks me every day "What are we gonna do tomorrow?" I love that he tells me he loves me multiple times a day without me saying it first. I love that he still mispronounces the words music (musnic) and crayon (crayron). I love that sometimes he wants me to help him with things he is perfectly capable of doing on his own. I love that he still likes to snuggle with me. Love, love, LOVE this kid!

Happy Mothers Day!

It's been said that a mother's work is never done. So, it seemed fitting that by 8 am on Mother's Day, I had almost finished drinking coffee, put wet bedsheets in the washer, taken temperatures, given tylenol, changed diapers, served cups of milk, and tucked a sick little one in on the couch for some Disney Junior. That's what being a mom is all about though right? And I wouldn't change it for anything. Better than the time Collin threw up all over me on my birthday.

The day did get much better though. Mike got up early to make a yummy breakfast and then headed to Home Depot (twice) for some flowers to make our yard look GREAT! He worked in the yard ALL. DAY. LONG. We now have more flowers in our front and side yards, back deck, and we have a vegetable garden!

Collin pretty much ran a fever all day. It started last night after our fun cookout at Nanna's house. He's complaining of a sore throat too, so we may be off to the pediatrician in the morning. Good thing we got most of our Mother's Day celebration out of the way yesterday!

Collin got to go fishing with Mimi and he caught his first fish all by himself!Then we had a blast at our annual Mother's Day cookout out Nanna's!
Happy Mother's Day!

Where did our baby go?

Really, where?
So, tonight you went to sleep without taking a bottle. Last night, after I gave you your last bottle and laid you down to sleep, Collin and I packed up every bottle in our house and the bottle warmer and took them down to the basement to the "baby gear" box. Right away. Literally, 5 minutes from the time I walked out of your room. I knew I had to pack them up right away or you would have gotten yet another bedtime bottle tonight. But, you didn't. Mommy's goal for taking it away was 15 months, but that didn't happen. Finally I told myself that when the last canister of formula was gone, that was it. (Actually, I bought you some more vanilla toddler formula, but you got it in a sippy cup tonight. I like the nutrition it gives you since you really don't drink that much whole milk.)

So, now you're on to bigger and better things. Like frozen yogurt.

And capri suns.
But you'll always be our little baby girl!