Happy Birthday Katelyn!

Happy 2nd Birthday Katelyn!!  Seems like yesterday you decided that we weren't going to eat our Thanksgiving dinner after all.  I guess from day 1 you were never one to conform to other peoples timelines or schedules, huh??  We love you little turkey!

Last night (Friday), I put you to sleep by singing "happy birthday to you."  We practiced blowing out the candles and you kept asking mommy for "more birthday".  (Not to skip ahead, but I'm still trying to figure out why mommy had to blow out your candles today!!  You were doing such a good job last night?!)


Mommy and Daddy surprised you with a tent that you love...we already had the ball pit balls so we made it into a ball pit tent!  Brother gave you some cool sensory balls to go with it too.  

Today (Saturday) we celebrated your first two years with a magical Abby Cadabby birthday party.  Lots of your family and friends came to celebrate with you.

Here's a little bit about you lately:

You are growing into a little girl instead of a baby. You are still wearing some of your 18 month clothes and jammies, but you just look older. Your hair has gotten longer and has lost some of the curls. You ask for a hairbow as soon as you wake up (probably because you can't see in front of you without it.)

You love to help dress yourself. You can put on your pants, socks, and shoes with very little help. And you can completely undress yourself (I found this out one day last week when I went to get you up from nap. You had taken off your shirt, pants, and diaper.) You also LOVE to brush your teeth. You would brush them 20 times a day if I would let you. You still love bathtime, but now it's sometimes harder to pull you away from your toys to get to the tub.

You are still a pretty good eater as far as variety. Your behavior at the table is a different story. You are super messy and you love to throw things. You and brother also play too much at the table and usually get into trouble.

You are a little chatterbox at home. You are saying 2 words at a time with a few phrases of 3 words. You can pretty much repeat anything we say (or at least you try). But you are very shy. Your sweet teachers tell me that you still haven't spoken a word at school.

You love going to preschool. On Monday and Thursday when we drop brother off in carpool, you try to unbuckle and keep repeating "ME!" I'm so glad you love it!

I like to affectionately call you "little miss fearless". I predict that you will be the one mommy and daddy have to take to the ER because you decided to jump off of something and misjudged your ability to fly. You are not scared to try new things. You love climbing, jumping, swinging, and sliding (and I'm talking the big slides that brother plays on at the park.) You love to be upside down and you love to spin yourself around. You think you can just climb off your changing table the way you would climb off the couch. Did I mention, you are also very trusting that someone is going to catch you? (In OT terms, mommy would call you a definite "sensory seeker"). It's funny how two kids born from the same parents can be so completely opposite, isn't it?

Here are a few of your favorites:

Foods: Macaroni and cheese, bananas, strawberries, cereal, yogurt, yogurt covered fruit snacks, craisins, marshmallows, "treats", cereal bars, cheese, green beans, eggs, applesauce, waffles

Songs: The Wheels on the Bus, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Pat-a-cake, your night-night songs (twinkle twinkle, Jesus loves me, you are my sunshine)

Toys: Little People house, school bus, balls, books, gumball machine, weebles, rocking horse, anything that belongs to your brother

Activities: Preschool, singing, dancing, reading books, coloring, playing outside, running around the house with your brother, going bye-bye, feeding the dog and cat, playing upstairs in the playroom

Objects: Baby, blankie, ruff-ruff, meow-meow, paci, shoes, anything that belongs to your brother

Games: Stealing brother's things, yelling "mine", and running away from him; saying "uh uh" (no) when we ask for hugs and kisses; hide and seek
Characters: Abby Cadabby, Elmo, Big Bird, Little Einsteins

We love you little one!

 

I'm Thankful...

Okay, since I didn't do the whole "Today I'm thankful for..." on Facebook, I thought I would use a blog post and include what probably would have shown up on my status if I had participated. :)

A wonderful husband who works all day every day so that I can stay home with my sweet babies. (Yes, I work. But at only 6 hours a week, I consider myself a stay at home mommy). :)

An absolutely perfect job that a.) allows me to work only 6 hours a week, b.) is 5 minutes from my house, c.) is directly across the street from Mike's office (I can literally see his desk from our waiting room!), and d.) gives me the opportunity to meet some awesome families and sweet, sweet kids!

Thanksgiving break.

Awesome coworkers like Victoria Hall Couture who understand that I can't miss moments like these.Finding the perfect school setting for both of my little ones who I would love to just keep home with me every day (well, I feel that way most days...)!

Nannas and Mimis (who are more than willing to watch my sweet kids when needed on school holidays/breaks so they can attend the aforementioned school!).

The most sweet, caring teachers a mommy could ask for.

A 4 1/2 year old who ties his own shoes and bathes himself (he wants to take a shower every night all of a sudden!).

Go Fish, Guess Who, I Spy, Tic Tac Toe, and Toy Story Yahtzee.

The sweet voice of a (very) soon to be 2 year old (and the fact that she's using it more and more).

Naptime.

Sesame Street. And Alvin and the Chipmunks. And Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness.

Coffee!!

My sisters.

A great group of girlfriends who love playdates as much as me! (Although I sort of miss those "playdates" where the "kids" sat around in carseats or rolled around on the floor while we talked, drank coffee, and ate yummy food. If you still have those sort of playdates, now that's something to be thankful for!)

Coupons.

Publix. And Target of course.

Leftovers. And my crock pot.

These two rambunctious, but ever so sweet and loving, kiddos.I'm thankful for much more than I could ever have time to blog about right now. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, which means lots of fun family time which I am so thankful for. It also means that the following day is Black Friday and that on top of preparing the perfect Abby Cadabby party for my sweet little girl, I might or might not be at Target and/or Wal Mart at some unheard of time of the night.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Trick or Treat!

We had a fun filled few days! Like most holidays, we celebrated for 3 days at our house. On the Saturday before Halloween, we went to the Buford Corn Maze which is only a few minutes from our house. (Collin was so excited this year to watch the corn from the time it started growing to the time the maze opened since we drive by it almost every day!) This year, they had added so much and the kids both had a blast!

We started in the corn maze, but we didn't get very far. There were 6 checkpoints we were supposed to find. We found #1 on purpose. Then we found #4 and #6 on accident when we were trying to find the EXIT. Between us being unable to read the map, my awful sense of direction, and Katelyn wanting to "balk" (walk) the whole time, we were a little slow.
Next up...hayride! Katelyn wasn't sure of it at first and she reminded me that I needed to cut her fingernails ASAP. (She has this new habit of digging her nails into my hands when she's nervous.) She relaxed after a few minutes and was ok. Probably both of their favorite parts...the sweet cow. We had to go back and tell her bye. She was the reason we couldn't get Collin to walk to the car. He keeps talking about her every time we drive by the maze, and he told me he wishes we could have a pet cow. He said he wants her to play in the backyard with him like Rylee. Little miss fearless picking some grass to feed to the cow.They loved the "cornbox"!And they had to ride the ponies. Had we not had a close eye on Katelyn, she would have been inside the gate with these ponies by herself. On Sunday, it was time for pumpkin carving! Collin still wants very little to do with the "stuff" inside the pumpkin, but he enjoyed instructing Daddy on what the face should look like. As usual, Katelyn had no fear of the yucky, slimy, pumpkin.Katelyn got a little bored waiting on Daddy to carve the pumpkin.Halloween started off with fall parties for both kiddos at school. They had a pumpkin patch, hayride, trick or treating, and yummy lunches!Katelyn headed to her party. It made me feel proud to see her so excited to walk to her classroom!While Katelyn napped that afternoon, Collin made his Buzz Lightyear pumpkin and Katelyn's Elmo pumpkin.Finally, it was trick or treat time! Collin made it through almost the whole neighborhood (really only one long street) before he said he wanted to go home. He did a great job telling everyone thank you this year! Katelyn stuck with him the whole time too and caught on to the idea quickly. After every house, she pointed at her pumpkin and told me "more treat".