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Learning to Share

Learning to Share

We entertained friends and family at home this weekend. Yesterday, Katherine’s cousins, aunt and uncle visited for dinner and playtime. She had a great time playing with the boys – first on a small slide in the backyard and then scampering around her sand table on the porch. After dinner, she and Kevin made cookies with colored cookie dough. Katherine didn’t quite get the hang of it, or maybe she did. As I buzzed around helping the kids, I would see Katherine take a bite of the dough tentatively when she thought I wasn’t looking. I would say “Katherine, please don’t eat the dough – we have to cook it first!” and the dough would invariably end up in her mouth.

Tonight, we asked Katherine to share her toys with a younger friend. She got really inspired once, running after her friend saying “share share” as if to say “hey, check out this toy!!” I asked her to show her friend her table and chairs. She went running down the hallway, looking backwards to make sure that we were following, and plopped herself on the chair (“see look at me on my chair!”). Katherine was very hospitable, although she did grab a few toys away – but later giving them up when we prompted her to share. She’s learning ๐Ÿ™‚

She definitely gets the sharing concept. For instance, she asked Paulette to share the whipped cream on her coffee drink on Friday!

Happy Mothers Day!

Our family went to the zoo today to celebrate Mother’s Day. Katherine’s cousins and Aunt came to the zoo as well. The cousins shared very well and spent time together in the Chariot. We got lots of looks from other zoo visitors – with one family brave enough to ask “where did you get that thing?” ๐Ÿ™‚ Katherine saw and got very excited about the lions “rorrr”, a giraffe eating from a tree (munching sounds), wild dogs (woof woof) and orangutans (oh oh oh). All in all, she had a wonderful time checking out the animals, pointing and waving at them. Even more exciting was seeing her baby cousin – she tried to peer in to his stroller numerous times saying “babeee.”

Yesterday was less sunny, so we headed over to the Pacific Science Center. Katherine played in the toddler only area. She spent a bunch of time putting her hands in bubbles, filling water toys, going up/down slide. Her favorite, I think, was “driving” a yellow helicopter.

Happy Easter!!

Happy Easter!!

Katherine is still talking upstairs and calling us. She’s been very difficult to put down lately. Tonight we went thru 6 or 7 books and then she clung to me like a monkey when I tried to put her in the crib. I had to detach her before she went down to sleep. Her naps have been equally as difficult – with her crying a good 10 minutes or so and saying “dadadda” before drifting off to sleep.

We had a fun Easter – two egg hunts. We went to brunch with friends and Katherine tried to play with them. This ended up with Katherine and one other friend standing in a plastic house looking around :). She figured out after a couple times that the key was to pick up a brightly colored plastic egg and stick in one of her fuzzy baskets. Funny enough, she wore her beautiful velvet pink dress which got ink on it after she played with stamps (her eyes just lit up when a friend said “lets play with stamps!”) and she must have stuffed down a dozen blueberries and a handful of grapes at lunch. By the time we headed home it was 1PM, which is very late for a nap, and she finally fell asleep after a good cry at 1:40. She woke at 4:10 and then we went to a family Easter celebration. Katherine hung with her cousins Will and Grant – played with the toys including a trike and xylophone. She ran around the back yard and Steve would follow her, scooping her up before she could reach the sand play area. We must have spent half the time running after her and keeping her from playing with sand and then sticking her thumb in her mouth! Nevertheless, she wore herself out and ended up asleep by 9:35 or so.

Animal Fun

Yesterday, we showed Grandma Bush the nearby animal farm. The pig at the farm had just had 10 or 11 piglets and the goat was extremely pregnant. Lots of exciting things to see at the farm. Katherine spent time staring at the duck (“ducg”) and saying “baa” at the goats and sheep. The ponies were exciting as well. She’s really learning her animals – she can now say “woo” for dog “ducg” for duck “baa” for sheep and “whabbt” for reader rabbit program and “moo” for cow (I think). She says “buss” for the wheels on the bus book and I think she even said “egh” for egg today. She’s definitely picking up words, although she’s not what I would call conversant.

More Words!

New Cousin & Visiting the Zoo

Katherine’s new cousin, Tyler, was born this past Wednesday. We visited the hospital in Everett after work on Wednesday night and had dinner at a local diner. Katherine was a total trooper – after an hour in the car, she was a bit cranky but managed to keep it together. Patty had talked about visiting the new baby all day, and so Katherine was very interested to check out Tyler. I think she was a bit upset when I told her that we could look but not touch since he was sleeping (ahhh!!). She even made a lot of “baaa” noises on the way to Everett; perhaps she said “baby?” Anyway, Katherine passed out on the long drive back home.

Given all the attention on the new baby, we decided to take Kevin and Katherine to the zoo using our new AquaZoo membership. Grandpa, the two kids, Steve and I cruised around for 90 minutes – we walked thru the African Savanah, the Asian Forest and the Northwest exhibit before we decided that it was too cold to continue. The cousins seemed to have a good time together, being pushed in their umbrella strollers and chatting with each other. Katherine had a couple funny moments, particularly with monkeys. We were at one exhibit where two monkeys were behind glass and walking towards us. At one point, one monkey was directly in front of us. Katherine moved to Steve, and yanked on his legs so he would hold her. The other funny event occurred when we were standing in front of a window and two black monkeys – one which we saw, the other we didn’t. When Katherine saw the second monkey, she got very upset and had to be carried. Nonetheless, both kids did well and we headed to Lynnwood for dinner. We decided to visit Patty at the Spaghetti Factor, have dinner and get takeout for the Olbrights. Cousins mowed their way thru crackers, spaghetti and had a rousing time at dinner. Katherine was so tuckered out that she passed out going to Everett. We spent some time with Amy, Jason and Tyler before coming home.

More Words!

Finally….Katherine now says “maaaammmma.” Last night, we decided to give her warm water and not formula to get her stomach out of the routine of waking up at 1 or 2AM. In short, she was kind of mad and cried for 20 minutes (with us periodically going in her room) until she came to bed with us – thereby reinforcing another bad habit to stop another. Getting back to the original point, when Steve visited her, I heard her crying “mmamaaamaaam” ๐Ÿ™‚

Katherine works hard on other words too. We get “up” pretty consistently and “dad.” Last night, we played with her little people farm and get “cow!”

The head shaking is now happening more frequently. I gave Katherine to Steve to say good night last night. Steve said “good night” and Katherine shook her head at him as he went down the stairs. She also shakes her head whenever she’s had enough food or doesn’t want anymore drink.

Playing with her Toys

When I initially unpacked her Little People farm, she didn’t play with it too much. Now, she loves to mouth her animals and put them in the different compartments. For instance, she knows that her horse goes in the stall that neighs and the cow in the stall that moos. She can even put her scarecrow next to the garden and she tries to put the rooster and windmill on the roof.

Her rollercoaster is a huge hit too. She tries to stuff the people in their cars, but can’t quite hook the cars to the top of the coaster. So, we do that and then she hits the button (sometimes) sending the car down the coaster.

Katherine is also starting to try and imitate Elmo doing the hokey pokey. When we turn him on, she bounces up and down and wags her arms around – occasionally putting her arm in/out and shaking it around. We’ve even seen her stick her foot out. Eventually, she’ll learn how to dance the hokey pokey!

What a Fun and Busy Christmas!

What a Fun and Busy Christmas!

We had yet another wonderful holiday. We spent Christmas with Steve’s extended family: his parents, Ramsays, Olbrights, and Fialas. To celebrate Christmas Eve, we went to Everett and a children’s Christmas service. Lots of families with little ones attended and Katherine and Kevin both did very well during the 30 minute service. It consisted primarily of singing and children enacting the Christmas story. Katherine was so taken by the service that she would zip around to the back of our seats and sing (off key) in a very spirited way. After the service we went to Steve’s sisters house and had a nice pork BBQ dinner. The cousins played very well with each other – Kevin even took Katherine’s hand and led her to the tree to see all the ornaments and lights. After the excitement, Katherine took her bath and we discovered a new rash, brought on we think by the heavy tights she wore. Thankfully, by the next morning, it had disappeared.

We opened our presents Christmas morning with Grandma and Grandpa Bush. After they left to participate in gift opening in Everett, Katherine took a very early morning nap. This was highly unusual as she’s been on a 1 nap schedule for several weeks. When she woke up, we piled back in the car, headed north and enjoyed an hour or so with the Olbrights. Katherine had great fun eyeing all of Kevin’s gifts. Kevin had received a musical keyboard with bright plastic instruments. Katherine wanted to play with the instruments and Kevin was determined to keep them with the keyboard. After tussling over them for a bit, Katherine finally grabbed two of the instruments, thrust them to her cousin, lifted her chin, turned around and walked off in the opposite direction. We weren’t sure if it was a case of “sharing” or having had enough, but it was quite amusing.

For dinner, we went to the Fialas where we had a delicious potluck with ham, beef, turkey (I think), beans, salad, pink stuff (yum), and mashed potatoes. The dinner closed with a vast array of cookies and ice cream that the Olbrights had brought. While the food was very tasty, the parents really enjoyed watching the three children interact. Will and Kevin ran around and by the end of the evening, Katherine had figured out that she could run around too. So, we had all three cousins doing laps in the living, dining and family room – with Katherine waving her hands and screaming (ahhhh!!). Even better, some adults joined in the fun too. ๐Ÿ™‚

Another highlight of the week was visiting the Seattle Aquarium. It really is a wonderful resource for families, and the whole family trooped out to see it. Will and Kevin were in perpetual motion, and Katherine took turns riding in her stroller and braving the crowds by walking around. We saw the fish get fed by a scuba diver (very cool), other fish get tossed food and the otters eat their shrimp. After a fun-filled couple hours, we headed to the Spaghetti Factory. Katherine ate mac and cheese, the boys played with plastic barber toys and crayons. The boys even treated us and neighboring diners to a rousing rendition of the ABC song.

Prior to a family dinner, we visited the Redmond Town Center and tried to go to Gymboree. Unfortunately, they were closed, so we stopped by a Paint store – its one of those places where you paint some object and then they put it in a kiln. I painted three ornaments, Steve painted a cake platter and Grandma Bush a heart platter. Katherine had her hands painted (three times!) and then stuck to the platters. That was probably the most interesting part of the visit, because she couldn’t check out the pottery or paints or brushes…Grandpa was a good sport and took Katherine around the neighboring stores while we painted. We did eventually go to Gymboree later with Grandpa, which was a good workout for Katherine.

On the last day of the Bush’s stay with us, we hosted a family dinner potluck at our home. It was a nice way to spend some quality time with family and allow the children to play together. Will really enjoyed playing with Hokey Pokey Elmo. The children took turns playing with the trike, and there was just a lot of running around and excitement in general. Grant seemed to enjoy the mayhem from the family room (what an adorable baby!). By the time the evening ended, both Will and Kevin were determined to stay and were very sad to leave. I guess that’s the mark of an enjoyable and successful play event!

We capped the visit off with a family photo sitting at the local mall. While the Olbrights weren’t able to join us, we did get some nice shots of the Bushes with Katherine, us with Katherine and then all five of us. We’ll be sure to send pictures to the family.

Another Growth Spurt
Holy Cow – Katherine has been eating a ton lately. Two days ago, she must have eaten 5 meals. With every meal, she’s been stuffing down a lot of food. Favorites these days are spaghetti, tofu, peas, bread, yogurt…There really isn’t any food that she doesn’t eat. We also found that while we eat dinner that Katherine would tug our pants and try to climb in our laps. Grandpa Bush was very accommodating and we found Katherine perched in his lap pointing at food and trying to explore the food in his mouth. During a rotation on my lap, Katherine pointed at salmon, got a taste, wanted more and double fisted fish into her mouth. Of course, this whole eating thing has been accompanied by real growth. She now sort of fits into a while sweat suit that Grandma Chang gave her for her birthday. She also is starting to outgrow one of her red jackets.

More Learning- “What a Busy Child”

We must of heard this at least 5 or 6 times during the holidays from family, friends and random strangers. Katherine is indeed busy. She never stops very long for any one task or event. For instance, this morning I took out all of her shape blocks from her puzzle and asked her to put them back (a new development!). She inserted one, picked up another block, tossed it aside and headed off to her toy bin.
Katherine is so funny with her Jumbo Knob Puzzle. It has big wooden knobs with shapes – circle, square, pentagon, etc. For a couple weeks, this puzzle had been on our coffee table. Katherine would do a quick drive by, grab a puzzle piece and take off. We had encouraged her to put the pieces back, demonstrated and even had her friend Audrey play with it. Finally last week, she took the rectangle piece and managed to put it back in. Steve and I cheered and Katherine loved it. Now, she will grab any puzzle piece, put it back and look up to make sure we saw her do it. At a minimum, she gets a big smile – other times clapping and always encouragement.

We took her to the local children’s shoe store to get snow/rain boots. The sales person said as Katherine stomped off in her shoes, “what a busy child…” The shoes by the way are very cute – purple patent leather boots with flowers. She also got some pink leather shoes with a mouse chasing a piece of cheese. We can’t get away with putting her in this stuff much longer, as she’ll soon have her own opinions. So, we might as well buy it now!
Katherine has also reached a number of other milestones as well. She’s points consistently at food that she wants to eat and objects that she wants to checkout. It may be food on our plates or things on the counter. It’s been very handy for us, since we can now respond directly to her requests. The only downside is that she can be very insistent with what she wants.
We also have been trying to encourage scribbling…on paper that is. I read in a parenting book that scribbling is a key milestone. So we put her Crayola washable big crayons in a diaper wipe box. Assuming the box is open, she’ll dig around and pull one or two crayons. Katherine likes to walk around with crayons, and occasionally she’ll even draw a line on paper. ๐Ÿ™‚ Her other favorite activity is handing Bisco her crayons. He’s managed to eat and destroy a couple already. At least the stains wash off the carpet. Grrr.

An Inauspicious New Year
We sincerely hope that 2004 is better than what happened New Years Day. To start things off, I managed to get a nasty 24 hour stomach bug around…1:30AM on New Years. I’m about 90%, but to shake it required a ton of sleep and rest. While New Years Day sucked for me, it was even worse for Steve.

He decided to build his own PC from scratch (why, I don’t know…) Anyway, he goes to Fry’s and gets the parts. He comes home and discovers voila, no processor in the box! He heads back to Fry’s and they think that he stole the processor, so he has to wait at customer service while they figure this all out. He comes home, and I’m passed out on the couch trying to watch Katherine who can’t figure out why Mom is stuck on the couch. He then makes lunch for Katherine and in the process spills coffee beans, breaks a glass and then cuts himself on a soup can. Even worse, the credit card company thinks that between a gas station visit and Fry’s that the card has been stolen. Wait…it gets worse! The processor that he gets from Fry’s doesn’t even work because the box had been opened already and the pins had been bent.
Its a good thing he made the bean soup because we’re going to need all the luck we can get with 2004!

Final Stages of Weaning

Our goal had been to breast feed Katherine until she was 12 months old. Between pumping at work and managing milk inventory, we made it! Starting at 12 months, we began to remove one milk feeding every week. By late November and early December, we were down to one feeding at bedtime. The last several days have really been a great opportunity to finish the weaning process. My production has been down with the flu, and Steve has been home to feed her a bottle of formula at bedtime. Hopefully, in the next week or so, we can wean her from her bedtime bottle, and we’ll be done! From here on out, Katherine will be drinking full fat, organic milk and water from her Playtex insulator cup and straw.

Brunch at the LeVines

On Saturday, Katherine, Christine and I trekked across the Lake to have brunch at the LeVines. Katherine loved playing with Sidney and his toys. It was fun to see them play together and attempt to “share” toys. Sharing means bonking each other with their toys. ๐Ÿ™‚

On the way back from the LeVines, we stopped by Zanny Brainy to pick up a tricycle. Christine and I researched tricycles and found this one to be the safest and most versatile: http://www.mytoybox.com/product/KETT88521000.html. We selected the Brummi model which is only sold through Zany Brainy. I just discovered that it’s for a 3-6 year old. Hmm… Maybe another trip to the toy store is required…

Katherine loves her tricycle though her feet don’t quite touch the pedals. She loves being pushed around in the tricycle and watching the effects of steering the handle bars. After a demonstration by dad and a little bit of practice, she was able to turn the handle bars. I wouldn’t say she could steer the tricycle but she realized moving the handle bars altered the course of the tricycle.

In downtown Redmond there is a cool park, Anderson Park. It has a great jungle gym with plenty of things to play on. Katherine loves to watch the other kids play. It’s almost like she’s studying them to see if she can do what they do. Sometimes, I think she’s just willing herself to grow up so she can go play with the other kids.

On Sunday evening, the Fialas, Ramsays, Olbrights, and BushChangs got together for dinner at Cucina, Cucina. It was a fun time to talk about the newest members of the family and to swap stories.