Holidays

We had a wonderful Father’s day. We woke up super early courtesy of Katherine and played around the house until 10AM. Our friends with their children then showed up on their bikes – we popped Katherine in her Chariot and took off for the local watershed park. About half way through the ride, Katherine was slumped over snoozing in her Chariot. Predictably though she woke up on the way back because of some tough bumps that jostled her out of her nap. We went home showered, grabbed some food and headed off to a friend’s house for more play time. Katherine loved her friend Audrey’s green jeep. Audrey took Katherine for a brief ride and it was a hoot to see Katherine clutching the handle in front of her and loving the experience. While the other children played, she lurked around Audrey’s Jeep finally sitting in the driver’s seat tapping the gas. We took K home, gave her a bath, cooled her down (it was HOT today!) and put her down for a nap.

After her nap, we headed into Redmond and checked out a local children’s toy store. This is where we learned what Steve really wanted for father’s day (but didn’t get from me) – a Brio railroad set! We picked up a super jumbo railroad set (156 pieces) and Thomas train table that fits under Katherine’s crib. After a quick dinner and shopping, K and Steve spent the rest of the evening putting the table together and selecting which train parts to start with. It was really funny to see Steve put together an intricate table design and gradually take more and more parts off the table as Katherine threw them around. We finally ended up with a simple oval track and 3 train cars. 🙂 I guess we’ve got a lot of upside yet still out of this table. Good news is that Katherine loved sitting on the table and playing with the track and cars.

What did Steve get for Father’s day? I’ll post the pictures soon, but Steve and K got matching t-shirts. One says “Katherine’s Daddy” and the other says “Daddy’s little girl.” Both have drawn and labeled pictures of a little girl and daddy. What was extremely cool was that Katherine pointed to the t-shirt and said “Katrine” and “daddy” – this was the first time she’s ever said her name!!

Pictures from the Last Month

We’ve been delinquent in posting new pictures, so here’s a fresh batch. You can see that Katherine is still growing like a weed. I tell people that Katherine is over half my height! 33″ at her last doctor’s appt vs. 61.5″ my height. She’s also still really skinny at just under 22 lbs. We put her in 2T clothing which fits lengthwise but is too baggy. Or we put her in 18 mo which is a tad short but fits well otherwise. It’s a great problem to have. 🙂

Sense of Humor

Katherine is developing a real sense of humor. The smallest things make her laugh. For instance, we were at a local children’s store buying PJs with feet. Steve and Katherine were checking out the sunglasses which were only 2 for $5. Steve would hand Katherine a pair, help her put them on, and then she would come running down the aisle with a big smile. It was almost like she was saying “look, ma, check out the glasses!” The more outrageous the glasses, the bigger the smile. We ended up getting two pink sunglasses, including the big round glasses in the picture and a more 70’s pair. She just laughed and laughed when we got home and put them on. She kept trying to put them on my head and I would keep telling her they didn’t fit.

Blossoming Vocabulary

Taking a cue from other moms, I started a list of Katherine’s words on the fridge. She knows over 70 words now!! Many of them just come out. For instance, we got her a long shovel for playing at the park in the sand and she ran around all afternoon yesterday waving the shovel (ow!) and saying “shuvel.” Certain words make her laugh like “stinky.” We tell her that Bisco is stinky and she giggles. We also ask “is Dada stinky?” and she’ll run to and sniff Steve’s knee. This is probably not a habit worth getting into but it’s really, really funny.

She’s also putting two words together. Today she said “more juice.” It’s still sporadic but she’s getting the idea of conversation. As we put the box of train parts and table into the car, Katherine kept pointing to the car and saying “box.” I then explained that Daddy had bought the box and it contained a choo choo train. We then had an interesting dialog where I would ask “what’s in the box” and she would say quietly “choo choo ….” and then “daddy.”

I can tell that she knows where she’s going now. As we pulled into Larry’s, Katherine said “shop” several times. She then said “houme” totally unprompted as we got within a few miles of home.

The Lamb Saga Continues

It’s now unclear whether the latest shipment of lambs to our local gift store will contain Lambey. We’re keeping our fingers crossed, since the store owner ordered every lamb that the manufacturer carries. We were in Gilman Village yesterday and I was shopping for a baby gift for our new nephew. I walked into our favorite clothing store and first thing saw a lamb that looked 90% like Lambey hanging in the display. I disregarded it because it was clear that this wasn’t going to pass the replacement test. So, I continued to shop. Katherine and Steve walked in two minutes later. First thing, Katherine points to the lamb and says “wawa” (Lambey) and gets all excited. So, we got it down and asked her if she liked it. She hugged it and we were sold (or rather we bought the lamb). Of course, she doesn’t think that this is Lambey. We call it Mama Lambey. She gets a big kick out of it.

Our trip to Whistler

Overall, Katherine loved being at Whistler – the trip there was another thing. We were running late the Friday before Memorial day and got a late start. As a result, we stopped only a couple times during the 5 hour trip to Whistler. At the end of the trip, I was in the back seat singing and singing and helping K play with these magnetic boards. We have a Mr. Potato magnetic board. She would take the glasses and put them up to her eyes, Lambey’s eyes and mine. This was about 30 minutes of the trip. Needless to say we left early on Monday AM and took our time heading back home.

There were some funny moments during our Whistler trip. Katherine experienced milkshakes for the first time. We stopped at Cows, an ice cream shop in the village. Steve got a cookies & cream milkshake and made the mistake of asking Katherine if she wanted any. Did she want any? She drank almost the entire shake. We asked her “can dada have some milkshake?” and she said “no.” Finally, I said “can mama have some milkshake” and she gave me a half empty cup! Given that she was such a good traveler the way home, we stopped at a local diary and got her a vanilla milkshake (see third to last picture). Our instructions were not to drink it too fast – of course she did and got brain freeze. Poor kid. 🙂

Other funny moment was having to share her chariot with another baby. We rode to and from the village with both kids. On the way home, both girls feel deep asleep which is why you can’t see Katherine’s face.