Like Mother, Like Daughter

I absolutely love listening to Kate talk to herself.  Right now, she's sitting on her potty, reading a book, and saying, "is this Bambi?  No!  It's Rudolph.  Is this Bambi?  No!  It's Rudolph."  This phrase has been on repeat for a while, but when we were painting earlier she was telling herself who she was painting, and it was pretty funny (Amy, you should see yourself as portrayed by Kate).

I know that all kids talk to themselves, but I also realized that I talk to myself quite a bit.  I talk to myself at the grocery store, while I'm cleaning, making lists, and sometimes even while I drive!  So I wonder if Kate's cute habit is nature or nurture?  I guess we'll find out when she's older!

A Few Things...

Okay, so it's been forever since I've posted, and I have the lamest excuse!  We got a new computer (we're Mac people now), and it's taken me this long (about 3 months) to figure out how to convert all my pictures and camera software to the Mac.  I don't think it would have taken me this long to do it if I would have made myself sit down and do it earlier, but I kept putting it off, and putting it off, and putting it off, etc.  I'm a little irritated with myself because I'd like to print this blog and save it for Kate when she's older, but I'm so terrible about keeping up with it!  

Kate is absolutely fabulous.  She's really into pretend play these days, and we play for hours having tea party and putting different kinds of dolls and animals into her doll house.  She loves puzzles and books, and she's pretty social, although still pretty scared of men.  We go to baby yoga on Tuesdays in New Braunfels, and she typically loves the class.  However, last week a new teacher took over...it's a guy, and Kate has yet to leave my lap.  I'm sure she'll grow out of it someday!

Potty training just got easier as of Sunday when Kate began to no longer need a diaper at home (other than nap and bed time).  I still put one on her when we go out, but I have a few brave friends who have gone cold turkey and no longer use diapers away from home.  I'm not quite that brave yet, but I'm sure I will be one day, soon hopefully.

I'm ready for winter, is anyone else?  Brandon killed one rattlesnake that was on the back porch with our dogs, and there have been 2 others near our mailbox.  They're baaaaaaaack (and unfortunately, we're still here)...

Here are a few pictures of the Kater lately.

She set the chess board up all by herself, I think this was taken sometime in March.  Brandon and I play sometimes, and I've been showing her how to set it up so she can "play" too, but I didn't know she was actually taking it all in (after I took this picture, she finished setting all the white pawns up, I guess I didn't get a picture of the finished product)!

This picture needs no caption!

She's very proud of her "potty" chart.  She gets to put a sticker on it every time she goes.

I thought this was funny because it looks like these three are having a meaningful conversation.

Breakfast of Champions

I am a huge fan of Wheaties.  I love them.  If I had to pick only one food to eat for every meal for the rest of my life, it would be a very close race between Wheaties, Cheerios, and Pizza (diverse, I know).  I realized that since Kate started eating cereal, we buy only Cheerios because that is what she likes (she's not spoiled at all...).  Today when I was at HEB, I noticed that the Wheaties had a price cut, so I just had to buy a box.  When we got home, I asked Kate to help me put away the groceries while I got started cooking lunch.  I was all wrapped up in what I was making, and turned around to find this....

She had gotten the Wheaties off of her stool (where I put groceries for her to put away), opened them (I have no idea how because even I have trouble opening cereal bags), and started eating them.  As it turns out, she loves them, and ended up eating more Wheaties than fish for lunch.  Yes, the fish that I slaved over for half an hour....oh well, so it goes!
~Molly

Future Baker

Kate is very into helping out around the kitchen.  If I forget to bring her stool into the kitchen so that she can stand on it and see everything I do, she will stand by my feet screaming "watch mommy, watch mommy!"  She also likes to stand by the sink when I wash dishes or load the dishwasher.  She's quite the little helper.  This morning I had to bake a cake to take to church tonight.  While I was getting all of the ingredients out for the cake, I thought she might like to make a cake of her own, since she has her own kitchen and all.  I gave her some flour and water in one of her bowls because I remember my mom doing that for me when I was little and I loved it.  Well, apparently I was a little bit older when I did it because I always knew it was just for play.  This is what I saw when I turned around to see what Kate was doing

She had stirred her flour and water together, spilled most of it, eaten some of it, and was scooping it up off of the floor back into the bowl.  I went to check on her because I kept hearing her say, "yuck, yuck, yuck."  I think I would have the same reaction if I had just eaten flour mixed with water.  It was pretty hilarious and really hard to clean up, but I think that most of the best things in life are pretty hard to clean up!  I certainly did not clean it up right away, we played with it for about the next hour, making it into shapes and other fun things.  I did, however, put a stop to eating it, I had to draw the line somewhere!
Please ignore the fact that Kate's hair has not been brushed, she's still in her pajamas (despite it being almost lunch time), and she doesn't have on any pants (she thinks this is one of the best things about potty training).

~Molly

Word-full Wednesday

I have a fun story for my blog today.  I woke up this morning and noticed that when I brushed my teeth my water pressure was very low.  I called Brandon at work, and he said he hadn't noticed it being low when he took a shower earlier.  So I called our water supplier, and they sent a technician to our house to check things out.  He only looks at the meter for a few minutes, then inspects the area around it, and says that our pipe has busted.  This is lovely news to start my day.  Now I've been on the phone with countless plumbers, and hopefully someone will come to the house this afternoon to fix it (fingers crossed), and I hope it doesn't deplete our entire savings...yikes!

As if this weren't enough, Monday night when Brandon was on his way home from a Knights of Columbus meeting, he swerved in order to avoid hitting a dog.  We don't live in town, and our roads are really really dark, but I was still glad to hear that he missed the dog, of course.  The next day when he was driving to work, he noticed that his "low tire" warning came on in his car.  He stopped later in the afternoon, and had to get a new tire because he ran over a sharp metal object, and we think he did this on our road!  

It seems like since we've moved into this house we've had one bad thing after another happen!  I feel like we live in Amityville....except not quite as scary (most days).  

Well, now that I've bummed myself out with this post, I'll say that everything else is going really well.  Kate's growing and thriving.  She's become quite the puzzle expert.  She loves putting puzzles together, so I bought a few harder ones (jigsaw) at the store just to see if she liked them.  I figured if they frustrated her too much, I'd just put them away for later.  It turns out that she loves them!  I think every little kid is good at different things, and I have finally found a hidden talent.  Here's a picture of Kate and her new favorite hobby.

Rant!

Why do people wear really strong perfume to workout?  I totally let that ruin my night last night, geez.  Hopefully today's run will be better.

Kate's Two!!

Today is Kate's second birthday, I still remember how naive I was two years ago!  I'll never forget one of Kate's early doctor's appointments (either 2 weeks or 6 weeks), I walked in and said "she doesn't sleep, is that normal?"  The doctor laughed, he asked me if I read books about babies while I was pregnant.  I told him that I read books about being pregnant while I was pregnant, not books about babies!  Man was I unprepared!  Anyway, I think Kate's a pretty happy, well adjusted kiddo, and we couldn't love our two-year-old anymore than we do.

So far, I think Kate has enjoyed her second birthday.  We've been practicing blowing out candles for her party tomorrow, and she's prepared to say "thank you" to all of her guests.  I made her favorite breakfast, blueberry muffins (which she calls "blue muffs"), and she preceded to eat them for breakfast and lunch.  I told her that birthday girls can do anything :-).  She did have a doctors appointment this morning, which made for a no-so-fun birthday present.  She got two shots, but got over them quickly.  She also helped me make her cakes and frosting for her party, she loved to pour the sugar (minus the first time, when she accidentally poured it backwards over her head) and stir.  Here are some pictures from her big day!  Enjoy.

 pretending to put on my chapstick!

 showing off her chapstick

  Drinking the leftover buttermilk.  Don't ask, she could drink buttermilk all day, it's her beverage of choice....strange girl!