Katie's 2009 Snow Adventures

My apologies that I've been busy resting (if that's possible) and getting ready for the birth of our son, and thus have been neglecting Katie's blog. Now that our due date is here and we're just playing the waiting game, I'll try to catch up a little!

We had two big snows this year, which were so much fun. John didn't get a snow day either time, but thankfully the second time around, he already had taken a day off and could play with us in the snow.

Big Snow #1, Day 1

We spent the morning cruising and stumbling across our front yard and the yards of other neighbors. It wasn't until that afternoon's eye doctor appointment that I realized that somewhere along the way, Katie had lost one of the brand-new lenses out of her glasses. Whoops! Don't think we're going to find that one.




Big Snow #1, Day 2

The next day the yard was pretty icy, so we stayed in the flat backyard and ran around with Bella. You'll notice Katie's not wearing glasses -- they were off being repaired.

Big Snow #2

This time Daddy got to play with us! It's much more fun when Daddy's here -- he had much more energy and strength than Preggie Mommy to bounce Katie around, pick her up when she fell (she learned quickly how to say "help!"), and lift up to the top of the slide.

Here are a few short video clips. Think Katie's "happy?"

Fun Photos from September and October

I'll save the Halloween photos for another week and post them all together. (Can anyone guess what Katie will be? It's orange and cute and she can make the appropriate facial expression.)

In the meantime, here are a few cute photos from September and October that haven't yet made the blog:

Dressed up for church:
Enjoying a bouncy seat that we bought from a friend for Baby #2:

Enjoying Mommy's soup bread bowl from Panera:

Playing with her best friend Daniel's car at playgroup (this car is definitely being added to Katie's Christmas wishlist):

Katie's obsessed with dog leashes, so I decided to see just how much she enjoyed them. Guess not this much:

Reading her Tails book with Great-Grandma:The best way to amuse Katie while waiting in the Costco customer service line? Allow her to play in the cart:

Bottoms up! Katie tries to swig the Tabasco sauce at my college reunion event. Since the bottle was closed, I thought it was a safe bet, but I guess there were traces of Tabasco on the cap. Whoops! I was too busy trying to cool off her mouth to get a photo of the resulting facial expression.

Our First Tiny Talk Tuesday

This is my first shot at Tiny Talk Tuesday, a blog event my friend Mary started to record the funny things her kids say every week. Since Katie's saying more and more words all the time, I decided it was time to join in!

Full sentences Katie (age 16 months) has said:

"She says moo." (response to the question "What does the cow say?")

"Whazdat?" and "Whoozdat?" (she asks this of everything she does not know the name of -- she is one curious child!)

"Bad Bella!!" (she says this constantly, whether or not our dog Bella is being bad and sometimes when Bella is miles away from us) (she also says this when trying to say "banana")

"It's a Bella" and "It's a baby." See video below as she marvels over the little plastic babies that I got as part of a twin baby shower favor.

Other words she says on her own now, besides the ones I mentioned in July:

"Shoe"
"Eye"
"No" (for both "no" and "nose")
"Mow" (for "mouth")
"Yes"
"Cookie" (for both "cookie" and "Cookie Monster")
"Wheeeee!"
"Bella" (she calls all dogs "Bella" now)
"Dank you!"
"Ow ow ow!" (as she hits Mommy -- we'll have to work on curbing that one)

Animal Noises she's improved upon:

Cow -- "Mooooo" (it's the first animal noise that she's really mastered in terms of both inflection and pronunciation)

Elephant -- "Brbrbrbrbrbrb!" (High-pitched motorcycle noise while she lifts her arm like a trunk -- it actually is the best elephant noise I've heard a child make)

Chicken -- "bak bak" (refers both to the animal and to the food. At least twice a week I have to go through the drive-thru, and all I have to do is ask Katie if she wants some "bak bak" -- chicken nuggets -- and I have one happy little girl)

Wolf -- "HOOOO-oooo!" as she points her mouth up to the sky

Tiny Talk example of the week: The word "Wheeeee!"

Katie's just learned the expression "wheeeee!" We use it when pushing her around the room on her fire truck or when pushing her in the swing or when going down the slide.

She had never used it in observation before, but we were watching a classic Sesame Street segment of gibbons swinging from rung to rung in a zoo. Since gibbons are similar to monkeys, I expected Katie to start making her monkey noise "Ay yi yi yi" (see this post to find out why that's the noise a monkey makes). Instead, as the gibbon swung from rung to rung, Katie started cheering it on: "Wheee! Wheee! Wheee!"

And tonight I was checking email while Katie was absorbed in watching Sesame Street behind me. Suddenly I heard her saying "wheeee!" and there were no gibbons swinging this time. She had climbed up on the coffeetable, and was using her "wheeee" to describe the adventure she was having. Note to self: Listen carefully for "wheee"s whenever Katie's out of sight. :-)

The Dog Finally Feels Included

These days Katie constantly babbles our names, both at us and in general: "Mama" "Dada" "Mama" "Dada" "Mama" "Dada" "Mama" "Dada". It's totally endearing.

However, Bella our dog was feeling left out. Not anymore. Katie's finally calling her by name too. She doesn't quite have the "B" sound down, so it's hysterical to watch her try to say "Bella" with her tongue sticking straight out. See it for yourself:

Katie the Social Butterfly

Katie loves other kids, whether she knows them or not. A few of her social interactions from the last three days:

My best friend from high school, Abbie, came over with her four-month-old Meghan on Friday. Though Meghan and Katie are way different in terms of size and abilities, they were fascinated with each other and enjoyed entertaining each other. Katie cried when Meghan left.

Saturday I went to my client's company picnic, where Katie struck up a great rapport with the son of the company president. Eight-year-old Christopher was a natural with Katie, matching her syllable to syllable and gesture to gesture.

Tonight Katie spent time with her good friend Avery (age 10 months) at a mutual friend's first birthday party.

And while our dog Bella isn't really a "kid", I thought this photo was cute so I'm gonna throw it in anyway!

A Few More June Adventures

Here are a few more of our adventures from June!

Family Reunion: We attended John's family's annual get-together on June 28. Katie enjoyed meeting some of her distant cousins for the first time. (Last year's get-together was held while I was still in the hospital after delivering Katie!)

At the reunion, Katie tried to give her relative Maeve a hug, but Maeve simply fell backwards. Thankfully she didn't seem to be hurt!

My friend Jessie came over for girl time on June 29, and Katie had no problem cuddling up in her lap, especially when there were french fries to steal:

Katie and I took Bella on a walk on June 30, and halfway around the block, it started POURING rain! I ran as fast as I could in flip flops while pushing a stroller and holding a leash. Katie wailed as she got more and more soaked, but was willing to pose for a picture afterwards on her way up to a hot bath:

I'm especially thankful for the elderly neighbor lady on the next block who saw us in distress and tried to coax us all into her car for the last block of our walk -- er, run. But somehow I don't think squeezing a stroller, baby, mommy, and Saint Bernard mix into her car would have been faster than continuing to run the last block. :-)

Speaking of Bella, here are a few photos of her with Katie and Katie's "Jay-Pa" and me at the beach house earlier in June. And yes, I HAD just rolled out of bed.

Deep Thoughts From a Recovering Germophobe

I just got this email forward from my friend Mary:

The First Kiss

It's your First Kiss and several questions might come to mind:
Is it the right time?
Is anyone watching?
Does your partner even want to?
Is your breath fresh?
AND,---Should you use some tongue?
Then you say . . ..
'What the heck!' and Just Go for it!!!

(scroll down)

This must be a 2nd or 3rd child... because Mom grabbed the camera and not the kid! :O)

Cute email, but it strikes me as a bit odd, because Katie is my first kid and I probably would have grabbed the camera too. Am I a bad parent because I videotaped Katie's cousin tackling her on the moonbounce rather than running to her rescue? Or because I photographed Katie meeting Bella for the first time, even though they both used their tongues? :-)

My friend Shi-Wei complimented me the other day for not "coddling Katie" constantly. Her comment has really made me think. After all, I've always been a bit of a hygiene freak, although I knew going into motherhood that I'd be forced to relax a bit.

On the one hand, I want to build up Katie's immunity, so I don't freak out about every possible germ she may encounter (hence her 6 months of colds this winter). Plus it's simply impossible to keep her away from all gross things, especially with a dog (dog hair on the floor; or the fact that Katie loves to "share" her food with Bella before sticking it back into her mouth). I also read this week about studies that show that children who grow up with older siblings or pets tend to be healthier as they get older simply because they were dirtier as babies!

At the same time, I obviously want to make sure Katie doesn't do or eat anything that would hurt her. So I try to keep a close eye on her, even if I don't panic over everything. (Her close encounters with poop -- the dog's or her own -- are an exception to that rule.)

I'd be interested in hearing the thoughts of other mothers about this, especially mothers of older or multiple children who don't have the luxury of watching each child every moment of the day.

Katie at 10 months

Katie turns 10 months tomorrow, and as I mentioned earlier this week, she's a true delight. Even though she's been sick practically this whole winter (including a viral infection this past week), she rarely complains or fusses. She has a cheerful disposition and is quick to smile.

Here's a photo I took yesterday after Katie climbed up her first step. Time to put up the baby gate! But in the meantime, she's pretty proud of herself (and Daddy and I are proud of her too).

Here's also a funny video of a typical evening at our house -- Katie pulling up on the coffeetable, then deciding she wants to be with Mommy and maneuvering to try to get closer to me. In this video, Bella the dog also makes her first video appearance on this blog.

Her name is BELLA!

Thank you to Emily (who turns 10 tomorrow), Jack (age 8), and their mom Deb for suggesting our doggie's new name, Bella!

Deb, Jack and Emily have no way of knowing that the term "Bella" is special to John and me, and a great fit for our St. Bernard mix. It is the Latin (and thus Italian) term for "beautiful".

After learning in Fall 2006 that we were pregnant with Katie, we took a "babymoon" to Europe -- a train through the Swiss Alps, where we got to hug on a St. Bernard in front of the Matterhorn. This is the trip that confirmed to us that we wanted a St. Bernard or Bernese Mountain Dog someday.

During the last leg of that trip, we visited special friends in northern Italy. The granny in the Italian family had been friends with John's grandfather since World War II until he died a few years ago, and we promised Granny and her family that we would stay in touch with them. The granny doesn't speak much English, and we don't speak much Italian, but one word is used often in conversation with Granny: "Bellissimo!" or "Very beautiful!" Here's a photo of us with Granny and our Italian "cousins". We miss them very much!

Back in the U.S., Bella is turning out to be a wonderful dog for our family. We had prayed for the right dog and we could not be happier. She is social and fun-loving -- a perfect fit for our family! She is very gentle and has learned very quickly the few things we needed her to learn.