Birthday Wrap Up

Nanny rocked Katherine to sleep when the party was over

Uncle Andrew was glad to celebrate his niece's 1st Birthday!

The great-grandmothers taking it all in

Katherine loved her new stool!

The men retreated to the bonus room after the party

Enjoying some one-on-one time with Pop

Katherine was excited Thomas would help her look out the door

A gift from Nene and Pop's trip to Louisville

Luke practicing with his new bat

Way too much sugar for this one!

We were all so pleased with how Katherine's party turned out and were so appreciative for everyone that came to help us celebrate.  That little girl is surely blessed with lots of family and friends that love her to pieces!  We were all worn out after the last guests left and spent the rest of the night recuperating from the fun day.

Finger Lickin' Good

She was not digging the hat!

Not quite sure about the singing

Me trying to ease in and take the cake away

Ok -- So, Katherine LOVED her cake!  She had never had cake before but she has had a little ice cream.  I was not sure how she would react to having something sweet. Considering Luke wanted nothing to do with his 1st birthday cake I had pretty low expectations.  Boy was I wrong!  That girl dug right in.  She started off somewhat timid but by the time I took the cake away (I was afraid of too much sugar) she was going at it with both hands! She needed a good scrub down when it was all said and done!

First Purse, First Vera, First Party!

Katherine was excited to open her presents. In fact, she went straight to the present pile before the party even started!  Of course, Luke did not really let her open her own gifts.  He did it for her.  He would barely have one gift open before he was moving on to the next one. Katherine received her first purse from Aunt Sheila and LeeEllen as well as her first Vera Bradley bag from Jon and Kristen.  She also got some great clothes, fun books, a scarf knitted by Kitty, a tea set, money and a walker toy from Nonna.  She was so good natured through everything! 

Katherine's First Birthday!

Nonna helped get Katherine ready

Luke's cupcake -- he ate about two bites!

Gigi is always there to celebrate our special moments!

We celebrated Katherine's birthday on Saturday.  Most of our family (and Gigi) were there to enjoy the big day.  Jim, Claudia and Lauren were not able to make it and neither was Cynthia.  We missed them!  We just had simple finger foods, cupcakes for everyone to decorate and homemade ice cream.  There were different icing flavors and toppings for the cupcakes.  It was fun! 

Katherine did great!  She actually had two naps prior to the party.  Aunt Mandi was nice enough to take Luke to Monkey Tree House for a play date so Paul and I could get everything ready without an extra helper.  That turned out to be perfect!

Christmas In July

 

Drawing his number

Matching the number he drew to the number on the book

Luke and Lydia

He decorated his Christmas cookie

The class enjoying the party

Katherine took a little cat nap in the hall

This afternoon Luke had a Christmas in July party at school.  I think they really look for any excuse to have a party and who can blame them.  The kids decorated a tree in their classroom, decorated cookies and had a book swap.  Since I missed their last party I knew I wanted to go to this one.  Paul actually got off early and was able to come, too.  Luke was excited we were there.  We learned a couple of interesting things while we were there -- Luke can pour his own drink from a container without spilling it, how well he follows directions when the directions aren't from Paul or me and that all the kids really seem to like him.  He also answered all the questions before anyone else had a chance.  That might eventually get annoying to the other kids so hopefully he won't do that for long. 

We were glad we got to spend the time with him.  When we left school we went straight to Mom's.  Andrew and Mandi are in town for Katherine's birthday and to help with Mom's de-cluttering process.  We ordered pizzas (yay! I got my pizza), made some progress in the house and enjoyed our visit. 

Katherine is 12 Months!

Birthday Girl!

I took off for Katherine's birthday thinking we would have her 12-month well visit.  But, I forgot Dr. P is off on Fridays so we just played hooky instead!  We started the morning with breakfast at MacDonald's which was Luke's choice.  We took Luke to school after that and Paul went to work.  Katherine and I spent the day together doing errands, playing, eating and taking naps. 

Katherine continues to be an easy-going baby.  Her sleeping and eating are basically the same.  We dropped her afternoon bottle at school this week and she did not seem to notice.  For now she gets a bottle when she wakes in the morning, has fruit for breakfast mid-morning, bottle before lunch, lunch which is usually a baby food veggie or table food, an afternoon snack, supper at home with us then she nurses at bedtime. 

Mobility: This is where we have noticed the biggest difference in Katherine the past month.  She is not walking on her own yet but she loves to be pushing on anything that will go!  She is also quite the adventurer.  Her favorite thing right now is climbing -- she will climb up and down any steps, stools, chairs or basically anything else she can find.  She would much rather be roaming around on the ground as to be held. 

Happenings: She has two more teeth now.  That brings the total to four - two on top, two on the bottom.  You can not really see the top ones good unless you hold her back and get her to laugh really big so she opens her mouth.  She still  babbles on and on but very few intelligible words.  She has started some cute noises with her tongue.  We remember when Luke did that.  We think she likes to hear herself because she will do something then grin really big. She has also started pointing at things she wants which is cute.

We are so blessed to have Katherine in our lives.  I know I say it all the time but she truly is a joy and is such a fun little girl!  We are excited about watching her grow and mature every day!

No Pizza - Broccoli, Please!

On the way home from school we have some interesting conversations in the afternoon.  They typically consist of what Luke did at school that day, him asking to watch a show when we get home and when Paul is going to be home.  Our conversation today was something like this:

Me: What do you think you want for supper tonight?
Luke: Ummmm....Tilapia, broccoli and corn
Me: We already had tilapia this week...what about pizza?
Luke: Uh-uh...what about chicken, broccoli and green beans?
Me: We had green beans last night...what about pizza?
Luke: Nope, what about chicken, broccoli and macaroni and cheese?
Me: So, really no pizza?

That is pretty bad when the mom who is also a dietitian is trying to convince her 3-year old child to pick pizza for supper!  For the record, we ended up having ham steak, sweet potatoes and hominy.  Kind of starchy, but I guess better than pizza!

While I was cooking that oh so gourmet meal the kids entertained themselves in the kitchen "junk" drawer.  This thing desperately needs some attention and soon!  But for the mean time it kept them occupied and they found a few items I had been missing!

Water Wednesday!

The kid's school has been getting a new playground installed the past few weeks.  This has put a halt to Water Days which has made Luke sad.  He loves it.  They just basically run around in sprinklers and spray each other with water guns.  Since the playground was completed last week he got to resume his water play. 

I spent the day getting some things together for Katherine's party this weekend.  Lots of errands were on the agenda and some chores around the house.  Luke recently "discovered" this froggy game Uncle Jim gave him for Christmas.  Basically you put this little plastic frog on a lily pad and step on a button and the frog flies up in the air.  Well -- Katherine loves it!  Since he had a captive audience this went on for quite some time.  She got to the point where she would try to catch it and would just giggle and that would make Luke giggle.  It was so fun to see them playing together!  I do think Luke is hitting her over the head with the box in the picture though.  Oh well, you can't win them all!

My Little Helper

She was right there the whole time

Happy Kids, Happy Mom!

So, since Luke and Katherine seemed to enjoy getting baths together we did it again tonight.  I started by getting Luke in first and clean before I put Katherine in.  Well, she wanted in right now!  She was pulling up at the side of the tub, laughing and giggling while Luke was hamming it up.  Once she got in she was so happy!  That girl loves the water!

An overproductive Sunday

Getting her feet measured

Not quite sure what to think about this...

Katherine was in on the action, too

Today after church we went to Green Hills to get Katherine fitted for shoes for the first time!  Of course, we found a Subway to eat at before heading to the mall.  Since the Stride Rite in Rivergate closed we have to drive to Green Hills or Cool Springs which stinks.  It was a good excuse to go somewhere different and oh how I love that mall!  So many fun different stores to shop in!

We decided both kids needed new shoes.  Katherine did great getting her feet measured.  She has the smallest foot -- size 2 1/2!  We went up a half size and bought a pair of size 3 for her birthday.  For the most part she has never worn shoes.  She had a couple of pairs when she was younger that she wore to church sometimes.  The recommendations now are that kids really do not need to wear shoes until they are walking except for warmth or protection.  And their first shoes need to be very flexible and more like moccasins.  I remember some of my first shoes were those hard white shoes.  They actually still sell those, just in a softer sole.  We tried a couple of pair on and she really did not know what to make of them.  She would not stand up much, just wanted to crawl around.

I was excited to learn that Katherine does not have a wide foot.  When Luke was young he needed a wide or extra wide which are very hard to come by in big-box stores so we usually had to pay the extra money for Stride Rite.  This will also work in Katherine's favor because I can justify her having more than one pair of shoes since I can buy them for a lot less at Target, etc. Yay!  As the salesman said "Girls shoes are a lot more involved that boys". We let Luke pick out his own shoes!  He did great.  He picked out some brown lace up Sperrys. We thankfully had a coupon which helped a lot!  He wore them out of the store.

After Stride Rite we went to Pottery Barn Kids to look around.  Luke liked looking at the kitchens and they had a pull-along wooden train that he played with.  Katherine sat in the kid's chairs and tried to pull up on everything.  Next stop was Williams-Sonoma.  I had a merchandise credit left from a couple of Christmases ago so we bought something!  I love to get new things and not have to pay for them!  I won't say what we bought just yet, but we let Luke get something.  I am sure it will be in a future post...

We were home by 2:30 and spent the rest of the day re-arranging furniture, cleaning and de- cluttering.  I hate to see the weekend come to an end.