Monday, September 29, 2008

So Sad

I'm so sad right now...we just took a dozen board books back to the library this morning. What a good batch they were...I almost want to go out a buy a few of them, but the point is to return them isn't it?

A moment of silence as we say goodbye to our favorite books of the past three weekst:

10 Rubber Ducks (Eric Carle)(this one is long, doesn't rhyme and we didn't like it in the beginning, but eventually it became the favorite!)

Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs (Sandra Boynton)

Mommy Hugs (who doesn't like mommy hugs?)

Daddy Cuddles (see previous comment but insert "daddy cuddles")

Silverly/Goodnight Goodnight (somehow this one got read to the tune of "Jingle Bell Rock")

I'm a Little Teapot (which adds the extra line to the traditional lyrics: "Party Time!")

Corduroy Goes to the Dr. (we've enjoyed a number of follow up books to the original Corduroy, which we do own)

There are a few others...as I said we did return a dozen and she enjoyed most of them. Let's hope that, although Katie has memorized most of the words and specifically requests these books when we sit down to read, she forgets entirely that they existed and remains happy with her personal library.

(PS...this is not a plea for gifts...we have many books and just have to go during open hours (today? tomorrow?) to get a dozen more...we're just going to miss this batch in particular)

I'll try and post more later about some of the topics I teased you about last week...just had to share this first. Happy Monday morning!

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

All Better!

Well, we've all mostly recovered from the cold from last week. And even better, we've gotten our internet back again! (we had minor technical difficulties which have been resolved thanks in big part to Russ...Everybody say "Thank You Russ!"

Lots to tell...not a lot of time today..let's see where we can get to.

Katie's still cute...and growing up a lot these days.
She's been crawling on two hands, one knee and a leg...kind of like this. And at papa's for dinner on Sunday night, she actually got on her hands and both feet twice for a few seconds...kind of crab meets downward facing dog. Walking by Halloween I'm thinking.
I was struggling to get stuff done in the kitchen some time last week and realized that Katie + High Chair + Crayons = 45 min of uninterrupted time. Yay! She's a little light handed with the crayons still but was making some marks.
And we're in love with our silvery shoes...(apologies...this shouldn't be sideways but I don't have time to fix today)...puts them on and off and calls them her standing shoes (says "stand" when she's wearing them).
It's fall and the fall colours are out (and going fast)...I tried taking "Fall" pictures last week while at Papa's...it was sunny and nice, but there weren't many leaves down, so I tried to get some trees in the picture too. This is why I'm not a professional photographer. (she's fuzzier than the leaves...but wouldn't it have been the greatest picture?)

This one's not bad:
We decided then that it was a bit chilly so put on her jacket for the rest. She's still very good at balancing with her legs in the air.
And of course, still in love with Giraffe. We tried to find another one (he's a dollar store toy) but have had no luck. You'd be our best friend in the world if you found him somewhere and bought us at least 4 more. Thanks! =)Papa's not just a pretty face...he's smart too...and took pictures to show off the Thursday playgroup.Lots of toys and kids!What's also All Better these days, is the long awaited return of Uncle Sheldon. Yay! We're all so happy he's home but I think I know who's happiest!

Yesterday we had a superb day...finally made it to the Museeum with Joanne and C and G. It was nice and clean, not too busy (very quiet actually) and the girls had lots of places to run around. Katie got out of her stroller and joined the girls to play with trains and boats.And everyone loved the fish!And we sat in a teepee. It was after this that Katie decided she didn't want back in the stroller...I thought, well things seem clean enough...so I let her crawl around after the girls. Not a bad solution...teh girls even started crawling too for a bit. Of course, it wasn't until I got home that I saw how dirty that floor must have been...light pink pants and public carpet...not a good match. Birds and birds nests!And at the end...snack time! Lovely cafe with excellent, inexpensive baking.
I have more stories to tell, but also a Katie to get to...remind me to tell you about the following:
1. The bagina story
2. Bob Marley
3. Veggie strike
4. Arms up
5. General language phrases
6. Standing in crib
7. Oh my goodness I'm sure there's more...later!

PS...not going back to edit today...ignore the typos.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

A busy weekend and now some sniffles

We had a lovely busy weekend. And pictures from the week to share as well.

We tried out Katie's tunnel the other day...took a bit of convincing to get her to climb through it but if anyone could convince her, it was Giraffe.
We also went to the library to exchange our books and Katie was so enamoured that afterwords she had to take a couple with her while we went shopping for groceries. (Of course, what I really mean is she cried when we tried to take the books away so we gave in and let her bring them in...all the while praying "don't lose the library books...!")
Katie was a big help in the kitchen this week (ignore the "tails"...I forgot to button up her onesie/shirt and when I did realize it, decided I didn't care). The chair was my solution to a very big day of "Up! Up! Up!"...my arms were tired! And it's hard rolling out pizza dough while carrying a big girl on one arm (you don't think I tried?).
So Katie "helped" but didn't quite get the fact that the dough wasn't cooked yet.
The result though, was fantastic! I don't know if she understood that she had helped make the pizza that we ate for dinner but I like to think you can't start sharing kitchen experiences too early.

She's also graduated to getting her own drawer in the kitchen. I moved some stuff around (because cheese graters for little girls aren't great) and Ta-Da! A drawer full of plastic, just for Katie!Her favorite is this lid, where the yellow part pops open and closed to reveal a Katie finger sized hole! There may be a cute video of this coming soon!Giraffe - still Katie's main squeeze this week.Saturday turned out to be quite busy...starting with breakfast with Grandma Cheryl and Grandpa Ken at the High Level Diner. ("Table for four adults, one little girl and one giraffe please!)
Afterwards, we went to an Outgrown It sale (tis the season for the sales again!) and picked up a cute table (see below) but we barely had time to drop it off at home before we were off again for brunch with Russ and Stephanie. They hadn't seen Katie in a while and were impressed with how much she'd grown (and her cute pigtails). We had a nice time catching up...thankfully, a very patient Katie was kept busy playing with the seatbelt on her high chair for quite some time.
While Katie napped as soon as we got home, Dad cleaned her brand new (old) table! It was a good deal and folds up nice and flat. It'll stay folded until the basement is done and we have more playroom space for Katie. I think it'll be a great art table and even a kids table for dinner paties (all those dinner parties we have).Sunday we popped over to Grandpa Ken and Grandma Cheryl's for lunch. Katie sat ourside and played with adorable little chairs...And Grandpa took her for rides in the wheelbarrow (she LOVES this). (sorry the pictures are funny...it was so bright and sunny!)I'm not really sure what she was doing here...but thought it was cute!
After all this busy weekend Katie has developed a wee sniffle (sneezing, a minor cough). Not enough to keep her from sleeping, but enough that my morning was spent chasing after her with tissues. While the cold has stopped us from going to the museum with Joanne and the girls (next week perhaps?) it didn't stop us from going to Costco. Even a sick Katie loves Costco. =)

Really I think she's getting better already...I didn't need quite as many tissues between when we got home and when she went down for her (hopefully 3 hour) nap. Let's nip this one in the bud, shall we? We'll let you how we're doing next time...Enjoy your day!

Friday, September 12, 2008

A Day at the Park

A few weeks ago Katie and I went fabric shopping with Grandma Mary but we were early and the store wasn't open yet. So we went and found a nearby park! We really lucked out...while we knew there was a park here, we didn't know that a new park had been built beside the old one!

Strangely, Katie refused the swings (a usual favorite) so Gram tried to put her in a car type bouncy seat.
This is Katie clearly telling us "No" and asking to be taken out.
What she really wanted was to be put down in the sand with the warm sun on her face. She's a smart girl with a keen eye for sand..this park had the nicest sand I've seen off of a beach in the south of France. Fine and soft!
She sat under a bridge and Gram peaked down at her through the holes.
And she peaked right back up at Gram and said "Hi!".

There were also some fun slides...though she was more interested in playing with the sand at the bottom of the slide than actually sliding.Gram tried another slide and Katie enjoyed that too!Slide number three was a bit higher and perhaps that's why she REALLY didn't like that one.After sliding, we let her crawl around and go where she pleased.Peek a Boo!This little ladder was a neat shape and she enjoyed looking through the holes.This park was super fun and we'll have to go back some time. I'm sure it helped that it was sunny and just warm enough.

Hope you have a nice weekend!

Monday, September 8, 2008

New desktop photos

Hello all! I've heard that some of you are in desperate need for new desktop backgrounds...one with a more updated Katie picture. Well, I hear you...I need some too. Hopefully you can find something nice here.

And I'll have to admit that most of these are from mid-to-late August...seriously, when I saw I haven't any downloaded pictures from September, I thought something was wrong with my computer. Just like I'm sure you called your internet people when your new version of Daily Katie wouldn't come up. (Hint: Don't call your internet guy, call me!")

Katie's been an absolute darling for the last while (what else is new!?). We went to a party a while ago for Ben's cousin Melanie (Happy Sweet 16!) and Katie did very well with all the people. And I don't think that was JUST because there was ice cream cake and a puppy involved.
The hair is getting longer and Katie growing less tolerant of her barrettes...so we experiment with pig tails.
We're also experimenting with cups like the green one in the last photo...I've tried to let her feed herself water, but gave up when realizing how huge a mess the tiniest amount of water makes. "Training wheels" back on then...mom holds the cup for now. (we're drinking milk for our meals in the cups now)

The weather's been cooling off dramatically. It's like right after the Sept long weekend a switch went off and mother nature decided she was too cheap to keep heating up the whole outdoors. We're digging out long sleeve things and trying on hats and thinking about knitting mittens. But still learning just how much to have the furnace on...It's soo cold until I get the nerve to really crank it up!
We're still making it out for walks and to the park a fair bit.

A few weeks ago (ahem*guilty look for not posting*ahem) we had friends Megan and Rob and little D over. Dinner was lovely and we had so much fun altogether. Watched some olympics (D is a big fan).

And the kids sat together on the couch. They are definitely playing more "together" (not quite but more so than they used to)Katie, always a big help with laundry, discovered some fun and a new word..."Panties"...She had So Much Fun saying the word and swinging them around. (please note that we were putting clean laundry away and not the other way around)Katie drinks her water.A few days after we had them over for dinner, Meg and D and Katie and I went for a long walk on a nice day in the river valley. Nice when we can find a park along the way for a break. Katie is back with Papa (I think I did mention this before) and they are very much enjoying their time together.We had dinner at Gram and Papa's a few weeks ago now, and Katie saw Gram's socks and wanted to play our new game (which is putting the socks on her hands and having you take them off again. And A-gain, and A-gain)(Katie is very fond of the word A-Gain!). Something about this struck all of us, including Katie, as hilarious and we were all laughing. I cannot remember the last time I laughed so hard. Tears running down my face and everything. You kind of had to be there, but we did recreate the sock thing for a picture (you'll see I think, that part of the hilarity is in the "feet as hands" image...for me anyway!):We do laugh a lot with Katie...notice Giraffe who is her absolute BEST friend right now. He goes everywhere with her and has recently started getting tucked into bed under a blanket (whatever shirt is nearby) on the diaper table as Katie says "Night Giraffe" and goes to bed in her crib. Very sweet.
We still do lots of reading...Katie's tolerance for finishing any one book varies with her mood. Sometimes she can sit through a long one, other times it's one page and "No!"...we're done!Pig tails are the cutest!
There are more pictures, of course, but that's enough for one post. Other things...really, Katie is SO SMART...I'm kind of surprised she's not writing the blog posts herself yet.

We've brought out a potty which lives in the bathroom. We've sat her on it once. We're not trying to train her or anything, just getting her used to it's presence and thinking about the idea of poop and pee etc. I'm sure it can't hurt.

Katie has started saying many two-or-so word phrases..."Good Cereal", "Shoe Off". She also, Unprompted, said to Grandpa Ken "Hi Grampa, How doin?". Seriously...I wasn't there, but I heard the tale and I believe it. And this morning, as Dad kissed us goodbye to go off to work, she said "Bye dad, see t'morrow". =)

Everyday gets cuter cuter. Our second baby ultrasound (second baby AND second ultrasound!) went well, heart and spine look good...we'll scan pics later this week I think.

Also, I've discovered a couple of excellent recipes that I feel obligated to share:
Pasta with broccoli feta sauce (so yum and easy)
Pumpkin scones (made 3 times in a week because they are So Good)

So good to be back...see you again soon(er)!