Sunny Days

Yesterday Katie and I went outside to enjoy our snack and the afternoon sunshine. Blueberries are not her favorite fruit, but once I feed her a couple of halves, she's willing to gobble the rest.
Yum!
After a few minuted in the full sun (with sunscreen on of course) I decided we'd better lounge in the shade.
I had brought out some toys but Katie was more into crawling on the grass and playing with an un-toy...these are always the favorite...wrappers, bags (not plastic...we play safe!), watches and anything that is not actually a toy. Yesterday, it was the empty blueberry dish.
Apologies if these pictures are really all the same, but we didn't do anything else yesterday so I have no other pictures...and I think they're all cute in a slightly different way anyway.
"Look mom...No feet!" Katie does this lots...I have no idea how. She's also doing this (lifting her legs) while we're in the stroller. I plunk her in normally and then seconds later she's got her feet up on the tray part. Comfy and relaxed. Katie's back into a good sleeping groove...I think it's 5 nights in a row now without a peep. And strangely, we also suspect she may be teething...she often has as much of her hand as possible in her mouth, I'm assuming playing with her teeth/gums. I've been looking but though there are some big bumps, nothing has broken through yet.

Yesterday we had this recipe for dinner...Pasta with tuna and arugula (subbed spinach) and it was so good. It's our second time making it and I used a little less oil and used tuna in water and didn't soak it in oil as she recommends. Much better this way. This peppers give a nice bit of heat. And it's SO EASY. You should try this sometime when you've got nothing good for dinner.

Happy Father's Day! (yesterday)

We had a lovely weekend, as usual. Father's day was well celebrated, but those pictures are near the end. Can I say now though, that Ben is an amazing father and does such a wonderful job balancing life things and family and playing with Katie and taking care of her? He's the best!

Mid week last week, we went shopping (well, walking really) at the mall...it was raining a bit outside so we were just looking for an indoor hangout. Ben had Katie in the backpack and we checked out the fountain.
Katie thought it was pretty cool. Too cool for swimming though. (ha ha, I'm so funny) (why are puns so much fun?)
The next day, Katie and I returned to the mall for some secretive pre-father's day shopping. Dad is pretty smart though and I'm not a great liar, so he may have figured out what we were up to. =)
Katie grabbed a receipt and did some fancy twisted origami...she's so talented! (I made sure she wasn't eating it.)
Friday evening we had a great visit at Great Auntie Joan's house...her boys were all in town so it was a good time to visit. She and Katie bonded over some toys.
And here's a picture of the boys...JP, D and M . And how goofy they are when not posing!Saturday, Katie and dad spent some time with the building blocks.
Dad helped a bit but insisted that Katie had actually put a few blocks on herself too. What a cutie.
Sunday we had the grandparents over to celebrate Father's day. Katie showed grandma her music/learning table. Feels like a full house! Grandmas and Katie always have fun!Near the end of dinner, we played a fun game...a version of "Katie says"? Really just demonstrating who really runs this family. And you have no idea how long we played this game...such fun for everyone! Enjoy!

She loves the toothpaste!

Well hello there! Nice to see you've come back. A regular picture/chatty post for you today. Because I'm pretty sure you don't come here for the movies, right? =)

On the weekend, we took lots of pictures. Ben was sitting on a clean kitchen counter (not entirely rare, but very entirely nice...the clean kitchen that is) and Katie begged to join him. (we should not be encouraging this kind of behaviour, I know)

Sunday we went shopping...Katie sat in the stroller and played the "round round" (she says) mouse game. (Great Auntie Joan showed her this one and she loves it!).
And dad tried on shoes.
These ones look good, don't you think?
More importantly, Sunday was Grandma Cheryl's Birthday! We went over for dinner and had a lovely time. Katie really loves salmon...she inhaled it and only THEN would she eat her green beans and potatoes.
She's been smiling a lot with her fingers in her mouth these days...not sure what's up with that.

There was cake (that Katie didn't eat) and a scary candle to blow out. When Katie realized there was blowing, she was excited again!
Another thing we did on the weekend was buy Katie some flavoured kid toothpaste. We've been using some baby non fluoride stuff but thought it was time to use real toothpaste. She does NOT like our nice minty stuff at all, so we bought the kids stuff. Funny thing is, she loved them (we bought two flavours, just in case one wasn't good) both even before we left the store...must be colourful packaging or something. We're letting her play with it only until it's open . This one's watermelon and the other is strawberry. We tried the strawberry for brushing and she definitely likes it. I had a taste...Ew...I think it's disgusting...overly sweet, fake strawberry taste. But I suppose to a little girl it's probably better than strong mint.
PS...another funny note...for pictures sometimes, I've started getting her to say "cheese" like people do, and it really works to get smiles. So funny! (and she doesn't seem to be upset afterwards that there actually isn't any real cheese to eat...I was worried about that...she loves cheese!)

Weekend good but too fast!

Our weekend was good but went by WAY too fast. I have some pictures to show but haven't gotten around to putting them on the computer yet.

I CAN share the video that I had trouble getting on Youtube last week.



It's not the greatest quality, but it does show her sitting up well.

I'll have a better blog tomorrow!

Kitty, Storm and Kissing

Hello!
Still working on the IOUs...I did take a video of Katie sitting up, but am having trouble getting it onto Youtube.

Earlier in the week Katie and I went for a walk (to the mall) and tried out her new hat. (a birthday gift from Darlene!). Cute eh?

At first I thought she didn't like it, as she kept taking it off and I kept putting it back on, but once when I was slow to put it back on, she did it herself, so I think she was just getting to know her new hat.
Tuesday we went to visit Papa and Grandma as they had been away all weekend in Vancouver. Papa tried to give Katie a ride on his shoulders and at first she was fine,
...but decided that she'd rather not after all.
Later at home I tried to get a picture of her Smelling face, but got this instead (which is cute).
The closest I got was this...which is really, about halfway there...imagine it more scrunched. (she's smelling the flowers on her dress)

Grandma Cheryl and Grandpa Ken dropped by...and so did the neighbourhood Kitty. Katie was very excited!And it was nice and sunny, so Grandma took Katie outside to see the Kitty up close. Nice Kitty! (I opted not to show you the picture I took of the Kitty's butt by accident...but it WAS a funny picture.)Wednesday night we had a very very nbig storm, thunder and lightning and hail and all. Katie wasn't fazed a bit. One thing I've noticed this week is that Katie has mastered the ability to put the little shapes on the pegs of this toy. Last week or two I don't think she could so that. She's still working out matching up the colurs, but maybe we just don't care about that right now. She also got a new toy from Papa that is simlar...she'll be a pro before you know it!

And while at Papa's on Wednesday there was book reading too. There's ALWAYS book reading. And while I was at work, strawberries for snack time!And, the last one for you today...a kissing picture! To you all, I say "Mwah!" (kiss) and have a great weekend!

IOU

Because I did not take any pictures the rest of yesterday, I can only give you an IOU.

IOU:
One video of Katie getting into a sitting up position...like I mentioned before, she's doing this all the time now...even in the bathtub. I can tell she likes the freedom of this new skill.

One video or picture of her "Smelling"...Grandma Cheryl taught her to smell flowers on the weekend. Katie scrunches up her whole face and gives a big "sniff!". On command...which is kind of funny.

One picture of video of her kissing ("Mwah!" she says) someone/something. Since she really learned the kissing a couple of weeks ago, she is now a very good kisser. She will most often kiss on command ("give dad a kiss goodbye") and has been seen several times kissing her reflection, The Simpsons DVD (she thinks it's a book) and a various animals on her own. It's too cute.

These I promise to provide for you hopefully this week sometime. I will try. If I somehow forget, someone please remind me about what IOU.

Have a great Tuesday!

Sitting Up Girl

Hello! Sorry for the late blogging today. Katie napped but not for long (enough) this morning. I was behind the ball anyway and missed my chance at blogging. She is napping right now (I think). So we blog quickly...
Auntie Andrea stopped by on Wednesday last week for a quick visit. Hi!
And Papa used the camera we keep stashed in the diaper bag and took some pictures while he was watching Katie on Wednesday. It appears they went to the park.
Getting ready for the swings!
Weeeee!
And there's a horse to ride too!
I'm pretty sure this is with the blossoms in Great Uncle Jerry's backyard...don't quote me on that though. Thursday night we had pasta and sauce for dinner. Sauce = mess.I could tell Katie didn't mind getting messy...and it wasn't that bad to clean her up...just can't let her touch anything until we get that cloth out!Friday Katie was crawling around (she has MASTERED the art up getting herself into a sitting position...does it all the time now and so effortlessly I can't believe she hasn't been doing it all along.!) and she got into my work shoes...pretty."See, I LIKE shoes!"A fun "side-effect" of the sitting up is that now, when we go into Katie's bedroom in the morning to wake her up, we see this:A sleepy, happy girl, with bedhead, ready for whatever the day has in store!
Today, we already went out. I decided to skip strollercize and we met Jo-anne and her girls at the swimming pool in Sherwood Park. Had a lovely time, Katie really enjoyed the waves and the float-along river. We will have to go there again.

And now it's time for lunch. (I hear Katie...she's up...good timing sweetie!)