Sisterly love

I have really enjoyed watching my two girls interact. I am amazed at how early they are able to play together considering they are almost two and a half years apart. Katherine is a wonderful big sister. She loves Baby "Kay- yine" so much and really is sweet. With every new developmental stage - sitting, crawling, pulling up, cruising - Katherine interacts with her more. Of course we are also learning things like how to share with a baby who doe snot play by the same rules and how to keep big girl toys where a baby cannot get them. It is a learning process but I have been delighted at how it has gone. So, here are a lot of random photos from the past few months of the girls together. They loaded with the most recent first and I was too lazy to rearrange in chronological order.

Caroline can climb into the little chairs now so the girls can sit together. She looks so grown up. Notice that Katherine is not too excited about sharing her crayons because Caroline just enjoys dropping them on the floor.

Bath time is always fun. Caroline could care less that Katherine pours water on her head.

Katherine has even decided that she should feed Caroline. I don't have to tell you the mess that this makes. She is much better at putting Cheerios on her high chair tray.

Caroline always wants to see what Katherine is doing. They play pretty well together and can really make one another laugh.

They have matching dresses that my mom's friend gave them. Don't you like the choke hold?

Caroline has learned to climb stairs and this includes playgrounds. Katherine makes sure to tell me that baby sister is climbing and then help her to navigate.

Katherine is such a helper and loves to push Caroline on the swing at the park.

I love that they are already such great friends.

Girls' Day Out

One of the things that I gave Sam for Father's Day was an uninterrupted day to work in his workshop. My good friend Jen gave the same thing to her husband Richard. We gave this to them together so that they could work one week on Richard's projects and one week on Sam's projects. Some men might think this sounds like a lousy Father's Day gift but our men loved it. The loved that they got to work with a friend, no (well, very few) interruptions from the girls, and no "honey do" list.

So, while the men were working on new insulation and sheet rock for our workshop, the girls had a very fun day out.

We started by eating brunch at the American Girl Bistro. Katherine did not even know that such a store and restaurant existed. We talked about how we were going to a special restaurant where you get to take your baby doll to eat with you. She and her Bitty Baby have matching dresses. She was excited to eat at the special restaurant. Katherine's baby is named Caroline, "just like mommy's baby Caroline".

Evie also enjoyed having her baby doll, but Caroline really enjoyed that Evie's baby was sitting next to her and that she was able to share her paci.

We ordered one omelet and one blueberry pancake dish and split both. All three of us thought they were yummy.

After brunch we went next door to the mall. There was a violinist from the symphony who was doing a special program by the playground. This was the first time Caroline has been to a mall playground since she has been big enough and mobile enough to enjoy it. She especially enjoyed the animals on the wall. Notice in the second picture that she is not holding on to anything. This is a new skill.

Last, we went to a teacher/toy store for craft time. We made a few Father's Day crafts. It was a great place because there were a lot of toys to play with while the mom's shopped.

It was a great day to hang out with good friends and the dads were able to accomplish a lot while we were gone.

Grammy's house

A few weeks ago Katherine went on her first overnight trip to Grammy's house without mom or dad. Her cousins Emily (5 years older) and Hannah (6 months younger) went as well. I was a little nervous about how she would do but she never even asked to call home. The girls had a ball. They had tea parties, helped in the kitchen, played dress up, played in the sprinklers, planted flowers and had an all around wonderful time. Katherine cannot wait to go back.

Pip and Squeak's week #1

This is a post that I wrote back in May and just realized never got posted. Oops.

It seems like there are so many little things that the girls do that I want to remember and/or share but they are not a big enough deal to be a post on their own. So, I am starting a "feature" of my blog called Pip and Squeak's week. I may not actually post it on a strict weekly schedule but this is where I will catch up on random thoughts and stories.

Katherine talks ALL. THE. TIME. which means that she says some pretty funny and clever things.
-Today I went to vote for City Council and Proposition 1 and 2. I took Katherine with me. She asked what we were doing so I proceeded to explain as best I could, the concept of voting to a 3 year old. I told her that I was going to help choose a leader for our city by telling the people which person I wanted to be the leader. Then he would help to make the rules that I would then follow. Then she said, "Mommy, when I grow up and am a princess. I vote too, all my byself."
-After voting we went to the grocery store and when we got in the car to leave she said, "mommy, I want to go play now." I told her that we were going home. Her reply was, "but I thought we were going to play 'follow the leader'". All the voting talk of a leader got her excited about playing.

For the past week or more we have read the same bedtime story every night. Katherine asks to read "Jesus rose again" from her Big Picture Story Bible. This actually spans over 3 stories as we read when Jesus died, how his followers were sad and how he rose again. She asks tons of questions, the same ones every night, and I try my best to answer them in an age appropriate manner that she can understand. At dinner with Nana and Pops she asked Pops if she knew the story of Jesus rising and she told him that it was very important. Her explanation of being dead is that you go to sleep and never wake up.

Nana asked Katherine if she played with her friends Cole and Landon at school. Katherine said, "Yes but they are boys and boys don't like to play princess. Boys like to play "dead" and other scary things.

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day Sam!

I feel lo blessed that my kids have such a wonderful daddy. When he comes home from work they are both so excited to see him. I love that he is such an involved dad that does not hesitate to jump into any parenting task. I got lucky that when I married Sam I not only found a great husband but a great daddy too.

We had a great Father's Day. After church we went to my parents house where we had lunch, opened presents, watched TV and took naps. The girls even cooperated and took some good pictures with their daddy.

It was a little more difficult to get a good picture with Pops.

For Father's Day I made Sam a scrapbook to put a Father's Day photo with the girls in each year. It was so easy as this was only the 4th Father's Day. I think we should be able to keep up with it. We also gave him some BBQ accessories and a day to work in the workshop with his friend Richard. That was yesterday and I will post on what the girls did later.

Pops was also given some new BBQ accessories to go with the BBQ grill that we gave him 2 years ago. Pops is a wonderful grandfather to my girls and a great daddy to me. His New Year's resolution was to see the girls more, weekly if possible so when he hears that they are going to be at their house during the day he will come home for lunch if he can. He and Katherine like to go out in the backyard to play soccer. Considering he was my soccer coach for years I would not be surprised if he has her doing drills before long.

We were all tired. Caroline fell asleep first so we decided to put Katherine down for a nap. Then Sam and Pops fell asleep on the couches.

I did a little Father's Day questionnaire with Katherine. Her answers were pretty funny and seemed to revolve a bit around food which was funny.

Katherine’s 2009 Father’s Day Questions

I really love it when my daddy bake a cake.
My dad likes to bake eggs.
My dad always tells me to make bagels.
The best thing he does is bake eggs.
It makes him happy when he eat cake.
My dad loves to relax by on the bed.
The best thing he cooks is pancakes.

When my dad shops he likes to buy pizza.
My dad’s favorite household chore is clean the floor.
My dad’s favorite TV show is basketball.
If he could go on a trip, he would go to Austin.
I love my dad because I like to kiss him and hug him.

My favorite thing to do with daddy is play puzzles and play dress up.