22 months

Katherine, you continue to be an utter delight. It is so much fun to be with you. You make me laugh all day long and I am amazed by your cuteness! Every month you do so many new and fun things and then when I sit down to write this post I never seem to remember them all. Here are a few.

• Today you said your name on your own for the first time. We did not think about the fact that the name Katherine is actually phonetically challenging when we gave it to you (not that it would have changed anything). Usually when we ask you a question like "whose sippy cup is this?" you will say "ooors" which translates to "yours". We are still working on pronouns with you. It is a difficult concept. Today when I asked you that question, you said, "fafrine" which is a fairly close rendition of your name.
  


• My new favorite time of day is when we eat breakfast. You have a new table that we moved to the kitchen and we sit together as we eat. Mommy does not fit on the chair very well but I endure it to have breakfast with you. We actually eat all of our meals here unless daddy is with us and these pictures are actually of your lunch. You are becoming a much better eater these days though there are still some meals where I am challenged to find what it is that you want. You usually can tell me though. In the morning you tell me if you want bagels, waffles or pancakes. When you get food on your hands or face or on the table you ask me for a towel so you can clean up your mess.

• The other day you were trying to help by bringing cleaning up a mess on the floor. You dipped your paper towel into Hooligan's water and used it to clean the floor. You had a little too much water so then you were able to wipe it up with a dry towel. I love that you like to help mommy to clean up.

• You love to give a record of what you did that day. It is so amazing to see what you remember about each thing we do. When daddy gets home I will ask you to tell him what you did and you start to spout of lists of words. On a day you go to MDO you will say, "Abby, Robert, eat, house, doll" After the arboretum you said, "house, walk, water, flower, Hannah, deer". After playing with Ben you say, "Ben, be nice, two puppies, outside, down, sleep (Ben always sleeps)". When I tell you that daddy went to work, you say, "daddy, foffee (coffee), bagel, cheese, towel, bye-bye" because those are the things that daddy takes with him when he leaves for work.


• When we get in the car you love to have a "roll call" and name off all the people that were there. If I am on the phone with someone in the family, you name off all the other people in that family. I hope you can remember all the names for Christmas, there will be 15 of us at Grammy and Grandad's house.


• Every day you will astonish me with new words that you know. Daddy and I were talking about how we think you know everything now. It seems that you can label just about every noun that you encounter. I tell people that I think you have well over 300 words but I have long since lost count. It is so fun that we are able to communicate. Life is so much easier when I know what you want and you are so much less frustrated now that you can communicate with me. Some new words this week are buckle, basket, syrup, waffle, ya, OK and yawn.


• You have begun to try to train the puppy. You give her the commands of "down", "sit", and "stay". She does not always obey you but she sometimes does. I like that you are establishing yourself as an alpha member of the pack. You really love your puppy and actually are starting to say her name. You say it "hoogan". You always know where her bone is and try to give it to her even when she does not want it. There are many mornings that the first thing you say is "puppy.


• You have started to say "ya" a lot. I am glad that the answer to everything is no longer "no". It is pretty cute the way you say it but I would like to work on you saying "yes" and ultimately "yes mam"
  
• One day when we were playing outside you started to take slow, big steps as you said "big steps" It was so cute and I have no idea where you got it.
  
• When you burp, you will say, "burp" and then say "excuse me". I am so glad you are polite when you burp.


• You often will say that you are a big girl. I think you got this from when I told you what a big girl you are because you can go up and down the stairs in our garage all by yourself. You really are getting to be a big girl.


• You sure love your baby doll. You are so nurturing. Often during the day you will get baby and sit down to feed her milk. You are very discreet and cover her up with her blanket. You love to give her kisses and change her diaper.


• You are starting to be a little bit of an exhibitionist. You have gained the skill of pulling off your clothes. I think it started with pulling off your pants to go to the potty but now you are also able to pull off your shirt. Sometimes you will just decide that you are ready to strip down. Pretty quickly you can pull off your pants and take off your diaper. To our knowledge you have only done this at home. It could get quite awkward if you were to do this out in public.
  
• Ever since we went to Norway you have been waking up at night almost every night. I am really ready for this to stop. Over the next few weeks when Daddy is on vacation we are going to work on this. All of us need our sleep.

• You sure love your daddy. I love to watch the two of you spend time together. You love to snuggle up with him to watch your "moomeee" or to read books. You are quite a cuddler.

• One day you were in the den bouncing up and down on your chair. You did this for a few minutes and had a ball. Here is a video of you "bouncing".

I love you Katherine!