San Antonio "vacation"

A few weeks ago I went with a friend and our 4 kids on a "vacation" to San Antonio to visit another friend and her 3 kids. I say "vacation" because a house with 3 moms, no dads and 7 kids ages 3 months-6 years is not exactly relaxing but it sure was fun. The three moms have been friends for 13 years now. We were all in a Bible study during our single days. Jill and I even lived together for 3.5 years. We know one another well. The kids did amazingly well being together 24-7 for 4 days.

We went to a spray park at the Y. It was the first time Caroline had been since she has been walking. She had a lot of fun and was pretty adventurous.

Katherine is a little more timid at the spray park. She actually preferred the pool.
We spent one day at the Children's Museum. It was a lot of fun and a perfect activity for our group of kids.


Ellie is a cutie. She is just over a year older than Katherine. They had a fun time together.



Katherine loved this toy. I need to find out what it is and put it on the Christmas list.


The favorite activity was the mini grocery store where they got carts, loaded up their food and scanned it.
It is a preschool traffic jam on aisle 2.

Katherine decided to drive her groceries home, up the stairs was her goal.
Caroline was all over the place so Jill contained her in the cart.
Later she got to go shopping too.
Back at the house there was plenty of fun to be had. Caroline loved the Mardi Gras beads.
Sammy was playing dress up but he only put on the hat.
Caroline kept trying to slide down the slide on this toy. I finally had to put it away.
Somehow I did not get a good picture of Sarah or Ashley (she was always asleep). I also did not get a picture of the moms together.

It was a fun trip and though it was tiring, I enjoyed staying up past 1 am for 3 nights straight catching up with old friends who know me well.

13 months

Caroline, you are so much fun and you are the happiest baby (most of the time). You love to snuggle, give hugs and give kisses. I love that you are fitting into our affectionate family.

You enjoy music. You like to dance to the beat and you are learning to clap and do motions to certain songs. Your favorite is "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands".

You are communicating more now. You babble all the time and have a lot of 1 syllable words. It is hard to tell what you say all the time because most of it is "ba" or "da". When you think about it, a lot of words do start with "ba" - baby, bath, book, bye, bottle. "da" usually means dog or that. You will point to things when you say "da". You also say "mumm mumm" which is the name of your favorite snack. You have a few signs. I feel I have really dropped the ball and do not use them as much as I would like. You do "more", "all done" and "dog" the most. You are great at communicating using body language. If you are done eating, you shake your head and wave your hands around to say "no more".

You are a pretty good sleeper. You go to bed at about 7:30-8. I usually nurse you and then put you down awake. You rarely fuss. You do still wake up most nights in the middle of the night. It has actually gotten worse recently where you don't just fuss but you scream. I try to avoid but usually do end up nursing you. In the morning you wake up at about 6 most of the time and then end up in our bed until Katherine wakes up at 7:30. That is our morning snuggle time. You take 2 naps most days. The morning nap usually begins about 10:30 or 11 and is only 30-45 minutes long. The afternoon nap is usually longer but the time varies more. We are not super strict on times around here because every day is different with big sister's schedule. You are very flexible and don't get too fussy if your nap is pushed back.

You have changed so much in the past month that it is amazing. Of course this comes mainly as a result of learning to walk. At your birthday you were just starting to take steps. By the end of the month you could go long distances without falling and you are fast. You had a cute little bow legged walk for awhile with your arms flailing about to balance but that is mostly gone.

You are so steady on your feet that now you will carry things all around the house. This poor basket of food went from the kitchen to Katherine's room dropping pieces of play food along the way as you stumbled.
You have become quite a climber as well. You like to climb on the kid sized chairs and stools that we have for Katherine. Usually you climb on and sit very well but sometimes you will stand on them and that makes me very nervous. You have also figured out how to climb off of furniture like a bed our couch by rolling on to your tummy and going feet first. You think it is really fun to walk right off or go head first if you know mommy is there to catch you. That also makes me nervous. I am so glad we do not have any stairs because you would be a daredevil. You actually can go up and down stairs pretty well but you do stumble from time to time.

You continue to be a fabulous eater. You have not had baby food for quite some time. In fact, you really protest eating any food off of a spoon, including yogurt, applesauce, cottage cheese and oatmeal. You will eat ice cream though. I just put all of your dinner on your tray and you go to town. Most of the time you eat exactly what we eat. Lately at the end of the meal you decide to eat it straight off your tray without using your hands. It is really funny but horrible manners.

You also love to feed us. You get really frustrated when we don't want what you are offering. It is so nice of you to share. Sadly, you still love to eat Hooligan's dog food. Almost daily I will find you playing in the dog bowl and often you have a kibble or two in your mouth. I guess the expensive food we buy that dog tastes pretty good. Her water bowl is ever more fun and you enjoy splashing in it. We put the bowls away a lot of the time but at some point the dog has to eat and you have to learn to ignore it.
You love to mess the house up and it really frustrates Katherine. A lot of the time you carry her toys all over the place. We are working on putting things away. You are good at putting objects into baskets and boxes but usually you like to take them right back out. For your birthday I let you finger paint. I want to do an art project each year for your birthday and have them all to compare and see how your art changes. You thought it was a lot of fun but of course you put the paint in your mouth.
You are getting into everything. I am so glad the house was pretty well baby proofed from Katherine. You can get into a few drawers and cabinets and you love that. You get very frustrated at the ones that do not open. We put a foam cover on the fireplace hearth to protect you from falls but as you can see you laugh at our efforts and just pull it off.
You have a few friends that we like to play with from time to time. This is Zach. He comes to our house about once a month while his parents both have a meeting. This time he was sitting and you thought it was so fun to play with him. I really wish we had more play dates with kids your age but it is hard since we are always doing stuff with Katherine. This year I hope to schedule more while she is at school. At least you know how to get along with the older kids.
You love being outside. When I open any of the doors you try to sneak by to go walk in the grass. Hopefully the weather will cool off soon so we can spend more time in the back yard.
Your sister is your favorite person in the world. If she is taking a nap you get upset and go to her door and cry and try to go in. You try to copy everything that she does. You know how to carry a purse, talk on a princess cell phone, love on a baby doll and wear a tiara. You love to get her dress up things and wear them.
You love the water whether it is the pool or tub. You are not scared to dip your face in and get wet. In the tub you grab the cup and dump it on your head like you are washing your hair.
You are starting to protest your car seat, especially if we have been in and out a few times already. You arch your back and climb out so fast. You are still in your infant carrier because I hate to give up the flexibility of putting your car seat in the stroller if you fall asleep in the car. You are still small enough to be in that seat but I know that you will move up soon.

You are not a huge fan of books. I have done a poor job of reading to you regularly. I read to Katherine and you listen in but putting you to bed tends to be rushed because we always seem to be behind schedule. I need to be better because I want you to love books like Katherine does.

Caroline, we love you so much.

Family time

We were back in Sam's home town and the cousins enjoyed their time together playing in the back yard. I never knew a single crepe myrtle tree could provide so much fun.

Nathan climbed the tree. The girls collected the flowers for bouquets. I think it is so funny how they all tilted their heads for the picture.

Katherine also enjoyed making a pie of dirt and grass.

Two Hairs

Growing up one of my nick names was "Christy Two Hairs". It came from when my mom put my hair in pigtails and I called them "two hairs". This week I put Caroline's hair in "two hairs". I will admit, I think it looks pretty silly but I had to document it nonetheless. I decided to try it this week because she wore the dress that Katherine wore the first time I put her hair into pigtails. So, of course being silly I had to recreate those photos. Looking at these, I think my kids do not look alike as much as I was thinking they did.

3.5

Katherine, you are now 3 and a half years old. I have not written a monthly blog post since you turned 3. That seems so long ago yet your big princess party seems like it was just yesterday. You are growing up but looking back at your 36 month post not as much has changed as I thought. You are getting better at the things you already were doing. It is so neat to see how God has made you.

One key thing I have noticed in the past 6 months is that you are truly a little girl. It seems that at age 3 gender differences are becoming more obvious. You were the only girl in your class at school for the last 3 months of the year. You did fine and held your own but you complained that the boys would not play dress up or princess with you. Instead they wanted to play batman, monsters, shooting or dead. I was quite shocked when you came home one day and did a spot on imitation of someone dying. You also picked up some bad habits of potty talk from those boys.

You still have a few good friends who are boys but it is really funny how different you all are. The other day Ben was over and in five minutes I heard the following:

#1 K: Ben, come on. We need to go get our baby dolls.

Ben: I don't play with baby dolls.

#2 K: Ben, lets watch a movie. Which princess movie do you want to watch?

B: Batman.

K: Silly, that's not a princess.

This summer we have been focusing on making some new girl friends and it has been a lot of fun. You have hit a point where you and your friends can play for a long time in your room while the mommies are in the other room. It is really nice. You are a girly girl. You love to play dress up, tea party, kitchen, school, ballet and baby doll. Your kitchen has become a lot more fun lately and you pretend to make me all kinds of creations to eat.

You continue to be obsessed with all things "princess". I think that overall it is pretty harmless but I get sick of all of the Disney stuff. There are Disney princesses on everything and you want it all. Your favorite is Cinderella. We have started reading all of the original fairy tales and have really enjoyed that. There are so many versions that we will never run out of fairy tale books. I am really trying to focus on all of the positive virtues that we can learn in these stories rather than the "dreams come true" and "happily ever after" sentiments but you have bought it all "hook, line and sinker". You say that you want to be Cinderella when you grow up and you will marry a prince and live in a castle. You really think that you will. When I asked why you want to be a princess you said it was so you can dance.

Playing dress up is pretty much your favorite activity. You are in a costume from when you wake up until you go to bed if I let you. The rules are that you have to take it off to eat and when we leave the house with the exception of one accessory. So, usually you are wearing your tiara.

Overall you are not a very adventurous girl. You took swim lessons but now that they are over you prefer to stay on the steps rather than go in the water. At a playground you are timid and don't climb too high or go down the big slides. I guess I would rather have a timid girl than a daredevil.

You love crafts and drawing. You love painting at your easel, crayons, markers, glue, scissors, etc. Every creation is taken to the fridge where you use all of the magnets to hang it. You have recently shown a huge interest in letters and writing words. You can do most of you 9 letter name on your own. Oh why didn't I give you an shorter name like Mia or Kate, at least a palindrome like Hannah or Ella (Kathryn, your kids are lucky:)

You learned a lot at school this year. You already knew your colors, shapes, letters and numbers. Now you also know your letter sounds, days of the week, months of the year, pledge of allegiance and a handful of songs. You continue to be obsessed with rhyming words and that is a part of our nightly bedtime routine. You also have a pretty good number sense are are getting simple addition and subtraction concepts. You have not shown much interest in numbers and still count up to 29 and then twenty-ten, twenty-eleven, etc. I am sure you would learn that it is thirty if we actually worked on it. You have added a great working knowledge of your ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc).

You talk ALL THE TIME. Seriously, rarely are you quiet between talking and singing. You have a huge vocabulary. It is constantly amazing me some of the words that you know. I like to say that you are fluent in English. Anyone, not just your parents, can understand what you are saying and you are not shy about talking. You have a few speech and grammar kinks that still need to be worked out. The main one is your "L's". You can say "l" but for some reason if it is at the beginning of a syllable it comes out more like a "y". So you say that we are going to the "Yibrary". Grammatically your biggest struggle is with using pronouns correctly, mainly when it is possessive or switching the objective and subjective case. An example would be "Dem go to dem house today" instead of "They went to their house today."

You love to play all sorts of games. Daddy likes to play "Hide and Go Seek", and "Hot and Cold" with you as well as all of your puzzles, board games and memory games. You are getting better at doing them by yourself without getting frustrated.

Your hair has gotten a lot longer and I love the curls. I am jealous of your curls. You are quite particular on any given day as to how you wear your hair. Usually it is down, in a bow, a single ponytail or recently a french braid. That is your favorite but it does not stay in very well. When you have a braid or ponytail I think you look like such a big girl. A recent bad habit now that you have long hair is that you put it in your mouth. Gross!

You love to be outside. Our backyard now has a lot of fun things, your burger house, sand box, sand and water table and a swing set. We are ready for the weather to cool off more so we can really enjoy being outside. You love to pick the leaves off the bushes and the flowers off the tree to add to your sand concoctions. You like to pretend that you are making scones. I am not sure you even know what a scone is but you heard it somewhere so that is what you make. You also enjoy learning about nature. I love that even though you are girly, you don't hesitate to pick up a bug or chase an animal that you want to catch.

You have a good sense of direction and recognize landmarks around town. You have told me when we went the wrong way, when we are near to Nana's house and even when we got on the Toll road.

You have always had a stubbornness but as a 3 year old you have started to show a true defiance. There are many times that I will ask you to do something and you directly say "No!" or you will look right at me and do the opposite. You know our rules and test the limits. You try to see how close to breaking the rule you can get without actually breaking the rule. I have heard that the "terrible two's" are followed by the "trying three's" and I would agree. One thing that is difficult about three is that with the improved communication brings the ability to argue and negotiate. There is a lot of discipline going on right now and I know that I can do better and be even more consistent. You need it.

Here is one example of a conversation we had while in time out.

Me: Did you hear mommy tell you 3 times not to put a bite in your mouth before we said our prayer?

K: No

Me: Why not?

K: My ears were closed.

It was really hard not to laugh out loud at that one. Now I tell her to have her ears open and she physically puts her hand on her ears to open them. I have also seen her put her hands over her ears to ignore me.

Here are a few other funny things you have said this week.

-If mommy or daddy ask you a question you will sometimes answer "It is a secret." What that really means is that you don't know or you forgot the answer.

-You said something about your mommy's mommy. I asked you "who is my mommy?" You replied with complete seriousness and shock, "You don't know who your mommy is?"

-You always comment about "when I was a little baby" if you mean you did something when you were younger.

-Don't worry about me mom. Worry about your own.

-I am listening to Katherine make phone calls on her princess phone and it is so cute. She announces, "Mom, I am going to call Sweeping Blutee". Then I hear, "Hi! I thought I was calling Sweeping Blutee. No, this is Cinderella instead. Oh hi. How are you? Now I call Sweeping Blutee. Hi Sweeping Blutee I called the wrong number."

You are finally getting more comfortable with praying at night. You like to thank God for dress up, the princesses, food, your parents and your friends.

Katherine, we love you so much. You are growing up into a big girl.