Uncle Will

My brother is an airline pilot and lives out of state. Monday he called at 4 to tell me he had a 45 minute layover at 6 and would we want to come out to the airport to see him. Of Course! So we headed to the airport and hung out in the baggage claim area until he had to get back on the plane. Caroline warmed up immediately and was in Uncle Will's lap most of the time. Katherine was being a pill and would barely talk to him. Of this was after talking about him and how excited she was on the drive over there. We sure miss Uncle Will and wish he was in town longer.

The bag Will has is dinner from his favorite Mexican restaurant. He just can't get good Tex-Mex on the west coast.

Playdate

Caroline has spent much time tagging along with Katherine and all of the big kids. She is active but she rarely is with kids her own age. So, it was a lot of fun today when we had a play date just for Caroline. (Katherine was at school.) Luke and his mommy came over this morning. He is 7 months old and such a cutie. It was fun to see Caroline interact with someone her own size for once.

9 month Dr. visit

I took Caroline to Dr. H for her 9 month well visit and forgot to blog about it. As you can see, she was not a fan of getting her weight taken. What girl really is?

She did however love all of the crinkly paper that was on the table. That was a lot of fun!

And then there was that cute baby in the mirror to play with. She was a lot of fun too.

Here are her stats.
Weight 16 lb. 6 oz (20%) though I don't think that was right because they did not take off her full diaper and 2 weeks later she was 16 lb. 1 oz on the same scale and I don't think she actually lost weight.
Height 27.5 in. (50%)
Head 43.4 cm (30%)

Dr. H discovered that my very happy, content baby had another ear infection so that was the 3rd one. I hate that she has them but at least she does not seem too bothered by it.

People comment that she is so much bigger than Katherine was. I thought I would compare to Katherine's 9 month stats.
Height 27.72 in - 50%
Weight 15 lb. 7 oz. - 5%
Head 44.5 cm - 70%

So, Caroline is a little bigger. Considering that at 9 months 2 weeks she was 16 lb 1 oz she really was only about half a pound bigger. I find it funny how such a small amount can be a huge difference in percentage. We are just glad that regardless of their sizes they have both been very healthy.

Smoochy

Caroline has learned to give kisses but they are kisses that only a mother could love. Her kisses are wet, slobbery, open mouth kisses to the nose. They are so cute and funny but kind of gross too. She thinks they are funny.

Arboretum

Last week we went to the Arboretum with some friends who live on the other side of town so we do not get to see them as much as we used to. It was a cloudy day but one of the first days without rain all week so we enjoyed being outside.

We have been to the Arboretum and played in the Storybook Houses but we had not made it to the ones in the back of the park so we started there today. Katherine liked pretending she was on stage.

I gave her a lollipop so that ended up in a lot of the picture.s

The bamboo house had lion statues in front. There was a ball in the lion's mouth which is why he has his hand in there.

We enjoyed a nice picnic. Caroline and her friend crawled around and tried to eat all of the food they were not supposed to eat.

Katherine loves to get my camera and is getting better at taking pictures. I guess this is how she sees me.

Wildflowers

My friend had photos of her kids in wildflowers on her blog. I never was happy with my bluebonnet photos, especially of Caroline so I went after ballet to take photos in the wildflowers. Wouldn't you know, Caroline fell asleep on the way (about 3 minute drive) so I still don't have good wildflower photos of her. But, Katherine enjoyed it.

These last 3 photos were taken by Katherine. She was trying to take a picture of me in all three. The first one does not have me at all, the second a little bit and she did a pretty good job on the third one.

Mother's Lunch

Tuesday Katherine's school had a Mothers Lunch to celebrate Mother's Day. We enjoyed a nice time with our kids. They had made a cute flowerpot with painted bugs, flowers and butterflies using their fingerprints. Here is Katherine with her gift.

It was fun to be at her school during the day and to see her interact with the kids and teachers. She was excited to have me there for lunch with her.

Baseball

Sunday we joined 600 people of our church for volunteer appreciation at a minor league baseball game. I am not a big baseball fan but I do enjoy the minor league games. The ball park is very nice and also small. We had a lunch that was pretty good and enjoyed a day with the family.

Katherine loves playing with her friend Elise and her big sister Kaila so we sat with them.

After the game the kids are all able to run the bases. We took Katherine down and it was pretty funny. She kept stopping because she got something in her shoe or her friend did. A worker helped her to stay focused. I was having technical difficulties with my camera so luckily a friend captured Katherine coming home.

Yikes

Imagine my surprise today when I sat Caroline on the floor and she started to climb the stairs. I followed to see what would happen and she climbed an entire flight! Katherine was trying to stop her and you can hear her saying, "no ma'am" over and over. I am glad we don't have stairs and hope she does not figure out how to climb other things soon.

Cousins

Saturday we hung out with Sam's brother's family for the afternoon. It is always fun. You can see that Katherine was able to play with Emily and enjoy her favorite past time of "dress up". I am so thankful that Emily is such a sweet 8 year old because Katherine adores her and follows her around the entire time we are together.

Sam was able to hang out on the hammock with the other kids while George cooked the burgers. We have a nice hammock but no where to hang it since we have no trees.

A new venture

A few weeks ago I found out about a community garden in our neighborhood. I went to the website and saw that there was a waiting list and it sounded like it was long. I went ahead and signed up thinking it would be a year or two before we got a plot. Then I went out there with my neighborhood women's club and thought it was really cool. Well, yesterday I found out that our number is up and we have a plot if we want it. So, I took Sam and the girls out there after dinner to look at it.

On the way we saw 2 peacocks, one is albino. How cool is that. Keep in mind that this is only a few miles from our home and fully in the city.

Apparently there were over 50 plots added this year. A few weekends ago people went to work and build up the beds. Everyone helped their neighbor. Apparently whoever had bed 71 did not show up and that was then given to us. Our bed has a pile of dirt and the boards are laying there but not set up. So, we are starting this thing from scratch.

There are 86 plots in the garden. They are either 8'X12" or 8'x24'. Some people have quite a set up with trellises, cages, chairs, decor and lots of plants growing.

I think that this could be a really cool thing. It is pretty cheap and will be fun. We may even get to eat our produce. The entire garden is organic and we can grow whatever we want. Each plot has its own water source and we can even use soaker hoses and timers.

I know nothing about gardening. I did not grow up planting things at all. I don't even know where to start. But, we went to the library tonight and I have a bunch of books. This year I am setting my expectations low and hoping that we have a great learning experience.

Katherine is always interested in our camera and took the picture of Daddy and Caroline.