23 Months

Next month this little girl turns two. I can't believe it. She really is becoming such a little girl. It baffles me. So here are some things I want to remember about this awesome stage in her life.

• Favorite song is "The Wise Man and the Foolish Man," or as Kate calls it, "Rock!"
• Loves to read books. Any of the Carl (the Rottweiler) books are a big hit.
• Can spot a "special treat" from a mile away. And by a mile away I mean whenever I try to sneak one into my mouth. 
• Favorite foods are fruit (especially bananas and peaches) and cereal. Pasta is another big hit.
• Favorite game is "Little Piggies". I need to get the way she says "Roast beef" on video. It's the cutest thing ever.
• Some of my favorite phrases she uses are:
• "Meesa peas" ("Excuse me please"). This is said as a command rather than as a polite request. 
• "Booboy Dee" ("Good boy, Deacon"). 
• "Mama". She just started using this the other day. Usually she calls me "Mom". However, the way she says Mama is just so sweet, and she seems to reserve it for when she is calling out for me, as opposed to when she is just talking about me. 
• "Do it again!" She said this for the first time while swimming in the lake with her uncle Kayle. He was doing something she found funny. It was also the first grammatically correct sentence she said.
•  Likes to "mess around". This is the general term I use for when she is procrastinating nap or bedtime. She quickly caught onto this phrase and now says "mess around" with an impish smile like it's one of the most fun things ever. I guess it probably is.
• Has a rapidly expanding vocabulary and sense of language. She has recently been using so many words I didn't even think she knew. This girl likes to talk. About everything.
• Will put her hand on my belly and smile, waiting for baby sister to kick her. 
• Can count to three. 
• Loves to be outside - walking, running, riding in her stroller, or even just to let Deacon out to go potty.
• The only thing she loves more than being outside is going on the boat. I don't think a day has gone by recently when I haven't heard about the boat. 
• Loves to swim, but sometimes has to be convinced to actually get in the water. 
• Loves wearing panties. This means we have just started letting her wear them out of the house. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
• Adores her family. And not just the people who live in this house. She talks everyday about at least one family member (though usually several). I hear lots about her G.G., Grandma, and various aunts, uncles, and cousins. 
• Went on her first camping trip on a floating campsite at Lake Oroville. 2 days, 1 night. Pure fun for Kate. It combined the things she loves the most (boating, swimming, and family) all into one. She was in heaven.  All she has been talking about since then is "Mary, Emma, Boat!!!".

On the boat at Lake Oroville, smiling at her cousin Mary

Panties!

We have officially embarked on the journey of potty training. In truth Kate has seemed ready for this for a while, but seeing as I was in my first trimester at the time I wasn't really up for it. Once second trimester hit and I began to regain some energy, I decided I really needed to stop putting it off and just give it a go. The thing is that when you are wiping baby bums (well, toddler bums) all you can think about is how much more convenient it would be to just have them use the toilet. But when it comes down to actually doing it, you realize that diapers are probably the most convenient thing ever. But I decided to just give it a shot. Since Kate is still on the younger side, I figured that if things didn't work out we'd just try again later, no harm done.

And a part of me wanted her to not be ready. Yep, I became the parent who wants to keep their baby small forever. It's just that diapers are one of the last signs of being a baby, and even if Kate was ready to start giving them up, I wasn't. But one morning we just ditched them and put on panties. It was a long day. We spent hours on the potty. It was exhausting. There were tears and tantrums involved. The next day was better. The third day she had zero accidents. WHAT?? Same with day four and five. Day six I started giving her a bit more freedom and trying to encourage her to tell me when she had to go (instead of sitting on the potty practically all day long). So we went back to having a few accidents. But you know what? She was doing phenomenal. She caught on to the concept so quickly. And the part of me that wanted to keep her a baby just died a little inside. Oh well, I guess this is really only the first step. I'm sure there will be many more of these moments on my parenting journey, probably of far greater significance than learning to use the toilet. But still, it's hard to watch your baby grow up.

It's probably been a little over two weeks since we started this potty training thing. Yesterday Brett and I were hanging around the house and noticed that Kate (who had run out of sight) was being unusually quiet. So I went to investigate. I found her sitting on her little froggy potty going poop all by herself. I was amazed! Later that day she came running out of the bathroom naked yelling, "pee!". As I rushed in to get her on the potty, I realized she had already gone. She wasn't telling me she needed to go, she was announcing she already had! And while she still wears diapers when she sleeps and while out of the house, she has started keeping her diapers dry during outings. I'm a bit terrified to put her in panties when we go out of the house. Cleaning up pee on my own floor is no big deal. In my car or out in public seems unfathomable to me. Maybe I just need to get over it? I guess we'll just see what happens. But we are well on our way to having a potty trained little girl.

Did I just say little girl? Oops. I mean, she will be Baby Kate forever, right?

Oh, and by the way. She looks absolutely adorable in panties. So much so that even though I think it would be safe to put some shorts on her in the house now, I just haven't bothered because watching her run around in panties is so cute!

Just reading a magazine on the potty

Milestones - The First Owie

Ok, so Kate has been hurt before. There has even been blood involved. But what happened today was different.

We were taking Deacon out and Kate was wearing flip flops (her favorite, if not her most practical pair of shoes). She was running all around and I kept telling her to slow down because I could just foresee her tripping and eating it on the cement. On the way back to the house she finally decided to slow down - and just after that she tripped and skinned her knee. This obviously isn't the first time she's fallen down and scraped her knee, but this time there was actually blood involved and a band-aid was actually a necessary thing. Normally my gut response when Kate gets hurt is to cry. I can usually contain myself, but whenever she gets hurt my mom emotions go all crazy and I am more shaken up than she is.

Not this time. This time, I was excited.

Yep, my child was crying and in pain and I was happy. Because this was the first owie that I got to "fix". Normally my only role is to give a hug, and then move on with life. But this required first aid skills. Cleaning and ointment and band-aids. And for some reason after watching her sit on the toilet while I cleaned and bandaged her I just felt like a mom. She sat so still and did such a good job.

Suffice it to say we are both big girls now.

Santa Cruz

Yesterday we took a spontaneous trip to Santa Cruz because we felt it had been too long since we had seen the ocean. Brett and I both love the ocean and just feel that it's something we have to go visit every once in a while. It turns out Kate loves the ocean, too. She kept running toward the water and trying to escape from our grasp to go play in the waves. She was completely fearless. The water was freezing, but this didn't deter her in the slightest. There was a bit of a tantrum when we had to pull her away from the beach. This seems to be a trend whenever we have to take her away from water. The girl just loves water. I guess seeing as she is my daughter, this should not come as a surprise.

See? She is looking at the ocean instead of the camera.

A sea shell

Looking at a little crab Daddy caught

Here's a little video of the adventure:

Kate's on a Boat!

Brett was able to take the Monday after Mother's Day off work, so we took the opportunity to visit his mom and brother in El Dorado Hills that weekend. Kate's uncle Kayle took us out on the lake for the first time this season. The highlight of the trip (for me) was that it was Kate's first time "swimming" in the lake. She was a little unsure about it at first (I think she thought she was going to just sink) but after she discovered that the life vest kept her afloat she loved it and kept saying "more! more!" She was not happy when we made her get out.

Kate also loved watching her dad, uncle, and cousin Mary wakeboard and wake surf. She especially liked pointing out when they would fall down.

Mary surfing

Kate and Grandma

First time in the lake!

Splashing

Brett and Kate have this habit of having too much fun together...

Driving the boat with Kayle

Oh, and for the record, I was pretty bummed I couldn't wakeboard. But hey, growing a person is more important.

San Jose Rose Garden

We recently took a family outing one afternoon to the San Jose Rose Garden. It was our attempt to explore some of the local culture and attractions. It was fun and beautiful.

 

One of the problems I am having as Kate gets older is that it is harder and harder to get good pictures of her. I probably have a million pictures of her when she is baby just looking at me and smiling. That doesn't really happen anymore! I partially blame this on the fact that I need a better camera (to be able to take pictures of her as she moves that aren't complete blurs). But the pictures I do capture, like this one of her and Brett climbing the hill together, warm my heart just as much as her big smile. 

Kate's Big News

Shortly after we moved into our new home in San Jose we found out some big news - Kate is going to be a big sister! I am so excited. Kate adores babies and points them out wherever we go. I anticipate that she will also be very helpful because she loves helping me with things around the house. Here are some pictures we took of Kate that we used when we announced the news to family and friends:

 

Kate's little brother or sister is due to arrive December 4th!