Swimming :)

We just got back from two weeks in Florida, and it was awesome! My favorite part - seeing that Kate loves the water. As you may know, I LOVE water. There's nothing I'd rather be doing than swimming, really just playing, in the water. Last year Kate enjoyed it, but now that she's a little older, she was CRAZY about it! She would play for an hour, get out, and then immediately want to get back in. Fantastic. I can't wait until summer!

Random updates

Here are a few random things to know about Kate right now:

Her hair is crazy curly! Sorry, pics soon, but take my word for it! I need help on styling such hair - wow! If I don't wash it enough it starts to turn to dreads. When it's wet it goes down the middle of her back, but dry it still bounces up above her shoulders.

Favorite activity is still dancing. Also loves spinning in circles, and she can do it like 100 times without falling over! Crazy!

Trying to learn the ABCs...super cute! Also learning to count. Not a fan of numbers 8 & 9 - she'd just assume we get to TEEENNN!!!

If you ask her what color something is, she will always tell you Green. If she was a boy I'd probably have been worried by now that she was color blind. But after some probing we can get to other options. It's pretty funny, especially because no one in my family likes the color green ;) Except maybe Kate!

She's got a pretty witty sense of humor. I don't know if I can give you a great example here, but she picks up on things we say and uses them in funny settings. And she's a ham. Once she sees that she's making you laugh, she will keep at it!

She's a shepherd. Nikki and Andrew were the first to observe it. She wants everyone together and involved. She never wants anyone left out or off by themselves. Everyone should be in the mix. It's funny because on the phone, no matter who's she's talking to, she'll ask for the person who's not there, and then when they get on the phone, she wants the other person (example - if talking to Nikki, asks for Andrew. If talking to Andrew, asks for Nikki.) Very sweet.

Her memory is better than mine in many ways.

She likes to do things by herself.

She's loves to pray for her buddies. She'll say "again, again!" until she feels satisfied.

She's full of emotion, zeal, and intensity. She's learning to contain it (just like me :)

She wants me to sing Jesus loves me to her over and over before she goes to bed - "Jesus! Jesus!"

She's pretty tall - 95th percentile at last check-up and solidly in size 3T.

When she runs, she sort of shakes her hips and swings her arms from left to right.

Her laugh is hilarious, and once she starts she has trouble stopping. It's so contagious!

She is so sweet and loving :)

Ninny Himmy

As a principle, I try to talk to Kate like I talk to any other person. I do my best to acknowledge the fact that she's still learning the English language and stretch myself to communicate concepts as simply as possible, but it's kind of the same as when I'm talking about math or physics to people without a background in the topic - I do it with respect and understanding that this is a smart person who just needs the idea communicated basically.

My friend Alli does this beautifully. When I first observed her with her son Andrew 3 years ago, it was huge in helping me realize I could be a good mother to a baby/toddler. I think I thought that to be good at parenting small children you needed to talk in a weird high voice (you know I'm an alto so that wouldn't work) and use phrases like "de do bo be ga" or other such nonsense. Alli just talked to Andrew like a normal person, and probably not uncoincidentally, Andrew is an excellent communicator.

But I do have at least one exception to this principle...

Kate LOVES Nikki. Everytime Nikki comes to visit, Kate gets SO excited. Her enthusiasm is so overwhelming, it actually moves her to dancing. When Nikki arrives, Kate runs around the house doing a little dance. She goes up the hall bopping back and forth, and then bops and spins around in our entryway. It is adorable and hilarious. We coined her dance the "Nikki Shimmy."

But Kate has trouble pronouncing words that have a similar first and second syllable, and often just repeats a version of the first syllable twice (e.g. Tara is Ta-Ta and Nikki is Ninny.) So when Kate tries to pronounce the dance as she's doing it, she calls it the "Ninny Himmy." It cracks me up. It doesn't help that she puts her fingers up by the side of her head and starts bouncing back and forth saying "Ninny Himmy, Ninny Himmy."

So, I've given up on this one and agree that the dance is called the "Ninny Himmy." I've spent a lot of time teaching her the correct pronunciation of Nikki and she can now say it correctly, but the dance move may keep its given name - "Ninny Himmy."

As I always say, rules were meant to be broken!

Rough night

Poor Kate is sick, again. She's been healthy for all of about 5 days since the new year. Poor little girl :( This times she's throwing up. Even sadder, it was all over Brett (both times.) And sad for me, cleaning it up. That really good sense of smell when you're pregnant is not helpful in moments like this one. I pray she's done getting sick. Please Lord, let this be the end. I want her to feel better tomorrow, PLEASE!

I'm back

I'm going to officially declare it - I'm coming back into the world. Where have I been? Off growing a baby. For those I haven't seen, I'm 15 weeks pregnant. It's going well, but like last time, the first trimester has been exhausting. I believe, and am now declaring, that the exhaustion stage is ending. Now if I can just get past jet lag (it is 2am right), I'll be in great shape.

I've got so many updates for the blog - it's been 3 1/2 months (you'll see the correlation to age of baby...) As more perspective, this year our Christmas tree almost became a Valentine's Day tree. It was painfully depressing, but I just didn't have it in me to get that thing down. The day before Valentine's Day, it finally happened. Brett dragged all the boxes up and helped me take the pitiful thing down. Of course, Kate thought it was a new and permanent addition to the house, so she was sad to see it go. She was the only one.

So, maybe you'll see some catch-up posts, or maybe we'll just go from here. I'm not going to commit to that now. But I am committed to coming back to my rhythm of about a post a week. I like giving the updates, and I like reading others blogs, so I'm going to try to get back to it.

The cutest Kate update of late - I love her little catch phrases lately. They are so funny in her sweet little voice. She'll say, "Come on, Dude!" or "No way!" and I lose it every time. She is so happy and fun to be around. What a delight :)

Amen!

Today at dinner, I was praying - "Thank you God for blessing us" and Kate shouted "AMEN!"  So sweet!

Doesn't she look cool in Scott Dill's hat???

HAPPY :)

Kate makes me smile :)  When we put Kate to bed, I rock her and give her milk, and Brett prays for her, blesses her, and gives her a kiss before he says goodnight.  One of the things he always blesses her with is joy, and he tells her how happy she makes us.  Well recently, every night when he says "you make us so happy," Kate stops drinking her milk, gets a big grin on her face and says, "Happy!"  I really think she understands what he is telling her.  She is such a delight :)    

Winnie the Pooh

Wow, did we have a great Halloween!  Check out the pics below :)  

You'll see in the video, she was "Pooh!" and Pooh likes to eat "Honey!"

So Hunny Pot in tow, off she went!

The last video may be the best - she got a chocolate eyeball from one of our neighbors and she thought it was the funniest thing ever!

Take me to the fun!

I'm "Pooh" and I like to eat "Honey"

Brett and Pooh rolling around

Here's Brett and Pooh having a serious conversation.

Off she goes!
Grandpa can't resist a tickle
"Kikki", "Dew", and "Pooh"
Kate couldn't exactly identify what this "candy" stuff was, but she thought she was onto something good.  Nikki seemed like a great person to confirm with...

What a cutie!
Follow me, Guys!
Grandpa, Ilsa the Puppy, and Winnie

The Pooh Bear's Family

This is just Kate cracking us all up :)

No Shrimp for the Little One

Poor little Kate Little.  Tonight I gave her a bite of my shrimp and she broke out in hives :(  We called Liz & Jeff (our friends who play doctors in real life) and they said give her benadryl and watch her.  She appears to be fine.  We called our pediatrician and they want to see her tomorrow, but they thought she'd be fine too.  They said it's possible to grow out of a childhood food allergy, so we're praying that by her teen years she'll be enjoying shellfish with the rest of us.  But for now, no shrimp, crab, lobster, clams, oysters or scallops for Kate.  

Look how cute she is, even with hives 

I like cheese :)

Kate said her first sentence a few weeks ago.  We were at the Peters house for dinner.  Rachel knows that cheese is Kate's favorite food, but after pulling it out of the fridge, Rachel looked at me and hesitated.  I knew she was wondering how much cheese Kate had already eaten that day.  Kate was observing our entire interaction, and shouted confidently and clearly to Rachel, "I LIKE CHEESE!!"  Yes, let there be know doubt, Kate likes cheese :)

Here are a few pics of Kate and Cana from Norris :)

Here's Kate dancing and Cana imitating a monkey :)

Choo-Choo

Kate has been saying so much lately.  She has been so fun to be around.  I love her so much.

One of her very favorite things to talk about is the car and going on trips.  Not far behind is her "Choo-Choo."  Here are a few fun pics of when she first started riding it all by herself :)

Hug Fest

Cana Peters recently came over to play with Kate.  The best way I can describe it - Hug Fest '09.  These two couldn't be any cuter if they tried.  What fun!

She is Love

Have you heard the song "She is Love" by Parachute?  It is wonderful; delightful.

Tonight it was raining hard.  The thunder woke Kate up.  I went into her room and comforted her by singing her this song.  It was such sweetness.  I LOVE hugging her so tightly and telling her she is safe.  She IS love.  After about 5 minutes, she felt confident and safe, ready to go back to bed.  This is a MIRACLE.  For those who don't know, Kate had been having some serious sleeping issues.  Our best guess is, she would get scared in the night.  We prayed for her to not be afraid, our friends prayed, and God answered us with beautiful nights of rest for Kate.  God is so good.  It was so hard to see our sweet baby afraid.  I'm so thankful that she can rest calmly and sweetly.  God is Love :)

You can listen to the song on youTube (ironically - it's from the album "Losing Sleep" - not us!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghhivSh1hSc&feature=related

SAW-BEE

Kate is getting over a little cold, and she wasn't in the best mood today.  She didn't sleep much, and was just a bit out of sorts.  I was getting a little frustrated with her yelling, so I went in the other room for a break.  Kate and Brett were in the bedroom plotting up something very cute.  Kate walked out to me and Brett said, "Kate has something to tell you."  She gave me a big hug and said "SAW-BEE" (for sorry.)  I almost started crying but I didn't want to confuse her ;)  It was the sweetest thing ever.  How can you be upset with this cutie?    

What's new at 15 months...

We are so lucky to have such a great family.  We had a fantastic weekend visiting...pics to come soon!  (I'm overwhelmed by all the pics, uploading, etc.  Anyone have a good strategy?  Tonia does it every quarter, which is predictable.  Maybe I could set a date to shoot for every month?  I don't know - help needed...)

A few other updates with Kate - she is SO much fun these days.  I can't believe how much she understands.  And, she has a great desire to be understood - when she isn't, she gets frustrated.  Brett wisely told me that I can't get frustrated that she is frustrated, because I am 31 and she is 1 :)  But it's hard sometimes.  Alli's given me some ideas on how to help her...I'm open for suggestions if anyone's got any!

At 15 months, she weighs 24 lbs and is 31" - 75th percentile for both.  She's very healthy and super cute :)  

Some of Kate's latest words (she's learning new ones every day, I can't keep up!  Although, I'm still not sure anyone else would understand many of them....)

• Names - She's got Daddy and Mommy down.  She says "TairTair" for Tara, "Bady" for Uncle Brady, "Neek-e" for Aunt Nikki, "Papa" for Papa (obviously :), and "Doo" for Drew (aka Andrew.)
• Other faves - Her hot word right now is "Car."  Today she said "TairTair Car" when Tara pulled up - pretty good to put the two together!  Her other current favorite word is "Tutu" - she has a red one from Emily & Brady.  She can say "Pig", "Moo", "Shoe", "Pay" which means play,  "Ted-e" for Teddy, and "Cook-e" for cookie (thanks, Papa :).

Big highlight of the day - Brett, Kate and I had a dance party tonight and Kate busted out some very cute dance moves :)  Adorable!

Last and certainly least - have you tried "Pluots"?  They are a cross between a plum and an apricot.  I can't say I'm terribly fond of either of those, but pluots are absolutely delicious!  Pick one up today (at Biggs if you live in Cinci.)  The "dinosaur egg" variety are the best!

Joy and Delight

I heard some wonderful parenting advice yesterday that hit me hard.  I want to share it (and document it so I don't forget it.)  The advice was to ENJOY AND DELIGHT IN YOUR CHILDREN.  And when you do, they become a JOY AND DELIGHT to you.  There is a verse in John 1:14 that talks about a child being "a joy and a delight" to her parents.  The couple that shared the advice, who are great parents of a 14 and 10 year old, said that the way your children become a joy and delight to you is that you enjoy and delight in them.  They commented that often children become our projects; we work very hard at raising them right, reading books and learning all we can, etc.  But when we enjoy them, they become a joy to us.

My experience with this is so true.  I LOVE playing with Kate, and I have to make sure I am having fun too.  A recent example - I was getting bored in the morning just sitting around the house playing with toys.  So, we started taking walks.  Then, I tried to convince Kate to walk continuously, and I was getting annoyed that she wanted to stop every minute to look at stuff.  But then I started going with her flow a bit more.  I crouch down with her and explore.  There is lots of fun new stuff to see - stuff I've never seen before, like new varieties of plants.  My point is, there is an intersection point between her fun and mine, and although it takes some work to find it, it's worth it, because at the end, there is joy.

A few other examples - she LOVES swimming, and boy is that a delight to me!  She sticks her face in the water and absolutely cracks up laughing!  We got a raft for $1 that is a horse; I put it around my waist, she straddles the horse's head, and we gallop around the pool.  Hilarious.  But today, she only wanted to swim for 20 minutes.  I would have stayed much longer, but she didn't want to; so we went home.  Not perfect given the amount of time it takes to get there, get dressed, wash off the chlorine, etc.; but still worth it because we both had fun.  

At Coney Island (the very cheesy but super fun place we swim most days), there is a sign on the wall that says, "You don't stop playing because you grow old.  You grow old because you stop playing."   I love to play; it's the best.  If you've forgotten how, call me and I'll help you remember what you enjoy.  One small thing I do - I buy toys that I think are fun.  If I think they're boring, I'm not going to want to play with them, and then Kate and I don't get to enjoy them together.  Finding intersection points - very important.

The other main part of the lesson for me is to not get bogged down in figuring out exactly what Kate needs.  There are lots of things that need to happen, and I can't focus too much time on those and forget about enjoying her.  For example, I hate thinking about what she should eat in a day.  It's a stress and a chore to me for many reasons (including I hate thinking about food and I have a ridiculously high bar for what healthy is for her - not only should she eat 5 fruits and veggies a day, they should represent the different colors of the rainbow to give her varying nutrients, then there should be a daily variety, etc.)  Well that doesn't ever happen, either because I don't have that many foods or if I do, she doesn't want to eat them.  So who cares!  If she's not in the mood for blueberries, the rainbow is incomplete, let's move on with our lives.  She doesn't fall asleep when she "should" - again, life will go on (even if it means she wakes up in the middle of the night, it will be okay.)  

These things rob my joy, and I want to get rid of the burden of performance that tells me these are the things that make me a good mom.  It's a lie.  If she poops 3 times a day because all she eats is raisins, cheese, yogurt and milk and she skips her afternoon nap and then wakes up in the middle of the night, it's inconsequential to my love for her.  Enjoying and Delighting in Kate is what makes me a good mom.  And that's when I see my friendship with her grow.

"Liquid Satan" requires self-discipline

Today, Kate reached for something she wasn't supposed to touch.  She knew she wasn't supposed to touch it, and as a result, she used her left hand to hit her right hand and tell it, "No, don't touch."  Then, she pulled the right hand back to her chest and the left hand came back and comforted it, "It's okay."  [Note - she didn't actually say these words, but it was clear that's what her actions were saying.]

The back story is, starting at about 5 months old, we would discipline Kate by hitting her hand and telling her no.  You may say that's too early, but she knew what she was doing.  And we believe physical consequences are an important part of the natural world (e.g. I don't put my hand on the stove because it will hurt.  Pain is very helpful tool...ask the few people in the world who don't experience physical pain - it's a problem.)  Whether you personally agree with us or not, we felt this was right for Kate.

It's amazing to me how naturally obedient Kate is.  I love that she is displaying self-discipline (literally, in this case.)  I pray that she maintains this skill throughout her life.

I could actually use a little more self-discipline myself.  Today someone told me they were reading a book that built a case for why Diet Soda is "Liquid Satan."  Yikes.  It referenced the amazing and ridiculous way it got approved by the FDA (via pay-offs, shady ignoring of poisoned rats, etc.)  So later, I reach in the fridge to grab for one and God says, "Really, you hear that it's the equivalent of drinking Satan and an hour later you can't refrain?"  Caveat is, I'm not saying God is universally against Diet Coke (He may be, but I don't know that for sure and that's not what I'm saying here.)  But what I do think is, God was challenging me to pick Him over my will and my desire in that moment.  

So, my right hand slapped my left hand and said "No, Don't touch."  I comforted myself by drinking a coffee instead :)

Kate has a lot to say

Kate's had a lot to say lately.  It's funny to think about what words she's learning first - not necessarily the ones I'd expect, but that's what's fun.  Here's some of what she's saying - 

"Pooh!  Pooh!  Pooh!" then she laughs.  - We think she means Winnie the Pooh Bear since that's the way her room is decorated, but it could also mean that she's just gone to the bathroom.  We kind of wish we would have come up with different words for those two things...

"Wow!",  "Whoa!" and "Cool!" - All expressions she's imitating, with lots of enthusiasm.  Brett says the first, Jeanne says the second, and I say the last one. 

"Yeah, Yeah, Yeah" then she nods and smiles excitedly.  When she wants something, this is what she says.  Also a newer one, if I have something she wants she says "Me, Me" to convince me to give it to her.

"Ball", "Baby", "Book" - her favorite toys, which all happen to start with an easy letter.  Also "Balo" which means balloon. 

Brett says he's heard her say "Yellow" and Hyland and Scott Dill said she said "Purple" - I guess those are her favorite colors...Christine Wilson has told me that color theory would suggest those colors go best together, so maybe Kate's artistic.  (Reference to color theory = primary color + the secondary directly across from it - Red & Green, Blue & Orange, Yellow & Purple.)

"Go, Go, Go!" is a big favorite.  She loves to go outside; she gets her shoes and walks to the door to encourage you to take her out there.

"Did it!" is also a huge fave.  When she does something new or good, Brett and I say "You did it" and clap for her.  Now she encourages herself via self-affirmative clapping and the "Did it!" cry.

Overall, I feel like she's learning so much right now.  She seems to be putting a lot of language and communication principles together.  She learned where her feet, nose, head, and mouth are.  At the grocery store, she plugged her nose - something must have smelled stinky to her.  I love this sweet baby!

Pink

Aunt Emily & Kate - Two cuties in pink...adorable!

What fun!

Someone recently said that I'm a kid trapped in an adult's body.  I think that's probably right.  I can't believe how much fun is out there!  We took Kate to the zoo recently and it was fantastic!  You could feed the giraffe right up close!  Kate was not a huge fan of it though, and I realized she's right, giraffe's have gross tongues.  She like the elephants and the bears a bunch.  Can't wait to go back again soon!  A few pics here, and a video of pics.