Meow Meow Poo Poo

More pretend play! It is SO adorable to watch Kate act out her experiences through her point of view. Yesterday I got a sample of the new Pampers Cruisers diapers in the mail from P&G. Kate wanted them as soon as she saw them, so I handed them down to her. She ran over to her favorite lovey of all time, her kitty Meow Meow. She said, "Meow Meow poo poo!" and took him over to a pad on the floor. She laid him down, and proceeded to act out a diaper change! When she took the imaginary diaper off Meow Meow, she even said "Eeeeeewwwww!! Icky poo poo!!" Ha! She opened up a diaper and laid it down on top of MM, but couldn't quite understand how to strap it on. Then she picked him up and said "All done!"

Among other news, Kate is sick again. Not sure what it is this time, but so far she's running a low grade fever and coughing. I think we're going to wait this one out and see if we can make it through without a trip to the Pediatrician, but we'll see.

Here's a quick pic of Kate. We took her to the Dallas Arboretum last weekend for my mom's birthday. We had a great time and saw some beautiful flowers!

Pretend Play

I feel like I've said this at every stage (except 18 months) but I must say, I think 21 months is my favorite! Kate is SO much fun right now. She can understand just about everything I tell her, and her vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds as well, so she is able to communicate quite a bit with me. My favorite thing has been the beginning of pretend play. We first saw it with her buddies or her kitty Meow Meow. She teaches Meow Meow how to do things like climb stairs, jump off edges, and then praises him when he has done a good job. :) The most fun to watch her play is in the bath. She has 4 bath toys that are her favorite. She usually portrays herself as the dolphin, me as the turtle, and Jeff as the pelican. I think the crab is anonymous. :) She takes these toys through different courses of events. She makes "me" (the turtle) carry the dolphin around, saying "Are you ready?" "Ready." "Here we go!" And then they travel around the bath tub. Every once in a while the dolphin falls, and Kate says, "Are you ok? Ok?"

Sometimes she will put Jeff and me (the turtle and pelican) up on a shelf. Then she (dolphin) will kiss us both, then say "bye bye!" and swim off for a while. The sweetest was when she brought the dolphin up to the turtle, made them kiss, then said, "Awww, Mommy, I wat choo." (I wat choo is how she says I love you.)

Today I took Kate to a park here in town. So during her bath I watched her re-create all the fun activities she did at the park, there in the bath tub with her dolphin. Slides, climbing the sides, running across bridges, etc. Anyway, all that to say just how much fun she is, and how amazing it is to see the world through her eyes, and her interpretation of the things going on around her!

Kate and Her Auntie

As Kate grows closer to two, she is starting to look SO much like my sister Andrea, don't you think?

Record Snowfall

God is once again giving me a taste of the Minnesota winter I've been missing so much this year. It has been snowing all day here in Dallas. Not just any snow, those big, soft sticky snowflakes that stick to everything they fall on. I captured Kate's sentiment about the snow, which happens to match mine perfectly as well.



Thank you, Lord, for the snow.

Kate's First Haircut

(This is also my 300th blog entry!)

Over the last week or so it has occurred to me that it was about time for Kate's first haircut. The back of her hair was just much longer than the sides, and it needed to be evened up.



So I made the appointment and we went this afternoon! Kate was so good. Originally we put her in a yellow car chair, and she was NOT a happy camper. We didn't know what was wrong, and the lady cutting her hair said we'd probably have to cut her hair in my lap. I took her out and she said "down" so I put her down. She ran right over to a red car chair, and wanted up! After that, she was fine. Whatever!!

"Before" Picture





The first snip!



Adorable little hairdo!





I did fine with it too - I wasn't emotional at all! I think it's because it's not like she was losing anything babyish - she's already such a big girl in every other aspect it's just par for the course. It's really not a drastic change either, so that probably helps. All I know is that I need to go learn how to cut hair, I couldn't believe how much a child's cut costs!!

Update

Just a few random things there and there to update! First of all, Kate is sick again. On Friday morning she woke up with her nose running like a faucet, and running a low grade temp around 100.5 . Since then, her temperature has come back down but her nose is still bad. I think this is the first time she's ever had just a plain cold, something without a fever! I also think this is the first time that she's gotten "sick" that (so far) we haven't had to take her to the doctor for. When she wakes up from overnight or her nap, however, she does sound a slight bit croupy, but maybe it's just all the gunk in her system because she sounds better after an hour or so.

All of her immunology bloodwork has come back, and everything is normal. Her immune system is functioning correctly. She is, however, a strep carrier. All that means basically is that whenever she does get sick, it may or may not be strep, but she's going to test positive for it every time. So the doctor has to make a judgment call on whether or not to treat her with antibiotics based on all her other symptoms, rather than the results of the test.

She is growing mentally in leaps and bounds lately. It's amazing and so much fun to see her develop verbally. Jeff is now "Daddy" instead of "Dada" which is cute, but a little sad too! I'm still Mama. :) She also has a cute but annoying habit of wanting to tell and how me EVERYTHING. She will say, "Mama, mama, mama, MAMA, MAMA!!!! MAMA!!!!!!!!" Until I say, "What, Kate?" And she will reply with, "hi!" or "bow?" or "bye bye!" or "Bailey!" or "Backpack!" and so on. She will not give up until I say, "Yes, Kate, Bailey." I know it's very cute, but it just goes on and on and on and on!!

She loves repeating words. I ask her to try lots of words, and she makes an attempt at repeating everything. I love it! She is internalizing a lot more than I give her credit for, too... I'm constantly amazed at how much of what I say to her she is understanding.

Normally every night we read her favorite book, "Goodnight Moon" at bedtime. During the month of December we read a Christmas book, "Angel Angel." Well, Goodnight Moon is lost right now, so we're still reading Angel Angel. Basically, it follows the same premise as "Brown Bear Brown Bear," but insert Nativity figures. Her favorite part is where Baby Jesus enters the book. Everytime we get to that page, she points to Jesus, her eyes light up, and she turns to look at me with the BIGGEST smile on her face! It's so sweet. :)

One week from today Jeff and I will be sitting on the balcony off our room on our cruise ship, somewhere in the Caribbean. :) We are so excited to take a vacation! We will miss Kate but we know the Grandparents will enjoy some special one-on-one time with her.

Merry Christmas!

... A day late! We are in Oklahoma for Christmas and we've had a great time. The best part was, we had a white Christmas! I've been very homesick for Minnesota this winter, so it meant everything to me to have a white Christmas! The sleet started Christmas Eve morning, then gradually changed to snow a little after noon, then it just kept coming down the rest of the day! 60 mph wind gusts made for a seriously awesome blizzard. :) We took Kate outside Christmas Day to experience the snow firsthand once everything had calmed down outside. She was pretty non-reactive to the snow, although once she fell down and her (gloved) hands touched the snow, she was pretty much done and wanted inside.

If I had known we'd get a record setting blizzard in Oklahoma, I would have brought my good camera with me. Of course, all I had with me was my point & shoot. Oh well, I managed to get an "ok" picture...



Kate got all sorts of fun presents. Surely they'll keep her busy for a couple weeks at least! :) Once we go back home, it's back to reality. I have to take her to the doctor for a blood draw on Monday. Dreading that one with every ounce of my being! Poor little girl.