i came home with a potty

So, today was the big day for Babies R Us around here. I've been waiting & waiting for a new BRU that's relatively close to us, and close to other things I go to, to open up! I set that as my date for buying Kate her little potty. So, today, opening day, I went & bought 2 potties & potty covers for public toilets! :-) One potty in the house, one in the trunk. I know we're not really to the point of needing the one in the trunk, but I thought I would put my $5 off coupon to good use. Star94 was there to assist BRU in their Grand Opening & were giving away prizes. They had just about used up all of their prizes, so as we were walking towards them, I saw the lady at the booth putting away their prize wheel (as in spin the wheel to find out if you win a water bottle, t-shirt, or a Little Einstein DVD). I didn't really get the significance of her putting away the wheel until afterwards. We walked up to the booth & asked what they were giving away. She offered us a water bottle & I took it. Lydia noticed the Little Einstein Dvd's & saw that THEY had the same one as she did at home. So, she wanted this one for her 'friend Kate.' I told her her to ask the lady. She did. . .and the lady gave it to us! Hurray for cute kids! Having Lydia & Kate with me helped me swing another deal inside, too. I had two $5 off coupons which you aren't supposed to use on the same purchase (or probably the same day), but the cashier let me split my purchases into two transactions & I got to save $10. So, we came away with 2 balloons, some free chick-fil-a coupons, a Little Einstein CD & 2 potties! Yeah Grand Opening!

talking, singing, and running (practically)

The last few weeks have seen a huge transformation in how many words Kate says & learns each day. It seems like it takes a much shorter time for her to learn a word (that she's ready to learn) than it used to. Of course, I've tried to teach Please & Thank You, but she must not be ready for those yet.

"What does a cow say?" Moooo
"What does a monkey say?" Oo oo
"What does a dog say?" Wow Wow

Of course, she's having a hard time realizing that not all animals make one of these three sounds. We were reading Goodnight Gorilla and she wanted the giraffe to say wow, wow. I told her that the giraffe didn't say "wow-wow," so she insisted that he must say "mooooo" then. Of this sound she would not be dissuaded.

She says "ni-ni" when we read one of our copious books about nighttime. Listen to this list,"Goodnight Moon, Goodnight Gorilla, I Love You, Good Night." We have more, too, but they aren't the favorites. We also have an inordinate amount of books about cows, too. I guess that children's book authors know a good thing when they see it. Moo Baa La-la-la, Moo Moo-moo Brown Cow, etc. I must tell you all that if you do not already own Goodnight Gorilla you run to the store & buy a copy for your child or children for Valentine's Day! It is the cutest children's book that we own. It's whimsical -- listen to the list of characters: gorilla (of course!), armadillo, hyena, lion, giraffe, mouse, zookeeper & zookeeper's wife. I have two favorite parts of this book. One, there is a page that is completely black & has only two small eyes staring out at you! How great is that! The other is that the mouse & gorilla are friends, and the mouse carries a banana on a string wherever he goes!

We haven't added any new songs lately, but she sure loves to practice them. She can actually listen for her part in the song & then say her word at the appropriate time. Example:

Mama: Old MacDonald Had a Farm (waiting......)
Kate: Ee-Ai-Ee-Ai
Mama: O! And the on that farm he had a cow. . .... . . . . . (whispers ee-ai to Kate)
Kate: Eee-Ai--Eee-Ai
Mama: O! With a . . ... (whispers mooo)
Kate: mooo

You get the picture. Another favorite is POP goes the weasel. Of course, she inserts her pop in lots of places that aren't right, but usually gets one it on the right beat.

Mama: Round & Round the (Kate interrupts: Pop) Mulberry Bush, the (Pop!) Monkey chased the weasel. The monkey (pop!) thought twas all in fun (Now, Kate, Now!)
Kate: POP!
Mama: Goes the weasel
Kate: POP!
Mama: Goes the weasel
and REPEAT.

The favorite song of all is Row, Row, Row your Boat. I never knew that I could sing so many permutations of this song. I practically deserve a DJ name like L-mom or something. I'm so hot. I always start out traditionally, but then I just tire of singing the same old thing, so I spice it up. The best person at this little game is Josh. This is usually a night time activity when Kate is soo tired & fussy and just can't wait to get home & get to bed. So we distract her with our awesome rap mixes & we usually arrive at home a-okay. If I had a tape recorder... you'd all get to hear, just so you could laugh until your sides ached.

Also, Kate's confidence in her own walking skills have increased tremendously. Unfortunately, this has meant a sight more bonks, bumps, and bruises. She has handled these with aplomb most of the time. My favorite thing is to see her do a 180 degree turn. She plants one foot & then "spins" almost out of control, but somehow manages to land the other foot on the floor. She then regains her balance & proceeds to toddle in the opposite direction.

snowflakes at night

yup, you guessed it -- it snowed in our little sleepy town of dacula tonight. Fun!

my first steps

can you believe it??? On Jake & Brittny's wedding day, she took her first steps from Daddy towards Ben. Uncle Ben is going to get a big head about Kate doing everything first around him! (She crawled first when playing with him on the floor at B & J's house). Josh quickly brought her to me and she took another step or two towards me -- with some lunging mixed in there. It was adorable. She has officially graduated to "toddlerhood."

Green Froggy, You're the One!

Title sung to the tune of Sesame Street's "Rubber Ducky!" Kate doesn't have one, so we must alter the words a bit.

My First Big Girl Bath!

Yay (she can say this!)

Momma, you've been holding out on me! This is so much more fun!

Daddy, I'm embarrassed. (She DOES call Josh da-dee -- really cute!)

Kate's Crawling!!!!

I don't really have time, but I'll post a few things of interest.
1. Kate is crawling. She tiptoed around it all through our vacation (where Josh & I had both predicted she would probably begin because she was SOOO close before we left). We got back, went to lunch at Ben & Jen's where she immediately began self-mobility!!!! OH, she's also pulling up/standing in the crib and by the coffee table.
2. My dig. camera took a dive into Vermillion River along with Josh & Bob, so it's caput!! Hopefully I'll be able to retrieve some of the pictures I took before it died, and I did take more vacation pics with Bob & Lisa's camera. Accepting all digital camera recommendations.
3. School begins tomorrow for me. This last week has been extremely nerve-wracking for some reason. You'd think that I would be able to begin year 8 smoothly and confidently, but I was just not able to think in a straight line as I began preparing for the first week. I hope that straightens out soon.
4. Our vacation was really great. More on that later.
5. I saw this YouTube on someone else's blog -- it is great, if you have the time for it. A little ditty in honor of parents everywhere.

peekaboo, i see you

Seven Moons Ago

Katie-boo always loves when cousin Lydia comes over to play. Note that Lydia has also invited pink baby to play. In Lydia's most recent stay at our house, Lydia was a real mom to that baby doll. She let the baby eat, and then gave the baby some spanks. It's interesting to see her process her world by repeating things that she sees (or experiences for herself).



Kate discovered the fun of folding laundry with mom! Needless to say, she wasn't much help. I stacked the clothes on the coffee table, and she persisted in pulling them down about as fast as I could get them folded. She really wants to stand up now, so the laundry basket provided a perfect opportunity. Her falls were cushioned by fluffy, clean, baby clothes.



This is about as close as we get to crawling. She still can't manage to get her legs & her arms up at the same time. As I mentioned, she seems to be much more interested in pulling up and walking. Her personality develops each day. She loves me so much; it's enough to make your heart melt. Of course, at the end of the day when dad comes home and she's fussing because she still wants to be with me, it becomes less cute. She's growing more able to communicate with her body language what she wants. She plays on the floor most of the time, and if I walk by and she wants me to pick her up, she waves her arms in the air and sort of rocks her body, as though she were saying, "Hey, Look At Me!!!!!" She still takes 3 naps, 2 hours each in the morning and afternoon. The evening nap is undergoing construction, sometimes she'll take it, and sometimes she won't. Although she CAN say both mamama and dadada, she has moved on to practicing other sounds now, like papapapa, and bababa.

Alas and Alack

I'm shamed by those of you whose lives are definitely busier. Your frequency of posts makes me look bad. Of course, there are others out there who also be ashamed of themselves (Hmm, mmm, Mother!)

Two weeks of vacation has seen a lot of action -- we went to the zoo, we've been swimming at Mima's pool several times (at least 3 or 4), shopping, and hanging out with Jen & Lydia a lot. I feel a little bit as though some of this will end when Lauren comes along. We'll be doing other things then -- making meals, babysitting Lydia, holding the newest member of the fam, and hanging out at their house a bit more. Craziness has also been compounded by Josh's two commitments after work plus a hobby (golf)! Deacon training started a few weeks ago every Tuesday night for two hours. Then, the guys at church are playing soccer in the month of June. This means that each week may contain several games. We're trying to adjust to a different schedule so that Josh can have some time with his family before going off to his activities. This usually means a SUPER easy supper with few dishes so he can play with Kate the whole time he's home. Wednesday night we had our first date night with Kate. She loves being at the table with us, and it's so cute to interact with her as a family.

Her meals have grown since the last post. She has expanded her repertoire to include rice cereal, sweet potatoes, and bananas. She hasn't really cared for bananas, but is in LOVE with sweet potatoes. Tomorrow we will introduce avocado and see how that goes. Josh (and Dad) don't really like avocados, so he was disappointed that we were going to be feeding her avocados when there are wonderful things like sweet potatoes, peaches, nectarines, and peaches in this world! They both consider avocado to be a non-food.

I have finally capitulated to marketing and the Disney culture! I bought my first Baby Einstein DVD. Kate liked it, of course. She even laughed at one of the songs. As she grows more curious and interactive with the world around her, I think that these visual cues can be very stimulating -- plus she's learning classical music! I mean, what is more classic than Old Macdonald? How does that fit onto a Baby Mozart dvd, I'll never know.

My Latest Tricks!

Hello everyone! Last week was my last week of school for this year! As the weather warms up, there's so little incentive to go to work (or school). I often wonder how people with regular jobs do it. And, how do people with regular jobs not wear shorts & tank tops to work during the summer? Especially in this Georgia heat. I started putting Kate in tank tops and shorts in 80 degree weather. :-)

This weekend was quite exciting. Jonathan, Ashley, and Brittny graduated from GCA. I've never been prouder of my "kids"! They represent the bulk of my teaching years. Up until this year, I taught them several classes each semester. It was a joy to watch them grow in faith and knowledge. We enjoyed so many good and crazy times together. Perhaps one of the highlights of our years together was our ten day trip to Washington, Pennsylvania, and Virginia in the RV. This class is the last one that I've taught such a large variety to, including Science (I think), English, Spanish I, II, and III, Rhetoric, Public Speaking, and Drama. No pictures of those bambinos, but my little girl is here in living color.

Kate had her first bit of cereal this week. She has loved it so far! It's so fun to see her learn how to eat. The swallowing action is subtlely different from drinking breast milk. Basically, I'm supplementing her afternoon meal with 1 T or so of rice cereal. Next week I believe that I will increase the times per day that we supplement with cereal. You should had seen her tonight at Jen & Ben's. She was reaching for the pizza like a big girl. Lydia really would like to feed her "big girl" food. I keep asking if we should give Kate pizza or applesauce or whatnot. She invariably answers, "yeah!" Also, two weeks ago, Kate discovered her feet. She's pictured here eating her tootsies. She thinks it is pretty hilarious when her big toe lands in her mouth. I imagine that would feel pretty funny!

20 weeks

Sorry about the sparcity of posts lately. Life has been quite crowded. Notable occurrences -- Last night, Kate and I made a last minute trip to Joanne's last night and as I pulled into the parking lot, the car started making some really awful sounds. It sounded like the front passenger brake was making all of the screeching sounds, so I hopped out of the car and checked it out. The rotor's edge was ragged and in general it looked pretty decrepit. I couldn't believe that of all the places to be when my brakes look and sound terrible I was on Pleasant Hill, a 10 min ride on I-85 away from home. I could have been at Publix, a mere 2 minutes from my home. I called Josh immediately, because everything is more serious when you have the life of your precious child also to take into account. He decided to be our knight in shining armour and came to the rescue. We switched the car seat to the truck, and he drove the car home. :-) It was too late to take the car to the mechanic, so Josh reluctantly went to Advanced Auto Parts, almost hoping that they didn't have the necessary parts. He's done the brakes on my car before and let's just say that is has typically been a long, arduous and sometimes sanctification lessening process. But, last night, he got finished by 9:45 and I didn't hear any sailor talk from the garage! :-)
Also last night, Kate turned over from her back to her belly. I didn't even see it happen. She was on the floor playing next to my feet. The next thing I know, she's facing the opposite direction AND she's on her belly now. It was hilarious! She looked as though she wasn't quite sure what had happened either. I'll try to get pictures in general posted. After I take some, that is.

My Baby

Kate is growing up so much. I can tell she makes big leaps in just a week or so. She can hold her own weight while standing so much better than last week. She doesn't mind being put on her belly very much because she can support her head so much better, and she's learned that she can rest in that position by putting her head down and it is not the end of the world. She has retrograded on the turning over bit. She hasn't really done it again since that last time, without some help. I'm eager to know how much she weighs & what her length is next week at the ped. I'm so grateful that I can be aware of all these milestones and spend so much time with her. I'm wondering how my subsequent children will fare. How can I possibly spend as much time with them playing & reading?

Also, this is a reminder to all you mommies out there: Babies can hear & distinguish sounds from all different languages until their 1st birthday. . so if you ever want them to speak a language with the chance of not having a American accent, let them listen to other languages. They record an imprint of the sounds and later on, they can "hear" the differences between Spanish Rr and r. And, it gives them a leg up on pronouncing them, if they can actually distinguish. I sing & read to Kate in Spanish a bit, and we just recently got a cool CD that has rhymes, songs and chants on it -- just for babies. It's even advisable to introduce multiple languages. . so who knows, maybe Kate and I will learn French together.

Introducing Mr. Jeremy Monkey

Kate has found a friend. She has outlasted my desires to make her love Froggie or little Lamb. She does like Mr. Turtle a good deal, but nothing compares to her reaction to Jeremy Monkey. She smiles at him and gives him love bites (not unlike her cousin Lydia). She even cuddled him as she took her nap today. Jeremy is the cousin of Curious George who he favors a good bit in looks, although we hope he will be a bit better behaved.


Another first for Kate -- she got tickled and actually laughed! I was changing her and decided to give her a few little kisses on her neck. Lo and behold, she chuckled. Josh just got to hear her do it tonight. So far she has only repeated the experience ON THE CHANGING TABLE -- go figure!



Auntie Jen lent us the Bumbo, and Kate loves it! She sits in it and watches me make dinner. Tonight she even sat at the dinner table. She's definitely growing up and becoming more interested in the world around her.

Rolling Over

KB rolling over for the second time! Skip to about minute 3 if you don't have that long. . :-)

Time Does Fly When You're Rolling Over

Kate rolled over from her belly to her back today for the first time! I've been conscientiously putting her on her tummy for a little bit during our play times. Typically she only tolerates it for a few minutes, but she has started making marked improvements in her strength just from these few minutes per day. She can do a pretty good push up, holding her head up to look in front of her. Yesterday and today, I tried to "teach" her how to roll over by modeling how it would feel for her to do it for herself. Then, tonight I put her down and "Voila!" (how do you spell that?) she twisted little body following her hip movement with the shoulders and then the arm swinging over. It was so cute to watch her face when she realized what Mommy was cheering about. I tried to get her to do it again, but she would have none of it. In fact, I'm sure that she learned how to turn over just so she won't have to be on her tummy. She turned 3 months on Saturday, and each week I can tell that she's adding some new skills to her repertoire!

Growing Up -- Hard To Do?

We hit another major milestone last week. Kate began to sleep through the entire night. Two weeks previous she had started to drop one of her nighttime feedings, but we were having trouble deciding which one. She would wake up at different times during the night, which would cause each day to begin slightly differently. Sometimes she would want her breakfast at 6, sometimes at 7, and sometimes at 8. This obviously made it challenging to keep up a 4 hour schedule during the day that was the same each day. Monday of last week, she surprised me by sleeping through TWO nighttime feedings and making it twelve hours from last evening snack until her breakfast time. I almost fell out of my bed. She has kept up the beautiful trend consistently now. If she wakes up, I get up and pop the paci back in her mouth, and away she goes to sleep again. It was perfect timing for Momma, who had so much to do for Auntie Becky's wedding. I think Josh must have been talking to her about it.


Along with her switch to sleeping so long through the night, we have decided to start a bedtime routine with Kate around the same time each evening. It's the sweetest part of my day. I lay her in the crib and sing "Immortal, Invisible" to her. Josh has decided this will be her favorite hymn. She lays on her back and just looks into my eyes. Sometimes she gets so relaxed and content that she forgets to suck on the paci that's in her mouth. I read her a little Bible story and we talk about what we're going to do tomorrow. I sing "Jesus Loves Me" which she loves even more and then the lights turn out and she goes to bed. The smiles and looks she gives me are so precious, and I'll store them up in my heart forever!


It's been wonderful to have Mom and Dad here for a little bit. They are preparing to leave now, and it's sad to think that Kate will be a year old before Dad sees her again, but we've just been spoiled by all of the recent events that have required them to stay up here for extended periods of time so close to one another. Thankfully, we do use SKYPE to keep in contact with them over video, so they'll be able to see her grow and change a bit.


Lydia and Kate have been doing some bonding. Lydia wants to do everything she can for Kate. Yesterday, Kate was resting in her infant carrier and I was just adoring her. Lydia came over and squatted next to us conversing in her sweet way with her cousin. She wanted to put Kate night night, so she gave her a kiss on her head and put up the "top" of the carseat. Then she saw that I had the changing pad out to change Kate's diaper. She proceeded to put her arms around Kate, trying to lift her out of the carseat for a "change." She really wants to be a good helper. The whole time Kate is smiling at her big cousin.