Lazy Sunday

This has just been a crazy week.  Last Sunday afternoon Kate had a fever of 102.5.  I took her to the doctor on Monday and when we got home, I realized that I had a fever of over 100.  We're both better now, but it kind of threw our week off.  So we spent this weekend at home, resting up, relaxing and doing housework.  Much needed.  

The weather was so nice today, that we spent a lot of this afternoon outdoors.  

Kate's new "thing" is climbing.  If there is something she can step up on, she wants to.  Today she discovered our flower bed borders.  All she wanted to do was step up, and down, and up, and down.  Repeat process over and over and over. 

I just love these little curls.  Her hair has been straight since she was born, but now that it is getting longer, I'm noticing some curls on the sides and the back. So sweet. 

And this pretty much sums up how Kate is right now.  She is Miss Independent, and always on the move. Love her!

Five Years

WAY back on August 11th, Kevin and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary.  It's pretty sad that I'm just now posting about this, but we did have a lot going on back then.  If you have a great memory, you'll remember that August 11th was the day of Kate's first birthday party.  If you'd asked us five years ago, I'm sure neither of us would have guessed that we'd be having a first birthday party for our daughter on our 5 year anniversary!  It was perfect though.

After Kate's party, Ken and Angela came back over to our house to keep Kate while Kevin and I went out to eat.  We hadn't really made any plans before hand because we didn't know how tired we'd be from the party, or really what time we would be done with everything.  So we got in the car and started driving before we even discussed where we wanted to go eat.  This is where we ended up...

I'm sure lots of y'all are laughing that we went to Salsarita's on our anniversary!  There is a really good reason though.  Actually two reasons.  The first is that we really WERE tired from Kate's birthday party, and we weren't really in the mood to go anywhere upscale, or somewhere that would take forever.  The main reason though is that this was the same restaurant that we'd eaten at for the very first time just one year ago.

On August 11, 2011 Kevin and I were in Raleigh, NC meeting our daughter.  We had been at the hospital earlier in the day and had already checked into our hotel.  We had a short amount of time before we had to be back at the hospital for Kate's baby dedication ceremony.  We'd never really been in Raleigh before so we had no clue where to go.  As we were driving around looking for food, we saw the sign for Salsarita's.  We knew it was similar to Moe's so we stopped in.  So, on our 4 year anniversary, and on the day we met our daughter, we had Salsarita's for dinner.  It was a good meal, for more reasons than just the food.

It only seemed fitting to celebrate our 5 year anniversary, on the day we celebrated our daughter's 1st birthday, that we have Salsarita's again for dinner.  And it was good on that day too!

Mini Mozart

I took piano lessons from the time I was around 6-7 years old until I graduated high school.  That's a long time.  I wasn't all that talented, but I did enjoy it... for the most part.  I enjoyed when I got to play what I wanted and play around on the piano, but I didn't enjoy it too much when my mom was MAKING me practice.  I'm sure every elementary and middle school piano student can relate. :) 

Anyway, a while back Kevin and I inherited the piano that I learned to play on.  It went in our formal living room and just sat there.  I've played around on it a few times, but honestly not that much.  I've mentioned on here that Kate LOVES music, and now that she's gotten a little older she has taken a big interest in our piano. 

I've actually been really surprised at her.  I honestly thought she would just bang on the keys, but she doesn't.  Instead of using her whole hands and pounding, she'll play one or two notes at a time.  

She's so funny.  She usually doesn't like anybody to sit on the bench with her or play the piano at the same time as her.  She will push you away.  Literally.  Until you move. 

I will say that she has figured out that I know how to play a little bit, so sometimes she will grab my hands and put them on the piano.  I'll play a few short things and then she'll push me away like "now it's MY turn".   

Or she'll grab my hands again and that means she wants me to hold her fingers and help her play something.  So I'll hold her little index fingers and we'll play Heart & Soul. :) 

Maybe she'll want to play the piano when she gets bigger, or maybe she won't.  Right now it's just fun seeing her play around on it.  My little baby Mozart.

Stick Snatcher

Kate has come to love our dogs.  Kevin throws a ball for them in the yard each night, and Kate likes to watch them and will try to go get them. 

Our dogs are big.  Max is about 80lbs and Cooper is about 100lbs.  They're pretty gentle with Kate though.  Max pretty much stays out of her way.  Cooper on the other hand... Well, that's a different story.  He likes to walk RIGHT beside her when she's walking around.  He looks like he's trying to protect her, but I think it just gets on her nerves.  If she trips and falls down, he has to sniff her out to make sure she's okay.  He's so careful with her, but he's just all over her.  

Anyway, Kate and I were walking around the yard the other day and she picked up a small stick.  It was probably 6-8 inches long and about as thick as my pinky.  Our dogs LOVE sticks.  They basically eat them.  Since Cooper was RIGHT THERE with Kate when she picked up the stick, of course he noticed it.  Here is the progression of what happened...

Kate picks up the stick and starts walking....

Cooper is eyeing the stick...

Still eyeing the stick...

And now trying to take the stick...

But Kate won the first "battle"....

Round 2...

Cooper won this one. It's hard to really see the stick, but it's sticking out of his mouth...

And now he's eating it...

It broke and the big half fell to the ground, so Kate tried to get it back...

But Cooper was too quick for her. 

Don't worry.  We have plenty of sticks in our yard.  It only took Kate about 2 seconds to find another one.

Happy 13 Month Birthday

Kate is 13 months old today!!  I just couldn't stop with the monthly updates. :) Not promising that I'll do this every month, but it seems like Kate is doing new things every single day, and I don't want to forget them.  So, here we go...

I think this time I'm just going to list the "big" things that I want to remember.

Says Mama constantly.  Is starting to say "dog", but that's not what it sounds like. It sounds more like "guh", but she is definitely talking about dogs when she says it.  She can also say Papa, and starts to say "book", but it really doesn't sound like book.

Can point to her nose and hair, and also Mama's nose and hair. She loves playing with my hair and is surprisingly gentle with it.

Loves to dance when she hears music. She gets into it.  Especially if it's TobyMac.

Tries to "run" everywhere she goes.  Hasn't quite gotten the hang of it yet, so she takes a lot of tumbles.

LOVES the opening/intro to the TV show Rawhide.  She "sings" and dances when it comes on.

Loves my keys and wallet.  Definitely have to get her her own wallet and fill it with fake cards.

Wears a Size 4 diaper, and 18 month clothes.

Visited the eye doctor this month because her eyes still have a tendency to turn inward sometimes (ie- she goes cross eyed).  Even though the doctor didn't give us the all-clear, he still gave us some pretty good news.  For the next 6 months we're just going to keep an eye on it, and will try to pay attention to when her eyes are like this.  We'll try to see if her eyes do it only when she's tired, sick, etc.  Hopefully she will have the problem less and less, and we will not have to do any corrective measures in 6 months.  That's what we're praying for!

When she sees a door, she'll "knock, knock, knock" on the door.

She has TEN teeth!  She has her top 4 middle teeth, her bottom 4 middle teeth, and 2 of her top molars. I can feel another bottom tooth right at the surface too, so she'll soon have more teeth.  I'm kind of glad. It will make me less nervous when she's eating food.

Waves at EVERYBODY, and expects them to acknowledge her.

Likes to rock herself in her little rocking chair.

She is still a sleepy-head, at least on the weekends.  This past Saturday, she went to bed at 7pm and slept the next morning until 9am.  However, she has learned what the phrase "time to go to bed" means, and doesn't like it!  She'll cry until I get to her crib and give her a paci.  Then she just rolls over and closes her eyes.  It's like she wants to put up a fight until she sees her crib and realizes how tired she is.  She is also still good with naps.  I just lay her down and walk off and she will go to sleep on her own.

Can sign "more" and "all done".

I'm sure there are LOTS more things that I'll think of tomorrow that I want to add to this list, but this is what I've got for now!  Happy 13 months, baby Kate!

Weekend- Wrap Up

Saturday was game day again.  Last week, Kate wore her Clemson cheerleading outfit to support MY team.  I actually bid on a few Georgia outfits for Kate to give to Kevin for his birthday (last weekend), but lost out on ALL of them.  On Saturday (while he was cutting grass) I told him I was going to make him a surprise with my sewing machine.  I made Kate this little onesie...

I told myself that all future clothing items that I make for Kate will be Clemson.  So, happy birthday Kevin.

We ate dinner at home and then had Cherry Pie for dessert...

We spent Sunday afternoon hanging around the house.  I also FINALLY figured out the furniture arrangement in our formal-living-room-turned-playroom/office.  I ended up getting another storage/shelving system and think it looks good now.  Pictures on all that later. 

The weather has been GREAT today, so Kate and I spent a lot of time outside.  

This was the other shirt that I made for Kate earlier this week.  It was actually my very first attempt at applique, and it's definitely not perfect.  I'm glad I've had a chance to play around with my sewing/embroidery machine the past week though and I'm looking forward to trying out some new things!