Early birthday celebration

We celebrated part of Kate's birthday a little bit early - it's nice to have people who are giving the presents see her open them up. So since my parents were in town . . . and they brought presents . . .

This present was actually from Marla, et al. It's a gardening bucket, complete with a little shovel and rake. Upon opening it, she immediately declared it to be a hat. You can see the shovel and rake hanging from the 'chin strap'.
It's so dang cute!

With each present she opened, she was so animated. "Wowwww!" The chalk is for her new art-easel, of which I still need to get pictures.

Grandma & Grandpa visit

My parents were in town for the weekend. And mom is staying for the week. Here are a few Kate-and-grandparent pictures.

Kate and mom in their jammies.
Grandpa sure is funny!

We have fun reading together!

mid-month self-portrait

You tell by the number of entries posted tonight that it is quiet around the house. Kate is asleep. Doug is at work for a Senior Awards banquet. And I'm eating school-fundraiser-cookie-dough while blogging. Ahhhh.

Baby fruit

You kinda have to know what you are looking for, but this shows 3 of our baby pears. . . . . . . . . and lots of baby cherries.

I'm so excited for all our fruit to come into season!

Very thirsty

She grabbed the container out of the recycle bin, to use with her pre-dinner ritual of playing with the water in the sink. Gotta tilt your head waaaaaay back when there is just a little bit of water inside.

Bandana Girl

I was putting away a bandana, and Kate decided she wanted to wear it. She actually left it on much longer than I thought she would - probably 5 whole minutes. Many time, Kate is just too fast for the photographer to keep up.

This graham cracker sure is ymmmmmy.

Can you also see that I got my bangs cut this evening? The first time scissors have touched my hair. But mama was clear - only adults get to use scissors on hair. I'm sure I don't know what she means by that, though.

22-month self-portrait

Yeah, yeah. I know this is about 2 months late in posting. Maybe it's because I couldn't really get a good shot of the two of us that day. Eh, you can't win them all.

The Water Table

We pulled the water table up from the basement on Saturday. Yep. That's how nice the weather was - I officially allowed Kate to play in the water. Unofficially, she had been using buckets and cups for about a week . . .

She enjoyed dumping water. Into the toy. Onto the grass. Any which way. She will also take a 'stirring device' (like a spoon), add 'ingredients' (like grass or rocks), and then been "Cooking with water."

Here is a link to a little less than a year ago, when Kate was first playing at the table. I knew she was much more grown up from when she last played with it, but I was still surprised to see how much she has changed in a year.

3 confessions

I have 3 confessions to make to my friends and family across the blog-o-sphere.

1) I now listen to NPR. Yep, I'm a follower of the National Public Radio. Almost even pledged during their spring pledge drive. But I had only been listening for only about a week at that point, and I used that as an excuse for not sending money we didn't have to send in the first place. I swear to you, I won't be that person who says, "I heard on NPR that . . . ". But I do learn fascinating things, from titles of cool movies that I've added to the Netflix list, to good interviews on issues surrounding the Gulf Coast oil spill.

2) I love to tape. You need a room prepped for painting, I'm your taping girl. This week, a co-worker asked for people to come over and help tape at their new house. It was like a dream come true!!

3) We've taught Kate how to say, "Monkeybutt." When she sees a money in a book, that's what she says. And it's so cute. Mon-kee-butt. Very enunciated. I know my mother will shake her head at this. But it's so funny.

Baby in a Box

After unloading the newest box of diapers, Kate wanted to play in the box. Usually this means she wants to sit in it and have me pull her around. "Wheee!" But I didn't really want to pull her around, so tried out this option. She liked it a lot. If she angled it just right, she could look out the slit in the 'top'. Otherwise, she just used it as a bumper box.

Taking a break from playing hard.

Here I am!

A sleeping first

When I got home from work earlier in the week, Kate was still napping. I peeked in on her, and found her sleeping - sitting up! Terry said she spent about 30 minutes talking and playing before quieting down. Apparently she just tuckered herself out so much she didn't even lay down to sleep. I like how she's holding on so that she won't fall over.

23 month self portrait

Taken a day late. Posted even later. Enjoy!

Blow for Snow

In our Field of Dandelions, I mean, in our back yard, Kate has learned (via Terry) that if you blow on the white dandelions, it looks like snow. So she will pick one for you and bring it to you to create the snow. How can I deny her? Even as it makes more dandelions for our field?

Someday . . .

I'll be big enough to actually fit into Grandma's kitty sweatshirt. Until then, I'll just look very cute wearing it. I actually looked super cute when I was smiling, but wasn't too into posing for this picture.

Leggos at home

After having so much fun with the Leggos at Grandma and Grandpa's house, I pulled out the Leggos we got at the Consignment shop about a month ago.

Kate loves the leggos. What cracks me up is that she will build towers as tall as she can, but they must be made of entirely the same shape. All singles, or all quads. If you hand her a triple, while she is building a quad tower, she'll look at it, say "Nooo," and then chuck it behind her. And she gets a little bit distraught when they fall over and break apart. So funny.

Here, in addition to seeing her work with the Leggos, you may notice that she is wearing Grandma's socks. And here is her proclivity for not wanting to wear a shirt between the hours of 4 and 6 pm. We do insist on shirts at dinner time, much to her dismay.

I totally dig how much she concentrates . . .

Sick baby bath

When we got back from the trip to Oregon earlier in the month, Kate got her first ever Puking Sickness. We were sitting down to dinner, and all of the sudden, up came lunch. Fortunately, she was wearing what I call the "2nd chance bib" - the type that catches food for eating later. Well, it also served a good job of catching a lot of puke.

But not all, so it was Bathtime for Kate. She loved the bath, as she always does. You couldn't even tell that she had been sick.

That is, until she threw up the 2nd half of lunch 30 minutes after the bath. And essentially dry heaved every hour for the next 5 hours.

She's a trooper, though. Recovered quickly.

Bathroom Remodel - The final chapter

Well, the remodel is done and we are all moved in to our new -twice as big as before - bathroom.

The first view is from the door, and we will tour around in an attempt to give you a 360 view of everything. Yes, that a pile of clean laundry on the folding table.

Keep in mind (for those of you who saw the original bathroom), the toilet is in the same place as before.

Close up of the classy faucet. And the detail paint work done by one of our students, Sarah.

Close up of the super pretty tiles in the shower.

While we still have a few small things to finish, like towel racks, it's quite functional and a joy to use. And I'd like to believe that we will more than make back the money we spent on it with a higher resale value some day. :)

Bathroom remodel - part 3

Bathroom remodel - part 2

Deconstruction in process. This is looking into the space from our office. The door on the left was the original door into our bedroom. We've since relocated that door (it's behind me on the left). You can see on the ceiling a strip that is brighter. That's where the old bathroom wall was located. It's gone now, effectively doubling the size of the bathroom. Where the chair is in the picture is approximately where the new bathroom door is located. For this picture, I'm standing in about the same place as the last one, but the door has been framed, the plumbing completed, and the drywall put up. What you see is the future location of the washer/dryer.

Pan right, and on the right wall is the hook-up for the sink. It's about in the same place as before.