It's Stuck

Kate's favorite phrase is "It's Stuck...". Everything is stuck. I'm Stuck, It's stuck, baby stuck, monkey stuck...the list goes on and on. Here she is with Q-tips in her ears, and notice everything else in the background that she pulled from drawers and cabinets. Dang kid.


"It's stuck"...typically we do not let Kate "clean" her own ears ~ but sure is a picture worthy shot.

Kind of related to the Q-tip in the ears is that Kate had her 2-year well-check with her new pediatrician, Dr. Allou. I really like him so far. He has the best bedside manners and asked me if I had any concerns and really listened to what I had to say. He took his time and I did not feel rushed at all. Kate weighed 28.2 pounds and is 35 inches tall. He asked me if I had any concerns and I told him that I wondered if she should be more advanced in her speech/language skills. He asked me several questions and I relayed that she has very strong receptive language; she can follow directions; she is repeating words, etc. However, my concern is that she has vocabulary but does not use them. At times she calls out what something is but most of the time it is grunting or whining and we have to tell her how or what to say. That I believe is her stubborn hard headed ways, and the fact that she is spoiled (I blame Nana). He really did not seem concerned at all and told me to "stimulate" her more and watch for her to put two words together within the next 2-3 months. That statement kind of made me feel like a bad parent. I work full-time at work and in the home, so excuse me if I don't "stimulate" her enough?! I know that is not what he meant but I think it is my mother's guilt getting to me. Believe me, I read to her but Kate typically does not sit still so reading to her can be a challenge. She does LOVE her books, but everything is on her terms. Ok, enough ranting. That being said, they wanted to check her hearing to rule out if hearing is an issue...well, she failed her hearing screening in both ears. So now Miss Kate is being referred to an Audiologist. Wish us luck! The audiologist office told me that the appointment will take one to two hours. Ummmm, Kate can't sit still for more than 2-minutes so I am curious to see what they do. My mom told me that I had to see an audiologist as a toddler, interesting.

Below is a picture unrelated to this post, but too cute not to post!



Cake for breakfast? sure, why not...it's FRIDAY!

Happy 2nd Birthday Kate!

Kate celebrated her 2nd birthday with all her family and friends on Saturday March 19th. We held the celebration at Nana and Papa's house and I have to admit that it was a huge success. Everybody enjoyed the hot dog cart, watching the kids have fun and hit the Brobee pinata, and of course the candy bar (I think the adults were more excited about it then the kids)! If you can't tell by the pictures we had a Yo Gabba Gabba themed party. I don't particularly like the commercialized products they put out there for parties so I ran with my own theme. There were a few touches of Yo Gabba Gabba stuff such as the cupcake toppers, party bags and hats, and of course the Brobee pinata. Nana and I have been planning this for a while by cutting and pasting and assembling everything that needed to be done by Kate's big day. It didn't feel like a lot of work as I had so much fun planning Kate's party. The family thinks I go overboard, but it is all for Kate so it is worth it to me! I sometimes can't believe that I have a 2-year old daughter. Here it is past her 2nd birthday and it is time to send this blog off to print the second year of her life. She is really not a baby anymore, and I know has not been for a while, but a toddler and soon a preschooler (gasp! yikes!). This parenthood thing has not been easy at all, but the joy that Kate brings into our lives is indescribable. So if I go overboard with her, I guess it's my way of showing her and everyone around me how much I adore and love this child. Happy Birthday Kate!


"Brobee" Pinata



The "Candy Bar"

My homemade "Dum Dum" Topiary...can you guess how many lollipops there are? 122. That's a whole lotta dum dum's!

Papa giving Kate a ride on her new ride from Mommy and Daddy...before the party (notice her in diapers, a tee, and socks...so cute)

Homemade cupcakes by mommy

Kate and mommy waiting for the guests to arrive

Nana putting a "Brobee" party hat on the birthday girl

The party favor trolley

Message to the kids

The guest of honor hitting the pinata...she had way too much fun beating up poor Brobee!

Kate and Daddy

She LOVES all the attention on her (hmmm ~ just like mommy) while everybody sings Happy Birthday

Let's blow out your candles!



Deciding which present to open first...thanks everybody!!!!!

Party Planning

Party preparations for Kate's 2nd Birthday Party is going on right now. This is just a little sneak peak for the actual Party; I have been busy assembling gift bags, making center pieces, and pretty much getting my inner Martha out of me. I made gift bags and homemade treats for all the kids at the sitter's house. I am sure their parents will love me when they find out they ate cupcakes that day and come home with a bag full of candy and homemade lollipop cookies! Talk about sugar overload right? Kate seemed really pleased with everything to be honest. When she woke up this morning and saw the giftbags and cupcakes she had this huge smile on her face. She even got a pre-birthday cupcake for breakfast. Dont' judge, it's her birthweek.

Yeah, I dress myself, what of it?

This is too cute not to post. Kate loves trying to dress herself, but the feat of it frustrates her; I would too if my pants wouldn't go over my head! Our new routine in the evenings is that she can pick her PJ's. This is what she chose yesterday evening.



Kate is so independent and she has been from the get go. That is what I love about her. Trying to dress herself, putting on her shoes, and feeding herself are things she has pretty much mastered. To encourage her independance I try to have things at her level so that she can get them herself. Her snacks and cereals are at hands reach in the pantry and she takes full advantage of this. I will see her come from there with a bag of something, not always the healthiest but we make up for it with giving her veggies and fruits, which she loves by the way. Here she is snacking on something.



I LOVE this FACE!!!!!


Here is her "sweet" face I talk about.

Birthday Week Begins!

4 more days until Kate turns 2 years old! I am a firm believer that one should not just celebrate their birthday on their actual day. I believe that one should celebrate their birth month or at the very least their birthweek. Ask my family, they will tell you it is true. So I am passing on this tradition or belief to Kate. Her Nino Eric and Nina Bianca are vacationing in NY City this week so they will not be here to celebrate Kate's special day. However, they shipped a fab gift for Kate. So I figured since it is her birth week that she is allowed to open her gift! Dad said not to get used to opening presents everyday, but really, isn't everyday "kid" day as my parents used to say? She is really into the whole baby thing. Strollers, high chairs, diapering, etc., so they sent her a mini bath and toilet set. It is really cute because the potty is identical to Kate's potty. My idea was that if Kate sees baby going potty she will want to potty too. I can potty train Kate and she can "potty train" baby. Baby does not have a name by the way, she is just known as "baby". Anyhow, she was having fun with her new toy and I caught her sitting on her potty, toy potty that is, while watching tv. Luckily I had my camera on the counter so I was able to snap a picture of her.

Kids are Awesome!

This is our mantra, "Kids are Awesome!", when a little irritated with our little Miss Kate. Ok, ok, they really are but parenting definitely has its moments. These are things that Kate does that drives us mad:

Pulls all her clothes out of her drawers;
Yanks each and every last wipe from the container;
We leave the room for a second and upon return discover that Kate, or "destructo" as we call her has done something like: taken the post it notes from the drawer and peeled each one off and scattered them all over the house, opened the dishwasher and taken all the utensils and her sip cups out;
Pees on the carpet (ok, this has only happened once so far, but it's like a dog peed or something!);
Pours water out of her bath and onto the floor;
Takes the box of band aids and dumps them all over the floor;
Yells "nooooooooooooooooo" and runs away as you try to comb her hair;
Insists on putting on her pants but when she gets two legs in one pant leg goes crazy with a fit;
Insists on putting on her shoes but when she can't get them on goes crazy with a fit;
Her fits;
Insisting on watching "Bluesh Cluesh" but when you turn it on for her she does something else and then when you change the channel she yells, "BLUUUUUUUEEEESH CLUUUUUUUUUESH!"; Same for "Go Diego Go Go" and "Yo Yo";
When I am sick and not allowed to be sick as she gets mad at me for not running and playing with her;
Insisting on me more than Chris;
When she is overtired and I can't do anything right with her.



But I bet the list is much longer on what we absolutely ADORE about Kate, it goes a little something like this:

Her "sweet" face she makes when she is being a good girl;
Running to find me before she leaves for the sitter to say "bye" and give me a kiss and hug goodbye;
Her little laugh "heheheh" when she is unsure of something;
Her dancey dancey moves while watching "Yo Yo";
Singing to "Go Diego Go Go" and saying "clap clap clap" as she dances to the show;
Her crazy curly hair;
Her big brown eyes and long lashes;
Her face, which I tell her all the time..."I Love your face";
Picking her up from the sitter and she sees me and has this huge smile on her face and says "Yaaaaaayyyyyyy!";
Sitting on my lap and snuggling in me while she eats;
The way she holds her monkeys foot to her mouth ~ a sign that she is tired;
That she sleeps like 12 hours a night!!!!!;
That she is helpful and may be a little "OCD" like me about cleanliness;
Our morning routine in which I get her and wrap her in her blanket, get her chocolate milk and carry her to the couch...This is on Chris' "mad" list;
After her bath when she smells so good and is wrapped in her towel and I show her what she looks like in the mirror and say, "who's the pretty baby" and her face lights up;
Watching her learn something new each day;
That she is independent and likes to try things and do things by herself;
That she is energetic and active;
That she is healthy;
That she is our beautiful daughter!

"Here you goak"

As mentioned in my previous post Kate is really starting to talk. Her favorite phrase is "here you goak", which for those of you who need translation is "here you go". At first I thought the "k" sound at the end of "go" was due to us always saying, "here you go, Kate" but my friend who is a speech pathologist said that it is a developmental thing. I guess the "g" and "k" sound require the use of the same muscles/formation in your mouth. Something like that. It is really neat to see Kate starting to talk to us and really use her words when needed. This helps alleviate some of the tantrums. Don't get me wrong, we have at least 1 (on a good day) crying episode a day and fighting us about something. We are not even close to the teenage years and we are already fighting on what she wants to wear! So by the picture you can tell that she chose her PJ's. It's Christmas in March! We let her pick out her PJ's, no biggie. She also loves to pick out her shoes, which often sounds like "juice" so we really have to figure out the context. This evening after she chose her PJ's, and proceeded to insist on putting them on herself (picture Kate with two legs in one pant leg with a confused look on her face), she wanted to play with her baby. Baby, books, and shoes...what else could a girl ask for?! Kate tosses her baby onto the floor and puts her monkeys in the stroller. I swear she did not learn that by watching us! I think she prefers the monkeys over her baby. She then hands me the jacket and says "here ya goak". I ask her if she needs help with the jacket and she says, "shacket". Kate even has her own miniature designer handbag (or "pursh" is baby speak) that she loves to put around her neck.





She is cracking me up with her words. I LOVE it!

Words! Words! Words!

I have not posted in a very long time so I wanted to update what has been going on. First, some sad news. I contemplated writing about this, but feel that this is an important part of history for Kate. We all know the economy is in the toilet and everybody has been struggling. People are losing their jobs and homes right now. The real estate market is the worst it has been in years and people are comparing this time to the "crash" of 1929 and the "Reagan era" of the 80's. Anyhow, we were affected by this as we have had cut in our salaries for the past 2 years. Our house is worth less than what we owe and things became incredibly tight and stressful for us. That being said, we decided to put our house on the market and "short-sell" it. I want Kate to know how strong we are as a family. This has made all of us closer and made us realize that a house is just a structure and the people in it make a home. Yes, we are sad that we had to leave the home we brought Kate home for the first time. But the stress is dissipating and we are much happier in our new house that we are making a home.


(Helping daddy pack)

In other news Kate is talking more and more each day! I have to admit I was getting worried because (a) I am a neurotic freak; (b) am a school psychologist; and (c) am a first time mom. I thought Kate may have a speech delay or something else. But, I did keep telling myself that each child develops at their own pace as I tell parents that I deal with daily. I can't think of all the words she is saying but it is pretty cute to listen to her. Her receptive language has always been her strong point so now we are truly communicating with one another. Now she will actually choose something when you ask her. For instance, her favorite shows are Blue's Clues, Yo Gabba Gabba, and Go Diego Go. So you can ask her if she wants to watch either of those and she will either say, "no" or "ya". Or, she will say "Bluesh Cues", "Yo Yo" or "Godiegogogo". The other day I walked into the living room and she was singing and clapping to Go Diego Go. So cute. Please is "pleesh". She even picked up an English accent and is saying "mumm-aaay" for mommy.


(Now, Kate looks at the camera and says, "cheesh")

In other other news, Kate is starting to fight me on what she wants to wear. Luckily she likes girly stuff like sandals and dresses. But when she wants to wear them in 50-some degree weather in the morning it is not a good thing. She also LOVES her baby and stroller and wants to diaper her baby, change her baby (in Kate's clothes), and every morning she says, "baby? baby?". So I think her birthday gifts will probably include a lot of baby doll stuff. Speaking of, party plans are under way and I can't believe that Chris and I will have a 2-year old on our hands!