Playtime

It's so entertaining to watch a toddler play. Here's what playtime with Kaitlyn looked like today:

We played dress-up with Tigger (her very favorite stuffed animal!). Let's see what Tigger looks like with several hats on!

Then she had to stop and give Tigger a hug for being such a good sport.

She took a quick break from playing so that she could wave to the airplane going over our house. She LOVES all airplanes and helicopters and has to wave with both hands whenever she hears one.

Next she spied her shoes and decided that it would be fun to put them on. She was only moderately successful in that endeavor.

Time to stop and fix her hair!

Then she thought it would be funny to play dress-up with Mommy. We took turns putting the hats on each other. The more hats, the more she laughed!

As nap time approached, she climbed up in the rocking chair (with a little help) and snuggled in with her favorite book.

What sweet times!

"Helping" with the dishes

Kaitlyn loves to climb on anything she can reach, including climbing into the dishwasher to "help" unload dishes. Unfortunately, she likes to throw all of the clean dishes onto the floor, so she's only allowed to "help" after I've unloaded all the dangerous and breakable objects.

In other news, Kaitlyn has started walking more. She's very proficient at walking when holding onto someone's hand and walking behind her push-toy. And now she's venturing out on her own for several steps at a time. She's still cautious and unsteady, but she's so proud of herself when she walks on her own. And Jeff and I are looking forward to carrying our 27+ pound child less!

A Month in Review

Sorry, friends and family, for not posting in a while. June was simply a blur! I agreed to teach a physics course at Lipscomb this past month as an adjunct professor. Since it was a summer course on an accelerated schedule, there were two-hour lectures every morning and labs three afternoons a week. It was challenging, exciting and exhausting all at the same time! To add to the chaos of the month, I had already committed to another professional activity in Colorado and was out there for a whole week! I missed Jeff and Kaitlyn a lot, but I always enjoy the clean air and mountains of Colorado. And Kaitlyn had both Mimi and Gran to keep her company during the day in my absence.

My course ended today, the exams are graded, and final grades have been submitted. So I finally have some time to breathe and catch up on all the other stuff I've neglected for a while. Like pictures of Kaitlyn! So here are some highlights from our month:

One Saturday, we took Kaitlyn to Centennial Park. She loved watching all the people, dogs and ducks. She also enjoyed watching me feed the ducks with pieces of bread. But when her turn came, she always ate the bread instead of throwing it to the ducks (as seen below).

Finally, we decided to give up on duck feeding and just gave her the whole piece of bread. Maybe she was afraid that we were going to give it to the ducks again because she shoved the whole thing in her mouth and then just sucked on it for a while. She rode around in her stroller for several minutes with bread hanging out of her mouth. Silly girl!

We also continued the family tradition of celebrating the official arrival of summer by watching the sun set over the city from downtown. Last year, Kaitlyn was content to sit quietly and take in the sights and sounds of the city. This year, she wanted to push her stroller around and explore things on her own. And if one of us tried to help her steer the stroller (i.e. away from the steps), she promptly sat down and cried until we stepped away from her stroller. Miss Independence! What a difference a year makes! Below is a picture from last year and this year.

Thanks for checking in on us. Now that life is back to normal, I'll be blogging more regularly.

Who needs toys?

Kaitlyn has a new "hat" that she likes to wear. She keeps us laughing every day!

Favorite Foods

Yes, that's a whole tomato that she's biting into! She seemed pretty interested in my tomato at lunch today, so I gave it to her to see what she would do with it. She played around with it for a few minutes and finally took a big bite out of it. I should mention that she's seen me do that plenty of times--tomatoes are one of my favorite foods and I frequently eat them like an apple!

Speaking of favorite foods, this child absolutely LOVES all fruits. Watermelon, cantaloupe, strawberries, blueberries, bananas, mangoes, kiwi, grapes--you name it! She will eat fruit no matter what time of day it is or how full she is from her other foods. I'm sure she would be very happy having a fruit-only diet. She's starting to become a little more picky about the foods she eats, so let's hope this is one healthy habit that continues!

12 Month Pictures

We decided to go on location for this photo shoot and take advantage of the nice weather and spring flowers. She wasn't very interested in sitting still, but I think the pictures reflect her personality and stage of life.

A couple of funny ones...

I think the iris stem is invading her space. She wasn't too sure about it.

In this picture, we happened to catch her in mid-fall. (She was fine afterwards, by the way). She just closed her eyes and hoped for the best.

Double Trouble

Some more pictures from our vacation. Kaitlyn and Noah are getting to be big buddies. I shudder to think what mischief these two are going to cause together as they get older.

More Beach Pictures

The babies on the beach

Krinks Family Portrait

Kaitlyn exploring in the sand

Fun in the Sun

After the birthday/graduation celebrations, we headed down to Destin for the week with Jeff's family. The weather was gorgeous, and it was so nice to kick back and relax for a while. It was also lots of fun to introduce Kaitlyn to the beach and to the pool. I really thought it would take her a while to warm up to the feel of the sand and the water, but she surprised us by instantly loving it all.

We started out with the pool. It wasn't crowded at all, so there was plenty of room to pull her around in her floatie. She enjoyed hanging out in it, but her favorite was when Daddy held her up and let her glide along the surface of the water on her belly. What fun!


Since the pool was such a positive experience, we decided to try the beach. She was pretty fascinated and perplexed with the waves. She just let them wash over her legs. Then she discovered the sand, which to her was even better than the water. She had a blast crawling in it, scooping it up and letting it run through her fingers. But she also learned that sand has its drawbacks. Hopefully she'll remember that it's not a good idea to rub your eyes after playing in the sand!


Here are some pictures that we took one evening at the beach.

Kaitlyn and Mommy

Kaitlyn laughing

With Mimi and Papa Greg

Birthdays, Graduation and More!

As evidenced by my lack of blogging, we've been very busy for the past several weeks! Last week, we hit three big milestones in the Krinks family--Kaitlyn's 1st birthday, Noah's 1st birthday, and Andrew's graduation from Lipscomb University. We celebrated all three occasions with a massive party on Saturday, and then we left for Destin the next morning. We needed some serious beach time to recuperate from the weekend madness!

Since Kaitlyn and Noah are only 4 days apart, we had a joint birthday party for them. I got two small cakes for the babies, and a big cake for the adults. I was eager to see what Kaitlyn would do with her cake. True to form, Kaitlyn was content to carefully test the icing with her fingers. Noah, on the other hand, enjoyed the cake with gusto!

Several minutes later, we cut the cake and fed her a small piece...and this was her reaction :)


Then she decided to "share" the yucky cake with Mommy. Unfortunately, I don't like chocolate cake any more than Kaitlyn does. Like mother, like daughter!

Noah clearly did not have the same aversion to chocolate cake that Kaitlyn had! His parents were smart to strip him down first!!

This celebration was extra-special because Kaitlyn's great-grandparents (Gigi and Bobby) were able to spend a couple of days with us as they made their annual trek from Florida to New York. We took the opportunity to get a picture of four generations of family.

Earlier in the day, we watched Andrew walk across the stage at Lipscomb to receive his well-deserved college diploma. Congratulations, Andrew! Here are a few pictures we took after the ceremony.

Andrew with Grandma and Bob

Mom, Dad, Andrew and Lindsey

Jeff, Andrew and Jess

I still have lots of vacation pictures to share. More posts to come in the next few days!!