Miscellaneous Fun

These are some various pictures that we've taken of Kaitlyn in the past few days. Kaitlyn has figured out that crossing her arms at random times (especially when she's asked a question) gets a big laugh out of everyone. So now she crosses her arms many times a day and looks at us with this huge grin, waiting for us to laugh. We can't help ourselves. She's just so cute and prissy when she does it.

When I was changing her sheets, I put the mattress on the floor for a while and let Kaitlyn have some fun. She wore herself out bouncing up and down on the mattress.

And she didn't even cry when she bounced off :)

She's very curious about the camera and looks intently at it whenever I pull it out...

...and then makes this face when I won't let her play with it. I get this face a lot during the day now :) She's become much more aware of her independence and doesn't like it when I stop her from doing something. And since her only words so far are "Mama" and "Dada," she can't really express her feelings and frustrations in any other way. In her defense, though, her gums are very swollen right now with incoming teeth, so she's been unusually grumpy lately. She's cutting a couple of those big premolars. Ouch!

Crossing Arms

Last night, we had Andrew and Lindsey over for dinner. It was so nice to catch up with them and hear all about the latest wedding plans. It's hard to believe that they'll be married in a couple of weeks! Of course, Kaitlyn was loving all the attention. Her newest thing is crossing her arms like a grown-up in order to get a laugh. Here she is imitating Uncle Andrew and Aunt Lindsey:

Our Little Pianist

Last week, Kaitlyn and I spent a couple of days at my mom's house. Gran has held on to several of my toys from childhood, including this Schoenhut piano that I loved as a kid. Apparently Kaitlyn loves it too because she spent a lot of time "playing" the piano while we were there...

...and jamming to the music. It takes talent to play the piano and dance at the same time :)

In other news, Kaitlyn is walking all over the place! Finally! She's been taking several steps at a time for a few weeks now, but she was still crawling more than walking. But while we were at my mom's house, she figured out how to stand up all by herself (without having to pull up on anything). Now when she falls down, she gets right back up and keeps walking. In fact, she can almost run! It's getting much harder to keep up with her, much less stay one step ahead of her!

Sunglasses and Balloons

Kaitlyn is modeling her new shades. Lately she's been wearing ours when it's sunny outside, but they're way too big to stay on her head. So I decided it was time for a pair of her own. Now she wants to wear them anytime we're in the sun. I can't believe that she actually keeps them on, but she doesn't even attempt to take them off until she's inside. I must admit that she's quite adorable in them.

An airplane was passing overhead. She never fails to be mesmerized by them.

The other thing that she likes a lot right now is balloons. She's always pointing them out--in her books, in the store, and in other random places. I'm not sure what it is about balloons that make them universally attractive to kids. But one of the perks of shopping at Publix is that they give free balloons to the kids. She clutched her prized possession all the way home and was grinning from ear to ear. Ah, the simple pleasures of life!

Favorite Books

These are some of Kaitlyn's favorite books right now. She loves pointing at pictures in First 100 Words and having us say their names. It's a great book for the "Where's the____?" game. She can correctly point to all the pictures in the book. She also has gotten very good at identifying letters of the alphabet when asked. So "A" Was Once an Apple Pie gets read several times a day.

And then there are the ones that she has treasured for quite some time.

The pages of the last two books are already tattered and worn. Signs of a much-loved book!

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!