national night out 2013

Last night was National Night Out.  It was the thirtieth anniversary of the event and the party was legendary.  There were firetrucks, police cars, a SWAT unit, a bouncy castle, fish tacos, hot dogs, free slices of Pepperoni's pizza, tiny bags of chips, Johnny Carino's and Scruff McGruff made an appearance!  And there was Target cake!  I think we all know I feel about Target cake!  I had to have a little piece.

We had a great time and my mom took plenty of pictures.  It really was fun although you can't tell from the seriously stoic faces Katelyn made in every photo.  This girl got to sit in the front seat of both a fire truck and a police cruiser and meet Scruff McGruff and she just would not crack a smile.

Oh well.  Maybe next year.

accessorizing

 

The sunglasses obsession continues and Kate is still being a bit of a diva.

She just really loves those shades.  Every day, she finds them in her toy drawer, crawls over to me, puts them in my hand and says, "Eh!"  I'm choosing to believe that means "please" but I'm starting to wonder if it has more of a demanding tone than that.

When I put them on, she does not take them off or mess with them except to lift them slightly so she can peer underneath like some sort of celebrity.

Today, we were in the lobby of our apartment complex waiting for my mom to pick us up for the afternoon.  It is a very nice lobby and there are very nice things that a wandering toddler could break so I was a little bit worried that she would get bored and start grabbing for breakables.

Luckily there was a magazine to keep her occupied.  Because if there's anything Katelyn enjoys more than a nice pair of sunglasses is something entertaining to read.

lazy sunday

...more like crazy Sunday!

We spent last night at my parents' house which is always really fun.  We stayed up way too late watching Netflix and drinking sodas from the gas station and then woke Kate up just to have a midnight snack.

That sounds like we ate her.

We gave her a midnight snack...

...of milk.

And we didn't intentionally wake her up either.  I went in to check on her and she was just standing there in her crib staring at me.  How was I supposed to not pick her up?

Anyway, we had a wonderful time but woke up feeling tired and out of sorts.  I scrambled to get Kate and myself ready for church.  Of course we ended up having to stop by our apartment on the way to get some essentials.  We made it to church right before the Sacrament and sat out in the foyer with Kate.

Katelyn is wild during church.  This was not unusual today but it is exhausting nonetheless.  She NEVER wants to sit still and church is pretty much all about sitting still.  There are four adults in our family who can care for her in church.  That's a four to one baby - adult ratio but by the end of the three hour block, we are all tired and worn out.  It's a struggle every Sunday but somehow we make it.

Dave is the financial clerk in our ward which is fitting as he is a financial counselor during the week.  This means that he stays for about an hour after church to help count tithing.  This also means that I am faced with the task of getting Kate up the stairs, changed out of her church clothes, fed, cleaned up, and down for her nap.

Today my dad took us home and was kind enough to carry Kate in her car seat up the stairs for me.  She looked like a little Sunday diva sitting in her safety throne.  My dad rarely visits our apartment (because I am at my parents' house nearly everyday) so having "Grampy" in our home was especially entertaining to Kate.  He took her out on the balcony to look for birds for a few minutes and then left to go home, eat lunch, and probably take a nap. (Remember - everyone is exhausted at this point.) Katelyn was so sad to see him go she screamed for five minutes.

I got Kate into her high chair and gave her strawberries and spaghetti squash for lunch and then I went to change and use the restroom.  And then I clogged the toilet.

Which is embarrassing to admit on the internet.

But it wasn't gross or anything!  I just like to use a lot of toilet paper!  Ask anyone I know!  Also, our toilet clogs every day!  It is the cheapest toilet I have ever sat upon!

Anyway, Katelyn was crying so I ran over to see what her problem was.  Soon I heard the sound of running water in the toilet tank.  It was the sound of gross toilet water running over the bowl and onto the floor.  Our bathroom was being flooded.

I thought that only happened in the movies!!!

So, I was kneeling next to the toilet, in a huge puddle or nasty water, trying to shut off the water, when I heard a plop from the kitchen.  Katelyn had rejected the spaghetti squash and dumped on the kitchen floor.  All over the kitchen floor.  Which she thought was hilarious.

I needed to buy some time to finish wrestling the toilet so I gave her a few Oreos to eat for dessert. (I washed my hands like I was scrubbing in for surgery first.)

Finally, I fixed the stubborn toilet and walked into the kitchen to find that Katelyn had crushed the Oreos, dumped out her cup of water, and turned it into some sort of sugary black paint that she was using to paint herself with.

At least it bought me some time, I guess.

This story ends well.  Eventually, Dave came home, I fixed the toilet, we mopped the floor, Katelyn took a bath and a nap, and the afternoon ended with all of us enjoying the cool front and some bubbles out on the balcony.  And each of us in our pajamas.

I guess it turned out to be a lazy Sunday after all.

baby kate is camera shy

Being a princess is tough because the paparazzi are all up in your business.  Just ask Princess Kate.  (And by that I mean both Princesses Kate - the Duchess of Cambridge and HRH Princess Katelyn.)

Baby Kate's life has been chronicled literally since the moment of her birth.  When Katelyn was born and placed in my arms, the first thing her brand new baby eyes saw was my face bathed in the flash of a camera.  As the pediatric nurse took her to the scale to be weighed, she was followed by not one but TWO photographers.

I remember one time going to a baseball game where someone famous was doing something special or something.  I don't remember what was going on really.  What was fascinating to me was watching the flickers of light from across the stadium as photographers snapped pictures.  It was like it was raining glitter on the stands.  Katelyn's first minutes of life were no different.

You would think that someone so used to the camera would know by now that we expect her to pose for photos and videos on a daily basis.  Every time she does something adorable or fascinating or even just ordinary, we try to take a video.  My mom called the other night because she had uploaded a few videos of Katelyn from her phone to a private Youtube account.  I logged on to check it out.  There were 53 videos.

Katelyn's latest skill is truly fascinating.  And I'm not just saying that because I'm her mom.  If you ask Katelyn what sound a fish makes, she will open and close her mouth like a fish.  It's amazing.  She does it all the time.  We drove Dave to work this morning and she spent the entire ride to and from the medical center sitting in her carseat making fish noises.

Last week, we took her to Petco to look at the tanks of fish so she could actually see the animal that she was copying.  She loved it.  I forgot how many animals there are for sale at Petco.  We walked around looking at animals and taking pictures of Katelyn.

Kate loved seeing all the animals.  Except for the chinchilla.  That thing freaked her out.  Her favorite animals there were the turtles.  She waved to them.

I was very excited about writing a blog post to document Katelyn's trip to the pet store.  Naturally, I knew I would need to include video documentation of her making a fish noise.  I tried for the entire past week to get a video of Katelyn telling me what a fishy says.  She tried to make it as difficult as she possibly could.

Kate would insist on looking away while she made a fish sound.  Sometimes she tried to crawl away.  Most of the time, she refused to do it at all.  Dave and I both tried.  We begged and pleaded.  Here are a few of the outtakes. 

Finally, I got this subpar video of Katelyn's fish sound.

baby kate's celebrity crush

It is always a special treat when Katelyn wakes up in the middle of the night.

And I am not being sarcastic when I say that.  She is so good about falling back asleep.  When she wakes up in the night, we take her out of her crib, cuddle her, give her a bottle, and put her back in bed.  And that is that.

And the truth is, I miss her.  When you add in naps, she sleeps for about 15 out of the 24 hours in a day.  That means she is awake for less than ten hours a day.  I miss her at night.

Sometimes I lie in bed and make loud hooting noises, hoping to wake her up.  She usually just sleeps through all the racket but I figure it's worth a shot.

Last night, Dave and I were watching TV and folding laundry.  Dave went to put away some laundry in the bedroom while I emptied the dishwasher.  Suddenly, I looked up and Baby Kate was staring me down from across the counter.  She woke up!

We made her a fresh bottle and sat on the couch for a minute watching Justin Timberlake perform on Saturday Night Live.  Katelyn was OBSESSED!  I wanted to take some pictures of her crazy bedhead but she would not take her eyes off the TV.

Eventually, Dave put her down on the ground and she crawled over to the TV and sat right in front of it!

aminals

As promised, here is a tribute to my Schleich animal friends.  When Baby Kate came home from the hospital, my mom gave her a little plastic Schleich giraffe.  I really liked it because it looked like an actual giraffe.  I also loved how durable it seemed.  Seriously, these things are indestructible.

I wanted to know more about these fancy animals so I googled Schleich and found out that there are hundreds of little animals and dinosaurs.  I decided that I had to have the entire collection.  I told my family members which ones I wanted them the most and officially requested Schleich animals as birthday, Christmas, and yes, even anniversary gifts.

I love these little animals and can see my grandchildren playing with these great toys that will never go out of style.  Sometimes I share them with Katelyn.

Look who's sitting up all by herself!

well almost :)

pacifier noob

When my brother Jack came home from a mission to Guatemala, he had much better handwriting, a slight accent, and apparently diminished computer game skills.  He was playing a game that he had been good at before he served his mission and he wasn't doing well.  After a while, one of the players said to another, "boot this noob."  And just like that, he was booted out of the game.  LOL!

That has now become a catch phrase in our family.  Whenever someone is not very good at something or makes a stupid mistake they are referred to as a noob.

Well, I am a pacifier noob.  I was trying to clean up after my messy whirlwind of a daughter and picked up one of her rubber pacifiers.  For reasons unknown even to me, I put the pacifier up to my chin and stuck it to my face like a suction cup.  I walked around the house like that for a few minutes and then put the pacifier away.

Later when D came home, he asked me what happened to my chin.  I, of course, had no idea what he was talking about.  When we figured out what had happened, he laughed and yelled, "You have a chin hickey!"

Unfortunately, I don't think it will be going away soon.

so maybe kate does like bananas

So, a few weeks ago I blogged about Katelyn trying solid foods for the first time.  We fed her bananas and she gagged and spit them out.  We thought that she just didn't like bananas.  We were wrong.

A few Sundays ago, we were sitting around eating lunch after church and my mom was eating a banana.  Baby Kate would not take her eyes off of the banana so we thought we would try mashing it up and letting her taste it.  It turns out that Katelyn loves bananas.

When Katelyn eats bananas, she inhales them.  She gets frustrated when we don't feed them fast enough.  Katelyn will eat anything if bananas are mixed in.

Well, now little Kate will only eat bananas.  We have been trying various foods several times and she just isn't excited about it.  She will keep the food in her mouth and store it up like a chipmunk for several bites.  She will store up a mouthful and spit it out all at once.

I keep trying new foods over and over again and I'm sure she will learn to eat other foods but sometimes I imagine her going to college with a dorm room full of bananas because that's all she will eat.

big comfy couch

When I was a kid, there was a show on PBS called "The Big Comfy Couch."  The show was about a village of clowns.  The main clown Lunette lived on this huge couch.  She had this doll named Molly and the dust bunnies under the couch were her friends.

Lauren had this Lunette doll that I'm pretty sure was always creepy.  No one really knows how the giant black sharpie mark got on her face.  During the past few months this summer, D and I have been hiding Lunette the clown in Lauren's room to scare her.  It worked every time.

Now that Lauren has gone back to school, the Lunette doll just sits around the house.  It's kind of sad and we really miss Lauren but we're glad she's having fun at school.  Lunette will be waiting for her when she comes home for Christmas.

moo

My brother Jack is getting married this week.  Which means I needed a dress.  Which means I had to go shopping.

So my mom and I went to the Dress Barn.  The Dress Barn ...

I would like to meet the person who chose to include the word "barn" in the name of a clothing store for women.  I wonder about his (and I say his because I am positive that it was no woman) critical thinking skills.  I mean, why would he think that such a name would attract customers?  The name inspires thoughts of farm animals and manure while simultaneously insulting any customers who are sensitive about their weight.

At the Dress Barn, you can't help but moo (which I'm sure doesn't help keep the customers in the store).  It's just weird.

What really doesn't help is the fact that I am literally being milked every night.  Literally.  Moo.

yo quiero taco bell

Last night's England party was such a hit that we decided to serve a selection of international dishes for some of the nights of the Olympics.  We got all excited and talked about which countries we would celebrate and who would cook each dish.  We woke up this morning and did some chores and cleaned the kitchen.  After all that work we were all tired and no one wanted to clean the kitchen so we took a serious shortcut.  In fact, I think we cheated.

We bought Taco Bell and called it Mexican food.

... at least we had enough hot sauce. :)

Baby Einstein

Baby Kate is a baby Einstein.

creepers be creepin

While I was packing for our journey to Houston, I came across this nest of spider eggs.  I was cleaning out the coat closet and picked up D's graduation cap and gown.  There was a web with hundreds of eggs and a live spider!  So creepy...

trashing the couch

When we planned to move we decided it would not be worth it to pack all of our furniture, especially the couch.  D and I had been living with hand me downs and free stuff from DI since our wedding.  It would have been expensive to transport all of that junk and I was excited at the thought of buying new furniture someday.  We tried to sell of give away most of our stuff but the couch was just too hammered and old to sell or even carry up the stairs.  Instead, D, with the help of Jack, Dallas, and Dallin demolished the couch.