Kateisms - Week of Sept. 28

A quick update on swimming:

Kate successfully completed ISR swim lessons last week. Keith and I are so very proud of her. She swims great, can hold her breath for a really long time and, most importantly, knows how to rest in a floating position before continuing to find an exit. I do wish I did this at the beginning of summer because she truly enjoys swimming, now and I enjoy swimming with her. We'll continue getting in the pool this month and will take a few trips to some heated pools through Dec. Once January arrives, we'll probably sign up at the local indoor pool so we can continue swimming a couple times a week. Even if that doesn't work out, I'm told she'll retain 95% of what she learned up to a year, but we'll go back for her refresher course in April just to be sure. Check out a couple of her last lessons here:

Motor Skill Development: It's as if she turned 18 months and something clicked. Toys labeled for 18M+ are being used appropriately. And, I can't express how fun it is to watch her grow with (and into) her toys.

1. Buckles - She's been playing with her booster seat for awhile and probably learned to buckle it about three weeks ago. She also can buckle the chest portion of her car seat. What's so darn cute about it this week is that she buckles in Elmo and other various stuffed animals and then 'feeds' them. She used to plop the animal in the chair and mess with the buckles a bit, but now she actually buckles them in. As if they are going somewhere...

2. Rocking Bear, Rocking Giraffe & Ride-on Toys: Suddenly, she is getting on and off her rocking toys and actually rocking on them (this has been going on for about 2 weeks) and this week, she figured out how to make her ride on toys move...on her own...without mommy pushing her. Yea!

Amazing Vocabulary Continues to Grow and other Kateisms: Kate's vocabularly continues to amaze/surprise pretty much everyone, Dr. Hillock included. Here's the break down of the cutest things she's saying and doing right now:

1. Mommy See/See Mommy or Daddy See/See Daddy: This is now the first thing she says in the morning, or when she wakes from nap. And, of course throughout the day. Instead of blindly just calling for us, she's more specific and demanding about what she wants...she wants to see us, like now.

2. Hold me: Not only does she say, 'hold me' when she'd like to be held, but also when she wants you to hold anything she is currently holding, like Minnie Mouse, Elmo, etc...

3. Thank you: Kate actually says thank you, and even said it unprompted to Keith this weekend.

4. Signing Time: She very clearly states "signing time" when she wants to watch TV. What I find most humorous is how clearly she is asking to watch a show that teaches her to communicate without words. Of course, she asks for signing time first then mo-mo (Elmo) and Mi Mow (Mickey). She'll tell you specifically which DVD she wishes to see, also. Primarily it's the first one..."eat!" Of course it's only fitting that this is her favorite.

5. Digital Frame: Kate, like all little ones has long been enamored with the digital frame. Anytime we pass by, she'll make us stop and look at it. She likes to point out Mommy, Daddy, Papa, Lexi, Joey and herself. Today, I grew tired of holding my 27-lb sweetie so I moved the frame to the family room so she could look at it as much as she wanted, whenever she wanted. I think she stood at that frame for 10 solid minutes and barely noticed when daddy came home. Wow. I should have moved it months ago.

6. Counting: Our genious daughter is getting much better with counting. Sometimes when we are counting, she shocks us and shouts out the next number. Today at lunch Keith asked her to wait and count to 10. He started counting like we always do and she shouted out five, eight and 10 in the appropriate spots!

Photos with Gretchen: We had pictures taken with the ever-talented Gretchen Niller this month (http://www.nillerphotography.com/). A couple of our favs:

Kateisms - Week of September 7

Here are the latest adorable little things Kate is up to:

Bubble blowing expert…Kate has learned to blow bubbles in water (well, she's been doing this for awhile, but it's getting even cuter). She's very good at it these days and ever since her ISR lessons, she is not afraid to dip her head into the water. She also asks for mommy to blow bubbles in the bath tub…oh, yes, Kate even asks mommy to join her for bathtime (typically on a day when Daddy has spent most of the day with her…so nice to be needed).

Scrapes and bruises. Cooler weather can’t come soon enough. Just when the scrapes on her knees heal or the bruise fade, it seems they are replaced with twice as many. She is so busy walking and running that she seems to get tripped up quite frequently. Right now she has 3 bruises running up her let and neither me nor her father know where they have come from.

No, no, no, no. Kate has more than 70 words, but her favorite by far is "no." No surprise, right? The best part is when "no" means "yes."

I prefer walking, thanks and pushing my car instead of riding in it. We took Kate to the park last weekend. She spent most of her time walking with her daddy on the sidewalk instead of playing on the equipment. She also loves pushing her car and refuses to allow us to help her!

Words, words and more words. Be very careful what you say around Kate. She repeats (or at least tries to repeat) everything she hears.

Diaper changing and other acts of defiance… Kate is no fan of public changing rooms. She's never really been much of a fan...probably because I almost never use them. Last week Kate showed just how much she hates these spaces while mommy tried to change a poopy diaper at Disney World. Let's just say it wasn't a pretty sight. We both lost it, but I did get the diaper changed. I'm sure the other mothers waiting in line to use the table think I'm crazy.

New Uses for Old Things. Kate and mommy have spent a lot of time sitting in the rocking chair in Kate's room. It's Kate's favorite place to "climb up" (with some assistance) and read her books on her own. She kicks me out of the chair in the morning and makes me sit on the floor so she can be a big girl in the chair and read her stories.

Wild Animal Baby. Kate is obsessed with her "baa baa" CD. And, I mean obsessed. We listen to this thing several times a day. In the car, in her room, in the living room. Lord help me!

Future Mozart? Kate loves to "play" the piano. Keith believes she is "advanced" because she has moved from mashing multiple keys to pushing one key at a time. Regardless, let's hope this is only the beginning of her love of the piano.

On top of the World...well, the toy box, anyway. First the couch, now the toy box. Kate has climbed on top of her toy box this week. So far, she just sits, but I'm sure standing is coming soon. She also has learned she can climb up on the piano bench.

Minnie Mouse Rules.We already knew Kate was a fan of Minnie. In the past two weeks, she's had the opportunity to visit Magic Kingdom twice. The first visit was with her cousins and she had a wonderful time visiting Minnie & Mickey in Toontown. On the second trip, we took her to breakfast at Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary. Everytime she saw a character from afar, she'd shout "Goofy.." or "Pluto..." Once the character would come close to her, she'd say, no, no, no, no... I was beginning to think we wasted our money on the breakfast when Minnie walked in the room. The video says it all! Please excuse the quality...trying to find a better place to post video. Please share any suggestions...I'm over Picasa.

Dumbo and the Neigh-Neighs. And, no trip to the Magic Kingdom is complete without a ride on Dumbo or the carousal. Ever since our two trips, Kate cannot quit talking about Dumbo and the 'neigh-neighs.' I say "up, up" and she says Dumbo (which sounds amazingly like Elmo!) followed by "neigh, neigh" (and the sign for horse). She is definitely a Disney baby!