Children's Museum

Playing catch up here...

A couple of weeks ago, I had to take Katie Wynn to her first ever dental appointment.  I know it's way early for cleanings; she has a tiny frenulum on her top lip that we wanted to make sure didn't need any attention.  It doesn't, thank goodness.

Anyway, I was fully prepared for that visit to be quite the disaster based off her last couple of doctor's appointments, so I had already decided we'd go to the Children's Museum afterwards to hopefully replace the bad memory with a fun one instead.  Thankfully, the pediatric dentist we saw was fantastic and she let him look in her mouth with hardly any tears.  We were in and out in 15 minutes with a good report!  So, not as traumatic as I had expected but there was no point in cancelling the fun plans so on to the museum we went!

Katie Wynn and I went by ourselves but my mom met us there soon after we arrived.  Thank goodness because I didn't realize how involved it would be for me!  KW is not yet to the point where she will just run off and play, so I had to be very hands-on and show her all the fun things.  That was totally fine, I just wish I'd worn more comfortable clothes and rented a locker for the heavy diaper bag.  Rookie mom mistake, I guess.  I was pretty exhausted by the time we left!

She started off very shy since there were quite a few school groups there.  We went to the dentist area since it was nearly empty and we could play alone (and fitting since we'd just left the dentist!).  I had to peel her off me to check out these dentures but she soon got a little curious.

Wanna know what really got her to come out of her shell?  When Mimi put her up on the motorcycle!  I'm glad she enjoyed it because that's as close as she'll ever come to being on a real one as far as I'm concerned.  She was all about pushing all the buttons and revving it up!

The coolest attraction to me personally was this fun air tube maze.  It had all kinds of twisty tubes with air running through them and you could insert fluffy balls or scarves into it and watch it work through the maze of tubes.  Eventually it would spit it back out at the top.  It was fun!  Katie Wynn couldn't really keep up with watching it go through, but she loved pushing the fluffy balls into the shoot.

Let's see...we also did lots of firetruck driving.  She drove in my lap in the first one but had to do it herself in the second one.

We built some towers - and then knocked them down! - on this little block table.

We saved the grocery store for last.  I had a feeling she was gonna love it and I was right!  The grocery carts were very similar to hers at home and she knew exactly what to do.  The big kids were all gone so we had the store all to ourselves.

TWO cartons of ice cream on top...that's my girl!

As she scanned her items at the checkout counter, Mimi was a big helper and put them all up for us.

And then, as Mimi put away the last couple of items and I returned the shopping cart so we could leave for lunch, we turned around to see that she had already gotten another cart and started all over!

Boy, did she throw a fit when we said it was time to go!  I tried coaxing her out with a banana since I knew I had one in the diaper bag and she outsmarted me by running and getting a fake one off the produce stand.  She was not happy about having to leave her (second) grocery cart!

After a quick lunch, we hit the road to head home.  It came as no surprise that she was sound asleep before we even made it to the interstate.  So much fun!  I have a feeling we'll definitely be returning to the Children's Museum sooner rather than later.

The Week of the Shiner

I wrote the bulk of this post last night and then, with one simple wrong click, deleted the whole thing.  I furiously googled to see if there was any way to recover, but to no avail.  I am so sad to have to start all over!

I have been thinking it was about time to do another Katie Wynn update and since I've been snapping pictures of her (and her shiner) all week, I figured I might as well post them together.

The shiner incident happened around 10:20 Sunday morning, just fifteen minutes before we were supposed to be at church.  It was my fault; I take full responsibility.  Not "my fault" as in I slugged her in the eye, but "my fault" as in she was under my supervision when it happened.

Here's how it [literally] went down: I had just finished changing her diaper and, like after most diaper changes, stood her up on the changing table.  She loves to stand up there and play with all the shoes on the shelf that hangs on the wall.  I stepped back to grab her bloomers off her wardrobe, literally just two steps away.  And as I turned back, I watched her lose her balance and tumble down.  The contact with the changing table actually happened at the top.  She rolled forward, hit the top lip of the piece of furniture, and then her body flipped over off the table.  She landed on the ground on her bottom.  Sadly, my hands were just out of reach and I just had to watch it all in what seemed like slow motion.  I scooped her up and held her while she wailed, not realizing that she'd gotten a black eye until I pulled her back and saw the redness and swelling.

I'm guessing this has disqualified me from the Mom Of The Year contest.  But hey, we still made it to church!  I have since ordered one of those bunny boo-boo things since Katie Wynn seemed pretty terrified of the frozen bag of peas I tried to put on her face.  

The picture to the right is the first one I took of her new shiner.  It was right after church, so about an hour and a half after the accident.  Do you see the tiny bruise across the bridge of her nose?  That one actually came from daycare on Friday.  When I arrived to pick her up, no less than three employees - including the owner - came to tell me about how Katie Wynn tripped and there was a bruise but no blood and blah, blah, blah.  By the time I finally saw her I was like, "That's it?"  Pffft.  I showed them how to put a real bruise on her face.

(I'M KIDDING.)

By  nighttime, she was back to standing up on the changing table again.  We do a good job of learning from our mistakes around here.

Our nighttime routine has gotten interesting lately.  Usually, Matt and I take turns reading a book (or two) to Katie Wynn after her bath and before bedtime.  The last few nights, though, Katie Wynn has decided that she should get to do the reading.  It makes for some interesting stories, to say the least. 

Monday morning marked Day Two of the shiner.  I don't think it looks as bad in these two pictures as it did in person.  Poor Matt had daycare dropoff duty so he had to explain to everyone what happened.

Since the weather has been getting nicer, our little girl has wanted to spend a lot more time outside!  Every day when we get home, she refuses to go inside.  She'd much rather stay out and play.  And every day, she pulls out the same three things.  First, she goes for the basketball.  Maybe we have a future baller on our hands?

When she tires of that (or it rolls too far away for her to go get), she pulls out her ladybug "bike."  You can see in these pictures that her shiner was much more noticeable by Monday afternoon.

Finally, when she's done riding her bike, she pulls out her little pink chair.  Gotta rest after all that playing, ya know?

The fun really starts when it's time to go inside.  Katie Wynn has no problem putting away the basketball and the bike.  But the chair.  Oh, the chair!  She gets so mad that it can't come inside.  So she sets it down right by the back steps, sits back down in it and refuses to come inside.  Is this the first sign of pouting?

This past week, Katie Wynn has also REALLY gotten into splashing in the tub.  She's known how to splash for a while, but she has just discovered that she can make a huge mess if she splashes hard enough.  Bath time requires two towels - one for her and one for the floor/walls.

Here's a pretty good picture of the shiner as of Monday evening.

I have said more than once that I don't think Katie bug looks very much like her baby pictures.  But I think this one has made me rethink that statement.  Here's her sweet little profile from four months old (on the right) and from Monday night (below).  She still has that same round face and those chubby cheeks that I love to kiss on!

On Tuesday, the bruise was a little bit darker.  Just like on Monday, we had to play outside after school.  And we had to start with throwing the basketball.  (Check out her left leg in the picture on the left.  Weird?)

Then more bike riding.  Did I mention that she only knows how to go backwards?

When you only know how to go backwards and reach the end of your path, the only thing left to do is pick your bike up and walk it forward so you can start over.  Clearly.

After a few minutes of bike riding, playtime was over.  And you know what that means...

As I was trying to get an updated picture of the shiner on Wednesday morning, Katie Wynn put the lens cap back on my camera.  Point taken.  No pictures that morning.

I did get some that afternoon though!  Excuse the messy hair, it must've been a super fun day at daycare.  The bruise is finally turning green which means it's starting to go away.  Yay!

I didn't get a new picture of it this morning, but it's looking SO much better!  I think by Saturday that silly shiner will be ancient history.  Maybe this weekend we could work on a busted lip or something fun like that.

Here are some general updates on Katie Wynn at nearly 18 months old:

• Stats: weighs 22-ish pounds, size 3 diapers, 18 month clothes, and size 5 shoes.
• Takes two naps a day; bedtime is around 7:15pm and sleeps until about 6:30am.
• Can say a handful of words: mama, dada, night-night, ball, no-no, uh-oh, choo-choo, nana (banana), bye-bye, bow, and others I'm sure I'm forgetting.  Definitely tries to imitate things we say and chatters ALL the time.
• Can identify her belly and belly button, toes and hands, nose and mouth.  On a good day she can get ears and eyes too, but sometimes those are backwards.  :)
• Knows what a puppy dog says and the noise a train makes.
• Knows that a bow goes in her hair.
• LOVES to dance!  If music is on, there's lots of bouncing and clapping, and occasionally some spinning!
• Can follow simple instructions and help put things away, especially her toys.  She is great at cleaning up!  
• Knows all about the trash can which is both helpful ("Throw your banana peel away.") and scary ("Has anyone seen the remote?").
• Also knows things can be thrown in the toilet.  Nothing valuable so far.
• Can open the doors in our house (we have levers instead of knobs).  Thank goodness our alarm beeps when exterior doors are opened!  She has only tried to escape once.
• Likes to pick up napkins and "cough" into them.  Can sorta wipe her nose.
• Could easily survive on just fruits.  Bananas, blueberries, and mandarin oranges remain her favorite.  Will eat any vegetable in pureed form (yes, still) but isn't crazy about them in their regular form.  Loves bread and crackers.  Might have a sweet tooth like her mama...
• LOVES to take care of her babies.  She holds them and pats them and rocks them and will put them down for night-night.  Also uses q-tips to clean their ears and changes their diapers (gets a clean diaper out, sets it beside them, and then wads it up to be thrown away).
• Still sleeps with a paci but is mostly paci-free during the day (unless she spots one out somewhere!).  Also has a blanket that she's attached to.  Each morning when it's time to leave, she gets to put them both back in her crib so they'll be waiting for her at night.  She is very proud of herself for putting them in and this has worked GREAT for making sure the blanket doesn't travel out of the house.  She even happily throws in the paci.  :)
• The first thing she does when we get home is run to Lolli's cage so she can be let out.  She still needs help with the kennel door though.
• Lately, she has been all about the single head nod.  Just one solid nod down.  "Hungry?" Nod.  "Wanna play?" Nod.  "Is it yummy?" Nod.
• She loves daycare now!  (This is such a huge blessing and relief!)  She gets excited to see Ms. Antinette and, from what we're told, really loves "Music and Movement" time.  No surprise there.  She insists on holding her daily report paper each day on the car ride home.  We often have to un-crumple it or piece it together to read it.
• OBSESSED with taking her shoes on and off.  If you ever see her with her shoes on the wrong feet, I promise that's not how we put them on.  She will often put on her church shoes with her pajamas for story time before bed.  Also loves to pull our shoes out of the closet and wear them.
• Has had three hair cuts.  As you can maybe tell in the pictures above, her hair is just about the same length all over now...much more bob-ish and less mullet-y.  I'm hoping for pigtails this summer!
• Loves to play on our bed after it's been made up.  She pulls down all the pillows and loves jumping into them.  (This is probably how we'll get the next black eye...)
• Is still incredibly shy around people she doesn't know.  She will not go to many people, especially if we are around.  She even becomes very clingy at our own house if we have guests.
• Melts down in any place that even slightly resembles a doctor's office (person behind a counter, maybe?).  Last weekend it was the UPS Store.
• Loves to scribble with pens and pencils.  She's definitely a righty.
• Can give fives and fist bumps.
• Can finally make a real "kiss" noise when she blows kisses!

Katie Wynn makes us laugh on a daily basis and we are constantly amazed at all the things she is learning!  

Saturday to Saturday

I had good intentions of cranking out some blog posts this past week.  I had four topics lined up in my head and everything.  But then we had the craziest weather week EVER and I got sidetracked and didn't get them done.  So instead, here's a recap of this bizarre week.

Last Saturday, the weather was glorious!  After too much cold weather, the sun was finally out and it was warm enough to actually enjoy being outside.  Matt was not feeling well so Katie Wynn and I left him alone and spent every single minute of the afternoon outside.  We got out the garden cart she got for her birthday and she pushed that thing around EVERYWHERE! 

She worked hard on repotting all of her plants, stopping only to watch the "choo-choos!" as they went by.

She also spent some time doing some serious coloring.  The only thing I had for her to color on was a scrap piece of beaded board!  Sad, isn't it?  She doesn't know any different though...

Sunday after church we had a very lazy day at home.  Had I known we were about to be cooped up in the house for a few more days, I would've made sure we got out of the house for a while!  Instead, we bummed around and did laundry and watched movies and played all day.

We knew that bad weather was in the forecast but we honestly didn't think twice about it.  We've had bad weather in the forecast every other week, it seems like.  Sunday evening, the sleet started coming, though, and it piled up quick!  We went about our nighttime routine, laid our clothes out for work the next day, and got in bed.  Shortly after 10pm, our power went out.  It's amazing how quiet it is in your house when nothing is on, no humming or buzzing or anything!  I could not sleep at all; I just kept listening to branches popping outside from the ice and worrying about whether or not Katie Wynn was warm enough.

Around 3:00 am, after a freezing cold bathroom break, I decided to get Katie Wynn out of her bed and put her in between us to try to keep her warm.  At 6:20 in the morning, I got the automated call from my office announcing that it was closed.  It was about 58 degrees in our house and I was freezing!  After four unanswered phone calls, my mom finally picked up her phone and we found out they had power.  Hallelujah!  We hit the road as fast as we could.

As we drove to my parents' house, we found the reason for the power outage.  We knew pretty much immediately that the power wouldn't be on any time soon.

Obviously we were extremely grateful that my parents let us spend the icy/snowy day with them!  I think we had about 4 inches of ice with an inch or so of snow on top of it.  On Monday, Matt braved the roads a couple times to go check on our house and, even with a fire burning, it got down to 43 degrees!  Around 5 in the afternoon, I went with him to pack our bags and I could see my breath in our living room.  Not ideal!

Do you think any of us got a little stir crazy staying in the house all day?  That's three adults, one toddler, two dogs, and a million toys all on the same couch.

Our power did end up coming on late Monday evening, but we were already putting KW to bed at my parents' so we stayed the night.  The plan was for Matt to leave early Tuesday morning to test out the roads, and then I was going to hitch a ride into work with my Dad.  Matt left before 6am and, after a looong, slow drive, finally made it to work.  Dad and I were not so lucky.  We left after 8am and never even made it onto the interstate.  The roads were really backed up and we didn't want to get stuck in a standstill!  That meant I got to spend another day hanging out with my girl (and my friend Emily and her twins who were now without power).

Wednesday morning I was going to work, no matter what!  Matt got up early and took KW to daycare and then came back so I could follow him on the icy roads.  Day three of the Ice-capades and this was still the view from our garage.  You should be able to see two roads intersecting out there, but instead it was all covered in ice and snow! 

It was a white-knuckles-gripping-the-steering-wheel kind of drive, but we made it to the interstate and then on to work.  I'll be honest, after three straight days of staying in the house, I was kind of glad to be at work!

But then I was glad to see my favorite girl later that evening!

I saw on Facebook where one of my friends had let her kids go sledding in laundry baskets.  Brilliant idea!  I hadn't even taken Katie Wynn out to play in the snow yet, but I figured we could at least do that.  So we joined her Daddy on his way to check the mail and got in a few rides before dinnertime.  

She did NOT want to go back inside; she loved sledding!  You can see in the picture above on the left that Matt was still in his suit and his foot is completely covered in the snow.  We weren't able to stay out for too long.

One good thing about the two snow days this week is that Mom and I were able to make several new outfits for Katie bug!  (Mostly her, I just did the appliques.)  Here's our little model in her new hedgehog outfit before daycare.  She looks so old to me in this picture!

Thursday and Friday were pretty much back to normal.  The snow and ice have slowly started to melt away, though there is still a good bit of it in our flower beds.  Go figure that today, Saturday, the sunshine was back out and we were treated with another great day of weather!  A complete repeat of last Saturday.

Katie Wynn is so full of personality these days.  She started her day today by insisting her pjs come off, putting her shoes on the wrong feet, and hanging out in Lolli's bed.  You know, like you do.

We enjoyed a delicious breakfast with friends this morning and then ran lots of errands.  This afternoon we were able to do yardwork and even walk to the park to play for a little while.  And Katie Wynn took Lolli for a walk.  Or Lolli took Katie Wynn for a walk.  I'm really not sure.

Let's all pray that this nicer weather sticks around for a while.  I'm so over the cold!  And, we get to spring forward tonight.  Aww yeah!  I'm sure we'll have a rough day or two to recover from the lost hour, but it will be so nice to have more daylight hours after work.  Finally!

Overnight Guests

Friday night, Katie Wynn had her first overnight guest!  We hosted Margot, who is just two weeks older than Katie Wynn, and her mama Lydia, one of my college roommates, for the night and had so much fun playing with them.  Well, Margot and Katie Wynn did most of the playing while Lydia and I chatted and caught up and soothed toddler meltdowns.  

Katie Wynn and Margot had met once before, but I think it was back when they were just a couple months old.  I was excited to see how well they would play together.  I think if Margot and her family lived closer, these two could be best friends!  

This was the first time Katie Wynn had ever bathed with a friend and I'm not sure she knew what to do!  I think between the two of them, they pulled out every single bath toy that we own.  :)

I know this picture is blurry but I just couldn't delete it.  As soon as they had been dried off, these nekkid girls took off running through the house like two college coeds streaking through campus.

We tried for a pj photo shoot but, you know toddlers...they aren't going to smile at the same time no matter how hard you try.

"Margot, quick!  Get all the books!"

"I'm on it!"

Clean ears for everyone!

The next morning, these girls had some shopping and cooking to do.

Even the best cooks have to taste test their sauce before serving it.

Sadly, the girls didn't get to play long.  Katie Wynn had to hit the road with her daddy while the rest of us got ready for a baby shower.  We hope Lydia and Margot will visit us again sometime!

Valentine's Day

Do you guys go out for Valentine's Day?  Matt and I have made it a tradition to stay in for dinner each year...partly because he loves to cook and partly because I have zero desire to cram into a crowded restaurant with the rest of the city only to get to choose from a limited menu.  

This year was no exception.  After Katie Wynn went to bed, we had a delicious meal just the two of us.  It wasn't really anything hard or fancy, just crab legs because we haven't had them in a long time.  And the most important things on the plate with those crab legs are the little lemon wedge and dish full of butter.  Mmmmmmm!  Matt did whip up a citrus salad to go with it that was quite tasty and a great compliment to the seafood.

So that's how our Valentine's Day ended.  Now let me back up to earlier in the week when I assembled our Valentines.  For Katie Wynn's class of 6 one-year-olds, I bought heart-shaped glasses and added a tag that said, "I only have eyes for you, Valentine!"  For my coworkers, I made little bags of candy but also stuck in a heart straw so that I could include a tag that said, "Sip, sip, hooray!  It's Valentine's Day!"  Thanks, Pinterest, for that idea.

I'm pretty sure my coworkers liked their treats.  I have no idea if Katie Wynn's friends liked theirs or not but she loved getting to carry them in so that's all I care about!

One of the best parts of Valentine's Day was getting to spend my morning with this cutie.  We were in no rush to get to daycare so we got to play for a few minutes.  She loves to rock in her little rocking chair!

When she got home from "school," we went through her bag of goodies to see what all she got.  Some moms went WAY out and had bags full of stuff for each child, while others just sent the store-bought cards.  I'm glad we fell somewhere in the middle.

Katie Wynn got to play with stickers for the first time ever!  Moments after I helped (er, guided?) her into sticking them onto these little bags, I turned my back for a second and she peeled them off and stuck them to the table!  Maybe we'll dodge buying stickers for a while?

I don't know for sure, but if I had to guess I'd say the best part of Katie Wynn's day was after dinner when she got to have her first-ever homemade rice krispie treat!  I'd been fighting a week-long craving for them and finally gave in and bought the ingredients.  And then I ate the whole dang pan of them.  That might explain why, on Sunday morning, I woke up and looked like my thighs had exploded.  No more homemade rice krispie treats for a while...  :)