One Year

I just got back the photos from Katie Wynn's first birthday party and they are so precious!! I can't wait to show them to you all, but there are tons so I've gotta go through them all.  Be expecting that post soon.

I know there have been a lot of posts centered on our Katie bug lately.  I apologize for those of you that aren't here to read about her 24/7, but she pretty much is our 24/7 these days.  I do have a few project-related posts coming soon, but I really wanted to jot down a few things about our girl at this age so that I don't forget.   

• We haven't had our official 1 year checkup yet, but I'm hoping she weighs 20 pounds (was 19.9lbs about 2 weeks ago) and I'm guessing she's around 28 inches tall.  I'll update this after the appointment.
• KW has two bottom teeth and the front two on top have finally broken through the gums.  They are taking their sweet time dropping down though. 
• She wears size 3 diapers, size 12M clothes, and we're currently transitioning to a size 4 shoe. 
• Technically, Katie Wynn can say lots of words, she just may not really know that she's saying them.  She consistently says "Mama" and "Uh-oh."  I would probably say "uh-oh" was her first word.
• KW took her first step around 11 months but didn't start really walking all over the place until about 1 week before her first birthday. 
• Her "tricks" include waving bye-bye, clapping, giving kisses, and blowing bubbles in the bath.
• She loves all things dog: dog toys, dog food, dog water bowls, and pulling the dog's hair!  This is why she's going to be a puppy dog for Halloween.  :) 
• Generally, she is still an excellent sleeper.  We are currently in the middle of a sleep regression where she is waking up twice every night, but I'm hoping it's just a phase.  She still sleeps in her Zipadee-Zip every night. 
• Our girl still loves to eat!  We have started introducing a lot more finger foods, and some things she loves and others she does not!  Current faves are bananas, meat, macaroni and cheese, and string cheese.  She LOVES the sweet tea her Mimi gives her and also really enjoys bites of any dessert - ice cream, water ice, cake, whatever.
• We are working on transitioning to cow's milk.  She hated it at first but we are now mixing it with formula and that's going well.  We hope to be formula-free within the next week.  KW is using a sippy cup some as well.  Hopefully the bottles can go away with the formula! 
• Katie Wynn is most talkative in the mornings.  When we hang out in bed, she jibber-jabbers away.  She also loves bath time and being outside.
• Her favorite hobby is pulling cookbooks off the shelf and emptying the cabinets in our bathroom.  She does both of these every. single. day. 
• Katie bug favors men over women.  Her Papa was her clear favorite last weekend and every Sunday, she flirts with the men but won't have anything to do with the women.   
• She is such a joy to be around!  She is in a good mood most of the time, though we sometimes call 5:00-6:00pm her witching hour.  She keeps us smiling and makes us laugh every single day.  I can't imagine our lives without her!

I may have gone overboard...

I have been on a pretty big pumpkin kick lately.  Not pumpkin flavor like all the pumpkin-spice-latte crazed people all over the internets, more like pumpkin images.  As in, pumpkin images that you can applique onto little bitty shirts.  :)

October officially starts next Tuesday so yesterday, on my day off, I worked like a little busy bee to make sure Katie Wynn has a closet full of pumpkin/fall outfits.  It's possible that she will have to wear orange everyday for the next two months. 

Mom and I have a pretty good system.  After we pick out cute fabric, she makes adorable little pants (with tiny ruffle hems because I'm not all about those gigantic ruffles on most little girl clothes these days...seriously, some of them are outrageous!) and I take a cheap Walmart or Old Navy shirt and put something super cute on it to go with the pants.  

Without further adieu, here's a peak at some of Katie Wynn's new fall wardrobe.  

in the event that I get tired of seeing orange all the time (or heck, just get behind on laundry!), she also has some non-pumpkin clothes too.  Most of these outfits came from me and/or Mom snatching up cute little pants marked down to next-to-nothing on clearance racks and then making cute shirts to go with them.  You really can't beat a precious personalized outfit for under ten bucks, can you? 

The shirt above in the middle goes with the pants she's wearing on the right (they were in the dryer).  That shirt didn't photograph very well but it has her monogram on it, of course.   Now I can take a small break before starting Christmas clothes! :)

And just in case you think all I do is sit around and make cute outfits for Katie Wynn, here's proof that I do occasionally work on something else.  These are two towels that I did for a friend who is making over her girls' bathroom.  I think they turned out so cute! 

Sometimes my real job gets in the way of my crafting.  Maybe I should cut down to working just two days a week...

Monthly Themed Pictures

These pictures are definitely my favorite series of the three.  There are just so many cute pictures!  While I sometimes had a hard time coming up with an idea for each month, once I had something in mind I loved doing the photo shoots.  The early months weren't great as I hadn't gotten my groove yet, but the last few months were so fun! 

As we get going with the infamous baby-in-a-pumpkin photo, can we all just say a quick prayer of thanksgiving that Katie Wynn doesn't look like a little old man anymore??  I love that I thought she was so cute back then (because she was) but I'm really glad she has grown out of the male-patterned baldness stage.  :) 

This was one of the hardest months because I was trying to get her to sit up at just 2 months old.  What was I thinking?  I gave up after 4 pictures so not too many to choose from! 

I love the twinkle lights.  We may have to recreate this one again this year.  Except I don't think she'll lie still at all.  It'll be more like blurry lights as she runs past me.  We'll see. 

Another month trying to get a baby to sit up and not succeeding.  Also, I've noted that I should shop for New Year's party hats way before the end of January. 

Kisses from both her Mom AND Dad while wearing ruby red lipstick.  This girl is really loved.

“I’m just a wee bit Irish!”

April showers... 

...bring May flowers! 

I'm so glad she enjoyed being in the pool as much as she did this summer.  Won't be long before she's a little fish and swimming all over the place!

Katie Wynn got to dig into some watermelon for the July photo.  She wasn't so sure about it at first, but she ended up taking some big bites (and getting REALLY sticky!).

I had a hard time choosing just one picture for July, so here's a free bonus picture for you.  I just love that little toothy grin!

School was back in session for August! 

Getting ready to celebrate one full year!!  

Okay, okay.  I couldn't choose just one for this month either.  She was just so tickled with herself in this picture.  If you look closely, you can almost hear her little giggles.

Quick poll: keep going with monthly pictures for year two or give it up?  If I keep going, which series do I continue on with? 

Mom Stays in the Picture

Have you ever read the Huffington Post article titled The Mom Stays in the Picture?  It was written by Allison Tate last year shortly after Katie Wynn was born and it challenges mothers everywhere to step out from behind the camera lens and get in the picture with their kids, to stop worrying about the way your body looks and capture the way you look at them, to let them see you love them and wrap them in hugs.  I love this line from Allison:

“I am not perfect to look at and I’m not perfect to love, but I am perfectly their mother.”

I guess this article was the inspiration for this series of monthly pictures.  They are far from perfect of either of us, but they are of us together and to me, that's perfection.

Sadly, this is the series I will probably stop first, assuming I continue on with any of them.  While I love these memories of us sitting on the steps together, they are by far the hardest to execute.  Namely because I have to have someone else around to snap the pictures, but also because my little wiggle worm is far more interested in all the dirt/bugs/flowers/grass/neighbors/etc that greet us when we step out onto the porch than to sit on the step with me.   So I'll treasure these twelve months' worth of pictures and if we happen to get any more, that'll just be icing on the cake.

So for all you moms out there reading this, I now challenge you to go take a picture of you with your babies.  Keep Mom in the picture! 

12 Months!

I am so glad that I took these monthly pictures of Katie Wynn.  I love looking back at them and seeing how much she has changed.  I'm really glad she stopped crying after the first couple months.  Smiles are much better to look at!

If you'll remember, I did three different types of monthly photos.  I'll be posting all of them in these next three posts.  This set is the most traditional type - just my girl in her chair every month with a chalkboard sign. 

Apparently I'm really bad at adjusting the white-balance on my camera since these all have such different coloring!  One day I'll learn.  Pics with Mom coming up next!