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.

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!