The zoo

Hi to anyone who still reads this :) We're still here, having lots of fun with Kate. She'll be 15 months tomorrow - what a great age this is! We are settled back at home after a fun road trip and I was going to do a post for the whole trip, but now I realize how many pictures we took so I'll start with the first part of the trip :) We met the whole fam damily in Jacksonville at Scotty's new house and we went to the zoo while we were there! I LOVE zoos, and now that we have Kate, there is always good reason to visit one!

This was at Scotty's house - ALLLL she wanted to do was run in the yard with the dogs!

And her huge shirt? She's 15 months, so I've bought 18-24 months clothes and they're so big on her! She's growing taller but not "thicker." If you saw how much she moves, you'd understand :)

Unplanned stripes

Kate LOVES to look at birds, and even does a high pitched sound to imitate them!

Big girl just wanted to walk everywhere, not be carried. Once she's out of the stroller, there's no going back in the stroller in the same "outing" but Pop Pop insisted she get out because she couldn't see the animals :)

So excited to see those animals (which to Kate, everything was "dog")

Sharing a snow cone, but look at those curls!

She'd "sniff" at the animals to get them to come closer

Her first carousel ride and she loved it!

So much fun! As long as we plan our outings around naps (so she can nap at home or in the car) we can go lots of places! She's never napped in the stroller, but can pretty easily skip the second nap if we're busy. In fact, she'd probably skip all sleep if it were up to her!

I'll be back with pictures from the rest of our trip!

Cheeezzzzze

This is a from a couple of weeks ago...

Don't mind that she looks a bit scraggly :) This was the tail end of her bout of roseola.

Needless to say, Kate thinks cheese should be a part of every meal!

Sick baby

It happened. My poor baby had her first fever and it was just pitiful. She pretty much had constant fever for 2.5 days, 103 at its highest, 100.8 at the lowest with Tylenol/Ibuprofen rotated every 3 hours. With medicine, she actually was in decent spirits, just no appetite and wouldn't be put down. Turned out to be a viral exanthem like I suspected (seeing lots of it at work) - roseola. Her fever broke night before last, then yesterday the classic rash started. She's almost back to her playful self, and we're still working on eating - allllll she wants is "chzzzz" (cheese) and even turned down Chickfila nuggets. What?!

This was last night - the rash has tripled since then but doesn't bother her!

Of course this messed with her sleep habits - it's always 1 step forward, 18 steps back with her in the sleep department. One day, my sweet girl will sleep 11 hours straight at night like all my patients brag about!

The day before she got sick sporting her "ponytail!"

One of my all time fave pics. She loves my parents' piano - it was my Granddad's, and it has a player in it so Kate walks over to it, bounces her knees and bobs her head, waiting for us to turn it on. When we're tired, we may or may not hide because she really wants to be held and dance fast ;)

Last night we went to our friends' house to watch the Gators BEAT Tennessee! Don't ask me any details about the game - we've got a busy toddler on our hands! Kate LOVED exploring at their house, especially trying to get her hands on the cat (she's never seen one!) I just know we won, and that something really exciting happened towards the end once we were back home when I was trying to put Kate to sleep and Daddy screamed like we won the jackpot lotto cheered reallllly loud. Of course Kate didn't want to go to sleep, Daddy was all crazy in the living room! 

Her new thing is that she loves to walk around, holding TWO people's hands.

 

Start 'em young, raise 'em right :)

These days...

These days, life is so good. Kate is a perfect mix between affectionate and independent and I am really trying to appreciate the simplicity of now. I know life will only get busier, but right now is so good.

Here are a few pictures to show what Kate has been up to...

Oh this sock! It's one of my mom's (clean) slipper socks and Kate carries it everywhere, hangs it around her neck, and will walk up to us, hold it out, and stick out her foot for us to put it on her. We do, then she waddles around with one foot covered in a big ol' floppy sock. 

She LOVES jewelry right now. Everyday, she notices earrings we are wearing and gently pulls on them, "ahhh"ing. She also loves to carry these Mardi Gras beads around and put them on, take them off.

Remote controls are still a hot commodity, as are our phones because she LOVES when we play music from them. She'll walk up to me with my phone, hold it out to me, and start dancing. Get the tunes on Mama.

She does this all the time! She hasn't learned how to completely roll over, but she'll stand like this for a while and sometimes we'll roll her over.

 I don't know how I don't have a picture of it, but she can climb ANYTHING in 2 seconds flat. Well, I guess I don't have a picture because I tear across the house to catch her before she face plants off the couch while she's STANDING after she climbed up there. That happened.

She used to love being carried up and down the dock, but Pop Pop someone let her walk it herself, so now that's ALL she wants to do. It's fine though, she's good about letting us hold her hand :)

Sometimes I leave for work before Brett, so he'll take her on a "ride" as I leave so she doesn't fuss. If she cries, I pick her back up and snuggle her and I'll do this as many times as necessary :) 

Maybe I'm a wimp, but when she cries because her Mama leaves, it breaks my heart. I also don't believe in sneaking out of the house. Not good for her trust.

Dog bowls - as soon as the dogs finish eating, she immediately has to reach up and hand me the empty bowl. According to Kate, empty dog bowls can't stay on the floor.

And don't mind the outdated chair cushions - they are now recovered :)

I try to rotate her toys, storing some away for a while because I don't want to live in a daycare, and she gets so excited all over again about "new" toys. We opened this cabinet the other day, and she was THRILLED with all of her old new toys and actually sat and played for about 20 minutes!

Sometimes when we're walking around, she'll reach up and grab my hand. Sweet girl!

Loves to stand at the back door, watching Dada do yard work or the dogs running around. She sure loves Maggie, and they "talk" to each other through the door :)

And we've been watching some GATOR FOOTBALL!! Not the prettiest performances so far, but a win is a win so we'll take it!

I am really enjoying this stage - Kate learns things so quickly and it's amazing to watch her little mind go. Her personality is shining, and she definitely knows what she wants...and isn't afraid to let you know! I love that she can walk so well and has started showing some interest in her toys. Sometimes she'll even come climb in my lap for a book and lets me read her a couple of pages. She finally took a bottle from me for the first time at about 13 months. She loves going places in the car - kicks her legs and gets so excited when we walk towards the car. She also likes "face timing" with Brett when he worked late and sometimes even cried when we had to hang up. She cracks up when we stick our tongue out and loves being chased. She claps and gives high-fives and gets the hiccups whenever she laughs hard. I love her more than anything in this world.

She had her 1 year checkup (at 13 months) and her height was above the growth chart and her weight was about the 35th percentile. Long and lean!

Weekend away

Sometimes it's so nice to "get away," even when away is just 2 hours from home and you're just gone for one night. Last weekend we were in Orlando to celebrate Ella's 1st birthday and stayed at my favorite Disney hotel. Although we didn't do a theme park, it was Kate's first "Disney" experience and she's a fan :) Good thing, because I've already mentally planned many Disney trips for the future.

And by future, I mean about 8 years from now. We won't be staying overnight anywhere but home until then. 

Just kidding....kind of.

Kate has never been a great sleeper when not at home, but last weekend, she set a new record.

Asleep at 9:30 pm, awake by 10:15, slept in bed with us until 12, then awake and miserable (cried when I put her down, cried when I held her) until 2:15 am when we went for a little car ride (which she thought was SO FUNNY!) and to Walgreens for a little Benadryl. She fell asleep after 45 minutes of driving, woke up as soon as we parked back at the room, but did go back to sleep in the room for 4 hours. Good thing she's cute :)

With her Mickey ears when we checked in

Happy Birthday Ella Bella! We love you so much! And thanks for these awesome spotted balls - they're my fave ;)

Ella LOVED her cake and ate and ate until it feel on the floor!

She even got to share Daddy's mickey mouse ice cream bar that night!

I LOVE this picture of my sweet Kate. 

It was the next morning (after very little sleep...hence her sleepy face) at breakfast. Of course, a Disney hotel restaurant is packed at 8 am with everyone heading to the parks, and Kate loved seeing all of the hats and fanny packs ;)

Then we swam for a little bit - her favorite part was climbing in and out of the kiddie pool over and over.

Excited for her sleep to get better so we can enjoy more fun weekends out of town!

Fishies!

This was my greeting, waiting at the front door for me when I got home from an errand. Daddy said "Mama's home" and she ran to meet me. 

This weekend we took Kate to the local oceanographic center which she loved! We met some friends there and Kate loved looking at the fish, trying to jump in the stingray tank, and running all over.

 

Not the best quality. They're from my iPhone because I brought my camera...with a dead battery.

 

We got caught in a thunderstorm under that little METAL pavilion in the background, so Brett rain back through the rain with Kate and she thought it was hilarious!

 

That's the stingray tank behind us - she could reach the side and really wanted to get in the water. Their barbs were cut so we almost let her ;)

Little buddies, Mason and Kate - 3 weeks apart.

Great friends

We had a good time despite the heat, and I'm sure we'll be back since it's only 5 minutes from the house!

Sleep

Precious angel during a nap. This picture melts my heart.

Speaking of sleep, it's getting better and better :)

She sleeps 8-9 hours most nights, and a few times she's even slept 9 - 7 (that's through the night)!

When she sleeps through, part of me misses that middle of the night cuddle and I knew that would be the case. 

I better get to sleep now! We're going to attempt church in the morning...