Annual trip to Indy

Hello, blog. It's me, Laura. Ha!  March is insane for me with work and I finally have some time to breathe and hopefully catch up on the blog. Maybe this month it will. :)  So here it goes...

Addie made this cute homemade Valentine's this year.  Well, of course it turned into a family project.  I typically take the quick way for things like this, but I also enjoy crafting and thought we could get away with something like this for daycare before she has 20+ kids in her class next year.  I stole this idea from my friend, Liz.  It says, "Mice to know you."

And I tried to get a picture with the girls in red on Valentine's Day.  This is the best I could do.

We had our annual February get-together with our close Butler friends.  We try to get our families together every February.  I love these girls (and their hubbies) so much and I love getting to see their little ones grow.  I know we all enjoy getting to love on the other kids and love seeing our kids play with each other.

Reid turned 1 in March.  He is chewing on a bourbon box Jeremy brought up.   Gee thanks, Uncle Jeremy.

The husbands stayed back with the younger kids (partially due to Bryan and his torn Achilles tendon) while the wives took the older kids to the Children's Museum.  We went a couple of years ago, but I have only been there a couple of times in my life.  It was so great to be with Addie at her current age.  I loved seeing her explore and learn new things.  Jeremy and I need to take her back so he can experience it too.  It would still be fun for Kate, but there is much more to do for older kids (even much older than Addie).  Highly recommend a day trip there!

 

Here is my daughter waving to everyone while she rode the carousel.  It was like she was in a parade or in a pageant.  It cracked me up because she didn't know anyone waiting to wave to, but she did anyway.

 

Looking at the Dale Chuhily glass sculpture.  I love his work!  This piece is massive, beautiful and fun!

I loved this exhibit.  They were pretending to be scuba divers.

 

 

On to the Dinosaur exhibit.  Here's Addie sitting on dinosaur eggs in a dinosaur vest. 

We were there for a few hours and still didn't see it all.  As we were leaving they had a quick play in the main lobby about geckos so of course we stayed for a bit.  

After the Museum we went to Tara and Brad's for pizza and to hang out.  A couple of other sorority sisters joined us for dinner.  Erin and Chris came with their baby, Owen, and Erin and Trey joined in as well.  

Kate wanted to play IN the exersaucer.  She thought she was pretty funny.

If you can't tell, she is saying, "Cheese" here. :)

Some of the older kids watched a movie downstairs.  We joked because we came down one time and Addie was snuggled next to Brady.  We came another time and we found her here snuggled next to Harry.  I fear my future.

 

Here is our first attempt out of about 20 of our annual kid picture.  It expands every year.  We are missing one kiddo that was with us last year, but we gained another two since the last photo.  We may run out of couch room soon!

 

Addison holding Owen. Isn't he a cutie?

I had to post all of these pictures.  They are so funny and show you a glimpse of Kate's personality.  She thinks she is so much older than she is and she is soooo affectionate.  Cute!

 

 

 

Jeremy messing with Brady.  I love this photo because you can tell how we all just enjoy relaxing and playing with each other.

We love these families so much!  We wish we could see them more often, but when we do get together we always go right back from where we left off.   

Kate at 18 months

Kate turned 18 months at the end of January. I can't find her paperwork from the doctor, but will update her stats soon.  She was just over 20 pounds.  She's still pretty petite, but still has some thighs and a trunk. :)  She wears 18 month clothes and a size 4 shoe (little feet runs in the family).

The past 6 months flew by.  I really want time to slow down a bit!  Part of me misses so much of the baby phase, but then part of me LOVES the current stage she is in.  I love how much they learn at this age.  Kate is constantly saying new words and learning new tricks.

Kate still loves to dance and loves music.  She has started to try to sing songs on her own in her own little language.She likes to sing on a play microphone or pretends different objects are mics. She likes to play with babies, likes to color (and wants to color with big girl markers and crayons...and even on the walls...yikes!) and has really started to love to "read".  She sits on a little chair and pretends to read also in her own language.  She really is learning a lot of her expressions.  Kate has some hilarious faces she makes and loves to make us laugh.

We think Kate is more of the brute out of the two girls.  She loves to wrestle and rough house with her sister and us.  I love to wrestle with her on the bed.  She gets so hyper and feisty.  She is a monkey and will climb on anything.  I think Addie probably had stronger fine motor skills at this age while Kate is stronger at gross motor skills.

Kate is also our little lover.  She will cuddle for a while in the morning if we have the time.  She lays her head on our shoulders and just stays there.  I could do that for hours if she would let me! If I have a cut or something like that she immediately kisses my "boo boo".  She always gives goodnight kisses at bedtime to us, Addie and Sadie.  She loves to do Eskimo kisses and butterfly kisses.

We dropped her pacifier in February.  She only got it a nap and bedtime until then.  She did pretty well dropping it.  And just last weekend she peed in the potty!  I was working all weekend and missed it, but Jeremy texted me immediately to let me know.  Exciting, but I have no expectations after her older sister started around the same time and took almost a year to train.   

Kate is a spitfire and is strong-willed and independent (clearly that also runs in the family).  I think some of the independence comes from wanting to be older like her big sister and be able to do the things she can do.  Kate is very bad at pulling hair and hitting.  She thinks it is funny and we have a hard time disciplining her at such a young age.  One thing that drives us crazy is she throws food.  I mean chucks it across the kitchen sometimes!  She isn't the best about telling us she is done instead she tends to just throw food across the room or at Sadie (clearly they are best friends).

She has gotten in trouble for hitting and pulling hair at daycare, but the favor has been returned to her. :)  She is a tough cookie and can hold her own.  Kate got her entire fingers closed in a door recently by another toddler.  We thought she might have broken fingers, but they were just bruised.  Following the incident she kept going up to her toddler friend with her two pincher fingers in his face and said, "No, No".  At a recent doctor's visit she was playing with the door opening and closing it.  Jeremy kept telling her to stop or she would get hurt.  Sure enough she pinched her fingers in the door.  After she cried she did the same thing to the door with her pincher fingers and said, "No, no!" 

We've been to the doctor's office a lot lately between both girls (mostly Kate) and so we are ready for spring!  We did get a warm day in January and went up to Brown Park.  Enjoy the pictures of our sweet girl! 

 

 

 

I love this photo!

 

 

 

 

And our 18 month old now can sport pigtails!  I love them, but it makes her look so big!  Stop growing up

 

And she is done with the pigtails and ready for bed. :)

A long post, but I really wanted to capture details of Kate at this age since time is flying by.  We love you so much, Kate Ellen! You bring so much joy to our lives!