Kate is Six Months

Kate is six months and we love her more and more every day.  She lights up with just a glance out of the corner of your eye.... meaning it doesn't take much to get her to smile and she loves any attention.   Her nature is to be happy; the first few months I wasn't sure of that but I believe it now.  She has the brightest twinkle in her eye and a face that radiates sunshine.  Kate absolutely adores Capri.  I have thought multiple times that Kate must remember their relationship from the preexistence, there is no other way to describe the excitement Kate has for Capri when they are in the same room.  It is the sweetest thing to watch but also painful because Capri doesn't pay near enough attention to Kate for how much she adores Capri!  Kate is wearing 9 month clothing and I think 12 month size is just days away.  She is one lovable chunk!  She is a fabulous eater and finds her green vegetables to be delectable. Veggie straws might as well be french fries, she two fists those things!  I am pretty impressed with her ability to pick up the tiny yogurt melts and cereal puffs this past month. We definitely started feeding her food earlier than Capri, but she was ready and obviously loves it!  I'm pretty sure Kate's big belly helped her to sit up as early as she did, she had that mastered in her 4th month.  Kate scoots backwards and turns herself around; hopefully this month she'll figure out how to move forward because I hate seeing her so dang frustrated! I'm a total softy, we need to spend more time on the ground without me rescuing her.
I'm not sure if it's this humid Houston weather, but Kate is my sticky baby.  I feel like no matter what she is always a bit sweaty!  Kate thinks she's pretty hilarious when she kicks her feet and rocks herself in the RockNplay bed.  She even pulls herself up to a sitting position, probably time to retire it. Sleeping is so much easier with Kate than it was with baby Capri (and still is)!  She falls asleep on her own most of the time; as soon as her blanket touches her face her eyes are closed.  My two favorite things right now are 1. that she puts in her own pacifier (so nice while you are driving) and 2. how much she loves to use her voice and communicate.  Watching her try to imitate, coo, sing, or make noise in general is so fun!

Happy Half Birthday Baby Girl!

The rest of April

How do the months fly by?  Here's a bunch of randoms from April 2014 that didn't make it to their own post.

 ^Landon's view from the 37th floor of the Exxon building on Bell St.  Sometimes Houston can be beautiful.  Notice my early bird is there as the sun is rising, I don't know how Landon does 5am every day.

 ^Capri doing physical fitness with the scouts.  Her push ups are looking awesome!

^Oh Kate, that smile is my fave!  Can't believe how much she plumped up in the month of April.... these are the before pictures.

 ^This outfit was a baby gift from Leslie Dao and is one of my all time favorites, isn't it precious?

^Our Thai Friend Panya sent Landon home from work with some Easter treats.  Panya and Mauy are always spoiling us.  Landon took the foodie pic.  We are becoming pros since we grill at least 3 or 4 times a week. I don't think we could ever get sick of grilled veggies.

^ We did a little road trip to Dallas.  The Valenzuela's had us up to their new place for conference weekend.  I don't know why I didn't take any pictures!  We had the best time and always do.  Gabe and Abby should be professional hosts, they have the most wonderful way of treating you like their special guests (ex: leaving pretty treats in the guest room) and like you are family and can raid their fridge at the same time.  Capri loved Londyn's toys and Londyn was a little sweetie for patiently watching Capri go from one thing to the next.   I can't count the number of times Capri begged Londyn to ride horseys with her!

 These handsome men went to "Brisket and Brethren" (the priesthood session of conference) and us gals went to a cute pizza bistro "Sisters and Salami" if you may, then to Hobby Lobby, and back to make spring wreaths. I love the way they turned out!  Abby always makes the cutest crafts, she is really just the best homemaker. Don't mind my front door being taped off, it's been there forever because I need to freshen the stain.

and as always there was good food involved with our visit with the Valenzuelas.  We feel so incredibly lucky to be in Texas with some of our besties.

^ "SURPRISE!" one of her favorite games to play. She really did want to pack herself up and go back to Dallas.

Love me some matching snuggle babies.

^Timing dinner and the house being picked up before Dad gets home is tricky because usually messes are being created while I'm making dinner.  I've heard about the "five O'clock scramble" and now I totally get it.  The days when dinner is all prepped and the house looks clean we go to the park to keep it that way for a few extra minutes!

^These two love baths together. 

 If Capri had any idea how much Kate loves Capri's attention she might give her a little more.  Kate literally beams when she thinks Capri is going to play with her.

^Two baldies!  Usually I can comb Kate's hair so it isn't this bad haha!

^ This girl.  I put a ribbon on her hat so she could tie it under her chin like "just like Mary Poppins" (in the chalk paintings scene) and she insisted on wearing her dress up skirt on her walk with Grandpa.  I was probably so happy to have her walk off some energy I didn't care that she looked like a character.

^Date night selfie.  Grandpa please don't go, best babysitter.

^ One Sunday morning Landon let me sleep in and took this girl to the park in her pjs before breakfast! Kate woke up minutes after they left, but Capri had a good time.

^We had a girls day and went to lunch with Melissa and Lyza.  I forgot to snap a picture at lunch but tried to get a selfie while Capri finished her gelato.   Some nice man came by and offered to take one, not sure if it's much better since my girls still aren't looking.

^ These aren't my favorite pictures to look at but they are still kind of my favorites.  I found them on Landon's phone when I loaded his pictures.  I didn't know he took either of them, but this is our day to day reality.  I really do love being a mom.  

We went bowling for Christi's birthday the Saturday before Easter.  We usually go out to dinner to celebrate birthdays with our friends so it was fun to switch it up.  See that score?  161 is probably my all time high, I got really lucky.  No pictures with the birthday crew dang it!  Christi is one of the most thoughtful and beautiful people, happy birthday lovely lady!  Bowling with babies makes you feel really dirty so Kate just chilled in her carseat most of the time.  Isn't Lyza's Alec an adorable little man?  He's about 6 weeks younger than Kate.

^those upside down glasses, she's too cute!

^Kate isn't nearly as fussy loud as Capri was, but she sure likes to be held and needs constant attention.  I do a lot of baby wearing and tried this wrap Mary Jane gave me since the sling was getting a little warm for Kate.  I think it's going to be our new routine for vacuuming and mopping. 

Notice that chubby bath time baby.... that's the April "after."  All that plumping up happened in mostly one months time!  The pictures below are my of two of my favorite baby poses 1. Sleeping like an angel 2. Baby stretches. So stinking cute.  Even her little fingers were stretching.

That's all the randomness of April! Few, maybe I should break it up more next time.

Nap Time

Capri sure loves having Grandpa here! (He recently got a job at the University of Houston and we insisted he stay with us while my parents decide what to do about relocating etc.)   The poor guy rarely gets a moment to himself as long as Capri knows he's home.   As soon as he walks in the door she follows him to his room asking for some of his secret trail mix stash, colors in all of his notebooks, and then counts his spare change.  My Dad's too nice to send her away.  I came across this situation and found it hilarious.... I'm sure my Dad won't when he see this but it's just too cute.

Potty Training: Mission Accomplished

This is one of those posts for me…. I  know no one else wants to read about potty training but it feels like such a milestone so I have to record it.  Maybe it's one of those first child things too.  I'll be laughing at this post with child #4.

Capri was showing signs of being ready to potty train at 18 months. I entertained doing it because I was tired of Capri taking off her diaper every time it was dirty but her pediatrician discouraged me and gave me a list of reasons to wait.  Basically he told me it would be much easier after I had Kate and waited at least six months rather than drag the whole process out.  I realized I probably wasn’t ready to be “trained” either and was fine postponing the part about being housebound. I just hoped I wasn’t passing up a window of opportunity since she was showing the signs of being ready. I casually let Capri sit on the potty seat whenever she wanted and one day we even used it regularly when I ran out of diapers (our Amazon shipment was arriving that day) but there wasn't any potty training going on until the last week of April.

Capri and Kate got the hand foot and mouth disease that was floating around our church nursery.  The girls had mild cases but it’s so dang contagious I didn’t want to infect anyone.  Since we were quarantine it was the perfect time to potty train.  I made Capri a cute potty chart with stickers, purchased potty treats, mini ice cream cups, fun beverages to encourage fluids, and a few little surprises.   I rolled up all the rugs in the house (I've had two different kids pee on my rug while babysitting and absolutely hate cleaning up pee from carpet. Note to self: do not let Capri play at someone's house without a pull up for the next little while) I even put Kate’s bouncy seat next to the bathroom so I could sit her down at a moment’s notice to help Capri during our potty training.

Day 1 went pretty well, Day 2 not that great, and Day 3 she didn’t have one accident and woke up dry that morning and dry from her nap!  It was like she woke up that morning and had been potty trained all along.  I wasn’t expecting that because Day 2 was a little discouraging.  On the third day I heard her little feet pitter patter to the bathroom and followed to help her but she shooed me away- “Go away mom! Go hold Kate Mom!”  That’s when she grew up really fast and didn’t need me anymore.  Most times she just goes on her own and does her thing without me reminding her.  She woke my Dad up crying once in the night because she needed to go to the bathroom, it was dark and her potty seat was in the downstairs bathroom.  She’s been dry most nights and naps since day 3.  Am I really that lucky, do we have this sleep thing down too?

^ Some people are bathroom shy but I would say Capri likes an audience.  

She would even say things like "Twinkles, I'm going potty can you hear it?" 

"This is how you pee in the potty animals" (and when she was done I helped all the animals clap for her)

Don't worry, this is NOT what you think it is.  Capri didn't wear pants during our potty training days and I probably wouldn't have let her out front but the little stinker thinks it's hilarious to run around to the front of the house and ring the doorbell.  This time she was running so fast she slipped in the mud by our gate... I was happy to see it was mud and not what I initially thought. 

So far no accidents on outings except at church. Hopefully that was the only one and luckily it never made it to the floor.  I took her to the bathroom just 10 minutes before but maybe it was that distracted playing. 

I don’t know what potty training at 18 months would have been like, but 25 months was great so I’m glad I took my pediatrician’s advice.  Looking back I probably didn't need all the treats, prizes, stickers etc. but it sure made it fun and exciting. That little chicken that laid candy was a big hit.  Potty training is such a milestone…. Capri feels so grown up to me all of the sudden! 

 So proud of my big girl!

Just Another Park Day

We get our daily dose of fresh air at different parks nearby.  It was a good park day because I went down the slide with Kate for her first time and Capri conquered the rock wall.  I recently read an article about today's parents not letting their children take enough risk and the negative consequences.  When we helicopter we aren't allowing our children the great feelings of achievement and confidence that comes when they do something that involves risk. The article dug a little deeper and even addressed risk taking in young children and how it related to less reckless teenagers.  Anyway, the article was on my mind and I decided to let Capri play at her own risk.  The things I usually stand close by or help her with like the tall fire pole, rock wall, and monkey bars were things I let her do on her own today. There's a little video of our results at the bottom :)

"I did it! I did it! I shout to the crowd.  Climbing up the playground makes me feel proud!"

We learned this phrase from a book and insert various accomplishments.  She really did chant this on her own without being prompted; I caught it the second time around.