Dear Katers,
I’m afraid we may be entering the terrible twos a bit early, which is new territory for me as I don’t feel like Lexi and William really experienced this. You fall apart into an angry little snake if you don’t get something your way. For example, you’ll want a bowl instead of a plate or I say no to a snack right before dinner.
I’m not sure if you’re going to be feisty, or if you’re just almost two and that is just what kids this age due. Time will tell. BUT, you did get into markers several times this month. Lexi and William leave them out and you climb onto things, grab one, run off and then color over the carpet, furniture or the walls. For the most part, the markers have all been washable so they have been pretty easy to clean, except for this one where you found the one non-washable marker we have and drew all over the wall.
I’ve noticed you have huge swings in personality. At one moment you’ll be in a store waving to people, shrugging your shoulders and putting on a huge cuteness show. Then 3 minutes later you are giving people the death glare and won’t make eye contact.
You’re also showing a strong affinity to me. And by strong I mean nobody else can look or talk to you without a snarl when you are in a mood.
I also think you’re very close to potty training. You almost always tell me when you’ve pooped and want to be changed immediately. You’ll run over and get wipes and a diaper to let me know we need to take care of this situation. Over the past couple of days, you’ll announce to me either while you’re going or right after you’ve gone that you’re peeing. You say poop, but there is nothing there–just a wet diaper. So hopefully in the next couple of months we can ‘see-ya’ later to diapers.
Vocab continues to grow; Tate (aka Kate), Badger, sure, grammy, milk, turtle, fish, blue (and can identify the color often too)
At the beginning of the you’re month, we took a family vaca to Florida. After lots of flight drama, we ended up in Orlando so we spent a day in Disney and then drove to PCB to stay with Grammy and Papa for the rest of our time. You did really good on the planes and surprised me by falling asleep.
You also really love to play at the beach. You could have sat there and filled buckets with sand for hours. The weather wasn’t great, so we didn’t swim as much as I would have liked, but you did do OK in the pool–still refuse to lay on your back, but we’ll keep working on it. By far, your favorite thing to do was go for walks. You begged to go and love sitting in the stroller (which you call it babies)
Katelyn Ann, you challenge your Daddy and I everyday with your constant requests to eat, hanging and climbing all over us and lack of patience to get exactly what you want when you want it, but you have both of us wrapped around your chunky little fingers more than you can every understand. You flash that cute little smile and twinkle your eyes and we have forgotten how tiring you can be. We love you to bits sweet girl.
Love,
Mommies (as you like to call me)
We spent a good 2 hours opening gifts before eating breakfast, cinnamon rolls and fresh fruit. Then we spent the next several hours putting together Lego kits (Lego hospital and the fire truck) cleaning up and getting ready before heading over to Grammy and Papa’s house around 4.
The following weekend, the whole family went over to Grammy and Papa’s house for breakfast and Christmas Jammies. Grammy created a scavenger hunt for each of the kids that took them around the house and ultimately led them to their Christmas Jammies.
Lexi and William both helped pick out gifts to give each other and loved helping wrap them up. Lexi picked up a green lego car kit for William and William picked out a Barbie car for Lexi. We also listened to a lot of Christmas music and would sing Silent Night and Away in a Manger each night before bed.
Lexi had her annual Dance program. So fun to watch you dance–this is the first time that I’ve seen you smile while you were dancing. In the past, you have always been very focused on the moves and the teacher, you haven’t been able to smile so it was fun to see you ‘perform’
Then, Lexi had two program’s at school. The first one was just for kindergarteners and you had a little saying you had to memorize and say during the program, ‘B is for Bethlehem, crowded and old, birthplace for Jesus, prophet foretold. Then, there was another one in the afternoon with the entire school where you sang a couple of songs. You also had an advent party in your class and I was able to volunteer for it. There were 4 stations that groups traveled to and I ran a game: pin the nose on the snowman.
You’re now officially transitioned out of the two naps and will sleep for 2.5-3.5 hours every afternoon. Many days, you’ll fall asleep on the way home from getting Lexi, but you do a good job transitioning to your bed. After nap time or even in the morning, you’ll often play in your crib and babble to your stuffed animals for a good 20 minutes.
Just as Kate was about to be born, we started to notice some cracking and flaking near the head rest and the ‘leather’ quickly started to peel away. The spots grew bigger and bigger over the year, but for the most part we were able to cover it with a blanket. Around her first birthday, the seat cushion started to do the same thing. Little pieces of brown fabric were everywhere and it was driving me insane.
I vividly remember holding Lexi’s warm 10-day-old little body against my chest feeling her short little breaths tickle my skin while we rocked. And I thought, how could I possibly ever let her go to school? She was a mere 10 days old, when 20 six and seven year old kids were shot to death at school. The innocence of those children, the fear they must have had and lack of knowledge they had to know what to do. And don’t even get me started on their parents. I couldn’t. How could I ever let my heart walk out of my body and know there was a chance that something so horrific could possibly happen. So, I held your sweet, innocent little body next to mine and we rocked. And I prayed, a lot. And I still do today.
Every single night, for 5 years, i sat in that chair and nursed my babies, read stories and sang twinkle twinkle and snuggled for sometime hours on end while they fell asleep in my arms. I can still feel our two little bodies smushed between the arms, wiggling around to get comfortable. There were many nights that I slept the entire night in the chair with the kids to ensure they got some sleep while they were under the weather.
Peanut Smiles 