Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a fun Thanksgiving weekend. On Friday, we lazed around for most of the day, then went shopping at night. I got some great Black Friday deals, including some clothes and boots for me, and Kate's Christmas dress. We also took her to see Santa... oh, boy. She's been talking about Santa non-stop (she calls him Anta); whenever she hears Christmas music, she yells out "Anta!" and she knows he says "ho, ho, ho." So we thought we'd be set to take her to see Santa. She was perfectly happy when we were waiting in line (luckily there wasn't much of one) but as soon as we got up to Santa, she freaked out. The only way I could get her to calm down was be holding her and just telling him what she wants for Christmas. A picture was out of the question! Of course, as we left, she waved to him and called out "bye!" Go figure.

Then on Saturday we went to this holiday open house thing downtown. We ate at our favorite restaurant (Frida's) and then went to the Overture Center for the kids' program. It was cute, but I thought it would have been holiday-themed, seeing as it was the holiday open house. Oh well. Then we were going to do the free trolley ride, but it was getting close to Kate's naptime, so we decided to just head home instead.


Her shirt even says "I Love Santa" Hmm, obviously not


In her new dress from Nana




"I've got my coat; I'm ready to go!"


A funny... smile? Not quite sure what that is.


"I'm gated in... and terrified!"

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration. It was low-key (just us and my mom) but it was so fun! Dan made an excellent turkey, along with the stuffing and cream cheese mashed potatoes. I made an orange cranberry sauce and a sweet potato streusel dish that was amazing, if I do say so myself. My mom contributed some (slightly burned due to my stupid oven) rolls, as well as her pumpkin pie and white Christmas pie.

Here are some shots from Wednesday (when we went to Biaggi's to celebrate my grandma's birthday) and Thursday. Isn't Kate's Thanksgiving outfit (from my mom, of course) gorgeous?








Two of the people I am the MOST thankful for! My life wouldn't be the same without them.


Kate looks like she's sick of taking pictures.




Sooo tired; she looks like she's going to fall over!

Thanksgiving Is Coming!

Since my mom is coming tonight, I thought Kate could wear this cute Thanksgiving outfit my mom gave her back when I was still pregnant (since this outfit would work for both a boy and a girl). When I opened it, I just thought, "My baby will NEVER be big enough to wear this;" now look at her!


You can't see her outfit very well with her holding Violet, but I absolutely love her smile!


She looks tired!


Thanksgiving does, indeed, rock. I love this time of year.

And here are a couple of pictures of her from last week; I just love her outfit and her expressions.

It's winter time!

Well, almost, but I thought it was time Kate started wearing this adorable snowman outfit from my mom. She gets compliments on it wherever we go. I especially love the tulle!


Giving me her cheesy smile.


I love this girl, more than anything in the world. Look at her sweet face. :)


Um, where did my baby go??? This looks like a little girl!




Giving me her "funny face"

And just to show how much she's grown, here is a picture of her last Thanksgiving. I cannot believe how much she has grown! It is so bittersweet; I absolutely love this toddler stage; I love playing with her, having her "talk" to me, etc. but I miss my little tiny baby!

Such a fashionista

Here's some pictures of Kate in the coat my mom gave her for her birthday. I can't believe she's finally old enough to wear it! She looks like a little Rita Hayworth or Marilyn Monroe or something.











And since I keep this blog also as a journal, I just wanted to take a minute to jot down all of the words Kate says now. I swear, in the last week and a half, her vocabulary has just exploded! Here are the words she says on a regular basis:

• Mama
• Daddy
• Kitty
• Nana (both for her grandma and a banana, so context is important!)
  
• Baby
• Doggie
• Egg (she always has eggs and fruit with Greek yogurt for breakfast)
• Gone
• Done
• Mad
• Nine
• Ni (for knife; and just to be clear, we do not let her handle knives; she just picked it up from a library book called "Spot's First Words" and it shows a table set with a fork, knife and spoon)
• Uh-oh
• Hi
• Bye
• Dipe (for diaper)
• No
• Rawr (for bear, since that is what bears say)
• Ball
• Wa-wa (for water)
• Eye
• Ear
• Dolly
• Body
• Hot
• Pretty (sounds like "pwetty")
  
• Please (sounds more like "pwee")
• Bad (this is usually directed at Maxine, after Maxine swats at her. Luckily Maxine is declawed!)
  
• No-no, which is "pumpkin". I know, that seems convoluted, but we always read a book called "This is NOT a pumpkin," and it showed a pumpkin on each page and said, "It's round, it's orange, it has a stem, but this is NOT a pumpkin. No, no, no; pumpkins don't smile, or frown; jack-o-lanterns do. This is not a pumpkin; it's a jack-o-lantern!" So I always emphasized the "no, no, no!" when reading that, and now whenever she sees a pumpkin, she wags her little finger and yells out, "no, no, no!"
  

I'm sure there is more but that is all I can think of right now. She can also recognize the letters A, B, K, M, R and S (and she can say all of them except K), and the numbers one through 10. Oh, and she knows that M A M A spells Mama, so whenever she sees a book with that word, she yells out "Mama!"

Music Class

Kate absolutely loves our music class at the Children's Museum. It's every Thursday at 10 am, and she has so much fun dancing, playing the instruments (bells, egg shakers, rhythm sticks, etc.) and seeing the other kids. She especially loves it that Adelaide is there, and she has taken quite a motherly interest in the "baby" as she calls anyone under the age of five. If Adelaide ever tries to book it for the door, Kate looks at me with a worried frown, points at Adelaide, and cries out, "Baby!" It's like she wants to be sure that Adelaide doesn't get away :)

We always have a lot of fun afterward, too, since I let her play in the museum for about half an hour. She has so much fun exploring the water area (definitely her favorite part), going down the slide, playing in the huts with the drums, etc. Afterward, we usually go to lunch somewhere. This week, we went to Frida's, which probably my favorite restaurant in Madison. Kate is such an amazing eater; she wolfs down Mexican rice and enchiladas better than some adults do! She may not be the best sleeper, but at least we hit the "good eater" jackpot!

Here are some shots of her before we left for music class. Doesn't she look like such a little schoolgirl?

Dan's 30th Birthday

I know, I know; I've been terrible about keeping my blog updated! It's not intentional, I promise! It's just that we've basically had company back-to-back (and I'm not complaining--I love visitors!) so blogging has kind of fallen by the wayside.

So let's back up to the weekend of October 8. Nancy came out that Friday, the 7th, and she and I had a fun time taking Kate downtown to eat at Frida's. It was such a beautiful fall day, we actually ate outside (who says Wisconsin is always cold?) She loved seeing Kate and was so impressed that her not-quite-20-month-old niece could pick out the letters A, K and S! That night, we went to a fish fry at the Esquire Club; it was fun to take Nancy to some of our favorite places.

Then Saturday (Dan's birthday) was a gorgeous day, so we headed up to the Dells and took a wagon ride tour in the Lost Canyon. It was so beautiful to see all the fall foliage! That night, Nancy watched Kate so Dan & I could go out for his birthday. We tried a new Italian restaurant downtown called Francesca's Al Lago. It was quite good!

Sunday we went to the Arboretum to take advantage of the continued beautiful weather, and that night, we had the Hines over for a fall dinner (including pumpkin ginger soup--yum!) since they wanted to see Nancy before her short trip was up.

Monday we met Dan for lunch at Sprecher's, where we were again able to eat outside (Kate & I went there for his birthday last year, too, and also ate outside... hmmm, must be something about that weekend that always brings good weather!) Then Nancy, Kate & I went to the zoo for awhile before Kate's nap. Nancy flew out that night; we were so glad she was able to visit, even if it was just for a short while. We certainly got a lot done during her time here!


On the Lost Canyon tour




Such a pretty baby girl


Listening intently to the tour guide




At the Arboretum on Sunday




Love those fall colors!






Loving her Aunt Nancy


Kate and some 30-year-old guy




Gazing out the window of the trolley (there was a free trolley tour at the Arboretum)




You can tell it's almost naptime; she looks so sleepy!


At the park a few days before Nancy's visit

Such an independent little walker now!