She's Two!

On February 18, my sweet baby girl turned two. I swear it was just yesterday we were driving home from the Madison Birth Center on a sunny February Friday morning, looking at each other like, "Hm, we have a baby now." The next couple of months were filled with uncertainty (Are we doing the right things? Should she be crying this much?) as well as complete and utter bliss. I always knew I wanted to be a mom. But I could never imagine the depths of love and joy I would feel as I held my sweet baby girl while she slept, or cuddled with her during one of her many marathon nursing sessions. And now two years have flown by! She's walking, talking, and reading many of her letters and numbers (she can even count to 10 now, although the number seven inevitably gets skipped every time). How did we go from having a tiny, six-pound, 11 ounces newborn who didn't do much except eat, sleep, poop and cry (oh, yeah, and wrap us completely around her little finger the very first time she looked into our eyes), to a beautiful, sweet, caring, loving, intelligent two-year-old? I'm not ready for her to be growing up so fast!

And yet I'm enjoying every stage she's in. Of course the newborn stage is amazing; there is nothing else like it. Holding her for hours on end, soaking up everything she did (even though it wasn't much); that was all the entertainment I needed. Then the baby stage; if that's not fun, I don't know what is. Their silly laughs and giggles, the excitement you feel when they roll over or crawl or walk for the first time; I miss it already.

But now we've entered the wonderful toddler years. And, despite what some may say about the toddler years being terrible, I'm loving it. I love that we can actually play together now; in fact, just this morning, we made a "salad" together with her new play food she got for her birthday, before building a lego plane and then reading some of her new books. I love being home with her. I love the classes (music, science and art) we take together, the story times at the library, our play dates with friends. I love watching her play with her "babies" and feed them, rock them, and put them to bed. I think it's amazing she is so caring and nurturing towards her animals, and I find it fascinating that she has been completely enamored with music practically from day one. This is certainly a wonderful thing, being the mother to a sweet, energetic, spunky toddler!

So while it is still hard to believe I have a two-year-old, I'm enjoying (almost) every minute of it. Daddy & I love you more than anything in the world, Kate! You know that book we sometimes read together called Love You Forever? Remember how it says, "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always; as long as I'm living, my baby you'll be." That's exactly how Daddy and I feel about you, Kate, and that will never change. No matter how many birthdays you have!

Now, onto the party. The theme was Pink Poodle in Paris, and it turned out quite well, if I do say so myself. Our menu was mini quiche Lorraine, berries with an anglaise cream sauce, and cheese and crackers. Oh, and pizza. Not exactly French, but who doesn't love a good pizza? Instead of a cake, we just had Red Velvet and Chocolate cupcakes. The Red Velvet cupcakes with the cream cheese frosting are absolutely amazing. Kate certainly enjoyed hers!


Waking up from her nap (yes, she wanted to sleep in her lion backpack and purple sunglasses). Hopefully she got enough rest before her party starts at 4:30!


A close-up of the plates and napkins


Yummy cupcakes! And I love the cupcake toppers my mom found at Grand America; there were four types (Eiffel Tower, Arc D'Triomphe, and two different poodles). Worked well!


A close-up of some of the toppers




Our favor bags. I bought an Eiffel Tower cookie cutter from amazon, made sugar cookies, frosted with them pink cream cheese frosting, and then Dan decorated them to have the criss-cross look of the Eiffel Tower. We also put in some Hershey's kisses that I got at the post-Valentine's Day sale at Target.




Kate and Katrina playing with her new farm


The spread (minus the pizza)


A close-up of the four plates I used to serve the cupcakes


I love these centerpieces I did; I just got four of my really pretty, vintage looking teacups (I collect them) and filled them with four roses (two cream, two pink). I think it added a definite elegant, Parisian flair.






I'm ready for my birthday party, dressed in a classic two-year-old style! (Don't ask me why she has a pumpkin headband on in February)


"Are you guys eating these cupcakes? They're amazing!"


Three generations


After the party, relaxing with Skunkle






My mom, Tracy, and Chris


Happily playing with the new farm TT & Skunkle gave her


So happy to have an Elmo coloring book (Elmo is by far her favorite Sesame Street character)


Adelaide trying on Kate's gorgeous new apron from Aunt Janet and Karen


Think I'm ready for two? I must say, it is fun spending time with Kate and Adelaide; it's very cute to see how they interact. I think maybe we should think about adding a second one to the mix...


Nana and her girl




She loves her new kangaroo and the book that came with it (Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother, too?)


Kate loves her Bitty Baby from Nana!

Our Trip to Utah

I know, I know, I should be posting about her birthday. But, since I want to go in chronological order (and I finally have time to update my blog), I am going to post about our trip to Utah first.

We flew out on Tuesday, January 31, and Nancy picked us up from the airport. We of course went to the Spaghetti Factory to eat, and then headed to Ogden. Over the next couple of days, we went to our favorite restaurants (The Bistro 258--twice!--Union Grill, Karen's Cafe, and Tepenyaki for my mom's birthday), and we were able to spend a lot of time with Nancy, which is always fun. We spent time at the park with Grandpa, and also went to Angie's house to play with Brooklyn. It was so fun to see those two girls together! They had a lot of fun playing, although I can tell that the concept of "sharing" is one we will have to work on quite intensively over the next few years.

We flew home very, very early Monday morning (February 6) and Dan picked us up from the airport. Kate was so excited to see him!








"Shhh... I'm concentrating"









Whee!

Science class

Today was our second toddler science class (I guess the actual title is Parent/Child Exploration Time or some such thing). Kate absolutely loves it! The things that we are supposed to do seem like they wouldn't be that interesting, but the kids eat them up. Last week, for example, they sorted through a bin of pine cones and wine corks and could organize them in different buckets, ice cube trays, etc. Now, that doesn't sound like the funnest thing to me (probably why my house looks the way it does; I guess organizing is not my strong point) but the kids were happily occupied for the full 45 minutes!

Today's topic was on water exploration. Let's just say, I'm glad I brought an extra outfit for Kate. It was fun, though; she dumped water from bucket to bucket, soaked it up with a sponge, squeezed it out, etc. She was as happy as could be and was sad when it was time to leave. The whole concept of the class is that parents are there to support their kids in what they want to learn, but we're not the teachers; we're supposed to let the kids lead the way because then their attention span is often longer if *they* are the ones deciding what to do. I have to say, it definitely has some merit! We'll miss next week's class because we'll be in Utah, but we still have two after that, so that should be fun. And as an added bonus, it's right by one of our favorite restaurants, The Laurel, so we always swing by there afterward for lunch.


I'm in my adorable new outfit and ready to go, Mom!


Watching me fill up the bins with water and making sure I don't go too far


Let's see, what's in here?


This red shirt did squat to protect her clothes from the water.





I love this picture of her; she looks so excited to be squeezing this sponge!

New Year's Eve!

In the days leading up to New Year's Eve, we just kind of bummed around, going to our favorite restaurants (like the Bistro 258... twice... since their chocolate souffle is as delicious as ever), going to the Christmas village in Ogden, shopping the post-Christmas sales, and taking advantage of the numerous adults who love Kate and were happy to serve as a built-in babysitter. On Thursday night, Dan & I went to this cool wine bar in Ogden and listened to live music before heading over to the theater to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie. That was really good, by the way. Then on Friday night, we went to Brewski's with Nancy, her date Kris, Dan's friend Josh, and Austin. It was nice to get out, but you can tell I'm such a mom; I was texting my mom every 30 minutes or so to make sure things were going smoothly :)

On New Year's Eve, our little family went to the Treehouse Museum for the countdown, which thankfully was at 12 PM, not AM. Kate didn't really quite get the concept of counting down, but that's ok; we still had a great time at the museum.










Such a cute cowgirl


In her party hat we made at the museum


So tired; you can tell it's close to naptime!

Christmas Continued

On Wednesday of our vacation, we went over to Angie's house so our girls could play together. Kate and Brooklyn were so cute together! They're almost a year apart in age, but yet they still seemed to play together so nicely. Afterward, Dan, Kate, my mom and I went down to Salt Lake, where we ate at the Spaghetti Factory (again), checked out the lights at Temple Square and then went to the Grand America to look at their Christmas decorations.


She looks mad in this photo, but she was actually having a blast with this toy of Brooklyn's.




The two girls in pink




Kate with Nana at the Spaghetti Factory


Temple Square; so beautiful!


At Trolley Square




At Grand America. It was so fun to go there again; we even went into the Grand Ballroom where we got married; it brought back so many wonderful memories!


The life-sized gingerbread house in the Grand America. Somebody sure went to a lot of work (and has a lot of talent!)


A close-up of the door, just because I thought it looked neat (and tasty!)


At the toy shop in the GA. Kate loved this thing; when you walked on it, it would play music, and she had so much fun dancing. In fact, here is a video:

Post-Christmas festivities

The week following Christmas was so nice; we just relaxed and did all our favorite holiday activities. One of Kate's favorite things was when we walked up to the park with my dad and Shila. She had the best time on all the slides, but when it was time to go, she was NOT a happy camper! It's always so nice to go to the park with another adult, so one of us can walk her up the stairs to the slide and then one can catch her. It's like when Gail was in Madison in our unseasonably warm November; we went to the playground at the zoo (probably Kate's favorite playground in the whole city), and Kate had so much fun having Grandma Gail catch her as she went down the big red tunnel side. This time with Grandpa was no different.


Looking adorable in her new outfit


"I've got my hood, I'm ready to go!"








Going down backwards!