Water Wings

I know you aren't supposed to use water wings for training a child to swim, but I was getting tired of having to be so alert with Katie in the water. I decided I would only let her use them for about 20-30 minutes a day and then take them off and make her use her arms again. My plan mostly worked, she loved having them on but when I took them off she was still trying to float away and kept gagging on water. As you can tell I took a ton of picture, free hands!!, and the joy of water is not lost on this little one! Enjoy!

A day at the library.....

Sorry about the picture quality today, I think my camera might be on it's last leg (too many drops and tosses!!). Today my Mother and I took Katie to story time at the library and once again her "everything is mine" stage reared it's ugly head. The library that we go to has a little reading loft in the children's section that Katie likes to hang out in (see picture below) and today while she was chillin' out with her Grammy in the loft another child dared to come up to join in the fun.

The nerve.

Of course in typical Katie behavior, or what's now typical, she lost her mind and began crying so hard that she was blubbering. She stood up there for a good 30 seconds just crying, not telling anybody why she was upset or moving toward my Mother or I for comfort, just having it out. In the meantime the other little girl had taken the precaution of grabbing her "Memaw" for extra protection from the scary monster up in the loft. We somehow coaxed Katie down the stairs back to the main section of the library just in time for the story telling to begin and the crazy Katie subsided into warm and fuzzy Katie.

I fear what she will morph into next....................someone tell me this is normal!!!

This picture was obviously taken before the sob story.

Better times that followed, Katie was singing and clapping along with the story teller; she looks happy, right?!

Back at Grammy and Pop's house, she thought that it was great fun to sit in the top of a shoebox and get pushed around by Grammy. Wouldn't it be nice to fit your butt into a shoebox?

Having Fun

Yesterday afternoon we couldn't tell if it was warm enough to hit the pool or not, so Katie and I decided to head next door and see what Maddux and Sheri were doing. They have a nice backyard set-up so we were in luck, the baby pool was filled with golf balls and plastic softballs and there were toys everywhere. As a bonus Maddux had just figured out how to clap so he was clapping away, which in turn had Katie clapping, although she had no idea why anyone was clapping but just hopped on board with it. The only hitch in the play date was Katie's non-sharing approach to playing. UGH! It's getting really bad here, no one can touch her things, or their own things if Katie's interested, and if I suggest that she share something she throws a huge fit or says "bye-bye" and tries to leave the house of whoever we are visiting.

I guess it's all a phase but man is it horrible. I try to explain to her the whole sharing lesson, but I don't know if 1.) she's listening or 2.) she understands what "share" is. The thing that bothers me the most is that she is around Maddux all of the time, she knows his name "Maxux" and she points at his picture when we look at the old blog posts, so why does she melt down when he touches her stroller?! Does she really think he's going to steal it, break it and then laugh at her? I would love for someone to explain the toddler brain, why she can share her raisins with me, but not with anyone else and why she is so mistrusting of a little boy she obviously loves.

Parenting.......who knew it was so confusing?

Maddux giving Katie the "what-up" sign.

This is what I'm talking about when it comes to sharing, do you see that look in her eye? About 1 second after I snapped this picture Katie was crying and running towards the gate in the backyard and saying "bye-bye". Why; All because I told her to "be nice to Maddux and don't push him off of his chair". She can't even share toys that aren't hers!!

Katie, Grandpa Burt and the slide....

I took this short video of Katie and Grandpa Burt playing with some toy fish on the sliding board. The sound get's a little "crunchy" at about 20 seconds, but you can still see how much fun Katie was having throwing her fish at Grandpa!!

Playing with the family....

Today we were over at Grandma and Grandpa Burt's house for some good dinner and a chance to play with Aunt Christy and Uncle Jarrett. The weather couldn't have been any better, it was perfect for playing, eating and just being outside. In fact I think Katie got about as much outside time as she has ever had, she just loves their backyard because it's big and flat and she can run around forever. We all had such a wonderful time and Katie had so much fun she fell asleep about five minutes after coming in the house, LOVELY!!!

Katie and Aunt Christy playing in the water.

Up and down the slide, she has figured out how to climb up the face of the slide so it is now a dangerous toy, ugh!!

Katie being all proud of herself for going up and down the slide without help!

Nat and Jarrett, I didn't even use a flash and Nat still blinked!

That would be my daughter getting in the pool, with her clothing on!

Grandpa Burt caught a lightning bug and was showing it to Katie, she then tried to grab it herself and almost killed it.......it got away safely!

We had to take the wet shorts and soggy, drooping diaper off..........she was draggin.

Clapping.

Checking out the telescope on top of her swing set, she thought it was a megaphone.

A Short Trip

It's still a bit cold here today to hit the pool, just under 80 degrees, so Katie and I decided to join Sheri and Maddux on a short trip to Hershey's Chocolate World. I thought Katie would enjoy the little ride inside Chocolate World and she did, but I think all of the lights and people were just too much so we only stayed for about 45 minutes. Maddux was a little nervous by the ride too, although there were singing cows at one point that both of the kids seemed to enjoy.

Katie and I on the Chocolate World ride.

Sheri and Maddux standing in line for the ride.

Katie in front of stuffed Hershey's Kisses.

The actual number of chocolate bars and kisses that had been made as of 12:35pm... NICE!

Even the Kiss shaped ballon couldn't save her from being sleepy, she slept the whole way home. (It's about a 45 minute car ride.)

Rainy Day.

Today it decided to rain and rain and rain some more and at last check it was only 71 degrees!!! Ugh, that's sweatsuit weather! I just took a few cute ones of Katie that I thought I would pass along, really I just wanted a picture of how cute she looked in this outfit with the little turtles! Ok enjoy.....

(She was running at me with her eyes closed and laughing, weird combo, but she looks sooooo happy!!)

Playin' at Grandma's House.

This afternoon Katie and I were at Grandma Burt's house for some play time and a little lunch. Grandma got out the bubbles and as you can see Katie put forth her best effort to try and make a bubble, but she doesn't have enough gusto to actually produce one. After the bubbles were no longer interesting Grandma got out the baby stroller and Katie pushed it up and down the driveway and then decided she needed some "yummy's". We went inside, had some cheese and applesauce and then Aunt Donna, Aunt Angie and Great-Grandma showed up to join in the eating. We all ate some lunch and talked and then Katie started acting tired and cranky so we left, she really does let you know when she's tired! Katie is now fast asleep and I am thinking about joining her in a little afternoon siesta, enjoy the pictures!

Grandma blowing bubbles.

Just looking cute in front of Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Pushing her animals around; yes Grandma and Grandpa have the little animals too. For some reason she will only push the little plastic animals in the stroller?? That's not too weird, right?!

Running in the Pool.

I thought I would take a quick video today at the pool just to show you all the level of confidence? that Katie has around water. The deep end of the pool is 2.5 feet, or 30 inches, and Katie is at best 34-35 inches tall; I tell you this because at no point does it seem to faze her that she's getting in to deep and can't swim!! Oh and at the end it abruptly cuts off because she jumped off of a step in the pool and like I just said, she CAN'T SWIM!!! She's going to be a fun teenager!

(Turn the volume down or off, you don't really need to hear anything and there is a water fountain in the baby pool and it sounds really loud in the video!!)

Action shots at the pool....

Today I thought I would try to take some action shots at the pool and Katie did not disapoint! I can't take pictures while we are in the "big kid pool" because Katie is always trying to jump in the pool while I'm not looking, but I did get some fun ones from the baby pool. Of course she will jump right in to the baby pool too, the deep end is 2.5 ft deep, so I had to chuck my camera on to my chair more than once but I think I got some keepers....Enjoy!!

Katie hanging in the deep end up on the step.

One of those, Oh my gosh she's jumping, moments when I had to toss the camera and catch her!

She likes to "hop" like a frog a lot.

Yep, she's playing peek-a-boo on a pool deck. (Thank goodness she peeks to see where she's going!)

This was one of those times she did jump as I was taking a picture; you have no idea how many generations of my family do that tounge thing when they are concentrating. It's nice to see I passed something along!!