Katherine, you are 10 months old and a very busy little girl. You are always exploring, playing and getting into everything. It's a fun yet exhausting stage.
You are wearing 6-9 month and 9 month clothes and a size 3 diaper. You hardly ever wear shoes, but I've put them on you a couple of times this month, since you're cruising more and more and you're between a size 3 and 4 shoe.You had a nine month check up a couple of weeks ago and you weighed 18lbs 4oz and were 27 inches long.
You go down easily for naps and bed. We'll read a book, turn your music on, and give you your pacis and put you in your bed. Rarely, you'll fuss, but most of the time you go right to sleep. You take a morning and afternoon nap, but one of those (usually the morning nap) is short (45 minutes) because of our schedule. If we catered our life around your two naps, we'd never get to leave! You can handle that short nap in the morning and most of the time you'll get a long (90min-2hour) afternoon nap.
You learned to clap this month, and you clap, flail your arms and pant when you're really excited. It's adorable.
You still say dada ALL the time. Still no mama. I'm not bitter or anything, but whenever I ask you to say mama, you laugh at me and say dada. Speaking of him, you LOVE him. You'd prefer him over me all the time (unless you're hurt). He's your favorite person, and watching you and his relationship melts me. Whenever I get you out of bed and carry you into the kitchen, you always look around and say dada. And you speed crawl straight to him whenever he comes in the door. If I'm holding you, and you see Daddy, you'll lunge for him. If I try and take you out of his arms, you shake your head at me and latch on tighter to him.
You still only have two teeth, but those top two will be in any day. You chew on everything.
You're an ornery little girl. Your favorite things in our house are the dishwasher, bathtub faucet, toilet paper rolls, trash cans, and any drawers within your reach that you can pull things out. It's a constant job redirecting you from things you shouldn't be getting into and cleaning up the messes you make. Whew! You tire us all out. The kids are good at helping me entertain you and keep you out of messes, so I'm a little worried about handling it all when they're in school.
Aside from all the "toys" you find around the house that we're constantly taking away from you, you do seem to like the toy car that you can climb around in. You also like rattles and anything you can shake and you like to knock over block towers.
You drink four 6oz bottles a day- wake up, after morning nap, after afternoon nap, and bedtime. Meal times with you have been a bit of a struggle. You don't like to eat baby food. Iconsider it a victory if you eat half of a container before you start shaking your head and batting the spoon away. I've about given up on purees for you, and try and give you finger food that you can feed yourself. Your favorite foods are graham crackers, bananas, grapes, and ritz crackers. You'll usually eat bananas, cheerios and waffles for breakfast and then for lunch and dinner I just try and give you some of whatever we're eating and supplement with graham crackers, ha!
You've been crawling like a pro. You have different speeds and can turn into turbo speed whenever you're after something. You're also pulling up on everything and starting to cruise around furniture. You can also stand on your knees. You are active and never stop moving!
Katherine, you're turning into more and more into a toddler with every passing day, and it's the most bittersweet feeling. We love you so much and are trying to savor everyday with you Sweet Girl!
Summer is sailing along and we're continuing to make the most of it.
We finished swim lessons the first week of July. It was so fun to have lessons with our friends. The kids learned so much. I'm really impressed at their swimming skills after two weeks of lesson.
The high dive was everyone's favorite part of swim lessons.
One morning after lessons we headed to the Shondelmyer's pool to swim for the afternoon.
The first weekend in July, Mindy, Erica, and I had a fun girls' weekend. We got together Friday night, went to dinner, and stayed up late visiting. I love our conversations. We stayed at Erica's house and drove to Pawhuska Saturday morning
Man, the food at the Mercantile never disappoints. Best. Pancakes. Ever.
After breakfast we shopped at the Mercantile and all ended up with the same purse. That must be a sign of good friendships. Then we drove into Bartlesville for the afternoon. We got pedicures and did a little shopping at a local, fun boutique.
Afterward we drove back to the Mercantile for dinner. We can't get enough :).
The queso was as good as I remembered.
After dinner we headed upstairs to the deli to pick up some treats to take home and drove back to Broken Arrow.
We spent Sunday enjoying a late breakfast and some shopping and more visiting before our girls' weekend ended. I love those sweet girls and the real, honest friendships we have. We can't wait for next year!
While I was away on my girls' weekend, Matt took the kids to Weatherford
We spent a fun afternoon at the aquarium with friends. We've visited the aquarium several times, but I think this was the most fun my kids have had during a visit. Everything is more fun with best friends. They ran around and Michelle and I got to visit. It was great!
Samuel had a field trip to the aquarium last Spring and his teachers gave all the kids a little scavenger hunt of things to find there. He recreated it on the drive to the aquarium. I loved it! He has the best ideas. I can't get enough of his unique personality.
These babies are growing up too fast. They're going to be running around with the big kids before we know it.
This is one of the kids' favorite places in the aquarium. They played in it for a long time.
We love these friends of ours. They've all been friends since birth.
The aquarium wore this little girl out.
I'm loving all the extra free time we have at home to play. Nathan has been having fun rebuilding Matt's Lego sets.
We were some of the crazy ones who braved the crowds at Build A Bear for their pay your age sale. I definitely underestimated how crazy it was, or I would probably never have mentioned it to my kids, but they were all really excited about it, and I thought it'd be a fun summer activity. And after I had decompressed for a couple of days after it was over, I'm glad we did it, and I'd probably do it again. Call me crazy, but it turned out to be a fun memory, and those stuffed animals are even more special to my kiddos because of the effort it took to get them, ha!
We got in line at 8:40 that morning. Thankfully, I looked up the website that morning and saw that they were opening an hour early, or we wouldn't have left the house as early as we did, and there's no way we could have braved the line if we'd gotten there even 30 minutes later. The kids were up and dressed and teeth brushed and all downstairs by 7:00. They were so excited and prepared. If only, I'd been more prepared and looked at the website earlier, we could have cut out a lot of waiting time.
This was our place in line at 8:45.
I had prepared for a wait, but I was really thinking it'd be an hour, maybe an hour and a half. I only had a couple of snacks, a few books, and thankfully I threw a kindle into my bag because we were in line for over three hours.
The kids all did wonderful. No bathroom breaks, and no major whining- definitely some though.
Kate was great too.
Getting closer to the store.
I was SO proud of this kid, because he never complained, or whined, nothing. He just happily stood in line the whole time. He never asked for anything. He had a way better attitude than me! I rewarded him with an extra outfit since he did so well.
Finally!!!
We've only been to Build a Bear a couple of times- Before each sister
was born to get them a gift, and Elisabeth went on our girls' sleepover
night. Each time we have been to the store, I've had to steer them toward the cheap
bears and veto all the fun ones because of price. So it was super
fun to let them pick out whatever animal they wanted. I even made them
choose a more expensive one for Katherine than they initially picked,
ha!
In all we saved about $100, we came home with fun new toys, we made a special memory, and we talked
about lessons we learned
(patience, not complaining and forgiving one another when we get
grumpy), and strengths I noticed in each of the kids- Nathan was always helpful
with his younger siblings when I needed an extra hand, Elisabeth
always makes friends wherever we go, and
Samuel doesn't let anything get to him, but is laid back and goes with
the flow even in frustrating circumstances, and that all my kids have bladders of steel when it really matters, ha!!
Samuel slept on the floor with his animal that night so Squirtle wouldn't be scared being in a new house. That moment made it all worth it.
We've also had lots of fun pool days with friends. The kids are big enough to stay at the pool practically all day, as long as I pack food and even more so if they have friends join us.
And Kate tags along and naps in the shade to extend our pool time- even though she's not quite up to making it all day yet.
After one pool day, these girls came back to our house to play while the big siblings stayed at the pool for another couple of hours.
They are the cutest!
The kids were excited about our neighborhood's annual pool party. We were worried it would get rained out, but the rain stopped as soon as the party started. They loved the inflatable water slide
and the pizza. The pool party is always a highlight of our summer.
I had my MOMS steering team retreat this month too. It's a three day retreat where the steering team plans the whole year of MOMS. We get to relax and have a little fun too. This year we went to the Affair of the Heart and a wood painting studio as well as staying up late planning and working.
Our MOMS ministry is an awesome outreach ministry, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve in it. It meets a huge need for stay at home moms and I'm pumped about this year's theme and all the things we have planned. I'm ready for September!
We've been making the most of play dates this summer. I try and schedule a couple every week. It's so hard for the kids to get together with friends during the school year with school all day and so many activities in the evenings and on weekends, so I've been trying to pack them in before school starts. My house might be a disaster, because we're always out playing with friends, but I don't regret it one bit! We had a fun day at Levi and Audrey's house last week. Water balloons, a trampoline, and a slip and slide always make for a fun time!
The kids have been building "forts" in our playroom all summer and they've been sleeping in them too. Nathan has story time with them before they get in their "beds." Samuel slept inside that tunnel one night. It's fun letting them stay up late and all sleep together and just be more relaxed with our schedule. They have all three been playing so well together and have been having so much fun!
We frequent the library during the summer too. It's a favorite outing for all of us.
And cashing in our library summer reading coupons for cookies is a favorite too!
A friend told me about a fun little restaurant/bakery a couple of towns away that has yummy fresh peach ice cream, so we adventured there one afternoon. We were all big fans! Nathan has already decided what he wants to order the next time we go.
We still have a month of summer left, and I'm planning on making the most of it. There are days when I miss a predictable schedule and a break from having all four kids with me all the time and maybe my house staying clean for more than ten minutes at a time, but I have been soaking up this time with them, playing and making memories together. I don't know if I've ever been more grateful for the opportunity to be at home with my kids than I have this summer. They're big enough to take fun places without it being a crazy amount of work, but yet they're young enough that every little thing is a fun adventure to them. And their sweet baby sister just adds smiles and sweetness to our fun. I'm thankful for summer!
