Not Much

Not much to report.

Except that Kate's still cute as ever.

Let's Review!

You know what I love? When other Moms share their little secrets for keeping a 1 year old happy. So, I thought I'd also share with you some little goodies that you might check out for your little goodie (or badie).

Up First: Elmo's Monster Maker

Do you have a kid that loves your iPhone? This is the app for you! Kate LOVES to play with my phone. Unfortunately, there's not much kid-friendly stuff on there... until now!


First you choose your monster by touching on the screen.


Then you can add a nose, eyes, and a hat. "Endless possibilities" is what they advertise.


Then you can make your monster dance or play with Elmo. Or, if you just touch your monster, it will do all kinds of things like giggle or eat an apple or play a horn. Rarely does she sit and play with something for more than 5 minutes, but this does it (and keeps her from calling people or deleting applications). The website is here - where I also learned of several other iPhone Apps for the kid. Enjoy!

Ok, next up is the Step2 water and sand table.

A big hit. I think what is going on here is pretty self explanatory.


Kate prefers the water side. Which shouldn't surprise you if you remember my previous posts on that issue.


Kate taught me something about kids that I didn't know. Ok, she's taught me a lot, but one thing I didn't realize is that little kids like little things to hold onto. Yeah, I know, makes perfect sense. These stackable figurines are fantastic. They have them at Target. They also have and Elmo/Cookie Monster/Zoe set and a Disney set. I've also seen them at Kohl's. HUGE hit in our house. They also stow away nicely in the diaper bag, and can be leveraged for good behavior when eating out at a restaurant.


And last, but not least, a few websites that you might just catch a deal on. They update daily at 11:00 am, and you have to be quick when the deals are good, because they go FAST.

www. kidsteals.com
www.babysteals.com
www.mamabargains.com

Not Me Monday!

You thought I had forgotten all about Not Me! Monday didn't you? Or maybe you just thought I'd finally pulled it all together and didn't have anything worthy of Not Me! Hmm.. you don't know me well then, do you? Ok, so here's the deal (Mom). Not Me! Monday was started by this other blogger MckMama. It's one day a week that she blogs about things that she did not do during the past week. You know, things that I would never ever do. Like let Kate fall out of my car or run up to the gas station to go to the bathroom at the end of a funeral service. It's a great excuse to laugh at oneself, and I need to do that once in a while. And I know you probably just thought to yourself.. now what? But that's ok.. just keep reading.

Ok so last week I arrived at work all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed one morning, ready for a nice cup of coffee to ease me into the day. I did not fill the coffee pot up with water and turn it on, only to find out that I had just re-used the grounds from the day before.

I did not hit my coffee with my elbow so that it went all over my desk and only turned a handful of important documents a lovely, wrinkled coffee color.

And I most certainly did not utter any of the following phrases during the past week:

"We don't drop our food on the floor and then eat it."
"Hey! Don't put that in the toilet!"
"Don't ride the kitty while he's eating, please."

And last, but not least, I (we) did not break down and buy Kate a Dora the Explorer kick board at K-mart when we went to get her sand/water table. No way do we give into the toddler who finds a prize at eye level and doesn't want to let it go.

Surfboard? Ok, maybe we did.

Hope everyone has a great week with plenty to laugh at... even if it's yourself!

Derby Girl

Yes, folks. Its that time of year again. Time for us to visit the roller derby. Now, I have to tell you that my Dad gave me a slightly disapproving look when I told him I was taking his only granddaughter to the Roller Derby. You know, with all of the riff-raff that we might run into there! Well, there was riff raff, sure, but there was also a LOT of fun to be had. Now, this is not Kate's first time at the Derby. You can see that here. She seemed to enjoy it, she did not fall asleep, and she didn't even mind all of the yelling (you never know nowadays what is going to make her cry).

Here she is looking roller derby cute.


Check out those rad shoes!


And you know that she had to have a roller derby name on her "bout"fit, right?

That is our friend Monica up above. We didn't just seek out the roller derby. We're actually "in" with a roller derby girl!

Kate busted her lip on a derby girl's elbow my knee only about 30 minutes in (you can see that its purple if you look closely).


One of my favorite parts is checking out the uniforms. Love this one! But dang, guess I'll have to be "Hanta Your Dreams" or "Ebola U Over"


And then there was Rainbow Bright. Wow. This photo does NOT do her justice.


You know, she really liked the roller skates and the music and didn't mind the screaming too much. But of course, she got a little bored. So, what better thing to do than play with Dora and Boots?


And at the end of a long afternoon? Well, she was pretty much pooped. See her here? She didn't wake up until 7:30... am.. the next morning! Now I'm wishing there was a roller derby every weekend!

Chores

Its never to early to start is it? I promise that Kate picked this up on her own. I just thought I'd document it. Ok, here's your warning. This video lasts over 1 minute, which means, unless you're family, it might be a tad on the boring side. That being said, Enjoy!!

Crazy

We're crazy about videos around here lately. Can you tell?

Kate's crazy about Kitten.

Kitten? Not so crazy about Kate.

Kate's New...

Do you think she liked it?



A little water ballet.



Very hard to get a photo of her standing still....

Lovely Sunday

It was a beautiful day. Kate took a power nap and made it to church!

You know how when things get quiet you start to worry what she might be up to? Well, its always good to find this when you go looking.

And to think I was about to retire the bouncy!



And hats.


She LOVED the cupcakes. But I'm not so sure I'm willing to share. Maybe she can get her own next time.

Bark to the Park

Hot. Tired. Cranky.

That's us.

The Bark was fun, but it was also hot. And Kate wanted to get out and pet every dog and stand in all of the water dishes. Here are a few shots of the day. Then I'm going to cool off and put my feet up while everyone else naps.


Here's Doggit. It was his day, so he gets the first shot.



And Kate?

She met sweet Lola - our friend Monica's rescued Mastiff.


There was a lot of this.


Not because she was tired or hungry, but because there were hundreds of "Pup-Pups" there and she wanted out of the stroller to pet ALL of them. And of course, we couldn't just let her run wild with strange dogs around, so there was some pitiful crying. I'm sorry that I didn't get a picture of her FAVORITE dog. He was a 20 foot blow-up dog with a frisbee in his mouth. We went over and petted his tail.

We did take her out to see a dog trick show.

She was only minimally impressed, because, you know, Foster catches frisbees in the front yard every day. *YAWN*

Here she is watching the show with another cute little girl.


And here she is trying to steal that little girl's hat.


Oh Man! Caught!


Finally we loaded her up, plugged her up (with the binky) and were off to sit in the shade.


Sitting with Dad and Foz.


Dog and I (once again) entered the trick contest. We didn't place, but we did make the finals!! (top 5) Way to go Foster!

Tough Decisions

Babies live pretty carefree lives.


But sometimes they have to make pretty hard choices.. Like Kate, who couldn't decide on flowers or footballs.


Luckily she didn't have to choose, and was able to have both.


Foster was just happy that she was out of hands to steal his frisbee.

Chase

Nothing like a good game of chase to end your day!

Wordless Wednesday! (and a cute outfit)

Wet and Wild

Kate loves water. I always knew she liked baths. And then there was the toilet experience. And, of course, when she learned how to turn on the faucet to our tub. And the dog bowl, and cat bowl. Ok.. so I should not have been so surprised that she took like a fish to a bowl full of water in the backyard.

It started out innocently enough.


Then there was getting both hands in.


Did she also stand in it? Um, of course!

She even gave Foster a drink.


She REALLY wanted to pick up the bowl. And she did. Right before she dumped the contents on her head.




I cut her off after the second bowl, so she took it to Dad.


Who filled it with sticks and stuff.


And for those of you who think that Kate gets everything she wants... She doesn't.


What was wrong, you ask? Don wouldn't give her a leaf that he was using as a bookmark. And he wouldn't let her take off with his book.

Finally we were all worn out from the water fun and went inside. Ok, maybe I was the only one who was worn out. Don and Kate clearly had lots more energy to burn.



Was it not bad enough that our child was crawling out of a window? Did she not also have to wave at the passing cars?


And yell?


Daddy rules, I tell ya.