Second Child

As you know, Andrew is reaching his milestones at rocket speed... Too fast for mom, to be quite honest. When Katie started to cruise around 10 months, we bought push toys and encouraged her to walk. Andrew is a different story. We hide the push toys. Literally. He has to improvise.

New Hampshire Fall Fun

The start of our fall has been fun. There are a lot of fall festivals and farms to visit in the nearby towns. To date, we have been to 4 farms and 4 festivals. Katie loves to pick pumpkins. Each one is hand picked for a particular person.

In the video clip you can hear her telling me who each pumpkin is for. Then, she realizes she forgot a few people and it's off to the pumpkin patch to get more! We planned on getting 4 pumpkins, one for each of us, but came home with 10! It was hard to say no when her intentions were so good.

Demeritt Farm with Grammy and Andrew

Emery Farm on the hayride and Katie's friends:Meredith, Katie, Uma and Sylvia

Butternut Farm with Mommy, Daddy and Andrew

Climbing!

I subscribe to various parenting websites and magazines. All of which include when your baby should be reaching his or her milestones. I just got one yesterday via email that said "don't be surprised if you go into your babies bedroom and find him standing in his crib." Ahhh... been there, done that... a month ago. We are in shock and busy trying to re-baby proof our house suitable for Andrew!

Crawling at 6 1/2 months old
Pulling up to a stand at 7 1/2 months old
Cruising at 8 months old
Climbing at 8 1/2 months old
Walking at ???

Here's his latest -

Say Cheese!

Finger foods are a fav for Andrew. He is very good at picking up cheerios (old hat), pieces of meat, banana, bread, etc. This particular day we were trying shredded cheese. He loved it but what a mess!

(Please disregard the middle finger...I think ~hope~ it was unintentional)

So Big

Two months shy of THREE years old. I can hardly believe it. Katie is growing up before our eyes.

Since early summer, there have been a lot of "Big Girl" Moments.

#1 Big Girl Moment: No Binky effective July 8th

The summer started with Katie's first visit to the pediatric dentist. She got at "A+" on dental care, but she told us that it was time to lose the binky. Hmmm... The pediatrican didn't have a problem with it. Their philosophy was "Three C's" - car, crisis, crib. I was OK with that. To me we were ahead of the game, Katie had only been allowed the binky in her crib for well over a year...Sort of...there were always exceptions. Like, in the car or upstairs only when Katie took it out of her crib I was too lazy to take it away. :) I think I was in denial that she didn't need it any more, that she was still a baby (my baby, to be exact). That, and I feared NEVER sleeping since we now had Andrew who was up 3 times a night at 5 months old. Anyway, like most things it went a lot better than I thought it would. Only a couple hours of tears the first night.


#2 Big Girl Moment: Potty Trained effective September 5th

We started in May. Actually our baby sitter initiated the process. Me, again, didn't think she was ready. Apparently she was. After one week, she was completely #2 trained...sorry for those of you saying TMI but it is a big deal as a parent to not have to change THOSE diapers. It took a few months and some regression after spending a week with Katie's 11 month old cousin Charlie (at the time) but now she's got it. No more accidents. Next step, staying dry at night. Not a huge deal to me. Afterall, she is only 25 pounds so she can probably stay in a diaper until she is seven! (just kidding)


#3 Big Girl Moment: Toddler bed effective September 28th

99% of Katie's friends have been in toddler beds for months. Me again, stalling. I was terrified that I would hear the pitter patter of her feet all night and that she would STOP napping. Andrew as most of you know, does NOT sleep through the night. Not even close. So, I rely on naptime to myself nap from time to time. Especially after one of his "I think I will stay up for hours around 2am nights" -- Argh. Again, Katie was ready and surprised us both. She loves to climb in and out of her bed and cross your fingers and toes, she has not gotten out of bed yet at naptime or nightime.

More Big Girl Moments:
Dressing herself, pedaling her tricyle, starting preschool, singing silly songs that she makes up the lyrics to...And, many more to come!

Love you Katie!

Katie riding her trikeToddler bed