I have so many things to still post on here...but I thought I would make a post on hair! haha. I am so excited Kaitlyn's hair is long enough to do pig-tails! Her hair is very curly and every night when we give her a bath, we see its actually way longer than it seems when wet. I was surprised that she was okay with me pulling her hair to make these pigtails. I usually do it when her hair is still wet from the tub so it will stay better. In this picture her hair still looks wet and it was the first time I put her hair up, so its not a perfectly straight line in the middle...ha. She looks so cute and so grown up in them! I then realized I didn't have many bows in multiples of two, so I had to go out and search for bows!
And just to be silly, I posted pics of me and Bill and our new haircuts. :)
So I am finally getting a little caught up with my posts...well, I am just a month behind. Here are some Christmas pics.... I wish we had taken more pics at our family's houses. We just have pics from Christmas time at our house.
Kaitlyn's Santa gift was this kitchen set and shopping cart. here is her stocking with "Boots" at the top. she loves her daddy! this dog is as big as her, but she loves carrying it around. gifts from her aunts... this one is from "Nomelle" (Noelle and uncle Mike) and this is from aunt Erin. checking out this kitchen... my lil diva! me (before chopping off my hair) and my favorite girl!
I dread coming home and having to cook a meal. I really do love cooking but I hate having to spend MORE time away from Kaitlyn after being away from her all day. So, I decided to let her start helping me cook. She had SO much fun helping. Here she is putting cheese on the casserole. She put a tiny little piece of cheese on so it took forever to cover it, but she had a blast. First I let her sit by empty casserole dish with a whisk and she pretended to stir. She loves doing this at her table and her kitchen set, so I thought she would enjoy it with mommy. Then I let her pour on the seasonings and help me stir the food. Finally, she put the cheese on top. She cried when I made her get down from the counter. But then I showed her the food in the oven with the oven light and she got all excited that it was cooking. We had so much fun together! I can't believe she is big enough to do this.
One of the things I did over Christmas break--I re-decorated Kaitlyn's playroom. She sleeps in her crib in the nursery room that is attached to our bedroom and on the other side of the house, we have a playroom for her. This room will eventually be her "big girl" bedroom. I saw this sticker tree decal online and LOVED it! It was super easy to put on the wall and Kaitlyn really likes it. My mom got her this Dora table and chairs for Christmas. Kaitlyn's favorite thing to do is sit at this table and pretend she is eating and drinking. She pours tea and demands for me to sit in the other chair. "Mommy, sit down!" :) She could sit here all day long!!
Below is the shelf with most of her toys and books inside. It looks kinda crowded in this pic, but its so nice to have this shelf. The books on top are very special to me and Bill. Bill's parents found his favorite childhood book and gave it to him for Christmas--Ernie's Little Lie. It really meant a lot to him. The book in the middle was my mom and aunt's favorite childhood book--Good Little Bad Little Girl. It became my favorite as a child too. Kaitlyn likes to sit in her zebra chair and rock her baby dolls and read her books. I found this Owl picture at Target and it matches the sticker decal I bought. I thought it was so cute! Her table has this thing in the middle that we can store her dishes and play food. Bill's family got Kaitlyn the rocking horse for her 1 year birthday. I think its so cute! Below is the kitchen set Kaitlyn got from Santa. :) She has really enjoyed playing with it. The sign and flower on the wall I bought at Hobby Lobby.
I have several things I really need to post about. This is a start...I should have done it two months ago, but just got pictures uploaded. So about two months ago, I thought I should make a book for Kaitlyn for Christmas. I pictured a book that is "quiet" but kept her busy. It could even be a book for church. Now I have a book that I actually wrote and is in the publishing process, but its nothing like this. This is my crafty/touch and feel book for just Kaitlyn! :) I have never really sewn anything, so everything except the binding of the book was put together by felt glue. These are pictures before I bound it together. Its definitely not perfect and I think if I made another I could probably do better, but I was excited for her to see this one!!
cover: dress the girl page (with velcro) Above: tie the shoe...of course she can't do that yet, but she can play with the shoe strings. She loves shoes! Below: I wanted to do something that zips, so the first pic shows the ladybug without spots and the second pic shows the spots that were inside the ladybug!
I think the peek-a-boo page is her favorite. I am thinking of making a book with peek-a-boos on each page. The shape one is fun for her because she is really getting into shapes and beginning to identify them. I wish I had put a triangle on there instead of a rectangle. oh well. The pink shapes are in the pocket and you match them to the white shapes already glued on. The snowman page has a pouch for all the pieces. The flower page is neat for her to touch. It also smells good because I sprayed perfume on the flowers! The purse is just because she loves purses and that has a snap on it with fun stuff inside for her to pull in and out.
It was fun to make!! She's played with it a few times. I try to have her sit with me when she plays and looks at it, because pieces will be all over the place. I already have to re-glue on some pieces, but that was expected. its hers, she can do what she wants with it.
Below was another "crafty" thing. We paint these snowmen on shirts in my classroom. This year I made one for my sweet girl. Hers was special though, it got a bow and little rhinestones as the snow around the snowman. She liked us being twins. :) She kept saying "snowman Kaitlyn, snowman Mommy!"
It wasn't easy going back to work today after 5 days straight with Kaitlyn. It was nice to have Bill home for 5 days straight too. Friday, Bill shopped a bit, and then we put up our Christmas tree, and took Kaitlyn to see the lights in MWC. Kaitlyn LOVED them. I think they wore her out though because before we were all the way through it, Kaitlyn said "All done." ha. It was pretty crowded and we had to go about 2 mph, so she was ready to go. She is cracking us up with some of the things she says/does. She knows how to say "bless you" when someone sneezes and she waits for you to say thank you and if you don't, she finally says "thank you". Then if she sneezes and we say "bless you" she says thank you. She's got some good manners! :) She says "I love you" a lot. And when we go places she always says "bye bye Jacey!" (our dog) except it always sounds more like a question "bye bye Jacey?" She also likes to wonder to her play room by herself and sit in her chair and just read books to herself. We will peak around the corner of the door at her and she will just be talking to herself..."cat...meow! monkey...oooh oooh, fish, look lion roar!" very miss independent! too independent at times! She doesn't like to hold our hands. :( she loves shoes too! she likes to put them on all BY HERSELF! and she can do it too! but she likes to put them on without socks. She loves our Christmas tree and is doing really well not touching it...thank goodness! every now and then she will say "touch..." and start to sneak over there. the other day Bill said "hot!" and she ran from it. here are some pics and a video that will hopefully work:
I LOVE 15 months! Every month I keep saying its my favorite month, but she is sooo much fun right now! Here are some of the fun things she does/says...
-She's VERY shy in public. She is super active and full of personality at home, but someone else comes around and she hides behind my legs and squeezes on! At church she holds on tight. Its nice because she is keeping from getting germs from everyone who wants to touch her..ha. But then no one in public believes me how much she knows and can do because she just stares at them.
-she knows over 100 words! yes, I wrote them down. haha. I can teach her to say ANYTHING after saying it a few times...but the 100 words are the ones she says on a regular basis. its AMAZING to watch her learn things and understand what we say and do. I can say "do you wanna go play in your room?" and she will take off running to her play room. or "do you wanna go play outside?" and she runs to the back door. or "are you hungry?" she says "EAT EAT EAT!!" She can tell me all the sounds that animals makes and point out and say all animals in books. its funny to hear her say "moo" when we ask her what a cow says. Its kinda an angry "moooo" sound. And instead of "woof" for a dog, she pants like a dog. she also likes to tell us where our ears, eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, belly button and toes are.
-when she walks in a room and sees you, she says "HI" really loud. its precious.
-instead of saying "no" she says "uh-uh" and shakes her head.
-she got her first pair of "BIG GIRL" shoes. they have Dora on them and they light up as she steps. she loves them!
-she's starting to say "mommy" and "daddy" instead of momma, dadda. its really cute! i don't know where she learned it. it kinda sounds a little british "mommeee" "dattee"
-when you ask her to play peek-a-boo, she quickly covers her eyes for a long time and then uncovers them and laughs.
-she's VERY girly and loves jewelry. everything in the shape of a circle can be turned into a bracelet and she will walk around with her hand in the air to keep it on. she loves to go through my jewelry box.
-she also loves watching me put on make-up. I let her play with my blush brush sometimes and she will put it on her cheeks and then on mine.
-she still loves flowers and will pick them all in our backyard.
-also very girly--she will point at a bug that is outside, on tv, or in a book and say "EWWWWWW!!!". the other day she found a dead beetle in our house and picked it up and carried it to me and said "EEEWWW!!!"
-she loves Dora the Explorer and will say "D-D-D-D-Dora!" when she sees her Dora doll. If you have watched the show, you will know that in the song it says "D-D-D-D-Dora!"
-we can sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and she will light up and put her hands in the air and dance and turn in circle saying "up above the....lalalalalalala....like a diama...lalalalala..then louder "UP ABOVE THE....LALALALAL"
-Everything can be turned into a phone for her--the remote, her plastic food, shoes, dog bone...ha! She has play phones too. she picked it up the other day and said "hello? uh-huh...uh-uh....bye-bye" it was too cute!
-she loves books...still. :) in the book "Goodnight Moon" she points out the fire on each page and says "HOT!" and pulls away and then blows on it.
-she kisses all things that she likes...her baby dolls, pictures in books, Jacey, other pictures. she will go back in forth kissing me and Bill if she's in a good mood.
-she helps me with putting away clean silverware (except the knives) she likes to hand me the silverware and she says "TANK YOU!" WElll...the other day...she pulled out a cookie sheet from the dishwasher, she walked over to the oven and pulled out the drawer underneath (where cookie sheets belong in our house) and put it in and shut the drawer. It was hilarious! I didn't show her what to do or anything...she just was on her own mission! ha. she must be watching me. then she went back and decided she could play with the cookie sheets and carried them all over the house.
-I can ask her if I can change her diaper and she will lay down the middle of the living room and kick her legs up. ha! I wonder if she does that at the home day care. I have seen 2 year olds there that have done that before. she must be watching them.
