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Katherine is so much fun! She did several funny things today that were just too cute.

After breakfast she put her baby up in the high chair. I helped her put the bib on and got her an empty bowl and spoon and she proceeded to feed her baby. I moved the booster seat to her new art table so she could reach it more safely and she returned numerous times throughout the day to feed her more.

Tonight she kept turning upside down in the “downward dog” yoga pose. The thought it was really funny to look at me through her legs while I was upside down. Then when she was on my lap I flipped her onto the floor in a summer sault type move and she thought that was pretty funny.

She is really imitating us and everything we do. Today in our bathroom she opened Sam’s drawer, pulled out the deoderant, pulled off the cap and started to rub it all over her belly and arms. She had a nice musk smell the rest of the day. She has enjoyed sitting at my dressing table putting on her make up for a few weeks now.

Today we also went to have her photo taken. It was not her best photo shoot. The people at Portrait Innovations really earned their $10 today. We finally got some photos that were ok and the one I bought is cute though it looks a lot like her last set of pictures.

On a not so much fun note, Katherine just got over roseola. She had a fever on Friday and Saturday which at first we thought was due to teething since she had 2 molars come in this week. She was extremely fussy and clingy. On Sunday she had a light rash but she had been outside with dad for over an hour so I thought it was a heat rash or reaction to grass or something. She still had it Tuesday so I took her to the Dr. She had classic roseola symptoms. Since it is a viral rash there is nothing you can do for it but wait it out. And, since her fever broke Saturday night, she is no longer contagious.

You know, there are things that before kids you say you will never do when you have kids. I have learned that when you have your own kids all those things go out the window.

One such thing that I said I would never do was use a leash on my kids. Many years ago I saw poorly behaved toddlers leashed to frazzled moms and I said NEVER will I do that. Well, I bought a leash. Katherine is a very active toddler who loves to be outside and loves to walk where she wants to walk.

When I was in Target I saw this cute harness for a toddler. I thought it was so much better than the leash I had seen before. I bought it and took it home. Sam was not excited about it at all. Other friends have had the same experience with their husbands. My theory is that they do not understand what it is like to keep up with a toddler all day.

I got it out today so that Katherine and I could go on a walk down the street. When I first showed it to Katherine, she did the sign for monkey. Then when I put it on her she said, “backpack”. Sidenote - how does she know the word backback, that seems like a pretty advanced word. Anyway, she loved it. We walked about 15 houses down the street and back. She stayed close and did not go in the street. It took a little getting used to for me since I am used to having a 60 pound hyper dog at the other end of the leash. There were a few times I almost pulled a little too hard.

So, overall, I like the harness, Katherine likes the harness, and she is safer. So, the harness stays. 

Doesn’t that bring back the memories from the intro to the Sports shows that are on the weekends. Well my thrill of victory is nothing like winning and Olympic gold medal and my agony of defeat is nothing like the face plant off the ski jump but it was a day of both good and bad in parenting.

The thrill of victory - Katherine went to the bathroom in her potty THREE TIMES today! One of those times was #2. She is getting good about signing when she has or is about to have a dirty diaper. I am excited that she seems to understand the process and does not mind sitting on her potty. After she goes, she looks at it and says, “yeah”. Then we go to flush it down the toilet and we always say “bye-bye” I know it sounds weird but I have heard horror stories of kids who are not able to flush their waste because they are either scared of the toilet or they feel like they are flushing a part of themselves too. We want to avoid that. I am sure it will be embarassing in a public restroom when Katherine cheers for herself and then waves bye-bye to her poop.

The agony of defeat - we are still having a battle at naptime. Katherine took a nap at Nana’s house on Sunday and a 2 and a half hour nap at Ms. Lori’s on Monday. Yet, she is refusing to nap at home. My new theory is that she is going through that separation anxiety phase and she does not want me to leave her yet it is not as big of a deal with other people. Nana was over so I had her put Katherine down. She cried for a little. Nana did not want Katherine to hate her for making her nap so I went in with her to get Katherine up since she was crying anyway. That as a mistake. Katherine was actually laying down as she cried so she would have gone to sleep. BUT, once she saw me, there was no turning back. I rocked her and nursed her and she was totally asleep. When I put her in the crib, she started screaming. We let her cry for quite some time. Nana left and I went back to get her (at least 30 minutes). I laid down with her on our bed and I fell asleep but she did not! I put her back in her crib (at 3:45 by this point) and after about 30 minutes of crying she finally fell asleep for about 45 minutes. When she woke up she still seemed tired so I had her lay down with me again and she slept another 30 minutes. So, she did finally take a nap, but it took longer to get her to sleep than the amount of time she was asleep.

Hopefully both areas will be improving.

Sorry there are no pictures. Right now we are without a properly working camera. It really stinks. 

Having a toddler is a blast. Challenging at times, but overall so much fun.

Katherine, you are really becoming a master communicator. I am so glad that we decided to do sign language with you. It took longer than I had hoped for it to catch on but now you are doing so well. Not only is it fun to see you do signs for all the animals when reading a book, but it is also so practical as you have many words that sound the same but with the sign we know exaclty what you want. It really helps ease frustration. I look forward to you learning even more. Today after swim lessons someone saw me signing with you and they hesitated but asked if you were hearing impaired. When I explained why we are doing sign language with you even though you are hearing, they were so impressed and thought it was a great idea.

You love the sign for “swing” (see above photo). What amazes me is how many different things you realize swing. When we went to visit Charlie, you saw his baby swing and signed. At Nana’s house you went to your room to see the swing and signed. Of course every time we are at a park you find the swing. When we read a book with a monkey you do the monkey sign followed by the swing sign. Today it was rocking in the rocking chair that prompted you to sign swing. I guess it is a swinging motion.

My favorite sign that you do is the sign for “dirty”. it is my favorite because it has made me realize that you are aware of your diaper and when you are using the restroom. You do the sign for dirty and point to your diaper and say “poopoo” and usually either you already have a dirty diaper or you dirty it pretty soon. I am now trying to take you to your little potty when you do this and we have had some success. It would be great if you were potty trained early.

You are very aware of what is dirty and what is clean. Today you took off your diaper cover, said “dirty” and walked from the den to your room to put it in the diaper champ. Amazingly you knew to put it in the hole and to turn the handle so that it disappeared. It was a cloth diaper cover though so Mommy had to get it out. Now we know where to look when something is missing. You have also started to throw trash into the trash can and then you sign “thank you” because that is what we always say next.

As an infant you never had any kind of special binky or lovey. There have been several times that we tried to get you to attach to a blanket or animal by putting the same one in your crib all the time or traveling with the same one. You never seemed to care at all. Recently however, you have finally become attached to two things.

If you take a look at this picture of your stuffed animals and blankies, which one do you think is the likely lovey? Katherine, when you saw all of the animals in your crib, you started crying, “bear, bear, bear”. You wanted in the crib. You grabbed your favorites and threw the rest out.

A pretty dramatic way to tell mommy which one is your favorite. “Mr. Bear” and the pink “play silk” are your favorites. You usually carry them around as a pair even wrapping Mr. Bear in the play silk. Mr. Bear and the pink play silk were not my first choices of loveys because there were several cuter ones but I guess I am glad you finally have one if it helps you to go to sleep in new places. We will see.  They help you fall asleep at home.

You want to be such a big girl now. For a few days you did not want to get into your high chair. Instead you want to sit in a regular chair. The problem is that you often want to stand in the chair. You can climb on up by yourself so we are learning to make sure the chair is always pushed in. We are trying to make you always eat in your high chair and it has helped to lower it so that you can sit at the table without using the tray.

You are really enjoying coloring. Last week I bought you a small table and chairs set at IKEA and we leave your special toddler crayons and paper on the table so you can explore it. You think it is a lot of fun but your favorite is to use my pen and my paper.

We are having to work on discipline a lot more which is no fun. You have an independent and strong willed streak which is probably common to all 17 month olds. I love seeing your independence but it is not fun when it manifests itself in disobedience. I pray that your daddy and I would be able to know how to best discipline you and help you to grow into a godly woman.

Currently Katherine is on a nap boycott. She is at the age where most kids move from 2 naps to 1. She has only been taking 1 nap for a few months now. She seems to think it is time to stop taking a nap altogether.

It started Wednesday when we had a busy day. She went to Sammy’s house for the morning. I took her home and fed har and tried to get her down before I was going to babysit Hannah. Katherine said “NO WAY”. She totally refused to nap. That night my college roommate came in town with her two kids and Katherine was so excited that she would not sleep. At least she went to bed early though she did not sleep that well.

On Thursday we went with our friends to the Wiggles Play Center in Frisco. We grabbed lunch and went to our other college roommate’s house specifically so Katherine could nap. She would not. We left her in the pack and play crying on and off for about an hour. When I finally got her out, she was in the happiest, most playful mood. So we went to IKEA. She had a blast playing with the toys. At 4, she had a TOTAL MELTDOWN! I have never seen her so out of sorts. She all of a sudden was desperate to nurse but I had not brought in my cover and there was no good place. IKEA is a place where you get trapped. We were ready to check out but Katherine was such a pill that my friend offered to pay for it and meet me in the snack area so I could take Katherine and nurse her in the lounge. She was so squirmy and screaming so much that I did not think I could make it there without dropping her. Finally, I got to the lounge and nursed her to sleep, yet every time I would try to get up to leave she would start screaming. I was so frustrated. We left and I thought for sure she would fall asleep on the 45 minute drive home. NOPE! She was totally happy but 4 year old Helene fell asleep for over an hour. We did finally get her to bed at 6:45 (and she missed swimming lessons). She woke up at about 10:30 and thought she had taken a really long nap and was ready to play.

Friday she went to MDO at Ms. Lori’s. Somehow Ms. Lori got her to take a 2:15 nap in a toddler bed. Good job Ms. Lori. Umm, can you teach me what to do with my own child?

Today she refused a nap again. We tried to get her down from 2 to 4. We did our usual nap routine resulting in a long bout of crying. Then dad went in to rock her and try to get her to sleep. Crying. Mom went in again. Crying. After 2 hours, I decided to just get her up. The frustrating thing is that we had planned to go to the zoo this evening at 5 for a members only extended hours event. With no nap, we decided to miss it because it just isn’t worth the risk of a total meltdown. We tried to tell her that we wanted to take her to the zoo and to go to the zoo she had to take a nap but reasoning with a 17 month old is a little ambitious.

She did finally go to bed at about 7:10, an hour or so earlier than usual. She usually takes a little over an hour nap. I guess that means her cumulative daily sleep is the same but I think that it is still important for her to take naps. This week she goes to Ms. Lori twice and the other three days I am going to drop everything and make the nap my number one priority. It is too important.