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Tonight we had dinner at one of Sam’s coworker’s house. It was NOT babyproof and we were in such a rush to get there that we did not remember to bring her any toys. She actually did quite well. She was a little interested in the Jade statue of horses but it remained safe. She also enjoyed pushing all of the books further back on the bookshelf.

Her favorite was punching the on/off button on the Roomba. I was watching and quietly waiting to see if she would get it to start. Nothing happened for a long time and then all of a sudden the little robot came out of it’s dock and moved right in her direction. She ran and was quite scared. Everyone thought it was really funny and really cute. The funniest part was her reaction over the next 15 minutes. While Sam was holding her she would furrow her brow and babble on and on in a serious tone while shaking her finger. Then when we put her down she went near the Roomba and was literally scolding it. That is what the picture is of. I wish I had a video. It was so hilarious.

I have mentioned before that Katherine has had a language explosion. It is so fun. I have had a list of her words for some time and today I added all the ones I could think of that she says. The list has 110 spoken words and 50 signs. I am sure there are even more. Of course some of these words would be hard for another person to recognize, but these are words that are pretty close and said in context, either while pointing to the actual object or to a photo in a book. And this is not repeating words, I am not cheating to increase my daughter’s vocabulary. She is talking all the time. The cutest is when she picks up the phone. She is also learning all of her names. By looking at pictures of family and friends she can either name on her own or point correctly to her entire family on both sides and about 5 friends. The photos above are of her saying and then signing “cheese” when she was having her picture taken.

As I was surfing blogs last night I ran across one from a family who recenly lost their 8 day old daughter to a disease called trisomy-18. I got hooked and read their entire blog. They found out about this disease 3 months ago and knew that the baby would possibly not make it to term and if she did, she would not live long. They have posted a video on you tube that includes a song written by a friend of theirs. It is amazing, you need to watch it. I cried.

This couple has an amazingly strong faith in God. I praise Him that I have a healthy toddler and pray that if such a tragedy were to come to our family I would trust God so completely.

Tonight, I asked Katherine if she would like me to read her a book. She picked-up two books and followed me to her bedroom. I read her 4 books and prayed — all very typical bedtime ritial to this point. During my prayer, she layed back in my arms and looked up at me. At the end of my prayer, she repeats my “Amen” with “Amem”. She then waves at me and says “bye-bye”. I smile and give her a kiss. I carry her to her bed where she was happy to see her baby doll as I put a blanket over her and said good night. I turned the light out and walked out of a quiet bedroom. I am continually amazed with how smart and sweet Katherine is!!!

I am happy to report that yesterday the problem molar broke through, the swelling and other issues with the erruption cysts seem to have taken care of themselves. While poking in Katherine’s mouth I noticed that her top left “I-tooth” has also broken through and her bottom left one is right there and will probably break through today or tomorrow. So that is 3 teeth in three days. That may explain why yesterday was a rotten day with no nap until 6 pm and LOTS of screaming by Katherine and subsequent crying by mom. Let’s hope that now that these three teeth are through that will get better!

The other night when playing with Katherine I saw a large swollen spot in her mouth where a molar has been threatening to poke through for almost a month. It did not seem to be causing pain but it looked horrible. We took a few pictures. That was not easy. I opened her mouth and got her tongue out of the way while Sam tried to focus and get a good shot. Finally we had a few that showed the ugly mystery. We were not sure what it was. I was going to post it here to see if any other moms had any ideas but Sam suggest we email the photos to our friend Bri who is a 4th year dental student. The prognosis - eruption cysts.

Here is the definition she gave us:

Eruption Cyst: cyst develops as a result of separation of the dental follicle from around the crown of an eruptiong tooth that is within the soft tissues overlying the alveolar bone.  Features: The eruption cyst appears as a soft, often translucent swelling in the gingival mucosa overlying the crown of an erupting deciduous (baby) or permanent tooth.  Most examples are seen in children younger than age 10.  Surface trauma may result in a considerable amount of blood in the cystic fluid, which impart a blue to purplish-brown color.  Treatment and prognosis:  Treament may not be required because the cyst usually ruptures spontaneously, permitting the tooth to erupt.  If this does not occur, simple excision of the roof of the cyst generally permits speed eruption of the tooth.  From Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology by Neville,  et. al.m 2nd edition. 

I sure hope it takes care of itself and we do not have to excise the roof of the cyst. At least it does not seem to be causing any pain beyond normal teething.

19 months old! Having a toddler sure is an adventure. There are so many fun things that Katherine is doing. I can’t remember what I have posted before so forgive me if some of this is a repeat.

Katherine, you are certainly becoming more independent. This is both good and bad. Actually it is all good, it is just hard sometimes as that independence brings frustration, stubborness, injuries and tantrums from time to time. Almost every day you have a fall and come away with a bruise or scrape as you are climbing, running and getting into thngs. I hate seeing you get hurt but it is unfortunately a part of growing up. Tonight you had one of the worst tantrums I have ever experienced. You did not want to take a bath of all things. How unpredictable. Last night you did not want to get out. You came close to winning the battle but mom did get a quick bath in. You love to say “no” though Nana discovered that you actually can say “yes”. We are entering new terrortory as you are beginning to show deliberate disobedience. It is not fun having to discipline you but it is for your good.

There are fun parts of independence too. You are now more interested in what you wear. You love your shoes. What a girl. You have actually learned how to put your shoes on by yourself. It is hard and you can only do it with your black or brown shoes with velcro but you sure have fun trying. You not only love to try on your shoes but you love to carry them around, bring them to me and trade which ones you are wearing. Today you insisted on wearing your pink Merrel hiking shoes with your maroon (with pink flowers luckily) jumper. Technically it did match but it was not really the right style. I decided to let it go because shoes is not a battle I want to fight with you. It is not important.

You also like to request and play with your bows, hats and belt. The other morning you had me help you put on your hat and belt with your pajamas still on. It was pretty funny looking. You love your bow and it is finally staying in - that is until you pull it out. You ask for it and then you take it out and get upset.

You are doing a lot of fun things. You love to tickle and be tickled. I love your laugh. When the tickle monster starts coming you get all giggly. It is really cute when you tickle us. You laugh as you tickle and it is pretty soft. It is amazing though how you do actually make me laugh.

You enjoy playing hide and go seek. I will run and hide and call your name and you will find me. Then you will hide, usually in the place where I just was. My favorite place to hide is under the covers. You think that is pretty funny. When I find you, you like to say “boo”. Anytime I can’t see you and then I can you say “boo”. The funniest is when getting dressed. When the head pokes out of the hole I am met with “BOO”.

You are incredibly friendly and outgoing. You tell everyone “Hi” and “Bye-Bye”. People think it is so cute. You actually tell everything “bye-bye”. We can be leaving a store and you will say ”bye” to the clothes, the door, the shopping cart, the cars, whatever we are leaving.

You observe everything and learn so much. You know exactly what buttons to push on the computer or TV remote to get your DVD to come on. You know what to do with the computer mouse though you have not connected it to what is happening on the screen exactly.

You are having a language explosion. It is so fun to see what words you know. Sometimes they surprise me and I wonder where you learned them. When reading books you will point to a picture and tell me what it is. Some of your new words this month are walrus, worm, tower, zebra, zoo, zipper, moose, owl, jacks, mole, tights, troll, umbrella and map. I am sure there are more but those are the ones I can think of. You probably have over 100 words now. You are continuing to use sign language too which is a life saver. It makes me realize how much you observe. My favorite new sign this month is octopus. It is pretty cute.

We are starting to work on your colors and numbers. You can say them all by repeating what we say. You are pretty good at labeling blue and yellow (you say lellow). We are working on green and red. You can count to four on your own.

You copy me in everything I do. It is good when that means that you help. If you spill something, I hand you a towel and you clean it up as you say, “mess, mess”. You like to help with the laundry by handing me the clothes in the washer to put in the dryer.

You are still nursing more than mommy would like but it seems that things keep coming up that make it difficult to cut back and wean you. I really enjoy the time but it can be akward sometimes. The funny thing is that you now nurse your stuffed animals and dolls. It is really cute. Here you are nursing your moose.

You are doing better at eating solids. When something is hot, you blow on it but I am not sure you do much good. It is cute.

Whenever you see someone sleeping, be it daddy, the baby doll or the mice at a pet store, you sign sleep, say sleep (actually “peese”) and you put your finger to your lips to say “shhhhh”. The one exception is when you see mommy asleep or pretending to be alseep. Then you shout in her face and even hit her face. I don’t know why I am not allowed to sleep.

For some reason you like to hit. I observe other kids your age and it seems to be common. We are working on being soft. When I tell you to be soft, you say “soffff” and stroke gently three times and then hit. It is progress but we still have some room to grow. At church yesterday there was a 3 month old baby and somehow you understood that you needed to be soft without the hitting. I was so glad.

One of my favorite times of day is in the morning. Usually when you wake up, you join us in our bed. We all cuddle until you fully wake up. Then you get all excited that daddy is there and you crawl on to his belly to bounce.

You have started to sing. It is so cute. You are not really singing any specific songs yet. When we get out the snuggle puppy book, you say “ooooo puppy” because it is a book that we sing to you.

You enjoy drawing. We have an entire notebook filled with scribbles. We don’t worry about staying in the lines, we just hope to stay on the paper and off the furniture.

You are still really small. We are having a hard time with clothes falling off of you. You actually are still wearing your 6-9 month pants from last winter and they fall off your bottom but are too short. I don’t know what we are going to do.

We are having so much fun every day playing, reading, singing, and dancing. It is fun to see you start to develop your personality. I can’t wait to see what the next month holds.

In the bloggy world I have seen a lot of blogs where people have been tagged. Jen tagged me an embarassingly long time ago considering I never participated. Sorry Jen, here it is. 

The Rules:**I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.**Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.**People who are tagged need to write their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.**Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

1. I tend to overcommit myself as I have a hard time saying “no” to people when they ask me to do something. This makes me very busy which I like to an extent.

2. I am a procrastinator - big time. I always get done what I need to get done, but usually in teh 11th hour.

3. I can NEVER get to bed at a decent hour. Usual bedtime is at least midnight. I guess it is procrastinating on all of those commitments. Unfortunatly my dear husband also has a hard time getting to bed at a decent hour.

4. My all time favorite hobby is to travel. I have been to Europe 10 times including the countries of England, France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic, Belgium, Gibraltar, Russia, Italy, Greece, Norway, and Denmark. I have also been to Japan, Thailand, Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Bahamas.

5. I met my husband on the internet on eHarmony.com. The funny thing is that we already were aquaintances and lived only about a mile apart. Of all the millions of people on that site it was pretty funny that I was matched with someone so close, who attended the same church and who I had already met.

6. I have been skydiving. I am always doing things like that to worry my mom.

7. I have always wanted to be a mom. Now I am living my dream with my adorable 19 month old. It is hard somedays but it is always rewarding.

8. I wish I had more time to pursue my leisure activities - scrapbooks, photography, reading, cooking . . .

Now, I tag Erin, Amy, Heather, Lauren, Alice, Shannon, Jaime, Chrys and Kim

I found this on Rocks in My Dryer. It is a great tool on flikr where you enter your name or any word and it spells it out using cool pictures.

You can go there and create your own cool word in pictures.

It is quite possible that Katherine has finaly broken the 20 pound mark at one week shy of 19 months old. Is it possible that she could be ready to face forward in her car seat soon? The reason I don’t know for sure is that I weighed her at a friends house today using the old method of weighing myself and then weighing myself holding her and subtracting to find the difference and therefore her weight. To further complicate things, we were at Karen’s house and Karen is German so her scale was in kilos, not pounds so after finding Katherine’s weight I had to multiply by 2.2 to find the proper weight.

These photos have nothing to do with her actually being weighed but are a few recent cute pics. They do show how big she is getting. Don’t you love that ponytail? It did not stay in very long.