2009

Hard to believe it's the last day of 2009.   At this time last year we had just moved into this house and were still getting settled in.  Kate was just 4 months old.  Now we have made this house a home and my baby is not so much a baby anymore.  She is 16 months old now and talking, babbling, signing, walking, running, dancing, bouncing and "hopping".  She is developing a mind of her own and is expressing her wants, likes and dislikes in not so subtle ways!  There are many different things she does some of them funny, some quirky, and some mischievous but all of them adorable!  My how she has changed over this year.  At the beginning of the year she couldn't even roll over and now look at her!  A few of the funny things she does that I don't want to forget is how she says off...."osh"! If daddy walks in the house with his hat on, the first thing she says is "osh" and points to his hat, she is relentless and will repeat until he removes his hat.  She is the same way about shoes, she doesn't want us wearing our shoes in the house or leaving them in the living room!  She will try to take them off our feet or if they are laying around she will pick them up and bring them to us, again she is relentless and will keep on until we put them up!  The shoe thing is not just our house, it's anybody's house!  If she could talk I'm sure she would say, "Hellooooo, we don't leave our shoes laying around, put them up please."  or "We don't wear hats in the house" or "We don't leave coats laying around, hang it up please".  This rule only applies to things that are not hers of course because the living room, or whole house for that matter, could be littered with her toys and look like a bomb went off and that is fine with her because it's all her stuff, but leave one pair of shoes and it's all over....they must go!!  She is also notorious for picking up the teeny tiniest little speck of dirt from the carpet or floor and bringing it to me!  Sometimes it is so tiny I can barely see it in those little pincers of hers but it must be brought to my attention and thrown in the "ash".  She also knows when she is doing something she's not supposed to be doing because she will look at us and shake her head no (and then do it anyway!).  It's cute!  Biting is the only thing she does that is not cute and I pray it's just a phase. She won't wear clips, bows or ponytail holders.  She has a good time looking at herself in the mirror and talking.  She gives kisses.  When she first wakes up and I get her from the crib she snuggles up to me and rests her head on my shoulder (sweet fleeting moments that make my heart swell!)  When she gets tired she faces me and snuggles up tucking in her arms.  She signs a few things - milk, eat, more, help, book, dog. She says quite a bit more - mama, dada, ank (Hank), papaw, nana, nonnie, oma, osh (off), ash (trash), da der (cracker), snack, night night, bath, bye bye, more, milk....there are more but I'm drawing a blank. She still loves her books, baths, being outside and Hank!  She "reads" anything and "talks" on anything! When we tell her or ask her if her diaper needs changing she runs down the hall to her room so we can change diapers!  She loves to "help" mommy do stuff like empty and load the dishwasher, turn on the washing machine, close the dryer door, fold laundry, flush the toilet, turn lights off.  We are learning to clean up our toys and put them "back"!  We attempt to color but she tries to eat the crayons so coloring doesn't ever last long.

There are so many other things she does that we think are adorable I could probably write a book so I will stop here and continue posting in 2010!  Here are a few of Kate's Christmas Portraits!

Happy New Year!