Mon petit bebe francais

Mon petit bebe francais means my little French baby. Over the past week or so Kate has somehow managed to pick up a French accent. Who knows with this kid!?! It's really pretty cute. She has started pronouncing her english number two like the French deux...along with to, too, poo, you!
She says, "I am deux" or "I want deux" as she holds up two fingers.
Or she says, "Hank goes peux peux (poo poo)outside".
Or, "Go to store in Daddy's truck? Mommy go deux (too)?"
Or, "I want to go with yeux (you)!!"
You get the idea, it's adorable. I keep trying to record her saying it but haven't been successful yet.

Toddler bed update:
(I knock on wood as I say this) The transition from crib to toddler bed has been flawless. She has only gotten out of bed twice that we know of. The first time was the first night at bedtime and we heard her trying to turn on her light and open her door (both of which she can do) so Jason went in, put her back in bed, and told her it was night time and she had to stay in her bed. And the next day she did it to me during nap but when she saw the hall light turn on she was already crawling back in her bed by the time I got to her! I told her the same thing Jason did "it's nap time, you have to lay in your bed." The most amazing part of it all is that when she wakes up, she just sits in her bed and plays with her baby dolls or calls me and waits for me to come get her!

Boy Oh Boy!

Kate is going to have a little brother, Baby Steindorf is a BOY!!! We are so excited :-) One of each, it's perfect! As much as I wanted to wait to find out what we were having, I am so happy I know. I get to buy little boy stuff! Yay! And now that we know the baby is a boy, he won't be referred to as "it" anymore and we can narrow down our name debate to one gender.

A little note from mommy to son...
Dear son,
Make yourself nice and comfy in there because as much as we love you already, no one wants to see you before April 25th :-) Don't be a rebel like your sister!!
Love,
Mommy

"Little Girl" Bed

It's official, my baby girl is growing up. Nonnie and Papa gave Kate a toddler bed for Christmas. I put her bed together Christmas Eve and we surprised her with it Christmas morning. She loved it! Right when she saw it she ran over and climbed on, flip flopped around, stood up, layed down and climbed all over it! There is a little bit of confusion as to how we refer to the new bed though. I made the mistake of calling Kate a "big girl" one day and it made her mad. She quickly corrected me...she is NOT a "big" girl, she is a "little" girl and mommy is a "big" girl. Ok, I get it, that makes sense. So instead of calling her new bed a big girl bed we call it a little girl bed :-) Jason took her crib down this morning and Kate took her first nap in her new "little girl" bed today! It went great! She cried and protested a little but never got up out of her bed, and when she woke up she just sat in her bed and played with her babies until I came to get her. It was amazing actually. We will see how tonight goes, keep your fingers crossed.

Brrrrr!

Kate LOVES cold weather!  Every morning when we let Hank out in the backyard Kate stands in the doorway and reaches her little hand out to feel how cold it is and says "BRRRRRR, it's COLD!  I need my jacket!  Mommy, I want go outside. I need my jacket!  I need my mittens! I need my hat!"  So anytime we go outside (no matter how briefly) we must put on hat and mittens and jacket. In the picture below we were simply running out to the mail box to check the mail!

This one was just because she felt the cold air when we let Hank back inside and decided she needed her hat and mittens to play that morning!

Big Sister

That's right! Kate's going to be a Big Sister :-) We have known for a few months now but I've been hesitant to shout it from the rooftops due to fear I guess. However, today we went to see Dr. Fong for my 20 week check up and Sonogram and found out that all is well with the little one (insert sigh of relief). It feels real now. It feels ok to talk about it now and to be excited. The baby is in the 56th percentile, all limbs are growing from correct places, and all major organs seem to be in proper working order (insert another sigh of relief). Now if we can just keep this kiddo nice and comfy inside mommy until April 25th all my prayers for this pregnancy will be answered. :-)

Since the moment I found out I was pregnant I decided I did not want to find out the gender until I delivered. I wanted to know what that surprise felt like along with the anticipation leading up to it. Two weeks ago I had a "moment", and during that "moment" decided that I DID want to know after all. So today at the appt we are anxiously awaiting the moment when the doctor tells us whether our baby is a boy or girl BUT the stinker didn't want to cooperate so we didn't find out after all! I go back in two weeks for another check up so hopefully we can find out then.

Christmas

I absolutely love this time of year and all that it entails....cold weather, Christmas trees, events, shows, decorations, lights, family, presents and a very special two year old to share it all with. I must say Kate is the cherry on top this year! She's fun, busy, smart, talkative and wants to help with everything. She is a typical two year old and has her fair share of mini tantrums and I hear a lot of "I HAB it", "MINE", "NO" and "I do it" but it really is a good thing because she's growing, learning and standing her own ground. I love this age!

Kate has helped me do everything this Christmas. We have shopped, wrapped presents, decorated the house and tress and 'helped' daddy hang lights outside! Hanging ornaments and candy canes on the tree has been my favorite memory so far. We have a lot of "candy" and "lollipop" ornaments and when I opened those boxes Kate's face lit up and her whole body got excited! She helped me hang every single one and I let her put them anywhere she wanted.  Every time I pulled a new one out she would bounce with excitement and anxiously say "I do it, I do it, I do it!" PRECIOUS!! Some of the tree limbs have 5 plus ornaments hanging from them but that's what makes it so cute. The morning after we decorated the big tree I let Kate decorate her little tree that Nana had given her last year. She thought this was awesome and had the best time hanging the little ornaments on the little tree. After we were finished she stood beside it with a huge smile and was so proud, then she leaned down and hugged it and said "I LUB IT!". Sooooo sweet! I just love this little girl!

We also went to our neighborhoods Christmas party where there was a Santa.  Kate surprised me with how well she did.  She watched all the other kids taking their picture with Santa and I explained what they were doing so when it got to be her turn she let go of my hand, marched over to Santa, told him Hi, hopped in his lap, took her picture, told him Bye and hopped down!!!  I was completely impressed. 

The Compromise

It is fascinating to me how much Kate understands yet how difficult it still is for her to communicate.  I am sure this is true for all two year olds, but this is our first two year old so we learn and discover together as she grows.  Luckily Kate is generally a sweet little girl and minds for the most part, however she has quite the independent streak and is getting bolder each passing day.  Discipline is a struggle and I have an ongoing internal debate as to whether I am too lax or too strict.  I feel like I let a lot of things slide as long as she is not in danger of hurting herself or someone else.  I choose to pick my battles, and the battles I do choose I stand my ground firmly.  It's taken a while for us to figure out what works.  We initially tried "timeouts" and still do them occasionally, but it doesn't quite seem effective when you ask her if she needs/wants to go to time out and she replies with a joyful "yes", then proceeds to skip over to timeout and plop down.  She hangs out for her two minutes, the timer dings, I reiterate why she was in timeout then she goes to play again. 9 times out of 10 it doesn't bother her one bit to be in timeout.  The other thing I've tried is a hand pop on the leg. I'm pretty sure Jason has never laid a hand on Kate but she has gotten more than one pop on the leg from me. Apparently I threaten to pop her on the leg frequently because one day I was trying to catch her to get her dressed so we could go run errands.  She was in a wild mood that particular day and decided to run circles around me as fast as she could telling me "NO" in various ways over and over...no, NO, Nooo, NOOOO, no, etc.  After hearing her tell me no about twenty times and getting dizzy from the circles I got down on my knee to be at eye level with her and stopped her.  I held her hands and looked her in the eye and said "Kate, you have to get dressed.  If you don't stop, Mommy's going to..." at which time she interrupted and shouted "POP YA LEG hehehehe" and then broke free and continued running around repeating "pop ya leg, pop ya leg".  I couldn't help from laughing out loud!  She caught me off guard....it was cute, unexpected and exactly what I was going to say!!  She's a mess :-)  Needless to say she did NOT get a pop on the leg that day, but she did get changed and we did go run errands.  The most effective forms of discipline communication we have discovered is compromise and choices! No brainer huh!? It is amazing.  Not only does it work, she understands and it is a win/win!  We also do a lot of "If/Then's".  These examples are just the first things that popped in my mind but we try to do it with everything.

An example of compromise:    Kate needs a bath but throws a fit to watch the Pets.  We say, "ok Kate, you can watch the pets but you have to take a bath first"  More times than not Kate says "Otay".  (Which is cute in its self....otay!) 

An example of choices:  We are walking around a store and she won't hold my hand.  I say "Kate, you have two choices.  You can hold mommy's hand OR mommy can carry you."  At which time she normally grabs my hand!  This is great because the two choices are both things I am fine with and she feels like she gets some say in what happens to her becuase she got to make a decision.

An example of If/Then:  We are eating dinner and Kate wants chips.  We say "If you eat all your ______ then you can have chips."  Most of the time she gobbles up whatever it is so she can have chips.

All I can say is that raising children I harder than I ever imagined, each day is a learning experience and I wouldn't change one single thing about it! 

End of Summer

Today marks the first day of Fall.  This summer was filled with good times. I did not do a very good job blogging about them, however, I will do my best at a quick summer in review. Kate had a very busy summer, she:
- took swim lessons
- took a Tumble Tykes class
- went to Hot Springs with Anna, Baby Lane, and Becky
- attended Mother's Day Out - "school"
- went to Michigan for the Mills Family Reunion
- had her first trip to the salon for a hair cut
- got Tubes Aug. 13
- turned 2 and had a Birthday Party!

Swim lessons with Ms. Cindy weren't her favorite but she loved swimming with mommy and daddy.

Tumble Tykes

 

Hot Springs with Anna and Lane at a flowing spring!  June 2010

Sitting there like a big girl waiting to get her hair trimmed!

"MOMMY!?  What is she doing to me?"

My sweet 2 year old!

A moment to remember

Baby Kate woke up early this morning, 6:30 to be exact, much earlier than normal.  She had poo.  This happens more often than I'd like it to, but what else is a girl to do when nature calls.  I don't think she was necessarily ready to start her day but she was awake and there was no getting her back to sleep at this point.  Thus begins our morning routine: I changed her diaper, grabbed her 'baby' and 'monkey' and then like clock work she started asking to watch the pets.  (Ah the Wonder Pets, morning noon and night the child asks for the pets ~sigh~)  We go in the living room, I turn on the TV,  sit her on the couch,  then go get her milk and my water.  Because we are still groggy I ask her if she wants to lay down with mommy and she surprisingly says yes.  This is a rare opportunity and I take full advantage.  We lay down on the couch together but I prop her up a little so she can drink her milk and watch the pets.  After a minute or two my sweet baby girls puts down her milk, rolls over to face me, gets almost nose to nose with me then she gently places her sweet little hand on my cheek and looks me in the eye and begins talking to me very softly.  It touched my heart and actually brought  tears to my eyes.  I have no idea what she was saying but the way she was acting I want to believe she was telling me how much she loves me.  Moments like this are few and far between but greatly cherished.  It was so sweet and so touching and I hope I never forget it.  Moments like that make it all worth it.    

Pee Pee in the Potty!

Kate used her "big girl" potty for the first time this morning!  :-o)  Yay!  Her little potty has been sitting in the bathroom for months now and mostly she ignores it or plays with it, takes out the bucket, stands on it etc.  Every once in a while when she's in the bathtub she acts like she is about to have a BM so Jason and I sit her on her potty but it's just a fun game to her.  Today, however, she went to the restroom with me and when I asked her if she needed to potty she said "yes....diaper off, diaper off"!  So I took her diaper off, helped her on the potty and handed her some toilet paper, not really expecting anything to happen, and when she stood up there was pee in the potty!  I think it surprised her or even scared her a little because she said "oh no" and had this strange look on her face, but I praised her, told her what a big girl she was, clapped and gave her a high five.  Then I made a big production out of showing her how we dump it in the toilet, then flush and then we washed the bucket and washed our hands and she thought that was big fun....so hopefully she knows it's a good thing now!  My little girl is growing up!  ~sniff sniff~

On a cute but unrelated note, here are some pictures of Kate and her various sun glasses!  Our little Diva :-)

This picture was taken back in May while Kate was in swim lessons.  She was so funny, she had her sun glasses, her lollipop and her lemonade and was ready to travel!

She made me give up my sun glasses one day!

Running around the house at night with her shades on trying to avoid pajamas and bed time :-)  It worked!  She's just too cute!

This morning she just had to wear them in order to watch Blue's Clues! :-)

Michigan

We just got back from our trip to Michigan for the Mills Family Reunion.  Michigan is lovely and it is always so much fun to go and see everyone.  They bring a whole new meaning to the saying "Eat, Drink and be Merry"!!  Kate had a blast too, all routines where thrown out the window and she just played hard with all her cousins. This was her first time flying and wouldn't you know we got the option to upgrade to 1st Class.  Jason and I have never flown 1st Class before but the first time BK flies she gets to ride in style :-)  Pretty cool!  Overall Kate did better than expected traveling, she had her moments but for the most part I have no complaints, especially since we were either on the plane or in the car for 14 hrs on the way up and 13 hrs on the way back.  (All I have to say is thank goodness for portable DVD players and the Wonder Pets.)  Jason has gone to Michigan for the reunion his whole life, this was my 3rd trip and Kate's first.  It was also her first time:  leaving Texas, flying, driving over Mackinac Bridge, riding in a boat, riding in a bus, going on a bike ride around Mackinaw Island, seeing fireworks,  and seeing all her extended family.  Good times!

Daddy, Kate and Mommy at Mackinac Island.  You can barely see the bridge over Jason's right shoulder.

Jason pulling Kate and Noah around the Island.

 Noah didn't last long :-)

 Mommy and Kate photo op at a rest stop on the bike ride.

Daddy and Kate at bonfire night at Uncle Bob's.

 Daddy and Kate dancing at the reunion.

 

Kate and cousin Sarah at the reunion!  Kate had a blast with Sarah and we got a break from chasing her!

Dancing and swinging and running!

Lately

Lately we have been pretty busy.  Now that it has warmed up and the sun is out we play outside almost everyday riding in her car, drawing with sidewalk chalk, blowing bubbles, swinging, sliding and anything else we can think of.  Baby Kate was sick with one thing or another from the beginning of March to almost the end of April so that wasn't much fun.  We thought she might get tubes but that's on hold right now.  Today Kate starts week five of swim lessons, she is getting better everyday and I bet she is a little fish by the end of this summer. She loves swimming with mommy and daddy but cries and cries at swim lessons with Ms. Cindy. We put up an above ground pool but the water is still a little too chilly to swim although we have gotten in twice.  I am looking forward to this summer.  Kate and I are going to Hot Springs with Anna and Lane for a whole week at the beginning of June, then when we get back Kate starts her Tumble Tykes class on Monday's and Mother's Day out on Tuesday/Thursdays!  I am hoping Kelsie, Madison, and Ty get to come up and spend some time with us like they did last summer, that was a lot of fun!  Last weekend Kate and I went with Nonnie and Papa to visit Sara, Barrett, Brady and Noah!  That was a blast!  Never a dull moment that's for sure.  It was fun spending time with them and I am glad Kate got to play with her cousins.  I am attaching a few various picture...pudding face, Arboretum, cousins etc

  Mmmmmmm.....pudding is goooooood!  :-)

        At the Arboretum admiring all the beautiful flowers.

    Kate and Mommy with the beautiful flowers!

     Kate and Nonnie checking out the squirrels....they put on quite a show that day!

    Kate helping Daddy unload the dirt....

    "Daddy, where do you want me to push this?"

  Kate, that's not very "lady like"!  Aren't Brady and Noah a couple of cuties!

   Gotta get those grubby hands and feet clean! Sweet babies :-)

Easter 2010!

Kate got to celebrate her 2nd Easter!  She loved playing with the eggs.   We didn't put candy or toys in her eggs, just plain ole empty eggs but she didn't know the difference and had a good time regardless!  She has started pretending a lot lately and so she would open the eggs and pretend to get something out and pretend to eat it!  She pretend fed us her pretend egg treats too!  The was the first time I put her in a dress and sandals, she looked adorable but I think the little sandals were kind of hard to walk in because she was running on the sidewalk and fell :-(  She got two skinned knees.  Now everytime we change diapers, or clothes, or bathe she points to her knees and says "Audi" meaning owie!  It's too cute but sad at the same time.  Here are a few pictures from Easter this year and one from last year.  I can't believe how much my baby has grown!

Happy Easter!

 8 months old

20 months old

                                

911

Anna and Lane came to spend the weekend with us and we had a great time!  We visited at the house, went to CiCi's, had a picnic at the park, went to the playground at the mall, brought the mini slide in the living room and let the babies run around like wild indians!  It was much fun :-) It was nice to have the babies together and for she and I to get a chance to visit!  A couple of bruises, pinches, scratches and bumped noggins were the only real mishaps until this morning.  Today while they were packing up to leave, Kate got a hold of Anna's cell and called 911.  Uh Oh.  Not good.  I saw the phone was dialing someone so I snatched it and pressed end, then I immediately get the return call from McKinney 911 asking if there was an emergency....Kate is screaming in the background because I took the phone away from her so as calmly as I could muster I apologized to the 911 lady and told her that everything thing was fine, there was no emergency and that my baby accidentally called 911.  No, the screaming baby in the background is fine, nothing is wrong with her I promise.  Whoopsie.  I try my best to keep my cell locked so she can't dial out but as quickly and often as the kid snatches up cell phones and presses buttons as fast as she does, it really was just a matter of time before that happened.  Sorry Anna, hope that doesn't go on your record!

Baby jail

Here is a picture of bk's new digs.  Sometimes she bends downs and peers through the slats and it really looks like she's in a jail cell.  As far as I know she hasn't tried to climb out again...thank goodness!

Evel Knievel

Knock on wood, we have almost made it through a whole week without some mishap but we still have a couple days to go.  This is the latest from my dear little daredevil...last Saturday morning Jason got up at 4:00 a.m. to go fishing, so it's just BK and I for the day.  I was looking forward to hopefully sleeping in a bit and having a nice leisurely Saturday, however Kate, a.k.a. Evel Knievel, decided to wake up at 5:45 and cry out, quiet down, then go back to sleep.  At 6:15 she cries out again and as I am debating whether to start my day or hope that she goes back to sleep I hear.....THUMP......then...... WHAAAAAAA....WHAAAAAAA.....WHAAAAAAAA.  I thought she hit her head on the crib or kicked the wall and hurt her foot so here I go "Mommy to the Rescue".  Never thought that she might have climbed out of her crib.  I run down the hall and bust in her room and WHACK I hit my baby with the door.  :-(  This starts another round of hysterics.  Not only did Kate climb out of her crib and fall to the floor, but her mommy hit her with the door.  She is screaming and crying so much that I think she broke something.  It takes me a good bit to get her calmed down.  I am still freaking out so I call Jason and ask him what to do.  He tells me to give her a once over and gently push pull and prod to make sure nothing is broke and if she doesn't wince and is calm and acting normal that she's probably fine.  Luckily she was not injured!  Before her nap that day, Charlotte and I took out her mattress support and sat her mattress all the way on the floor in her crib.   Now it looks more like a jail cell than a crib but it has worked so far!

Houdini

On our way back from Lufkin I guess BK was tired of being in her carseat because I saw her little head and bright blue eyes peep at me from around her carseat!  Keep in mind she is still in a rear facing position.  My first thought was "Hey cutie!  I see you!" and I even think I said that, then it dawned on me, she can't peek around her carseat..... how in the world is she looking at me from around her carseat???  Apparently my little Houdini figured out she could slide her chest clip all the way down and wiggle her shoulders and arms out.  Oh dear.  This happened 2 more times before we got home.  At least she's not strong enough to unlock the buckle yet.  I'm going to have to figure out a way to keep her from pushing the chest clip down.  What a stinker!  :-)

One on, one off

I am sure all people think their kids are the cutest but Kate really is!!  :-o)  She does some of the funniest things in the world and makes me laugh daily!  Her new thing lately is to have one shoe on and and one shoe off, or one sock on and one sock off.  Her favorite shoes are her hot pink Crocs that are 2 sizes too big....she just runs around in circles in the living room, up and down the hall and around the kitchen island with her one on one off attire!  Everytime I try to get a picture she stops because she wants to look at the pictures on my phone or camera so I'm not sure I'll ever get a snapshot of her new routine but it's funny none the less!  We cheer her on and tell her she can run sooooo fast which gets her super excited and she runs even more! 

She also loves her baby...she will hold it and sway it in her arms and pat it and kiss it and say awwww, awwww!  I was able to get that on a video and it's precious!

Her daddy flipped her table over last night and she stepped up and down off of it forever.  Apparently she really liked it upside down because when he sat it upright she gave him the stink eye and flipped it over like the incredible hulk.....just picked up one side and heaved it over!!  She is much stronger than she looks that's for sure!

I took her to the library for Toddler Time yesterday and Rhyme Time today!  That was a sight!  They sing songs, read books, have puppets, blow bubbles, have a parachute, play peek a boo and all kinds of fun stuff.  I think she was a little overwhelmed at first but had a good time.  I will do my best to make that something we go to weekly.  It's fun and I am amazed at how much they can cram into 20 minutes! 

Snow!

It has been snowing since before we woke up this morning! It is beautiful...everything is covered in white and the snow keeps falling!  Our patio chairs look like they have white cushions and the table has about 4 inches of snow stacked on it.   Kate didn't get to see the snow last time, so I promised myself I would make sure she did this time.  I started dressing her and realized that she doesn't have boots, uh oh, she has 2 pair of brown mary janes 1 pair of black mary janes and some crocs that are 2 sizes too big but no boots.  Never fear we WILL play in the snow....so I decide to put ziploc baggies over her shoes and rubberband them to her calves!  Great idea in theory but they make for very slippery soles and she fell on the wet slushy sidewalk, and since the snow was so deep in the grass the baggies didn't stand a chance.  Oh well she got to see it, touch it and taste it and that's all that counts!  She tromped around in our yard then we "ice skated" on the driveway and walked over to the side yard and walked all over there then came in and got warm!  Here is my little snow bunny!

Zoo

I haven't done a good job posting so far this year seeing as how it is January 27th and this is my first blog!  Seems like time just keeps going by faster and faster and Kate keeps learning and growing daily.  She is now pretending, and it is the cutest thing!  She pretends to pick things up and pretends to put them in my hand...she will even grab my hand, open it and put her pretend thing in.  She is also paying attention to things that I/we do and then doing them herself, such as washing her hands or putting on lotion.  She will get the lotion bottle pretend shake some lotion on her hands, set the bottle down and rub her hands together!  Adorable!!  She has started giving closed mouth kisses (instead of the open mouth slobbers :) and even tries make the mmmmm sound then smack, its cute!  She loves to be outside and we go out as much as we can but the weather hasn't been very cooperative lately.  We did however spend last week in Lufkin and the weather was perfect for playing outside so Kate got to run all over Mom and Larry's 5 acres and loved every minute of it!!  She picked up pine cones, rode the 4-wheeler, chased Jake, climbed up and down off the deck, kicked her new big red ball all over the place (Thanks Jessica!) and just had a blast!  We took her to the Zoo while we were there.  I really thought she would like to see the animals but she was much more interested in running around on the sidewalks and playing in the water fountain!  A peacock caught her attention for a brief moment, she glanced at the monkeys, listened to the tiger roar and then off she went!  The Zoo was short lived so we walked over to the park where she had a great time playing, running and going down the slide!  Here are a few pictures I took at the Zoo.

 Kate spotted the peacock!  It's to her right and in the shadows, kind of hard to see.

 

 the peacock

 

 Nana and Kate at the water fountain.

 

One day she will be scared of this lion, at one point we all were!!