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.