Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Happy 2012!

January was a split-personality month! We had 65-degree days with sun and 32-degree days with ice. Up, and down, and up, and down it went. So we had an interesting mix of playing at home and heading out for adventures!

We welcomed in the New Year with a morning at the park. It was so warm, and we had so much fun, leading the way this time. Mommy and Daddy followed us wherever we wanted to go! Walking is SO much fun!

We went for walks together and even went on a hike with our friend Zachary’s family. We played with friends at playgroup, and together at home. And we got to try lots of fun new games on our “snowed-in day!” It was great, because it was on a Saturday, when Daddy was home to play with us. We got to play in the tent, read books, and we even got to try out our new crayons!

We continue to grow and change a lot (surprise!) Katharine is 20 pounds, 11 oz, and Christopher is 25 pounds 6 oz. We both are working on four new teeth – two top and two bottom molars! And we both learned to stand up on our own in the last few weeks, so we don’t always have to find something to pull up on first. We continue to challenge Mommy and Daddy’s expectations about what we can reach, get to, get into… And we’re getting to be really independent, faster walkers. We even worked on our skills at the park and in our yard, and continue to get more and more confident!

Christopher graduated from physical therapy this month – ALL done!! And we both passed our follow up hearing screening! So now we start working more on speech and language development.

Katharine knows SO many words, and is so helpful about getting and bringing things – except for when she decides to play her new favorite game… of “hide it behind the couch!” Sometimes she even hides herself when Christopher goes to get into the car. She loves for Mommy and Daddy to come and find her. And she is becoming notorious for holding things behind her back to hide them, with a sly, telling smile! Along with developing a good sense of humor, she is also developing quite a vocabulary, by pointing at everything, saying “dis” and “dat”, so she can learn the name for it. She is good at copying sounds, but is not quite ready to say the words yet.

Christopher is also building a wider repertoire of words he knows. He is beginning to follow some directions more reliably, and can go get some things on request, although he mostly gets so excited about finding it that he tosses it (he also likes to see if things bounce, which might be another reason for the tossing). ☺ He is also building his vocabulary, frequently using the word “light” for everything, as his way of asking what something is. He does love the lights, especially when he directs us with “Ah” and “Ough”, to turn them on or off. He loves that he can tell us what to do. He can find lots of things when we name them, and is becoming a great mimic of sounds as well. He is also very funny, and loves to make Katharine laugh, by playing peek-a-boo, making funny faces and sounds, patting his head, doing his “dance”, and pounding on the table at dinner (much to Mom’s chagrin, as lentils fly everywhere….)

Life here continues to get more and more interesting, and we’re loving it!

Here is a link some of our favorite photos from January! Enjoy!


http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp;jsessionid=2A2E820EE38438CF80321DF661A487A9.ecom105_main?sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=Share-_-Personal-_-Email-_-Sharee-_-Images&_requestid=108317


Love,

Katharine and Christopher

Sunday, January 1, 2012

A Very Merry December!

December was a fun-filled month!

As always, we enjoyed lots of fun walks, and playing with our playgroup friends this month. Mommy and Daddy took us on some fun neighborhood hikes on warmer days!

We went to visit Santa at the mall, which was not as much fun for us as we hoped, because we both were a little nervous about Santa. Christopher made it through the experience with his pacifier, and Katharine was intent on expressing her discontent. In the end, we got one “not screaming” photo to remember the event by. When we got home, Christopher was so wiped out that he continued to sleep on the floor, even through Katharine’s encouraging pokes, making for some really cute pictures.

We continue to grow and learn so many new things! We went on our first visit to the dentist, just in time, as Katharine is getting in her first two molars (on one top and one on the bottom), and Christopher has lots of teeth getting ready to come in. Katharine is 20 pounds and 3 ounces, and Christopher is 25 pounds and 3 ounces.

Our Big News: Katharine started walking the week after Thanksgiving, and already loves to accomplish great distances! We are both becoming more and more confident walkers, walking all over with great purpose to get to things we want to see. We are great at becoming more confident climbers, and are looking forward to putting the ladder, slide, and legs on our new tree house play set to practice our skills, with lots of help. Along with walking, we are reaching lots more things now that we can stand on our own and get around easier, and are also getting really good at moving barriers out of our way. So Mommy and Daddy are working to get better at anticipating our moves and planning for safety.

We loved to visit and look at the Christmas trees this month (our tree by the table, and the BIG tree in the living room; trees at the mall, at Grandma and Grandpas – trees everywhere!). We’re trying to “be gentle” with the ornaments and the lights, but they make really cool sounds when they hit the floor! We’ve both gotten really good at recognizing some words this month (foot, hand, milk, lights), and one of them is TREE! Sometimes we even say “dah” or “tah”, which Mommy and Daddy will take to mean “tree”. We make multiple daily visits to the trees and will be so sad to see our trees go when January comes. One day we will learn that most trees are outside and do not include lights!

We’ve also become really confident “swimmers” this month, as we finished up our Baby and Me swim classes. We learned to “jump in, outstretch arms, kick, float, and even go under” the water, all of course with Mommy and Daddy’s help. On our last day, we even got to try some fun floaties to feel a little more independence from Mommy and Daddy. We can’t wait to go swimming again!

Mommy and Daddy took us on some other fun family outings this month. We went to Glen Echo Park to see a Nutcracker Puppet Show for Tiny Tots. The puppeteer has worked with the Mister Rogers Show and the Muppets, which Mom and Dad thought was pretty neat. The puppets were really neat! We really enjoyed watching them dance and move, and practiced our clapping abilities with the rest of the audience. We were so impressed that everyone else could clap too!

And we went out to have a nice dinner at Bazin’s, which was SOOO pretty! We took our clip on seats, so we were nice and comfortable. And the restaurant was all decorated with lights around the windows, and beautiful ornaments hung from the ceiling. We loved looking all around at the pretty decorations, when we weren’t watching the game on TV. The best part was that we were the first customers for Sunday night dinner, so it wasn’t crowded or noisy, and we were able to enjoy a nice relaxing family meal!

Mommy and Daddy also got to go out by themselves on a date night, for dinner at L’Auberge Chez Francois. They got all dressed up before we went to bed, and we didn’t even recognize Mommy at first, with her shorter hair down and all curly. It was great that Mommy and Daddy had a fun night out together!

The best part of this month was visiting our families in Ohio. We loved seeing our Grandmas and Grandpas, and Aunts and Uncles, and playing with our cousins. We had fun seeing Zoe Dog and the Kitties, and exploring all the new places we went to, including the back of the church on Christmas Eve.

And when we got home, we went with Christopher for another big first – His very first haircut! We went to Cartoon Cuts, at the mall, where every station has a TV, and kids can blow bubbles and play with toys while they get their haircut. Christopher was very brave as he was strapped onto the booster seat in his chair. He did great, watching the TV, when Mom wasn’t in the way, taking pictures. Katharine and Daddy watched and cheered him on, as he had the little curling tendrils behind his ears snipped off, and the rest of his hair trimmed up a bit. We were all SO proud of him, our handsome, BIG boy!

And on New Year’s Eve, we enjoyed a fun family hike on some nature paths near our house. What a wonderful way to finish out 2011!

Here is a link for our December gallery to paste in your browser. Because we were out and about a lot this month, we used our smaller camera and IPhone cameras more, so some of our “action” photos are a little fuzzier. Enjoy!

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp;jsessionid=A358379F17F51ADFAA4F17BE53F1583D.ecom501_main?sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=Share-_-Personal-_-Email-_-Sharee-_-Images&_requestid=166247


We can’t wait to see what 2012 brings! Happy New Year!


With Love,


Christopher and Katharine