I picked up our professional photos today! And here are some of them for your enjoyment!

We decided to have some fun with pudding painting today. I can't take credit for the idea since it was suggested to me by Lisa. I didn't have any vanilla pudding on hand to put food colouring in, so i made up the chocolate and butterscotch ones I did have. I taped together a bunch of construction paper and then taped it to the floor and let the kids go crazy!

They weren't too interested at first:

And Kathryn wasn't so sure about having it on her legs, but she did get into the spirit and put some on herself:
Patrick overcame his caution and got his hand in and did a print!
Messy! But fun!
Messy Baby!
I got out some paintbrushes for them too:
Kathryn decided to become mobile... and actually put some pudding footprints on the carpet:
Shaun decided we should 'war paint' the kids. Kathryn doesn't look too pleased...but oh sooooo messy!
After we were done 'painting' it was bath time! I've never seen such icky bath water!

We had a great time - and we'll do it again soon! This activity definetly requires 2 parents though!

Kids got haircuts this morning from Lori at Hairport. It was K's first major cut and her second cut ever! Both kids were excellent and got suckers - yum!
Here's Patrick's "before" shot:
Kathryn's "before" shot:
Patrick's "after" shot:
And the back of Kathryn... the front looks about the same....:
Patrick loves to hug his sister:
Did ya notice they're both dressed in RED for Valentines day? I have on a pink sweater to celebrate too!

Patrick is really becoming skilled at playing games on his v-smile. He has become co-ordinated enough to move the joystick and jump by pushing the enter button at the same time, making most games much easier to play.

He enjoys all three of his games, and we are amazed by how much he can DO! He really has learned a lot from them! And we got him a new one - Elmo's World - for Valentines day.

Today we brought up his folding wooden chair (made my Shaun's uncle) so he could be more comfortable when he plays. The fuzzy foam chairs are great, except when you want to be maxed-out-relaxed and lean back!
And here is Kathryn showing off the new train piece we have! My dad's friend, Dave, used two straight pieces to make an "X" piece which you can see here in the middle. Now we can make figure 8's!

Kitties!

Kathryn LOVES our kitties. She calls them "mao's" - like she's speaking cat and saying hello in their language.

Nikki was not impressed that she was getting attention from Kathryn, but Kathryn was THRILLED that Nikki was at eye level!
Patrick got in on the photo action too:
And Ramses jumped the gate to join us! I think Kathryn is super cute when she squats down to pet him:
And a picture of the photo-obsessed Patrick. At least this time he stayed still long enough for me to get a non-blurred shot!

Both the kiddos have hand-made blankets they are absolutely attached to. Patrick's was a present from a friend of the family, Estellea, and my friend Anna made a blanket for Kathryn way back when she was still known as "sprout".

Even though Patrick's blanket is much too small to cover him at night now, he insists on having it. He keeps it up near his face, and it is always on top of all his other blankets. If he manages to kick off all his blankets in the night you can be sure to find him curled up, fetal position, clutching his blanket.

Kathryn is just as attached to hers. We still take hers when we travel to keep some familiarity. I had mentioned to Anna earlier today that Kathryn was very attached to the blanket she'd made and she requested some pictures. So, after naptime today, I let Kathryn bring her blanket down to the living room - she was very excited about this as generally it never leaves the crib.

After snacktime, I put her on the floor and gave her the blanket...

Here she is examining it:
And then she got up and carried it around the living room, playing peek-a-boo with everyone, including Nikki who had the misfortune of falling asleep on the couch:

Then she put it on the ground and lay down on it:
and rolled over so it was on top of her - just like in her crib:

This is (sadly) the only picture I took the entire time I was in Orangeville and I was there for a week!

It is a nice one, though!
I have another version of this where Auntie Sara is making a very very funny face... but I'm too nice to post it :)

CONGRATULATIONS Kathryn for getting tooth #11 yesterday - the bottom right molar!

MileStone Update

I haven't done one for a while...

Patrick:
- takes off his boots/shoes, mittens and coat independently (sometimes with much prodding)
- can stand on one foot and today jumped on one foot for the first time!
- knows all the standard colours (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, black, brown, white).
- knows all the standard shapes (circle, square, triangle, diamond, rectangle)
- can count independently up to 30; recognizes all numbers between 0 and 30, in and out of order. Can put the numbers in order from 0-30 from random (flashcards).
- can count backwards from 10 to 1.
- can say the alphabet independently; recognizes all letters, upper and lower case, in and out of order. Can put alphabet flashcards in correct order from random.
- knows his first and last names
- can sing "Twinkle Twinkle" entirely independenly
- knows animals - house, farm & zoo, and some of their sounds
- knows all the body parts, can sing "head and shoulders" and actually hit the right spots
- has started being imaginative in his play - especially with Kathryns dollhouse
- speaks well, but still hard to understand by other adults.
- plays very cooperatively with his sister - even seeks her out to play together.

Kathryn:
- is walking independently
- has mastered the ability to walk in her snowsuit!
- wants to feed herself everything - is quite neat with a spoon!
- drinks independently from a sippy cup
- is FINALLY sleeping through the night
- plays peek-a-boo and patty cake; claps at the right spot for "if you're happy and you know it"; initiates these games with mommy
- knows where her head, eyes, ears and nose are.
- loves books
- loves to draw scribbles with crayons or on the magna doodle or aqua doodle
- babbles constantly and has quite a vocab (including mommy, daddy, kitty, all done, hi, bye, etc)
- still loves to jump in her jolly jumper, on her exercise zebra and on the couch (while supervised).


Whew. I'm sure there is more, but K just woke up and is calling me through the monitor!

We had professional photos done this morning at Sears and they sent us home with these proofs:

We've purchased the digital CD so we'll have the copyrights to all the photos. We've ordered the first family shot in an 8X10 to hang in our hall, and also an 8X10 of Kathryn (not one shown here) for her 1st year pic. We also got the same collage as Patrick had for his 1st birthday shots. Once we get the CD, we'll post better (and all) pics!

I decided yesterday to try out the sled Auntie Boo gave Kathryn for her birthday! The snow was definetly too thick for the stroller, but we were going a bit stircrazy having been in the house all day.

Here is the inside shot:
And the outside shot, after much bundling! They look cosy, don't they?
We walked to the mailboxes and got the mail and then home again. I would have gone farthur but K wasn't too happy and kept sliding onto her back. Unfortunately, the snow was too deep to get to the swings.

We arrived back home just before Shaun did! Here are the kids watching him snowblow the driveway:

On a side note, K figured out yesterday how to WALK in her snowsuit!! It was really cute to see her toddling around like the stay-puft marshmellow man. Usually when she's in her snowsuit I call her my starfish because her limbs are all stuck out.

And here is Shaun blowing out the drive. As you can see, we got quite a bit of snow yesterday!

After naptime today, I was combing through K's hair and I decided to try and put a pony in it. I've actually been thinking about doing this for a while because her hair gets in her eyes, but I thought she didn't have enough hair.

She does.

Here is K with her first pony - a "cindy-loo who" type do!!



Patrick is wearing his new Christmas tracksuit from Auntie Sara (&Uncle Derek, and girls) today! He looks sooo cosy and comfy! He (unfortunately) ougrew the green one they gave him last Christmas earlier this week - I was so sad to put it in the box, but I know I'll get to enjoy it again when Kathryn wears it

My Big Boy.

Patrick has outgrown all his trackpants (except the new ones from Auntie Sara). I realized he'd ougrown my favourite green ones earlier this week, and today I put the grey ones on him and they're too short too! I swear, he grew overnight.

He's getting to be such a big boy, not only in height but his vocabulary is growing every day too. He's getting better at talking in sentences, but still need to work on expressing exactly what he wants (instead of "some" or "that" or just "please" without any context).

Kathryn had her 1-yr check up and shots today.

She is 20 lbs, 12 oz and 28 1/2 inches long.

She was great with the shots too, only crying briefly. All in all, she is in excellent health. Yay Kathryn!

I think I've fixed the comment issue. If you've had difficulty leaving comments in the past, try again and let me know.

Lisa got a really good shot of K with her cake!
Thanks Boo!

We had Kathryn's birthday party today! We decided to wait an extra week because we wanted everyone to recover from Christmas (us included). We had a great time!

Kathryn's birthday Balloons:
The Birthday Princess:

Birthday Brother:
Princess Cake:
MMmMm cake! Where'd the birthday girl go?
Opening Presents! These are only a small selection of the ones that Shaun took.

A terrific tracksuit from G&G M:
A new song CD from Josh & Steph:

Patrick was super excited about a new song CD! He asked Daddy to put it on right away!
Princess sippy cups from Auntie Boo & James:
Pretty as a present with a bow on her head from Caleb:
YAHOO for more clothes! Thanks G&G H! Patrick wants to open the puzzle from Char & Dave and Kathryn loves her pink ducky from Auntie Boo:

Opening her gift from mommy & daddy:

OooH I hope it's a chair!
WOW! Its a Fisher Price Gymnastics Zebra!
The Grandpa's putting it together, with supervision from Great Gramma:
Yahoo! Ride 'em cowgirl!

We had a great and busy day! I hope everyone had a nice time. We were sad that Sara, Derek & the girls were too sick to come and hope they all feel better soon!