Kathryn has become our little mother. She mothers her dollies (feeds them bottles and in the dolly highchair with pretend dishes and food, burps them, hugs them, gets me to pretend to change their diaper, puts them to ni-ni with blankets), she mother's the kitty (gives him treats, dry food, toys, and covers him with a blanket), she mother's her brother (makes him pretend food, checks to see if he's pooped, gives him toys, etc) and she mother's us making us food in the pretend kitchen and then serving it to us with plates at the big table.
Its very very cute, but it does get a bit wearing in some situations. For example, she has really gotten it into her head that dolly needs to be buckled into a car seat when she comes in the van. This has resulted in several tantrums when we try to explain that Kathryn needs to be buckled into her seat, not dolly. When we asked her where she would sit, she pointed to Patrick's seat, and when we asked where he would sit, she gives us this blank look like she was tired of explaining it to us.
On one especially tiresome trip to Canadian Tire, Kathryn insisted on bringing dolly into the store. Once we were inside, she LOUDLY insisted that dolly sit in the baby seat WITH the buckle on and she sat in the bottom part. Thankfully my mother was along for this trip and she had Patrick in a separate cart... heaven only knows how it would have turned out if I had to go that one alone.
So it was decided that Kathryn needed a dolly car seat. And so the search began. Fortunately, we found a really nice one on Toys-R-Us and Gramma Ellen bought it for her.
It arrived today!! At 11 o'clock!! I was so super excited I could barely get the kids through lunch and into bed fast enough so I could check it out for myself. I resisted the urge to open it before lunch becaue I was certain it would mean that Kathryn wouldn't nap... and she needed to because she had gotten her 18M immunizations in the morning and was quite tired and cranky.
So, after the kids were napping and my chores were done, I opened the box, removed all the bits holding dolly and her bottle and the car seat into the wee box it came in, and set it up in the living room so that Kathryn would see it as soon as she got downstairs.
Cute isn't it? This is Kathryn's 5th (6th?) dolly. She loves them all equally and they are all quite different. This car seat, despite being plastic, actually has a 5-pt harness AND a belt channel so it can actually be buckled into a car with a lap belt. Neat huh???
When Kathryn came down from her nap she noticed it immediatelly and was quite pleased! As you can see, she is holding the wee bottle (which she has decided is a juice bottle). She's also wearing Patrick's crocs from last year as they were playing with a box of shoes while I put laundry away....
SIDE STORY: Patrick actually put on a pair of high-healed patent leather zip-up shoes with a silver heart pull. They were in K's box of shoes and are hand-me-downs from Sara's girls. I was on the phone with Shaun when he walked into our room and I just about died laughing - it was histerical. He was so proud of himself for putting them on by himself but he looked so silly in high-heels. I wish I'd had the camera handy!!
Back to the main story: Here is another picture of Kathryn with her new dolly and car seat. She has already mastered buckling the strap over dolly's tummy to keep her safe, but still needs help to unbuckle it.
Of course we couldn't order something for Ms. K without getting something for Mr. P too, and we decided to get him another v-smile game. After doing a quick search, I decided on the Dora one, because it looked more complicated but it was a character he would recognize as we've seen the show before. It is supposed to be for 4-6 year olds.
He was so excited when I showed him the package and even MORE excited when I opened it and he realized it was a new game. He ended up playing it all afternoon and was actually very upset when I said it was time to play outside for a bit. After dinner, he went right back to it, stopping only briefly for a quick shower with Daddy.
Its really is more complicated than his other ones (which he's completely figured out and is likely bored with now) and is challenging him. He has to use the pen attachment in order to complete some levels and he's getting better at it. The puzzles are more challenging which is good - he loves to figure things out.
Back to Kathryn's 18M check up - she is now 82 cm tall and weighs over 10 KG. I measured Patrick while we were there too, and he is 99cm and over 15 KG. He's just had a HUGE growth spurt which I hadn't even noticed until I put a pair of pants on him this morning (it was chilly here!) and they were way too short! We've been in shorts for over a month now, so I didn't realize he was growing so fast. I had to toss 2 more pairs of pants in the bucket for hand-me-downs.
Kathryn loves the pool too, but she's more where Patrick was last year. She loves to get her swim suit on and go outside to the pool, but she's more content to be on the steps playing with water toys than in the pool with us, or in her 'floatie' pictured behind her. She does love the pool though and we hope that next year she'll be where Patrick is now. 
Shaun's parents got the kids each a hooded towel for post-pool use and they really like them! Here they are on their way upstairs to get jammies on.
Video: Patrick swimming in the pool with Grampy. He likes to play a game that he and Daddy made up - he tosses in some of the floating discs, and then he swims around to retrieve them all before going back to the stairs and tossing them in again. Its a great workout and he's all over the pool. 
