Downtown San Jose, getting Nanna
Enjoying a ride together at Gilroy Gardens
Katy cuddles up to Jackson while watching Pinnochio (which she is now obsessed with!)
Left-handed duo
Friday, August 22, 2008
Cute cousins
Some photos of Katy & Jackson from his visit, along with Nanna & Papa, just a few weeks ago
Downtown San Jose, getting Nanna
Enjoying a ride together at Gilroy Gardens
Katy cuddles up to Jackson while watching Pinnochio (which she is now obsessed with!)
Downtown San Jose, getting Nanna Enjoying a ride together at Gilroy GardensKaty cuddles up to Jackson while watching Pinnochio (which she is now obsessed with!) 
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Katy turns 2!!
Here is a video from Katy's 2nd birthday party. Can you believe she is 2?? I can't! 15 of her closest little pals (and there are still quite a few more!), along with their parents, including friends from our church, our Las Madres group, and our neighbours, all made it to the park this past Sunday to celebrate Katy's big day. Just one day before her official birthday, Aug. 18th.
Katy continues to talk up a storm, just now in full sentences, and makes herself very plainly understood. ie. "Mama, I NEED ________. Get it! Get it!" For the most part, she is pretty good at her please and thank-yous, although she does think saying please should mean an automatic Yes! She is still our extremely extroverted little girl. Once she has met somebody, adult or child, she remembers their name (a gift that neither Benji or myself possess!). She has recently learned to blow bubbles on her own, so she put that talent into good use in blowing out her own candles, as seen here!
2008 Tittle Tattle!
It's hard to believe almost 2/3rds of 2008 have gone by, and only now am I finally getting to updating this blog! Please forgive me! It always seemed to be one thing or another getting in the way, and as I got more & more behind, the task of catching up here grew bigger & bigger, and thus never happened. I have, however, been posting lots of photo albums on Facebook. It is so much quicker and easier to put up a whole album there than a few pics here. So if you don't have a Facebook account, you should get one, even if it's just to see all the photos! I think I will continue mainly posting photos over there, but use this blog more for videos & updates. If you are really adverse to Facebook, but want to see lots of pictures, let me know and I can send the albums along to you so that you can view them even without signing up to Facebook.
Ok, now that business is out of the way... time for a Tittle 2008 update! January/early Feb saw Katy and I switching off colds etc. That was the first thing, not feeling great, that pulled me away from here. Then to top it off, on the last day of January, Katy had her first and still only major accident. She managed to tip over in the bath and hit her mouth, not even all that hard, but just in such a perfect way as to push all 4 of her top teeth back up into her gums. Ouch!! Poor thing. Let's just say that her first introduction to going to the dentist wasn't the greatest... I was sure she'd hate dentists for the rest of her life! After taking Xrays and confirming that all the teeth were not knocked out, but just back up in her gums, it became a wait-and-see thing. One of the 4 was visible through the gums, but the other 3 were not. Best case scenario was that the teeth would just gradually come back down on their own, without any nerve damage to the roots, as if nothing had ever happened. Worst case was nerve damage and having to just extract all 3 teeth, leaving Katy with a bunch of missing teeth until her adult ones came in! The whole accident messed up her sleep for several weeks, so in February that left me exhausted. We are very thankful to report, however, that the dentist has been pleasantly surprised at how well she has done... all the teeth have dropped back down, and so far there has been no reason for any interventions. We saw him last in July, and he won't need to recheck her again for 6 months. Plus, other than being a little nervous when he was actually checking her teeth on this last visit, Katy loved the dentist's office, inspite of the initial traumatic experience!! :)
Just as life began to settle down from winter colds and Katy's accident, another surprise was in store for us. My parents and nephew, Jackson, came to visit us at the end of February, allowing Benji and I a 3-day getaway for our 6th anniversary. While enjoying a beautiful B&B and being on our own, what I had been suspecting was confirmed... I was pregnant!! Hopefully by now this is not new news to most of you, as we have tried to get the word out. If it is surprise to you, I'm sorry! Let me catch you up... I'm now 7 mnths pregnant, with an estimated due date of Nov. 1st. And this time around we are having a boy! We have not figured out a name yet, but I will do my best to get this blog updated when Katy's little brother makes his arrival.
With early March came the oh-so-fun all day, never-ending "morning" sickness and intense heartburn that just seem to be a given for my pregnancies. As well as complete, utter exhaustion. I could only do the bare minimal, basically taking care of Katy, while sleeping whenever she napped, and being in bed early every night. I knew that, with Katy, the intense nausea etc had lasted until about 15 weeks into the pregnancy, so this time around that would put me right around Mother's Day when I hoped to finally be feeling somewhat better. But when it's only just March, Mother's Day seems like a lifetime away! At that point, blogging became merely a wishful thought here and there, with my focus basically being on survival.
Katy seems to already be in love with the "baby boy." Frequently she suddenly says, "Want to see baby!", which means pulling up my shirt to view my ever-growing tummy, and giving it kisses and zerberts. She has come along with me to all my doctor appointments. While at first she did not like anything being done to me, getting slightly upset and protective and vehemently saying "no, no, no!", she is now totally into it all. She runs infront of me to each step of the appointment, and wants to help with things like taking Mommy's blood pressure and most importantly, "listening baby's heart." One of her good friend's just got her a doctor's kit for her birthday, so she now puts on the stethescope and listens to baby's heart all the time! Katy is absolutely in love with babies, and turns into a little mother around them. She likes to both take care of them, as well as tell them what to do, so she is going to be a devoted, bossy big sister!
I have definitely been feeling better since mid-May, but have had to continue to take anti-nausea medication. When I try to stop it all together, the intense nausea returns, but if I just take one each morning, I'm good now. Katy and I have taken two trips to Canada, one in April and one in June, to visit all our family in Moose Jaw. She loves planes, so she is still a pretty good little traveller, except that she rarely sleeps for her mommy while enroute anymore! Too busy watching and chatting with all the other passengers. Katy absolutely loves visiting her Nanna & Papa, her cousin Jackson (who she adores even more than any other little friend), and her aunties Lauren & Samantha... and especially her beloved Uncle Brad, whom she continues to have quite the little obsession with. I'll try to post at least a few pics of Katy and Jackson together here!
And just because life wasn't busy enough, we decided to take on a complete renovation of our ancient kitchen, with the goal of having it complete before the newest little Tittle makes his arrival! So while Katy and I were visiting Moose Jaw in June, Benji finished the planning stage and began to demolish everything. First to go, the wall between the kitchen and dining room. Since then, he has torn out all the old plaster walls and flooring, leaving nothing but the studs. The plumbing, electrical, and gas have been done, new plywood laid done for underneath the tile, and new drywall has gone up on the walls. Benji is doing most all the work himself, other than a little help here and there. He has come a LONG way from the guy that knew nothing about home improvement less than 5 years ago. We've discovered he is really quite handy, and he is teaching himself as he goes. This week he'll be installing the recessed lighting in the ceiling, and this weekend we'll go buy all our cabinets from Ikea so that he can begin assembling and installing them. Then it'll be tile and granite countertops... so we are gradually getting there. We've been living with our fridge in the dining room, along with the microwave, doing dishes in the bathtub! But once it is all complete, for the first time in our married life we will have a dishwasher!! Yay! The old kitchen was just dirty and small and had next to no storage space and no counter space, so I'm very much looking forward to a much more functional one.
My parents and Jackson came for another week visit at the end of July. My mom and I kept the kids busy with lots of outings, to keep them out of the house while major kitchen work was being done. My dad helped out with the kitchen, and made the yard immaculate - thank-you!! But my mom can't stand leaving an unfinished project, so she is coming again, for the 1st week of September, to continue to help us. As well as the kitchen, we need to replace the carpet in our bedroom with new flooring, so my mom is going to make sure we get that done.
Amidst all the chaos and stress, Katy is definitely our little sunshine. She is thriving, and hasn't seem bothered by all the change around her. She frequently talks about "Daddy working in kitchen... Daddy dirty" etc. Last night she was pleased to help Daddy with painting the walls- I have a little video I will soon post.
I cannot wait to be done being pregnant (forever!!) and to meet this little boy... but at the same time he needs to wait and not make an unexpected early arrival, as there is so much yet to be done! I have to head to our church office (where I work Thursday afternoons), so I'll conclude here for now. But I will try to get some more videos, along with a few photos here and there, posted for you soon of Katy! The tiny little baby we brought home 2 years ago has tranformed into a beautiful, funny, outgoing little girl!!
Ok, now that business is out of the way... time for a Tittle 2008 update! January/early Feb saw Katy and I switching off colds etc. That was the first thing, not feeling great, that pulled me away from here. Then to top it off, on the last day of January, Katy had her first and still only major accident. She managed to tip over in the bath and hit her mouth, not even all that hard, but just in such a perfect way as to push all 4 of her top teeth back up into her gums. Ouch!! Poor thing. Let's just say that her first introduction to going to the dentist wasn't the greatest... I was sure she'd hate dentists for the rest of her life! After taking Xrays and confirming that all the teeth were not knocked out, but just back up in her gums, it became a wait-and-see thing. One of the 4 was visible through the gums, but the other 3 were not. Best case scenario was that the teeth would just gradually come back down on their own, without any nerve damage to the roots, as if nothing had ever happened. Worst case was nerve damage and having to just extract all 3 teeth, leaving Katy with a bunch of missing teeth until her adult ones came in! The whole accident messed up her sleep for several weeks, so in February that left me exhausted. We are very thankful to report, however, that the dentist has been pleasantly surprised at how well she has done... all the teeth have dropped back down, and so far there has been no reason for any interventions. We saw him last in July, and he won't need to recheck her again for 6 months. Plus, other than being a little nervous when he was actually checking her teeth on this last visit, Katy loved the dentist's office, inspite of the initial traumatic experience!! :)
Just as life began to settle down from winter colds and Katy's accident, another surprise was in store for us. My parents and nephew, Jackson, came to visit us at the end of February, allowing Benji and I a 3-day getaway for our 6th anniversary. While enjoying a beautiful B&B and being on our own, what I had been suspecting was confirmed... I was pregnant!! Hopefully by now this is not new news to most of you, as we have tried to get the word out. If it is surprise to you, I'm sorry! Let me catch you up... I'm now 7 mnths pregnant, with an estimated due date of Nov. 1st. And this time around we are having a boy! We have not figured out a name yet, but I will do my best to get this blog updated when Katy's little brother makes his arrival.
With early March came the oh-so-fun all day, never-ending "morning" sickness and intense heartburn that just seem to be a given for my pregnancies. As well as complete, utter exhaustion. I could only do the bare minimal, basically taking care of Katy, while sleeping whenever she napped, and being in bed early every night. I knew that, with Katy, the intense nausea etc had lasted until about 15 weeks into the pregnancy, so this time around that would put me right around Mother's Day when I hoped to finally be feeling somewhat better. But when it's only just March, Mother's Day seems like a lifetime away! At that point, blogging became merely a wishful thought here and there, with my focus basically being on survival.
Katy seems to already be in love with the "baby boy." Frequently she suddenly says, "Want to see baby!", which means pulling up my shirt to view my ever-growing tummy, and giving it kisses and zerberts. She has come along with me to all my doctor appointments. While at first she did not like anything being done to me, getting slightly upset and protective and vehemently saying "no, no, no!", she is now totally into it all. She runs infront of me to each step of the appointment, and wants to help with things like taking Mommy's blood pressure and most importantly, "listening baby's heart." One of her good friend's just got her a doctor's kit for her birthday, so she now puts on the stethescope and listens to baby's heart all the time! Katy is absolutely in love with babies, and turns into a little mother around them. She likes to both take care of them, as well as tell them what to do, so she is going to be a devoted, bossy big sister!
I have definitely been feeling better since mid-May, but have had to continue to take anti-nausea medication. When I try to stop it all together, the intense nausea returns, but if I just take one each morning, I'm good now. Katy and I have taken two trips to Canada, one in April and one in June, to visit all our family in Moose Jaw. She loves planes, so she is still a pretty good little traveller, except that she rarely sleeps for her mommy while enroute anymore! Too busy watching and chatting with all the other passengers. Katy absolutely loves visiting her Nanna & Papa, her cousin Jackson (who she adores even more than any other little friend), and her aunties Lauren & Samantha... and especially her beloved Uncle Brad, whom she continues to have quite the little obsession with. I'll try to post at least a few pics of Katy and Jackson together here!
And just because life wasn't busy enough, we decided to take on a complete renovation of our ancient kitchen, with the goal of having it complete before the newest little Tittle makes his arrival! So while Katy and I were visiting Moose Jaw in June, Benji finished the planning stage and began to demolish everything. First to go, the wall between the kitchen and dining room. Since then, he has torn out all the old plaster walls and flooring, leaving nothing but the studs. The plumbing, electrical, and gas have been done, new plywood laid done for underneath the tile, and new drywall has gone up on the walls. Benji is doing most all the work himself, other than a little help here and there. He has come a LONG way from the guy that knew nothing about home improvement less than 5 years ago. We've discovered he is really quite handy, and he is teaching himself as he goes. This week he'll be installing the recessed lighting in the ceiling, and this weekend we'll go buy all our cabinets from Ikea so that he can begin assembling and installing them. Then it'll be tile and granite countertops... so we are gradually getting there. We've been living with our fridge in the dining room, along with the microwave, doing dishes in the bathtub! But once it is all complete, for the first time in our married life we will have a dishwasher!! Yay! The old kitchen was just dirty and small and had next to no storage space and no counter space, so I'm very much looking forward to a much more functional one.
My parents and Jackson came for another week visit at the end of July. My mom and I kept the kids busy with lots of outings, to keep them out of the house while major kitchen work was being done. My dad helped out with the kitchen, and made the yard immaculate - thank-you!! But my mom can't stand leaving an unfinished project, so she is coming again, for the 1st week of September, to continue to help us. As well as the kitchen, we need to replace the carpet in our bedroom with new flooring, so my mom is going to make sure we get that done.
Amidst all the chaos and stress, Katy is definitely our little sunshine. She is thriving, and hasn't seem bothered by all the change around her. She frequently talks about "Daddy working in kitchen... Daddy dirty" etc. Last night she was pleased to help Daddy with painting the walls- I have a little video I will soon post.
I cannot wait to be done being pregnant (forever!!) and to meet this little boy... but at the same time he needs to wait and not make an unexpected early arrival, as there is so much yet to be done! I have to head to our church office (where I work Thursday afternoons), so I'll conclude here for now. But I will try to get some more videos, along with a few photos here and there, posted for you soon of Katy! The tiny little baby we brought home 2 years ago has tranformed into a beautiful, funny, outgoing little girl!!
Monday, December 31, 2007
Final 2007 Katy update!
Ok, so I know it has been a LONG time since a post. I had wanted to post an update when Katy turned 15mnths on Nov. 18th. She had a checkup with her pediatrician, and definitely impressed her doctor with her communication skills! Katy finally broke the 20lb barrier, weighing in at 20lbs, 8oz and measuring 30" tall.
On Nov. 21st we celebrated Benji's 34th birthday.
The next day was Thanksgiving and the start of a 4-day weekend, in which I had all sorts of plans for what I would accomplish, not the least being Katy's 15mnth update here for her loyal fan club. Unfortunately, I ended up sick with a nasty cold, and finally had to give in to it and just rest & recover. We were nearing departure day for St. Pete's Beach (where Katy's Greatgrandmother and Benji's Aunt & Uncle live). We visited them in December last year, and Katy and I went sick and passed it along to them, so we were on strict instructions to present healthy this time around!! Thankfully, by about a week later, I was feeling much better, and Benji & Katy didn't catch it. But it did put me WAY behind schedule, between trying to get ahead at my new part-time job as our church's Kids Community Admin Assistant and making sure Christmas cards were in the mail and our house was ready to host Christmas upon our return on Dec. 21st. We managed to get it all done, but my hopes of blogging were not to be realized!
Hopefully, while I was unable to post news here online, you have all received our Christmas card & letter. A couple were returned with incorrect addresses, so if you didn't get one, I'm sorry!! Send me your current address and I will send one on... later is better than never, right??
We were away from Dec. 6th to 21st... in St Pete's Beach until the 11th, and then we drove to Fort Lauderdale to join my family for a 10 day cruise to the Southern Caribbean. We had a wonderful holiday, and Katy especially thoroughly enjoyed every single bit of it. She turned 16mnths while we were cruising. It was a great time to be with family, as both Benji's relatives and my family got to watch Katy go from taking just a few steps to getting pretty good at walking (ship swaying at all... this 1yr old has great sea legs!!).
The video clip is the day there was a definite big step made... our last full day in St Pete's Beach, Dec. 10th... suddenly Katy was more confident and taking off on her own, and even stood up all by herself, without pulling up on anything.
This progress continued daily on the cruise, so by the time we returned home, we had a toddler on our hands. Katy now no longer crawls at all! And while I don't have an official 16mnth weigh-in... I checked her on our scale when we returned home, and it looks like she is up around 23lbs!! That would be a good 2lbs in one month, which is crazy... somebody apparently took full advantage of all the food on our cruise!!
Katy continues to astonish everybody with her verbal and signing skills, and her obvious comprehension demonstrated by her ability to respond appropriately to questions or directions. She can put two words together, such as "Hi Daddy!", or "My Mommy". She even has a few Spanish words, such as "Hola!" and "mas" (more). Just in the two weeks we were gone, we daily heard more and more vocabulary.
Katy also LOVES music and dancing, and is extremely entertaining to watch. She really enjoys playing with stacking cups, "bubble" and "wa-wa" (bubbles & water), and loves going to the park or playing in the sand.
I will post more about our vacation in future posts, as well as some more videos and pictures. I have already posted photo albums on Facebook from our cruise and Christmas. Hope you had a wonderful Christmas, and Happy New Year!
On Nov. 21st we celebrated Benji's 34th birthday.
The next day was Thanksgiving and the start of a 4-day weekend, in which I had all sorts of plans for what I would accomplish, not the least being Katy's 15mnth update here for her loyal fan club. Unfortunately, I ended up sick with a nasty cold, and finally had to give in to it and just rest & recover. We were nearing departure day for St. Pete's Beach (where Katy's Greatgrandmother and Benji's Aunt & Uncle live). We visited them in December last year, and Katy and I went sick and passed it along to them, so we were on strict instructions to present healthy this time around!! Thankfully, by about a week later, I was feeling much better, and Benji & Katy didn't catch it. But it did put me WAY behind schedule, between trying to get ahead at my new part-time job as our church's Kids Community Admin Assistant and making sure Christmas cards were in the mail and our house was ready to host Christmas upon our return on Dec. 21st. We managed to get it all done, but my hopes of blogging were not to be realized!Hopefully, while I was unable to post news here online, you have all received our Christmas card & letter. A couple were returned with incorrect addresses, so if you didn't get one, I'm sorry!! Send me your current address and I will send one on... later is better than never, right??
We were away from Dec. 6th to 21st... in St Pete's Beach until the 11th, and then we drove to Fort Lauderdale to join my family for a 10 day cruise to the Southern Caribbean. We had a wonderful holiday, and Katy especially thoroughly enjoyed every single bit of it. She turned 16mnths while we were cruising. It was a great time to be with family, as both Benji's relatives and my family got to watch Katy go from taking just a few steps to getting pretty good at walking (ship swaying at all... this 1yr old has great sea legs!!).
The video clip is the day there was a definite big step made... our last full day in St Pete's Beach, Dec. 10th... suddenly Katy was more confident and taking off on her own, and even stood up all by herself, without pulling up on anything.
This progress continued daily on the cruise, so by the time we returned home, we had a toddler on our hands. Katy now no longer crawls at all! And while I don't have an official 16mnth weigh-in... I checked her on our scale when we returned home, and it looks like she is up around 23lbs!! That would be a good 2lbs in one month, which is crazy... somebody apparently took full advantage of all the food on our cruise!!Katy continues to astonish everybody with her verbal and signing skills, and her obvious comprehension demonstrated by her ability to respond appropriately to questions or directions. She can put two words together, such as "Hi Daddy!", or "My Mommy". She even has a few Spanish words, such as "Hola!" and "mas" (more). Just in the two weeks we were gone, we daily heard more and more vocabulary.
Katy also LOVES music and dancing, and is extremely entertaining to watch. She really enjoys playing with stacking cups, "bubble" and "wa-wa" (bubbles & water), and loves going to the park or playing in the sand.
I will post more about our vacation in future posts, as well as some more videos and pictures. I have already posted photo albums on Facebook from our cruise and Christmas. Hope you had a wonderful Christmas, and Happy New Year!
Monday, November 12, 2007
First Steps!
Katy's Daddy, here... yep, this is my first post on this blog.
Katy has been on the verge of walking for a while now, and tonight she finally put a few steps together walking between us! When I first got the camera out Katy was too interested in it to perform... fortunately our last try (after we'd stripped her for bathtime) proved more successful, although probably more embarrassing for "future Katy."
The last clip in the sequence is hard to hear... basically Katy cut the filming session short by peeing on the floor and then splashing around in her new puddle. Funny girl!
By the way, the living room's condition was partly due to a 5-baby playgroup that had just left, and partly due to Katy squirming while we pulled her clothes off for bathtime.
Katy has been on the verge of walking for a while now, and tonight she finally put a few steps together walking between us! When I first got the camera out Katy was too interested in it to perform... fortunately our last try (after we'd stripped her for bathtime) proved more successful, although probably more embarrassing for "future Katy."
The last clip in the sequence is hard to hear... basically Katy cut the filming session short by peeing on the floor and then splashing around in her new puddle. Funny girl!
By the way, the living room's condition was partly due to a 5-baby playgroup that had just left, and partly due to Katy squirming while we pulled her clothes off for bathtime.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Happy Halloween!
Katy had opportunity to wear her costume several times this season. The weekend before last one of her little friends had a 1st birthday costume party. Once I decided Katy would be Little Red Riding Hood, I thought... Benji could go along as the Wolf while I'd be Grandma. We had a fun time at the party, and our costumes won us "Best Dressed Family" and a $30 gift card to Barnes & Noble.
Katy with 3 of her good friends, and us mommies, from Las Madres.
Yesterday I took Katy trick or treating at Santana Row (an outdoor shopping center whose stores were handing out candy as well as holding fun activities and puppet shows). I finally gave in, when Katy was sucking on one with wrapper, and let her have a lollipop. One very satisfied little girl!
Today, we went to Benji's work for their annual Halloween lunch and costume competition. Benji entered the race for Scariest costume, and also entered for Best couple as Wolf & Riding Hood. And won both!!... so our prizes included a $50 gift card to Macys and 2nd $50 giftcard to a really good Italian restaurant. So in case you aren't keeping track, that's $130 worth of winnings from our costumes! And I thought all you got at Halloween was mini-chocolate bars! :) We spent a fun evening with our friends from our small group at one of their homes, enjoying a yummy dinner, wine & dessert, while all the kids helped hand out candy to the trick or treaters. Hope all of you had a Happy Halloween too!!
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