Our Week: Same Old Routine

We've had a pretty uneventful, relaxing week.  Nothing much going on...keeping baby girl entertained and working on the den are top of our list of things we've accomplished this week.

Knox was over a couple of days this week.  On Tuesday I put both kiddos in the tub with paint and texture balls and let them paint with the balls.  Katie was really into it and had the whole tub, herself and Knox covered in no time.  Knox was a bit more apprehensive and as you can tell did not appreciate being painted on lol!

Katie loves art...painting, collage, markers, crayons, etc. She asks for her colors many times a day.

 Storytime at the library was camp-out themed.  There was a little tent set up for the kids to get into and we read stories in the dark with flashlights.

 The den is wall is up and primed.  Next step?  Doors.

 Katie wanted to touch the paint soooooo bad but, she resisted in the end.

 Instead she picked up the sander and sanded away on a piece of drywall.

We decided to get out of the hot garage and go play in the pool for a little while. 

Friday Knox came over and we went on a bike ride.   

Grandmother and Grandfather came for a visit on Saturday

Katie's new favorite thing to look for in the garden is frogs.  This morning we found a tiny tree frog.

We also went to the park with plans to feed the ducks.  We found the ducks but, apparently they had never been fed bread before.  They just quacked at us and waddled around.  Katie, on the other hand was quite content to sit on the bank of the pond and eat her bread while watching the ducks.  We also found out that although the ducks didn't care for the bread, the fish in the pond did.  We ended up feeding lots of little perch with the bread crumbs.

Daddy on Vacation!

It's been two weeks since our last blog...apologies to all of those anxious for pictures of Ms. Katie.  We've had a busy two weeks, filled with lots of adventures!

Ms. Katie had fun painting with "sidewalk chalk paint".  She loved swishing the paint in the container and playing with it on the sidewalk.  She liked stepping in the paint and making footprints all over the patio.

Katie has been enjoying the t.v. a lot more lately.  She has learned to turn on the t.v. and loves spending time with her Daddy cuddling on the couch, watching Sesame Street.

We've continued to work on the room and are making great progress.  Here's the stud walls up with all the electrical and insulation put in.

Even though the weather has been super hot (we're talking 107 degrees!) we've been having fun playing outside.  Katie's new kiddie pool is great for cooling off.  Even dipping your legs in the water keeps you pretty cool and we have a huge tree in our backyard that gives off plenty of shade.

Knox has been coming over a few times a week to play with Katie.  They enjoy playing together and I try to keep them busy with lots of activities.  They enjoy coloring and painting.  One activity they love is sensory play.  Last week they got to play with lasagna noodles, manicotti noodles and big shell noodles.  They loved the sounds they made when they played with them.

Katie has discovered mud baths! 

Katie and Knox playing dressup.

Katie giving Knox kisses.

Katie joined the summer reading program at the library this summer.  She got reading awards for reading a certain number of books and visiting the library-a medal and a stuffed bat.

Our garden would be doing great if it wasn't for the rabbits eating all the vegetables just as they start to ripen.  They've completly destroyed our green beans.  But, oh well, Katie has been having a lot of fun digging in the garden and tasting the food we're able to get to before the rabbits do.

Katie and Knox playing "drums".

Daddy, Katie and Papa unloading the drywall for our den

Katie and I painted our toes for 4th of July

Rich went on vacation and during his week off he worked every morning on the den.  Katie and I spent as much time with Rich as we could but, Katie needed some interesting things to keep her busy.  One activity we did was take a piece of styrofoam and use tools to screw and hammer golf tees into it. 

We also played with pom poms.  We poured, stirred and counted the pom poms.  These were a big hit with Katie...she loves stirring!

One of the more exciting activities we did during Rich's vacation was playing in jell-o.  We made red, green, yellow and blue jell-o, put it in the tub and whoo-hoo!  Katie had so much fun squishing, throwing, smearing and of course tasting the jell-o. 

Storytime on thursday was a lot of fun.  There were only a few kids and for art after the storytimes we all went out to the courtyard and drew with sidewalk chalk.

Katie got to play with fireworks for the first time.  We got her snakes and the little poppers you throw on the ground.  She liked watching the snakes and tried to blow on them to make the fire go out.  She also had fun stepping on the poppers. 

We got Katie a new baby.  She calls it her "bee".  She likes to carry it around, feed it it's bottle and wash it with a washrag.  At night she wants to take it to bed and she covers it up with a blanket right next to her.

We made pancakes a few times this week for breakfast and Katie gobbled them up...seriously she ate three pancakes for breakfast one morning along with a big glass of milk.

Rich worked all week on the den and here's the end result.  All the drywall is up and the room is puttied.  Next step is doors and ductwork.

Sick Baby Girl and Father's Day Part 2

Daddy and Katie on Father's Day morning

We spent Father's Day evening at Rich's parents house.  Katie got to play with some of her cousins and we ate some bbq.  Katie had been feeling a little under the weather since friday but she seemed to be better Sunday afternoon.   Her friend, Knox was sick the previous week so we were worried that she would get sick, too.

Monday and Tuesday Katie seemed to be feeling much better.  Tuesday she got to play with playdough for the first time.  I've been wanting to let her play with playdough for a long time now but she always tried to put it in her mouth.  She still tasted the playdough a little bit but was able to stop herself and play with it more than she ate it.  She liked taking little pieces off it and rolling it into little snakes. 

Wednesday was kind of a crazy day.  Rich had to work 2nd shift which meant he came home from work wednesday morning at 6:30 and had to be back at work again at 2:00.  He worked 2:00pm to 10:00pm wednesday.  He's  never had to work that shift before so it was very different for us.  We woke Katie up when Rich got home so she could see him before he had to go to bed.  She was not happy about being woken up which was very unusual for her so we put her back to bed.  She slept until 7:30 and woke up very upset.  We sat on the couch for a little while so she could wake up slow.  She seemed very sore and couldn't seem to get comfortable....then the poor little thing vomited.  I felt so bad for her.  This may sound crazy but, she is 20 months old and has NEVER been sick...not even a cold.  My sweet Dad went to the pharmacy and got some baby ibuprofen and pedialyte for baby girl.  She had a temperature and we called the doctor.  They said it sounded viral and just to wait it out.  So.......

Wednesday Katie, Lillie and I hung out on the couch all day and watched Sesame Street over and over and over.  Sweet little Lillie was so good with Katie.  I think she knew she wasn't feeling good because she laid her head on Katie's lap and was very still. 

When Rich got home from work Wednesday night he had a surprise waiting...homemade caramel!  We found this on pinterest, you take sweetened condensed milk, leave it in the can and put it in a crockpot.  Cover the pan completly with water and set it on low for 8 hours.  It was yummy!  My favorite thing to do with it was put it between two chocolate chip cookies and make a caramel cookie sandwich, yuuummmm!

Thursday Katie felt a little better.  She still had a fever but, she wanted to play for little bits at a time.  We skipped storytime so we wouldn't spread anything to the other kiddos. 

Friday was a great day for Katie.  We had strawberry banana smoothies for breakfast, played outside, watered the garden and did some painting.

We tried some outside painting using the slide, a paintbrush and small balls.  I taped paper to the slide and Katie dipped the balls in paint and slid them down the slide.  She also painted with the paintbrush and painted herself.

Saturday baby girl felt much, much better.  Grandma Sue and Aunt Vicki came over to visit.  I had a thirty-one party in the afternoon and Katie had fun spending time with her Great Grandma and Great Aunt.  She got her toenails painted for the first time and they are sooo darn cute!  

 Look at that look on her face...she knows she's cute!