15 months

Kaitlyn is now 15 months old. She is in the "pre-toddler" phase according to Baby Wise (toddler starts at 18 months).

We went to see Dr. Nesmith yesterday for her check-up.

Her height is 30 3/4 inches (about 50th percentile.) He told me she will be 5' 6" when she is older (same as mommy!) I didn't realize that they could tell this young.

Her weight is 23.7 lbs (about 75th percentile.) He was not concerned about her still being chunky since she has leveled out in her weight gain.

Her head is 46 1/2 inches (don't know that percentile, but I think it's normal.)

She had the best looking ears all day (no ear infections- praise God!)

He was impressed with her talking and said that is the earliest sign of intelligence and good school performance. I hope so! I started counting her words that she uses on her own, in context, and got up to about 162 words (divided in categories of people, actions, things, body parts, clothing, common phrases etc.). I'm so pleased with her vocabulary, and it is nice that I can understand what she wants most of the time.

She got 2 shots, including the flu shot. So far no reaction.

We also discussed dropping a nap (he was surprised she was still napping twice). He does not think the reactions she has had (mucus in stool and excess drainage) are due to peanut allergies, but it does seem she has seasonal allergies.

Both my doctor and a respected nutritionist (who works at MD Anderson) said that organic foods don't have better nutritional value than regular foods. I've been giving Kaitlyn organic milk and yogurt since she was 12 months. Dr. Nesmith said if it makes me sleep better at night, to continue the organic, but it's not necessarily better for her. There is still a small chance of getting the growth hormone in the regular milk, so I'll stick to organic as long as I feel we can afford it (but just with dairy- the dietician said there is absolutely no difference between organic and regular produce if you wash it thoroughly.)

I need to switch Kaitlyn to a sippy cup with her milk. She has used a sippy cup for water for some time now (and only takes a few sips throughout the day). My concern is that she will not get the required milk or hydration that she needs. Nesmith said that is probably true, but just be sure she is getting yogurt, vitamins and try giving her the milk in the sippy cup in the morning and before bed.

Kaitlyn is trying to drop a nap (or rather just crying before both naps.) Due to her not getting a morning nap on Sundays for church, Mondays for Mother's Day Out, and Wednesdays for NESTS, it's probably about time that we drop the morning nap anyway and stop fighting it. Sad day for mom. I will try to institute a "crib time" with toys, books, puzzles etc., to see if she can entertain herself for about an hour while I'm preparing for the day.

Currently, Kaitlyn's favorite people in the world are JT (one of our friends in our church group), Hunter (her cousin, pictured below), and Aniyah.

We took Hunter to Ninfa's for quesadillas in order to celebrate his second birthday. We missed it due to being at a wedding last weekend, but I hear the monkey party was fun!
Kaitlyn loves to be outside and seems happier out there. Thankfully, it's getting a bit cooler (mid 90's, not 110 in the day).
This was taken at the doctor's office before her appointment yesterday.

Other thoughts on Kaitlyn at 15 months:

- She seems to be an extrovert- loves people, but definitely prefers mommy at this stage.

- she is strong-willed and already saying "No" when she doesn't want to do something. (I thought that wasn't supposed to start until 2!)

- she's a quality time person and enjoys other people (Daddy, Mamaw etc.) if she spends one-on-one time with them.

- She loves her baby. It was my baby Lindsey when I was little. She prefers her naked. She has just started sleeping with her.

- She enjoys playing at Mother's Day Out and NESTS with the other kids, yet is still not sleeping well at MDO.

- She loves books and would be content to sit and read books together for hours.

- She is still quite the lady who crosses her ankles when she sits.

- If I ever sit down for lunch and forget to pray, she interrupts me by saying "AMEN!" Love it.

Go Texans!

For Micah's birthday, I decided it would be fun to take him to a Texan's game. Since we were already in the Houston area for a wedding last weekend, and my mom would be in town to babysit, we decided to go last Sunday. It was a lot of fun! We were at the tippy top of the stands in the only 2 seats I could find together (for a reasonable price) on the 3 websites I searched. We met some friends pre-game for tailgating. Next time I go to a game, I'm going to bring my noise canceling headphones, like the little boy sitting in front of us had. Micah seemed to enjoy it, although he did say that he might take one of his guy friends the next time he goes since he thinks they will be more enthusiastic (I almost fell asleep at halftime due to lack of sleep the previous 2 nights- the Aggie band was playing- what can I say?)

Ashlyn's Wedding

Congratulations to Ashlyn and Ted Baker, newlyweds. After several years of dating, they finally tied the knot this past weekend on 9/10/11 (kind of a cool date.) They were married in the newly built St. Mary's Catholic church in Texas City. It was a beautiful church!

Since Ashlyn is one of the "great 8" (my group of best friends from high school), I knew several of the bridesmaids.
The reception was at Moody Gardens in Galveston. Quite a fancy place! It was the best dinner I've ever eaten at a wedding (prime rib, red snapper, salad, rolls, asparagus, potatoes, fruit smoothie dessert.) The groom's cake was excellent. The after party at Ashlyn's parent's suite was a lot of fun as well.
Here is a picture of Kathy and Ben Trick. She and I have been very close friends since 2nd grade. Her mom, Karen, is on the left.
Ashlyn preferred that children not attend the wedding/ reception, but since we were from out of town, she made an exception. There were other children of family members present as well. Kaitlyn skipped the wedding, but did attend a large portion of the reception. She got her groove on on the dance floor, which was hilarious! Thank you Mamaw, for helping to watch Kaitlyn so we could enjoy the wedding and reception.

NESTS

Our church does a mom's ministry twice monthly called "nests." It is a place where you can come, be encouraged in the word, and be mentored by "seasoned" mothers. They provide childcare for your children so that you can focus and participate for 3 hours without distractions. Last year, I was unable to be a part of Nests because I worked on Mondays and Wednesdays and they meeton Wednesdays.

I'm very grateful to be involved this year. We had our first meeting today and it was so good. The brunch was excellent and it gives Kaitlyn time to interact and play with other children (in addition to Sunday morning and Monday parents-day-out). Our speaker today, Rachel Lee, a "famous" blogger, had a good message: (Her blog is http://inspiredtoaction.com/)

Rachel's first point is to know that you are a good mom. You love your children well. You are giving your all. Stop comparing yourself to others. You are the perfect mother for the children God gave you.

Then she listed some tools to help transform your perspective on being a mom:

1. Don't look at life too closely (as if looking through a microscope) or you will miss the beauty of it. Make a "Mom" mission statement. What is your purpose in mothering your children? What is your long-term goal? Look at the end from the beginning and decide where you are heading with your children.

2. Have smaller goals that are tied into that mission statement. What is my goal for Kaitlyn in this season of life? I certainly want her to be able to communicate. I want her to interact with other children well. I want her to learn how to obey us.

3. Change your circumstances. She recommended reading the book "1000 Gifts," which teaches you to be thankful in all situations, even when doing mundane tasks such as the laundry. Learn to embrace the moments. Remember that sometimes the days are long, but the years are short.

4. Stay inspired by resting. Get sleep! Allow for regular retreats (either 2 hours at a coffee shop one evening or maybe a yearly retreat with other moms). Nothing inspires you when you are weary, so don't stay in that place.

5. We will only stay truly inspired to parent well if we make Jesus central in our homes. He is the source of life, joy and peace. Give him your "loaves and fish" (whatever time you have, even if it's just a few minutes) and trust Him to multiply that time.

Be excited about being a mom! You are the most important person in the world to your children. Then she shared this video that Taylor Swift made for her mom. A real tear jerker, for sure!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtA3H_aDris

Autism

After working with children with Autism for years, it is a disorder that is very near and dear to my heart. I often ask the Lord- Why? Why is it so prevalent? Why does it seem to be increasing? There are many questions about it that are left unanswered. For those of you who are unfamiliar with what Autism is, it's "A mental condition, present from early childhood, characterized by great difficulty in communicating and forming relationships, and in using language and abstract concepts".

The children I treated with Autism were unusual, had behavior problems, social disorders, and were extremely behind in their language skills (specifically receptive language).

I was reading in my Speech Pathology journal (yes, I now actually have time to read!) this week, and they have some new research on Autism. In a study that appears in the Archives of General Psychiatry (of more than 1800 children, 300 of whom had ASD) they found that children whose mothers use antidepressants during pregnancy have a greater risk for having a child with Autism.

Those who took antidepressants in the year before giving birth were twice as likely as the average person to have an ASD (Autism Spectrum Disordered) child. Those who took the prescription drugs during the first trimester were four times as likely to have a child with ASD.

This is not written to make anyone feel guilty if you do take antidepressants, but it is something that I felt compelled to pass on once I read it.

To read the complete article, go to http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/archgenpsychiatry.2011.73

Ducks and Zoo

We took advantage of this beautiful, cool pre-fall morning and went to Cameron Park. First, we fed the ducks (Kaitlyn's favorite animal!) Then we went to the zoo. It was a perfect day for both!

Eating lunch at the zoo.

Katie watching the turtles
Kaitlyn and the lion (with glass between them, thank goodness!)
Oh the ducks! the ducks! She gets so excited about the ducks. They are sort of mean animals. One of them came up to us and stuck his tongue out like he was going to hurt us or something.

I'm praying that the 100 degree days are far behind us and we can move towards more comfortable temperatures. I've noticed that people are in better moods when it isn't so darn hot outside- me included!

The Whinies

Before you start to think that I think my daughter is perfect, read this post. I mean, I love her to death and wouldn't trade her for the world, but this new phase she is going through is very trying for me. I feel like we are hitting the terrible two's early or something.

Kaitlyn whines- and the sound is cacophony to my ears. She's incredibly loud and demanding. She says the same word(s) over and over again for what she wants and expects me to give it to her immediately. Some days, I feel like I've created a monster! At least she is able to express what she wants (I would say about 90% of the time, which is quite impressive for her age), but we need to learn a few new lessons:

1. how to shhhh and talk in a reasonable volume.

2. how to be patient if what she wants cannot be given right away

3. that repeating the same word over and over does not always get results.

4. that mommy loses patience when the whining begins and discipline may ensue.

I'm getting nervous about the plane ride to North Carolina. Her first time on a plane. Hope the fellow passengers don't hate us by the time it's all over!

Okay- I feel better just getting that out. I don't want to use this blog to point out all of Kaitlyn's faults, but the truth is that sometimes parenting is hard and frustrating and that's all there is to it!

Cousin Pics- Round 2

We went to take cousin pics again this year at Joyce's request. We got a lot more individual pictures of Kaitlyn and my nephews. We went to Innovations (in the Central Texas Marketplace) and had a much better experience than we did at Sears last year. Here are some of the best ones.

Kaitlyn looks much cuter this year- not so sure about me. I am quite a bit thinner (although I'm not sure you can tell because somehow the lady made my face look thin last year) and my hair looks lighter.
Notice my toe at the bottom of the picture. They chopped it out of the ones we took home!

I would never let her get on a motorcycle in real life, but she really wanted to ride this one.
Since Micah loves football, I thought it would be fun to have Katie pose with a football. It turned out a bit strange, but she's still cute.
Cousin picture with Caleb (5) and Hunter (23 months)- see below for last year's picture.
Ducks are her absolute favorite animal right now.
Had Kaitlyn stayed more centered, this would have been a better shot. If only one-year olds did exactly what you asked them to do!

This was our pose from last year. Kaitlyn has changed quite a bit!

She was just learning to smile and did not smile for the picture. In looking back over our blog for this post, I posted on 8/30 of last year- kinda fun.

Birthday pics

We celebrated Kaitlyn's first birthday party on 6/11 with a small party for family and friends at the house. We had a "princess" theme.

On her actual birthday (6/14), I let her watch a DVD for the first time. She was interested for about 1.7 minutes, and then went on to play with her toys. I figure we'll try again in a few months.
Grammy dropped by a few extra birthday presents on her actual birthday.
Here, she is practicing being a princess before the party.

It's amazing how much she has changed in just a year. Doesn't even look like the same baby. What a wonderful year it has been!

Visiting Louisiana- July

In mid-July, we decided to make a trip to Louisiana to specifically see Momo (since my parents would be coming to Waco the following week). It's so nice to be able to travel for a week and not to have to ask anyone for time off from work! After looking at the calendar through the end of the year, we discovered that our only other free weekend was Labor Day weekend, and since we were traveling all the weekends around that weekend, we thought July would be best. Kaitlyn was a little ham and showed off for Momo and Papa. We stayed with them 3 nights and with Mamaw & Granddad three nights.Playing "Baby" with Mamaw
Saying "hi" to Papa- she literally did this about 1000 times!

Train ride with Momo. Highlight of the trip for Mo.
Sitting with Momo

She loved seeing the cows and going on adventures with Granddad.
We got to see several cousins who were also in Alexandria at the same time. Momo was on cloud 9!
Isn't it beautiful? One of my favorite places in the world.
This was at a casino in Marksville. Glamour girl.

It was a fun, relaxed trip. I'm glad Kaitlyn gets to enjoy her grandparents and great-grandparents. What a blessing!

Daily Schedule

So I've been asked by my high school friends what I do all day as a SAHM (Stay At Home Mom). Well, I don't get bored, I can tell you that! It depends on the day, but usually we go walking, and do another outing that day (mall, museum, zoo if it's not too hot, visit friends, splash park, library). Kaitlyn is still napping twice at 9 and 1. She is now napping with "baby" (my baby Lindsey from when I was little).

For structured playtime, we read books, work with letters on the fridge, play with potato head and work on body parts, identify vocabulary around the room, play outside, sing appropriate songs (wheels on bus, old mcdonald), or just try to carry on a conversation. I know that is difficult for Kaitlyn's age, but she is really talking well. She has a great vocabulary, but still has difficulty pronouncing many words, (nack/ snack, dough/ go, uh/ up) which is totally normal. She has already said a few 4-word sentences, "I sit in chair, I need a nack (snack). " I know- I can't believe it either!

Sometimes, we just stay home, I get the dishes, laundry, house cleaning done. We go to the grocery store usually on Mondays. It is just nice to have the weekends free to have fun, spend time as a family and to be able to do the house stuff during the week. Kaitlyn has her own vacuum cleaner and broom/ dustpan in order to "help" me clean.

I am often asked if I miss work. I do miss some of the children and families I worked with. I do miss my co-workers (and go visit them fairly often). I certainly did enjoy my profession and intend to get back to it at some point, but no- I do not miss it overall. I am absolutely sure that right now, I am supposed to stay home with Kaitlyn and there is no place I would rather be. There is a certain freedom that you experience when you feel like you are in the center of God's will for your life- whatever that place may be.

Hunter and Kaitlyn

Here are some cousin photos from when we kept Hunter 6/18 thru 7/3. I'm going to slowly get caught up on the blog now that our I-Photo is working again. I also have some new blogging ideas, so stay tuned! (Hopefully we haven't totally lost our audience by not posting in 3 months!)

We implemented book time in order to allow me to cook dinner. It worked well and contained them temporarily!

I don't recommend grocery shopping with two toddlers without lots of snacks. They did okay until the check-out line.
Awe- how sweet. Not too many of these moments, so I thought I would capture it!
This was the camel in the Egypt portion of the Mayborn museum. Grammy is behind them, so don't worry!

Update

Well, it's been forever since I've updated our blog. Our computer crashed a while back when trying to upload a ton of pictures from our vacation. Then we got busy! It's catch up time-

Kaitlyn's princess birthday party on 6/11 was a success. Unfortunately several of her little friends were out of town, but at her age, she doesn't notice yet, so that's good! She loved being the center of attention. We had family come in from Austin and Louisiana to attend.

For two weeks in June, I watched my nephew, Hunter, while Joshua and Melissa were on a mission trip. It was lots of fun and quite challenging at times (two take much more time, effort and patience than one!). Overall, he adjusted very well considering his parents were out of the country. Kaitlyn enjoyed having "Hunta" with us and learned her first three word sentence: "No, no Hunta!" There are tons of pictures from our two week adventure together. I'll have to share some of them on the next post.

The third week in July, Kaitlyn and I visited my parents and grandparents in Louisiana. We had a wonderful time, ate well (while still staying in the boundaries of my new "diet"), and most importantly, she got to know them better.

The last week in July, I was scheduled to work at Providence to cover someone's vacation. I got a call the Friday before, saying that it was really slow and they wouldn't need me much. I worked half days and it was fun to see everyone, as well as help a few patients. Providence speech therapy is now fully staffed, so they won't be needing me much other than for help on the weekends. Our weekends are so busy for the rest of the year that I'm not going to be able to help much!

Stay tuned for pictures. Hopefully we haven't lost our readers after not posting in almost 3 months!

11 months

2 days before turning 11 months, Kaitlyn started walking on her own- with better balance and standing to initiate it. (She had taken a few steps before then, but mostly while falling forward.) She has taken up to about 10 steps now by herself and it's so fun to watch her. I'm not worried about chasing her yet though- she's still faster at crawling.

Kaitlyn is enjoying Sophie more and more. Today she learned how to throw the ball for Sophie. I use the term "throw" loosely, more like drop really. I've been impressed with how gentle Sophie has been with K. Usually schnauzers are not known to be good with children. Sophie's favorite thing to do is to get Kaitlyn up from her nap. I say, "let's go get the baby" and Sophie runs to her room and barks at the door.

Kaitlyn seems to be going through her "attachment" phase again. She cries more when I lay her down for a nap and has been a little more whiney than usual. I'm not sure if it's because she's teething or because I worked all weekend and she doesn't want me out of her sight. When K doesn't get her quality time with mommy she becomes a bit grumpy. At least she is making it through the church service without crying. Kaitlyn is such a "quality time" person- so I think she really likes me being home more. When she spends more time with Micah on the weekends I work, she seems to prefer him more as well.

Speaking of teething, her top 2 teeth are coming in- the one on the right has broken through the the other is trying hard. She's a pretty mild teether- thank goodness! K may have a random night that she wakes up a few times whining, but otherwise, it's mostly hard to tell.

We look forward to taking Kaitlyn on her first (real) vacation this Friday. We are going to Canyon Lake as a family, staying in a time share condo my parents graciously let us use. I'm SOOO excited to get away and have my first vacation (not counting going to a family's home) since October of 2009.

New words include: thank you, diaper, dog (her favorite word), hello, all done and uh-oh (her other fav). She is talking much more than signing these days. When Katie becomes frustrated lately, she has a form of talking that is absolutely hilarious. You can tell she is fussing at you in baby talk. I hope I can get that on video. Unfortunately, I have been unable to get the walking on video yet because it happens so randomly and she's always coming towards me quickly.

In the grocery store, Kaitlyn gets compliments on her "pretty eyes." It seems to be the one thing she didn't get from me or Micah. She has blue eyes, he has hazel and mine are green. I guess the blue eyes were a gift from God based on her mama's prayers!

Kaitlyn continues to be a joyful, peaceful child. She is content much of the time and good at entertaining herself. I realized the other day that sometimes she simply wants a "hug break," and afterwards, she's happy to continue playing with her toys for a bit. (Don't worry- she gets plenty of one-on-one time that is interactive!) Favorite toys now include: any books, hair brush, holding socks/ shoes, ball popper, blocks. For you personality guru's, Micah thinks that Kaitlyn is an ENFP- Extrovert, Intuitive, Feeling, Perceiving. It's the only type of extrovert that requires alone time to re-charge. We'll see in a year or two if he's right!

At the Mayborn museum with the Lloyd girls. I couldn't believe K sat in the chair and played tea party for about 5 minutes.
Swimming at aunt Crystal's house. Kaitlyn went swimming for the first time on Mother's Day weekend and loved it!

Kicked Out

So yesterday, on my first Wednesday off from work, I was called by the office. I was dreading listening to the voice message because I thought they were going to ask me to work for the month of May or something. Anyway, it was the secretary asking me if I had removed all of my personal items from the office. I said "not yet, I was planning on doing it next Friday- which is the next time I work." I knew they had not yet found a replacement, so I thought I had some time to gather my things. She said it would be best if I could do it sooner, so that she could get the room cleaned out. The good news is that they have a traveling therapist coming in June and another full-time who will also start around that same time. I'm so thankful. I knew I was supposed to leave and had to trust God that he would provide a replacement for my therapy clients.

So today, my sweet mother-in-law went with me to watch Kaitlyn while I packed up. I had about 25 textbooks, most of which I haven't opened in the past 7 years. I kept all of my class notes from every undergrad and grad class having to do with speech path. What I thought was going to take me 20 minutes, took about an hour and 1/2, but I did get it down to 2 large rubbermaids, 3 medium sized rubbermaids, and a few bags worth of stuff. So all this work I have done cleaning out our closets is almost counterproductive when I fill it up with this work clutter!

As I left, I gave the office one last look. I spent countless hours in that place with numerous different patients- some of which I loved and others who were more challenging. It's bitter-sweet. I'm very excited about being home more and not being torn between work and Kaitlyn, but at the same time, I'm sad to leave some of the children and families I've grown to love. All in all, I have no complaints about working at Providence hospital. It really was an ideal place to work. I made many friends, helped many patients (or at least I hope that I did) and grew as a therapist there. I'm thankful for the 7 years that I had at Providence and look forward to continuing there on an occasional (PRN) basis.

Joyce Meyer book

I just finished a book by Joyce Meyer that a started a couple of months ago. I'm proud of myself for finishing a book considering how many I'm in the middle of currently.

Here are main points from the book that I thought I'd share with whoever reads our blog:

1. Eat the cookie- buy the shoes! The cookie is only a symbol for doing something that you like, enjoy and don't feel guilty about it. Don't let the workaholic in your life make you feel guilty either.

(For me, I want to read more, get back into my music, be there for my daughter, possibly write a children's book, learn to stop and smell the roses)

2. If you don't know what you enjoy because you haven't taken the time to enjoy much of anything in your life (this is me apart from vacation)...then start experimenting and find out. You may even have to develop interests, but whatever you need to do, do it and refuse to live w/o celebration.

3. Reward yourself for progress and stop punishing yourself for failure.

4. Learn to lighten up! Don't be so intense about life's problems or challenges. Learn to co-exist with them joyfully, as they aren't going to go away.

5. Celebrate discipline because it is your friend, not your enemy.

6. Discipline yourself to celebrate, because God loves a party!

7. Celebrate you because you are worth it!

8. Celebrate Jesus because He is the absolute greatest and most awesome gift that we have.

Family Fridays

On Fridays for lunch, a group of moms from our lifegroup get together to either go to the zoo or park. Of this group of 4 couples, we have 7 girls, 1 girl on the way, and 0 boys.

We love our girls, but a couple of us are thinking that maybe it's time to add a little boy or two to the group. Can you imagine what it's going to be like when all these girls are teenagers together?!

Royal Wedding Party

Last Friday night, I thought it would be fun to host a royal wedding watching party. I recorded 10+ hours of footage on the royal wedding (don't worry, we only watched 4 hours of it!) and invited my closest friends to attend.

We had a 6 course meal that is similar to what the Brits would serve with their afternoon tea. On the menu: tomato basil soup, spinach strawberry salad, chicken salad sandwiches, broccoli quiche, cantaloupe (my addition), chocolate chip scones, and homemade shortbread cookies. We had a variety of teas as well, but most people were too full after all the food to think about tea!

Even the skeptics, who only attended for the food/ fellowship, seemed to have a good time watching the wedding. It was quite an elaborate affair. I was super excited to use my china for the second time ever!

I think that deep down, in every girl's heart, we have a desire to be a princess, like Kate.