Sunday, November 11, 2007

She's going to be 2!



It's been about 10 days since my last update, I know. I'm kinda slacking this month--can you blame me with all the holiday stuff and birthdays around the corner? Yep, birthdays I say--Kateli will be 2 and daddy will be--well, let's just say he's somewhere in his mid-thirties! :) Let me say that again, Kateli--my little baby girl--will be 2 at the end of the month. It's hard to believe how fast time flies when there are little kids in the household. Seems like only yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital and learning all about being parents. How exciting these first two years of parenthood have been, and we just keep having more and more fun each day. There are days that are harder than others, but God is good--he has blessed us with wonderful kids. So, let me tell you about our 2 year old to be...

She is talking up a storm--mostly in "Kateli" language, which means we don't understand half of what she says to us. She will sit and "read" books to herself and to her brother. She pages through the book pausing at each page and babbling for a little while before turning the page. She does say a lot that is understandable; it is unbelievable how far her speech has come along the last couple of months. It was so exciting when she started to say her name, I know I wrote about that, but lately the cutest thing is that when she wants something she says her name first and then the action, i.e. "Kateli 'mer'" (Kateli eat), and "Kateli play" are the ones tha I hear the most often. She is now putting two or more words together. So, we'll be riding in the car and she will say "Kateli moi abu"--let me translate--"Kateli more gummies". She loves to eat those yummy JP gummies grandma send for her. Now when you ask her her name, she will sometimes say "Kateli Mosh"; it's so cute to hear her. These days when she tries to repeat what we ask her to repeat, it sounds a bit more like the actual word than the made up words she fills in with before she can properly pronounce something. We are still working on the "por favor" instead of "please" when she speaks to mommy--it doesn't quite come out as "por favor", it's more like "a bor" or something like that, but she is trying. She still loves her little brother, and calls him "a liTTle baby"--doesn't use his name yet. She loves talking to her little brother too, she will go up to him and say "Aaabbooo aaabbooo"--she is imitating me when I coo with him. It is super cute to watch her do that and to see Joshua's intense focus on her. On the potty training front--let's just say we are NOT there yet. I thought we were much closer as she had begun to tell us "poopoo" when she was dirty, so we'd change her diapey. Nowadays the only way we know she is dirty is either because we notice that she's gone and hidden to do her business or we just get a whiff of it from across the room. She has not had another "Poop-casso" episode since my parents where here, so we're lucky on that front. I'll have to expand on that in another entry. Kateli LOVES to play with her babies. She is so nurturing with them. She rocks them to sleep, swaddles them in blankies, puts them in the swing to sleep, changes their diaper, and even nurses them. Yep, she doesn't allow those babies to starve--nope, she will nurse them and cover herself with a blankie just like mommy does when nursing little brother. The funny thing is if you walk by her when her baby is "eating" she tells you "baby, 'mer'" So, so cute! Lately she's been sticking a paci in her mouth and walking around with for mins at a time before she gets tired of it. We think it stems from all the kids she sees with pacis at church, as well as seeing her little brother use one as well, that she thinks she needs to participate. She never liked the paci, so we're sure this phase will pass soon.

Anyway, here are some pictures that I got of her yesterday. Enjoy!

Thursday, November 01, 2007

It's beginning to feel a lot like FALL!



Halloween this year

Well, we weren't going to dress up the kids today--given that we don't take them out "trick or treating" and I didn't buy either one of them a costume. Yes, the operative phrase in thet previous statement is "weren't going to"--so you can guess what happened. We DID dress them up, and I had to improvise with last minute costumes as we made this decision late Tuesday night. For the past few years there has been "trick or treating" at daddy's office, and we know in advance. This year however, daddy didn't realize it until Tuesday when he saw the email--and failed to communicate the news to me until Tuesday night. So, I guess I must have dreamed what their costumes were going to be, because I woke up and knew their costumes. Here they are...


Joshua was not having too much fun in the car seat...he was ready to go...

my little bunny girl...or wait...was she a bunny or a...??

cat?? she had the option :)

Here is my little Santa's helper. Adorable or what?

Kateli with her friend Addie

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Abuela and Abuelo's visit to Tulsa

My parents were here the latter part of this past week; they left this morning to go back home. We were so sad to see them go; we had a lot of fun while there were here. The kids really enjoyed spending time with "abue" and "alelo" as Kateli likes to call them. As always it takes her a little while to warm up, so she's a little distant or shy in the beginning but by the end all she wanted was "abue" (that's my mom) :). So much fun! She would run around the house saying "hi, alelo" asking for "alelo" (that's my dad) and saying "cheese" which means "take a picture of me". Mom cooked some yummy foods for us while she was here--they brought us platanos, and frijoles!! Dad brought his camera and his photo equipment and had a lot of fun snapping pictures of the kids. I had my fun too in front of the camera...dad took lots of pics of me--I was trying to be helpful and pose for him so he could practice on his lighting techniques and stuff.

This is such a sweet picture of my kids

Abuela and the kids had so much fun together.

Joshua enjoying a bath from abuela
Abuelo finally met his first grandson--how fun to see...

Last night we went over to some friends who invited us over for their "dia de los muertos" or "halloween" party and that was fun. I dressed Kateli up in the same costume she wore last year, but this year it really fits! She looked so cute...

Here is my little salvadorean indian girl!

Here are some pics that abuelo took while he was here....




Saturday, October 20, 2007

Our trip to the Pumpkin Patch

We went to the pumpkin patch this afternoon and got some really cute shots of the kids! Joshua's first trip to the pumpkin patch and he did great. Kateli got to ride the pony, which she loved and she played and played in the pumpkins! Here are some shots.

Our trip to the zoo

Wow, what a beautiful day we have had today!! We decided to enjoy the beautiful sunny morning by taking a trip to the zoo and visiting the animals. We actually got there in time to see the elephant show, which was pretty good, had it not been for having to sit in straight sunlight--it got quite warm pretty quickly. When I checked the weather this morning, it said that it would be cool and the high of 76 would not be until noon time. So, I dressed the kids in long-sleeve and pants--I did put undershirts on them in case we needed to loose the long-sleeve as the morning progressed. About 30mins into the zoo we were all taking off layers of clothing--Kateli ended up walking around in her little tank top! We saw the elephants, the bears, sea lions, monkeys, cheetah, flamingos, monkeys, birds, fish, tigers etc etc, and Kateli really enjoyed it. It is fun to hear her make animal noises--she does the monkey, lion/tiger/bear (ROAR), and the elephant and she imitates flamingos about to takeoff!! Here are some pics that we got this morning.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

My little helper

Kateli is a wonderful helper. She's finally gotten down the diaper changing for Joshua--check it out.

I'm coming, I'm coming...had to go get the wipes!

Okay Joshua, let's just slip this under you...and "lift up"

Okay, off the camera let's really get this done...:)

She finally said it...


Her name!!! Kateli has finally spoken her own name!! I have to admit that I'm still elated and jumping with joy for having heard her say "kateli" when asked what her name is. We were casually sitting at her activity table this afternoon doing watercolors, and I was talking to her--as I usually do. I was saying "what is your name?" in spanish and answering myself with "kateli"...at one point right after I posed the question she looked at me and said "kateli"....I was beside myself when I heard her say that little word. I called daddy and we left him a message. I called abuela and abuelo to have her speak her name to them, and she did....so much fun!!! Here is a pic of my big girl with an audio file of her saying her name...hope you get a huge smile as I do when I hear it! Well, seems that I have to figure out how to upload an audio file...so for now just enjoy the pic of her saying her name. I've got to tend to Joshua!! be back later!

Things we are working on at home...

The latest things that we have been working on with Kateli are:

1. We sit on our bottoms while at the table eating.
2. We say "all done" when done eating (in her case, she says "añe", which means "ya termine" or "all done" in spanish.
3. We ask for permission to leave the table once done eating. She says "up peas"
4. She has to take her dish(es) from the table to the kitchen and hand them to mommy.
5. We are trying to convert her "peas" into "por favor" when speaking to mommy.

I know, it looks like a long list, but it's not that bad--it all happens during mealtimes (except for #5). She's doing really well with all of it, except for those days when she's just too tired to do as she's asked--which is understandable, don't we all have those??

Things we are working on with Joshua are:

1. introducing him to books--Kateli helps in this dept as she likes to show and read books to her brother (well, she mumbles--but it is super cute!!! I've got to get this on video)
2. getting him on some kind of sleeping schedule. I know, I know, he is still a bit young for an actual schedule--but we are working mostly on getting him to fall asleep on his own.
3. setting a good bedtime routine--so that he doesn't spend up to an hour and a half fussing off and on in his room trying to fall asleep. It's exhausting for both him and us.
4. getting him used to napping in his crib--up until this point he's been napping in his oh so comfy swing--but we need to slowly break him of this habit.
5. getting him to sleep more through the night. We still have nights during which he wakes up every 3 hrs or so to nurse.

Yep, we're busy over here....seems like very little time for the two of us....so we really need to be intentional about it.....

22 1/2 month old hand and foot prints

Lately, Kateli has been really good about staying in one place in order for mommy to cook dinner. I sit her down at her little activity table with paper and color pencils and she will sit there coloring; knocking the colors off the table and saying "oh oh" so that mommy will pick them up for her (this could get annoying, but I think it's her way to interact with me while I'm doing something else, at the same time keeping her distance and not overwhelming me with "up peas!! up peas!!" So, yesterday what I did was that I sat her down and gave her an ink pad so that she could make handprints on paper. She was having so much fun with that craft (if i can call it that) that I had to get some pictures. I was also able to sit down with her and make her 22 1/2 month old handprints and footprints. I have a set of footprints that I did of her when she was about 7 or 8 months old that I compared these new ones to--wow, has she grown.







Monday, October 15, 2007

Event-FULL weekend!

Wow what a fun weekend we've had--busy, but so much fun. On Saturday we had a birthday party in Edmond. Our friends' daughter, Adreana, turned 4 last week and celebrated with a fun birthday party this weekend. As always, it took Kateli a few minutes to get warmed up before she jumped right into the action and fun. The funniest thing, and I wish we would have brought our camera with us to get a picture of this, was that kateli was taking HUGE bites out of my burger. Yep, and I thought she would just have little morsels of the burger patty--ha ha, did she prove me wrong. She took about 4 big bites from the burger before she was "añe" (that is her word for "I'm done" in spanish--it is really "ya termine")








On Sunday we went to church, as we try to do each Sunday, but this day was different. They were having a "Fall Festival" at our church immediately following the 11 service. We had lunch, ate some yummy smoked meats, baked beans, pasta and bread before hitting the fun spots for the kids. After lunch we headed to the pony rides to see if Kateli would want to ride one. When we got there she was excited and said she wanted to ride the pony. She also jumped in the jupiter jump. Only for a little while though and not by choice. They were allocating time for the little ones and time for the bigger kids to jump in the jupiter jump separately. Unfortunately, Kateli got in to jump too close to being pulled out for the older kids to get their turn.



Sunday evening I decided it would be fun to make a pizza with Kateli. I cut up vegetables, ham and shredded some cheese. Kateli had fun dressing the pizza after I put the red sauce on the crust. Turned out pretty good. Here she is topping it with cheese. We enjoyed a nice homemade pizza made especially by our little angel. Enjoy the pics.

Friday, October 12, 2007

Joshua is 2 months today!

Joshua is 2 months old TODAY!! WOW!! And I thought time was a blur when I just had 1--talk about busy busy. We are having so much fun with two kiddos--Katherine keeps us entertained, laughing and on the edge of our seat waiting to see what she does next. Joshua is content as can be, happy and just mellow mellow like his daddy. Here are some pictures that we took today on our trip to the doctors for his two month appointment. Of course the LEAST favorite part of this visit is all the shots he has to endure--my poor baby!! But he was a trooper! He is weighing 13 lbs 8ozs and measuring 22 1/2 inches!!













Monday, October 08, 2007

Our kids

I just posted some great shots of Kateli at dinnertime tonight, and thought I would post some of Kateli and Joshua and some of just our little man--who by the way is now 8 weeks old!!! Time is flying......I have not taken him in to the doctor's office to weigh him lately, but I'm pretty sure that he has doubled his birth weight plus some...and from what we have measured at home, he has grown about 3 inches roughly...he's growing so fast!!!



Fun dinners with our kiddos

We always enjoy dinnertime with Kateli--well, when she's not too tired to entertain us--she manages to get us to laugh with her silliness! Tonight she decided that she was going to wear some of her dinner on her head!! We try really hard to keep a straight face and tell her that that is not what we do with our dinner after we are done--but sometimes we just fail at pretending it's not funny. How do you keep from laughing when you've got this silliness going on...???