Many Updates and a Massive Photo Dump

Kateri has been really enjoying reading lately. She loves all books, but her absolute favorites are the ones with animals. Recently, she has started finding her own special little 'nooks' and curling up with a book. I absolutely love seeing this!

She has two favorite places. One is in the back of her closet, hidden away (if everything is quiet and I haven't seen her for a couple minutes, the closet is always the first place to look!). The other is near our sliding glass door as the sunlight pours in. She will bring a book or two and settle in to read. Even though she is just a year and a half, she is very careful to not to tear any pages!

This looks so posed! But it isn't!

Kateri is at that stage where she is perfectly content to hear the same book read over and over and over (There are only so many times I can handle 'Are You My Mother?' Spare me!). And one time, she wanted to read to Sebastian and picked one of her favorite books (one of the ones from Aunt Ann)!

It didn't last long! But it did happen :)

We are absolutely in the throes of toddler pushing/shoving/hitting. Thankfully we haven't had biting yet (knocking on wood here!!!). We are definitely in a constant state of vigilance and Sebastian pretty much only gets put down on the ground when Kateri is napping.

BUT, despite Kateri's constant efforts to make sure Sebastian is TOUGH, she can occasionally be very kind. The other day, both of the were sitting in my lap, and Sebastian grabbed a chunk of Kateri's hair. He grabs mine all. the. time. so I can verify that it HURTS. After I finally finished untangled her hair from his fingers, she smiled and leaned over to give him a kiss! I couldn't believe it. But it happened. Maybe, just maybe, we are making some progress!

We have been using the bumbo for Sebastian.

He likes it and as soon as she saw him in it, Kateri started eyeing it.

"It's OK, little brother, I just want you to understand that EVERYTHING IS MINE."

Yep. Not long before Kateri claimed sole ownership of the bumbo.

So we are also working on sharing. So far there is very little (ahem. none) progress in that regard. Maybe one day. However! We do have evidence of Kateri and Charlotte playing with the same toy and not fighting. Maybe we can count this as sharing??

Cutie pies!

So, the other day, I wanted to run something (a lamp Kateri had knocked over and broken beyond repair) out to the trash. Kateri was eating in her highchair, and I put Sebastian down on the carpet thinking, 'I will sprint outside and sprint back before K-bear can get to him'.

So I ran out and back, and as I came running up every other stair, I KNEW that she had slid out of the highchair and was again schooling Sebastian in the School of Tough. So as I rounded the stairs, I wasn't too surprised to see her on top of him, and I said, "NO!".

My shout surprised Sebastian and he immediately started crying (of course). It also must have surprised Kateri because she came over and spit up on me! haha, I had no idea that 18 month olds still did that! As I looked down on the spit up that was now all over me, I heard Kateri running off. A few seconds later, she came running toward me with a huge smile on her face and a washcloth to clean off the spit-up! She wanted to help and immediately ran to get a washcloth without any prompting! This impressed me so much!

Unrelated (but adorable) photo with a super cute hat my mom gave him!

Kateri is always very concerned if Sebastian is upset. If he is crying, she will immediately run around to find a pacifier and rush it to his side, shoving it in his mouth. He doesn't seem to mind and this always seems to calm him down!

Last weekend, Pat and I went on our first date sans both kiddos (thanks to my mom and Jeanne for watching them!). We went to see Brad Paisley!

We had a blast. How can you not have a blast when you go with these awesome people?

Brad Paisley does not disappoint. It was such a treat to go!!

After a night of (not) sleeping, we had a very lazy day and I let Kateri watch a movie.

That girl knows how to LOUNGE!

And luckily Sebastian did a little of this:

Well, this little guy is now awake and oh-so-hungry, so time to wrap up this long and random post :)

A surprise from Grandma

A couple weeks ago, an exciting package arrived at mom and dad's.

It was addressed to 'The Littles'.

And it came from Texas!

Inside, there was a beautiful hand-made, personalized quilt made by Grandma for each of the great-grandchildren!

What a treasure!

We had all the littles together when they saw the quilts for the first time.

As soon as we put the quilts on their laps, Kateri went in to her signature relaxing, ready-to-take-a-nap pose. She was ready to snuggle and relax with that beautiful blanket!!

They love their new quilts!

 

Each quilt is so beautifully and thoughtfully made.

Pat especially appreciated Sebastians quilt, which is baseball/Cubs themed! Grandma really outdid herself with this quilt. And I have to say, Sebastian always smiles when he lies on this blanket!

Kateri also dearly loves her quilt with the cats on it, and requests it every night before she goes to sleep.

The quilts inspired me to take a few 'fall' shots of the kids. After enlisting Jeanne's help, we headed to Signal Hill Park for some portraits.

Being immobile, Sebastian was by FAR the easier one!

 He is a happy boy!

With all the exciting things just begging to be explored, it was pretty impossible for Kateri to sit still. But she was happy to pose with the pumpkin for 0.3 second and luckily we caught it!

And of course Sebastian was too!

This is what photos of the two of them together look like:

Or, Kateri practicing CPR:

 



 Or attempting a tackle-hug:

 

 

I guess that's what I get with a 1.5 year old and a 3 month old. Haha!

Many many thanks to Grandma for these precious quilts! We love them and the kiddos will treasure them~ I know! (as long as Pat doesn't manage to steal the Cubs quilt from Sebastian!!)

September 17 Part III

Part I here

Part II here

So, we loaded up the kiddos once again and headed to Blackwater Falls, where Pat proposed three years ago.

Kateri was absolutely enthralled by the falls themselves. That was the only thing that could hold her attention!

Sebastian was more . . . "meh" . . . about them.




"Why all these pictures, mom??!!"

There was so much less water than we usually see here!

The extants Pat will go to to make Kateri happy.

And she is, very very happy.

Although you may not guess that from some of these pictures!

We then drove to Lindy point, which has beautiful views, and is a very easy hike (read flat and about half a mile!)

 

Thankfully, someone arrived just after us and kindly took a few pictures of us.

 

Kateri looks like a little movie star . . .

 

Handsome man :)

 

 

 

We made it there to see the beautiful sunset.

 

 

 



A glorious end to a lovely day! Thanks be to God!

September 17, Part II

Part I here.

 

So we all jumped in the car and headed to destination numero dos: Seneca Rocks.

 

If you have never been to this Park, I highly recommend it~ there are lovely picnic areas, a nice visitor center, a little historic blue house, and a hike that is challenging but not incredibly long (you feel like you got a good workout afterwards, but it doesn't take 6 hours to complete!).

 

So~~ Picnic Time for us! Pat packed some delicious wraps and other goodies, including one of my favorite libations: hard cider of the Angry Orchard variety. Delish!

 

We deployed the boring plastic cup trick.





 

 

Pat even brought three napkins, each a different color so that we could distinguish between the three of them.

 

Kateri was absolutely thrilled to sit like a big girl at the picnic table. She sat for a while, but soon her excitement grew to such heights that she could not possibly sit still and had to run around and collect whatever odds and ends she could find.

 



After we ate, it was hiking time!! I absolutely LOVE this hike. It is UP all the first half and so the second half goes so much quicker . . .

You can just barely see the lookout that the hike leads to~ it is that dark ledge on the left peak near the edge of the photo.

We opted to bring the stroller for K-bear, but after pushing that stroller up the bridge so Pat could take a pic (photo above) I think it would be 5,761 times easier to carrier her in a child-carrier (maybe a slight exaggeration!).

Pat pushed K-bear the rest of the way . . .

Or carried her . . . And the stroller . . .

Not a small flight of stairs . . .

There were a few other stair sections . . .

And quite a lot of steep hills . . .

And Pat would go sprinting up all those steep hills.

Which was quite the workout!

And, when you finally get to the top, the view does not disappoint!

This picture does not even do it justice, but does give an idea!

And then Pat had another surprise!

He proposed AGAIN!

:-)

So I said,

"Let me get back to you on that . . . maybe tomorrow?"

jk

And he had a beautiful necklace for me and another one for Kateri!

Such a fun surprise.

Of course, Kateri pulled her hair-tie out at some point on the way up, and quickly tossed it aside in the underbrush.

Sebastian clearly let us know that he was ready to keep moving and had no interest in lingering to drink in the beautiful valley below, so we headed back down the trail fairly quickly.

Once we got to the bottom, Kateri really wanted to hold Sebastian.

She won't be able to do this for long. I have a feeling he will be catching up (and maybe surpassing!) her soon!


Sebastian with his papa-bear.

And so concluded the second portion of our Day! And on to our next destination . . .