M & Ms

Katie will probably hate me for this picture later on but she looks so proud that I had to snap this photo. Potty training has now come to our house and is no longer a daycare-only phenomena. For motivation, we give Katie two M&M. As soon as Katie hits that seat, she says "I NEED my M&Ms!" She's doing great but we may need to move to stickers.

Going, going and gone

GOING.... GOING... GONE! I think the birch tree in our yard was technically dead when we bought the house. If not, the ice storm last December officially did it in. Since it was precariously hanging over our roof and the neighbor's porch, we decided to take it down before the tree-we-were-avoiding-dealing-with turned into the giant hole in our roof. We're on a roll with house projects. Here is Chad finishing up some painting...

2 going on 22

Katie turned two and seems to have grown up overnight. Ok, slight exaggeration but you know what I mean. Katie had a first last week. She went on the potty. She was very proud and excited but it seems to be only an occurrence that happens at daycare. She isn't that interested in it at home.

She is starting to become choosy about what she wants to wear and is insisting on dressing herself. Even her language seems older. I asked her the other day whether she wanted a drink and she responded "I'm good!" She is taking an active interest in cooking, both in her kitchen and in mine...

...and it looks like I might have some competition for my shoes soon but that seems to have started awhile ago.

Lookin' Good at Two

Katie really enjoyed her 2nd birthday. She had an Elmo cake that she loved. It took us a few days to open the gifts because Katie wanted to play after each gift. She went to the doctor for her annual check up on Monday. She kept saying "What Dr. Cleary doin'?" every time the doctor wrote a note. She was shy at first but as the doctor and I continued our conversation Katie started belting out songs so loud we could barely hear what each other was saying. She now weighs approximately 29 lbs and is 36 inches. Not sure how acurate the measurements are. She was not happy about their testing. She would rather dazzle them with a tune.

Happy 2nd Birthday Katie!

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY KATIE! We love you! Here is a photo take right after she was born. Here is Katie enjoying the cake from her first birthday party. Looks like the dog is enjoying it as well.

Hello Fall!

I thought summer was busy but the fall is turning out to be busier! We’ve had parties, Patriots games, golf tournaments all while trying to squeeze in a few home improvement projects like painting the front of the house. A few highlights: Here is the house mid-scrapping and pre-primer. Chad is diligently working on that project. Rain delays have cause a couple set backs but so far, so good. I was a little late for this and only offered minimal help but proudly volunteered for the Massachusetts Military Heroes Fund last Friday. This organization put together 300 care packages to Mass soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s a great local organization and here is the link if you are interested in more info: www.massmilitaryheroes.org. Organizations like this can always use more support. Katie took her first trip to the Zoo on Monday with Grammie and Tom. She was wondering if there would be sea lions and beluga whales like at the Aquarium but I told her most of the animals are land animals. She didn’t really grasp that concept. When I got home from work, she told me all about the giraffe eating hay, the elephant with the big ears, the deer that ate corn out of her hand and the rhinoceros (rhin-offer-uth) who went inside to eat lunch. I learned about a lot more animals as the night went on. It was great because she is learning about animals that live in the rainforest at daycare. Each day we get a new craft project that Katie has made at Josie’s. Here is her with a monkey. The mouth is cut upon so you can feed it paper bananas. She loves it! Next up is Katie’s 2nd birthday which is this Saturday. Uncle Stephen, her godfather, has a birthday this week too so she’s been singing “…HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE STEPHEN AND ME!...” I don’t think she knows that we’re suppose to sing to her so I’m curious to see if she’ll sing Happy Birthday to herself on Saturday.

Last Week of Summer

I guess this is the unofficial last weekend of summer. It's starting to feel like fall when I take Abby on her 6am walks. Katie has even begun particiapting in the preschool cirriculum at daycare so it feels like school started as well. She came home talking about the rainforest which is the first subject they are learning about. When I asked her where the rainforest was, she said "at Josie's house!" Here is Katie and one of the masterpieces she created at daycare.