Birthday + 2 Months

Life has become incredibly busy since Month 10 ... Katie turned 3, Cara turned 1, and we discovered that Julia will be joining our family in March 2013! The big girls had their annual wellness visit with our pediatrician where Katie measured 42 inches tall and weighed 42 pounds; no surprise she was in the 100th percentile for both. Cara measured 31 inches tall and weighed 21 pounds 7 ounces; she was also in the 100th percentile for height but only the 50th for weight. Both girls are completely healthy! We celebrated their birthday on September 1st with a huge gymnastics party. Over 25 friends, ranging in age from a few months to 8 years, all their parents, and many other favorite adults came to celebrate with us. The girls were blessed with so many wonderful presents it took me 2 months to get all the thank you notes completed! We hand delivered the last of the thank yous while Trick or Treating on Halloween night. Now to start planning for all our holiday season activities ...

Pregnancy with Julia has been WONDERFUL! I felt sick for a few weeks, but nothing eating couldn't remedy. She's healthy, moving all the time now, and at the moment I'm blissfully enjoying that 2nd trimester high! Still wearing most of my regular clothes, at week 20 I generally give in and pull out the box of maternity stuff ... and this time I'm discovering there's great value in the comfort of true maternity clothes. Both of her ultrasounds have been so much fun, and with the peace God has given me about this pregnancy on the whole it has been the most fun of the 3!

We have been so busy during the past 4 months that when I looked back over all the things we have done I was amazed that 2 growing seasons passed. We went to our favorite orchard for both peaches and apples since I last posted!  The peaches were a huge hit with Katie again this year and Cara had just enough teeth (only 2) to get excited about the apples. We ate tons of fresh yummy peaches and apples, and I baked a couple apple pies. My pie baking is getting much better with practice, and it helps that I now have the properly proportioned recipe for my pie pans. We then moved into pumpkin season where the girls tried all sorts of new pumpkin items and seemed to really love them all! I think seasonal cooking and using the oven when the weather changes is one of the very best parts of fall. We ate pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin seeds, pumpkin pie bagels from Panera, and I enjoyed both the much anticipated return of the pumpkin spice steamer at Starbucks and the pumpkin pie blizzard at Dairy Queen. Thankfully, in spite of all my eating, Julia was still right at the 50th percentile at our 20 week ultrasound appointment ... weighing just 11 ounces.

When September began Cara had just 2 little teeth, and my poor baby still was not sleeping though the night regularly. Big changes occurred during the months of September and October ... Cara went from just 2 little teeth to a mouthful of 10! My prayers have also been answered with a number of sleep-filled nights since all the crazy teething concluded. Little Caroline LOVES food! She will try anything and usually come back for a 2nd bite even if she isn't sure. She wants to feed herself and her interest in nursing has diminished significantly, much to my disappointment. On the subject of food we have seen great improvement in Katie. She much more readily eats her food using utensils and she is willing to try almost anything on her plate without crying. We have added all sorts of new foods to her list of likes and she even willingly ate all her broccoli on October 8th. We celebrated this victory with a cookie party; I left immediately for the bakery as she popped the last piece in her mouth and arrived just before closing. She also transitioned into using a new brand of sippy cup and we disposed of all the disgusting looking Dora ones - yay. Overall, meals in our household have become substantially more enjoyable!

Caroline gave up crawling completely on July 3rd; this was unfortunately the exact date of her 2nd crawling race at the ballpark. Since then she has discovered a love for climbing, dancing, and running! She is definitely a girl on the move, and she's so proud of herself. After walking for a month she decided to stop fighting us on wearing shoes and actually wanted to wear them inside the house. I think her hope was that if she had the shoes on we would eventually have to go outside - she's a smart girl! We moved her into a forward-facing carseat just days after her birthday and she absolutely delights in her new view and enhanced comfort while riding. Her attitude about car rides has improved dramatically. I don't think it has hurt any that we purchased a new vehicle with third row seating to accommodate our growing family. Cara seems to like riding in her new captains chair of our Mazda MPV!

Katelyn began preschool just days after her birthday and she really loves it! She attends preschool just 3 mornings per week for 3 hours. Having a big girl activity that is all for her, and getting out to do new exciting things is exactly what she needed. I struggled with the decision to let her attend preschool for months since I will be homeschooling and I am a stay-at-home mom; however, it became quite clear that this is exactly what Katie needed! We enrolled her in a wonderful private Christian school where they pray before snack and all the children have at least one part-time stay-at-home parent. I'm not entirely sure, but I think all the kids' parents are married to each other too! I've seen lots of mommies and daddies picking up their preschoolers together. It's wonderful to have found an environment where my daughter can learn and play with other children who are being raised in homes with values similar to ours!

We have witnessed substantial growth and so many wonderful changes in Katie over the past 4 months. She has become more independent; completing tasks like 12 and 24 piece puzzles all by herself. She can navigate the ipad without assistance and loves to play educational games. She is awesome at the board game Memory and has legitimately won the game against me. Her singing has improved as we have moved away from the medley of Dora tunes and onto worship music (thanks to VeggieTales) and songs about colors and fall from preschool. She taught herself how to open and close doors, which includes going into the refrigerator to get the milk (still her favorite), and she is completely undeterred by the child safety devices we installed on some of the door knobs! By the end of the summer she was putting on her own sandals and although the tongues of her gym shoes continue to get in the way she manages to get those on too now. Getting dressed is still a bit of work since it's a cooperative effort with me putting the shirt on top of her head for her to pull down and get her arms in, pants/skirts/shorts are hit or miss depending on the day, and socks are impossible. She is however a hard worker and very persistent and I know the day is coming when I'll be able to just tell her to get dressed and it'll all happen magically.

The area of greatest growth for Katie has been in language and social interaction. She has been working hard, very hard, on both. Preschool has contributed greatly to her success and she's learning how to be a friend. We celebrated birthdays for her friends Patrick, Bryston, and Xavi and we're looking forward to Madison's party later this month. Communication with peers continues to be a struggle for her; however, she is incredibly kind and gentle, sweet and cuddly, and other kids really like her! She has gone from speaking 2 word sentences with only an article and a noun to using a variety of phrases to express her desires. When September began she was just starting to use verbs and now this is no longer a specific struggle. She can verbalize her name and age and she knows she is a girl; all milestones that should be reached by a child's 3rd birthday. Sometimes she even calls me Mommy to get my attention and the first time this happened - yes, I did cry! She is getting so much better at using verbal language now the challenge is to get her to understand conversational/social language so that she can build those friendships. It is clear that she does prefer to be with other children and her relationship with Cara has improved greatly! We're thankful for all the improvements she has made and we know God has a plan for her ... I anticipate that someday I will look back at all my concern and worry and wonder - why?

Both girls are working hard at following multi-step directions and they have both mastered light switches. Katie delights in being able to turn the lights on and off at will. Cara is just so pleased to have me hold her next to the light switch so that she can flip it and get excited every single time. They have both also mastered unzipping zippers. Cara can unzip her little fleece vest, and Katie is able to take off her coat all by herself and remove her blanket sleeper pajamas too. They are both growing so fast and it's fun to see them accomplish similar tasks at the same time. Cara wants to be just like her big sister and you should see the way she looks at Katie! She loves to give Katie hugs, but she also equally enjoys pulling Katie's pigtails. Katie gives Cara the sweetest kisses; today she even pulled Cara's finger out of her mouth to clear the way for a real kiss on her lips. Their sweet sister moments are becoming too numerous to count! and that's just the way I like it!!!

This should catch us up on things; however, if you do not think this is comprehensive enough maybe you need to come by and visit. Yes, that is an invitation ... hope to see you soon! Happy belated Halloween and don't forget to check out my Facebook Page for photo updates too.