I like hummus with pita chips.

Day Out with Thomas

Every year, an event is put on in Connersville, IN that a life size Thomas the Tank Engine is brought into town. Kids and grown-ups are able to ride in carriages/coaches that are pulled/pushed by Thomas the Train. As always Brendan was a little bit unsure initially, but quickly warmed up to the idea. We lucked out in the weather department, in that when it did rain a little bit, we were on our train rides.

Excitedly waiting for Thomas to pull into the station!
Riding on the train
Getting our tickets punched
Mommy & Brendan riding the train.
Thanking Thomas for the nice train ride.
They had a tent where kids could play with small trains, as well as color and play with chalk.


Katelyn got in on the fun too

In addition to the Thomas train, there was another train made up mostly of cabooses and one carriage that everyone could ride on as well. This train went on the same track as Thomas, but pulled off onto a siding so that all the kids got to see Thomas the Tank Engine going by on the tracks.


"Bye-bye Thomas, thanks for a great day!"

Happy Father's Day

Bad Mommy didn't get any pictures of Daddy with his kiddos today. I did get one of Katelyn "helping" GrandBob open his gift from the kids/grandkids.

Party

Uncle Jack is celebrating his 80th birthday this year! Happy Birthday!!! There was a party in his honor up in Anderson at Kim Weis' house. The kids had a great time! There was chalk, a sandbox, a swing set, and crochet - not that the kids could actually play, but Brendan had a great time making a train out of the mallets. :)

Even some of the bigger kids got in on the playing. :)

Our vegetable garden

I really wanted to do a good sized vegetable garden this year, but unfortunately time was not in our favor between the move and all the raining weather. So, I decided to do a little bit of container gardening and next year we'll try to put in a decent vegetable garden.

We've done tomatoes before and have had pretty good luck with them. So far so good this year as well. We have 4 big boy plants and 1 Roma plant.



Something new this year is lettuce. I bought 4 romaine and 4 bibb lettuce plants and have them in a window box size pot on our deck. Originally they were by all the tomatoes, but we have some brave bunny rabbits who decided that our baby lettuce plants looked like a great snack...grr!


We also have some rosemary, basil and oregano growing. We love the fresh summer produce from the Fishes Farmer's Market, but it's even better when it comes from your own backyard!

15 Months

Weight - We haven't had our 15 month check up yet, but I can't believe that she's 20 pounds yet.
Clothing Size - still in 9-12 month stuff, but some of the summer 18 month stuff that we have is starting to fit or at least we wearable! Wearing size 3 shoes. She's definitely in size 3 diapers now.
Teeth - She's working on her incisors now - the bottoms are definitely starting to come in, not real sure about the top ones. Her one-year molars are in. So she's got a mouth full of teeth. :) Unfortunately, she has bitten us a couple of times on our shoulders. Hopefully this is not a trend that will continue.
Sleep - Katelyn is still not really sleeping through the night. She's definitely getting better. She's typically waking up between 4:30-5:30 to nurse and then goes back to sleep. There have been a few nights that she's slept through until 7 or so which has been wonderful! But I'll take the 4:30 wake-up over the 12:30 or 2:30 ones any day! I'm usually get 5-6 hours of sleep in a stretch which is heavenly!
Eating - Katelyn will eat just about anything not nailed down. Such a difference from her brother currently. :) She prefers peas over green beans and carrots. LOVES cottage cheese with or without fruit. Enjoys just about any fruit - blueberries and bananas are probably her favorites. She could easily eat an entire banana in one sitting. She is still nursing usually twice per day - morning (either 4:30am or around 7am) and before going to bed at 7:30pm. Cow's milk is still a struggle although the other day she did drink almost an entire 8 ounces throughout the day. I have no idea what was different!
Motor - Katelyn is a little monkey just like her big brother. I can't count how many times I've caught her up on the kitchen table. We've gone so far as to move all the kitchen chairs out of the kitchen, but then I have no where to sit either! She's not very good about doing the stairs on her tummy, she thinks that she's "big" and wants to walk down them like everyone else.
Talking/Signing - She still hasn't said any real words other than Mama. I've maybe gotten a "ba" for book or baby. She does do a few signs, her favorite being "more" usually related to food. :) She nods her head emphatically "yes" to questions and is fairly reliable in doing so. She does know some body parts now - nose, legs/toes, tummy/belly button. She's still a great hugger/snuggler and when laying her head on our shoulders, if we pat her back, she will most likely pat ours back.
Disposition - Overall, she is really a happy little girl. However, she can be quite stubborn and has already watched her brother throw too many temper tantrums and is starting to do the same when she doesn't get her way. In a way, it's kinda humerous to watch this ity-bitty girl lay down and cry/scream, but I am also fearful of the next 1-2 years.
Favorite Things - In addition to her love of water, she loves singing songs with us - Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle Twinkle - her favorite & Rock a Bye Baby to which she will hold one of her baby dolls and sway side to side.
Playing with the dogs - I think that I mentioned this last time for her 12 month post, but she's loving the dogs. We're trying to teach her to be gentle and so far Dora has been really tolerant of her. She likes to pet them and is intrigued by the wagging tails. She will sometimes grab Dora's snout/face which terrifies me, but again Dora has been amazing and just kinda takes it in stride.

Her 15 month well visit is scheduled for mid-July, so I'll try to add height, weight, and head size here.

Early Father's Day

Mamaw & GrandBob hosted an early Father's Day celebration at their house this evening. We had yummy food and the kids (plus Daddy, Uncle Rob & Aunt Jenny) enjoyed the pool.



Brendan discovered that he likes Mamaw's Baked Beans!
Aunt Julie & Annie at the kids table! :)

Spencer Farms - Strawberry Picking

My mom's group visited Spencer Farms this week to do some strawberry picking. I had never been strawberry picking and am so glad that we went! As soon as we pulled into the parking lot, it started to rain and it was coming down pretty good for awhile too! I almost said that we were just going to go home as I was fearing a muddy mess in the fields, then the rain let up.

Brendan was so excited to go and pick strawberries. He walked all the way out to the field carrying the little containers for collecting the berries. He struggled a little bit in following directions initially - we had a few white strawberries picked and put into our baskets. But eventually, he seemed to get the hang of it! Katelyn even managed to pick a few as well. Of course some of hers went straight into her mouth...leaves and all. :)

In the end, we collected about a pound of strawberries to take home. They were absolutely delicious, despite some of them being quite bruised. Brendan spent a good part of our time dumping the strawberries out of his bin and into Katelyn's and vice versa. He also collected a few rocks and put them in with his strawberries. :) (Gotta love my 100% boy!)

This is my favorite picture from the day





Strawberries for breakfast the next morning