KelPhotoBlog

Elmo! (and also his friends)

When we ask Katherine who she saw yesterday she says "ELMO!!! AND his friends".  We took her to Baltimore for Sesame Street Live and yes, she LOVED it.  It was really really fantastic seeing Katherine so incredibly excited, I didn't watch the show very much but just watched Katherine watching it.  We felt a little under-dressed, most kids and families were wearing Elmo attire.  I'm so glad we aren't at that level (and won't ever be, thank you!).

We only brought the point-and-shoot, here are a few snapshots.  It was too dark to get any of Katherine watching though :(

Ready to go with her Elmo backpack (apparently he enjoyed the show as well). This doesn't count as attire, right?

We had to stop for dinner first

The Girls

Still busy around here!  I will be blogging more though, I promise!

Here is Sydney, just hanging out (as Katherine likes to say)

I wanted to get some pics of Katherine doing her peacock dance.  She wants to be a peacock for Halloween.  This is the dress (that my friend Marina made for her and also one for her baby doll!) that she always wears when performing her peacock dance.  Today, though, she was not in a performing mood. Oh well, I'll try again.  Sometimes she looks so much older than 2.5.

Her first dandelion, we told her to make a wish and blow.  She blew on the wrong end but I think her wish will still come true.

Her baby, on the phone with Halmony (Alex's mom)

Don't worry, Sydney gets a turn too

10 Things About Sydney

I got this idea from some of my friends' blogs.  The blogs really do become our scrapbooks (at least for me - I definitely have more in here than in their baby books. Sydney doesn't even have a baby book yet.).  So here are some things I want to always remember about Sydney as a newborn. 

1. She's noisy.  Ever since I held her right after she was born she's just been a noisy little baby.  Makes noises about everything, whether happy, upset, frustrated or talking to the ceiling fan.  My favorite is the sweet little almost-snoring, content, comfortable, with-just-a-little-of-her-voice-in-it, sleeping sound. 

2. She loves her mobile.  And her bug over the changing table but at least 50% of the time it's not there because Katherine has insisted on removing it.  It actually is Katherine's old bug so I guess that's fair.  The mobile though, she smiles at it while kicking her legs and swinging her arms. And then Katherine has to have a turn.

3. She smiles and smiles and now at 8 weeks she's trying very hard to laugh. She almost did it today.  I think by this time next week we'll have some giggles out of her. 

4. One of my favorite things I smile at every day is her little foot sticking out of the sling.  She spends a lot of time in there and after walking around for a while I'll look down to check on her (as she happily snores) and there are her sweet baby toes, hanging over the edge of the sling. 

5. She tries to latch-on to noses. If you attempt to give her a kiss she will whole-heartedly go for your nose every time.

6. She always calms down when I sing ABCs or Hush Little Baby. Maybe because those are 2 of Katherine's favorite night-time songs that we sing and she remembers them from when she was in my belly.

7. She goes through at least 3 outfits a day (and so do I). Yep, she's a spitter.  But a happy spitter.

8. She gives Alex a special look, a combination of "WOW!" and "I like you".

9. She doesn't like going down the stairs and you absolutely can't carry her in only one arm.  If you do, she clinches both fists, straightens her arms and legs, turns red and looks at you like "How could you do that to me again???!"

10. She likes to keep moving. Loves her sling, loves being carried around and in the car we choose our routes based on which way has the fewest stoplights.

Just a couple

Sydney, being held by Alex

Sorry for the quality of these next 2, it was dark!

Katherine is enjoying dressing herself these days

Not that you would ever know...

Last day of class

Yesterday was Katherine's last day of her funfit class.  She took three classes through the county over the past 2 months and they have been fantastic!  This was her favorite. She really came a long way too, from running wild the first couple of classes to knowing exactly where to be and when to be there these last few weeks.  It's really true that they do well with repetition at this age!

Carousel!

We took Katherine to Glen Echo the other day so she could ride the carousel.  Loved it, of course.  She rode many many times, most often with her daddy.  Here are a few shots from the day!




She actually is having fun, despite her stoic expression, it's just that she takes this very seriously.  This is the expression she has in almost every pic I took.




Daddy got her to smile.

Some snapshots

Sydney is 4 weeks old today!  She's already interacting with us more and smiling a ton.  Just love it!  She has a bad case of baby acne though, I hope it goes away soon and I really hope its not bothering her.  Still only one hand available for typing so here are some snaps!

Young Hokie #1, playing with a caterpillar (she thinks she's gentle but unfortunately for the caterpillars, she's not):

Young Hokie #2:

Caught a smile!

Katherine had a fantastic time at Antoine's Birthday party yesterday (seen here w/ a Thomas and her divining rod):

I got a new lens :)  It lets me get closer...

A game!

First of all - a couple of updates. Sydney is suddenly huge!  Alex and Joo-ok and I were looking at photos of Katherine from her 3rd week.  We were looking at them on Tuesday.  As in two days ago.  And noting how much bigger Katherine was at the same age.  I swear, seriously, overnight Sydney grew to meet the standard her sister set 2 years ago.  As I've been mentioning here, her cheeks are now full, her legs are big, it's time to put away all of the small clothes, even the bigger small clothes.  Today I held her up to my friend Donna's very healthy 10 week old and we decided that Sydney is just as big.  Meanwhile Sydney continues to spit-up, something Katherine never really did and we're doing laundry way more often, even with the addition of the burp cloths from my friend Marina.  Katherine is doing pretty well overall.  She did decide that she is 'Daddy's big girl' while Sydney is 'Mommy's baby'.  I tried to convince her that Sydney is Daddy's baby too and that she's my big girl but she said that she isn't.  :(  This was yesterday.  Today she's a little more of mommy's girl again thank goodness.

And now for the game.

The game is called:  Which One is Sydney and Which One is Katherine??  This may be too easy.  Next time I'll take one of Sydney wearing the same thing as Katherine and in the same position.

A:

B:

Is there a prize if you get it right?  Maybe.

And one of Katherine from yesterday...

3 Weeks Old!

Today Sydney is 3 weeks and wow she's getting big already.  She has now grown out of her newborn and 0-3 month clothing and is in 3 months!  Craziness.  The feet of the sleeper she wore home from the hospital now come to mid-calf level.  I think she's gonna be a fast grower like Katherine!  It's amazing how quickly this is going and how fast she's changing.

Here's one from yesterday:

Here's one from a couple of weeks ago:

Anna and Natasha!

Although their visit was brief, we had so much fun with Anna and Nat!  Katherine and Anna have only met a few times but they played so well together.  They don't fully know this but Natasha and I have proclaimed then BFF.  They will be, just wait and see...

Here they are. K. is wearing the dress that Anna sent her last week, she loves it.

I like how they have the same expression...

Katherine LOVES when someone is willing to do Ring Around the Rosie with her.

And no, I'm not sure why the monkey is in every shot.

And Happy Mother's Day!