Laundry baskets are full of fun! And 21 months...

Katherine is 21 months today. Wow! I cannot believe in 3 months she will be 2 years old. I don't want her to be 2 years old. I want her to remain little forever with her humor, smile, and joy for life. Her words and speech are progressing. Just this morning she tried saying "Good Morning" while we were out running. Yesterday she said "boy". And the other night I realized she is sometimes putting 3 words together "All Done Dada or all done milk". She finds ways to tell us what she wants or needs. When we do not understand she gets louder, in your face, and insistent. We have noticed she has amazing balance and strength. The other day Ethan, Katherine and I were walking into Target all holding hands. I thought it would be fun to count to 3 and swing her. She liked it of course. But then what we were not expecting was when Katherine on our way out took our hands, started walking, and then picked her legs up from the ground and hung on for almost the entire walk to the car. I am the one who had to put her down! She loves to go to school and see Emma. I, personally, think how she tells us she is hot is very cute. She will take something off and I ask her why - she blows with her mouth to tell me she is hot. I do believe she took this from us blowing on her hot food. When I say I am going to clean up the kitchen Katherine yells, "me, me" and off she goes to find her broom, map, dust pan, bucket and vacuum. She really likes to help me clean. She is becoming more and more independent and persistent on being independent. It started with simple things like walking down steps (that was a long time ago) now we have moved on to jackets and clothes. I taught her last week how to flip her jacket over her head to put on. A trick Emma's old daycare provider taught her. She can put her own shoes on and if you tell her they are on the wrong feet she will take them off and switch. Now she has moved on to her clothes - pants and shirts. She is still working on doing this without any guidance because if we were not around both legs would end up in the same leg hole or her shirt would end up upside down with no place for the arms. She loves Bucky Badger ever since we came home with him last week from Build-A-Bear. She is a pure joy in our lives. I have been realizing lately that when Emma was at this age I did not have the privilege to be with her everyday and see her faces or watch her think and play because I was in graduate school. It is very special to be able to have these moments with Katherine.

This is my favorite!

Look at me balance!



Cheese!