Bring on the steak!

Just a quick update from yesterday. Fortunately, Kate did not have an ear infection. She does have a respiratory infection and THREE molars coming in all at the same time. The pediatrician said this could look a lot like an ear infection because they have pain in the same spot. She's on antibiotics and seems better already. She slept great last night and was herself this morning. With all those molars, she'll be ready for steak in no time :)

Kate at 25 percent

Kate isn't feeling too well today.  I'm going to take her to the pediatrician tomorrow morning, but I think she probably has an ear infection.  She slept most of the afternoon, but she did rebound for a couple of hours to play outside with Alli.  You wouldn't know she was sick from these pictures, but trust me this was not the norm today :)

Pondering life with Alli.  

Check out the wind-blown hair.  

 

First Capri Sun.  She loved it! She's really good with straws.  

Scenes from a day in the life of Kate

Watching a little Baby Einstein while mom makes dinner.

Running off to play with some kids at a party (thanks Mrs. Nicole for this dress!)

Feeding pieces of toilet paper to Alli while mom gets ready for work.  

Friday Fun Facts

I'll post some new pics this weekend, but I thought I'd post some new facts about Kate for today:

• She loves to look at books lately. Some of her favorites are: That's Not My Puppy, Peas and Thank You, Thank You God, Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?
• We started putting her in warmer clothes to sleep and she's been sleeping much better at night. She was waking up a lot and we realized she was cold.
• I took her to the library for the first time yesterday afternoon on the way home from work. We didn't last too long, but she loved looking at all the books. She was ALL over the place, pulling books off the shelves and running around giving them to other kids.
• Some new foods this week - mushrooms and asparagus. She liked them both! She seems to like most fruits and vegetables.
• Next week is Kate's last week full-time at school and then she'll only be going two days a week through the summer. Yay! I am so excited to be home with her more.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Happiest outside

As you can see, when we are inside Kate is just trying to make her way outside to play.  

She loves to play in the wagon and be pulled around.  

Lathered up in sunscreen and bug spray for play time.  

She is just so, so happy to be outside.  You can see her little teeth in this picture :)

"Daddy, being that dirty looks like fun.  How do I get dirty like that?"

Friday Fun Pics

Happy Friday! I thought I'd post a few pictures to show Kate in action.

She loves to play with her blocks and books.  She loves to carry them around the house.  On Wednesday night, we took her to dinner and then Barnes and Noble.  We got a few new books for her, but mostly we had fun watching her check out all the books in the store.  

She has been increasingly pointing at things when she notices them.  

You can see her running.  She noticed a set of stairs.  Going up and down stairs is new favorite activity.  

Easter Bug

Here's Kate (we call her bug, thus the title) in her Easter dress.  

Happy Easter!

Easter Egg Hunt

Today was the Easter Egg Hunt at church.  Lots of fun!  Some of our Baton Rouge family joined us.  

Fred with all the kids.  

Post-hamburger - delicious!

Kate and cousin Wyatt (Fred's god son) checking out their baskets.  

Here's what Kate and Wyatt had in their baskets at the end of the Egg Hunt.  Not the most aggressive egg hunters :)

This is how Kate chose to play with her basket.  

Waiting for the Egg Hunt to start.  

Still waiting.  Trying to coral a bunch of toddlers until an egg hunt starts - not easy.  

Hanging with momma.  

Good Friday Pics

I had the day off to spend with Kate today, so I took her to the nearby arboretum to take some spring pictures.  Tomorrow we have an Easter egg hunt at our church.  Should be a lot of fun!

This is where we found Kate working on a nap this morning - in Alli's crate :)

Playing with her Easter basket she got at school.  

As usual, playing with Alli.  

Good Friday

"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13

Some Good Friday ramblings...

As we celebrate Good Friday tomorrow and Easter on Sunday, I am so grateful for God's love. My utter selfishness stands in such contrast to his selfless, unconditional love.  Jesus Christ's free gift of love is available to anyone at any time, as he demonstrated when He told the thief on the cross next to him "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."

The message translates John 15:13 as "Put your life on the line for your friends."  Am I even willing to put my life on hold for my friends?  I hope so.  I want to be the kind of friend that will abandon my schedule and my plans when a friend is in need.   Something to strive for...

Friday Fun Pics - A Day Early

I thought I'd go ahead and post Friday Fun Pics as I have a meeting tonight and won't have time to post.  It's been cool here this week, so we had to put on a jacket but we still made it outside to play.  

Future Gator Dodge-ball player?  (They have dodge-ball in college, right?)

I love being outside!! 

On the go

This is our new morning ritual. I get Kate out of bed and give her a sippy cup with milk.  She lets me hold her for about 2 seconds and then she scrambles down and heads over to see Alli. She'll usually hang out right here and drink her milk for a little bit.  

Video from Beth Moore Conference

This is a video montage of the conference we went to this past weekend that was posted on Beth Moore's blog today.  Coolest thing - the very first shot in the video is of our group.  I don't know the rest of the people in the video, but they look like they had as much fun as we did :)


Living Proof Live - New Orleans 2009 from Rich Kalonick on Vimeo.

Spring Break

Great weekend here, kicking off Spring Break.  I enjoyed the Beth Moore conference in New Orleans with some girls from our church.  We hung around on Saturday and went to lunch in the Garden District.  It was a lot of fun.  I really want to write about what I learned at the conference, but I think I need some more time to digest first.  I will write about it soon.  

Lunch at the Camelia Grill

Kate ready for church this morning.  

Watching Baby Mozart while waiting for mom to finish getting ready.  

Friday Fun Pics

Happy Friday! Hope all of our loved ones in Florida aren't getting too wet.  We saw some nasty weather heading your way.  A few updates on Kate - we are officially off the bottle, completely. She was just walking around with the bottle, not really wanting to drink it (see pic below).  So we decided to see how she'd do with the milk in the sippy cup.  Second try was the charm! No more bottles to wash.  This is a bittersweet (mostly sweet) feeling :)

This weekend starts my spring break.  Fred is giving me a sweet gift.  I am getting away with some girlfriends Friday night and Saturday morning for a Beth Moore conference in New Orleans.  I've been doing her Bible studies for a few years and I am really looking forward to the conference and some fun time with friends.  I know Fred and Kate will have fun together too.  I have to work some next week during spring break, but I am planning to spend some extra time with Kate, so we should have some fun new pics next week.  

See what I mean?  Just walking around, occasionally sipping, not really drinking the milk and throwing the bottle on the ground when something more interesting caught her attention.  

Shorts weather is finally here!

You have to laugh at yourself, or you'll cry your eyes out if you don't

Yesterday, Fred and I picked Kate up from school together and took her to get frozen yogurt. We had so much fun. Like I said before, she is over being held and just wants to walk. But, she likes to walk between Fred and I and hold both of our hands. It is such a sweet feeling to walk along and see her reach up for your hand.

This is always the busiest week of the year for me at work. Deadlines, deadlines, deadlines. I guess I've had a lot on my mind. Last night at church, I left my car unlocked and RUNNING for two hours while I was inside working with the kids. So scatterbrained!! Oh well, I guess we all have moments like that :)