New Cousin & Visiting the Zoo
Katherine’s new cousin, Tyler, was born this past Wednesday. We visited the hospital in Everett after work on Wednesday night and had dinner at a local diner. Katherine was a total trooper – after an hour in the car, she was a bit cranky but managed to keep it together. Patty had talked about visiting the new baby all day, and so Katherine was very interested to check out Tyler. I think she was a bit upset when I told her that we could look but not touch since he was sleeping (ahhh!!). She even made a lot of “baaa” noises on the way to Everett; perhaps she said “baby?” Anyway, Katherine passed out on the long drive back home.
Given all the attention on the new baby, we decided to take Kevin and Katherine to the zoo using our new AquaZoo membership. Grandpa, the two kids, Steve and I cruised around for 90 minutes – we walked thru the African Savanah, the Asian Forest and the Northwest exhibit before we decided that it was too cold to continue. The cousins seemed to have a good time together, being pushed in their umbrella strollers and chatting with each other. Katherine had a couple funny moments, particularly with monkeys. We were at one exhibit where two monkeys were behind glass and walking towards us. At one point, one monkey was directly in front of us. Katherine moved to Steve, and yanked on his legs so he would hold her. The other funny event occurred when we were standing in front of a window and two black monkeys – one which we saw, the other we didn’t. When Katherine saw the second monkey, she got very upset and had to be carried. Nonetheless, both kids did well and we headed to Lynnwood for dinner. We decided to visit Patty at the Spaghetti Factor, have dinner and get takeout for the Olbrights. Cousins mowed their way thru crackers, spaghetti and had a rousing time at dinner. Katherine was so tuckered out that she passed out going to Everett. We spent some time with Amy, Jason and Tyler before coming home.
More Words!
Finally….Katherine now says “maaaammmma.” Last night, we decided to give her warm water and not formula to get her stomach out of the routine of waking up at 1 or 2AM. In short, she was kind of mad and cried for 20 minutes (with us periodically going in her room) until she came to bed with us – thereby reinforcing another bad habit to stop another. Getting back to the original point, when Steve visited her, I heard her crying “mmamaaamaaam” ๐
Katherine works hard on other words too. We get “up” pretty consistently and “dad.” Last night, we played with her little people farm and get “cow!”
The head shaking is now happening more frequently. I gave Katherine to Steve to say good night last night. Steve said “good night” and Katherine shook her head at him as he went down the stairs. She also shakes her head whenever she’s had enough food or doesn’t want anymore drink.
Playing with her Toys
When I initially unpacked her Little People farm, she didn’t play with it too much. Now, she loves to mouth her animals and put them in the different compartments. For instance, she knows that her horse goes in the stall that neighs and the cow in the stall that moos. She can even put her scarecrow next to the garden and she tries to put the rooster and windmill on the roof.
Her rollercoaster is a huge hit too. She tries to stuff the people in their cars, but can’t quite hook the cars to the top of the coaster. So, we do that and then she hits the button (sometimes) sending the car down the coaster.
Katherine is also starting to try and imitate Elmo doing the hokey pokey. When we turn him on, she bounces up and down and wags her arms around – occasionally putting her arm in/out and shaking it around. We’ve even seen her stick her foot out. Eventually, she’ll learn how to dance the hokey pokey!
