Wednesday, August 24, 2011

2 Year Milestones / Statistics

August 12th we had Katie's 2 year well baby check-up. Below are her statistics and some major milestones at her 2 year mark.



  • 23 1/2 pounds (15th percentile)

  • 33 3/4 inches long (70th percentile)

  • Speech - I know I should have a word count, but its almost impossible to count her words at this point. Nana estimates its 500+ words....I don't even have a guess. Katie forms sentences of 4-5 words like "Watch Handy Manny please mama."

  • Pronouns - Uses and misuses. For example, when Katie wants to be carried upstairs she says "Carry you upstairs."

  • 3rd Person - Katie refers to herself in the 3rd person ALOT right now. For example, "Katie do it on own." My favorite is when she calls herself Katie Bug (because I call her that all the time). She says "Cover up Katie Bug" when she goes down for her nap.

  • Sleep habits: Nightime sleep is pretty consistent with bedtime around 8 PM and wakup around 7 AM. Naps are still a struggle at school, but she usually sleeps around 2 hours at home.

  • Colors: Katie can identify 8-10 colors (yellow, blue, green, orange, purple, pink, red, brown, black, and white). She often mixes up red and pink - but otherwise is pretty good. The video below shows her naming some of her colors at bathtime.

  • Shapes: Katie is still working on her shapes. She can identify a circle, star, heart, crescent (which she calls a moon), and triangle. The other shapes like squares and rectangles are hard....they both have 4 sides and I can't figure out a way to distinguish them for her. I need to ask Nana for some suggestions on that one.

  • Singing - my little one LOVES to sing. Her favorites right now are "Old McDonald had a Farm" (she calls it the E-I-E-I-O song), "Its raining its pouring", and the ABC Song. Oh and Twinkle Twinkle - which she calls "How I wonder"

  • Jumping - I must have spent 2 full months working on this....but she finally got it by around 23/24 months. Katie loves practicing her jumping skills in her crib while singing "5 little monkeys jumping on the bed."

  • Potty Training - We had made some headway in this department right before Katie turned 2, but there has been a bit of regression over the last week or two. She told her teacher at school today that she only goes to the potty for mama.

  • Stairs: Katie is still a little tentative on the steps. I've seen her walk down the steps by herself, but she rarely does it without holding my hand or holding the rail. I voiced my concern over this with our pediatrician. She didn't seem concerned and stated that Katie's vision is probably the cause. She says that depth perception is tricky for young kids with glasses.




Friday, August 19, 2011

2 Year Pics

I've tried to be good about getting professional photos taken to mark birthdays, and other milestones. I did miss the 18 month mark, but otherwise have done a relatively good job. For Katie's 2 year pics, we went to Portrait Innovations....our first trip there. Katie's extremely shy, and I was apprehensive - but she warmed up after a few minutes and by the end was loving it. You can definitely tell the staff there work with children daily - because they were great!


Probably my favorite picture......my two favorite people! :-)


Thursday, August 18, 2011

Thank you everyone!!!

I had promised a few pictures of Katie playing with her birthday presents...so here goes. Thank you again to everyone who made her day so special....and also for the gifts. She loves them all!!! If you don't see your gift in any of these pictures....its not because she doesn't love it. Its because I didn't capture it on film yet.


Play-Doh is a favorite past time..... :-)





Our cutie pie in her butterfly towel....



Her new tunnel gets pulled out every single day. FYI - it is not adult sized....though I can squeeze through it when I have to.



The grocery cart is just hilarious. She told me the other day she was leaving to go buy some juice and cookies! LOL! She even put her baby in the seat up front.







Sunday, August 14, 2011

Beach Music Festival



This weekend, we headed back to Woolwine. Matt and I had tickets to the Chateau Morrisette Beach Music Festival on Saturday and decided it would be fun to take Katie as well. The weather and music were GREAT...and we all had a wonderful time.



We also had a nice visit with my family which included some time on the Blue Ridge Parkway - and a couple trips to play in the creek at Nana and Papas. I even caught a couple of crawdads for Katie (she called them crabs). Pretty close, right?!?!

















Birthday Bash

Katie's 2nd birthday bash was at the Children's Museum of Richmond (CMOR). For those of you not from Richmond - its not really a museum. Its more like a huge playground for kids of all ages. We have a membership at CMOR, and its one of Katie's favorite places in Richmond. So, it was a natural choice for the birthday party.












Katie is a shy toddler - much more like Matt than me. She's tentative around unfamiliar people and/or large groups. With that in mind, we opted to keep it small....just immediate family and close friends with kids Katie's age.




The location and small group was perfect and Katie had a great time at the party. BY FAR - her favorite part was the parachute games. I didn't do a very good job of getting pictures....but trust me when I say the look on her face was priceless! :-)




Katie had a great time and received so many wonderful gifts. I've tried to capture her playing with as many of them as possible over the last week....but that will have to be a separate post. Thank you to everyone for making her day so very special!



Saturday, August 6, 2011

Turning 2!!!!

Two years ago today, Matt and I became parents. Born into this world - at 5 lbs. 13 oz. and 19 inches long was Kathleen Marie Barnes.....the most amazing gift in our lives. Its been a crazy ride. Nothing I could have ever planned, or predicted. But that's parenthood - right?



Parenthood hasn't been what I expected. People don't exagerate the level of hard work involved in parenting. What they also don't exagerate is the feeling of overwhelming joy you get from loving and rasing your child. You watch each milestone go by....amazed at how quickly they learn, and how fast they change. You watch their personality take shape....and look for similarities to either you, or your spouse.




Katie's Aunt Katherine has a saying that I love.....when it comes to raising children, the days are long, but the years are short. I'm hoping to make the most of those long days. Happy 2nd Birthday Katie Bug!!!!


p.s. Katie's birthday party was today....I'll try and do a full B-day party post soon!