Hanging with his peeps

In ten years from now, I am sure Justin will kill me for taking his picture with his sister's doll, but lately this doll has been his best bud. Katelynn always has to bring her baby everywhere with us lately, but she either gets distracted and dumps it on Justin or she feels her baby needs to be in the same thing her mommy's baby is so Justin gets stuck with this baby a lot. He loves it though. He'll kiss it and hug it and wrap his arm around it. The other day in the mall, the doll was strolling in the stroller with us and I had several people take two looks and mention they thought I had two real babies until they looked again.

Baby toys are cool too!

Remember that little girl who didn't want to share HER toys? She sure has no problem with making sure her brother shares his baby toys. This was her favorite chair today, and Justin is actually more than happy to share it as lately he has no interest in being in a bouncer chair. I think I'm in denial that it's about time to pack up the bouncers. That would mean my baby isn't as little anymore, but truth be told he crys anytime I put him in it. It lays him back too far for his liking.

And this is just the start...

... of the sibling fights we are going to have to endure over the years. I must admit that I didn't expect them to begin already. Okay, honestly, it's not quite a fight yet as Justin doesn't fight back but still.. here we go!

So, to recap for you, here are some pictures of the "event" that took place here today. Katelynn wanted to play with her favorite of favorite toys- her dollhouse people and car. We were building them a house with her blocks, and I popped Justin into the bumbo and handed him some toys. Well, he played with them for a second and then he noticed this super cool car sitting right next to him and within his reach and he went for it.

Katelynn wasn't even using it a the moment since she was building. Justin was moving it all of two inches and opening the door. In that picture above he is looking at his sister (who spots him and immediately starts having a fit) trying to figure out why she is so upset.

And then seconds later, she decides since Mommy won't fight for her, she's going to do it herself:

So, we had to have a long, long talk about sharing our toys today. I highly doubt it will end the fights I will spend years breaking up, but hopefully it will at least prevent some from occuring!

A Birthday at the Zoo!

Today was my dad's 52nd birthday, and he wanted nothing more for his birthday than to spend it with his grandkids. Traveling to Georgia is a bit difficult for me right now. Justin HATES the car and I often find a trip to the grocery store stressful with his screaming fits. Last night my mom and I decide to try to make my dad's birthday wish come true by meeting halfway between here and their house, which turned out to be Greenville, South Carolina's zoo.

It was a perfect day for the zoo as it was semi-cloudy and not too terribly warm (mid-70's maybe?), and we had a great time. We ended our day at the zoo (after playing in the park) with dinner at Red Robin. It was a great day, and hopefully it made my dad have a great birthday!

Someone got a little tired having to pull the wagon that he decided to ride it down one of the hills. (And if you would have been there, you would have known that Katelynn was the one pulling her wagon most of the time. We're still not sure if she liked pulling her wagon or the animals better.)

Looking at zoo animals is EXHAUSTING for a little guy!This was a little mist that the kids could run through. Katelynn thought it was pretty funny watching kids run through it. She only ran through it herself a few times. Most of the time she felt a touch of water going towards it and took off running in hysterical laughs.Some fun at the parkLook at that face!
THAT face again.. there's something about hanging from rope that brings this face out :)

A sad ending to a great day as we put the kids PJ's on and said goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa.

And I almost forgot to add- Katelynn thought looking at bugs was just as cool as looking at animals. She made sure her Grandpa got a good look at the fly she found, and at one point while we were all checking out pink flamingos, Katelynn was all excited about the ant crawling up with fence! Who knew I just needed to take her in our backyard for some bug watching!

What a face!

I have absolutely no idea what this face is. I turned around from taking pictures of Katelynn riding her jeep and saw Justin staring at us with this face.

Geared up and cruis'n

It's still up for debate whether Katelynn likes her helmet and knee pads better or her new bike, but either way she made some great progress today on the big girl bike. She can now pedal it continuously. She needs a push to get going, but once she starts she can keep pedaling. Now she just needs to get moving on her own and pick up speed and she'll be a pro!

Her jeep is currently her favorite set of wheels outdoors. If you would have seen her with this last year, you never would have imagined she would love it as much as she does now. She was scared of it and hardly ever wanted to ride it. If she got in it at all, she would want someone to push the pedal with a broom stick to make it go. At her birthday in October, she finally started showing some interest and now she is a pro at it. When she started riding it this spring, she couldn't steer it or reverse it, but as I watched her today, she really can get that jeep to go anywhich way she wants. As I was taking pictures tonight, she was cruising circles around me and moving away just in time to not hit me. This would be why I have a blurry but super cute face in the second picture.

The phrases of a toddler

Katelynn cracks me up lately with some of the thing she says. Seriously, I don't know where she gets all of it from sometimes. I am afraid if I don't start writing it all down that I will forget the funny things that she says!

Here are a few of her current phrases that she uses often:
"I not know." (For I don't know)
" Ya" (for you). I have no idea who taught her this but she says it with everything. "I'll help ya." "Here ya go." "Ya want to go to the store?"
"Oh, sure." Instead of yes, we often hear sure.
"That be awful." (I'm pretty sure this was something out of my mom's mouth as I have heard her say it, but a 2-year old saying it is pretty funny!)
"You scared me." (This is what she says EVERYTIME she gets in trouble and/or yelled at.
"I sad I have to take nap."


... I know there are more and I'll probably come back and edit this just to keep a record of it somewhere for myself.

6/6/09 Two comments by Katelynn:

"I'm not a little girl. I'm a BIG sister!"
"I am having a bad day." (Says this as she gets in trouble.)