Princess Kate Update

It has been too long since I have done a detailed Kate update. As of today Miss Kate is just a few days shy of being 2 years and 4 months old. She is such a big girl!! I feel like she understands a lot and can say anything. She talks non-stop! Her overall pronunciations are improving, although I still often have to translate for her. Kate is very observant, has a great memory and a wonderful imagination. It is fun to hear some of the things that she connects with no help, as well as some of what goes on in her imagination. A couple of the more recent things that have made us chuckle are--she looks up at me and Nick in church and says "I sit on baby Jesus' couch" and then the other day she asked "I eat banana like a monkey?" (And she meant this in contrast to how she normally eats a banana. "Like a monkey" is with the peel still on the bottom half of the banana--we have never talked about that being how a monkey would eat it. I'm sure she saw it in a book or somewhere else and it just stuck with her).

Sweet girl!

Kate is also still living her daily life at home in full princess mode. I think she has spent more time in high heels in the last couple of months than I have in the past year. Hands down her favorite princesses are Cinderella, Belle and Sleeping Beauty at the moment. She still loves all the others she knows about though. We watch Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast often, mostly so that she can dance and sing along with the music. She has both movies memorized and may have no clue whatsoever what the words mean but she can say them right along with the characters. She LOVES to dance and sing and asks for music to dance to all the time.

I have to say that her singing is one of my favorite things right now. She says that her favorite songs are Jingle Bells and Happy Birthday. She also likes to sing Twinkle, Twinkle and her ABC's. It is hard to get her to do it on video. I was in another room last week and heard her singing Twinkle, Twinkle in the sweetest possible way. I got the camera and tried to get her to sing on camera and she wouldn't, but I did get this--

Kate also often pretends to be a "dancing girl" or a cheerleader. She has gone to a couple of LSU basketball games with Daddy and loves to watch the cheerleaders and dancing girls. Very recently she and Daddy have also been into playing superheros. Kate wants her blankie tied around her neck and Daddy has a blanket cape of his own and they fly around the house and jump on the bed. Pretty entertaining!

Super Kate!

Kate is still a perfect big sister. Of course there are times where its hard for her to see Emily playing with a toy that is hers but she usually only protests for a minute. She now asks to play with Emily a lot. She wants Emily in her room with her while she's playing and will show her things and talk to her. It's pretty cute.

Someone's hiding

Peek-a-boo! This is Kate's little table in her room that she likes to convert into what she calls a tent with a sheet. She just had to have Emily in her "tent" the other day. Emily loved it too!

Kate playfully pinching Emily's cheek

She's got a future so bright she's gotta wear shades

Life with our little 2 year old certainly has it's challenging moments these days but we are very blessed to have such a sweet, fun, loving little girl!!

Happy Mardi Gras!!

We have been celebrating the Mardi Gras season around our house for a while. I have gotten into making king cakes this year and have enjoyed having Kate help me make those for the past few weeks. We also went to New Orleans on Sunday for Kate and Emily's first big Mardi Gras parades. We had so much fun!!! Our friend Kurt lives a half a block from the parade route so we were able to get there early on Sunday, visit with Kurt, Eugenie and their friends and families and get a prime spot for the parades. Kate loved the parades!! Emily was a trooper, sleeping in the baby bjorn for about 1 1/2 of the 3 parades we saw. We brought home a ton of beads and stuffed animals to add to the beads and stuffed animals that Nick got from the festivities he took part in on the Friday before. Today we are all just taking it easy. Getting a few things done around the house and enjoying the beautiful weather with the girls. We hope every one else is having a wonderful Mardi Gras!!

Kate and Emily checking out all of the goodies that Daddy brought home from the Hermes parade that he was in New Orleans for on Friday night

On the way to NO Sunday morning. We could't leave home without beads on!!

Kate and Daddy ready for the first parade to begin

Watching the captain of the first parade come down the street

Family pic with Miss Emily just sleeping away. She slept through crowd noise, marching bands, loud music, you name it...

Kate and her Mardi Gras parade buddy, Joseph. Joseph was Kurt's nephew and had a fancy new ladder seat for the parade. For those of you who may have never been to a serious Mardi Gras parade before (like me on Sunday), a lot of the small children sit in these wooden box seats that are bolted on top of a ladder. The parents stand on the ladder behind the kids to steady the ladder and catch beads/protect the kids from beads. They end up with the perfect seat where they can see perfectly without having to be held by mom and dad! We are so appreciative that Kate got to share a seat for most of the day!

A shot of the parade and crowd during the last parade

And another in the other direction

Kate was so excited after she got this little lady bug

This random guy on a big float picked Kate out of the crowd as the lucky recipient of this giant stuffed bear. It was pretty funny. Kate then insisted that the bear wear all of her beads that she'd been wearing.

Checking out all of the goods after we got home

Emily just thinks the beads look perfect to chew on!

Emily 5 & 6 Month Updates - A Lot Has Happened!

I know that when Emily gets old enough to realize she will point out that the first monthly update for either girl I have missed since Kate was born was when she was 5 months old, and I'm sure will be followed by a "poor, pitiful second child" sob story. As a third child myself I know how this works. However, now as a Mom who just survived a month of sickness in the Speyrer household, I understand that with kiddos, especially more than one kiddo, sometimes there are circumstances that just set you back for a little while. Now I know it just sounds like I'm full of excuses, but we really did have a rough month of January around here. We were all sick at some point. Kate survived the best, Emily got it a little worse and I took the prize for being the sickest around here. I won't go into the gory details since this blog is not about me, but I will just say that I am glad to be on the other side and feeling much better now and will give a big recommendation for probiotics. So back to the updates...

We just celebrated Emily's half birthday on Sunday 2/11 and since my last monthly update on her was at 4 months, you can imagine that a lot has been happening with little, Miss Emily. Emily went today for her 6 month checkup and is weighing in at 18 lbs, 7 oz and is 28 1/4 inches long, which is 90th percentile and off the charts respectively. We are having so much fun with our sweet, happy baby!! Emily is very laid back and seems to be quite content most of the time. She is learning to make her voice known just to ensure that we don't forget about her at times. We laugh all the time about how loud she is! She loves to squeal and does it quite often. Emily has learned how to roll over in both directions and now uses her rolling skills as her primary way to get around. I am thinking we may skip the scooting stage altogether with her because she rolls so well. I think her next step may be crawling.

Emily rolling over just after she turned 4 months

Also, just after she turned 4 months, we started Emily on baby food. Around that time she was starting to consistently wake up in the middle of the night so we started with some rice cereal at night around supper time and it did the trick…until we got sick...but now we are back to sleeping pretty good through the night. Emily was very eager to eat in the beginning. She had been eyeing everyone else's food for a while and was excited to be eating herself. We have now worked our way up to oatmeal for breakfast and rice cereal and a veggie for supper.

Emily at 4 months ready for her first meal

Her face makes it look like she's not so sure about it, but she gobbled it right up!

Yummy!

Emily does not have any signs of teeth yet, but I'm sure it won't be too long. With her being a little bit more mobile now, she is getting better at getting her hands on more things that are all going straight to her mouth. She was also pretty resistant to her paci up until very recently and then it seemed like she woke up one day and decided that she was obsessed with it! She would keep it in her mouth constantly if I let her. Emily is also now able to sit up pretty well by herself. She's not able to sit up on her own yet but if we help her into a sitting position she can sit and play pretty well. Emily loves Kate and is much happier when Kate is around to entertain her. I just cannot believe how fast these 6 months have flown by, but we have been enjoying every minute of it with Emily!! It gets more fun every day!!

Emily at about 4.5 months

5 Months Old helping Momma bake in the kitchen

After getting Kate to bed one night I came out to find these 2 snoozing away on the couch

Emily loves to swing outside.

All dressed up for her half birthday. Couldn't squeeze any smiles out but still looking pretty cute sitting up like a big girl!

No smiles but full of silly faces. Here she's sticking out her tongue.

And here almost smiling while she sucks on her bottom lip