Fun with Cousins

We've been on the road a good bit lately...hence the lack of blog posts...but luckily our travels have allowed us to spend a good bit of time with family and it has given Kate the chance to play with most of her cousins. While we are currently in the process of learning about sharing and playing nice, for the most part Kate has been sweet with all of her cousins and really loved getting the chance to play with all of them.

A couple of weekends ago we went to Anne Marie's second birthday party where there was a clown who painted faces and made balloon animals and lots to play with and see outside. Then last weekend we were in Florence for a long Easter weekend with all of Kate's Alabama cousins. They were so sweet to hide Easter eggs and help Kate find them, they took her for walks and just played...so much fun in fact it took Kate all week to catch up on her sleep!

We are extremely blessed to have such a big family with so many sweet cousins for Kate to play with!!

Kate and Claire. Kate has been very into checking out "the baby". I guess it's a good thing seeing as how she'll have a baby around all the time in a few months!

Kate and Karoline hopping on the trampoline at Anne Marie's birthday.

Daniel reading Old McDonald to Kate and Langley

Daniel getting some one on one reading time with Kate

Bath time with Langley and Harper. Kate wasn't quite sure what to think about all the activity at bath time but I think she had fun.

Camden reading to Kate

The bigger cousins put together an egg hunt for Harper and Kate. Harper caught on to the concept faster than Kate and was showing Kate all her goods here.

Mary Emma helping Kate hunt for eggs

Daniel and Owen helping out too

One more of Daniel helping Kate hunt eggs. I thought this one was cute!

17 Months and Daddy's Birthday

This past Saturday we celebrated Kate's 17 month birthday and Nick's 29th birthday with a family crawfish boil in Port Barre. It was great! All of Nick's brothers and most of the sister-in-laws and nieces and nephews were in attendance along with Pop Pop to celebrate the occasion and enjoy some of the best crawfish and veggies that I have ever tasted! All the little ones had a blast running around outside playing with each other and everyone else enjoyed the day spent with family and some great weather!

I can't believe how grown up Kate is becoming! She is a girl who knows what she wants/doesn't want and likes/dislikes. Kate loves to be outside and can now ask, or tell us "ah-sigh" for outside in kind of a whisper to let us know that she would much prefer to be outside. Her vocabulary is really at the point where it is taking off and she is beginning to try to repeat a lot of what we are saying. There are too many new words since the last post to list them all but some of the most frequently used these days are "bub-buh" for bubble (she's obsessed with them and knows everywhere she might see them--the bath, the sink, the washer, momma and daddy's shower...), "dye" or "dye-dye" for bye-bye, she greets with a "heey" or a "whoa" for hey or hello, "bop-bop" for Pop Pop and "bah-bah" for Papa, "nah-nuh" for banana, "day-dee" for baby and tonight I got a "thank you". I don't know exactly how she pronounced it since it was the first time she had really said it but it was very clearly a thank you, Nick even verified that I had heard correctly. I hope to be hearing more and more of it (and a few other manner words) in the future. She LOVES animals and added "dah-dah" for a sheep's baa-baa and "meew-meew" for a cat's meow-meow to her list of animal sounds she knows (cow, dog, tiger, lion and duck). Kate loves to smell the flowers outside and candles inside, color in her coloring books, play with her little farm and ride her babies and stuffed animals around in her little toy wagon. It keeps getting better and better and we continue to have more and more fun with our growing girl!

Kate checking out the crawfish. She wasn't scared of them at all and loved throwing them back into the bucket.

Kate with cousins Braxton and Amelia taking a look at the crawfish

The birthday boy and his little girl

Kate with her Parrain, Marcus

One more with Daddy. Check out those curls! As you can see she's still not getting a whole lot of hair. It's also a little deceiving since everything that is coming in is so curly it just keeps looking short.

IT'S A....

another GIRL!!! We are super excited!! But then again we would have been super excited no matter what we were having! Everything is looking great! The baby is measuring right on track and was pretty active during the ultrasound today. She gave the ultrasound tech a hard time trying to get her measurements both in movements and position. The baby was breech today, which isn't anything shocking. Kate was breech at this point too. I think it may just be the way my body is made. Maybe it's more comfy for my babies to hang out in there in the breech position. I know everyone will want to know if we've decided on a name and there have been no decisions yet. Had this little one been a boy we would be all set but we are tossing around several different girl names right now. I'll be sure to let you all know once we feel like we've made a decision.

Profile of our little lady

Her arm and hand

And her face. I know this one's a little hard to see. Image she's looking right at you.

Enjoying Spring

I feel like a slacker for not posting more over the last few weeks but we've been sick and busy around here so it just hasn't happened. We have been thoroughly enjoying the nice spring weather...or on some days it feels like the beginning of summer already! A couple of weekends ago we took Kate to her first parade, the Baton Rouge St. Patrick's Parade. She had a great time! We had really hoped to get her to a parade during Mardi Gras but it just never worked out. Kate loves beads so that in itself was fun for her to get a bunch of beads and goodies and see how many she could wear all at one time! Then this past week Nonna was here to hang out with us during the week and watch Kate while Nick and I went to a wedding in Houston over the weekend. Kate and Nonna spent a lot of time playing outside and one afternoon we met Nick downtown to walk around and enjoy the beautiful azaleas around the state capitol. We did this last year and decided then that it might be an annual tradition since you just can't beat walking around enjoying the scenery and also trying to snap some pictures with the beautiful surroundings. We laughed at how much easier it was to snap some pictures of Kate last year in comparison to this year. Last year we could just plop her down next to something pretty and she would just smile. We spent much of our time this year just chasing Kate and she was way too into checking things out to give us the time of day. We did still get a few good shots.

As for me, the preggo, and baby #2 we are doing great! I started feeling the baby move over the last couple of weeks and it has gotten much more frequent over the last few days. Of course that is my favorite part of pregnancy. It is the most awesome feeling to feel that little baby fluttering around in there! I'm beginning to think that what the ultrasound tech said at our 12 week ultrasound may be true--that we've got a busy body on our hands. This little one is moving a lot! We go tomorrow morning to take another look and hopefully get to see what we are having. I can't wait!! I think I am more anxious to know the sex of this baby than I was with Kate. The bets around the Speyrer house are changing daily. Friday night at the rehearsal dinner for the wedding Nick was rubbing my belly telling everyone his boy was in there. Then Saturday at the wedding he told anyone that asked that daughter #2 was definitely in there. As for me, I'm pretty unsure. I've had girl vibes since the beginning and I guess deep down I'm still thinking girl but I'm not overwhelmed with girl thoughts. I guess we'll see tomorrow!

Kate and Daddy watching the St. Patty's parade

Kate riding in the wagon as we made our way to where we watched the parade. Notice how Kate is waving to anyone and everyone that she passes by. I think she thought she was the parade.

Kate checking out her little teddy bear that was the first of what ended up being many little stuffed animals that she caught. She immediately gave this one a hug and a kiss.

Kate and Daddy and all Kate's beads. She insisted on wearing all of them and was mad when we made her take some of them off

Our haul. No room for Kate to ride after the parade with all the beads and stuffed animals that we got.

Kate and the azaleas in front of the state capitol building

Cheese

Happy to see Daddy when he came to meet us.

Kate was all about the lake. I think she would have run right in if we had let her.

Our little family

Kissing Daddy

Daddy started this game and Kate wouldn't let him stop. Not an easy game to play with our 30 lb girl.

16 Months Old

Kate is 16 months old today! We are having fun and staying very busy around here. Now that it is consistently nice outside, we are spending a lot of time with Kate outside. She loves to go for a wagon ride, walk or stroller ride around the neighborhood. She's also happy to swing or just play around and explore outside. She usually cries whenever it's time to go in.

Kate is also starting to try out more words and is doing better at trying to repeat things we are saying. She finally added "ball" which is usually one of the first words for most kids but Kate decided she'd do things a little differently and wait. But now everything that's round is a ball...apples, grapes, you name it. Some other new words are, "cuh-key", with a big emphasis on the hard c sounds, for cookie. She uses this for actual cookies as well as Cookie Monster on Sesame Street. It's either "chi-chin" or "kick-kin" for chicken. "Ddddss" for beads, as in Mardi Gras beads, which she loves to sport around the house. "Ock" for socks, "book" for all her books that she loves, "nigh, nigh" for night, night.

A few funny facts about Kate...first, she LOVES shoes!! Typical girl, I know. We bought her some new shoes fairly recently and after trying them on in the store (which she was happy to do) she insisted on wearing them out of the store. Her old ones were definitely NOT going back on her feet! I also ordered her some flip flops from Old Navy that have been in my office as I try to decide whether or not to keep them or get a bigger size. She brings them to me all the time wanting to put them on. Kate also LOVES Wheel of Fortune. She has for a very long time now. When she first learned to clap, she loved to clap when the audience clapped, and she still does that every now and then. Her big thing recently is that she knows when the show is about to go off, before Pat and Vanna even say good-bye, Kate starts waving to tell them bye-bye. She also has to know and be in the middle of whatever is going on. If I am working on dinner, she wants to be up to see (and have her hands in) what I am working on, if I am doing the laundry, she wants to be up on the counter so she can watch as I throw clothes in the washer. In her role as sous chef, she likes to sample whatever I am cutting/chopping. Some recent favorites are yellow peppers, sweet potatoes and zucchini, all raw of course.

Cheeeese

Ready for a wagon ride around the neighborhood

Swinging at the playground

Notice the pink flip flops. These are the ones I talked about above. She brought them to me one morning while she still had her pj's on and insisted on putting them on. Since the pj's had feet in them, I had to strip her down to let her sport her shoes.

1 Trimester Down, 2 To Go...

And now for an update on baby #2. The newest Speyrer seems to be doing well all snuggled away in my belly. He/she is growing (along with me) by the day. We went to the doctor on February 2 for my 12 week appointment and got to get another peek at the little one. We have quite a mover and a shaker on our hands already! The baby was pretty much as busy as it could be for its size, waving hands and kicking feet. It was hard for the ultrasound tech to get the measurements she was trying to because the baby was so busy! And we thought Kate was busy! I specifically remember this same ultrasound with Kate (because it's such a drastic difference from the 8 week ultrasound...at 8 weeks it doesn't look like much other than a little flickering heart, at 12 weeks it looks like a real baby) and she was as laid back as ever. She looked like she was reclining and taking it easy but not this next one! So we are already getting prepared for another busy body :) But then again I know it could have just been the time of day, what I ate, who knows as to why this one was busy and Kate wasn't....guess we'll find out this next one's personality in a couple more trimesters! Everything looked good. The baby is measuring right on track and the heart rate was 168 (Nick still says that means girl all the way. Kate's was 158 at this point and the old wives tale is higher means girl). This pregnancy is flying by in comparison to my last. I guess we have Kate keeping us busy to thank for that! At this point just 6 more weeks until we can maybe catch a glimpse at whether this baby is going to be a little brother or a little sister.

Looks relaxed in the picture but those little legs and arms were moving!

This one shows the measurement. I was actually 11 weeks and 5 days and measuring 12 weeks and 1 day.

I thought this one was a cool picture. It is both hands. The one on top looks like it's reaching and you can actually count all five fingertips. The lower hand is folded some so you just see a top view of a few of the fingers. Amazing that it just takes less than 12 weeks to form a little baby with fingers and toes!

15 Months Old...

Well I guess at this point Kate's about 15 1/2 months old but at least I am finally getting to this post! We've been a little busy around here mostly with the usual stuff but Kate and I also had a trip to Florence a couple of weekends ago. Once again she was a great traveler even with a pretty long and interesting trip there. We got a deal on a flight on Southwest from New Orleans to Birmingham and this was the day that Baton Rouge was supposed to get ice/freezing rain. We ended up good on this end but got surprised by ice north of Birmingham trying to make our way back to Florence. Put a couple extra hours on what should have been a 2 1/2 hour ride from Bham to Florence. Thanks Nonna and Papa for picking us up and braving the ice!!

Nick and I have said recently that now we totally get when everyone has been telling us that it just keeps getting better and better the more kids grow and learn. We are having the best time with Kate! She is fun and sweet and learning new things everyday! Still jabbering all the time but continues to add new recognizable words (at least recognizable to me anyways) and seems to be trying out how to say new things more and more. Some of the newest additions are "Duh-cuh" for duck and "cack, cack" for what the duck says, Nick is proud that he taught her to say "dog-guh" for dog...big emphasis on the g, "Nah-nah" for her Nonna but also a "nah, nah, nah!" that is her no, no, no!, Nick gets to share his name with Dora, Kate calls her "Dada" too. Kate has also become a big hugger and kisser. She does share her hugs and kisses with us but really shares them the most with her books and toys that she loves most. She has a couple of books where she will kiss every page sometimes when she's looking at it. Kate also picks up her favorite stuffed animals and toys, will put them on her shoulder with one and hand and slowly and gently pat, pat with the other hand. The funniest thing is if its something pretty small, for example her rubber ducky in the tub, she will perch it on her shoulder with one hand and then she doesn't reach all the way up with the other hand to pat, pat, she just gives herself a pat, pat on the tummy. Pretty cute!

Here are some recent pictures of our growing girl

Our 15 month old! I did take this picture on her 15 month birthday...just didn't get around to posting it until now :)

Checking out the iPod with Daniel at Nonna and Papa's

Sitting with Nonna and Liza playing with the Box / Simmons new puppy

Much to Nick's dismay Kate is a dog LOVER! I mean she thinks they are the greatest thing ever! When she has been around any of them she's pretty sweet with them but she also follows them around barking at them the whole time.

Kate playing with her friend Adi. Kate's in the background about to bust through the roof of her tent. She and Adi were playing hide and go seek in the tent. The girls have had a ton of fun playing together recently!