Happy Birthday Katie!

I can hardly believe it's been 2 years already since you were born, but at the same time, it seems like you've been in our hearts forever. You are so much more of a "big kid" every day. Talking more, and so much clearer, exerting your independence, exploring, it's so much fun to watch you learn and grow.

Today we went to the zoo again. Just like last year, but this time Katie is big enough to go on her very first pony ride. She was so excited, and kept patting the pony and telling it "good boy, horsie". We didn't tell her that the "horsie" was a girl. She was disappointed that she had to get off, and a little confused that Mommy didn't get to have a turn, but she loved getting to ride. Much more interested in the other animals this year too.


She was a little bit disappointed that this train didn't go when she told it to, but we promised her that next time we'd find the one that does move.

Almost there.

Yesterday evening we celebrated Katie's birthday with a nice little barbecue. We had both sets of grandparents, one Aunty & Uncle, 3 cousins, and 2 other guests. It was a lovely time, even if we goteaten alive by the mosquito hordes when we tried to escape the heat in the house. No pictures yet, they're on everyone else's cameras! Tomorrow the little bug turns 2.

Gunga's here!

Too much fun.

Katie just loves her new friend. Mooch is used to older kids and is still a bit shy around Katie.

He just hates it. Can you tell?
I swear this cat has a permanent smile.

We got a new deck installed, finally. Someone already figured out (in less than half an hour!) how to unlatch the gate, so I had to put a lock on it.

It makes fun noises when you stomp your feet.

She loves this, because she can come in & out by herself. And she can't get off of it by herself, so I can do a little puttering in the kitchen and watch out the window. Not that she isn't in & out of the door 1200 times a minute checking to make sure I'm still there.

There's the kitchen window right over her head.
And her "couch" that I found at the hardware store. She was so excited.

Another newbie

New cat #2, Hugs. He's 2 years old, the snuggliest cat I've ever met, and he was very, very unhappy when his old owners moved from an acreage to the city and he wasn't allowed outside anymore. It broke their hearts to give him up, but they wanted him to be happy, so they gave him to us. We've had him a week now and we love him. He's a sweetie, totally lives up to his name, loves to go outside but stays in the yard, and he's been hunting mice already!

And we've changed Tipsy's name to Mooch (Katie's word for kiss).
So now we've got Hugs and Smooches.

Mooch has finally decided that we're okay and she comes out of hiding when everyone is awake instead of only when I'm awake.

June 1st.

Katie is going to be 2 this month. I can hardly believe it.
She's such a big kid these days, putting on her own clothes, putting on her boots, exploring the yard without needing to hold my hand. It's so much fun to watch her learning things.

A few days ago, her friend T came to play again while his Mom went to work. They had so much fun. We spent most of the day outside, but we were too busy playing to take any pictures out there.

Maybe we need another chair?

This was hilarious. Katie dug this harness out of the toybox, put it on, handed T the leash part and laughed hysterically when he started leading her around. He wasn't quite as entertained.

New friends and a new hat.

First up, we have a new friend. Meet "birdie.' He is huge, plastic, and supposedly good for scaring away the woodpecker who keeps banging on the metal stovepipe every morning at 6. He had to live inside for a few days because Katie was in love with him.

She's also very excited about his eyes.

Then came the new hat. The cousins outgrew their bike trailer, so it was passed down to us. Had to do a little preparation, but we should be good to go as soon as this rain stops.

And our other new friend. She's 6 months old and her name (for the time being) is Tipsy. She's very sweet, loves kids, and is currently crashed out in one of Bailey's beds. Completely ignoring the cat bed I got.

Oh right. I was going to share.

Trey wants a tower too. Took him about 2 seconds to figure it out. Trey is our friends' little boy who is about 2 months younger than Katie. They are great friends. They play together so nicely, and we don't generally have to worry about what kind of trouble they're getting into. Every time we leave the house now, Katie says "Trey? Trey?" And if you ask her if she wants to go play with Trey, she's got her shoes on and her coat in her hand before you have time to blink.

Fun for Katie

In the morning, Katie listens to music on Mommy's iPod. When Mommy is ready to move on to something else, Katie asks for "More? Ears?" Because she loves her music.

Then we get dressed and go outside, now that it's springtime and the snow is gone. The cousins who used to live here left a swingset, and Katie is big enough to appreciate it now, and she LOVES it. Every time we go out, she asks to go for a ride.

Come sit, Mommy.

I love my swings!

And she loves her Bailey.
Too bad I can't get a picture with both of them looking at the same time.

Happenings

Once we got back from our holiday, the first order of business was visiting Uncle S and Aunty N.
And showing them how cool you are when you put your hands in your back pockets.

Then a little tummy started to feel icky.

Then the whole little person felt yucky for a few days.

Then she started to feel better, and Daddy cleaned out his truck and found the cool dude glasses!

And there was lots of playing outside and gardening because the weather has been beautiful. Katie's favorite thing now is to be "hupful". Helps me with everything. Sometimes that makes things go slower, but she's so happy to help that I can't resist letting her.

Now that we're done with that...

If you'd like to see more pictures, there is a post about our trip on my sister's blog. The link is at the right of your screen, Two Of Us Writing.

And now, on to other things.

Like helping Daddy!
Hmmmm... How do you work this thing?

4/19/08 - 4/22/08

19 April

Does this carseat mean we're going home?Today we rented a car to tour some of the White Hills Towns south of Seville. Katie was unusually excited about the carseat, and cried when I took her out to adjust something. I didn't realize until later, that she probably associated the carseat with home (having only been riding in planes and subway trains since we left home), and was excited about that prospect. Poor kid.

After about an hour and a half of trying to figure out this carseat with none of the hardware I'm used to having, we were finally on the road. I don't remember how long it was after that (not long, I think) that we stumbled upon this sight.
Of course we had to turn in. And once we got there, we discovered that there were no tour guides or fences, and all the doors were unlocked and open. The guys were all out of the car before it stopped rolling.

I explored a little with them, then went back to sit with Katie so Lindsay could look too. It was too rainy and cold to bother with getting Katie out of the car. Plus there was the 3' wide rushing torrent of water we had to cross to get there that I wasn't real confident about making while I was holding her.

They call this place a castle, but we decided that it's more of an outpost. It may have been larger at one point, but we couldn't find any other outside doors besides the one we came in. Was very cool to be able to look around it.

Then we got back in the car and headed down the road. Many confusing road changes later, we found Acros de le frontera, which chewed us up and spit us out. In this picture, you can see 3 buildings across what looks like 3 points. Very cool. the front one is a church, from what we understand. We spent at least 45 minutes on roads so narrow that we had to pull the mirrors in for fear that they would be scraped off on buildings, and switchbacks we barely made, up ridiculously steep grades. We made it halfway to the church, maybe. Then we apparently took the wrong switchback and ended up on that bridge about 2 minutes later.
At which point, we decided that we'd had enough of Acros and moved on to Zahara, which has a much more clear access to their castle. See where the castle is? Where the white buildings seem to meet the rocky hill behind them? The church steeple? That's where you start walking. At least you can see the building you're trying to get to, but oh man what a hike. (note the olive trees in the foreground. A very familiar sight.) Not hard to understand why this castle was the last Moorish outpost that the Spaniards were able to conquer.
Zahara from the castle. And more olive trees.

The top of the castle. Trying to stay out of the wind, really still not wanting anyone but Mommy to hold her.Inside the castle.

Once we had decided that we'd had enough fun there, we walked back down the hill in the pouring rain and drove on to our next stop, Ronda. We stayed the night in Ronda, and it was lovely. Katie got to test out her new raincoat again.

We took a walk over this gorgeous (and very, very tall) old bridge.

Stopped here to gawk at the scenery and take some pictures.
And had supper in a pub with a bunch of babies running around. The waiter at the first restaurant we stopped at tipped us off to this pub. He said that if he didn't get free food at that place, he'd eat here at San Domingo. We agreed with him completely. The food was delicious, very well priced, and the atmosphere was to die for. Who can resist 4 adorable little kids running around? Certainly no one in this pub, everyone else was playing with them too.

20 April

In the morning, we took a little drive across the "arab bridge" and stopped to gawk at the scenery there too. Then we almost didn't make it up the very steep hill on the other side. Yikes.

Then, after a long, very windy road, one small upset stomach, and a bunch of yachts, (and a brand new Aston Martin Vanquish in the rich people part of town) we made it to the Mediterranean Sea in Malaga. We got our fingers (and our shoes) wet, and then hustled off the beach to play at the big playground before the rain came in too hard.

This church is unfinished on the other side due to lack of funding. (See here.)
It is pretty cool nonetheless. We had a fantastic lunch here, and almost lost our backpack to some scam artists. But all is well, and Andrew has quick reflexes.

That's the last of my pictures in Spain. We drove back to Seville and Andrew and I went out to a Flamenco show while Katie played with Lindsay in the apartment, that was very cool. On the 21st, we packed our bags, went out for a traditional Spanish breakfast (yum!), and did a little bit of touristy shopping before we had to catch our flight back to Paris. We spent the night there, and then flew home on the 22nd.

And after we'd been awake and travelling for 20 hours, we arrived home to find this.


And we got stuck a mile from home. My poor little car couldn't handle the drifts, so we had to call our friend to come take us home, and Andrew plowed the car out the next day. We've been pretty warm the last 2 days, so there's hardly anything left, but we sure were sorry that we didn't bring our winter coats to the airport with us.