Important Lesson r.e. Swim Diapers

I am discovering there are many things you learn as a parent that you have absolutely no need to know before you have kids.
Today KK and I had our usual "Pool Friday". As usual I put her in her swim diaper and bathing suit immediately before leaving our house. When I got her out of the car, I carried her on my hip for awhile. It wasn't long before I noticed that she was completely soaked and so was my shirt - from pee. Oh, yet another golden opportunity for me to be covered in bodily fluid!

I should have realized this from looking at one, but they don't absorb too much pee... They are really designed to keep #2 inside should that happen while at the pool. Her car seat cover is in the washing machine as it was drenched as well. Next time we will change at the pool!

Municipal Pools "These Days"

Summer has now become a time to explore the municipal pools of the DFW area. When I was growing up, we were privileged to have our own "recreation area" associated with my dad's employer. It had an enormous olympic sized pool complete with a 10-meter platform (that no one was allowed to use). It was pretty exciting at the time, but it pales in comparison to all the facilities that the cities around DFW have put into place now. They are like miniature waterslide parks. (Side note: Now that I am a parent, I find myself pointing out all the things kids have access to "these days" that didn't exist when I was growing up... I am sure this will annoy my child to no end at some point in the future!)



Yesterday I found the perfect park for Katelynn's age range, in Lewisville, TX. It had 3 "spraygrounds" similar to the one pictured above. KK loved those and I didn't have to watch her in fear every single second since she couldn't go underwater. She loved to sit on the fountains and lift up the top of her suit to make the water go in it. Pretty funny. They also had a 2 feet deep kids play area with a small slide. I was forced (by KK of course) to climb up that thing about 6 times and take her down the slide. I was the only mom going down it and she was the only kid that little going down it. I think my child may be a daredevil. There was also a big slide that she kept pointing to, but she isn't quite 48" tall yet... and a 4 foot deep area with a lazy river where we played together. And this is Lewisville's "small" municipal water facility! We had so much fun together. She was on cloud 9 the whole time, and my kid is not easy to keep in that state.




I have also been made aware by my friend Sarah that there are enormous inflatable waterslides that adoring grandparents purchase for their grandkids and put in the backyard. Here is a pic she sent me... it isn't an ad - it's her actual kids!

Somehow that looks a little more fun than the sprinkler! Kids "these days" are pretty lucky...

Lotion Monster

I like to slather that yummy smelling baby lotion on KK after her baths. It has turned into a game - I yell "Lotion Monster!" and chase after her. As you can see, she enjoys squeezing into small spots to hide from me.

Good Things about Croup ???

So, my little sweetie has croup. The poor thing woke up from her nap yesterday with a fever of 103. This is the first time in her 18 months of life to have a fever that high. Then that deep cough started - which makes her cry every time... and makes her mommy want to cry. Combine that with her refusal to eat, or even drink, very much and this is a stressed out mommy.

Today has been emotionally draining. So, I will focus on the positive! Here are two good things about the croup:

1. I bought a really cute humidifier for KK's room. See picture. It made us both smile. The steam comes out of the cow's ears... heehee. (Normally I would be VERY leery of any electronic type device designed to look like a cute animal, but it was actually very well reviewed on Amazon.)

2. KK is much more snuggly. She was content to sit on my lap with lots of blankets and watch TV today. She would never do this normally! We watched several re-run episodes of "John and Kate Plus 8."

Aunt Jen

Katelynn loved playing with her Aunt Jen this weekend for our family get together. The picture was too cute not to post.

Baby Tad

Imagine... you are in the middle of a nice, deep sleep when suddenly you are awakened to the very enthusiastic and child-like voice of Baby Tad: "HI, I'M BABY TAD! LET'S SING! HICKORY DICKORY DOCK...." You get the picture. It isn't pretty, and it has happened about four times in the past week. Just look at his face and you can imagine how he sounds.

I tried to remove Baby Tad, but he really does provide some good morning entertainment and keep Miss Katelynn from getting too grouchy while she waits for mommy to come get her. I am sure I will laugh one day about my midnight serenades. But right now Baby Tad is just givine me nightmares!

Kitty Cat Syndrome Continues

Apparently Katelynn really does think she can fit into any size basket...

ICE ICE!

At some point, I shared some crushed ice with KK when we were playing the backyard. (I usually take a big glass of iced tea with me.) This has progressed to giving her a huge bowl of crushed ice all to herself. As you can see, I really do mean huge. (To the worry warts out there... I make sure it is all small. And most of it ends up on the ground. She doesn't sit there and chomp a bowl of ice that big!)

Now, Katelynn will stand at the back door and say "ICE ICE!" which sounds exactly like the same word she uses for "OUTSIDE!"

Pacifier Update!

So, some of you may remember my previous post lamenting KK's addiction to her pacifier. She was getting worse as she developed because she learned how to ask for it ALL the time!

I knew it had to stop. So I took my mom's advice and a couple of weeks ago restricted it to "night night" time only. I was actually amazed how quickly she caught on to and accepted the new rules. It was almost immediate! I think sometimes we parents worry too much; our kids are pretty adaptable.

Now every morning she puts it in her dresser drawer after her diaper change and we clap and say "bye bye piepie" (her nickname for it). And I have quit bringing it out and about - not even to the church nursery. YAY! I guess eventually I will have to deal with getting it away from her at night too, but I am not going to worry about that for a long time.

"KK"

I did not think Katelynn would ever have a nickname because we won't call her Kate or Katie. (Despite the similarities, we didn't name her after me. :-) )

However, Katelynn calls herself "KK" now. It is pretty cute without being ditzy (I think?!), and it works well since those are also her initials. So I call her KK about 50% of the time now. We will see if it sticks.

Jellies

Sometimes raising a little girl is a great way to re-live your own girl-hood memories. Remember JELLIES? I loved those things. And they have so many cute versions of jellies for toddler girls these days. I couldn't resist getting a pair for Katelynn the other day at Baby Gap. When I showed them to her, she got very excited and had to put them on immediately and admire them. She is already showing signs of loving shoes like any proper woman should. Maybe her foot won't be as expensive to fit as my 11AAA foot was for my mom!

Creative Housework

Katelynn loves to get into the hiking backpack. I discovered that she is a content little girl to sit back there for 1 or 2 hours while mommy does housework! So this has become our new method for vacuuming, picking up around the house, etc. The only problem is that I can only do a limited amount of deep squats before those extra 25 pounds on my back are a little too much for my quads - so no chores that involve getting things off the floor like laundry.

(Note: Picture is old - from our Colorado trip when she was only 10 wee months old! And I don't use the sunshade in the house of course...but you get the idea.)