I'm Confused

Baybee K.T. here.

Okay.

So, there are these people called Mommies and Daddies. I have one of each.

Then there are these people called Aunties and Uncles. I got a bunch of them too.

But, now, my Mommy is telling me that, "Your Mommy and Daddy are now an Auntie and an Uncle."

What?!

How is that possible? Aren't you one thing or the other?

She also told me that I am now a "Kuhzin". What the heck is that?

One day, I'm climbing up the down side of slides, throwing foot-stamping temper tantrums, mushing carrots into my hair and eating woodchips. You know, run of the mill one year old stuff. And then the next day, I'm a "Kuhzin".

Mommy assures me that becoming a "Kuhzin" is a normal everyday occurance. But, I can assure you, that I am NOT normal everyday material. This here girl is all about bucking the trend.

Hmmmm. All this might have something to do with this guy.

What do you have to say for yourself, buddy? Hmmmmm? What's with all this "Kuhzin" business? Come ON, man, OUT WITH IT!!!!

How YOU doin'?

Hmph. Typical boy.

My pal Sharon happened to be passing through town on business this week. We were able to hook up for a heapin' helpin' of Mexican food and a good ole dose catchin' up.


I met Sharon in college. We hit it off immediately. We both had a quirky sense of humor and weren't afraid to show it. For example, we used to have races down the hallways of our dorm with pillow cases over our heads. Mind you, the pillows were STILL IN the pillow cases. We figured it would cushion the blow if we were to run into a wall.


We eventually became roomates and were lucky enough to score a room that had it's own sink and toilet. How sweet was that? Anyways, many more good times were had. I mean good times in addition to and seperate from the toilet, you weirdos. Sigh.


Of course, there were some bad times too. We had some arguments. We had some hurt feelings. I'm sad to admit most of it was my insensitive fault. But, we moved on. All things pass.


Up until this week, we hadn't seen eachother in what was probably 10 or more years. We rarely speak on the phone and email only occasionally. It's kinda weird, but she has a knack of "feeling" when I need a call. She'll always say, "I was just thinking about you..." It's almost like she's psychic or something.


Even though we don't connect very often, I count Sharon as one of my closest friends. I know that if I ever need anyone, she'll be there. I hope she knows that it works the other way too. I'm always here.


Dinner was awesome. I had a great time. It was like we hadn't even been apart that long. We just picked up where we left off. That is like, so great.


There are a few "important things" that you do on your way through life. I would say making a few really good friends should be one of those "important things." You know that Family will be there for you. It's kinda their job to be there. But, there is nothing like the feeling of knowing that someone else out there has your back, no matter what.


You don't believe me?!?! OH-HOOOOOOO! Think you're so smart do ya? Don't make me call in my reinforcements.


You're gonna make me do it aren't you?


Here. You can learn a little something from my friends Woody and Buzz. In case you don't know, they were in a couple of little films called, "Toy Story" and "Toy Story II". Let 'em have it, boys!










You've got a friend in me.
You've got a friend in me.
When the road looks rough ahead,
And you're miles and miles
From your nice warm bed.
You just remember what your old pal said,
You've got a friend in me.
Yeah, you've got a friend in me.

You've got a friend in me.
You've got a friend in me.
You've got troubles, well I've got 'em too.
There isn't anything I wouldn't do for you.
We stick together and we see it through.
'Cause you've got a friend in me.
Yeah, you've got a friend in me.

Some other folks might be a little bit smarter than I am.
Bigger and stronger too.
Maybe.
But none of them will ever love you.
The way I do.
Just me and you.
And as the years go by,
Our friendship will never die.
You're gonna see,
It's our destiny.
You've got a friend in me.
You just remember what your old pal said,
You've got a friend in me!

lyrics & pic courtesy of Disney/Pixar

Do You See A Resemblance?

Live long and prosper.

That is highly illogical, Mommy.

The Big ONE

Before we get into the goings-on of the Big Day itself, I just wanted to take a quick moment to say thanks to all of you for the love and support that you've sent to us all year long. Also, a big "Thank You" for the gifts and well wishes sent for Katie's birthday.

Needless to say, it's been a wild and crazy year. It's been nice to be able to share it all with you via this blog thingie. I hope you've enjoyed the trip as much as we have. Stay tuned, things are definitely going to get much more interesting!

Moving onnnnnnn.......

Since she's been able to eat solids, I've been really good about feeding Katie healthy stuff. I decided that her birthday cake should be no exception. I was going to go for healthy. I mean, she wouldn't know the difference anyways. She's never had REAL cake or frosting. She'll have plenty of years after this to go into sugar overload. So, I did lots of research to find a cake to make that didn't have too much sugar in it.

I ended up making cardamom cake. I'd never had cardamom before. It's a kind of a spice. A little like cinnamon, I guess. It wasn't half bad. A little on the mild side as far as sweetness goes, but still okay. Oh yeah, it also had prunes peices in it. Katie likes prunes. I also made banana cupcakes (with no sugar), but the cake was still sweeter.

We decided that we would feed her the cardamom cake along with REAL whipped cream that we made ourselves. Mmmmmmm. REAL whip cream. It can't get any better than that.

So, the cake was baked. The presents were wrapped. The decorations were hung. WAIT! I need balloons. What's a birthday without balloons?

Before Katie woke up, I got on my bike and rode down to the grocery store to buy the balloons. I picked out a 'Happy Birthday' balloon and a ladybug balloon. I must have looked downright ridiculous riding back to the house with the two balloons trailing behind me.

Most of the day was spent at the zoo. Katie had a great time pointing at everything. I think her favorite animals were the gorillas.

They had an indoor playground at the zoo that Katie spent a few minutes roaming around. Here's a pic of me and a clingy Katie.



Huzbend took Katie into the petting zoo area to check out some bunnies, goats and donkeys.




Then it was time for a little exploration.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

When we got back home, we found that a special guest had stopped by for some cake.

Say, "Hi!" to Dobby the House Elf, everyone! (Or is it Yoda? "Eat cake I will. Yeeeesssssss.")

Here's Katies peice of cake. Looks yummy, doesn't it? DOESN'T IT?!?!? Say yes. Now.
Thank you. You're too kind.

"Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birrrthhhhdaaaayyy to yooooouuuuu."


Here's Huzbend kindly blowing out the candle for Katie. It was very nice of him.


Time to dig in!!!!

Um. Maybe not. Katie was not impressed. She didn't like the cake. I even cut it up into small chunks and she still wouldn't eat it. She just mushed it in her hands and wiped it all over her tray. Hmph. So much for the requisite "Eating Cake" pictures. Sigh.


So, I broke out the strawberries and she seemed to enjoy those a lot better.

A little break in the action for clean-up allowed some quality time with the ladybug balloon.


"It is MYYYYYYYY birthday......."

".....and I say that YOU must be a princess for the rest of the day! Shaaaaaaa-ZAM!"


Katie had a good time opening presents with our help. She loved walking around showing off all her new stuff. She just couldn't figure out why this hat wouldn't stay on.....


She also mistakenly thought that we had bought edible wrapping paper.

For the rest of the day, Katie retreated into her private abode. The secret phrase to gain entrance into her domain was: "Cardamom cake is for lame-ohs".

Here's a quick vid of the festivities. I never noticed that when people sing "Happy Birthday", they sing it sooooo solemnly. Katie noticed and began to cry. We had to quickly revert to our Mommy and Daddy voices. It's kinda funny. Oh yeah, and during the shot of her in her high chair she is not eating cake, she's eating strawberries. I threw in a couple present opening moments too.

Thanks again for tuning in.

Love ya!

Twelve Months and Still Only Two Teeth

So, you're probably thinking to yourself, "Self? Is that the super-awesome Baybee K.T. relaxing on a nice patch of grass? No. It cannot be. My eyes must be deceiving me! Stupid eyes! Stupid, stupid, stupid!!"


Now, before you go jumping off a bridge or anything, you're right. That's me sitting in the backyard. I got myself a pair of shoes and decided that the prickly grass ain't so bad after all. To tell you the truth, I've even eaten some of it.


Ahhhh, my loyal readers, a lot has changed in the past month. I have hit the ripe old age of one. I am an infant no longer. I am TODDLER, here me WHINE!!!!!!


I can walk. I can point. I can talk (sorta). I can gesture. I can climb. I can eat food that doesn't have to be pureed.


I can, I can, I can. There's no such thing as lazy day in my book. I'm always GO, GO, GO!!! I'm all about hands on. I see something and I go get it. Nothing gets in my way.


Right after my eleven month 'birthday', I took my first steps. I kept working at it and now I'm a pro. I walk all over the place. Sometimes, I even run. One of my favorite things to do is to walk in a circle with a stuffed animal and then tackle-hug it. Everyone should give tackle-hugs. They are great.


I have about five or six words now: mama, dada, mooooo (mmmmmm), mickey (gigee), all done (ahhh duuuhhh), & quack-quack.


I like to point at everything I see. I mean EVERYTHING. Mommy and Daddy just can't keep up. They're always naming something that I pointed to, like, five minutes ago. I also figured out that pointing gets me what I want. Yesterday, I saw this yellow duck sitting on the top of my bookshelf. He's been there for months. I pointed at him and Mommy gave him to me. I was like, "WOW! How awesome is that? Point and ye shall receive!!" I quickly gave him a big tackle-hug. I've named him "Quack-Quack".


I can wave hi and bye-bye. I can blow kisses. I can clap. I can signal "All done/All gone" by holding up my hands as if to say, "Where'd it go?" I can pretend to wash my face with a washcloth. I can put on a hat or crown (I've got a couple laying around now) and even brush my hair. I also like to lift peoples shirts to find their belly buttons. Mommy's not so sure she should have taught me that one.

I'm smart enough to know what no means and devious enough to try and get around it. Daddy fell off his bike the other day and got lots of boo-boos. He taught me that I shouldn't touch them. So, you know what I do? I point to them and say, "Boooo" and then get as close as I possibly can to touching them without really touching them. It's a riot.


Well, enough chit chat. Let's get down to business. Here are some photos of my exploits over the past month. Enjoy!

For clarification the comments posted are related to the pictures located directly below them.


Here's me at my Baby/Parent Group. We graduated today. They sang me "Happy Birthday" and then we got to pick our favorite song for everyone to sing. We picked, "The Popcorn Man". You get thrown up in the air a bunch of times.

Anyways, there is definitely a benefit to being able to walk here. Say you see a toy that you want to play with. The kid that has it is only a crawler or better yet is completely immobile. You sidle up to them, grab the toy and then just walk away with it. Their so slow, they never catch up. Ha-Haaaaaaaaaaa!

See an example below. Gimme that!

Can you see me now?

How 'bout now?

Here's me at playgroup. We've been going to lots of playgrounds lately because of the nice weather.

Get outta that stroller, dudette! Let's go! Commmmeee onnnnnnnn!

Race ya to the swings!!! Last one there has to smell my diaper!!!

Um. Mommy? Did I give you permission to take out the trash? Get back here right this instant, Missy!!!!!!

RIBBIT! Frogzilla on the loose!!!

Uh. I think it's for you......

I see broccoli.......It doesn't even know that it's broccoli.....

Here's a pic of me looking all girly with a hair clip in. AWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.

Hey! There's no camera in this thing. JIP.

Please don't eat my hat, Mr. Cow.

Hey Mommy, what's that? And that? And that? And that? And....Oh wow! And that?

DOH! Caught red handed! I'm stealing your measuring cups and there's nothing you can do about it! BWA-HAHAHAHAHA!

I like chili.

And now for more good stuff. Here's a couple of videos.

In this first vid, you'll see a shot of some of my first steps. It's the second scene. The first scene is a "cute shot" intended to draw you the unsuspecting viewer into my powwwweerrrrrrrr.

This second vid is just me being totally awesome. Do not try this at home.

Well, that just about does it for me this time around. I'm exhausted and I really need to relax.

Now, just 'cause I'm a whole one year old doesn't mean that there won't be updates of my adventures. I mean the real fun is just starting! I'll be sure to keep ya'll updated from time to time.

Thanks for sharing my first year with me. It's been loads of fun. Now, let's get a move on with Year Number Two!!!

xxxxoooo to you all!

Baybee K.T.

Where's It At?

Man, we've been busy.

The Weekend - spent yard workin', house loungin', toy shoppin' & toy assemblin'

Monday - spent grocery shoppin', baby joggin', cake bakin', cupcake makin' & email replyin'

Today - spent playgroupin', cow viewin', errand runnin', burrito makin', present wrappin' & batter installin'

On the schedule for tomorrow: zoo goin', whip cream makin', Happy Birthday singin', candle extinguishin', cake eatin', present unwrappin', toy playin' & book readin'

Phew!

Needless to say, our updates will be late in comin'.

Sorry, ya'll!

Crash

Sometimes I'm just drivin' down the highway of life minding my own business, when outta nowhere......CRASH!!!!

The shit hits the fan.

Last night was one of those nights.

I really can't explain it. Hormones, overtiredness, lack of dessert? Who knows.

I went out and bought Katie a convertible car seat yesterday. She's just on the verge of moving to a forward facing seat. I went to the store and sat her in a seat that had a yellow cover with pastel butterflies all over it. At the time, I thought it was really cute and I bought it.

As soon as I got it home, I hated it. What the hell was I thinking? So, I fretted and I obsessed about which color to get and how to go back to the store to exchange without looking like a total loser.

I guess that was the main reason. There were other smaller reasons; dinner was rushed, Katie kept throwing little mini-tantrums because she was over-tired and hungry, I didn't get any hang-out time with Huzbend, Katie threw most of her dinner onto the floor, I had dishes to do, there were toys and junk all over the place, the yard was full of weeds and looking all together shoddy, the truck needed an oil change, etc. You get the idea.

To top it all off, Katie woke up around 11:30pm and began to wail for some unknown reason. She just wouldn't stop crying. Gigantic sobs and all that jazz. It took me about 30 minutes to get her to go back to sleep; 5 minutes of trying to sooth her in the crib, a couple of intense minutes for a diaper change in case that was the issue (it wasn't), and the rest of the time was spent rocking her in my arms in the glider.

After that fiasco, I couldn't sleep. I was awake for about two hours thinking about that stupid car seat. Not just about the color now, but about the car seat itself. Did I make the right choice? Did I buy the best possible seat for my baby? Then I moved onto this train of thought: What was up with that crying thing? Is she teething? I wonder if she's sick?

I finally, FINALLY, decided that dwelling on this at 1:30am was not going to solve anything. I got to sleep close to 2am.

Sometimes, I find that I can actually feel the weight of responsibility on my shoulders. It presses down unrelentingly. It bows my back and strains my legs. I begin to panic. Who's idea was this? Can I handle this? OMG. What happens when there's two???? (Um, no. I'm not pregnant.)

And then, the sun comes up. A new days starts. Huzbend gives me a kiss before he leaves for work. I can hear a binky being banged against a crib rail and an all too familiar "da-da-da-da-da-da" coming through the baby monitor.

All is right with the world once more.

Cocka-What?

I was eating my Cheerios this past weekend and saw something move out of the corner of my eye. Usually, it's a squirrel or a neighborhood cat or somethin'. This time it was a little grey bird.


He was just sitting amoungst the forest of weeds that used to be our extra gravel driveway. The place that we would park a camper, if we had one.


So, I went out to investigate.


I got pretty close to him and he didn't budge. He just stood there. His feathers were all ruffled; the yellow crest on the top of his head was drooping. He looked cold and miserable.


I've seen birds like him before. When I was a kid, my neighbor had one. I knew that he was a domestic bird.


I couldn't just let him sit out there. He might be somebodys pet. And besides, there are plenty of cats wandering around that would loooooove to have a little bird meat for breakfast.


I contacted a local bird shop and a guy came out to see what the story was.


He verified that we had a cockatiel in our yard. The little bird wasn't looking too good and seemed to be under the weather. He was also probably an escapee from a local house.


The guy from the store was quick with the net and caught the little guy. He put the bird in a box and took him away promising to give him some meds and a wing clipping. If noone comes to claim him, they'll keep him and find him a home.


So far, I haven't seen any signs around saying, "Missing Cockatiel. Please call 555-1234 if found." I hope he finds a good home whatever happens.


As Huzbend so wittily put it, "My wife. Sigh. Saving the world, one little bird at a time."

FINISHED!!!!!

I am now a "secret-keeper".

I stayed up late last night and finished 'Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows'.

It's a little sad to see the series come to an end.

But, now that I think of it, one day Katie will be old enough to delve into the world of Harry Potter.

Huzbend and I will definitely fight over who gets to read to her every night.

I can't wait.

Blood & Tears

I don't like this whole walking thing.

Oh. Sorry. I guess I forgot to tell you.

Katie is walking. She took her first steps around the 11 month mark. She's had a good two weeks of practice and now she can get from Point A to Point B on her two little feeties.

I think she actually prefers walking to crawling now. I think the reason for this is that she can carry stuff in her hands while she walks from place to place. Then she can take that stuff and put it places. On chairs, in laundry baskets, in bowls and boxes. I don't know. To each her own, as they say. Hey, it keeps her busy and generally happy.

She'll be futzing around as I walk out of a room and I'll call her name. I can hear her moving closer to my voice and I have to admit that it's a bit odd to see her walk around the corner. I'm always looking closer to the ground thinking that she's gonna crawl to me.

Her walking style is still a bit stiff. She walks flat footed and doesn't bend her knees very much. She also walks with her hands in a "begging dog" type of position. We have nicknamed her, "FrankenKatie".

Our cuddly little baby is gone. We are now the proud parents of a toddler.

(cue dramatic music)
Duhnnnnnnnn-Duhnnnnnnn-DUHNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!

Even though she's had two weeks of practice, she still has her falls and MAN OH MAN are some of them wicked! We have had two incidents just in the past 5 days that have drawn blood. Both of them involving a coffee table.

The first time was at a friends house. Katie got a hold of the coffee table and began to flop her Mickey doll around on top of it. She got excited and began to do some kinda dance that I could only assume was 'The Funky Chicken'. She lost her balance and BOOM, down she went. Next thing I know, she's balling her eyes out and she's got blood all over her lips. Her two bottom teeth cut into her upper lip. Yikes.

The second time was at home. This time she wanted to bang some blocks on the coffee table. She began walking towards it, tripped over Duckie and went face first into the table. Her upper lip hit the table edge and got a little rip in it. Ow. More raindrop tears and blood.

Both times, the bleeding stopped within seconds. It wasn't as bad as it sounded OR looked. In the past, when I thought about seeing her blood for the first time, I was sure that I was going to panic or even cry.

But, I didn't. I just quickly picked her up, gave her cuddles and reassuring words until she was calm enough to let me inspect the damage. I was strangely calm.

I can only forsee more of this type of thing happening. She has yet to learn that she should survey the area. She gets completely focused on the item that she wants and she'll walk in a straight line. There could be a brontosaurus between her and her soccer ball and she wouldn't even notice. She'd walk right over the dude.