Overwhelmed

I am so overwhelmed - I can't believe how far behind I have gotten on my blog and on my website. I don't know how I will catch up! So - here it is - almost April, and I am just going to get caught up on their birthdays!

"You scared my eye" (trying to make him flinch/scare. Him into falling down on the bed

Look it's a birdie race

 Look into cloud maker

At the airport (dropping off Nonna and Heather), Geoffrey named the airplanes as they were coming in by saying where he thinks each one is going to or coming from. "That one is from Michigan, Florida, Hawaii, Australia...

Meat balls = neat bubs

I just want you, that's just what I want. 

Shoe out = chill out 

Am I old enough to drink soda with castines? (caffeine)

Walking / Communicating

So, Katie is really getting close to walking. She is taken 4 - 8 steps at a time. She is fearless, too - sometimes, she will let go and take off as fast as she can, and then sprawl forward full on. Very daring. She is doing well with standing up from sitting without holding on to anything.

Words: Well, we;re not sure that she's said any yet, although we think we may have heard "food" and "ball." She babbles a lot and repeat sounds. She seems to sign "eat" "more" "all done" and "Yeah" (clapping) but again, nothing is super clear.

She loves her tumbling class. She likes circle time, playing under and on the parachute, and crawling through the tunnel the most!

Geoffrey's birthday reply

Every time someone says happy birthday to geoffrey, he replies,"happy birthday to you, too!"

Sent from my iPhone

Four

"Tomorrow's my birthday!" "How old are you today?" "Three." How old will you be tomorrow? "Four. But I don't want to be four. I like being three."

Katelyn - 1 year

Katelyn is one year old now! I can not believe my Little monkey face is already a year!

Her birthday party was awesome. We had it at Huntington Central Park. I will blog about that more later.

Her doctor's visit went very well and she is on track with everything. They still want us to go to an oral surgeon to got her mucocele checked out. She also had an ear infection, bit since her runny nose had been getting better, we thought that it was on the mend so we opted to hold off on antibiotics.

She got four shots that day - poor thing!
Her height is 28.5 inches and her weight is 20.7 lbs

SHe has been talking up a storm. Sometimes she will go on and on chattering away. She can say "more" and "ball" with meaning, and she says mamamama and dadadada all of the time, but we're not sure if she's using them with meaning yet. Oh wow is still a favorite, too.

Just in the past week or so (she is now 12 1/2 months) she has really started to to stand on her own for short periods without holding on to anything. We're trying to get that first step but she's not quite there yet!

She loves to eat and is my little foodie. It amazes me how much she will put away sometimes. She will try almost anything. Oddly enough - not a big fan of bananas - but seems to enjoy most other foods. She also made the switch to cows milk with no fuss - no mixing or anything -and she drinks it just fine from a sippy cup. She still nirses with me in the evenings and in the morning before I go to work.

He night time ritual is "Guess How Much I Love You" followed by twinkle twinkle and'/or the Katelyn song: "Katelyn, Katelyn I love you, my baby girl so smart and cute. I love your laugh I love your smile, I love to watch you play for awhile. Katelyn Katelyn smart and sweet, you make our family happy and complete." THen she goes to bed and falls asleep on her own. She is sleeping straight through until about 5:30 ish. I'm quite happy with her progress although I;d love to push that an extra 30 minutes. SHe goes down around 8:30 - 9:00 and starts her day around 9:00 the next morning. She will occasionally wake up before 5:30 but if she doesn't go back to sleep on her own, a quick visit with a "mommy loves you and we;re close by" usually suffices (her crying will intensify for a few moments and then she will settle back to sleep. 

All in all she is quite the happy girl. SHe puts up with rough playing from Geo and loves to be around people. SHe can play happily by herself for time periods, but she LOVES when other people play with her. I love my Katie!

standing up

Katie is standing up more and more often without holding on to anything for longer periods of time.

Christmas 2012

Christmas 2012 was a fun year for the Benedicts!

We put up our decorations during Thanksgiving. Geoffrey helped put up the tree and put most of the ornaments on by himself!

 We did some very special things over the holidays. We took two trips to Disneyland and even got to eat at Goofy's Kitchen.

 We visited Santa's Wonderland in Irvine. Here Geoffrey wrote a letter to Santa asking for a bullet passenger train that moved by itself when you pushed th button on top. He said in his letter that Katelyn was not a good girl this year because she cried a lot, but that she was a baby so it was ok and Santa should still bring her a present. We also had a chance to meet Santa himself! Geoffrey told Santa about the bullet train he wanted. Katie wasn't so syre about Santa though!

We also went on the cruise of lights with Nonna and Grandpa. We did pre-Christmas with Nonna, Grandpa, and Aunt Heather. and Christmas Eve as well.

On Christmas morning, Nonna and Grandpa came over to watch Geoff open his Santa presents, while Grandma Patty skyped from Michigan. Then Aunt Tammy got Lexi and we skyped Grandma Patty and Grandpa Bobby again and oopened their presents! Our evening ended with Christmas at Grndpa Bob and Grandma Dee Dee with ALL of the cousins!

Geoffrey has really enjoyed Christmas this year! He has been watching his Christmas shows and really loves "Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas." He does not like "Twice Upon a Christmas" because in the third sketch, Pluto gets lost. This seems to really bother him. He also didn't like Home Alone because Kevin gets left alone, too. It is so funny to hear him reciting lines from his favorite shows though - including imitating the inflections... "It's here... CHRISTmas time!"

He is learning some Christmas songs - favorites being "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" and "Deck the Halls with Bells of Folly," in which he sticks out his tongue and moves it side to side while singing "Fa la la la la la la la la..."

Gratitude was hard to come by this year, with instead an instance on more presents and more candy. WE will continue to work on this!

He is slowly starting to realize that Katie is becoming a little person and potential play mate. He will at times ask Katelyn to come play with him,  which is nice. At other times, he is very impatient with her, too.

Geoffrey has some trouble speaking up to other adults - for example, asking for things or saying thank you when someone gives him something - but I was quite proud of him for asking Santa what he wanted (a bullet passenger train that moves by itself when you press the button on top.) It took a while, but he finally did it!

This Christmas Geoffrey got a few games and he really enjoys playing them! We have been playing Chutes and Ladders, Candy Land, and Who Shook Hook? and he is doing well with taking turns and following the rules! Now we just need to work on being a gracious loser.  (o;

Katelyn 9 months - a year

Wow - It has been WAY too long since I've blogged!

Katelyn - Almost 12 months!

The last few months have been amazing! Katie has grown up SO MUCH!

Eating - Katelyn eats very well. It took her awhile to catch on, but by 11 months, she had mastered picking up food to feed herself and now she pretty much only wants to self feed. She drinks water from sippy cups, too,, and occasionally drinks milk, but she pretty much prefers to wait for Mommy to get her milk calories. She is such a busy nurser, too - sometimes she will "do yoga" while nursing - standing on her feet and sticking her butt in the air like down-face dog. So cute! In a few days, she will be one, and we will switch her to cows milk on days that I am at work.

 

Sleep - WELL... ahem... Katelyn got a cold... I started feeding her again in the middle of the night, and we are right back to the same old thing (waking up to eat at least once between 1 - 3). I had planned to sleep train her over winter break but that hasn't happened either - I was sick for the first few days and now she is. Sigh... to be continued!

Katelyn is still crawling EVERYWHERE and really enjoys her mobility. She is also cruising - she loves to stand and play with things, "walk" while holding on to things like her walking toys, and she even stands for a few seconds on her own when she doesn't think about it!

She has six teeth now!

Katelyn is really getting ready to talk. Her favorite phrase to repeat is "Oh Wow!" And she will happily have an "oh wow" conversation with anyone who will engage her! She is also busily practicing all sorts of other sounds and volumes.

She is also quite the couch potato - she will sometimes sit and STARE at the TV. Its actually sort of disconcerting - but compared to Geoffrey, she is more exposed to kids shows so I guess it makes sense. However,, she is also quite capable of tuning it out and playing busily. (All those studies of TV time rush through my head...)

She still loves to hold on to and play with little things - especially balls. She is also quite keen on playing with Geoffrey's toys as well - which sometimes goes over well with big brother - but usually, not so much.

Katelyn will be one on Friday. Wow.