Our Growing Girl

Things about Kate:

**Kate is walking EVERYWHERE. I am SOOOOO grateful that I had such a long time without her walking.

**She is seriously into everything, and I can't turn my head for 6.7 seconds without her getting into something. My favorite thing to have her trash, ruin, and throw all over the floor? CRAYONS! Seriously. She doesn't eat them. Isn't that great!?! She pulls the paper off the crayons, but if it gets me 15 minutes to make dinner, that's okay with me.

**She LOVES to say "no" all the time. She shakes her little head while she says it, and it really is cute. We're working on teaching her "yes". I don't want a little pessimist!

**She loves, and always has loved, the water. She thinks it's the greatest thing ever. I taught her "hot" so she wouldn't get burned, but she thinks it's really need to get burned in the water. She puts her hand in, and pulls it out FAST, then looks up at me while I'm saying, "See? It's HOT. Ouch!", and just smiles and does it again. Crazy kid.

**She is such a loving baby. She gives many, many, many kisses throughout the day. Jeffer and I, and ANY baby (mostly Sadie) are mostly the recipients, but she'll kiss just about anyone if asked. I LOVE it. I'm pretty much a lovey, touchy person, so I like to think it came from me. ;)

**She will drink an entire gallon of milk in a week. By herself. She got that from her daddy. He's a big strong man, and I'm sure it's all 'cuz of milk. Not spinach.

**She loves music. If there is a TV show on, she doesn't pay one bit of attention until the music comes on, and then she dances. It's cute.

**She is absolutely BEST friends with her cousin, Sadie. When they see each other, they both erupt into squeals of excitement, and you'd better have a tight hold on Kate, 'cuz she squirms to run over to her.

**Whenever you open the door for any reason at all, she gets so excited to go outside. She likes to see little kids (and squeal at them), kitties and/or doggies (and say kittykittykittykittykitty! or barking), or just crawl around and find nasty stuff to put in her mouth. Even though I hate that last part, it's really cute.

**She'd rather eat yogurt than almost any other food, including candy. She gets excited when she sees the container. She likes fruits and veggies and meat (when she's decided to eat that day), and is especially fond of sloppy joe meat. Weird kid.

**She LOVES her teddy bear. She calls him teddy, and she gives him hugs while patting him and saying, "Ohh!" Her daddy taught her that.

**She says SOOOO much stuff now. I am sure she says a lot more than we know, on account of the fact that she has her own "Kate Language". She says, "I love you" (VERY infrequently), dada (AAAALLLLL the time), mama, Kate, Crystal, Jeff, kitty, dog, milk, num-num, Sadie, Karen (her babysitter), grandma (baama. weird), grandpa (boppa), what's this or what's that (whussthis, whusstha), me, go, down, sleep, banana (nana), diaper, lets go, uh-oh, snack, book, pretzel, thank you, Angie, and Katie (Ang and Kates are her aunts). She signs sleep when she's tired, signs diaper when she's getting changed, signs bath when I ask her if she wants one, and signs her own sign for herself. She does animal noises, a TON of gibberish, and a lot of other "words".

**When she sees children, whether at grandma's house, the babysitter's, or at a random place like the grocery store, she gets SOOOO excited! She "talks" really high, loud, and fast, and tries to get down to go to them. She especially loves her cousins. Taylor W., Lauren, Braden, Bryce, and Lia are some of her faves..

**We just had a family reunion on Jeff's mama's side, and Kate got to meet her great-grandpa. Here is our family picture with him.

**She loves to eat nectarines and peaches whole. Like an apple. It's SOOOOO messy, but really cute, and it takes her a while, so I love it.

**Ice Cream Cones are her favorite thing. She doesn't care much about ice cream unless it's in a cone, but she HAS to have her own cone. It's imperative to her. She pokes a hole in the cone every time, so it's really messy. We take her clothes off and put her in the tub for that one.

**She has the most beautiful, full laugh. It doesn't take much to get her to give you her cheeser, but if you tickle her in the right spot, or let her "push you over", or whatever is funny to her that day, you get blessed with her laugh.

Seriously, there is a lot more, but that's just some of the fun stuff we get to see everyday. She is so precious, and we love her more than life.