Bubbles are the best!

The kids and I went out to the back porch today to play with bubbles while we waited for our cousins to come over and have dinner. We had a BLAST. I had to get my camera out after about two minutes into the screaming of excitement pouring out from the kids (see video).

My cousin Kristalynn and her kids Kyra and Chet came over for dinner tonight. We feasted on fresh shrimp, halibut steaks sauteed in butter, lemon capers, etc. Mmmm. It was so much fun to catch up with Kris, she's so much fun!! :)
The bottom photo is of her adorable daughter Kyra, who is 9. Look at those legs! It was pretty fun watching her try to ride the plasma car. :)

Mommy and James' feet.

Kona found the bubbles delectable... he was eating them to pop them and licking the stick.

Mommy and Kaitlyn's feet.

Mommy? Can I come in now?

Meredith? Can I come in now? ;)

Kyra Redstone comes to visit!

Kaitlyn's 2 year checkup

Kaitlyn had her two year checkup with our friend Sandy today at Interlachen Pediatrics. Sandy is a good friend of my mom's who has become a friend of mine too, and it's great to be able to go see her at the peds office.
Kaitlyn is measuring 35 inches in height, which is 75-90th percentile for height, and she's at around 24 pounds, which is about 10-25th percentile for weight. She's a lean, tall girl, and still only fits into 12 to 18 month bottoms. She's wearing 24 month tops, for the length of her torso. Silly girl, I wish I looked like she did in dresses though. :)
Kaitlyn is a motor mouth these days too, saying everything that comes to mind. Usually it's whatever James is saying. If he's not around, she likes to point out things like "Look, truck!". She's great at finding school busses when we're out driving, and also very good at pointing out colors now too. "Look! Red!" She gets them all right, except for things like school busses that are orange/yellow... but then it's one of the two. She says red a lot for pink.
One of the most adorable things that she does now is ask for hugs. "Huuug?" she says. Today she asked me for several, asked James for one (well acutally she tried to give him a kiss and he denied her so he settled for a hug) and got it, and also asks her animals (lovie and red bear) for hugs too. It's fun to see her transition to asking for them and giving them instead of always receiving (usually from ME- ha).

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Kaitlyn's special day: Two years old!

We had a fabulous day and party for Kaitlyn, filled with cupcakes, ice cream, family, friends, pizza, presents, and a SHUTTLE launch! Go Discovery!
We love you Kaitlyn Beth!

For the whole LOT of photos see my SmugMug page.

Katilyn Beth Wilcke born March 15, 2007

Aunt Beth... silly Aunt Beth... just posted the story of Harrison's birth on his 4th birthday, and now I've got to do the same. Not because she did it, but because it's a more than wonderful idea, and I'm copying her. I'm typing this on December 3, 2008, Harrison's 4th birthday, but it'll post on March 15, 2009, Kaitlyn's second birthday.

Kaitlyn will be two this year, two whole years!!! Already!
The day she was born started really really early in the morning. We had a planned induction with Dr. Parmalee Thatcher at Winnie Palmer Hospital in Orlando, and they had us arrive at 5 AM. Seriously? Why so early? By the time I got to my room to get settled, through triage, through paperwork, etc. it was about 7 AM I think.
They put in my IV line and started me on meds to get my labor started. Dr. Thatcher was awesome... she gave me a blessing to go ahead and get my epidural as soon as I felt the slightest pain. ROCK ON! So I did that. HOWEVER, she did break my water before I got the epidural and let me tell you, it was more painful than delivery! Yikes! When I had my water broken with James, it was nothing!
I stuck out labor pains long enough to remember how bad it hurts, then ordered my epidural. Life was so happy after that, calm, relaxed, beautiful. I think it was probably around 10 AM when I got my epidural? Maybe later, not really sure. I wasn't progressing very well "down there" so they maxed out my pitocin level and I started to feel some pressure. There were two nurses in there, and I can't really remember the circumstances, but they were in training, and they wanted to check my progress just to see where I was since I was having that pressure. Sure enough, 100%! WOW, never in my wildest dreams did I think I would dilate that fast. When James was born, I suffered immense pain since they turned off my epidural, so I made them give me a booster before I started to push. I love anesthesia! They called Dr. Thatcher over from her office (I assume) and I pushed for about 15 to 20 minutes and out she flew! I had the nurse hold a mirror for me to watch her be born, just like I did with James. Absolutely amazing!
Kaitlyn was born at 4:41 on March 15, 2007. She weighed 8 lbs. 1 oz. and measured 21 and 3/4 inches (I'd actually have to go back and look at the records to make sure the height is correct).
She is named after both of our mothers, Kate for Kathleen and Lyn for Marilyn. We decided to spell it Kaitlyn so it was more of a mainstream spelling. Her middle name, Beth, is after Nathan's sister, Beth Marie.
Kaitlyn was a joy to welcome into the world, and it was so fun having everyone there. My parents were there, Marilyn was there, and of course, James was there. Grandma Kathy brought James to the hospital with a bunch of toys to keep him busy, he was only 21 months old! She brought James over to me while holding Kaitlyn and Mom said, "James, this is your sister Kaitlyn, can you say Kaitlyn?" He said, "KATE!" So loud, so beautiful.
We spent the next few days at Winnie Palmer Hospital recovering and getting to know each other, and we brought her home on St. Patrick's day. How lucky we are. We love you Kaitlyn Beth!

Birthday you-you!

Tomorrow is Kaitlyn's two year birthday. Two whole years already. I can't imagine when she turns 1o and then 16 and then 21 and then... time is just going to fly by.
I made her cupcakes today for her party tomorrow. When I was a child, I went to a birthday party that had cupcakes baked inside ice cream cones. I have always wanted to make them and since Publix doesn't make a Barney cake, I thought that this would be my chance. I'm glad I didn't sucker out and have Publix make one!
So anyway, Kaitlyn and James "helped" make the cupcake batter by watching me beat it for two minutes, and finally when they were in the oven, they watched them rise (for like .5 seconds). Then it was off to play more. The cutest part about the whole thing is that James and I were trying to tell Kaitlyn that we were making them for her party tomorrow, and that her BIRTHDAY is tomorrow. NO clue. She did, however, enjoy singing "Birthday you-you! Birthday you-you!" all day long.
Tomorrow will be a fun day, which reminds me... I better go charge the camera battery. :)

"I'm a magical unicorn..."

We were surprised by a visit from the Millers yesterday, Kevin, Cam, Ben and Jack. It was Ben's birthday yesterday so I was glad to be able to tell him Happy Birthday! Of course his present isn't wrapped yet... he'll have to wait for his birthday celebration when they return from Utah next week. Luckies are going skiing!
They came bearing gifts! Kaitlyn unwrapped her birthday presents; beautiful pink princess gloves with bracelets and jewelry from Cameron, and a musical rocking unicorn from Ben and Jack (Kev and Mandy too of course :) ). The unicorn was a hit from the beginning, and still today, the kids are taking turns riding "her". What great gifts! Thanks Millers!
Kaitlyn's two year birthday is slowly approaching... March 15. I can't believe she'll be 2 already, but along with her age comes a little more freedom, for her and ME. We're finally getting to that phase where we don't have to be home bound, which is AWESOME! So far it's not making me want any more kids! :)

The Miller kids came to visit with gifts for Kaitlyn!

Scared!

One of Kaitlyn's favorite words right now is "scared" and she uses it regularly! It so cute, and pathetic, all at the same time! She uses it at the smallest things... like for instance, the other day she had something like banana or cheese stuck to the back of her spoon. She said, "Scared!" and then said, "Look! Monster!" Ha ha ha. No honey, it's just food, eat it!
Yesterday she did get scared for sure though. She was in the butler's pantry by the back door when Kona decided to announce that DADDY AND JAMES WERE HOME! I was in the bedroom and heard Kona bark then a blood-curdling scream come from Kaitlyn's little mouth. It was so sad! But funny! I've literally never heard her scream like that before. Aw, poor thing. :)

Whew...

As you saw on a previous post, we attended a wedding last weekend. WELL... on the way to that wedding we stopped at Walgreens to get a card for the happy couple. We pulled up, and I hopped out to run in while Nathan hung out in the car with the kids.
I was so proud of myself for walking in, finding the perfect card, and back out in 3 minutes. Literally.
As soon as I made my entrance back into the car I was greeted with a nice little story from Nathan.
"It wasn't a second after you shut the door to go in there that James said, 'WHEW!(wiping his brow) Got rid of her!'"
We had a nice laugh... then I cried. No, just kidding. ;)

Wedding Fun

We attended Todd and Heather's wedding on Saturday night, with kids in tow. I meant to find a sitter, honestly, but it just slipped my mind. Once I realized I didn't have one I tried to find one, but... the kids had a BLAST! ;)

Don't smile James!

Upside-down boy!

A sweet hug for a sweet sister.

CHEESE! This was BEFORE Kaitlyn skinned her knee. :(

Look, MOM! Cards with pictures on them!

Our family, so cute!

Kaitlyn loves her Papa!

Fences are fun! Ha.

"Hold you?"

Kaitlyn is finally starting to remember Uncle Richie enough to be comfortable with him. We've been WAITING for this!!

Uncle Rich and James engage in "flip your tie" style dancing!

Break it down!

Weeeeeee!

Me too! Me too!

Awesome sunset against the Florida landscape.

My little peanut... she's almost 2 years old!

Say CHEESE Pops!

Ah yes, CAKE! AAAAAHH!

Time-out and I do it.

Kaitlyn had her first ever time out today on the naughty spot. Since she's almost 2 now, I thought it's time to make a go of it after her all out fit about not being able to hold the wet wipes from the bathroom. She was irate! I was trying to get her socks on to then put her shoes on but her fit went so wild that she was taking her socks OFF after I would get them on. This was a lot of fun since I was trying to get us out the door to take James to school.
She actually did quite well with the whole thing, she only got up once. She knows what "stay here" means apparently. Ha. Here we go!
Kaitlyn also has an obsession with doing things by herself. "I do it!" she says and pushes your hand away. She loves buckles, especially the buckle on her booster seat and the one in the car seat. I'm totally fine with her doing things by herself as long as she can a) HURRY UP and b) do it correctly. This never happens. Ha.

Shoes aren't cheap.

I think I have spent a small fortune on shoes for James. Granted, he's a boy, and he doesn't need all the fancies that a girl needs, but still, he goes through shoes as much as a roll of toilet paper... okay, maybe not. :) Thankfully he has slowed down now, but his feet are going to be HUGE, and NARROW to boot.
Luckily, we have Harrison and Bennett to hand the shoes down to, but probably not for long in the tennis shoe department. You see, The Methodist School for Early Education has plasma cars. I love plasma cars, and so do the kids. However, before James went to Methodist, he didn't really know about dragging his shoes behind him to stop. Apparently this is a rite of passage in the coolness factor at Methodist, because he now drags his feet. He got his first official HOLE in his shoe a few days ago when I inspected them. Well, there goes his awesome New Balance tennis shoes.
It's funny, too, because I remember my sister-in-law, Mandy, complaining about the plasma cars at Methodist way back when her kids were there, and how they would get holes in their shoes as well. Why don't they just get rid of them? I really don't understand... they must get complaints from mothers like crazy! But have I complained to the school? NO. Ha.
Kaitlyn and I are off to Target to get official plasma car shoes for school. Maybe Payless, we'll see. I wonder how long the next pair will last!!! Geez.