hello kitty panties and other cuteness

hi sweet angel=)

here are some examples of your extreme cuteness as of late...

your sweet popeye smile=)

here you are "curling your hair"...don't worry-it's not even plugged in so the fact that you're holding the metal end is not a problem.

i don't know. but you think he's pretty funny.

here you are in your big girl panties!!! they have hello kitty on them and you are VERY proud of yourself for wearing them. we could barely get you to eat dinner last night because you just kept leaning over trying to see your pretty new undies. you're pretty good at using the potty-you always go if we sit you on it and you tell us most of the time before you have to go. i am most definitely NOT an aggressive potty trainer-i can't find any good reason to push that earlier than when you are absolutely beyond ready-so we're just having you wear your big girl panties around the house when we're there...and after we've done that for a while successfully we'll venture outside the house in them=) so proud of you love. i can't believe you are so big.

and here is a video of my big girl showing how excited she is...

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cutie pie. your joy is contagious sweet girl=)

mommy

jello and jingle bells

apparently i am on a video-sharing frenzy. you are cute enough to justify it.

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i love my little jello-loving singer.

ring around the rosies

a week or two ago i heard you talking to yourself in the next room. i realized you were saying the same thing over and over again and when i paid more attention i saw that you were singing ring around the rosies to yourself. you were all by yourself in our den walking in circles and singing and then at the end you would fall down right on cue. here you are, very proud of yourself=)

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catherine's "L's"

lately you've been kind of hilarious when you say anything with an L in it. you poke your whole tongue out and basically say "th" instead of "L". we love it. here's a video of you talking about your jello. you're also playing with the "talking tomcat" app on daddy's phone. it was the hit of christmas and you're still pretty excited about it.

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you love yogurt lately too. well, mostly because dora is on the package. and one of the flavors is strawberry vanilla....and vanilla is "valala" to you with your tongue poked out through practically the whole thing. i tried to get a video of that too, but you're catching on to my tricks.

our friend kemie=)

hi babe=)

we have a friend in georgia named kemie. i grew up in church with her and her sweet family, and she has been one of your biggest cheerleaders for the past 3 years. she has been through her fair share of medical mess, and her heart reached out to ours when we started going through similar stuff. a few weeks ago we got a package in the mail after we came home from the hospital. kemie had sent you "agnes" and explained that she was filled with the love of Jesus. and that whenever you were scared you could squeeze her as hard as you could and she would never run out of the love of Jesus for you. we are so thankful for sweet kemie, and her story, and now agnes. this is you thanking her for her gift. (you're also filling your mouth with spaghetti=))

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catherine sees the ocean

we went to charleston the day after you came home from the hospital. you had an appointment with the guy who dr rodgers recommended for us to get a second opinion. you had never seen the ocean, so we tried to find one happy thing from an otherwise crummy day, and walked along the beach for a minute. you were fairly unimpressed, which i 100% attribute to the fact that you had surgery 5 days prior and were feeling generally awful. it was still nice to be on the beach with you=) i am confident you'll love it and play around splashing and chasing seagulls and getting good and sandy next time we go. here you are...first time on the beach:

you were pretty focused on the sand you'd just gotten on your fingers.

i think we're too far away to really tell, but you were pouting with your bottom lip poked out and everything. i am trying not to laugh.

love you sweet girl. i don't care what these pictures show, i still think you're a beach babe in the making.

mommy

hospital pictures

hi love=)

here are some pictures from the hospital last month. you can see that before surgery you didn't feel great but were doing ok. then after surgery you can see pretty clearly your progression of feeling like poo to feeling smiley and pretty happy again. i wish this didn't happen, but it did. so here are some pictures so we can talk about it later=) i'm leaving out some of the ones where you look so pitiful because it breaks my heart and i'm scared of looking at them right now.

love you sweet angel. i'm so glad you're feeling better.

on our way to the hospital. you're quite the trooper.

watching tv with daddy in your hospital bed.


playing tic-tac-toe.

back from surgery. you were such a sweet angel=)

here's the video from when you got back from surgery. i think i already showed it to you, but here it is again. it makes the organizational part of my brain very happy to put the hospital video with the hospital pictures=)

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surrounded by your animals=)

on post-op day #2 we had to make you walk up and down the hallways to get all the junk out of your chest and get your bowels moving.

you hated it! but it worked.

you realized walking wasn't so bad once we got to the playroom!

playing piano with mommy

this picture is just to highlight the hair-do=)

dr gully gave you a new doctor kit. this is you listening to daddy's heart=)

these glasses are by far my favorite part of the doctor kit=)

what a cutie.

i couldn't get enough of you in the glasses.

you finally got to eat real food!!!

sweet max came to see you=)

i love how you always cross your legs=)

home from the hospital. playing on your new elmo airplane that gigi gave you. you got LOTS of surprises in the hospital to the point that christmas seemed to come early for you. but then you got christmas all over again on actual christmas. i think you deserve it.

trying to give me a thumbs up. with spaghetti all over your mouth=)

i love you my sweet brave girl.

mommy

snow day=)

hi love=)

this has been a very snowy week. mommy and daddy got to stay home from work monday and the 3 of us played with max and his parents hayley and arnold all day! it was lots of fun! we went sledding and threw snowballs and you and max crawled around in the snow. when you went sledding down the hill on my lap i think you ate some snow so after that you kept saying your mouth hurt and asking me to fix it...so we went inside and you and max took a warm bath. then we ate chili and fruit and ice cream (yes. ice cream. even on snow days it's my favorite.) and watched movies and played all day. it was a happy day for all of us. so what if we all started feeling a little sick last night? it was worth it. i think. look at all the fun we had=)

this is funny. to me, at least. look at this picture from last year in the snow...

and now look at this picture from yesterday in the snow...

apparently you like to take off your glove in the snow and stare at your cold hand=)

here are some more.

ready for the cold weather!!

helping mommy make chili=) i love this picture so much i just can't even stand it.

the snow is here!


not the worst view in the world. definitely not the best, either.

i loved watching all the families come out and make snow angels and snowmen.

it was like our little complex came bustling to life once the snow arrived. we saw people we didn't know were our neighbors=) later that night we watched a bunch of grown men, or at least college students, having a serious snowball fight.

arnold, hayley, max, catherine, and mommy=)

i love this. what a beautiful boy=)

you two. being cute.

snow covered booties.

giving hayley this glove that you clearly didn't need.

we went into lowe's on our way to go sledding to warm up. this is you deciding if you want to go back outside again=)

ready to sled down the hill!

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arnold was REALLY excited about taking max sledding. unfortunately, max was totally fed up with the cold at this point and cried from here until we got him in the bath tub.

don't be deceived. in about 5 seconds max started flapping his arms around giggling at everything. he was a much happier camper in the warm water.

we looked over and you had gotten yourself into my boots. it was hilarious-looking, but these pictures don't do it justice.

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you are so fun sweet angel. i love you.

mommy