Where, oh where has my baby gone?

Saturday night we decided to switch Kate over to her "big bed". She's been talking about it for a while and going into the guest room and pretending to go night-night in the big bed, so we went for it. I'm glad James pushed for this because I might have continued to put it off. She was just so content in her crib - always went to bed very easily and only climbed out once (after we got home from Nana and Grandfather's house, where she was climbing out of the porta-crib). We went through only 30 minutes of her getting out of bed and crying. Finally, I let her take a book to bed with her and she went to sleep on her own. We completely avoided laying down with her, as this is not a habit I wanted to continue. She's gone down fine ever since, even at nap time, but she does like to take a book with her. I can't say I really blame her. I've done that for as long as I can remember! Here are some pictures we took last night of Kate and her new bed.

Kate and Daddy reading her favorite book... about using the potty.
Seriously, where did my baby go???

This was what I got when I asked her to smile...

I'm so proud of her for doing so well with the bed switch! I just hope potty training goes as well. Kate likes to use the potty and sometimes she'll tell me when she wants to go. This isn't all the time, but usually when we're changing her diaper. So, I'm hopeful! But, if I didn't have another baby on the way, I might be getting a little depressed by all this growing up she's doing!

Swim lessons

Well, we had our first swim lesson yesterday. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed afterward. Kate loved the water, which dissuaded my fear that she would inherit my aquaphobia. She even had a good time - for the first 15 minutes. Then she was looking for something else to do. I couldn't keep her entertained enough to enjoy it for 30 minutes. The problem was, we were in the big pool, so I had to hold her the whole time. Kate is way to independent (okay, THAT she did get from me) and active for me to hold her for 30 minutes. She could only kick and blow bubbles in the water for so long. She started fussing at me, wanting to play on the stairs, sit on the side, see what was going on in other parts of the pool - anything to get out of my arms. The teacher asked if Kate was getting cold, and I told her I thought she was just bored. I got an incredulous "Really??" reply. She didn't know what to say.

In short, I think the class would have been great for Kate this time last year. Maybe we'll get some water wings for next time and see if we can get her to do a little more on her own. She did start to blow bubbles in the water, which she wouldn't do before yesterday, so I don't think the time spent was a total waste. I'll keep you posted on our progress.

PS - I just realized I haven't posted any pictures in a while, so I'll try to do that next time.

Where has the summer gone!?!

Wow has time flown this summer! With all of our trip planning and then being out of town, I feel like the summer is just starting, but it's already half gone. Most of you have heard about James and my fabulous trip to Hawaii to celebrate our 10th anniversary. If you haven't seen pictures yet, I'll be sending them soon! I'm trying to decide on the best medium for that.

We traveled over the Fourth of July holiday to North Carolina for a long overdue visit with James's extended family. Thursday we spent with "GG" (Kate's great-grandma) and Aunt Martha in Graham, NC. We had a great visit with them for a good part of the day. The next day we planned to head to the beach, but we were tired after all the traveling and visiting and we had already pushed Kate to the limit as far as sleep deprivation, so we stayed around Cary for most of the day then met up with James's cousin Robin and her family at nearby Jordan Lake. We saw the new baby, who Kate calls "Baby Shelly", for the first time and had a great time playing in the water with Frankie. Kate loved it! It was really good to get the cousins together to play. After a few hours of water fun, we headed to Robin and Todd's house for dinner and more playing and Nana and Grandfather met us there. We were all pretty pooped that night! Saturday, we decided to take it easy and recuperate before heading home on Sunday. It was a great trip, and it's fun to watch Kate in so many new situations (for instance, she really enjoyed our "pic-ic" lunches while traveling) but I'm looking forward to getting Kate back on a normal, if busy, schedule. In addition to our other scheduled activities, we start swim lessons this week, so I'll keep you posted on how that goes.

On a side note, Kate is growing up so fast! She's climbing out of the port-a-crib, using the potty (sporadically for now), really singing ABC's, singing along with her children's cds (I can't get enough of her singing - so cute!), and her vocabulary has officially outpaced our translating abilities, causing some frustrating situations for everyone. In some ways I can't believe she'll be two next month, but at the same time, she's really not a baby any more.