Kaetlyn's Korner and Grace's Place: Kaety and Gracie As Friends - July 1

Most beautiful girls in the world (per our Mama) :)

Kaetlyn and Grace Together:

We’re going to try a little different format, since we are doing EVERYTHING together these days - we do squabble, but mostly we are turning out to be pretty good friends. (Mostly Baby Sister Gracie wants to do EVERYTHING Big Sister Kaety does, and it causes some angst and consternation, but also a LOT of kisses and hugs. We'll take that!) So, we'll try this together and share a little independently at the end :)

Almost another three weeks has gotten by us and what a WONDERFUL few weeks! We celebrated Independence Day with a trip to the park, bike ride through the park and by hanging out in our backyard playing in the sandbox and in our pool!

Don't we have cool "wheels?!" Sippy cups and babies onboard - YAY!

Sandbox antics 101

Hey - what's that over there?!

Hangin' in our pool...

Patriotic pool babe!

Boats are delicious! AHHHH...the POOL!

Sometimes a girl has to take a break...

Gracie demonstrating why they call it "toddling" in our yard!

Where's Waldo...err..Gracie?!

Beauty in the Garden...

Independence Day swinging...yeah...this ROCKS!

We've also spent some time playing in our sprinker after the folks at school told Mom and Dad how much we both seem to love the sprinklers at school during water time!

Water time at school! Gracie's a big fan!

WOO HOO! Sprinkler time!

Oh, this is SO FUN!

HEE HEE HEE!

WHOA! That's COLD!

Yeah...I LOVE this!

Mom and Dad got a day out without us (not sure why they would want to do that), and Aunt Rachel and Uncle Jimmy, Madison and Ava came over to play. We had SUCH a fantastic time. Poor Uncle Jimmy was with a gaggle of girls!!!

Demonstrating proper bucket technique to Auntie Rachel

Gracie and Ava playing with "big girl" toys...

Best Friends. Kaetlyn LOVES Madison. She's the best role model EVER.

A lot of fun was had...

...and Gracie demonstrated her bareback techniques while making Aunt Rachel and Uncle Jimmy VERY nervous...

In the end, we ended up all hanging out after Mommy and Daddy got home and we all got to take our Sunday night baths together!!! SO. MUCH. FUN!

4 bathing beauties!

Next up, Mommy’s cousin, Denise, came to visit. She was super fun. She read us books, played with us, and helped make yummy food – lots of pasta – our favorite! :) Denise and our Aunt Kim are besties, so we got to have all the Olmsted clan over for a day of fun, during which we entertained with more sprinkler fun and bubble antics…

Cousin Denise & Uncle Paul

Kaet and her dog, Kaia. LOVE.

Hmmmmm....

Aunt Rachel O. and Gracie

BUBBLES!!!

Gracie and her bubbles...

Kaety pops bubbles

Bubble beauty

While Denise was here, we also went to this place called Lakewold Gardens and got to walk around and play on their VERY green grass. It was a lot of fun, but the weather was VERY different from the day before…we had to wear our warm woolies that day!

This is just mischief defined!

Pretty Girl.

Happy and patriotic girl!

Becoming a big girl...finding leaves.

We’ve had some scary things happen this month too. Mommy and Daddy found a lump on our dog, Kaia, and it turns out she had a big cancerous tumor that they had to take out. She’s starting to recover, but for a while she looked silly because she had to wear a stocking and a t-shirt to cover her big, huge (6” scar!) wound and prevent her from getting at the stitches! We love our Kaia-Dog.

Also, both of us have been sick on and off this month. Poor Gracie had it first and gave it to the whole family, and Kaety has struggled with some breathing issues this month that are going to require further investigation. That said, all in all, it’s been a great few weeks!

All About Kaetlyn:

I’m starting to really be expressive these days. I’m popping out new signs and some words even – enough that Mommy’s having to go do some research on signs to figure out what I am saying! Gotta love those Baby Signing Time videos that keep me (and everyone else around me) on my toes! I am making lots and lots of different sounds and saying a few more words too. You have to listen hard to really understand them, but they are definitely there!

Signs I know and use:
More Eat All Done Milk Water Juice Cracker Chair Sit Bath Please Thank You Help Coat Shoes Socks Hat Dog Frog Horse
Monkey Bird Block Ball Baby Up Down Open Close Book Star Sun Car Hair Nose Eyes Ears Belly! Mommy Daddy

iaper Sleep Crying Happy Sad
Go!

Sounds I make:

GRRRRR! (Tiger, Lion, Hippo…)
OOH OOH OOH! (Monkey)
MOOOOO (Cow)

Words I say:

Done                    Up              Down                Elliott                     Kaia
Nana (Mom)       Dada             Dinda (Linda)     Audey(Audrey)
Hi                      Bye Bye!        Diaper              Cheese
Cakar (Cracker)   Alright!

Mommy and Daddy are trying to get me into speech therapy twice a week, rather than once a week because I’m starting to show a lot more interest in words, particularly now that Gracie’s around and I need to verbalize a bit better!

My favorite things:
Reading                Playing with Dolls             Pushing my toy shopping cart     Drawing               Coloring
Watching Veggie Tales, Barney, or Sesame Street             Play-Doh

My least favorite things:

I don’t like when I’m playing with my babies and my little sister comes and steals the blanket…it makes me cry but I can’t understand why it makes Grace laugh…she’s a strange girl! :)

Playing in school:

At school, I’ve been very interested in art projects and you should see the pretty pictures I draw!!!

Working on a puzzle at school

Sensory painting. Yeah. I loved this!

All About Gracie:
I’m trying desperately to do everything my sister does and make sure I get to play with her as MUCH as possible. I don’t like to be where she’s not, and if I am, my Mommy better be there. They call me “Velma Velcro” a lot because I like to cling on to my Mommy and Daddy. I’ve gotten very good at taking toys from Kaetlyn, so we’re working on my ability to share (especially since I do this at school to my friends now too!). I am walking all over the place and starting to make really cool sounds.
Plus I LOVE to dance whenever I hear music…you should see me get my groove on.

Mommy and Daddy are fascinated by how quickly I pick everything up and how much I want to be a part of and in the middle of everything. I love my family. I LOVE my sister. I’m just a pretty lucky girl!

Words I say:
Mama                   Dada                      All Done

My favorite things:
Dolls                                Anything Kaetlyn has                       Pasta
Grilled Cheese               Breakfast sausage                            My bottle!
Macaroni & Cheese (do you see a cheese theme here?)

My least favorite things:
Spoons or anyone trying to feed me (I do it myself!)
Sippy Cups (can't I just have a bottle?)
Being alone (I get really mad when I see my mommy walk out of the room…it just isn’t right!!)

Playing in school:

At school, I’ve also gotten to do some art projects. Ms. Audrey says I end up wearing more art than doing it!!!