22 months

Kate is 22 months old.  Almost 2.  That is craziness.  Mostly for my own benefit and memory, here's a bit about our little lovebug right now...

• she loves to play hide & seek with daddy, especially the part where he yells out "surprise" when she finds him
• we're working on numbers and letters, and when Kate counts to ten, she says, "1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 4"...we're getting there:)
• when you ask her where daddy works, she says "hostable" and it's adorable (she also tells you that daddy helps the kids feel better)
• she likes to give hugs AND kisses, the two always go together
• anytime you ask her about doing her hair, she chooses 2 ponytails over 1
• she loves to hold hands and walk
• she calls the park 'swing, slide, steps' because that's what she likes to do there
• cutest things Kate says right now: "love you" "bless you" and "excuse you"
• she loves her rhyme book from story time at the library 
• she's a big fan of ducks and 'geeses'
• we took the gates down from the top and bottom of the stairs because Kate can do them herself - yay!
• she's not quite ready to potty train yet (at least I'm not!), but she comes to tell you once she's gone poopy and asks you to change her
• she's slow to wake up from naps and needs a little snuggle time
• speaking of naps, she's really struggling with naps lately.  let's hope that changes soon!
• when she wakes up, she yells "mommy, open door!"
• Kate loves dogs
• instead of music, Kate says micus; and instead of Caleb, she says cable
• she knows all of the primary colors
• loves to dance and sing, and she sings about whatever is going on around her, so her songs are quite funny!
• her favorite toy is her Little People Farm
• she likes to color with crayons and sidewalk chalk
• she's a really great helper
• she knows lots of animal noises and body parts
• she loves to run around in circles, especially around our kitchen! she thinks getting dizzy is fun!
• when you ask her who her buddies are, she tells you "Greg (Matt's co-chief), Sarah (my best friend), Lincoln, or Graham."
• she's in size 4 shoes and 18 month clothes

Labor Day weekend and 'Lyssa Party'

Matt's cousin, Alyssa, got married over Labor Day weekend, so we spent the long weekend at the Farm.  Kate loves to play the piano with uncle Brian.

Kate was very excited to go along to 'Lyssa Party' with mommy and daddy and she did great.

The ceremony was outside at Grandpa Dean's house, which was really special.  Kate was mostly entertained by the crayons and paper we brought for her, but she's such a talker, it was hard to keep her totally quiet.  For example, an Amish buggy passed by and she said 'horsey, neigh, neigh' until it was out of sight:) She called out 'Bri Guy' to uncle Brian when he went up to do a reading:) And when he said Bible, she repeated the word loud enough for most everyone to hear:)

Of course, Kate's favorite part of the night was the reception - the dancing to be exact.  She was hilarious and so much fun.  It was sad to take her home because she was having such a great time.

When we saw Joe and Alyssa on Monday morning for brunch, she told Alyssa, 'Lyssa party fun'. I agree.  We had a great time celebrating!

date night!

It doesn't happen very often, but Matt and I went out on a date a few Fridays ago.  We had dinner at The Winchester in GR and then went to the final home game of the West Michigan Whitecaps.  We both had awesome food; I would totally recommend The Winchester if you're looking for a low-key night out.  Thanks mom and dad for babysitting Kate!

more buddies:)

The Hammers were in town for Brian's brother's half Ironman a few weeks ago.  Kate and Lincoln are such good friends and they have a lot of fun together.  Saturday night, we had dinner with all of our Hope friends in town.  Kate got her first major head bump when Lincoln threw the little bocce ball and hit her in the forehead...oops! She healed extremely fast, though.  Over the course of the night, we had 7 cute little munchkins here:)

Sunday was Ben's race, so we didn't see them very much.  But on Monday, while Brian was at work, Jill and I took the kiddos to the zoo.  Kids + animals + room to run is always a lot of fun.  Until the meltdowns start.  We had a bit of a rough drive home, but everything was better once they had food in their bellies and naps.  We were sad to say goodbye after dinner on Monday, but it was time for all of the kids to get back into their own beds and routines.

snuggles with Brian:)

hugs for the penguins

BEARS!

checking out the camels

hugs for Graham!

Kate playing with Graham buddy

buddies

My friend, Steph, has a super cute son named Eli.  Kate loves Eli and calls him her buddy all the time.  We went to the splash pad a few weeks ago, but neither kid wanted to go in the water, so we ended up on the playground instead.  The kids had a blast climbing and sliding all over the place.

when did she get so big?

These two were cracking each other up on the wagon ride home.  They would just look at each other and laugh.  Then they both sucked thumbs.  Then they started kicking each other and Eli quickly wanted out of the wagon.  Such sweetness:)

fun at Frederick Meijer Gardens

Allison and I met up at the children's garden at FMG a few weeks ago and our girls had a great time playing in all the water! We, unfortunately, didn't bring swimsuits for our kids (like the other smart moms), so we just took off their shirts and let them go:)

Kate liked the little splash pad at the front of the gardens, and both girls loved playing with the sailboats. 

cutie pie, Haven:)

They had fun 'painting' on the sidewalks with water too - what a fun idea, I can totally do that at home!

We played around the treehouse for a while, and then Kate was off to find the drums in the maze.  She loves those things!

We finished our trip with a picnic lunch by the waterfall.  Neither of the girls ate super well, but we had a great time talking and feeding the giant goldfish in the pond:)

a hug for the road!

little helper

Kate continues to love to help with things around the house (as long as they're fun, and not noisy).  She was a great helper when we washed our cars a few weeks ago:) 

Another favorite activity: pulling weeds.  No joke.  I love her so much.

who needs a sponge when you have hands?!