March: Kaitlyn turns Two!

It has been so crazy to me that we have a 2 year old.  I still can't decide which is weirder, having a 2 year old, or Jeremy graduating from Stanford Law.  Kaitlyn was really excited for her "cupate" but mostly just ate the frosting.

Grandma and Grandpa Gibb came to visit right before Kaitlyn's birthday and we all had a blast together.  Somehow I don't have pictures with them.  I really need to get better at that.  They brought Kaitlyn a trampoline for her birthday and to say that she loves it is an understatement.  She bounced herself sick the first night until she ran completely out of energy and had a terrible tantrum.  I guess that's what happens with 25 minutes of constant bouncing and laughing.  Overload! 

We had so much fun with Grandma and Grandpa Gibb at the playground, zoo, and beach.

Kaitlyn's present from us was a little kitchen or chicken like Kaitlyn calls it.  She loves cooking dinner and washing her hands in the sink.

I decided to do a fun birthday party for Kaitlyn and I had a lot of fun with it.  She will probably never get a cute themed party again, but here is proof it happened once.

The theme was like the book, "We're going on a bear hunt."  We had bear snack mix, berries and bear cupcakes.

So many of Kaitlyn's friends came to hunt for bears.  They had to follow the bear tracks (forks with bear prints) in the grass.

Kaitlyn and Ella Facchino overcame their fears and went through the long wavy grass together.

Daniel Richards and Kaitlyn going through the deep cold river.

Kaitlyn did not want to trudge through the thick oozy mud.  None of the kids wanted to do it even though all of them would have jumped at the chance if they weren't being told to get muddy... Taylan and Cormac Nicholson got muddy once we moved on though.

Wandering through the big dark forest...

Oh-oh! A snowstorm! A swirling, whirling snowstorm!

The narrow gloomy cave was a bit scary, but most of the kids made it through to find the bear.

Kaitlyn didn't wait for everyone to finish before grabbing a cupate.  I guess the treats were started.

We have so many wonderful friends here!

Here is Kaitlyn at her 2 year checkup.  We love the fish.  She weighed a whopping 23 lbs 3 oz (9th percentile) and she was 32 inches tall (14th percentile). 

After having several birthday parties and so many presents, Kaitlyn thinks that anything that comes in the mail is a present.  This one actually was a present from her Brower cousins, thanks!

We went on a fun hike with Oliver Cook.  They had fun climbing rocks and feeding the ducks.

Spring break was also during March and one of the most memorable things we did was go on an hour long canoe boat ride.  Kaitlyn was in heaven.  She still talks about the canoe boat a lot and its 2 months later.  She called the paddles shovels.

Some people accidentally kicked their soccer ball in the water and asked us to rescue it for them.  Kaitlyn was so excited to hold the ball on the row back to shore but immediately threw it back in the water.  We had to re-rescue it and Kaitlyn was put out that we didn't let her hold it the second time.  She talked about the soccer ball in the canoe boat a lot too.

A beach day in Santa Cruz.  Kaitlyn was so excited about her sandcastle, but wasn't so sure when she realized she was trapped.  There were lots of sea lions too which would make anyone laugh.

We went to Utah to visit my family and see the new baby Olive.  She was so tiny and somehow I didn't take any pictures.  I'm ridiculous.  Here is Kaitlyn's and Grandpa's first time watching Frozen.  Alta and Ellie sang along with every song and that was all it took for Kaitlyn to know how cool these songs are.  She has been singing them ever since, along with the rest of kid civilization.

We had some great ski days at Snowbird, Alta, and Solitude and even took Kaitlyn for a few runs at Snowbird.  She Loved it!  She was pretty enthralled by the chairlift but as soon as we started skiing, she started saying, "fast! fast! fast!"  Then when I would stop, she would say, "Again!"  On one of the runs, I tried to turn her facing forward, but it was too much wind in her face.

It's hard to get everyone in the picture on a chairlift.  We tried asking Kaitlyn about skiing, but she was too busy saying chairlift at this point.

It was such a wonderful experience skiing together as a family.

Here is baby Olive and Ellie and Shalane, we were watching Alta's soccer game.

Alta was so nice to share her cheetos with Kaitlyn.  We had such a fun trip and love our family!

February 2014

At the end of January, Kaitlyn and I went to Utah to visit family and see Kaitlyn's new little cousin Olive.  Olive and Shalane had just gotten home from the hospital and she was so tiny and so beautiful!  Kaitlyn thought it was cool she had baby toes, other than that she didn't seem to care at all.  Somehow I didn't take any pictures with cousins, but I wanted to make sure I didn't forget the fun we had.  One of the best moments of the trip was when Kaitlyn and I went over to play with Alta, Ellie and Olive too.  We got to run around the couch in circles, play ring around the rosie (Kaitlyn's first time and she was hooked from the beginning), and play with trains and get a little out of control.  It was a blast and hopefully I didn't leave the girls too wound up for Shalane when we left.  Kaitlyn loved reading with Grandma and Grandpa, especially the Wheels on the Bus Book.  She loved it enough that I bought it when I got home.

 I went to Deer Valley with my Dad and had a wonderful day skiing.  Kaitlyn had so much fun with Grandma that I was able to have a real vacation.  

Just a cute picture of her eating snacks.

The Stanford student families got a free ice skating day, so we thought it could be good or bad but it was free.  They also said you couldn't have kids on the ice without ice skates unless they were in a stroller.  So naturally that meant we got her the smallest ice skates they had even though they were 6's and she is in size 3. It took some warming up, but she was having a blast by the end.  Also, it was raining on the open half of the ice rink.

Kaitlyn loves when I let her play with the umbrella.  She even figured out how to spin it.  The only reason I don't let her play with it all day every day is because I still need a functioning umbrella.  She has a tendency to bang it in to everything and step on it when it tips.  It does make an awesome dancing prop or hiding place though.

Kaitlyn hasn't shown much interest in her bike lately.  She loves to walk it around, but as soon as we try to make her straddle it, she is done.

We got a cute valentines outfit from Grandma Brower.  

Playing with "swords."

Chasing Dad is one of our favorite before bedtime games.  Kaitlyn always gets a little hyper and very energetic before bedtime, she knows if she is cute enough, we might let her keep playing...

Running from Dad.

Kaitlyn is very ticklish, but only if she is in the mood.

Her first Happy Meal!

This was our first Sumo orange of the year and boy are they delicious!   Kaitlyn is the only 2 year old who calls oranges Sumos.

I cut my hair.  It's not at all what I wanted, but hey, it turned out pretty good and I have fast growing hair.

January 2014!

We started off the year by biking on the 17 Mile Drive at Pebble Beach.  It was a beautiful day and Kaitlyn loved riding with us along the beach.  Here is a family photo by Seal Beach.  Kaitlyn loved barking like them.

The rock further in the distance was covered with seals.  They were pretty funny to watch.

Here's the famous Pebble Beach tree.

After riding for quite a long time for Kaitlyn, we got back to the car and ate lunch and played on the beach.  She loved playing in the sand and chasing the seagulls.

Kaitlyn got legos or "wagos" for Christmas and loves to make towers, tunnels, gates, and stairs.  Here she is trying to walk up the stairs...

We are starting to read more paper books that aren't board books.  We still don't leave her alone with them, but she's getting a little more careful with some things.

 One of Kaitlyn's favorite things to do is get out all her plates, bowls and cups and stack them and unstack them and organize them in different ways.

Painting was so much fun until the end when she realized her hands were too dirty.  She loves to be clean, at least when she's done playing.

Another of Kaitlyn's favorite things to do is to feed the ducks at the Palo Alto duck pond.  She loves them and they love her.

This goose is bigger than her, but that doesn't scare Kaitlyn.

We were having so much fun until she ran and tripped into the concrete bench.  She cut her lip and was bleeding all over us and her cute pink dress.  She was not happy and had a hard time eating or drinking for a few days.  Luckily the mouth heals fast.  The only injuries Kaitlyn has had are bruises everywhere, raspberries on her knees and bleeding from her mouth. I'd say we've been pretty lucky so far.

One Saturday we went to the Oakland Zoo to change things up.  We also wanted Kaitlyn to see the elephants that the SF Zoo doesn't have.  Kaitlyn was so excited to go to the zoo, but didn't believe that we were at the zoo until we went through the entire zoo once.   She was not her normal happy self.  She didn't even care about the elephants!  Luckily we had time to go through one more time. This time, she must have realized that this zoo was fun too even if it wasn't her zoo.  She was perfectly happy the second time through and loved everything.  What a relief!

Here's a monkey who really wanted to be in the limelight.  Total crowd-pleaser.

At the turtles, Kaitlyn felt extra thankful and sat down and folded her arms to say a prayer.  I guess she's learning something...

Balancing on the giant snake was fun.

"Mommy's eyes!"