Friday, May 27, 2011

First Steps

Over the past week, Katarina learned how to walk! Wednesday of last week she consciously took her first few unsupported steps. (The prior week, we had been able to trick her into taking a step or two, until she realized we had let go of her hands.) Each day, Kati became braver and more stable. Wednesday of this week, she just took off walking across the room. Now she is walking all around the house and outside, too!


These video segments were taken Thurs., May 19th through Wed., May 25th, so you can see how her gross motor skills progressed in just one week. In the middle, I took a video of her learning how to stand up on her own without pulling up on someone or some thing. In that clip, she also did her sign for stand up (reaching up) to tell me she was trying to stand up. She is so proud of herself, and she loves praise and applause.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

PreK3 Spring Program

Bella was a mouse in her PreK-3 class Spring program on May 20, 2011. She loved learning and singing all these songs!

Bella talking as Ms. Laura gives her whiskers

Bella telling stories while Ms. Mandy tries to apply lipstick

Katarina hanging out in the classroom "backstage"

Singing on stage

Bella hugging David, her fellow mouse

Great job, Bella!

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Kindergarten Play

Gabi was a Granny Smith apple in her Kindergarten play on May 12, 2011. For each month of the school year, the Kindergarten Play included a poem and a song about what the Kindergarten classes learned in science, history, or math.


UPDATE: I uploaded a higher-res version of this video.

This year, the Kindergarteners studied:
August - school and family
September - apples (Johnny Appleseed and two apples)
October - farms (farmer and animals)
November - Thanksgiving (pilgrims and Indians and a turkey)
December - fractions and Christmas (Santa and children)
January - seasons and weather (sun, raindrop, and rainbow)
February - famous Americans and US money (American presidents)
March - insects and telling time (dancers)
April - plants (and rain)
May - parts of a flower

To shorten the video, I only included the poems that Gabi recited. Also, Michael moved to get a different videoing angle during the October song, so Gabi recorded that song on her own at home. By the way, Gabi's favorite people to read about in February were Betsy Ross and Helen Keller.
In the Dressing Room

On Stage

Johnny Appleseed poem

Dancing

Great job, Gabi!

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Katarina at 14 months

While Kati still seems like my baby, she is growing and developing quickly.


At 13 months, she cut her two lower lateral incisors, and a week or so later cut the two upper lateral incisors. She had ear infections simultaneously with the teething, so that was a rough couple of weeks. Now she is much happier, and she has 8 teeth total.
Kati-Lily will pull up and cruise around furniture, and she loves to walk while holding our hands. She especially needs someone to hold her left hand, although she'd prefer both hands be held.
She's fairly steady (although not yet confident) just standing on her feet. While standing unsupported, she can clap, put on a necklace, and squat down. She is fascinated with wearing Mardi Gras beads!
As a newborn, Kati-Lily looked just like Gabi. She has since grown into her own distinct features, and she now resembles me.
Kati is starting to use signs to communicate. Her favorite signs are perhaps bird and fish, although she does confuse them and generalizes both to refer to any animal. Every time we go outside, she signs bird, which I assume is because she can hear birds singing, although it could just be that I always point out birds when we're outdoors.
Above, Kati is signing fish as she watches the penguins swim in front of her.
Katarina's other signs include: eat, more, milk, finished, and rabbit. She tries to imitate animal sounds, which sounds like a cross between "woof woof" and "oo-oo-ah-ah." She finally started to say "Mama," although it usually means that she wants to get our attention so that she can sign. I have started taking her to the zoo so we can walk around and talk about the animals and other things we see in an effort to develop her language.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Mother's Day

I enjoyed a wonderful Mother's Day today. Lolo and Lola brought over marinated meat and potatoes for Michael to grill outside, plus plenty of fresh vegetables, which we steamed. Gabi and Bella convinced Lolo and Lola to buy chocolate-covered strawberries, too! Cousin Steven entertained the girls outside with bubbles and science lessons.

Best of all, after dinner, Gabi and Bella came up to me, sweetly wished me a happy Mother's Day, and gave me hugs. Then they said they had a present for me: a massage. They sat on my back and rubbed my back with feather-light touches. Their joy and effort to care for me was a beautiful expression of their love and appreciation.

Happy Mother's Day to my mom, too! Thanks for all you have done and continue to do for me. I'm glad I was able to drive to Texas for Amy's bridal shower yesterday and see you.

Friday, May 6, 2011

All About Gabi

Gabriella made a poster about herself as a Kindergarten class project. Gabi decided what to write, selected the pictures, cut them out, glued them on, and wrote all the text herself!

Gabi is wearing her Notre Dame "The Shirt" in two of these pictures. In other pictures, you can see her Irish shirt, her ND jersey, and the Dome on the ND campus. Also, Michael is wearing his Notre Dame sweatshirt in the picture at Red Rocks. There's no brain-washing going on at this house...