When it's 100 degrees....

you take the kids to play in the water at the Irvine Spectrum. I love taking Katelyn to the Spectrum. In fact, I've blogged about going there several times this summer. It's been so hot, it's nice to have a place to take Katelyn where she can play in the water and I don't need to put on a bathing suit. Although I do need to try and take her to the pool a couple more times before it cools down too much so she doesn't forget all the swimming skills she's learned this summer. Katelyn is so blessed to have so many wonderful little friends she can go on play dates with, just as blessed as I am to have such great Mommy friends.

Chick-Fil-A

My friend Stephanie and I took our kids to Chick-fil-A this week for lunch so they could play in the little kids play area. Katelyn usually plays with all the toys she can reach standing up, but this is our first trip where she decided to climb up and go down the slide. I couldn't believe she was able to climb up there all by herself!! Of course I was glad I had my camera in my diaper bag. Just one more example of how big my baby girl is getting!

15 Month Check Up

Katelyn had her 15 month wellness visit this week. After months of frustration with her first pediatrician I finally found a new doctor that I love!! We recently switched to Coastal Kids and Dr. Lee is awesome. Katelyn loves her and the office. She had so much fun talking about all the fishies on the wall and playing with all the toys. She even sat quietly in my lap during her entire check up. Katelyn weighed in at 23.6lbs and is 30 inches tall. She's still in the 50th percentile for both height and weight, which is not surprising since Kyle and I are both short. She now has 8 teeth and 4 more coming in and has about 10 words in her vocabulary she uses on a regular basis. The doctors said she looks great and is progressing really well for her age. I do need to work harder and getting her interested in blocks. She doesn't have any interest in stacking or playing with them. Katelyn had to get 3 shots, boo! but she did great and by the time I had strapped her in the car and we were on our way home, poor thing, had already passed out. Thank you for all your prayers. Kyle and I are having so much fun with Katelyn and are blessed to have such a wonderful God who saw us fit to be her parents.

Weekend at the Vineyard

Last weekend Katelyn and I drove to Santa Maria with my brother-in-law Brendan and his girlfriend Ashtyn for a visit at the vineyard. My sister-in-law Leah met us there as well. Kyle's parents head up to their vineyard every year for the grape crushing and we try and visit for at least one weekend. Last year we got to see the grape crushing happen, but this year we all got to participate. We began by heading to the vineyard to watch the workers harvest the grapes and then headed to the winery for the crushing. Katelyn loved snacking on the Chardonnay grapes as they were harvested. Everyone one thought her enthusiasm was so adorable. I can't get over how much the girl loves fruit. Could it be because I lived on it while I was pregnant with her? If there's a correlation I'm in trouble because Brayden's going to come out loving chocolate! yikes! It was fun to get away for the weekend and Katelyn loved having so many people to play with and pay attention to her.

At the winery. First you shovel the grapes into a large metal vat and it then travels up a conveyor belt to the crusher. As it travels up the belt the grapes need to be sorted so that only the good ones end up going in the crusher. Since I had to watch Katelyn, I was the official photographer for the day. No objections here!

Brendan shoveling grapes

The "lovebirds!"

Brendan and Leah

Katelyn enjoying some time with her Uncle B! She's really missing her daddy so I think she was glad to have her uncle around to play with for a few days.

Infant Car Seat Canopy

I finally finished it!! Took me a little longer than expected with the orders I've been doing and traveling to Boston last week, but never-the-less it's finished. I'm so excited about this product. It's a must have for any new mommy. Gone are the worries about your blanket blowing in the wind, the Infant Car Seat Canopy latches onto your car seat handles and keeps your baby warm and protected. This would make a great baby shower gift, or you can even treat yourself to one! This one is available for purchase or you can email me about custom making one for the mommy you have in mind.

Interested? Email me at: alissacircle@gmail.com

Potty Training!

As many of you know I've been working on potty training the last couple of months. We've been teaching Katelyn about putting your pee pee and poo poo in the potty since she could sit up on her own. I would take her with me and show her the potty and talk to her about how big girls don't need a diaper they use big girl panties and pee pee and poo poo in the potty. Once she began walking if you told her you needed to go potty, she would run into the bathroom ahead of you and pat her hand on the toilet. Around the time she turned 1 I started putting her on our toilet before shower time to get her used to sitting up there by herself. I think this was an odd concept for her at first because she wasn't used to sitting on the "throne" herself. To be honest I think it also made her nervous that the hole was so big she felt like she was falling in, even though we were holding her. As she continued her curiosity with the potty, we decided it was time to get her one of her own. I've been researching the perfect potty for a couple of months. I wanted to get something I could put on the floor and get her used to sitting on the potty herself, but then be able to transition her to the regular toilet. I love the potty I found!!!

This is a 3-in-1 potty. It can be a potty that sits on the floor, then you can take the top off and put it on a regular toilet, and if you put the top down it becomes a stepping school. I made a big deal about buying the potty and Katelyn watched me put it together for her. We picked a spot in the bathroom for it and she immediately wanted to sit down. Not wanting to push it on her and make the potty experience a negative one, I put her on it with her clothes on. Then talked to her about what we do in the potty and how this is her very own potty. Then we took off her diaper and tried it out. She would sit there for 15-30 minutes at a time and read a book or magazine. She'd get up and look in the potty, then sit down again. It was too cute!!

Then tonight... Kyle and I were talking on Skype and I asked Katelyn if she wanted to show daddy her potty. She said, "yeah," and ran into the bathroom. She immediately wanted to take off her diaper. I warned Kyle that she usually just likes to sit there, but at least she likes the potty, that's all that matters. Then it happened... she went pee pee in the potty. Kyle and I started cheering for her, she got off the potty and pointed to her pee pee. We wiped, and flushed it down the toilet, making sure to wave bye bye to the pee pee. I was so excited that Kyle got to see her use her potty for the first time. I think for the next week or so I'm going to keep putting her on there every couple of hours, then I'm going to stay home for a few days to really work on getting her used to using her potty. First we need to master the words, "pee pee" and "poo poo" or some way for her to communicate to me she needs to go. In the meantime, I'm just so excited that she's enjoying having her own potty to sit on.

Trying out her new potty. "Thanks Mommy and Daddy"

Using the top party of her potty on the big toilet.

Showing Mommy and Daddy how it's done!

Her very first pee pee in the potty!!! I'm a proud Mommy!

Miss Brooke's 1st Birthday...

Katelyn and I have been staying busy while Kyle is away. Today, after enjoying a relaxing morning together, we headed to Katelyn's buddy Brooke's 1st birthday party. Her Mama Jessica did an AMAZING job planning Brooke's birthday. She made everything from the banners, to the runners, to the cookies, boo boo bags, well and everything else you see in the pictures herself. AMAZING!! I keep telling her I would love to start a small party planning company with her because when we're together we're always coming up with fun, creative ideas for parties and crafts. It's one of the many things I love about our friendship. Katelyn and I had so much fun at the party. I didn't get very many pictures of the party going on, but I did make sure to get pictures of all the decorations. Enjoy! Happy 1st Birthday Brooke, we love you!!

This is the gift Katelyn gave Brooke for her birthday. My friend Stephanie Burke makes toy boxes as a business and I had her make a shabby shic theme box for Brooke to match her nursery. The letters are pink with white polka dots and the sides were painted with light and dark pink flowers with rhinestone accents. Inside we filled it with a coloring book, and a pink and brown crayon roll up I make for Brooke.

Dessert table....yummy.

Love the birthday banner!

Gift table with the goodie bags that had hand made boo boo bags in them. Jess also made the runner you see. If you click on the picture you'll be able to see the side of the box a little better.

Backyard decor

Katelyn enjoying her cupcake. I let her have at it, and she only at 1/3 of it. She has better self control than I do. =)

Brooke after she got to dig into her birthday cake. I'm pretty sure she would've eaten the whole thing, but her mommy and daddy decided she'd had enough.

Our friends Cesar, Patty and their baby Liam (2 1/2 months). They are such an adorable family. Jessica took a picture of Katelyn and I together so I'll post it when she sends it to me.

Thanks for the invite Shumard's, we had so much fun celebrating with you!

Moving....

No, we're not moving out of our apartment, but we did pack up some furniture and miscellaneous other stuff and put it into storage. After doing some further research on the housing market, we feel that the market may drop again before the end of the year and felt more at peace about staying where we are till March, re-evaluate the market after the first of the year, and then decide whether we want to buy then. In the meantime we needed to make room for our little baby boy, due December 3. Katelyn, our little monkey, decided to help mommy pack by climbing up on all the storage bins. The first time I caught her doing it she looked up at me with a big grin almost as if to say, "look at what I can do Mommy?!" Oh how we love her so much!!

4 Generations

While we were in Boston, we decided to have a new 4 generation picture taken of my Nana, Mom, myself and Katelyn. They came out so great, we were so excited!! Since Picture People is having a photo contest we decided to enter the picture of Katelyn with the boa in it. We'll see if she wins.