Today Katie went in for her 12 month well-check and it went well. She got up at 7 on the dot again-it is like the 5th time in the past 6 days she has gotten up right at 7...I don't mind-it is actually a decent time, considering she could be getting up at 5 or 6am. Yesterday she got up at 8:30-lucky mommy and daddy got to sleep in. I got ready real quick and then got her up and threw her in the bath-which of course she did not want to get out of. She her clean and was in the car by 8:10am for her appointment at 8:30am. I am getting better at being on time...although I did have to grab her milk and a banana for breakfast-lol. She did not mind-actually now that I think about it-she did get up at 5:15am and had a bottle, so I was not too concerned that she would be starving. We got there and checked in and then was off to see Nurse Anna. She told me to strip her down and we were off to the scale to measure and weigh. She weighed in a whopping (not really) 23.8lbs which is the 85% for her age and she was 31.5" long 97% for her age. Still on the top 15% of the charts. I guess she is still growing.

Dr Brian then came in (oh boy-someone was soooo shy and could not even look at him-hee hee-I tell you she has a mad crush on him) and went over all her stats and all-he said that she is doing really, really well. He was amazed at her vocabulary and her physical ability. I think he thought I was joking when I said that she has AT LEAST a 25 word vocabulary. I guess I am just used to her talking and saying all sorts of things. Things that I have no idea how she knows what it is....for example, tonight, we were playing with a toy and it had a "bee" on it. I never even noticed the bee before, but she pointed right at it and said "bee"...hmmmm. Maybe daddy is working with her too. strange, huh?

Here are some of her words: bee, book, bubble, ball, apple, dog, mama, dada, up, all done, El-mo-mo (elmo), more, no, bike, birdie, clock, gram-ma, papa, nose, eye, shoe, toes....there are more, but I can't even think....

She had 3 shots, the first was in her leg-no problem. The second was in her left arm...Ahhh and the third was in her right arm...BBBAAAAAHHHHHH! That was it, she lost it and screamed her head off. I think she would have gotten over it faster if they did not put the pee-pee bag on her to check her kidneys. That was horrible and completely wrong to do to a 1 year old....made taking her band-aids off a piece of cake.

After we were done, I ran back home and met my sister who was going to watch Katie-who of course did not make it home before she was taking her nap...but she woke up right as I opened.closed the garage door so Melanie was able to play with her...ha ha. I had to go to the Podiatrist to get another Cortisone shot in my ankle...ouch-but it is so much better now! That stuff is magic I tell ya.

After I got home, Matt and I went to get some groceries and then it was back home to pack up all her baby stuff. This included clothes, all my pumping stuff, her old bottles, boppy, swing, mini-gyms and a ton of other stuff that she may have used when she was a baby-made me want to cry...I miss my little baby.

I will admit, it was SOOOO nice to get rid of all the clutter that was just taking up space and needed to be put away.

I am really tired so I am going to call it a night and go night-night (that is another word she LOVES to say- until she realized what it means....lol).

Here is a picture Nicholas took of Katie and I-hee hee.

I guess we are going to have to start really watching Katie now....this means no more potty for mommy unless Katie is right there or she is asleep. This is what we found her doing...

This is why she is my little monkey. She was very proud of herself too.

***Halloween***

On Halloween, we met up with our friends Claudia and Andrew and their little ones-Sean and Taryn. Katie and Taryn were Tinkerbell and Sean was Peter Pan. We went to the mall to trick-or-treat and had a great time. It was packed, but fun and we knew that the candy was from a safe source. Most of the stores were out of candy by the time we got there, but we did manage to get a few things. Katie knew to give Elmo (her candy holder) the candy when she got it and did a really good job. We also ran into a few friends and their little ones there. After that we went to my mom and dads for crab meat enchiladas AKA dinner....We took Katie next door and to a 'scary' house down the street. She loved my parents next door neighbors-they had two Boston Terriers and Katie made her self at home, pushing the door open and walking in and even trying to go upstairs. She did not like the 'scary' house very much and started to cry and hold on to daddy with all her strength-did I mention how unbelievably strong this little girl is? Holy Moley...here are a few pictures from Halloween. It was kind of strange...two different strangers came up to us and asked to take a picture of Katie. One was with a

A lot has happened since I have last updated this blog. My laptop took a crap the night before Katie's birthday and this is the first time I have been able to access the internet from this (my laptop) computer. The other one is in the office and is kind of a pain to get to and use. As my luck would have it, I was working on a slideshow for Katie's birthday party and had spend about 10 hours on it-looking for pictures, organizing and creating it. Just as we were getting it ready to put on a DVD, the computer blue screened us. Not good. I wanted to just cry.....Matt spent most of the night trying to figure out how to fix the computer and trying to access the slide show, but it was just not going to happen. I guess I will save it for her next birthday or something.

Her party was wonderful. The weather was perfect-a little hot, but we had a wonderful water slide bouncer thingy and a pool, so it really was perfect. Here are a few shots

As you can tell from the above picture, it was a long day for lil Katie. She was so tired and ready for 'ni-nite'. She was a trooper though and did not fall asleep until we were in the car and headed home.

Below is us with her cake. Boy oh Boy was it a crazy idea to have a red cake for a 1 year old. We of course gave her her own cupcake and we let her choose it....well them-she chose two.

Things started off simple enough....

Then she started to have fun.....

and pretty soon she was a little scary looking and it got worse....

Someone took her out and it looked like something from a horror movie. Guess who had to catch her and get her clean.....

I will have to update another time with some more birthday pictures and some halloween ones too!

So today, Katie woke up at about 7:45am and I got her up out of her crib and changed her diaper. Changed her out of her jammies into some clothes and we went down stairs to watch Sesame Street. I usually wash out her bottle (that she had at 2:30am) and make her breakfast while she plays and watched TV for a little while-before I take her on her walk. I was washing out her bottle when she peeked around the corner at me and then took off running with something in her hand. I knew by the taunt that she had something that she should not have. I chased her down and found this:

Excellent! She found daddy's beer bottle from last night. lol. No, there was nothing in it. He just forgot it on the floor. Nice....I did manage to get a quick picture of her before I had to wrestle it away from her......of couse it was the one thing in the entire world that she wanted more than anything-even more than that plastic bags and forks and other small items or breakable things that she wants. Yikes!!!!!

On a different note, here she is in her Halloween Costume.

Lombardi's Ranch

Sunday Matt and I took Katie to Lombardi's Ranch to meet up with our friends Fenella and her husband Jerry and their two little angels Owen and Brando. We had a great time. It was very crowded and pretty warm. Katie had a 15 minute nap on the way there, so she was a little cranky, but was very good considering. Here are a few pictures of our trip:





This is the only picture I could get with the three of them...lol.





This was Katie on the way home....zzzz....zzzzz.......zzzz





We are getting ready to celebrate her 1st birthday party and it should be a blast. I am a little stressed at getting everything done, but I am so excited too.

Today my sister Melanie and I took some fun pictures of Katie. We had a blast...Katie did too once Jack was let inside. She only lasted for about 100 pictures, but we got some pretty good ones. Here are a few....








I guess I can say the "D" word again, since I was right and I knew better that to mention them when they were doin g so well. SO, they swept Chicago and then lost 2 in a row to Philadelphia...they NEED to win the next 4 game.

This past weekend we took Katie to Lombardi's Ranch. It is a huge pumpkin patch here in Santa Clarita. They also have train rides, a petting zoo, face painting and a corn maze. I can't wait to take her in a couple years when she is able to participate in a few more activities. We just picked out a pumpkin and walked around a little. She LOVED helping daddy push the wagon around and she even picked a pumpkin for Juliana and Mia (her cousins).

If you noticed....I have made no mention of a certain baseball team. I don't want to jinx them, so I am keeping quiet. :)