When people tell you not to blink because once you open your eyes, your baby will be in college, they aren't far from the truth. I feel like I just had Katherine yesterday. And now she's one year old! She's not my little tiny baby anymore- she's a toddler!
She loves to walk everywhere and get into everything. She sometimes likes to crawl really fast and be silly.
She loves pointing at everything and clapping. She especially loves grabbing my hands and making me clap. She just giggles and giggles.
She is an awesome dancer! Seriously anytime a song comes on, no matter what song, she just stops what she's doing and starts bouncing up and down or back and forth on her feet. Once, we were walking on the sidewalk, and a car drove past with some rap music playing, and Katherine stopped and started bouncing. It was hilarious!
She loves to eat everything she can get her hands on, and that includes toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and toilet water.
Her favorite foods are bananas and grapes, by far. She really hates apples and tomatoes. But she's generally a good eater.
She loves to babble and "talk." She can't say any distinct words yet, even though Greg swears she says "dada."
She LOVES books- she brings them over to me and tries to sit in my lap for me to read to her. Books are some of her favorite things.
She loves to giggle and play peek-a-boo. She goes over to our curtains and hides behind them, and when her little head emerges, we say "Peek-a-boo!" and she loves that.
She puts so many things over her head to be silly. She'll put clothes, books, toys, strings, towels, etc. over her head or around her neck (sometimes it's a little dangerous). She's so funny.
She has the cutest little giggle. You can get her really riled up when you tickle her (especially her thighs and armpits), and she absolutely LOVES it.
She climbs on everything. If there is anything right next to the couch, she uses it to climb up onto the couch. Once she's on the couch, she loves to be silly and flop herself all over the pillows. And yes, she has fallen one or two times. It was the scariest thing. But she's ok. She also grabs onto the top of my dresser (it's not a tall one) and just hangs from it or tries to climb up. There's also a little paint can next to my dresser, and she uses it to stand on and grab things from on top of my dresser.
She loves playing in her "kitchen." A girl from our ward gave us a play kitchen set a few weeks ago, and Katherine is seriously obsessed. It's her favorite thing. She loves to try to eat the play food. She doesn't quite get that it's pretend yet.
She is not a huge cuddler. Not even when she is hurt or crying. She doesn't love giving or getting kissies, but there are those rare times when I ask her for a kissie, and she stops moving her head, looks at me, and leans forward to kiss me. THAT IS THE CUTEST THING EVER.
She has started to help me when I'm trying to put her clothes on. She'll push her arms through the sleeves, and she puts her legs up to push them through the pants when she's laying on the ground.
She has slept through the night since she was about 9 months old. She's so good at not screaming or crying that when she wakes up from her naps, she even just sits there and doesn't make a sound for a little while (I know this because sometimes I go in there and she's just sitting there playing with her stuffed animal bunny).
She loves when I chase her around the house and then she gets to chase me. She just giggles and giggles!
She loves to try to mimic what Greg and I do. For instance, when we smack our lips, she tries to do it too. Or when I blow kisses to her, you can tell she's trying to figure it out and do it too. Or when I tell her to say "Hi" or "Bye bye" and wave, she waves too. It's seriously the cutest.
She's kind of a little bully with other kids. And by bully, I just mean that she doesn't really care that other kids are playing with toys, she will just go over and forcefully take whatever she wants out of their hands. Little stinker.
She does love other babies though. Depending on her mood. Sometimes she just squeals and gets so excited and points when she sees other kids. She has some cute little friends, Audrey, Gemma, and Lyla that she loves to play with. She also loves to play with Savannah and Sterling, but if they try to hold her hand or anything like that, she just SCREAMS.
Speaking of her scream, she has the LOUDEST scream I've ever heard from a baby. I'm not kidding. It is ear piercing. I've never heard another baby scream as loudly or as crazily as Katherine. She has got some lungs. I actually get that a lot from other random people that we meet at the store or when we are shopping.
She is really good at squatting. It's no easy feat. Trust me, I've tried. She does it with her bum almost touching the floor. It takes a lot of balance!
When we are cooking in the kitchen, she has to be in our arms seeing what's going on. She HATES being short.
If I'm taking a shower, she thinks it's hilarious to pull the shower curtain to the side and play peek-a-boo. It makes for a freezing shower.
She LOVES the beach! On Christmas Eve day, Greg, Ann Marie, my dad, Katherine, and I went to Seal Beach. My dad was put in charge of watching Kate while the rest of us took some pictures for my jewelry company. Next thing I know, I look over and Katherine was basically rolling around in the sand with her clothes on (not a swimsuit). It was a hilarious sight to see, but not fun when she started getting cold because she was soaking wet.
She loves holding the iPhones. I don't know how, but she just knows where they are and sneakily grabs them and runs away. She doesn't give them up easily either.
She's a VERY smart girl. She impresses me every day with how smart she is. For instance, she knows she isn't supposed to get into the garbage, but she does it anyway. When I start heading over to her to stop her from grabbing the trash, she immediately knows what's going on and starts running away, usually with some trash in her hands. Sometimes it is an absolute mess.
She hates the stroller. I've pretty much given up trying to put her in it when we go shopping. She just wants to be out walking around. By herself. No hand holding.
She's obsessed with the dishwasher. She comes up and grabs a knife or fork or spoon and just runs away with it.
She loves to rough house with daddy. He tickles and throws her onto a pile of pillows and stuff like that. She giggles the entire time.
Church is basically a nightmare with Katherine. She doesn't sit still at all, and she screams in the middle of the chapel during sacrament meeting if she can't walk around. So, I take her out into the halls the first hour, and then Greg takes her out in the halls the second and third hours while I'm playing piano in Primary. Church with a baby stinks. Especially 11am church (right during nap time). We just cling onto the fact that she will be in nursery in 6 months and we can go back to having a good, spiritual church meeting again.
She does REALLY well with new people. She's definitely not one of those shy babies. We've had others babysit her a few times, and she's done really well every time. She doesn't scream when we leave. Hopefully that lasts.
She throws tantrums still, but they aren't as bad as they were a couple months ago. She gets over them pretty quickly. We've just ignored her when she starts screaming, and when she knows she's not going to get attention out of it, she stops.
There's so much more that I could go on and on about, but I'll just stop there!
