She's two!

I can't believe Catherine is two. What I really can't believe is that when Ella turned two I had a four month old. Ella seemed so old in comparison. At two Catherine is still my baby even though she is growing up in leaps and bounds. She is definitely developing her talking. She talks alot. I still can't understand all of it, but it's becoming clearer and clearer. Sometimes she speaks in whole sentences that we understand completely. For example, at the mall last week Ella sat in the umbrella stroller that Catherine had been using. Catherine yelled indignately "That MY seat. Ella outa my seat!" Within the deMontaigne household Catherine communicates pretty clearly. For those not around her 24/7 it's just not so clear.

In general Catherine is a happy little girl (I had to refrain from writing baby.). She does tend to get a bit whiny and clingy with mommy which I'm trying to work on. She loves other kids and having people to run around with. She is a social butterfly just like her big sister.


She gets frightened easily. She loves dogs and cats and birds, but doesn't like other animals up close. A big crab washed up on the shore while we were there and she was not happy. A deer in our backyard had her so upset she laid on me and wimpered for a good 15 minutes. Of course most of you know that Ella doesn't like characters in costumes....well neither does Catherine. We recently had a run-in with the Chic Fil A cow and it was not pretty.

Catherine is a picky eater. Pickier than Ella was at this age which I thought would be impossible. Her favorite foods are cheese, yogurt, applesauce, peanut butter, chicken nuggets, pizza, mac n cheese, grilled cheese, any type of fruit, any type of sweet or goodie. She has such a sweet tooth. We were at Friendly's last night and the kids got their free sundaes. I had to match Catherine bite for bite because she really would have eaten the whole thing - it was pretty big, but she would have kept going as long as there was ice cream to eat. Below is a shot of her taking the cake eating process very seriously.



Catherine loves to dance. The picture below is her gettin' down. Lately the second she hears some music she starts doing a funny little bouncy-spin around the room-wiggle the butt dance.

I would say I don't know who she got her movies from but the other day Matt broke out into a dance that looked remarkably similar (minus the spin around the room part). She got a little "boom box" (for lack of a better word because it doesn't play tapes and it's not really a cd player either) that has a microphone as well. Definitely a favorite for her.

She also loves books, and coloring and play dough. She loves serving food from her play kitchen. She'll usually let you know that it's "hot" or "hot, hot, hot". She loves her baby dolls and animals and likes playing games with Ella which involved putting the babies to bed or carrying them around.

She loves loves loves her special blankie that she sleeps with. Sometimes she'll carry it around with her all day. It comforts her when she's sad or sleepy and I definitely have to sneak it away to wash it. Of course it's white so it needs washed pretty frequently. Last night she had it in the car with her and felt very strongly that it needed to come in to the restaurant with her. It was shaping up to be a potential tantrum until Matt bribed her with ice cream. Such is life around here.

Catherine is definitely in her terrible two's. She is very opinionated and does not hold back those opinions. She's started getting a bit aggressive with Ella when they are fighting over a toy. Her "weapon" of choice is biting but it's pretty rare and she has only ever bitten Ella.

One of my favorite aspects of Catherine is that she is a snuggler. She loves to cuddle and snuggle.

There is nothing wrong with her in this picture. She's just enjoying some relaxing snuggle time with mom. She is very sweet - quick to hug and kiss and show her love.

She loves to play dress-up with Ella. Catherine got two dress up kits for her birthday and they were open 30 seconds after the last people left. I think my kids are more comfortable in heels than I am....



The girls are gradually becoming good play mates. Catherine often will follow along with Ella's ideas and games and they tend to have more fun together than apart. Recently I took Ella away for a day and night to visit a friend and Catherine stayed home. I was worried Catherine would be lonely and be upset that Ella was gone and not know what to do with herself. Nope, Matt said she ran around the house and happily played with all the toys. As much as she loves her sister she didn't mind having a taste of being an only child.

One final thing I have to mention about Catherine is her love of sleep. I am so spoiled by her. She goes to bed around 8:15 and typically gets up around 9am. Now I don't know if she goes to sleep at 8:15 - many times she's up there talking, but completely content in her crib. Again, in the morning we go into to get her at 9, because it just seems like she should get up. She may have already been awake, just laying there, chillin' out. She takes one 2-3 hour nap a day. I usually put her down around 2pm, but if I need to get her down earlier, no problem. In the same way, if we're out, she has no problem going down late. She loves her sleep, but is completely flexible with it. It's a wonderful thing!

Her birthday party this year was a joint party with her buddy Nolan. It worked so well and it was so nice to share the planning and preparing with Renee - hopefully we'll do it again next year!

For more pictures from the party you can head to Renee's blog (hangin' with your naybor) or just click here.


So that's my Catherine. I am so blessed to have her in my life and I am so thankful that God gave me a second girl. It's amazing how He truly knows what is best for each of us and His plan is often so different from the one we think up. I'm so glad Catherine was a part of God's plan for our family.

Vacation

We got back on Saturday from a week long vacation with my family to Ocean City New Jersey. It was a hectic, fun-filled week, with lots of beach time and late beach nights, good time with extended family and all the craziness that goes along with that. The weather was great and we're all nice and tan!

I'm not great about getting pictures up on my blog - it's usually feast or famine -well, today it's the biggest feast of all. Rather than spreading them out over a number of blogs I just posted a bunch of vacation pictures all at once and most likely this post will be filled with big chunks of open space and unevenness, which is what typically happens when I post pictures.


To start things off, Catherine turned two on Sunday, our first full day at the beach. We enjoyed a few presents and a yummy chocolate cake with peanut butter filling. Catherine was so excited when she saw her cake, she kept running around and pointing to it, saying "cake!". Below you'll see her taking seriously the task of blowing out the candles.

Here she is, waving to the papparazi

Monday was another day at the beach but we got to go to the boardwalk that night for rides! Here is a picture of Ella, Isaac and myself on one of those fun spinning rides that no adult was interested in going on (I'm including myself in that category - but what can you do!).

Ella and Catherine are enjoying their Kohr's orange and vanilla (with rainbow jimmies) cones.

Reading time with grandma and all four grandkids....

Our favorite time was heading back down to the beach after dinner. Ella loved the water so much and even Catherine became pretty fond of it. The water was rough and you had to keep your eye on them because the waves would take them down, but by the end of the week they didn't seem to mind going under anymore. You would have never guessed that Ella was petrified of getting into a pool at the beginning of the summer. Below is a shot of Ella, mid-jump, joining her Pap-Pap and Isaac in a little pool while Theo looks on.

Meanwhile, Catherine and I were flying a kite. Actually, we were just holding the handle, Matt did all the hard work.

Isaac and Ella in the waves

Not sure what Catherine was doing, but I loved this shot of her.

Another favorite Catherine shot...

One of the few pictures I got of the two girls together. Ella just looks way too old.

And of course, a picture of Matt and me.

After this Matt and I decided we needed some more quality time together. What better way to do that than to both get the stomach flu together!? Seriously, who does that happen to? That happened on Wednesday and it then spread to a few other unlucky family members. At this point Ella and Catherine escaped it, so we're counting our blessings. If they end up with it, then we'll have to find some more blessings to count in the midst of it!

Overall it was a fun week. Tough because of the illness, but we had special times with my family and now are eagerly awaiting the arrival of oot one, but two new additions to the Koerber family. Not only are Mike and Sharon due mid January, but Matt and Chrissie have number three on the way two months later.

Well, now I'm off to give relax and watch High School Musical 2. I have no excuse so I won't even try to come up with one....

Quick update...

just wanted to let you know that I just got back from a week at the beach and hope to have a new post up in the next day or two filling you in on the last month or so of our summer!

We're still alive and kickin', just waaaaayyyy behind on blogging....