September Blur

The month of September just seemed to fly by.  We had a steady stream of visitors while we tried to get the most out of our last days in Florida.  It started the last week of August when Mimi and Uncle Trey came down to visit.  They spent a lot of time hitting the sites of Cape Canaveral with Kara.  The highlights included: a visit to Kennedy Space Center, kayaking in the Indian River with the manatees, checking out the dinosaur museum, a trip to Downtown Disney, and visiting Disney's Animal Kingdom (it was a busy week). Mommy and Daddy took advantage of the babysitters and spent the weekend at Universal Studios, which was a lot of fun (pictures).

On September 12th, Grandma and Grandpa S. came down from Colorado to visit us as well.  They took Kara to Jungle Adventures, Kennedy Space Center (which was pretty much Kara's favorite place to go down in Florida), and back to Downtown Disney.  Emily is still pretty shy around new people, but she warmed up to them after a couple of days.

Shortly after Grandma and Grandpa left, Mimi flew down to help get everybody packed up for the long trip back home.  Trey came down the following weekend with his girlfriend, Mary Beth.  Everyone except Daddy and Emily headed to Disney World for the last excitement of the summer.  Whew, I get tired just thinking about it all!

Mommy and Mimi bravely drove the girls back to Alabama in one day (Tuesday, Sept 24th).  The trip went fairly smoothly other than a couple meltdowns from Kara and frequent diaper changes and feedings for Emily.  Unfortunately, Mommy and Emily came down with colds as soon as they got to Mimi and Papa's house, so they were fairly miserable.  Daddy arrived on Saturday to get everyone ready for the last push home (more on that the next post).

Emily is doing great these days.  She can sit on her own and really seems to enjoy exploring things by herself (she'll just sit there and play with some rubber blocks for 15 minutes or more), which Mommy and Daddy are excited about.  She sleeps from about 6:30-6:30 most nights, though she occasionally will wake up at 4 am, and takes 2-3 naps per day (usually at 9 am, noon, and 3 pm).  Emily is going through a phase of stranger anxiety.  In general, she seems to prefer to just hang out at home and take things easy, so that's what we do with her whenever we can.

Kara has gotten pretty good at entertaining herself, which is really good since Mommy and Daddy have to spend a lot of time taking care of Emily.  Kara has developed quite an affinity for comic books.  In particular, she seems to really enjoy Spider Man.  She'll sit an read comic books to herself for long stretches of time.  Kara has become quite an artist.  I'll post some of her pictures in a blog soon!

Link to pictures
 

Let's Play Pretend!

Kara loves playing pretend.  Kara especially loves to re-enact scenes from her favorite movies (Cinderella, Lady and the Tramp, Beauty and the Beast, and Lion King).  Mommy and Daddy have both taken their turns as the Beast, Prince Charming, the Evil Stepsisters, the Tramp, and Gaston.  She also likes to pretend to be a pirate and go on adventures (see video below), or pretend that she's playing with monsters.  It's always fun to see what she'll come up with.

Our little girl is not always so sweet, though.  Bedtime and naptime have become challenges as Kara continues to push boundaries and Mommy's buttons.  Kara likes to come out of her room repeatedly after we tuck her in.  She always wakes up in the middle of the night to ask silly questions (like, "What do doors do?").  Mommy and Daddy are hoping this is a short-lived phase...

We are happy to say that Kara has grown out of her peanut allergy.  She passed her blood test early in January and then passed the Peanut Challenge (sitting at the allergists office for three hours while she eats peanuts) later in the month.  Daddy is very excited that he gets to share peanut butter sandwiches with his little girl!

In baby news, Mommy's belly continues to grow.  Mommy and Daddy have gotten the nursery all ready for the baby who is due to join us on February 27th.  Kara is very excited to become a big sister!

Kara's latest sayings:
"How does the baby get out of Mommy?" Uh, how do we explain this to a 3-year old?

"I put the Grinch there because I thought he would do a wonderful job."  Said while playing ball with Daddy after putting the Grinch in front of the goal.

"This is a map of our territory and the path to the Candy Castle."  Kara explaining the game board for Candy Land.

"Daddy's shoes are humongous!  That's like gigantic Mommy!"  Just surprising Mommy with her use of words.

Link to pictures