A love hate relationship

Seriously, how annoyed does Elliott look?

Incredibly annoyed look #2

Hugs!!!

Kate and Elliott have a love hate relationship. Kate loves Elliott and Elliott hates Kate. Our once super sweet and loving chocolate lab has had enough. First, we transformed her bedroom into a nursery. Then we brought home a little baby that cried and woke her up at night. Now, this little monster is walking and hitting her face and stealing her food...!?! What happened to Elliott's life? Now Kate has the nerve to want to hug and kiss and snuggle??? After all that she has put Elliott through?

These pictures crack me up because you can just see Elliott's thoughts through her facial expressions. Can a dog possibly look more annoyed? I don't blame her, but Kate's hugs and kisses are pretty stinkin' sweet!!

"Oh great, here she comes again..."

Tour de front yard

Kate's latest "thing" is the b-i-k-e. We can no longer say the actual word out of fear that it will spark a temper tantrum if we do not stop everything we are doing to take her on a b-i-k-e ride. She loves everything about it, especially the "hat" (aka helmet). She finds it and puts it on and walks around the yard saying "hat, hat, hat..."

I can't recall why she is naked in these pics, although I am fairly certain it was because she found water somewhere - in the toilet, sprinklers, a puddle, from her spilled sippy cup, etc - got herself soaking, and then refused to let me put new diapers or clothing back on. That is a new thing too. It's nearly impossible to get her diapered and clothed without some serious muscle. I need to start going to the gym again so I can effectively pin her.

The Last Supper

So this one may be out of chronological order, but I thought that it was still worth documenting The Last Supper. It is a big deal because it is probably the last time -- for at least a year or two -- that we are willing to take her to a restaurant for dinner. We learned our lesson. This picture documents "the calm before the storm." Immediately after the flash, she threw all of her food on the ground, squirmed out of her high chair, ran all over the restaurant (which, by the way, was a nice restaurant in La Jolla), cried, and then bit my face when I tried to capture and console her. Needless to say, we left immediately with our dinner in to-go containers...and a feeling of longing for the old days when we could sit down for more than 5 minutes and have an adult conversation...

Bye Bye Dada, Hello Sprinklers

Kate is saying her first two-word phrase! It's generally "bye dog" (when we leave the house and say bye to Elliott) or "bye dad." She walks down the driveway waving both hands and says it over and over until she can't see her dad's car anymore.

This morning, the sprinklers came on right after Pat left, so Kate assumed that I had arranged this little water show especially for her. Within 5 seconds, this kid was charging across the yard to every sprinkler head to chase the water. Once one row turned off, she headed off to the next segment. As you can see, we had a very wet, but very happy baby...

It's hot...

We're back in Phoenix. It's a lot hotter than San Diego. Don't I look miserable?

I played outside for about 5 minutes, came inside, got my pajamas on, and passed out on my kitty. I am dreaming about being back at the beach...

Georgia on my mind

We had such a fun time in La Jolla with the Cronin/Schultz family. Kate and Georgia are destined to be BEST friends. We are counting the minutes until Geoff, Michaela and Georgia are Phoenix residents!!

She stole my hat...

So I stole her binky...

But now we're having fun together.

She may be 4 months younger, but she's sure not much smaller!!

p.s. Please notice how tan my baby is. Her real dad is Mexican.

Move over, Pam Anderson

Kate and her new 2 1/2 year old friend, Gabby.

Attempting to climb the play structure by herself.

Livin' the life.

Kate really enjoyed the park this morning. The La Jolla park is designed like a mini lifeguard station, so this little woman did her share of posing by the sign for the next Baywatch casting call. This could be our chance to be a two-income family again.

After the photo shoot, Kate played and played with all of the other big kids at the park. Don't anyone tell Kate that she can't do something that the big kids are doing! We climbed and swang and went down all of the slides. This kid is fearless. She made friends with two little girls and a yellow lab named Molly. Kate walked all the way home by herself and then took a nice long morning nap. When she woke up, we went into town and played at the book store and at Gepetto's toy store. After a VERY short nap #2, we went to the beach and played in the waves. Kate cannot get enough of the ocean. Again...FEARLESS. I think that she actually likes it when the waves splash in her face. Kate kept going and going, like the Energizer bunny, but after her bath, she literally passed out with her pajamas unbuttoned, no dinner, curtains open, and the music on the computer playing! We love La Jolla.