Where are you Spring?

There is not much exciting going on in the Malament household this looooong, coooold, snoooowy winter. I can honestly say that I have never longed for Spring the way I do this year! Warm, sunny days, and soft, breezy nights feel like a dream that might not ever be reality again! Kate has quite a wardrobe of cute warm weather dresses built up and I am so eager to be able to put them on her, haha.

We have had a few days recently that weren't bitterly cold and I was able to take Kate outside for a bit. She has discovered a new love! She adores the outdoors (her daddy coming out in her:) I let her go out on the back porch a couple times recently and now she'll go up to the back door and ask to go out. When we're outside she loves to point at things and say, "Oh, WOAH!" Which is her newest phrase. She tried to eat some dirt and mulch, but after I told her it was yucky she looks at it and says, "Blech." She gets very fascinated by seeing airplanes fly over head and even if we are inside and she hears one she stops to listen intently. I also have taken her to the play ground a couple of times. She is too small to climb on the equipment by herself yet, but by the Summer she'll be all over it I'm sure!

An area you can pray for if it crosses your mind is the sale of our house. We put it on the market back in January and have had lots of showings but no offers. When we decided to put it on the market we knew it would be tough to sell right now, but we really wanted to see if God might move us on. We want to stay in our same neighborhood, but invest in a bigger home while interest rates are so low. Our prayer is that God would show us his will for what house we are to live in right now and for us to be content with that. I love our little house and I know we could be happy here for several more years, but the idea of having a big "long term" home is very alluring. Especially because there is a home very near by that I would LOVE to own, and it's come down $15,000 since it went on the market making it a better and better deal. So, if you would like to join us in praying that God would make his will plain (which he will if our house doesn't sell, haha, we kind of can't miss him on this. We can't force our house to sell) we would appreciate it!

Here are the requested pictures of Kate!

She still loves to read books and the other day she was being so quiet behind the couch. I looked back and found her intently reading to herself:)

This is when she was out on the porch. I went out right after I took these, I didn't leave her out there alone, hehe.

Having so much fun running back and forth!

She is so curious! I love it when she bends down like this to examine something.

I posted this on Facebook but thought it deserved a repeat:) Gotta love those chocolate cookies!

Lately Kate has been climbing in to our book basket everyday and "reading" our books. It really cracks me up the way she sits on the pile of books and looks so pleased with herself.

I am pretty sure she's going to keep her big, blue eyes.

We got her the Jesus Storybook Bible and she LOVES it. She says, "Bible" and asks us to look at it with her lots. She really likes this page with various famous bible characters and points at certain ones each time. She is particularly fond of Mary. By the way, it is not warm enough for a short sleeved dress and bare feet but she was tying on a dress from my Aunt Allie so we could sent her a picture:)

Bad Pictures of a Big Girl

These pictures didn't turn out very well, but I think they really show how big Kate has gotten!

She looks hilarious in the one below:)

Her face in this last one looks JUST like me when I was a toddler!

The Great Kate Update

I hardly know where to begin on giving an update on our Baby Kate. Who really isn't a baby anymore! On December 5th she took off walking at our dear friends the Park's home and she hasn't looked back! Thus ended her days as a baby and life as a toddler rushed in! I am loving it:) While toddlerhood definitely has new challenges (stronger opinions of what she wants, the beginnings of tantrums, stair climbing) I am really liking this new stage a lot. Her little personality is coming out more and more and she is learning exciting new things all the time!

On the language front, Kate has stopped saying a lot of the words I last posted about her saying. I am sure she can still say them, she just chooses not to. Her current favorite things to say are, "What's that?" (often said with a little finger pointing at whatever object she's wondering about), "All done" (which is most often said when a loud noise ends, such as when I turn off the hair dryer), and her favorite of all, "Hot! Hot! Hot!" (which is said around the oven, microwave, fires, candles, mugs, steam or vapor of any kind. The girl gets the concept of "hot"!) My mom kept her over the weekend and she said that Kate said, "Thank you", as plain as day. I have yet to hear that one, but I've been teaching it to her for a long time so I am excited:)

The Boo Bear's current favorite activities are as follows: Climbing the stairs. She figured this out shortly after walking and it was quite a challenge for a few weeks until we finally borrowed a baby gate! I want her to learn and practice climbing the stairs, but it had gotten to the point where she pretty much only wanted to do that! She has picked up the concept of talking on the phone and can often be found with a toy phone up to her ear babbling into it! She also really likes to play peek-a-boo and will hold her blankie, bib, or the shower curtain during bath time up over her face and after you've said, "Where's baby Kate?," a few times she'll pull the blanket down and then right back up! It's lots of fun and so cute to watch! She still loves to look at books. Right now she is really enjoying her Jesus story bible that David got for their bible times. She is fascinated with the picture of Eve with the serpent and with a page that has drawings of many important bible characters. Joseph is on that page, wearing his colorful coat, and she will point to him if you ask her where he is. And anything with music is still a must in our house! One of these days I have to post a video of Kate's dancing. It's hilarious!

Ok, that's enough updating for now! Here are some pictures

I pulled out the camera the other day to finally take some updated pictures and Kate became hysterical when I wouldn't let her play with the camera. I snapped a few of her in the midst of the fit for her future viewing pleasure. Poor kid.

This was two minutes after the previous picture. She recovered her composure quickly:) She really likes to sit on beds for some reason.

Still having fun on my bed:)

I was in the kitchen and heard her talking really loudly and in long strings of sounds. I looked into the living room and found her talking on her toy phone she got for Christmas. I was able to snap a picture before she put it down.

I got this bouncy seat at the Goodwill a long time ago and it has been sitting in our guest room. I put Kate in it the other day so I could switch some laundry over and she thought it was great fun! It's shocking how big she is when you see her in this seat!

A Few Christmas Pictures

Enjoying a Christmas mornings "ba ba"

Liking the tissue paper in her first present

A gloworm!

It earned a hug

Opening her gift from Dad.

A soft, stuffed monkey!

It earned a hug also:)

Do Not Get Excited-No Pictures

I have been unusually dreadful at keeping up with this blog of late. I have also been unusually dreadful at taking pictures of Kate, or anything else. I took not one single picture at Thanksgiving and maybe one or two dreadful ones on Christmas. Yes, I know I'll regret that.

I am determined to take some updated pictures of my girl soon and I'll do a big update on her. She is growing and changing at a shocking rate! I no longer have a baby, but a curious toddler. At 14 months she is already fond of asking, "What's that?", only it comes out, "Whasss daa?" It's too fun. That's just a preview...I'll be back soon!

Messy

Most of Kate's time at home is spent like this these days:

It's lots for me to clean up each day (multiple times each day actually!) but I love watching her discover and have fun!

Little Update

I know I need to post the pictures from Kate's 1st birthday party! They are on Mom's camera though and I need to get it from her. I will post them soon! For now, here are a few pictures of our BK since she has turned one.

She has learned lots of new things the past few weeks. The biggest of which is taking 8-10 steps at a time! She is also standing for little periods and I know she will be walking everywhere in no time. She has started pointing at everything which I find SO cute! She points at food she wants, at pictures in books, at objects she is interested in etc. She has learned to throw a ball and will play "catch" with you. She can put food in her mouth using a fork if I have put food on it for her.

She is still very interested in opening and closing doors, drawers, and cabinets and removing whatever is inside them! And books are still a huge delight! She also gives huge hugs to any stuffed animal she touches.

We are sure she has said the words baby, doggie, kitty, light, touchdown (her daddy's work, and we have witnesses), yay, yum, and probably bye bye and hi. She is using "mama" for me all the time now which of course just does me in with the cuteness! Ha:) And she is recognizing more and more of what we say to her too. And of course, she is doing lots of baby babbling.

One of our favorite things about Kate, though, is her love of music! We have (or had, I lost it this week) the new Sovereign Grace kids worship album. Kate absolutely fell in love with it to the point that she would cry in between tracks or if we turned it off! She claps, dances, waves her hands and smiles instantly to any music she hears, but especially that CD. We need to get a new copy ASAP!

BK loves to drink out of grown up cups and mugs. Sometimes, when I've finished my morning coffee, I let her hold the mug. On this particular morning she was "drinking" the coffee with gusto!

At one point she put the mug down and said, "Dum!" very happily ("dum" means "yum":)

She absolutely loves lights and fans and the cords that hang from them. David has to stand on the coffee table to let her touch them and Kate just thinks it's so fun!

Last week our friends, Chris and Kath, stayed with us for a couple of days while they were in between houses. Their little dog, Turk, became fast friends with Kate! She LOVES him and he was so gentle and forebearing with her! They both thought it would be fun to chew on GloryMagicFace at the same time. I thought it was so funny!

We also had a visit from Will, Meg, and Laurel this past weekend! It was a spontaneous trip that we weren't expecting and it was so much fun! Mom, Meg, and I took 2 long trips to Target and the little girls did so well!

Haha, taking after her daddy on the drums! Pardon the lack of clothes, she was getting ready to put jammies on!