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We took a mini family vacation to Seaside/Cannon Beach, Oregon last week. It was a long trip and Catalina decided she didn’t want to sleep in the car despite it being her nap time. Surprisingly, it wasn’t too bad and we only ha to make 1 stop each way. Snacks helped make the trip pass quickly. We went mid-week so the beach wasn’t busy at all – definitely much more fun to actually let Catalina run around without having to worry about tripping over people or loosing sight of her. So worth taking a few days off of work to avoid the summer tourists!
Her hiding spot at the hotel.
Playing at the arcade
She ran in circles around the arcade for over an hour – luckily, it wasn’t busy so she had all the freedom she could want.
While we were at the hotel breakfast, the only high chair was taken. So Little Miss got to sit in a chair by herself and now she doesn’t want to sit in her chair at home anymore. She’s learned to climb up into the chair and wait for food!
The gardening bug hit me this year so we decided to try our hand at a few fruits and vegetables.
We’ve got squash, zucchini, tomatoes (cherry, roma & grape), strawberries and an abundance of hot peppers – I’ll give you one wild guess who picked what in that line up! We did have snow peas and cucumbers but they both died when I transplanted them.
And our fence is now finally fixed & replaced.
We even have our first fruits of the season! Catalina and I picked/enjoyed these yesterday 
We headed down to Fort Steilacoom yesterday to enjoy the weather. The park was super crowded but luckily, there was still plenty of space for her to run around and explore and hang out with Nana.
This girl sure does love her some swings!
I was even able to convince everyone to get a few family shots in before we left for the day
One of the girls at daycare had her toes painted so I decided to attempt Catalina’s. It actually didn’t go too bad. She already doesn’t mind too much having her nails clipped. Polish, though she’d have to sit still and not touch it. I had some quick drying polish so that’s what we used. And she’s fascinated with this. She walked around looking at her toes for a good hour!
Catalina also loves helping momma clean! She follows me around with the dust pan when I sweep and then she stole the broom from me!
We’re also working on sungasses since she loves ours. She won’t keep them on though for more than a couple seconds.
And a few left over from the superhero party – taken by John & Stacey
My little assistant!
She’s becoming quite a chatterbox. I don’t know what she says half the time but we’re catching a few new words.
Choo Choo Train
KiKi (kitty cat)
Uh Uh (and shakes her head)
eese (Cheese)
AHHHH (when we say it’s time to brush your teeth)
Can point to her:
belly button
eyes
nose
tongue
ears
toes
Sleeps in a “big girl bed” now instead of her crib. This was great the first 2 nights before she realized that she could climb out of her bed and play. Now it takes her about 1-1/2hrs to go to bed. It doesn’t help that it’s still light outside when we put her down.
Chooses her outfits and shoes – I offer options and she picks which one she wants to wear.
Loves to unzip and take off her jacket and shoes. She’s trying incredibly hard to figure out how to put each back on too.
Spring is here to tease us with gorgeous weather. It’s been in the mid 70s all week and this past weekend, it hit lower 80s. It supposed to remain warm and sunny until next weekend. 3 of the 4 newly planted trees in our yard are thriving! I doubt we’ll have fruit (1 apple & 2 cherry trees) on them this year but at least they’ll be pretty. I’ve also got bell peppers, tomatoes, hot peppers, zucchini & squash seedlings started inside. As soon as my handyman husband builds the raised garden, we’ll transfer them outside. My snow peas have already died but I figure if I get any vegetables this year, I’m doing good!
Saturday, after Gymboree class, we headed to the beach for a photo op with John & Stacey and the kids. Stacey wanted some shots of Chloe in her Batgirl tutu. It turned out to be a gathering of SuperHeros! Zombie Slayer/Super Girl Catalina, SuperConnor & BatGirl Chloe.
On Sunday morning, Catalina woke up around 6am and wanted to play. So we set up her new water/sand table.
You can kind of see the new fence in the background too. We’re loving having a completely enclosed yard. Before, Catalina liked to try to walk toward the street. With the new fence, we don’t have to worry about that anymore!
Naptime
We were invited to Chloe’s 2nd birthday party at Bullwinkle’s Family fun center. After pizza and a few bites of cake, we exhausted some energy in the play gym.
Spring has sprung and even though there was frost on my windshield this morning, I’ve had a blast testing out my new lens.
Yes, I know it’s a weed but it was the only thing worth shooting that day.
Then the weeping cherry tree bloomed.
This past weekend, Amanda and I made our annual trip up to the tulip fields. We got there before sunrise but unfortunately it was super cloudy and threatened to rain the whole time.
That same afternoon – after I took a much needed nap during Catalina’s nap time, we ventured over to the newly built hospital where they have a cool playground.
Over on my business page, Southern Exposures by Cassie, I’m showing off some macro love.
I broke out my new macro lens yesterday, in between Easter photos of Catalina. I can’t wait to use this baby on some newborns!
Wow – 2 years in a row, we’ve had incredible weather on Easter. Forget the groundhog, I vote the Easter Bunny in as a spring predictor. I like what he has to say much better!
We didn’t make camping last year – too much work with an infant, I say. This year though…Catalina’s ready and waiting! I think we’re planning 2 trips actually. A smaller one with just 2 other families then a large group site trip with about 12 adults and all the kids.
With as much as this kid loves the slide, we may have to invest in a larger play set!
Catalina got to have 3 egg “hunts” this year. She didn’t quite get the point of racing around and picking up all the eggs to put them in the basket. She instead concentrated on one egg at a time.
At daycare, she was the basket holder. From the picture, it doesn’t look like she minded. She liked holding all the loot!
Easter morning, while Daddy was playing disc golf, Catalina and I headed to Game Farm Park to take advantage of all the blooming cherry trees.
We headed home, had lunch, took a nap then headed back outside with Nana Erika & Grandpa Tony.
After dinner, we set up the final egg hunt, when the light was better. (Ignore the broken dilapidated fence in the background. We’re waiting on easement permits to replace it. Hopefully in the next week we’ll have everything we need.)
Then we did a little dancing!
Last year & this year!
Since the February update, the biggest milestone so far: she’s officially walking! Well, more like running now….
This was March 9, 2013 just before her 17 month mark.
And since then she’s just taken off. It still takes us by surprise sometimes when we watch her walk and run around.
She’s doing great with directions. She’ll help put trash/recycling in the bins, she knows to head to the stairs and climb up when we say bath time. We say it’s PJ time and she sits down to take her socks off. At dinner time, I say go get in your chair and she heads to the table and pulls out her chair. She’s not tall enough to get in it herself yet though.
She’s also getting much more independent. She wants to brush her own teeth and choose which shoes to put on in the morning.
Little miss is finally done with bottles completely. We held off until we ran out of formula but it was really a simple change. She fusses when she sees a bottle so we just put them in the cabinet and just offer her a sippy cup of milk between dinner to bedtime and so far it’s not been an issue. She maybe fusses once in the middle of the night but that’s more because she lost her pacifier, not because she’s hungry. Her bedtime is between 7-730pm and she gets up to go to daycare around 630. On the weekends, she sleeps in (us too!) til around 8 or 830am.
Her new favorite toy is the magnets on the fridge.
The weather has finally turned away from winter cold and we actually expect a 71 degree Easter day. We’ve been getting lots of use out of our slide in the back yard. She also really loves the play area at the local mall. The slides are much higher than ours but she loves it. I have a feeling she’s going to be a dare devil!
She still loves playing with our phones. She knows how to unlock mine and how to take pictures.
Stealing daddy’s girl scout cookies.
Late, I know but here’s her Valentines day photo. Our daycare did photo day -
We’re planning to do a mini easter egg hunt in our back yard this Easter so hopefully I’ll post some of those photos soon after. Here are a few from last year for comparison.
