Interview With Katie - 2 months prior to 6 years old

What is your favorite color? Pink and Tiffany Blue
 What is your favorite food? Cheese and Pizza
What is your favorite movie?  All Disney Movies
What is your favorite tv show? The Secret Life Of Pets
 What is your favorite book? Disney Princess books
What is your favorite animal? a cat
What is your favorite song? Sleeping Beauty's Once Upon A Dream
What is your favorite vegetable? Broccoli
What is your favorite fruit? purple grapes
What is your favorite thing about yourself? I'm friendly and happy
What is your favorite place to visit? Disney Cruise
Where do you WANT to visit some day? Beach to see the seagulls
Who is your best friend? My Mommy
 What’s your favorite thing to do with (brother)? Playing catch outside
What’s your favorite thing to do with Dad? hugging him.
What’s your favorite thing to do with Mom? kissing her
 What’s your favorite thing to do with (pet)? play with them with a ball toy
Where do you think you’ll go to college? Disney College
Where do you think you might get married? Disney World
What do you want to be when you grow up? Artist and drawing for Disney movies
What is one thing you want to learn how to do? How to throw perfectly
 What is one of your greatest talents? reading
What is something that you wish for? I wish I could go into tv into movies
Who is someone that you miss? I miss Daddy when he's at work.
What makes you happy? Going outside and playing with family
 What age do you look forward to – and why? 10 because I will like being ten.

An Interview with Katie

An interview with Katie:


What is your name? Katie, Katie Belle and Katie Keller
~ How old are you? 5 
~ When is your birthday? I don't know...in the summer. I'm 5.
~ How old is your mommy? I don't know...45?
~ What is your favorite color? Pink and also red and purple
~ What is your favorite food? Spaghetti
~ Who is your best friend? Daddy
~ What is your favorite show? Dumbo
~ What is your favorite song? Baby Mine
~ What is your favorite animal? Pig
~ What are you scared of? Shadows
~ What makes you happy? If you hug me and kiss me.
~ Where is your favorite place to go? Disney Grandma and Grandpa's
~ What do you want to be when you grow up? a mommy and do everything myself when I grow up
~ What is your favorite toy? the spider mobile from Disney grandma's house

My sweet Katie Belle

Our Katie Belle is becoming so incredibly sweet! She has the kindest heart and is learning so many good things.

The other day, she made her Daddy want to cry from her sweetness. He's back at college now, so he's gone first shift for work and then until about 10 PM for half the week. Katie, our little Daddy's girl to the extreme, asked about him all day and said she really wanted Daddy cuddles. I let her stay up late to see him and gave her a treat for being so good and cleaning the room: three m&ms. She saw a brown one and said her Daddy would really like that, so she was going to save it and share it with him. She held that m&m in her hand for an hour, playing and going about having her fun while keeping the treat she was saving for Daddy in one hand even though it impeded her. Of course, it melted terribly and when she saw it, she nearly cried. I told her it was just the outer shell and it was okay. Daddy came home and she was so excited, she ran up and hugged him, then gave him the melted piece of chocolate. I tried not to cringe at the sight of it, but Katie was so enthusiastic that Bill barely hesitated before eating it. She was so proud of saving him one of her treats and was so happy to see her Daddy home.

Today, I accidentally got my finger cut and Katie saw it bleeding. She told me that it was okay, because Daddy was coming home soon and he would take care of me. She said that Daddy was my very best friend and we loved each other so much, and we always take good care of each other because we're married. It made me tear up, because I never had that kind of influence as a child. I never knew marriage could be quite so wonderful, and never knew what it was like to witness a great marriage and partnership. I absolutely love that without talking to Katie about things like marriage, she picks up on them so easily because she witnesses it every day: parents who never fight or raise their voices and who are a united team that clearly love and adore each other. It's exciting to me to realize that she not only sees it, but is taking note of it and is growing in it.

How special to have the Daddy's Girl I always wanted, and a little girl who is watching her parents' love like a fairytale. <3

The last two days of Katie being 4!

My little girl is just two days away from turning half a decade old. How did this happen so quickly? I think back to when she was my little three month old infant and can't believe the big kid I see before me now.

Katie Belle had a great 4th year of life!

She started ballet school.

She made her first best friends.

She was a flower girl for the second time.

She rode on real trains for the second and third time.

She visited Buddy's Bakery in NJ.

She went on her second cruise.

She went on her first airplane ride

She was pronounced an Official Disney Princess

Attended her first Tea Party

She had a full spa makeover treatment for the first time.

She left the country for a second time.

She rode in her first limo bus

She walked around in Mexico, Jamaica, and Grand Cayman Islands

She visited a private island

And swam in the beautiful, clear warm ocean for the first time.

She went on stage for the first time for her first recitals

(And loved it!)

She planned out her whole wedding.

Got her first career aspiration (she wants to be a doctor)

She got her first kitten.

She's getting her first bike.

My Social Butterfly

I'm loving watching Katie grow and make an impact on other people!

I was really worried when she started ballet class. She was the only new person in her class, and she was the odd number. Everyone else already had a best friend they clung to. There's a set of twins that play together, and two girls whose parents are friends and they go to the same preschool. They play exclusively together. Katie was left without a buddy but desperately wanting one. She LOVES kids! And making friends was one of the main reasons I signed her up. I didn't know what to do.

I should have trusted my little girl though, as there was nothing to worry about! She's such a social butterfly, she draws people in. First, she tackled the twins and became friends with them. Now every time she comes through the door, they run to her and give her a big hug and they instantly start playing together and chatting.

But Katie isn't one to settle. She wanted everyone to be friends! Last week I watched as she went to the other two girls and talked to them and got them playing games. They're shy, but she got them to open up.

This week, I watched as she went between both groups. The twins welcomed her like always and for a few minutes she played only with them. Then when both of the other girls were there, she went over and played with them for a while. Then I watched as she brought both groups of girls together. For the first time, I watched all the girls playing the same game together, all of them in group hugs and being silly and right in the middle of them all was Katie, giggling like crazy and so happy. No more division, Katie had everyone being friendly and together.

She's such a special little girl! I love watching her interact with others and positively impacting those around her. She absolutely loves ballet class and can't wait to go each week. I can't wait to see her grow in the school!

Katie at Four

My beautiful princess is now 4 years old, and how much she's grown in the last few months! She has lost all of her toddler look and now looks like a child. Her memory is astounding, she picks things up that I teach her so quickly, and she LOVES every day. She's a proper little Daddy's Girl, she just adores him. She has "Rapunzel hair" that she loves and enjoys getting princess hair styles. She's still my little water baby, she loves any body of water no matter how small.

She started ballet two weeks ago and absolutely loves everything about it: the dancing, the other little girls, the teacher, the dressing up. She is so sweet and polite, I hear her each week say "Yes, teacher!" whenever the teacher asks any question. She goes around before class to greet each girl with a hello and chat with them a bit. She is never nervous, never shy or embarrassed. She's so outgoing and eager and loves everyone. It's truly heartwarming to watch her interact and enjoy her sessions. And when she comes out of her dance room, she always runs to me and says "mommy, mommy - I'm Katie Belle! I'm a Ballerina now!" Sometimes, she even says she's a Princess Ballerina.

I can't wait to take her on the Disney Cruise next month. She's been so looking forward to it for months, wanting to watch youtube videos of it and talk about it. She can't wait for her first airplane ride, or seeing Florida, and getting to meet all the Disney characters again. I wanted to make this time really special since she understands and enjoys so much, so I have one day that's all about her. She'll go to Bippity Bobbity Boutique and get a make over in a little princess dress, have her nails done, and get a little princess hairdo. Once she's all polished and princessed up (which she absolutely can't wait for!) she then will attend the Royal Tea Party. I had to stay up very late and act very fast to get her an exclusive seat, as the cruise only does one party and allows less than a dozen little girls in (and there's THOUSANDS of people that go on the ship!) All dressed as a princess, we'll have a mommy daughter date for tea, sandwiches, cookies and cupcakes, all while the princesses sing, put on a little play, and then come around to each child to bestow gifts, jewelry and dolls to them and take pictures. I'm not sure who's going to be more excited for it - me or Katie! I can't wait for her to meet all of the princesses. We're going to have so much fun together!

Katie can now read through a few of her BOB books and is absolutely obsessed with reading time. I'm starting her back up on a curriculum for her second year of preschool. She's already surpassed Kindergarten level of what she would be learning during that year, but she wants to learn more so I'm going to start up more math, continue reading, and do some fun experiments.

Katie loves cuddling with both mommy and daddy, loves to go to the park and climb on everything, blowing bubbles, the pool, Disney movies, being a princess, playing with dolls and when Daddy comes home from work. She's a little chatterbox at all times and loves to eat. She's not very picky, and she actually enjoys many good foods over junk foods. She's always happy with her snack of Activia Yogurt (strawberry is her favorite) and a banana. Of course, that doesn't mean she's a little cookie monster whenever she visits Nanna's! She hates to go to sleep but does go to sleep all by herself in her own bed in her own room and stays there all night and morning until it's time to start her day. She loves taking baths, especially when she can experiment with changing colors with her bath bombs! She learned how colors combine and make new colors that way, and she still enjoys watching the water change from color to color.

I'm so amazed at how much she's grown up this year. She's truly my little helper, my buddy, my Disney movie watching partner, and my little joy. She may look like her Daddy in the mirror, but when I see her, I see so much of myself in her from when I was her age. It's been such a joy to pass down all of my beloved things to her, and to get to revisit them through her excited eyes.

Katie, between 3 and 3 1/2

Katie is now three, almost three and a half!

She's blossoming by the day. She has so many interests and hobbies. She's begun homeschool preschool. She's potty trained. She's the biggest daddy's girl I've ever seen. She's a big helper, and has a naughty streak when she's bored. She loves her doggies.

Currently, Katie's favorite things include:

Disney Villains and Princesses (she sometimes roots for the bad guys, and is a little obsessed with some of them! But she loves her princesses too.)

She sings ALL DAY LONG. She knows the songs to every movie and show she's ever seen. She loves to make up her own songs, usually recapping what's happened that day. She will sing about absolutely anything, and most songs have a little dance to go with them.

She likes to dress up as her favorite characters and get her hair done like them.

She still loves the water. I always have to drag her out of her showers or baths, even if the water has gone cold. She'll never voluntarily be done!

She loves people. Everywhere she goes, if someone passes her or if she seems them, she MUST say hello. If someone coughs, she asks if they're okay. If they sneeze, she says bless you. She loves to interact with absolutely everyone!

She loves holidays just as much as her mommy does. Bill's birthday was three weeks ago and she still sings him Happy Birthday almost daily. She couldn't sit still on Halloween. She asks me every day if it's Christmas yet, and gets just as excited as me when she sees the Christmas displays at the store.

She loves her little brother. She plays with him and he giggles like crazy when she does. They're quite good pals!

Katie isn't a big eater at the moment. She went from devouring everything in sight to only liking some foods. She'll try everything, but she only gets excited about a few things: hot dogs, french fries, sandwiches and cheese; typical toddler foods. But she'll also enjoy a good stir fry when I make it (which is about weekly, because I love stir fries!)

Here's some recent pictures of her:

Katie at 30 something months.

Katie is just shy of 3 years old now, and she's becoming so funny. Her personality just continues to get more unique and it's adorable. Her sentences are becoming more complex, as is her thoughts. It's so neat to watch her really think hard on something! Her eyes go so big that you can practically see the wheels turning on the other side.

She's starting to become self conscious about things now too. If I tell her that she has food on her face, she'll instantly cover her face with her hands, like she's worried that someone will see her in that state. She'll ask me for a wet towel so she can quick wipe it off (she never wants me to do it for her though.)

She's starting to get really funny too, and comes up with some quick quips to what we say. The other day Bill caught her throwing something into the dog bowl - her favorite thing to do. She tip toes over to the bowl super quietly and then adds things into the bowl until it's unusable for the dogs. She giggled when Bill told her no, as she has a naughty streak going. He told her that it wasn't funny, and she looked straight up at him with a big smile and said "It is funny, Daddy!"

She thinks farting is hilarious too. If she does it, she giggles and says "eww, I fart!" The one time she heard Bill do it and she pointed at him and said "ewwww, bad Daddy! Ew fart!"

Her favorite activity is feeding fish. When she hears Bill start to unlock the door when he comes home at night, she will drop everything, run to grab the fish food, meets him at the door and says "I feed fish! I feed fish!" He'll pick her up, take her to the fish aquarium and let her dump in a bit of food that he sprinkles out onto the fish cap. Afterwards she's so proud of her self and always says the same thing: "I feed fish, mmmm! Mmmm, fishies!"

She LOVES Disney movies now. She knows every song from Frozen and Little Mermaid, knows quite a few from the Lion King even though she didn't see it yet (Will's one toy places them) and loves to pick through the movies to choose which one is next. If I ask her if she wants to watch her old favorites, she'll say "No mommy, I watch this now" and will hand me a DVD. Usually it's a princess DVD.

She has such a naughty streak going on right now - she loves to throw anything and everything, loves to put things in the dog bowl, has complete little girl meltdowns on the floor, and wants everything that belongs to mommy and daddy. It makes life a bit more difficult, but it makes her sweet moments even sweeter.

All About Katie @ 32 Months Old

It may be hormones, but I cried the other day about Katie.

Bill and I were discussing how to make a fund for her so we could afford to put her in ballet when she's 4-5. I was thinking we had 2-3 years until we were at that point, when Bill broke my heart by pointing out that she's going to be 4 years old NEXT YEAR. It's true, she hasn't even turned 3 yet (though that's getting very close!) but I completely teared up thinking about how next year she'll be 4. She'll be SO BIG!

We're still hoping we can afford ballet lessons for when she's 4-5, though realizing that she'll be that age so soon makes it a bit harder. We're working really hard this year to afford to pay off all of our school loans so that we'll have a bit of extra money to work with. There's two ballet schools within a few blocks from the house, both on the same street. I've watched as little girls in tutus pranced out of the doors and I've always said I wanted Katie to be able to do that. Now that she's two and a half, she's crazy about music. She loves to dance and sing. I can barely get this kid to sit down long enough to eat a meal! Her feet are always moving. She knows the words to every song from every show or movie she watches. She will copy every dance move a character makes. She definitely needs a dancing outlet!

Anyway, I wanted to make a post all about Katie more indepth. She's growing so fast and she has so many opinions, and I'm forgetting to get them all down. Pictures only go so far!

Katie's favorite things:

She loves colors. She wants to draw all the time, or she wants a series of things that are all different colors. She will talk about the blues, reds and yellows all day. We got her special bath time tablets that turn the water different colors, and it's one of her favorite things ever. She loves watching the yellow tablet explode, then adding some red and swirling the two together to make orange. She'll draw with washable markers on Daddy's back, and talk about how the red marker over the blue lines will make purple. She loves surrounding herself with colors.

She counts all day long. She challenges herself to count higher all the time. She knows up to 20 now, but she's always pushing me to count with her so she can learn what comes next. If someone on a show or in a book is counting, she's counting too!

She loves things that have mommies. She has played with a little toy Chip (the cup from beauty and the Beast) for a while. When I was in the attic last week, I found Mrs. Potts. I brought it down for her and said that it's Chip's Mommy and she loves it. She's always grabbing the two of them, then chattering on about how this is Chip's Mommy. She's started making other things have mommies too.

Speaking of mommies, she's a little mommy herself. Every single thing I say or do to the baby, she mimics. It's so adorable. She kisses, coos, tells the baby not to cry, turns on the vacuum cleaner for me to help calm him down (she used to be scared of it, now she's willing to operate it because it soothes the baby!). She likes to help with diaper changes by getting me the diaper and wipes. If I'm walking the baby and he's still fussing, she'll run and get his favorite blankie and bring it to me and tell me that baby wants his blanket.

Her vocabulary has exploded. She says new words every day, and even when she says something for the first time, it's so clear now. She is making more and more sentences, and they're becoming more complex. She can hold a tune when she sings, and has no problem repeating long songs or paragraphs word for word when someone else says it.

She loves to feed her fish. Every single day, she gets so excited and reminds us to feed the fish. It's an activity she does just with Daddy. Sometimes the moment he opens the door when he comes home from work, she'll be standing there with the container of fish food and saying "I eat fish, I eat fish!" When she's hungry, she says "I eat! I eat!" So when she thinks the fish are hungry, she says "eat, fish!"

This kid is a juice-a-holic. She LOVES her juice. She used to just like Apple Juice, but she's been expanding her taste. She now requests orange juice, "red juice" (which is a white grape/cherry combination), "mommy juice" (which is water, but she doesn't want to drink it if it's called water!) and chocolate milk in addition to her apple juice. She goes to sleep with her juice cup, even if it's empty. She just loves her juice.

What's her #1 favorite thing in the world? The one thing she MUST have at all times? Her blankie! It's the blankie I made her when she was an infant. Sometime last year, she dug it out and it became her very best friend. She has to have blankie for everything. She calls out "blankie, blankie where are you?" when she's looking for it and won't go to sleep without it. One of the first signs that she's starting to feel sleepy is she grabs her blankie. It's because of this that I decided to make it a tradition - every child will get their own blankie. Katie's is special to just her - it's pink and it has princess sayings and Belle on it. I made Will one with all of his themes - blue, Mickey Mouse, Super man, and a ribbon that coordinates with one on Katie's blanket. I'm already planning out future ones!

Katie loves having her own room now. Usually during an afternoon when she's bored in the family room, she'll go up to her room and play by herself. We just shut and lock the bathroom and nursery doors so she can't wander and get into trouble, and I shut the gate at the top of the stairs. When she's all done playing, she just comes to the gate and says "mommy, I'm done. Downstairs!" and I go get her. She seems to really enjoy having some "Katie time".

She loves cuddles. She loves mommy time and sometimes she just wants to hug my neck while I carry her around. She loves being a big kid, but she still sometimes misses being my baby. She's curious about everything, she wants to know how everything works and why it works. She notices everything - the fact that the baby is a boy and different from her has not slipped past her, she noticed almost immediately and wanted to talk about it. You can practically see her thoughts churning about things while she processes them. While every year has been interesting with Katie, this last one has been really interesting. Ever since she turned two, she has grown so much mentally. She is constantly making new leaps. She is always pushing her boundaries to see what else she can do. She's so fascinating to watch!

Katie Catch Up

Look at this beautiful little girl! Every bit of baby seems to have gone from her, and she's now such a little girl! And she's so adorable! I can't believe she's going to be 3 in just a few short months.

Here's some new things about her this month:

And if it doesn't seem like time isn't speeding by, look at this! My little girl each year in February. She changes SO much each year! 

Kisses and Sophie Naps

Katie has now reached that age where she gets so embarrassed over silly things! Her newest embarrassment is already her parents! For the last week or so, if I try to sing any of her songs from her shows  (which she used to beg me to do!) she now groans "moooommmmyy!" and covers her eyes. Today, I heard her say it to Bill as well. At first she was so used to doing it with me, she said "Mommm-" and then shook her head and said "Daddy!!" I had no idea that children get so embarrassed over their parents singing so young! I thought we at least had a few years yet!

Katie is enjoying her last days as an only child as she knows it. She seems to understand that something is changing, because she's definitely more cuddly and wants my attention more. She also still loves to point out my belly and hug it and say "baby!" I've been telling her how baby is going to come out soon, and who knows - maybe she sort of gets it, at least enough to want lots of mommy attention.

As a follow up to the last post, Katie continues to say new words every day. Today she walked up to me, hugged me, then said "Kiss, kiss!" She usually asks for kisses by just grabbing my face and forcing it to happen, but tonight she was able to tell me what she was after so I could cuddle her up and give her kisses. I adore how affectionate she is! She's a bundle of hugs and kisses and cuddly time.

In addition to cuddly time with me, she LOVES to fall asleep with Sophie. She's been taking naps every day again, but they're always with Sophie - and if Sophie refuses (which is rare, as Sophie loves cuddles and sleeping!), she uses "fake Sophie" - her stuffed animal Berner dog.. Some adorable pictures of her this week at naptime:

Katie's Talking!

Katie has hit a magical, wondrous stage. Every single day is fun right now because I know that there's always going to be something new. Two or three weeks ago, she hit that amazing stage that comes after turning two. All of a sudden, over night, she figured everything out. She can now suddenly pronounce words perfectly. She can form big sentences instead of her normal one or two words. Literally, every single day, she says multiple new things that she never said before. I love hearing these words and phrases come out of her little toddler mouth.

Today, her new words were "french fries!" and "Potty time". Three days ago on November 19th, she ran up to me, threw her arms around my neck and said "Mommy, I love you" so perfectly and with so much enthusiasm. Last week she learned how to say names like "Molly" and "Donald." She now sends her daddy off to work each day with "Bye Daddy, love you!" before closing the door. I wish I could keep a running count of what new words she says each day that take me by surprise and make me sweep her off her feet and cuddle her into giggles, but there's just so many.

One of my favorite things she does now is say "Juice, where are you?? Juuuiiiice?". She looks around the room, repeating it over and over with her little hands up in the air and with so much emphasis. When she finally finds it, she'll either say "Ah! I found you!" or "Juice! There you are!"

We're definitely in that stage where we have to watch what we say. Not that we really do much swearing or anything, but she loves to repeat anything we say. If I ask her "do you want french fries?" she'll contort her little mouth to say the new words "French fries? Yes!"

I always thought I'd love the baby stage best, but I see as they grow, the wonderment in their eyes just magnifies. Watching her learn even bigger things than what her hands are is so exciting. Having her both be as independant as she can be at this stage and yet still want to stop everything she's doing to run over and exclaim "Mommy!" and give me a big hug out of the blue is just heart bursting.

Not only in words has she expanded in skill, but in abilities as well. Which just so happens to be great timing, seeing that I'll need her big girl help in a few weeks when her baby brother is born. Having her be able to communicate so well and be able to do things herself is already such a big help.

I so love my every day with this little girl. She has so drastically changed my life and has so greatly enriched it. Her and I have already been through so much together as I figure out my way through motherhood. She's been a great teacher, an amazing cuddle buddy, and such a fun companion these last two and a half years. I can't wait to see how much she continues to grow and learn and flourish!