Fall '09 Update

Katelyn is really enjoying her new school. She has a number of new friends that she talks about each day after we pick her up. She went on her first field trip a couple weeks ago to a pumpkin patch and played in a jumper with her classmates. It was a lot of fun for her. She is getting really good at puzzles, and still enjoys doing art of all kinds.

She is also a great big sister!! She loves to get down on the floor or into the crib with Matthew to play with him. He has gotten very adept at grabbing her hair, at the base of her skull usually, and she keeps coming back for more. I think she likes being able to tell him not to do something. ;) She still likes to help feed him and offers him some of her foods, when they are things he can eat. She will smush her peas in her fingers and feed them to him, or break off some of her bread for him to munch on.

Matthew is 8 months old now and adores his sister. He lights up when she comes into view and gets upset when she goes away. He has fun playing peek a boo with her and has been trying to keep up with her chatter in the back seat each day. He loves to talk!

He has 4 teeth now. The first came through on October 16th and the other 3 were in within 1.5 weeks. He also has at least 1 more coming in, and he continues to try them out on everything. He has gotten his fingers good at least 3 times now...once even drew blood!! He likes to sit up and play but prefers for us to hold him up so he can stand. He was even cruising a little for the first time last weekend while holding onto his stroller. He wants to be able to keep up with his sister so badly.

Matthew is very big on solid foods. He eats most of the vegatable and fruit combinations available and even likes the meat meal medlies. Katelyn would never eat any of the meat ones. Chicken noodle and turkey with rice seem to be his favorites. He also will mow through Cheerios and Gerber poofs like there is no tomorrow. Bread has become a staple for him as well. He will yearn for ours when his is all gone. We are really looking forward to feeding him at Thanksgiving. So many good foods to eat!!!

Katelyn turns 3!!

Katelyn turned 3 last week. We had a joint birthday party with her friend Caelyn, who turned 3 the week before. It was a lot of fun at a local park cooking hamburgers and hot dogs and playing on the playground. We had a princess cake and piñata as well as some arts and crafts for the kids to do. The girls had a blast with the glitter glue and beads!! :)

On her birthday, we went to one of her favorite restaurants and had a nice dinner, with a birthday sundae for dessert.

She is now 39 ½ inches tall and weighs in at 32 ½ pounds. She loves to play Candyland (especially her new Dora version) and Memory. She still enjoys listening to music and dancing in her room and is singing songs almost all the time, especially to Matthew when he is upset or as we go through the supermarket.

Matthew is 4 Months Old!!!

We can hardly believe that 4 months ago today Matthew joined our family. It seems like it was just last month. He is getting bigger every day. He now weighs in at 16lbs 15oz and is 25 1/2 inches long. He is very chatty every evening and loves to watch Katelyn whenever she is within sight. He is also reaching for anything he can get his hands on, especially his sister's hair. She likes to get really close when talking to him, and he is getting better every day at holding her there. :)

He eats so much that we started him on solid foods a little over a week ago. He has taken to the rice cereal very well. As you can see, Katelyn loves to help feed him. We usually take turns, with her dictating who goes next. ;) He will start veggies this week. Here's hoping he likes them as much as Katie did.

Summer Fun '09

Katelyn and her friend Caelyn went to the county fair over the weekend. They got to see lots of animals, eat ice cream and go on some really fun rides. She really loved the dragon roller coaster!!

Katelyn has also started to go to the local pool on really hot days. She is getting braver with each visit and will now lay back accross our arms with her head back in the water. She has been practicing her kicking in the tub every time she takes a bath. She delights in seeing us get wet from her efforts. :)

Katelyn got to go to their first movie this summer, too. We went with Caelyn to see "Up". It was a lot of fun and they were both very good in the theatre, keeping their 3-D glasses on the whole time, even when the seats tried to eat them up.

They Grow Up So Fast....

Matthew is 6 weeks old now and growing more and more each day. He had a check up on Monday and is already 12 pounds 2 oz and 23 inches long. He holds his head up and looks around all the time now and is starting to get the hang of tummy time. He is also spending more and more time awake the last few days, checking out the world around him the whole time.


Katelyn is doing great with potty training. She has not had any accidents in 2 weeks and always tells us when she needs to go. She has started playing "Dora the Explorer" in the car on the way home. Dora is her favorite show. She especially likes to play out being Swiper the Fox and swiping our stuff, like the character in the show does. She then tells the story of what we have to do in order to get our stuff back, just like Dora does in each episode. It has been really neat to see her imagination grow along with her ability to tell the story.


Katelyn is also still loving being the big sister. She bring Matthew his passy, covers him with his blankets, helps with giving him baths and holds him at least once a day. She also likes to sing him songs and it is her job to calm him down if he gets fussy in the car. She does a great job with that. He enjoys looking at her from his bouncy seats and sticks his tongue out at her when she gets in his face. She needs to be careful, though, because Matthew tends to spit up a lot and if she gets too close just after he eats, she gets a surprise. ;)

Introducing Matthew Peter Thomas Spear!!!

I started having contractions on Friday, March 13th, around 6:15 am. They were about 6-7 minutes apart at that point. As I have been having contraction flurries for months now, we were not sure if it was worth going into the hospital or not but around 7:30, just as Jeremy and Katelyn were about ready to leave, we decided it would be better to play it safe and go get checked out. On the way, they began to come every 3 minutes and were getting more intense.

When we arrived at the hospital they brought us to a room and hooked me up to the monitors. I was doing ok but the baby had a few heart rate drops during the contractions and they were showing no sign of slowing down. After about 30 minutes, they decided to consult the doctor, who was in surgery, and get his opinion. We started calling people to let them know it was possible the baby was coming.

They finally got word from the doctor around 10:15 that we should deliver.....at 11:00!!! I was in shock that it would be happening that fast. No one was there to watch Katelyn yet and we did not have anything with us. I did not feel at all ready but the decision had been made. Grandad arrived at about 10:40 am and called Grandma to have her come too. Katelyn did not like the way Jeremy looked in the scrubs he had to wear and was very upset when we had to leave the room to head off to surgery. She calmed down once Grandma showed up and started to get a bit excited about seeing the baby.

Matthew was born at 11:44 am. He weighed 8 pounds 6 ounces and was 19 and 1/4 inches long. He was very loud and kicked a great deal, throughout the delivery and after, just as he had since the 18th week of the pregnancy. :) Katelyn's initial reaction when she saw him was to go up to the bassinet and ask to hold him right then and there. When the nurse told her she needed to give him a bath, Katelyn quickly volunteered to help out with it.

We are home now and adjusting to our new family dynamics. Katelyn LOVES to be helpful and hold her baby brother every chance she gets. She has started feeding her babies 'Mommy Milk' just like I feed Matthew, and she can't wait until it will be her turn to feed him his first bottle in a week or so.

Katelyn Cooks!!

Katelyn has started to help out a lot in the kitchen. She loves getting food prepped for dinner and putting the silverware on the table. We recently showed her how to cut up the ham for Jeremy's famous Carbonara dish. She was very careful with the knife and listened to Daddy as they worked together to get it all cut up.










Over the holidays, she also helped out making some Christmas cookies for her friends and making the pumpkin pie and whipped cream for Thanksgiving.

Lately she has also started cooking for all her dolls and making soup for everyone to eat. She is always very careful to let us know that it is hot and that we need to blow on it and cool it off before we eat any.

2008 Comes to a Close

Well it has been one heck of a year. I know we have not posted nearly often enough about Katelyn's progress this year and for that I apologize. I will try to be better as we get into the new year, I promise.

Katelyn is now a very opinionated almost two and a half year old who loves to read and do puzzles as well as sing. She has gotten extremely verbal over the last few weeks and is using complete sentences all the time now. She has also started to show interest in using the potty and likes to go each time Mommy does.

For Halloween she dressed up as a little devil. She was very cute, although was not incredibly fond of the hood portion of the costume. She had a lot of fun going trick or treating and got enough candy to last a few weeks. When it was finally gone, she was very upset and want to go out and get more.

We went to Grandma and Da's house for Thanksgiving again this year. Katelyn was a bit shy around their friends, but warmed up after 30-40 minutes or so. She was SOOO excited to get to drink out of a big girl glass (that's apple juice, btw) and eat at the table with everyone without a high chair. She also got to help make the pumpkin pie as well as the whipped cream. After dinner, she even got the lick the beater from the whipping cream!!

We all went back east to Maine for Christmas this year. Katelyn really enjoyed the airplane trips and was disappointed when she was not allowed to fly the plane herself. She spent a lot of time with Memere and Pepere and had a lot of fun playing and reading books with them. The first night we were together, we were explaining that these were the people she had been talking to on the phone all those times. She looked at each and said the following: "You Memere? You Pepere? ...... That YOU!?!?" Her face was all scrunched up and it was like a light turned on over her head when she made the connection. It was a sight to see.

She got to see her great grandmothers again as well as a number of aunts, uncles and cousins she had never met before. Although a bit overwhelmed at first, she did get into things and had a good time at each gathering.

This was also the first time she really experienced snow in a meaningful way. There was a blizzard the day after we arrived, which is how she was really introduced to it, and that pretty much turned her off from wanting to play in it. It was cold and wet and wouldn't come off her shoes. After a couple days she got into stomping on the snow to make foot prints in it and sticking a finger into a snow bank to make a face, but that was about as far as she was willing to go.

All in all a very full year. We are expecting a new baby in March, so Katelyn will soon be a big sister.

Katelyn's 2!!!

Katelyn had so much fun on her birthday. There was a celebration at school with all her friends. They had cupcakes, played games and ran all over the place. Later that night, we went out to dinner as a family to one of her favorite restaurants, McNear's, and had a wonderful dinner. She got to have an ice cream Sunday for dessert all to herself.

On Sunday we had a party at the duck pond. Her friend Caelyn came and the two of them had the greatest time together. There were cupcakes to be eaten, bubbles to pop, ducks to feed, seagulls to chase and geese to laugh in awe at. They played hide and seek, chased each other around the fields and laughed so much we could hardly believe it. It was a beautiful day and neither girl wanted the fun to end. Both were were completely exhausted when we packed up to go home, and were asleep before we got even half way there.

Hawaiian Holiday

We just got back from a wonderful week in Hawaii. Katelyn had a blast in the pool and the ocean. The pool was designed to be 'beach-like' and had a pebble bottom and allowed you to walk in gradually. She was thrilled being able to go in and out on her own. She also enjoyed digging in the sand and pebbles, although got frustrated when they stuck to her hands.

She loved seeing all the wildlife on the island of Kauai. She chased a crab on the beach, fed some cats at the resort and even caught her first frog outside one of the restaurants we ate at. She pet the horses from our trail ride and chased lizards, too. We had to go out looking for the cats almost every night, which was really an excuse for her to go into the pool again. :)

Outdoor Fun

Katelyn is now 21 months old and absolutely loves the outdoors. Almost every weekday we take her down to the creek near her day care to see the water flowing. She has gotten very good at climbing up and down the hill with minimal assistance. She has finally figured out how to lean forward when going up the hill rather than try to stand straight up from the level of the ground. She also loves tossing rocks into the water and watching them splash.



Each afternoon when we get home we spend a bit of time walking around outside looking at trees and the creek nearby. She is also practicing her climbing skills over and under obstacles. She also has been practicing using keys to unlock the mailbox and the front door.




There is a community pool down the road from us and they have a wading pool there that is only 3 feet deep at its deepest point. She is so thrilled to be able to walk around in it on her own. She still does not like going under the water, but she is getting better at kicking her feet while we hold her and loves to splash us. Last time we were there she spent a lot of time mastering the ladder and by the end of the afternoon could climb out of the pool basically on her own. Needless to say, she slept really well that night. :)


Another of Katelyn's favorite outings is to go to the duck pond. There is a play gound there as well as the pond and she has a blast every time we go. She likes the slide, when we go with her, and the swing, as long as it doesn't go too fast. Sometimes we go with friends and she chases after them while playing in the playground or near the pond. She eats almost as much as she feeds to the ducks and geese, but she has a blast doing it.

20 Months and Counting

Katelyn has been very busy over the last couple of months. She has grown so much that she primarily is in 2T and some 3T outfits now. She is talking a lot more and uses sign language to suppliment what she is trying to say. "More" is very popular, as is "Bye Bye", which means she wants to go outside and play. She can string two words together in simple sentences and seems to be expanding her vocabulary on a daily basis. A couple new activities she has mastered in the last couple of weeks are putting on her shoes all by herself and getting her shirts and bibs over her head on her own. She spends a lot of time focussed on one activity until she masters it then goes on to another to master. It is quite amazing to watch.


Reading is her favorite passtime. Every day we read at least 10 books, and that's not counting the ones she looks at on her own. Some of her favorites are "Zoophabet 1, 2, 3", "Dear Zoo" and "Mouse Paint". She has started to even say some of the words in the stories and makes some of the animal sounds when we point to them. Rawr-ing like a lion is a big one for her. She loves to get into contests with us to see who can rawr the loudest. She did that at our office one day with the CEO of the company. It was very cute. Moo-ing is another big one. She moos at the cows we see as we drive home each night, too. Sometimes she decides they are not really cows and starts Baa-ing at them instead. When we try to correct her, she says "No no, Mama/Dada. Baaa."

Katelyn had a lot of fun on Easter. She found some eggs and was able to get them open on her own. There were a few with jelly beans, which were an instant hit, and a few with raisins, which she has always loved. We took her out to the duck pond that day and hid a couple eggs in the grass there. She was more interested in chasing the ducks than finding eggs, though.

18 Month Update

Katelyn has reached 18 months and is constantly on the move. She now weighs in at 24 pounds, 5 ounces and is 2' 9.5" tall. She is getting much more independent, wanting to get into her carseat on her own and climb stairs without help. She has started to use a few more spoken words and is picking up on more and more signs each day. It is amazing to see how well she can communicate what she wants through simple motions and a few choice words.

She eats fruit like it is going out of style and is so much better with utensils than she was even a month ago. She is willing to try almost anything we feed her, although there are limits to what she will eat. Deli meats are acceptable but larger chunks of meat are not. Peas are a hit, but not so much green beans.

She did help us make cookies last weekend. She liked helping us stir but was very upset by the fact that we would not let her eat all the sugar on her own. She did get a treat when helping Mom open the brown sugar box. As soon as the package was open, in went her hand and when it came back out it was covered. She got it into her mouth so fast; there was no way to stop her. ;) It was a lot of fun. When she eats the cookies, she does not gobble them down, as we expected her to. She takes her time and makes them last. It is very cute to see.

Super Bowl Sunday

Pepere sent Katelyn a cute cheerleader outfit to wear on Super Bowl Sunday. The New England Patriots made it to the game with an undefeated record and he wanted her to wear it in support of their big day.

While it is a little big on her, she did look incredibly cute in it. She enjoyed playing in it all day and especially liked the fact that she could show off her belly button. That has been a big thing for her the last couple weeks. She especially likes lifting our shirts to see that we have them too. She then tickles us mercilessly and takes great pleasure in seeing us squirm.

Although we did not watch the entire game, we kept checking in throughout the afternoon to see how the Pats were doing. Katelyn did have the traditional bag of (veggie) chips to snack on while watching Finding Nemo. Unfortuanately, the Patriots were deafeated in the end 17 to 14. We will save the outfit for her to wear again next year, just in case.