Her Own Style

Kaitlyn is growing up, and part of that is deciding she wants to pick out her own clothes.

Now, we're not taking her to the mall and letting her pick out her own clothes or anything (for so many reasons that would be somewhat off-topic), but I have been encouraging her to find her own style.

Each morning she goes into her closet and looks through every shirt on the rack. Twice. I tried just having 2 or 3 shirts out for her to pick between, but she was not at all happy with that. After she (finally) picks out a shirt, whoever is getting her dressed picks a set of shorts or skirt to go with the top.

If she asks, we generally go with her shoe pick, too. Sandals or sneakers.

She has started picking out accessories recently, too. Maybe it's a hairbow request. Maybe it's a "purse" she picks out for the day. Recently she's been on a real hat kick. The girl that never keeps a hat on her head when we put it there loves the hat above all other things when she picks it out.

If only we can apply the same principle to picking out vegetables...

The Big Sister Room

At this stage of pregnancy with Kaitlyn, we were putting the finishing touches on the nursery. Well, we like the way the nursery turned out, and we don't have plans to change to a whole new nursery for Broccoli. Why would we? It's gender neutral, super cute, and full of personalized touches you can't buy at a store: the picture frame I painted at Stephanie's bachelorette party, the appliquéd quilt my mom made with the border animals on it, and the matching wallhangings in the frames she and my dad made; the cross-stitched quilt that my sister-in-law (cross-stitch part) and mother-in-law (quilting) made. No, we're not changing the nursery.

But that doesn't mean those pregnancy nesting hormonal drives have gone unanswered. Yesterday we finished up the Big Sister Room, also now known as "Kaitlyn's Room". We haven't brought the furniture up from NC yet, but the room is painted, chair rail-ed, bordered, and the closet fitted with new shelves and fresh coat of paint on not only the walls but the closet, the doors, the shelves, and all of the trim. And, of course, we had to go ahead and put up window shades, since the windows face East and South, and we've shifted Kaitlyn's "get up" time two hours earlier and that's quite early enough.

All of the "guest room/office" furniture (and junk) has been removed, with the exception of the actual mattress and box springs, which are currently on a Hollywood frame, and adorned in a new waterproof mattress pad (she's two-and-a-half . . . you know), a set of lavender sheets, and a pair of pink bedrails.

After Kaitlyn's nap yesterday we let her come in and discover the room was ready - and decked out with a Sesame Street balloon and Disney Princess balloon to mark the occasion - and then go back to the nursery to move the most important things. She came back in with her pillowcase stuffed full of BB, Baby Ellie, Woof Woof, and two blankies. The room was hers.

We marked the big occasion not only with balloons, but with a hamburger cookout dinner and ice cream (with whipped cream!) for dessert. And after dinner, it was bedtime. Kaitlyn did a great job of going to sleep (despite her excitement) and staying in bed all night until I got her this morning just before nine.

We have some pictures, I'll update with them once I get them downloaded.

Kaitlyn's Second Movie and Commercial Picks

This morning I took Kaitlyn to her second movie. What was it? Charlotte's Web. Yes. The same movie that she saw for her first movie.

Hey, it was the free Kiddie Show at the local theater, and she actually asked to go see it again. I love her enough to sit through it again, even with Dakota Fanning's distracting teeth and that random kid in a mask on the Ferris Wheel.

And sad as it is, Kaitlyn has some commercials that are her two "favorites":
The BP commercials - as soon as she hears the music, she sings "Say 'Hey'!"
The low-budget daytime car insurance commercials where they repeatedly say "Kiss my bumper!"