Kaitlyn's Haircut

Just before, and right after. Even though this wasn't technically her first haircut, it was the first drastic cut, and mom wanted to save a locke. Luckily for us, they have great certificates with a baggie for the hair that sticks right on it. No loose hair! And I can stick this right in the baby book.

Kaitlyn with Jennifer F., or "Ms. Jenny", as Kaitlyn calls her!

We Are... Penn State!

On the first full day of our Pennsylvania trip, we trekked out to Happy Valley to visit Keith's alma matter, The Pennsylvania State University. This was a first visit for all of the other Dohls, and very close to ten years since Keith last visited campus after his 1999 graduation. While there was no football going on, we still manage to have a good part of the quintessential Penn State experience.
You have to go to the Lion Shrine. We also have pictures of the girls sitting on the lion, but they are crying in those! Kaitlyn was disappointed once we got to the lion; she thought it was a real lion we were going to go see. So we stopped by Patee Library to see the stuffed (as in, taxidermist preserved, not plush) Nittany lion on display. This placated her, although she did want to know where the lion's mommy and daddy were.

After hearing Kaitlyn say "This isn't Penn State, this is just [a store, a sidewalk, a restaurant, etc]" all day, we found out what Kaitlyn considers Penn State... Beaver Stadium. She was very disappointed there was no football game going on, but really enjoyed playing in the field that would have been filled with tailgaters if there had been a game!

One of our first stops on campus was The Creamery, but apparently there has been an entirely new and swankier creamery built since Keith was in school. Kaitlyn and Kourey enjoyed the flavor of the week, Chocolate Pretzel, while Keith indulged in Peanut Butter Swirl and Katherine tried out Peachy Paterno. Four days from cow to our spoon... yum.

For those of you who know what this means . . .

Kaitlyn. Target. Popcorn. Juice box. Napkin.

You do the math. We're very proud!

A Little Kourey Update

Those of you playing the home game already know that Kourey is now 10 months old. What you don't know are all of the little things that make Kourey the awesome tom-month-old she is.

You've got pictures, so you can see that she has gone from looking exactly like Kaitlyn to looking more like Keith. She's got dark hair, and in the back it curls up into damp little ringlets whenever she's hot (which is all the time). Her birthmark between her eyebrows has faded a lot, but whenever she really gets worked up it comes flaring back. She's got three teeth, and if you get too close she'll use them on you. She'll pretend she's going to kiss you, then bite your cheek. She thinks it's funny. I think Keith taught her.

She also takes after Keith in her sense of humor. It's not just the "fake you out" kiss. She takes way to much joy in creating a diaper that leaves me calling for backup (and it takes a lot for Mommy to call for backup).

Kourey loves her sister. She crawls along after her, climbs on top of her, and tries to stick her finger in her mouth. Kourey also loves when her sister is not around. She can play with her toys (and by "her" I mean both Kourey's toys and Kaitlyn's toys) without fear of theft or reprisal. She can feel confident no one will try to "ride her like a puppy". The forty-five minutes between when Kaitlyn goes down for a nap and Kourey does are her golden moments. The forty-five following minutes when they are both down are mine.

She's not talking. My brother is four years younger than me. Until he was two he could/would only say "Ma" "Da" "Ssss" (that's sister) "haystack" and "Tweetsy Railroad". That's right... "Ssss" was sister, but he could say Tweetsy Railroad and haystack. Anyone who has met David knows the two years didn't hurt his vocabulary one bit, and anyone who's met me isn't surprized that everyone in our family surmises he simply didn't talk because I did all the talking. It's a theory; I'm not sold on it. BUT it could be true for Kourey and Kaitlyn. Time will tell.

Despite the fact she still wears some 6-9 month clothes (at this point Kaitlyn was 12-18 mos) and is not really chubby, Kourey loves to eat. I joke she is a bottomless pit, or that maybe she has a hollow leg. My mom used to say that about my brother all of the time - "He must have a hollow leg!" I said the same about Kourey and Keith thought I was making a weird joke that he didn't get at the expense of those with prosthetic limbs. Has anyone else heard this expression or is my mom just a little crazy? She nurses three times a day, eats baby food twice a day, and eats lunch and dinner with us at the table. Her favorite foods might be spinach, spaghetti, grilled eggplant and yogurt. And baby puffs (as in puffs for babies, not to be confused with Soylant Green Puffs).

And that's the Kourey report.

Kaitlyn's First Day at Cubbies!

Ever since she started Little Treble Makers choir in January, Kaitlyn has wanted to go to Cubbies, but while she could start choir after she turned 3, Cubbies had the same birthday cutoffs as the school year and her December birthday made her ineligible.

How did she know she wanted Cubbies? The very first night of her choir Keith was supposed to pick her up at 6:30. He got there at 6:31. By that time she had already been whisked to Cubbies where the Cubbie Bear puppet was talking to a room full of excited 3- and 4- year-olds clad in bright blue vests with patches and clutching colorful books with stickers.

They had her at puppet.

After a long wait, Kaitlyn was so excited for her first night at Cubbies on September 10! We waved and hugged her friends from Sunday School, waited in line to try on vests, ordered a tote bag, filled out a flurry of forms, and collected a bevy of handouts.

How can you tell she loved Cubbies? Maybe by how the Cubbie's Hopper book was enough to enthrall her and keep her quiet and seated during my choir practice afterwards (if you have or have ever met a three-year-old, you get the miracle here). Maybe by the fact she wore the vest all night (not just at church... all the way to bedtime - she tried to convince me she could wear it with PJs). Maybe by the fact she's already learned both of her verses and is telling them to Kourey and Baby Becky.

Or you could just take my word for it.

Happy Independence Day!

Happy Fourth of July! We had planned an evening of picnic and fireworks (well, pizza in the Home Depot parking lot overlooking the Colonial Heights and Ft. Lee displays), but God had other plans and the deluge drove us indoors where we watched the Washington DC and NYC Macy's displays on tv. Clearly it's not the same, but Kaitlyn still got her popcorn so she was happy!

Guess who's got a tooth?

Well, it's really just a little razor that you feel when you rub your finger on her gums, but she works it out on the biter biscuit!

Metro Richmond Zoo

Click the x on the song box to minimize it; cut the music by clicking the volume button. Click on the picture to scroll through manually.

Yesterday Kaitlyn, Kourey and Katherine met up with Kaitlyn's best friend from church, her mom and baby brother, and jaunted up to the Metro Richmond Zoo.

As much as I love the zoo, I've never been to this one, as I am a zoo snob. I have high standards because I grew up with the NC Zoo so close - it may not a big name, national level zoo, but I think in many ways it's better than others I've been to.

So a private zoo a block off of Hull Street - behind an elementary school at that - and named Metro Richmond Zoo, well... let's say my expectations were low. But I really enjoyed it! The smallness of the zoo made it feel really accessible for the kids, and I think I enjoyed hand-feeding the giraffes even more than they did (especially since they didn't hand feed the giraffe, they just held out cups for the giraffes to eat out of with their purple, prehensile tongues).

Kaitlyn stayed true to her peculiar predilections by being most entranced by the two sloths that hung alongside of scarily big bats in the nocturnal house. She refers to them as "two monkeys in a tunnel." It took me a while to figure out that's what she meant. She loved all of the primates (and all of them, from gibbon to chimpanzee to spider monkey, were just plain "MOWN-keys!"), in no small part because "monkeys are daddy's favorite."

We'll definitely be going back - anyone want to come with us?

Happy Easter!

Click either picture for larger size!

Princess Pink Cast

I'm so slack at posting. But in my defense, I have a three-year-old in a cast and a three-month-old with colic.

Yeah, I hear you thinking, this we know. You posted that A MONTH AGO. Then no more. Slacker.

OK, well, you want some pictures? Will that make things a little better?

Check out that model! She likes showing off her cast, actually. She quickly figured out that it got her a little extra attention, and a little extra leeway.

And we can't make a trip to the photographer without a shot of the rapidly-changing Kourey. She looks soooo much like Kaitlyn did at this age.

And here they are together. Kaitlyn just adores Kourey - the two hardest bits of getting pictures made were catching Kourey looking pleasant and not slumping (clearly not always accomplished), and getting Kaitlyn to look at the camera and not at Kourey!!!

News Break

This just in... no, wait, it's not that kind of news break. I mean, this is the latest in Dohlchester news - when's the last time I updated within 8-hours of something happening?

But the "break" is the news. While getting ready for church this morning, Keith and Kaitlyn tumbled down the stairs. Keith was fine, except for some bruising on his hip, but Kaitlyn was quite upset. And understandably so - falling is always scary!

She kept holding her right knee and wouldn't put weight on it. While there didn't appear to be any bruising, we raised it and iced it and checked with the doctor - it was ER time.

The doctor talked to Kaitlyn and asked her if her ankle hurt, if her knee felt fine, if it hurt when he did this and if it felt fine when he did that. She nodded to everything. I wanted to point this out to him when he decided to x-ray her ankle. It's her knee she's grabbing and won't let us touch!

But there is a reason he's the doctor and I am not - after a less-than-happy x-ray, the results showed a fracture of the tibia right above the ankle. Kaitlyn got a splint and we're taking her to a pediatric orthapedist this week (amazingly, the office wasn't open this morning) for a hard cast for about 4-6 weeks.

She can't play and walk around on the splint (and has shown no interest in doing so, so far) but once she gets the cast she probably will be able to. Like our Sunday School teacher pointed out, at least she just broke the tibia, so she still has the fibula to give some stability (the bone hadn't shifted at all, but was broken all the way through).

Kaitly also seems to have broken her appetite - even tempting PBJs and Sister Schubert's rolls haven't gotten her to eat more than a few cheerios and two bites of a popsicle all day. But I'm sure that will mend without a cast in far less than 4-6 weeks!

Congratulations, Sgt. Daddy!

Keith begins tonight as a Sergeant! (Note the gold badge and three stripes)

We found out about the promotion about two weeks ago, but the finer details weren't ironed out until this weekend. It means a new schedule (for all of us, really), and that we'll have to eat at "normal people" times - crazy!

We're so proud of him (not that we weren't before)!

Happy 2 Month Birthday, Kourey!

Yesterday Kourey turned two months old - can you believe it?!

According to the doctor, she is 13 lbs 5 oz (nearly a stone!) and 24 inches long. Since she's been on Maalox (and now Zantac), she's a pretty even tempered baby that loves looking around and hugging her snugglies. She seems to smile the most when she's pulled something over on us (can babies this young have a sarcastic sense of humor?).

In honor of her 2 month birthday, we broke out the Hop N Pop. It's hard to say who likes it more - Kourey, so she can sit up and see the world, or Kaitlyn, who wants to show Kourey how to press all of the buttons and such (note to self: take out batteries).

Christmas Cuties

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas....

I may not have picked the best year to start a Christmas Cookie tradition, but the good news is that every other year will seem easier, right? (That's what I tell myself about picking a bad year to finally join the church choir and do the Christmas musical (which, by the way, is called Christmas Is Forever and is next weekend and for more information on times and such click here))

Keith and I both wanted me to do Christmas Cookies. It was a tradition in Keith's family (and still is - his mom makes great cookies), plus we just like cookies. So far we've made three batches. The first was Lemon Supreme cookies, and they were super easy. You just use

• one box of cake mix (you can use any kind - I just used Lemon Supreme)
• two eggs
• 1/4 cup oil or butter (we used butter)

Blend, put on the cookie sheet, bake at 375 for about 10 minutes.

Using butter they were firm enough that I think next time I will try making them in the cookie press or making cutouts. I just rolled into balls and flattened this time, and they tasted a bit like lemon sugar cookies. Yum! They're all gone. Next year I totally need to clear out enough room in the freezer to store cookies there for greater chance of making it to Christmas.

Then we made Peanut Butter Fudgies, a Dohlchester favorite. I contend these are candies, not cookies, but in Keith's family they were called "No Bake Cookies", so I'll count them.

Most fun of all was our most recent cookies (made on the day of the first snow of the season, not that any of it stuck). They were from a mix, but oh so fun (and yummy). Kaitlyn and I made Gingerbread Men (and Angels)! Kaitlyn always loves to help cook, especially taste testing (she has to fight Keith for beaters or spoons, though). This was our first cookie cutouts since she was old enough to help and she thought cookie cutting was very exciting! She called the gingerbread men "gentlemen" and the angels "ladies". We didn't get to decorate them, this time, but we'll add that to our cookie wishlist for later.

On our "Cookie Wishlist" for the rest of this season? My Grandma's Molasses Cookies, spritz cookies, peanut butter sandwiches (like homemade Girl Scout Tagalongs), thin mints (like homemade Girl Scout... well, you can guess), chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter Hershey kissed cookies, peanut butter cup cookies, decorated sugar cookies, and chocolate covered pretzels (ok, also not cookies, but falls under "Holiday Baking").

Cookies aren't the only thing making our house look Christmasy. My super-wonderful husband got all of the ornaments and whatnot out, put up both trees (my white-light, red-glass-ball, white-thread-crochet, and glass ornamented tree with a thread crochet angel topper and his blinking-white-light, fun-ornament, light-up-star-topped tree). He set out two of our Nativities. He hung the stockings and wreaths. All that was left was the "family" ornaments. Kaitlyn loved looking at the tree and helping pick up the ornaments but not putting them on the prickly tree. She also loved (or at least indulged me) listening to stories about the ornaments.

The ones I got when I visited Tante Suzanne in Germany. The one's Keith and I got on our honeymoon in Italy. The one from my childhood church's 125th anniversary celebration. The one celebrating our church's 40th anniversary. Ones with names on them. Police ornaments. The white thread ornament from the year Keith and I were dating when I traded him one red bow from his tree for one of the stars I had crocheted for my tree (to this year "my" tree has that bow and "his" tree has the star). Ornaments from vacations we've taken, from the State Fair, and from ChesterFest. Ornaments make great souvenirs from trips, because you get to pull out the memories and stories every year.

Someone else is ONE!

One month, that is! In some ways it feels like Kourey has never not been part of our family, and in other ways it's amazing that it's already been one month.

I'm not sure exactly how big she is, but she's graduated from newborn diapers to size one, and is really filling out (especially in length) N clothes (she mainly wears 0-3 months).

Kourey loves for us to sing "The Kourey Song" (sing Kourey Kourey Kourey over and over to tune of "Holy, Holy, Holy" - not one of our most creative efforts, but very well received). She likes to hear Kaitlyn's voice. Kourey hasn't read the baby books that say she can't hold her head up - she is headstrong in every sense of the word!

And she's already learned how to steal Daddy's remote.

Someone's THREE!

Last Saturday we celebrated Kaitlyn turning three years old! Can you believe it?

This was actually the second celebration, as we had a little party in Pennsylvania the previous weekend with Nana, Pop, and Uncles Kenny and Kevin, complete with presents and a Little Mermaid cake.

This Saturday started out with a trip up to Richmond for Kaitlyn and Daddy to go to the Ukrop's parade. They were right past the grandstand and Kaitlyn loved all of the balloons and floats. She wasn't even too disappointed there weren't elephants (which we're not sure why she thought there would be...). She didn't get to stay through the whole long parade because she had to come home...

... to see Grandmama and Papa and eat a quick lunch before her BIRTHDAY PARTY! It was planned to be a small birthday party (my mom told me years ago to figure one kid per year old the birthday child is turning), but ended up being even smaller with just Kaitlyn and her friend N. from church (I didn't ask N.'s mom for permission, so I'm not putting pictures or names of someone else's minor child on the web). They had a blast! Their goody bags got some serious workouts as they pulled out new crayons for coloring before a Winnie-the-Pooh cake and ice cream (plus presents - N. was just as excited as Kaitlyn), then took their bubbles outside for playground time. They played and sang and marched and whatnot for hours!

After a brief nap, Kaitlyn's Birthday Extravaganza continued with a special dinner made by Grandmama and even more presents (considering everyone involved had vowed to not overdo it this year - and really seemed to actually go by that - she got a ridiculous mountain of presents; I guess too many people love her :-) ).

The birthday was over, but the celebrating wasn't. Monday night Auntie Kris took us all out to one of Kaitlyn's favorite restaurants, Don Jose, where she got doted on by the staff that she hadn't seen since before Kourey was born. She also ate her favorite - a quesadilla and got a birthday serenade from the staff, including Paulo who Kaitlyn has a three-year-old's little crush on.

Happy Birthday, Kaitlyn!!

So what does Kaitlyn think of Kourey?

This is the question we get the most often, now that Kourey has arrived. The answer in a word? The world (ok, two words, but "the" is an article and shouldn't count).

The biggest Kaitlyn/Kourey problem we've encountered is that Kaitlyn might just love Kourey too much. She would hug, kiss, and play with her all day if she could.

Kaitlyn is concerned with Kourey's well-being - she "checks [Kourey's] heartbeat" several times a day with her doctor's kit stethoscope; when Kourey cries she weighs in on what she thinks: "put Kourey in her swing now," "Kourey is poopy! Change her diaper. Use an Elmo diaper, OK?," and "you go pick Kourey up now, OK?" are common phrases to hear; she helps take care of Kourey by getting her bib or burp cloth at feeding time.

Kaitlyn also worries about Mommy. After demanding requesting pictures be taken of her and Kourey (it didn't take too much arm-twisting) Kaitlyn "reviewed the proofs" (looked at the digicam's screen) and asked why Mommy wasn't in the pictures. So we figured out how to take a picture of all three of us (I think Keith was at court?).

Here's an oddly blurry picture of Kaitlyn helping at Kourey's first tub bath. Kaitlyn had to be on the chair in the middle of the action so "I can see Kourey swim in her pool."

A few other Kaitlyn funnies:

• When Kourey is hungry she does the rooting reflex - open mouth and aim at anything nearby, especially cheeks. She did this to Kaitlyn's cheek while Kaitlyn was administering pre-feeding hugs and kisses. I asked Kaitlyn if Kourey was kissing her. "No," Kaitlyn replied, "She's trying to EAT me!"
• Kaitlyn is interested in every facet of baby life. We've explained to Kaitlyn many, many times how Kourey can't eat all the foods that Kaitlyn does and can only eat food Mommy gives her. Many times we've explained that she's eating special baby milk. When Kourey was half done eating one afternoon, Kaitlyn asked with interest "does that side have juice?"

Kourey Elizabeth Dohl

Kourey Elizabeth Dohl

Born November 5, 2007

12:22 pm

7 lbs 10 oz

20 inches

Mommy & Kaitlyn's Photo Shoot

A new post, but no new news about Broccoli's pending nascency. While you're waiting for more on that front, here are the pictures from Kaitlyn and Mommy's recent photo shoot at JC Penny. Some of Kaitlyn, some of super-pregnant Mommy, and some of the two of us together. Enjoy!