Kaitlyn April 16, 2002 Since the last update, Kaitlyn has had her 3rd birthday (birthday page here). She had a fun Christmas and is finally at the age where she enjoys opening presents and playing with new things. Developmentally, she has improving each day. She knows all her colors and can sing the "ABCs". She knows many of her letters by sight and can write 3 or 4 of them (and know what they are when she's writing them). She counts to 20 and she counted to 10 a couple weeks ago in Spanish (although ocho certainly was a fun word for her). Kaitlyn's vocabulary is just amazing to me. She uses full sentences and words like "suppose." She speaks very grown up sometimes...of course, other times, I have no idea what she's saying! Kaitlyn really enjoys playing with Brittany, Josh and Hunter. Well, she and Hunter like to annoy each other, but she just adores Brittany and Josh. She would follow them around all day if they let her. She thinks it's fun at night to have Brittany brush their teeth together and then have Brittany take upstairs to bed. Kaitlyn's attitude has its moments. She goes through phases where little things make her mad but she seems to be better about getting out of foul moods (good thing because her crabbiness seriously annoys me!) October 23, 2001 As always, Kaitlyn gets funnier by the day. She is so funny to watch. It's so neat to watch her with Hunter though. She is so caring toward him. If he's crying, she asks why or she tells him "it's OK Hunter". She's the same way with the older kids as well. Brittany is known to cry for silly reasons and Kaitlyn's always the first one asking why she's crying. Kaitlyn is also very complimentary. She's often heard telling someone they have pretty jammies/dress/shirt/hair. On the other hand, she's also 2 and shows that tempermental side of herself all too often. It doesn't take much to make her mad but boy does it take FOREVER for her to calm down. However, if she has her blankie and Daddy's lap, she usually gets over it pretty quick. : ) Developmentally: Kaitlyn knows all the major colors...blue, red, green, yellow, orange, black and white. She sometimes gets stuck on purple if it's a dark shade (she'll think it's black) and pink she sometimes has problems identifying but on a good note, she calls it red so at least she's in the right shade of color : ). Kaitlyn really enjoys to draw and color. She's also very good at praising others' drawings. (You'll draw something and she'll say "oh, good drawing a circle Mommy"). She was coloring a picture the other day and she stayed almost entirely in the lines. I'm going to scan it and have it to view so just click here (if it doesn't work yet it's because I haven't scanned it yet!!). She also took a picture the other day and turned it over and traced it. Maybe we'll have someone artistic in this family yet! Potty training is still a battle. She'll sit on her potty chair but that's about it. I won't go into vivid details but we're hoping it'll get easier. August 14, 2001 Well, now that the older kids are back in school, I'm sure Kaitlyn is very bored. Brittany and Josh keep her entertained. Kaitlyn's been a bit crabby lately and I'm hoping it's just a phase. Kaitlyn is getting pretty bossy lately. She has good manners when she wants to use them but lately she seems to enjoy the words "give me" and "move". She is kinda funny though because she knows that when we use her middle name (Elizabeth), we mean business. So now she has begun to use Elizabeth to scold everyone else...I tell you, hearing "Hunter Elizabeth" and "Joshua Elizabeth" come out of her mouth is hilarious. I even got called "Mommy Elizabeth" at the airport the other day. July 10, 2001 Kaitlyn has been pretty cranky lately, although I don't know why. She seems to be getting enough sleep and she's eating fine. Maybe she's just expressing herself. Kaitlyn's newest thing is asking everyone how they are doing. Regardless of the answer she receives, she always replies "Oh, good!" Even while she's pretending with dolls she has these conversations...they go like this: "How are you?..Oh, fine...Oh, good." TOO CUTE!! July 7, 2001 I would be here forever detailing all of Kaitlyn's recent accomplishments. She does so many funny things everyday. She's growing well and learning more all the time. She even uses words like "himself" and "herself" correctly (ex: "uh oh, Josh hurt himself"). Kaitlyn is progressing well on learning her colors. She identifies pink and green really well. You'd think as much as she loves Blue's Clues, she would know the color blue! Her counting is great...she counts up to 14 or 15 but ALWAYS omits the number 4. She's learning some letters. Her favorite is "E"...she can pick that out of anything!! Pottytraining is still in the works. Kaitlyn hasn't shown any desire to be out of diapers so we're not pushing the issue (yet anyway). On to the funny things: If you call her anything other than her name, she says "I not ..., I Kaitlyn" (only she pronounces it "Kay-tun") while pointing to her face. We discovered this the other night after a rather messy diaper. I said "come here Nasty"...she was very insulted and said "I not Nasty, I Kay-tun". If you tell Kaitlyn she's cute, she agrees and then she gives you a list, complete with pauses, of her other qualities, ("...and sweet...and adorable...and beautiful..."). Kaitlyn still adores Blue's Clues. We redecorated the bedroom she shares with Hunter with the Blue's motif. She seems to really enjoy the room...so much so that last night we overheard her through the monitor humming the theme song. Oh yes, the room they share. Surprisingly, that has been a much smoother transition than I expected. The first night Kaitlyn went to bed with the crib in her room was rather bothersome. Steve said she was very upset and wouldn't even lay down. When I put Hunter down, she finally rested her head upon her pillow and went right to sleep! I think she was afraid the crib was going to be her bed again. Since then, they've been just wonderful sharing a room. CHECK BACK SOON FOR ANOTHER UPDATE!!