The View is Better High Up

I've mentioned before that Katherine is a climber, so here is some proof.  I've been snapping some pictures of examples since June, which was the same time that she began walking.  This feat comes straight from her Daddy.  In fact, I'm beginning to realize that although she looks like me, she is a mini-Zach in personality.

Here, I walked into the dining room and found her stuck in this position.

This picture was taken in June about the same time that she gave up crawling for walking.

She climbed into their bathroom sink pretty much on her own.  In this particular picture, we were filling the bathtub up for a bath and Zach was standing right by Katherine and had his hands on her while she climbed, but she did the work herself.

 A common occurrence if the chair is left out

Katherine loves playing with the little black switch on the dryer that controls the dryer light.  On this day, the switch became a little boring, so she climbed right in.

Katherine and I were sitting on the couch when she decided to climb up the back of it and crawl onto the sofa table.

I was about to make her a grilled cheese sandwich on this day and she wanted to check out what was going on.  She does this often now, especially when she's hungry.

And, she climbed into the sink here completely on her own.

No guiding hand to catch her just in case.

The story-Jackson was in time out for a short time in the hallway near their bathroom and I was in the other room.  I called Jackson out of time out and was about to go over with him what he had done when he started saying, "Katherine is high up."  This is what I found.  I think she's thinking, "Yeah, what's the big deal here?"

The way she gets into the sink, you ask?  There is a stool in the bathroom for Jackson and she steps up on it to climb onto the toilet.  From there she grabs onto the countertop and then puts her knee on the toilet paper holder and climbs over.  Rather scary.  Don't worry, the bathroom door now stays closed, and we have taken other precautions for other places in the house that she likes to try to climb onto when no one is around--like Jackson's bed.

'Round Here

We haven't been up to too much the last few weeks, but before harassing phone calls are made or angry voicemails left from the grandparents demanding pictures, here is a glimpse of what we've been up to . . .

playing with bubble guns

dressing ourselves

(pay special attention to the pants pockets)

playing in Jackson's birthday sandbox

flying through the air while yelling "TIMBER!!"

coloring

 (well, maybe not for Jackson.  He would rather play trains with the markers-yes, it can be done-or like he is doing here, pretending like his hands are firecrackers and he's blowing up a water tower at the train track while holding onto the marker caps. :) )

Katherine would rather eat the markers and crayons more than color with them (you can't see it in this picture, but her lips were blue from the marker), but take a look at how she can hold a crayon!!

 the messiest eater in the house is getting to where she requires a bath after each meal (that is blueberry on her forehead in case you were wondering)

 playing hide-and-seek in the drapes.

Now that you've made it through all of the pictures, that is what we've been spending our days doing the last few weeks.  And I've bought myself a few extra days from receiving threatening phone calls.

1, 2, 3, Jump!

Jackson really enjoys preschool, so he went to the summer program that was offered.  That program ended the last week of July and the regular school year doesn't start until after Labor Day, so we have a month to attempt to keep him entertained daily!  While at home yesterday, he was bouncing off of the walls and obviously missing school and the opportunity it gives him to get rid of some energy, so Leslie and I decided to meet at the jump place this morning and let the kids tire themselves out!

This is Katherine's 3rd time to go since she's been walking.  I wish I had taken my camera with me the first time we were there when she realized she could really enjoy most everything there is to do . . . she had the biggest grin on her little face! 

William and Katherine coming down! 

 The first time we were here following Katherine learning to walk, she would go down this slide head first and fearless--another picture I wish I had!

Watch out!

She loved the kitchen set!   

As we were leaving, Katherine hugged me and leaned in real close and whispered she is going to let Santa know she would love to have one of these!

Mmmm

. . . cookies!

The Best One Yet

We decided this year to have Jackson's party at a jump place, and what a good idea it was!  This is the first year his party has been somewhere other than our house and it was incredibly nice to just show up with only a cake, have fun, and leave!  Every parent commented how their child loved the place, so I think that helped increase the turnout of kids.  We had 12 kids and Jackson had an insane amount of gifts to open from his family and friends.

Jackson's party room all set up!

 Birthday Boy's Chair

 Henry and Jackson getting ready to slide down

 I love their smiles and we saw plenty the entire time

 William's serious face

Enjoying the attention while being sung to!

Getting down to business

His best buds from this past school year-Henry, Patrick, and Matthew

(he always came home talking about Matthew!)

Time for presents!

Poor Emma was the only girl (besides Katherine) at the party.

The hot seat quickly started filling up with little boys!

Once Jackson finished with opening gifts, it was time for a few more turns down the slides!

Happy Birthday, Jackson! 

I think this was by far the most fun he's had at one of his parties!

The following day, he went to Matthew's party at the movie theater.  Matthew took a little long to blow out his candle following the song, and well, Jackson took matters into his own hands.  I think we'll need to have a little talk about who gets to blow the candle out before another party.