Christmas 2008, Part 1

Happy New Year!

I'm hopelessly behind on this blog, so I'm going to throw up a few photos and a video of Katie enjoying some of her Christmas gifts, and will tell you our family's Christmas tale a little later with more photos.

Katie was sick on Christmas, so we spent Christmas Eve at home. Poor baby -- you can tell she doesn't look well in these photos. On Christmas Eve, she opened up some Sesame Street DVDs and a Melissa & Doug puzzle:


Since the rest of my family had been sick that week as well, we were thankfully able to get together with them on Christmas Day without worrying about spreading germs. Grandma and Grandpa (my parents) gave Katie several gifts, including an Elmo Live! doll and an interactive Elmo book:

My parents gave me a pretty pearl necklace/earring set, but Katie quickly claimed them for herself:

And Uncle Mike (my brother) gave Katie a giant car, which she loves riding around our house these days:On Christmas Day, Katie also got to open up another gift from Mommy and Daddy -- a barking, walking dog that we picked up for her at the beach. Despite the wierd expression, she loves her "puppy"!

Several days later, when we were pretty sure the flu was a thing of the past, we were finally able to celebrate Christmas with John's family. Here Katie's Aunt Laura helps her ride the beautiful neighing rocking horse that Uncle Jamie and Aunt Amanda gave her.

John's parents, Grammy and JayPa, spoiled a happy Katie with a boatload of gifts. That's what grandparents are for, right? Here Katie sits atop a packaged alphabetical/numerical puzzle mat while holding her new baby doll. The box with her new playhouse is at her feet.


Katie also received a LeapFrog magnetic farm from Aunt Laura (John's sister). The highlight of the farm should be that Katie gets to match animal heads and tails, but she's been having way too much fun dancing to the songs the farm makes:

Thanks to everyone who helped turn my sick daughter's Christmas week into a week of fun and toys!

Katie Performs for the Camera

These three videos astound me. I can't believe how quickly Katie learns things, especially if they're put to music!

Katie has learned the motions to "If You're Happy and You Know It", demonstrated on the beach on November 9:

From her obsessive watching of "Sesame Street" videos, Katie has learned many of the lyrics to the Madeline Kahn/Grover echo song "Sing After Me" (if you're not familiar with that song, you can watch the original version here).

And this weekend we introduced Katie to "The Muppets Take Manhattan", which was my brother Stephen's favorite movie as a preschooler. One of my favorite scenes in the movie has Miss Piggy fantasizing about what it would have been like to have been babies together with the other muppets (seen in this clip starting at the 2:00 point) (I believe this scene inspired my favorite childhood cartoon, "Muppet Babies"). Katie also loves this scene, and had a dance party on the couch this weekend to express her enjoyment:

Dancin' for Daddy's Day

The day after Katie's birthday BBQ was Fathers Day, and we headed up to visit John's parents and enjoy a delicious Fathers Day brunch with them. Here's a fun photo of Katie with her daddy and her grandpa "Jay-Pa".

After brunch, we headed back to Jay-Pa and Grammy's house for a bit, and were thoroughly entertained by Katie dancing for us. Both of these videos simply crack me up.

Then we went home, walked the dog, and left again to celebrate Fathers Day with my family. Finally, we were home again and Katie was able to give her daddy her own Fathers Day present (2 old John Cusack movies). She seemed much more interested in opening the card though.

Katie Does the Electric Slide

At Russ's wedding reception this weekend, Katie and I enjoyed dancing -- an activity I usually avoid as much as possible. However, it's much more fun with a baby! My first post on this blog was of us doing the Macarena. Below we're doing the Electric Slide.

One of my biggest regrets from my own wedding is that I was taking photos during the Electric Slide and thus missed being able to do it in my wedding dress. (Actually, maybe I can surprise John on our 5 year anniversary in March by donning the wedding dress and doing the Electric Slide around the house!)

The Great Beginning

Greetings from Kathryn Lucia (Katie Lu) and her parents (The Other Two)! We just got back from a fun weekend in Sarasota, Florida where John participated in the wedding of one of his best friends from growing up. I'd been toying with the idea of setting up a blog to chronicle our adventures, and talking with the groom's sister Sarah (http://grshortstop.blogspot.com/) and also Mary (http://notbefore7.blogspot.com/), the wife of one of the groomsmen, has me super-inspired right now. I hope you enjoy our blog! Bookmark it and check back often -- I plan to post very regularly.

To tantalize your taste buds to come back, here's one of our videos from the wedding reception Saturday night: Katie and I doing the Macarena! There are tons of photos and videos to come, so do make sure you come back!