Corn dogs

So, I just had to share a moment that occurred this afternoon during lunch with Kate. I fixed her a corn dog for the first time, and she was very interested in this strange looking food on a stick. As she watched me prepare it, I kept repeating the name "corn dog," saying that it was like a hot dog, but with bread wrapped around it. We then sat down and I cut it into bite-size pieces and put some on her tray. She picked it up, examined it, and clearly pronounced, "Dog food."

Our Little Halloween Monkey

This was Kate's second Halloween, and she was of course way more interested in the goings on than last year. She loved her "monkey suit" and wore it a good part of the afternoon in anticipation of the evening's festivities. We first went to Uncle Casey's house to give him the honor of being her first "trick or treat." That's where we snapped this family pic:

We then returned to our own neighborhood, and once she saw other kids it didn't take her long to get the hang of this trick or treat business.

We just visited a few houses on our street, then returned back to our house to sit outside and hand out candy. Kate really loved sitting and sorting candy from her bag to the big bowl, back and forth. When kids came up and we showed Kate how to drop candy into their bags, she got really into it and didn't want to stop. She kept giving them more and more, until we finally had to cut her off before she emptied our supplies.

Inside, Kate continued the candy sorting. She loved checking out all the wrappers.

Of course, being that she's only 17 months old, the plan was for mom and dad (ok, mostly mom) to get 99.9% of the spoils and for Kate to get 0.1%. But, my scheme was ruined by the continued stream of trick or treaters at our door. We wound up with only a few pieces of candy leftover. :-( Considering Kate is sick with what we think is croup, she did remarkably well this evening, and I think the distraction was a good one for both her and us.

PS: This past weekend we had a visit from my wacky brother in his Halloween costume.

Kate was a little wary of Uncle Chicken at first, but then got up the nerve to offer him some tea.

We all had fun trying on the chicken head, and Casey is right...nearly everything you do in a chicken suit is funny.

NYC, Hock-style

Two years ago, the Conlys and we Benefields had the opportunity to visit our dear friends, Joel and Stacy Hock, who had recently moved to New York City. It was a wonderful trip--so wonderful in fact that we've been chompin' at the bit to go again ever since! When the Hocks graciously invited us to come a couple of weeks ago, we jumped at the opportunity for a "baby-free" vacation and left Kate and Adelaide to be looked after (and spoiled no doubt) by their respective grandparents.

We had a blast! Joel and Stacy are phenomenal hosts and really know how to show their guests a great time. Delicious food, great conversations, cool sightseeing and entertainment... the list goes on.

The girls in Times Square:



The fellas.

Josh and I at the United Nations. (By the way, the tour is kinda a rip off...not completely unlike the organization itself.)

The whole gang eating at a tiny little no-name burger joint hidden away inside a really fancy hotel. Never know what you'll find in this city.

Autumn in Central Park. It was a perfect time of year to visit.

We miss the Hocks and really appreciate that we can have such a great time hanging out with them despite the fact that we don't get to see them very often. We look forward to their return to Austin some day!

Visiting California & Arizona Relatives

Last week we flew to California to visit Josh's mom. She lives in Hesperia (in the mountainous High Desert of Southern California). This was her first time to meet Kate, and she was thrilled to say the least. Kate and her Oma (German for "grandma") had a blast getting to know each other!


Oma's house has so many fun toys and new adventures.


Oma doted on Kate and took spoiling to a new level while we were there. :-) She fed us delicious German food and stuffed us with chocolates and other yummy desserts.


On Wednesday morning we left for the four hour drive to visit Josh's sister and her family in Kingman, AZ. Josh, Kate and I made the long drive in a rent car without tented windows through the Mohave desert. Beautiful mountains and desert landscape, but hot! In Kingman, Kate met her Aunt Natia & Uncle Johnny, as well as her three cousins Christian (6), Aubrianna (4), and Jocelyn (2). The kids were SO excited to meet Kate. Kate was pretty amazed by these "big kids" and their whirlwind of activity, but by the second day she was completely keeping up with them.

On Thursday we took a trip to their local museum (Kingman is an old train depot/mining town and Route 66 runs right through it), and ate burgers at a 50s diner. We also visited a beautiful state park in some nearby mountains, where the temperature was 20 degrees cooler and the scenery was fantastic.

We hiked up the mountain as far as we could with kids in tow. Uncle Johnny carried Kate in a backpack carrier, and she enjoyed the ride.

We returned home for cake to celebrate Josh's 31st birthday. (Here Josh is wearing the special birthday hat that our nephew Christian made for him.)

We left early Friday morning to return to Hesperia to spend one last day with his mom before our flight left on Saturday morning. It was a quick trip but we enjoyed our stay and especially enjoyed introducing Kate to her California and Arizona relatives. We hope to return soon!

Fun Times

My friend Sunee gave me the idea of yogurt-based finger paints (just plain yogurt mixed with food-coloring). Kate had a great time trying this out. ("What?! You mean I can make a mess with this stuff? Sweet!") Although, I have to admit Kate's attention span is somewhat limited. It took me way longer to set this up than the time she spent actually painting. But hey, we have fridge art to show off now.

Kate's newest toy is a baby doll stroller that I got from Once Upon a Child (resale shop near Anderson Mill & 183) for $3.50. She LOVES to push it around the house and even stops every so often to give her baby a drink from her sippy cup.

Last weekend, my parents visited to celebrate my Mom's birthday. As always, Kate loves playing with her Grandma and Grandpa. On Sunday afternoon we took a ride on the Cedar Rock Railroad. It was a nice to be outside and enjoy the great weather we're having.

Grandma and Grandpa enjoyed the train ride too.

Having fun with Adelaide

My friend Sunee posted some pictures of her daughter Adelaide and Kate from a playdate last week. Check them out here.

New Pics

Here are a few recent pics of our now 16 month old -- growin' like a weed.

Kate was pretty excited to get her very first baby doll (here she has it in a bjorn-like carrier). It's fun to see her starting to "pretend" play. She takes her baby for walks in the stroller, feeds it, and tucks it in for night-night.

Below Kate's enjoying a hearty meal of chili mac and peas. If there's one thing our kid is good at, it's eating. She's got a VERY healthy appetite and isn't very picky, which I'm thankful for, but she's pretty much terrible at chewing. I think she loves food so much she just wants to swallow it and move on to the next bite. Makes for some interesting diapers.

And here Kate is doing the macarena. Seriously, I don't know what she was up to here but it made me laugh and I snapped a pic.