Katya loves to help unload the dishwasher. She carefully pulls out dishes one by one and will follow you around with the dish until you take it from her and put it away.

We recently pulled up some carpet and refinished the hardwood floor underneath. While we were working, Esther wanted to help wash the floor. She had a lot of fun and looked really cute.

Esther was imitating the tractors (from "Cars") when Papa came home. She was quite excited to see Papa.

Here's a few scenes -- one from August, one from November, of Katya and I playing together. She has so much fun and giggles so easily.

Katya has been enviously watching her sister for several months. While her sister walks and runs and hops around the house, she's been limited to crawling.

Well, three weeks ago she decided to change that. She's been practicing ever since and today she's making her big debut.

Our little Katya is now a toddler.

Esther has a red lawn chair that folds up and can be worn as a backpack. She really likes her backpack chair. I think she has more fun wearing it than she does sitting in it.

This is what she wanted to do immediately after her first bike ride.

Esther has been enjoying riding her scooter around the neighborhood but she's really wanted to ride her bike.

She finally figured out how to work the pedals. This is her first bike ride by herself.

We've been taking Sunday afternoon bike rides this summer. Sometimes we just ride around the village, other times we set out with a destination. Two Sunday's ago we decided to take the girls to a small, local park. They both had a lot of fun swinging and sliding down the slides.

You can see how mobile Katya's getting, in this video.

We caught this on video two Sunday's ago. Esther hauled out her sister's old car seat and plopped her baby doll it. Then she pulled up her own chair, picked up a book, and read a story to her baby doll.

This is just a short little clip of Katya, playing with Momma's big straw hat. She does so enjoy playing with hats.

Esther finds video cameras absolutely fascinating. Invariably, whenever one is turned on her, she has to check out what's being recorded and what she looks like. Then she decides to start talking to herself. It's not unusual for her to be on video chat, looking at her own reflected image, and talking to herself.

What happens when you record her with the webcam and then play back the recording while making a new recording with another camera?

This.

We've been getting fresh vegetables all summer long, after buying a half share in a CSA farm. (Community Supported Agriculture.) Katya loves crunching down on the fresh veggies. We filmed a few minutes of it, yesterday afternoon, just for ya'll.

Here's a round up of video clips from January. It's snippets of Katya and Esther playing. It's a bit of a trip down memory lane: Katya hadn't yet figured out crawling or rolling over. As you'll see, Esther likes talking to herself, in the camera screen.

Esther had a lot more fun with Christmas this year. She loved the bubble lights, liked playing with the nativity set, and enjoyed frosting Christmas cookies. Here are a few highlights.

This is a few clips from throughout the month of November. Esther and Katya had fun together.

After picking a pumpkin at Treinen Farm, Esther got to carve it. Well, really, Christine carved it while Esther watched it. Still, she had fun examining the pumpkin and playing with her sister.

This is part 4 of our outing to Treinen Farm. It was Esther's first visit to a pumpkin patch. She probably would have had a lot more fun, had she not already been worn out from all of the other fun.

This is part three of our outing to Treinen Farm. Esther enjoyed playing on their playground and in their giant pumpkin carriage.

This is part two of our outing to Treinen Farm. They had a large collection of large tires for children to play in, around, and on top of.

Esther was more interested in moving the sand around. Wonder where she got that from?

Esther got her first chance to play in the leaves. She didn't quite jump in the them, but she did have fun falling in them.

I loved it when Esther finally got old enough to realize that I was leaving for the day and to wave "bye" to me.

Esther had fun watching the newly hatched chicks at Trienen Farm. This would be a longer video, but it was shot under challenging circumstances: the subject desperately wanted to be the director and kept circling behind the camera.

This year was the first time that Esther really got the hang of opening presents and seeing what was inside the packages. She had a blast and insisted on helping Christine and I open our presents. A good time was had by all.

A few nights ago we were watching the Blues Brothers 2000. Towards the end of the movie, Esther started watching too. She really enjoyed watching the cars pile up. Check it out.

As part of our visit to Treinen Farm, Esther got some extended play time with the young goats. She had an absolute blast. This is Esther at her most typical: yelling, running, petting -- above all, intensely curious.

Last weekend, we picked apples at the Eplegaarden.

I think we all had fun.

Esther's growing up and quickly and no where is that more evident than breakfast. She can feed herself now and is pretty sure about what she wants.

So, I taped a typical morning breakfast. If you're not family you may want to skip this one. There's nothing super exciting here. Just a toddler eating her breakfast.

Enjoy!

This morning, at 11:25a, CDT, we welcome Katherine Elizabeth Martin into our family. She was 7lbs 11oz, 18 inches long, and perfectly healthy. We're happy that she's finally here -- although I think Mom is a little happier than Dad!

We're uploading pictures of Katya to our Flickr! site.

This afternoon, I took Esther up to visit her new baby sister. I was a bit worried about how she'd react -- she tends to be more than bit rough with her baby dolls. A newborn is small enough and -- when sleeping -- still enough to be mistaken for a baby doll.

I needn't have worried. Esther seemed to recognize right away who Katya was. She took to her immediately and kept asking me to hold her up so she could see Katya better. She even asked to hold her 3 or 4 times. For now, I think they'll get along great.

I finally let her hold Katya and she had a blast. Watch and see.

This week I past a major milestone -- I can now feed myself an entire container of yogurt. Watch me eat.