A Few of Our Favorite Things

I feel guilty that I haven't posted in almost 3 weeks, mostly because there is so much going on in Kate's little life that I need to be capturing. But it's primarily because there's so much going on that makes it hard to grab the camera every time there's something new or cute or funny. Kate is a pro-crawler at this point and she's also a pro at pulling up. She's starting to cruise (walking while holding on to the couch or something) a little. So you can imagine that we are staying busy trying to keep our eye on her so that she doesn't fall too much...a few falls are inevitable at this point.

One of Kate's favorite things since she was born has been music. When she was tiny it seemed to soothe her. As she has gotten older we can tell she just enjoys the music and wants to dance...and I'm sure she'll sing at the top of her lungs too once she's able to. She has been starting to kind of move to the music for a while now but it gets funnier and funnier as she's getting more mobile and independent. She will shake her booty sitting or standing if she hears a good tune. Here are a couple of clips of her dancing to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse the "Hot Dog Dance" and then the Sesame Street intro song.

By far Kate's favorite at home activity is playing with and pulling all of her books off of the bookshelf in her room. This is a go-to activity for Momma and Daddy if she's ever upset because it will instantly distract and entertain.

Kate's blanket at this point has become something that we absolutely cannot live without. If she sees it, she has to have it and instantly buries her head in it. It is a necessity at nap time and bedtime. Of course she has several blankets that are all wonderful but this one is THE blanket. It's so soft and cuddly and Kate LOVES it.

Bath time continues to be a favorite time of the day for all, Momma and Daddy included. This bath time in particular was especially fun since Kate's friend Adi Levy was over and the girls got to take a bath together.

And I can't leave out a couple of Momma and Daddy's favorites right now. I just love Kate's little snaggletooth grin as her teeth are starting to grow in. We are up to 3 (and I think it will be 4 any day now) and you can see the first bottom one really well now and I think it is so cute.

And the best for last...Kate's good ole belly laugh. We will do almost anything to get this out of her.

8 Months Old

Time is absolutely flying by! I can't believe another month has gone by and we now have an active, busy little 8 month old. This morning Kate weighed in at just over 22 lbs and things are about to get a little more exciting (and crazy) for Momma and Daddy! Kate has crawling down pat! Just this week she has really gotten the hang of crawling on all fours. She's not too speedy yet (which is a good thing for those of us chasing her) but we know it is just a matter of time before she is officially off.

Kate is also pulling up more and more every day. She's been pulling herself up in her bed for a couple of weeks. Now, if she's awake in her bed, then she's up looking over the edge, usually dangling a paci or gazing at the pacis that she's already dropped over the edge onto the floor (there are at least 3 pacis in her bed at all times now as a result of this game). She is also starting to pull herself up on anything that is the right height. Unfortunately (or maybe luckily) we don't have too many things in our house right now that are just the right height for pulling up, but she's trying out everything just to make sure. Her changing table has a shelf that is perfect for it...

Thankfully, we still have a great eater! Kate loves her baby food but we have also started to let her taste some of our food. She has liked a lot of things she's tasted--biscuits, waffles (no syrup yet), a regular baked sweet potato--so we offered her some rice and gravy for the first time last weekend. For those of you who may not be from South Louisiana, or may not know what rice and gravy is, it is the classic cajun dinner dish that Nick grew up eating and we eat it on a very regular basis as well. Basically, it is any meat (chicken, pork, beef or if you're feeling gamey...deer, rabbit, squirrel...) seasoned, browned well and then smothered with chopped onions and bell peppers and cooked for a couple of hours until it has made its own gravy. It is nothing like what true Southerners think of when they think of gravy. Anyways, Nick has been dying to get Kate on some rice and gravy so since she had been doing so well with her eating we decided to let her have some (without the meat). We pulsed it with our hand blender a little to break up the rice a little more and then let Pop Pop do the honors since he was staying with us. Here's the end product and Pop Pop going in with the first bite...

Here's Kate after the first bite...

Needless to say she was not impressed. Her face turned red, her eyes watered a bit and she cried so we gave up after a couple of bites. Maybe we have a little Southern girl that is going to need some time to get in touch with her Cajun side...and her Cajun tastebuds.

Here's a few other pictures taken this morning on her 8 month birthday.

We are ready for it to stop being so rainy so we can play outside...

First Tooth!!

Well Kate really does have teeth under those gums! Nick was starting to have me worried that she was going to be missing teeth...not really but we had been thinking that she was teething for months now with no payoff for the pain. I felt her first little nub Monday and got Nick to help me take some pictures yesterday morning to record this great event.

If you look real close you can see her little nub.

She's so proud of herself.

She's been testing out her new tooth on books...

and her blanket and Daddy's tie...pretty much anything she can get her hands on.

Beach Baby

We just got back from our first family vacation Saturday and we had a wonderful time in Ft. Morgan, AL with the Johnson clan. All of my family was there and Kate had a blast playing with all 8 of the kids the whole week. We were all worried about the oil of course as we made our way to the beach but were pleasantly surprised with how things turned out. We did see oil but there was no smell and it wasn't just rolling in as we may have feared. There were clear spots and Kate's cousins were able to play in the surf a little here and there where we were able to find a clean patch of beach with no oil or tarballs. We spent a lot more time at the pool than we usually do but it was great to splash around there too.

I think Kate is ready to move to the beach. She was absolutely perfect all week! She was very sweet playing with her cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles. As Nick would say, "She slept like a champ!". We put her pack and play in the closet in our room and contemplated giving her the same set up when we got back home because she slept more and better than she ever has in her short little life. Kate had her first dip in a big pool and she loved it! She was very relaxed and enjoyed floating and splashing around. It was also Kate's first experience with sand and she was a big fan of that too! Overall, we couldn't have asked for a better week spent with great family! Of course we snapped plenty of pictures to share. Here are some of the favorites from the week...

We took the ferry from Dauphin Island to Ft Morgan. Here's Kate with Daddy on the ferry.

And one hanging out the window with Momma on the ferry.

Kate and all her cousins our first morning waking up at the beach. They were all so sweet playing with Kate all week!

Kate ready for her first swim in a big pool.

Floating with Daddy.

Kate and her "match", Harper. All of the kids on this side of the family have their own cousin "match" that is within a year of their age. We're so glad April and Alan had their 4th so that Kate could have a "match" too.

Kate's first time putting her toes in the sand and surf with Nonna.

Kate's first chance to really get into the sand. She loved it!

Daddy very sweetly filled a baby pool with clean water from the beach house for Kate and she would have rather been back in the sand.

Another trip to the pool.

The family at the pool.

Of course we had family photo night at the beach and, thanks to Nonna's help snapping the pics and the aunts help making her smile we got some great pictures!

She was so proud of herself standing at this little fence but she spent most of the time trying to gnaw on the wood. These were probably the only 2 shots where her mouth wasn't wide open going in for a big bite of fence.

7 Months Old!!

Our lady keeps growing and we are having more fun with her than ever! Our unofficial home weigh in results from today were just over 21 1/2 lbs. Kate is busy, busy, busy these days!! She's still doing the army crawl but she has now perfected it. Occasionally she will get up on all fours and rock a little bit but then gets back onto her belly to get where she wants to go. She loves to chase her toys all over the living room. Kate crawls to something that is just out of reach and once she gets there she will push it further out of reach, crawl to it and push it further...

As you would expect with our healthy sized girl, Kate loves to eat and is now eating her regular 3 solid food meals a day. Quite unexpectedly she LOVES her veggies and definitely prefers green beans and peas to any fruits or even sweet potatoes. Kate must get her taste buds from her Daddy. She's also "chewing" some small snacks that we let her self feed even though she still has no signs of any teeth.

It is hard for us to believe that we are now closer to her first birthday than we are to her birth. Time is flying by but I guess that's because we are having so much fun. Here are some recent pictures for you to enjoy.

These were taken this morning of the happy 7 month old

Saturday morning Nick and I awoke to the sound of Kate trying to dismantle her monitor camera in her crib, which we thought was strange since she can't quite reach it when laying down in her crib. So we both went in to get her up and she was sitting straight up in her bed both hands trying to rip down the monitor. The flash was a little much so early in the morning so we couldn't squeeze out any smiles for this milestone.

A new found interest...sticking her tongue out as often as she can.

Swimming, Crawling, Talking & Smiling....

...well almost. Kate is hanging out in her baby pool, doing a sort of scoot/army crawl, jabbering and spitting like crazy and smiling...but of course she's been doing that for a while...she showed her gummiest (still no pearly whites) smiles for her 6 month portraits. We got her a baby pool a couple of weeks ago and due to schedules and weather she hasn't spent a whole lot of time splashing around in her pool yet but she did get to take a quick dip about a week ago. Here are some pics from her first swim...

Thursday May 13th, which coincidentally was Nick and I's 4th wedding anniversary, Kate decided that she would figure out how to go places. She's not completely crawling, as she hasn't figured out how much better off she'd be if she'd get up on all fours, but she's definitely able to get where she wants to go.

Kate's recent conversations have consisted more of spitting than anything else. Here's a couple of different takes of her jabbering. I love how when I ask her to say "Mama" or "Dada" she thinks about trying it out for about 1 second and then goes to the good ole standby...spitting as much as she can.

Yesterday we took Kate to have some 6 month portraits taken by our good friend Nicole Colvin. Kate was pretty cooperative for the most part and Nicole was fabulous!! She's already given us a sneak peak at a few of the pictures she snapped yesterday on her blog. Go to http://nicolvin.blogspot.com/2010/05/kates-portraits.html

Happy Half Birthday!!

Kate was 6 months old on Sunday May 2. We cannot believe our little girl is already half way to her first birthday! We went to her 6 month check up today and she is 19 lbs, 13 oz and 29 inches long, which continues to be off the growth charts. Kate is getting so big and learning so quickly. She has now mastered sitting and prefers to be sitting up unless she needs to get somewhere and then she'll lay down so that she can roll to her destination. We are also starting to see the early signs of making her way towards crawling. We know it won't be long before she figures that out too!! Kate still does not have any teeth but continues to "work" on them. She constantly has anything and everything in her mouth and on her gums. Here are some recent pics of our growing girl...

She's got a future so bright she's gotta wear shades

Couldn't resist posting one with her tongue sticking out. Looks like her Daddy.

Kate and Momma also recently made another trip to Florence to stay with Nonna and Papa. As always we had a fantastic time visiting with family! Kate and I flew solo this time and had a great trip there and a bumpy one back. Kate was just worn out from so much fun with her cousins, aunts and grandparents so her patience for all of the plane and airport hoopla was pretty short. But we survived and were so glad that we got to spend some quality time with the Alabama relatives!

Nonna gave Kate a carrot to chew on to try to help her sore gums.

Kate was so happy to see her Granny

The boys continue to be so taken with Kate. Here's Daniel and Connor holding Kate and Nonna was helping to entertain.