Just in time for Halloween... a jack-o-lantern!

With Katen being out of daycare this entire week we've had lots of fun.

She and mommy went shopping for pants one day. (For both of us.) Katen's 3 month size pants are finally too small so we need some 6 monthers so she wasn't wearing high waters anymore. We've been passing them off as fall cropped pants long enough. ;) We also found a cute book at Baby Gap that has a finger puppet built in. It's about a ladybug and the face of the ladybug is the puppet. Katen gets a real kick out of that and she's finally really sitting in my lap long enough and interested enough to read a book or two at a time.

If you look closely you can see the rash.

Another day we ran a few errands, got groceries, and brought home a couple of jack-o-lanterns. We tried taking a few pictures but Katen really hates grass. Hate might not be a strong enough word. She hasn't been exposed to much grass because of her awful outdoor allergies and sitting her in it without socks about put her over the edge.

On Friday, Daddy came home early to relieve Mommy so we all went to a local apple orchard. There Katen carefully picked out a pumpkin and we were even able to snap a picture of her standing all by herself. (My goodness she's growing up so fast! It's nuts!) We also brought home some apple and pumpkin pie.

...and just in time for Halloween, (so she can look like a jack-o-lantern too) Katen is finally getting her first teeth in. The bottom front two are working their way in which is causing the poor kid a lot of grief.

Do you think she has enough toys?

So is her Halloween costume. We tried it on to see if it would fit okay. She was SO.Not.Impressed. Good thing we didn't go with the Lamb costume.

It's Sunday night now our little pickle is peacefully sleeping. Her rash has finally receded and life has to go back to normal tomorrow. We'll get up at the crack of dawn. She'll scream like mad and wiggle in every direction while I do my best to change her diaper and dress her. (It's like nailing jell-o to the wall.) Then she'll tell me "na na" (no, no?) and crawl off as fast as she can to go find Daddy. I'll get showered and dressed while she takes a bottle and watches sports center with Dad. Then we'll head off to daycare and work. I'll realize half way to work that I'm still listening to baby songs... and love every minute of it.

Typical Katen. Running around with one sock on and one sock off. I'll find the match laying somewhere all soggy. I hope it tasted good.

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Nine Month checkup and Roseola

Here are our big girl's stats at nine months:

Height: 27 inches - 50th percentile
Weight: 19lbs - 50th percentile

They also took blood to check her hemoglobin levels. This tells us how much iron is in her blood. Sometimes children become anemic if they don't have enough iron in their diet. Normal levels for children are 11 - 16 g/dl and Katen's level waws 14 which our pediatrician said is the highest she's seen is quite a while. (Yay!) It really helps that Katen loves her fruits and veggies. She's also doing pretty well with chicken and turkey now. (She used to be a sensitive to chicken.)

Those first two bottom teeth are working their way in and Katen is chewing and drooling on everything. She'll even try to teeth on the stairs. yuck. She's enjoying a little star that vibrates when she chews on it, and also a little raspberry shaped soother that looks like a binky but has bumps to soothe those gums.

Other milestones we discussed are that she's crawling, cruizing, standing with one hand and sometimes no hands, saying a few words (ma, da, cat, baba = bye bye) and waving. She's a pro at throwing her ball, and her latest development is so cute. If you ask her what the kitty says, she'll make these tiny, high pitched little sounds to mimic the cat. It's not "meow" but its more like "eek eek eek." The pediatrician says that kids often times have their own words for things like that and eek eek eek to her means meow. Either way, it's really cute.

During our appointment, I also had our pediatrician check a rash that was taking over Katen's body. On Saturday and Sunday Katen had a pretty high fever. She was hovering in the 102 - 103 degree range even while taking Tylenol every four hours. Late Saturday night I ran out to get some Infant Motrin and that started helping on Sunday night. Katen was still grumpy, having several loose poops, and not sleeping very well though. On Tuesday, I noticed some spots showing up on Katens belly and neck behind her ears. By the time I undressed her for her pediatrician appointment a few hours later, she was covered in red dots. Our pediatrician said right away that it was clearly Roseola.

Katen has to stay out of daycare until the rash is gone. Some sources say it's very contagious and others say its not. Nonetheless, mommy is home with Katen until she's spot free. I'm sure we'll find some fun stuff to do. :)

Here's another time where I sure wish Katen were still nursing. She seems to pick up every little virus despite our best efforts to keep her germ free. (Or as close as it's logical to be given she's a mobile infant who is teething.) She does get a very balanced diet though so we're doing our best!

I also brought up that Katen doesn't like to eat very many oz from her bottles at daycare and the pediatrician said that if she's a good eater, we can move to three meals per day and two snacks. She'd like to see Katen get at least 12 oz of formula though whether that's in a bottle or in a sippy cup. That shouldn't be a problem. I'm planning to try a new eggless recipe for breakfast bars very soon. That will be a handy little breakfast for her during the week. We'll see how that goes.





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First Day of Fall

... and its warm and humid today. :)

We had a lot of fun this past weekend. Daddy was out of town with a friend so it was just Pickle and Mommy. I relaxed my standards a little bit (okay a lot!!) and we ordered out for dinner Friday night. We had chicken fingers! Of course she liked it and also the cheese stick she shared with me. "Nyom, nyom, nyon" is the new sound she makes when she eats. So cute!

After dinner, we went to the park. Here are a few pictures...

Lets do it AGAIN!

Peek!

After the park it was time for a bath and then bedtime. Katen's favorit book right now is a book about Thumper the rabbit and how he hops though the woods chasing a butterfly. Each page has something texturized to touch. I used to have to point out where the patch was but now she finds it on her own. She's fascinated with the fur and the spongy grass. She also likes her 10 Ladybugs book. She likes rubbing the smooth ladybugs on the page. It's nice that she's finally at the age where she'll sit for a short book or two.

She's been sleeping better at night since about 8 mos so she was only up once and slept until 7:30am. Based on her cues we moved bedtime from 7pm to 8pm and it's really working well. She's eliminated her evening nap and now takes a snooze around 10am and 2 or 3pm. Then she's up until bedtime. Miss Pickle is way to adventurous to sleep much during the day so the night time sleep is especially important.

On Saturday Katen and I ran errands. She helped me shop for groceries and we picked up a massive baby gate to block the kitchen entry from the living room. Right now the living room and nursery are babyproofed so that's where the gates will hopefully keep her. If you've been to our house, you know that this area includes the stairs. Right now I'm not blocking them. She's great at climbing up and we're working on climbing back down. She does great climbing down if she's only up a few steps, but she has to think really hard and sometimes panics if she's up much higher. She's afraid to put her foot back down to the next step sometimes. I've let her climb and fall (into my arms) just so that she learns that stairs can be dangerous. I think that's gone a long way toward teaching her to be cautious. As a result I don't think the stairs are going to be a problem. She's fairly respectful of her current capabilities for the time being.

After running errands and a nap, Katen and I went outside to take some pictures. I don't know how many beautiful fall days there will be and I noticed there were some leaves on the ground that Katen might like. We don't go outside much because of her allergies, so leaves are totally new to her.

Here are some of the pictures I took...

And OOPS! She fell over and giggled!

Daddy came home after Katen was in bed Saturday night. On Sunday we cleaned and Katen laughed huge belly laughs and she and I mopped together. Every time I pushed the mop forward she'd laugh like it was the funniest thing in the world. Let me tell you, that makes mopping way more fun for both of us! She also "helped" me install the baby gate. I think it took twice as long as it should have with her "help" but hopefully she'll grow up knowing her way around a tool box. :)

...and now it's Monday again. Back to work and back to daycare. I'm going to pick her up early though because I miss her already. shhhhh...

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We have lift-off Houston!

Yep, she's crawling. The real way. Not combat crawling. In fact she's pretty fast and with it comes a fascination for ANYTHING and EVERYTHING she's not supposed to be in. Ha! I think most parents would yearn for the days when their baby would stay in one place but I'm happy to hit this milestone. Katen lives to do things herself and she's happier when she can get around and play with whatever she sees at the moment. She's quite the explorer, but happy baby = happy mommy!

She's also found that it's really fun to ride on mom and dad's shoulders. She just sits up there and giggles the whole time. We walked with her to the grocery store yesterday and she got a little cranky. She doesn't like being confined to a stroller, so I carried her home on my shoulders. Well fate would have it that she also had a full belly and puked in my hair, down the side of my face, on my shirt, and on my shorts. Just imagine baby spit dripping from your chin as you walk in 85 degree heat. Nice! Now I know better. :)

Katen is also doing really well with bigger chunks of food. A friend of ours generously gave us some of her fresh Colorado peaches, so I pureed most of them into babyfood, but saved one for myself. Yesterday morning I had it for breakfast and shared pieces with Katen. She was in heaven. Actually, so was I. They were really awesome peaches. (Thanks Erin!) It was cute to see the juice dripping off her chin as she made like a baby bird asking for more.

After that I mixed some blueberries into her mangoes for lunch, and today I microwaved 1/4 of an apple chopped into tiny bits to make it soft and she enjoyed that too. She's done well with cooked peas too but the skins seem to be a little harder to gum up. She's really an adventurous eater and takes a real interest in whatever mommy or daddy is eating. If you want to eat while she's present, you'd better have a snack handy for her too.

We're actually getting some better sleep these days too. Generally when a child learns a new skill they don't sleep well for a while but just this once it hasn't proved true. We've finally cut out that annoying 11:30/12:00 feeding and for the most part she's just up once to eat and then she goes back down fairly well. I've been letting her fuss but standing right by her with my hand on her back so she knows I've not left her. That's my compromise instead of letting her cry and leaving the room which seems to be a more popular way of sleep training. I've seen some pretty good progress as there have been times where she'll wake and put herself back to sleep. We're getting there!

It will be interesting to see how many crashes occur at our house going forward. I can tell Katen is anxious to walk because she tries to pull up to standing on anything she can get a hold of. My goal for this weekend is to baby proof everything. Just by letting her "play" this morning, I have a whole list of things we need to be aware of. She's a very curious girl!

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A rolling stone gathers no moss

Last week, the trick of the moment was to blow raspberries. THIS week Katen figured out that she can get around by a combination of rolling, scooting, and combat crawling. Usually the target is the cat who she is fascinated with. Just wait until she crawls. The cat is in for a treat. Ha! So far, Katen can push up on her arms, and she can get her knees under her but not both at the same time. If she does manage both at the same time, she doesn't go anywhere... yet. Real crawling is just around the corner though. I can feel it!







She's also rediscovered her voice and has been "singing" to us. Especially when she's tired she'll babble on and on. I heard her having a conversation with the monkeys on her Jumparoo this morning as I got ready for work. It sounded pretty intense!









We're working on the next level of motor skills too. I gave Katen a sippy cup during our play time this morning just to see what she would do with it. Much to my surprise, after showing her how to get it in her mouth, she caught the hang of it. She's still a little akward using both hands together and still bonks herself on the head with it if she gets one hand free, but she gets the concept and can get the nipple part to her mouth. She's also good at passing it from hand to hand but really needs both to ease it into her mouth. Such a smart cookie! (Of course I'm not biased...)