Where's the ball?

I had to share this quick story before I forget. At least daily Katen does something that completely cracks me up and/or surprises me. Here's one example...

Katen was playing quietly with her toys. I was sitting nearby watching. She comes up to me and shows me a small ball.

She says, "Mine ball!"

I said, "yep, that's your ball."

Then she takes the ball, shoves it down my shirt really quickly, and then gives me this innocent look, looks all around with her hands up in question, and says, "Ball... are you?  (Ball, Where are you?)

I often make a game out of finding things by saying [whatever we're trying to find] ...where are you? until we find it. Now I guess she's caught on to the fact that sometimes I'm the one who hid it and wanted to play too. Ha!

When I pulled the ball out she acted all excited and said, "There you!!"  (she always forgets the "are" on the end)

Man I love this kid.  :)

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It's September... Already!

It's been a while since I updated. This month has been SO busy!!! We've decided to sell our little house and move into something that actually has enough room for two little girls and their parents. Of course we waited until I am in my third trimester of pregnancy to do this, but as of today, the house is clean, fixed, and the sign is in the yard. Let's hope for a quick sale! (11 weeks or less until baby arrives.)

Katen's language skills have really picked up lately. She's using sentences like, "Oh WOW you DID it!" and praises us enthusiastically for lots of things. Especially funny is when she praises us for using the potty. Ha!

Last night we were stopped at a stop light and from the back seat we hear, "Go Baby! Go Go!"

There are times where she makes up her own words for things though. Oops is usually pronounced "Bups!" and the word grandma is pronounced "Mah-moe."

Katen continues to sleep well in her new big girl bed. She's fallen out a few times but it doesn't really bother her. She just gets back in and falls back asleep. In the morning I hear her door creak and then shuffle, shuffle, shuffle.... as she walks into our room. She usually rounds my side of the bed and either climbs in with her lovies for a few minutes or indicates right away that she's ready for breakfast. Here favorite breakfast is "yogurt with the beebee on it." (most of us know it as Yo Baby yogurt. All of the cartons have a picture of a baby on them and she likes to point that out... every day.)

She's also graduated to a booster chair. One day she decided that she's just WAY too cool to sit in a high chair and freaked out about it. Since then she's been sitting at the table like a champ. Sometimes being such a big girl is tiring though. whew!

She's also been an excellent helper around the house. She's an expert duster and sweeper. She's been especially helpful as we fix up and clean the house.

Katen says, "Safety First!"

Here are a few more pictures...

                              It cracks me up that Elmo is drinking a juice box.

                              Nice of Katen to share. Notice the ladle over her shoulder?

                                   Shopping can be pretty exhausting!

Rocking the ponytail.  :)

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Oops again!

So after we got her first shiner out of the way, Daddy and Katen were playing in the living room and she came into where I was folding clothes crying. I thought she was upset because she was teething. It was definitely an "I'm hurting" cry, so I gave her a few teething tabs and rocked with her a little bit. She calmed down right away but the second I put her down she started crying again. I noticed she was not moving an arm and Daddy told me that she might have hurt it. They were playing and just like we always do she was swinging by her arms at one point. This time however her elbow popped out of joint.

We ended up taking her to the Emergency room because she seemed to be in a lot of pain. I could only imagine what they were going to say with a bum arm and a black eye on top of that. The Dr just laughed and said that was typical of a toddler and that we didn't have the characteristics of a child beater. Whew! He was able to pop her elbow back in a matter of seconds and she was able to move it again immediately. However, now until she's 5 years old, we cannot let her hang by her arms at all because she's predisposed to the same thing happening again. It's actually very common and is called Nursemaid's elbow. Go figure that our little dare devil would have this. She's constantly hanging on things.

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oops!

Little pickle got her first shiner a couple of weeks ago. I guess it was inevitable since she's such a mover and a shaker. She literally runs from the time she wakes up until I put her in bed at night. No need for a gym membership at our house. Whew! Anyway, Katen was getting down from the couch and thought her feet were on the ground but they weren't and she lunged forward hitting the side of her head on the coffee table. The sound was absolutely awful and as tough as she usually is, she immediately started screaming so we knew it hurt pretty badly. Daddy ran to get an ice pack while I tried to console her. Looking back I have to laugh a little because I told Mike to grab an ice pack out of the freezer door. He comes back in a flash ...with a bag of frozen chopped onions.

Huh? I looked at him and said, "Ice pack. We need an ice pack. These are onions" to which he replied, "I know but this was faster and I'm getting the ice pack now." Ha! Gotta love Dads under pressure. :) Keeping an ice pack on an active toddler is nearly impossible though. We sure tried but didn't have much success.

In the end, Katen is okay but I think the coffee table is still pretty shook up about it.

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Giggles and Fangs

Do you remember how long we waited for those first two teeth to arrive? It was 10 mos before the pickle got her first teeth. Now at 12 mos two more are coming in. Not the typical top front though. No, check this out...



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One Year Well-Baby Visit

Katen visited her pediatrician for her One Year Well-Baby Visit today.

She got her finger pricked to check lead levels and received her Hep A shot. We'll go back next month to get her MMR shot. I chose to delay the Hep B and Varicella shots for now. The reason I asked to go back later for the MMR shot is so that it's the only shot given at that time.

The MMR is a combo shot of three vaccines and I feel like that's plenty for her little immune system to fight off on it's own. Based on research I'm feeling okay about doing the MMR combo though, despite concerns raised about links to autism. A very solid study was conducted in September of 2007 by several reputable medical institutions showing no link between the MMR shot and Autism. Regardless, it's still a lot of vaccine at one time and I think Katen's glad that she didn't get 4 shots in one day. I can't imagine feeling the pain of one shot in each leg and then seeing that they're going to do it all over again once more. I know I personally wouldn't be too happy about that. We'll go back, thank you.

Here are the stats for 12 mos:

• Height: 29 inches (2', 5")
• Weight: 21lbs
• Both in the 50th percentile
• Her soft spot is nearly closed and head circumference is in the 75th percentile.
• We've finally been referred to the allergist to nail down the source of Katen's allergies
• Katen has successfully weaned off of the bottle and uses only sippy cups for drinks
• Next we'll work toward using a regular cup and will begin potty training if interest is shown
• Based on our milestone check, Katen is performing at the 18 month level.
  

She's able to do the following--

13 months milestones:
Bends over and picks up an object
Crouches
Enjoys gazing at reflection
Holds out arm/leg to help dress
Combines words and signs to to indicate needs
Rolls a ball

14 months

Eats with fingers

Empties containers
Imitates others
Walks well
Initiates games
Responds to instructionsUses utensils
Matches lids with containers
Pushes and pulls toys while walking

15 months
Walks backward and Runs
Adopts "no" as a favorite word

16 months

Turns the pages of a book
Has temper tantrums if frustrated
Is attached to a soft toy or other object
Enjoys climbing
Can stack three or more blocks
Is able to take off at least one piece of clothing
Becomes a pickier eater
Takes one nap per day

17 months
Uses six or more words regularly
Dances to music
Kicks ball

18 months
“Reads” books on his own
Strings two words together

--The things she doesn't do yet within those milestone guidelines are in the advanced category and not required to have met the month's milestone:
Points to one body part when asked (we're close – she can tell you what certain animals say though)
Scribbles with a crayon – she'd rather eat them or bang them on the paper
Sorts toys by color, shape, or size

We're pretty excited to see what she learns next.

Now that I'm staying home with Katen every day instead of working, I have more of a chance to take charge of her learning and also to experience her discoveries right along with her. I'm pretty excited about that. I know she's going to miss her toddler friends though.

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Happy Birthday Beautiful Girl!

It's hard to believe that our little Pickle rushed her way into the world a year ago today. I can't say she's become any more patient to this day. Ha! New Year's Eve will be the anniversary of her arrival home from the NICU. She was so delicate and helpless back then, and now she's practically an independent woman. One year old going on 21. :)



Katen was born the day before a very large snowstorm in 2007 and on her birthday in 2008 there was no storm (it occurred the week before) but the temperature was -2 degrees with a windchill of "too cold for a polar bear." We put some extra leg warmers on over her tights for the ride to her party location and she was looking pretty spiffy.



Here are some pictures from the party...



Birthday Breakfast - waffles and a birthday hat

"This bag is bigger than I am!"

Tissue paper is FUN!

Clapping YAY!

So much for smashing into the cake. Our little girl eats like a lady.

(I was kind of hoping for some fun pictures with cake all over her face.)





Zzzzzz.... 5 minutes after leaving the parking lot.

Happy Birthday sweet girl. :)

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All I want for Christmas is a Silent Night

...and I got it!!

After nearly a year of broken sleep, Katen and Mommy are sleepin' through the night. Hallelujah!

I truly wish I'd started sooner but this is how we did it.
Katen was waking at 12-ish and 3 or 4-ish in the morning wanting a bottle. She truly as hungry and would wolf it down in no time before going back to sleep. In order to break the habit of needing the extra calories in the middle of the night, I cut back on the amount of formula in her bottle adding water instead.

Night one, her bottles contained 4 oz formula and 1 oz water.
Night two, her bottles contained 3 oz formula and 2 oz water.
By Night three her bottles contained 2 oz formula and 3 oz water and she was done with it. She did not want the watered down bottle. She's start sucking and then stop. I'd rocker her a little and then put her back in her bed. She'd fuss a little while she got comfy but went back to sleep.
On night four she skipped the midnight feeding and only fussed a little at 4am before putting herself back to sleep. She did the same on night five and six, but by night seven (one week!) she was sleeping through the night. Wahoo!
Like I said, my only regret is that I didn't give this a shot sooner.

I was worried that our sleep training would all go down the toilet when we took a trip to California (two time zones away) two weeks after starting but everything ended up just fine. She slept mostly through the night unless she was cold (the heat in our condo was funky) in which case Katen got to cosleep next to Mommy for the first (and probably last) times. Admitedly... I liked it. She's a great snuggler and doesn't move around too much. Nonetheless, I didn't sleep much after she came into the bed with us. I definitely wouldn't do it full time.

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Have you seen my two teeth?

Here's Katen showing off her little chicklets. Only two teeth so far.







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Walking in a Winter ONEderland

Yep that's right, she's WALKING! Consistently. She's up to 16 steps at a time. I need to get some video but Katen is so proud of herself that she'll walk a little ways and then get so busy clapping for herself that she falls over. Ha! She had a great time entertaining everyone at Thanksgiving with her new skills.

This new milestone marks her transition into the "toddler" room at daycare and the requirement that she wear shoes while she's there now. That's not a problem though. She's got a few pairs of pretty snazzy shoes including red patent leather, cheetah spots, and some snazzy sneakers. Katen loves her pediped shoes.

I've also been working on the details of her first birthday party which will be a "Winter ONEderland" theme.

Here's the cake (except it will have blue satin ribbon as opposed to the red velvet in the picture)

This little guy will sit on top

Here's her dress and bow (the white ribbon on the bow has snowflakes on it)

And the invitations - "It's a winter One-derland. Join us for some frosty fun to celebrate Katen turning one."

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Picky, Picky, Picky

"What."

The little pickle has been asserting her ability to pick out different kinds of foods lately. She really loves Gerber yogurt bites and if I put them on her tray with some Cheerios she now picks out each and every one of the yogurt bites and eats them first. Then she'll dig into the cheerios. Until recently she'd take a fist full of whatever was on her tray. It's kind of funny to see her pick and choose.

This morning Daddy fed Katen breakfast for the first time. I forgot to tell him about some of her habits, so when she started clearing her tray (she literally swipes back and forth with her hand tossing pretty much everyting on the floor) he told her "no." Apparently that hurt her feelings and she got out the big lower lip and cried about it. (Oh boy.) Now we know to put her cereal in a bowl that has a suction cup on the bottom. It flies less easily that way.

The little turkey also won't let us feed her anymore. She's very adept at picking up food and feeding herself but I'd still feed her soups, cottage cheese, applesauce, etc. Well none of that anymore. She'd prefer to be in charge and she grabs at the spoon. What results is a massive food fight. She's really REALLY strong. Unhumanly strong for an 11 month old really. So... now I'm working on teaching her to use the spoon herself. She gets the general concept - scoopy the food, put it in your mouth - but sometimes she gets the wrong end of the spoon in her mouth or she flips the food from the bowl... well pretty much everywhere. That's okay though. Stuff washes and she's got to learn somehow. Ha!

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Word Explosion

Well hellooo Katen!

You'd think with learning to cruise and say "Dada" she'd slow down and be happy with those skills for a while, but then that wouldn't be like Katen at all, would it?

All of a sudden she developed this vocabulary. She's gone from blowing raspberries and singing nonsense to saying "Momma" (YES!!! FINALLY! :: cough, cough :: uh I mean, good for her), and No, no which comes out as "nun nun nun." The funniest right now is probably the way she says "Uh-oh." It's so abrupt, sort of like "uh. OHHHH...." There are obviously a lot of uh-oh's as she throws everything on the floor imaginable.

What probably amazes me the most is that she really is using these words in the correct context. She knows who dada is and momma too. Uh-oh follows anything that falls to the floor and no, no, no usually comes right before she does something she knows she's not supposed to (of course) or if I'm torturing her. (aka Chaning her diaper or trying put her clothes on, heaven forbid.)

She'll practice them other times too. She likes to scold her toys (nun nun nun, naughty giraffe) and often asks me about dada. She seems satisfied when I tell her he's at work or lets go find him.

I honestly can't wait to see what's next. She'll be running from me before you know it. Christmas is going to be crazy!!

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Halloween Fun

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Katen had a wonderful time handing out candy to the trick or treaters on Beggar's night. We had an early dinner and bath, and then dressed up in her costume over her jammies. The weather was so gorgeous (70's) that we decided to sit out on the driveway and take advantage of the beautiful evening. Probably one of the last for a while.

She pointed and stared at all the costumes and offered her slobbery snickers to anyone who looked hungry. Nobody took her up on it though. ( I wonder why. Ha!) Here's a short clip of Katen doing quality control on the candy.

While we sat outside waiting we also practiced clapping, so we can add that to the list of milestones achieved. You'll also notice in pictures etc that she's wearing fleece pj's. We had to put those away because she's allergic to polyester. We went to the mall today to find some 100% cotton jammies instead. They're not nearly as warm, so we'll have to put something under them but we don't want her breaking out on her whole body from the fleece either.

Here are a few more pictures of her costume. We visited daycare's fall party last Friday night before mommy's suprise birthday party and took a few pictures there as well.

Quick Milestone update

Katen's been busy learning lately!
Here are some of her new tricks....

Her bottom teeth are definitely in. They're really cute and she's been feeling them with her tongue. She's also started biting so that needs to stop.

Much to my surprise, she's going from sitting to standing all by herself without leaning on anything. She just gets up on her knees, squats and then stands like a big girl! She can stand alone for quite a while and is coordinated enough to wave at me and not fall over.

Did I mention that she's waving now? Yep, that's cute too. She's also fully caught the swing of using the sippy cup. Too bad it automatically gets thrown overboard every time she uses it though. I ended up tethering it to the high chair tray with a suction cup, and a bungee cord.

Each night before bed we read a book. Usually I point things out to her on the pages but now she gets out her little pointer and points things out to me. That lonely little digit is so sweet.

What else? Ohhh... how could I forget? For mommy's birthday Katen said her first word. Guess what it was.

"Dada."

Oh she's a turkey. Now that's all she says over and over and...

Our music classes seem to be paying off. Play a little music at our house or sing a song and little Pickle immediately begins rocking back and forth or if she's standing she has to do a little dancey dance. I need to get some video.

We're working on weaning from overnight feedings this week. At 10mos Katen should be able to make it through the night without a bottle. She's great about going to sleep in her crib by herself but really pushes for that bottle around midnight and 4am. I've been successful at patting her behind and giving her a lovey to get through the midnight feeding. The 4am one hasn't been so successful so I'm going to start putting half water and half formula in the bottle. If her body learns not to expect the extra calories at night then it won't signal her to wake up hungry. (I have no doubt that she truly does feel hungry.) If she can make it from 7pm to 6am without waking this will be one happy momma!


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Pickle Tricks

Here's a little video of Katen showing off her tricks. If you listen closely you can hear her do her immitation of the kitty. (She does it the first time I ask but not after that. It's a high pitched nasaly sound.) Instead of making her "meow" sound again she decides to wave bye-bye and play so-big.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

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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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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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Songs and Signs & Katen vs the cat

Katen started her Songs and Signs class tonight along with her friends Maya,Ella and Jacob. We'll do this on Thursdays for six weeks. I'm not sure how much she got out of it. She was pretty tired but did some flirting with Jacob and gave hugs to Maya. The songs were very simple and repetitive which is great for Mommies who have short memories and to be honest it's great for the little ones too. I appreciated the mix of standing up, sitting down, dancing around, and playing with instrunments that Katen could hold. There was just enough movement to keep her from getting too antsy. ...and enough to make Mommy sweat. Great workout! Anyway, it's too early to tell if Katen is going to learn anything about very basic rythm and tone but the instructor assures us that babies of all ages learn it by the end of class. Sounds like a good challenge to me!

In other news...

Katen's newest trick is whining. It's like she's faking a cry. Her face doesn't indicate she's upset but she does this little quiet cry when she's getting bored or wants something. If she doesn't get what she's after, she'll up the volume to an all out cry. Who knew a kid started whining before they could even talk?

She's also become very communicative with animals and other kids. When she wants to call the cat she makes this "cah!" sound until Swiffer stolls by. I'm not sure how Swiff knows that's her cue, but she almost always comes when Katen calls. weird. To be honest I'm not even sure why Swiffer comes within 10 feet of our Pickle. The kiddo is absolutely fascinated with the cat and will pull her tail or her fur almost any time she gets hear enough. If the cat thinks Katen is going to play nice, she's got another thing coming. She'd also better watch out once Katen starts crawling because Pickle loves to stalk that cat.

[oohhh cat! scoot, scoot, scoot] [YES! I've got you....] [Hey! Where are you goin'?]

[ Come back!] [Was it something I said?]

The same sound is made when Katen sees another baby. She erupts in a wide smile and greets the baby with a "cah!" (Which tells me that Cah doesn't mean cat exclusively or that she's trying to say the correct word.)

A few mornings ago I left Katen playing with her activity gym and when I returned she was trying to communicate with the baby on the Pampers box I'd put in her nursery. I almost died laughing. She just kept talking to it and touching the baby's face. How cute is that!? I need to start cutting out pictures of babies and give her an audience of friends for her play mat. She'd have fun for hours! (Okay let's not kid ourselves. Katen has the attention span of a flea. Busy, busy, busy...)

Speaking of the play gym, this is what happens when the gym isn't entertainment enough. It looks like she got into a wrestling match when the boppy and the curtain ganged up on her. I think she came out on top though. ;)

whew!

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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...)

Big Girl Bath

Katen got a new big girl bath tub this week. It's a large inflatable duck that Daddy just LOVES having in his bathroom taking up room. She's having so much fun with it though. She can sit up in it instead of having to lay down in her infant tub. This allows her to play with toys in the water. She tracks her floating toy duckies with such concentration that it cracks me up. She also thinks she's a monkey and uses her feet to pull them nearer to her. I do have to watch her like a hawk in the water, because she's still a little wobbly sitting alone but it's worth it to see how much fun she's having splashing and playing during bath time. I can't believe how fast she's growing and learning. wow!

We also tried sweet peas last night. I was prepared for nasty faces but Katen looooved her veggie. I think she finished dinner in record time actually and was still making little hungry bird motions for more after she'd finished her portion. I'd stripped her down to just a diaper and her chubby belly but she's getting pretty coordinated and apparently didn't want to waste any food by wearing it for a change.

I can't say as much for pears. Katen will eat pears but not with as much gusto. I think they're kind of sour for her. Same with Sweet potato. She'll eat it but it's just okay. I think we'll try some plums next maybe. I'm also anxious to get to the farmers market and pick up some organic peas, apples, avacado, pear, and carrots to make food at home for her. We'll see how that goes. It's a good excuse to get the food processor out!