Baby no more

I can't believe how much she's changed since she started walking. I looked at her yesterday, and she no longer looked like a baby, more like a toddler. She's walking (or trying to) more often than crawling now. She still holds her arms in front of her like Frankenstein - so cute.

She's started saying a lot of new words too, though we usually have to guess at what she's trying to say. She usually says the first sound of the word, so "shoe" is "sh" (often while pointing to her toes) , "sticker" is "ss" (while pointing to the place where we hide them), "water" is "ww", and "car" is "ca".

We had a nice weekend. On Saturday, we went to a BBQ at a neighbor's house (yummy). On Sunday, Richard invited us to a house (more like a mansion) in the Hollywood Hills that was being "house-sat" by his brother for several weeks. Katie loved the pool, and Petra, and meeting Richard's mom, Kate too! On Monday, we hung out around the house and pool, and let Kate catch up on some much needed napping.

Nope, no teeth yet. Stay tuned.

Walking

First she took a couple of steps on Friday for Anissa. She took a couple more on Saturday for Petra. But on Sunday, she went from a couple of steps to running full tilt across the kitchen from Anissa to Tim and back again. It was like when you learn how to ride a bike for the first time and want to go fast so that you won't fall. She still looks like a little drunkard stumbling everywhere - so cute!

Here she is on Sunday before the running began:

Feisty

Kate is just moving all over the place this week. I couldn't figure out why she was so interested in her activity table, that she's ignored for months. First I thought that she wanted me to turn the top of the table over. Nope. She wanted the top of the table removed, so she could sit inside!

Katie still has Gymboree love - boy, does she love that scary clown! Here she is with a bubble on her head!

Mother's Day

We spent a quiet day at home. Anissa got to sleep in really late, and Kate worked on her bedhead hairdo!

Later, we all decided to go for a drive to the beach. We forgot how much colder the beach was, and after only a couple of minutes at the beach, we realized that we should have packed warmer clothes. It was a nice day out though!

Happy 1st Birthday

Katie is 1 year old!! I win the bet that she would make it a whole year without being dropped on her head. Now she throws herself headfirst down slides, couches, stairs. We had a great day. Cousins and friends came over to play on Katie's new castle climber and slide. It keeps her occupied for hours. And it was nice enough to go swimming as well. Anissa made a great cake for our little "turtle" and the new bbq has been officially broken in. It was a great day for our little girl and so thankful for everyone coming to celebrate. She didn't go to sleep until 11pm.

It's been a while

We could give you a bunch of excuses: our internet service was down, we've been working on school projects, etc. But we know what you really want is more pictures of Kate.


Here she is in her Easter Dress. We spent a lovely day with the Long Beach cousins.




...working on her upper body strength on the zipline at the playground. She can hold on without us. Getting her to let go isn't much fun!










Standing eating a cracker in the kitchen (her natural habitat)















Walking her car in the backyard











Practicing her walking skills on the patio with her dad.

Kate's growing up so fast. She's started to add words to her vocabulary. She says "Dat" for anything that she wants (which is a lot). She tries to repeat any word that we say, and will usually get the first sound right. "Duck" is "duh", "Kitty Cat" is "Key", "Daddy" is still "Da". "Doggie" is "Ghee" (don't know why she picked the last syllable there). And she says the noises that a duck ("kack") and a monkey ("oooo-oooo-aaah-aaah") make.

...still no teeth yet....not even a hint of one coming.