Brrr!

Kate made an unscheduled visit to Ohio with her parents. Great-Granny passed away after 95 years. What a wonderful gift she gave to all of us to create another opportunity to be together as a family.

But, gosh, is it cold in Cleveland in October!





Here she is with her "cousins" Chloe and Dolly. Dolly turned into such a good guard dog for Kate - lots of sniffing (no licking, though), and Dolly often tried to place herself between any "intruders" and Kate.

Sweet potato thighs

We've starting training Kate on using a spoon, though we're still not feeding her much, or even every day. Today was our first try with sweet potatoes, which she really enjoyed - way more than the "gruel" that is rice cereal.

Swallowing the new food was a little trickier though - she grimaced every time she swallowed a bite!

Of course, sweet potatoes went everywhere - we even found them on her thighs!

How'd you do that?

Everyone keeps asking how we got that picture of Kate on the stairs if she's not sitting up on her own yet.

Observe - a picture where I wasn't able to get my hand out of the frame fast enough. See the baby list to one side?

Gotta love the bunny feet!

Jumperoo!

Anissa found this Jumperoo on craigslist.com for a STEAL! And Kate just adores playing in it and bouncing, bouncing, bouncing.....(you get the idea). We've since moved it to next to Kate's parents' exercise equipment so that the whole family can exercise together - and there's carpet under her feet.

Crawling Kate

We have crawling...kind of. Kate is able to lift her whole body up off of the floor, and to move her knees under her body. She can't really go anywhere yet - she does rock back and forth while she's up there. After much practice, she will even manage to scoot herself backwards just a little. Oh my - and we're not baby-proofed at all yet!

Sleep! Oh how we all miss it around here. Anissa was pretty sure that we'd found the right combination again to get our little one to sleep through the night. It seems that the Carter's sleeper with feet may be the key. She was in a sleep sack before and was waking every couple of hours. For the past couple of nights, we've listened to soft music (NO TV!), walked, rocked, binked, sushed, bounced, and resorted to swaddling over the sleeper - Yippee! Two nights of sleep in a row -- until last night. Last night she was so tired, that she fell asleep (in her Carter's sleeper) without the swaddle. Seems the swaddle has been the trick, not the Carter's sleeper (guess we can finally wash that Carter's sleeper with feet now).

Notice that "toybox" in the first photo? Kate REALLY enjoys emptying it out - anytime - all the time! No wonder parents get tired of cleaning up toys, seems like every time that I get all of her toys into her box, she flips it over and empties it again (Is this a first world problem, or what?).

Cute Photo of the Week

One of the rare moments where Kate sat quietly this week. It seems that we made the mistake of letting her try out a Jumperoo (think baby-bungee), and all she wants to do is jump up and down now - anywhere - on any surface - anytime - really likes jumping.......

I'm 5 months old today

My mother dressed me up (in a bow), but she didn't take me anywhere!

Kate's new "trick" is to turn her toy basket on end and to take each toy out one by one. Here she is at the start of her "trick".

She definitely prefers to be on her belly now. No diaper changes, thankyouverymuch. If her parents aren't quick enough, she will flip over onto her belly on the changing pad (oh, is THAT what those straps on the changing table are for?).