10 Months Old

About 2 weeks ago Kate turned 10 months old. I can't believe my little baby is almost 1! Kate has been very busy this last month. Here is a little bit of what she has been up to:

She can get from lying down to sitting up! She figured this out just a few days after she turned 9 months old, and is now a pro at it.

She can pull up to a standing position on the furniture! She has only done it a time or two, but she is becoming increasingly interested in trying to figure out how to stand up by herself. She will often try to stand up by herself in the middle of the floor, but she doesn't get very far. Climbing is her new obsession. She especially loves to climb on me (of course).

She loooooves solid food. Really, she can't get enough of it. She started eating three meals a day and sometimes she eats a lot. Favorite foods right now are frozen bluberries, frozen peas, yogurt, cheerios, bananas and zucchini. She loved a zucchini and goat cheese quiche I made the other night. She will still eat purees once in a while, but will generally cry until I give her something she can pick up by herself.

She can drink from a straw! Since she has been eating so much food, she has been having some issues with constipation. So another favorite treat she gets is carrot juice. She makes a huge mess, but really enjoys it.

She loves her cousin Gemma. Gemma is 2, and Kate loves to ride in the car with Gemma, play with Gemma, take baths with Gemma, talk to Gemma, and so on. It's so cute. One of their favorite activities is splashing at each other in the bath. They also like to imitate each other's sounds. Unfortunately this means that sometimes they scream at each other. Fortunately they are still pretty cute.

She is getting better at crawling. She can crawl for a while if she wants to, but typically she will just crawl for a few steps and then start army crawling. She is becoming quite destructive, and keeps me on my toes.

Some fun activities this month included lunch with her G.G. (great-grandma) and going on the boat for the second time. She also enjoys the weekends, when she gets to spend time with her Daddy. Brett gets home late Friday nights, so Kate gets excited when I get her up Saturday morning and bring her into our room; she gets a big smile on her face when she realizes Brett is there. So far she is really having a blast in California.

9 Months Old in California

So a few weeks ago Kate and I flew to California, and Brett drove out the next day with Deacon and our things. We came because Brett is doing a summer internship with Ernst & Young in San Fransisco. Brett is staying in the bay area with his aunt, while Kate and are staying with his mom in El Dorado Hills, and anxiously awaiting the weekends when he comes back to be with us. Kate did really well on the flights, sleeping through most of them. I say flights because, yes, there were two (we had to transfer). However, by the end of the last flight she was clearly done with the whole experience, and by the time we got into the car to drive from the airport to El Dorado Hills she completely lost it. Overall though, it went about as well as I had hoped.

Since we have been in California Kate turned 9 months old! I can't believe she is so big. She is growing up in so many ways. She just recently got her first two teeth in (her bottom front teeth), and teething didn't seem to be too bad for her. Though she has been mobile for a while, she finally figured out how to army crawl forward, and will crawl on her hands and knees for a few steps if she's very motivated. She can stand up while holding onto furniture, but thinks the funnest part about this is letting go and falling backwards to have me catch her. She also tries to pull up on furniture, and can get onto her knees but not her feet. She can say "Mama" very clearly, as well as "Mom," but still doesn't quite know what they mean. She also seems like she has been trying to say "ball" (she loves balls). She loves to pick up little crumbs and specks from off the floor. She loves to eat, and is quickly mastering the art of finger foods. Favorite finger foods include cheerios, frozen peas, and more recently cheese. She is becoming less shy, and will now let other people in the family hold her, but is sometimes quite the drama queen about it if I am in the room. But I know she likes other people because if I'm not there she is happy as can be, and she is constantly flirting with other people when I am holding her. Everywhere we go people tell me what a happy girl she is, and they are right. She really just has a happy personality, and I am so in love with her.

9 Months!

Getting her California style on

Playing with cousin Marek

Enjoying time with her Daddy after being away from him all week

With Daddy at the Oakland Temple

At Brett & Victoria Candland's wedding reception

We will be in California until about mid-august, and are looking forward to having lots of fun adventures with family and friends!

Utah Fun

Wow. I have been terrible at keeping up with Kate's blog this past month! In my defense, June has been very hectic. We had a lot to do to get ready to come to California. But before I even talk about California, I want to share some pictures from the time we spent in Utah this summer. Kate is just getting big way too fast, so I am going to attempt to catch up by posting pictures of all her adorable moments. All of the pictures were taken when she was about 8 months old.



She still has crazy hair. No surprise.



Still loves to take a bath

Reading a book. This is rare - she generally prefers to eat them.

Baby in a box!

Her first time with the snack trap cup. She was very focused on it, and to my surprise mastered getting the cheerios out in about 30 seconds.

Playing with mom

An unlikely toy

Enjoying her sunscreen before a walk

After an olive oil shampoo. I am still battling cradle cap from time to time.

This girl has the best hair-dos

Even though Kate is a great sleeper, she still has a sleepless night every once in a while.

Just being a happy girl

Utah Festival of Books

Today we went to the Utah Festival of Books at BYU. It was really fun! We walked around campus exploring all the different activities and vendors. There were several different characters roaming around, so we got our picture taken with Darth Vader. We went to a little animal show. Kate walked away with a couple of new (free!) books. I got ice cream from the creamery. Kate was jealous and let me know how mad she was the entire time I was eating it. As the final event we got to see David Archuleta (not sing, just talk about his book). This only lasted a few minutes because Kate was tuckered out and so we headed home. I'm always complaining that there aren't any fun things to do around here, so I really enjoyed today. I don't think Kate enjoyed it quite as much as I did, but she is still really shy when we take her out.

Kate could tell he was on the dark side

Taking a break to rest in the shade

David Archuleta

 

Home at last

Bridal Veil Falls

I meant to write about this a few days ago but the camera was lost in our car. Last Saturday we took a little family trip to Bridal Veil Falls. The weather was cool and perfect, and the falls were really beautiful. It was fun to explore one of the local adventures available to us. Sometimes I forget how beautiful living near the mountains can be.

Blades of Grass

This past week the weather has been rainy and horrible. And it was driving me crazy! Being stuck inside all day is no fun. So when the sun came out today I grabbed a blanket and practically ran outside. We enjoyed just playing on our front lawn and feeling the gentle breeze blow across our faces. Kate was especially fascinated by the grass. Touching the grass, then pulling out the grass, and finally eating the grass. I'm glad that the weather has finally given me the opportunity to let her explore these little wonders of the outside world. It was so nice just to be outside.

Getting ready to get out of the house!

 

It's almost impossible to get her to smile outside

I just love this girl!

Puppy kisses

Taking Deacon for a "walk"

 

Deacon enjoyed getting out of the house, too

Happy 8 Months Kate!

Yesterday Kate turned 8 months old and I completely forgot until about 9pm last night. (In my defense, Brett was sick and Kate was cranky and had been up several times the night before.) I'm really not sure where I have been while Kate has been doing all this growing, but here's a random sampling of what she is like lately:

She loves to play games. Peekaboo is a big hit right now, and she will even cover herself up with the blanket and then take it off and look up at me with a huge grin on her face. Another favorite game is knocking over towers of blocks I build for her. She thinks this is hilarious.

She is becoming less shy around other people. She has such a fun and vivacious personality at home, but around others she often is a bit aloof and prefers to observe rather than play. But lately she is coming out of her shell a little bit. Though yesterday when I took her to the mall she did burst into tears when a sales associate was trying to play with her and said "boo". It was adorably pathetic.

She is finally starting to bear some weight on her legs. Previously she has had no interest in standing up whatsoever. I think she is beginning to realize that the coffee table would be even more fun if she could reach what was on top. Good thing we will be getting rid of the coffee table in the near future.

She is on the move! Though she isn't crawling yet, she is becoming more and more adept at rolling and scooting. It is becoming impossible to change her diaper, brush her hair, put on her clothes, or do anything that requires her to be still for any length of time.

She can open drawers. I thought this wasn't supposed to happen for a while. But recently she figured out how to open her dresser drawers. While I am in awe of her brilliance, I seriously need to better babyproof my house.

She is still madly in love with Deacon. They are so cute together.

Her favorite baby food so far is prunes. She loves them. She also enjoys peaches, pears and oatmeal, carrots, and sweet potatoes. She hates peas (in her defense the pureed ones do smell nasty. I'll have to give her some whole ones and see what she thinks). We have also started to give her some table food. She really enjoyed the zucchini pasta we made the other night. Shredded chicken is also a big hit.

She is still a very silly girl. She will laugh at just about anything I do. She is so sweet, and I love that I get to spend every day with such a fun little girl. Happy 8 months Kate!

Playing peekaboo

This was the first time I gave her prunes

Our BYU baby