Kate is 10 months old!!

Ahhh, ten months sounds soo old and it is so hard to believe my little baby is already there.  It is kind of fitting though, because, to me, Kate is beginning to seem more like a toddler and not so much a baby.  We have had a great month.  After traveling all of June, we have been enjoying our time here in the 'Cuse.  Kate continues to be her happy, goofy self.  She is so much more active this month, crawling and getting into everything.  She is a super fast crawler, sometimes I can't believe that she gets to where she is in the time that she does.  She still loves the dogs, especially Emily.  I think they are developing a special relationship, Emily often knows that Kate is up from a nap a few minutes before I even hear her and runs up the stairs to find her.  Sometimes we think that Kate believes she is a dog, her new favorite thing is to pretend to "sleep" on their beds or in Baxter's cage.  She also pretends to eat from their bowls and loves their toys.  She loves all animals in general, and has taken a special liking to ducks.  She likes to see them down at the lake on our runs, and is even attempting to "quack".  Here's a run down of what else is new this month:

- Talking! She is not talking yet, but does try to say a few things and is definitely starting to use them in context.  Funnily enough they all sound the same: "dada" - daddy, "da" - dog, and "dat" - duck.  It took me awhile to realize that she was differentiating and not saying the same thing.  If you listen clearly, you can really tell the difference though!  She also barks after saying "da" and says what sounds like "hi dada" when Kevin comes home.  I cannot get her to say "mama", or to even try - she says "da!" back to me and giggles as if she is mocking me.  She is also signing "more" and "all done" ... but is stubborn about it.  If she knows that you already know what she wants, she WILL NOT sign but gets pissed instead.  She also waves hi and bye and gives kisses.

- New interests: other than the dog cages and beds I've already mentioned, Kate has developed an interest in screws, knobs and buttons.  She analyzes any little thing, on her stroller, on the furniture and on toys.  She has always liked balls, but she now REALLY likes to play fetch with herself (throw the ball then crawl after it repeatedly).  She loves to dismantle the pantry, and sometimes that is the only way I can get dinner cooked - she takes a special interest in tea bags of all things.  She also has started noticing air planes in the sky and loves to point at them, she will even look up even if we are in the house and she can hear one.

- New foods: Kate now eats what we eat for dinner and it is so nice!  She is still a great eater, but is not consistent, sometimes she is really picky and other times she will eat whatever is in front of her.  She loves fruit, yogurt, pasta, cheese, waffles, sweet potatoes and eggs, oh and ice cream!  Somehow she always gets ice cream when Kevin's parents are visiting!  We have also started giving her whole milk with meals, which she loves.  I am hoping it will make the transition to whole milk easier if she is used to it.

- She pulls up - especially to get the dogs, but does not have much interest in walking at all.  She is very content to just crawl where she needs to go.

Kate is still a great sleeper most of the time, although we have had a few nights here and there of her getting up a couple of times.  I think it may be a bit of 9 month sleep regression, but it's no where near as terrible as the 4 month regression was!  She has been going to bed later, which is awesome for our schedule/life style.  She usually goes to bed between 8 and 8:30 and gets up between 6:30 and 7:30 (sometimes 8 and if I'm lucky that will fall on my day off!)  She takes two naps, around 9 and around 2, both of which are about 2 hrs.  She is nursing 4 times a day - 7, 12, 4 and 8.

And finally, our 10 month photo shoot.

Are we doing this again mom?

 Really?! ok!

 I included the below picture to show how blonde her hair is growing in.

 She was looking at an airplane here:

Baseball Hall of Fame

This past weekend was the baseball Hall of Fame induction in Cooperstown, NY, which is a little under two hours away from us.  On a whim, we decided to make the trip down for the day and we convince Kevin's parents to make a last minute trip up to join us.  I have been to Cooperstown on vacation a few times, and we have gone 2 or 3 times on day trips since moving here, but I have never made it to Hall of Fame weekend.  We were worried it would be extremely crowded, which it was, but everything was so well organized that we barely even noticed.  We had a fabulous time, and it was very exciting to be there for the induction ceremony.  I'm so glad we decided to go!

Visitors

We had a great visit from my mom and Becca a few weeks ... err a month ago.  Sorry, the month of June is a blur because Kate and I traveled every. single. weekend.  I am so happy this half of the summer is progressing at a much slower and less busy pace.  We had a great week with them, just doing fun stuff around Syracuse.

Reading with Mimi

 Visit to Anyela's for mom and dad's anniversary!  Kate thinks wineries (and mommy's chest) are awesome!

Anniversary dinner at Blue Water - Kate was a little difficult to take out to eat while on vacation, so we were happy to realize she could behave in restaurants again.  She is better now that she eats what we eat and is preoccupied while dining out.

 

 Kate LOVES the ducks that always hang out by the waterfront in Skaneateles, so we had to go visit them.  This one was nibbling my toes.

 Aunt Becca is one of Kate's favorite people for sure

 Daddy's not too bad either.

We also went to the Balloon Fest at Jamesville Beach Park.  This is something I have wanted to do every year since we have moved here, so we took advantage of the free admission on that Friday and went.   It was really cool, you could walk right up to the balloons while they were launching.  It is definitely something I would do again.

Definitely one of our good weeks this summer, we are looking forward to another visit soon!

Beach

This post is past due, but better late than never right?  We spent a week in Lewes, DE with Kevin's parents in the beginning of June.  We didn't have the best weather, but we still had a fabulous week.  We had a few good beach days, visited with the Blakeleys, Juliana and the Falgowskis, went to Dogfish Head for a tour and tasting, walked around Lewes, went fishing and ate a lot of good food.  Kate was sick and a little grumpy for the first few days, but otherwise had a great week.  She loved playing in the sand and on the edge of the water, I think we definitely have a water baby.

9 Month Stats

Kate had her nine month appointment today, we saw a different doctor and really liked him!  We were cutting it very close to nap time so I was worried she would be a little cranky, but she did very well.  She also didn't need shots today so that helped.

Stats from this month:
Weight: 19 lbs 5 oz (50%)
Height: 28 1/2 " (75%)
Head: 44 cm (50%)


As we were checking out, the receptionist called her "a doll", I guess Kate heard "dog" because she started barking at her.  It was cute and funny.

I didn't take any pictures in the doctor's office today, but here is a cute video from yesterday.  Baby giggles never get old.

8 and 9 month recap

I am so far behind with posting, I finally decided I should just do a quick recap of the last two months just to get it done.

It's really a shame that I have been lax with posting because Kate has changed so much over the past few months.  She is still very much a baby, of course, but more and more often I feel like we are getting a glimpse of the little girl she is turning into.  It doesn't help that her hair is almost past her shoulders. 

There is so much going on in her little life, I don't think I can really describe all the changes, but the big things are:
- She learned to crawl!  She started out crawling how you would expect, on all fours but has progressed to a lame leg gorilla crawl.  She does not put her left knee on the ground, but pushes off of her foot and then drags her right leg behind her.  She started pulling up around the same time as crawling, but is not very interested in doing that much.
- She has two teeth!  Her bottom front teeth came in back to back, and it's been almost a month without any other dental progress.
- She is more and more vocal - she refuses to sign, but is very expressive and communicative.  She has different sounds for different things and is not shy about getting what she wants.
- She barks!  It took us a while to figure out what she was doing, but it is true, she barks at every dog she sees, and will even start barking if you ask her "What does Baxter say?"
- She has a little temper.  I am not sure if it is possible to teach a 9 month old patience, but I wish we could.  Kate knows what she wants and gets very angry if you're not quick enough for her - this occurs mostly at meal times.
- She is eating so well .. we had a period of transition in our schedule when starting solid foods, but Kate now eats breakfast, lunch and dinner and is eating mostly solids (what we eat, not purees).  It is nice to eat meals as a family now.
- She is still nursing 4 times a day, first thing in the morning, around 12, around 4 and then right before bed.  It is definitely nice to cut down on pumping at work!
- She is still a great napper - and is now taking a 1-2 hour morning nap and a 2 hr afternoon nap.  She sometimes will take a 40min-1hr nap in the early evening depending on how the day went.  She is also still consistently sleeping 10 hrs every night - it's awesome.
- I will hopefully write a dedicated post on this, but sadly Kate's babysitter has moved away.  She has a new babysitter who comes 2 days a week for the summer, and also stays with a friend of ours 1 morning a week.  Kate has done well with the change in routine and seems happy with our set up.  She will start daycare in September when I pick up an almost full time schedule at work.
- She still loves the water and has gotten to swim a lot this summer.  She is even enjoying her baby pool.
- She also still loves music, and is really developing her dancing skills

I absolutely love this stage with Kate, she is bright, happy, laid back, friendly and just a delight.  She continues to amaze us every day with all of her new discoveries.  I am shocked that she is already nine months old and wish I could slow things down just a little!

8 month pictures:

 9 Month Pictures

 We didn't have a very successful photo shoot the first time we tried, she needed a nap and we had had a long day.  She still looks cute, and it's proof that she's not always happy.

 Second try was much better! Just excuse the food leftover from dinner on her face.

 She LOVES playing fetch with the dogs.  She hasn't quite figured out how to throw the ball far enough, and the poor dogs get so confused because they know they can't take the ball from her, but also know she's trying to play with them.  It's very comical.

 This is after she "threw" it

 Trying to hand it to Baxter