Walking Baby!

Well, first off the bat, Kate is sick again. Poor thing. She was running 103 just before bed tonight. Boo. No other comments on that though, at least she spent the better part of 2, almost 3 weeks well! That was the first time that's happened since November.

Kate has a new word as of today - baby! She's been very good at baba, and bubba, but today she added the "by" on the end of baby! It's so fun to see and hear her add a new word onto her vocabulary every few days!

Finally, the biggest news! Kate truly WALKED for the first time today! And I missed it! Jeff was playing with Kate while I was cooking dinner, and he set her in the Pack n Play. (She likes to play in it!) He said she was holding on to one side, let go, held her balance for a few seconds, then walked to the other side!! He said it was at least 4-5 steps. Big girl!! She's been taking small baby steps of 1, maybe two steps at a time for a week or two, but this was a full walk. I'm so proud of her! I can't wait for her to be walking - then I can put her in dresses finally! (Right now if she wears in dresses she gets too caught up in them and stretches out the front when she tries to crawl.)

Here's a picture of Kate from the other night. We took her to her first baseball game! She did pretty well, after we moved away from a couple of loud drunk guys who really scared her. She loved sitting in the chair like a big girl!

Kate's 12 Month Appointment

Yesterday morning I took Kate in for her 12 month appointment. Her head is 17 3/4 inches (50th Percentile), her weight is 24 pounds, 6 ounces (95th Percentile), and her length - you ready? - is 31 1/2 inches (~99th Percentile)!! Dr Lanman said she's probably going to be tall! It must be my mom's genes coming through, because there's certainly not height anywhere else in the family! Kate is developing and growing so wonderfully, and hitting all of her milestones just as she should. I'm so proud of my baby!!

Kate has several new words this week. First of all, on her birthday, we ran to the grocery store to pick up some food items for dinner. We walked past one of those big ball cages, and as we went past, Kate pointed and said, "Ball?" I was SO proud of her!!! Of COURSE I had to get one for her. :) She loves it!



Second, the girl who keeps Kate for me while I work has a 13 year old son. Everyone calls him "Bubba." He has been home from school for 8 days because his doctor swabbed him for swine flu. Everything came back negative, but the school district wouldn't allow him back in school simply because he was SWABBED for it! Crazy. So anyway, he's been the "special helper" all week at daycare. They said he was so much help, and I've seen him with the kids and babies before, he is the sweetest kid ever. He's so gentle and relates to them so well! It didn't take Kate long at all to catch on to his name, and about Wednesday she started calling him by name! He went back to school today and Kathy said that she kept calling for Bubba all day! SO cute!!

She can also say "bye bye" when she chooses to. It's not consistent, but once in a while she'll use it... At the right time, too!

She is standing up by herself more and more now, and ALMOST taking steps. She will try to take a step sometimes, but fall right away. It won't be long!

We made her first trip to the neighborhood pool today. I wasn't expecting good results considering the frantic panic attack she had a few weeks ago when I put her in the kiddy pool in our backyard. It went just about as I expected. As soon as I sat down at the edge of the pool, she started screaming. She held on to me for dear life, and thankfully only cried for a minute or two. Her whole body shook violenty for about 10 minutes while we sat there. I decided to get brave and sit down on the incline of the kiddy pool, just at the very edge of the water. She screamed again when her feet touched the water, but I just held her and reassured her that she was ok. She shook violently again for about 10 more minutes. (I'm such a nice mom, aren't I??) After she calmed down a little bit, she started looking around at the other kids playing. We spent about 45 minutes total, and by the end I got her to willingly touch the water with her hand, and she even looked around and said, "Bow?" That's a good sign. :) So I decided to end it there, on a good note and not push her any further. We'll push a little more next time, starting with where her comfort level ended last time, and see how it goes. There was another mom there with a baby a few weeks older than Kate. She said her baby was scared to death too, and she said that she just did what I'm doing with Kate, and a few visits later, she loved it! So I'm hoping it'll be the same with Kate. She looked ADORABLE in her swim suit though. I didn't snap any pictures, but maybe next time!

At her 12 month appointment, the Pediatrician told me that it was time to get Kate off the bottle and on to cow's milk from a sippy cup. She said in her past experience, it was easiest just to go cold turkey. So, today was the day! I wasn't sure what to expect because anyone who knows Kate knows how much she LOVES her bottles! It was a little sad this morning when I got her up and didn't give her a bottle. I offered her a sippy cup of milk and she drank a few sips, spit some out, and then sort of sipped on it for a few minutes. Then she was off and playing! She took it all in stride. We figured out that she'll drink it better if it's not super cold. She prefers it closer to room temperature. She did SO well all day! She never cried or anything when we didn't offer her a bottle! I should have known it'd be so easy, that's just how Kate IS. I suppose I shouldn't speak too soon though, it's only been one day. Fingers crossed!

Happy Birthday, Baby!

I can't believe it! Kate is one! What a big girl. I can't even begin to summarize what a joy and blessing she has been in our lives, and I never knew how much love I was capable of until the day she was born. Every day we are thankful to have her in our lives, and although she is growing up way too quickly, it is a privilege to watch her learn and grow.

We are so proud of you, Kate, and love you more than you will ever know. Happy Birthday, sweet girl!!!

Kate took her first step a couple days ago too! She didn't get very far, but she let go of the chair she was holding on to, took one step, and grabbed my hand! I was so proud of her. What a big girl.

When Kate woke up this morning, Jeff and I went in to her room to sing Happy Birthday to her. After her bottle, we packed her up and took her out to breakfast at the Ballard Street Cafe.

Such a big girl in her forward facing carseat!



They made her her own special birthday pancake!



Num Num!!



Dropping her off to go to work.



We don't really have any plans this evening. Jeff probably won't get home from work until after Kate has gone to bed, so we'll see! Kate and I will just celebrate alone tonight.

Happy Birthday Kate!

Lots of Progress!

Kate has had so many big milestones lately! It seems like she is doing something new every day. The most important thing is that Kate is (knock on wood) healthy, and has been for about a week! That's the longest stretch we've had in a LONG time. Yesterday she said "uh oh" for the first time! We've been working on it for a while - each time I said "uh oh" to her, she'd just pick up on the "oh" part of it, and do her puppy love "ohhhhhhh". But she did the full "uh oh" yesterday! It was SO cute.

And today she stood up in the middle of the floor without holding on to anything! What a big girl. She stood for only a second, then fell to her butt and started crying. I'm not sure if it was because she got scared, or if it was because my reaction was a little too enthusiastic. :)

I got her in pigtails for the first time today. They are TOO cute!



She looks SO old to me in this picture. I don't know what happened to my baby, but she's a big girl now! Things are busy around here getting ready for her big birthday party on Saturday! I can't wait!

First Word

Kate said her first full, complete word today! She's been saying Mama and Dada for quite some time, as well as several sounds to make up partial words, but no full object words, until today! She is VERY into pointing right now, and I will always identify what she's pointing at. Today she was pointing at her hair bows on her ribbon board in her room, so I told her, "bow." And she repeated it back to me!!! She says ba, buh, and bo a lot, but this was the first time she's added a definite "w" on the end of the bo. So cute! I praised the heck out of her, she was so proud. She loved to say it over and over the rest of the day, so I caught it on camera!



On the negative side, Kate woke up from her nap this afternoon running a 103.7 degree fever. Poor thing, that's the highest it's ever been. I'm just at a loss. These high powered antibiotics she's been on the last week have worked so well, until now. She's still on them and picked up whatever she has now. We are going back to the Pediatrician tomorrow. I'm sure they'll probably just test her for flu, RSV, and strep throat again. Then I'm not sure what happens, if they will give me a referral for an immunologist or what. I'm just so deeply scared that something is wrong with her. It makes me so sad that she's had such a crummy start to life. So I'm hoping we can get some answers, and hopefully get to the bottom of everything.

12 Month Portraits

Last Friday I took Kate in for her 12 month pictures. She is/was actually healthy with a dry nose for once, so I figured we had better get pictures done! I was really happy with how they turned out.







































Kate is finally feeling better (knock on wood) but she's just been constantly sick. We've been in and out of the pediatrician, trying everything we can think of to get her well. If she gets sick again, Kate is going to have to see an ENT specialist and an immunologist. So we are praying that the poor little dear can stay well this time. She deserves to feel good!

She is just growing in leaps and bounds. She bring so much joy into our lives. She's a very loving baby and loves to give us hugs. Not only us, but dogs, books, toys, and anything soft and cuddly. She says the cutest little "ohhhhhh" when she gives hugs.

I'm busy with preparations for Kate's birthday party. I'm having a lot of fun planning everything out and beginning to get things ready!

Growing Up

I can't believe we're only a few weeks from Kate's first birthday! I need to get going on her party plans! We've been busy around here. Kate has been in and out of the doctor the last few months - we are having a really hard time getting (and keeping) her well. We are on our third allergy med, and just a few days ago she came down with strep throat, so it's just one thing after another. We are hoping we can get her well, and KEEP her well. Hopefully the warmer weather will bring that.

Kate is making leaps and bounds developmentally. A couple weeks ago she wasn't ready to walk behind her push toy, but I tried it again today and she's a pro! Look at her go!



Second, as evidenced by the bluebonnet picture with her Baby, Kate is very loving towards her buddies, animals, people she loves, etc. She loves to give hugs and kisses! I got her a new baby animals book for Easter. She found the puppy page right away, and started loving on the puppy!



Have a wonderful Easter weekend!