Recent Visits

Dave's grandfather (PawPaw) passed away recently so we made a trip to Mississippi for the funeral.  Though the circumstances were sad, it was good to see family.


Katelyn wins the Miss Congeniality award for friendliest baby EVER.  She made a friend everywhere we went: the nice man with the mustache at the funeral home, the pallbearer with the funny glasses, the man with the chef's hat at the Chinese restaurant.  Katelyn's smile is infectious. 


She was quite the social butterfly at PawPaw's visitation.  As the room filled with people, it became increasingly hard to contain her (and after riding in the car for 9 hours, I can't blame her for being active).  And she waved at EVERYONE.  PawPaw sure loved her smile, so it's only fitting that she brought joy to an occasion that honored his life.  She was never "bad" on the trip.  Just reallyreallyreally active. 

Katelyn and Papa 

Katelyn and MawMaw

She LOVES looking out doors.

The next weekend Katelyn and I had a chance to visit with some wonderful friends who also used to live in Waco.  Just to put Katelyn's speed into perspective: she can crawl as fast as Ellie (3 months older) can run.  Very cute watching them play together.

Our attempt to take a picture of the four of us.  Fail.

Updates

The blanket that came with Katelyn's bedding has flowers and butterflies on it.  Katelyn has recently taken interest in it and gets so excited to point out the flowers and butterflies when I ask her which is which.  She especially loves the butterflies, I think because of their texture on the blanket.

She had her first ear infection.  10 months without an ear infection isn't bad!  Though I could tell a drastic difference in her energy level, she was still active.  As the doctor watched a bleary-eyed, feverish Katelyn wiggle out of my arms to crawl across the room, she made the comment, "Well, being sick doesn't seem to slow her down."  Amused, I replied, "Actually, this is lethargic Katelyn.  She's crawling a lot slower than usual."  NOTHING slows this child down from exploring.  Though I know she'll be a handfull when she starts walking, I can't help but love her curiosity.

Mealtime has been challenging lately.  She seems to enjoy being a messy eater. Awhile back, she started slapping a spoonful of food right before it entered her mouth.  So I began holding her hand down when feeding her. Now, she finds it more entertaining to "bat" the spoon with her left arm. That little arm is FAST!  It's just the right length to swing at the spoon when I least expect it-- and it's hard to hold down.  I don't even think she notices that she has food on her arm, fingers, neck, face, hair, etc.  Her new daycare mentioned that she enjoys painting.  I'm not surprised.

As she is growing, the tiny finger on her left arm is growing, too. Obviously, it will never be the size of a normal finger, and it's way too soon to see how much functionality it will have. But Katelyn has discovered it and recently used it to pull on MawMaw's necklace.  She seems intrigued by the little finger and I often catch her chewing on it or poking at it.

A few additional updates:

• She has FOUR teeth (all upper) that have just barely cut through!  They seem to be coming in at about the same pace... that can't be comfortable.
• She can crawl up a flight of stairs... and is super cute doing it!
• She loves refrigerator magnets (mostly just knocking them off)
• She understands the word "shoe" and tries to say it.  When I'm putting her shoes on her, she points to the shoe, grins, and makes a "shh" sound.

Goodbye... Hello!

Well, we've moved.  We could not have done this without the help of our mothers!  THANK YOU both for helping with Katelyn and helping us clean, unpack, and organize.  We love and appreciate you!

She wants to walk!

I like my job so far and Dave continues to like his.  Katelyn started daycare this week and it seems to be going well.

Katelyn updates:

1. Coincidentally with the timing of our move, Katelyn now waves hello and goodbye.  Whenever we enter or leave a room or she hears "hi" or "bye," she waves.  It's really cute.  She even waved goodbye to our home in Waco.
2. She has added "Nana" to her vocabulary.  I'm sure spending a week with Nana helped. :)
3. She wants to feed herself with her spoon.  This is not always a good idea, as she has no problem making a mess, getting her hands dirty, or splattering food all over me. As I was packing, I discovered dried splashes of sweet potato in strange places.
4. She is a busy, busy girl!  This child LOVES to play and explore.  I have yet to find a toy or activity that keeps her attention longer than 15 seconds (except Praise Baby!).  It's fun to watch her imagination develop. We put several pacifiers in her crib at night, and one morning I watched her on the baby monitor.  She had gathered the pacifiers and was happily playing her own little game of "throw each pacifier down as hard as possible."
5. She is deceptively destructive.  She really seems to enjoy throwing things and/or knocking things over.  And she's FAST!  While my Mom was eating lunch, Katelyn sweetly pulled up into her lap... and then picked up her plate of food and threw it on the ground, shattering it.  If Katelyn had two hands, I think we'd be in trouble.
6. She can identify her little Noah's Ark animals.  For example: I hold the cow in one hand and the lion in my other hand and say "Katelyn, where's the lion?"  She then reaches for the lion.  This also works if I just make the animal sound instead of saying its name.  She specifically likes hitting/throwing the cow. 
7. There's a picture of Dave and me hanging in our bedroom, and one day I was holding her eye level with the picture.  She started smiling and kicking her legs.  I said, "Where's Daddy?" and she moved her hand over Dave's face.  Same with Mama.  She did this several times and was so excited!
8. We got Baylor a new toy, and Katelyn thinks it's HILARIOUS to watch Baylor play with it.  I've never seen her laugh so hard for so long.  It's so funny.

Look, she's wearing shoes! And she wore them ALL DAY!