Friends and Demo...

We had our friends visit over the weekend. Carlo was here all the way from Italy. It was so nice to see everyone again.

AW was nice enough to let us borrow his truck for our deck demo project. He also helped Craig tear down the old deck since I was not able to (other than nap time). It is weird to look outside our house and see no deck. I am looking forward to the screened in porch!

9 months...

Kay is 9 months old now! She has had a few major milestones over the past few weeks...

She has had her first sample of table food. We are starting to add some spices to her food to try to get her to enjoy flavor like we do. We were eating our dinner one night and noticed that she was staring at our paprika potatoes. We broke off little pieces and she LOVED it! She ate a ton of them.

We have finished nursing. Kay is now onto all bottles. I have mixed feelings about this. She was definitely ready, but it makes me sad to think that phase of her life is over already. We have been attempting the sippy cup, but we are a ways away from her understanding the sippy part.

She has been really starting to pull her legs under her and push up on her arms. She hasn't quite mastered putting the two together yet. She is getting very frustrated now when there is something out of reach that she just can't get to. At therapy they have us working on getting her arm strength to support her in the four point position (crawling position) and they have graduated us to every other week therapy instead of every week. She is also now sitting up in the bathtub!

She is still working on growing some fuzz for hair and is laughing ALL the time. We are really working on trying to get her to sleep through the night. We do not feed her, but she wakes up and sometimes needs encouragement to put herself back to sleep. She continues to be a very early riser (anywhere from 4-6 am) and usually does not go back to sleep. We leave her in the crib trying to get her to understand it is not time to wake up yet. Hopefully, this will get better soon!

Now that Kay has her flu vaccines and has gotten the dr. 'ok' we are starting to put her in the gym daycare. It is a really great daycare with lots of things for her to do. The staff loves her there and always try to be the one in charge of watching her. It makes me feel good to know she is in good hands.

Kay has been successful at putting a few puffs in her mouth herself. We practice a lot, but are still waiting for her to consistently do it by herself. She has also started waving. She sometimes does it in response to us. I think we are a ways away from her doing it every time to say hello or goodbye. We have also been working on clapping. She has just started clapping when I clap. Sometimes I catch her practicing by herself. She was so proud the first time she did it!

Growing! Kay is now 15 lbs 11 oz - 5% in weight, 26.75 inches - 25% in height, 43.5 cm - 45% in head. I don't think she will make it to 20 lbs in a year to be able to turn around the car seat. We will see..

Homebrew...

Kay likes to "help" me with going through the mail. A few days ago she picked up Craig's brewing magazine and she was having so much fun with it I had to take pictures!

PJ fun...

Ok, I admit...I love PJs. I would wear them all day, everyday if I could. I tend to let Kay wear hers A LOT because of my love of "comfy clothes". Here is a picture of her playing on her dad's shoulders and a video of her laughing at Uncle Scott.

Birthday Lunch...

Some of my friends took me out to lunch for my birthday a few weeks ago. We had a great time catching up and Kay enjoyed getting snuggles from all the ladies!

Baby Friends...

We went to visit our friends from college (the one who introduced Craig and I) and their little girl Adaline a few weeks ago. The two girls were so cute together. Adaline kept giving Kay kisses and they both smiled a lot at each other. It will be very fun when they are both able to actually play together.

Dinner Outside...

The weather has been great! Our deck is in really bad shape and not really safe for Kay. We have been putting out lots of towels to be able to have her anywhere near it. She did enjoy the treat of eating outside. We are planning on starting project screened in porch in the next few weeks..I know...I said no more projects for awhile not too long ago! The deck is in too bad of shape, we really have no choice if we want to be outside at all.

Chores...

Kay is a little young for chores, but we have started introducing her to them! Our lawnmower completely died at the end of the season last year. Now that the weather is warming up we knew it was time to get a new one. We took Kay with us so she could help her dad pick out the mower she will be using some day! I do a lot of the mowing because of Craig's allergies to grass so I will be excited to have some help with it someday.

Trouble...

Here comes trouble... Kay LOVES playing in Craig's hair. She gets so focused as she tries to pull individual strands. She loves rubbing her hands in it. She has started "pulling" longer hair, but Craig's is so short she just loves how it feels.

ahhh...sunshine...

It has finally started to warm up! We have enjoyed the outdoors over the past few days...

Rub a dub dub...

...a splash in a BIG TUB! We took Kay swimming for the first time in the indoor pool at our gym. She loved it. At the end of our visit she was moving her arms and feet and splashing some.

Silly mom...

Grandma and Great-Grandma had Kay giggling so hard! We decided to take advantage of having people to make Kay smile for the camera.

4 Generations...

Kay's great-grandma came to visit us again. We were able to get another four generation picture. Kay enjoys her grandma snuggles and has been telling me ever since she left that she wants great-grandma to visit again for more!

Kay is wearing a dress her grandma wore as a baby in these pictures.

Family Visit...

We went to a small town South East of here to visit Craig's great uncles. We had such a nice time visiting with them. Scott, Annelise, Will, and Charlotte went with us as well. We had a lot of fun and plan on returning soon! Kay and Charlotte were fascinated by the camera. It was pretty funny trying to get all of them to sit still for a picture. I should have been taking pictures and video of us trying to get them to smile!

8 months!

Kay is 8 months now. We took her to the doctor to get her flu vaccine the week she turned 8 months. She weighed in at 15 lbs 10.5 oz with clothes on. Kay is into everything now. She rolls to get where she wants and will not eat with anything going on around her (she gets distracted). She is still obsessed with her socks and won't keep them on for more than a few seconds. She really likes to play with little objects with her fingers (like shoe strings etc.). She continues to love her food and is drinking 5-8 oz during each feeding. She continues to be long and thin. Where do you think she got that from?? In the pictures below Kay is wearing a dress my mom wore as a baby.

We continue to take her to physical therapy every week. They want Kay to now learn now to get herself into the "crawling" position.

We are still crossing our fingers for the ear infections to stay away. She has a small cold this week and we are really hoping it doesn't impact her ears.

Overall, she is still one happy, healthy, smiley little girl!

Snow!

We did get a little bit of snow when Craig returned home from China. We took a nice family walk in the snow and our friends joined us. Kay isn't a huge fan of the cold air, but we bundled her up really well and she took a nice toasty nap while we walked.

The Park

We took Kay to the park by our house. She seemed to enjoy the baby swing there. At first she just looked at it trying to figure out what she was sitting in. After awhile she warmed up to it. I think she is going to love it soon. She had the most fun playing with dad in the air!