Kate is One

One year ago at 5:09pm Kate was born and our lives have not been the same since. 99% of those changes have been nothing but positive. The early mornings? Not so much! Nonetheless, we are so incredibly lucky to have a near-perfect daughter who continues to amaze us daily. We adore her and we cherish every minute we get to spend with her.

I thought we would start off this post with a little recap and reflect on how Kate has changed over the last year.

When she was born, Kate was 9lbs and 21 inches. At her one year check up today she weighed a whopping 26 lbs. 12 ounces and was 32.5 inches long. When her doctor walked in she said, "Well, that is the biggest one year old you are ever going to see." Message received...our baby is ginormous, but in a wonderful, healthy, strong kind of way.

Kate started eating rice cereal at 4 months, pureed fruits and veggies at 6 months, finger foods at 9 months, her first lollipop after her vaccines today, and will switch over to whole milk near the end of the week. Her favorites seem to be blueberries, peas (mainly because she can smush them), scrambled eggs, and chicken.

Kate has always been a girl on the move. She started crawling and pulling up right before her nine month birthday and is almost ready to walk. She loves to hang upside down and go for walks around the block.

We love to travel and so we have tried to take Kate on a few trips during her first year. Her first real vacation was to San Francisco to visit our Nor Cal family. She has also traveled to Phoenix and Mammoth in addition to trips to Orange County and LA to visit her grandparents. We have yet to take her on a plane, mainly because we are chicken, but I am sure we'll have to bite the bullet at some point.

There are a million things that I could tell you about Kate, but hopefully you have read our blog over the last year and have learned a little bit about what a sweet, smart, funny girl she is from our ramblings and pictures.

We had a pretty low key day today as Kate really has no idea what a birthday is, but we celebrated in style last weekend at a co-71st-birthday party for my dad and Kate (they have the same birthday).

I'll end this post and our first year of recording all things Kate with a few pics from her first birthday party.

Mommy and Kate showing off their party dresses.
Every girl needs a pretty dress for her big day.

Kate's party was at Grandma and Grandpa's house and as always Grandma Steph went above and beyond to put together an amazing party. She is the greatest party planner.

Yia Yia Debbie baked Kate a yummy cake to dive into at her party. She is usually a tidy eater but still managed to get a little whip cream on her face. She didn't quite know what to make of an entire cake just for her but managed to eat almost the whole thing.

Kate and Grandpa had a great time at their birthday party.
Here's to their 91st (80 +11) in ten years.

Kate woke up from her nap in the middle of the gift opening. She wasn't too sure what was written on the card but appreciated the sentiment. Notice the outfit change. Every birthday girl deserves to have a costume change halfway through her party.

This gift looks very interesting. I imagine that she is sitting there trying to figure out how she is going to put those wood pieces in her mouth.

This gift is incredible. Looks just like one mom had when she was a little girl.

Thank you to everyone who has shared their love with Kate this first year of her life. We are so lucky to have you all on this journey with us. We look forward to having you travel the road with us through another year.

Kate's (aka Mommy's) new favorite outing

Kate and I have started going to a new place to play the last few weeks. My playgroup introduced us to the Ecke YMCA gymnasium for open gym playtime. Every day for an hour, they open their gym (not the kind with treadmills and ellipticals but with fun things like balance beams, trampolines, bars, rings, and foam pits) for free play on all the fun equipment. They have the items mentioned above as well as lots of squishy things to climb on and parents can let their babies have free run of the place. It is a blast and Kate seems to really enjoy it. I think she is really going to love it when she starts walking.

Today we went to the gym for the second time and were joined by Auntie L and our personal photographer, Daddy. Here are the highlights from our baby workout at the gym.

We usually start out the day on the baby trampoline. Kate really loves crawling back and forth at top speed. I know this because she squeals happily with every "step" she takes. You might notice Auntie L in the background checking her phone
...though she will claim that she was trying to take pictures.

Once Kate gets off the trampoline she takes off across the gym and makes use of the ample floor space to work on her crawling. At least a quarter of her time at the gym is spent cruising around the room on the soft ground.

Today, Kate was fascinated with the rope hanging from the ceiling. I don't know what it was but she loved pulling and throwing the rope and watching it swing past her.

Here she is taking a little breather before she takes off across the room again.

Off again across the room. This time she took off towards the short balance beams. Maybe someday she will be as great as this olympian. Though, I don't know that she will meet the height restrictions to be a competitive gymnast.

The gym sets up obstacles for the kids to climb on and through.
Kate has pretty much got this one mastered.

Auntie L tried to help Kate swing on the rings. She would grab on but then immediately let go.
Perhaps it won't be her apparatus.

Auntie L really loves this picture and it really epitomizes Kate's pouty face. I promise she was having fun. I am sure that we will become very familiar with this face as Kate gets older.

Our final stop of the trip around the gym is in the giant foam pit. Just to give you an idea how big this is, Daddy jumped into it feet first, all 6'4" of him, and didn't hit the ground. Once you are in it is pretty hard to get out, and watch out for your socks.

Kate isn't 100% sure about the pit but for the most part has a pretty good time sitting in the foam, playing with the squares, and having us toss her (very lightly of course) into the pit.

Perhaps my love of the foam pit comes from a movie that I adored as a kid. This clip will bring back some great memories for those of you who watched the TV movie Nadia when you were little girls and dreamt of being an Olympic gymnast someday.

Finally, Bora Bora

Ia Orana (the Polynesian version of Aloha),

Okay, the snide remarks can stop. I've finally posted pictures from our trip to Bora Bora, and it's only been about a month since we got back. I'm going to keep this post short so I don't delay the process any more than I already have...to make up for it, I've put most of "the story" in the photo captions themselves. If you follow this link and put the album in slideshow mode, you can click through at your own pace (or just sit and watch the pictures advance automatically). Here's the link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jaimeryan/BoraBora

As D said in a previous post, we were quite lucky to get to return to Bora Bora....it was a stop on our honeymoon cruise through French Polynesia five years ago. This is one of those times that all the travel I do for work seems worth it, since AA miles and Hilton points covered most of the cost.

Aside from being the inspiration for the song Bali Hai from the musical South Pacific, Bora Bora has also gotten a few pop culture references recently.  The movie Couples Retreat was filmed there, and The Bachelorette filmed their last two shows of the season there....this Monday is the finale, filmed on location.

Though it's gotten a bit touristy and over-built with resorts in the last couple of decades, it's still quite pristine and never feels crowded or polluted.  There are no waves, due to the reef surrounding the island, and the weather and water temperature are close to perfect all year round.  We actually managed to catch a day of inclement weather, which mostly involved heavy winds and tiny wind-blown waves (about 6 inches high).  What drew us back were the beautiful shades of blue in the water, the amazing sea life, and the laid-back, friendly attitude of the residents.

Follow the link above to take a look at all of the pictures I've posted....about 10% of the pictures I actually took.  Here's a quick preview of the kind of shots you'll see.....

Here's a shot of the beautiful blues I mentioned, and the complete lack of waves...many of the beaches are shallow for quite a distance, allowing you to walk and/or snorkel to your heart's content.

We went on a couple of excursions while we were there, including one that allowed us to swim with sharks and stingrays.  That was one of my favorite memories from our honeymoon, and this time was even better.

We also did a 4x4 tour around the main island, which provided beautiful views of all the resorts and natural beauties.

We were able to stay in an overwater bungalow and snorkel off our balcony almost every day.  Though this picture happens to be from our stingray interaction, it gives you an idea of how bountiful the sea life can be.  It felt like stepping into a huge tropical aquarium every time we got in the water.

We hope you enjoy our pictures, and now we will be free to return to our regularly scheduled program...All Kate, All the Time.  With her first birthday approaching rapidly, her personality (and capabilities) change a little every day, and it's an amazing journey to be experiencing along with her.

Maururu (Polynesian for Thank you)

Photo shoots

I have been having fun with the camera the last few days and have taken Kate on a few "photo shoots." Here are some of the better shots but you can check out more on our nine month picture page.

I really loved this outfit so I thought we should do an impromptu session in the back yard. Kate loves trying to grab the camera and I shot this right before she got a hold of the lens.

Kate really loves making raspberry noises and this funny face. Somehow I managed to catch her at just the right moment. I love the goofy face.

Today I joined my playgroup at a local park called Jack's Pond Park. It is mainly park as the pond is difficult to get to and a bit far but is adorable nonetheless. The last few weeks have been very cloudy and this picture captures how I felt as the sun finally came out today.

You can't really see her face very well here but I love how concentrated she is on what she has in her hands. She just looks so sweet and ladylike. The sweetness didn't last too long as she threw a fit when I took away the rock she was trying to shove in her mouth, but it was lovely while it lasted.

The park has two red barns around the grounds which make for great backgrounds. I love the pensive look on her face and those gorgeous long eyelashes she got from her daddy.

Almost there

Kate has been pulling up on all our furniture fairly regularly for a few months. A month or so ago we tried to get her to use her walker to practice. She wasn't great at it in the beginning...

Clearly, she wasn't quite ready yet. So, we put away the walker for awhile as Kate seemed to have no interest in using it and wasn't solid enough on her feet yet.

Fast forward to yesterday. I was trying to come up with something new to do while J was on the phone so I revisited the walker not expecting much. I stood Kate up, put her in front of the walker and this is what happened.

She was off to the races the very first time. Kate is loving the ability to walk around the house and is becoming a quick pro at using the walker.

I am pretty sure that she will be walking on her own in no time. I'll be honest and confess that, although I was very happy to see the progression, Kate crawling was a big change for us and has made things a bit more challenging. Unlike crawling, I am very excited for Kate to take those first steps. For starters, my back has about had it with carrying around a 25 pound baby. Also, I do love to shop, and baby shoes are just about as cute as baby dresses. More importantly, I think walking will give Kate new freedom and independence that I know she will really love.

Just Because.....

..... she is so cute.

Have a great week!

Mammoth Family Vacation

My family and I have been vacationing in Mammoth, both during the summer and winter, for as long as I can remember and I love going back there as often as I can. My dad loves to remind me that I spent an entire night crying when my parents took me there as a baby. From the warm Schat's bread to my brother's geeky poses on the top of the cornice to hunting for bears, I have some incredible memories in the gorgeous Sierra Nevadas. I was so excited to be able to spend a mini-vacation there with my baby girl, my wonderful husband, my parents, and Kate's favorite uncle who flew out from Chicago to join us.

Here are some pictures that capture our first family trip to Mammoth.

We took Kate on her first hike.
Next time I hope I can figure out a way to travel Kate-style.

I am not a huge fan of hiking, but the trail was nice, the weather was beautiful,
and the end point was the gorgeous Minaret Falls.

Family picture at Lake Mamie.

Grandpa and Grandma were so excited to introduce Kate to the resident ducks at our rental.

One of our favorite things to do in the summer is take the gondola up to the top of the mountain. In the winter, this gondola takes skiers up to the hardest runs on the hill. Kate really enjoyed the trip up the hill.

Even though I go to Mammoth in both the summer and the winter, this picture only occurs in the summer as you couldn't pay me to ski off the top of the mountain, aka the Cornice, where the double black diamond runs are called Climax, Hangman's Hollow, Huevos Grande, and Wipeout Chutes.

Mammoth had an amazing snowfall this year and people were skiing until the 4th of July. There was still snow on the top of the mountain when we got there a week later. We put a blanket down for Kate and tried to have her check out snow for the first time. She wasn't too interested in the white stuff. Hopefully, the dislike of the powder is just a baby thing and she will speed down the cornice with her Uncle Cary when she gets older.

Loving hanging out with grandma in the gondola.


AND FINALLY DRUM ROLL PLEASE............................

Uncle Cary and his geeky pose on the top of the cornice.

Eleven Months

Well, once again, it has been a bit long since our last update. Perhaps we should just be honest with ourselves and admit that, unless something special happens, monthly updates are about as good as it is going to get. We do have some great excuses for the delay and I think you will agree that we have had very little blogging time available over the last month.

In our last post, we promised a post with Bora Bora pics. J is a little behind on getting those up, but here is a little teaser. We took this picture on the balcony of our overwater bungalow. It was an incredible vacation and we can't wait to share the pics with you. (Hint, Hint J!) And yes, that water color is real. No photoshopping here.

We arrived home and passed out the lovely gifts we picked up in the Papeete marketplace. Unfortunately, we don't think Kate was very happy with her gift.

We think she is saying, "My parents went to Bora Bora and all I got was this lousy t-shirt!"
"Hey, Kate. It was pretty expensive so you better like it!"

A few days after getting settled back into home and life with a 10 month old, we had a few visitors. My high school friend Kelly came to stay for a few days with her husband Chris and their adorable baby/Kate's boyfriend Cole. We had a great time visiting with our favorite Arizona couple and letting the kids get reacquainted. Cole has gotten so big since we saw him last and is a super-hunky-muscle-man baby.

J's parents and cousin G came to visit for Fourth of July. J and I aren't really big Fourth of July celebrators, but we spent a nice evening visiting with some family friends at their ocean- front rental condo. Yet again, we didn't really see any fireworks, except for a few blasts on our drive home.

Once our first batch of summer visitors left, we joined my parents and my brother and his lovely girlfriend for extended weekend in Mammoth. Check out our separate post with some pictures of our Mammoth trip.

When we got back, we picked up J's Alabama parents and Chico grandparents at the airport for a week of Kate bonding. Later in the week J's LA parents and Victorville grandparents came to visit as well. It was so nice to be able to spend some quality time with J's family and was wonderful to watch Grandpa T get to hang out with his first granddaughter. The Alabama and Chico relatives haven't seen Kate since she was about a month old. We think they had a great time getting to know our little girl.

Grandpa T and Grandma L gave Kate a great book that had a lion finger puppet sticking up through the middle of the book as well as the two cute stuffed animals sitting next to her on the couch. She thought they were really funny.

Kate continues to grow and change at an incredible rate. It may be our imagination, but she really seems to understand what we say to her and what is going on around her. It all seemed to click around the time we went to Mammoth. Out of the blue, she started identifying objects. She picks out rabbits in her books and points out the window to birds. It doesn't matter if the object is a picture or the actual item, she consistently identifies dogs, birds, rabbits, fish, ducks, and her toes. Overall, she seems less frustrated as she is able to communicate a little better with us and understands us a little better. This makes for a happier Kate as well as mommy and daddy.

Kate has also learned how to climb stairs. She has climbed up Willow's stairs a few times and has tackled the entire set of stairs in our house twice. Don't worry about her safety. I followed closely behind her and we have the stairs blocked off with a gate so there won't be any non-supervised stair-climbing.

One of Kate's favorite pastimes is standing at the baby gate and shaking it. It is like she is in little baby jail.

As Kate approaches her first birthday, she is starting to work on some very important milestones. She is getting better at standing unassisted and stands alone for a few seconds at a time. She doesn't seem to be quite ready to walk alone, but she is making good progress towards greater mobility. We also think that that she is starting to work on her communication skills a bit more. We think she is signing a few things like eat and maybe a sign we made up for Willow. J also thinks she said ba-ba this morning. Now she says this a lot but he was sure she said it to tell us she wanted her bottle which she was pointing at while she said ba-ba. We'll be paying close attention to those cute little baby words coming out of her mouth. Kate has also become a finger-food-eating fool. She can pretty much pick up anything at this point and shove it in her mouth.

Though we haven't weighed Kate lately, we are pretty sure she is still up there in the 100th percentile. She is comfortably wearing her 18 month summer clothes and we are now focusing on buying her 24 month fall/winter wardrobe. Yes, our 11 month old wears 18 month clothes. She's a big girl. We figure we have a volleyball player in the making.

On a final note, Willow gave me a little scare this week and took another nice chunk out of our bank account. This time it was totally my fault. Willow is a bit of a food thief and she took advantage of my absentmindedness and stole an undetermined amount of trail mix. Well, silly me was worried about the chocolate when I should have been worried about the raisins which are apparently very toxic to dogs. I figured this out the next morning after Willow vomited for about 45 minutes. I rushed her to the vet sure that she was in kidney failure (the effects of raisins). She looked pretty bad, but after $500.00 worth of tests and medications, she came home fine with no signs of raisin poisoning. So lesson learned: keep raisins away from your dog!

As we head into the final month of Kate's first year we still have an incredibly busy summer. J has made me a Comic-Con widow this weekend but has some awesome pics and great stories to show for it. My step mom and I are planning a wonderful 71st birthday party for my dad and Kate (they have the same birthday) and we still have some family coming to visit. I only have a few weeks left before school starts up again, but I am looking forward to spending my last few weeks watching Kate learn and grow.

Oh...and we will get those Bora Bora pics up soon... ahem ahem J!

Ten Months

I know it's been a while, and even this ten month update is about ten days too late, but better late than never. It's been a very active month, mostly because Kate has also been very active.

First things first, we have a new photo album to mark the final quarter of Kate's first year.

Shortly after our last post, we attended a local event called Pet-a-palooza. J won VIP tickets from the local radio station, so we got to have lunch with Victoria Stillwell. She's a dog trainer with a show on Animal Planet called "It's Me or the Dog." As with most "my dog is out of control" shows, it often becomes more about training the dog owners than the dog itself, but she has a nice demeanor and takes a more patient/positive approach than most other TV hosts (like the Dog Whisperer). As part of the prize, we got to have lunch with her (and 20 other contest winners) and a personal consultation about Willow. We asked a few questions about dealing with a newly-blind dog and a new baby; though we didn't hear too much we didn't know, she had a few good suggestions. It was a fun event, especially since we don't often get out with both Kate and Willow. A LOT of people brought their dogs, so there was a pretty fun variety of pooches. Here's our pooch with Victoria and me.

Memorial Day marked our annual trip to the Greek Festival in the San Fernando Valley. The festival takes place at J's childhood church and elementary school. He worked the booths when he was little and now we spend the whole weekend sitting around at the tables gorging ourselves on amazing Greek food. We were so excited to be able to take Kate to her first festival. J especially loved introducing his daughter to childhood friends, family friends, and teachers. We used to sit around the church grounds until they kicked us out at the end of the evening; with a baby that goes to sleep at 6:30, our partying was cut a bit short, but we still had a great time. Aunt M brought Kate these amazing sunglasses from Philly and she really seemed to like them (as long as she was in the sunshine).

As you can see Kate was a very happy girl at the festival. She loves it when daddy throws her up into the air. Don't worry. He is very careful and doesn't throw her very high, partially because she is ginormous. Kate tried some pilafi and a bit of Greek chicken. She seemed to really like it and is well on her way to appreciating her Greek heritage. I'm sure we'll be one of those families bringing home a half-dead goldfish in a plastic bag in a year or so.

At our nine month checkup, Kate's doctor talked to us about starting her on real table food. She had tried a few times, but hadn't really made a good go at it. We decided to start slowly with one meal. It was very slow going in the beginning as she wasn't great at the whole pick up food with two fingers, put food in mouth, release food idea. I think the first meal took about an hour. Here she is practicing at lunch with grandma and grandpa.

Not surprisingly, Kate has picked up the finger feeding concept very quickly. So far she has mastered things like chicken, fish, cheese, cantaloupe, peas, carrots, mangoes, grapes, peaches, pasta, and zucchini. She is to the point now where she doesn't really want us to spoon feed her and she has gotten very good at doing it herself. At lunch the other day she pretty much stuffed her face full of cantaloupe, one piece after another with barely a breath in between. We were astounded and watched very closely to make sure she didn't choke on the massive amounts of food in her mouth. Despite her progressing skills, she still manages to make a huge mess every so often. Here was her latest go-round with broccoli.

My step dad came to visit a few weeks ago and we went to the San Diego fair. Kate got to meet some barnyard animals up close for the first time. She wasn't too sure about them, but didn't shy away either. She has always been a brave little girl, but has started to show a little bit of fear (the weed whacker and a very noisy toy dog that rolls around on the ground) lately. The fair was also exciting because my journalism students won first place for the newspaper and a best in class award for a feature two-page spread.

Probably one of the biggest advances Kate has made over the past month has been her ability to pull up on pretty much everything. Her favorite places are the coffee table and the gate that blocks off the living room. Her other new favorite activity is to pull all her books out of the storage bin in the coffee table. She doesn't seem overly interested in reading the books, but she sure loves pulling them out and handing them to us.

One of J's colleagues said that a baby is at its cutest when he or she is nine months old. One of our dear friends vehemently disagreed and I do for the most part, but ten month old Kate is not quite as jovial as nine month old Kate. Don't get me wrong, when she's happy (which is still a the majority of the time) she's adorable and lovely, but when she's not happy, she lets us know about it. She definitely has an independent spirit and has the potential to possibly be a bit stubborn in the future. Now, you might see comments from her grandparents claiming we are lying, but trust us, she has a bit of a temper on her at times.

Another interesting milestone this month was a bout with hand, foot, and mouth disease. Don't get it confused with hoof and mouth disease. That one is just for animals and the one Kate had is just for people. It didn't seem to bother her a whole lot, but she did have to stay home from daycare for a few days (thanks dad and Steph for the impromptu childcare) and unfortunately passed it on to one of our friend's baby before we realized that she had it (sorry about that J, R, and K). It seems to be going around, though, as a few babies I know have had it at completely different times over the past few months. The good news is that it is like chicken pox and you tend to only get it once.  Adults are pretty much immune, which means J and I were safe and didn't get it.

Finally, to wrap up a long post, we were surprised today by a unexpected new skill Kate seemed to learn magically overnight.

I think she was shamed into it by a little boy from our playgroup who is a few weeks older than Kate. We ran into him on Saturday and he was clapping like crazy. Grandma K worked with her a little on Sunday and I worked with her a little over the past few days as well and voila. We were riding in the car and I looked down and she was clapping. The really amazing thing is that she seems to know the word for clapping. I don't remember using the word clap a whole lot, but apparently she learned it somewhere.

Check back over the next week or so as J and I just got back from an early five-year anniversary vacation to Bora Bora. Bora Bora was one of the stops on our honeymoon cruise and we always hoped to return one day as we found it breathtaking the first time we were there. So, with some saved up airline miles and Hilton rewards points, we journeyed over the Pacific to our idea of Bali Ha'i. It was an incredible trip filled with sunshine, gorgeous blue water and colorful fish, swimming with dangerous creatures like sharks and sting rays, and a magical stay in an overwater bungalow in the most beautiful place we have ever been. We can't wait to share our beautiful pictures with you. In case you were wondering, no we didn't take Kate. She had a grand time with two sets of grandparents and our other baby, Willow, stayed with the third. So we felt confident leaving our girls in their capable hands.

Nine Months

Wow, it's really been an exhausting week. I've sat down to write this every night this week, and ended up having too much to do for work, or simply passing out on the couch. I got a new pseudo-promotion at work (better title, more responsibility, same paycheck) and I'm trying to catch up on all the new tasks I have to deal with. Aside from that, Kate's recent increase in mobility has been accompanied (somehow) by an increase in energy. She's been in constant motion from the second she wakes up in the morning until we put her to bed, and that motion now includes scooting, crawling, climbing, and even a little bit of supported walking. We knew that it would be a change, but she also only took a five minute nap on Monday, and still didn't seem tired.

Monday was Kate's nine month birthday, and Tuesday was her associated doctor's visit. I've posted lots of new pictures in her six month album (http://picasaweb.google.com/jaimeryan/Kate6Months), and I'll be creating a new album for any pictures after nine months....I'll link to it in our next blog post. There are also a few new pictures in the KateFans album. If you haven't made it into Kate's fan club yet, come on over and get your picture taken with the world's cutest baby.

Her doctor's appointment went quite well, as she confirmed that everything was moving along according to plan. She's right where she should be, developmentally, and still huge, physically. She measured 30.5 inches long and 24 pounds, 12 ounces. That was with clothes, so we're guessing it's more like 24.5 pounds, but close enough. That measurement puts her in the 100th percentile for height and 99th percentile for weight. And, no surprise to anyone that's ever seen my giant noggin, she's in the 100th percentile for head circumference as well.

The doctor also told us that we could increase her food repertoire to just about anything, with a few exceptions (peanut butter, shellfish, etc). We were excited by this and got a little carried away....when we got home we broke all the Official Parenting Rules. You're supposed to introduce new menu items to babies one at a time, and go for three or four days before moving on to the next one. The idea is to isolate each ingredient so you can track down allergies if they have a reaction....if there's only one new food, then it must be the culprit. However, Kate's never shown any indication of being allergic (or even intolerant) to any food product....as if my baby wouldn't be able to eat something! As I said, we got a little carried away, and introduced about five new foods all at once. Yes, we're bad parents, but she was a little champ and liked them all (with no adverse reactions). D made two new recipes...the first was chicken, spinach, garlic, carrots, and oregano. The second was potatoes, leeks, and spinach. We also gave her some yogurt. They were all taste sensations, and though it was obvious she liked some better than others, she put them all away just fine.

Kate's still sleeping pretty well, though it takes her a bit longer to get to sleep than it has in the past. Before, we'd lay her down (after her nighttime routine of diaper change, pajamas, book, bottle, bed), she'd cry for about ten seconds, and then she'd fall fast asleep. With her new mobility, sometimes she now decides she wants to sit up and look around for a while, which results in the following view on KateTV:

For a while, she would sit up and then not know how to lay back down. She'd sit there and nod off to sleep, with her head first drooping, then bolting upright, then drooping, etc. Eventually she'd kind of fall over and catch herself before landing too hard, then go right to sleep. The mattress has been moved to its lowest setting, and we had to remove the bumpers so she didn't stand up and use them as a step to climb over the railing. She still uses a pacifier when she's in bed, but recently we've had to put two or three in there with her....without bumpers on the crib, it's pretty easy to throw/drop a pacifier onto the ground.

Kate's current energy levels and maneuverability have made playtime much more interesting as well. We haven't really baby-proofed the house yet, and I'm still not sure how we're going to....there are a lot of built-in hazards. We're having to be extra diligent and stay close while she's playing on the floor, because she can be at one end of the living room or the other in about ten seconds. Moving items so that she can't get to them is going to be a trade-off, because many of those items belong to Willow. You know what they say about moving the furniture in a blind person's house....the same goes for dogs. In one direction, Kate likes to go for Willow's water and food bowls.....in the other direction, all of Willow's toys....in a third direction, Willow's bed.....and in the last direction, the TV and all of its associated electronics. Moving any one of Willow's things probably wouldn't be a big deal, but I'm not sure where we can move them all to so that she can find them (and easily get to them), but Kate can't.

Here's a fun shot of Kate doing her best Kilroy impersonation. After first just peeking over the table at us, we eventually realized that she was gnawing on the wood with her two little teeth. Put that on the list for baby-proofing.

We had an unexpected visitor earlier this week. A cat that we believe belongs to our neighbors down the street (about five houses down), came into our backyard and started scoping out our resident birds. There are some tiny finch-like birds that live in our trees and have built a nest in the pole supporting our gazebo. The cat was staring at them and waiting for her opportunity to strike....fortunately, I don't think the birds are putting themselves in harm's way. The cat was very friendly and at one point walked in our open back door. There she promptly ran into Wilow and decided she'd rather be back outside. The weather's been great, so we headed out to the yard with a Kate and a blanket....Kate enjoys the grass and the fresh air, and she was intrigued by the cat.

The first time we tried Kate in a swing (at a local park), it was a little too big for her and she tended to rock back and forth while it swung....not a desirable feeling. We decided to pick up a smaller baby swing and attach it to our garage entrance. This time she really enjoyed it. With summer coming up, this should be a good way to play and meet all of the neighborhood babies at the same time.

We have an exciting event to go to on Sunday (aside from the Lost finale), so we might have more fun pictures early next week.

Check that off the list

We've had a very eventful day in the Ryan household today. Fortunately, J got to see most of it before he left for the evening. Kate has had a very exciting few weeks and is really growing into her personality.

She is an incredibly happy baby and loves meeting new people. We ran into one of our amazing nurses from Children's at our Mother's Day dinner and within 30 seconds of talking to her, Kate was reaching out for her to hold her. We love that she is willing to go to anyone, though she often doesn't want to sit still for long.

Kate has picked up a couple new skills in the last few days. A few weeks ago, we started tapping our hands over her mouth while she was making noise. She thought it was hilarious. Well, it is now one of her favorite games and she is even learning how to do it herself. Usually, she uses her pacifier or a toy, but recently she is actually doing it the right way with her hand. She even tries to make the noise on our mouths and puts our hands over her when she wants to play.



Perhaps you noticed in the beginning of that video that Kate has also learned how to crawl in the right direction. She figured it out this morning. She usually only takes a few movements forward at a time, but she definitely has the idea. I expect she will be off and running in the next few days.



I got a little surprise this afternoon. Many of you know that we have a video camera in Kate's crib that connects wirelessly to our TV downstairs. A few days ago, we were watching her on KateTv (as we lovingly call it) and we watched her sit up in the crib, scoot down to the end, and stick her face right in the camera. We then proceeded to watch her turn the camera around. It was almost as if she was giving us a tour of her crib. We decided that is was time to move her crib down to the lowest setting. It's a good thing we followed through because this is what I saw on KateTv today. She was pretty proud of herself when I got up to her room.



Kate is also working on hugs and kisses. Her kisses usually are open mouthed slobber-fests. She is spotty with the hugs, but it feels so good when she wraps her little arms around us.

Here she is going in for the kiss.
I can't wait for her to learn how to give closed-mouth pecks.

Kate will be nine months old on Monday. We can't believe how heavy she is (almost 25 pounds) and how quickly the months have passed. We're beginning to plan her big 1st birthday party in conjunction with a big birthday for my dad (they have the same birthday).

Some parting photos just to show how much our little girl has grown already.

Grandpa D made this chair for Kate for Christmas and she tried it out for the first time on Christmas morning. She was 4 months old.

Here she is today! The bow is in the same place as it was on Christmas morning.
She is already looking like a little girl.