7 Months and New Tricks

I feel like I just wrote a 6 month post, and here we are...7 months. Why does that sound so much older than 6?? Maybe because it's over halfway to having a 1 year old. Yikes!

Katelyn is getting so BIG! She's in 9 and 12 month clothes now and weighs over 17 lbs. She is quickly catching up to many of her 12 and 15 month old friends!

Here she is being cute as ever...

7 months has brought some new tricks as well. In addition to sitting (which she is now doing without support for 5-10 minutes...yay!) and playing with toys at the same time, Katelyn has been spending a lot of floor time like this...

And lots of time playing her new favorite game...


And then there's this...

Okay, come on, she's only 7 months. Of course mommy stacked the blocks. But she loves to knock them down! And it was a pretty appropriate picture considering the onesie she was wearing.

Happy 7 months Kate Kate! We love you more every day!

Big brother Collin has a trick of his own as well. We had arts and crafts day yesterday. He painted some magnets, decorated paper with stamps, practiced some letters, and did this...

First time without any help! (I had been spelling it for him.) He also did this...

Since I realize I may be able to interpret this masterpiece better than anyone still reading this, I'll tell you what Collin told me. Clockwise (beginning at the top right) is a picture of Collin with eyeballs, eyelashes, and hair (yellow). Below that is his belly, belly button, and legs. Then his name again. Bottom left is a bee. Not sure about the top left. Top middle is an airplane. Way to go big boy! You make mommy proud! Now don't ever roll down the steps again like you did tonight. Mommy has never been so scared!

Kids Say the Darndest Things

I haven't gotten a chance to upload any new photos, so I thought I would write about something that's been making me smile and laugh out loud every day lately...the language of a 3 year old. I have always thought Collin's speech and language was a little advanced (sorry speech therapy friends if this is not true and I'm just a biased and proud mommy!). Before I make you smile (hopefully) with Collin's new words and sayings, I wanted to look back at some of my favorite moments in his language development.

First Words: car, mama, dada, uh oh. I honestly can't remember when he said his first word (sorry Collin), but I know it was before he turned 1. "Uh oh" was around 11 months and I know the other 3 came before that. He was speaking sentences pretty early too. Here's one of my favorite videos. In case you can't make it out (which you probably won't be able to), he says "move your hand please." It's at the very beginning. If you watch the whole thing, no, I'm not sure what he puts in his mouth off the floor.



First Signs: Collin started signing "more" when he was about 9 months old. It started out when he was eating and continued on to other things. He actually started using it too much in that he would just crawl over to something (i.e. the loud musical stuffed animals we got out around Christmas time) and sign more indicating he wanted us to turn them on. But at least we knew what he meant. We had to explain it to everyone else who just thought he was clapping. He also signed "all done" during mealtimes and "milk" when it was time for a bottle. The only other sign we taught was "sorry" which he still uses in addition to saying the word. However, instead of signing on his own chest, he signs it on the person he's telling he's sorry. Okay for mommy and daddy, but gets a little awkward with other people.

Past Favorites: One of my favorite "mix ups" was that he used to call Winnie the Pooh "shampoo". He also said "hold you" instead of "hold me". One of the best was that he called his blanket "mat". This took us a while to figure out, but it was because at school at naptime, his teachers would tell him to get his mat. He thought they were talking about the blanket. He still occasionally refers to his blanket as "mat". And so do I. When he was 2, he started being able to recite books from memory that we read ALL. THE. TIME. Many of you have probably already seen these videos, but here is Collin "reading" Brown Bear and Panda Bear at age 2.





Okay, so if you are still reading, here are some of my current favorites, including new words/sayings, "mix ups", and incredibly southern words.
1. Totally
2. Actually
3. Perhaps
4. Definitely
5. That is bisgusting.
6. Whew, that was clost (close).
7. Good as new.
8. No, that doesn't sound like a plan.
9. That was what the problem was.
10. "Whistling" for the dog or Katelyn. Wish I had a video of this. Maybe I'll post that one day soon. Picture Woody calling Bullseye (his horse) in Toy Story 2.
11. What in the world? (World has about 3 syllables...something like "worold".
12. Y'all
13. Referring to mom and dad as "guys". As in "let's go guys" or "okay, guys?"
14. Watermelon (more like watermailon).
15. Yeah (also with about 3 syllables...more like yayuh).
16. Mus-nic instead of music. Not sure where this came from, but it has persisted for a long time.
17. That's not useful. (Said for the first time today when referring to his Crest Spinbrushes that ran out of batteries.)

Well, off to take Katelyn to the doctor for an ear re-check. (Edit: Since the videos were giving me trouble this morning, I couldn't publish then, so we've already been to the doctor. Ears were fine. Our little chubby girl has gained a pound in 3 weeks. She's up to 17 lbs. 6 oz!)

Hope everyone has a fun and safe weekend. Pics of last weekend's adventures coming soon!

Mmmmm...

Peas, squash, and pears...
Yep. We got a much needed bath tonight.

Imaginations at Play

On Friday, my sister and I took the kids to Imaginations at Play in Buford. They had such a great time. Collin and Carter spent some time in each area and played for 2.5 hours straight. Without a single argument I think. (Maybe because they were playing with someone else's toys and didn't have to worry about each other taking their toys home with them.) I sort of expected the place to be bigger, but it ended up being a good thing since we could just let them roam free and always have them in our line of sight. We will definitely be going back! Here are some pictures of their fun!


Katelyn spent 95% of her time there like this:

And 5% like this:

It's a great place for kids and I think we may be having Collin's next birthday party there. Despite our disaster at lunch (kids outnumbering parents, long wait, bad food, etc., etc.), it was a fun day!

Six Month Checkup

Last week Katelyn went for her 6 month well child checkup. The doctor almost changed it to a sick visit when she heard her cough, but continued on anyway only to find what she referred to as a "bulging" ear infection in her right ear. Poor girl. And considering her doctor still believes in immunizing through mild illnesses, I'm sure she felt pretty pitiful after leaving the office. She's doing fine now (thank you Augmentin) and here's how she's checking out these days and what she's been up to...

1. She weighed in at 16 lbs. 6.6 oz (50-75%ile) and was 26" long (50-75%ile).
2. Her head circumference was 44.9 cm (97%ile). Wow. I knew I was having a hard time getting those little shirts over her head.
3. She wears 6 and 9 months clothes. She still wears a size 1 shoe. She wears size 3 diapers.
4. She has finally started consistently rolling from her tummy to her back. Only occasionally does she get stuck and just start screaming. She is not yet rolling from her back to her tummy (and why would she considering her strong dislike of tummy time?)
5. She is sitting for longer periods of time but not well enough for me to walk away from her when she's sitting.
6. She's definitely TEETHING. I can't get her hands out of her mouth even to eat sometimes. And the drool is just constantly pouring. None have broken through yet though.
7. Her favorite thing to do with toys is throw them.
8. She loves to eat. She is nursing 4-5 times per day (depending on whether or not she wakes up in the wee hours of the morning to nurse).
9. She's also digging her solid foods. She eats oatmeal and fruit for breakfast and multigrain cereal and veggies for dinner. She eats Stage 1 carrots, peas, green beans, squash, applesauce, bananas, pears, and peaches. Her favorites by far are squash and bananas. On to Stage 2 foods after our next trip to Kroger.
10. She sleeps for a good (at least) 7 hour stretch at night. She usually goes to sleep between 7-730 and wakes up around 3 or 4 to nurse. Then it's back to sleep until between 6 and 7. Sometimes she skips that early morning feeding. And although I love the extra sleep, I miss the quiet snuggle time.
11. She was having a really hard time with frequent night wakings (requiring us to go in and comfort her up to once an hour) so we were forced to let her fall asleep in her own bed instead of being rocked to sleep. It has helped tremendously. I stand by her crib and she holds my arms/hands until she's fast asleep. Sometimes she makes no fuss at all; other nights it's harder. She still wakes often in the early night (before I've gone to bed thankfully) but then gives me a nice 4-5 hour stretch of sleep. And the biggest change is that sometimes she will stir or cry out for a second, but then go back to sleep on her own. Success!!
12. She has recently dropped her 3rd nap. She has been much more tired at night which has made it harder to get her to sleep. I still think she could benefit from a 3rd little cat nap, but we just can't seem to fit it in since she's staying up longer between nap #1 and #2.
13. She loves her exersaucer. She does not love her Bumbo seat anymore.
14. She's attempting to blow raspberries and thinks it's hilarious.
15. All of her dark hair is falling out and is being replaced by a much lighter color.
16. She's growing up way too fast and we love her to pieces!

Instead of taking Katelyn to have her 6 month portraits taken, I decided to test out my own skills. So, Mike loaded up the photography equipment (from work) in my car, and I headed home to set it up. Without any clue how to do so. I was pretty impressed that out of 113 shots, I had 21 that I would consider "frameable". So here are some of my favorites from my first portrait session. Now accepting constructive criticism...

Baby Laughs

Yesterday Katelyn reminded me of the day when my baby sister Kandace was laughing hysterically as we pulled the blinds up and down.

Cleaning Bathrooms

I asked Collin to get out a few toys to entertain Katelyn today while I cleaned their bathroom. I came back in to this:
He really is such a great big brother and does a great job taking care of her. Since she can't stand to be alone, I can't count how many times a day I ask him to come and sit in the same room with her while I run do something. He never complains.

Obviously I got more picture taking done than bathroom cleaning but that's okay. I finished it anyway (just with Katelyn attached to my hip).

P.S. I was playing with the manual settings on the camera so the lighting in some of these is not great. I have a lot to learn...

Swimming Lessons

Collin started swimming lessons this week and is doing great! It's sort of slow going so far, but there are only 2 kids in the class plus a teenage helper so he gets a LOT of one on one attention. Here are some of the things he has learned so far...

Blowing Bubbles

Holding his nose and putting his face in the water

"Relaxing" on his back

Kicking on a kickboard

"Streamline" (holding on with both hands to instructor's one hand and kicking)

And going under water when he jumps in!