Drool monster.

So Katie never drooled until this week. And now it's all catching up to us. Wow. Rivers of saliva. I'm hoping it will go away again once these teeth finally break through.

New pictures, of course.

She stands up at everything now. So fast and strong.
Also likes to sit on her knees to play.

Jammies!


All bundled up to go to town.

And, staying up past bedtime.

And, we have beans, cucumbers, cauliflower, and tomatoes sprouted. Yay!

Yay!

8 months!

As of 1:15 am tomorrow, Katie will be 8 months old. I don't intend to be awake then to update this blog. She's getting so big. She rolls around in the bath now, plays on her tummy, crawls around, sits up, lays on her back. Doesn't even phase her when she gets her face wet. Of course, that may have something to do with me dumping water over her head for the last 7.5 months. That's what you get when your mom was a swim instructor. She even holds her breath when I rinse her hair under the shower. Yay! Next step, finding a parent & tot swim class. And then maybe a babysitter so I can swim myself.

She's getting so big. Here she is playing with a milk jug.
Yea, okay so it's a 1L size milk jug, but it's still cute! It's got pennies in it, and she just loves to shake it. Oddly, as loud as it is, it doesn't bother me nearly as much as electronic toys do. Although a lot of those come with volume control...

February 22, 2003

Yep, it's been 4 years. Seems like much less time than that, and yet seems like we've been together forever at the same time. How fun.

Also, Grandma & Grandpa Lake celebrate 49 years today. It's great being able to share such a special day with them. Makes it that much more special.

Look what I can do!

Yes, that's right, she's standing by herself. And she pulls up herself too. Yikes.

Night 2

Of my new plan to never require sleep again. Just think of all the things I'll be able to get done if I stop sleeping. Katie is very thoughtfully assisting me in accomplishing this goal.

Or, she's teething. Whatever.

You can see the giant bump where her teeth should be poking through when she smiles, but the teeth aren't poking through. Hence the not sleeping. And since not much disturbs her sleep (except a grumbly belly, of course), especially when she's had some teething tablets, I imagine she's in a fair bit of pain. But I'm not into overmedicating, and she's in a surprisingly good mood, all things considered. She's currently chatting with Andrew's picture in the little album she was given for Christmas. Very sweet.

Here is Katie with Zed the Zebra. I got Zed the last time I went to the zoo in Portland, and he's been sitting in my car all this time. I finally got him down for Katie a couple of weeks ago and it was love at first sight. She's infatuated. For those of you who don't know, zed is the Canadian word for Z. :)


On the seeding front, I didn't do anything today except put the tray in the front window. I think they're still alive, I guess we'll find out soon.

My avocado tree is still going strong. Last month marks 2 years past the day it started to grow again after I accidentally froze it to death. It now stands 28" above the soil, and already has some new growth. Living indoors will do that, I suppose. I gather that I'm supposed to pinch that new growth so that it will learn to grow in more directions than up, but I'm having a hard time with that, considering I already stunted it once. We shall see. So far, this is the only indoor plant that I haven't managed to kill.

I think we'll try bed again. At least we can have a good snuggle.

Today we played.

First we played in the bath.

Then we played with some dirt and seeding trays. She didn't know what to think of the dirt. She spent a very long time sitting here investigating the bits of dirt on her hand. Then she wiped her hand in more dirt that was on the floor and investigated for a bit longer.
The poor seeding tray didn't know what hit it.

Then, of course, it was time to play in the bath again. As you can see, it was really hard on her.
I did get a lot of planting done though. This being my first year starting things indoors, we'll see how it turns out, but I have high hopes.
We have seeds for:
- Pumpkins (Orange Smoothie)
- Watermelon (New Queen) - It's YELLOW!!
- Cauliflower (Cheddar) - Also yellow. Looks just like someone poured cheese sauce on it.
- Tomatoes - cherry, pear, rainbow blend heirloom, native sun (yellow), and a bush tomato called keepsake storage that is supposed to stay good at room temperature for 70 days after picked.
- Cucumbers - morden, burpless bush, and lemon (yum)
- tomatillos (for salsa)
- beans - purple royalty and scarlet runner
- corn
- asparagus
- mini bell peppers

More to come, but that's what I got seeded today. Just a few of each.

And the dog also got to eat real food today instead of cookies.

Things left undone.

Today I was going to:
- Return the rental truck to the dealership and pick up my car.
- Bring in the bag of dog food from my trunk.
- Bring in the bag of potting soil from the garage.
- Start seeds for the garden.

I got the truck returned and my car is now in the driveway. The dog is eating dog cookies for supper because it's cold and dark and I don't want to go outside. And the seeds are waiting until tomorrow. Again.

We did also go to Costco and pick up some nice vittles. Some things that will be very useful for someone who is the only person eating cooked food in this house half the month. It's hard to justify cooking for one person. Especially when that person isn't allowed to eat said cooked meal while it is still warm. Might as well have cold cereal. On that note, I'm also in the market for a microwave. Just need to find a really small one. And maybe an electric kettle, so that when I have to boil water 3 times for my cup of tea, it doesn't take all day to do so.

In Katie news, she started pulling up to stand today. Without my help. And she is mighty pleased with herself until she falls down. Luckily, that has been just as slow as the standing, so it isn't actually painful, just infuriating. Still no teeth on top, but I'm hoping by morning. I can feel ridges, so it shouldn't be too much longer. But I've said that before. She also likes to stand up with the steering wheel in the car, makes for some cute pictures. Today I stood her up there and said, "vroom, vroom." And was rewarded with hysterical laughter. So naturally, we repeated it for about 10 minutes. There is nothing sweeter than baby laughter.

And the obligatory photos.
a mighty-pleased-with-herself Katie.

The Mighty Shrew Hunter (I won't subject you to a photo of the actual shrew)

and Charlie. I've decided that he is horribly non-photogenic in the winter. He really looks good except when I take his picture.

No pictures of Bailey right now, she's on the dirt list. She ate my nice work gloves again, and she was only alone with them for about 10 seconds. Stupid dog won't touch Andrew's gloves, maybe I should soak mine in drilling mud too. And, she doesn't go out with us to feed the horse anymore because she thinks she needs to eat all his grain, which of course makes her sick.

No pictures of Jose because he's a fish and he's not very exciting.

Happy Valentines Day!

For Valentine's Day, I got you all some nice rosy cheeks.

It warmed up to -10C/17F today, so I took Katie out to feed the horse with me again. Bundled her first though. She has a hard time sitting up in this suit, it's very thick.

After we came in. She's still sitting in the carrier. She was nice & toasty warm except for her cheeks. She loves going out to visit the horse.

Oh! Get me from my good side.
Cutie.

And my sweetie sent me some very pretty flowers.

And a new vote

After discussion with Andrew (and a tie with the last vote), we now have 4 pictures. I need to turn it in tomorrow, and I can't decide. If you want to vote, please do so before 1pm MST. Thanks!!

#1
#2

#3

#4

A new update.

Katie is feeling much better, has been for a couple days. Now we're dealing with the teeth again. They are STILL not through. She's getting so big and learning more and more every day. It is amazing to watch.


Almost time for bed, with rosy cheeks from a nice warm bath. She LOVES the bath. Loves to splash and play with her toys. We're working on floating (what do you expect from a former swimming teacher), and kicking, and she loves that too. She also holds her breath when she puts her face in the water, but I'm not sure if that's intentional or a reflex. Either way, we're going to encourage it. She has no fear of the water, so the earlier she learns to swim, the better.
She's been trying more solid foods. She still nurses for her meals, but we are attempting to try some "big people food" every day. So far, she loves bananas, avocados, blueberries and chicken with veggies. Will tolerate pears and sweet potatoes, and does not like regular potatoes. Won't even attempt carrots. Picks them up and throws them straight on the floor. That's my girl. She seemed to like the pea I gave her the other day, but I only had one that I could pick out of my supper. I also found some wheat-free maple flavour teething biscuits today and she was very excited about those. By the time she was done with one, she smelled like pancakes. Yum. We're waiting on wheat because of Mom's allergy. I very much don't want to deal with that later.

She wasn't sure what she was supposed to do with these noodles. Bailey, however, was very pleased with the outcome. She got to eat them all. And the asparagus stick that Katie didn't want. This is one of the major reasons Bailey likes babies. She does not, however, appreciate her lips being pulled. That makes her cry.
Chicken & veggies are a big hit.

And, I'm learning to knit. This project will be a bib. And the yarn is handwash only. Not sure what I was thinking. Pretty though.

Poor sick baby.

Long time since the last post, Katie's been fighting off a cold. She seems to be over it now, but she had a couple rough nights.

We have forward movement!

It's not pretty, but it definitely gets her where she's going. Took her 2 days to figure out once she started shuffling forward. Still only 2 teeth through, but I'm desperately hoping the third will be through when we wake up in the morning. It's so close, and it's bothering her a lot. In the meantime, she looks absolutely adorable with just 2 teeth.

Also, the newspaper is doing a photospread of the babies born in 2006, and since Katie qualifies, we're putting in her picture. I hear from some possibly reliable sources that it is a contest, but I don't recall reading that in the first announcement and it wasn't in this week's paper. So, if you read our blog, please reply to this post and vote for your favorite picture. I've narrowed it down to three that I think display her personality very well.

Thanks!

#1 Rawr!

#2 Shredder.

#3 Aren't I adorable?