I am a slacker.

I've been lazy. I haven't posted here as much as I should be, thinking I could placate you all with cute pictures and videos. And then I slacked off on those as well. So here's a brief update before I go fix supper.

Katie is now nearly 9.5 months old. She crawls like lightning, but no independent walking just yet, thank goodness. She does race along the furniture like nobody's business, using only the slightest pressure that tells me that she doesn't really need the balance, she just thinks she does. Okay by me. She thinks she's very clever too. No real words yet either, but she sure babbles a lot. She likes to play pat-a-cake with Grandma, and she's recently learned that she can THROW! So she does, anything and everything she can lay her hands on gets thrown. She especially likes to throw fridge magnets.

Andrew is back to his slightly slower schedule where he's home for equal time as he's away. We went for a couple months with seeing him a lot less, but that's over again for now as spring is hitting us full force. He's still irritated at his truck because it keeps breaking for no apparent reason. Seeing as it's the same part that keeps breaking, you'd think that the dealership doing the repairs could figure out what's breaking it, but alas that is not to be.

I am itching for spring to be here full force. Katie and I have been swimming a fair bit, and we took Andrew with us the last time. Then we got distracted by the local rec league volleyball finals, but we hope to swim again tomorrow. I also leave her with our friends H & S on Thursday nights when Andrew is away, and I swim by myself. And we're starting a new round of Salsa classes this week too.

The house is coming along. Not so much going in the way of renos now that the windows and doors are finished, but the siding will hopefully be done next month. I'm in the process of decluttering the boxes we've been storing for 3 years and am very excited about my progress so far. I've thrown out 2 40gal bags of junk and taken 2 of those same bags to the local 2nd hand shop as donations. I also have a rubbermaid tub full of things I'm hoping to try to sell as soon as I can get some pictures edited and uploaded. We hope to start painting again soon, once it warms up enough for us to open windows again.

The critters are doing well. Morgan got stepped on by Charlie the other day, but as she was running and jumping just moments afterward with no apparent pain, I think he only got her belly skin. Scared me a minute though, maybe she's learned not to play under the horse. He didn't mean to, I was cleaning his feet and he stepped backward to re-balance when I put his foot down. She just got in the way. Bailey got a haircut and a bath last night, that's why the laughter and bouncing in the video of last night. The mad bath dash. Jose is Jose. He swims. Everytime someone comes over they say "is that fish still alive?" And I say "he was when I fed him this morning." And every morning he's still alive when I feed him. He's just not very exciting, I guess.

Funny video.

Bailey got a haircut and a bath today. Katie loved it.

Growing like a weed

Hard to believe she used to be so small. I think it's time to go through her clothes again and sort out the ones that don't fit. I think we have had another growth spurt, because there seem to be a lot of things that used to fit and don't anymore. Also, her top tooth finally broke through the skin. Finally. Of course, it's taking its sweet time coming all the way down, so it's still giving her grief, and the second one is helping it out now. Poor girl is miserable tonight.

She is now, by rough measuring, 20lbs and 27 inches.

comparison

Okay, I know she's not 9 months until Friday, but she's wearing this dress today, so I had to take a picture.


And she got herself stuck again. I'm not sure what the draw is, but she sure likes to climb into this thing.

Funny baby.

Aha! So this is where my noisy toys went!

I am THIS big. Too big to fit in a measuring cup!
MOMMYYYYY!!!! I'M STUCK!!
This is interesting. A rice chip, do you call it? Hmm. I think I like it.

Swim, swam, swum.

Katie and I went swimming today. Very low key, not a class, just us and one other baby with his parents. The pool here opens the shallow end to babies/toddlers and their parents while adult lane swim is open.

Katie LOVED it. She was so happy and smiley. I think we're going to go again tomorrow, and we'll see if we can get some pictures to share. No pictures today as we were by ourselves.

Messy baby

I found some wheat-free teething biscuits at the health food store. They're maple flavored, so Katie smells like a pancake. But she sure seems to like them.

Cute kid stuff.

time warp

Here's me and my Grandma.

And Katie. And just for good measure, isn't my sister a cutie? Hehehehe.

Adventures

Just pictures.

Katie in her warmer weather suit. It's been +10 here all week, no need for the parka.
What color are these eyes? We can't decide.

Cute little outfit from Grammy.

The sunset out the kitchen window a couple days ago. I love that there is no metal bar in the middle anymore.

Bailey can stand on the snow now and see over the couch. The deck under the snow is at the same level as the floor inside. In other news, Bailey pulled a muscle in her shoulder playing in the snow the other day, but is apparently fully recovered now.

And our mini-garden. i think we may pull the beans and start them over again. They apparently didn't need planted this early. The beets finally sprouted today, so the only thing yet to come is the asparagus.

Today we played in the snow.

Lots of it.

Andrew & I went out to start pruning Saskatoons while Katie was having her nap, then Katie joined us when she woke up. I've kept out a bunch of poles that I am trimming branches off of and I'll use them to hold up the beans and cucumbers in the garden. Maybe the pumpkins and watermelon too, I haven't decided on those yet. Andrew thinks we'll have beans indoors before the snow melts, they're very tall already. I'm hoping to get the second round started maybe next week.

Here we are. Me & Katie. I'm standing on packed snow and this is how far down I go. You can see the garden fence behind me, I can barely step over it when there's no snow.

Andrew & Bailey. Poor dog, the snow is over her head, so it took her ages to get to him. She was taking full advantage of his lap though.

And we stand

I stand with Daddy.

And I stand with my toy.
She wasn't able to stand up with this toy until today. It's too light and it kept tipping over. Apparently, she's needing less support.
And then I get tired and get ready for bed.

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.