9 month stats

Last week Katy turned 9 months old, which is crazy, because for some reason I feel like her first birthday is coming all too quickly. We had our 9 month well visit, which went well, and we have some new statistics to report:

Weight: 16 pounds, 10 ounces (25th percentile)

Height: 27 1/4 inches (40th percentile)

Head circumference: 16 3/4 inches (20th percentile)

So it looks like Katy is a little peanut. She's always been 50% for everything, but the doc says that she may just be petite, and she's evening out to what she'll be when she gets older. Speaking of our pediatrician, he won a Best Pediatrician award, you can view the article and video

Nice try, Mom...

Usually I take a shower while Katy takes her morning nap. I haven't been able to bring myself to wake up earlier than she wakes up in order to get a shower, though I suppose eventually I will have to do that. So today my schedule worked out so that I needed to shower while she was awake. I have only tried this one other time since she has been mobile, and I concluded that there's no way I can let her roam around the bathroom unsupervised for ANY length of time. So today I had this idea: I set up the pack n' play IN the bathroom, with toys, and thought I would try taking a shower with Katy playing safely inside. I put her in there, and while I brushed my teeth, she laughed and smiled at me, playing with her toys. You should've seen me gloating in my mind, "This is BRILLIANT! I should do this everyday, imagine what I'll be able to get done while she naps!" Not so fast: no sooner had I stepped behind the shower curtain than Katy began to absolutely wail. And I mean cry really hard. And then what do you do? Come out of the shower dripping wet and pick her up? So I kept sticking my head out saying, "It's ok, I'm right here" to which she would quiet down, but then as soon as the head went back inside: wailing. This whole separation anxiety stuff is a little draining. So I took down the pack n' play, I guess I'll go back to showering while she's napping.

An educational visit to Oma's

We always feel like we are learning things about Katy, how to take care of her, what her needs are, etc. The problem is that this seems to change about every week. This weekend we went to visit my mom and Greg in Pittsburgh, and we learned a few things:
Lesson #1: Late afternoon/early evening is not the best time to travel by car with a 9 month old.
Lesson #2: Whatever you do, and I mean whatEVER you do, do NOT accidently get on the turnpike in the dark snowy night when you MEANT to get off at your mom's exit, adding 35 minutes to your trip.
Lesson #3: Now that Katy is aware enough to realize when we are sleeping in the same room, everyone sleeps better if her crib is in a different room than mom and dad.
Lesson #4: A full baby belly is the difference between a happy trip to Target and a stressful one.

All that said, we had a really fun trip. Katy is just growing and changing so fast, it's really fun to see what she does in new situations. She loves Oma and Opa Greg and their interesting home. Also my mom babysat and gave Brian and I a chance to get out, which sent us to IKEA, of course. We love that store, and it was nice not to be rushed to get back for Katy's nap. Then we had dinner at the bar at Smokey Bones because everything was an hour wait.

This is my childhood lovey, Dumbo. Katy didn't appreciate how wonderful he is...

Katy has also developed a serious (and developmentally appropriate) attachment to her mommy. If I am in the room, it's difficult to get her to engage with others. And sometimes she doesn't want to play at all, just be held. This is bittersweet: bitter because it's hard for me to get things done because she's so clingy, but sweet because it makes me feel really close to her, like she's a human being instead of just a baby.

Once we got home, Katy helped her Daddy put together her new toy box from IKEA. She loves to "help" and basically imitate everything Brian does. (including some very silly and obnoxious things, Lord help us all)

And of course, if you are interested, you can view some videos of Katy's weekend activities, including "walking" with a "walker" and her first piano lesson.

Snowed in...

We are officially snowed in - neither Brian nor I went to work today, Aunt Mel didn't have class, and we've just been staring out the window and shaking our heads at the weather. I think it's nice that God sends this kind of weather once in a while to force us to slow down and take a deep breath (which I know our culture doesn't allow that breath for everyone, which is unfortunate). A few weeks ago it snowed a significant amount, and this technically would've been Katy's "first snow." However, at the time she had an ear infection and was quite sick, so it didn't even occur to me to get excited about that, and I certainly wouldn't have taken her out in it to experience it. So today we bundled her up out of sheer curiosity to see how she would react. There was even enough of it to surround her with it. You can see a video of her reaction here.

And since we had a little more time on our hands, I took another short video of Katy's latest feat: she's learning to pick up finger foods and put them in her mouth. She's only successful about 50% of the time. You can watch her struggle a little bit here. :)

My Buddy

Last weekend Jack dropped off his extra swimmy diapers for Katy to wear, which was so generous... even though he's 6 weeks younger, he passed Katy up in weight a while back. Katy is very interested in Jack (and every other baby for that matter). Jack's personality is a lot more laid back, go with the flow, easy going kind of kid. He's a sweetheart!

This week I've had opportunity to see how Katy reacts when I pay attention to other babies. I watched my neighbor's baby girl for a little while one afternoon, and Katy would be playing contentedly, then I'd pick Ella up, Katy would notice it, crawl over whining as if I had hurt her feelings. Then this morning I helped out in the church nursery, and it was the same drill. That's what happens when she's spoiled with all mommy's attention all the time. But I know it's perfectly normal for her age. I'm trying to appreciate it, because in a few short years she'll probably be pushing me out the front door of her friend's house saying, "pick me up in time for dinner".

Ding Dong the Witch is Dead

In this case, "Witch"=kitchen project. I've been looking forward to posting this post since August (even though I didn't have a blog yet in August) when we started this whole thing. Katy and I packed up and headed to stay with Kelly and the girls for 2 nights while Mark drove up to help Brian with the first step of this major project: tearing down the walls to the "mud room" in order to expand our kitchen to the outer wall of the house. That was August 25th. About 2 weeks ago (end of January), Brian put the finishing touches on our beautiful new kitchen. I wouldn't want to do something like this again any time soon (I know Brian would agree), but it has definitely been worth it. He did a great job, and got it done really quickly considering it was all in his "spare time". We now have lots more counter space, a bigger room, more storage, more electrical outlets, a garbage disposal, a dishwasher, more cabinets, a new pantry, new floors (that come clean!) and a new ceiling. Not to mention the cheery color. I love my new kitchen, it actually makes me want to cook (which IS a minor miracle).

A blast from the past in pictures:

First, here's what the kitchen looked like when Brian bought the house back in February, 2002 (5 years ago this month!):

This is what it looked like last February, before we started any remodeling:

Here are some pics of the progress between August and January:

And now the finished product!!!:

Katy's First Swim

The windchill is below zero, what else is there to do other than go swimming? For a while we've been wanting to take Katy to OSU's new Recreation Center, where they have a kid's pool and family hours. So yesterday we bundled up and went. Based on how much she loves her bath, I really thought Katy would like this adventure. Her reaction was a little more confused and anxious than excited. We twirled her around and tried to get her used to the water, and eventually she was smiling some. But it was chilly, even in the water: Brian and I were both cold. So we'd been in about 10-15 minutes and Katy put her thumb in her mouth (classic), and I asked Brian, "Wait a second, is her hand blue?" to which he replied, "Yeah, and so are her lips!" I ran as fast as I could run through knee deep water to get her to a towel - poor baby!! Maybe we'll try again on a warmer day.

Katy also has some other interesting new skills:
-Eating "puffs" (like cheerios)
-Pointing at things (like her reflection in the mirror)
-Saying "da"
-Shaking her head "no" (which I'm convinced really means no, she tends to do it when she's had enough of something)
-"Walking" with a walker-type object (Today at storytime at the library she took a milk crate and walked practically across the room like she's been doing it her whole life!) Won't be long...

An afternoon of play

Today Uncle Mark and Aunt Kelly brought the girls to visit, and brought us a bunch more hand-me-downs, for which we are very grateful. I need to invest in some Rubbermaid bins to keep it all organized.
So we went to COSI. Katy enjoyed riding in the stoller and watching all the activity, but then we went to the little-kid area, and THERE Katy had a chance to really explore. We had so much fun watching her check everything out. She was so funny! She kept "waving" at the new people she saw (sticking hand straight out in the air) and chasing the balls all over the place. She also really enjoyed playing with her cousins. Here are some highlights:

Katy makes friends...

Leah plays doctor...

Carrie drives the ambulance...

We had to change Katy's outfit after playing at the water table. You can see a short video here.

Kimmy anxiously awaits a table at Spaghetti Warehouse...

We are ALSO anxiously awaiting...