10-month self-portrait

Hi. My name is Kate. Holding still for a self-portrait is not a strength of mine today. But I can offer a bit of a smile. And show you my top two teeth. I worked really hard for them.

Hey, we are both looking at the camera!

Ears

No pictures just yet today. Little Kate has not been so photogenic. A side effect of being sick, though she is doing a lot better.

So, you know the saying, "Did you wash behind your ears?" I used to think it was a funny thing to ask. After all, while you are washing your hair, doesn't the area behind your ears get clean at the same time?

And that logic may be true. But when you are a small child, you aren't shampooing your hair every day. And apparently, some kids like to hide food behind their ears. For their mommies to find a day or two later, once it has crusted on and begun to cause a small amount of skin irritation.

Chalk it up to a new mom learning experience. (Similar to finding the toe jam when she was really little.) I now know the cleaning up after meal checklist is, at minimum, face, hands and EARS!

Sleeping duo

Kate had a bit of a fever this morning, so she and Doug stayed home today. When I walked in the door, this is how I found them. Both asleep. And Kate NEVER falls asleep in one's arms. The little bug must really not be feeling well.

Baby Mum-Mum

I was looking for some sort of "teething biscuit" at Fred Meyer on Sunday. What I found were "Baby Mum-Mums". Think of it as a gigantic rice crispy. Kate loves them.

What's missing is the picture of mushy rice all over her face and fingers. But you can imagine.

TEETH

Kate was giving out lots of smiles today. I'm sure it's because she wanted to show off her new teeth! Top left cut through Sunday morning, and top right was apparent today.

Someday you'll be even able to see them in the pictures!

Dance machine

I don't know what Kate ate today, but she was feeling the music today. She was cracking Doug and me up with the exaggerated movements and sound effects.

At one point, she paused, looked at Doug, and pointed her finger at him, as if to say, "This one goes out to you, Daddy." Unfortunately, not caught on film.

Latte stands

There are any number of drive through latte stands in the couple of mile drive I take to get from work to day care each day. aAnd a high proportion of stands use sex to market themselves. As if caffeine itself isn't a draw.

First, you can be sure that these places will not earn one penny of my business.

There are 2 Bikini Huts, where the baristas freeze their tushies off as they serve up people's double-tall mochas.

But my current favorite is a third spot that has a reader board advertising the "Hotest" baristas. Okay, I recognize that I've misspelled "hotest". But the reason why this is so memorable is that they didn't space it very well on the board, so it looks more like "ho test". Or maybe the additional "t" fell down.

Either way, in this scenario, is having a ho test so far off?

Reading

Kate loves to pull books and DVDs off of the shelves. Though mainly she contains herself to this section here. The book she's reading right now is from Doug's Aunt Mary. It has different animals with textured pages. Kate loves it, and will talk to the fuzzy pages.

9-month stats

Kate is happy and healthy, which we knew. :)

Today she measured 28 inches (62nd percentile) and weighed 20 pounds-6 ounces (74th percentile.)

Pictures later. This kid needs to go to bed. The loss of an hour is kickin' me.

Playin' in Leavenworth

We went overnight to Doug's friends Colie and Danica's cabin near Leavenworth. It was great to hang out with their family (as always).

Here, Kate and Cobin are "sharing" toys. Marianne was very good about finding toys that were appropriate for Kate to play with.

Maggie and Kate played with a baby doll this morning.

Then, this morning, we went for a walk. Danica had a 24-month size snow-bib for Kate to wear. It was sooo big on her. She put up with it well enough.

It was a fun and relaxing time. Now, off to correct tests!

9-month self-portrait

Here are a couple of pictures of Kate on her celebration of being alive 9 months.

Vroom

The little push along 'mower' featured last week also converts to a car. Kate likes to check under the hood to see what toys have been put in there. And she does a decent job of scooting backwards. Before oh so gracefully falling off.

In related news, I successfully filled up the power steering fluid and replaced the front turn indicator light in my car. All on my own. Minimal "What the heck" talk. :) I felt so empowered.

Ziggy

A Love Story

This entry is mostly for mom and dad.

About 3 weeks ago, our DVD player began to die. Conveniently, Circuit City is having a going out of business sale, so we are now proud owner of a Blu-Ray DVD player.

So, Doug wanted to get a Blu-Ray to test out the beautiful clarity and magnificent sound our new piece of technology will provide for us. Something that had computer generated effects.

He got a love story. And we watched it last night on Valentine's Day.

That's right, we watched "King Kong."

"King Kong, a love story?" you may ask. Well, three years ago at Christmas time, we were down in Oregon visiting my parents. All four of us were trying to decide what movie to go and watch. We convinced Mom to see "King Kong" by telling her it was a love story.

Which if you think of it, it IS a love story. Wrapped in action-adventure, sure. But darn-hootin' good one to watch on Blu-Ray. :)

New Toy

Kate got a new toy today, via the consignment store (which I LOVE). She's likes to practice the walking. And we are encouraging this why?

No PJs, yet.

I was trying to change Kate into her jammies the other night. For the life of me, she just would not hold still long enough to get them on in a timely fashion. So, here she is, roaming the living room.

Kid w/ fever - 1; Mom - 0

While this picture was taken few days ago, it sums things up well. 1st, the Onesie says, "My mommy is blogging this." 2nd she's holding the Children's Tylenol - she enjoys gnawing on the squeezer part when she manages to get her hands (and mouth) on it.

Well, last night when I got home from church, Kate had a fever of 102.5, so it was time to break out the Tylenol. And for mom to gear up for getting very little sleep. I know I got spoiled over the last few nights, as her teething had let up and she was sleeping better.

But last night, she definitely was NOT feeling well. Waking up about every 1.25 hours. Good times for all.

At least she seems to be doing a bit better this morning. Still a little bit of a fever, but she's willing to play with her toys, which I figure to be a good sign.

Wish us all luck. :)

Blocks

Today we broke open the bag of foam blocks. Initially she was more interested in the vinyl bag it came in (of course). She then found many uses for them.
1. Put in mouth.
2. Hit on coffee table, without mom and dad worrying about damage.
3. Climb over pile of blocks.
4. Ignore blocks in favor of trying to get at the pile of stuff on the coffee table. (You'll note how it's currently all in a pile in the center. Later today, it's all "disappearing", as Kate's arms are just getting too long).

What's different?

What's different about Kate in these two pictures? Isn't is obvious?

She's sporting her 1st tooth! It made it's appearance earlier this week.

And yet, there still seems to be a lot of drama, as clearly she is working on teeth #2 through, I don't know, #8 all at the same time. Ha ha.

Eyes open?

It seems only 50% of the subjects' eyes can be open at one time. If only I knew how to use photo shop, Seth and Lucas.

Cuteness in overalls

The Office is finished!

3 before-and-in-process photos and two afters. It looks SOOOO nice. And it's a real treat to not have this part of the house look like an unfinished project, as it has in some shape or form for the last 1.5 years. (Please note that Kate makes an appearance in the last picture.)

The brown bookcase and step seen below are new additions to this room, and an extention of the office finishing project.

Kate and Owen at play

Kate and I went to Oregon over the weekend to spend time with the Oshel side of the family. She and her cousin Owen had fun playing with each other. Or at least playing near each other. They are both so cute!

8-month Self-Portrait

Okay. Actually taken on 8 months plus one day.

All over the place

I can't write for very long today, as I'm on Kate-Patrol, and she is EVERYWHERE, as evidenced below.

What you can't see in the video is her falling down off the chair. She's slowly learning the skill of the slow fall, which is much less scary. And probably hurts less, too.

Extreme Close-Up