Katie is One!

One year ago, Craig and I were awaiting the imminient arrival of our baby. We didn't know who they'd be just yet, but we were in love with them already-- we never could have expected the wonderful little girl we got.

Katie is one year old today. Its gone by so fast and she has grown so much. In the last 2 weeks she has learned to walk and now climbs EVERYTHING. She has about a dozen words and that is expanding everyday. She loves when we read to her and will bring books to you anytime you are still. She's precocious and has very definite ideas about what she wants. She loves her animals and is a little stinker when it comes to getting into mischeif-- but she is a happy child and we are so glad she's ours.

Here are a couple of pictures from her birthday party this weekend.

Mommy, What the heck is that on my cake?!?!?!

Oh nevermind, this cake stuff is pretty tasty. (It should be! She had a Chocolate Stoudt Cake with Chocolate Whipped Cream!-- The grownups had dark chocolate ganache on theirs)

MMMM... Must demolish cake!

The requisite cake smashing photo! She really was pretty delicate-- even with her Cappy yelling over the SKYPE line to put cake in her hair! I'd say this mess is about average for a meal for her. The big mess came later when her Grandad and Kakie filled the water table IN THE HOUSE (Thanks guys... :-P )

Overall we all had a great day with family and friends. Katie was utterly spoiled with presents and hugs and kisses. She showed off all her toys and her walking skills and enjoyed her sugar rush. Once everyone had headed home, she CRASHED and slept on her Daddy for a few hours. It was a wonderful 1st Birthday!

E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES!

That could very well be the first word Katie spells the way its being chanted around the house these days. Daddy and Katie are watching the game right now, but I wanted to share a couple of quick pictures of them.

Katie and her Daddy cheering on the Eagles!

Katie rooting for a touchdown!

As a tribute to her Kakie and her Aunt Kim she'll even cheer for the Steelers to score!

And for her Mama who couldn't give a lick about professional football-- she has the cutest shoes ever! (I wish they came in my size!)

A Very Katie Christmas!

Just a quick movie of some snapshots of Katie from this Christmas. As you will see, we had a wonderful Christmas-- We hope you all had a good one too! I'll try and get some more posts up here once the holiday madness has passed.



Merry Christmas!

Redecorating by the Baby

I mean, I knew we'd have to rearrange the house to make things safer and easier for the kiddo-- but I really didn't expect her to get so involved so soon in the "deciding" where things should go...

I was wrong. (see a small portion of the chaos below)

All I wanted was 10 minutes of peace to take a shower and this is what I returned to in the nursery-- Of course, she was so proud of herself for figuring out how to get the clothes out of the drawers and off the shelves. Oh well, could be worse-- at least she hasn't been taking lessons from her cousins and dipping everything in the toilet first!

Katie's First Thanksgiving

She wasn't a huge fan of her mashed potatoes and turkey bits-- and she fell asleep during dinner itself-- but apparently some things are genetic-- Mom tells me I did this at my first Thanksgiving too (ok... I was only 2 months old and it was my great-grandmothers "fault", but still!)

And isn't she way cuter than a turkey anyway?

Brownie-Spider 2008

Even though the Brownies lost miserably-- it was one of the most enjoyable games I've been to. Garrettson and Craig argued about the two teams merits and the gals all enjoyed catching up. We headed out for lunch afterward to thaw out-- it was COLD! But seriously-- Katie was the cutest Brownie there. (And I was mistaken for a student, but that is a WHOLE different issue!)

Off to DC with Katie!

We spent a few days in DC last week-- Craig was at a conference and Katie and I tagged along to enjoy the city. We went to the Natural History Museum (Katie liked the small tropical aquarium there-- dinosaurs were not interesting yet though!) and took a picture just for my Mom... so Mom- Here you go! (sorry about the lousy look, we'd hiked 10 blocks in the pouring rain-- and then I had to haul her stroller up 9 billion stairs to the entrance because NOWHERE was it marked that the handicapped access was around the other side, and it was still pouring and there was NO way I was hiking to the other side of the building at that point!)






The next day we went to the National zoo-- it was pretty chilly, but we met up with friends and walked around. Katie got a HUGE kick out of the small monkeys--- particularly the golden tamarins-- they were so colorful and active. She also watched the gorillas and orang utans (yeah, that's 2 words, who knew?!)pretty intently.
The new Asia exhibit has a lot of nice features-- there are displays at kiddo height with swatches of the fur of each animal that you can touch and buttons to push that make the animals sounds and such-- Katie was a big fan of the Red Panda fur-- so we got a snapshot of her on the panda statue!
It was a nice day at the zoo overall.

















And then to top it off, we finally got to eat at Jaleo-- a Spanish restaurant in the DC area that I have wanted to go to for years! We had pan amb tomaquet (toasted bread with tomatoes), gambas al ajillo (sizzling garlic shrimp and peppers), house made chorizo, and rosejat-- sort of a paella made with vermicelli and seafood. It was all delicious-- and other than the hostess thinking we were nuts for having our baby with us, it was wonderful. I'm not sure why she was so shocked it was a Sunday-- its not like I feared a wild party crew was going to come and start a brawl or something... who knows? Katie was pretty good though, so it all worked out well.

It was definitely a nice trip away and I enjoyed taking a few days away from work!

Trick or Treat!

We had the Mommy-Baby Halloween Party today and then Katie's First Trick-or-Treat.

















Who wants a penguin stew?!?!

Nobody better lay a finger on my butterfinger! (Katie REALLY wanted some candy!)

Katie's all ready for Halloween, are you?!

Stay tuned for Trick-or-Treat pictures!!

Hayride with the Babies

Some of the moms from breastfeeding class got together with the kiddos and Dads to go out for pizza and then on a Hayride. Katie had fun-- so here are some random cuteness pictures!

Katie's the oldest by 6 weeks and then is about 3 months older than most of them... still, she's the teeny one! (in a frog hat!)

Random Bathtub Baby Cuteness

This kid sure loves the water. I think she'd stay in there all night if we let her!
Bathtime is Daddy's domain, hence the crazy hairstyles, but they have a blast in there!

But seriously, how cute is the kiddo???

Mom, Still think they're blue?

Here's a newer photo pf Katie. Her eyes are definitely changing color.

A Message for Kakie from Craig and Katie

In honor of today's momentous sporting event, I was ordered to share the following happy baby image.
And also to point out that she is NOT happy as a Steeler's fan...


I would like to add though, that she knows where her TRUE loyalty lies....
As a side note, Mom, she's eating "spaghetti" in these photos-- Pastina with tomatoes, cheese, and garlic/italian seasoning. It's a hit.

Bits of news on the Peanut

Katie is still a very inquisitive little girl. She has now started to try and climb out of her crib! My 6 month old?!?! I'll have to get a picture of her little escape artist tricks up here to share. She looks so mischevious.

She continues to LOVE every food we put near her. The biggest hit is the Cauliflower-Tomato Gratin. She screams bloody murder if we don't shovel it in fast enough. She's also eating Barley and Oatmeal cereal (no more rice, that stuff is HORRIBLE tasting), carrots, green beans, yams, acorn and butternut squash, a Pea-Potato-Leek puree (also makes an amazing soup for grownups), applesauce, nectarines, and a little bit of banana.

Coming up this week I think we'll try pears, parsnips, and spinach.

Other than that, she has started creeping, mostly backwards-- but she's getting around. So the baby-proofing has begun, we've barred off the fish tanks and electrical cords and picked up some gates-- all ready to install this weekend!

Family Pics and 6 Months Old!

We finally got some family photos taken and YAY, they turned out really well. I am posting a few here, but if you click on the link and use my name, you can see many more.

Click here for more pictures
The JC Penneys here converted to digital equipment and we were one of the "learning experiences" so there are lots of odd editing things they did with the pictures, but the photos themselves are just great.

Katie's doing well, we started feeding her "solids" on Friday-- so far rice cereal is ok, green beans are better with a little milk mixed in and avocado is a BIG hit-- the jury is still out on the barley cereal. She is pretty darn cute when she's eating. Very very excited!

My Mom was here to visit on Sunday and helped me make up a bunch of foods for the peanut to try-- we made butternut and acorn squash, yams, carrots, green beans and nectarines-- not as hard as I had figured, but I was very glad for the help! Frozen cubes of food are now stacked to the gills in the freezer just waiting on their turn to be used as a body paint by the munchkin.

YUM. Thanks DadaI can soooo do this myself, just give me that spoon.

This food on a spoon stuff isn't too bad!

Katie is 6 months old! Wow. Aunt Kim came over for dinner last night and helped her celebrate with a new noisy toy (that she is LOVING) and her first taste of avocado!

And just one last photo of random Katie cuteness (this kid is very photogenic... it sure isn't my genes on that one- I always look lousy in photos)

North Carolina Trip

Just a few random pictures from the trip to North Carolina for Craig's Uncle Don's retirement party.

Katie tried out swimming, As you can see, it was a hit! (of course, the lake was warm as bath water)




Katie got to visit with Aunt Maggie (and she wonderfully gave me a break from baby lugging for a few minutes!)
Katie's first birthday party-- well, she was a guest at L.'s party. She was not a huge fan of the hat though...

Little Brother

Little brother and his wife are here for a few days... have new pictures, but will be a bit til I post them... I am busy trying to prevent him from teaching her any more....

Frog Jumping

We took Katie to the Boys Club Frog Jumping contest the first weekend in August. She didn't win, but she was absolutely the cutest thing there!


MMMM.... He looks tasty, can I eat him?