My Baby

Kate is growing up so much. I can tell she makes big leaps in just a week or so. She can hold her own weight while standing so much better than last week. She doesn't mind being put on her belly very much because she can support her head so much better, and she's learned that she can rest in that position by putting her head down and it is not the end of the world. She has retrograded on the turning over bit. She hasn't really done it again since that last time, without some help. I'm eager to know how much she weighs & what her length is next week at the ped. I'm so grateful that I can be aware of all these milestones and spend so much time with her. I'm wondering how my subsequent children will fare. How can I possibly spend as much time with them playing & reading?

Also, this is a reminder to all you mommies out there: Babies can hear & distinguish sounds from all different languages until their 1st birthday. . so if you ever want them to speak a language with the chance of not having a American accent, let them listen to other languages. They record an imprint of the sounds and later on, they can "hear" the differences between Spanish Rr and r. And, it gives them a leg up on pronouncing them, if they can actually distinguish. I sing & read to Kate in Spanish a bit, and we just recently got a cool CD that has rhymes, songs and chants on it -- just for babies. It's even advisable to introduce multiple languages. . so who knows, maybe Kate and I will learn French together.

Introducing Mr. Jeremy Monkey

Kate has found a friend. She has outlasted my desires to make her love Froggie or little Lamb. She does like Mr. Turtle a good deal, but nothing compares to her reaction to Jeremy Monkey. She smiles at him and gives him love bites (not unlike her cousin Lydia). She even cuddled him as she took her nap today. Jeremy is the cousin of Curious George who he favors a good bit in looks, although we hope he will be a bit better behaved.


Another first for Kate -- she got tickled and actually laughed! I was changing her and decided to give her a few little kisses on her neck. Lo and behold, she chuckled. Josh just got to hear her do it tonight. So far she has only repeated the experience ON THE CHANGING TABLE -- go figure!



Auntie Jen lent us the Bumbo, and Kate loves it! She sits in it and watches me make dinner. Tonight she even sat at the dinner table. She's definitely growing up and becoming more interested in the world around her.

Vacation Baby

As travel agent for this spring vacation to Hilton Head, I breathed a huge sigh of relief as we walked into the 3 bedroom condo we had rented for 4 days. I had been wracked with nervousness about whether things would be as I had planned, whether the condo would really be as nice as advertised, whether we would feel that we got a good value for our money, etc. Whew! The place was perfect for our little group, and we had a great time. We had a ocean views from every room, and Josh & I slept with our balcony door open almost every night. There's nothing more soothing than the ocean sounds. The Island was great, too. It had a great balance of beautiful surroundings plus proximity to things like restaurants, a Fresh Market, golf, and shops (although the girls did NOT go shopping, amazingly enough). Kate must have been soothed by the ocean sounds as well, because she slept really well -- even better than she does at home! Every morning we went out onto the beach for a bit, and we usually spent our afternoons at the pool. I made no attempts to get any sun, which is a huge change for me. Before we went out I was slathering myself with 30spf! Yet another sign of aging. Josh took care of Kate a lot for me, so I could relax by the pool or in the pool. :-) Lydia was a lot of fun to be around, and of course, she really loved hanging out with her cousin "the Kate." She knocked on the door almost every morning to ask if she could come in to our room. She couldn't get enough of Kate's toys and various "seats" as she calls them. One of her fav things to do is use Pup as a little baby, and place him in the bouncey seat or gym mat. Of course, she wasn't above playing with that little gym herself. She couldn't get enough of the musical fish. Another noticeable difference in this vacation was the total lack of game playing. Instead, we chose to read. . a lot! Yet another sign of parenthood.

Baby Talk

I know what you really want from me: pictures & news about the sweetest medium one. Forget serious topics of discussion & thought -- babytalk is what we want!!!! Well, this should make your day then.

Kate doing a pushup on mom -- she likes to look up at me!

Look I'm so big, I like to sit up by myself. Pardon the sort of unfocused last picture. It's so cute, it got to go up on the blog regardless of its imperfect nature.

Fun Facts:

1. I like to wake up around 6 or 6:30 just to see if mom is okay, then I go back to sleep for another hour and half or so. My favorite morning song is "This is the Day!" closely followed by "You Are My Sunshine."
2. Bedtime is 9:30. I love having stories read to me. Mom just bought me some Beatrix Potter Tales as an Easter present. SHhh, she doesn't know Easter is really 2 weeks away.
3. I recently bought her some toys that hang off her car carrier & make a little chiming sound. I put one in her crib attached to one of the rails, thinking it would give her something to play with when she wakes up so contentedly. Unfortunately, at one of the those 6/6:30 wakings I came in to check on her, and there she was, playing with this little froggie IN THE DARK mind you. That was the end of that!
4. She loves to spend time with mom and CONTINUES to want to nurse for 1 hr each time. While I sometimes wish that I could move things along a bit, I have at least 4 guaranteed rest periods programmed throughout the day, plus I get to bond with Kate, so I guess I should be really grateful.

5. She's slowly transitioning into some bigger 0-3 mo. clothes. Just like a size 6 in women's could be just about anything, baby clothes seem to follow a similar pattern of variety!
6. We have had to buy a few pairs of shorts because the weather has been incredibly warm here in GA. It's so cute to see her chubby rolls of fat on her yeggies (legs).

Laughs & Giggles

Extra Video "Finally, on my back again," she says.

Rolling Over

KB rolling over for the second time! Skip to about minute 3 if you don't have that long. . :-)