Eleven Months And Counting

This is her serious, observant face. Her cheekies sort of poke out.

Dad took down the dead twig wreath from the outside door and hung up the beautiful live wreath he bought. Kate thought the wreath just perfect for peekaboo.

You may think I'm cruel, but I NEVER have gotten a picture of her crying, so after naptime the other day I decided I wanted to do a photo shoot BEFORE we nursed and this was the result. :-) I only took 3 pics.

Lydia & Kate giving each other some loves.

Kate is quickly leaving her babyhood behind her and growing into a little girl. She eats lots of table food, and wants to eat even more. In the morning, she usually eats her cereal while I eat mine. She usually asks for my cereal instead of hers! Her chief pursuits each day making me laugh and smile. Her sense of humor is so lively. She loves to hide under blankets, behind doors, or anything she can toss over her head. She recognizes pictures of herself and thinks it's so funny to look at them. Reading is actually one of her favorite pursuits. She's content to read on her own, and always points at the pictures. And of course, she loves it if Dad or I read her a book. She's fascinated with putting things inside other things and she's usually pretty good and matching things together. For instance, I allow her to play in our plastics cabinet and she finds sippy cups and tops and "puts" them together. Right now, she's hiding behind the laptop as I type and then popping out from behind the screen and seeing if I react. She has become an expert crawler & cruiser and several times has stood independently until she realizes that the toy she's holding isn't connected to the floor or a piece of furniture. She recently fell in love with her monkey, Jeremy. She loves to have him with her all of the time! She started giving us loves by laying her head on our shoulder & giving us pats. She also gives Jeremy loves and that is a killer to see! Currently, she is LOVING our Christmas tree. I hung baby friendly ornaments on the bottom and she can't resist taking them off (and then can't figure out how to put them back on.) Her personality is observant, friendly, cheerful, and VERY loving. She learns new games quickly and particularly enjoys reading books about babies (another new if infrequent word). Her latest trick is pursing her little lips together and saying, "Whoa-whoa-whoa" over and over with the most hilarious inflection. The pursed lips is my favorite part of the act. Of course, she also shows us her stubborn side accompanied by some unattractive squeals. So, I'm constantly reminding her to use a gentle voice & help her remember that saying mama attracts my attention in a much more positive way than squeals. :-) She consistently uses her own signs for all-done & more. She loves to sign because she KNOWS she's communicating. We're trying to improve her consistency in the "Where's Mommy?" game. She is about 75 percent I would say. And, we've dropped one nursing time, so we're down to 3. She hasn't complained in the least. Although I would say that during Thanksgiving, her nursing times were completely weird and she definitely let me know when we finally got around to nursing regularly that BOY, she was glad we were doing that again! I think my goal is to pare it down to 2 and then let her keep doing that until she doesn't want to. I think. These things change frequently. Well, for those who wanted an update on baby girl Katie-boob (Lydia's new nickname for Kate), I hope you enjoyed!

Thanksgiving Day

Highlights of Thanksgiving Day:
Taking a walk with Lydia, Anna (oldest cousin), and Megan (3 years old in the pink shirt). They are all so adventurous.
Eating three pieces of pumpkin pie. THREE PIECES! I've missed my favorite pie b/c it typically has some milk products in it. I made mine lactose free and man, it was tasty!
Singing with my sisters!
Seeing Kate enjoy herself so much with her cousins & aunts & uncles.

Megan, Lydia, and Kate
I don't know why, but Lydia kept calling Megan, "Miss Piggy." So funny.

My silly sister & her husband stayed at our house over the weekend. They are always so funny AND they are still newlyweds.

Lydia wanted to play Alhambra with me, Bethany, and Megan. But, she got bored playing with the pieces that we weren't using and decided to "put Aunt Lizzy's vest on." She's a crazy girl!

Kate didn't mind playing little girl games, because for once Lydia wasn't taking away all of the puzzle pieces. She is doing one of her favorite things -- putting a puzzle piece into a plastic tablespoon. Look! It fits!


All of the cousins. Can you say, we need some boys! Anna, holding Kate, Megan, Lydia, and Kate. Yup, there's two of them. I was stubborn and named Kate Kate anyway. After all, it is my mom's name (Katherine) and my middle name, too! This little photo shoot was a real circus. Everyone was very cooperative expect for the little one holding pup. She must have too many pictures taken of her or something. Every once in awhile, she'll get excited about having a photo shoot. I'll have to post pictures of our "Christmas tree" photo shoot later this week.

The matching cousins!

Mima always enjoys when her grandbaby girls come over. She always tries to spend some special time with each of them.

The soon-to-be newlyweds.

Grandma was so happy to be surrounded by her family! Her world famous stuffing was a hit per usual.

Santa Baby

Although the last several weeks have been quite eventful, I have been spending my "extra" minutes reading other peoples blogs & shopping online rather than blogging myself. My apologies. Thanksgiving was wonderful! We had my Uncle Carl & Aunt Rita who drove in from OH and my sister Becky and her husband Elias stay with us for the break. It was great to have the house full of people. Kate was so funny. Each morning, she would greet our guests with her serious face as though she was saying "Who are you? Are you going to interfere with my breakfast?" By the time breakfast was over, she warmed up considerably. Each day, the process repeated itself, with the exception of the last morning (Sunday). She couldn't wait to jump into her uncles arms to see what little treat he might have saved for her. Her favorite food of the whole weekend was Becky's pumpkin bread. She was even willing to trade some "loves" (hugs) for bread. Should I be worried that she's figured that out before she was even one year old? My uncle has posted a few clips online. Enjoy!






Thanksgiving Day morning, Josh walked into the bedroom with a funny little smile on his face. Kate & I were on the bed and each time Josh passed by, his smile got wider & wider. I asked him what on earth he was smiling about, but he brushed off the question. He left the room, and when he returned he had a large Pottery Barn bag with one of his fleece sweaters bulging out of the top of the bag. His smile was not to be denied. It wasn't "nothing." My husband had something up his sleeve. He told me he had an early Christmas present for me. Early! It's practically heart attack early. I "opened" up my delightfully arranged gift bag and what do my eyes behold but a shiny new digital SLR! He wanted me to be able to take pictures of the holidays, and more importantly, Kate's first birthday with my new camera, instead of waiting until after Christmas to use it. When Josh decides to do a thing, he DOES it.

A year ago (or more), I was writing up my list of big purchases for the family, attempting to prioritize. When it came to the top two items on my list (oven & camera), I was in a quandary. I really wanted a camera the most, but I technically needed the oven more. In my mind, I could still cook with my peg-leg oven, but I wasn't satisfied with my picture quality with my point & click dig. Well, all this time later, I get both of my top two wishes satisfied IN ONE WEEK.

So now, you're all expecting a picture heavy post, but I haven't gotten the cable & software out of the box yet, although I have been snapping pics like crazy. :-)

Trees Down, An Ant Nest, and a New Oven!!!

What an exciting week we've had! Last week, I came home from school to find that one of the dead(ish) trees in our backyard had fallen through our yard and into our neighbors yard. Thankfully, it was pretty easy to clear the part that was in the neighbor's yard, although Josh had to do it on Sunday, since the neighbor decided he was going to mow his lawn that day and kept running over pine cones and stray twigs from the tree top. It didn't fall on our swing set or anything majorly important, which was wonderful! I was slated to host the Mother's Bible Study on Wednesday, and I thought it would be nice to clear off the swing set, so that the older kids could enjoy themselves while the mommies sat inside. My day of labor in the yard certainly paid off -- I think all of the kids (some younger than I thought would enjoy it) really loved playing outside. My favorite view was seeing all of the swings filled up, two babysitters juggling to push all of them, and one or two kids climbing into the fort, and swooping down the slide. Our playset was left by the previous owners and hasn't seen a lot of use, since my kid (and the cousins) have really been too young. We have basically only used the infant swing. Unfortunately, I didn't crawl up into the fort to discover that there was an ant nest in the steering wheel. OOps! I'm afraid little Edy discovered this with her own two hands. I hope that I didn't send away all of the children with little ant bites. The next day when I arrived home from school, I found another tree had fallen while I was away -- right into and on top of the swing set! Thank you Lord for postponing that one day! The swing set isn't damaged, it's merely obstructed. Hopefully, the tree guys will come this week to cart away all of our dead trees, accumulated brush, and old chicken wire fence that has been mangled by the new subdivision built behind our house as well as by these latest two tree droppings. Yeah!!! I can't tell you how happy it will make to have that area of our back yard cleared out. And then on to today! Josh brought home a little present for me-- a new oven! Boy, we've been needing one. I think the impetus was Thanksgiving -- one of the turkeys is being roasted at our house! It's nothing too fancy, but everything seems to work (a real change from our last one) and the cooking & baking space are all BIGGER! I hope my new oven makes me a better cook/baker. I am SUCH happy camper. Since I don't have a dig. camera, you'll just have to come & visit to see the new oven, since I'm not going to waste a film picture on an oven & a crazy looking backyard.

Halloween

Although I grew up in a region and church where Halloween was dramatized as a huge holiday for Satan, I did go to a church that celebrated fall neatly on the same evening as Halloween. As a kid, I just thought it was a bit hypocritical to get kids to dress in sheets & turbans as Mary, Joseph, and Abraham but call it a Fall Festival. . do people dress up for Spring Festivals? Oh, do people even HAVE Spring Festivals? As an adult and parent, I've decided that the real reason this holiday is popular is that parents love dressing up their kids in costumes, and then the kids love getting candy. And who could blame either party. We decided to have fun and go to the Hebron Fall Festival with the cousins (and Megan & aunt & uncle). Unfortunately (or fortunately) for us, we got home too late to pass out candy, so my pantry is full of bite sized Snickers, M&Ms and who knows what else.

This year, we borrowed a costume from cousin Lydia, which fit Lydia a bit snugly seeing as it was a 6-12 monther and she was 16 months Oct 2006. However, the cozy leopard costume fit Kate just perfectly. She was sooo cute, and even though the festivities were made for cousin, she seemed to enjoy just being with everybody. That doesn't remind me of me at all!!!

The fam, Kate is distracted by cousin on the ground saying, "Say Cheese Kate!"

Although we brought the stroller, dad was a good sport & toted me around most of the evening.

I am leopard, hear me roar.
Incidentally, she does say "roa". We're trying to condition her to say that when we ask, "What does a lion say?" She thinks its quite fun when we ask her, but she hasn't become consistent in her responses.

Megan came with B & J. Boy it was nice to have an extra set of hands when we were trying to eat our hot dogs & eat our popcorn. Kate really wanted hot dog & popcorn, but her palate isn't quite developed enough for that.

I LOVE these things. Do you think I could lick it or eat it?
The Money Shot

She was a little off her feed when we first arrived. I think she was put -off by the crowds. The moment she saw cousin Lydia and was able to get down on the grass and play, she was all smiles.



We can't convince Lydia not to say "cheese" when she gets her picture taken. This is the face that results. I've started telling her, JUST SMILE, DON'T SAY CHEESE. Then she says. . .

"Smile"

With dad, checking out all the people, BEFORE Lydia showed up. This is her jowly look.

Finally Fall

The weather & colors are gradually whispering "fall" to my tired summer ears. I do love the summer, but there's just something about reds, oranges, and yellows along with long sleeve shirts that really make a season. On our trip two weekends ago to Amicalola Falls, we were able to enjoy the season as it should be enjoyed -- out of doors. It happened to be one of Jen's only free weekends, so the Johnsons joined us on our little Fall Adventure. The fact that you drive directly by the Dawsonville Outlets had nothing to do with it, I'm sure.

Josh & I arrived before B, J, & L's, so we decided to check out one of the possible trails. Our checking out turned into doing the hike to the Falls. It was one of those things where you just kept saying to yourself, "It can't be THAT much farther, can it?" The hike is relatively easy, except for the 273 stairs that you must climb to get to the observation deck at the foot of the falls. Yup, you read correctly, two hundred seventy three. Now, that was quite a trek for my out of shape self, but then, I did it TWICE. We saw the waterfall (which was beautiful), and then decided that Ben & Jen should be here by now, so we walked down the hill, fully intending to tell them that we should probably take the handicap accessible path if they wanted Lydia to walk. Well, it seems I underestimated myself & Lydia. (In the back of my mind, I'm thinking, those little Harpers did, you can, too!) I made it back up the stairs, this time at Lydia's pace, which was just faster than a snail's, but much, much cuter.

Lydia did all of the steps on her own!

What a cute, cute snail!

Baby Lauren was with momma, and baby Kate was with her dad. Both kids seemed to enjoy their carriers immensely. This is somewhat of a surprise for Kate, since she rarely spends time in hers. We took a more challenging route back down to the cars. Let's just say some parts were "tricky," and I wasn't even holding a baby! The sweet air, beautiful colors, and great company made this trip a lot of fun! Next time, we'll just make sure that downtown Dawsonville isn't closed down due to a HUGE, HUGE Dawson County Fair. We spent 15 or 20 minutes in a town that should have taken us 2 minutes to drive through.

Momma & Boo both love our hoodies.

At the foot of the falls. . .

Josh gave her a leaf to play with, which of course, she tried to eat. Guess who had to pick up a leaf to be like her cousin?

Can I have some salsa with this leaf? (YUP, Dad gave her salsa last week. She didn't really like -- as you can imagine!)

Jen had Lauren strapped on the entire time. Way to go, Jen!

Kate's thinking: Get me out of this thing! I've got a diaper the size of a burrito!