Katie: 10 Months

Somehow 10 months have come and gone with Katie. It doesn't seem possible that we are two months away from turning one!

What a fun month this was for us watching Katie learn and grow in more ways than I want to admit. Just a few weeks ago she was barely army crawling, now we can't stop her from crawling (on her hands and knees to boot) all around the house. She can go from sitting to her tummy and from her tummy up to sit. And she really wants to pull up to stand. She can get herself pulled up to her knees, but hasn't quite made it to her feet yet. But the way crawling went, I'm sure tomorrow she will have it figured out ha!

She loves it when you help her stand up and talk about how big she is while she's standing there. She thinks its hilarious and will just giggle away. 

Katie is also starting to wave at people and loves when you wave back at her. 

In addition to her huge gross motor gains this month, she's also loved chatting it up. She's got a pretty consistent "mama", and I swear sometimes she is even using it in association with me. "Babababa" is another favorite phrase, including "ahhhh" with varying pitch and intonation. She does throw in a "dada" here and there, and I've just recently heard her throwing some final consonant sounds in there, especially "ack". 

This month Katie celebrated her first St. Patrick's Day, and was definitely too cute to be pinched, even if she wouldn't have been wearing green.

She also attended her first wedding reception of our friends Nick and Monyca Matson.

Katie had her first sickness this month- an ear infection. It started last week on Monday afternoon when Amanda said she felt warm and wasn't acting her normal happy self. Monday night she was running a fever, and on Tuesday the poor girl was toast. She was droopy, feverish, whiny, and hardly eating. The rest of the week was much of the same. Fevers in the morning and evenings, and not quite herself during the day. I took her to quick care on Wednesday and they said that she had fluid on her ears, but it wasn't an ear infection at that point. Friday evening Eric took her back to get them checked again and by this point her right ear was infected. She started medicine that evening. When I got her up on Saturday morning it was like my happy girl was back. Her right eye is still a little swollen, but she is acting pretty much herself again. 

Favorites for Katie this month include taking her socks off when she is in the carseat, her brother and sister, her momma, chewing on everything, eating (especially carrots) and crawling to wherever you are. Her current favorite place to crawl is to the top of the stairs. She literally will be sitting on the floor in the living room and then crawl right over to the top of the stairs and just look down them. She also loves playing with non-toy items, like the wipes container or a remote, and looking out the sliding glass window.

She doesn't like missing out on the action, and she really has not loved the changing table this month. I really think she associates it with having to go to bed, and she will just whine and sometimes even cry when you put her up there. She still sleeps like a champ, but that FOMO is real for her. 

Katie is wearing 9 month clothes and size 3 diapers. She is weighing 17.6 pounds and measures about 27.5 inches long. 

She is currently drinking five 7 ounce bottles a day (except for this last week when we were lucky to get 20 or 25 ounces a day drank), and is awake 2.5-3 hours between naps. I do think she could probably stay up longer between naps so we will be extending those soon.

We can't wait to see what's in store in the next months to come for our happy girl!

Wrapping up Winter

Spring is days away and we.are.ready. The small teases of warmer weather recently have us itching to play outside every day. When it warms up for good, I doubt I'll see the inside of my house at all. Before I get caught up in all this wishful thinking, let's take a look back at the last few months of Winter.

Let's back things up all the way back to New Year's Eve. Eric and I had a fabulous night out (thanks to my parents for watching our kids) with our friends Brian and Mara. We had reservations at the Firefly for their NYE tasting menu. We ate wayyyy too much food, and thanks to adding the wine pairings to our meal, drank wayyy too much wine. I'll just say that next morning reminded me why I don't drink like I'm in college anymore ha!

January was filled with friends. The five of us took a trip to St. Louis to visit our friends Jaycen and Katie. Though they took a bit to warm up, Brayden and Ashley absolutely loved playing with Riley and Hank. Katie absolutely loved her mom and didn't want much to do with anyone else. 

Ever since we got home from their house, Ashley had been asking about when she could see Riley again. (Sorry Hank, girls rule and boys drool). I think she asked every day until the beginning of March when they came to visit us- but more on that later.

January also allowed me to meet up with Kaci, Kendra, and Ashley. Our time together is never long enough and always leads to me wanting more. Long distance best friends will do that to you I guess.

The rest of January was filled with smiles, laughs, and fun. Here's a little glimpse of that.

        

February started with more friends- our 7th annual friends dinner party at Brian and Mara's. Great food with even better company.

We had Brayden and Ashley's birthday party on the 12th. My mom made them each their own cakes- per their own individual requests- and the kids were in love with their cakes and all their gifts. 

The 14th was their birthday, and we celebrated by watching Eric coach at the basketball game. That might have been their first birthday they spent in the gym, but I guarantee that it won't be their last. 

And just for fun, Valentine's Day pictures of all three kids from earlier that day. 

February finally saw the warmer weather we were craving, and we spent lots of time outside when the weather allowed. 

     

     

When the weather didn't allow, we made the most of our time inside. 

     

The beginning of March saw Jaycen and Katie coming to visit us (and I wasn't lying when I said Ashley asked almost every day when Riley was coming). Their stay was filled with home made ice cream, plenty of visits across the road to see the cows, and lots of giggles. 

 

The night ended in a sleepover in the basement for the kids. I was honestly surprised to see Ashley make her way to the top of the stairs instead of Brayden, but I don't fault her for thinking the basement was a little scary. Ashley slept in her bed upstairs, and Brady stayed in the basement on the air mattress. We are all looking forward to when we can get together again.

We wrapped up the last few weeks of Winter with even more smiles, snuggles, and fun.

No one was getting pinched in our household on St. Patrick's Day! Except I guess me, since Brayden pinched me right away in the morning before I got my green on. Somehow Eric avoided the pinches even though he didn't wear any green at all...

This weekend Eric enjoyed watching the NCAA basketball games. He bought a projector for his golf simulator for the barn, but before he brought it out there he tested it out in the living room. As he leaned back in his recliner, I heard him say "Now this is the way to watch a basketball game." I'm sure it won't be long before we have a projector in the basement to replace the TV down there. 

On Saturday we did a little dancing at Nick and Monyca Matson's wedding reception. I don't get to see Nick near enough, but I'm glad we've stayed in touch the past few years. 

I got a great picture of the twins and I with Nick. 

We then attempted to get a picture with Eric and Katie in it too. You can see how that turned out....

Winter, you treated us well, but Spring, we are more than ready to see what you have in store for us!