Baby & Me

Kate & I had so much fun at Baby & Me today. She is such a smart little baby; every Baby & Me session starts with all of us sitting in a circle, where we all grab onto a big strip of fabric that lines the circle. We then "bounce" the fabric, row with it, shake it, etc. Well, today as soon as we sat down (we were there about 5 minutes early, so it hadn't started yet), Kate picked up the fabric and started bouncing with it, just like we're supposed to! What a smarty pants.

Afterward, there is always time for free play, and Kate plays so nicely with the other kids. There is this little boy, Brevin, who is 9 months but Kate's size, and he seems to like her, which is funny. Today, during free play, Kate grabbed these two "shakers" (kinda like maracas) and was standing there shaking them... without holding onto anything! She had such good balance; I was amazed. Normally I'm proud if she can stand on her own for any length of time at all, so this was exceptionally good that she was standing there AND shaking her maracas. She'll be walking in no time!

Here are a few shots of her before we left for Baby & Me today; I love this purple outfit she's wearing.






Look how long she is in this car seat now! (Don't worry, she still is within the height/weight limits). But still, she looks like she'll outgrow it any day now! As a comparison, look how little she was LAST March; the car seat looked like it was going to dwarf her!

More photos

Creative title, isn't it? Or not... Anyway, here are some pics of Kate in the "Auntie Loves Me" onesie Tracy gave her. She looks adorable!










Blurry, but still cute :)

"Irish You Would Kiss Me"

Here's a few photos of Kate in her new St. Patrick's Day outfit from Kirsti, which she got for her birthday. It says "Irish you would kiss me," and I think Kate looks great in this green. She's wearing the hat my mom gave her for her birthday; she loves to wear that thing, even in the house! Go figure; she won't keep hats on outside when it's below freezing, but she'll keep this hat on inside.

These were taken on Tuesday; I actually had a lot of work to do at the office that morning, so Dan didn't go into work until 10 so that he could take Kate to her music class, and then he dropped her off at my office afterward. He said they had a lot of fun; I'm glad that his job is flexible so that he can do stuff like this with his little girl.

Kate & Addy (for real!)

Today we went to lunch with some friends at Claddagh Irish Pub in Middleton; they (with the exception of Meghan) hadn't seen Kate in awhile, so it was fun to all get together. They couldn't believe how much she had grown! Afterward, Kate & I went to Meghan's house and hung out with Addy for a bit; this time I remembered to get pictures.


Funny girl; she put her hat on by herself and was so proud of herself.


Two sweet babies in the backseat; we picked Meghan and Adelaide up because they were car-less today.


Two sweet girls! Addy's outfit says "Playdate Potential" which is appropriate, since this was their first real "playdate." Before, one or the other of them was always sleeping, so there wasn't much playing going on between the two of them!


Ahh, I remember when Kate used to lay nicely like this on the floor!


I love Kate's outfit; I thought it was very appropriate since it's now March, and as Nikki pointed out, it was the perfect outfit for our Irish restaurant lunch!


Having so much fun together!








I love the shamrock pockets!


Playing so nicely together!


Kate's new favorite thing to do is hand things to other people, which I'm sure Addy appreciated!

Bye-bye, Nana

Well, my mom was supposed to leave on Monday evening. But, due to the snow, she had to stay until Tuesday evening; yay! I'm sad she had to take an unplanned vacation day and cancel Tuesday's lessons, BUT I'm so thrilled she was able to hang out with us for another day!

On Tuesday morning, we went to our music class together, and my mom came along. I'm so glad she got to see it; even though Kate was sick, she still loved it and bounced and "sang" along. Then we went to Kate's doctor's appointment. She had developed a bad cough pretty quickly on Monday, but it turns out that it was an ear infection (the drainage was making her cough). Poor thing; no wonder she was so fussy! (Luckily she seemed fine at her party). We got her some amoxicillan and she perked up literally within a couple hours. We went to lunch at Red Lobster with Tracy (which is where these pictures were taken), and I was so happy to see Kate smiling and chatting with us all, and eating again (she hadn't been eating solid foods well at all for the past couple of days, although she still nursed quite well, which is the most important thing). She sure does love her Nana!


That's a straw she's holding (although I know it looks like an old-fashioned cigarette holder)





And here are a couple close-ups of the main balloons for her party; I wanted to take some pics before they deflated!

Kate at the Piano

Here's a little video of Kate playing with one of her favorite birthday presents; her piano.

More birthday celebrations

The night before Kate's birthday, my mom, me, Dan, Kate and the Hines (plus Kirsti's boyfriend, Colin) went to the Outback, which was really good, as always. We had Kate wear her little crown that Tracy gave her, so the server noticed that it was her birthday and brought her a little sundae with a candle. She didn't quite get the concept of blowing it out, but she sure loved the ice cream!











Then on her actual birthday, we went to Baby & Me at the library in the morning, and they noticed she was wearing her "My 1st Birthday" outfit, so they all sang to her, which she really liked. Then Kate & I went to lunch with Dan in Middleton at one of our favorite places (Sprecher's), and that night, we went to Pedro's along with my mom, Tracy, Kirsti and Rori.



Nana & Kate at Pedro's


Love her birthday onesie!


The morning of her birthday, opening a card and some little gifts from Nana