Still alive and kickin'

Katelyn has officially been outside my belly longer than she was cooking in there!  She just passed her 9 month birthday...ok it was a couple weeks ago but still!  She is quite the busy girl but she likes to make sure Mom or Dad are close by.  Some new/continuing talents, interests or anything else she does include:

• She eats her fruits and veggies great, but only when she has something in her hands to play with.  Otherwise, she will whack my hand/spoon and the food will make a nice mess anywhere from on me, the table, her, the floor, the walls, her eyes. . . who knows!  
• Sometimes she gets so focused on whatever is in her hands that she forgets to eat the food in her mouth.  She will barely open her mouth ready for another bite realizing that she can't open it very well without losing what's already in there.  Sometimes I don't realize this until I see that her cheeks are extra round.  She's our little hamster.
• She will purposefully put things under the couch and then swish her hand around under there to find what she put under there. . . or whatever she put under there last time.  Today it is her pacifier.  
• If we ever can't find something, we look under the couches because of the previous talent.
• She likes other babies that are her size or smaller.  She likes dolls too.  She isn't very gentle with them though and gets excited and whacks them in the face multiple times or uses them to hold on to as she stands up.  The dolls don't seem to mind, but the other babies do.

• She stands a lot and most of the time she is holding on with one or both hands.  She is now finding that she can just lean against her belly and stay standing.  Sometimes she will stand for a few seconds on her own and then squat down.  She's getting braver and braver but probably still a month or two away from walking.  Crawling is the safest option still.

• She often sits in a kneel/squat position like she's ready to stand, crawl, or sit.  Triple threat :)
• When she eats our face it seems more and more like she is giving kisses.  She is getting gentler and cuter with it.
• She can stink up a room, no problem.  Multiple times this last weekend she was being held and then handed off because they thought she was poopy.  I would take her off to change her poopy diaper only to find it was clean.  She learned how to toot from her uncles and papa...Papa, NO!
• She loves the stairs, the fridge, and the dishwasher.  Almost any time I open the fridge or the dishwasher and she hears me messing with dishes or things in the fridge, she drops what she's doing and crawls as fast as she can on over to see if she can get there before I close them up.  If she is fast enough she likes to climb on up!

What a pose!

• She loves books more than anything...well she likes us more, and then food, and then comes the books.  She can turn the pages of her board books and she seems to have a favorite page in the books that she will turn to.  Once she finds it, she will keep it open and take that book around with her as she explores.

• So many things that she goes after aren't really okay for her to play with so we take them away. She is almost always fine if we replace it.  Some time she will go after something and pause to look at us for approval or to see if we are going to take it away.  Once she realizes we're going to let her have whatever she's going for, she smiles really big and starts panting with excitement...funny girl.
• She is stinkin' cute in her sunglasses...thanks Aunt Kim!  She keeps them on pretty well too.  Yesterday she wore them while we shopped at Winco.  Others can't help but notice her cute shades!  I can't wait until it warms up for good and I get to put a suit on her round body and go swim!  

• Somedays are "cling to mom" days.  She will do whatever she can to make sure she plays by me as she will drag her toys over and then just lean on me as she plays, then climb on and over me, then lay her head on my leg when she's ready for a nap.  I love it most of the time, except when I want to clean or make dinner...Katelyn doesn't like it when I try to be productive around here either.
• She still waves and dances and it is still cute.
• Sometimes when she's sad she says mom.  We don't think she is meaning to talk to me, but I think we are counting it as her first word...maybe.
• In church, David takes Katelyn with him to his classes while I teach mine.  I think he is the only guy in Elders Quorum that has a baby.  Katelyn was getting tired and was all snuggled up with David in the back of the room.  She started talking saying,"da da da da da da da..." and everyone looked back at David.  He secretly liked the distraction Katelyn was and how cute his little girl was being for everyone to hear.
• I have been working on some signs with Katelyn while we eat.  She has started to do a clap-like motion and I am hoping she is signing "more" but I think she has picked up on clapping.  I am going to count it until she proves me wrong and I'm okay with that :)
• Some nights she sleeps all night long and it is wonderful.  Other nights she wakes up multiple times and it isn't so wonderful.  We haven't seen a pattern as to why she is waking up, so some days I get nap time too!
• She has always taken a bath in the sink until a couple weeks ago.  The first two or three baths in the tub were life threatening for her or something.  Our neighbors were probably suspicious, but somehow Katelyn survived.  We aren't sure why the big tub was so scary, but most days it isn't too scary anymore.
• Her skin color is beautiful!  I love it!  It is super soft too... irresistible!!!
• Katelyn is not discrete if she's watching you.  She will stare you down with her mouth wide open and maybe even drool if she's watching long enough.  She will lean to the side or forward or back if something gets in her way and stare until she's had enough.
• She is still our heavy duty girl.  She weighed in a couple weeks ago at 20 pounds.  It might have been 20 1/2 pounds I didn't write it down.  For her height she is 27 inches.  So she is still on the shorter side and on the heavier side of that short side.  
• She is a pro at eating cheerios or any scrap of whatever she finds on the floor.  She pinches it with her two fingers and gets it in her mouth REALLY fast.  I have fished way too many things out of her mouth that she wasn't supposed to eat.
• When she's done eating cheerios, she has learned to pick each one up and put it in her high chair or drop it off to the side that mom isn't on.  I think she is saving some for later explorations.
• She drinks a little at a time out of her sippy cup.  That is still a work in progress, but she is making progress.

• If I say, "Can I have it?" she will very hesitantly place whatever she has in my hand.  Once I say thank you, she is ready for me to give it back.  
• She likes having her toes painted...well maybe her mom likes having her toes painted :)

So that's our toothless little girl.  She doesn't slow down for anything and is always on the lookout for something to entertain her.  She is quite a bit of work, but very easy to love!  Everyone always mentions how soft her skin is and it must be from all the snuggles and kisses she gets...must be!