She's Taking Off

This was written up at the beginning of the month...whoops!

The last few weeks with Katelyn have been so fun!  She has been doing and learning so many new things and we love it!  The way she moves and plays and talks and thinks seem to be so different than they were before.  I don't think any of these things are record breaking events, and some things might be advanced for her age and others might be behind for her age but I am fascinated by watching her mind go to town.

• She is understanding the purpose of most toys.  She stacks rings on their stand, holds, hugs and "kisses" (eats) teddy bears and dolls, she shakes things that make noise, puts the phone to her ear...or shoulder...and jabbers away, pulling the toy on a string like a dog on a leash, and she rolls balls and chases them all around our place.  She likes to just play with her toys and it is cute to watch her ways of doing things.
• She is learning different signs.  When I started showing her the signs she didn't show any interest and never did the signs from 6-9 months so it was frustrating and it was hard waiting for her to respond to them.  Now she can pick up on a new sign immediately and within a day she will have it down so if I say a word like "all done" then she will do the sign.  It is neat that we can communicate with her a little bit even though she can't verbally talk yet.  We mostly use the signs for feeding time so she knows when to do these ones on her own: "more", "all done", and "eat" (I'm hungry).  I love that she knows "all done" so she doesn't have to smack the spoon and food out of my hand to tell me anymore.
• Sometimes we don't know the real sign so we make one up and she picks up on it.  We have bath time each night...which she now loves and she turns into a little wild monkey crawling and splashing and climbing around the tub laughing and jabbering and singing away....and we have now idea what the sign is for bath, so we "wash our hair" for our sign.  We did it one night and then didn't think to do it for a few days and then one night I told Katelyn it was bath time and she did the sign!  I couldn't believe she remembered what I showed her the few days before.  
• She loves drinking out of water bottles rather than her sippy cups.  Not a big deal, but it is just cute to watch her lift the heavy (for her) full water bottle and prop it up to drink out of it.
• She chooses to walk more and more. She chooses to walk most of the time but still crawls sometimes too. She is still very unbalanced and falls often but seems to like walking and gets back up.  Often when she could crawl one step she will take the time to stand up and take a couple little shuffle steps and then squat down or sit and get what she was going after.
• Her teeth came in rapid fire and didn't give her a break.  She has 6 teeth now.  She had her little fangs for a week or two and then the top and then the bottom front teeth started coming in one after another.  She has been okay with teething.  Most days she is normal but the days the tooth is ready and pokes through she is a cranky beast!  
• She talked with Grandpa Rudd for 30 minutes on the phone.  She kept interrupting him and wouldn't let him talk very much.  He is quite the talker, but I think Katelyn will give him a tough time for that title in the family :)
• She loves cheerios.  She only likes the complete round ones though and will pick through and leave the ones that aren't whole.  Goofy girl!
• She figured out how to use those teeth to bite off pieces of a banana.  
• Often times we have our clean pile of laundry in the hallway before it gets put upstairs.  Lately Katelyn has been fascinated with David's underwear (they are clean, remember?) and will find a pair in the pile and then come back down the hall with them over her head ...sometimes walking which  makes us laugh so hard because she is already wobbly as she walks and with underwear over her head she tries to look around to see where she's going and she falls and gets turned around easier... and then plays "peekaboo" with them! I promise we have not taught her this,  We have only played peekaboo with blankets or behind walls/around corners/around furniture...not underwear!  We have no idea why she keeps choosing the undies when there are all sorts of other things to choose from but maybe she knows how funny she is and likes the laughter and chuckles she gets out of us.
• She is wiggly and doesn't like to sit still much.  She tries all she can to climb out of her high chair, stroller, or shopping carts.  When she is done being in there, she always figures out a way to get through the straps and buckles and start climbing out.
• She is also fascinated by the stairs.  We didn't want to buy a gate for our stairs and we just had a box in the way so she couldn't get up.  She figured out how to push the box out of the way so then it became a battle.  We were trying to figure out how to keep her downstairs but still be able to get down ourselves safely even when holding Katelyn.  So David filled two boxes with books thinking that would definitely be heavy enough.  It wasn't.  She pried that box away and headed up the stairs.  Then we put the tool box in the way as well.  She was able to hold onto the box full of books or the tool box and put her toes on the tiny little piece of the stair that hung over and climb up and over the barricade.  David ended up putting a huge box over the top and then wedged it with the basketball.  Finally Katelyn couldn't get through...but neither could we without nearly twisting our ankles and we had to hand Katelyn off at the bottom of the stairs so we wouldn't drop her trying to get past the wall of stuff.  We gave in and bought a gate that night and the problem is finally solved.  We were outsmarted by Katelyn and we finally gave up.
• She likes giving things to us.  This has been the most helpful when she puts something she's not supposed to have in her mouth.  If we ask for it, she will spit it out and hand it over...much better than fishing through her mouth and getting chomped on with her sharp teeth!  There are way too many bugs around though so a few times it has been really gross!
• She has finally figured out how to fall asleep without being held.  I love snuggle time, but I also love that I can put her in her crib when she's getting droopy-eyed and she will go to sleep.
• She gives good kisses now to us.  If we pucker up she will climb up or do whatever it takes to come claim her kiss. She doesn't pucker up her lips, but she will lean in and just touch you with her lips and it is so sweet.  We LOVE her sweet soft kisses and we can't get enough of them!