7 months and crawling

Kate is a little over 7 months and crawling everywhere! She graduated from scooting to a hands and knees crawl on her 7mo birthday. Now she loves to head for the cat food and water, the fireplace and the kitchen floor. She also does the "monkey walk" where she gets around on her hands and feet with her little behind way up in the air. It is so cute! She can also pull herself up and stand on the edge of the toy bin, the coffee table and almost on the windowsil. I also discovered her standing in her crib this week, so we had to move it down so she won't jump out. However, she has no concept of balance, so she often lets go and falls all the way to the floor, "bonking" herself quite often. She likes to eat Teddy Puffs and banana, but still isn't fond of the spoon. She loves when you clap for her and cries when you take something away. Stella loves to rub against her face and Kate finds this hilarious. We are going to try to use cloth diapers now for a while--at home only. They just seem so much more comfortable. Aunt Beedoh was here last week and Kate had a bit of a cold, so she was kind of grouchy. Hopefully we didn't scare Beedoh away--we are hoping she will come be our nanny this summer! Kate's language skills are developing, too. She says "bababa, dadada and mum mum mum," but my favorite is panting in a somewhat panicked tone when she wants to nurse. We've recently been having a battle with bedtime which wasn't a problem before. She's been getting some late naps, which I suspect is the cause. Recently she has been up until 10:30 or 11pm--past my bedtime!!


School is going well for me. I have two implants and two GTRs coming up and it is fun to have more surgery appointments. My research was contingintly approved by the IRB this week, so I just have to make a few minor changes to my forms and that will be ready to go, too.



Loren is hoping to go windsurfing this afternoon, but there is little wind. It has been beautiful weather here!

Swimming

We went swimming today with Amy and Addison. Kate had such a good time! She is going to love the pool this summer.

Spring Break!

I am so happy to be on spring break this week--giving me a chance to be home with Kate all day long:) I'm in heaven. We went to the library, to Gymboree Play and Music, to the vet, to Salsa babies and today we are going the Dr. for more shots:( Tomorrow we'll go swimming with Kate's best friend, Addison. Kate is so close to crawling. She can scoot well, but also gets up on all fours. She loves to stand, and would love to be cruising along our windowsills--not too long! I'm trying hard not to help her all the time and to let her figure out how to move on her own, so she has started to get a few bumps and bruises.

As for eating, she's had apples, banana, teething cookies, sweet potato and onion...yes, onion. Loren gave her onion the other day. No reaction. She isn't too interested in eating other than nursing. She is in a very pinchy phase of nursing right now...she opens and closes her little fingers and squeezes my skin. I got a "nursing necklace" which has virtually solved the problem! She loves the necklace, and it is baby safe, so we are happy:)

I'm also pretty sure that Kate understands the word "Stella." She loves Stella and squeals with delight when she sees her. Stella, on the other hand, is a little wary of the now mobile thing that squeezes skin and pulls hair!