Belated birthday outing

Yesterday Will made good on his birthday promise to me...he treated me to Fenton's ice cream! My birthday was 7 months ago, but we finally found an opportunity to drive to Vacaville for our treat. It was so yummy!!! I think I want to make this a yearly birthday tradition. Kate did a very good job patiently waiting for us to finish our ice cream. She entertained the other customers with her high pitched squeals and giggles.

Will ordered the brownie sundae...it was huge! I think he only finished about half of it and let me have several munches of his brownie. :-)

Here are a few videos from this week. Kate is continually practicing her sounds and "mama" seems to be her favorite. She also enjoys playing "crazy head" with us in which she shakes her head vigorously back and forth, mimicking what we are doing. It is very goofy!

Sunday stroll with Gramma and Papa

Today we got to enjoy a Sunday stroll with Gramma and Papa. The weather was so beautiful and perfect for a long walk.
Halfway through our walk we stopped at the park to enjoy some time on the swings. Kate loves the swings!

Before the walk, Kate practiced her crawling. Notice the tongue...it is very hard work!

What a cute baby!

8 Months Old!

Kate is 8 months old today! Kate keeps on growing and changing everyday. She officially now fits into size 9-12 month clothing. Surprisingly they aren't too long for her and comfortably fit around her chubby belly. :-) She loves sitting up on her own and playing with any item that truly isn't a toy. Currently her toy box contains an empty water bottle, a toothbrush, a plastic bowl and Starbucks cup. She also enjoys my measuring cups and wooden spoons. She is not crawling, yet, but she is figuring out how to get up on all fours and spin around to get toys behind her. She is getting really good at standing up, though. She loves to hold onto me and stand up to play. In the past month I have introduced some new foods to her diet including yogurt (she can finish an entire yogurt cup in one sitting) and rice husk crackers. She also enjoys taking small bites of some of the foods I am eating including banana, red bell pepper and bread.

Kate's personality is coming to light more and more everyday. First of all she is a total goofball, just like her Daddy. She loves to giggle and squeal at anything. She also has moments where she totally zones out and it is hard to get her attention...I always wonder what she is thinking about then. For the most part she is very easy going, but can get fussy when she is hungry or tired...another attribute that she gets from Will. One of my favorite things about Kate is that she loves to cuddle with me. She buries her head into my chest and wraps her arms around my neck. I just love it! She does get some separation anxiety when I leave the room which has been a little hard, but I am hoping that is just a phase. I feel so blessed to have her as my daughter. I couldn't have asked for a more loving, happy little girl that fills my heart with so much delight and love!!!

Here are a few pictures from this morning. Kate is enjoying munching on her plastic bowl.

The wind was blowing hard outside so Kate was watching the trees move in the breeze.

Today was free pastry day at Starbucks so Kate and I took full advantage of the offer. I was able to get a free pumpkin scone (my favorite!) and a cinnamon dolce latte. Starbucks was a total zoo but worth the wait in line. Kate enjoyed playing with my Starbucks cup after I enjoyed my coffee (don't worry, I washed it out).

The other day, I was desperate to get Kate something to distract her while I put on my makeup. We were in the bathroom so I was wasn't sure what I could find. Thankfully I remembered that we had a stash of new toothbrushes from our dentist so I pulled one out for Kate. It was a huge hit! She loved munching on the bristles.

"Mommy, you want me to chew on this?"

Oh so silly!

Just because....

Nothing new to report...just wanted to post this cute picture of Kate. Also, check out my sister's blog. She just posted some videos from Chloe's 3rd birthday. There is a really cute video of Kate getting excited about their dog Gimli.

A Beautiful Day

Wow! Today couldn't be more perfect! The weather is a pleasant 60 degrees and the sun is shining bright. Kate and I took full advantage of the beautiful weather and went for a walk and had fun at the park. Here are a few pictures from our recent adventure.

Kate didn't seemed too thrilled to be in the swing. She spent the whole time watching a little boy play basketball with his dad.

After the swing we went down the slide a few times and then moved onto the grass. This was Kate's first time touching grass and she didn't seemed to be too amused. She was still distracted by the boy and his dad. :-)

I am getting pretty good at taking self-portraits of Kate and me. She didn't quite feel like smiling this time.
Some other things that Kate has been up to this week involve taking every toy out of her toy box and throwing them on the ground. I think she is getting pretty bored with her current toys so this has been a fun thing for her to discover.We decided if Kate was going to take everything out of her toy box we would out her in the box with her toys. :-)

On Sunday we dressed Kate up in a cute springtime dress. Doesn't she look so cute?

Cousin Andrew's 6th Birthday Party

Today is Cousin Andrew's 6th birthday so yesterday my sister and brother-in-law invited over the family to help celebrate with some cake and ice cream. Kate had a lot of fun hanging around the "big" kids.

Kate with Gramma

Kate with Auntie Sarah

Cousin Andrew and his big birthday cake

Kate got to sit at the big kids table thanks to Papa's help.

Great Grandma and Grandpa Elliott

Kate loved sucking on the ribbon from Andrew's gifts

Happy birthday boy with some of his new toys

After the party I let Kate try out a new gizmo at home. It is a food mesh bag thingy. Basically you can put fruits or vegetables in the mesh bag, close it up tight and let the baby chomp away on the food without the risk of choking. Kate has greatly enjoyed eating chunks of bananas this way. We tried cucumber but she wasn't interested so I think we will put some pear in it this afternoon and see what she thinks.

Bath Time

Last night Kate got to try out her new "big girl" bathtub. Kate greatly enjoyed her new rubber ducky diggs, especially the quaking sound it makes. This was the first time we gave her some bath toys to play with and she had a blast. It was so cute watching her play in her new tub!

The end to a noble experiment

For the past month or so Kate has been in the habit of waking up in the middle of the night crying. Every time she wakes up I have been going into her room, picking her up and swaying her back to sleep while listening to some Colbie Caillat. Recently she has been waking up more than once and swaying hasn't been working so I have been nursing her back to sleep. Needless to say it has been very frustrating being woken up in the middle of the night when I know she can sleep for 10 hours straight without needing me.

This past week I decided to try an experiment and let Kate cry it out in the middle of the night. Monday night she woke up twice, cried for 30 seconds and fell back asleep. Yay! I was thinking this was going to be an easy experiment. Tuesday night she didn't wake up at all so I thought all of our problems were solved. Wednesday night was a totally different story...After sleeping for 2 solid hours Kate woke up crying so I camped outside her bedroom door and prayed she would fall asleep soon. Her cry sounded very tired but after 3 minutes it escalated to a scream. I let her scream for another minute but it was obvious she was not going to be able to calm down so I went into her room to soothe her. As I picked her up from her crib she started to cough and gag from all the crying. Before I knew it she had projectile vomited all over her, the carpet and me. I yelled for Will to come help, threw on the bedroom lights, and placed her on the changing table so Will could change her pajamas while I cleaned myself up. She screamed and screamed while she was being changed and turned red in the face. It was very sad! To calm her down I nursed her and thankfully she fell fast asleep for the rest of the night.

I feel like an awful mom after that experience. How I could let her cry hard enough to make her vomit? I think my experiment will be put on hold for at least another month. :-\

I had to include a picture of Kate in this posting so here is a picture taken the other morning while she was playing with a calculator.

Fun in Tahoe

Yesterday we got back from our long weekend in Tahoe. We had a wonderful time hanging out with our friends, playing games, and romping in the snow. A huge snow storm hit Friday night when our friends were heading to the cabin so it took them 5.5 hours to get to Tahoe when it usually only takes 2 hours. Thankfully they arrived safely and in good spirits. When we woke Saturday morning we found the trees covered in a beautiful blanket of snow.
For breakfast Will whipped up some pancakes while I made monkey bread, scrambled eggs and sausage. Amongst 8 adults and 1 toddler we consumed 28 sausages, 18 eggs, 2 batches of pancakes, and 90% of the monkey bread.

After breakfast Will and Derek washed this dishes and had a lot of fun doing so. :-)

Kate wasn't too thrilled to be bundled up in her polar bear outfit, but everyone thought she looked so cute.

After breakfast a huge snowball fight broke out amongst Will, Derek, and Case. The snow was perfect for making snowballs and snowmen...sticky and not icy.

Thanks to Will, Derek had a snowball land square across his face.

All of us girls! We posed purposefully starting with the oldest daughter to the youngest...we have Amy with Hazel (19 months), me with Kate (7 months), Courtnee with Abby (4.5 months), and Brenna with Zoey (3 months).

We put Kate's toys in a paper bag to easily transport them to the cabin. Turns out the bag was more enjoyable to play with than her toys.

Sunday morning was a gorgeous sunny day. Kate, Will and I went for a little stroll to soak up the rays. Thanks Gramma for the awesome shades!

What a wonderful time in Tahoe! We look forward to another awesome cabin trip next year!