Monday, June 15, 2015

Life With Kate- 9 Months Old


Our sweet Kate Marie is 9 months old! The past few weeks have been a whirl wind of personality and growth. She's giggling, babbling, and interacting with us more than ever. This is such a fun stage! 


This month we assembled Kate's walker/stroller that she got from MiMi and Gramps for Christmas. Obviously, she isn't walking with it yet but she is having fun pulling up on it and pushing it while sitting down. 


She has gotten really good at pulling herself up to a standing position. She loves to stand up! She is moving around more and more. She isn't crawling yet, but she is very close! She can scoot herself backwards pretty well, but she hasn't figured out how to go forwards.She's wiggling all over the place!


She's moving all over her crib too. She usually ends up falling asleep on her tummy. This has only started a couple of weeks ago.  It's been fun to watch her on the monitor and see where she ends up! She is napping pretty good on most days. Usually two naps a day, sometimes one. At night she is still waking up to a couple of times. I nurse her and she usually goes right back down so it's not too bad. 



She is able to hold herself steady very well these days. In fact, she's sitting up in the grocery cart  pretty much all the time now! Of course she is curious about everything. The check out lanes at our local Whole Foods are pretty narrow and I have the hardest time keeping her from knocking the CDs off the shelf! She's social though- and loves it when everyone is talking to her! 


She's also sitting in a high chair at restaurants now... that's right... we now go to restaurants with a baby! We're feeling more normal again every month! 

(Don't worry... she didn't have any pizza!)

She is eating more foods too. We introduced sweet potato, avocado, mango, and oatmeal cereal (her first grain) this month. She's now eating 3 small meals (about 2- 2.5 oz each) in addition to her regular nursing. I have no idea how much milk she is taking in these days because she rarely has a bottle anymore. She's goes longer in between her nursing sessions now so that's helpful! 


She still loves her books! She'll listen to as many books as you want to read to her... 1 or 9. She loves it! Of course, she also loves to play with her toys! (By play, I mean chomp on her toys like they are salt water taffy.) This month I pulled out a puzzle for her- she really likes to take out all of the pieces and watch me put them back. 



(Also... she is ALWAYS wearing clothes. I can't understand why I have 2 pictures from her on different days in just a diaper! I'm glad I have them though because I want to remember her like this too!)

Kate took her first dip in the baby pool at Westbury Church of Christ's summer kick off party. Then later that week I took her for a swim our big pool. She is a bit hesitant about it still. I'm hoping to get her out in the pool more this summer! 



We took a trip to Bartlesville, OK to see Blake's parents. While we were there we took a day trip to Ponca City to see our grandma Genie! I don't think there were enough people to love on Kate, do you? :) 




It's a lot different taking a long car ride with an older baby than it is with one who is 3 months old! She did pretty good though. I spent some time playing with her in the back seat this time! ALSO! We moved her up from her infant car seat to her convertible one. She'll be in this seat for a long time. She loves it, and we love it too because the passenger seat has a bit more leg room now and it's easier to get Kate in and out of this seat. 



Uncle Jake and the rest of the OC Summer Singers crashed in Houston last week so we got to spend a couple of hours with them while my dad made brunch. 


One last event to tell... Kate attended her first VBS at Westbury! As I announced last week on Facebook, I've accepted a job (starting in July) as a part time children's minister on the children's ministry team at Westbury Church of Christ, where I grew up. I will be able to do this with Kate by my side and I feel so grateful that we'll get some supplementary income from doing what I both love to do and feel called to do. We officially placed membership this week, and are excited about our future there. 


I'm learning and growing more and more from this sweet girl. I'm understanding God's love for me on a deeper level and I'm treasuring days more than I ever have before. I'm so blessed to be her momma.