Oh, how are we there already?
Our little pumpkin is continuing to grow stronger and mobile. She's crawling everywhere and climbing on everything. Her favorite place to climb is the couch! All these toys... and her favorite is the couch!? She also likes to pull herself up on people's legs... so if you are standing near by you have to be cautious! Sometimes there are tumbles, but the tears are always calmed with a book!
She loves to pull all of the books off of the shelves! Then she will sit down to "read" them. She has even learned how to look behind the flaps on books that have them. She is also fascinated with my cookbooks! She reads them often just like her momma! I love watching her play in the morning time when she is still in her pajamas!
We are finding all sorts of toys in our media drawers these days! (Once again... I can't get enough of the footies.... I take lots of pictures when she is in them!)
She loves to play! This month we've watched her go from mouthing on her toys to really discovering them. Anyone who thinks that kids don't learn by playing needs to spend some time observing babies!
We are in the swing less and less these days. Now she plays in her pack-in-play when I need to be in the other room or can't watch her closely. Such a big girl!
I've been learning how to balance motherhood with the responsibilities of part time work. She is with me while I work which is an endeavor all of it's own! So thankful Gramps' office is right next to mine! I haven't made the time to put together activities and song books like I had been doing for her but I'm still doing what I can to provide intentional opportunities for discovery. This month I've been doing a fish/ under the sea unit with her. She really enjoys puzzles. She isn't putting pieces back where they belong yet, but she loves to take them apart, examine the pieces, and then hide them all around the apartment!
We have fun, but we also need breaks. So to keep this post completely honest here is what happens during certain more difficult times of the day... we watch BabyBum nursery rhyme videos on youtube. ;)
We faced some sickness this month. My illness from last month lasted the entire month of July and then some, and Kate had a cold this past week. Trying lots of new foods was just not in the cards. Neither was lots of home made foods. Thankfully I've been able to find some good baby food pouches that contain only veggies... that's quite a challenge these days! She is beginning to understand finger food now that we've introduced teething wafers. So that's been fun! At first she really didn't know what to make of them, but today she is chowing down on them! Speaking of teeth, her two bottom teeth have grown in pretty well. No more toothless grin! :( Hopefully we'll be able to move on to more table foods in the next couple of months. I'm guilty of being in no rush though... she is my BABY after all! I don't want her to grow up! The struggle is real y'all.
With all of her mobility we decided it was time to get her a pair of good shoes. So off to Stride Mart we went. It was so nice to actually find some shoes that will stay on her tiny feet!
Bath time is still lots of fun! Seriously... who needs to go swimming when you can hop in the bath tub? (Just kidding... but when you're sick and it's 100 degrees outside the tub will work!) She loves crawling and climbing around so much these days that it's hard to keep her still enough to get her clean!
Sleep. Sleep. Sleep. What is sleep?? It sure can feel that way some days! She usually goes down around 7:30-8:00 and will sleep about 12 hours, waking up 2-3 times during the night. She will eat and go right back to sleep usually. Sometimes she wakes up more often or has trouble falling back asleep... those are the nights that are hard! I've always had trouble with sleep, so I'm able to get by pretty well with poor sleep. I'm thankful that I've been equipped for this phase of life in that way. We've moved to one nap a day around noon. She usually naps 1-2 hours. Sometimes she dozes off in the car, has trouble going down when I'm working at church, or we have an off schedule day (like Sunday) so we have to get flexible, but she's doing good. I just love it when I lay her down. She looks so peaceful and I truly treasure these days.
We've experimented with cry it out at night time, but there usually is no "out"... it just keeps going! I don't rush in there right away, I wait a few minutes (sometimes a lot of minutes) to make sure she really needs me. Right now, she wants and needs that extra comfort and nourishment to feel secure, so I don't mind offering it. I'm thankful that my heavenly daddy is always there to give me the comfort that I need... even when it's over something trivial that I should be able to get over on my own. He tells me I never have to go at it alone, that I can cast all my burdens onto Him because He cares. Praise Him!!!
Right now, according to Erik Erikson, Kate is learning if she can trust the world. Of course, as a christian mother, I want my Kate to learn that she can trust God. I pray our sweet Kate Marie is learning that it's all going to be OK- that her mommy and daddy are here for her and love her so much. That she is loved by her grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, and bible class teachers. And as she gets older I pray she will know that as much as mommy and daddy love her, God loves her and cares for her 100 times more!
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