Go Cowboys!

Here are some pictures of Katie in her new Cowboys outfit and my new haircut.

We Have a Walker!

Katie's been taking 1-2 steps for the last week or 2 then she'll go down and crawl. But Friday night she started taking 3-5 steps on her own! I didn't catch her walking yesterday but I was sick and she was worn out and napped over 4 hours! So today I got some video. She still preferrs to crawl. It's much faster and easier, but she walked small distances several times today. I'm so proud of my big girl.

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Random

Katie's 1st real night gown. I loved the baby gowns with elastic around the bottom when she was a baby and found this "big girl" gown for her this week. I love it.I wasn't feeling well today, but Katie was so sweet and cuddled with me on the couch for a long time. We got a new gate for our living room. The space we needed one was about 2 inches bigger than most baby gates so we had rigged the gate we had with a block of wood between the gate and the wall. Then Andy found this one last week and surprised me with it. I'm so excited now to have a gate that fits and swings open rather than having to take the gate down completely or climb over it to get in and out of the living room. Katie likes the new gate too because it wobbles!

Daddy always has so much fun with Katie. If she is into gymnastics when she's older that will all be from playing with Daddy. This time, he got her to walk on her hands. If you listen closely you can hear her laughing.

I don't know if I've posted video yet of Katie gurgling but she makes this sound all the time. So cute. Enjoy!

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One Year Ago Today...

was a Friday and I was 37 weeks pregnant and huge! (I forgot how big I was with her!) I left school and called my doctor. I had been feeling Katie move but not as much as my doctor said I should. He told me to go to labor and delivery so they could check me and baby out.

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This happened 2 months earlier too and they had hooked me up to monitors, heard her moving, did a sonogram and saw her moving all over the place. I was retaining too much fluid so I couldn't feel her much. When they told me that I was just embarassed that I had even gone in.

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So I expected the same thing to happent his time. I went to the hospital with left over food from school in my car... really, I wasn't going to be there long. I called Andy and told him to go ahead and play his soccer game that night. I wouldn't be at the hospital long and I wasn't worried because I knew what they were going to tell me... same thing they said last time, and I would meet him at his game when I was done.

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Well, that didn't happen. Yes, Katie was fine and I was just retaining too much fluid still to feel her move much. But when they did the sonogram they saw the cord was around her neck. They said that really isn't a big deal. They deliver babies like that all the time with no problems but the combination of that and me not feeling her, they decided to admit me and monitor us. They figured if they sent me home, I would just worry and be back up there anyway. So no, "go home and get your things, then come back up and admit yourself." But rather, "you're not going home. We'll keep you here until Wednesday (when I would be 38 weeks pregnant) and we will induce!"

A moment that would change mine and Andy's life forever in such a wonderful way.

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It would've been helpful if I had my bags packed already. It wasn't easy explaining to Andy exactly what all I needed, but he got everything I needed together for me and our week long stay in the hospital. We were kind of "known" by all the nurses for having our 5 disc dvd player up there with all seasons of Friends and The Office. They would always stop and watch a little bit when they came to visit. LOL

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I was so excited but at the same time I think that's when the nervousness really set in. That was the point of reality that I had a full grown baby in my tummy and she had to come out! I was so thankful to have Andy, Friends, and The Office to help pass the time and keep my mind occupied! What a long 5 days of excitement and anticipation!

Can You Tell Me How to Get, How to Get to Sesame Street

Last weekend I took Katie to My Gym's open house to check it out and see what she thought of the place. She wasn't very interested in the place, but we got to meet Elmo. We loved watching Elmo's World this summer when I was home with her. Whatever she was playing with, she would stop and watch the tv when she heard Elmo. (Not the best Elmo costume. Notice the eyes and nose inside Elmo's mouth. Ha!)

More Katie

Playing with a turkey feather Daddy brought back from the hunting land.Bath Time in the sinkCrazy bath hairI love these pajamas. They look like little thermal underwear. We've started ordering kids meals for Katie. She had her 1st one the night she cut her 1st 2 teeth and has had a few since then. She never eats much of them though so this probably won't become a huge habit just yet. She's teething on everything! Her toes...The glider arm rest... shoes, toys, blankets, anything she can get in her mouth!

This isn't the best video but we got her talking a little bit, walking (with a little help from Daddy), flipping with Daddy, and playing in her pack n play when she was supposed to be sleeping! Silly girl! :)

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A New Friend

Katie met a new friend this weekend, Carmen. Michele is a really good friend of mine from home and Carmen is her baby girl. She's about 8 months old and precious.

Family Time

We spend Labor Day weekend at Katie's Memaw and Papaw's house (my parents). It was a really nice relaxing weekend spent with loved ones.

Memaw and KatieMemaw, Katie, and PapawKatie and Aunt MindyKatie and PapawDaddy and KatieTess and KatieMemaw againKatie and Mommy :)Aunt Jana and Katie. She loves grabbing at people's faces, especially mouths.Katie, Aunt Mary, and LilyLily and KatieWe celebrated my birthday there too.Katie likes ice cream and cake!Mommy, Katie, Carter, Laury, and Mia Carter is Katie's new cousin. (2nd cousin I think?) He is about 9 months old.

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Magically Delicious

Katie tasted Lucky Charms this weekend for the first time and she liked them. But those marshmallows are pretty messy and sticky!

Joy Ride

Katie's 1st 4 wheeler ride. Notice who is chasing them in the video... as always, it's Daisy. Bailey was chasing them too but tired out pretty quickly. They had both already chased me and Andy for a while.

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There They Are!

Andy got a picture of Katie's teeth for me tonight. It's not the best picture, but we'll take what we can get. I was feeding her and she was mad that I didn't put her food in her mouth right away. So she's not very happy in the picture. But we got the teeth!She started her transition to her new class today and her teacher, Mrs. Brooke said she did great! I'm so proud of my baby girl growing up so big. :)

Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are!

Katie finally cut her 1st 2 teeth on Friday night! 11 months and 4 days old! I thought she was going to have her 1st birthday toothless. Ever since she was 3 months old everytime she drools a lot or wakes up crying during the night (which is rare), we would think, "she must be teething!" After she passed 9 months old, the age when Andy got his 1st tooth, we gave up on that.

Friday night she was really fussy and had a little fever. I thought she was just getting sick from being so exhausted from this week. But when I nursed her before putting her to bed at 8:25 (yes I noticed the time... this was a huge, long awaited moment!) she bit me. She's done this before but this time it felt different. It didn't hurt. Just felt "different." I immediately knew why and stuck my finger in her mouth to feel teeth poking through her bottom gums! I freaked out and called Andy to hurry up and get home. He was getting us snowcones from the awesome Snow Cone Lady in town!

Andy is giving me a hard time telling me he doesn't believe me because he hasn't seen them yet. They're still level with her gums so they're hard to see, but I HAVE seen them a few times. It's both of her bottom front teeth and yes, they have broken through the gums! I've tried to get a picture, but not surprisingly I haven't been able to get one. I'll post as soon as they're sticking up enough to get a picture.

Oh and the fever was from fluid in her ear. She got an antibiotic and is fine, fever's gone. She's not contageous and ready for daycare in the morning.

11 Months!

It's hard to believe Katie's 11 months old! She's growing, learning, and changing so much every day. She's getting way better at standing on her own, crawls super fast all over the place, and is so close to walking. She walks really well with just holding onto one of mine or Andy's fingers and we barely need to support her.

She's talking a lot more. She says "mama", "dada", "no no", "ba ba", and "uh oh" or usually "uh uh oh!" She's so cute! She loves to blow bubbles, make motor boat sounds, and just listen to herself. Especially when we're in loud places like restaurants, she yells like she wants to make sure she's heard. Sounds like her Daddy. Ha! We're still working on waiving Bye Bye and she does it sometimes but not consistently. We're also teaching her to blow kisses when she tells us night night. I think that one will take a while for her to do on her own.

She loves to look at herself in the mirror. We have a mirror in our hall right outside her bedroom. We look in it every time we pass by and she smiles and giggles then reaches for herself in the mirror.

She loves for me to read to her and always wants to hold the book herself. One of my favorite things she does is when she's playing, sees me, and crawls over with a huge smile, climbs up on me and gives me a giant hug! Totally melts my heart!

She loves, loves, loves dogs! Everytime she sees one, she laughs and squeals. I think Katie and Daisy are going to be best buds.She loves "helping" mommy and daddy in the kitchen.She's getting so much better eating solids and feeding herself. When she was learning to feed herself I always clapped after each bite she fed herself on her own. So the first few days she fed herself really well, she clapped after each bite. So cute. But she only did that for a couple of days so I didn't get any video. :(

She's still pretty picky but if she has foods she likes she feeds herself really well, although she does drop quite a bit in her lap. :) She still isn't a fan of fruit but loves vegetables and likes meat pretty good too. She loves any type of cracker foods... cheerios, cheezits, Gerber puff cereal things, Gerber cheeto things, graham crackers...Next week at daycare they will start transitioning her into the 1 year old classroom. They transistion for a month. Some of the new things she'll be doing in there is scheduled lunch and snack time with ALL solid foods, scheduled nap time (on a mat... not in a crib!), circle time, art time, sensory, music and movement, and outside playtime. I think it will be funny to see them try to get her to sleep on a mat. I told her teachers I think I need to start praying for her new teachers now. LOL If you read my Colorado post about spending the night with Andy's family, then you know why I think this will be so funny.

She's starting to have a little bit of separation anxiety. In the mornings she's really clingy and cries for a minute when I leave and clings to Andy when he drops her off at daycare. She's good once she sees her teacher. She loves her teacher. I think a lot of her clinginess is because she's so sleepy. She practically snores while I nurse her in the morning, and every morning I try to lay her back down in her crib to go back to sleep until Andy's ready to feed her and take her to daycare. As soon as I lay her down, she sits up, looks at me and grins, then stands and walks along her crib towards me with a huge smile on her face and starts "talking" to me! So she stays up and plays while Andy gets ready for work.

She loves music and dances when she hears any.

She loves cartoons too. Her favorites (or I guess I should really say my favorites since I'm the one who turns them on and she likes them too) are Elmo's World and Sid the Science Kid.

She knows to reach for us when we start to unbuckle her carseat and starts to sit up for us to help her out. And she's started reaching for people to hold her too.

She loves to climb on everything and loves for Daddy to flip her! He sits her in his lap, leans her back, and holds onto her hands while she flips all the way over onto her feet. No pictures or video of that either but I'm sure I'll get some up sooner or later.

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