7 Months

Good morning! Today, Katie is 7 months old. Time is flying and she's getting bigger and better everyday. It's very cold (-15C) this morning and there is some significant snow on the ground. I know I say it every time, but this time, I think it's here to stay. Really. I mean it.

This past week K started eating puffed wheat. I think it is delicious and am now sad that I haven't eaten puffed wheat in years. I remember eating it for breakfast as cereal but with a bit of sugar sprinkled on top. Yum! Katie does not get sugar on hers. "Ok mom, I'm ready."
Puffed wheat are fun, because you get to eat them with your hands. And not make a big mess.
It's like feeding animals. Have you ever fed a horse? Apparently, if I remember correctly, it's important to keep your hand flat, so the horse doesn't eat your carrot-like fingers. I kept this in mind when feeding Katie. Just in case...have you SEEN her teeth??
Yum yum!

This weekend we went to Grandma and Grandpa's Sat. morning. Katie says "Look how comfy! Bet you wish you had a throne with giant pillows too!"
Occasionally, Katie doesn't nap well at Grandma's, so we see some of this (too cute not to share):
And then this:
Fear not, she is very resilient and forgets how I "tortured" her by visiting relatives and making her listen to crazy words and "punny" jokes.
As you can see, later Katie had a party with some animal friends on the chair. Boy, she had fun....I had so many good pictures to share on this one, it was hard not to post all 30!
Whoa...were you as hypnotized as I was by Katie's stare there? We are thinking about training her to hypnotize people for money...is that unethical?

Saturday night Ben and I went out for an American Thanksgiving dinner while Ken and Cheryl babysat. All went well...our dinner and night out was lovely and apparently Katie was perfect. (as always!).

This weekend was also Grey Cup (which someone had to tell me because I sure as heck didn't know!) and we were invited to GM and GD's for chili. There was TV, which Katie was particularly interested in since we don't ever have ours on.
GM tried to distract her with a book. I think it may have worked.
There was also cake, to celebrate G Uncle Terry's birthday. How old? I can't say...just know that that many candles wouldn't fit on the cake. =)
Yay for Katie's first Grey Cup Party!
Have a good Monday!

PS For those that like recipes..These...are spectacular!

Suited up

Still a slow week for us. I don't know what it is...Katie is no less cute than usual and yet I'm not taking out the camera as often. I'll work on getting back to normal over the weekend.

Proof that Katie is still cute...we tried on her snowsuit (since it's quite chilly these days...although the snow has melted and they're predicting a high of 3C today...yes that's above zero).
It's still a tad big. We bought this for 10$ at an "Outgrown It" sale. (used clothing etc)

It's neat that it has mitts, booties and hat attached. (mitts and booties do snap on and off)


The zipper on her other pink winter jacket has proven not so good, splitting from the bottom often. But we make do with the toggles and she seems toasty. I'm actually very envious of her. Getting carried to the backseat and a fleece blanket thrown over her. I may have to start keeping a fleece blanket in the car for myself! (and get Ben to carry me?)
I have forgotten to mention that I have gently tried introducing puffed wheat to Katie. I'm feeling like introducing new food textures is a good next step but am at the same time nervous about choking. The puffed wheat has a nice melt in your mouth quality so I don't worry so much. And we go slow. One at a time (for her, I'm doing handfuls!) and ALWAYS supervised.

Hey, maybe I'll try and gt a picture of that later!

As always, wishing you a lovely Friday.

Same old...

I'm really sorry that I have no photos or real news to share. We've just been doing the regular stuff and I've not been quick enough to get the camera out.

Monday we did the usual strollercize and came straight home to relax and think about dinner. I tried my hand at cooking a roast without any real recipe. But with a little advice from Grandma Mary and a hodgepodge of stuff from a cookbook. Threw an onion and some wine in with the roast at 325. Ended up being a little more well done that the rare-ish we like, but it was edible. Yes, edible means something sometimes. We had a backup plan of ordering pizza had it not worked out, so it was good we didn't have to resort to that.

Yesterday, Katie and I did our shopping and library trip in the morning. Three places looking for Chorizo sausages and not one to be found. We subbed Italian for this recipe. It was a big success...very tasty and warm for when Ben walked home from work.

We had some fun with Katie, again practicing throwing the football. She's not very good yet. She needs more practice. We have also figured out that if you hold her hands out while she's on her tummy, she will pull her arms and move towards you. It's funny because it looks like you're the one moving her but really it's her. I was going to take a video of it, but Ben said it would just look like we were doing it. Maybe I'll try it anyway.

Katie has been working on her talking lately...she's been vocal for quite a while, but her sounds are more word-like...more actual "mamama" and repeated sounds. And you can really see her tongue sometimes, working so hard to make sounds. It's weird, I had never really noticed how much our tongues work to make sounds. It's amazing when you think about it.

And I suppose another reason while we're keeping it low key is that I'm absolutely enthralled with a book, The Glass Castle. It's the new book for my book club (which I haven't been to since Katie was born). The first pages had me grinning and cringing both, at the funny/painful situations that are detailed. I'm still finding that, now that I'm near the end of the book. I could loan it to you when I'm done (by tonight likely) if you want. Any takers?

I'll try and take even some boring pictures for you today. =) Promise!

What we really did this weekend...

Practiced this...

Weekend Update

This weekend was a busy one...mainly due to Laundry Catchup...! YAY our new washing machine is working and it's FANTASTIC. It's quiet and fast and spins lots of water out of clothes. I've never enjoyed laundry so much! Special thanks to Dad and Grandpa Ken for setting up the washing machine. I'm sure you didn't work so hard just because our old clothes were stinky, but because you love us. =)

Friday Katie and I went to visit Grandma Mary. Mom forgot the sippy cup so we practiced drinking out of a big girl cup.
We like drinking out of a big girl cup! (and we get water all over our shirt, but who cares, we have a washing machine!)
Thank goodness for the washing machine. Seriously, you can tell we're running low on clothes when outfits no longer match. See a very "What Not to Wear" outfit below...note the hair sticking up too!

Oblivious to fashion disaster, Katie played with a ball of yarn.
And a football (Christmas Colours not intended).

We had a dinner invite to Auntie Andrea's on Sunday night. There was a roaring fire...so warm and toasty! Maybe Katie's first fire?

She couldn't take her eyes off it!
Until she found her shoes...There was some delicious lids:
And fun all around.Katie ended up being pretty tired so we dressed her in her sleeper and put her in the car where she did, eventually, fall asleep. Ben and I fondly reminisced of being a sleepy kid in a car.

In other news...Alli and Shannon are in Germany by now..special Hello to them. And...Great Grandma Lill was (is she still?) in LA and we forgot to mention it! See the fun she had here.

Have a super day...after you take a "Peek" at this special bonus video!

Old and New

Wednesday night we went for dinner at a friend's house(C and B with baby E)...they've just had a baby (2 weeks ago!) and invited us for dinner. (There is something SO WRONG about this...we should be having them over, bringing them food...they are doing so well I'm flabbergasted!) The baby is adorable. Amazing how we forget how little they are once our own grow big. It was a lovely evening. Katie and I were playing around with the camera yesterday (after her noon nap, which was 2 hours long...apparently, Katie did receive my note about napping!).
For the record, this is what I see:
...and this is what she sees:
And in wonderful news...say bye bye old and useless:
...hello new...and useless:
(for the moment, until we get it level...the floor in the laundry room's a heaving mess and unless we want a dancing washing machine (we don't) we (Ben or other strong male types) need to spend some time making the machine level)

But we are definitely happy to have a new machine. Clean clothes are so close, I can smell it.

What are you doing this weekend? I suspect we will be doing laundry. =)

PS...bowling last night (thanks to babysitters Ken and Cheryl) was something of a disaster for the whole team. We all did rather poorly...usually if someone is off the other(s) pick up the slack, but not yesterday, we were all in it together. We're hanging out near the very bottom of the rankings and I don't see that we'll be crawling out any time soon. It's a good thing we've decided it's more about having fun than winning. (funny how Fun vs Winning is inversely related to High vs Low scores) (did I say that right? Ben, is my math-speak ok?)

Dear Katie,

You are a super smart baby. We know you know how to sleep through the night. I know you can nap for two hours at a time. You've set a very high bar for yourself and I expect you to keep up.

Why were you up at 11pm last night? We couldn't find anything wrong and it can't be a poop issue because you're eating lots of prunes. You know better.

And more importantly, after last nights "fiasco", why would you only sleep for 45 minutes this morning? You know very well that 45 minutes does not a nap make.

I'm not mad at you, and I always love you, but I expect better.

Hugs and Kisses,
Mom

P.S. Ok, so you're awake now and perhaps I owe you a small apology after seeing the state of your diaper. That's a fine reason to end a nap. We can work on a poop schedule that does not disrupt the nap next week. Love you! Mom