Sharing Tidbits . . .: October 2010

My baby girl has grown by leaps and bounds in the last two weeks. She has officially started crawling and is just loving her freedom. Kaitlyn, on the other hand, is not loving it so much as Baby Sissy is now into everything! After a few days filled with lots of 'sharing drama', Kaitlyn has decided that it is much more pleasant to play her favorite toys at the 'Big Girl' Table. Kelsey started out slow just crawling at a snail's pace but within a week, she was lightning fast. My heart just smiles watching that little peanut come towards me on her hands and knees; Kaitlyn didnt' crawl until after she walked so this is a whole new side of 'babyhood' for us to experience. Kelsey has superb hearing too. If you call out to her from a different room, she will leave whatever she is doing and come and find you. So fun! Its so exciting to watch her move from toy to toy and see which objects she prefers over others - the tv and entertainment center are high on her list, as is the half empty 24 pack of water. And now that she has conquered crawling, she is well on her way to mastering the task of pulling herself up onto EVERYTHING - toy totes, stools, chairs, play tables, exersaucer - all of a sudden I'll look and see her standing with a huge proud grin on her face. I don't have a lot of pictures of her pulling herself up yet; usually I run to assist her instead of grabbing the camera. We use the word 'danger' a lot during the day. Kaitlyn will say - "Mommy - Sissy's in danger... " and sure enough - I'll look and she'll be standing up, wobbling, hanging on to whatever with all her might! Speaking of Kaitlyn, she was thrilled when Kelsey started babbling 'K-K-K-K-K' a week or so ago. I'm not sure if Kelsey knows that when we say 'KK' we are referring to her sister but it is so fun to hear her say 'KK' too! We continue to have fun playing all kinds of peek-a-boo games with Kelsey. She loves to play with shaker toys and is pretty good at following you as you shake and then stop. We're working on teaching her her eyes, nose and mouth and now whenever you give her a doll she immediately touches their eyes, nose andmouth and then looks up at you - I swear those wheels are turning!! She also still loves to drop things from her stroller and high chair and then look down and see where they went. And her newest game is mimicing a cough nose when she hears someone else do it. Hilarious! It is amazing how Kelsey can communicate with us already these days. When Kelsey sees something that she wants, she will fix her eyes on the object and sport a big grin. Then she will point to it and not take her eyes off the object until you pick her up and take her there at which point she will smile, giggle and kick her feet. Impressive! We are also working on teaching her a dozen or so baby signs and we have yet to see her sign back although I could've sworn she signed 'more' the other day. Our baby is pretty much done on baby food other than enjoying some baby cereal each day. She much prefers people food and feeding herself. She is still a big fan of her bottles and when she sees you grab it from the counter and head towards the rocking chair to feed her, she will now spit her paci out and literally grab the bottle from your hand and start drinking. If you manage to get into the bedroom with the bottle still in hand before she snags it, she makes this cute little whimper noise twice right before she starts to drink it - so precious. For the record, Kelsey weighed in at 19 lb 10oz near the end of her ninth month; I don't have a current length on her. She is wearing all 12 month clothes and even some 18 month sleepers. Kelsey is napping pretty regularly these days - two to three short thirty to forty minute naps and that is about it. She is ready for bed most days by 730 and sleeps until 630 but is up usually 3-6 times a night sometimes to eat and other times just to be consoled. Nights could be so much worse so we're actually pretty pleased. She continues to teeth and drool like crazy and we are waiting for her third and fourth bottom teeth to pop through anyday. So thankful for the nine months that you have been a part of our lives Sweet Kelsey Paige!