Our Little Pumpkin

Two Saturday's ago we took Kate to the Haley's farm (a wonderful couple from church) to pick out pumpkins. They have a great property not far from us and insisted on giving us pumpkins as well as tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and onions. They also grow awesome sweet corn that we get to sample in the summer.

Video of Kate at 9 Months

Kate has been such fun and changing so fast it has been difficult to document all her developments, but below is some video of a few of them.

CLICK HERE for Video of Kate in Her Walker!

CLICK HERE for Video of Kate Eating and Clapping!

CLICK HERE for Video of Kate in her Car!

CLICK HERE for Video of Kate and the Green Veggies!

Kate's 9 Month Pictures

Our little girl turned 9 Months last week! Kate went to the pediatrician on Monday and weighs 20 lbs 14 oz (75% for weight), and is in the 50% for height. She is doing very well and is such a joy. She feeds herself little pieces of food, claps when excited or proud, loves climbing the stairs, loves puzzles, has cut her first teeth, motors from room to room, waves hello, and cruises along the furniture. She is very social with other adults and kids. Kate is happiest outside of the house, so I find lots of activities for us. She is good at home though too, and Kate loves playing with all of her toys. Her favorite is her fisher price zoo, and she loves taking all her toys out of the basket and sitting in the mess of course! One of my favorite things is how excited she gets when her Daddy comes home. She has a grin from ear to ear and squeals with such zeal. Hope you enjoy her 9 month pictures.

CLICK HERE for Kate's 9 Month Pictures

Kate's First Halloween Party

Though it's still two weeks away, we had our first Halloween party of the season. It was at our community rec center, and we were able to dress Kate in her little bear costume. She loved trick or treating which involved selecting candy from the dishes and dropping it in her little pumpkin. She certainly thought she was hot stuff.

They had several moon bounce houses and Kate was more than happy to try them out.

There was also a DJ and Kate loved dancing with all the kids. She was bopping her head, waving her arms, and jumping when I put her on the floor.

Fall Visit

Brian has a conference this week in Chicago, so we arrived Sunday for a few days. Kate was an angel in the car. She slept for the first three hours and then played in her seat for the next three. I was pleasantly surprised because she has been screaming from her car seat on most of our trips. We had a great night yesterday and a great day today, with a few more to come.

Last week Kate's first two teeth poked through. She was extremely fussy and very tough at night. Then last Friday I saw them breaking through. It felt great to know why she wasn't herself. Her pearly whites have come in nicely and I think we are actually getting two more. It is fun to see this next stage, but I will certainly miss her gummy smile!

Mom 2 Mom Madness

This past weekend I went to two Mom 2 Mom sales and got tons of stuff for Kate. We got some toasty winter sleepers, some toys, some hair accessories, a few adorable dresses, and a winter snowsuit. It was fun and so productive. There was also something exhilarating about the conquest of finding the items among the 150+ tables.
The irony of buying Kate new toys is that her favorite toy of late is actually the refrigerator. Whenever we open it she makes a beeline right for it. I don't know if it's the lights, the colors of all the food, or the novelty of the few seconds she can glance in, but she loves it. It brings such a smile to her face. She lately tries to climb in it and has made it to the first ledge. (Of course we are right behind her.)

The Bear Fans and the Little Bear

My Dad and brother came in for a quick visit this weekend and to attend the Bears Lions game. (We won't mention anything about any other Chicago teams as the wounds are still a little too fresh.) They arrived Saturday evening, got to spend time this morning with the Little Bear, Kate, enjoyed the football game with Brian today, and we all had dinner together at Greektown in downtown Detroit this evening. The Bears fans are now on their way back to Chicago. It was awesome to see them, even for the short visit. Thanks so much guys and thanks for bringing Kate's new wheels!

The Need to Accessorize

In the last month or so Kate's blonde hair has really lengthened, and I couldn't resist any longer the need to get out her cute hair accessories. The main trick was preventing her from pulling the cute coordinating barret out. We did manage to make it through the whole church service proudly barrette in hair. We are also trying to use shoes, but Kate shakes her head no while wearing them and pulls them off while in her car seat. Kate's eyes are now suppossed to stay their color and are the most interesting I have ever seen. Sometimes blue, sometimes green, and sometimes hazel. We'll see if they do truly stay.

Kate is standing on everything! She is even taking a few sides steps while holding on to something. When Brian or I retrieve her from her crib, she is always standing calling out to us. It brings a smile to our faces even during the late night visits.

Kate has taken a particular liking to a few of her toys. When she finds them she doesn't like giving them up and will hold them whereever she goes. This seal from her fisher price zoo is one, and Kate certainly found a creative way to keep it with her in transit.

I couldn't resist this picture. Kate hates being dressed or having her diaper changed. She is constantly trying to escape and has succeeded a few times. We can't believe how big she is getting. She is much more little kid, much less baby, and I'm not sure when that all happened.