Great-Grandma, Kittens, and Eeyores -- Oh My!

A few weeks ago, while John was away on business, Katie and I drove 6 hours to go visit my grandma in the days leading up to her move into an assisted living facility. We enjoyed our visit with "Great-Grandma" as well as our time with some of my cousins and a great-aunt.

One fun aspect of this trip was the abundance of kittens everywhere. John's allergic to cats, so Katie has limited exposure to them. So she enjoyed meeting a 5-week old kitten belonging to my cousins:



In addition, when we stopped by my mom's cousin's house to see if she was in, we found no one home -- except for many more kittens! We enjoyed playing on the porch with the kittens, until Katie decided the kittens' food was much more interesting to play with than the kittens themselves.

Later that day, my cousin Jessica came over and noticed that Katie's favorite stuffed animal is her Eeyore. I ran a quick errand and returned to discover Katie in paradise -- sitting in a HUGE pile of Eeyores! It turns out that Jessica also loves Eeyore and collects versions of the character in all colors and sizes. Katie was having so much fun that Jessica gave her three of the Eeyores to take home with her. Thank you, Jessica!

Cousin Ali's birthday

On Saturday Katie and I joined my family for Katie's cousin's first birthday. Katie and Jessica Alize' (called Ali) are 3 1/2 weeks apart.

Here are a few highlights:

Ali's 4-year-old brother Andrew had a tee-ball game before the birthday party. My brother Jason got his son psyched up for the game by encouraging him to hit him with the bat as they ran around the bases:

Katie and Ali cheered from the sidelines:

Back at the house, Ali introduced Katie to chicken nuggets by feeding them to her. I think she missed Katie's mouth this time.
Katie enjoyed chasing their cat, Tigger, around the house:

Lesson apparently not learned at the beach: Sand is not for eating, Katie!
Mommy, if it's not ok to eat sand, why is it ok to eat this? Brrrrrr!

Highlight of the party for Katie: Getting on a moon bounce for the first time! She LOVED it! (She's SOOOO much like her mommy!) Her cousin Ali wasn't as impressed, though she and Katie did have a wrestling match.
Here's a hysterical video of Katie and Ali wrestling:

Ali may have won that match, but Katie won the match with her 4-year-old cousin Andrew: Here's the video of that match:

Hi, Grandma!

Katie loves her grandma!

Guess I needn't have worried about where Katie would nap during the party:

Ali, on the other hand, didn't nap once. I think it's because she downed most of an entire birthday cake:

Thankfully, Ali's mommy Sharon saved the beautiful fondant cake for the guests:

Katie had a great day!!!

Katie at 9 months

(this photo is of Katie with my parents and my grandma, who celebrated her 85th birthday on Sunday -- Happy birthday, Grandma!)

Katie turned 9 months old this week and we're still having a blast!

We had our 9-month dr's visit today and she is 18.8 lbs (50th percentile) and 28 inches (60th percentile). She's getting better at crawling, especially when she sees something she's not allowed to play with across the room. She's also becoming proficient at pulling herself to standing, and stood for a few seconds today without me holding her.

She's making me laugh this evening -- I'm teaching her to clap for the American Idol contestants. She made everyone at my dad's office laugh today when we stopped by with birthday presents (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DADDY!!!) and she danced and laughed and cooed at everyone.

We had a rough weekend last weekend -- she had (at the same time) a bad cold, a 103+ degree fever, major teething issues, and a touch of the stomach virus that her daddy had had a few days earlier. Poor girl. But she seems to be all better now, and has 5 teeth now with 4 more about to pop out any day now.

She has no interest in baby food anymore -- besides nursing, all she will eat is Cheerios and whatever Mommy's eating. The doctor says it's ok to move her to adult food, and my friend Katie M. is lending me her food grinder, thank goodness.

Her big obsession right now is animals. You saw the earlier video with her meowing and mooing. She's now roaring like a lion as well. She loves dogs and cats and we go on walks everyday to try to see dogs in the neighborhood. We also visited the local animal shelters last weekend to try to find a dog for our family. We've put in three applications (see here and here for the doggies we've applied for) so we're hoping the right doggie comes our way!

Thanks to all of you for your support of our family.