Wordless Wednesday

Happy Nine-Month Birthday, Joshua!

Joshua's nine-month birthday coincides with today, Christmas Eve, so we won't have our 9-month appointment (with measurements) until January. It's safe to say, however, that Joshua is a BIG BOY. He was 20 lbs. a month ago and seems to be bigger every day. Many of us have complained about our backs after holding him -- that includes Joshua's mommy, daddy, and strapping Uncle Daniel. Katie still weighs a little bit more, but since she's taller, she seems lighter, while Joshua is DENSE -- more pounds per square inch. :-)

Joshua is cutting his sixth tooth, which will give him all four front teeth as well as an extra one on both the top and bottom of the right side of his mouth. Sometimes he audibly grinds his teeth, and I joke to myself: "What kind of mom must I be that my nine-month-old baby is already grinding his teeth?" He also loves to chew on things. He enjoys gnawing on chins, particularly mine and my mom's. Favorite foods right now are diced veggies and fruit, mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes, meatballs (thanks for the tip, Sarah!), bread... well, basically any grown-up food he can get his hands on.

Joshua continues to practice his "da da da"-ing, and started headbanging this week. John and I each had a headbanging phase, so watching Joshua shake his head up and down sent me into hysterics. Other favorite activities include playing with balls, clapping, rolling around, and watching Elmo when he comes on (poor second child -- he didn't stand a chance of avoiding TV with a big sister who loves it so much).

Joshua is also THISCLOSE to crawling. He will lunge from a sitting position and get one knee under him and try to lunge further, but can't quite get that second knee facing the correct direction. I expect he'll figure it out by the end of the week.

Happy nine-month birthday, Joshua! And merry Christmas to all of you!

These Are a Few of Her Favorite Things...

Katie had her 15 month appointment this week (a few weeks late) and here are her stats. She's finally reached 20 lbs! Yea!

Weight: 20 lbs. (10th percentile)

Length: 31 inches (50th percentile)

Head: 46 cm. (50th percentile)

I thought the best way to give you an update on Katie's life was to get several of her favorite activities on film. Enjoy!

Katie's favorite things these days include:

Pulling (usually clean) clothes out of the laundry basket and putting them over her head. Often it's underwear (again, usually clean!). In this case, it was Daddy's undershirt, and Daddy named her "Katie the Friendly Ghost."

Drinking juice from her sippy cup. However, the doctor told me this week we need to replace her juice intake with milk. So far she's not drinking much but she's not complaining much either, which is good.

Climbing on everything -- me, chairs, tables, and in this case, the Terps beanbag chair that her Grammy and JayPa had just sent her.

Watching "Sesame Street". It's the only show I let her watch regularly, and we watch it several mornings a week. I also bought a retro Sesame Street Singalong DVD several years ago simply for the clip of Madeline Kahn and Grover singing "Sing After Me", and Katie loves it as much as I do (probably more, since I've heard it 10 times in the last week and need a break).

Eating spaghetti. WOW. My super-skinny baby doesn't eat much, but put a plate of spaghetti in front of her, and she will literally eat till she pukes. I've never seen anything like it.

Playing piano with Mommy. Usually she's sitting on my lap and playing nicely with her hands, but I guess "Good Morning Baltimore" from Hairspray was too exciting for her to sit still. In this video you can watch her accompany my screeching:

I need to update the Talking Tally too, but will do that in a later post. She's saying so many funny things -- what a fun age, and what a delightful daughter we have! I love her dearly.