These Boots (or Bare Feet) Are Made for Walking

How many steps must Baby Cate take before we consider her walking? 1, 2, 3...6 independent steps tonight!!! (10 months, 3 weeks, 3 days old!) Hope to get some video of it soon!!!! Amazing!!!

Beauties!

I may be partial, but my girls are quite beautiful! We took them to Oglebay today to get some pictures...how they warm my heart!!! (Click on any of the images to view them larger...)

My Big Girl...

Elizabeth is becoming such a big girl these days. Despite her resistance, she is learning to read...she's joined the Girl Scouts (Daisies, more precisely)...and is playing basketball.

She does really well with reading, when she takes the time to stop what she's doing to focus. Therein lies the problem. She doesn't want to have to stop what she's doing to do something else. We're working on that, though... Last night she went all the way through her reading box of words without any issues, whining, etc. Baby steps...

She is quite proud of her vest and to be in the Daisies. The woman who is the group leader is very nice, and understanding of my work schedule, which is nice as well.

Elizabeth has started basketball as well. She is the tallest kid in the group (all of them are in Kindergarten.) She's all legs compared to the other kiddos. After the first night, she said she did as well as John Wolosinczuk...not to burst her bubble, but I wasn't seeing that...she did quite well, though...maybe not John Wolosinczuk good, but awesome for a 5 year old with lowered rims good!

Elizabeth - Kindergarten Picture!

On September 20th, Elizabeth had her first school picture day. The outfit I ordered for her pictures came the day after picture day (my luck!), so we had to spend the evening before shopping like a mad woman to get something that would look good from the chest up (because I'm THAT anal-retentive...and despite the fact that she and I had just purchased some school clothes a few weeks before, honestly most of that stuff was too warm for her to wear for picture day!). So, I found a super cute sweater dress (with matching leggings), am able to talk her into thinking it is cute...get her bathed the morning of the pictures (her hair curls better immediately after it has been washed), manage to have her eat without using her clothes as a napkin, get the barrette (that I covered in ribbon while she was bathing - had to match the outfit) in the hair...and we're heading out the door to go to school.

That's when I notice something on her face.

Silly Mama, I ask her if she has food on her face.

E replies, "Nope. It's just boogers."

Awesome :-|

At least none showed up in her picture!!!

Cate - 10 Months!

Just as I was about to write that with the maturity that 10 months has brought and Cate doesn't seem as cranky all the time, the crying commences. Good times.

10 months has just seemed to fly by -- it won't be too long before I'm planning her first birthday party. (Oh, who are we kidding? I have the first draft of the invitations -- which are going to be darrrrrliiiing -- on my scrapbook table. Too bad I haven't done any scrapbooking since Rikki & Doug's wedding albums last Christmas :-( But, the invites are in a near completion mode...just need to change out the color on one thing and take a pic of Cate in her Halloween costume. Then they'll be good to go!)

Cate officially has 3 teeth - two lower and the upper right. We're anxiously awaiting the upper left as she has been in a bit of pain with the teething...and drooling like a St. Bernard. Not to mention the WORST diaper rash that has plagued her for weeks. Just when we think it's getting better...it will flare up again. Knock on wood, she seems to be sleeping for longer stretches at night, but that is not to be confused with sleeping through the night and letting Mommy get much sleep as a result.

She is in full cruise mode. She loves to be on her feet and moving around. At daycare this week, she really started taking off with a pushing-type walker. She is quick, too, so it won't be too long before we are having to take turns running after her.

In the past month, she weened herself off of baby food. Won't eat it. She had started refusing some baby food at 9 months, but there were times we could still do a meal or so of the gooey stuff. She also prefers to self-feed, so Kennedy is often the benefactor of Cate's misses. She is eating a good variety of fruits, veggies, and other items. She especially loves sweet potatoes, vanilla wafers (which she insists on shoving the entire cookie in her mouth at once), squash, pasta, turkey, and lima beans.

The water continues to be fun time. She squirms a TON in the bathtub. She loves taking baths with her big sister. Elizabeth says "Cate is a wild woman in the bath!"

Here is her latest quilt picture. Click on the image for it to be larger.