MKC update Feb 2012

Here is the news on Mary Katherine. Let's see....she is nine and a half months old. She weighs 14.3 pounds. She can crawl and just recently started to pull up. Mostly she crawls "commando style," with her belly on the floor, but she can crawl on all fours. She can go from sitting to lying on her stomach and back again. She can't yet get up from lying on her back (and that makes her really mad).
She loves to sit in the floor and play with toys near her brother. She likes cars, trains, balls, little people, her wooden rattle, and a little pooh knob puzzle. She hasn't gotten interested in stuffed animals yet, but neither did Daniel until much later. She LOVES to watch Daniel play and laugh at him. He "keeps care of her" while I walk on the treadmill, put up laundry, and make food. MKC and Daniel like taking a bath together, too, which is a fairly new thing we are doing. She likes to be in the water, and Daniel shares his Thomas tub toy with her because it is her favorite. He also likes to "smooth out her curls" with a wet wash cloth.
As for food, MKC's favorite is definitely bananas. She can eat four bananas a day, in addition to her other food, if she feels like it. She also likes applesauce, tofu, seaweed, sweet potatoes, green peas, raw apples, avocado, carrots, and sunbutter. Probably some others that I'm leaving out. Oh, cooked celery, too.
She had her first day in the garden on Saturday. It was sunny and gorgeous, and she sat in the garden while I pulled weeds. She got her first mouthful of dirt. She didn't like it too much, so that's a good thing.
She is still crazy for Joseph and demands his attention as soon as he walks through the door. If he doesn't come and get her immediately, she screams until he gets there. This week, she and Daniel have been going through the puzzle box (it's been in the closet for awhile because D lost interest in puzzles). They work through the puzzles one by one, with D putting them together and MKC chewing on the knobby pieces. Daniel builds spaceships with chairs and blankets for her to ride in. ("Ma'am, would your baby like to ride in this spaceship to Mars?")
When I'm getting her down for a nap, D stays in the family room and reads or pretends until I come out for "Mama-Daniel time." Then we read, read, read until she wakes up.
Our days at home usually go like this- wake up, get laundry going, eat breakfast, work on dishes and picking up, play, finish laundry, walk on the treadmill (me while children play), put MKC down for a nap, read with Daniel, go outside for a bit or let D play in backyard while we watch him through the window, eat lunch, play, pick up, put MKC down for a nap, read, go outside (long afternoon...............), make dinner, then JOSEPH COMES HOME. Eat dinner, play, and it's bathtime/bedtime. That's us, in a nutshell. Some days we go to kidzu or the museum or to a friend's house to play. But if we are home, that's how it goes. When D goes to school (Tues, Weds, Thurs from 9-1), MKC and I sleep while he's gone. Usually after school, we play outside until dinner time.

Valentine's Day 2012

Father-Daughter Valentine Dance- University Baptist Church Feb 11, 2012

MKC and Dada attended their first Father-Daughter Valentine Dance at church. This event has been going on for many years at our church. It's a tradition for lots of families with daughters, and our family started the tradition this year. MKC wore a little dress with roses on it and black shiny shoes that I had when I was a little girl. Daniel and I played in the nursery while she and Dada danced. It was a fancy affair. We thought she's like to do it for about thirty minutes, but she ended up dancing for an hour!

Christmas 2011 Photos

Pictures February 2012

Daniel is 3.5 years old. MKC is 9 months old tomorrow (Feb 6).

MKC update Feb 2012

MKC will be 9 months old on Feb 6th. She started sitting up around six months, and she could sit alone without any help or supporting pillows on December 23rd (around 7 months). She had a great Christmas in TN. She is enjoying several foods now- sweet potatoes, red potatoes, bananas, tofu, cauliflower, sun butter, kiwi, apples, carrots. She still doesn't have any signs of teeth, but we are totally fine with that.

Last week she started crawling. She doesn't do it too much, but if something she wants is out of her reach, she will go for it sometimes. She ADORES Joseph. When he comes home at night, she calls to him at the top of her lungs until he comes to get her.

The other day, she gave us quite a surprise. She ate an enormous dinner of banana, sweet potatoes, red potatoes, carrots, and sun butter. Then, after dinner Joseph took D and MKC to play in the family room. Jenny and I were doing the dishes. All of a sudden, we heard Joseph calling, "Help! Get in here!" We ran in, and vomit was pouring out of MKC's mouth while Joseph held her over the sink. I took her from Joseph, and while he was watching her during one heave, a piece of paper stuck out of her mouth. Joseph saw it, but he couldn't get it out before she swallowed it again. That really freaked us out. We called our neighbors, a nurse and a midwife. They said it would come out in her poop. She seemed fine after she stopped vomiting. Then the next day, the paper came out in the poop--it was a cough drop wrapper. We have no idea when she ate it, but she did!

Anyway, things are going well with MKC. She loves to play with toys and with Daniel. She likes to listen to stories and do songs. And she LOVES to eat. She still loves to be held by me or Joseph, but she is spending longer and longer amounts of time playing in the floor with toys. This week she sat on the ground at the park for the first time and played in the woodchips. She is getting better in the bathtub. She likes to sit by herself in the tub more than doing a shower. Daniel still thinks she is wonderful. He built a spaceship for her this morning, "Ma'am, can your baby take a ride in this brutiful (beautiful) space ship?"

Daniel's thoughts

This conversation happened while we were making bracelets yesterday (Dec 10, 2011). Daniel is three and half.
"We will keep these bracelets until we die! Somebody might move into this house. Does Brenda want to die? Will God be with us when we die? I would like to see God again."