Rockin' to Marley

A couple months ago, Kate started moving to the beat of some music in a movie we had on. Since then, she does it regularly, but just in tiny spurts. I caught a little of it on video. I love it! I am curious if this is something all kids do? (People with kids--let me know.)

(Even as she watches this video with me--she's dancing along. Too cute.)

Kate's First Fort

While Andrew and I worked on the house, Aunt Crystal played with Kate in a fort (a blanket over her high chair). She was laughing hysterically for a long time. I just caught a little laughing in this one. So fun!

Happy Birthday, Andrew!

26 six years and counting...

"Happy Birthday, Dad!"

Showing some teeth with Aunt Crystal

Napping with Grandma Ellen

He's a good two years younger than me, but at 26, he's getting up there! He got a lot of board games for his birthday, so we spent a lot of time playing games. Andrew's mom, sis, and brother, were all in town, so we were able to work on our house a bit while they watched Kate. We celebrated last night with dinner at Andrew's grandparents' house. Yum!

Kate has figured out when the flash of the camera is coming (there's a red light before) and so she always closes her eyes! I couldn't get one with them open! Oh well.

Paint Head

Last Saturday night, Andrew, his dad, and I were trying to finish painting our bedroom. We put up a huge blockade of blankets and pillows in front of the door so that Kate wouldn't get in for a minute, so I could finish what I was doing. She pushed and pulled, went around in different directions, huffed and puffed, and finally, as if she were a star running back jumping over a pile of guys into the end zone--SCORE! She flipped and flopped her way over the pile and rolled down.

Later on, as I was busy running around, I walked past Kate and saw that the back of her head was COVERED in paint (I had already given her a bath of course). I keep kicking myself now because I wish I had run for the camera--how often does your head get covered in paint? But, for some reason, I was only concerned with getting that paint out of her hair pronto! Luckily, a little scrubbing with water did the trick--it came off pretty easily. It hadn't dried--phew! We're guessing it happened when she made her touchdown into the room we were painting.

We got the room almost done. Just one more coat of paint (we ran out--dang it) on the walls. We'll post pictures later--but we are really liking it. It's a purplish-gray color (I'm not very good at describing colors). It just feels great to not have dust all over the house anymore. No more scraping and sanding! Andrew keeps saying we need to do the office now--but I'm feeling pretty done.

Kate's First Balloon

We were up in Salt Lake yesterday and visited Andrew's brother, Austin, at Chick-Fil-A where he works. He gave Kate a balloon and she had so much fun with it all day. We tied it to her car seat and she would bat it around when she got bored. Even after we got home, she couldn't get enough of that balloon.

Off the Charts!

Kate had her nine month check up today. I forgot she wouldn't need shots today and had given her Tylenol before the visit. Oops--well, it will help with her teething pain anyway. So, last time she was in the 97th percentile for height. This time she has risen even higher (she is now 30.7 inches). Her height knows no percentile. Her weight is still in the 40s range (18.6 pounds), and her head remains as big as ever at 91%. She didn't even blink when she got her blood drawn--but she really didn't like having her ears and throat examined. She's doing great! Good news--the doctor said to start trying her on a regular formula (just a bottle a day) to see if her body can tolerate it. I'm going to give her one tonight. I hope she's outgrown the milk allergy!

Splash 'N Clap

I realize I probably shouldn't be encouraging this type of thing (last night I got drenched!), but it's fun to see her learning new tricks. Plus, it got her to clap for the camera!

More??

Obviously, I realize Kate will eventually have a mouthful of teeth, but it seems like she is getting so many so soon! She's been very crabby/clingy the past couple of days and I thought, "She must be teething--AGAIN!" It seems like we just did this...Sure enough, today I spotted two more on top. Crazy! (According to this chart, she's right on time for two more up top, but is missing two more below! Hmmm.)

Such a Big Girl!

I made her a little book with family pictures in it--so we can work on people's names (namely mine and Daddy's!)

"How the heck am I supposed to eat this?? A little help?"

"I want to push!"

It hit me today that I have a full-fledged toddler on my hands! Everything she does now is so grown up. It's hard to believe she will be 9 months old tomorrow! (so later on this week at her doctor's visit we'll get the stats to see just how grown up she is!) As you can see from the picture right above--her top teeth are in (I have to get her to laugh to spot them--it's been tough trying to get a picture of them. Finally!) There's quite a little space in between them!

It's kind of fun now that it's finally cooling down--I can put her in more clothes than just a onesie. Maybe it'll be more obvious she's a girl (people always call her a boy). I love this cute little outfit (hand-me-down from my cousin). Not only is she big enough to hold up overalls--but a sweater, too. It's too much.

Last night, we had dinner at Andrew's dad's house and afterwards I fed Kate a real banana. Andrew was walking past and he stopped. "She can eat a real banana now?" I nodded. "Now that's cute!" I'm usually the one saying this or that is so cute and asking Andrew to agree--so I thought it was cute he would say that. Don't ya think? ;)

A New Book!

My mom sent a new book for Kate. YAY! We only have a few for her and she LOVES to look at them. I was on my way to work when I got the mail. I saw the book, ran inside to show Kate and she waved her arms up and down, smiling, and bounced on her bum. She was SO excited. So I put the book away and when I got home from work I tried to reenact her excitement so that I could catch it on video. It didn't quite work...(besides she had already seen us holding it for a while getting ready to take the video--she does smile, though, at least, at one point in the video). She still loves the book, though. Thanks Grandma! :)

Dust Baby

Sorry, I have not had much time for blogging this week. Kate and I have been miserably sick--but both are feeling better (still have runny noses, though.) Plus, as usual, we have been working on the house. It is so hard to get things done with little Kate wanting to be where the action is. She got covered in dust from this little adventure (above). I'm happy to report we are making progress! Today we painted the first coat in our bathroom. Yay! No more ugly flower pattern in our house (except for the laundry room--but we're not counting that. And if I start thinking about it too much it will make me crazy and go start working on it--so let's not mention it again).

This Ol' House: Blood, Sweat, and Tears

These are the before pics of our living room--I realized I never posted. Getting the paneling off and covering up the damage was awful!

I've been feeling kind of nostalgic this past week as I've been working on the house. We've only been here two years--but it seems like so much has happened here. The old saying of putting one's "blood, sweat, and tears" into something is really true for me. I've bled quite a bit working on the house (due to my clumsiness--I have scars to prove it. Though, anyone that knows me well wouldn't need proof of my clumsiness.), I think I'm always a pile of sweat (especially when I was pregnant), and I've broken down to tears more than once as labor was approaching and the house was still a complete disaster area. It's been a good little house to us. When we bought it, the master bedroom door had fist holes in it, the bathroom door had a kick hole in it, and there was another kick hole in the drywall in the kitchen. There were beer bottle caps and cigarette butts in the weeds (aka "yard"). It made me sick every time I saw the holes, especially because I knew there had been a child there (crayon on the walls). For me, what really got me painting was the desire to change the feelings that had been in this house--to make it our own, special home. And it has been. Not just because of the new paint and trim, but because we started our family here.


PS. The above pics are the ones Andrew took for the listing. They give kind of a fish-eye view (he took tons of pics and stitched them together), but it enables people to see more of the room. When we finish the other rooms, we will take pictures of them as well.

The Selling Blues

As soon as I got home from work yesterday, Andrew told me that someone was coming to see the house at 5pm (we signed the papers with a realtor yesterday afternoon). Our house was nowhere near ready to be shown and Andrew was on his way out of town to go on a Scout camping trip. So I spent four hours trying to get the place ready. While Kate napped, I was weeding like mad (my fingernails are caked in dirt), pouring mulch over the flower beds, watering the lawn, shoveling loose concrete, and sweating like a banshee. When Kate woke up, she was in an abnormally bad mood (she has a cold and has gotten me sick as well) and would wail at any sign that I was putting her down. I tried to do as much as I could holding her (but for anyone who's tried that, it doesn't work very well). I was running (literally) from room to room with a vacuum, dusting desks, sweeping bathrooms, and scrubbing toilets, while Kate would follow behind crying the whole way. It was awful. She had tears and snot streaming down her face.

I had daydreams of the people making a good offer on the house and making my whole cleaning fury worth it. Five o'clock came and I was finished! It was some sort of miracle. Kate had calmed down now that I could hold her. I just had to wait for the realtor to come, then I could take Kate and go get some dinner.

However, 5 o'clock turned into 5:30. I called the office to make sure I had gotten the message right. It was an outside agent--but she confirmed he was supposed to come at 5pm. Kate and I played on the lawn, we started a movie. By 7pm, I gave up and went to Subway.

Needless to say, I was/am extremely irritated. Couldn't someone at least call? What--I'm just supposed to wait around all day? If this is what is involved in selling a house--it's going to make me insane!!