Mobile Baby, Part II

Here are some pictures of our baby-on-the-move.  Emily will still sit and play when the mood strikes (or when Kara is entertaining her with shenanigans), but for the most part she's in motion.  She's gotten quite steady on her feet and good at "cruising", but still needs a spot when climbing the stairs.  Actually, she hasn't fallen, but she makes Mommy nervous!  Emily is very good at bending down and getting up, crawling then sitting, and spinning around on her tush (very cute).  She can actually squat without holding on to something, but can't fully stand unassisted.

We're very proud of our little sweetheart!  Kara is also enjoying Emily more as she's getting older.  Emily enjoys playing with Kara's toys, and she thinks her older sister is HILARIOUS.

In the past few weeks, Emily has started giving kisses. Lovely, sloppy, sweet baby kisses. :)  Mommy and Daddy aren't sure how they got such a sweet baby, but we sure are enjoying her!

Link to pictures

We're Home!

After almost five months of fun in the Florida sun, we have headed back home to Colorado.  The travel day was quite an adventure, which included waking up at 4 am, checking in 6 bags, getting 2 strollers and 2 girls through security, and keeping everyone sane for the 3 hour flight.  We are definitely glad to be home!

Kara has adjusted very well to being back home.  She started preschool on our second day home and has been enjoying that.  She also has enjoyed all her "new" toys, which are toys that we couldn't take with us.

Emily is on the verge of crawling.  She will get herself from a sitting position down into a crawling position.  From there, she can kind of lunge and propel herself a foot or so in any direction.  We will have to start baby-proofing the house soon...

Kara quotes:

"I have made quite a mess here" - while helping Mommy clean up some toys

"This dress will really impress my friends tomorrow." - Discussing with Mommy about what to wear to her first day of preschool the next day.

Let's Go West!

On May 27th, we headed out West to visit family out in Colorado.  Traveling to Colorado from South Carolina with a baby is quite an adventure, but Kara did great!  She was pretty grumpy most of the day, but was relatively calm during the flight (though it would have been great if she'd slept on the plane, but she didn't).

The first day in Colorado, we just chilled at Grandma and Grandpa's house, letting Kara decompress.  The next day we had friends from Colorado come over to the house to meet Kara.  We got to see a lot of people (though we didn't get to see everyone).  I think everyone had a good time with Kara, and Kara had a lot of fun playing the crowd.

On Sunday, we went to Arvada to visit Great Grandma (G.G.) K. and Aunt Amy.  And for Memorial day, Dad and Grandpa went to Boulder for the Bolder Boulder.  Grandpa ran, lazy Dad just watched.  In the afternoon, we had some more people over to visit Kara.  Overall, we had a great time visiting people!

While we were in Colorado, Kara continued to develop her crawling skills.  She refined her army crawl and then moved on to crawling with her torso off the ground.  She did that for about a day before she decided that she needed to start pulling herself up (see the pictures).  Grandma and Grandpa's house has some steps in the family room, which Kara pulled herself up on.  She started with pulling herself up to her knees but quickly moved on to pulling herself to her feet.  Crazy girl!

Link to pictures

6-Month Birthday!

Kara is now officially a crawler. She started off in early May with dragging herself around the room. It was rough, but she could get around. She quickly moved on to an army crawl and would occasionally balance herself on all fours. She doesn't want to take the time to master any skills, she just keeps on learning new things!

Kara recently had her 6-month check-up with the Dr. She said that Kara looked great (the Dr. was very impressed with how well Kara would sit).  Kara measured 26 1/2 inches long (78th percentile) and weighed in at 15 lbs, 10 oz (43rd percentile), so she's long and lean.  We don't know where she gets that from...

Several people came up to visit Kara in May.  Around May 9th, Patrick and Akila stopped by.  It was great to see them and catch up.  They were amazed at how much Kara had grown since the last time they visited.

A couple of weeks later, Grandma and Grandpa H. came up to see the little girl. They had a great time visiting and couldn't believe how well she could crawl (she was doing her fairly coordinated army crawl at the time).

Link to pictures

The Mobile Baby

Kara is such a joy these days!  She greets us with a smile in the morning and it stays on her face for much of the day.  She's even giving us a few more chuckles and squeals.  Kara is becoming more aware of the world around her every day.  She reaches for things she's interested in (pretty much everything), and loves it when Mommy points out and names many of the items around the house.

A couple pretty major things seem to be happening in front of our eyes - Kara is becoming much more vocal and MOBILE (we're happy and more than a little nervous about the latter).  She "ahhhs" and "ohhhhs" mostly, with a few "ghassss", "heys", and "huhhs" thrown in for fun.  She'll make these noises for minutes at a time, which is quite a departure from our quiet-except-for-crying baby of yore.

And our little girl is *so* close to crawling (we think).  Amazingly, she pretty much goes wherever she wants now, without crawling or walking.  She'll lunge, roll...over and over, and drag herself with her arms across the room.  Kara will hardly even stay still for a book or to eat!

Another fairly new development is a strong aversion to naps and bedtime.  She's still sleeping but not without a fight and screaming.  She just likes playing with Mommy and Daddy way too much! (ha ha ha)  Guess there could be worse things in life!

Link to pictures