katelyn - Little miss Mobile

Katelyn has gotten very mobile!

Starting in Hawaii, as I mentioned, she was getting up on her hands on feet - like a plank position - and then naturally scoorting backwards. The movement wasn't intentional - but it was a start. Mostly, she's happy when someone sits her up. But she's been more and more interested in reaching for things out of her arm reach - so she's been reaching for toys more often. At first, she would often fall onto her belly, reach for the toy,  and then get frustrated until someone picked her back up.

Lately here at Disney World, she's been able to reach things out of reach, keep her balance better, and sort of scoot towards things or rotate towards them a little bit.

And just the other night (Tuesday - Aug. 28th) she figured out - all of a sudden, how to sit up on her own from laying on her stomach! It was late and she only did it a few times, but on Wednesday, she really honed the skill and she really has it down now! A new frontier! Now if she falls, she can get herself back up! Yeah, Katelyn!

Today, she is not only sitting herself up, she's using the same movement to scoot herself closer to new toys by rotating and moving her butt. SHe's really learning how to use this new skill of sitting up to help her get to where she wants to go (at a very preliminary level) and at the very least, to rotate towards things she wants to see.

She also spends a lot of time rocking from a sitting position into a crawling position and then pushing back into sitting.
This motion - coupled with all of the planking and scooting backwards - just makes me think she is going to take off crawling any day now! SHe's got the lunging forward motion, and she has the muscular strength, all she needs is to figure out how to keep moving forward!

Her most difficult skill is still rolling from her back to her stomach - but she can do it - it just takes some extra effort!

Then - look at Geoffrey - she LOVES those train tracks of yours!

Haunted mansion

Geoffrey sees madam leota and asks, "daddy? Where's her legs and toes and stuff?"



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geoff memories

"I didn't just know that"

"But I hope it is scary" (When he hopes it ISN'T scary - like when he's crying on a new ride, "I hope it is scary. I only hope it is!"

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katelyn's first tooth

Came up on Tuesday Aug. 21 at EPCOT. Literally during the day. It wasn't there in the morning - it was stretched tight but not quite out - and there it was at night! She wasn't TOO fussy - but she did have an off day where she wasn't quite as happy as she normally is. Way to go, Katelyn!

Geoffrey - Trying Threes

Well, Geoffrey's reached a very... trying... stage. He has been PUSHING HIS LIMITS! It seemed particularly bad in Hawaii - now, I know we were on vacation and things were out of his regular schedule, but he's been leading up to it at home, too. It's a lot of not listening - (Geoffrey, don't scream, please... followed by more screams - just screaming to hear his voice.) Or you tell him to stop hitting and he will poke "well, I didn't hit..." kind of attitude. It is exhausting and irritating.

One particularly irritating - and scary - moment occurred in Hawaii. He had been obnoxious at the beach - splashing people int he face - not listening, etc. We went to the pool to rinse off from the beach. As we were finishing in the pool and getting everything together, Geoffrey started his screaming thing. "Ah! Ah! Ah" Very loud and obnoxious. We asked him to stop and he wouldn't, so we put him on time out, where he proceeded to scream for about 5 more minutes before finally getting quiet. When he was done with his time out, he walked back towards me - I had put Katelyn in the ergo baby carrier (the one I wear) and I had the bag in my hand - and Geoff heads to the pool. "No, Geoff, you don't have your vest on, and we are going upstairs now..." so Geoffrey keeps inching his way, backing towards to pool and watching me with that - "what are you going to do? You can't stop me. You know if you come towards me I'll turn around and run straight into the pool..."  I told him - over and over, "No, Geoff, we're done, please don;t go in the pool, Geoff, you don't have a vest on...etc." and what does he do? He jumps in the pool. Grant was around the corner cleaning sand off the buckets and I had Katelyn in my carrier. Luckily, he jumped right by the stairs and he could stand just on his tippee toes, and I could grab him running down the first two steps. Scared Grant and I SO BAD, though.

Sigh. I know this is part of him learning how to become independent. It doesn't define him. But it certainly has been a difficult time as a parent!

Katelyn - 7 months

Katelyn is 7 months old now! She is so amazing. She has grown so much! Not just size, but maturity. She is such a happy baby! She did SO WELL in Hawaii! She was happy to let Nonna and Grandpa play with her and hold her and she was just so fun and easy going. She's really hitting her stride!

She loves to sit up and manipulate things with her hands. She has amazing fine motor skills! If you give her a new object she will look at it and twist it and turn it in all different directions! She can sit up for long periods of time with no balance issues - she learned this quickly. One day I sat her up and she was thrilled to look at the world from this view - and to have her hands free to play with things - she sort of skipped - or fast forwarded - through the tripod balance and just started playing with things.

We're waiting for some development in the gross motor area - she rarely rolls over (I don't know yhet if she can do it when she wants to - I think it is still pretty much an accident) and she can't get herself into a sitting position. When she is on her tummy, she can push up on her hands and feet - like plank or downface dog, but she isn't crawling. However, she is scooting backwards - but I htink she finds that frustrating as it isn't the direction that she's trying to move in!

Katelyn has an odd little (bump? blister? skin tag?) on the inside of her mouth - on her lower lip. It's been around for a few weeks - we noticed it right after her last doctor visit (of course). It doesn't seem to bother her, but we'll ask about it at her next visit if it is still there in October (or if there seems to be any issues with it!)

No teeth yet - she has some definite bumps - I could feel them when we first left for Hawaii and we thought for sure at least the bottom right one would pop up on the trip - but it still hasn't yet! That's ok with me because she it a biter!

She is eating more during the day, but she still gets a few good meals at night - so I definitely need to work on that in the fall! I am also going to try to get her using a sippy cup so that she's drinking from another source when I go back to work!

I love my Katelyn so much! I love how many compliments we get on what a good baby she is!

Hotel in orlando

Tonight we are staying in a spring hill suite.


Omg! Geoffrey is so spoiled! He walked in to the hotel room and said, "but where is the living room? This is just the bedroom!" 😳

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