Halloween II

A big thank you to Uncle Quentin for mentioning that one could tell by the tail of Karina's costume that she was dressed as lamb and not a bunny (see his comment in the Happy Halloween post)...hence reminding us of the difference between the tails of lambs and bunnies (pointy vs. fluffy). And then here's a couple of pictures of Karina's pointy lambie tail.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween was a big day for Karina! Aunt Beth and Great-Grandma June came over to join in the fun and Aunt Katie and Nate came to help pass out candy while the rest of us went trick-or-treating. We thank them greatly for keeping our home safe from hypergycemic vandals!

We started out by going next door to the Fromm's house where they had created a "pumpkin patch" in their back yard and had wanted to get some pictures of Karina in it. As you can see below, even though Karina isn't the big brawny girl she used to be, she still thought she was strong enough to take a couple of pumpkins home with her.

Then we walked around to a few houses to get some candy...although Karina was much more interested in watching the dozens of kids run around in their costumes than the candy. She seemed especially partial to anyone dressed like a fairy/princess/ballerina...already showing her preference for sparkly women's fashion!

Later Grandma Mary and Opa came by to see Karina and although she'd missed her nap in order to trick-or-treat she was still in a good mood and looked adorable in her costume! Overall, it was a great first Halloween!

And to set the record straight, in case anyone was wondering, her costume is actually a lamb...although when I bought it I thought it was a bunny. The consensus on the street was about 50%/50%...so as they say on TV, "The judges will accept either answer!"

Mommy/Daughter Picture #2

Mommy and her beautiful baby girl!

Almost Crawling

As you can see, Karina is very close to crawling, but as of yet she seems satisfied to just untuck that left leg bent underneath and dive forward onto her tummy. This way she gets a good start in whatever direction she wants to move and then turns and rolls to her chosen destination. She's actually gotten quite proficient at picking up the "road blocks/toys" in her way...she just grabs the item, holds it above her head and then keeps on rolling. She's also very skilled at aiming herself through doorways and around furniture. If she runs into the coffee table, for example, she'll roll back away from the table until she's on her back and then she pikes her legs straight up and lets them fall over away from the table...then she leaves her legs there and straightens out her body. With that, she's made a 90 degree turn and can roll around the table. It's actually very ingenious...but it still seems to me that crawling would be easier...I guess she's just not ready yet!

Girls Afternoon Out!

After much talk of getting the "girls" together, Lee and I finally made it out to lunch with Karina and Elsa! We met at Louisa's and then went to Babies R Us (where else?) It was great to see Aunt Lee...who looks quite svelt for two months postpartum...and I was very excited to see Elsa for the first time in many weeks! Unfortunately, she wasn't as thrilled to see me, and...once again...slept through the entire event! (I've never seen Elsa awake!) Lee tried taking her outside to see if some fresh air would arouse her and even Karina tried to wake her up (see below)...but to no avail!

Lee says I must make Elsa feel too comfortable, and suggested that I work on trying to cause Elsa more stress in the future so she's unable to sleep around me...but of course she was just kidding! Regardless, we still had a nice time...Karina got to model her barrette (I know it looks pretty ridiculous without more hair, but I couldn't resist)...and Lee and I got out of our respective houses. Maybe next time we'll try an outing in the evening, as Elsa is rumored to be most often awake during that time of day!

Nine Month Check Up

Karina asleep after her trip to the doctor's office

Karina had her 9 month check-up today and we were expecting to find out that she weighed 20+ pounds...so imagine our surprise when the scale read 18 pounds, 8 ounces...meaning she had only gained 1/2 pound in 3 months (other times she had gained about one pound per month)! That weight put her in the 50%, which, I guess is more in keeping with the size of her mommy and daddy, but the drop from >95% to 50% was nonetheless a bit concerning to me at first. The doctor said that it's not an uncommon time for weight gain to taper off...especially if the baby's activity level has increased. So given that Karina is practically a jump-aholic (in her jumper) and is more active in many others ways, too, I began to feel less worried. As Karina's Aunt Lee put it, "Well you didn't really want her to permanently stay in the >95% for weight, did you?" No, I definitely wasn't hoping Karina would be the heaviest girl in her class!...excellent point, Aunt Lee!

For height, Karina stayed on track measuring 28 1/2 inches tall...which continues to be tall for her age...making her currently long and skinny (relative to her first six months.) See below for long and lean Karina!

Otherwise the only remarkable finding was that the doctor noted that Karina must eat a lot of carrots, because her skin was somewhat orange! I'll tell you....I couldn't see it then and I still can't see it now...but she does eat a lot of orange foods. Actually her favorite orange food is not carrots, but rather sweet potatoes, squash, peaches and apricots. The carrots show up as the second ingredient in most of her combo "dinners"(i.e. chicken dinner, beef dinner, etc.) Maybe we'll make an effort to eat more of the other colors of food...although I don't know that I'll be able to tell if it's making any difference anyway!

Waving Bye-Bye

It's official! Karina made a leap into the world of communication...she waves "bye-bye!" Today when Opa waved at her she definitely waved back. For about a week now, she's been doing something that resembled a wave (we practice waving at her Gymboree class), but to be honest looked more like she was spastically patting an imaginary dog on the head, and usually involved both arms and the movement of much of her upper body. That movement had been witnessed by Mommy, Daddy, Gammy, Aunt Beth, Uncle Quentin and Aunt Lisa, but to this point I still wasn't 100% sure it was really a wave. Today, with Opa, it was just a little bit less spastic and involved mostly one arm only...in other words, it really looked like a wave! Amazingly, later I think she initiated a wave herself to Daddy across the room, but I'm not sure.

Also, it seems we may be seeing an example of some of the genetic material shared by Karina and Elsa. Elsa reportedly does quite a bit of aimless pointing (see http://schmettyblog.blogspot.com/), and it seems that Karina's wave frequently also involves a pointed finger. I'm not sure if she's combining the two actions on purpose or if her hand just ends up in that position when she's concentrating on waving. Actually, now that I think about it a bit more, the wave-point (i.e. waving then stopping waving to point at someone) is a very political type wave. Just think about all of those politicians we see on the news...they give a general wave and smile to the crowd, then they point, nod their head and smile at someone they (allegedly) recognize...if you ask me they probably don't recognize a single person but it's much better PR if they appear to have close friends everywhere they go. Now that I say this, I must follow by saying that I hope Karina doesn't become a politician because they have to be such slimey two-faced liers in order to compete. But I digress...the wave-point from Karina is adorable and without any malice. We can't wait for her to wave at each of you!

Cold #4

I guess these are getting to be so frequent as to not warrent notice! But for today, I will report that Karina's last cold finally went away a few days ago, then I got a cold and then Karina, I think, got it from me! Frustrating!

Exploring Her Environment

So Karina's been going to "class" at the Gymboree Play and Music for about a month now, and when we started there were quite a few kids, like Karina, who couldn't crawl yet. Yesterday at class, we found that all of the other kids, including the younger ones, had learned to crawl since we were last there two weeks ago. I felt a little sorry for her, but it didn't bother her, though, she just happily watched everyone move around her.

Apparently she was actually plotting her next move, because the very next day she started "exploring her environment"...not by crawling but by rolling...over and over and over! It's hilarious! She can actually go from room to room by rolling! So far her to biggest obstacles are, well...obstacles! Her larger toys become baby speed bumps/road blocks, because when she runs into one, she gets stuck and can't get enough momentum to roll over it. So we try to clear a path for her. The other difficulty has been running into walls and furniture...usually with her head..as she completes the roll over with a thud! Here she is after rolling into the archway. Unfortunately, she frequently attempts the roll over a second time only to bang her head into the same obstacle again! Ouch! So far no bruises!

On the crawling front, we have witnessed her actually trying to pull her knees up under her when laying (lying?...no matter how many times I've tried to learn the correct useage of those words I've never been able to master it! Stupid English language!) on her tummy, and she has leaned over from a sitting position, into a crawling position but can't support her weight with her arms and falls onto her tummy. So, although I thought she might just roll around and then walk, (because she can stand unassisted for many minutes after being helped into that position) I now believe that crawling is in her near future...and baby-proofing the house will be in Mommy and Daddy's near future! Yipee! :(Karina proudly standing on her own!

Having Fun Outside With Mom and Dad!

I love my Daddy!

Note the new growth on the birch tree behind us? That little branch started growing right about when we learned I was pregnant with Karina...look how much they've both grown!

Karina Said Her First Word!

Well, not exactly...but all witnesses heard and the camcorder recorded her uttering a breathy "Ka...Tuh" (aka cat) multiple times. She said it first while home alone with Gammy (Gramma Joy), by making a "Tuh" sound . Then when Gammy was trying to get Karina to say it again for Mommy, (we'd say "Ka-Tuh" and she repeat it), I had the camcorder running and she said the whole word multiple times. Karina repeated it yet again when Quentin and Lisa were over...everyone heard it! She didn't roll over early, sit up early or crawl early...I guess maybe this is the "thing" that she's doing early!

Karina: The Starlet

Doesn't she just look like a movie star!

What you don't know is that she's not really peering coyly around her sunglasses at the camera, but is actually in the process of ripping those sunglasses off of her head. Oh well, they stayed on for almost a whole minute this time. I truely don't know why I bother!

Snacks

"Mom, what the heck am I supposed to do with this thing?"

Karina has been working on her fine motor skills trying to pick up the tiny pieces of veggie puffs that I've been putting on her tray whenever we're eating. I basically break an already tiny 5 pointed "asterisk" into 5 pieces so she won't choke. I did that for a few days and I fed her some of the little pieces for practice...although most pieces had to be pushed back in a few times. A couple of days ago I started giving her whole puffs and would notice after a few minutes of preparing her oatmeal that they were all gone! I was so excited that she'd fed herself until I realized that she was holding all of the puffs in her fists. Today, however, I turned around in time to see her pick one up and place it in her mouth! She still made that "what the heck is in my mouth?" look, but then played around with it in her mouth...didn't let it slide out...and then swallowed it!

To potentially make it easier to eat...or at least easier to pick up...I bought Karina some Zwieback Toast and Biter Biscuits. As you can see in the pictures above, she's not quite sure what to do with the Toast. She did figure out that you can put it in your mouth and that it has a taste, but it was so crispy that mostly she just scraped off a little bit of toast with her teeth into her lap and made a big mess of crumbs! I guess this is only the beginning of the culinary messes to come, huh?

She did much better with the Biter Biscuits, although something about the eating process must trigger a gag type reflex, because her eyes and nose run terribly while biting on the biscuit! Poor thing! Who remembered that it was this challenging to learn how to eat?