She's Off to the Races!

On Wednesday, February 18, Baby Kate found her legs...and I mean really found them. She had been taking steps for the past month (so timidly that it took about a week before Keith and I could get it on video). On Wednesday evening, she suddenly started walking across the family room from me to the chair and then again in her bedroom from me to her rocking Giraffe. And now, three days later, she's off. She's cautious enough that she's only had a couple of spills so far--only one that required the comfort of her Boo Boo Kitty.

At first she waddled much like I did at 38 weeks pregnant where each step required much effort (and in my case was excruciatingly painful). Each day she grows a bit more confident in her approach and she's starting to lose the "drunken sailor" look...at least she's not quite as wobbely as she started out. She also grows braver each day. Her morning ritual is to sit and pull all of her books off of her bookshelf and then "read" them for about 10 minutes. In the meantime, I am in the kitchen stuffing cereal in my mouth as fast as I can before she crawls out of her bedroom. This morning, she surprised me by walking out of her room instead of crawling! She still hasn't learned how to stand without pulling up on something, but that isn't hindering her at all and I suspect it won't be long before she accomplishes this milestone as well.

Check out Here is the video we finally captured of her last week with the 2nd half of her last Friday: Kate walks on her own.

New Tooth!

She also has finally broke her lucky #7 tooth...the bottom left incisor. No sign of the right side. As usual, Kate took it in stride and really never showed any sign of discomfort. What a trooper! She must get her pain tolerance from her Daddy!

What's on the menu?

She's using those teeth pretty well these days. She enjoys chicken pieces, cheese, all fruit (I even broke down and gave her a couple strawberries this week since they are in season and soooo tasty!). I'm still struggling to get her to munch on steamed veggie sticks (she still prefers veggies pureed into a pulp). This week she surprised me and ate raw zucchini sticks dipped in yogurt (and boy, did she enjoy the dipping). She's pretty good with her spoon despite the fact that I don't give her as many opportunities to use it as I should since we all know I'm kind of a neat freak. While we are getting close, we haven't moved over to finger foods 100%, yet. I'm a little worried that it will be harder to give her a balanced diet once we do. I'm committed to offering her more than chicken fingers!

Here's a sampling of what Kate is eating these days: pear, peaches, banana, plum, apple, and cantaloupe slices, cheese, yogurt, especially if I put mano, banana or blueberries in it and sweet potatoes, butternut squash, lentils, carrots and summer squash. She'll tolerate peas and green beans (as long as I serve store bought jars instead of puree them myself). She really loves a frozen variety that has spinach and green beans mixed with mango and pear (and what's not to love about that, right?). Oh, and how could I forget about waffles, pancakes (especially with, you guessed it, bananas), Cheerios and crackers (she's still eating the organic, toddler variety, though, I'm sure she'd enjoy a Cheez-it or saltine if I wasn't so worried about sodium). Hands down, her favorite is Cheerios and cheese. Ah, carbs and dairy a perfect union.

In just a week and a half, she'll get to sample tasty cake from Publix....oh, what a treat that is going to be! Until then, I'm scrambling to finish up her photo album and memory book while putting together all of the last minute details of her party. You know, like figuring out what food we're serving. Thank goodness Keith has this week off...I actually might finish it all!