Katie's tricks

We've got so much material on the youngest Pickles that I decided to dedicate a whole blog (or two) to her cuteness and vivacity.

First of all, how many mothers can say their daughter was in pigtails by 9 months?


first pigtails!

Katie now knows a bunch of tricks. She can do "so big" -- although lately that's degenerated into raising one arm and slapping it down as hard as she can onto her leg. She also does this cute snuggle move -- when we say, "Awww, baby," she'll rest her head against our shoulder and smile coyly. And whenever we say "yay" she'll clap her hands vigorously. She LOVES applauding herself whenever she does something exciting, especially standing up. Lately she's taken to clapping during Grace -- I guess she sees us putting our hands together and thinks we're applauding her! She can also wave bye-bye -- and I think this qualifies as her first word, too! A couple weeks ago we realized she knew how to do this when Mr. Pickles was leaving -- she waved one hand and said, "Ba-ba!" She also waves bye-bye for good-night. And Mr. Pickles just told me that today she waved to him and said, "Ba-ba, Da da!" The other day I also caught her "talking" on the phone -- that is, she was holding it up to her ear and yelling, "AA!! AA!! DAA!!"

But by far her funniest trick is learning how to take off her diaper. She LOVES the sound of velcro, and if we don't put something over her diaper pants she'll keep working at it until she gets it off. This very morning I was in the kitchen making breakfast with my back towards Katie. I turned to check on her, because she was being awfully quiet (instant Mom radar alert), and there on the kitchen floor was her diaper, and sitting two feet away, a buck-naked baby!! I only wish I'd thought to pull out the camera.


Well, we've got a new Walking Wonder in the house. In the matter of a couple weeks, Katie has perfected her stand, taken a few steps on her own, learned to stand up from a squat, AND learned to climb upstairs!! She's a machine. She spends all day standing up, taking a few steps, plopping down, standing up, taking a few steps, plopping down, etc. etc. She seems to prefer holding a mascot:


mascot

(Don't you love how far apart her legs are spread?) The other day she actually walked halfway across the kitchen before she fell down. It's unbelievable. Yes, she's only 10 months. A veritable child prodigy! :) Actually I'm not too surprised -- I've known several younger siblings who started walking at an early age. Miriam actually is helping the process -- she loves holding Katie's hands and helping her walk -- although sometimes it ends up more like dragging her...

Katie loves pushing chairs. This day she was doing laps around the kitchen:


pushing a chair

Every time it would get stuck in a corner she would throw a fit.

And now that she's figured out stairs, we've got every stairway gated off. I now spend my days hauling baby gates up & down from one story to another.

All in all, VERY exciting times in the world of Katie bear!