Eating Machine

Well, that Katie certainly is not. At her most recent checkup, I learned that she's only gained 1 1/2 pounds in the last 4 months! My poor starving baby! No wonder she was devouring all the crumbs off the floor that she could find! We think it happened for two reasons: for one, Katie is SO darn active, it's no wonder she can barely eat enough calories to keep up! Her pediatrician likened her to a Kenyan marathon runner. :) For another, she's never really liked eating solids -- or maybe it's simply being stuck in a highchair. I used to say that I could probably get Katie to eat more if I just sprinkled her food on the floor beneath Miriam's chair. We could also get her to eat more when we held her in our laps, but we'd also end up with baby-food-smeared shirts.

Katie can eat some finger foods, she's really into this whole eating thing more. She's very independent generally, so I shouldn't be surprised that this trait would surface during mealtimes too. I'm guessing she's going to be like her Uncle Joe and fix herself breakfast by the time she's three. :)

But until she can feed herself totally independently, I've been trying to give her the most nutrient-dense stuff I can find. Her breakfast these days consists of porridge made of ground brown rice & kidney beans, with a slice of avocado & cooked egg yolk mixed in, with maybe a little applesauce for sweetener. Disgusting, isn't it? :) And she devours it.

Here was her first officially solid food -- cooked egg yolk. (I've been eating lots of egg salad lately!) Naturally, she squished it up and smeared it all over her tray and herself.


egg in face

Her long fluffy hair makes mealtimes that much more interesting. After letting her try some cottage cheese on her own (for the first and last time) I heard Miriam exclaim, "Mommy, she gots white in her hair!" This picture doesn't nearly do it justice.


cheese head

By far, her messiest meal was the day I decided to let her eat some avocado by herself. That's when she discovered finger painting with food. By the time she was done, she looked like a martian, and everything within reach was green too. Naturally I couldn't find the camera to take a picture!

It's really funny how different our kids are showing themselves to be. For one thing, unlike her big sister, Katie LOVES vegetables. One night she just about threw a tantrum because Mr. Pickles wasn't giving her broccoli as fast as she thought she deserved it! And that's something Miriam won't touch for all our attempts to cutesy it up by calling it "little broccoli trees".


broccoli

Katie is also a meat-lover -- she loooooooooves chicken. Here, she was holding the bone in her mouth and humming to it:


carnivore

Our kids are sort of like Jack Sprat & his wife -- Katie loves meat and vegetables, while Miriam loves bread & fruit. What I find funny is that I craved the opposite things during their pregnancies -- for Miriam, I craved steak & salad, for Katie, I craved breads & sweet things. Maybe I overloaded them! :)

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!

Blogging Bonanza!

Here are a few random thoughts and pictures from the last few weeks.

First, I'd just like to take a moment to get down on my knees and offer my eternal thanks and praise to that wise soul who came up with the thrice-blessed idea of... time-out. It is truly amazing how a cranky, whiny, borderline-tantrum-throwing beast will convert to a smiling, laughing, eager-to-please angel, after 5 minutes of quiet reading in the Red Chair. It's downright miraculous. It works on cranks of all ages, too -- even Mommy & Daddy have been known to give themselves time-outs in the Red Chair on occasion. :)

Here's another great shot of the resident fashion maven. (Note the fairy wings. And the purple striped shorts.)


fashion maven


Soon after we returned from vacation, we bought... bicycles! Uncle Sam decided to refund quite a bit of our taxes in April, so we thought, hey, free money! Let's spend it! :) Well, not quite -- we've been planning on getting bikes for a long time. But whenever we do have an unexpected tax return we use it for something fun for the family.

For the girls, we decided to get a trailer, rather than the child seats. Miriam LOVES the trailer. She begged to go out in it the first day:


bike ride!

Katie... well, to put it mildly, she hated the trailer. She would spend the first 10 minutes shrieking her head off until she a)resigned herself or b)fell asleep. I think she's gotten used to it now. We try to keep them well supplied with toys and sippy cups to keep them entertained. And there's always a park at the end of the ride so Miriam has something to look forward to, although she loves the ride itself. (Katie loves parks too -- that is, she loves eating the mulch at the playground.) We were blessed with a few weekends of gorgeous weather, so we were able to take them out pretty frequently at first. Unfortunately they're currently in the shop -- gear shifting issues -- but when we get them back we'll have to get a shot of all of us ready to go. Our bike helmets look pretty ridiculous of course (sort of like streamlined alien bugs), but the way we see it, better ridiculous than dead. They're actually pretty comfy too -- very light & airy.

I always loved riding my bike when I was a kid -- I know we're going to have fun as a family. There are lots of great trails in the area, too. I'm also looking forward to shedding those extra few lbs. of baby weight in a fun way! :)


Okay, you know you're parents when... you talk about diapers over the dinner table. It's inevitable. All of you single or childless types out there will undoubtedly think, not me, never! But just you wait. It WILL happen. Destiny, destiny, no escaping destiny!! I realized this when we were visiting some friends with a new baby. Inevitably the conversation turned to diapers, their contents, and the cute things babies do when filling them. After a minute of this engrossing conversation (har har) I stopped and realized what we'd been doing. Unbelievable. We've become our parents, and now we're doing all the embarrassing things we swore we'd NEVER do when we became parents! Sigh. Having babies is so much fun, even if it does drag your sense of humor into the gutter.

About Minnesnowta

I forgot to mention how utterly GLORIOUS the weather was while we were there. Apparently we planned our trip just right -- while we were enjoying balmy, California-like days in the Land of a Thousand Lakes, the Great Commonwealth of Virginia was sweltering under a heat wave that most likely would have killed me had I stepped out the door. (Whenever someone asks me how I like living in Virginia, I always say that summertime is a bad time to ask and to try me again in 4 months.) I've come THIS much closer to considering the possibility of maybe someday possibly even living in Minnesnowta. ...Maybe. I wasn't sure I could handle the winters, but now I can't help but think it'll be easier than dealing with the summers here.

Evening over the 847th (I think) lake.




Who wouldn't want to live here?

Vacation pictures

Once again, a month later, we're posting pictures from our recent family vacation! Here are some highlights:

Miriam all ready for bed. (Don't you love that she wears the eye mask like a headband!)


ready for bed

This was how the girls slept at the hotel. Miriam thought Katie's "nest" was fun. The maids must have grumbled every time they came to make up the room!


sleeping beauties

Katie loved it when the air conditioner came on. She would stand right in front of the blast, shrieking with glee, while it blew her hair back.


feel the breeze!

Of course, since we were in the Twin Cities, what do you have to do but visit the Mall of America! I have to say that mall is awesome. It's too huge. And there's a Camp Snoopy right in the middle! We had fun on the kiddie rides. Miriam's favorite was the train -- she still talks about it.


ferris wheel

One day we went to a super-cool Children's Museum. I would have KILLED to go to someplace like this when I was a kid.


prairie girl (she didn't want to be a cowgirl)

Miriam LOVED going "shopping."


shopping

This section also had a bus you could pretend to drive. Miriam loved that too... until a massive invasion of daycare kids charged in and some boys pushed Miriam out of the seat. I'd never liked daycares before, but this was the last straw. I realized that these kids weren't really that bad, they just weren't supervised sufficiently. If these kids' parents had taken them to the museum, there would have been only 2 or 3 kids per adult, instead of 10.

Anyway, despite the barbarian hordes, we really enjoyed the museum. It even had a room for little tykes to explore.


lilypad

Miriam had lots of fun with her cousins at Grandma's house. They loved helping Grandma shuck corn.


shucking corn

Grandma has done a lot to babyproof -- but Katie was so pleased with herself as she was trying to foil Grandma's efforts!


aha!

One day we got to go for a boat ride at cousin Bethany's house. Miriam wasn't quite sure what to make of it, so that made her cranky. :) Here's the dialogue for this picture:
Mr. Pickles: Hey Miriam, smile for the camera!
Miriam: NOOOOO!!!!!! [click]


life vests

Katie didn't like her life vest too much. (and I can't say I blame her!)


where's Katie?

Miriam & Bethany got along well -- as well as 3-year-olds can, I guess. That is, they spent most of their time together trying to boss each other around and ignoring each other in turn. It was hilarious. But I guess they sorted things out by the end...


friends forever

As usual, we had a lovely visit and miss everyone so much!

Why I'm a stay-at-home mom

A little pick-me-up From an e-newsletter I receive, "Emphasis on Moms":

Sometimes stay-at-home-moms are mislead into thinking that because we are not in the corporate work force, we are not contributing to society as a whole or making progressive changes in the world. Mothers are contributing the MOST and BEST of all ~ guidance and molding of well-balanced, learned individuals who continue this cycle by bringing glory to God and by making society a better place. By rearing these honest, hard-working citizens and instilling integrity and character, everyone on earth benefits. This is h u g e!

You are desperately needed – you have amazing impact – far beyond your little corner of the universe.

Katie on the Move!

No, Katie's not walking QUITE yet -- but it's only a matter of time. She can already walk while holding on to us with one hand. And just the other day, she stood up ALL BY HERSELF for about 5 seconds! (before she fell to the ground with a plop) She's gotten that strong pretty quickly, too -- for example, here's a picture of her from early July:


wishing

She couldn't pull herself up yet.

But here's one taken just a couple weeks later:


up!

She's so pleased with herself! It's interesting watching her develop -- she doesn't really seem driven to do something until she's really ready for it. At least, she doesn't get easily frustrated when she can't do something. She's got more of a temper than Miriam -- just try taking something away from her! She'll wail as if she were in the depths of despair, but distract her with something else and she's instantly all smiles again.


escape!

She loves looking out the screen door. It's so cute seeing her little hands pressed against the window from the outside.


sock

She has this thing for socks -- they're her favorite toys. She loves carrying them around in her mouth, just like a puppy. (Incidentally, I love this color on Katie -- with her Mediterranean skin, she looks good in bold colors.)

Actually, she'll carry anything in her mouth, even if she has to open it as wide as it goes:


The Crawling Eye

(thought the B's would appreciate that caption...) :)

More pictures to come... stay tuned!

More Pictures

Here are some more windows into our life:

This dress came courtesy of Grandma B.

our little Suomalainen


helping Mommy cook

This is making me think twice about trying to plant a vegetable garden next year:

Juliet's long-lost cousin


family portrait
I was SO proud and impressed when Miriam drew this picture! I only wish she'd done it on paper so I could have kept it. I'm glad I had the camera handy at least. Her pictures are getting more fun, now that she's trying to draw things from life (instead of just scribbles and M's and twisty circles). She can draw a pretty ugly spider (big circle with zillions of legs). Thanks to Aunt Tine for the doodle pad -- Miriam still LOVES it. We bring it everywhere!

Happy Birthday, Gabriella

Today would have been Gabriella's first birthday. I haven't forgotten her. "Can a mother forget the child of her womb?" The grief still comes and goes in waves. I had a really difficult time a couple months back where I felt almost resentful towards Katie because she wasn't the baby I thought I was SUPPOSED to have. But now I can't imagine life without our Katie bear. Nothing happens without a purpose. God wanted us to keep Katie, and not Gabriella, for some reason which we will find out eventually. There's a lot of peace in that thought.

Picturefest!

Okay, we've got a lot of pictures stored up, just waiting for us to find some time to post them! Keep checking back over the next week or so and we might actually put them all up.


shades


our Kewpie doll


swingin' babe

Katie thinks swings are hilarious. She giggles especially when it swings forward towards me. In this shot, it was a hot day so I had to put the sling under her to keep her little legs from getting burned.


sweetness & lace

Miriam insisted that they wear matching outfits to church this day.

cuties


Can you find the REAL baby doll?

The management assumes no responsibility for the fashion sense of its offspring.

fashion maven


A lesson in video gaming.
Miriam explains the game "Spyro" this way: "Some dragons are nice, and some dragons are not nice. The green dragon is not nice, but the purple dragon is nice. He flies awound and awound and spits fire evewywhere!!"

I love this picture of us from the 4th:

Patriotic Pickles