Kaitlyn meets Santa!

Age of Lady Kaitlyn:  9 months and 4 days

Family,

And a good Sunday morning to you from the Queen City, where the Bull is finally sitting down for this long overdue catch-up blog for the week ending on 8 December (whilst Munch Munch screams upstairs from her crib, for the record).  Apologies that I'm just now getting to this, but as I lost my entire Sunday last week to traveling for work, this is honestly the first chance I've had to put key to server.

So, December 1-8 - what a week!  For Kaitlyn, there were yet again several big firsts in the mix, starting with her first bash at finger foods!  We actually hadn't even contemplated it yet, and Ms. Oliva (one of the daycare instructors) told us that she felt it was definitely time to move into the finger food department.  And so the next day we showed up menu in hand, telling them to "go for the gusto" with anything age appropriate.

She's now into her second week of finger foods, and so far she really seems to like them!  We get the report every day, and to date she seems to be a huge fan of peas and green beans (stand on your head if you're surprised at that one), whilst she can definitely leave peaches and bananas for the birds (like her momma, that one...).  The quote from day care re:  bananas was that "she got more on her than in her, but we're pretty sure she ingested some."  At home we've actually only tried finger foods once (we have to ratchet that up starting this month), an

Bananas...negative, ghost rider.

d as fate would have it we tried bananas.  K was NOT impressed.  She had no difficulty picking them up - but she DEFINITELY was not happy about swallowing them.  Oh well, clearly we'll have to find other ways to get potassium in her. :-)

She's now eating at least 2 finger foods a day at daycare in addition to 4 bottles and 2-3 other solids.  It sounds like she's being WAAAAAAY overfed, but the folks at daycare said that we were actually most likely making her go too long between feeds.  Once the Peds concurred that there aren't enough calories in the solids and finger foods to worry, we felt a lot better about the volume being consumed (more on that in the next blog).

On Thursday, 5 December - we had K's third PT appointment.  Although she was a bit tired (and had not eaten exactly on schedule), she did GREAT!  The PT was really pleased with results to date and instead spent most of the session pushing her on her next set of motor skill goals - crawling, moving to a sitting up position from laying down, etc.  It was SUCH a relief to have the PT validate what we were thinking, which is that K is making progress in leaps and bounds and catching up quickly.  Apparently each month a baby is born premature is a year it takes them to "catch up" within the first 2-3 years.  Well, I am thrilled to report that the progress in terms of motor skills has been meteoric of late, and we now have the tools (meaning exercises and queues) to help K make that happen.  We have a whole new set of exercises to help her with her trunk and mobility muscles, but I'm happy to report that she's doing a lot of it on her own.  She's been GREAT about turning lately - it's amazing to watch her spin on her belly to track an object she's after.

The sneetch working on crawling.

Also, K had her first opportunity to play with a sippy cup this week!  We put just a drop of formula in there to see if she could suck it out, but no joy on that front.  Of course, what we didn't know then (and didn't learn until her checkup 2 days ago) was that you actually have to remove the stopper from the system so that they can learn the purpose of the cup first - details.  Honestly, at this point it was really more of a new toy than a vessel for nutrition/sustenance delivery, so I don't think we've done any irreparable harm. :-)

In terms of holiday firsts, K saw her first tree lit up this week!  Team Taylor (adult representatives) finally got around to putting the lights on the tree last Saturday, and K then got a chance to see it all lit up.  I showed her the Olympic Torch ornament and played the song for her.  I'm pretty sure she's going to compete in the summer vs. winter games, so it's appropriate we have that in the house. :-)

The mythical zippy cup - the holy grail for infants.

The highlight of the week, however, occurred about noon on Saturday-  K's first visit with Santa!  Seriously - when you talk about funniest moments of the year, this was DEFINITELY up there.  So here's the deal - we saw in the weekly neighborhood newsletter that Santa was going to be at the Clubhouse on Saturday from 11-2.  Well, Team Taylor decides that "we'll show up right when the doors open and beat the rush."  Which, like communism, is BRILLIANT in theory but NOT in practice, as that's obviously what every other parent in a 20 block radius wanted to do as well.  All the same, the line wasn't bad, and we spent about 40 minutes waiting for our turn to meet Saint Nick.  During this entire time, the Munchkin was an ANGEL - looking around, smiling, eating my face - you name it.  No fear.  No concern.  No worries.

Well, we get up to Santa, and the big man says "HO HO HO" in a booming voice, which I think puts K slightly on edge.  She sits in his lap calmly of about, oh, I don't know.....approximately .00008 seconds before touching his beard.  And then - HOLY MOLY - CALL SOCIAL SERVICES, AS OUR CHILD IS CLEARLY IN DISTRESS.  The photo (meme courtesy of cousin Steve) says it all):

Away from the fat dude in red - WHEW.  Life is good.

K starts SCREAMING to beat the band - it was one of her best wails EVER.  Not sure why (and I know that kids sometimes do have this reaction), but my mom thinks (and I now agree) that it's the beard, as she did the same thing at Thanksgiving when she felt Uncle Benny's beard.  So in the spirit of holiday cruelty we took a few classics of her wailing before pulling her off the man, at which point she went RADIO SILENT and was smiling like it was her birthday - too funny!  So we took some other shots at various spots set up for photo ops before packing it in and heading home for her (long overdue) nap.   

One other side note to mention is K's first "habit" that we've identified - spinning her feet!  It is seriously the cutest thing EVER - whenever she's excited or happy, she rolls her ankles around and around.  I have a video of it that I'm pretty sure I'll keep forever, as it is just adorable.

Okay, sorry that this one is short, but I have another one to crank through, and I want to ensure that I keep my sequence of events accurate (and don't opine on any topic in one blog best tied to another - i.e. K's 9 month Peds appointment and our reactions!).

Chat soon!

Love,

Sam and Jenny