Brilliant Disguise

And the answer is...a KANGAROO! It seemed to only make sense given all her jumping in her beloved Jumperoo. Sorry to all those who voted for a ladybug, the overwhelming favorite.

Tonight, Katie didn't actually do any trick-or-treating, but we dressed her up to receive all the neighborhood kids. I don't know if she realized they were dressed up, but she seemed to enjoy having all the kids come over to see her. Happy Halloween, everybody...

The Great Pumpkins

Tonight, we carved pumpkins while watching "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown." With the boatloads of candy that Traci bought (minus what Mike already ate), we should be all set for the tricker-treaters tomorrow night.

Halloween wouldn't be complete without pumpkins for Katie and Geno. Notice the big eyes, small mouth, and forehead scrape on Katie's for historical accuracy...

Happy and Healing

Over the weekend, Katie started to heal from her goose egg quite nicely. Now you can only notice what looks like a rug burn on her forehead. No black eye for this little one!

On Saturday, we also attended Kate's first ever Halloween party, hosted by one of Traci's friends. We'll save pictures for Wednesday, as we wouldn't want to reveal her costume too soon! As cute as she was in her outfit, she only had it on for about ten minutes. (She was way too hot in a room of about 15 kids and 30 adults.) The party was adorable, and we were amazed that no two children were dressed in the same type of costume. We saw outfits ranging from Charlie Brown to Little Red Riding Hood. Of course, we thought that Katie was the cutest in the room.

Grocery Girl

Kate has been joining in on her mom's Sunday trip to the grocery store on occasion. Cleanup on Aisle 7! She seems to love her perch on the shopping cart. This picture was taken last week (i.e., prior to the welt on her head). Notice her stylish track suit. We are planning on raising her as a Tenenbaum (for those that actually get the reference!).

Goose Egg

Kate had quite an unfortunate adventure today. She, Mom, and Geno were on their daily lunchtime walk when near-disaster struck. Rain had drenched our area for a couple days, so all the roads and sidewalks were quite slick. In the pouring rain, Mom slipped on some wet leaves and fell down, with Katie attached in the front carrier. Obviously Katie started screaming bloody murder, so everybody went straight home. When Mom took off the hood of Kate's coat, she found some blood and a HUGE goose egg on her forehead. (The attached picture doesn't quite do it justice.) After a quick check by the pediatrician, all was well again. The little trooper even happily screamed and squealed through her Friday afternoon playgroup. Now Katie just may sport a black-eye (as the blood may drain down to the eye area) for her first Halloween!

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

A gloomy fall day in Virginia. Temperatures dropped so much that our little bear cub thought about hibernating for the winter. No? OK, well it was at least cool enough to throw the warm fleeces on the kids (Geno too!). Actually, we are loving the fall temperatures. We could do without the drizzle, but the region sure needs the rain after some drought-like conditions of late.

P.S. This is not Katie's halloween costume...there is still time to vote!

Everybody Do the Exersaucer!

There's nothing like getting to watch a baby do something for the first time. Today, Katie stepped out of the spotlight and let her buddy Connor take center-stage. He got to test his head strength, hand-eye coordination and concentration on the Exersaucer. Katie gives her sign of approval with a few squeals and "ma-mas."

Hanging Around

Here's a video clip of Katie trying out the swing at the community center playground near our place. Not quite the action sequence of the Jumperoo, but we haven't shared any video in a while. Enjoy...

Technical Difficulties

Sorry for the lack of timely posts lately. Our digital camera is giving us some problems. We hope to do better this week.

Please stand by...

What's the Point?

One recent development is that Katie has learned how to point to things. We have a bedtime routine where we walk her around and say goodnight to the different characters in the framed children's book covers adorning her nursery. We think that she picked this up from the routine. Here, Katie points to Lilly the mouse, the featured character in "Lilly's Big Day."

Got Dairy?

Knock on wood...good news from the health front! We've been slowly introducing dairy (yogurt and cheese) to Kate's diet since the beginning of month. So far, so good - no crazy symptoms popping up yet. Unfortunately, Mommy is not allowed to change her diet so as not to confuse our food experimentation results. Can you imagine Mommy salivating over the cheese that she feeds to Katie?

In other health-related news, Kate still has no teeth, in spite of the fact that the pediatrician said "they are coming any day now" two weeks ago. Based on her crankiness and new-found refusal of Cheerios, they better be coming soon!

Nope, Not This One

So, here is your first hint for Katie's Halloween costume....PSYCHE! No, we were just trying some of Mom's old Halloween accessories on the little one. She would make a cute Katie-Cat, wouldn't she? Maybe next year...

Speaking of costumes, thanks to all who have voted in our "Guess the Costume" poll. Looks like Ladybug is still the popular choice. Remember, we have two more weeks until we reveal the winning guess!

Bedtime

Dad? Mom? With all do respect, could you please quit it with your blogging and put me to bed? I got my new PJs on and I'm ready to catch some winks. It's been a long weekend...

Supervisor

Mommy sent me out here to watch over Daddy doing his chores. What do you think? I may have to be harder on him next time....

Dalmation in Training

It's nice having a fire station about 300 yards away from us. It came in handy the night our carbon monoxide detector started beeping a few months back. Mike tried to discreetly get one of the firemen to come over with an instrument...next thing you know the whole truck roared right up to our unit! Quite the spectacle. Anyhow, Geno enjoys making friends with the firemen every now and then. Enjoy the weekend, everybody...

Gotcha!

Doesn't it look like we caught Katie and Connor (3.5 months) in the middle of their plans for world domination? Actually, Katie was just saying goodbye to her buddy. Even though she's mighty shy around adult strangers these days, Kate loves to look at and grab for other babies.

Slices of Life

This afternoon, Mom, Dad and Kate headed out to City Diner to have some pie and celebrate the cool fall weather rolling in. No pumpkin pie, unfortunately, but the apple pie hit the spot. As you can see, Kate was fascinated by the lights. She was much more attentive than during her first trip to City Diner back on 1/16/2007 (her very first destination outside of the house!).

Mmmm...Halloween Candy

Shhhhh....Katie and Mom took this picture before hiding our stash of candy where Daddy cannot find it. Hopefully we don't have any missing bags by Halloween night. You may be wondering why we bought so much stuff. Last Halloween (our first in the land of suburbia), we dramatically underestimated the amount of trick-or-treaters that would stop by our place. We had to close up shop and turn off our porch light after only an hour! So, hopefully, these candy bags are a good start.

Speaking of Halloween, don't forget to vote for what you think Katie will be wearing as her first costume. Just vote in the designated area in the right-hand side of the blog. As of now, Ladybug is the popular choice, but you can change that!

Cursed

Well, try as she might, Katie just couldn't break the curse still looming over the Cubs in the post season. Here, she plays with the World Series tickets that we've had in hand for two weeks. That's two out of four years that Dad and Mom have had Cubs World Series tickets in their possession, sadly never to be used. They've really got to stop printing that stuff so early. Bad luck!

At least Katie broke Notre Dame football's losing streak during her lifetime. It was ugly, but we'll take the win...

Pumpkin Eater

Just another shot from our trip to Cox Farms last weekend. Also, check out October's photo of the month. I couldn't resist featuring my favorite model!

Update: Katie measured 29 inches tall (90th percentile) and 18 lbs 9.5 oz (50th percentile) at her 9 month doctor's visit today. It also looks like her eyes are going to remain slate blue, with a little green tossed in from her mom. Her dad was sure that they would eventually turn to brown, but it looks like he will have to beat old blue-eyes' suitors off with a stick someday...

Happy Three-Quarters!

Can you believe that little Katie-Cat is 9 months old today? My, how times flies when you are having fun... She's at a fantastic age right now because she learns something new everyday. She's babbling up a storm, trying new foods (favorites include yogurt, frozen blueberries, and watermelon), and figuring out the funniest things (like how to take the cap off of any pen around). Maybe her 10th month will finally bring some forward motion, the letter "d", her first tooth, and....a Cubs victory????

Playgroup

At least once or twice a week, Mom and Kate try to meet up with other moms and babies at neighborhood playgroups. All of the little ones are right around the same age, and the moms (and a cool dad!) seem to have a lot in common. Unfortunately, Katie is the only one in the group not crawling, so sometimes she gets frustrated. Here one of her buddies, Sam (born a week before Katie), has crawled over to make sure that she has some company.

Dress Up

Now that October is here, it's time to start gearing up for Traci's favorite holiday, Halloween. We recently took Katie shopping for her very first Halloween costume. Can you guess what she chose? Place your vote via the poll to the right (all four of these ideas were considered).

Go Cubs Go!

Can you tell that my Mommy and Daddy are so excited about the Cubs being in the playoffs? We heard that there was a big team rally in Chicago today, so we decided to have one here as well. We're going to be living and dying by every pitch, even if we are a time zone away. (Well, maybe I'll already be in bed for the games, but I'll be rooting them on in spirit!) Thank goodness for the Cubs...they make Daddy less grumpy about that Irish football team.

Go Cubs - Beat the Snakes!!!!!