Happy Halloween

Katerina was a beautiful butterfly for Halloween! Yesterday there was a halloween party at school and all the babies dressed up! It was super cute. She actually liked her costume too. In this picture she is really getting into the character--do you see how she is sticking out her tongue?

Now, if you go to Katerina's blog you will notice she was dressed as a pumpkin today. That's because Mike and I couldn't agree on what she should be--sooo we compromised and she was both.

Either way, she was super cute.

On the Move (Almost)

We better start child proofing this house because Katerina is going to be on the move before we know it. She has mastered the "scooch" backward move. She can be in one corner of the room and before we know it, she has scooched backward to the other corner. She is also almost getting up on all fours too.

She's getting good at reaching for things too. Yesterday when she went down for a nap, I watched her spit out her binky, roll over, grab it and put it back in her mouth! This is such a fun age. She's doing something new every day.

Growth Spurt

Katerina is going through a growth spurt! We weighed her this morning and she's about 16 pounds. Some of her one piece 6 month outfits are also getting small. Instead of a pant outfit, she looks like she's wearing capris.

She's also been getting up some nights and appears to be starving. Then on Thursday night, Mike and I went out to an event and Meghan babysat. She dranked much more of a bottle than we had anticipated while we were gone and subsequently slept through the night!

She's still not too interested in table food though. She might take a few bites and then puts her lips tight together so nothing more can go in her mouth. She's also trying to hold the spoon and put it in her mouth herself. At first I thought it was cute and now I am realizing it's a bad habit to get into, unless I want these feeding episodes to take an hour.

We think she may be a lefty...although it may be too soon to tell, she always grabs the spoon with her left hand. Time will tell I guess.

Pumpkin Picking

The Christakis family went pumpkin picking earlier this week. It was a beautiful fall day and not too cold.

We each picked out our own pumpkin and of course took some pictures. Katerina is wearing a pumpkin hat in this picture.

We also picked out some corn stalks. Katerina really loved the corn stalks. In fact, in order to load them in the car, we had to put one of the back seats down and put the stalks through the trunk and back seat. We thought they were out of her reach, but within the 5 minute drive home she had managed to grab one of them and was playing with it!

Mastering Rolling Over

A week or so ago, Katerina rolled over for the first time. She has now mastered the task and rolls over every chance she gets. I think the days of sleeping on her back are also over. Last night when we went to check on her before going to bed, she had rolled over onto her tummy. This is a picture of her napping this morning.

However, she has only figured out how to roll over in one direction--when lying on her back she can only roll to the right. She tried very hard to roll to her left this morning as she really wanted a toy that was laying in that direction, but she couldn't quite get it. As a result she got very frustrated and started to cry. It was pretty cute.

The solid food adventure hasn't been very successful thus far. She gets pretty cranky after a few bites--which mostly end up on her chin. She continues to spit the food right out, which may actually tell us she isn't quite ready. We can continue to waste time, effort, food and laundry at this fruitless prusuit, or we may just wait another week and try again. We'll keep you posted.

5 Months and Rolling Over

Today is Katerina's 5 month birthday! See how big she's gotten in this picture?

Last night she rolled over from her back to her tummy for the first time. It was actually quite amusing how it happened. She went to bed at 7:30pm, and 2 hours later she started fussing. After a few minutes, Mike went up to try to give Katerina her binky, and he comes back down stairs about 30 seconds later laughing. "What's going on?" I asked. "I just watched her roll over," he said. I couldn't believe it...so I ran upstairs with him and sure enough, Katerina was fussing on her tummy in her crib. We just stood there smiling at each other for a bit, and then we finally rolled her back over. And so it begins...

Then this afternoon, she rolled over twice, but I missed it both times. Tomorrow I might set the video camera up so I don't miss it. If I catch her in action, I'll be sure to share it with you.

Solid Foods!

Katerina had her first taste of solid food today--applesauce! Mike and I were so excited to start.



We decided to start with applesauce because the rice cereal can make babies constipated--and Katerina already has that problem sometimes. So we started with applesauce--high in fiber!



It was amusing watching her take the applesauce in her mouth, then push it out with her tongue. I think she probably got about a tablespoon or so in her stomach, because most of it ended up on her chin, bib and hand. At one point it was all over her hand and then she rubbed her eyes and got it all over her face--she's going to get a bath tonight! :)



The adventure only lasted about 5 minutes--after that she started to get fussy. So we put it back on the floor to play and 15 minutes later she pooped...was that the applesauce??



We'll try again tomorrow and see how she does. Check out Katerina's blog later today because she will be sharing her video of the experience.