LeVines

Our crazy week seems to be finally ending. Katherine is still slightly congested (e.g. snotty), but sleeping more soundly. Christine and Steve shook their colds a few days ago. The only remnant of Katherine’s first big cold has been a series of listness nights. For the last several nights, she slept 3 hours at a stretch, but has waken up very hungry. This is fairly unusual, especially since prior to her cold, she slept through the night, and if she did wake, often we could get her to go back to sleep without eating.

Katherine had a big day today – we went to the LeVines home, where they hosted their big matzah brei. Katherine met lots of friends and saw her friend Sidney very briefly. After getting home, she tried avocado for the first time and seemed to sort of like it. Most of it ended up on the high chair, the bib or Christine’s shirt. We also started to feed Katherine a dinner of rice cereal today. Maybe if we feed her solids for dinner she won’t need to wake up so often to feed during the night.

Steve and Christine are still exhausted from the week. Hopefully we can catch up on our rest tonight (finger crossed)!

Katherine is quickly becoming a little girl. This week Katherine started to demonstrate the skills of a toddler. She’s been able to roll over for a couple of weeks now but until recently she had trouble rolling over from her stomach to her back. She now rolls over without a struggle. She’s discovered that by rolling over and over she can move across the room. She definitely wants to be mobile and investigate the house. She also is able to drag herself a couple of inches at a time while on her stomach. She grunts and strains and moves a couple of inches. She definitely has the will to move but lacks the strength and coordination.

On St. Patrick’s Day, dad had a beer. Katherine is totally fascinated with glasses now. She’s been watching Christine and I drink from glasses and wants to emulate what we’re doing. Christine and I have noticed that Katherine watches us very closely and tries to imitate what we do. So, dad drank the beer and gave the bottle to Katherine to play with (no beer left). She proceeded to place the beer bottle in her mouth. Dad thought this would make a good picture to haze Katherine with when she gets much older.

Changing Katherine’s diapers is a challenge now. She grabs your sleeves with a death grip, smiling the whole time. It’s a game for her. Another new behavior for Katherine is that she loves to grab her toes, also making changing her diaper a challenge. It’s amazing how flexible Katherine is. She can put her toes in her month and bend her legs above her head.

On Saturday, Christine, Katherine and I went to our sign language class at the LeVines. We’re learning sign language (American Sign Language) so that we can communicate with Katherine before her verbal skills kick in. Babies can communicate with sign language before they can talk. This allows us to communicate a couple of basic concepts (eat, change, hot, danger) at about 8-9 months.

Before the sign language class, Katherine got to try Sidney’s exercise saucer. Christine and I have debated about whether or not we should get an exercise saucer. We’ve read on the Internet that the legs of some babies bent outward from sitting in the exercise saucer with prolonged use. Katherine had such a great time that Christine and I decided to purchase an exercise saucer and just limit her time in it.

Katherine is growing like a weed. At only 4.5 months, she now wearing clothes for 6-9 month old infants. During out visit to Orange County to visit the grandparents, we purchased a couple of outfits for Katherine. Katherine wore the matching red Polo outfit for the first time. Dad, not to be outdone, put on his matching Polo shirt.