Sippy Cup and a cookie!

Eight months has been full of fun for Kaitlyn! She's learning to scoot across the room now. She bounces up and down while sitting, and then inches her way forward. It is a riot! Sometimes she gets over-excited and bounces up and down and then lunges forward and falls FLAT on her face. She was doing this last night on our bed. It will be a painful experience if she decides to do it on our floors! I'll have to get a video of her scooting..It is really cute!

She has been very vocal these last two weeks and says ba ba, ma ma and ema and other combinations. Since she's been acting like quite the big girl lately, I decided to give the sippy cup a try! It wasn't an instand success, but at least she did get the idea down and tried it. I put some Evian in the cup, but you would never have guessed that it was just water from the expression she made. Toomas even asked me.."Did you put something bitter in there"? She made the worst face!

And finally, yesterday while grocery shopping Kaitlyn was being so good for me that I decided to buy her a treat. When I was in the baby section of the store I noticed some tasty looking organic teethng buiscuits (okay, lets just call them cookies! Which is actually what they are!). Well, that was the biggest hit yet!!! The child got the idea down in about 20 seconds... and the cookie was gone in about 2 minutes flat! She just loved it! She gave me the biggest "THANK YOU MOM" look that I've ever seen an 8 month old give! :) Let's face it ...I just love spoiling kids :)

Cookie Time

Christmas Cookie Baking!

We finally got cooking on the Christmas cookies! I'm happy to report that we now have about 5 dozen Christmas cookies to share and enjoy. Krista loved cutting out the dough and rolling it to the precise thickness this year. Erik on the other hand only wanted to do 3 cookies for himself (the nutcracker, santa and a rocking horse). He did enjoy frosting the cookies, but WATCH out for Erik's cookies--they are HEAVY on the frosting and decorations! Erik was too funny. He asked if the cookies had to "calm down" before we could eat them! Krista was my big help this year though..sticking in with me from start to finish (and even helping me remember what time I put the cookies in the oven!). Kaitlyn slept the whole time (THANKFULLY). I was dreading having to go pick her up with flour all over myself. We had a fun time and the end product is of course delicious!

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Fruit SALAD!

Well, in keeping with Erik's idea that Kaitlyn would be starting SALADS...we decided to make the transition to fruit! Not quite a fruit salad, but anyway at least one ingredient!!!

So here is a clip of Erik helping me feed Kaitlyn her apples. He was very encouraging and really enjoyed watching his little sister. I gave him a taste and he immediately wanted me to give him a bowl too. So, this week is applesauce week for everyone :) Even Kaitlyn seemed to like them.

So here is the clip Grandma has been waiting for...Kaitlyn eating with a spoon!!! She is taking about 2 tablespoons now at a sitting which I think is excellent, considering Erik NEVER ate pureed food and went right to chunks towards his first birthday.

The First Solids

It seems so much is going on in the world of our little 6 month old that I myself can hardly keep up! There have been so many wonderful and new experiences for Kaitlyn in the last few days. Some of these "firsts" include: the introduction of solids, the first sitting ride in the stroller (we used the bassinet attachment until now), the exersaucer induction and Halloween....

Kaitlyn's 6 month birthday was a day full of surprises--both good and bad. She awoke to her big brother and sister standing around her bassinet singing the Happy Birthday song...This was her first cue that it was no ordinary day.

Next up was solid food. "Solid" food discussion has gone on for some time now between Toomas and myself, as well being a natural hot topic of conversation with other mothers. Little Erik picked up on this word and knew it would be happening to Kaitlyn very soon. Finally, he realized that this was indeed the day... and ever-so excitedly asked when we would be giving Kaitlyn her first "SALADS"? I cracked up, envisioning what must have been going through Erik's small 4 year old mind....Kaitlyn behind a large bowl of potato salad, fruit salad or the standard green romaine variety perhaps. Erik seemed pleased to find out that we wouldn't be serving her any iceberg lettuce today, but instead something a little more geared for her age!

So, finally the long awaited moment arrived and lets just say it wasn't such a pleasant one for my little sweetie. (She DID seem interested in the new highchair though, but boy was it big for her! I forgot how little she still is. Her small head barely popped out over the tray.) We decided that since Thanksgiving is just around the corner we'd opt for a nice colorful, flavorful and SWEET food (like breastmilk). The obvious choice--sweet potatoes. Krista loved them so I figured it would be a big hit with Kaitlyn as well.

Kaitlyn was really excited for the new experience, her face was glowing and once again I could tell she knew something was up. She was so cute sitting up like a big girl in her highchair, a cute litte bib strapped around her neck......... She was ready, but when came the spoon with that orange stuff on it....her tune quickly changed!

I waited for her to open and ever so delicately put a tiny bit in her mouth. It only took about 5 seconds before she gagged, looked at me with a great bit of confusion...and then SCREAMED bloody murder. She seemed so insulted! I felt so bad ruining her special day like that!!!

The good news is that TODAY we had much better luck. We let her play with the spoon herself (with a bit of sweet potatoes on the spoon), and in short--she LIKED it! She actually took about 2 teaspoons today (willingly!). So there IS hope and maybe just maybe she'll forgive me for ruining her 6 month birthday like that :)