"Look Mama, no hands!"

***update: Baby Kate started crawling this evening!!!***

Kate is so fond of David! She gets excited when she hears his key in the door at the end of the day!

She has figured out how to open doors and is fascinated with the cabinets. She pulled all my gladware out the other day!

I haven't done a "what she's doing now" update on Kate in a while. She is going to be 11 months old in 9 days! Her first birthday will be here in the blink of an eye. How can it be almost a year since I was laying in bed at 11:24 pm and experienced that first contraction of labor? It's amazing how much a baby changes and grows in a year! But I get ahead of myself:) Right now, she is still 10 and 1/2 months old. I have time!

Kate is a bit of a late developer I think, but that is fine. She is learning new things all the time and I am confident that she is perfectly healthy and "normal" (what ever that means;) In the last 3 days or so she has begun to make crawling motions for a few inches before she lets herself fall onto her tummy. It's coming folks! She can stand all by herself for about 10 seconds at a time and has even taken a small step a couple of times. She can now bend down and pick up an object from the floor as long as she has one hand on the sofa or coffee table for support. She can also sit up from a laying down position (that's new this week.) Cruising all around the furniture and walls and using her push toy is her favorite pastime. Reading herself books is a close second. I love watching/hearing her "read" as she flips the pages around while talking to herself and letting out an occasional giggle. Her favorite books are from the Bright Baby series. The pictures are real photographs of common animals and objects and I think she understands that better then drawings.

Kate is exploding with her skills on the eating front! She LOVES food of any kind:) We laugh that she is like a little dog because as soon as anyone pulls out any kind of food Kate cruises over as fast as she can and starts "begging" for a bite! I am able to give her more and more table food with some recent favorites being canned veggies, mac n cheese, cheese sticks, and very soft chicken. She has mastered the art of the sippy cup and seems to get a kick out of drinking from one. She tips it up all the way with her head thrown back! I had a little left over whole milk from some homemade mac n cheese and I gave that to her last night and she drank it right down and showed no signs of tummy upset. I have been very relieved at how well she's doing with food since I plan to stop nursing her at 12 months. She's going to have no problem!

Well, I think that about all the new things Kate is up to. I am sure there are more, but I can't think of them right now!