Family portraits at 9 months

Since we were in NC for Katie's 9-month birthday and had the rare opportunity to spend time with her great-uncle and great-aunt from India, we decided to do things a little differently this time, pairing her 9-month pictures with family portraits.

Katie's great-aunt (back left) became great friends with Katie almost immediately. She has some experience -- five daughters, seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild who's just a few weeks younger than Katie.

And here's Katie with Achi and Thatha. She's their one and only little princess.

We were so glad her uncle Priyesh was able to be there for the portraits too.

In Mt. Airy, we caught up with Anne's parents, Nana and Dick, two days before they took off on their voyage to Alaska by land and sea.

Dick's current adventure photographing wildlife is probably easier than getting a wiggly baby to sit still for the camera, but we were very pleased with the way all the pictures came out.

Of course, we also took a few pictures of Katie by herself.

Click the image below to see lots more 9-month photos.

Katie at 9 Months

Katie's Indian Dresses

Katie's family members in India and Australia have been so generous, recently giving her three beautiful dresses and lovely jewelry.

When we were in Eden last week, Katie modeled everything. She tried on the first outfit with a beautiful ruby necklace.

After a little while, she noticed the embroidery and stopped to check it out.

Can you imagine her humming, "I feel pretty..."?

The second dress is an off-the-shoulder number that's ready for prom. One of the neat things about these outfits is they have lots of room to be let out as Katie grows, but this one probably won't still fit in 16 years.

Kate was pretty worn out by the time we reached the third dress, but still cute!

You can also see her sweet gold chain.

Thank you so much to everyone for these beautiful clothes and jewelry! Click on the image below for more pictures of Katie in her new outfits.

Katie's Indian Dresses

More videos of Katie

One of the games that Katie likes to play is "Where's Katie?", which is her own special version of peekaboo. Sometimes she'll even initiate the game spontaneously. This video of Katie playing is from 2/16/09, when she was 6 months old.

One of the pure joys of parenthood is hearing Katie laugh. Katie will laugh when she's happy, when she hears us laugh, or when Anne employs the patented belly tickle. Katie especially loves Anne's high-pitched sound effects. This video of Katie laughing is from 4/22/09, when she was 8 months old.

We hope you enjoy the videos!

Katie and the Dragon Puppet

As Katie becomes more active, nothing demonstrates her outgoing personality like seeing her in person. Failing that, some of her videos are pretty cute too. We're a little behind, but here's a video of Katie playing with her new Exersaucer during Christmastime. Her personality was still forming (as it is now), but you can see glimpses of the little person she is becoming.

The video was taken on Dec. 30, 2008, when Katie was 4 1/2 months old. Daddy makes a cameo appearance as the Dragon Puppet. Katie plays the role of herself, aka "The Mauler".

The video is a bit long, but it is pretty funny. At least Daddy thinks so. Enjoy!

Our little fish

Katie was born under Michael Phelps' star, so perhaps it should come as no surprise that she's a natural in the water. She loves to kick in the bathtub. This footage is from March 1, when she was six and a half months old.

On Saturday, we had our first parent-child swimming class. Katie was the youngest child in the class by about a year, so I was a little nervous it would be over her head, so to speak. I was wrong! She objected when we first went into the water, but I think that was because it wasn't as warm as her bathwater. After that, she was great.

Katie was terrific at floating and even kicked (to be expected, really) when she was floating on her tummy. Her teacher was impressed!

She didn't even make a peep when I dipped her under the water.

And when we practiced falling in, swimming back to the side and climbing out, she immediately wanted to fall back in again!

We ended a lovely morning with a Mother's Day balloon.

Click on the picture below to see more pictures from Katie at eight months.

Katie at 8 months

A day at the park

It's finally getting to be springtime here, so Katie and I headed out today to enjoy the sunshine. We ended up in the nearby borough of Narberth at a great playground and Earth Day (NarbEARTH) festival.

Our first stop was the swing set. At first, I wasn’t sure we’d be there long.

Then I showed Katie how to sit back and enjoy the ride.

Turns out, she’s a speed demon! The higher I pushed, the better she liked it. (Don't worry; I was kneeling for this picture.)

We then ventured over to the sandbox. This was Katie’s first time sitting on the ground, and she had no interest in getting her hands dirty. Maybe next time.

Click below to see various other photos from the past several months that haven’t made the blog.

Katie at five months

Six months!

Eight months and counting

Judging by our monthly portraits, Katie hasn't changed a lot over the past few months -- she's still sitting up, not crawling yet, no teeth. Actually, she's changed a ton.

Katie's having a great time eating now; we just had to figure out what foods she likes. When we give her something like yogurt, she barely swallows before opening her mouth and sticking her (really long) tongue out for more.

Just in the past week, she has started rolling like crazy. She can flip herself from her back to her tummy in a heartbeat and roll across the room in no time. So far, she doesn't seem to have a goal in mind. She's just doing it because she can.

We couldn't keep Katie on her back for this picture; she kept rolling over.

She's also getting ever more stable sitting up. While she still sometimes topples, especially when she's rocking forward and back because she's excited or happy, she can also reach out and catch herself.

And she's working her way toward her first word. Her favorite syllable is da, so we think DaDa is just around the corner. Here she is, gazing at her favorite guy.

P.S. Katie's official eight-month stats are 28.25 inches, 18 lbs., 5 oz.

Click below for more photos from the photo shoot.

Katie's 8-Month Photo Shoot

Seven months already!

For those of you keeping score at home, tonight (a week after her 7-month birthday), Katie measured about 28 inches and 17 lbs, 13 oz. Katie is getting the hang of solid food; she likes sweet potatoes, pears and peaches and doesn't care for rice cereal, squash or peas. Next up, bananas!

Now, on to her most recent pictures. No, this isn't an Olan Mills pose; Katie just naturally likes to clasp her hands together. Sriyesh's dad gets a huge kick out of it, as do her daycare teachers. She may look sweet, but the two-handed approach is especially useful for clubbing things.

It probably drives Anne's mom nuts to see Katie barefoot in all these pictures, but we just can't keep shoes and socks on her! She already was a master at rubbing her feet together to get them off, and now she can just reach down and pull them off with her hands.

We have blocks at home that do all sorts of neat things, but these simple wooden blocks were real winners!

Katie is our happy girl!

Click below for more photos from Katie's seven-month photo shoot.

Katie's 7-Month Photo Shoot

Katie meets Caroline ... again

Katie and Caroline Conner met for the first time in October, when Katie was seven weeks old and Caroline was just three weeks. Disappointingly, both slept the whole time.

On Saturday, a beautiful spring day in NC, we re-introduced the girls on a lunch date. The results were much more exciting.

Katie was pleased to catch her first glimpse of her future college roommate. (Anne and Caroline's mom, Emily, lived together for two years at UNC.)

Caroline was pretty happy with the idea, too.

Finally, Katie showed off her sun hat.

Click below for more pictures of Katie and Caroline's lunch date.

Katie with Caroline

Katie's old friends

Katie is doing a great job sitting up and playing, but until recently she spent a lot of time with her old friends the jiggly seat, exersaucer, activity mat and swing. She still enjoys them, but she'd prefer to be sitting on her own and playing with new, smaller toys.

We wanted to share a few photos with her favorite toys for posterity.

Here's Katie with her activity mat. She almost immediately rolls onto her tummy now when we put her down onto it; when she does, she enjoys smiling at the baby in the mirror. (Simon, our terrier, covets the purple elephant you can see on the mat. It won't stay attached, so he thinks it's fair game. Hmmm ... We haven't seen it recently.)

Katie has enjoyed her jiggly chair almost since the beginning. After we added the lion (yellow, far right), it became her jingly chair, too. When she starts butterfly kicking, she can really get it bouncing.

Here's Katie with her exersaucer, shortly after Christmas. It has been amazing watching how quickly she has learned new skills to manipulate the various toys, and she still has a lot of room to grow with this one.

Finally, Katie has an on-again, off-again relationship with the swing. It helped her sleep when she was a tiny baby, then she ignored it until she was reintroduced to the idea at day care. Now she likes it, especially since we added a toy that plays Caribbean-style music.

Click below for more photos from Katie at five months.

Katie at five months