Hayley and Kate Minter

I was in the bathroom this morning when I heard Hayley cry out, “Mama! Kate’s crawling!” I wasn’t sure if Hayley misinterpreted what she was seeing or if little Kate was actually moving forward. But Hayley assured me that she was actually moving on her hands and knees.

I watched Kate carefully the rest of today, and it is indeed true–our little Red is crawling! She hasn’t crossed a room yet, but she would go several feet today when she saw something she wanted. I didn’t see her roll at all today. She would drop to her hands and knees from a sitting position and, without hesitation, move forward toward her goal.

The first thing we did today was head over to Babies R Us and get baby gates. Our plan is to block off the dining room and foyer, which will keep Kate from getting to the stairs or to Hayley’s playroom. We also got one for the top of the stairs, though we don’t spend a ton of time up there and we don’t have to worry about Kate getting out of her crib just yet. I think we’ll be set if I can keep her out of the cat’s food and litter pan in the laundry room…

Kate has now advanced from an infant tub with a sling to the infant tub without the sling to an inflatable tub to the big tub.

For about the last week, Kate has been trying to get out of her inflatable tub every night when I give her a bath. I spent most of the time trying to keep her from bumping her face as she would stretch over the edge and try to reach the stopper in my garden tub. Or she would try to stand up and reach me over the edge of the tub. So tonight I put her in the big tub–just her. She looked so tiny in that big tub. But she seemed okay with it. She just sat there and chewed on her green whale.

I just hope Hayley doesn’t get too jealous because Kate gets to bathe in my tub (Hayley loves taking a bath in my garden tub, wanting the water to be chest-high and brimming with bubbles). Maybe she’ll feel better when she sees that Kate only gets about an inch of water and no bubbles.

I saw Kate move forward a little bit on her knees today. Mostly she still does a combination of rolling and creeping, but she’s getting closer to crawling.

She’s a little pro now at sitting up all by herself. I’m not as surprised now to see her just push herself up or to be sitting up in bed when I go to get her. But I finally moved her crib mattress down so if she does get the urge to try to pull herself up she won’t risk falling out.

She’s growing up so fast!

Kids talk about the most random things when they get together.

Hayley and her friend Emma were in Hayley’s playroom and I could hear them talking. They talked about toys and then got onto the subject of Disney World. Hayley said, “I can’t go to Disney World because I’m not old enough.” Emma said, “Well, _I_ am old enough.”

A few minutes later I heard Hayley say, “I went to Auntie Erika’s wedding and I had to get up early in the morning, so Mommy let me sleep in my clothes!”

Where did that come from??

Yes, it’s true, I had her sleep in clothes so she could just roll out of bed that morning and we could all get our hair done, but the fact that she remembered that is just funny.

She went on to talk about our upcoming family reunion, seeing her grandparents, and her new tv tray.

As Hayley would say, “That creeps me up.”

I just watched Kate sit up all by herself!

She was sitting up in her crib when I went in there last night, but she’s done that before a few times.

This morning was the first time I witnessed it myself. There she goes again! It’s amazing how suddenly they master these new skills.

Yay, Kate!

On Monday, Kate experienced her first time in a “pool.”

She, Hayley, and I went to the Ridge Road pool in Raleigh. We had planned to go several weeks ago so we had no idea what the weather would be like that day. As it turned out, it was overcast and a bit cool at 10:30 a.m., which was around the time we got into the water.

The main pool was closed because there were swimming lessons being held in it. Therefore, our only choice for “swimming” was an 18-inch splash pool in a fenced-off area next to the main pool. (I had wondered why no one was bringing in floaties or life vests–it was because this pool doesn’t allow any outside floatation toys or devices. Besides, you wouldn’t really need them in the splash pool.)

Hayley enjoyed being in the water but I think she would have enjoyed it more if she had had some friends there or if the water was deeper (she enjoys jumping into the water while wearing swimmies and a floatie ring around her waist). Kate, however, had a blast. I sat in the water and held her, and she splashed and kicked. She laughed and squealed when Hayley came over and I held Kate up and used her legs to splash Hayley with water.

In other news, Kate continues to roll over and travel across the room wherever she wants to go. She’s doing really well with her sippy cup. She can hold it and drink from it herself. She drinks either water or white grape juice. She hasn’t been in the best mood lately, though, because her top front teeth are coming in. Last night she slept through the night, but this morning, she’s a bit grumpy. Poor little thing.

About a week ago when Kate woke up during the night and I went in to check on her, she surprised me–she was sitting up in her crib! Don’t know how she got into that position because she has yet to do it again, but she did it once…

Also last week, my dad stood Kate beside the coffee table and she held onto it and stood for several minutes by herself.

Kate is almost to the point of crawling but she still has a little way to go. Right now if she wants something that is out of her reach, she either leans far over to get it or she drops to the floor and rolls until she can reach it. She can pretty much travel across the room by rolling, so she may not be too anxious to crawl until she stumbles across the ability to do it.

In food news, Kate can now eat Cheerios. She does really well picking up the Cheerios with her little fingers and putting them in her mouth. Most of the time she picks them up with her thumb and forefinger, which is pretty advanced for a seven-month-old. She has also been drinking water from a sippy cup. She can’t quite tilt it up enough by herself to drink, but she drinks well when we’re holding it for her.

Kate is also becoming more vocal, saying “ma ma” a lot and making other sounds, including “ppbbthhht.” I don’t think Hayley understands why it’s rude for her to do it but we think it’s cute when Kate does it…well, except when Kate does it with food in her mouth and I get sprayed with carrots.