Kate is a mere 17 days away from her 1st birthday and she is developing quite the little personality.
We can tell that she understands a lot of what we say and she always wants to mimic us, to eat what we’re eating, etc. She gets pretty upset when she can’t eat something she sees one of us eating. Tonight she motioned to some candy corn (”It’s corn that tastes like candy”), and I told her that wasn’t for Kate. She motioned that she wanted to feed it to me, so I let her get a piece and she did indeed put it in my mouth. I told her to get another piece to feed to Daddy, but she wouldn’t give it to him and kept trying to put it in her own mouth. I finally took it from her and Wade ate it and Kate made the most pitiful face and wailed. She doesn’t understand that she doesn’t even have enough teeth for candy corn!
I was holding Kate today when I was cooking and she kept wanting to get a spoon that was near the dishwasher. I thought she just wanted to chew on it, and since it was dirty, I didn’t want to give it to her. I handed her a clean spatula to play with, but it turned out that she actually wanted to stir the food! Once she had the utensil in hand, she leaned toward the stove and stuck it in the pot!
Speaking of understanding, I guess you could say that Kate is beginning to “talk.” She can definitely make lots of different sounds, and we’re pretty sure we can distinguish “bowl,” “ball,” “bubble,” “mama,” “dada,” “bye-bye,” and “nigh-nigh,” as real words. Everything else is pretty much “buh.” She makes that sound a lot.
Kate “loves” her toys. If you say, “Love your bear!” she will hug her bear to her and pat it with one hand, then lean over and give it a kiss. Adorable! I think Kate still loves her pink bear the best, but she also likes Winnie the Pooh and Hayley’s little “robot” animals, which are a pig and kitty that move and make sounds.
It isn’t difficult to tell when Kate is frustrated about not getting her way. She has taken to throwing things, either off her highchair or across the room, depending on where she is at the time. If she doesn’t have food or a toy in hand, she will either ask for something or get something herself and immediately throw it down. She doesn’t usually cry when she does this, and I have mostly been ignoring the behavior. I tell her that Mommy doesn’t pick up the things she throws down on purpose because that’s a never-ending game of control.
Kate still isn’t walking on her own but she can stand for longer stretches without holding onto anything, and I have noticed that she has more control when she is standing and then lowers down to the floor. She doesn’t always just fall on her butt–she can often gently lower herself, controlling the movement, even in the bathtub.
Our little baby also LOVES music and dancing. She gets excited when she hears songs she recognizes–like the Scooby-Doo themesongs because we hear A LOT of that in our house thanks to Hayley!–and it isn’t unusual to see her start bouncing when she hears music. It’s especially cute when she is standing up and dances; sometimes she really gets into it!
In other news, Kate loves going for walks in her stroller (as long as you keep moving) and Wade has been taking her quite often in the late afternoons since the weather has been nice. We all went for a walk yesterday and Hayley played with a new friend. A little girl who is five just moved to the neighborhood about a month ago and yesterday Hayley had a chance to play with her. I hope they can be friends, especially since one of Hayley’s good friends from down the street is moving 
Hayley also had another “camp” last week. She really loved Bug Camp in August and wanted to attend again, but the park’s camps are seasonal, so last week’s camp was about autumn and the different types of seeds and fruits that disperse this time of year. She seemed to enjoy this camp too because she mentions things she learned. She was talking about “propeller seeds” tonight when we were outside and she said, “I learned about that at my camp.” She’s such a big girl!