Mid-October

Miss Katie is a busy girl. Standing all the time, starting to cruise and emptying whatever she can get her hands on. Right after her birthday she went through a few week long phase where she scrunched her nose up every time she smiled. It was so funny. Mid-October is also when she mastered going down the stairs backwards, which is a big deal in our house where we have lots of stairs but, no baby gates. She is imitating us more and more and making a wider variety of sounds too. She can do some things on command like clap, splash, give a kiss or high five, etc and she started folding her arms for prayers sometimes too, which makes us all laugh. She signs more, and is trying to make certain sounds and words it seems. She is so loving and cuddly. Near her birthday I recorded that she wasn't a great sleeper. I hope I don't jinx myself but, just after that she started sleeping through the night perfectly again, taking nice naps more regularly and being really easy to put down for sleep. Our bedtime routine is pretty simple; a tub, a bottle of milk, a book, brush teeth and then I'll hold her and sing a bit of I am a Child of God. As soon as she hears that song she wraps her arms around me and lays her head on my shoulder, it's about the sweetest time of my day, then I lay her down and she always whimpers for about 3 seconds. She had been nursing only once a day for about a month, occasionally missing days, until she was twelve and a half months and then was completely done. It is pretty sad to think that I won't have another baby to enjoy each of these amazing phases with. 

Katie is a light weight but, so is Hailey so this was hard work for her. 

Dave loves to get the Christmas lights up and ready while the weather is still good.

One of Andrew's very favorite games is soccer against Dad or Mom and our backyard is the perfect field. He giggles the entire time and even puts up with my cheating moves. He is getting so big and fast that we have to work hard. October weather isn't as great as summer but, it's so good.