Meadow has a playdate

Finally, about time! What about me, huh? Katie gets to see her friends all the time and I so rarely see Kobi. I love Kobi! He used to come over all the time before that thing came along. But Kobi came over today and we had fun together. Here's a picture of us and Kobi's mom Donna holding that thing. At least she slept part of the time. I'm so lucky he's my "boyfriend," Kobi's one good looking dog! -- Meadow

Katie's relaxing weekend

We didn't do much this weekend. Too cold to take a long walk. Aunt Lesley came over for dinner. Here's a picture of Katie and Meadow hanging out with Aunt Lesley in the kitchen. Katie stands all the time now, it's very cute

No more barrettes for Katie - a cautionary tale

Katie has long hair for a baby and we usually put in a barrette to keep it out of her eyes. We've now decided that the "shaggy dog" look is a better choice for our little girl. So here's a cautionary tale. The short version is that on Thursday Katie had a barrette caught in the back of her throat and I was lucky enough to realize it and called 911 and after the police and paramedics showed up we went by ambulance to the emergency room. They couldn't find this piece of plastic on an x-ray so it must have made it to her stomach. Katie's fine, I'm traumatized and fully expect to be even more paranoid about her safety in the future. I don't think you can blame me.

Yum! Blueberries!

We went to Whole Foods after visiting Oma on Sunday. Looking through the organic frozen food aisle, I got the wise idea that wild blueberries might be a good finger food for the little monkey. Well frozen blueberries defrost with liquid and Katie turned purple! Blueberries are now only mixed into foods - they make a beautiful color yogurt! Also worth mentioning - Katie got her first taste of meat. You can guess which one of us fed her beef.

Katie practices walking

We bought Katie this "walker" as an early birthday present. Of course, being who we are, we had to research walkers and choose "the right one" for our babe. We found this one, a wooden one from Germany and thought it would be more stable than the plastic ones. I think our instincts were correct. This one is great because there's a compartment for her to put toys in and take them out. However - remember that Mastercard commercial where the parents buy the toddler a new toy and he or she only wants to play with the box it came in? Well Katie definitely made that true. The first thing she did when we took the walker out of the box was start pushing the big box around the room. She's definitely getting the hang of it, but she does still like pushing it backwards and riding in it.

Katie conquers stairs

Where does an apartment dwelling baby learn to do stairs? I actually always wondered this - not only where, but how do they think to do it when stairs are not part of their daily experience. Yesterday I learned that it's just from exploring. We were waiting in the opthamologist's office and Katie crawled around (it's a pediatric practice, very big and kid friendly) and she just made her way to the 2 steps and crawled right up. She did this over and over again, but not down yet, that will take a little more practice.

I'll cry if you won't be my Valentine

Here's Valentine Katie. Thank you Karen for the bib - she looked very cute!

The good news today is that Katie gained a pound in the past month! We've been concerned about her not gaining enough weight and she's now 17 lbs 9 oz. The bad news is we know this because she's been sick and we had to take her to the doctor. A cold and some tummy issues, but she'll be fine and even not feeling her best she's still her very pleasant Katie self. Perhaps in a show of solidarity, Meadow was sick today too. So we skipped the usual Valentine's Day cooking and ordered in. Just when Peter was going to make me one of my favorite things too.

Meadow and Katie take on record snow

Meadow digging in the snow

Snow is Meadow's favorite thing. She can dig in it, roll in it, and eat it! With over 2 feet of snow, we couldn't miss the opportunity to take the girls to Riverside. It's only 2 blocks from us and with our great stroller, it wasn't a problem getting there at all (we had the big tires in front much of the time, which helped). Meadow couldn't have been more excited to play in the snow. Katie could have cared less.

Meadow does this neat thing where she runs through the snow and it looks like she's swimming in it. She had a great time!

This was Katie's first real snow. It was still snowing when we went out and the snow fell on the stroller cover - no reaction. We took the cover off so the snow fell right on her- no reaction. We picked her up and showed the snow to her close up and she stood in it, still no reaction. Oh well.

Peter and Katie in the snow - yes it's up to Peter's knees

3 little girls play

Katie's friends Emma and Erika came over on Friday. It was so much fun to watch them play together. Emma is the one in the pink shirt and Erika is the one picking her nose - it's her new trick her older cousins taught her. Pete and Mitch, don't get any ideas. I couldn't resist using this picture.

Katie's a party animal

We had another 1st birthday party today - it was for our friends Sam and Gabrielle, but poor Gabrielle was sick and couldn't make it. We had fun. Amy (Sam's mom) had out little bowls of cheerios and goldfish and Katie went to Ethan's mom looking for handouts. So Rachel gave her some goldfish, which she liked. Then she went up to another mom - Lauren (the other Sam's mom) and "asked" for some cheerios.

Katie and Ethan chowing on goldfish

Katie also got a ride from Lauren's Sam in birthday Sam's wagon. It was very cute. As you can see, she was happily sucking her thumb.

Thumb is Katie's best friend!

(I just realized that many of the party pictures have her wearing the same dress. Thanks Ann! We love it! But really, I assure you that our daughter has lots of other clothes. This dress with the matching tights just happens to be really cute).

Katie loves bubbles

We went to Katie's friend Sam's 1st birthday party today. We had a great time. Our other baby friends were there and we got to play with them. Sam had singers from the hits of the baby birthday circuit. They did sing-a-long songs, complete with puppets and some instruments for the kids. They did an instrumental guitar with lots of bubbles - Katie loved them (but this part reminded me of a concert from my college days). New York has a really huge variety of classes for babies. The musicians came from one that Sam takes a class at, known for having a live band play for little kids' music classes. An interesting topic for another time.

Another big weekend for Katie

Katie went to her friend Rina's baby naming yesterday. We had a really good time, Katie was really well behaved through almost the entire service. And she got to see a lot of her favorite people. Here's a picture with her friend Ben. Ben is 5 1/2, in case you can't tell from the face he made for the camera.

I want the pacifier

Avi and his mom Amanda came to visit on Thursday, they were in from DC. Avi is about 11 weeks old and very attached to "Sally," his pacifier. Katie, who never cares for pacifiers, thought that Sally was very attractive and tried to keep taking it. In this picture, she succeeds. I guess taking Sally was a better option than her other game - try to poke Avi in the eyes.

Meadow is turning 4

Meadow's 4th birthday is tomorrow. We already celebrated her birthday a few weeks ago with our friends whose dog Kobi (a gorgeous English Springer Spaniel) is the same age as Meadow. But I'm feeling nostalgic for baby Meadow - the cute bundle of fluff she was. So here's 8 pound Meadow, the day after we brought her home. She was the runt of the litter and according to the breeder, the smartest of the 4 puppies, and we figured that small and smart was a perfect combination for a NYC golden.