Look who's walking now!

Last night Katie crawled confidently over to the couch, pulled herself up to standing and then walked away from the couch. That's right folks, Katie is walking! Just before this video, she took about 8 or 9 steps. When she feels too unsteady, she sinks gracefully to the ground. I bet in a couple of weeks, she'll be walking all over the place. Part of me is so excited that she's (finally) hit this important developmental milestone. The other part of me is a little terrified - she's now going to be super-mobile! Yikes!

Enjoying b-day cake

Katie & Sam are enjoying their cakes together. It took Katie only a couple of minutes to demolish what took us hours to decorate.

Birthday Hula Bear

It took three of us several hours to create this masterpiece. And it was tasty...

Birthday cake!

Here are the fab four with their birthday cakes. Katie & Chloe, Sam & Adam are enjoying their cakes!

The fab four

Here are all four birthday kids 'round the ole birthday ice bucket.

I is for ice!

At Katie's group birthday party, the main attraction was the bucket of ice. Watch Katie in action along with her buddy Sam.

Tentative splashing

Katie is doing a little splish splashing. Getting warmed up & getting used to the water. And then...

Katie swimming

Katie & Daddy took swimming lessons here in Sunnyvale. Here's a quick movie of Katie doing some great splashing. She's turning into a regular mermaid! Too bad she doesn't like her baths right now.

Peek a boo!

It's been ages since I last posted anything on this blog - over two months! In the past eight weeks, Katie has been up to all sorts of great adventures.


In the spirit of starting somewhere, I think this is the cutest video ever. This clip was taken by Grammy on our way to visit the Flewells in Salinas. Katie & Grammy are playing a lively game of peek-a-boo. Katie has long enjoyed playing peek-a-boo but only recently does she do the peeking herself. Or is it the booing?

Katie's Hands

I'm trying out a new technology for uploading pictures. Katie has discovered that clasping her hands is fun. She was doing it a bunch the weekend we went to Sunset Magazine's Welcome Weekend.



I thought it looked pretty cute!

Katie clapping

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It turns out that clapping is a lot of fun for both Katie & Mommy. And it's even more fun when one has food all over one's face.

Katie talks

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In this clip, Katie shows off her talking and waving skills. She's an expressive kid!

Katie and the spoon

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Here's what a typical meal with Katie looks like. Lots of spoon waving, some talking, some examining of food that may have been previously chewed, some funny noises. All from the prospective from the high chair cam.

Katie waving

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We went down to Pasadena for our first Mother's Day. We had a great time visiting everyone. In one weekend, Katie learned how to stand up, how to wave, starting to talk and one of her front teeth came in. Whew!

Here's a clip of Katie waving (after first looking at us like we were crazy people.)

Katie waving and the sippy cup

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Katie shows off two new skills in this video clip. #1: picking up her sippy cup and taking a swig - all by her ownself. #2: waving madly at Mommy to feed her another bite of delicious rice cereal and cantaloupe.

Note the avocado that is everywhere. That's a very common state around the Mencken household. In fact, she seems to like having a piece in one of her fists at all times. When she's not busy spreading it around her hair, of course.

Note also the corner over her right shoulder. Daddy is making great strides on our built-in office area. He's torn it completely out, reframed it, put up the drywall, re-wired it and primed it. Next step, building the desktop & cabinet and painting it. Whew!

Katie on the loose

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Katie in action. Look out! She's heading your way!

Pulling oneself up...

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Katie is learning how to pull herself up now. She's not particularly good at it yet, but here's a few minutes worth of her efforts.

Katie & the puppy dog

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We had lunch at our friend George's place last week to celebrate the pending arrival of our friend Tara's baby. George has an amazing house, a gorgeous backyard (including a pizza oven) and two sweet puppy dogs. There were two other kids there, neither of which seemed to really enjoy the dogs. Katie on the other hand...

Listen carefully and you can hear her giggling madly. Thanks also to Elsbeth for not only facilitating the encounter, but feeding Katie her lunch and sacrificing her pants to the avocado monster.

Katie is 9 months old!

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I can't believe it, but Katie is now 9 months old! We went for her latest doctor's appointment on Monday. She's 29 inches long (95%) and 18 lbs 7 oz (50%). She's tall and skinny, I suppose.

She loves to sit on the floor in her bedroom so she can do one of her favorite things - pulling all of the books out of the basket we keep on the floor and then "reading" them. She's actually quite good at turning pages now. I know that she's starting to really look at what's on each page because she will laugh and point to pictures. It's very cute. I think she'll be another generation in a long line of avid readers!

Katie and the Balloon

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It finally dawned on me that Katie might enjoy one of the balloons that they give to kids at Trader Joe's. Turns out - she does! Lots of talking to and pounding on the poor balloon. One of the kids we saw at TJ's was scared of his balloon, but Katie made the same happy screech that she saves for Konrad when she got hers...

Lana & Sam!

Here is a slightly dated picture of Lana, Sam & Katie. (Lana is the kids' nanny.) We all love her - parents and kids! Katie doesn't look particularly amused in this picture, but she is all smiles when she sees Lana in the morning.

Look at my tonsils!

This is my current favorite picture of Katie. She went through a brief phase of sticking her tongue out a lot. Now she's into sticking her lower lip out and blowing raspberries or sucking in her lips into a fish pucker.