5 Months

We went out to an early dinner at Sushi Roku tonight. It was a perfect warm November night with a beautiful sunset. As Kate napped in her stroller while we ate, Steve and I both marveled over the fact that in just four weeks we will have had her in our lives for half a year. There is no five month doctor check-up so I don't have any new official stats to report, but here's what Miss K is up to:

Taking it ALL in:

She is very inquisitive and curious about everything in her world big and small. She grabs for most things and they usually go straight into her mouth. She is especially interested in her hands. She looks closely at them and loves running them over my face and trying to put them in my mouth.

Finding out that water is really neat.

Reading her Halloween card from Great Aunt Diane.

Trying to eat her Halloween card from Great Aunt Diane.

Exploring her friend Sophia's face.

Otter:

She just recently became more fascinated with her dog Otter. Several times a day as I am carrying her around the house she'll burst out laughing and when I turn around it's because Otter is trailing behind us.

More Independence:
Steve and I are both happy that she is close to mastering this skill:

New Digs:
This weekend, after putting it off as long as we could, we moved Kate out of our bedroom upstairs to our downstairs bedroom. I really wanted to keep her close and she wasn't bothering us at night. The problem was during the day. Kate still resists daytime sleeping with everything she has and until this week had never napped in her crib. Part of the problem (at least I thought) was that our upstairs bedroom has big, high windows and is very bright during the day. The first day downstairs was a huge success. She had two long naps in her crib. One approached the three hour mark. However, I think she was just thrown off because it hasn't happened again.

This is the picture I texted Steve of her epic nap.

For anyone concerned that Kate is now far away from us at night, we left the queen-sized bed in her room. I have slept down there every night and plan to for awhile longer. So, the move really means the boys (Steve and Otter) are upstairs roommates and the girls are downstairs. I am happy to share a bunk with my five month old!

Happy Halloween!

Kate had a full Halloween schedule with not just one, but two costume options! I had bought her a fuzzy bunny costume early on and then my mom got her a cute strawberry costume. It's a good thing she did because the bunny outfit was way too big (they were sold out of her size so I tried the next one up) and early in the week here in LA the temperature was still in the high 80s.

First, we celebrated with our mommy and me group:

From left to right: Syndey the parrot, Harlow the owl, Kate, Emily the pink strawberry, and Luna the flapper. 

The whole gang.
It looks relatively calm in this picture, but it was a really chaotic scene with them all in costume.

I just love Kate's legs and face in this picture. Can you tell who the biggest trouble-maker was?

On Halloween day, Kate spent the morning in some of her other Halloween attire:

Later in the afternoon we drove down to Orange County to Aunt Rachel and Uncle Derek's to celebrate with her cousins:

With Princess Elsa (aka Ella) and Ella and Shane's longtime nanny, Steffie.

By the time we finished dinner and changed Kate into her strawberry costume it was her bedtime, so it didn't last long! We snapped a few pictures and then about ten minutes later she melted down, spit up all over the costume, and it was off.

I thought we were going to have to call it a night right then, but then she went out in just her tights and red onesie with my mom and me to watch Shane and Ella go trick or treating and then she went back out with Aimee and Chuck. This was the text message picture I got from Chuck:

The message from Chuck said:
"In case you are freaking. We have your baby. She is happy. Aimee has her. We'll be back in a few minutes. She is checking out her cousins big time."

Finally, on Saturday (the day after Halloween) we went to a party hosted by one of the moms in my mommy and me group:

The weather changed on Halloween night when a rain storm passed through so we pulled out the bunny costume for this party. It too only lasted for a few minutes before this happened:

Don't be surprised if someone you know is dressed up as a bunny again next year!

Mommy & Me Party

I'm behind with posting and it might be because we are just finally fully recuperated from a party we had at our place on October 25th.  I had to slowly let Steve in on what the event was going to entail. First, I just casually mentioned that I was going to have my mommy and me group over. Then, I let him know that all the dads would be joining too. Then, I told him that our instructor, Jenna, would be giving a lesson for the dads on how they can play with their babies. Then, I let him do the math...we were having 27 adults and 13 babies (all under 5 months old) at our place for the entire afternoon. I'm not gonna lie, the preparation was intense and involved some different party planning, like where we could put an extra diaper changing station!

Here was part of the spread.

It was definitely cozy with everyone inside.

Jenna, our Mommy & Me instructor, next to Brooke and Arrington.

The Itsy Bitsy Spider? I think it must be!

I hope this girl appreciated all the work her parents put in to have her friends over!

Despite the work, we were happy to host and feel lucky to know such a nice and accomplished group of new parents that lives so close to us.