Steve and I had a wonderful weekend with Katherine. On Saturday we had few commitments aside from our haircuts. So, we had planned to take her to Gymboree in the late morning. Unfortunately, I discovered when I got home from my workout at 10:30 that Katherine still had not taken her morning nap. Steve had pulled every trick in the book, but to no avail. She cried some more and was fairly unhappy until 11 when she finally passed out. Needless to say, we missed our one opportunity this weekend to see Katherine in action at Gymboree, which was very disappointing.
We recovered in the afternoon by taking her to Remlinger Farms in Carnation. Katherine had a nice time at the restaurant watching other children and then going through the barn and seeing all animals. Her favorite was a goat that poked his head out of the fence as we walked by. While she was a bit small for the roller coaster, the mini-merry go around, and teacups, she was just the right size for the steam train. ๐ It was a really hot day – well over 85 degrees, so by the time we had made our way around the park, we were pretty tired. We grabbed some fresh fruit, vegetables and drove back towards home. Katherine slept in the car as we dropped off our groceries and went to our haircuts. Post-haircuts, we drove to Kirkland waterfront and walked to a Mexican restaurant. Katherine shared part of our meal – avocado and mushed beans. Given all the excitement of the day, she was pretty tired, so we powered through our meals, got takeout and went home.
Sunday was equally eventful. We took her on a long walk in the morning and sent her to bed. To our surprise, she slept almost 3 hours! We were very late to the Mariners game – and arrived halfway thru the game. We met up with some friends from college/work and saw the Mariners beat the Orioles. Katherine had a great time even with the crowds and noise. She said hello to the people behind her, tried to pickup the popcorn from the ground, watched the game and people cheering around her. After the game, we stopped by Larry’s for groceries and went to a friends house for BBQ. Through all of this Katherine stayed alert – we finally got home and Katherine to sleep by 8:30. She went almost 7 hours without an afternoon nap! Our guess is that she has been trying to stay up as late as possible in the morning so she can drop her afternoon nap.
Of course, Katherine blew our theory today. We discovered that it’s only a short walk from our house to a nearby development and….a latte stand! We took Katherine and Bisco on a nice 2 hour walk, meandering thru the trails between our developments and checking out the new development. Katherine was very stoic, wrapped up by Steve in 3 layers of clothing (it was chilly this morning), and sucked on her binky. She fell asleep on our way home, but slept only 45 minutes. We then headed out to Bellevue Square to catchup on shopping, get new 12 month onesies from Nordstrom and gifts for upcoming birthdays. After her nap, we stayed at home, playing with her toys, cooking dinner and getting ready for the week.
Katherine continues to develop at a rapid pace. She readily waves (at herself sometimes) and babbles. She will take mushy foods from our plates (for instance noodles at Zoopas) and grasp them with her pointer and thumb. She’s almost mastered the pincer grasp, with maybe a 30% success rate at getting food in her mouth. ๐ She’s also becoming a proficient page turner. She especially likes books that have thick pages that she can turn. We bought a new book today that she seems to love, partially because it’s a touch and feel book and also because the pages are easily turn-able (unlike many board books). We spent a few minutes tonight just flipping different pages back and forth and touching the different textures in the book.
Spending three days with Katherine was a very fulfilling experience. We loved seeing her interact with her environment. I suspect that she enjoyed the weekend too, as she fought to stay awake to spend time with us.
