New year, new blogger

New year, new blogger. You know, like the kind who actually WRITES on their blog instead of thinking about it constantly and never follows through. That is my New Year's resolution. Sadly, I have several months of silence to catch up on, and it seems that I may never be able to share all the wacky, amazing and straight out bat-shit crazy things that have happened in our lives. But, here is a top 5 list of things that happened in the past few months to get you all a little more up to speed.

1. Last time I posted, Kate had sprouted her first little tooth. It was tiny and adorable and I ooh'd and ahh'd over it regularly. Flash forward three months and Kate is on her way to full barracuda status with FOUR razor sharp teeth that she uses to pry open beer bottles and intimidate baby sitters. Okay, I'm lying about the baby sitters but seriously, she has got a full set of chompers and OH LORD when she smiles her big ol' toothy grin, she looks like the cutest damn hillbilly this side of the Mississippi.


2. In early October, Kate started army crawling, which quickly turned into regular crawling, which very quickly morphed into speed racer crawling, and immediately nothing in our home was safe. By mid-November (the week before Thanksgiving to be exact) Kate learned she could pull herself to standing on, well, just about anything. She has been standing ever since. In her crib, in my lap, in the bath tub... well, you get the picture. And now, (Ta-da!!) by the end of December she is "cruising" very tentatively. We are fairly certain walking around without assistance is just a few short months off. Okay, I'm kidding. I actually fully expect her to be walking into the kitchen to fix herself a snack by January 22.


3. Speaking of snacks, Kate has quickly learned the art of eating and formed her very own carb addiction. While she still isn't a big fan of anything being shoved into her mouth by a spoon, if she can feed it to herself, she is on it. Specifically, she is a HUGE fan of bread, crackers, cereal and rice cakes. Veggies she can tolerate, fruits are the devil and if the meat comes in the shape of a stick (a la Vienna sausages) she would likely strike a deal to sell her first born for a bite.


4. Since October, I've been doing part-time contract work, which lead to Kate starting Mother's Day Out two days a week. Kate loved it. I loved it. There was a bunch of loving going around until she started dragging home every single germ that existed on this big wide planet. This season, our family has had colds, eye infections, the swine flu, an upper respiratory infection and finally the croup. The season came to a head the week leading up to Christmas when Kate had not only her first trip to the emergency room, but also her SECOND trip to the emergency. Both trips lasted more than two hours and nearly forced me to check in to some sort of mental hospital. Long story short, a stinking cold that lead to croup nearly took our entire family down. Oh, and note to parents out there -- never EVER take your kid to a regular ER. They are stupid and will call you three days later to let you know your child has pneumonia, even when a pediatric specialist later reviews your infant to let you know that actually your kid DOESN'T have pneumonia and you spent the last 24 hours freaking out for nothing. But you know, whatever.


5. Kate turned 9 months old this month and while we haven't had her check-up yet because of the holidays, she is an extremely happy and healthy 18 lbs. bundle of joy. She says mama, giggles when you tickle her and has a huge attitude when things aren't going her way. She is already a character and we can't WAIT to see what 2010 brings us. Stay tuned. I'm sure we have lots to look forward to.