Snack at the Zoo

We checked out the new African Forest exhibit.

Photo Shoot

Early Merry Christmas, From the Fithians! This is the picture for our 2010 holiday card.

It took a little more work than expected to take a family photo worthy of putting on a Christmas card. We almost took 100 pictures! And it's not that the pictures were all bad; they just weren't good.

Here are some that didn't make the cut:

A little too far off center...and Kara's making her scrunchie face.

Kara's staring at her Daddy, but we really wanted her to look at the camera.

Dog came through the photo shoot. Lee had to save him from Kara.

Kara is giving Mommy some love. Lee looks great though!

Could have been a winner, but look closely behind us. Creepy Uncle Cody is hiding in the background.

I get it now!

Oh...I see what people mean when they tell you to enjoy the time before baby gets mobile.

Not that we aren't enjoying Kara right now, it's just much more attention demanding. I have found that it really isn't worth trying to do any chores while she is awake because she will get into something that she isn't supposed to. In the past 24 hours I have

• knocked dog doo out of her hand
• fished pebbles out of her mouth
• taped a map back into my Bible that she ripped out
• pulled her out from under the stroller that she knocked over
• helped the dog escape from her death grip
• cleaned her pee off the bathroom floor (Lee had to clean it off of his pants :)
• contemplated putting her in the dog's kennel so she won't get into anything else!

Fall Fun!

October was a great month with no shortage of fun, Halloween-related family activities. Get ready for a lot of pictures!

We went to a pumpkin patch with some friends, the Pickards, from church. They have a little boy named Ethan who is 2 weeks older than Kara. The two of them typically don't acknowledge each other's presence, but we got a rare photo of Ethan not only touching Kara, but trying to pick her nose.

Then we went to the fall festival held by my parents' church. Kara is still a little too young to really enjoy things like this, but it was a good excuse to hang out with the family and dress Kara up in her ducky costume.

Next, we went to Zoo Boo at the Houston Zoo with our super friends Anna and Scotty Floyd. The animals were pretty active that morning, so that made it especially fun. Other highlights were watching an elephant get a bath and Kara touching a snake. As usual, she was passed out by the time we got to the car.

Finally, it was Halloween. We went to Lee's parents' neighborhood to trick-or-treat with Kara's cousins, Owen (pit crew chief for Lightning McQueen from the movie Cars) and Riley (little black cat). All the kiddos were adorable in their costumes. Owen did a great job yelling "Trick-or-treat" to everyone, and Kara pretty much sat in the wagon and sucked her thumb the whole time.

Baby News (9 months)

Kara is growing up. We're starting to see her independence, and there is a little part of me that wants her to slow down. It's sort of sad watching her leave the co-dependent blob stage. I can still call her a baby, but the term toddler is creeping up faster than I would like.

It is unlike me to be sentimental about things like this, but it is so weird that she is just a completely different person now. She's constantly on the go (except when she's sleeping...thank you naptime!), she is responding to several words, and she has started to whine and get angry when she doesn't get her way. Yes, she is growing up indeed.

Here are some of her new favorite things to do:

• Waving - Kara is all about waving. She waves to strangers, she waves to dogs, she waves to us when we come to get her up from a nap. I have found that this gesture melts the hearts of little old ladies. I actually make a special effort to wait until Kara waves at them because they always get excited and tell us how we just made their day.
• Feeding herself - Kara has decided that she needs to help us feed her. She can be somewhat insistent about holding the spoon. She usually ends up with more food in her hair than her mouth.
• Find the Puff - Puffs are a yummy Gerber food for babies (like a puffed up Cheerio). They are great motivators for Kara. One of our games is to hide a puff under one of three buckets. I don't know how much she likes searching for the Puff, but when she finds it she loves shoving it in her mouth.
• Yogurt painting - So much fun! We got this idea from our nephew who did it in day care. Sit the kid in a high chair, and drizzle the tray with a mix of plain yogurt and a drop of food coloring. It's a mess, but it's a contained mess, and Kara has a blast "painting" the tray (and herself).

Baby van Gogh

Brought to you by the letter B

Kara makes 3 babbling sounds, buh-buh-buh, rah-rah-rah, and uhm-ma. I read somewhere that it is good to help babies associate their babbling with actual words. So today is all about the letter B.

We have been playing with bubbles, boxes, and books.

The bunny was fun for a while, but then she wanted the blocks.

She drank from a bottle and ate barley and blueberries....she did not wear a bib, which was a big mistake.

We looked at pictures of B and Beeba (her grandmas), and played ball with Kermit in the backyard.

Later, she splashed in the bath and went to bed with her blanket.

Then Mommy and Daddy said bye-bye.

But, the best part of our day of B's was chasing the b-b-balloon!

From the fithians (click on the picture to view the video)

Flat head update

We just had our follow-up visit to the neurosurgeon at Texas Children's Hospital. He said Kara's head is improving, and he doesn't see any reason for a helmet. Even better, he doesn't think her head would even qualify for a helmet.

It is likely that her head will always be a bit deformed, but nothing that should cause her embarrassment.