I've been posting some pics of Katherine on the KelPhotoBlog because I want to keep it moving! I get more traffic there if I post a lot and since I'm really getting my business going I need traffic!! It's hard for me to keep up with both but I will post here again, I promise!  Check it out if you get a chance and I love when people leave comments (hint hint)!  :)  I promise we'll have an awesome new video clip up soon, Katherine is doing some funny funnny things!
  

Katherine was not particularly excited with our last snowfall:



Not much new is going on.  I noticed that I never posted pics from our awesome trip to Charleston, click here to see them!

Also, I've started a new blog for KelPhoto!!

What?  Two posts in one day??  Well, Katherine is taking a long nap.  Here are some shots I've been taking of her during those times in the afternoon when we've gone through all of our play routines and we're waiting for Alex to come home.  I got the tutu on sale after Halloween.  It's a little too big still.  Just a little.





Discussing some very important matters over the phone






My little bag from Mimi

We got a few inches of sleet last night.  Most people in the area are expected to go in to work 2 hours late because that's what the federal government did but after spending some time outside along with our neighbors (who we see about 2x a year - Halloween and snow shovelling) it became evident that most people would need to take the day off.  Just too much ice to move around and most cars can't get out of the neighborhood.  Alex's coworkers who did go in are reporting that the roads are quite bad.  So Alex is home with Katherine and I for Valentine's Day :)   Katherine who is sleeping after some serious sledding.  I think she liked it.  She didn't complain any and whenever I stopped pulling her sled she grunted until I moved again. I guess that means she liked it?



Better see what's going on outside.


Wow that's a lot of sleet!




We visited Claire and John a couple of weeks ago:


Katherine and Conner at playgroup:




This is how I roll.


Check out my new shoes that we got in C'ville!


Cute in new shoes?  Who, me??

Katherine is now climbing.  She got good fast.  She can climb onto many things, can't always get off (at least not gracefully).  She also continues to enjoy putting things in other things and taking them back out.  Right now she's playing with a penguin in her dollhouse. 

Katherine in her play table:


Playing by the window:


A few of Erin and LJ's cats!  Katherine loves them (they don't really love her):

The temperature finally dropped below 50 degrees and we got a little snow!  Katherine was perplexed by it but eventually she played a little (and tasted it).  These are from the perplexed phase:

Katherine is working on walking! Here's a video from last night. You can also see her climbing on and off of her new zebra from Lauren and Micheal.



And finally, the video of her dancing! This is from last month when she showed off some of her finest moves.



Meanwhile Katherine had her 1 year check-up today and she weighs 22 lbs 9 oz (a big drop to the 75th percentile) and is 30 inches long (88th percentile)!

Happy 1st Birthday, Katherine!  Your first year has been filled with...  expressions - real smiles, fake smiles, frowns, inquisitive looks, laughs, stares, kissy lips, smirks;  movement - rolling, sitting, standing, crawling, jumping, spinning, dancing, walking? (hmmm, maybe soon!); sleep - for you, not so much for us;  friends - so many new little friends for all of us and new experiences with our awesome friends; family - wonderful times with our amazing families; music - itsy bitsy spider and so many more; hats - pink ones, yellow ones, birthday ones; food - milk from mommy, avocado, more milk from mommy, bananas, more milk from mommy, veggie puffs, cat food, more milk from mommy, oh and some more milk from mommy; toys - books, tag rattle, bug, panda, duck bunny, airplane, cell phones; fun - peek-a-boo, i'm gonna get you, clapping, pointing, touchdown!, rolllll it, pat it, mark it with a 'b', sticking your tongue out at Lauren; sweetness - kissing your reflection in the mirror, hugging the cat, kisses for everyone, cuddles, and so much love!  We are absolutely amazed and fascinated by you and can't wait to see what you have in store for us as you enter your second year!  Love, Mommy & Daddy










Katherine's party was a blast!  She had a great time seeing so many friends and family (and so did we)!  Thanks to everyone for coming and making her day special!  We know a lot of you had long drives and we were just thrilled to have everyone here.  We even had representatives from up north (Tracey and Chris came all the way from New Jersey) and down south (Lauren and Micheal came all the way from Chareston, SC)!  Here are a few photos:























I'm supposed to eat this?




What a day it's been.


Not this again?


Could you at least give me a spoon?


Fine, I'll try it.


Not too bad...

What a difference a year makes!






In her beautiful Hanbok from her Grandma Saeed's family in Korea!  The hat stayed on for less than a second but luckily my camera is fast!

Hopefully Katherine will wake up soon (it's almost 9:00 a.m.!) so we can have a fun day!  I think she's a little worn out from her big party yesterday.  More later!

I'll just post a few photos from today.  I'm so far behind!  I'm not even going to try to catch up.  Katherine is working on walking (a few steps here and there but nothing official yet) and she's so so so much fun these days!  She imitates everything we do and is enjoying all of her Christmas gifts.  She's still dancing a lot (I know, I still need to upload the video footage) - in fact the other day she was crying for some reason (probably because she wanted me to pick her up) and she accidentally turned on one of her music-playing toys and despite the tears and sobs she still managed to dance the whole time the music played - I guess the music just moves her!  Next time I have to get that on tape.  Here are some pics from today, amazing weather!







Her first almost-self-portrait (she positioned the camera)

Things have been crazy!  Katherine has had one cold after another for the past month.  She's still recovering from the most recent one.  And I've done tons of portrait sessions, haven't even had time to update the kelphoto blog.  We squeezed in a photo session for Miss Katherine in her latest Hanna dress, hey it was on sale!

I decided on Halloween morning to document Katherine's day as much as possible with my camera.  It was a fairly typical day for her except for the added evening festivities.  Here's the link, just click on the first photo to view the larger photos:

Katherine's Halloween

Also, Alex's parents were married in the Catholic church last month, click here to see the photos. I took most of the ceremony photos with Katherine in the carrier on my hip (she really wanted Mommy that day). The ceremony was touching and beautiful and the dinner afterwards was tasty and fun!

Katherine has already gotten to wear her Halloween costume twice and Halloween is still 2 days away!  Our play group had a Halloween party last week and Katherine made an appearance at the TIGR Halloween happy hour.  Yesterday we went over to Claire and Mike's to do some photos and to take the kids on the Burke Lake ghost train.  It was a fun day!  In her free time, Katherine has been improving her dancing moves (video coming soon) and pointing to distant objects while saying something that sounds a whole lot like 'what that?'.  She also said 'good morning' a couple of days ago.  Really.  We both heard it. We think. Blogs are for bragging, right?






Sweet little lady bug.  Luckily, not little enough to fit in vacuum cleaners.


On the train...




It was great to have lunch with our friends Tory, Alan, Ian and Gabe who were on a visit from Arizona!


And swinging.

I wasn't sure when to start introducing meats into Katherine's diet or what meats to start with.  I definitely did not have chicken by-product meal on the list of options but that's the first ingredient in Crissy's dry cat food.  That's right, Katherine ate her first cat food tonight.  Unfortunately I didn't catch this special milestone on film but I can say that it happened quickly and it was pretty gross when I fished the remaining bits of food out of Katherine's mouth.  I'd like to think that she didn't swallow any but I really can't confirm it.  I guess we can add this to the growing list of non-ideal things that Katherine has consumed  (paper straw wrapper, Dr. Pepper, and now cat food).  At least it looks like she'll eat chicken. 

I can't believe that my baby is nine months old already!  Here are way too many photos (I couldln't narrow them down) from this past Sunday.








Working on my fake smile.




This is a common Katherine expression.






Mmmmm, bark.


Showing off her new pants from Aunt Lauren.


Mmmm, leaf.


Daddy is so much fun.

Last week Katherine and I had a great time with my cousin Kim and her adorable babies, Farrah and Burkeley (they're already 4 months old!).  Here are a few pics.




Aren't they sweet?


Farrah


Burkeley


Mmmmm, lens cap.

When Katherine got her first two teeth a couple of months ago she was fussy a bit during the day, woke up a lot at night all of a sudden and was nursing way more frequently than I would have expected from a six month-old.  So you'd think that last week when she got increasingly fussy during the day, started waking up many times a night and was nursing as often as you'd expect from a newborn, I would have thought 'Oh, she must be getting more teeth'.  But I didn't.  I actually worried that she was just going to be this way from here on out, maybe I'd gotten too used to a baby who is generally very happy.  I thought that since she's been so picky about only taking nutrients from me that maybe she would just try to nurse all day and night to sustain herself for the next few years (well, not really, but sometimes I wonder if she'll ever eat a meal from someone other than me).  And then, luckily, Alex discovered two new teeth coming in on the upper gum.  What a relief.  Today I noticed that there are actually three teeth coming in at once and I think the fourth will break through tomorrow or the next day.  So I'm just going to assume that this is another of many phases!

Some photos from yesterday:

In her new outfit from our shopping trip with Claire and John.

 

Hmmm, that camera looks interesting.

 

Do you mind if I check it out?  Maybe taste it?

 

Success!

 

And today at the park with our Stroller Strides group:

I love to swing!

 

Swinging sucks.  (This photo and the previous one were taken two seconds apart.)

 

Swinging with Camden

 

 

And by the way, Happy Birthday, Lauren!

Natasha, Kevin and Anna came to visit, Anna and Kate had a blast playing with Alex's piano from when he was their age. 

Anna!

 

We took some photos when Katherine turned 8 months old!  These are from September 15:

In her onesie from Erin.

 

 

Claire and John came over to visit:

Now that I'm done with my TIGR work it's time to catch up on some important things.  Like posting photos of Katherine.  I've got pics from August 17th onward to post, so here goes!

These are from August 17:

Waving at the cat.

 

Clapping.

 

Trying to find the cat (who is hiding from her).

 

Katherine prefers standing for her baths. 

 

Reading Goodnight Moon with Daddy before bed. Katherine turns the pages.  Not always at the right time.  But that's OK, she is pretty little.

I have tons of photos to post from the last couple of weeks but I've been so busy with work and weddings.  For now here's a video of Kate crawling today:

Kate's first solid attempt at crawling!

Pics coming soon!

Kate is doing well (she turned 7 months old this week!), her two bottom teeth are very visible now and she's sleeping better at night (thank goodness!).  She waved 'hi' to two different people at Safeway today!  She also loves to clap her hands. 

We took Kate to the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair on Sunday, she thought it was pretty interesting.  She liked looking at the animals and people.  She's looking forward to next year when she'll be big enough to ride some of the kiddie rides.  Here are some photos with her comments!

 

Check out my new hair-do!

 

I might be the sweetest baby ever.

 

Checking out some cows.

 

Hello, Donkey.

 

Eating my duck.

 

I don't know if you've seen my cool stroller.

 

Have I been eating the duck's butt this whole time?

 

Not sure what's going on with this strange-looking bird.

 

Can I help you with something?

 

See ya later!

Our Stroller Strides class has a play group once a week, here are some photos from yesterday!  Kate is the youngest (but not smallest :) ) baby in the group.

 

Note that Kate has 3 toys in her possession (plus she's eyeing Camden's toy)!  Photos courtesy Donna.

Kate has been making lots of new sounds when she talks and we had to lower the mattress in her crib because she can pull herself to a standing position!

 

 

Katherine had a great time taking swimming lessons!  She learned to (with assistance of course!): kick, float, go from the wall to the water, hold on to the wall, get her face wet, splash, taste the water (she did that one on her own).  Her Grandma Joo-ok and her Aunt Sophia came to one class and Sophia even swam with us.  Alex came to the final class and took some photos! 

More photos here:  http://www.kelphoto.com/kes19.html

Kate decided to try on her new sweater and hat that Mary Jean's mother made.  I think she's looking forward to the cold weather!

We thought we'd start a blog for Katherine so we can easily upload photos and her latest milestones.  Here's one from her 6 months-old photo session!  View the whole gallery here.