Kate's moving!

Over the course of about 15 minutes while I was making dinner Kate finally discovered that she can get herself around. She's had the skills for a while (rolling both directions, pivoting, lifting her torso to scoot backwards) but hadn't really put it together. Then all of a sudden she was rolling and scooting out of the living room and down the hallway!!! (Right toward the open baby gate at the top of the stairs, of course. Time to get back in the habit of keeping that closed.)

She's also been practicing her plank a bunch today. The camera distracts her so this is the only picture I got.

(Notice the supportive big sister in the background.)

I've had a few mornings alone with Kate now, which means I finally have a chance to get some pictures of her without another face blocking the camera.

One of Kate's favorite things is the blanket on our couch. She gets so focused on it, pawing it and trying to eat it and just looking at it. She's also into stroking the carpet lately.

And of course, she's still really into her hands, too.

Kate turns 6 months old on Sunday and we'll be starting solid foods. I think Molly's more excited about this than anybody. She's been planning Kate's first foods for a long time. This week we pureed and froze some sweet potatoes and beets. Molly really enjoys eating the purees. :) I've been trying a bunch of recipes that sneak pureed veggies in and they're pretty good. We've even been dropping a cube of beets into our oatmeal to make it pink (just the thought makes Daddy gag, but he's kept a really good poker face). I think there's going to be baby food on the menu for everybody for a while.

Molly's also excited to start signing to Kate. We got a book out of the library, at her insistance, and she wants to learn (relearn?) them all. She happened to pick a book that uses ASL instead of made up baby signs, which is cool in a whole different way. Watching Molly play with the signs reminds me of the finger play stuff she does at school. What a great activity for a 3-year-old!