All About Catherine

 Oftentimes, I feel like Catherine just gets dragged along for the ride in the family with such a busy brother, but she definitely has her own personality and interests.  The impact of how quickly time flies is strong with her as I can't fathom where the last year has gone.  My snuggly little baby has become this little wild child.  She's recently taken to lots of pointing, dancing and giggling during dinner and is picking up some signs.  Mostly she just likes to look at her hands:

During dinner she still loves her fruits and veggies (though she has definite opinions about some of them), but that doesn't mean that she won't share with a captive audience.  Unfortunately as Matthew winds down with dinner (and winds up with his silliness) Catherine does her best to mimick his actions, smiling and shrieking the whole time.

Due to the sun coming in from our deck doors, Matthew has taken to eating while sitting right next to Catherine.  Though he didn't care for his tomato soup the other day, Catherine sure did find it delicious.  Too bad it was on the day all the bibs were in the wash:

Speaking of mimicking, Catherine sure does love that brother.  As much as he still has a lot to learn about boundaries and self-control, Catherine keeps going back, even to spy on him as he sleeps!

Okay, maybe it was to get in some uninterrupted reading time without Matthew's ongoing narration!  Catherine sure does love her books, especially her new teddy bear book from Uncle Ed:

Catherine's still super mobile and all over the place.  She's standing and cruising but knows that she's far faster crawling so any attempts at walking result in her plopping down and crawling the rest of the way.  For better or worse there are very few obstacles she's not willing to crawl up, over or around.

If I take my eyes off her for a second at the park she's crawled away and up the stairs and headed toward the ropes in the big kid section.  The girl has yet *knock on wood* to have any real separation anxiety.  Even at daycare I go in and set her on the floor and by the time I've turned, she's headed toward the shelves.  

This means as we have our work cut out for us when we're working in the yard or outside.  Catherine's always been one to entertain herself but now its worrisome when she's busy for too long because it generally means she's in trouble!  She really likes our front planters (that we have yet to plant or remove so they're mostly full of dirt (okay) and rusty nails (not so cool)).

And mostly just likes to eat the dirt:

 And the wood dowels for my project:

I hope the germ and allergy experts are right about kids needing lots of exposure to dust, pet hair and germs because Catherine's second favorite activity is playing in the dog bed.  It's hard to describe exactly how she launches herself into them, but it's always with the side of her head.  Here I think she was annoyed June was in the big bed so she headed to the other one:

And of course, as much as I love all of Catherine's activity and chatter, there's nothing sweeter than a baby sleeping.  She's a pretty good independent sleeper (though some upcoming travel may challenge this notion):

But somedays there's still nothing sweeter than a baby sleeping on your chest.