Agnes At 9 Months

This post is a huge mash of pictures from the weeks surrounding Agnes turning 9 months, because I'm trying to get caught up (again)!

In her eighth-to-ninth month, Agnes's activities got slightly less frenetic. She could crawl and pull up to standing at will, but spent a lot of time closely inspecting toys. Of course as soon as she catches me observing, she crawls over to give me a happy face slap greeting.

I love her concentrating face.

Her first two teeth on the bottom sprouted right at 8 months, then a couple weeks later the two middle ones on the top poked through. And she was ready for food in earnest. So far, there's not really anything she doesn't like. Plain yogurt, pickles, all fruits, any vegetable she can chew, whatever dinner we're having, and anything you're drinking - she wants it all. You would think this being my sixth try at this, I would know better than to think I can get a few minutes of contained-baby time by putting her in the high chair with some entertaining food. One, I always watch and take pictures instead of doing what I needed to do, and two, the cleanup takes longer than the eating fun so the net gain in time is negative anyway. Oh well. At least we all get a picture progression to make us laugh.

Different day, different food, same scenario.

I tried to get some nice, official looking 9 month photos of Agnes, but as soon as I put her in a cute jumper and set her down, she immediately speed-crawled away from the window with the beautiful light over to the DVD shelf so she could pull down all the DVDs. Her favorite activity is "taking out." Taking out DVDs from the shelf, taking out books from the shelf, taking out laundry from the basket, taking out everything from my diaper bag, taking out dishes from the dishwasher. So anyway, my photo shoot was her crawling away from me and a couple token pictures of her prize, the DVDs.

I'll just let Catherine keep taking all the pictures! These are hers:

By nine months and a couple weeks, Agnes was cruising all over the house.

And attempting to climb everything.

Gussie still refuses most pictures, but once in a while if Catherine has the camera he'll let himself be in a picture with Agnes.

We don't need official photo shoots when she's so cute just sitting around playing. The kids call this her "duck hair" when it does that little swoop at the top. (I promise there are four teeth in that mouth - for some reason it's really hard to get a picture of her teeth!)

Agnes is very keen to be involved in all the big kid games and gets really upset when they go outside or downstairs and she can't get to them. Clearly it's because they are so much fun. Gussie's antics always make her laugh.

Urban Fishing

When we started spending a lot of time in Benton Park, we noticed a sign by the pond with fishing limits. It turns out it is one of a bunch of park ponds that are stocked regularly by the city, and kids under 16 don't need a license to fish. The kids were interested so Daddy asked a couple friends who are experienced fishermen to take us all fishing in our pond. It is supposed to have three types of fish in it, including sunfish and catfish, and although we had a good afternoon with several fish caught, they were all small sunfish, no catfish. But the kids thought it was awesome and they wanted to keep and cook their catch.

I know Gussie doesn't look impressed, but he was really excited. He's just focusing on his fish.

They learned how to bait the hook and set the line and cast and even unhook the fish.

Mary upholds a strict fashion standard, even for fishing.

These pictures are from one of our friends, who happens to also be a fantastic photojournalist with fun cameras. I think the first fish caught got thrown back before they decided they wanted to eat them, so they came home with four sunfish.

We got a lesson in cleaning and cooking when they got home.

Michael was skeptical, but followed through with tasting it since he wanted to bring them home. He said it was good! But he didn't eat much more.

They had so much fun that our friend left us two kid-size fishing poles that he wasn't using, and Gussie asked for bait and tackle for his birthday. Then the boys called Uncle Chris, who also knows how to fish, and set up another urban fishing expedition. They were determined to catch a catfish this time, but only got a bunch more sunfish which they decided to throw back this time.

Gussie found a prime spot dropping his line under this bridge. I'm pretty sure he was yelling about having just pulled up a fish at the same time we noticed someone recording a couple getting engaged on the bridge. Oops.

 Agnes doesn't care much for fishing, but really enjoys playing in grass with Dema.

Grampy T and Catherine don't care much about fishing either but the park is an enjoyable place to hang out.

With Uncle Chris's help they caught and released a couple fish each at least. But no catfish.

Gussie wanted to go fishing on his birthday, so we tried another nearby park with a stocked pond but had no luck at all (other than swans chasing their bait). They are not deterred - they are going to catch a catfish! We'll keep an eye on the stocking calendar and try again...

Fashion Of The Youngest

Edie can spend hours switching dressup outfit after dressup outfit, and ALL the kids enjoy dressing up Agnes as much as she'll tolerate it, so the overflowing dressup box continues to be of good service. Hats, sunglasses, wings, and scarf-as-skirt makes for an outfit fit for running, flying, and a good curtsy.

But you can easily switch up the feel with a nice fringed and beaded poncho.

I know this is blurry but it's such an "Edie" face that I had to include it.

Agnes was sitting around playing and Edie didn't want her to be left out, so she got a turn with the sunglasses and a scarf. They didn't last long.

Ooh, look - that black scarf-as-skirt is now a top with a different scarf-as-skirt. Very elegant.

I don't know who got this princess dress on her, but as the person largely responsible for dressing Agnes, I am impressed.

This has nothing to do with dressing up but was next in line in my picture folder. Agnes can pull up to standing on anything, and she loves to peek her nose over Daddy's table and try slide his books off with her little fingers.

Summer Sport

Gussie's first t-ball season wrapped up way too quickly! The unusually rainy Spring meant a third of his games and practices were cancelled, so he didn't get to play as much as he wanted. But he really liked when he did get to play, and his coach was fantastic. So in spite of the rain, he had a good season!

Mary, Michael Jr, and Gussie attended climbing camp again this year (Catherine has technically aged out of that camp, and was also busy being a counselor for a friend's outdoor camp at the park). With three of them we have a bunch of day passes to the climbing gym again, which are even more fun to use because Dema and Grampy T can come along and be their personal belay team.

Doesn't Mary look like she's just taking a casual stroll up that giant wall?

Edie did some good climbing again, and tackled a couple routes on the bigger wall. She didn't make it to the top but she made some good moves!

Kali came with us this time and while she said afterwards that she doesn't really love climbing, she did a really good job!

Catherine looked at these pictures and asked who it was. That's you with all the legs and muscles, dear!

Although sometimes I think she likes climbing just so she can say "rest" and hang out up high for a minute.

Edie discovered the bouldering wall this trip also.

Gussie and Michael flew up and down all the walls like normal.

And they even let Dema and Grampy take a break from their belay duties to do some climbing of their own.