first steps, food and more food

Well, as of Friday, July 2nd, we have a walker on our hands.  And as far as I'm concerned, Friday was the day she took her first steps.  It may have happened sooner, at her babysitter's house, but Michelle & I have an agreement that if Kylie should have any "firsts" at her house that she should keep quiet about it and wait for me to bring it up - that way, Mommy doesn't feel bad about missing any of the good stuff while I was at work.  Anyway, Kylie stumbled about 2-3 steps before landing back on the floor.  She took a 2-3 more steps on her on for Daddy on Saturday, and on Monday, he saw her take 4 consecutive barefoot steps across the yard.  So exciting!

She's also learned to climb.  Whenever the opportunity presents itself, she'll raise up a knee againt whatever piece of furniture she's in front of and try to hoist herself up.  The leather upholstered ottoman is currently her favortite climbing apparatus, as its at the perfect height for her.  Once she gets up, she stands on top like a proud little "queen" of the hill.

We went to the Hampden Community Pool on Monday - what a blast! (Borrowed photo:)

First impressions: it was pretty crowded, after all, it was the 4th of July holiday and it was close to 100 degrees.  But that aside - we had a great time.  At the last minute, we met up with our friends Johanna & baby Charlotte (now 5 months old).  I was a little worried at first - Kylie is a little timid of the water. She likes playing in our backyard pool- but from the outside edge, reaching in.  Oh, but sometimes she plays IN the pool - when its empty.  She despises getting water in her eyes in the bath.  So, understandably, I was concerned how she would react in this situation.  With the large, boisterous crowd and screaming, splashing kids - it was difficult to find a quiet corner to get Kylie used to the water.  But, eventually she warmed up - like she does with everything else.  Johanna took a great picture of Kylie playing in one of the small fountains - I'll have to get that up here later.

Finally, we went out for ice cream last night.  This has got to be one of my favorite summertime activities.  Like her Mommy & Daddy, I'm pretty sure Kylie has a sweet tooth too, so I knew it would be a successful trip.  Kylie ate a great dinner, so I knew she was probably pretty full and I wasn't too concerned about her eating too much ice cream so close to bedtime.  Here's some decent shots taken from Kevin's iPhone.

I've been meaning to post these too - Kylie loves her food!

This was a couple of weeks ago, when I let her eat yogurt by herself :)

Ok, wait! I'm not done yet, (ha, ha): here's video of our favorite one-year-old eating corn on the cob - she's practically an expert! We're still tring to figure out, however, if she'll be a girl who eats in rows, or round in circles.  Based on this video, I'd say she's going for the popsicle method - top to bottom :)

And lastly, a serene photo that Daddy took of our kitty, Mr. Blue in our back yard.