Best Bear Friend

Katie has formed a deep bond with her pink bear. She has plenty of toys but for some reason she loves her bear best. She'll often carry it around with her and talk to it. It is so sweet! Here she is with her dear friend.

After Dinner Swing with Daddy

Growth

Our dear Katie has been growing by leaps and bounds these days. Physically, she's definitely getting taller and heavier. She's eating lots of yummy solid food, including pureed versions of what Andrew and I eat for dinner. Mentally, she's really starting to recognize words and do lots of "tricks," as we like to call them. Whenever we say "clap", "wave", "hug", or "How big is Katie?", she does the corresponding motion. She will also point to her teeth when we say teeth and look up at the ceiling when we say fan. I'm sure she understands a lot of other words that we don't even know she knows. For some reason, the one word she has trouble with is "no" :)

Another area of growth has been Katie's hair. It's growing longer by the day and also lightening up a bit. I can't wait until I can pull it back into pigtails!

Friends

One of the best parts about moving to Harrisonburg has been reconnecting with old friends who live here or nearby. God is so good to bring us to a place where we already know people! One of those people is my sweet friend from JMU, Sarah Hughes. Sarah and I met during our first few days at college at our freshman dorm's Bible study. She became a close friend and we lived together in a suite with six girls during our sophomore year. Now she has a beautiful 2 year old daughter named Ava who Katie adores. It's so sweet to watch them play together. Ava is one of Katie's first little friends; they even were laughing together last week! We hope they will become dear friends, just like Sarah and I :)

In other news, Andrew started teaching at JMU this week! Below is a picture of the handsome history professor on his first day.