Carving Pump-i-kins

My mom used to sing us a little halloween song on the eve before we went out trick or treating, and I continued the little tradition with my munchkin. So here goes!

It's Halloween...

The lamp is lit...

Around the fire we children sit...

Telling ghost stories bit by bit 'till baby Caitlin says HUSH!

Who's that creeping 'round the bedroom door...

Who's that creeping 'cross the kitchen floor...

Who's that creeping 'round the bathroom door...

IT'S A GOBLIN!

Or rather a goblin dressed as a flower :)

Success!

Since my last posting, Mike and I have had two full night-sleeps. WOW! I know by writing this down, I am jinxing it... but I guess I'm really hoping that Caitlin has turned a corner and has finished whatever growth spurt was keeping her up all hours of the night. Fingers crossed she continues this!!

Regardless of how much sleep she gets, she's one happy baby :)

Sleepyhead

I know I haven't posted anything in a couple days, but not much is new on the home front. Caitlin is still getting up all hours of the night, although it seems to be a bit better as of late. Let's hope tonight we get some consistent shut-eye!

As for her feeding schedule, we still have her on rice cereal, but I plan on introducing other grain cereals (like oatmeal, barley, wheat, etc.) after her baptism on Sunday. She's been getting one serving in the morning after her bottle, and another serving at dinner. She hasn't quite got the hang of opening her mouth wide for the spoon or swallowing, but she's getting there. I know it will just take practice! It's hard not to make it a game... it's so easy to make her laugh to open up, but I know that is a bad habit to start. I'm sure by later next week, she's be an expert little eater.

She sure is good at flipping onto her tummy though, in fact, that's what wakes her up at night. Here she is snoozing away...

And this is the lovely little face waking up to greet me :)

Singing with Fingers

Caitlin loves ramming fingers in her mouth, and singing at the same time. She started this a while ago, but I finally caught it on camera last night. What a little ham!!



She also likes to stuff her bib in her mouth and grunt to get our attention. Then she laughs about it. It's so funny to watch her little sense of humour... no matter how loud it is :)

Pretty Necklace

I've been meaning to post a picture of a pretty little necklace I ordered from a place in the states. Cute eh?

This week has been kind of crazy (Caitlin has been getting up all hours of the night for the past 4 days -- she turns over on her tummy all the time now, but gets stuck and then gets upset) and I've been a little neglectful of my blog. So here's a recap:

MONDAY - I went out for girls' night with some friends; it was nice to get out, but I've realized that as much as I wish for a break from the munchkin, I'm really happy to come home :) Mike made out well with the routine, and I came home to a sleeping baby.

TUESDAY - After a day of great walks and lots of exercise, I took Caitlin to the doctor because she has her first diaper rash of sorts. I got some cream, so hopefully it goes away soon. Then we went to the church for the last baptismal preparation class. All of her godparents were able to come, and we even brought her. Although she cried all the way down, and all the way home, she was on her best behaviour when were at church. Hopefully this will be the case on November 1st too! I

WEDNESDAY - I felt extremely lathargic today, maybe a combination of the rainy, cold weather, and the lack of sleep. I still made it to the Mother Goose class and tried to keep Caitlin on a good napping schedule to see if it would make a difference for her night-time sleeps. I also bought her a baptism gift today - a Peter Rabbit piggy bank. We'll probably get something else too, like an engraved cup and fork/spoon set, but I know Mike wants to come and pick it out, so that gives us something to do this weekend.

THURSDAY (today) - No luck on the sleeping. Still stumbling my way up and down to see her when she gets up at night, which is every hour. I sure hope she learns how to roll back soon, because getting stuck on her tummy is what is waking us both up at night :) Also, the ladies from the Mother Goose class are meeting this afternoon - it's nice these friendships are lasting beyond the classes.

Hobo Toes!

Caitlin has a pair of cozy pajamas that fold over at the bottom so her toes are covered when she sleeps. But somehow, her toes always seem to poke out! Here are her cute little hobo toes as we call them...

I don't know if I mentioned it before, but Caitlin is a screamer. I'm not sure if she's singing or just like to hear her voice, but she trills at the top of her lungs and pierces our ear drums. She sings softly when we're trying to burp her on our shoulders:

Pumpkin Picking!

We took Caitlin pumpkin picking and she had a ball! Because she's still fighting a cold, we bundled her up really well as it's quite cool out nowadays.

There's a farm close to where we live that has a pumpkin patch, a market, a petting zoo and even a corn maze. But until she's older, we pretty much stuck to the pumpkins.

For some reason, she was more interested in the light fixtures than she was in the pastries??!

Lucky for her, daddy bought her some pumpkin gingerbread. Mmmm...

It was such a nice family day :)

Holding Hands

My little munchkin absolutely loves intertwining her tiny little fingers with mine. And I LOVE it!

It's so sweet how she's interested in feeling our faces too - she's started this recently where she has to grab our chins as she's falling asleep. It is a little distracting for her, but once she starts to doze, her arm ends up falling down anyway.

Yummy Solids

Caitlin had food again this morning, but I don't think she's quite ready. I am going to try once more tomorrow, but waiting another week might help.

It's too funny watching her eat though!

First Food

Caitlin tried solid food this morning!

Except it wasn't really solid, it was more of a disgusting mushy paste... and I really don't blame her not liking it! I'm going to make it runnier next time to see if she prefers a different consistency.

We thought it was time to try solids because she is interested in what we are eating - and even makes the chomping motion when you put a spoon close to her. Except when she finally tasted it, she kept making a yucky face and rolled it around on her tongue until it dripped out on its own :)

Maybe we'll be more successful tomorrow? Mike suggested she just drink her milk until she's a teenager because now her spit up smells like day-old cereal! Ewww...

Thanksgiving

This weekend was really nice - we got to eat lots of turkey, and our little turkey got to stay up late visiting with family :) She was so beat, that she slept in until 9:15am this morning... what a little sleepy head!


On Saturday, we went to Mike's family's house for dinner and then we made our way up to the cottage on Sunday for dinner with mine. We even went on a cruise on the Segwun - Caitlin's first boat trip on Lake Muskoka! She is such a goofy little girl!

We're not doing much today... I'm still trying to get rid of this sore throat, and I think she'd be happy with having lots of cat naps today.

Power Walking

Caitlin and I went for a fantastic power walk around the neighbourhood this afternoon. She and I are still fighting a cold, but I figured the fresh air may help. I bundled her up extra well and we enjoyed the fall weather :)

And here we are arriving home. I guess she was so snuggly that she dozed off.

Hey Grandma!

Caitlin doesn't get to see her muskoka grandparents all that often, but we make an effort to talk on Skype. So I guess she thinks one grandma is a computer!

My mom used to sing to us all the time when we were little, and I mentioned last night that Caitlin loves it when I sing to her too. So, she started singing to the munchkin online. Here they are chatting away - or rather singing away to one another...

Caitlin LOVED the Sesame Street Ladybugs Picnic song:

But was a little unsure about the east coast sea shanty 'Keeper of the Eddystone Light':

Nothing beats vintage Sesame Street...

New Hats

The weather has definitely turned now, so I've been trying to dress Caitlin in warmer clothes for when we go out.

I also think it might be time for a new car seat because I am having a lot of difficulty buckling her into the seat with her thick fall/winter wear now.

Speaking of which, here are two new hats she's a proud owner of! Too cute...

Holding Hands

I've been a little neglectful of my blog lately because my wee one wasn't feeling so well. We were pretty lucky though - for a first cold, she got over it pretty quick... no more snifflies! So back to my online diary :)

Caitlin absolutely loves holding hands, feeling fingers and rubbing arms. I guess it's because we're warm, we smell like mommy & daddy, and she probably held onto the umbilical cord before she made her grand entrance. But she's learned a new trick...

When I'm trying to get her to sleep, she and I will hold hands until she's dozed off enough for me to move them (as much as feeling my hands soothe her, it also keeps her awake). After I take my hand away, she's learned that if she pops her menamo out of her mouth, my fingers have to put it back in. She then grabs my hand and hangs on tight, starting the cycle all over again. Smart little one, eh?!

I've also figured out when she wants something (aka her bottle, or Sophie the giraffe), she'll stare at it to try to levitate it. And if I bring it close to her, she'll stretch out her hands in order to grab it... people included! It's cute to watch, but hair beware!!

First Cold

I think Caitlin is coming down with her first cold... eek. She's got a super runny nose, she's sneezing like crazy and she had a boogie the size of manhattan earlier today (okay, that's disgusting, but true).

She started coughing yesterday - which she thinks is funny for some reason - but last night she got up at midnight and was crying, coughing and gagging on her spit-up. I ended up sleeping with her in the spare bedroom because she was up and restless the entire night, and I was kind of worried about her. We'll see how this goes; hopefully it doesn't throw her completely off her sleep routine because she was doing such a great job.

Mike had this past weekend off which was nice - he got to spend some much needed daddy-daughter time with his munchkin, and I got to do some cooking. As daddy taught Caitlin how to drink water out of his glass and roll around on the couch, I made a big giant vat of my favourite soup - my mom's curried butternut squash soup. It was a productive weekend overall!

Happy 5-Month Birthday!

Happy 5-months little turkey bum!

Time is going by too fast.... I love spending my days with you, and it's so neat watching you discover new things every day (particularly your voice as of late!). I'm convinced it's because I sing to you all the time and you just want to sing along with me - even though your version is an ear-piercing squeal :)

Track Suits

So I lost quite a bit of weight before I became pregnant, and although I lost most of my baby weight after our little munchkin arrived, I've been harbouring some poundage which I need to get off.

I've been hearing from others not to worry about it yet - she's only 5 months old and I just had her... but she is more of my reason to continue losing weight rather than an excuse. And after a disappointing attempt to buy jeans and watching The Biggest Loser, I decided to call my dietitian last Thursday and 'get back on the wagon'.

I've been eating carefully, drinking lots of water, and the two of us have been exercising. I got on the scale this morning, and I've lost 5 lbs in one week! Woo hoo!

Here's to matching track suits and my little bundle of motivation!