Nosey Girl

Caitlin sure is nosey. She stares at people when we're out in public and will crane her neck just to see what's going on if it's slightly out of view.

She is also really interested in what's happening in the backyard... and goes over to the window whether the blinds are down or not. Mostly, she likes to bang on the glass and yell at our neighbours.

She's getting better and better at standing on her own, and loves to walk with her walker. When she walks, she hunches over and drags her feet and sort of looks like (okay, and sometimes admittedly smells like), my 93-year old grandmother which we all giggle about. Like my dad said, we all become what we were like at babies at some point!

Speaking of my dad, my parents came over for a visit last week when they were in town and he took a great shot of our little sugar plum.

Here's another candid shot of her fresh out of the bath, all snuggled up to daddy :)

Play Pen

Okay, so the start of this post is not about Caitlin... it's about me.

For those that don't know, I was on a weight loss just prior to getting pregnant with our daughter, and I lost a total of 67 lbs. (I don't mind being open about my weight because I see it as motivation to continue losing because it's embarrassing.) Anyway, I went from 261 to 194 lbs but I obviously stopped when I found out that we were expecting. I was ecstatic that I broke the 200 lb mark back then, and I'm happy to announce that I did it again!!! I weighed myself this morning, and I'm 198 lbs! I'm so close to losing all my baby weight, and I'm absolutely delighted that my body is on a weight loss kick again. I'm hoping to get down to 160 lbs, so I'm 38 lbs away and counting. Here's to beautiful weather and lost of walks outside :)

And in between walks and making dinner, Caitlin has really started exploring around the house... in shelves, under furniture, up the stairs, etc. So we've had to bust out the playpen and set it up in the living room as a safe spot for her to play while I quickly make our meals.

Here she is entertaining herself and doing blowfish face on the mesh sides...

We also tried her on Pastina on our quest to get her to eat new and interesting foods.

She wasn't a fan.

I'm going to try bigger pasta tubes with parmesan as per a friend's suggestion, but fish and eggs are next on the list.

Mommy Group

When Caitlin was just 4 months old, I signed up for a class at the Early Years Centre to learn songs to sing to her and to meet other moms. Little did I know that we'd really hit it off! Our group has been getting together once a week ever since, and yesterday we planned a mommy group outing to the Maple Syrup Festival!

Although the weather was a tad chilly, we had our little ones bundled up as we went on a guided tour of the forest and a wagon ride. I guess Caleb felt his hands were cold because he kept stealing Dani's mitts :)

Here's our great group! I'm a bit melancholy thinking about the fact our maternity leave will all be over soon - all the kiddies are about the same age and it's been so nice to share how the babes have been growing.

Overall, it was a great day; especially the pancakes :) THANKS DADDY!!

Hollywood

We were at Toys R Us over the weekend looking at ideas for Caitlin's birthday. Although we're pretty much set on one thing in particular, we browsed and goofed around with her.

We took her into the baby doll aisle and she went crazy... we discovered she LOVES dollies. We bought an inexpensive one just to see if the novelty would wear off once we got home, but it didn't. Caitlin doesn't have much of a vocabulary yet, but she named her Nay-Nay, and likes to bring her everywhere - she even showed her the backyard.

Then we tried on baby sunglasses at Old Navy, and here she is striking a pose. Daddy, I'm so Hollywood!

Our little munchkin is such a ham :)

Swing Away!

With such glorious weather last week, I decided to take Caitlin to the playground around the corner from my house to see how she liked the swing. My other mommy friends have taken their kiddies and I was really curious to see how she'd like it. She of course loved it!

I asked if she wanted an underdog, but she didn't seem to know what I was talking about. Maybe when she's a bit older :)

I took her the next day and took her down the slide. I think she likes it the most actually - squeals, smiles and all!

It was so nice not having to put her in a snowsuit to go outdoors - just a fleece jacket did the trick. But now it's turned cold again. I'm just glad I took advantage of the warm air and sun (hence the reason I haven't posted since Wednesday!). I hear tomorrow and Thursday is supposed to be nice again so I'm really looking forward to the nice weather now that I've got a taste for it.

TV Addict

Caitlin's had a monkey on her back the past little while, but we've been able to kick it: she was absolutely addicted to TV while drinking her bottle. I don't know why, but she needed to watch commercials or the intro's/credits to shows. It was so strange though, when the show actually started, she'd stop eating. It was just the music that was intriguing to her I guess.

Who could say no to this face?!

But I hated the fact she even wanted to watch TV... let alone that I required it in order for her to eat properly. I felt like a terrible mom, and I am even reluctant writing this on the blog. But we've gone cold turkey and I couldn't be happier! I don't mind the odd show, but it was getting a little much.

I should mention too, we had our first true 'boo boo' on Sunday night. She was in her crib and daddy was getting her out to start her sleep routine. But just as he dropped the side of the crib, she put her thumb in the track... and the side dropped right on it. Our sweet little one was lucky it wasn't any worse than it was because she could have lost a thumb. Instead, it was a nasty gash on her print... but daddy was mortified nonetheless. Day by day it's getting better though :)

Sensitive Girl

Caitlin has definitely learned the word 'No'. We've been practicing it lately because it was absolutely impossible for me to change her without doing her crocodile death roll onto her tummy and getting everything all over her. But now she'll stay still and behave like a good little munchkin.

But when she grabs something she shouldn't and tries to put it in her mouth (ie: the remote, the phone, the floor vent cover...), I'll take it away, tell her 'No' and move her to play with something else. Except she'll look at me, start the quivering lip and get upset. She's so sensitive! My sweet little muffin has figured out it can't always be her way :)

And the other night, she was practicing her high pitched scream (which is another thing we're trying to curb) while in her highchair just as Mike was walking in the door. He could see that my efforts to quiet her were unsuccessful so he took off his coat, came over to make eye contact with her, and said 'No' in his authoritative daddy way.... and she just burst into tears. He had to pick her up to calm her down, but she didn't want him to hold her - she just wanted mommy (I guess because she thought daddy was mad at her!).

But here's a note for future Caitlin: Mommy and daddy love you very much, and as much as it breaks our hearts to see you tear up, we know all these rights from wrongs and trials and errors will teach you to be a wonderful, respectful kid :)

Standing & Walking?!

I took a little break from posting the past couple of days because I lost a 4GB SD memory card somewhere outside (it fell out of my case) which had a ton of pictures and video of Caitlin, and I was - and still am - pretty upset. I didn't get a chance to copy them over to my computer before they went into oblivion. However, I wanted to update on what she's been doing since the weekend because the past few days have seen big changes!

First off, last night, I was sitting on the floor with her and she stood up in front of me for the first time!! We were totally taken aback because not only did we not expect it yet, but she was so well balanced! WOW!

And back on Saturday night, we let her watch a bit of Treehouse after dinner - here she is tuned in with some toys:

Then I interrupted to play with her on the floor; she always enjoys goofing around and climbing all over me :)

She's such a character - here she is striking her favourite pose.

I noticed she was pushing around a car that converts into a walker, so we opened it up to see what she'd do. She started walking with it without our help!! Luckily I caught these first steps on the good video camera.

Then on Sunday, we went to visit daddy at the Maple Syrup Festival and saw llamas at the petting zoo..

And a big beaver at the Muskoka Wildlife booth...

And of course, tried maple syrup for the first time :)

She also got to try some new foods over the weekend seeing as how she only wants to feed herself. She likes freeze dried bananas & strawberries, peach puffs, Danino yogurt and LOVES cheese. It's so funny because she likes to put a piece of cheese and a cracker in her mouth at the same time! Grandma said it won't be long until she'll want a glass of red wine with it :)

Independence

I think Caitlin wants to be independent without being too far from mommy :)

I've really struggled this past week with getting her to eat. When I try to feed her her bottle, she'll bat it away and it's a fight to get formula in her. When I try to feed her solids, she pushes away the spoon. She was doing so good before too! If I try to position the spoon in her hand and help guide it into her mouth, she's a bit more willing to try whatever we're feeding her, but that doesn't last long. I think at this point she'd much prefer to feed herself - and I'm pretty sure the Cheerios brought this new form of independence on. But she can't eat Cheerios for the rest of her little life...

Another form of assertiveness she's showing, is wanting to undress herself. She pulls at her onesies or shirts to try to get them over her head. Here she is demonstrating her ability to rip off her disgusting bib while I'm trying unsuccessfully to feed her. (Note: the bib probably has more food on it than I was able to get in her)

You can really see her top left tooth in this picture! Her top right has yet to pop through, but it will any day - I can see the bud in her gums ready to erupt.

If she'd learn to use a sippy cup properly, I'd let her feed herself the formula, but all she wants to do is gnaw on the arms of the cup. And when I adjust it for her, she just gets annoyed at me. And changing her diaper is a feat all on it's own now... it's next to impossible to keep from flipping over like a crocodile's death roll.

On the flip side, she really wants to be held and cuddled a lot, and loves to be around us 24/7. When I put her down to have play time, she'd rather claw at my pants to try to pull herself back up.

She's sending me such mixed messages, I don't think she knows what she wants either!

Waving

Caitlin has really got the hang of waving; both with her entire arm(s) and also just with her fingers. Here little wave is so sweet... but Mike gets a little freaked out sometimes.

We'll both be sitting on the couch as I feed her, and she'll turn her head and start waving in another direction. I know she's just practicing her new skill, but Mike jokingly said it would be really creepy if she was going Sixth Sense on us and is really waving to a 'being' in our living room.

Now everytime she does it, Mike and I giggle at it... but that would be really freaky. Maybe it's just some imaginary friends?

Oh yes, and she decided to climb the stairs last night, the little monkey. She managed to do the whole set knee by knee in under 3 minutes. Great. I guess we'll need another baby gate up now!

My Snow Angel

With all that crazy snow we got this past Saturday, daddy made several trips out to shovel the driveway - and Caitlin and I joined him to play in the pretty white flakes!

We attempted to make a snow angel with no luck - she just wanted to sit in the snowbank and smile at us.

So we made a snowman...

And rubbed the his head for good luck...

Ate some snow...

And of course, heckled cars going by...

Overall, she had a great time outside. We can't wait for the nice weather to come so we can go discover the park that's close to our house!

Wow...10-Months Old!

Happy 10-month birthday my sweet little love!

Daddy and I can't believe that in two very short months, you're going to be a 1-year old!! Time is flying by and I finally understand when my mom says that it goes by WAY too quickly :)

Speaking of grandma, we had a nice visit with her and Lucy yesterday; here are some shots from the fun visit!

It was an exciting day overall - you even started the day off with trying Cheerios for the first time, and LOVED them! I broke them in half for you just in case, and you had fun feeding yourself.

You're becoming more independent, brilliant and funnier every day :)

Hamperlympics

Caitlin discovered a new sport: living room laundry hamper louging!



She sure loved watching the Olympics with mommy and daddy. Here she is cheering on Team Canada men's hockey in her official gear from grandpa!