Clappity Clap Clap

YAY!!! Kaitlyn clapped for the first time just now!!! WOOHOOOO!! Daddy was writing on his Mets blog and he has a background song on there. The song came on and Kaitlyn started dancing (bouncing actually) and clapping her hands! She's not making a loud clapping noise, but she does make a tiny clapping sound sometimes!! We were so surprised! She did it out of no where with no prompting!!! She's AWESOME!!! WOOOHOOOO!!!!

My Little Toddler

Ok so I know I haven't updated in a bit but having a toddler running around is keeping me VERY busy!! Even right after I clean my house she is into all of her toys and her cupboard (I let her in the plastic ware cupboard) and yanking everything out. Yeah, I know, it's what kids do but it keeps me going all day long.

Easter was ok... we didnt do anything special. Kaitlyn got a little bunny easter basket and a stuffed bunny. We figured since it was her first Easter we didnt need to go all crazy and get her tons of stuff. Grandma Lois got her enough crap! We did get her a little Bible story book and a couple other Little Golden books that she can read when she finally stops chewing on and eating all of her books. Anyway, it was a good day, we had a quick dinner with Grandma Lois and then we went to the park to play and watch daddy and his friends play basketball.

Kaitlyn has gotten SO much stronger as far as walking goes. She walks now from toy to toy or to the couch and takes the steps all on her own. We do work with her everyday for a few minutes but the rest of the day she choses to walk all on her own. She's so much more sturdy than she was too! She also stands all the time too. She is practicing all the time, she will pick things up and then let go and practice holding things while standing and she is pretty well balanced. She's even started dancing while standing when there is music or when I sing. It's so adorable!!

Her reflux has been rearing it's ugly head lately too and she has been puking a bit more than she has been. Though she doesnt really wear a bib for anything other than eating now, mainly because she doesnt want to. She rips them off of herself!

Oh, another thing Kaitlyn has gotten GREAT at is communication! She will point and let us know what she wants. When she is tired she will either go get or point to her pacifier and then will lay down on my shoulder. She only uses her pacifier when going to sleep so it's not something we will have to worry about breaking except for at night. She has gotten so much better at napping in her chair and not on Mommy. She also lets us know when she wants milk... so far she just whines and points or she will climb in her chair so we know she wants some... but we're all learning .

Kaitlyn is getting SO tall too! I have my craft table set up in the living room and she is now tall enough to grab things off the top of it! At least things that are around the edges of the table! One other reason she has been keeping me busy during the day! Needless to say, today is yet another massive cleaning day. I have been working hard to get a lot of things organized and soon I have to work on getting Kaitlyn's 12 month clothes out. Even though the 6-9 months are so big on her... the length is not cutting it anymore. The onsies and pants are getting short.

Ah well... thats about it.

Big for Her Britches

I really think Kaitlyn thinks she is older than she is! Ha ha ha! Let's see, she is doing things much before a child normally does, like, no longer using bottles and standing and walking on her own. She's just amazing to watch! A couple of days ago I noticed that she is now steadying herself and standing all alone, without prompting or anything from us! I also noticed that she will take steps to get to something she wants now instead of crawling. Not many, but a few steps! She does still crawl around and loves to find a book or a piece of cardboard or anything like that that she can put her hands on a push around the floor while she crawls. It's so funny to see her doing it and I'm not sure where she got the idea but she just started doing it one day.

She's just really growing up and she is definitely NOT a baby anymore! Now if I can only get her to talk... and say Mama!!!

10 Months Old!!

Wow... it's amazes to me to think 10 months ago I gave birth to this gorgeous, beautiful, amazing, little girl. I can't believe how much she has grown and how much she has learned. She still has so much more to learn too!! I LOVE watching her accomplish things, like crawling, standing, walking. She gets so so so excited when she does something new. Her face just lights up and she has a huge smile and she makes this weird grunting happy noise. I'll have to remember to get that on video! It's just so wonderful and much more than I ever thought Motherhood would be. She makes me so proud!

I always knew this was my true calling in life... I was meant to be a mother but never really realized how happy it would make me to be everything for my child. I love how she looks at me, I love how she needs me, I love her wet little tongue kisses - which she gives now without prompting! I just love everything about her. She's very stubborn, hard headed and sassy like me and I love that too! I used to think I never wanted a girl, because I didnt want her being like me... but this is truely how everything should be. I'm supposed to have a girl and work with her to be a great mix between me and daddy!

I just never knew the love for a child could be so grand. I thank God everyday for my special gift, my little miracle. I love you Kaitlyn more than I have ever loved anything or anyone in my life and I will forever!

Auntie Sarah in Virginia

Kaitlyn has now been in 8 states and she still isnt even one year old! We took a trip to Virginia last weekend to see my best friend in the whole entire world, Sarah. She is married to Scott and he is in the Navy, they are stationed down in Virginia for now but are both from Michigan originally. Scott is finishing up a 6 month tour out to sea right now so Sarah is home with their two kids, Hannah and Gavin. Hannah is going to be three next month and Gavin is about 2 1/2 months younger than Kaitlyn. The kids had a good time playing with each other. Kaitlyn has never really had time to play with other kids or be around them for a long period of time. I really think she enjoyed being around them. I liked it because they kept her busy a lot of the time and they are also really good kids! I do have to mention that Kaitlyn is very empathetic when other babies cry. Whenever Gavin would cry or sound like he was upset Kaitlyn would start crying. At first we thought she was scared of him but we realized that she was ok with him until he started crying or squealing. After a couple days of being together everything was ok. Kaitlyn really LOVED having space to crawl around. Sarah has a really nice open and big apartment so the kids had lots of room to roam. Thats something Kaitlyn doesnt get here in our very tight living quarters.

The weather wasnt all that cooperative, we had planned on going to the beach and the zoo but, while we were there it was either hot and rainy or chilly and sunny. Very strange weather! We did decide to go to the little Petting Zoo right near their house and the kids had a good time. Espeically playing at the playground that is there too! Well Gavin was sleeping most of the time, but Hannah and Kaitlyn sure enjoyed going down the slide and on the swings!

It was a very wonderful and relaxing weekend and I'm glad we decided to take the trip. It was actually a wonderful birthday present from Jon because I had been feeling a bit down and seeing Sarah and getting to spend some quality time with her was just what the Dr ordered. It was great just hanging out most of the weekend and talking! Sarah and I didnt shut up pretty much the whole weekend!

Anyway, I wish we lived closer, not only for us, but for the kids. They are so close in age and really enjoyed playing with each other, I know if we lived closer they would end up being best of friends, like Sarah and I!

While we were there Kaitlyn started "saying" something new... well not really saying a new sound but saying it differently. First of all, she has been saying "deh, deh, deh, deh..." and "baa, baa, baa, baa..." when she was saying the "baa's" she had her tongue sticking out of her mouth. While we were at Sarah's she started doing "Bah's" without the tongue and they sounded more like bah, rather than baa! It's so hard describing in writing what it sounds like when kids "talk." Anyway, most of the time she remembers to put her tongue in her mouth to talk but she does still say them with it sticking out.

Speaking of communication, Kaitlyn is really good at pointing for things she wants and she still signs Daddy and Mommy. She asks to be picked up and asks us to get something for her if she is unable. She's gotten good at putting things inside of things and taking them out. She likes to help me with the laundry by taking the clothes out of the basket and handing them to be to put them in the washer. It's not that helpful when she takes the folded clothes out of the basket though! She has fun and I only have to refold them so it's no big deal. One day SHE'LL be doing the laundry!

STEP by STEP!!!!!

Kaitlyn took her first steps!!!!! YAY! YAY! YAY! Jon and I were working on getting her to stand more and we worked a little on her walking and she did it!!! We even got it on video!!! YAY!!! WOOOHOOOOOO!!!!

Jon also took a couple pics of Kaitlyn in her new Beach hat and Sunglasses!! We're taking them to the beach with us when we go to Virginia this weekend!!

Ketchup - Catch up!

Ok so let me catch up here... Kaitlyn is doing such cute things now. Jon and I both LOVE getting her open mouth tongue sticking out kisses! She's great and now sometimes she just gives us kisses without us prompting her! I love it!! She even kisses her toys now, especially her green Care Bear with the Kite on his belly (not sure of his name). Ohhhhh and it's so cute too because she does the tongue kiss thing and then after she will make the "Smooch" sound hahahaha she doesnt make the kiss noise WITH the kiss!! hahahaha!!

Ok so she's really growing up in the eating department. Now she's been pretty much soley on table food since she was about 7 months. A few days or so ago... maybe a week or so, we notice K would take a bite from the fork or whatever and then pull the food out of her mouth and then put it back in and she would keep doing it over and over. For the life of me I couldnt figure out what the heck she was doing and it was getting irritating because she wasnt really eating and seemed to be playing with her food. WELL! We figured it out!!! She's taking bites!!! Like we do... we put food to our mouths, take a bit and then take the food away! She was immitating us! Now I realized that she is doing that same thing and sliding the food down over her teeth to rip the food and she does it over and over too until she gets it small enough that she eats the last piece. She's just learning so much and she really amazes me everyday! I'm so proud, seeing her so happy with her acheivments makes me very happy!! YAY!!

Kaitlyn is STILL into chewing on everything and that includes my toes!! lol She doesnt realize how much those two little teeth of her hurt! Sometimes she gets ahold of my toe and bites and it literally hurts! She's very easy to startle right now so sometimes when I jump and "yeouch" she starts to cry because I scare her. Not purposely, but she is in that stage where she is very sensitive! She'll learn quick! Even a guy at the restaurant last night scared her just by sneezing! She started crying and was so upset! I hope this doesnt last too long!!

Oh the other night I gave Kaitlyn some apple slices and she had a great time eating them!!!! She held them and she rubbed them on her teeth to eat them. She seemed so proud of herself and really enjoyed her Apples!! She did a great job eating them too. She's getting so big.

I wanted to mention here that though she is still puking some, Kaitlyn did have a couple days that she didnt puke at all. She had one day of nothing coming up last week and then she had a couple days where she just spit up some... then of course she has had a few days of puking all over herself and other places I didnt realize, like the carpet! Ah well... she seems to be doing a bit better overall!

Last night was SOOOOO cool, Jon and I just stopped what we were doing to watch K. First of all she is really using her imagination. She has three "voices" now or tones of voices anyway. She has her normal voice and then she has a high pitched voice that she talks to her toys with but she also has a mean/mad sounding deeper voice that she does. It was great watching her play with her toys and get mad at them and stuff... it was amazing! I was in awe! She also - man she's creative - was taking her blocks out of the yellow container and putting them at the top of the back of her bouncy/rocker chair and watching them slide down to the seat part. She kept bending down and picking block after block out of the bucket and watching them slide down the chair. It was so great and so amazing that she would think to do something like that. She even stopped in the middle to look at us as if to ask, are you watching? hahahaha it was so cool!! She's got such a wonderful personality!

Well next weekend we're off to celebrate my birthday in Virginia with my best friend Sarah and her two kids, Hannah and Gavin. Gavin and Kaitlyn are about 2 months apart so they should have a good time playing together! It's going to be a great time, we're planning on going to Colonial Williamsburg and to the beach and the zoo too! It's going to be a good time and relaxing... plus Auntie Sarah is doing all the cooking and it sounds like we will have a wonderful range of foods to eat next weekend!! I'm excited about that!! Sarah and I are probably going to do a little crafting stuff too while we're there too. I cant wait to get away, but even more I cant wait to see Sarah and spend some good time with her! I miss her so much and even though we've seen each other a few times over the past few years, we havent gotten a chance to spend any good amount of time together. It's going to be wonderful for the kids too.

Ok I'll keep updating as the accomplishments occur!