Marion and Margaret visited

We had a great visit with Great-great Aunts Marion and Margaret and Grandma Pam and Aunt Rebecca.

Caitlin update

Caitlin is growing and learning so much right now. She is really such a sweet-hearted girl--she is extremely busy all the time and is so much fun. We are amazed at all she picks up on right now. Last week, John asked me how many words I thought Caitlin could say and I said 10-15--so we thought that we'd write them down for her scrapbook and we came up with about 45! Since then she's learned at least another 10 or so. Just this week, she's said Amen, cereal, teeth, elbow (bel-bow), poop, wet....and the dreaded mine! She has recently started finishing her words. "book" went from bah to book (it's really more like bo-KAH as now she emphasizes the ending sound), "milk" went from mah to muck.

She is also a very strong-willed little girl and we have had to figure out what type of parenting/disclipine style we are comfortable with--yikes, she went from a baby to a toddler really fast. She is really a joy. Her daycare teachers often write us notes about her sweet temperament. At daycare, she plays pretty independently still despite lots of other kids being there--they have circle song time every morning and Caitlin doesn't sing, she's quiet, but when the song is over, she goes off by herself and her teacher can hear her singing the songs alone. She loves to do the motions to itsy-bitsy spider.

LOVES: animals, tickles, talking and babbling, being outside, being chased, dancing, music, running water, baths, her blanket (somehow she has named it DIS--dis stays in her crib though, and she is very sweet and says bye-bye to it every morning and after her nap), MILK (this is her biggest love lately), Gabby and Lacie who are such wonderful girls for putting up with Caitlin without bites or swats (a few hisses on Lacie's part, but they were well deserved)

HATES: brushing teeth, being dropped off at daycare

Obsessions...

Caitlin is seriously obsessed with hats and shoes right now. She says "hue" for shoe and "ha-tee" for hat..Here she is with her hat on while eating a snack--we've since had to learn about table manners and not wearing the hat at the table.

Here you can see she's saying "hue" while delivering me my shoe (which I did not ask for, by the way, she just needs to deliver everyone's shoes to them all the time)
Walking around the family room in my flip flop--she just started trying everyone's shoes on this week. Also, note the new HOT PINK diaper! my favorite color FuzziBunz yet!
Mouth full of mommy's cereal after dumping the whole new box on the floor. at least it's healthy...

What's new?

Chasing the cats with her stuffed kitty ("tee-ee") and saying "mmmm" trying to make the cats kiss her stuffed animal. In this picture, she had noticed that Gabby was going "nigh, nigh" and laid her stuffed cat next to her. very sweet.

Took a face plant in the sandbox...
For our anniversary, my mom was gracious enough to spend the night so John and I could go out. Caitlin had a great time with Grandma Pam and did awesome! She got her favorite breakfast, eggs, in the morning.

Just being smiley...

Father's Day

Darnit! On Father's Day and no pictures of Daddy or Grandpa! They were out on the water catching some walleye with Uncle Don. Caitlin LOVES her hat and sunglasses..finally..after many issues earlier in the season, she cannot leave home without them or her shoes.

Mom, Grandpa and Aunt Rebecca went to the pool with Caitlin to try out the new floating..ummm...rhino? dino? any ideas? we couldn't figure it out. All I know is that the box said "blue whale" and that is NOT a whale!

Happy Fathers Day!

this is my current fav pic of caitlin and daddy....

More fun outside

Caitlin loves being outside. If we say "wanna go outside?" she will run and get her hat and shoes and run to the door saying "sigh, sigh" (translation: "outside, outside"). Since I'm kind of a spaz about sun protection, you can see she's got (??too much??)sun gear on--and lots of sunblock (she's NOT a fan of the sunblock).

CHOO-CHOO

I caved at Target last week when Caitlin got so excited about this ride-on toy, but it's OK b/c she LOVES it. She rides it around the kitchen and says "choo-choo."

Back to School?

Just wanted to let everyone know that John got accepted to the Eastern Michigan University today (YAY! no surprise, though). He is enrolled in a program to pursue a Specialist Degree in Educational Administration (a specialist is a dissertation shy of a PhD). Congrats to my wonderful hubby!

What are we up to???

Playing in our brand new fabulous one-of-a-kind sandbox made by the best daddy EVER!

Playing in the Sprinkler. This is fun because Caitlin LOVES it but it scares her at the same time, so she always asks for us to turn it on, then once it gets going, she runs away laughing.

Dancing with Daddy. Caitlin LOVES music, always has. Now she runs over to the CD player and signs for "please" for music. She bounces and lays on the floor and does these crazy moves--she, of course, will not perform on camera--fortunately, she equally loves John spinning her around and dipping her.

Coloring. (not pictured: eating crayons--other favorite pasttime)

Chatting on the phone
Being cute (yes, the brown on her face is sand--she eats it regularly)

Harrassing Daddy. This is her new thing--if either of us is laying on the floor, she will come straddle us and bounce up and down on our bellies or backs. She also LOVES the mechanical horse ("Sandy") at Meijer.

Kissing Daddy. Caitlin is such an affectionate, sweet girl. She loves giving kisses and hugs and makes the "mmm" sound everytime she gives a kiss or blows a kiss. She is our little sweetie.

I actually do spent time with her too, by the way...I'm just always behind the camera.