Colds... YUCK!

Rian and Caitlin both have bad colds. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before I get one. Rian has a terrible sore throat. I don't know if Caitlin has a sore throat or not. I would guess so. She is sniffly and sneezy. Poor baby. I think she is getting a bit better though. Today she seemed to be a bit less congested. I think the medicine is helping.

Caitlin says 'mama' a lot now. She doesn't associate it with me though. She says it when she wants something. Everything is 'mama'. I want that toy that's out of my reach.. 'mama', I want to be picked up... 'mama', I want to pet Biscuit...'mama'. It's funny!

We're trying to teach her to fall asleep on her own at night. We've been putting her to bed in her crib when she gets tired. If she cries, we go in there every five minutes and rub her back and tell her it's bedtime. She's usually out in 10 minutes. Last night she was playing on the floor and she got tired, so she just laid down and went to sleep. I was shocked! I picked her up and put her in her crib and she fussed for just a minute and went right to sleep. Apparently it's working. She slept from 7:45 until 8:15 this morning!

The weather is starting to get cooler. It is so nice.

My dryer is beeping.. better go fold clothes. Maybe I'll write more later.

Caitlin's big weekend

Caitlin had a big weekend last weekend. We went to Nebraska for a family reunion. It was so fun to see everyone. I'm not sure Caitlin found it quite so fun. She seems to be going through a big bout of stranger anxiety. She wasn't very fond of being around so many people. I read in a book that stranger anxiety is a sign of healthy development, but it was pretty tough for her. Here are some pictures:









This morning Caitlin didn't want to play with her toys in the living room while I was putting dishes away, she wanted to play in the kitchen with the pots and pans. Who needs toys?



I'm thinking of trying some cloth diapers. They are so cute and I think they would be very easy to use and they would save on all the trash from the disposables. I'm probably going to order 6 Fuzzi Bunz diapers and see what I think.

She Found her Consonants!!!

Caitlin is finally using consonants when she babbles! Today she said, "mamamama and bababababa". I was so excited! Daddy was at the chiropractor when she did it and I was so afraid she wouldn't do it when he got home, but she did. She's been quite the babble monster today.

Here's some video of her today. This was before she started using consonants.




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The Word "No"

Caitlin is puzzled by the word 'no'. I haven't had to say it to her much, so she doesn't understand what it means. I'm sure she will very soon. She thinks it's HILARIOUS to blow raspeberries while she's eating baby food. We thought it was pretty funny too... for awhile anyway. The first few times we laughed, then we tried not responding at all, now we have to say 'no'. I think laughing at her the first few times she did it was a huge parenting mistake. :) We've learned our lesson. A few times of having your clothes spattered with sweet potatoes or peaches will make a person learn pretty darn quick! Now that she's getting closer to crawling I'm sure the word 'no' will be coming out of our mouths much more often. We need to start babyproofing. I'm sure we only have a few more weeks before she really figures it out. Right now she just gets on her hands and knees and rocks.

We searched the Lawrence parks this morning for a baby swing. We didn't have any luck. :( Caitlin LOVES to swing. Looks like she'll have to enjoy her trips to see Aunt Marilyn in order to swing. Since we didn't find a swing, we decided to go do some shopping. She had a great time looking at baby clothes at JC Penney and Old Navy. We got some cute fall clothes for her.

Growing and Learning

Caitlin will be 7 months old this week. It's so hard to believe!! She is just growing so fast! She is also learning a lot of stuff. We are working with her to add some consanants to her vocabulary. So far all she really says is "ahhh" and "hiiiii". We are ready to hear a mama or a dada! :) She is also figuring out how crawling works, but she's still a ways from doing it right. She goes from a sitting position into a crawling position, but then she falls down on her tummy and gets stuck. Then she gets mad! It won't be long and she'll figure out that she needs to stay up on her hands and knees in order to actually get somewhere. We were at Aunt Marilyn's this weekend and she has a baby tree swing outside. Boy did Caitlin like that. I think she will like to go on the roller coasters with her Daddy. That is good, then Mommy won't have to go!! I got an email from my cousin Cindy (Hi Cindy!) and she said that her daughter, Ashley, has had a case of the 'fake coughs'. Hmmm.. Caitlin has those too. I wonder where they picked those up? *coughcough* I'm sick, pay attention to me! They're so darn cute!

We still have lots of hummingbirds around here. Caitlin loves to watch them when they come up to the door. She sits in her high chair and watches them sit on the feeder on the door. They are really fun to watch.

Grandpa and LaLa came to visit yesterday. Caitlin had a good time seeing them. I think she will be worn out today from seeing 2 sets of grandparents this weekend. We went out to our new house yesterday to check it out. The heating units are all installed and so are the 3 hot water heaters (3!)! All the bathrooms have bathtubs too. They are really making some progress! They also cleared the path down to the lake, but it was muddy so we weren't able to walk down there. We are looking foward to doing that sometime this week.

That's all for now.. the fake coughs are calling me. HA! :)

New Pictures of Caitlin

I haven't posted any pictures for awhile, so I thought maybe I'd better get on that. Caitlin still doesn't have any teeth, and she's still not crawling yet. I think that is a good thing!! She rarely falls over now when she's sitting up. She will go from a sitting position onto her tummy, and then she gets kinda frustrated and mad when she can't get back into a sitting position. I think we're going to have to invite Sebastian over so she can watch him for awhile and learn how to do that. :) We moved her to a different car seat and she seems to like it a lot. She sits up higher and doesn't lay down quite as much. Hopefully it will be comfy for her long trips up to Nebraska!

She almost ALWAYS has her fingers in her mouth:



Laker baby:



Cheerleader baby:

The Zoo

We took Caitlin to the zoo yesterday and she had a lot of fun. She really enjoyed looking at the animals. They had a baby giraffe that was 1 day old. It was really neat to see the mama and the baby. Here is Caitlin and I with the baby giraffe:

29... FOR REAL!

29. Really, that's how old I am. This year. For one year, I can say I'm 29 and truly mean it. What a fun year this will be! Caitlin is getting older and she is lots of fun. It seems she is doing something new and cute every day.

On a more somber note, the devastation in the gulf region is getting worse by the day. I don't think I should be allowed to watch it on TV or read about it on the internet, is is just so upsetting and I feel so helpless. We did set up a fundraising campaign for the Red Cross through Online Financial Aid Services. We will match any donation given by our employees through 9/15. I hope we get a lot of donations so we can help out. It's the least we can do. I'm going to try to go give blood next week if I can find a place to do it. I hope our government steps up soon and get more help to the people who have been affected by this terrible disaster. The people in this region have been in my thoughts and prayers.