The Sand Castle

Beautiful Day

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Yesterday was a beautiful day. Caitlin had a tea party picnic outside with her stuffed animals. I love this fall weather.

I haven't written much in awhile, so I'll update what we've been up to. Rian and I went to NYC last month for a few days while Caitlin spent the week with Grandpa and Grandma in Callaway. We have a fantastic time in the big city, saw some broadway shows and ate some fantastic food. Caitlin had an equally great time with Grandpa and Grandma. Rian and I have also been to Dallas to a couple Cowboys games. They are having a great year, which is more than I can say for my Huskers, but that's a WHOLE other blog!!

Caitlin is growing like a weed. She is very, very tall. I definiately think she got her daddy's height. She is very talkative and very busy all the time! It's go, go, go with her. She loves her sports and her dolls. I guess she's very well rounded! She's also kind of a stinker, but that's a whole other story too. We're still working on the potty training again. I thought we had it, but I guess not.

That's all for now, I'll try to keep this updated. Off to make some breakfast....

Ok, so here I am again....

So I haven't done a very good job of keeping this updated. I can't guarantee that I'm going to do a better job now, but I'm certainly going to try. If anyone is reading this (is anyone???) then you should get on me if you don't see me post in awhile.

Caitlin is 2 1/2. Where does the time go? She talks like crazy. It amazes me the things that she knows. This morning after she got up she was flipping her hair out of her eyes and she finally turned to me and said, "Mama, I REALLY need a hair cut." Ok, I guess my kid needs a haircut! LOL I didn't even know that she really knew what a haircut was. She's only had her hair trimmed once before. I was trying to grow out her bangs so they were all one length, but I guess if she wants her hair cut, maybe we should do it. Anyways, she's smart and funny and she's a master manipulator. More on that tomorrow... for now it's bedtime.

Caitlin's getting smart!!!

Caitlin's bedtime is at 8:00 at the latest. We try to stick to this pretty close or she doesn't get enough sleep at night. Last night we did our regular ritual, pajamas, milk, diaper change, book reading, kiss mommy and daddy and then night, night for Caitlin! After we said goodnight to her she started doing the 'milk' sign. So.. we decided maybe we better give her some, even though she just had a whole cup. She drank most of the milk and we said goodnight again. Rian started to put her in her crib when she did the 'change' sign. Hmmmm.... we decided we'd better check. She was a tiny bit wet, so we changed her and put her back in her crib. Then she started hollering 'Elmo', 'Elmo', 'Elmo'!! We decided she was trying to delay bedtime any way that she could think of. We ended up giving her Elmo and put her to bed. We could hear her talking to Elmo for a good 30 minutes before she finally dozed off. She's getting smart, trying to figure out how to put off going to bed.

Visit my dropshots site for new pictures if you haven't been there for awhile. www.dropshots.com/ajsand. Email me if you don't know the password.

New Things

Caitlin is growing like a weed. When Sarah and Joshua came over this week Sarah said she thought she had grown a bunch since they saw her the week before. I even had to buy her new sandals because her other ones were starting to get tight. I thought they might last to the end of the summer, but I guess we didn't quite make it. It's fun to buy new stuff anyway!!

She is doing lots of new things. She MUST blow on her food before she eats it, whether it's hot or cold. I guess better safe than sorry. She has to do things herself. If she needs help she signs 'help' but her help sign looks more like 'raise the roof' than the real help sign. Oh well, she'll get it. She loves to play outside (when it's not 100 degrees!). Yesterday we made her slide into a water slide. That was fun times!! Here are some videos:

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The fires around Chadron have been devastating. I just can't believe how powerful wildfires are. Thank goodness they saved the town of Chadron. I can't imagine how I would've felt if the town would've burned. It came so close!! My thoughts and prayers go out to those who lost their houses and their property. If you haven't seen pictures you can go to www.chadrad.com and see some incredible pictures of the devastating fires.

We're still here

I decided I'd better write something here since I gave the link to this blog in my Christmas letter. Who knows, someone might actually be reading it! We've been busy lately. House stuff, business stuff, Caitlin stuff. It seems we always have something going on. Caitlin's growing like a weed. She's talking more and she knows quite a few signs. We need to get our sign language book out and learn some more, because she's catching up to us!! Her favorite signs right now are 'more' and 'please'. Unfortunately we don't always know what she wants 'more' of 'please'. :-)

We've been dealing with a stupid raccoon that gets in our yard and tears down our bird feeders spreading seed all over the ground and gobbling it up. Biscuit and Bagel chase it out of the yard sometimes, but a lot of times it gets in and destroys the bird feeders before B&B even notice it's there. Very annoying!!! If you have any suggestions on how to get rid of the raccoon (without killing it, I don't want PETA after me or anything) I'd be happy to hear it!

Check out my dropshots site for recent pictures of Caitlin. www.dropshots.com/ajsand. I'll try to get some posted here soon, but right now, Caitlin is calling.

Caitlin loves shoes

Like mommy like daughter. Caitlin loves shoes. For the past 2 mornings, right after she's gotten up she's went and got her new sandals. She holds them up for me and lifts her foot and grunts. I'm surprised that she'll even take them off for naps because as soon as she's awake, she wants them on again! Silly girl. Here is a picture of her with her sandals on:

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Yesterday we went to Cabela's because Rian was looking for a new pair of binoculars. Caitlin LOVED the animals there. She'd point and growl at all the animals. She especially liked the lions and the elephants. Of course they're all stuffed and they don't move, so it's easy for her to see them. And they don't smell either!!

Roseola

Caitlin has roseola which is a skin rash characterized by a high fever and then appearance of a rash. She had the fever on Monday and Tuesday, which I chalked up to her 15 month vaccinations. She started getting the rash on Wednesday and by Thursday afternoon she was covered with it. You can tell she doesn't feel well. She's very crabby and doesn't want to do anything but be held and rocked. Poor baby. :(

She weighed 21 lbs and was 30 inches long at her 15 month appointment. So other than the roseola, she's doing very well.

When she was sick she was sitting on Daddy's lap helping him. She kept pointing at the computer saying 'pretty'.