I’m sure everyone is eagerly awaiting Kaitlyn’s Christmas photos. Unfortunately, we’ve been really busy this week and haven’t had time to download the pictures and video. In the meantime, here are the pictures of Kaitlyn that didn’t make the cut for the Christmas card…
Two posts in one day… we’ve been busy!!!
Last weekend, one of the local candy stores, Len Libby’s, had their traditional holiday party. They had hot chocolate and eggnog, make your own candy canes, and horse drawn carriage rides, all for FREE! Kaitlyn loved the horses of course. She did her little happy dance every time she saw them.
Yesterday, we went out to Portland House of Pizza for dinner. We had a coupon for a free pizza. then we headed over to the Civic Center for the Pirates game. Kaitlyn does watch the players, but her favorite thing to watch is Crackers. Crackers is one of the Pirates’ mascots. He is a bright green parrot. Kaitlyn can spot him all the way across the arena (not that it’s a huge arena, but she definitely finds him before I do!) and she will point at him and watch him until he is out of sight.
This morning before Mass, the Knights of Columbus hosted a Breakfast with Santa in the Parish Center. Santa says Kaitlyn has very good lungs!
Yes, the second I handed her over she dissolved into tears and the second she was back in my arms she was smiling and waving at him. Of course she had a death grip on my shirt with her other hand, lest I hand her over again…
Kaitlyn had her first “school” pictures back in early October and we just got them back a few weeks ago…
One of her “teachers” told me a cute story that I thought I’d share with you all…
A few weeks ago, Miss Amy had just finished giving one of the younger baby’s his bottle. She sat him on her lap and started patting Wyatt to burp him. Kaitlyn watched all this from across the room. Then she crawled over, stood up against Miss Amy’s leg and started patting Wyatt on the back too. Apparently I have a little mother in the making as she likes to “help” me fold the laundry too.
Our big news, though, is Kaitlyn’s last day in Room 1 was Friday. She is “graduating” and moving up to Room 2 with the older babies starting on Monday! She’s been visiting Room 2 for a couple of hours a day for the past week to help ease the transition to the new room and teachers. She does have some old friends in there that moved up before she did. Either way, I think the move will be harder on me than her!
This week Kaitlyn went to the doctor for her 1 year checkup. She’s doing great! She’s now 20.7 pounds and 29.5 inches long (in comparison, she was 9.1 lbs and 21.2 inches long when she was born). She also got 3 shots, which did not go over well! She cried the whole way back to daycare from the doctor’s office. We were also told that since she is 1, she can start moving away from formula and jars of baby food to whole milk and real food. She’ll be heading back to the doctor next month for the second dose of her seasonal flu shot. Other than that, she won’t have another check-up until she is 15 months.
Kaitlyn also had one other milestone this weekend. Since she is over 20 pounds and 1 year, she can switch to a forward-facing car seat. One of my co-workers has a daughter that is 2 years older than Kaitlyn. Her daughter, Annie, just upgraded to a booster seat last week, so Pam brought in Annie’s old car seat for Kaitlyn. I installed it yesterday. Kaitlyn loves it. When she was rear-facing, she cried a lot because she couldn’t see me. I put her in the new seat and she starting doing her little “happy dance” and looking all over. She’s been “talking” to me during our drives now. It’s kind of weird looking in the mirror and seeing her staring back at me!
Below is a picture of Kaitlyn before her first ride in the new seat…
I can’t believe a year has gone by already. It’s hard to believe she’s gone from this to this…
Kevin had to work, so Kaitlyn and I hung out around the house together. That evening, we opened presents. It took Kaitlyn a little while to get the hang of the wrapping paper, but she got the idea by the time she opened her last present. Kaitlyn was so fascinated by the wrapping paper we only got her to look at the camera once! In fact, she loves the wrapping paper so much, she’s still playing with it 2 days later. I almost feel guilty about throwing it out tomorrow!
After we opened presents, we met some friends at Texas Roadhouse for dinner and cake. We love this restaurant. They have great pulled pork, plus since you are supposed to throw the peanut shells on the floor, I figured they wouldn’t notice a little cake!
The cake was a “cupcake cake”. I realized after I ordered it, I should have had the first fishing pole I made for the Fair shipped up here as a matching decoration. Apparently, I’m really into the whole pink and purple thing!
I had to stick my finger in the icing and feed it to Kaitlyn a couple of times before she realized she could eat it. Then she started copying me with one finger in the icing. After she realized I wasn’t saying “no” and was actually encouraging her to eat it, she stuck both hands in the cupcake and smashed down, then proceeded to raise her hands and get some in her hair!
Thanks to my friend Jim for taking the pictures below so Kevin and I could concentrate on Kaitlyn…
I’ll post again later this weekend with information about her 1 year checkup…
Kevin, his mother, Kaitlyn, and I headed down to Disney very early Wednesday morning. Kaitlyn spent most of her time sleeping on the plane. We arrived at 11 in the morning. Disney was great. They picked up our bags for us, so we were able to hop on the bus and head straight over to the hotel and check in. We picked the Animal Kingdom Lodge thinking Kaitlyn would love the animals right outside the room. We were right. She kept heading over to the window to point at the animals…
These were taken on our balcony…
After we checked in, we headed over to Animal Kingdom for the afternoon. Kaitlyn was still exhausted. She completely passed out for a few hours. She did wake up in time for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. By the time we got back to our room, our bags had been delivered and were waiting for us.
Thursday we headed back to Animal Kingdom. Kaitlyn loved the characters…
We spent Friday at EPCOT. We had lunch in “Germany” and dinner at the Coral Sea Restaurant. Kaitlyn slept through dinner even though we picked the restaurant so she could watch the fish.
Friday was Halloween and we spent the day at the Magic Kingdom. There’s nothing like riding The Haunted Mansion on Halloween! My mom and I took Kaitlyn on It’s A Small World. She was so cute. Every time we entered a new “room” on the ride she would “ooohhh”. We ate lunch in the Castle at “Cinderella’s Royal Table”. Almost all of the princesses showed up. Those that did come, stopped at the table to meet Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn’s favorite was Princess Jasmine. She even got a kiss from her!
After dinner, Kaitlyn got into her costume. My little “ladybug” was ready for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. Unfortunately she fell asleep and slept through the parade and fireworks. I took a couple of pictures in her costume after we got back home since she wasn’t too cooperative that night. She was very warm in the costume and it kept coming off piece by piece as the night went on…
We spent Sunday at Hollywood Studios. Unfortunately, Kevin had to go home early that morning for work. Kaitlyn loved the Beauty and the Beast show. She kept clapping. Right afterward, I discovered she had another tooth coming in…
Kaitlyn, Kevin’s mom, and I left Monday afternoon. We were able to check in for our flight at the hotel and they took our luggage there too, so all we had to do when we got to the airport was go straight through security. We took some pictures in the hotel lobby before we left.
Now that we’re home, we’re getting ready for Kaitlyn’s birthday and her 1 year checkup at the doctor’s. Look for some more blog updates later this week!
