Saturday we spent the afternoon at the beach… 
Sunday we watched the fireworks in Portland. Kaitlyn waited very patiently in the car for them to start…
Monday we went back to the beach and had a picnic dinner.
Kaitlyn watched Kevin rinse off his feet and decided she could do it on her own too…
We started out the day blowing bubbles and enjoying the outdoors… 
Afterwards, we went to Famous Dave’s Barbeque for dinner and stopped at Cold Stone for dessert. Kaitlyn had her first brownie. I’d say she liked it…
Kaitlyn “made” daddy a really cute picture frame at daycare…
Last weekend we went to the Old Port Festival. Kaitlyn doesn’t like playing dress-up with the princess and ballerina stuff at daycare, she likes the fire chief hat, so appropriately, Kaitlyn was enthralled with the fire truck. Here's Kaitlyn hanging out on Ladder 5...
Maybe next year she’ll be able to try out the pony rides and face painting!
This afternoon we headed off to the doctor’s for Kaitlyn’s 18 month check-up. She’s doing very well. She is now 25.8 pounds and 30.5 inches tall, which is considered average for her age. The poor thing also got 3 shots today. She cried for just a second, but stopped as soon as I picked her up off the table.
She is supposed to be saying 10- 20 words and starting to put words together, which she is. She can actually say a little over 20 words right now. Her newest words are banana or “nana” and fish or “ish”. Kevin also claims she has said “diaper”, but I haven’t heard that one yet. As far as sentences, she is saying things like bye-bye baba (when she is done drinking) and “all done” when she is done eating. She is also still calling Kevin “mama” when she sees him, but the little snot knows what she’s doing because as soon as she really wants something from him (like her cup or a snack) she will call him “daddy”.
She is running all over the place and climbing all over everything. Last week, I caught her with her leg up on the coffee table trying to pull herself up on top of it. She has also figured out the concept of a door knob, but hasn’t quite mastered how to actually use it. She stands on her tip-toes and rattles the doorknob. She has also figured out how to slide down the stairs on her butt. One of these days she’s going to end up with a nice rug burn on her lower back from it.
Next check-up will actually be on her birthday… 2 years old!
Last week we went to another Sea Dogs game. Jacoby Ellsbury (of the Red Sox) just happened to be playing a rehab game here. It was a real treat to get to see him play. He even scored the first run of the game…
Well, the Pirates got swept in the first round of playoffs for the Calder Cup and the Bruins and Sabres are out of the playoffs for the Stanley Cup, so our hockey season has come to an end. Here’s our last hockey pictures of the season… 
Now we have 147 days and 5 hours until the Pirates home opener! So, in an effort to avoid hockey withdrawal we took Kaitlyn to a Portland Sea Dogs (baseball) game. (Note to my family: Don’t worry, Kaitlyn really is my child and is related to us. She liked it).
We had tickets for last Tuesday. It had been raining off and on so we called ahead and were told the game was still on. So, we went despite the drizzling rain…
We got to our seats and huddled under the umbrella. One of the groundskeepers saw us and asked if Kaitlyn could have a ball. Of course, we said yes. So she came home with her first baseball (I still think her first baseball should have been an autographed one by her cousin… Philip, that’s a hint by the way). Of course after sitting in the drizzle, they postponed the game. So we exchanged our tickets for the next day and headed home, only to have the rain completely stop and the sun come out 20 minutes after the game was supposed to start. Figures!
We headed back on Wednesday which actually worked out well, because it was sunny and warm… 
After the game, Kaitlyn was waving and saying “buh-bye” to the field. Her 18 month check-up is on the 26th, so we’ll have height and weight updates then…
We started off Easter morning by going to Mass. While we were there, the Easter Bunny left a little something for Kaitlyn…
Later that afternoon, we went to the Pirates game. Kaitlyn hit up one of our “Pirates friends” for french fries…
Our Pirates friends who sit across the aisle for us, were also nice enough to put together a big Easter basket for Kaitlyn. She also met the Easter Bunny at the game. She was a little wary of him up close, so we didn’t get any pictures this year. She wouldn’t even take any candy out of his basket.
Kevin joked that the Pirates lost because Kaitlyn wasn’t wearing her trademark pigtails. We have to make sure that isn’t the case, so she’ll definitely be wearing them on Saturday!
