Stay At Home Mom For A Day

Cailin got sick yet again this week. Stupid teeth, stupid germs. I had no choice but to stay home with her for 3 days. Even though she was sick and somewhat grumpy, I enjoyed every minute of it. I could SO do this every day. I thought I would document our day since it doesn't happen often...

 We woke up and had breakfast. Banana pancakes and pears, mmmm!

 Made a mess when Mommy wasn't looking.

 Had Some tea and made some music.

 Practiced walking.

Cailin had a nap. Then we had lunch. After lunch we brushed our teeth.

 Then we got dressed (not happy about that) and played in her room for a bit.

 Practiced walking some more...

 Pulled her laundry out of her basket.

 Then we went shopping drove around so Mommy could charge her phone (I leave my charger at work).

 Faught naps and threw fits...

Read books.... Over. And over. And over again.

And that's pretty much it. It was great to be home with her for a few days. By the way, the bibs are for all the slobber. That's what happens when she's sick and teething. She slobbers like there is no tomorrow. They totally mess up her style, but whatevs.



13 Months

Miss Cailin turned 13 months last week. At first I thought nothing much has changed. But then she started WALKING. I was starting to think it would never happen. She's not walking far. From person to person, couch to coffee table, etc. Just a few steps at a time, but much more than before, when she wanted NOTHING to do with it. She's getting more and more confident each day. I give it a month till she's toddling all around the house! I'm in for it, I know. So proud of my baby!

Excuse the blurry picture. Taking pics of a walking toddler by yourself = nearly impossible.

New Words This Month:
Not too much. I think she said book ("boo") today. I'm pretty sure that's what she was trying to say, because she handed me the book and said "Boo. Boo!" a few times. Oh also, "baba", but two different meanings, "bye bye" and as in "bottle".  Other than that, really no new words. She's got a LOT to say though. Not actual words, but she's "talking" a bunch. She points at something, and says, "boo da ba ba a ga gaga do doo." Oh and making animal noises. Mostly just monkey. She sees her monkey on her wall and says, "oooh oooh" as she points at it. Too cute! So at 13 months Cai says:
Hi
Bye bye (ba ba)
Mom, Momma
Dad, Dada, Daddy
Dog
Kitty
Bottle (also baba)
She's not saying tree or pretty anymore because those were mostly Christmas related. So now she doesn't see the Christmas tree or Christmas lights (which is what pretty was for).

Signs:
Not too many new signs either. Just uncle. She's doing Uncle now. So at 13 months Cai signs:
Eat
Milk
I Love You
Uncle
Apple
Baby
Kitty
Dog
Milk
More
Banana
All Done
Please

LOVES: baths, dogs, Singing and doing the movements to "Itsy Bitsy Spider", books/reading (thanks Patty for the Peek-a-Boo books, they're her favorite!), Feeding herself with a spoon (although she's still learning. I MUST get two spoons if I'm feeding her now), and baby dolls. It's so cute. She sees her baby dolls, says and signs "baby", crawls over to it, and gives it kisses. Such a lover this one.

Hates: Being sick, diaper changes, nothing new there.

She's a lover AND a fighter this one. She loves giving hugs and kisses, but at the same time she's a biter. One day an old lady was talking to her and said, "Don't worry sweety, I don't bite." I said, "she does bite, so watch out!" Seriously, she's mean. We have a problem here. I don't know how to correct it. I don't think biting back will help. Girlfriend will bite herself if she's angry enough! And of course then cries about it. She hits too, but not in an angry way. More in a playfull way. The biting is a mean, angry thing.

We're also having a hard time parting with the bottle. She'll take water in a sippy just fine, but is still refusing milk in the sippy for the most part.

I need to get better about blogging. But a busy job, busy baby and a husband out of town means there's not much time.

Merry Christmas!

Happy Birthday! (Picture Heavy)

We had two parties for the Princess! One, just a small dinner/get together with the inlaws since they weren't going to be able to make it Saturday, and then her big party with friends and the rest of our family.

Let me just say, her  big bday party didn't end up as planned. It turned out just great, don't get me wrong! It was supposed to have a theme. Princess and Polka Dots. I couldn't find any pink polka dotted stuff, what's up with that!?  I didn't really get the decorations up, and well... I just had a lot more plans  for food, decor, fun, etc. It didn't happen because there just wasn't enough time or energy. I got her cold, so I felt like shit, and the weekend previous to her bday was spent on the couch snuggling my sicky instead of out shopping and getting things prepped like I wanted to. So it all ended up last minute, and an hour before guests were supposed to show up, I said fuck it to the decorations. But like I said, it still ended up great. Great times with friends and family. :)

The first cake "smash". This girl just wasn't too crazy about cake. :)

 For me?

 What's this?

 She did end up having a little bit of fun with this peice of cake. :)


The big Princess Birthday Party:

 See my lack of decor?

 The Princess!

What do you get boys for a princess party? Mustaches!

 Cake made by my sister in law. :)

\

ONE

Cailin turned one on Friday! This also means, Mommy and Daddy have survived our first year of parenthood. Go us!

This year has been the best year ever. So many happy moments, some frustrating ones, but all and all it has been great! I don't usually say this, but we are so truley blessed to have such a wonderful, happy, beautiful, healthy baby girl. It makes me so happy to see her grow and learn, and so sad at the same time that she's getting so big so fast.

We had two (yes two!) birthday parties! One was just a small get together with the inlaws, since they weren't going to be able to make it to her party, and then we had the big party the next day. More on that later. :)

What Cailin is up to this month:

• Still amazes me with words and signs.
  Says:
  New words - Ball, Kitty, Tree (Christmas tree).
  Perfecting old words - Mom, Dad, Hi, Baby, Dog.
  
  Signs:
  New Signs: Baby (my favorite. It's sooo cute!), I love you, Kitty, Apple.
  Old Signs - Milk, More, Eat, Banana, All Done, Please, Dog.
  
• She points at EVERYTHING wanting an explaination. She's so curious about the world around her.
  
• Still not interested in walking. I thought she was going to be walking by Christmas there for a minute. On Thankgiving weekend she was taking an interest in it. Even taking a step towards me, and standing unassisted. She'll stand unassisted, until she realizes she is and then she'll sit down. Like she's scared or something. So she hasn't really tried since then. Oh well, I'm not worried. She'll do it when she's ready. :) In the meantime I've been stocking up on shoes. I'm sure it'll happen like overnight.
  
• She has boycotted sleep. :( She has not slept through the night since Halloween weekend. Or a few days before that anyway. She got a cold that weekend, which lasted a good 10 days. She does not sleep when sick. Then when she got better, she would still wake up in the middle of the night! I thought, okay she's thrown off because she of her cold... Then a week later she was still waking up! I thought, okay she's going through a growth spurt cause she was wanting  a bottle in the middle of the night. Then She was STILL waking up a couple weeks later! I knew she had two teeth coming in, so I thought, okay she's just teething. Then she got another cold last week, which made it even worse! Now she's been waking up several times a night! It's so frustating! She's always been a good sleeper until this past month and a half.
  
  She's over her cold and is still not sleeping. Waking up anywhere from 1 - 3 times a night! Screaming and crying bloody murder in her crib.I've tried letting her cry. I let her go 15 minutes the other night (coming from a non CIO mom, that's serious), and it just escalated until I went and got her. At 4AM. She won't sleep in her crib at night either! She's wanting to be rocked to sleep. Fine, I have absolutely no problem rocking her to sleep. I would gladly rock her till she's 3. She stopped wanting to be rocked months ago, so like I said, I don't mind. But as soon as you lay her down in her crib she wakes up screaming. Either that, or she'll wake up an hour later screaming. The past few nights she's slept in bed with me. I guess I don't mind as long as we're all getting some sleep. Separation anxiety? I dunno. I just hope it goes back to normal soon. I also don't mind sharing the bed with her, but she's been tossing and turning a bunch. I'm a light sleeper, so it wakes me up, so I turn around and cuddle her, or pat her back until she's fully asleep again.
  
• Teeth: She has 6 teeth now! Her bottom two, and top 4. Or should I say top 3.5. The right one next to her two front teeth isn't fully out yet, but it's poked through. Doctor says she thinks she may have some molars coming soon... grrrreeeeat.
  
• Speaking of the doctor, she is 21.9lbs (hasn't gained any weight in 2 months, actually she lost an ounce). And she's 29 1/4 inches long. So she's grown taller, but is definitely thinning out. She looks so much like a little kid now and less like a baby every day.  And so much more like her Daddy!
  
• We've made the switch from formula to cow's milk now. She still only takes it from a bottle though, and it has to be warmed up a little. She's in the "I just throw my sippy on the floor" stage right now. I've been trying several different sippy cups to see which she likes best. Before she really seemed to like the straw sippies, but she doesn't like drinking milk from it, just water. So we'll keep trying.

Last Christmas Vs. This Christmas

About a week ago, we met with Latricia again for Cailin's 1st Birthday/Christmas photos. We didn't get too many birthday shots thanks to uncooperative weather and an uncooperative baby, but we got some great Christmas ones! And she made our Christmas cards. OMG they're amazing! So excited to send them out!

Anyway, just looking back at Cai's first Christmas compared to this one. Has it been one year already?!

Wordless Wednesday