Max is here and Cate is two!!

If I was a little more organized, this would be two separate posts, but I'll blame my delay on being busy with a newborn and a toddler!

As you all know, Maximilian "Max" Jacob Andrew Messing was born on September 18th at 8:22am. He weighed 8 pounds, 8 ounces and was 20 3/4 inches long.  At his two week appointment he was already up to 10 pounds 3 ounces and 22 inches!! He loves to eat.

Cate has been a great big sister from day one.  She was excited from the moment she saw him. She loves to bring him little toys and becomes very concerned when he cries (perhaps even a little angry if we don't seem to address his crying quickly enough!).










Cate, of course, celebrated her second birthday just two weeks after Max was born. First, she had a little cupcake party at daycare. I was able to attend this year since I am home on maternity leave anyway. The next day she had her two year old Well Child Check where her measurements of 27 pounds and 33.5 inches put her at the 50th percentile. She also had to get two shots, but any pain was forgotten once the nurse brought her stickers, bracelets, a pencil and a lollipop!

Over the weekend we celebrated Cate's birthday at The Little Gym. They have lots of mats, bars, and beams and the staff put on a great party for all the kids. Several kids from daycare came, as well as some of our friends' kids. All the kids enjoyed licking the icing off their cupcakes (apparently two-year-olds don't actually eat the cupcake?!). As if that wasn't enough excitement, we also went to a birthday moon bounce party for one and three year old brothers the next day.

Cate is still enjoying being in the twos classroom. She can count to 20, knows all the main colors, and is working on her alphabet. She is also making progress potty training (yay!). More and more words are recognizable, although she will still go on rants of her own little language. Her word of the week has been "okay"...every time you ask her a question she will just reply okay, whether it actually makes sense or not.

I still have three weeks home with Max before I will go back to work and Erick will take over for a few weeks before he starts daycare in December!

One last post...

for Cate as an only child! I am seriously overdue in writing a post. We have been super busy getting everything ready for Baby Boy Messing, and, of course, having fun with Cate! Cate has also been helping get ready for baby brother...she helped Erick put the crib together and helps me clean all his stuff! Erick has done most of the work, though, and the nursery looks great!!

Cate's going to be the coolest big sister ever!! She has even started giving my big ole belly hugs and kisses!

Cate has been enjoying a swim class through the county and swimming at our own pool this summer. She loves to splash around and jump in the pool. As with all of her other cleaning habits, she also enjoys grabbing a brush and scrubbing the side of the pool. No matter how many times she says "close eyes, close mouth, under-aqua" she does not enjoy going underwater at all!!

We have been to several baseball games this summer. Cate enjoys wearing her Nationals hat (and sunglasses, of course), but isn't a huge fan of the the yelling and clapping, yet! We have also been taking walks around the neighborhood and to the park a couple times.

Cate is finishing up her last week in the "Toddler" classroom at daycare, and moves into the "Twos" classroom after Labor Day. The teachers love her - she always wants to clean up, even if we are just getting there in the morning when she is cleaning and hasn't even played with the toys.  She really likes her current teachers, too, but has missed having some of her friends in the same class since they moved up at the beginning of the summer and I know she will be happy to be back with them.

Cate is starting to do some potty training - she will actually run in and use her little toilet for "pee-pee", especially before a shower.  She should make some progress once she is in the next class because they will work on it at daycare then, too.

Recently Cate learned how to jump and loves to jump up and down. She can identify probably a little over half  of the alphabet, is great with colors, and can count to five by herself. She always seems like she is learning new words.  She knows most farm animals, pets, and some jungle animals like monkeys (because she acts like one, of course!!) and elephants.

 

In between all of this, we have gotten to spend some time with friends and family, including my high school friend and her two kids who just loved Cate.  The little boy kept saying he wanted to squeeze her cute little cheeks...who doesn't?!

Disneyland!

We enjoyed a wonderful trip to California a couple weeks ago. We weren't sure how much Cate would enjoy Disney at this age, but she definitely had a great time. We were there for seven full days and spent three days at Disneyland. We, of course, stuck to the kiddie rides (and ones where we wouldn't be up in there if she tried to throw a tantrum, like Dumbo!). She loved the carousel and It's a Small World. She loved the carousel so much that she threw a fit when we tried to get off. Luckily, it was early and the park wasn't crowded so the attendant let us stay on for an extra ride!

On our second day, we did a character breakfast with Cate wearing a princess tutu from Auntie Jen and a Minnie hair bow.  Cate got to meet Minnie, Chip (we think!), Rabbit, Eeyore, Tigger, Fairy Godmother (she had no clue who she was), and her favorite, Pooh!

Cate actually got to see Pooh and Tigger all three days. In addition to the character breakfast, we went to Pooh's house on two of the days and met him. We even got a picture with both Minnie and Mickey at the same time.  We naturally also have videos which we will share later.

Besides the characters, Cate found a new love for fruit smoothies. She also loves water fountains! Buses have become her second favorite mode of transportation, behind airplanes, of course! She loves to say "bye, bye airplane", "bye, bye bus", and "all done, bus".

We spent some time at the pool - Cate's first swimming of the season. She was a little nervous at first, but once Erick got her in she had lots of fun. She will start taking two months of lessons in June, plus there will be plenty of time in our pool!

Besides a great trip, Cate is becoming more vocal all the time (much to the chagrin of some of the passengers on our flight!). She can pretty much repeat back anything you say, including reciting each letter of the alphabet. She is getting really good at identifying some letters, including A, B, I, M, N, and O. She for some reason loves I and O! Cate is trying to learn her colors - she is pretty good at blue, and starting to pick up on yellow, red, orange, purple, and pink. She is becoming more particular about picking out what she is going to wear and whether she wants her "hat" (in the sun) or "hair bow".

18 months

Again, I am remiss in updating! Cate is changing all the time, it is hard to keep up. She definitely has been "delighting" us with some tantrums, and we are hoping she gets them all out of the way before Baby # 2 arrives in September.

Cate has added some vocabulary...w-aale (waffle), elbow, apple, happy (usually said in triplicate), baby (we are practicing that one!), lion, and "one more".  I am sure there are more, but we can't remember them all. She also can say the letters A, B, H, I, O, N, M (and identify I and O).

She also has a new boyfriend whose name she can say - Alex. The other day when I picked her up he walked her to the coat rack and handed her the coat! He is an older man - her last boyfriend was a month younger and this one is 7 months older!!

Cate can be a sweety, but doesn't take any static. One day I picked her up and she was trying to comfort another little girl who was crying by patting her on the cheek. Only a week or two before that I got to daycare and she was carrying a boy's sock and shoe. She tried to hand him a sock and he swatted her hand then ran away. She chased him and threw the shoe right at his head (she had perfect aim, I might add). I said "no, Cate!", but the daycare ladies said no, she is sticking up for herself because she was trying to give him his stuff and he swatted her!

Cate has shown interest in the toliet, too. She knows the sign for it and knows when she is supposed to use it, but can't quite complete the action. We will take her over, she sits on it for a little bit then tells us to put her diaper back on - THEN she does her business!! Oh well, she is at least getting the idea.














We have had a full social calendar over the past couple months. We have had brunch with a couple of friends, and even got to see the St Patrick's Parade in Old Town with Auntie Jen. She went to a cosmetics party and got to play with a 3-year-old girl, a baby, and a dog. Yesterday we went to Auntie Jen and Uncle Phil's housewarming party where there were a couple other kids and a cat. Despite many attempts, Cate was never able to get close to the cat - apparently she is intimidating despite her small stature! She made do with going up and down the stairs repeatedly and exploring the house.

Coming up this week are three Easter egg hunts, and hopefully we will get around to dying some easter eggs!  

Moving up!

Friday was Cate's last day in the infant classroom...tomorrow, she will be in the toddler room. She has been transitioning for two weeks, and I know she will be happy there. They have more room to actually run around, plus the little girl who is a few days older than her moved a month ago and everytime I say her name, Cate gets super excited.  We finally transitioned her to drinking milk out of a sippy cup just in the nick of time!

Unfortunately, her last day with the infants was cut short by her first case of pink eye. She has had to make a couple trips over the last month or so to the doctor, including her 15-month appointment at the beginning of January. She is hanging on to the 15 percentile, weighing in at 20lbs 8ounces, and 29 1/4inches long.  Cate is eating a lot and getting her rest to make sure she keeps getting bigger!

She has added a few "words" to her vocabulary, including "awe done" (all done), "mine", "woof woof", "down", "daddy" and "I waa woo" (I love you). Who knows if that is really what she is saying, but we choose to think it is. She also knows to point to several body parts, including nose, ear, hair, teeth, eye, foot, toes, hand, knee, belly button, and even butt!














Cate can now climb onto the couches, and usually off. Unfortunately, she still tries to dive off the bed head first sometimes. Just this week she started trying to walk up and down the steps to the kitchen by herself. She is still a little unsteady and I would rather she wait on this skill! She loves to color, play on daddy's keyboard, and read books.

Cate loves to go outside. She likes to ride in and push her dog Violet (or ba-buh, as Cate calls her) in the scooter. We can easily walk to the park close by where she can go on the slides and play with other kids.