6 months old!!

Max has been loving jumping in the bouncer...he does this weird little jumping jack motion with his feet that is too cute! He also loves to scoot across the floor - I don't know if it is quite crawling, but he gets where he wants to.  He always makes his way over to Cate's Legos, and daycare says he will scoot all across the play area to get the toy he wants. For the past week, he has finally been starting to sit up for longer periods of time (don't mind the minky, aka nose wipes, on his head!!)

Max's teeth are coming in...the first came in a little after 5 months and the second followed closely (my original report of a tooth a couple months ago was a false alarm!!). Along with that, he has started eating! He wasn't a fan of the cereal, so we skipped right to avocado, banana and sweet potatoes.

The food had been doing Max well. He weighed in at 18lbs, 7oz - 75th percentile, while his height is only 45th percentile! Shockingly, his head is in the 95th! (For comparison, Cate was 14lbs, 11oz at 6 months!!)

Cate's gone to two birthday parties in the past month and loves seeing her friends on the weekends. She also just started a "Jazzy Beasts" class at one of the places (the same place she had her birthday party). It is half dance positions, and half tumbling/gym time. This summer we are signed up for "Super Beasts" which is all in the gym area.

Cate has finally agreed to peeing in the toilet at school! She has been wearing cloth trainers and hasn't had an accident all week. We are still working on "poo-poo" - the only time she did at school was when I was there to pick her up.

Cate was excited to get a haircut, not so thrilled once we got there. She didn't let her wash it, but was good for the cut, I just had to hold her hand.

Cate can count to 30, but leaves out 13, 14, 15, and 16. She can also say her A, B, C's, but sometimes leaves out T, U, V, W! Winter hasn't been too exciting for snow...we did have one "snow" day, but it was a wet snow that melted quickly, so she didn't get an opportunity to play in the snow! She did get plenty of play time with Auntie Jen this past weekend, though!

Fall fun!

We had to follow up a fun-filled birthday weekend with more great stuff, so we have been busy! First we went to a pumpkin patch and playground. Cate loved running around the pumpkins and picked out several to decorate. She also enjoyed playing on the playground even though it was for older kids - nothing is too big for Cate!

The next weekend  I took Cate and Max to a friend's 4-year-old's birthday party. Cate was a little intimidated by the big kid moon bounce, but enjoyed decorating pumpkins, drinking a Caprisun, and playing with the older girl's toys...she didn't want to leave! Cate even tried to look like one of the big girls!

The weekend before Halloween we went to Old Town Alexandria to go trick-or-treating at the shops. Cate was Abby from Sesame Street, and Max wore his Elmo onesie. Cate also got to wear her costume to daycare on Halloween day, plus trick-or-treating in Miss Judy's neighborhood that night. We tried to prep her on what to say, but she went to the first house, said "candy," then ran in their house! We are still trying to make our way through all the candy she got since we only let her have one per night after she eats dinner.

In November, Aunt Cami and Uncle Barnaby got to visit Cate and meet Max. We had a nice relaxing weekend and Cate is looking forward to spending more time with her godmother once they live closer!!

Finally, Max had his 2 month doctor's appointment this past week. He is a squishy little baby weighing in at 14lbs 6oz (97th percentile!!) and 22 1/2 inches long (only 45th percentile). He loves his naps...just like daddy!!

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!

Easter and Baseball

Two posts in one month...I am on a roll!

Easter weekend was eventful. Cate started with a Easter Egg Hunt on Friday at daycare, another in the neighborhood on Saturday, and a third at church on Sunday. She was the youngest by a year and a half in the neighborhood, and the older kids let her get the easy eggs - some even gave them some of theirs. At the end we had a pizza party where the older kids were shocked to see Cate wanted the black olive pizza!

By Sunday, Cate was an expert at egg hunting. The church had the kids divided into three and younger, but Cate was much more efficient than the other kids. If she picked up an egg that was too hard to open or didn't have the  right candy in it, it was quickly tossed over her shoulder! At the end, they had a little petting zoo of ducklings, a lamb, a baby goat, and a rabbit. Both days Cate crashed and took nice long naps.

Cate may be a little too good at this egg thing...later in the week I had hard boiled eggs in my lunchbox to eat (ones we never got around to dying...maybe next year!). She proceeded to get them out of my bag and tried to open them. Instead, I gave her plastic eggs but she became distraught there wasn't anything in them!

Finally, we had the Nats Home Opener, our little family tradition. Cate pretty much went crazy for the entire game, running around - up and down aisles before the game, and through the concession area during. We got away with two tantrums, two housekeeping requests, and one encounter with a very clean glass wall. Cate learns her lesson, though - later she pointed to the wall then rubbed her head with a little frown on her face. It was a great game, with a win in 10 innings (sorry, Bill!).

Cate also had her requisite doctor's visit. Apparently drinking the ridiculous amount of milk she does has paid off...she weighed in at 23lbs, 9oz (35%), 31.5" (50%), and a 19" head circumference (95%). I am not convinced the height was right (50%, really?!!), but we have no doubt about the head size!