Vacation

Our "stay-cation" started with Easter weekend and the neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt. A year after Cate's first, she was still the youngest hunter, but much quicker this year!  Cate and I also dyed Easter Eggs and made sugar cookies.

On Sunday, Cate enjoyed going through her and Max's Easter baskets (it was almost as good as Christmas!).  We also went to the Aldersgate service where Cate promptly fell asleep and Max was anxious to get going!

After church, we headed into the Washington DC Hilton. Monday was the Washington Nationals Opening Day, our little family tradition (we even got interviewed by the local radio station on the way in talking about it being Cate's third opening day!) It was nice weather for most of the game, and we had a great time watching the Nats win. We met up with some friends at the end of the game including an former nanny who kept Cate entertained with stories and new games.

On a much colder Tuesday, we headed to the zoo. The gorilla house was a success, but otherwise we were reminded why we didn't bother to travel anywhere with a toddler and a baby...they were some cranky kids! Cate was an angel for Aunt Cami and Uncle Barney who we met out for dinner that night!!

We went to the Air and Space Museum and National Gallery on Wednesday- more fussiness, but Cate did enjoy stealing pebbles from inside the National Gallery! 

Max is getting faster and faster at scooting, plus can sit up really well now. He also can pull up to standing...a little early if you ask me! Erick even got him to "walk" around using Cate's shopping cart.  He has gotten his third tooth on the bottom and two are breaking through the top. He is very vocal (and loud!) and loves to say da-da.

Cate has started the "why" phase...suddenly she just started asking why about EVERYTHING. She is also starting teenage sassiness a little early. The other day Erick was telling her to do something and she kept looking around him, avoiding eye contact, saying "what's that noise, is that dada's voice??". She is finally to eat more than black beans and olives and loves Uncle Brent's ribs (and his doggie)!

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!

Time flies!!

Hmmm....I may have used that title before, but it is true! The beginning of 2013 has kept us busy. Max turned 4 months old, weighing in at a hefty 16 pounds (just to compare, Cate was 13lbs 8oz at 4 months!!). The week he turned 4 months, Max rolled from back to front. After about a week of frustration because he was stuck on his stomach, he finally rolled back the other way. He is also dragging himself and somehow manages to scoot all over the place very quickly! Max will pull on anything (Cate's hair!), and drool all over anything he can stick in his mouth (even if he has to dismantle his gym to do it!).














Max got baptized at Aldersgate in January. He and Cate were very well behaved! Our friends Jen and Phil were the godparents.

Cate is becoming such a "big girl", as she likes to say. She is a great big sister, always bringing Max toys and even trying to teach him to "high five". She gets really jealous at daycare when all the other kids come over to  baby Max and has even been known to lay on top of him in the car seat to prevent the other kids from getting to him! She also likes to take care of "mommy's boo-boos"!

Cate had one birthday party in February, and two more already scheduled in March. In between parties she is working on becoming a future engineer and building Lego towers. She can also log on my computer...I don't know if we should be proud or scared! We are still trying to make progress potty training - Cate still refuses to go at daycare because there is no "Mama, Dada, Baby Max"!