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".

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!

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.

Happy Holidays!!

Merry Christmas! It was this time last year I started the blog. I have been behind over the past month, and will try and do better!









We got to spend lots of quality time with both friends and family over the past couple months. Sometimes this even meant she got to open gifts early! We are lucky enough to have some friends with small kids, so Cate got to play with some little ones and stay entertained. We also got to go see Santa Cow at Chick-fil-a!!

Christmas Eve day, we went to the Aldersgate Christmas Eve candlelight service.  Cate was being a little rambunctious, and we banished ourselves to a room in the church where they were televising the service. We were the only ones in there, except another family with a one year old, so Cate had free reign of the room. Later that night we headed into DC for a traditional Polish Christmas Eve dinner with friends.

Cate had a blast opening gifts on Christmas morning. Some she stole out of the bags before she was supposed to, and she has already fallen in love with several of her new gifts.

Cate still loves daycare, and soon will be moving into the toddler classroom. Right now she is the oldest in her room, and likes to take care of the other babies. She is frequently seen high-fiving the teachers, kissing babies on heads, and checking other diapers to make sure they are clean. These skill carry-over at home too...when we saw a friend's 11-month old recently, she tried to push her in her car, and kept taking the baby her bottle whenever she dropped it. You should have seen them chasing each other!

Apparently, the teachers love to spoil her. When pondering why she thinks I am taking her for a walk when I come to pick her up, the teachers commented "Well, we do take her out for a walk everyday. She expects it." They teach her so much! She can do sign language for more, milk, please, and water (kind of).  She also picks up some signs that aren't really official (apparently I wag my finger when I say "dirty" and "no"!).  Her vocal skills are also improving, now saying mama, dada, aqua, wa-wa (water), ba-ba (bottle), hi, bye-bye, up, ight (light), buh (book), and nana (banana).

Everyday, we are more impressed as Cate moves from being a baby to a little girl. She finally let us put sunglasses on her (once summer was over, naturally!).   She loves to go grab socks and shoes and sit down for you to put them on.  She helps you put her jacket on (especially with the promise of going outside!). If you give her a towel and tell her it is dirty, she will take it to the dirty clothes hamper. You can tell her to put something away, and she will put her toys, socks, shoes, etc back (of course, this is after she took everything out to begin with).   She for some reason loves to play with post-it-notes and wipes!