Oh the Holidays

Well Caitlyn has made it through her first Christmas and New Years. We all went in to St Louis for Christmas. Caitlyn made out like a bandit, toys, clothes, books, even a movie. I'm pretty sure we came home with more stuff than we brought. Her favorite part was tearing up the paper. Although she was interested in some of the stuffed animals. My aunt Kathy kept saying that Caitlyn could go live with her or she might sneak off with her. The funny thing is she took this picture

and texted my uncle asking which one she could bring home.

Needless to say my family loves Caitlyn. She was the center of attention at my grandmothers house. Unfortunately she had to share the attention the rest of the weekend.

For New Years we were giant bums. I wasn't planning on doing anything because of Caitlyn having to be in bed a 9 pm. Although Caitlyn decided she didn't want to go to bed. She cried from about 10 p til 11:40 p. So our New Year's eve wasn't exactly pleasant. She did get calm and went to bed and woke up at 7 am the next morning all happy and cute. I took advantage of her napping by napping myself that same day.

So the real cool thing that she has been doing lately, well one of them, she goes to sleep by herself. I was talking to Jordan a bit ago about how we needed get a way for her to calm herself down and go to sleep. He seemed to remember this and started it on Fri when he was watching her. He wrapped her in her blanket laid her bear down with her and put in her plug then patted her back and walked away to do something in her room. When he turned around she was asleep. So he did that for the rest of her naps and it worked. I said great and tried it for bedtime, that took a little longer but she did go to sleep. Well three days later and she goes to sleep with our help. It's really kinda nice. No more rocking til she's asleep, or singing or pacing. I'm so proud of both my husband and Cailtyn.

Ok so the other really cool thing that she has been doing lately is she pulls herself up on things. As proof of the photo below.

She's starting to get really good at it. That walking thing is coming around the corner isn't it? hmmm.

She is mobile however. She's not really crawling but getting up and flopping forward. This past week however she's started to place one hand in front of the other and then flop. So maybe she will crawl before she walks. Although she still doesn't like to be down on the ground. Only my child, right?

Alright already so here are some more cute pics of the kid.

She liked looking into bags

She's interested in the pretty tree.


She got a new Winnie the Pooh


We met a new kitty too


See mom she likes her doll or at least the doll's plug



She's trying to figure out the camera





Here's a pic from her point of view.


Jordan makes a great jungle gym

Yowza!

Where to begin? We travelled to St. Louis for the weekend prior to heading down to Oklahoma for Thanksgiving. Kacey decided that might be a good time to get sick. We went to my buddy Mike's wedding, but left before the reception so that Kacey could get some rest. She apparently decided to share her sickness with her father, who started feeling bad on Sunday, as Kacey was getting over it. Since she was feeling better, we went down to Tulsa that Monday, spent a couple of days with my grandparents, then went on to Madill. When we got down there, Kacey decided she wasn't done being sick, and Caitlyn decided she didn't really like her regular sleep schedule and decided not to as much as possible. After a few days of this, we left to return to St. Louis to retrieve our dog, whom my parents-in-law watched for us for a couple of weeks, and went back to Columbia. As all of this ridiculousness gave me my first ever stress headache, I was ready to get back to work. Fortunately, I was scheduled to go shoot at an art fair in Miami. I went down for a couple of days, enjoyed the weather, shot some video, then came home. We've been laying low the past week trying to get back in the swing of things.

Caitlyn had her 6-month appointment the other day, she's in the 20th percentile for weight, and the 90th percentile for height. I guess she's kind of a string bean.

Now, what you've all been waiting for, pictures of Caitlyn enjoying her extended family. Oh, and some pictures of my French brother-in-law filleting a catfish.


Caitlyn had fun walking to Grandad:

And playing with Grandma:

And playing with Grandad:
Noah hid from us some of the time:

Though he did think his mother's fingers were tasty:

Benjamin got to hang out with Uncle Jim and Mimi:

And he got to dive tackle his dad:

And play with Aunt Kacey's feet:

And he was nice to his cousin:

Yeah, Alisa had a camera there, too.

Christine offered to help hold Caitlyn some during Thanksgiving:

Alex even got to help feed her:

Caitlyn and Noah got to play together a bit:

Kacey and Caitlyn and BethAnn and Kyra all played together for a while:

Alisa and Frederic's Christmas present to us was a game called "Jumpin' Monkeys" which they made us open before Thanksgiving. The instructions told us to use the catapults to fling our monkeys into the tree. The goal of the game seemed to be to cause chaos and ridiculousness, much like any other game we play at Thanksgiving.

There's Kyra hanging out with her daddy:

There's Noah hanging out with his mommy:


WARNING BETHANN!!! FISH IN THE NEXT FIVE PICTURES!!!!

There's Frederic hanging out with his fishy:

At least one of the following pictures may be a little graphic, don't look if you don't like eating catfish. Or if you do and don't want the experience ruined for you:


My dad and brother finally went at it...yep, they played Wii Boxing.
Here's a picture from last year of the three pregnant girls:

And here they are with their kiddos:
Frederic's French. He's still having trouble with this catfish concept:

Oh, and here's that cute girl that keeps growing up:

Just today Caitlyn started chewing on her teething ring voluntarily with the upper portion of her mouth. Top teeth shouldn't be far behind.



-jordan

Big News

So, of course, right before Thanksgiving we have a few things to say. First off Caitlyn is teething! She is actually doing very well with it. She is soo cute.

Second..I have joined the club of deer hunting with my car. Thankfully I'm ok and I was by myself. My car doesn't look bad but the estimate I was given is a lot. The stupid buck was unaffected, he got up and ran in front of the car behind me. Oh well I guess it was bound to happen eventually when you live in the country.

My poor car.


Caitlyn's already to go to Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is around the corner

This year seems to be flying by. Caitlyn keeps progressing. There will be a time when she slows down right?

We are preparing for our first big car trip with Caitlyn. So far she has been fine going to and from St Louis but that's only about 2 hours in the car. She was alright this last weekend, though we did have to make a stop to start getting her fed. Kacey stayed in the back seat with her and she seemed to do ok. Thankfully she can keep herself occupied some of the time. She likes playing with the toys on the car seat. It will also help that she can hold her own bottle. Now if we can only start getting her to tell us what she wants.

The Thanksgiving trip will be 6 hours to Tulsa, 3 to Madill, then the full 9 back that Saturday, if we can do it. If not, we may stop in Tulsa again. I'm crossing my fingers.

This past weekend, Kacey went to have a girls' night with her sister and sister-in-law. I went to play paintball Saturday morning, then went to a nice steak place with "the guys" for my buddy's bachelor party. Unfortunately, I came down with the same cold that Kacey and Caitlyn had, therefore Saturday night was no fun. Nor Sunday night. I'm staying home with Caitlyn today, though, and she's sleeping like a log.

Here's Caitlyn and Trevor on Halloween:

She like sleeping on the couch:



And playing with the dog:

And playing with her mom:


She's been working on sitting up on the floor so she can play at daycare:



The sitter called Kacey today with some good news. She said that Caitlyn was getting up on her hands and knees and lunging forward. She'll probably be crawling any day now.


-jordan