Happy First Birthday Caitlin!

I took the day off to celebrate with Isaac and Caitlin and we had a great day. She grinned when we all went into her room singing happy birthday this morning and into the phone each time one of our family members sang to her. Isaac reaped the benefits of her birthday as he got to share in her gifts, special breakfast out, and cake!! I can't believe how fast the time is flying, but we are so blessed that I couldn't wish for anything to be different. At her 1st bday appointment she weighed in at 19 pounds, 7.5 ounces (16th percentile) and measured 29.25 inches long and (50th percentile).

Some cute pictures from Cesi's photo shoot on Monday. She and Isaac made Caitlin an adorable card and then she had fun dressing her up and taking pictures. Our blogs would be so much more sparse if it weren't for Cesi :)

Finally, some pictures of Caitlin's first spaghetti and sauce experience. It was an adorable mess, and I caught her in the act feeding Wilson (something she loves to do and he loves her for doing!)

Finally, a couple of cute pictures to show off the new playroom which the kids are loving (and we love not sharing the space with all their toys!), Isaac and Caitlin "sharing" water, and Caitlin (again) sharing her puffs - with Wilson.

Florida - Grandpa's 90th!

We went to Florida for a long weekend to celebrate Grandpa Danny's 90th birthday. It was a great weekend with lots of beach and pool time which the kids loved. It was also total chaos - erah, I mean fun with all nine great-grandchildren in attendance ranging in age from 8 to Caitlin. It was a lot of fun to watch the kids running around and having fun together and to see them all melt down at various times ;) We took over the Residence Inn and had dinner brought in both nights so the kids could run free and go up for bedtimes whenever they needed. It worked great and I think everyone had a blast.

On the night of the birthday celebration, the kids did a great job singing happy birthday to everyone and anyone with a birthday near Grandpa's and Isaac only stuck his fingers in the cake a couple of times before he was relocated to a safer spot. He managed to work his way in between Grandma Rhoda and Grandpa Danny at a key moment and she couldn't refuse his puppy dog face when she tried to give Grandpa Danny his cake -so he lucked out and got a few extra bites :)

Overall it was a great weekend and we can't wait to go back down for his 95th!

Months 11- 12 (!!)

I cannot believe Caitlin is going to be a year on Tuesday. The time is flying by so quickly which brings mixed emotions as milestones come and go and my little baby is becoming a toddler. Speaking of milestones, there is a lot to blog about from the past few weeks -- first and foremost: Caitlin took her first steps this weekend!! She is a lot more cautious than her brother and still much prefers to crawl or cruise around the room holding onto stuff, but she definitely took a few unassisted steps several times and fell down laughing each time because of my squealing and cheering!! She also started talking. Her first intelligible word was "uh oh" which is probably telling... She can also say Isaac, agua, si (with an emphatic head nod), and Dada and a few others that we're working on interpreting. She started playing peek-a-boo, which is adorable (and messy as she prefers to do it when she has food all over her hands). And finally, she not only protests the spoon if anyone else trys to feed her, but she now grabs it to try to feed herself (also very messy, but cute to watch). Another independent child...

Isaac is also growing up quickly. He is totally potty trained (except for nighttime), is doing great with drop-off at camp on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and has started to get himself dressed in the mornings. He is very confident speeding his bike up and down the sidewalk and has gotten braver in the pool dunking his head and doing big jumps to Bill. He is very literal (for example, I said "Isaac hold my hand" when I was holding groceries and he said "mommy, that's not your hand, that's only your finger, I need to hold your hand when we cross the street" and when I said "Isaac it makes mommy very upset when you don't listen" he looked at me and gave me a kiss and said "don't be upset mommy, I'll kiss it all better" which, of course, melted me) and very empathetic giving Caitlin hugs and giving her a pacifier when she cries. He is also getting more independent -- we have new neighbors with 3 daughters (13, 6 and 4 years old) and they get along great with Isaac and always want him to come over and play. He now puts on his shoes and heads for the door and says "mom can I go to Angie's house to play?" before he heads out, walks over and disappears into their house. Obviously I follow close behind to make sure he gets there, but then he just plays and comes home when he is ready. How is my baby boy old enough for this???

It has been so unbelievably hot that we've been looking for activities to keep out of the heat. We went to a new kids play place that just opened on the Hill called the Playseum. We had a great time playing with all their toys, and they even had a kids bakery where Isaac got to decorate his own cupcake. The other kids dutifully waited for each of their toppings from the chef and then for the instruction that it was okay to eat -- Isaac ate each topping from the spoon as it was offered and finished half the cupcake before the demonstration was done!

We've spent lots of time in the water too - the first few pictures are from the slip-n-slide at Cesi's house with her neice and nephew. The rest are from our new pool (yes, we do seem to get a new pool every week, they don't last very long in our house!!). This one is especially fun because it has a slide and water sprays out of the palm trees :) The girls in the pool with Isaac are our new neighbors who Isaac is in LOVE with - watch out Lusa ;)

Finally, some pictures from 4th of July. We had grand ambitions of making our way down to the Mall after watching the parade to watch the fireworks - but then the reality of our life got in the way when Caitlin refused to sleep in the stroller. So, we adapted and had a fun bbq at our house with Lusa's family. We struggled to keep the kids awake for the 9:15 fireworks start and schlepped them onto our roof to watch. They were great sports, but a few minutes into it they determined that the show did not live up to our hype and each asked separately - "is it over yet, can we go to bed??" :)

These are some cute pictures from Cesi -- in the second one you can see part of the fun mural Uncle Chad painted on Caitlin's wall.

Some cute videos of Caitlin saying "agua" (water) and drinking a bottle that is mixed with real cow's milk for the first time in anticipation of weaning next week: