"Will you be my friend?"

Joka's been keeping us company this week, and she is Caitlyn's new best friend. Caitlyn squeals whenever she sees her and follows her everywhere. Joka's been a really good sport.

Thrilled and Terrified

On her 8 month birthday, Caitlyn greeted her parents by pulling herself up to a standing position. Her Mom and Dad were in the kitchen preparing Caitlyn’s breakfast when they saw two eyes peering over the ottoman. Oh, how cute…Caitlyn’s on her knees. But then she just kept rising, nonchalantly pulling herself up to a standing position! Ever since, Caitlyn has been pulling herself up on anything and everything – tables, chairs, her learn and groove table and numerous other toys which aren’t meant to be pulled up on. She greets her parents in the morning (and after every nap) by standing in her crib and giving a pseudo wave. Her Mom and Dad are thrilled by Caitlyn’s latest accomplishments, but also terrified by what lies just around the corner: cruising, walking, climbing! If she’s anything like her Dad, we’ll find her up on the dining room table by month nine.

In the meantime, Caitlyn’s preferred mode of travel is still the commando crawl. She’s gotten so good at it, her Mom thinks Caitlyn will bypass real crawling and go straight from that to walking. Still, the wounded soldier crawl gets her all over the house. Favorite tourist attractions include shoes, purses, air conditioning grates (see video below) and yes, electrical cords. Every day she helpfully points out new things for her Dad to babyproof.

In other news, Caitlyn still sleeps like a gem (12-14 hours a night!), can get herself in the sitting position on her own (though she doesn’t like to sit still for long), is obsessed with Cheerios and now has a second tooth poking through.

June pics Click for more pictures

We were torn. Should we stop her or break out the video camera and preserve the moment for later teenage blackmail?

Caitlyn, our intrepid explorer, ascends to the high plains of Mount Ottoman.

Why crawl on all fours when you can dust the floor as you go?

A Month of Many Firsts

In her seventh month, Caitlyn is really starting to locomote. She constantly rolls around the room or drags herself with her right elbow (this might be a form of crawling..hard to tell now.) And scary enough, she is already attempting to pull herself up on the furniture. Thankfully, she hasn't been successful yet. With the exception of having food in front of her or watching the occasional Baby Einstein video, Caitlyn just can't sit still. Babyproofing the house is in the near future.

In addition to some of the physical milestones, Caitlyn also went through a lot of other 'firsts' this month, namely:

1) First plane ride to Austin, TX so that Geraldine and Jaety could attend a wedding. (Thankfully, Nana and Gramps came along to babysit.) We also introduced Caitlyn to family friends, Mike and Cathy Giordano and Tara Dudley and her 5-month daughter, Zoya.

2) Also in Austin, Caitlyn uttered her first syllable, "Da Da Da." While Geraldine found it cute the first couple of times, she's ready for Caitlyn to move onto other consonants, namely, "Ma Ma Ma."

3) Jaety also took Caitlyn swimming for the first time. (Austin was nearly 100 degrees everyday!) She seemed confused by the event, but at least she didn't cry.

4) Caitlyn's first tooth is on its way out. You can see and feel it cutting through her gums. To help with the pain, Jaety and Geraldine gave Caitlyn her first, second and third french fries.

May Pics Click here for more photos

Tickle me Caitlyn...

Happy Half Birthday!

Caitlyn turned 6 months old this month weighing in at 16 pounds 11 ounces and 27 inches long. She’s in the 75th percentile in weight and head circumference and 90th percentile in height. There goes Geraldine’s theory that she perhaps lost weight or plateaued since her 4 month checkup. Her favorite food? Probably bananas and yogurt. And as you can probably tell from the pictures, she seems to think she can absorb food through her skin.

Rolling over is her new trick. She rolls to get to things and the objects of choice include her Mozart Music Cube, a remote control, rubber ducks and tags. Her newfound talent, however, makes diapering rather interesting…between her trying to roll over while we’re changing a poopy diaper or trying to stick her whole foot into her mouth, we're wishing we had a third hand at times.

April pics Click here for more pictures

March Update

Caitlyn loves her food -- as Jaety says, "She's definitely a Khoo." We Khoos enjoy our food in obscene quantities. Unfortunately though, she tends to bat away her bottle (full of nutritious, calorie-packing, well balanced formula) in favor of 'people' food. So far, she's scarffed down avocado, bananas, carrots and squash. And, there has never been a time when she's turned away a spoon -- we usually feed her until she finishes the entire meal. We have to keep an eye on Caitlyn whenever we are all at a table 'cause the little one will definitely try and swipe some food if given the opportunity.

Her physical milestone this month? Well, today, she rolled over from her back onto her tummy though she couldn't figure out how to get one arm out from under her body. Time will tell if this was just a fluke or is legitimately a new 'trick.' She's also started making some threats to crawl but has yet to really advance forward. The motions are all there though. We are all anxious to see what else she's got planned for us in the next month.

Thanks for checking in!

March Pics (click photo for more pictures)

4 months already....

Believe it or not, Caitlyn turned 4-months old last weekend. At her check-up, she weighed in at 14 pounds, 15 ounces and 25 1/4 inches long. She's in the 80th percentile in height, weight and head cirumcumference...she's one very consistant and proportioned gal.

We got the go ahead to start some rice-cereal with her since Caitlyn has been staring intently at what Geraldine's been eating and so far, so good. Most of it actually manages to make it into her mouth. With the above average drooling, tugging at ears and hands in the mouth, it appears Caitlyn is also in the early stages of teething. Poor girl has been trying to put anything in her mouth to stop the pain.

On the brighter side, she's been doing very well sleep-wise recently, giving us an 11-hour span a few nights ago. At the most, she gets up once in a 12 hour span for a total of 3-5 minutes. She even manages to entertain herself (albeit noisily) early in the mornings before we are ready to get her. We hope this isn't a fluke.

February pics (click photo for more pictures)