11 months and counting...

Caitlyn has started a couple of ‘classes’ this Fall. On Monday, Jaety takes her to the YMCA for swimming. We’re not quite sure what her feelings are on swimming – she seems anxious to get in the water but once in, she puts on a very stoic face. She’s definitely not a big fan of lying on her back in the pool– with every attempt, Caitlyn’s legs are straight up in the air in the pike position as if she didn’t want to get them wet. But she has yet to cry or really fuss much when she’s in the water.

Caitlyn is demonstrating a real love for music and bops to the beat of the alphabet song nearly every time. (Uncle Peter would be very proud of the video below.) We play her music class CD in the car every time (God help us) and she seems to be recognizing the tunes. Her particular favorite is “Itsy Bitsy Spider” – she even tries to make the coordinating hand motions though at this point, all she does is raise her hands in the air.




The cuteness quotient has bumped up the past couple of months as Caitlyn is really into ‘hugging’ her stuffed animals and people. (See videos below.)







While she’s not running any sprints yet, I think we can say that Caitlyn has legitimately started to walk. She has grouped a few steps together – at first, this seemed to be happening once every 3-4 days but now, it’s happening 3-4 times a day. Just the other day, she walked from our oven to the fridge like a pro. Unfortunately, it’s been tough to catch on film since she seems to be more interested in the camera than anything else. We’ll try again next month.

September pics

Standing Tall

Unfortunately, we slacked off on the pictures this month but hopefully, we’ve made up for it with this cute little video of Caitlyn using her walker. She loves it and zooms around the kitchen and family rooms. We wish she was a bit better at steering though – once Caitlyn hits a barrier (which is about every 10 seconds or so), she’ll look to us with those big brown eyes to fix it and send her on her way.




Caitlyn has also started to stand on her own and (gasp!) even taken a step or two.

She did give us a bit of scare late last month when her temperature spiked to 102.5 seemingly in a matter of minutes. Caitlyn never likes to sit still and it was probably one of the few times when all she wanted was for us to hold and hug her. We definitely got our hugs in. Thirty-six hours later, she was fine.

Poor Caitlyn -- On our way to the pediatrician

September should be a busy month. Caitlyn starts swimming classes on Mondays and a music class on Wednesdays. With playgroup on Thursdays, she'll be a busy baby. We'll bring our camera.

Beach Blanket Baby

The big news this month was our week-long trip to Cape Cod, Caitlyn's first big vacation. We rented a house in Truro, MA with Caitlyn's Godfather Geordie, his wife Julie and their daughter Sophie who's just 10 days older than Caitlyn. As you can see from the following clip, the two little girls enjoyed running each other ragged!



One of the perks of Truro is that there's a calm bay on one side, big ocean waves on the other and even a string of pretty fresh-water ponds. While the girls weren't quite ready for the big waves, they both really enjoyed the bay and especially the pond. Jaety even dunked Caitlyn, who took it surprisingly well with a little spluttering but no crying.

Caitlyn learned a few tricks from Sophie such as asking for "brie" and cruising. And of course, Caitlyn's daredevil contribution was learning to climb stairs which Sophie soon followed. Neither set of parents were so sure about that achievement.

The four parents even had a chance to head out on our own -- we found a babysitter for two nights and had two amazing dinners. All in all, it was a wonderful trip and we're already searching for our next destination.

In other news, Caitlyn's growing leaps and bounds. At her 9 month checkup, she was off the charts tall at 30 inches, but weighed in at a modest 18 pounds, 1 ounce, just under the 50th percentile. She's a long, lean crawling machine! We've been furiously babyproofing, trying to keep one step ahead of her. That may get even more difficult soon, since her pediatrician bets she'll be walking within the month.

Cape Cod - July '08 Click for more pictures

"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...