Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Months

I know I say this every month, but I absolutely cannot believe that it has been two years since Kaitlin was born and changed our lives forever. The last two months have been so, so incredibly fun - I can't believe that it ever gets better. Sure, there are challenging moments (and let's be real, challenging days) but they are all made up for with her infectious laugh and crazy cute smile.

I had no idea that the ago two was going to be so fun. All I ever heard about what was a nightmare it was, so much crying and fighting and time outs - it sounded horrible. And let's be honest, we are only at the tip of the "two" iceberg, so I'm sure all of those awesomely bad parts are just around the corner for us. In fact pretty much the day she turned two and for a week after she was a nightmare. I attribute it to all of the fun guests in town to celebrate and then having everyone leave a short time later (she's not a big fan of change). Luckily she's starting to get back to her normal self. But these last two months, as Kaitlin hurtled towards her second birthday we hands down the most fun months yet. She is still learning at such an incredible pace, some days I can't even believe it. 

She is learning her letters and numbers and one of her favorite things to do is count and/or read alphabet books or do alphabet puzzles. She loves counting, although at the moment all the counting she does is either "one, two" or "two, four" but I suppose you have to start somewhere! She knows almost all of the other numbers but really only says them when prompted. She is also learning her letters of the alphabet. She probably knows about 2/3s of the letters and she just loves opening up Dr. Seuss's ABC book and pointing to the letters and naming them. She's only right once every third letter but at least she's trying!

Kaitlin has also started saying short sentences. Most of the time they are just two word sentences ("Mama, no!" "Me, wead" "Dirt, wash" but sometimes we can get a three word sentence out of her. I have no idea if this is ahead, behind or right on track for development for her age but I, of course, think she's a genius! The first time she ever said to me "Wead peas" (that's "Read, please" for those of you who don't speak toddler) I damn near fell off my chair. She is full of small sentences and often strings them pretty close together, so she communication is just growing and growing every day. Some of my favorite words that she says are -

"Faffle" (waffles)
"No, mama - YOU!" (she means to say, No mama ME, as in, I'll do it!)
"WHY-O WHY-O WHY-O" (Wild! Wild! Wild!)

There are dozens more but it would be almost impossible for my to try and type them out and have them make any sense. It's much cuter in person :)

We go a scooter for Kaitlin for Easter but held off on giving it to her a couple of weeks ago. Man oh man, you would have thought that she won the lottery. Basically it was the best day of her life. The first time we took her out on it we mostly just pushed and pulled her around by the handle bars. We encouraged her to push with her foot but she didn't really get it. The next day I took her out for her second right and just as I was about to start pushing her she turns to me and says, "Mama, no! ME!" She turned around and started pushing herself and took off down the street. How does she learn things so quickly?!?! It's amazing! I was a bit sad about her wanting to go off on her own and not needing me help anymore, until about 10 feet down the sidewalk she ran into the grass and needed help again :) She's finally gotten a hang of the steering thing and can now fly down the sidewalk all by herself. She barely even needs help turning it around. She loves to ride it around the neighborhood and she even rode it all the way to the park one day. She was pretty tired on the way back and I had to carry her for a couple blocks, but I was pretty amazed!

We tried another cake smash this year and it went almost as bad as last year. Except this time I had giant cookies on hand as backup. Good idea, mom. Good idea.

Now that I have done a year of weekly updates and a year of monthly (well, almost monthly) updates I think my time on the mini traveling cupcake is about over. I love, love giving updates but as Kaitlin gets older I find I have less time and also want to keep more things a bit private. That's not to say that I won't be back from time to time for updates (First day of school! Holidays!) but you'll probably see me around here a bit less. Maybe for year three I will aim for quarterly updates :)

In the mean time, you can still catch an update of sorts over on my photography blog. I'm participating in a monthly blog circle called Letters to My Daughter. Check it out - I'd love to see you over there!

The Twelfth Month

Here we are - the end of the road.

So dramatic, right? 

Ok, so maybe not the end of the WHOLE road but at least the first part. We now say "goodbye" to BABY Kaitlin and say "Hello!" to TODDLER Kaitlin. Yikes.

 The twelfth month brought lots of exciting things including visiting friends/grandparents, her eighth tooth, walking and "running" (walking really fast), swimming pools and splash table fun. It also brought tears (new babysitter!), bumps and bruises. We had lots of skipped naps and our first visit to the zoo. And at the end of it all we celebrated with a birthday, some cake and a baptism (as well as my first Mother's Day). It was a busy month indeed!

Kaitlin learned how to stand up on her own this month (not holding onto anything) and it greatly improved her walking skills. She walks, walk, walks all day long - around the house, around the yard, around the playground and loves every minute of it. She still falls a lot but she quickly gets back up and is on her way. She has also started "running", which is usually just her walking really fast (and usually falling at the end because she isn't that steady) especially when you chase her. She absolutely loves being chased and playing peek-a-boo, I think she likes being surprised and the anticipation of it all.

She has also become quite the water baby. She loves being in her baby pool and playing with her splash table. Her newest "game" to play involves moving all of her toys from the pool to the splash table and then back again. Grammie bought her a whole bunch of outside balls to play with as well and she loves to carry them around and "throw" them. She loves being outside, pushing or riding her tricycle around (ie, having me push her around), playing in her pool, going for walks and playing on the playground. The more time we can spend outside with her the better. Unfortunately it is starting to get pretty hot down here so we have to get in a lot of our outdoor play in the morning before the sun and heat get to be too intense for her. I'm starting to dread the upcoming summer, when temperatures will be into the 100's, with a small and very energetic toddler at home. 

We had our first visit to the zoo, and while I don't think she completely understood it I think she had a good time. She really liked the giraffes and the flamingos, I think because they were the easiest for her to notice. Other times when I pointed out animals to look at she would look past them or be distracted by something else and not even be paying attention. We might have to hold off on the zoo for a little while longer before she get's more out of it, which is fine because it wouldn't be fun to go to in the summer heat anyway. 

Kaitlin had a great first year check up at the doctor and she said that she is doing very, very well. She was impressed with all of the walking and general busyness, and said her weight (18lbs and 11oz) and overall growth was right on track. Our pediatrician heavily suggested that we stop using the bottle as close to her first birthday as possible, as it is easier to take a bottle away from a one year old than it is a two year old. I introduced whole milk to Kaitlin a couple of weeks before she turned one. At first she wouldn't drink it at all and then she would drink a little bit if it was watered down. We finished the rest of the formula we had and then within the first week after her birthday we took away the bottle. The first night was rough, she still needs that "meal" before bed to sleep through the night, and the first straw cup with milk that I offered her she hated and refused to drink from. I ended up caving and putting the milk in a bottle, which she drank without a problem. The next night it was back to a strawcup with milk before bed, this time using a different cup. Much to my surprise (and anxiety - we had a great bedtime routine why rock the boat?!) she drank all of her milk without any problems! And since then it has been smooth sailing. We even graduated to whole milk (no added water) a couple of days later and now she LOVES drinking milk.

Kaitlin now eats about five meals a day, all of it solid food with milk and water to drink. She gets a cup of milk in the morning when she first wakes up and has breakfast soon after. Around 9-10am (depending on when she is up from her nap) she has a snack, usually fruit and cheerios, and then has lunch around 1130-12 and a cup of milk. One more snack around 3pm and then dinner at 5-530, followed by a cup of milk before bed. She is eating SO much more solid food than she was one month ago. I was really worried that she was drinking too much formula and not eating enough solids, but I didn't know how to "break" her from the bottle routine. Turns out, all you have to do is NOT give it to her. Sometimes the answer is so simple that you don't even think of it. One month ago she used to easily take 5 bottles a day, and would gladly drink more if I let her. I first took away the "snack" bottles and started replacing them with a solid food snack. It took a couple of times for her to get the idea but then she happily gobbled up some food. As most things baby related I was stressing way too much about how to handle a transition and Kaitlin handled it just fine. She is starting to become picky about what food she eats though, which is a change from when we first started solids. She definitely has her favorites and isn't afraid to let you know when she doesn't like something on her plate.

I can't believe how much our little girl has grown this past year. She went from being so tiny and helpless and completely dependent on us, to energetic and fiercely independent and her own little person in just twelve months. Of course, she still needs us for most everything, but she likes and tries to do so much stuff on her own. She is smart, strong willed and determined. She has quite the sense of humor and never fails to make us laugh all day every day. It absolutely amazing me how much she understands and comprehends. I still can't believe that this little person knows exactly what I mean when I say, "Time to eat, go to your high chair" or "Can you please give this toy to Daddy?" And watching her figure out obstacles and puzzles is equally inspiring and exciting. It really makes you realize that they really do watch and absorb every little thing that you do (and we are starting to also realize that we need to start curbing our bad behaviors around her!) This past year has, without a doubt, been the best, happiest and also most challenging year of my life. I can't wait to see what the next year brings!