Memorial Day

We were lucky enough to enjoy an extra long weekend for Kaitlin's first Memorial day, as I only worked a half-day Friday in addition to having Monday off. Saturday, they opened a brand-new aquatics center within walking distance from our house in Valley Ranch (http://cityofirving.org/news-articles/aquatic-center.html) and we were in attendance for the dedication. Kaitlin did a good job sitting through 30 minutes of city employees patting themselves on their backs and was rewarded with being one of the first kiddos into the pool. They have a huge section for babies and little kids where the water doesn't get more than a foot high. The kids section also has lots of bubbles and fountains and spritzers, which Kaitlin had a ball crawling over and trying to catch in her hands. The big section also has a huge water-slide, lap pool and a main pool area. Unfortunately, we forgot to bring our camera, but will take us on the next visit so you can all see how much fun Kaitlin has.

On Sunday, we drove out to Cedar Creek lake to hang out with Britt and Christine at their lake house. Kaitlin took a nice, long nap on the way down and was ready to play when we arrived. The next door neighbors had lots of kids out for the holiday and Kaitlin made several new friends. Summer, Christine and Kaitlin spent some time floating in the lake on a huge raft with netting in the middle which she could play in the water. However, I think she had the most fun swinging on the swing-set in the back yard! Also, Britt and I caught 7 catfish in a span of about 15 minutes!

On Monday, we took Kaitlin swimming in our pool for the first time. Last weekend she swam in a pool a little bit in Galveston, but was no where near as excited as she was for the beach. However, I think this was because the local pool had no fountains or ledges for her to sit on. She really liked sitting on the little ledge on the side of our pool and splashing the water around her. Here is a pic of her cruising around on a raft. She also really liked sticking her feet in the fountains! There are several other pictures posted on our shutterfly page, which is linked to the left. All in all it was a great Memorial Day weekend!

Galveston Trip

We took off last Wednesday for a nice long weekend in Galveston with Nana and Pop. We drove to Houston on Wednesday morning and met up with Mom and Dad, and then headed on to Galveston. The beach house we stayed in was beautiful, it was so nice of my mom's friend Trish to let us use it. Some highlights from the trip:

Kaitlin LOVES the beach, just like her momma! I was a little worried because she is very apprehensive of grass, leaves, flowers, pretty much everything outside, so I thought she wouldn't be a big fan of sand and surf, but boy was I wrong! On Thursday we took her out and sat her down at the top of the shore, where the water was barely washing up. She sat there for a while and inspected the sand, and then took off full speed for the water! Here are some action shots:

Feeling the sand


"Watch out sea inhabitants, here I come!"


You can barely see her she's moving so fast


"I LOVE IT!!!"


She was like a little turtle heading out to sea. I think she would have kept going if we would have let her. She got pretty upset with us whenever we would pick her up when she got too deep. She loved splashing around in the sand and squealing at the water coming up to her. Here's a video that shows a bit of what I'm talking about (pardon the video operator - Scott says I'm not allowed to do it anymore based on how terrible this video is):



We had a nice dinner at Willie G's on Thursday night. Kaitlin was a bit tired and cranky on the way out there, and since it's about a 30 minute drive from the house I was worried we would have to turn around and come back, but she was happy once we got into the restaurant. As usual, Nana's bracelets came in handy for entertaining her! Scott took her out and showed her the boats and cranes on the pier while I had dessert, which meant I got to eat more than I usually do without him there hogging all the good parts!

Friday we went shopping on the Strand. Kaitlin got a new onesie and a baby doll from Nana and Pop. She loves the baby doll. I think we might have a troublemaker on our hands when she's older - she is going to be the one in the class who is always talking while the teacher is trying to talk. As soon as she saw her baby, she just got a huge smile on her face and started talking to her. And when we were in one of the shops she saw a little boy who was 11 months old and she got SO excited and started kicking her legs and screaming at him. I think they truly held a conversation there for a while, it was so cute.

Saturday our friends Jim & Sarah, Wade & Chelsea and James & Ryan came out to see us and hang out at the beach. We played some dominoes, drank some beers and got caught up. Then it was time to clean up and hit the road back to Houston. It probably would have been wise in hind sight to just head on straight to Dallas since Kaitlin ended up staying up until 11:30 that night and got up at 6am the next morning. This is what we were dealing with:




But at least she got to spend some extra time with the grand P's!

Today we are still recovering from the trip. Elizabeth said she was a little cranky today and wasn't in the mood to nap, so hopefully she will get back on her schedule soon. It is all worth it though because we had such a great time with Nana and Pop and all our friends!

The toy box...

is finally complete! I put the finishing touches on it in the form of two coats of polyurethane last weekend and moved it into the house on Monday evening. It's been nice to not have a bunch of little toy containers strewn around the living room. Kaitlin's favorite thing to do is to crawl over and stand up using the edge of the toy box. She also likes to reach in and grab her pink baby out and play with it. There are a few rough places on the inside of the front wall of the toy box that I need to take care of, but over all we are all very happy with the final product. Here are some pictures...

Kick-stand Charlie

That's our new nickname for Kaitlin. For those who haven't seen it before, she's created a unique crawling technique which she favors versus the more traditional method. For the most part, it is the traditional method, but she's added a slight twist where she keeps her right leg straight and out to the side (like a kick-stand). She's perfectly capable of crawling traditionally and will sometimes do it; however, she strongly feels her method is much faster than those other suckers who only use their knees. This has led to an increased level of concern in her parents, as she really can move pretty quickly. We often set her down, turn around to do something else and then look back to see her steaming full speed ahead (kickstand out) in the opposite direction. Here's an example of what we're talking about...

Happy Mother's Day...

to all the current mom's and mom's to be. Kaitlin got Summer a Strollometer and a card for Mother's Day. In addition, I've knocked out the chores and have taken care of all of the meals this weekend. This morning we went to early Church and wished Nana (Barb) happy Mother's Day on the drive in. We were fortunate to sit behind Kaitlin's good friend Reagan, who was born a few days after she was. Alas, she unfortunately became overly "squaky" with excitement and dad was forced to take her for a stroll outside of the sanctuary. Afterwards we met Nanny (Cindi), Papa (Stan), BK, Amanda, Andrea and Andrea's mom for brunch at Mi Paci. While there, Kaitlin saw another baby girl and, as she will almost always do when she sees another baby, started squaking again with excitement to be around someone who actually understands her! Afterwards, we went home and Summer laid out by the pool while Kaitlin and I played with her toys. Speaking of toys, I have officially completed the new toy-box that John and I have been working on the last couple of weeks. I'll be moving that into the house at some point tonight and will post some pics and such in the next couple of days. Here's a shot of Kaitlin in the dress she wore for Mother's Day...

First Haircut!

Today was the day. I have been bugging Scott for weeks to get Kaitlin's haircut and he has been successfully dodging my repeated requests and hints that it was scraggly and needed to be cut. Today though, Kaitlin discovered her bow in her hair and decided she didn't want to wear it anymore. She just kept pulling it out and chewing on it. I saw my opening and took it. Telling Mr. Worrywart about KRK's newfound interest in her bows had him imagining her choking on them in no time, and he was quick to suggest that yes, maybe it was time that she got her haircut after all. To all the ladies out there, note the subtle yet effective use of Rule #1 of male management - make them think it was THEIR idea.

So off we went to Kiddoo's tonight for the big cut. Kaitlin was, as usual, an angel, with no crying or fussing at all. She actually enjoyed sitting in the big chair, watching "Toy Story" and chewing on the wood farm animals from the nice lady with the shiny things. She did get a little annoyed when she was finalizing the bangs, but she just threw out a few scowls, nothing more. She figured that was enough to get her point across, and it was. And now we have a completely different looking baby! Here are some before, during, and after photos:









As always, there are tons more pics here

I also got word today from the photographer that the pics we had taken a couple weeks ago are in the mail to us. She put a few up on her myspace page though, and Kaitlin is actually her profile pic at the moment. www.myspace.com/b4photography For those with Myspace accounts, when you login you can look at her "Pics" and go to the April Album, page 12 and there are a few more previews. She said these weren't her faves, just a few she wanted to throw up there. She photoshopped one and while it looks pretty, it doesn't look like my baby so I'm not a huge fan. The others look great though and I can't wait to see all the rest! I'm sure we'll put those up on Shutterfly when we get them.