Happy Birthday, Kaitlin!

Kaitlin's birthday was Saturday and although we had her party last weekend, we did have a small family celebration. It was a nasty day here as Tropical Depression Fay was visiting (and hasn't left yet) and we were all three a little bit grumpy. Kaitlin got her presents from us, and had a cupcake. Well, she scraped some icing off the cupcake and then screamed for someone to get her out of her high chair. Here are a few pictures from Kaitlin's big day.



















Kaitlin pulled up on me and then stood on her own for about 15 seconds - the longest we've seen her do it.
















Kaitlin loves to whack her balloon to hear Pooh sing "Happy Birthday."




















Here, Kaitlin is playing with the water table that we got her for her birthday.




















Kaitlin was disappointed that she didn't get to play in her new frog pool more because of the rain. We eventually had to hide it because she would get mad when she looked out the window and saw it.




















Kaitlin was delighted to play with this flower!




















Apparently cupcakes aren't good enough for this princess!

Party Time!

Last weekend was very big for Kaitlin. Although her birthday isn't until this coming Saturday, we decided to celebrate a little early and had her birthday this past Saturday. All the grandparents came to town for her party as well as Aunt Kim and Sarah. There are so many pictures that I decided to do two slideshows. This first one has pictures from the weekend and the second one is all party pictures. Kaitlin opened some of her gifts before the party (so we'd have them to entertain the other kids at the party) and some of her gifts after the party (due to a limited attention span). It was a really great weekend and we are lucky to have such wonderful friends and family to celebrate with.

As expected, Kaitlin made great progress while her grandparents were around. She didn't start walking, but she did start doing sign language for real. She now does the signs for milk, more, and all done. She even tried the signs for cat and cracker while MomMom and I were watching Baby Signing Time with her. I believe this proves our theory that Kaitlin likes to show off for her grandparents because today when she and I watched Baby Signing Time, she only did the sign for "all done."

Awesome pics!

I'm taking a photography class and our assignment this week was to take portraits. What a great excuse for me to take pictures of my two babies! The goal was to try to get a blurry background. I was only somewhat successful with the blurry background, but I got some really great shots of Kaitlin and Harley.

This one needs more explanation than a slideshow will allow. Kaitlin was hamming it up for the camera, but instead of smiling, this is the face she made. It reminds me of that Friends episode when Monica and Chandler get engagement photos made and Chandler is making these really hideous faces in all the pictures!

Vacation

Well, I haven't had time to go through these and make a slide show, so I'm just going to take the lazy way out and just link the album (click on the picture below to see more). We had lots of fun in Virginia! We went to the zoo and even out on a dolphin cruise. Some of the dolphins came right next to the boat and we even saw babies! We even convinced Sarah to pose for some pictures with Kaitlin; up until now the only pictures we have of the two of them together are candid shots.

Virginia - July 2008

Great News!

I took Kaitlin for a weight check yesterday. She is up to 16 pounds, 8 ounces (up 10 ounces) and is 28 ½ inches long. The best news is that her weight is back on the growth chart - woohoo! The doctor was very happy with that and told me to keep doing whatever we're doing.

Kaitlin is pretty much all over the place now. As mentioned before, she loves to open and close Harley's crate. Well, I knew it was only a matter of time before she crawled into his crate and it happened on Wednesday. Yesterday, she decided to get in the crate with Harley. I don't think he was too pleased with that development. I think we're probably going to start teaching her that she needs to leave Harley alone when he's in his crate. Here are some pictures.

 
 
 
 

Holy Cow! Kaitlin is 11-Months Old!

I can hardly believe it has already been 11 months since Kaitlin was born. The time really has flown by and it's getting harder and harder to remember how tiny Kaitlin was when we brought her home. Kaitlin has made a lot of progress this month and she really likes to show off for her grandparents. When Keven's parents were in town for the 4th of July, Kaitlin started waving and clapping her hands all the time (way more than she had been). And this past weekend, we traveled to Virginia to see my family and Kaitlin started to do a lot of crawling. I would say she now crawls on her hands and knees more than on her tummy. She does resort to the army crawl if she is in a hurry though! When we got home Monday night, Kaitlin was very anxious to be out of the car and moving around. She "cruised" along the couch for the first time ever! And this morning, she pulled up on my legs and let go! She stood on her own for about 2-3 seconds. It just amazes us how suddenly she starts to do new things. Here are a few pictures from our day.

4th of July

I'm finally getting around to posting some pictures from the 4th of July. We had a great day. We spent most of the day doing stuff around the house, but we ended up at the pool eventually. Then we met our good friends, the Gaddis', to tailgate and watch fireworks. By the time the fireworks started, Kaitlin was exhausted! She watched them for a few minutes and then bounced around between Pop Pop, Mommy, and Daddy. She was definitely ready to get home and go to bed. We had wonderful food and a great time visiting with everyone. Here are some pictures from the day. There are some cute pictures of Kaitlin and Jake on Jake's blog if you want to see more.

Update

We went to the hospital for two more tests yesterday, a urinalysis and a sweat chloride test. In order to collect the sweat, they put two electrodes on Kaitlin's arm for about five minutes to initiate her body to make sweat. Then they put this little watch looking thing on her arm for 30-minutes to "collect" the sweat. After a half hour, they pulled a tiny tube out of the watch looking thing that had the sweat in it. Kaitlin was a champ for the entire process and the employees at the lab just fell in love with her. We were allowed to roam the hospital for a half hour while the sweat was collected and when we returned to the lab they told us that they'd made Kaitlin their mascot for the day. Now for the good news, all of the tests came back normal. Yeah!!! We are very relieved! We will follow up with another weight check in a few weeks. Thank you all for the encouragement and support while we waited for news! Now I must go before Kaitlin gets into something she shouldn't!

Weight Update

Keven talked to the pediatrician this evening and Kaitlin's blood tests came back normal. Her thyroid is fine and her hemoglobin was a little low meaning that she is borderline anemic, but the doctor said that is normal for her age. Hopefully the other tests will be normal as well.

The Three Worst Words

It's only noon and already this day has been filled with overwhelming emotions. I took Kaitlin to get her weight checked today. She weighed in at 15 lbs, 14 oz and is 28 ¼ inches long. Unfortunately, her weight has now dropped off the growth charts and the words "failure to thrive" were written on her chart. As a mother, I have to say that these must be the three worst words to see written about your child. Along with the overwhelming dread that there is something seriously wrong with her, I am now filled with uncertainty about my mothering abilities. What am I doing wrong? Is the schedule I have her on causing her to not eat enough? Am I missing her hunger cues? Are we giving her too many solids? Not enough?

To top it all off, I had to watch my 10-month old cry in pain and confusion as she got blood drawn. It was a miserable experience. So, now we await the results of a blood test to check her thyroid and for anemia. We go back to the hospital on Monday for a urinalysis to check her electrolytes and, although the pediatrician has assured me she doesn't have it, a sweat chloride test to check for Cystic Fibrosis. Dr. Young said that usually with any of those problems, a baby's height usually drops off as well as the weight which hasn't happened, so hopefully it's nothing, but doing some tests will help us know for sure. We'll be switching to a higher calorie formula and hopefully that will help Kaitlin get a little meat on her bones!