Ride-On Toys

Caitlin has gotten the hang of ride-on toys. Unfortunately for her, and us, the ones we currently have are Conall's old ride-on toys. They are the perfect size for her. Conall has outgrown them, but they are HIS and don't you forget it. Every chance she gets, Caitlin climbs onto Conall's yellow ride-on Hummer. She likes being able to ride it and move on her own and she likes to push the buttons that make noise.

This afternoon when she climbed on it, Conall actually tolerated it. He let her play with it for a little while before he had a fit. She sat on it and held down all of the buttons, fascinated by the amount of noise she could make. When she climbed off, I told Conall it was his turn. Caitlin promptly grabbed his legs, trying to keep him from climbing on it. I think we may have to get Caitlin her very own very soon.

Caitlin climbing on and pushing ALL of the buttons.

Riding -- she is just the happiest little girl.

Thinking about climbing off.

I wasn't done! No, you can't climb on there -- MINE!

Conall tolerating her very well. I think she thought she'd just climb on with him.

The Things You Celebrate as a Parent

Yippee! Things are looking up. Caitlin had her first firm poop since this diarrhea started. The things you get excited about as a parent are sometimes just downright disgusting! Oh, well. I'm just glad she's feeling better.

Walker in One Hand, Chalk in the Other

Rosemary Tree

Yesterday and Sunday were long, long days. Yesterday I had a migraine all day and Conall took full advantage of the fact. Thus, no posts yesterday. He's in school today, so I have a little more time. On Saturday, while I was changing Caitlin's diaper, Conall got into the Rosemary I was drying in the closet. He called it a tree and planted it. Here's a photo of how he planted it.

Icky, Icky Day

Good news -- we found out where the water under the house is coming from. Bad news -- Stu has stuff torn up and I can't use the kitchen sink, dishwasher or washing machine until sometime tomorrow afternoon or evening. Bad news -- the air conditioner broke down this evening. We finally decided to pay the exorbitant weekend fees and have them come out and fix it tonight. We were really hoping it was something our warranty covered, since it isn't even a year old yet, but of course, it wasn't! Between the water and the air conditioner, Stu spent most of the afternoon and evening in our crawl space. He has the scrapes on his knees to prove it! Bad news -- Caitlin has really bad diarrhea, the worst she's ever had. I think our bad news is outweighing the good! And, it is 11 p.m. and Stu and I just ate dinner. So, no cute stories about the kids tonight -- most of the day/night was spent trying to keep them out of everything, especially trouble! I do have a cute photo of Caitlin eating her very first Flavor Ice frozen treat. Which is surprising since Caitlin normally doesn't like cold things. She is teething pretty bad, though, so she really enjoyed chewing on it.

Conall's Laundry

Conall decided in the middle of the day that it was time to do his laundry. He didn't tell anyone, he just brought all of his dirty (and some of his clean) clothes into the hall. I walked to the end of the hall and this is what I found.

Princess Shoes

Grandma bought Caitlin a pair of "princess shoes" since Caitlin liked Aunt Jackie's shoes so much. She loves them! She wants to wear them all of the time. And, she will scoot over to her walker and start using it on her own while wearing them. She also seems to really like the sound they make on the hardwood floors -- kinda like tap shoes. Here's a video of her wearing them and walking around listening to them tap.

Still learning

Caitlin is still working on mastering walking on her own. She just really isn't interested -- she can scoot anywhere she wants quicker than she can walk. To make a long story short, she had her check-up yesterday and our regular doctor wasn't in. We saw someone else who freaked out about her not walking yet (among other things -- that doctor was something else!). So, we've been trying to work a little harder with her on it, which we hadn't done before because we didn't want to push her. Here's a cute video of her using her Hippo walker to walk down the hall. You can tell how much fun she's having by all the squealing you hear.

Wrapped

Caitlin has both her grandpas wrapped around her little finger. Po Po is so bad that he let Caitlin throw water on him over and over and over again, just because she was having fun playing. She lifted the boat up and threw the water in it behind her and onto Po Po -- over and over and over again.

Caitlin's 'Do

Everywhere we go, someone comments on Caitlin's pigtails. Although they are cute, they are also practical -- she can't get the rubber bands out. She's been able to pull out every other thing we put in her hair. Her hair is just long enough to cover her eyes, but not long enough to put behind her ears. And, if it is down, she grabs it while eating and gets lots of stuff matted in it.
Here is Po Po's variation on her hairdo. She actually left it alone for a little while before she pulled the leaves out. I think she was too busy to notice.

Rusty the cat

On the way to school today, Conall informed me that he didn't want his cat to be named Sassy. The cat is now a boy and is named Rusty. Conall took it to school again today. Yesterday, he took the cat to school and last night he told me that he washed it in the toy sink and used "pretend" water and "pretend" soap to wash it.

Crackers

I left the room to put a few pieces of laundry away. When I came back, both kids were sitting on opposite ends of the couch, eating crackers. I grabbed the camera and these are the photos I got. I was so proud of them for sharing and especially proud of Conall for being so good with Caitlin. I wasn't very happy about the mess -- I think we'll have cracker crumbs in our couch forever!

This is how it started. You can see Caitlin's pile of crackers at her end of the couch.

Caitlin is after a cracker! Now I know how she got the crackers.

Sharing crackers

Caitlin decided that they could share crackers better if she sat in her brother's lap.

The cracker mess they left behind!

Grandma and the kids

Grandma sent me some photos in the mail a few weeks ago, but despite her label on the envelope, the post office bent them anyway. I stuck them in a book, hoping to flatten them out. I ran across them today and this photo was so good that I scanned it in to post on here. Isn't it a great photo? It was taken the day we all went to the Greek Food Festival.

Mama's Girl

We all joke about how Caitlin is a "mama's girl," wanting only mommy if she is tired, hungry or doesn't feel well. She is very snugly and wants mommy to hold her all of the time. It got much worse after she broke her leg. In fact, I just got back from a doctor visit because my tendinitis has gotten so bad from holding her and carrying her around so much.
After lunch today, Caitlin was trying to climb into my lap. Since I hadn't seen her for part of the morning and missed holding her, I picked her up and put her in my lap. She very matter-of-factly said "mama's girl." I guess she knows it, too! Of course, it made my heart melt into a little puddle on the floor! Other than the first time she said mama, I think it is the sweetest thing she's ever said. She is my mama's girl.

Sassy the Cat

Conall has a Himalayan (he says Siamese) stuffed animal that Grandma bought for him. He spent most of the weekend playing with it and his caterpillar. He has named the cat Sassy, after the cat in the movie Homeward Bound, one of Conall's favorite movies (he calls it "The Cat and Dog Movie"). He rocked the cat, fed the cat, slept with the cat, covered the cat up with blankets, pretended the cat puked everywhere, etc. You get the idea -- the cat did everything. When we were on the patio at NaNa and PoPo's, he put the cat in a chair. I was taking so many photos of Caitlin playing in the water with PoPo, that I felt I needed to take some of Conall playing, so I took some of him with the cat. He now wants to make another "movie," but this time with the toy cat.

Scooter

Here's a video of Caitlin scooting around NaNa and PoPo's patio. One of her other nicknames is some variation of "scooter butt" or "scooter button" or "scooter." If you haven't seen Caitlin's funny crawl, you'll see from this video how she got the nickname. She falls on her face (literally) at the end, but I don't think she even cried about it (in other words -- she didn't get hurt).

Playing with Pop Pop

Here's a photo of Caitlin playing with Pop Pop. We all had so much fun visiting with him. Conall is still talking about making oatmeal raisin cookies with Pop Pop. He went to sleep last night telling me about all the fun he had with Pop Pop. Conall is still telling me he is going to "pull my leg" and that he is going to rip my toenails off and eat them (Pop Pop will understand). At one point, Conall was making something into a crane (we went to see the cranes at daddy's work Friday morning) and Pop Pop looked over at him and said "he is my child." I think they understand each other.

Caitlin and Pop Pop

Caitlin loves her Pop Pop. By the time we left, she was actually saying Pop Pop. In this photo, she's convincing him that Conall's sippy cup is hers and that Pop Pop should give it to her.

Looking at Photos

Here's a video of Conall and Caitlin looking at photos of themselves with Aunt Jackie. Conall is telling Jackie what he's doing in the pictures.

Princess Shoes

Caitlin loves Aunt Jackie's shoes. They are metallic, so we are guessing that she thinks they are princess shoes and that Aunt Jackie is a princess. Here are some cute pictures of Caitlin and Conall with Aunt Jackie. You can see Aunt Jackie's "princess shoes" in some of them.