first birthday party (more photos)

Thanks to Grandma & Grandpa Albertson for sending us more pictures from Kaitlin's birthday party.

  "What's going on out there?"

 She looks like such a big girl here.



12 months

I'm a little behind in posting. I'm hoping to catch up soon!

12 months already!

 Here's a funny "outtake" which I have many of these trying to get a good photo.

SLEEP:
For the most part Kaitlin goes to sleep between 6:30/7:00 pm and sleeps until 5:30/6:15 am. A few times this past week she decided to sleep until 6:40/7 am which was a nice treat for us.
 In the last few nights we’ve started to take away her paci. The first night she started to cry hysterically so I caved after 10 minutes and gave it to her. The second night went much better. After 10 minutes I went in to console her (rubbed her back & gave her little blankie back to her). She fussed a few minutes more and then fell asleep.


FOOD:
Kaitlin sometimes will still boycott spoon feeding. I read that this means she wants to be more independent. It helps to give her an extra spoon to play with so I can feed her with the other. Below is a rough list of some of the items we feed her (this is more so I can come back and look at the list when #2 arrives).



Over the past month Kaitlin’s formula intake has gone from approximately 24 oz per day to 16 oz per day. We started the transition to whole milk the week before her birthday by mixing whole milk and into her formula. Now she's all on whole milk. The pediatrician wants her on whole milk since she's small (some babies can go right to 2%).
 Breakfast - Fruit (mostly bananas or strawberries; sometimes raspberries but they are super messy) with some type of "bread" so toast with butter/jam, blueberry pancakes or dry cheerios (might start adding milk to it)

Lunch/Dinner - the foods we feed K are pretty much interchangeable for lunch/dinner and totally varies depending on what we have in the house. We try to feed her our dinner leftovers when we can (i.e. when it's not spicy). She eats a ton of chicken. We boil chicken breast in low sodium chicken broth. I've done a garlic chicken in the oven with cheese on top. Chicken nuggets. All types of pasta from plain to beef ravioli. I've also added butternut squash sauce. We've done frozen veggies you steam in the microwave (sometimes with cheese). Grill cheese, hot dogs (big hit). Loves cheese (mix up the types) Sometimes fruit. Yogurt.
 Snacks - she gets cheerios, goldfish, those organic Annie's crackers, cheese, breakfast/soft granola bars and sometimes the Gerber type fruit leather thingys.
 CLOTHING:

We have packed up Kaitlin’s 9 months clothes. She’s wearing both 12 month and 18 month sizes. The 18 months items are still a little big but some of the 12 months stuff is getting small (i.e. short) on her. Since Kaitlin is full on walking, we took her to get measured at Stride Rite for her first pair of big girl shoes. She measured in at a 5. Kaitlin has been wearing size 3 diapers during the day and we’re getting ready to move her to size 4 overnight diapers.



GENERAL:

This month we’ve really noticed that Kaitlin has been in an “all I want is mommy stage.” She follows me around the house constantly. Even if Bryan’s home she’ll follow me to the back of the house. She always wants me to hold her. The pediatrician said that kids between 12-18 months go through a stranger anxiety. I really hope this stage doesn’t last too long.
 MILESTONES:
- Started running
- Said her first word, which was cat but it sounded more like “at”
- Imitates sounds and activities (i.e. clicking tongue, dancing, tries to repeat your words but they don’t always sound right)
- Fourth & five teeth came through
- Points to things she wants
- Understands and follows more directions (i.e. hold mommy’s hand)
- Shakes her head no when she doesn’t want something

peanut #2

Peanut #2 has been kicking up a storm over the last few weeks. I started feeling him/her during the 16th week (I'll be 19 weeks on Monday 11/1). I started feeling this one sooner than I did with Kaitlin. I think I first felt Kaitlin between 18-20 weeks. It's funny how quickly you forget these things. So I'm going to start using this blog to keep track of these milestones in case I can't get them written down in their baby books fast enough.

I have my 20 week ultra sound on 11/8. Again we won't be finding out the sex of the baby. I'm actually excited to have it be a surprise when he/she arrives. I totally thought I'd REALLY want to know. I guess that could change between now and the 8th but I doubt it.

And it's funny that a year ago I left work around 3:30 pm thinking I was having some cramping. Who knew that they were actually contractions and within 24 hours we'd have a baby!

playing a catch up

Okay I've been slacking a bit on keeping up with the posts. Here's a few videos that we've taken this month that I haven't gotten around to uploading.

I was trying to get a video to show how well Kaitlin walks these days. She's literally running around the house now.

She really loves bath time.

Kaitlin has started to "dance." This is the best video of her doing her dance but it's all I could get out of her. It actually would have been funnier to have the camera pointed to Bryan and me moving around trying to get her to dance.

first birthday party

On Saturday we had Kaitlin's first birthday party at our house. We had approximately 30 people, including kids. We had a lot of fun watching Kaitlin run around and play with all the kids that were there. 

Unfortunately we were busy entertaining our guests so we don't have a lot of photos. If you happened to take any cute ones, please send them our way. :-)

 A rare photo of the family together. Of course Kaitlin isn't looking at the camera.

Here's an example of what the invites looked like. The cake was designed after this.

The cake along with Kaitlin's smash cake. A friend made these and they were just as good as they looked!

 Kaitlin wasn't quite sure what to do since she couldn't break through the fondant. I had to cut the cake in half for her.

Kaitlin really enjoyed the cake!

 Not the best picture but Kaitlin is wearing the new hat Grandma Albertson knit for her.

 Kaitlin pushing her new doll & stroller.

 The banner I made showing Kaitlin's monthly photos.

 Kaitlin playing with her doll & stroller the next morning.

pumpkin farm

Last weekend we headed to a farm in Indiana where they had a pumpkin patch, apple picking (which it was too late in the season to pick your own), a kids farm and tractor rides. Kaitlin had a lot of fun running around with the big kids, petting/feeding the animals and looking at all the pumpkins. I had a hard time picking just a few photos to show.

 

first ponytail

Kaitlin's hair is finally long enough to get into a small ponytail.