utensils

Miss K is now becoming Miss Independent. She's learning how to master the fork & the spoon.

13 month milestones

It's hard to believe that 13 months has come and gone already. I don't have any more monthly onsies to take Kaitlin's pictures but I'll try to add recent photos when I remember. And speaking of recent photos, need to collect some from Thanksgiving weekend from friends & family since I didn't once take out the camera. But I did want to post some  recent milestones for future reference.

Has started to climb on everything. It started off with her trying to climb onto you while sitting on the floor. Then today she started trying to climb on her activity table and her little people house. I'm just waiting for her to try to figure out how to climb out of her crib. I'm hoping the sleep sack we keep her in helps contain her in the crib for as long as possible.

Starting to transition into one nap a day. This started just this week after returning from Iowa from the Thanksgiving holiday. Kaitlin has started sleeping longer at night (7 pm - 6:30ish am) and then going down for a nap with the nanny at noon. She'll sleep until 3 or 4 pm, if Will doesn't start crying earlier; otherwise she wakes around 2 pm. I think transitioning to one nap a day will make it easier to get out of the house to do things.

No more bottles. We have successfully moved over to sippy cups! She seems to really like the Munchkin brand from Target. All the bottles have been packed up for at least the next 6 months or so. Yippy!

Follows more directions. In the past few weeks Kaitlin has started to really follow more directions and shows that she understands more of what you say/what you're asking her. 
A few examples:
- She knows where her baby dolls are when you ask
- When you tell her to say bye bye she waves without you doing it first
- She gives you kisses (and most of the time they are with an open mouth)

Becoming more independent. Kaitlin has started to figure out how to put on her own socks (she's not successful yet but yesterdays they go on her feet). She also has started to to feed herself with a spoon. She understands that you have to "refill" the spoon with food and then attempts to put it into her mouth. Most of the time the food ends up anywhere but in her mouth.

7 teeth. Her 7th tooth is popping through.

dancing

Here's a few videos of Kaitlin dancing.

She's LOVES the channel 5 first birthday segment. We were finally able to get her actually dancing to the segment.

Kaitlin is almost always aware that the camera is on her, which is why it was hard to get the first two videos of her dancing.

nice november days...

We've had an usually warm few days for November here in Chicago. It's been in the mid to upper 60's. I took advantage of the nice weather and took Miss K for a walk this morning before I left for work. When we got to the park she wanted out to walk around. She's loves to keep walking back and forth across the bike/walking path.

Here she's checking out the fire truck that was coming by.

fall fun

About a week ago we had an usually warm fall day. After work Bryan and I took Kaitlin near the lake to play in all the leaves. Some of these pictures are dark since it has been getting dark earlier.

 

 She loved running back and forth across the walking path.

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