Caitlin: 18 months old

I honestly feel like we just got back from vacation. In August. Yet, here it is November and I'm not sure where the time has gone and what I've accomplished.

Caitlin has 7 teeth now. We are waiting for the last one to come in and even out. A few weeks ago, she ran fever and we kept her home. I'm pretty sure it was related to a slight ear infection, but I also waited on that 8th tooth to break through.

We're still wearing the 18 month clothes, though we unloaded the 24 month container last weekend. I was pretty sad doing that, because I wanted to go shopping for new stuff. Thankfully for my wallet, Caitlin has many hand me downs. We've been in the size 5 shoes for a while, but I am starting to think they are getting too small. The girl does love her shoes. I find it hard to try new ones on, because I can't get them off of her. I also find her putting on our shoes and trying to walk around the house in them.

She's never had a big vocabulary. Definitely not the vocabulary Cooper had at this age! However, I haven't been worried. I knew at 18 months she would start to hit that word explosion stage. The past two weeks I've heard more words than normal. Her favorites are bow and shoes. She gets dressed, goes to the bow hanger and brings a bow to us while saying booooowwwww. I also think she only wants to wear the bows so that she can yank them out and throw it down when she is mad. And she loves to wear 3 or 4 bows at a time, even if they don't match.

She's also sort of said pumpkin, sit (sounds like shit), chips, and Cooper. It isn't often she will say Cooper, but I find it stinking adorable when she does. I've also gotten her to say nana a few times when referring to a banana. She will say dog, baby (baba, which is also sort of what she calls Cooper, but they are just a little different). She signs milk but won't say it, and will also sign more.

Caitlin is still as dramatic as ever. She is a great fit thrower and can get pretty angry when she doesn't get her way. We're working really hard on the hitting and slapping, which happens to be her favorite way to lash out. She also screams baby talk, which sort of reminds me of Ricky Ricardo yelling at Lucy in Spanish. For now, she is put on the stairs in the time out spot when she's really rotten. She isn't really old enough to know to stay, but the entire process of putting her on the stairs and leaving is enough. Unfortunately, Cooper gets the brunt of most of her attacks. If he is nearby, she will get mad at me & hit him. He's been really good about not getting mad at her and hitting back, which I am thankful for.

I am really happy that we've hit the age where she will occasionally play alone. It doesn't last long, but even 15 minutes makes me happy. Most of the time she wants to play with Cooper's toys - the Bat Cave and any trucks that make noise - but she also loves her Little People Princess Castle. She's figured out how to make the songs play and will dance while they sing. Cooper has also learned that if he wants her to leave him alone, he needs to play with her toys for a few minutes. Most of the time, he's great about playing with her. Though it does break her heart if he wants to play with the Legos upstairs and she can't follow him in the gate. She will cry on the stairs until I drag her away.

My mom found one of my old dresses and I put Caitlin in it one day to get a photo. I am amazed at how much she looks like me as a baby.

12 Months Old

I know the first year with Cooper went fast. This past year went even faster. It seems like just yesterday, we packed our bag & drove in very early to spend three days in the hospital with a band new baby girl. I remember so many details as if they just happened, but I also found myself trying to remember what we did the night before for dinner. (news flash: I still have no clue)

Pieces of this past year are simply a blur. Thank goodness for smart phones and their ability to take great photos. Also, thank you Facebook for keeping my timeline organized, even if you do have a mind of your own over other things. Without the help of digital cameras and social media, I would wonder what the heck we did every day. At least, I'd wonder that more often than I already do.

This girl is something else. She's feisty and loud. She's demanding when she needs to be and totally impatient most of the time. Cooper is usually her favorite person in room, though he usually fights that battle with me. I don't remember Cooper ever being so excited to see me at the end of the day, but I swear one day she is going to take off from flapping her arms so much.

She loves to talk, but pretty well only says mama, dada and baba. Everything else is babble.

We transitioned fully to milk over the past two weeks. She loves eating - especially meat & frozen peas. Most fruit is a win, though she's still not really sure about bananas.

She isn't walking yet, but will push anything to get where she needs to go. She also will stand without holding anything for a few seconds.

Caitlin weighs just over 21 pounds. She's moved to just above average in weight. We're pretty well only wearing 12 month clothes, though a few 9 month dresses still fit. I recently bought size 3 shoes. She hates wearing hair bows and headbands and will always pull them out.

Cooper woke up the morning of her birthday and asked if she could talk now. He was pretty disappointed when I said that she could not. He was even more disappointed when I told him she could also not walk yet. We spent that night at dinner with Pops and Aunt Sassy. Caitlin was a bit fussy - I made her one year appointment for that afternoon and the shots were not her friend.

What a mess she is & what a crazy year this has been!

11 Months Old

I am in denial that Caitlin is almost 1. She's just so little. I mean, she is average - but compared to Cooper, she is little. I think she's still well under 20lbs. I can still carry her in the bucket carseat, though she's heavy and I can't go far! I'm thinking she is probably still pretty average for a girl, which is ok with me. But man is it a change compared to Cooper!!

Caitlin is crawling all over the place. She's gone up the stairs a few times - halfway, at least. We finally bought and installed a baby gate for the bottom. She'll climb up the first two stairs and get in trouble, and then do it again. This girl is ALL drama. Fussing at her only ends with tears and screaming, only to quickly move on to something else and get in trouble all over again.

She's cruising around quite a bit and has learned to push things to "walk." Mostly her walk-behind toy or her table, but she's also pushed the kitchen chairs a few times. Her favorite place to explore is the pantry. I store a big box of trail mix pouches & lunch kits down there and she will spend quite a bit of time taking everything out and "packing" a lunch. If I open the fridge, she makes a beeline for it and gets mad if I close the door before she gets there. The same excitement can be seen over the dishwasher as well.

We pretty well quit giving her baby food earlier this month. Daycare suggested giving her what they are serving and the first day was a hit, so we went with it. She seems to really love any meat, corn & peas from the freezer are a big hit. She loves oranges and strawberries, as well as steamed broccoli. She still isn't a huge fan of bananas, which still makes me sad. They are so easy!! Mac & cheese is a huge hit, though sadly it has been from a box more often than not. It is just too easy. So far, she also doesn't seem to balk when things are a bit spicy either.

Caitlin is still nursing, though I've cut back drastically. I cut down the pumping during work over this month and we've started to really rely on the freezer stash. My goal was to make it to the 11 month mark and then start adding in whole milk. I was successful with that, so until she actually turns 1 we'll be cutting back and adding in more whole milk.

She started waving bye-bye and can say mama, dada, baba. I feel that baba is her word for Cooper, but honestly...I have no idea. Most of the time she just screams at him. He loves it, though. He loves to play with her and is usually pretty rough with her. Which is probably why she screams at him! They will play together in his toy room until she manages to pull the Batcave down on top of her. Or climbs on something he's playing with. Or messes up his magnet tower. Then all bets are off!

Sadly, I don't think she is a fan of bows. I put them on and she immediatly goes to pull them out. Which is probably why I've lost a few. I'm sure they are around the house, but I can't find them. I also have lost about 4 pacifiers, which drives me crazy.

I've packed away all of the 6 month clothes. We moved out of the 9 month pjs this month as well, since I'm pretty sure she grew. Suddenly, the legs were just too short! I've unpacked all of the 12 month clothes and most fit really well. I'm slowly weeding out the 9 month pants that are too small. I suspect she will be like Cooper & I and have long legs. We're still pretty well in size 2 shoes, though her feet are fat and some just won't go on. I want to buy new shoes SO bad, but I'm waiting until she starts walking and then I'll get some good walking shoes.

10 Months Old

Caitlin is finally crawling like a baby normally does, and not on her belly. She started just the weekend before her 10 month birthday and really can move! We've also caught her up a few stairs (though we haven't bought a gate to keep her from doing that again...) She's pushed her walk-behind toy a few times around my bedroom, but that's about it. Every once in a while, she will cruise around the coffee table. But for the most part, she seems happy just crawling.

The girl loves to talk. She can say Mama, Dada, and I think Ba-ba is her word for Cooper. She isn't consistent with it, so I'm not sure. But I have heard her say it a few times when he walks into a room. Most of the time, though, she just screams. Loud. The girl loves attention.

She's also eating more finger foods. She really likes meat and I found out that she is a huge fan of broccoli. Which is great, since that's the only veggie Cooper eats. She still doesn't really like bananas, though I have tried. Every once in a while, she will eat a few pieces, but not much. This really makes me sad, since bananas are the easiest fruit to give her. Oranges would be too acidic and pears/apples would need to be steamed a little. So...we stick with applesauce for now.

Caitlin loves to be outside. If the backdoor is open, she crawls right over there and I have to stop her from going out the door. She loves to swing and watch Cooper play.

This baby is a total mama's girl. Jason gets her out of the crib in the morning and she is immediately looking for me. She also ins't a huge fan of many men right now. Other than Cooper & Jason. The teachers at Sunday School have even commented that she will not go to any of the men in the room.

Sadly, she also doesn't like having a bow in her hair. As soon as i put one on, she pulls it out. If I put a head band on, she ends up with it around her neck. I hope that phase passes because I have way too many cute bows that she needs to wear!

9 Months Old!

When people ask me how Caitlin is, I usually say She's crazy. Or She's nuts. Because it is the truth. She is either cracking up at her brother or screaming. She is impatient and demanding. She's stubborn. Just...crazy.

Caitlin can move all over the house now. She doesn't crawl, but she does this strange belly slide where she pulls herself with her arms & it looks sort of like swimming. She will pull up on things and crawl up some things. Thankfully, not the stairs. Because I still haven't bought a baby gate. I'm pretty sure she's not afraid of much either.

She loves to eat, but is pretty picky compared to Cooper at her age. We started giving her breakfast - usually yogurt or applesauce. Lunch is 2-3 cubes of baby food and dinner is 2-3 cubes, plus some other random stuff. So far, she isn't a big fan of table food. I keep putting things on her tray, but not too much passes the test. I'm actually ok with that. It is less messy. And I hate mopping. She is pretty good with feeding herself small things like baby puffs or cheerios, and loves the Mum Mum crackers, just like her brother.

She can say a few things - the typical "ma ma ma" or "da da da" and "ba ba ba." I'm not always sure she knows what they mean, but she can get very loud and demanding when she talks. So maybe she does...

Her face lights up when she sees Cooper. He is still a great big brother. I find myself depending on him often to help out around the house & watch her. It's a lot to ask of a 4 year old, but he really is great. I do think she's in a phase where she's not 100% sure of men. We've noticed a few times where she is unsure of her Pops or Papa, Uncle A or even some of our friends. And she even shunned her Aunt Sassy one day after church. I don't recall Cooper going through that phase, but I've heard it is pretty common for girls.

One big difference between Cooper & Caitlin, aside from the obvious boy vs. girl thing, is their sleep habits. Cooper was a champion sleeper. He slept all night around 6 weeks old and kept that going until he was 2 years old. Caitlin has been a totally different child. She just has not been a great sleeper. I think, maybe, she slept ok from the age of 3-4 months, but then the 4 month wakeful hit and it was pretty well one sickness after another and she was up all night. Some nights it was only 1-2 times. Other nights...5-6 times. Most of the time we could go it to her room, put her paci in and she'd go right back to sleep. But broken sleep is rough and was starting to take its toll.

After the 1st of the year, I made the decision to sleep train her. I bought a book for the Kindle, read the chapters for her age, and we let her cry. I knew her issue was that she just didn't know how to put herself back to sleep. She wasn't hungry, she didn't NEED to nurse, she just wanted someone to come in her room. The first 7-10 days were...rough. She cried a lot. One night, I'm pretty sure she cried from about 4am-6am. But it got better and by the second week she was consistently sleeping all night. Some mornings she's even slept until 7am! My only regret is not starting the process sooner.

She was being pretty uncooperative the day we tried to take these. By the time Cooper tried to take a picture with her, she was really done.

The following week, I took Caitlin to the pediatrician. She's doing really well and the doctor didn't seem concerned about anything. He said most kids get teeth between 6 & 9 months, so it isn't too unusual for her to still be toothless. He didn't feel that we should hold off trying any new foods - and even said that eggs & peanut butter would be ok to try. Big change from 4 years ago when we held off on quite a few foods with Cooper! I haven't tried either thing yet - mostly because I just haven't thought about it. We'll probably start giving her some whole milk when she's around 11 months old. He was more worried about her drinking whole milk from a bottle instead of a cup, than trying it early. Since she's been taking water from a sippy cup, I think we'll be ok.

I fully expected Caitlin to be well past the 12 month clothes by this age. She's really surprised us and stayed pretty well average. Most of her clothes are 9 month size, however she can still fit into some 6mo. Nothing like her big brother!

Height: 28" - 62%
Weight: 18lbs 12oz - 59%
Head Circumference: 17.32" - 53%

8 Months Old

What an exciting month it has been for Caitlin! She has experienced her first Christmas and I think Cooper helped make it wonderful. We've spent a lot of time with family and friends. Caitlin discovered the tree & presents, she helped bake cookies for Santa, took a picture with Santa and watched Cooper find Waffles the Elf each day. He even spent one day in her room, just to make sure she was good.

Caitlin is eating 2 meals a day - lunch and dinner. She still takes the same amount of milk at school, though I find it harder to keep up on my end. December was a very busy month and I had to really remind myself to stop & pump. It was about this point where Cooper stopped nursing, so anything past this is a bonus and I'm happy with that. Caitlin can scoot pretty well anywhere she wants to go. I found her making her way from the foyer, to her room a few times. Or into the kitchen. Unfortunately, a moving baby makes a dirty floor glaringly obvious. :-/ Thankfully, she hasn't learned to pull herself up or discovered the stairs. We still haven't bought a baby gate.

She's loud. Very loud when she wants to be. She can say a few things: da-da-da-da, ma-ma-ma-ma, and ba-ba-ba-ba. Over the month, she did start to associate the ma-ma-ma with me & will say that as she's scooting across the floor looking for me. That's usually my clue that she's hungry.

Caitlin has also been sick this past month. She's had an ear infection, bronchitis, and a second possible ear infection that (thankfully) never got bad enough for an antibiotic. We're very familiar with the pediatrician around here.

She's just over 18lbs, according to our last pediatrician visit.

Her most favorite person in the world is probably Cooper. I come in a close second, but that's only because I have the liquid gold. I'm sure Jason will slowly pass me by as she relies less and less on me for food. :-)

7 Months Old

Caitlin's personality has started to really show. Sometimes it isn't the best, but man...that girl will a firecracker one day. I can already tell.

She's started really sitting up and I feel comfortable leaving her sitting as long as we're on a blanket or carpet. I still get nervous putting her on the hard tile at this point. She's also scooting around like crazy. I'll put her on one side of the living room and come back to find her all the way across the room. Scary. She'll get there with a combination of rolling and scooting. She still does the Superman pose - stretching out as much as possible and grunting in hopes that she'll magically move. It hasn't worked yet. We've also finally reached the sitting in the grocery cart phase! I'm not going to lie, this is one of my favorite milestones. It makes shopping SO much easier when there is room for the items.

Funny enough, I looked at Cooper's post for 7 months and he hit the same milestones.

6 Months Old

We missed taking Caitlin's 6 month photos on her actual birthday, but moving it a day gave us a good chance to share her Halloween costume.

I'm pretty sure 6 months came faster with her than it did with Cooper. I can't prove that, but it sure felt that way!

She is generally a very happy baby. We still experience the "witching hour" around 6pm. I honestly thought that went away after a few months. We finally pulled out the high chair and will set her in that for a while. It's helped me cook dinner while being in her view and it keeps her from freaking out. Win win. We're also on our fifth food - we've done carrots, sweet potatoes, avocado, butternut squash and pears. So far, she seems to like most of it, though it took some getting used to! As I did with Cooper, I plan to make most of her food. It's very easy and turns out to be a big cost saver.

She's very vocal these days. Especially when she sees Cooper. He can almost always make her laugh and squeal. If he's not around, she's constantly looking for him.

We're solidly in the 6 month size clothes and moved to the size 3 diapers. I think I found and used all of the size 2's last week. She is quite a bit behind Cooper in size! I think he was wearing 9 month clothes at this age.

I took both kids to the pediatrician last Monday. Cooper needed his flu shot, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone. Taking 1 kid alone is pretty rough, but two...I was scared. We managed & Cooper was a big help. He was pretty shaken when Caitlin screamed after her 5 shots, but got his without a single tear shed! I was so proud of him.

6 Month Stats:
Height: 26 1/4" (61st percentile - the doctor questioned that, but we stretched her out pretty good!)
Weight: 17lbs 5.4oz (68th percentile)
Head: 16.57" (45 percentile)

She seems a bit more average than Cooper did!

5 Months Old

It's hard to believe 5 months have passed since Caitlin was born. Time flies with kids, but I think with two it goes so much faster because every day is a blur. I have talked to people having their second kid and when they ask what it is like, I can only say "survival mode." I feel like we race the clock daily to get to school on time, work, cook and eat dinner, baths, a little bit of down time, clean the house and nurse. Plus, wash bottles, do laundry...and, well, it never ends!

Caitlin has changed so much in the past month. She's rolling over any time her back hits the ground. She talks and laughs often and is crazy about her brother. If he is in the rooms, she cannot do anything other than look for him. Most of her deep belly laughs come only from laughing at him.

We've tried a few times to give her solid food, but she hasn't been a fan. It seems strange - at this time Cooper was on his third or fourth veggie and eating like a champ. She is perfectly content with milk. Just another reminder that they are so different!

In the midst of the craziness that is our life, I could not find a solid white onesie for her photos. This was the closest thing we had to a solid color. I went with it, and sure enough I located the stack of solid white ones the next day.