Just a Few One-Liners

Don't you hate it when you pull a cute outfit from the closet and try it on your baby, only to discover it's just too small to wear again?



Have I mentioned that Kaitlynn loves pizza crust?



Beautiful sunsets aside, having a west-facing home in Texas isn't the smartest idea when summertime rolls around.



I'll give you one guess as to what was on sale at Kroger this week.



And finally, anyone out there need an extra chin?

The Kind of Mother I Am

A good mother would've seen this coming.



A caring mother would've stopped it before it started.



A concerned mother might've been horrified about the nasty germs her baby was picking up.



A conscientious mother might've worried what kind of damage this would do to her daughter's brand new teeth.



A disciplined mother would've discouraged this at all cost.



And a loving mother would make sure no one would've ever found out.



So I wonder what kind of Mom I am, since all I did was grab my camera and take tons of pictures.

Incidentally, whatever kind of mother I may be, I've been that way for a while.



At least I'm consistent. :-)

A New Smile

First, let me just say that I realize all of my posts lately have been about Kaitlynn. I don't mean to be so focused on her, but she's just at that age where she is super cute and doing new things all the time! Plus, she is just such a joy to me and I'm trying to make sure I capture all of these fun little moments of her life.

That being said, one of her new little "tricks" lately has been her smile. She has always had a sweet smile, especially with those plump cheeks of hers. But lately she seems to have developed a different smile, reserved for the special folks in her life.

It all started with Elmo. Jeff had Connor's little Elmo doll and was showing it to Kaitlynn, and she just started grinning like we'd never seen before.



It was this little wrinkled-nose, tilted-up chin, slanted-eye grin that would make anyone melt.



Since Elmo, Kaitlynn has been using this new smile quite a bit. I've seen her use it mostly for her Daddy, but also for some choice friends and family members. And if you're lucky, the smile will be accompanied by some sweet cooing noises.

Not Quite Ready

The other morning I put Kaitlynn on the middle of the living room rug while I warmed up some milk for her.



It might have been about 30 seconds for me to walk into the kitchen, grab a bottle, and then come back to get her. And this was what I found.



Yep, she's on the move! And check out that look on her face, like she's laughing at me and thinking, "You can't catch me, Mommy!"

As much as I love this age, I admit I'm not quite ready for the next stage...crawling and getting into everything! After Connor passed the baby/toddler stage, we haven't worried much about babyproofing. Now I realize I need to start thinking about these things again...the gate at the top of the stairs, the outlet covers, the knife drawer.

My mother-in-law Judy told me this recently about having 2 kids: When her oldest child (Jeff) was learning to crawl/walk, she was right there clapping and encouraging every step of the way. But with the younger one (Chris), he would stand up to take his first steps and she'd gently set him right back down to discourage any progress! Ha! I think of that often because I can totally relate right now. I certainly don't want to slow her down, but I'm in no hurry for Kaitlynn to reach that next stage of crawling/walking like I was with Connor! Funny how different things are with the 2nd child.

Anatomy Lessons from a 3-year-old

The following are a few recent conversations between Connor and me. Lately he's been watching the PBS program Sid the Science Kid and so he's been learning all about anatomy.

Disclaimer: I apologize in advance if the last conversation offends anyone. Just an innocent exchange between mother and son, verbatim.


A couple weeks ago after breakfast:

Mommy: "Connor, come on. You need to brush your teeth."
Connor: "Why do I always have to brush my teeth?"
Mommy: "To take good care of them."
Connor: "I don't want to! I don't want to brush my teeth."
Mommy: "If you don't brush your teeth, you will get cavities and your teeth will fall out." (I know, probably not the smartest approach to entice better teeth cleaning habits.)
Connor: (later that same day, out of the blue) "Mom, I know! I can use some tape on my teeth when they fall out to hold them in! Isn't that a great idea?!"


At lunch this week:

Connor: "When you eat food, it goes into your mouth and down your neck. And then it swishes around in your turmmy and goes all the way down through your body all the way to your toes and just sits there."
Mommy: "Very smart!"
Connor: (after pondering this for a moment) "Do I have a chair in my toes?"
Mommy: "Uh, no."
Connor: "Then how does the food sit in my toes?"


In the car driving home:

Mommy: "I need to pee pee so bad!"
Connor: "Oh! Make sure you hold that pee pee in!"
Mommy: "I will."
Connor: "Are you holding it in your penis?"
(brief pause as I choke down my drink)
Connor: "Why are you laughing? What's so funny?"
Mommy: "Um, girls don't have a penis."
Connor: "Then how does their pee pee come out of their penis?"
Mommy: (trying to play it safe) "Girls don't have a penis. God made them with different parts."
Connor: "You know, boys have a penis. To pee pee and to play with."
(another choke, this time with a spray of soda all over the dash of the car)

When Dad's In Charge

Jeff was gracious enough to let me have some time to myself on Saturday without the kids. I did a little shopping and then decided to go to a restaurant by myself for lunch (believe it or not it's one of my favorite things to do). I managed to make it through the meal and then I ended up having a coughing attack and sneezing fit when I got back to my car. (I'm still trying to get over a bad cold.) Anyway, after that I just decided to go on home.

When I arrived, everything appeared just fine at first glance. I was impressed that Jeff managed to pick out an outfit for Kaitlynn and get her dressed after her morning nap.



But then when I looked a little closer, I noticed something was a little off. He managed to put her shirt on backwards without even realizing it.



His response? "Well, I saw the buttons and figured they were supposed to go in the front."

Can you tell he's still accustomed to dressing boys??

8 months

Guess which little sweetheart turned 8 months old on Valentine's Day?



Yep, another month has flown by. Can I just say, I love this age! She is such a joy. She usually follows a good routine, is developing such a sweet personality, and delights us daily with precious smiles and the occasional laugh. She has also become very vocal and definitely lets us know when she's not happy!

Kaitlynn is spending a lot of time sitting up these days. She really enjoys playing on the floor with toys (mostly Connor's).



She's getting much better at her stability while sitting, but every once in a while she will throw herself backwards and slam her head into the rug. Check out those tears!



Lately she's been enjoying the high chair when we're out at restaurants. But she is at that age where she grabs at everything. Anything within her reach is fair game. And if she can grab it, it's going in the mouth!



Also at mealtimes, she seems to enjoy making noises and faces. She went through a spitting phase there for a few weeks but now she likes making fish faces.



She's still pretty picky with the baby food (except baby yogurt - LOVES that stuff) and definitely prefers her bottles. But I think she's going to give up the baby foods much sooner than Connor did. In fact, we've recently started giving her some table food like bread, bits of vegetables, and bananas, and she LOVES it. Her favorite thing seems to be pizza crust, mostly because she can gnaw on it with her little teeth.



I've also started giving her a sippy cup with water at mealtimes but she still mostly just plays with it. Sometimes I take the stopper out so that she'll get the idea to drink from the cup, but usually she just ends up soaking wet. She likes to chew on the spout because it feels good to her teeth and gums.





Speaking of teeth, Kaitlynn's bottom 2 teeth are now almost completely in and they have really transformed her smile.



Another recent development is that she is getting up on her knees and rocking back and forth. But I think she'll hold off on crawling for a while because she seems to get where she wants by rolling around all over the place!



And as Kaitlynn wrote herself last week, we've been working hard on making sure she is properly dressed and accessorized these days. Especially with her hairbows. The only problem is that now Kaitlynn has discovered these bows on her head and likes to yank them down around her neck. Guess we need to work on that for next month!

Happy Valentine's Day

And thanks, MeMe and Granddaddy, for the Valentine's shirts!

Being a Girl

by Kaitlynn Courtright

Being a girl is hard work. There's just so much to consider when getting ready each day. Let me tell you all about it.



First and foremost, the outfit.

When my big brother Connor was a baby, he could wear the same cute little outfits over and over without it being a big deal. But for a girl, that just isn't acceptable. Especially when my Mommy takes so many pictures of me. I just can't be seen in the same get-up all the time. Shudder the thought!



The next thing you have to worry about is footwear. Unfortunately, my feet are a bit too pudgy right now to fit in any shoes. But no worries, because some genius (probably another Mommy) out there invented these nifty little tights that look like you're wearing ballet slippers and these will pass just fine for footwear.



Then, of course, there's the hairbow. Hairbows are a necessary accessory to any girl's outfit. My Mommy thinks that since I have such plump cheeks, I need to wear the biggest bows she can find. Little bows would just get lost in all these cheeks.



Sometimes baby girl outfits can just get so complicated with all these things to consider. Take this little number for example.



There's the romper, the white shirt underneath, the white tights, the hairbow, and of course, a-hem, the diaper. So many pieces to keep up with!



What's a girl to do??

On a side note, I still wear the occasional hat, although sometimes it's difficult to find one in a coordinating pattern. In this case, I think my Mommy went a little overboard on the leopard.



In case you can't tell, my Mommy has been trying really hard to make sure I'm presentable in all the incessant many photographs she takes. Even when I visited the doctor recently, she got me all dressed up.



Of course, then the doctor felt the need to comment on my hairbow. He called it a "brain squisher." Sigh. Men!

Speaking of men, that's a whole other issue. I have a Daddy and 3 brothers who think it's so much easier to forego some of my girlie accessories. For some reason they think hairbows are just a bunch of trouble. But let me explain why the accessories are so important. A few weeks ago I was out with my Mommy wearing this.



Some stranger came up to us and said, "Oh, how cute! How hold is he?" Imagine my humiliation! If only I'd been wearing my hair piece, there is no way anyone would mistake me for a boy!



See? 100% girl, without a doubt!

Anywho, we're going to keep practicing on all this girlie stuff and one of these days we'll get it all figured out.

Maybe next time, I'll write about how to steal a man's heart. Yeah, I think I might know a thing or two about that.

Dear Daddy

Dear Daddy,

You've had a bit of a rough week, and I know today isn't going much better. So I just wanted you to know that no matter how bad things get during the day, I sure think you're pretty awesome and the best Daddy ever. You make me so happy and I always reserve my sweetest smiles just for you. Thank you for working so hard for us all the time. And I promise I'll always greet you with a smile just for you when you return home.



Love,

Kaitlynn Faith

More Evidence

I recently posted about how Kaitlynn prefers to sleep face-down. For some reason she just won't stop! The other day I got her up after her nap and I saw this on her forehead.



In case you can't tell, those are finger impressions in her forehead from sleeping face-down on her hands. Go figure. And then she gave me this look, as if she's saying, "Ha Ha Mommy! Whatcha' gonna do about it??"

Movin' On Up

Kaitlynn surpassed the weight limit on her infant car seat quite some time ago, but we were waiting to get Connor a new car seat before moving her into Connor's old one. As you can see, it was time to move on up.



You can't really tell from the pictures but at times her feet were dangling off the edge. Not to mention that carrying her in the infant car seat was incredibly heavy!



As a frame of reference, here she was in the same car seat when we brought her home from the hospital. So hard to remember how small she was!



I admit, I was a little reluctant to move her to the bigger car seat. Every time we are out and about, I have to buckle her in, unbuckle her out, secure her in a shopping cart or high chair, buckle her back in, and then unbuckle her when we get home. Seems like a lot more work. But now that she's in the bigger car seat, it's not so bad.



She really seems to enjoy it, too. Makes her feel like a big girl, I think.



Here's Kaitlynn's first time in the car seat at about 7 months.



And here was Connor in the same car seat at about 5 months. (He had to move from the infant seat much earlier because he was so much bigger/heavier.)