More Pics!

Cailin now has two bottom teeth and one top tooth. The second top tooth is about to push it's way through though. She can actually take bites of sandwiches now, it's too cute.



Grandma and Cailin waving hi!

Mama jungle gym time!

Time for a trip around the house.

It's a little hard to see but she has her duckie in her hand. She picked this little yellow duck off a shelf of about a thousand toys at the store and literally didn't put it down for days. It went to bed with her, got up and stayed in her hand while she ate breakfast, and basically stayed with her everywhere she went. She only let it go during bath time. Duckie even came out on the swing.

Grandma bought Cailin her very own little chair. She thinks it's fun to sit in grown folk chairs so we thought we get her one where if she fell out, a trip to the emergency room wouldn't be in order. Of course you see Duckie in tow.

Cailin picked out this froggie towel too. It's funny to see what she chooses when we let her pick stuff out. I had gone for some typical girly towel but she immediately pointed to the frog. She thinks it's hilarious when Mama and Daddy put it on our heads too.

She's getting down on her snack, nothing like some cheese and crackers.

Ah, this is the infamous blankie. Her other most beloved item. No one is even allowed to touch this blankie without her expressed permission. I'm not joking either. She gets mad if you try to touch or move her blankie. It's her most prized possession. Blankie makes many appearances at the breakfast table too and poor thing gets dragged all over the house. It reminds us of Lionus from Charlie Brown. She saw blankie in the washing machine one day and was trying to get it out. I had to explain that blankie was taking a bath.

Long overdue

Okay I know it has been way too long since I've updated you on Cailin. Let me tell you time flies by these days like crazy but I'll try to do a better job of keeping things more up to date. As some of you might know, Cailin was pretty sick this past week. She had a combo ear infection, lung infection and sinus infection. All of which makes for a nightmare plane trip and a week at high altitudes, so in the best interest of our sweet girl, we opted not to put her through that torture. Instead, Mama stayed home with her and Grandma came down to help out and we sent Daddy skiing. Cailin had to use a Nebulizer, which is a breathing treatment that opens up her airways. Needless to say, she was not a fan of this but luckily Grandma did a great job of putting on a show for Cailin to calm her down during the treatments. Per her request though, no videos or pictures were allowed during these performances : ).

It didn't take long for Cailin to start feeling better and since the weather this week was gorgeous, we got to spend a lot of time outside enjoying it. Her Winnie the Pooh car is totally awesome and we took endless rides up and down the street.


Cailin is a girl who moves at her own pace, whether it is fast or slow, she goes where her heart takes her. She is still trying to master the confidence to let go and walk on her own but we know that she will in her own time. All we can do it continue to be there for her, holding her hand until she feels ready to go it alone.

Trips around the backyard are a fun game for her. Of course she disagrees with us about whether or not she should wear shoes or not, but luckily Mama always wins that battle. She'll take a few laps and then decides that she's ready to go inside. It's amazing that three adults obediently followed her in and out the door. She has us trained! : )

Cailin has definitely developed the fine art of whining. Don't get me wrong, she's still sweet, snuggly and smiling 90% of the time but she's coming to an age where she adamantly voices her likes and dislikes. She's a snuggler for sure and loves to be held. She's asking Daddy to pick her up and Duckie too.

Grandma was so great to come down at the last minute to spend some time with us. Cailin can go months without seeing her and within 30 seconds she's begging Grandma to hold her and pretty much doesn't let her go until Grandpa comes to pick her up. Cailin was investigating Grandma's necklaces and making sure they weren't edible.

Unfortunately though Cailin and Mama had to miss our long anticipated trip to Idaho where we had a great ski trip planned. Since Cailin's illness was so sudden, we decided Daddy should go so it wouldn't be a complete loss. He had a huge ordeal just getting there though. Missed flights, endless hours waiting on standby flights only to get sent home, flying to so many cities and changing flights and airports. But finally he made it and had a great time and came back in one piece, sore but whole. Hopefully one day we can take another trip but we were really glad to have Daddy home safe and sound.

Cailin got a bouncing horsey for Christmas, I think she really likes it because it's one of the few things she's big enough to get on and off by herself. Independence is a big thing for 1 1/2 year olds. Don't tell her, but she'll be my sweet baby girl forever, even when she thinks she's a big girl.

I told you...my sweet baby girl.

Have I gushed enough about her? No? Well let me just say that she is the light in my life (her Daddy too). She's is just such a happy little girl who honestly loves to make people laugh. If she gets a laugh, she absolutely lights up and will try to get you to laugh again. She loves to give hugs and smooches and still stops strangers in their tracks when we're out in public. Even women with their own babies will stop and gush about how cute she is and how happy she looks. She's just awesome. There's no way around that. She's so smart and learning new words every day. She'll say "Thank you" when you hand her something, she will go get a certain toy if you ask her too, she's learned a duck says "quack" and knows exactly where to go in fridge to find her apple sauce. Her other words include "Bailey", "ball", blankie has become "didi" for some reason but she knows what it is. Okay, I'll stop now, I told you I could gush about her.

So happy...

We play the laundry basket car game in the living room. She loves it not to mention it's a great workout for your legs, but not so much for your back.

When in doubt though, we always have our thumb.

Daddy's turn!

We went to the Northshore park a while back and fed the ducks, although Cailin enjoyed eating the pieces of bread as much as the ducks did.

Cailin is very eco conscious and makes sure that we have put all the proper recyclables in the bin.

At long last we have some pictures with Poopah!

She got a huge Bolt dog for Christmas from Moms, it was a hit.

We got a new backyard swing for Cailin and she really loves it. It's about 4 feet up in the air and doesn't swing too far because the tree is in the way but she's doesn't care. It's her own meditation spot I think. She totally relaxes while she swings. Maybe it brings back memories of her swing as a itty bitty baby that she would fall asleep in.

She was trying to show Grandma the finer points of thumb sucking. Maybe she figured everyone needs a thumb to suck sometimes.

Christmas Fun

We all had a wonderful Christmas. Cailin and I went up to Burleson the Saturday before Christmas and stayed until New Year's Day. Daddy came up Christmas Eve. It was great to get to spend enough time to see all of our family and friends. Since she is the only grandchild at this point, Cailin of course made a killing with all her new toys. Her Uncle Brad got her a huge stuffed horse which she loves to snuggle with. We got to spend time with surrogate grandparents Scott and Brenda (Maggie's parents). Cailin is such a lucky girl to have so many people to love her so much.

She is such a snuggly little girl. She will snuggle with all of her beloved stuffed animals. Grandma Debbie got her a Winnie the Pooh bear that she held on to for about 2 straight days. Anything that is super soft will get a snuggle from Cailin including any dogs or cats willing to hold still long enough to let her. Of course Mama and Daddy get snuggles all the time and Grandma does too.

She got some great toys this year. Toys that make noise and vibrate...

...and books galore! She LOVES looking at books, especially those that play music. She will spend a lot of time looking at her books and practicing turning the pages and if it plays music, she'll do a little dance, it's too cute. She's going to be such a little genius!

She wants Grandma to read her the new book that she got from Brenda.

As was expected, the unwrapping of the gifts was one of the best parts of Christmas. I mean what's not to love about tissue paper and paper with glitter.

We also had a chance to get together with all of the Hackett family. Cailin was mostly amazed by her cousin Arden, who is 2 1/2 and probably the coolest kid ever in Cailin's mind. She followed her up and down the stairs about a million times (which was not so fun for Mama's back). As we were leaving, her and Arden gave each other hugs and kisses goodbye. We were all melting at the massive level of cuteness. I think Cailin wanted to keep giving her hugs all night long if we would have let her. I can't wait to see these two in the years to come playing together. With all the new baby cousins on the way, they'll be the two big girls!

Cailin got a talking Elmo doll that she loved. It's talks, dances and tells stories. She got clothes, of course, a Cabbage Patch doll and lots more then she even knows what to do with but it all means that she had a great Christmas.

She loved playing with Grandma's Christmas cards. She especially liked the ones with snowmen or Santa Claus on them. She would pick them up and put them on the table, then knock them off again only to put them back on the table again. Taking things on and off a table seemed to be a new challenge, whether it was cards or magazines or shoes, it all was fun to her.

Her fanscination with animals is never ending (definitely my child). She had to continually check on the dogs in the backyard, I guess to make sure they were still there and laugh at them when they are playing with each other.

We hated to go home but Christmas break is almost over. It's fantastic to get two weeks off to spend with my sweet girl and my family, even Daddy got to take a week off! We've had a great year and are looking forward to many more great Christmas's to come.

New videos

Sorry it has been so long since I've updated you on Cailin but here are several videos of Cailin just being Cailin.

Sometimes it's difficult to entertain a one year old but the simplest things entertain her for a long time. I had brought a blanket and put it on the floor, so simple. But Cailin spent 30 minutes playing with it, putting over her head and jumping on it, who knew?

We've really seen Cailin's language exploding lately and because of that she understands us more and more. She learned the "Where's Cailin?" game. One day she just started doing it on her own.

Cailin is trying to tell me something in this video, I have no idea what but she seems to think it's quite important and funny too. I think it has something to do with the pen she is holding but you never can tell.

Along with the "where's Cailin?" game, she has learned the "So big!" game.

Cailin has started dancing to music too, something I've been unable to catch on video but I assure you it's so funny!

She has also learned to wave bye bye and even says "Bye" now. Usually she starts saying "bye" as we're leaving daycare and says it and waves the whole way home, it's really cute. She has also finally cut her first tooth so we were really relieved about that. We have taken her off the bottle also and are transitioning her to a sippy cup, a process she is not happy with. I think she is still going through bottle withdrawal. It breaks our hearts to see her so upset but we know it's time to move to the big girl cups. Most people keep asking me if she's walking yet and the answer is not yet. She's getting more brave though but she still seems pretty wobbly so we are just enjoying the crawling for now.

First Birthday Party!