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!

Zootastic Weekend!

Cailin had a blast this weekend at the Houston Zoo. Although traffic getting there was a headache, to say the least, once we got there, we had a good time. It was hard to get her to focus on the animals though, mostly because she got distracted by the pretty leaves and plants or the people walking by. She did get to see the tiger swim by and she thought the llamas and the giant pig were pretty funny though. She had the most fun at the petting zoo where she got to pet some goats!

We couldn't get her to look at the giraffe even though it was walking right by us, instead she focused on the bushes right in front of us.

You can tell who took the pictures most of the time...

Oh no, we're in the cage!

Cailin did get a fantastic white lion stuffed animal which she kept a death grip on all the way home. I think she's found her new favorite toy for a while.

Cailin was also really excited to see her BFF again last week! Her and Magnolia had a lot of fun playing together again during a rare playdate. Ahh, just like the good ol' days. We all went out to lunch where they babbled back and forth at each other. I think they were plotting something, we're just not sure what yet. Apparently a yellow ball was the coveted toy of the day but Magnolia showed Cailin all the great new toys she has. Cailin showed her all the skills she's picked up at daycare and how to quickly take a toy away from someone before they've even noticed.

Cailin was also really happy to see Mindy again. I think she decided Mindy was her favorite person of the day and occupied her lap most of the time, even choosing her over Mama. After a while, I think Magnolia started to get a little jealous and either wanted Cailin or her mommy all to herself.

September 25th

Well, we all survived Ike and were blessed with no damage to our house. So many others around us were not so lucky with trees falling through their houses. Cailin literally slept through the entire hurricane though. She slept in her pack n play in our bathroom and never woke up once.



Cailin loves her Daddy! She's definitely a snuggle bug. Usually when she gets home from daycare she wants to be held for at least 30 minutes and get some good cuddling in before she's willing to play by herself or even consider letting you out of her sight. Of course now that she's mobile, if I leave the room she'll just follow me.







And of course she loves the Longhorns! I'm very excited that she is finally big enough to fit ito all the UT clothes we had gotten at the babyshower. She had to debut her adorable outfits on the first Saturday I was home to actually watch UT play.

Cailin says "mama" all the time now but it's pretty much directed at me or sometimes Daddy if she wants him to pick her up. I still love hearing her say it though, I don't think that will ever get old! She trying to say more and more words all the time and sometimes she just sits in her crib babbling to herself all kinds of strange sounds. Her daycare teacher and I were talking about feeding her breakfast and she attempted to mouth the word "breakfast". Of course it didn't sound like "breakfast" but we knew she had tried to say it. She's going to be such a little chatter box one day.

Cailin got to spend some time at the park during the week the world shut down after Ike. After half a day with no power, Jeff and I couldn't take it anymore. I know, we're pansies. So, we went to SugarLand to stay in the land with electricity. She got to play at the park there with Cooper and Cody and she absolutely loved going down the slide, then crawling back up it, then going down again. Since she enjoyed it so much, we took her to the park near our house.

One of Cailin's favorite new things to do is tear up magazines. She gets so involved, I don't have the heart to stop her even though it's a habit I know I shouldn't encourage. Even when she's fussy, if I hand her a magazine, it will entertain her for at least 10 minutes. I usually have to finally stop her after she starts to eat the magazine.

"Mama" at Last!

Cailin finally started saying "Mama" last weekend and now she likes to say it all the time, especially when she wants to be picked up. I think she's figured out if she says "Mama", I'll rush over and pick up her. She's attempting new syllables all the time. One day she was playing with Toby and started saying "tatata", she's so smart! Labor Day weekend we went to visit Grandma and Grandpa in Burleson. We all had so much fun. Cailin got to go on to her first fancy restaurant, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. We knew everyone in the restaurant would hate us when they saw us with a baby, but Cailin, being the perfect angel that she is, never cried once! She was even two hours past her bedtime. We actually had a man stop us and commented on how well behaved she was as if we didn't already know : )



She decided to help Grandpa read the paper one morning. I think she was looking for the stats from the UT game.

She got to spend some rare time with her Uncle Brad and Aunt Maggie. I guess she wanted them to herself for a while before her cousin arrives in May!

The days following coming home, both Cailin and Mama have come down with some kind of virus that has knocked us both for a loop. She's getting better but Saturday she was pretty listless and not like her normal cheery self. After a quick trip to the doctor, we were assured that she was doing okay and she just needed time for the virus to pass. Hopefully it happens sooner rather than later for all our sakes.

How Fast Time Goes!

Well Cailin has reached a couple big milestones. First she is pulling herself up to standing completely by herself now. Although she still forgets to move her feet in the same direction as her hands, and she hasn't figured out that if she lets go she'll fall, but she is getting really good at it. It's amazing what daycare can teach a baby! Also, she says "Dada" but she also says "baba", "rara", and "lala" in connection to nothing in particular but Daddy is happy. I guess "mama" will have to wait but her slobbery smooches let me know how much she loves me.


I took Cailin outside one steamy, hot morning to play in the blazing sun. Smart thinking on my part and Jeff snapped these pics without me knowing, hence the jammies :)

The pups waited anxiously for us to come back in, or a chance for them to sneak out and join the fun. Bailey and Cailin have developed a really cute bond. Sometimes if Cailin is on the floor Bailey will come lay down next to her and let Cailin grab and climb on her. It's really as if she loves it as much as Cailin does. As a thank you, Cailin often lets her lick the drool off her mouth.

Cailin had her last playdate with Magnolia and Hudson the week Mama went back to work. They're so cute how they can sit up together and play with toys now, and probably start fighting over them too. It's amazing how fast time has passed and how big they are both getting. Although they will still have many more playdates in the future and they'll remain drool buddies long after the drooling stops.

The next three videos are just of Cailin being silly (and Daddy too). She's such a giggly girl and it never takes much to make her laugh or smile. Her teachers at daycare have already fallen in love with her of course and she's well known around the school as the cute baby with the cheeks that's always smiling.

Aerobics!

(She was going around the table really fast and smiling but the camera distracted her)

Superman!!!

Giggle Attack!