8 months - week 2

Cate has discovered tilting her head to one side this week. I only see her do it when she's in her high chair when she's eating. It's pretty funny. She thinks it's really funny when you do it back to her.

Early in the week I was told that Cate has been trying to stand up at school. She has been crawling around and gets up on her knees to play but hasn't gotten much further.

But on Saturday she crawled over to her activity table and pulled herself up! I haven't caught it on video yet, but I'm sure I'll have plenty of opportunity!

Cate has moved up to Stage 3 foods. She has done pretty well with it so far. We tried Chicken and Stars today and she kept spitting it out because of the larger chunks in it. She's not used to it yet. She has been eating the Puffs. She has figured out that they go in her mouth, but she spits them out alot because she's not used to having solids yet. We also tried the cheese puffs (look like Cheetos) and she ate a few of those. I think it helps that they were bigger to grasp too.

She has also taken more to holding her own bottle. Still not exactly understanding that she has to hold it up to get it out. But she's close.

Her top teeth are still coming in. One tooth is in and growing in fast, but the other is taking its time. So we are still dealing with teeth pain, fussiness and some diaper rash.

You can sort of make out her top tooth in the next two pics.

Obviously, with Cate cutting in her teeth, she chews on everything!

Here are randoms from the week...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIXoo-pIr6Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SNAx3MVtYc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiqKPi4XF70

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aecwUJBpMAw

 

8 Months - Week 1

We got the pics from Stephenie that she took of all of us! I really love them! These are just a couple.

Cate came home this week with her spider she made at school for Halloween. Last week at school they studied apples, so I should be getting something she made from that lesson too. Her school pics came in. I'm not a huge fan of the pics. Her outfit really did not match the Fall background they chose. I'll know for next year I guess. We decided not to order any, especially after getting great pics form Stephenie!

Cate had doc appt. this week. She didn't have to have shots this time, but we went ahead and got her the first half of her flu shot. She will go back next month for the 2nd half. She also had her blood tested and is a little anemic. She gets this from mommy. So we have started her on a daily vitamin with extra iron in it. She didn't cry once when having blood taken or when she got her flu shot! Cate is now 20lbs., 28 1/8" tall! We don't have to go see the doctor again until she is a year old.

The doctor also said it was okay to start Cate on Cheerios or Gerber Puffs. So we got some apple/cinnamon Puffs. She's not too sure about them right now. She has only eaten a couple, but only because we put them in her mouth. She picks them up well with her thumb and fore finger, but hasn't tried to put it in her own mouth. I find this funny since she puts everything else in her mouth! The doc also said to start her on Stage 3 baby foods, which are more chunky. We haven't tried them yet. I think after she gets used to those eating the Cheerios or Puffs will be more natural.

Aunt Courtney and Jonathan came in for a visit on Friday. Mike and I went to a friend's wedding that night, so Court and Jonathan watched Cate for us. Courtney brought in a few outfits for Cate: LSU jersey, Who Dat bloomers, and a Mardi Gras outfit! We'll have to wait a little longer to wear the Mardi Gras outfit, but the others we can enjoy now!

Her top teeth are almost broken through now. She done pretty well with cutting these than the first two.

Cate had a rough night last night. I don't think anything was really wrong, just a hard time sleeping, which means a hard time sleeping for us too. Hopefully she goes back to normal tonight!

7 months - week 4

This has been the last week of Cate's 7 month old life :) She will be 8 months old tomorrow! Where does the time go? Mike just realized that next month we will have been in the "new" house for a year! So I guess it's not "new" anymore? But it's all new to Cate!

One of Cate's top teeth have broken through. She is working on the other one. So far it hasn't been too bad. I say that now, but if you had asked me a few days ago I likely would have said something else.

Cate has gone back and forth with the food. We are still testing new flavors and for the most part is eating well and enjoying it. She takes to the fruit alot more because it's sweeter. There hasn't been one flavor that she has really loved yet, other than the apples and pears.

My cousin Stephenie and her daughter Raelee came for a visit this weekend. Raelee and Cate played Thursday night so well. Raelee pretended to be a lion and crawled around while Cate ran after her (with me holding her up). Cate laughed and laughed. She had a great time! When it was time for Cate to go to bed, she drank her bottle quickly and passed out! She was exhausted from playing. Unfortunately Raelee go sick Friday night and we had to separate Cate and Raelee from playing the rest of the weekend.

While Stephenie was here, she and I did some shopping Saturday. I bought a few books for Cate: The Complete Story of Winnie the Pooh (to read when she's older), My First ABC Book, My First Numbers Book, My First Words Book. Mike has also ordered some "cajun" books for Cate: The Cajun Alphabet, Cajun Night Before Christmas, Petite Rouge: A Cajun Little Red Riding Hood. We also went to a consignment shop close by the house and I got Cate a walker, a little drum and a cute jacket. Stephenie got Cate a play table for her to practice standing up on her own.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPb5-ApddTU

Stephenie also brought some of her photography gear to get some photos of Cate and of all of us. We attempted pictures Saturday night but Cate was ready for bed and we didn't get a while lot. Sunday morning we all headed to a near by park and took some more photos. They were really cute! I can't wait til Steph sends them over :) Here are a couple I stole from Steph's FB page. More to come...

After Steph and Realee left, Cate finished her nap. She played around some with her new and old toys then we got out of the house for a nice long walk! What a beautiful day it is!

Cate will be 8 months old tomorrow. She has a doctor appointment on Wednesday. We will also have company next weekend. Mike's sister, Courtney, is coming for a visit!

7 months - Week 3

Cate moved up to Stage 2 foods this past week. So many more flavors to try! Beef macaroni and veggies (smells like ravioli sauce), chicken and rice, chicken and apples, corn casserole, ham pineapple and rice. So far she has finished up the beef macaroni and veggies and the turkey and sweet potatoes. We also started taking a jar of a fruit flavor to school with her. So now she does a bottle in the morning, cereal, fruit baby food, bottle, a meat/veggie baby food and a fruit baby food, then a bottle before bed.

Cate had picture day at school on Tuesday. I dressed her in a light pink dress tank and matching pants. It's a really sweet outfit from Meaux. The outfit is 12 month clothes! She's getting too big! I attempted to clip her hair back, hopefully it still looked okay by the time she took her picture. I didn't think to get a pic of her in her outfit, we'll just have to wait when I get the pictures.

Tuesday evening I tried working with Cate on crawling. I sat her on one side of the living room and I got on the other with one of her toys that lights up and plays music; something to tempt her with. She had all the right movements, just not at the same time! Wednesday night we tried again. She made a few little moves toward me, started looking around and caught a glimpse of another toy she'd rather have and shakily crawled to it! I put her back in her starting place, grabbed the new toy and tried to tempt her from across the room with it and she crawled to me! We then lost the toy and put her down to crawl and she did! We now have a crawler on our hands! She's still a little slow moving and I think she forgets she can crawl and move around sometimes, but she's getting the hang of it and will be everywhere before long, I'm sure!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4_RC18wtgs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiU7iHr7I1w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuc6rkXxFfc

I picked Cate up from school on Thursday and was informed that Cate has a boyfriend! His name is Ben. He is in her class and their cribs are right next to each other. Apparently that day when the teacher was trying to feed both of them they were holding hands and talking to each other. The teacher said it took so long to feed them because they kept talking to one another. When I went to leave with Cate after hearing the stories of the day, Ben got very upset Cate was leaving and started crying. It was very sweet. I later told Mike about Cate's boyfriend and his only response was "No." :)

Cate and I went grocery shopping this morning and went in search of baby proofing products! We also found teething biscuits! She seems to like them. Cate has been doing very well with cutting teeth this time around. Maybe she's used to it? I still only see one of her top teeth coming in, but I can see it a little more than last week.

7 Months - Week 2

Cate survived her first full weekend of football. College ball all day Saturday and pro all day Sunday. She played really well while we were upstairs watching pro ball on Sunday last weekend. She played so much she even tired herself out and needed to lay down for a minute.

She was not wanting to eat most of this last week. We have tried peas and carrots several times but have given up for now. I will go back to carrots again after we can get her eating again. I think the peas are a no go. We went back to green beans again, and she was not a fan at first but finally finished them. I realize now I should have given her all the containers of that flavor of food before moving on to the next. She really like dthe green beans when we first started but then didnt want them when we came back to them. I was just too excited to try the different foods. Oh well!

Cate is becoming more independent in playing by herself for longer periods of time. She can hang out in one place and play for a lot longer than she used to. She is so close to crawling now too. She gets up on all fours and has moved both hands forward a few times. She hasn't figured out how to move her legs just yet. But the rocking still persists and she has started head-banging too. haha!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8gfA-Iubbs

She's getting stronger though with the head-banging and rocking. I even caught her trying to pull herself up in her bouncy chair!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmD7rVpVgbk

We are no longer allowed to sleep in on the weekends. Cate is so used to waking up at 530 during the week that her internal alarm clock goes off at 530 on the weekend too. She is mostly quite in her bed when she wakes up. Mike tried this weekend leaving her in the bed and seeing what she would do. She kind of lightly talks to herself and moves around a little for about 30-60 minutes then falls asleep again for about 30 minutes. Then she's really awake and ready to eat.

She has been pretty consistant in taking a good nap mid-morning and a good nap in the afternoon. Towards bed time she's pretty tired too. Somestimes takes a little time to actually go to sleep at night, but eventually gets there. We have been putting her in her bed and walking away immediately, to get her used to calming herself and getting to sleep on her own. We only have to go back in a couple times to give her her blanket back or her pacifier back.

We have noticed that one of her top teeth is poking though now. So we are battling crankiness and fussiness more often now. We have been trying to beat her diaper rash before it gets too bad. She has a runny nose alot now too because of the teething. But for the most part, it's been going okay. We tried soothing her with a frozen waffle, but it got too mushy really fast. My MIL suggested teething biscuits, but I haven't seen any at the store. If anyone knows where I can find some, please let me know! Her bottom teeth are more visible now. When she grins you can seem them easily.

We bought some new baby food this week but haven't tried any yet. It is Stage 2 food so this means we have alot more flavors to pick from. Chicken and apples, Turkey and sweet potatoes, Ham, pineapple and gravy. Yum? Can't wait to have her try them out.

Cate's Uncle Danny and GranCat came for a visit this weekend. Danny came to get his computer that Mike built him and Cathy came along to spend more time with Cate. We had a good weekend with everyone. Unfortunatly it rained most of the weekend so we still couldn't go outside to try out Cate's new outside toy.

Picked back up eating well again. Last three nights for dinner Cate has eaten half a veggie container and a whole container of fruit and half a 6 oz. bottle! She's a growing baby! One evening while eating she also discovered my wedding rings and was too dsitracted to eat while she played with my rings. She's already attracted to diamonds! ha!

I have decided to try my hand at knitting a hat. I think my first hat went great! Here's Cate showing it off. :)

7 months - Week 1

Not much new stuff in Cate's world this week.

I did finally catch her rocking in her chair and took a video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3lIbNaPLl8

She did get a new "toy", but we haven't put it together yet.

She won't get to do much with it right now other than swing.

She also got a couple new outfits from New Orleans.

She has not worn her new LSU dress yet, maybe tomorrow :)

Today is, however, it's all about OU. When I was 8 months pregnant with her, I made a trip to Oklahoma and bought her a game day outfit that she would be able to wear at the beginning of the season. Her first game with be today!

Cate is 7 months old!

Cate was running some fever last Saturday, so in an attempt to help her fever we let Cate take a longer bath than usual. We decided to fill up her tub and see if she would splash around some. Boy, did she! She soaked the kitchen! She really enjoyed playing in the water!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4KudLz4568

Cate was good to go on Sunday, no more fever, but still has a cough. During the week she began holding her toungue differently and discovered she could make new noises. She started with "ca", "ca". It sounded like she was trying to sey "Cate". But it soon turned into "da" "da" We are not counting it as "first word" since she does not associate saying "da-da" with Mike yet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gfl_yZQTLvg

Cate has learned to put her pacifier in her mouth. It's not a completely mastered skill yet, but she has done it a few times. Only a matter of time before she has it down. 

A bunch of family came in over the weekend to visit and celebrate Mike's sister's (Courtney) 21st birthday! Meaux, Banta, Cathy, Bill, Courtney, Danny and Jennifer all came to stay for the weekend. We think Cate is teething again. She's been grabbing at her ear and been a little more fussy lately. But overall is doing pretty good with it.

With the family in town, Cate stayed on track for the most part. In the evenings it was alittle more difficult to get her to bed with all the excitement of the day. We all went to eat at Floyd's one night and Cate got a hold of a cracker. She seemed to really like it. She mostly gummed it until it got soggy. I'm not too sure how much if it she actaully ate.

Cate has started throwing her head back when you hold her so she can see things upside down. It's really funny and she enjoys being upside down to see. She laughs and thinks it's funny. She will continue to throw her head back repeatedly until you get too tired holding her upside down.

We moved on to peas this week after finishing the bananas. We tried to peas twice while out to eat, so she was either very distracted or did not care for the peas at all. She did make a few nasty faces when she had some. I decided to pull the peas and try carrots instead, which went much better.

The last night everyone was here, we all went out in the back yard, I tried to see how Cate would do sitting in the grass herself. She was not a fan! We tried to make it more fun for her and she did come around some, but she doesn't really know what to think of the grass yet. I look forward to when it cools off some more and I came get her on a blanket in the yard. We did stand her up and she is wanting to take steps. So she and Mike "walked" around the yard some.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3rYC5tx3Ys

We also got her in the tub to play again for everoyne to see. She played for a little while and then remembered how tired she was. Bath ended soon after and we tried to put her down for bed. It took much longer than normal. So much going on it was hard to get her to settle down.

Today after everyone left, we did a little shopping for some bigger 9 month clothes for Cate. She's getting too tall for her clothes! After shopping she took an extra long nap. She has been playing in her activity center and has finally figured out how the penguin toy works! She has now mastered all the toys on her activity enter now!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAnrDOCfxyw