Kaitlyn Ryan

Kaitlyn has her first pair of Converse courtesy of Aunt Veronica. She also has some very good walking shoes from Papito & Mimi. Our little princess is crawling like a Pro. She has discovered the whole house, which includes finding new toys to play with that she shouldn’t be. She also pulls up on everything, and cruises while holding on.

And with this new ability to discover the world around her, comes trouble. Kaitlyn is now learning the word “No.” Yes, that’s right, we actually have to say No to our little princess. She likes to eat rip apart magazines, play with the button on the carbon monoxide detector, and touch anything electronic. I think she understands what No means, but chooses not to listen to us. We already have our hands full and she’s not even walking yet. e

Kaitlyn has also learned how to clap. She loves playing Patty Cake, and has started making the motion to roll in the song. She loves music! Her favorite song, or at least we think it is, is “Thats How you Know” from Enchanted. But she loves all music. She starts smiling, clapping and dancing. And don’t forget… Princess Kaitlyn turns 1 in eleven days! Be ready for party for a princess.

On another note, if you haven’t visited my new website that Sean made for me. The link is on the right-hand side. We just had a photo shoot for one of my old cheerleaders and a brother & sister. I managed to snap a couple of Kaitlyn.

Kaitlyn is one little party animal! She has attended two birthday’s in the past week and a half, and has another one Saturday. Not to mention her own in two weeks. Today was Mimi’s Birthday. We celebrated by having one of Mimi’s favorite meals, black beans & rice with chicken fricasse. We then blew out candles and opened presents.

Kaitlyn is still practicing to be able to blow out her candles. She has the idea, but doesn’t quite blow hard enough to blow out a candle. She enjoys practicing with any light though. She has also officially started crawling. She started a little last week. At first she would crawl then realize what she was doing and go back to army crawling, but she has become more comfortable now and is doing it more often. She has also started to wave hello/goodbye more. She doesn’t exactly do it when you ask her to, instead she does it when she wants. She has also started saying “Ba” when she waves. Our little princess is learning so quickly!

On another note, Kaitlyn had her first visit to the aquarium today. We went with one of her Best Friends, Kaylie, and Kaylie’s mommy Danielle. I wasn’t sure what she would think about everything, but she seemed like she enjoyed it. I let her stand up next to the glass and look at all of the fish, some which were bigger than her. Sorry no pictures though… I thought I would be able to take some but learned otherwise. Next time.

It’s been 11 months since our little Princess was born! Today we went to Target to get her some new PJ’s since she’s outgrowing her 9 month ones, and had to go to a new area of the Baby Girl clothes! She no longer gets to buy PJ’s from the “Newborn” area, she’s moving up to the “Toddler” area!

Kaitlyn has been growing pretty quickly these past few weeks. She’s becoming more vocal, and getting close to saying “Uh Oh.” We’ve been practicing waving hello and goodbye, as seen in the picture. She’s really starting to get the hang of it. She’s also almost a Pro when it comes to pulling herself up to a standing position. She does it all day long with me, on the couch, on our chair, in her crib, on me.   Yesterday she starting standing up from a sitting position. She put her hands down on the carpet and stood on her feet, while keeping her hands on the carpet. She’s not quite ready to go straight to standing up by herself, though she did let go of the couch for a couple of seconds yesterday. Her crawling, or army crawling rather, is also getting better. She’s moving a lot quicker. We’ve been working on pointing to objects or people, and she’s getting better at that too. Oh, and check out her little pig tails in the picture! I’m so excited her hair is getting long enough to play with!

Now for something not Kaitlyn related. As most of you know, Uncle Anthony is engaged to Aunt Katie. I came across a contest on another blog, The Dingbat’s Agenda, for a Full Wedding Suite valued at over $900. She specializes in letterpress stationary, and this contest is for letterpressed invitations and reply cards. Needless to say, I can’t pass on the opportunity to win something! Especially something so pretty. So, to qualify I needed to blog about the contest… so there it is. Wish us luck!!!

Today was Papito’s Birthday! We started the day off with a nice big breakfast cooked by Uncle Anthony, well Papito did help some. We had eggs, pancakes, bacon, hash browns, toast, grapes, cantelope, orange juice, and of course a cup of tea.

After an afternoon nap, we went to Charles Towne Landing and enjoyed the outdoors. We walked the History Trail, then visited the animals (black bear, otters, puma, bison, deer, and a few more). We had a good time! This was my first time going to this park, and we will definitely be going back once it’s less muggy and buggy!

We ended Papito’s birthday with a yummy Italian Birthday dinner, lasagna and garlic bread! After filling our tummies with delicious food, we sang Happy Birthday, blew out candles, opened presents, ate cake, then said good night.

We had a fantastic day celebrating Papito’s Birthday! We have 2 more for Kaitlyn to practice with before her very own Birthday! Keep October 11th open for a party fit for a Princess.

Today we tried something new. After an uneventful night with Tropical Storm Hanna, we decided to find some excitement for ourselves. We participated in a free trial class at Rolly Pollies. It’s a little gym for children (like Gymboree). I let Daddy participate in this class with Kaitlyn since I got to do swim lessons. It was nice to see Kaitlyn around other children her age. They started out with singing songs and introducing themselves, then bounced and walked on a tumble track, played in different stations, went in a jump castle and down a slide, then bounced a little more on the tumble track and said goodbye. It was a nice change of pace and needless to say Kaitlyn was ready for a nap. Here are a few pictures from the class…

We had another follow up appointment at MUSC last week. Our little princess is now 19.9 lbs. and 27.5 inches long. The Dr. tested some of Kaitlyn’s developmental milestones, and told us she is on track with her adjusted age (8 months). The Dr. tried to get Kaitlyn to clap some toys together, put her fingers in little holes on a block of wood, put toys in a cup, and a few more things. She didn’t really perform very well, but take note that her appointment was at 8:15am! Kaitlyn usually doesn’t wake up until 8-9:00. So needless to say, she was tired and grumpy and not in the mood to do “tricks.” Well as our little princess is with everything, the Dr. mentions things she should be doing and Kaitlyn starts doing it. Later that same day, August 25, she started army crawling. That same week she started babbling more, putting toys in a bowl, clapping toys together, and standing up more with assistance.

As Sean, aka Dad, mentioned in his post, Kaitlyn has 5 teeth coming in. Well this week we noticed she has another coming in on the top. So Kaitlyn has 6 teeth coming in at the same time, but has been pleasant through the whole experience. She’s getting better and better with pulling herself up to a standing position. She has no problem pulling up to her knees, and occasionally goes all the way up to standing. She gives kisses too! She smacks her lips together to give kisses, and has recently started giving open mouthed kisses. She is very loving. Everything else is the same. Kaitlyn is still eating well, mostly homemade food by Papito. Her favorite foods at the moment are Sweet Potatoes and Bananas & Blueberries, but loves all fruits!

Below are a few pictures from today. Enjoy!