Parent/Teacher night

This week seemed to go by pretty fast and was extremely busy for us. One cool thing was that on Tuesday night we had a parent/teacher night at Caitlin's school. We got to meet all of the teachers, learn about them and most importantly, learned about how Caitlin spends her day. According to the teachers, she enjoys her wagon rides and likes her play time. The said around the time that she turns 18 months, they'll start looking at moving her to the next room. The next room didn't sound like a lot of fun. Apparently all of the kids are in their "terrible two's" and they all want to have all of the attention. They said that since Caitlin is fairly reserved and quiet, they will probably wait an extra month before moving her in to that room because it's quite a different environment and they don't want to move her too soon. Other than that, we got a rundown on how Caitlin spends her days and according to the teachers, she's doing great.

This week Caitlin seemed a lot more interactive with us than normal. She really started running around playing at home and was a lot more vocal than usual. She also spent a lot of time wanting to be held and wanting to sit with us. She definitely understands the phrase, "give me a kiss" and will usually give us a kiss most of the time that we ask for one. This week she also continued climbing up and down the stairs with assistance and playing hide-n-seek with us. She loves to cover her head with a blanket to hide or hide behind furniture. When we ask, "where's Caitlin?" she'll start giggling from wherever she is. Today she also started pointing her finger and touching our finger (like E.T.) when we ask her to. She also was imitating us this week. One night we asked her to say "dada", "mama", open her mouth wide and growl, and sniff. Each time we'd say or do the action and tell her to do it, she'd copy what we had just done. :)

Hopefully this week will be quiet. I'm on call until Friday and so far this weekend has been quiet. Hopefully it stays that way. Hope everyone has a great week!

Congratulations Sarah and Dan!

This week was a pretty busy week! Sarah and Dan went to the Bahamas and got married on Wednesday! They had about a week to spend in paradise and it sounds like they had a lot of fun. They came by this afternoon and showed us the pictures from their trip and they came out really nice. We're all very happy for them and wish them many years of happiness together. While they were living the dream in paradise on Wednesday, back in reality Toni and I spent our Wednesday at the Dentist! :( Everything went well but I think Sarah and Dan were having a lot more fun that day than we were. :) Wednesday also marked a major day for me. 2 years ago, I took control of my life and started my quest toward living healthy. I can happily report that 2 years later I've been able to maintain my weight in a healthier range about 40 pounds lighter than I was back then. :)

Caitlin's week was pretty good. She's doing a lot of cool stuff now and is so cool to watch. She's started picking up remote controls and holding them to her face like a phone and says, "hi". She also loves walking up the stairs and this week started walking from step to step only having 1 foot on each step at a time. Usually she would step onto one step and then bring her other foot up to the same step. Now she's trying to climb the stairs how we do! Obviously we hold both of her hands but she seems to really enjoy climbing up and down the stairs. She loves sitting on the stairs and sliding from one to the next. She hasn't tried walking down them yet but that's probably a good thing. :) The only other new development this week is that Caitlin has started throwing tantrums... When something doesn't go her way she's started throwing herself on the ground and crying and screaming.. Needless to say, that's not exactly something we're thrilled with but we're trying to teach her that's not the way to express her feelings.. Looks like the "terrible 2's" are here a little early....

This weekend Caitlin's friend Brooke came over to play on Saturday. They seemed to have fun playing in Caitiln's room and I think Caitlin enjoyed having a friend over. Today Caitlin got to see some family too. Sarah and Dan came over, fresh off of their honeymoon to show us their pictures and then Nana Bev and Grampa Bob stopped by. I think she enjoyed visiting with everyone quite a bit.

14 months old!

This week was a pretty nice week. (The fact that it was a short week didn't hurt). :) Caitlin had a pretty good week and she turned 14 months old! She has continued to mature in front of our eyes. She's trying to talk more and more and will sometimes start pointing at stuff and start babbling. She for sure understands quite a bit of what we say to her now. She has started playing, "Where's Caitlin?". If we ask where Caitlin is, she'll try hiding and kinda poke her head out to see if we see her. When she pokes her head out, she always has a big smile on her face. :)
Thursday night Caitlin and I watched football for a while. We watched the Steeler game and while she didn't watch all of it, she did seem to enjoy sitting watching it with me. Speaking of watching TV, this week we also watched the President's speech. It was so funny to watch Caitlin. Every time Congress would start clapping, Caitlin would turn toward the TV and start clapping!

This weekend we also went to a birthday party for Toni's friend Madeline who turned 30. It was a nice party and I think that Caitlin enjoyed running around with the other kids that were at the party. Speaking of other kids, on Tuesday Aunt Sarah and Uncle Dan had their sonogram and found out that they will be having a girl! Her name is going to be Madelyn Brooke! :) Looks like Caitlin will have someone to play with close by before too long. :) Our congratulations go out to Sarah and Dan and we are both very excited for them.

The only other thing to report this week is that I officially hit the 6 month mark at my job. What that means is that I'm no longer on probation! I can now take PTO and I am officially a state employee! This week should be good. I'm taking Wednesday off. We have our Dentist appointments in the morning and then I'm going to hang out with Caitlin afterwards. Hopefully the weather will be nice. :)

Happy Labor Day!

Happy Labor Day everyone! We hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend! Last week was relatively quiet around the Vargas household. Caitlin has started doing a couple of new things that are kinda cool. The first thing is that she has started wanting to walk up and down the stairs! Obviously we hold her hands but now whenever we start to open the gates, she reaches up to hold our hands and will walk up the stairs! Going down the stairs she sits down and slides from one step to the next, staying in a seated position the entire time. She holds on to us tightly with both hands whenever she goes up or down and almost seems like she's a little nervous about doing either but is eager to try. It's gonna be a couple years before the gates come off and she's doing it by herself but it's so cool to watch her work her way up or down the stairs and hear her happy laugh and see her excitement.

This week she also started smelling things. As you can see in the 1st picture, she wrinkles her nose and even seems to understand the word "stinky". She's started smelling everything she comes in contact with from Shiloh to laundry. She even started squeezing her diaper the other night and making the face above. That let us know that she had a dirty diaper... She also started with another habit that we can hopefully get her out of - picking her nose! She finds it incredibly amusing when we tell her "no" and pull her hand away. She just laughs and puts her finger right back in her nose...

This weekend we had a lot of visitors that Caitlin got to spend time with. Her Grampa Andres, several of her Aunts, Uncles and Cousins all came out this weekend to attend a wedding. It was a nice visit with everyone and a nice long weekend.

This week should be pretty good since it's only a 4 day week! :) Hope everyone has a good one!