Getting ready for the holidays!

Well, the weather's starting to get colder and the Holiday season is upon us! This week we decided to start decorating the house a little early. We go to Brownsville every Thanksgiving to see Toni's family so this year we decided to start our decorating before going so it wouldn't be quite so overwhelming after Thanksgiving. Caitlin really enjoyed decorating one of our artificial trees and was helping me by handing me ornaments. :) She seems captivated by the Christmas lights and and was having a lot of fun checking out our Christmas decorations and even sitting in the storage boxes from the garage once they were empty. :) I think this Christmas is going to be a lot of fun when we watch her come down the stairs on Christmas morning. :)

This week we also had an appointment with an eye specialist for Caitlin's right eye. She's always had a slight problem with her right eye that while it's not a big deal and doesn't affect her vision was still something we wanted to get checked out again. Some of you may recall that earlier this year she was diagnosed with "Duane's Syndrome". Essentially it's a fancy way of saying that one of the muscles that control her right eye never developed and when she tries to look to the right her eye doesn't move. It has no impact on her vision and Caitlin compensates by turning her head to the right. We wanted to get a second opinion just to be on the safe side and the second opinion came back the same. He said it's very mild and while it will never improve, it's not something that will cause her any problems later in life.

This weekend we also did some projects with Caitlin for school. In one of the pictures she's drawing (something she likes to do), and she also enjoys using glue to do crafts. :) The projects we did are also posted in the pics. :)

She also started trying to eat like we eat. The first thing she did was to eat breakfast tacos with us like we do. Usually we'll give her some eggs that she'll eat but this weekend she wanted to sit on Toni's lap and grabbed the Taco and started eating it in the tortilla! Then at dinner, we went out to eat and she was watching us eat fries and dip them in ketchup. After a couple of minutes she started taking fries off of Toni's plate and dipping them in ketchup and eating them. :) It was so cute to watch her. :) So far her favorite food appears to be broccoli of all things! We're not gonna complain about that! She doesn't seem to like sugar and the only sweet things she seems to like are sugar free jello pudding and an occasional sip of Coke Zero. :)

This weekend she also started playing drums! We got Rockband 2 (video game that comes with drums and a guitar) and Caitlin was watching me play the drums. After a while she sat on my lap and started playing! The next night she was looking at the drums and I told her, "get the drum sticks" and she went and picked up the drum sticks. Then I told her, "Show Daddy how to play the drums" and she walked over to the drums and started tapping them with the sticks. The coolest thing was that she realized that she was holding one of the sticks backwards and put it down and picked it up correctly and continued playing! She also has been picking up the guitar and messing with the buttons. Today she actually picked it up and put the strap over her head so she could wear it like Daddy!

Every day is amazing to watch her grow and she shocks me every day with how much she understands and how fast she's developing. Tonight she walked into the bathroom and came out with her foam potty seat. Toni then put her on the potty and she actually used it! I don't know if she planned it that way but it was a pretty cool coincidence if it wasn't. :)