Happy New Year everyone! We hope you've arrived in 2010 happy and healthy! It doesn't seem possible that it's 2010 does it? Remember back when 2010 sounded so futuristic? This week Caitlin started saying the word “no”. She had been shaking her head to tell us no but is now actually saying it! This week was pretty easy at work and having another extended weekend was nice. If only they could all be extended.. Toni and Caitlin were off on Thursday so they both stopped by to see me at work for lunch which was nice. This weekend we painted an accent wall in our home theater room and I put up a new light fixture on our porch. We’re going to try to finish painting the rest of the upstairs and I’ll post pics of that when we’re done. In the pictures this week you can also get a glimpse of Caitlin's sense of humor. :) In the first pic she was rubbing her stuffed animal on her head and enjoying the static it created that made her hair puff out. :)
2009 was a good year for us and I hope 2010 is just as good. I'm going to dedicate this post to looking back at 2009 and looking ahead to 2010. While 2008 was our year of constant change, 2009 was far more calm and stable for the Vargas household.
2009 was the year that Caitlin became mobile! Starting in January she started sitting up on the floor when we would sit her up for short periods of time and even started trying to lift herself off of the floor like she was doing push-ups when we'd place her on her stomach. Although she couldn't get into a seated position on her own yet, she was quickly learning how to balance herself when we'd sit her up. January was also the month that Caitlin started moving away from formula and into baby food. The baby food experience was interesting to say the least. Caitlin definitely did not like it and when she'd see orange vegetables in the bowl she'd actually start gagging without even trying it and actually threw up on more than one occasion.. We had a little more luck getting her to eat rice cereal but usually only when we put it in one of our bowls and acted like we were eating it. If she thought she was eating what we were eating she'd do okay. The vegetables however were a whole other story, even if we acted like we were eating them, she wanted no part of them!
February was a busy month! We started by refinancing our house with Wachovia which saved us a lot of money and because we got in on Wachovia's Employee loan program, there were no costs besides the appraisal of the house! We got a 4.5% rate with no points and lowered our payment by a few hundred dollars a month. In February Caitlin started teething and by the middle of the month actually had one tooth on the bottom. The teething led to some sleepless nights and fussiness. In February Caitlin and I had some great bonding time watching the Pittsburgh Steelers win the Super Bowl which was awesome as well! :) By the end of the month, her quest for mobility was moving right along. She was starting to crawl backwards and if she saw a toy that she wanted she could roll herself over to get it. We also took Caitlin to an eye specialist in February where she was diagnosed with "Duane's syndrome", a harmless condition in which one of the muscles in her right eye didn't develop so her right eye doesn't move to the right. To compensate, she started turning her head to look to the right. It's not a serious condition and there's nothing that can be done, and most importantly it won't affect her vision. She still has perfect vision and the only thing that it will impact is that she won't be able to be a fighter pilot because she wouldn't be able to pass the vision test. The other big news of the month was that I was offered a new job working for the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). This was a great thing that happened to help bring stability to our household.
March was just as busy as February. To start the month, my sister Sarah and her boyfriend Dan announced that they were getting married! Caitlin continued to grow and mature. She started eating baby food more willingly and moved on to the stage 2 foods which to me looked like larger containers of the stage 1 foods, neither looked particularly appetizing! Early in the month I also said goodbye to my friends at Wachovia. For the 2nd time in less than a year I was moving on to another job. Wachovia was a class act at every level and I miss the friends I made there but the change to UTSA was a good one. The culture is a night and day difference from the private sector and to be honest, I'm not really interested in returning to the private sector. Having seen my share of the culture of fear and dishonesty that some private sector companies have, I'm happy to be out of it. I still miss the friends I made at Wachovia and the place I worked before there but am happy with how things have turned out. On my last day at Wachovia I picked Caitlin up from daycare and brought her home and put her in her crib for a nap. Shortly after that she started crying and when I went up and opened her door, she was sitting up all by herself for the first time! After that, she started sitting up on her own all of the time and started also reaching her arms out to be picked up and started wanting to be held a lot more. She continued her quest for mobility in her walker. She enjoyed spending her evenings chasing Shiloh around the kitchen in her walker. By the middle of the month she had 2 teeth out and started crawling on her own! Within a couple of weeks after crawling she started using us or furniture as support to stand herself up! By the end of the month she seemed to enjoy standing on her own more than sitting would try standing for several minutes at a time. She still stood like a newborn deer shaky legs but she was starting to get stronger every day. The end of the month was filled with craziness. Toni went out of town on a business trip for a couple of days and we found out that Caitlin is allergic to Penicillin! She broke out in a bad case of hives which didn't look like much fun at all for her. Luckily the hives cleared up quickly and she was back to her old self in no time. :)
In April things calmed down a little. Caitlin had a total of 3 teeth out and 2 more starting to come out. We started showing her how to brush her teeth. Teething was rough for her and she seemed to like the teething rings that we'd put in the freezer to help with the pain. She continued crawling and standing and started really getting in to things. She got to celebrate Easter by going to Brownsville with Toni (I couldn't take any time off because I was on probation at my new job) and took her first plane ride! Toni said that Caitlin seemed nervous at first but once the plane was in the air she was all smiles. She seemed to think that the turbulence was fun. :) After coming home, we lowered the mattress on her crib quite a bit because she had started standing in her crib. She also started babbling to herself this month which was cool to listen to. :)
May saw Caitlin take her first steps! Early in the month we bought her a walker that she could push along and the first time we put it in front of her it proved to be enough support for her to balance with and she started walking across the room! She spent the month improving and walking for several feet from me to Toni and back again. By month's end she was walking next to us holding our hand and continued to walk longer and further every day. It was incredible to watch her improve on what seemed like a daily basis! She also learned how to climb the stairs on her own with Toni behind her and baby gates were promptly installed to avoid any accidents. Besides walking, she started opening and closing her hand as if to say "come here" and started waving goodbye! By Mother's Day she had 4 teeth completely out and a 5th one nearly out. We took her to the San Antonio Zoo for Mother's Day and had a great time. She was still too young to know what was going on but it was nice to get out of the house with her. She turned 10 months old in May and was moved into the 1 year olds room at daycare. They transitioned her over to the new room over a couple of weeks and she seemed to do really well. She also started wearing sunglasses this month and went to the mall and got her first pair of Stride Rite shoes. :) In addition to walking, Caitlin had her first bike ride this month on the back of my bike. We got a child seat and got her a safety helmet. This coming year I hope to get her out riding more often. By this point, Caitlin was also starting to understand words and recognized "come here", "hello", "food", "bye-bye", and "drink your milk". She also started giving high fives if we asked her to! We closed out May with an ant infestation in our house and Caitlin having a case of Pink Eye! The ants were fairly easy to get rid of and the Pink Eye was quickly cleared up with a prescription and didn't cause Caitlin too much of a problem. :)
"Loddy-doddy-doddy" was the most popular phrase heard around the Vargas house by Caitlin in the month of June. By June she was trying to talk more and had 6 teeth completely out and a 7th on the way. With her new teeth she started eating more of our food. Her favorites seemed to be turkey, chicken, rice and sugar-free Jello pudding! She continued walking more and by months end was walking 15-20 feet without help on her own. When she would hold our hand for support she would only take one hand and if you tried to hold her second hand, she'd push it away. My first Father's Day as a dad was nice and we enjoyed just going out to breakfast and hanging out together. :) Unfortunately in June I got the pink eye that Caitlin had a few weeks before. :( Caitlin started really exploring this month and her favorite thing to do became taking DVD's off the shelf and scattering them around the room!
July marked Caitlin's 1st birthday and was pretty busy. By this month she was walking on her own quite a bit and our trip to the zoo for her birthday proved to be more exciting to her than it had been a couple months earlier. She liked walking around and was extremely interested in the animals. Her favorite animal was a small orange frog in the reptile house. :) She was also introduced to Greek food which she seemed to really enjoy! Her birthday party was the biggest event of the month and it was nice to have so many people come by to help her celebrate it. As for the birthday cake, she definitely enjoyed the cake more than the frosting. Her 1 year appointment at the Doctor went great her stats were pretty impressive. She gained 14lbs, 4oz in weight (76th percentile) and 10.75 inches of height (101st percentile). After her birthday we were able to move her off of formula and on to milk which she seems to enjoy more. I got a new car in July which is more family friendly and easier than my truck was. Toni and Caitlin once again went to Brownsville without me (still on probation at this point). Caitlin didn't seem too happy on this trip but seemed happy when she got home. I think she missed her Daddy and much as I missed her. :)
"Hi" and "da-da" were the big news for August. In August Caitlin started talking a little bit. Her first word of "da-da" we're not sure if she even knew what she was saying but "hi" she definitely understood. :) August also saw us have to start baby-proofing the house. We put baby locks on all of the cabinets and made sure that all of the outlets were protected. Caitlin's curiosity continued to get her into just about everything. Caitlin had a dental screening this month at school and by this point she had 8 teeth completely out (6 on top, 2 on bottom) and started giving kisses by pecking her mouth against people. :) This month she also started understanding phrases like "pat Shiloh", "give me a kiss", "high five", "give me five", and "come here". In August Caitlin got to go see a baseball game and while she enjoyed seeing the one of the mascots - Henry the Puffy Taco at a distance, she was terrified when he came over to her. :) Caitlin had a really bad week in August, she got sick and had to spend some time at home sick with Mommy and Daddy for a few days which was obviously no fun for her. The extreme blown out diapers she gave us during this time weren't much fun for us either. :( To top it off, her exploring got her into trouble when she broke a glass coaster and cut her finger (her first introduction to Band-Aids) and fell in her crib and hit her forehead on the frame. :( To close out the month, Toni put together a Bachelorette party for my sister Sarah. All of the girls went out for a night of pampering while me and Uncle Dan stayed home with Caitlin watching movies and drinking beer. (Dan drank, I didn't). Yes, it was one wild and crazy night... ;)
September was a very busy month. Caitlin got to see her Grampa Andres who came out over the Labor Day holiday. She loves seeing him and talks to him on the phone every night. It's so cool to watch her kiss the phone. :) This month she also started sniffing things as well as clapping when she saw something she liked or accomplished something like climbing the stairs. August also came with the announcement that Aunt Sarah and Uncle Dan will be having a little girl (due 1/16/10) and then a week later the two of them getting married in the Bahamas! To close out the month we had a parent/teacher night at school. It was nice to go in and see how Caitlin spends her days and talk to the teachers. September was also a big month in that I finally finished my probationary period at work and became a state employee! It's nice not having to worry about being laid off and having my job can go to India or to some college kid…
October brought a visit from an old friend! My friend Mike who lives in California came out to see his daughter graduate from basic training. Special thanks to all of the men and women who serve our country! Your hard work and dedication are appreciated! This month Caitlin also got to go to a pumpkin patch again and this year even picked out her own pumpkin. :) The word "up" showed up in her vocabulary and has since become her favorite word. :) She loves to hold her arms up to be picked up and say "up" to get us to pick her up. :) For Halloween Caitlin dressed up as Snow White and we went to a Halloween party at her school. It was so cute to see her in her outfit. :)
November saw a couple of cool things. Caitlin started drinking from a real cup from time to time (still a little messy sometimes) and she started shaking her head either yes or no. No seems to be her answer most of the time though... She started trying to do things that we do as well. We were playing a video game called Rockband and Caitlin started trying to play the drums by herself. She'll actually pick up the sticks and start tapping the drums on her own. :) The biggest event in November was obviously Thanksgiving. The week before we celebrated here with my family and then went to Brownsville to celebrate with Toni's family. November was a nice time to see family and I think Caitlin enjoyed it all.
December went by fast. We started by decorating the house which Caitlin seemed to enjoy helping with. She also seemed to enjoy watching movies with me. Her favorite movie right now is Transformers 2! Actually she has a favorite part of it that whenever I put it on she'll come running in clapping and screaming to watch! We took Caitlin to see Santa not once but twice! She didn't enjoy either visit and some of our pictures look pretty funny how she's kicking and trying to get away. Both Santa’s were good sports though and while they may not be Norman Rockwell type portraits with Santa, the pictures we have are at least good for a laugh. :) Caitlin got to see Grampa Joe and Grandma Magda a week before Christmas and seemed to enjoy the visit and their gifts to her. Christmas was a lot of fun this year. Caitlin seemed to enjoy getting gifts but hasn't quite mastered unwrapping them yet. Toni and I ended up opening them and she would start playing with them or taking the ones in boxes to Grampa Bob to open. :)
Caitlin has changed so much in 2009 and it's been incredible to watch her grow before our eyes. She now has 12 teeth out (6 on top, 6 on bottom) and has 2 more coming out. I’m sure 2010 is going to bring a lot of changes to the Vargas household. Happy New Year to everyone, we hope your 2010 turns out to be a great one!
