Caitlyn's 9 month check-up, Circus & Tinkerbell!

So much has happened since our last post. Last weekend we enjoyed the 4th July weekend and went downtown to see the Ringling Brothers circus with Blake and his family. It was a great show. We were allowed in 1hour early so we could get up close to the animals and see some of the performers. Then the show itself lasted 2 hours plus an intermission. Amy and Blake loved seeing the tigers, elephants and acrobats. Mummy and Daddy were impressed with the 7 motorcycles that rode around inside a metal cage. It was certainly a full afternoon and everyone was tired that evening.
On Monday Caitlyn turned 9 months old so during the week she had her check-up visit with Dr Gideon. Caitlyn is 28" tall (70th percentile) and 18lb 6oz (40th percentile). Luckily this time she only needed 1 needle instead of 4 - she seemed to handle it OK. Big sissy went along for moral support too. Also during the week I bought a new camera since my old one had started putting this pink line through the top of the photos. When I bought the new camera I was amazed at how much you get for your money these days. I paid nearly half of what I did 5 years ago for the first digital camera I had and yet this new camera has double the features it seems and is tiny.
Jerad and I are continuing to plan for when we move back to Australia. We have my house back home on the market and then we plan to invest the profit so we can build something when we go back. So we have been looking at different house designs online and getting an idea of what we could afford.
Yesterday was time for little gym again and while we were there they have started selling little girls dance costumes (they now have a dance class for 3+ yrs). One of the costumes had Tinkerbell on it so I couldn't resist getting it for Amy. She wore it all day yesterday and it was quite the drama last night when it was time to take it off! Needless to say I have hidden it today. Amy and I also had a fun night last night - the girls "camped out" in the play room. Amy slept in her little indoor tent while mumy slept on a mattress on the floor outside the tent. Amy kept talking and talking and of course not wanting to go to sleep until well after 10pm. It was hard to get Caitlyn off to sleep in her room too as she seemed to sense she was missing out something and was crying from her bedroom. She came to the playroom with us for a little while but after 3 attempts I did get her to sleep in her crib.
This afternoon I am taking the girls downtown with Jackie, a friend of mine from work. It is the annual River City Dog Show and another lady I know, Kathy, is showing 2 of her golden retrievers in the agility course. I'm sure Amy and Caitlyn will love seeing all the dogs down there and it gets us out of the house. Maybe Amy can start training Domino and Buka after she sees how well the other dogs do :-)

Hot summer days

Once again this week every day is over 100, the low at night is only 78. and we're about to go stage 3 water restrictions. Gotta love south Texas in the summer. Needless to say with this heat we stay in the air conditioning as much as possible. It's been another busy week for us. Jerad and I have been looking at options for when we move back to Australia, so step 1 has been looking into selling the house in New Lambton and then using that money to buy or build something else. At the moment we are leaning towards buying a block of land and then building something closer to the time when we would move back. There are so many things to consider with selling and moving from here, shipping things back and then getting set up back there. I'm sure we can do it though - many have done it before us. It's a bit of sticker shock though when you look at the cost of things in Australia compared to the same item here in the US.

Caitlyn now has four teeth - two on the top and bottom - she looks so cute when she smiles! She is still crawling everywhere but it doesn't look like it will be long before pulls up on the furniture and stands on her own. Amy of course still loves being the big sister and gives Caitlyn kisses all the time. It was funny yesterday with Amy when I was grocery shopping. Since she is such a "big" girl now she likes to walk rather than sit in the shopping cart. So we head off down the aisles of HEB getting groceries and Amy wants to help mummy push the cart (of course this makes it easier for mummy to push the cart and walk behind her while having Caitlyn in the sling.....not). Anyway, we're walking along and whenever someone was up ahead Amy would say "scuse me". I don't think the other shoppers knew where it was coming from - very cute though.

Not much planned for us today - just a trip to Babies R Us, off to Target to pick up some photos and then I might take the girls with me when I go to the gym this afternoon so that they can play in the Kids Club there. We might go for a quick swim too late in the afternoon. Looking forward to next week with the long weekend for 4th July. We are all headed downtown to see the circus with Blake and his family. Then we may go on Sunday night to Seaworld to see some fireworks from their "Summer Nights" show. Well until next week here's to wishing the weather cools down and hope we get some rain.

Caitlyn's crawling!

Well i tried to post last week with a cute video of the girls but the video wouldn't upload. So we got another this week of Caitlyn starting to crawl.

Last week was a busy week this week not made any easier when both Amy and I had a bad stomach bug on Wednesday night. It was a long night - if Amy wasn't being sick, mummy was. Poor little girl ended up having another bath and change of clothes and then she finally got down to sleep again in the wee hours of the morning. Amy bounced right back by the next morning (of course) - but it took Mummy until the weekend. Daddy also had an upset belly for a few days too. Thankfully Caitlyn wasn't affected by it at all. Amy has been saying more words each day - for some reason she likes to make a face like a pirate so she shows that off for the camera too! Caitlyn is almost crawling too, she pulls herself forward with one arm while her legs are out behind her. When she rolls from her back to her belly she almost has her knees in the right position to crawl but then for some reason just flattens her legs and drags herself along instead. It's amazing how much speed she gets though when she is trying to reach something of interest. I know I've said it before but it is amazing how quickly both the girls are growing up and changing. It's fun to see them together and developing their own little personalities but sad too that they aren't little forever.

Amy started her summer semester at the Little Gym last Saturday and thankfully some of the kids from the prior semester are in her class again, so she knows some kiddies. The Little Gym has also started to offer a new class for 3 yr and older to do half dance and half gym. So next year I'd like to get her started in that. Especially since she loves music and dance. Caitlyn will be old enough to start at Little Gym too next semester. Hopefully the girls classes will be back to back.

Today is Father's Day here in the US. The girls bought Daddy the new Tiger Woods golf game for the Wii. I'm sure there'll be plenty of playing this game while mummy is at work. Later today Blake and his parents are coming over for a BBQ. That should be fun and we may go for a swim after lunch since it is so hot. Will post some pics next week.

Show-week at Little Gym & Caitlyn turns 8 months old

Amy had fun this morning at Little Gym. It was the end of the Winter/Spring semester so she got to show off all the skills she had learned and took great delight in showing everyone how she can reach for the bar and swing (repeatedly!) Caitlyn was of course there to cheer her on too. Amy is starting to say more words each day it seems and finally will say her name. Another "skill" she asquired during the least 2 weeks was waking up in the middle of the night and going downstairs in the dark to sleep on the couch. She never cried or came to wake us up - just woke up and found her down there. Daddy got a bit of a shock when her was downstairs and heard this "Hi Dadda!". Needless to say Mummy will be closing the gate at the top of the stairs each night from now on. Speaking of sleeping habits, this week was the first week that Caitlyn consistently slept for 8+ hours each night - way to go Caitlyn. It won't be long before Caitlyn is crawling, she already drags herself forward on her belly with one arm. She can certainly get to wherever it is she wants to go.

Today the girls went to get some photos taken of Caitlyn and then we went for a walk around Barnes & Noble. Amy picked out a book about Little Girls using the Potty and we sat down in the Starbucks within the store to have a drink and share a blueberry scone. Amy quite liked licking the cream and chocolate from the top of my mint mocha chip frappacino. We don't really have any plans for tomorrow so we'll see what the day brings.

Caitlyn sits up on her own

Today Caitlyn sat up on her for the first time!! Up until now she has been rolling to wherever she wants to go but whenever you tried to sit her up she would arch her back and lay down. But not today - I was on the computer this morning and when I turned around she was sitting there smiling at me. You could tell she was so proud of herself. She seems to be more mobile than Amy was at that age. Already pulling up on things - so I lowered her crib yesterday. We think she is teething again because she has been waking up more than usual and just a little grumpy some times with bright red cheeks. Poor little thing. She has the cutest little smile right now with her two front bottom teeth shwoing. Amy is loving her "big girl" bed. I converted it when we got back from vacation. She is such a good little sleeper. She will walk upstairs with me around 8:30 each night, climbs into bed herself, lays on her tummy, I pull the covers up and kiss her good night and then we don't see her until 7:30 the next morning. Hopefully Caitlyn will inherit this trait too (although given her track record it is doubtful).
It's hard to believe our vacation was over 2 weeks ago. I can't believe how quickly the weeks are going by. It's Memorial Weekend here so it's nice to have a long weekend. On Saturday we went to work friend's place for a BBQ. Amy loved it because hamburgers were involved :-) Oh and Michael had baked some yummy brownies for dessert - so we all enjoyed that. With the long weekend it has also meant that Jerad got to play golf twice. So while Daddy was playing golf the girls went shopping. There were some really good sales that's for sure! Yesterday when we were at Lowes we picked up some really nice hanging baskets overflowing with petunias. So Amy helped me pot them when we got home and felt very important using her pink watering can to water them when Mummy was done. We had a few showers yesterday afternoon so Amy also enjoyed running around in the rain barefoot on the grass.
Amy is starting to talk more and more and picking up new words each day. The cutest this week is when she asks for grapes (sounds like gipps). But at least she knows to say please (peeezzz). The other cute one is when she says "Oh no" (imagine it with a Scottish accent if you will).
It sounds like Daddy needs some help peeling the shrimp for the grill tonight so I'd better go. Til next week.............

Port Aransas continued

We are back from vacation now, but we had a great time. Amy and Caitlyn both enjoyed going to the beach each morning and swimming in the pool in the afternoon. Daddy managed to fit in 3 games of golf while we were there (but we won't mention how many balls he lost) - it looks like Tiger's status is safe. Most nights Amy also got to watch her Tinkerbell DVD, so she was happy with that. The dogs loved being able to run on the beach. Although when Buka was catching the ball she did get a few mouthfuls of sand and salt water. On Wednesday we went for a drive to Corpus Christi and went through the Texas State Aquarium. It was really neat - they had all of the displays at a height that Amy could see easily. She loved the otters, sting rays, dolphins and turtles. While we were there we saw the show they had with birds and Daddy got invited up on stage while a hawk flew directly toward him. Unfortunately we didn't get a good photo as the bird was way too quick. After the Aquarium we went next door to Pier 99 restaurant for some more seafood. Thursday was another day of golf for Daddy so the girls went shopping (of course). I stopped in at a local shop called "Popsicle Toes", they do custom fit toe rings. We also went to a souvenir shop and bought 2 t-shirts. It was pretty cool, you could choose from hundereds of decals and they make the shirt up for you while you're there.

The video I included is Amy's second day at the beach. It's hard to hear her over the wind in the background. Jerad also added a slideshow to the blog which appears at the top. Well we're back in San Antonio now and of course it's only May and already reaching 100 F each day (great!)

Port Aransas

Well our vacation has finally started. We started our Saturday with the usual trip to Little Gym and then went home to finish packing. We then had an uneventful drive to Port Aransas and checked in a little early to the house we rented "Tropical Niche". It is a really nice 3 bed / 2 bath house with plenty of space. The dogs like it too as there is plenty of room for them. We didn't really feel like cooking so we went out for dinner to a seafood restaurant called "Castaways" and came home for an early night. But Sunday was a fun and tiring day. After breakfast we went to the local grocery store to pick up some things and then we came home and got ready to walk to the beach. We packed the beach bag and umbrella and the 4 of us set off for the beach. From the house to get to the beach was about 3/4 mile walk. Beaches here are not like Newcastle - there are very lengthy boardwalks to take to get to the actual sand. But we made it there just to find out that you can actually drive onto the beach! So you can guess what we did in the afternoon - we purchased a pass to be able to drive and park on the beach. It must be a US thing too because in general most cars don't drive on the beach and you're usually not able to because the sand is so soft. Here it is moist and hard and all types of cars and vans are on the beach. Anyway - Amy then got to experience the ocean water. Caitlyn did too, although from the safety of the sling and holding on to Mummy. Amy was a little hesitant at first not wanting the water to touch her feet but when she saw Mummy and Daddy doing it she gave it a shot. She loved it and was wanting to walk out deeper (and by that I mean just up over her knees!). Luckily Daddy was standing next to her for the first 2 times she got knocked over and got a mouthful of salt water. I was sure she would be not wanting to go back in the water after that - but she did, she loved it. I took her a bucket and spade to dig and make a sand castle but she wasn't interested, just wanted to keep playing in the water. After all the activity and walk back to the house it was time for lunch and a nap. Directly across from the house is a pool so we went out in the afternoon to buy some floaties for the girls to use in the pool. I didn't want Caitlyn missing out. So we then came back home and we all went for a swim in the pool. Amy loved laying back and floating around the pool. Caitlyn just hng out with Mummy and was nearly asleep again. Both Jerad and I can't believe how warm the ocean and pool water is at this time of year. Not complaining at all, just pleasantly surprised. Today we'll have more beach and pool time and Daddy is going to play golf in the afternoon. There is an Arnold Palmer course next door to where we are staying. We'll have to see how he does playing with an ocean breeze!