Morning Smiles

Timmy gave us his first smile about a week and a half ago at 7.5 weeks, but this is the first time I have been able to capture it. He slept well last night, about 7 hrs in a row, so he was in a great mood this morning. Cate thought that he was hilarious and kept "asking" to hold him. We let her hold him in her rocking chair and she just kissed him over and over and kept saying "Teeee Teeeee" which is her nickname for him and any other baby or doll that she sees.

At first, I didn't think that Cate and Timmy looked alike at all, but now that he is more expressive and a bit more filled out, I see glimpses of Cate in him every now and then. The last picture is of Cate at about 2 months. I can see similarities in their profiles although hers is still a lot chubbier than Timmy's!

Timmy's First Halloween

Halloween was pretty low-key around here this year. Timmy did get the day off to a great start though by sleeping for two 3.5 hour stretches last night! We put Cate's giraffe costume back on her and she didn't mind at all today. She never even pulled at the hood or fussed. She just put it on and ran around outside in the leaves. It was pretty chilly this afternoon, so Timmy stayed in the house, but he wore his festive pumpkin shirt from my friend Jamie.

As you can see, Cate was once again delighted with the chance to get to hold him and she cried when I picked him up again. She just kisses him and puts her face next to his and imitates the tone that we use when we talk to them. What cute Halloween pumpkins we have!

A Very Solemn Giraffe

This morning Cate, Timmy and I went over to Grammy's school for the Halloween parade. All of the preschoolers were dressed up and sang songs, so I thought that Cate should put her costume on too. She never cracked a smile the entire time, but she didn't really complain either. It was a pretty warm morning, so she might have been a bit hot in her giraffe costume. Timmy slept in his stroller the whole time. I didn't quite manage to get him dressed up; as it was, I was literally running around the house to try to get us all out the door since Cate slept until almost 9 this morning. Doesn't she make an adorable little giraffe?!

Fall Days

We have not had much Fall like weather around here, but the last few days have been nice. Yesterday my mom and I took Cate and Timmy out for a walk in the park with Zeke and afterwards, Cate had a great time playing in the leaves in the back yard. Here are a few shots of the day.

Whenever Cate sees Timmy in his stroller or in the crib, she says, "Hi hi hi hi"

All bundled up!

One Month Old

Baby Timmy is one month old today!  Here he is getting ready to watch the Hawkeyes beat the Badgers yesterday.

Then we decided to try to pose Cate and Timmy to take a picture for a birth announcement for him.  It's not easy to secure a one month old in the lap of an almost 16 month old.  Cate was so funny though because she was so excited to get to hold him.  This was the first time we let her try but since Timmy's arrival, she's been practicing with her dolls.  She was never really interested in dolls before, but now she carries them around the house, patting them on the back and kissing the tops of their heads.  She was more than happy to hug and kiss Timmy.  Of course she  threw in the occasional eye poke or head squeeze, but she was cute nonetheless.  Unfortunately, Timmy doesn't look very happy in most of these pictures so I don't think they'll make it to the announcement.  Thanks to Meredith for the adorable little outfit for him!

Relaxing After His Bath

Timmy is about three and a half weeks old and is getting big fast!  He is more and more alert during the day and seems to be taking in his surroundings.  Over the weekend, I thought that he had turned the  corner in terms of night sleep, he still woke up twice during the night to eat, but actually slept in between the feedings.  Last night was a setback as I'm pretty sure that he was up from 12-4:30 and then was up again at 6.  Let's hope he gets back to sleeping tonight!  Here are a few pictures of him just relaxing after his bath in his cozy dinosaur sleep sack from Grandma Diane.

Two Weeks Old

Timmy is two weeks old today!  I had started to think that he was settling into a good sleep pattern...just waking up around 2am to eat, but last night he woke up at 2 and stayed up until 6.  Hopefully tonight will be better!  Here are just a few pictures of the last few days.  Timmy spends most of his days bundled up, sleeping in his basinet or swing, so I don't have very many good pictures of him yet.  He's wide awake in the middle of the night, but I'm not really in the mood to get the camera out then!

Cate likes to say, "Hi hi hi" to Timmy when she sees him but also likes to give him a (really hard) pat on the head and push his swing...really hard.  She is definitely displaying some signs of jealousy and is having some trouble adjusting to having to share mommy and daddy.  Luckily, we have lots of help from Grammy, Pop and Grandma to ease the transition.

Timmy's Early Arrival

Cate's baby brother decided to make an early arrival last Friday, September 18th.  Although he was early, he still weighed 7lbs 5oz and was 20.5 inches long.  We came home from the hospital late on Sunday and are starting to get adjusted to life at home as a family of four.  Obviously, I need to change the name and maybe the address of this blog.  Timmy might not appreciate just being a part of "Cate's World" but for now I'll just post a few pics of our new little guy.   

In the Afternoon...

...Cate no longer likes to take a second nap.  So, when we get home from work/daycare in the early afternoon (thanks to my new part-time schedule!)  we have a lot of playtime.

So on some days, Pop will come over on his way home from work and take Cate to the playground.  Here they are walking over.

And on some days, like today, I get desperate and decide that unpacking a box of new stuff from diapers.com would be a good game.  Of course playing with something that is not actually a toy is always popular.

Walking!

The big girl that you see in the picture below is officially walking!  It is amazing how one day she was just taking one hesitant step without reaching for the couch or the table and all of a sudden she can walk across the room.  

A Weekend with Casey and Norah

Cate got to meet her new friend Norah this weekend.  Norah's parents, Dan and Jamie, are staying with us for a few days (while Dan and Tim rip our basement apart...literally)  Norah is 8 months younger than Cate and it has been so much fun to finally get to meet her since she lives in Arizona.  Tracy and Mark came up for the day (Jamie, Tracy and I were college roommates) and their little boy Casey ran around with Cate.  We took the babies to the park, the playground and then Dan and Jamie made us all dinner outside where we put my patio furniture, a birthday gift from my parents, to good use.

Yum!  Grilled teryaki chicken

Cate and Casey were sporting "sweathawks" but Norah's hair wasn't quite long enough

She loves her cheerios

Climbing around with Daddy

Casey on the slide

Happy Norah!

Big Girl at the Playground

We have a really great playground right out our back gate but up until now, Cate has only enjoyed the swings.  At first she LOVED the swings, but lately, she's seemed a bit bored.  She's not walking yet, so it's hard for her to do much else there, but today we decided to put long pants and shoes and socks on her (it wasn't very hot this morning) and just let her crawl around and explore.  

She loved going up and down the starts and went down a couple of the smaller slides with some help.  There's something about her wearing little pink tennis shoes that makes her look like such a big girl to me!

Cate and Pop

Cate is very lucky because today, like many days, she got to see her Grammy, Pop and Auntie Jenn.  Although we complain about a lot of things about our house, one of the best things about it is that Grammy works right down the street and can just  stop over for lunch and our house is now on Pop's way home from his new job so he often stops by to break up a long afternoon.  This afternoon was especially long because Cate refused to take a nap and then was quite cranky.  She loves to sit in her backyard, on her blanket and look around.  Then, while I was making her dinner, Pop brought out her new Elmo and some Cheerios to share.  Cate likes nothing better than to have a little snack while she plays.  She's also a very generous girl and like to put her food in her mouth and then offer it to someone else.  Oh well.  The last picture demonstrates how tired she was.  She is usually much to "busy" to cuddle or  give hugs, but Pop got one from her today!

A Trip to the Zoo

Since the weather has been so nice and comfortable lately, we decided that it was a good time to take Cate to the Zoo.  She's kind of young for it, but it's nice to walk around and this zoo is free (except for the ransom that you have to pay to get your car out of the lot).  For the most part, Cate was more interested in people watching than looking at the animals.  She liked the monkeys and the giraffes the best I think because they were moving.  It was hard for her to see the lions, who were just perched on rocks to sunbathe.  Be sure to check out her cool yellow sunglasses that Grandma sent her!

Swimming?

Cate seems to have developed an aversion to water.  This now includes the bathtub which is a problem but it also means that she hasn't been in her new swimming pool from Grammy and Pop and we haven't been to the nice pool right behind our house.  

So this weekend we decided to do some pool training.  I didn't bother to get the swim diapers out or one of her cute bathing suit/coverups either because it's a lot of work and I didn't really think she'd get in anyway.  Cate's Grammy sat with her on a blanket (b/c she also hates grass) and tried to get Cate to put her hands and feet in the pool.  She was interested in splashing some but she also periodically let out a yell if she got too wet and she did not really like having her feet in the water.  Most of the time she played with some measuring spoons that Pop brought out and got Grammy completely soaked. It's supposed to be nice all week, so I guess we'll keep working on it...