Cate is 11 months old

Can you believe it?

I sure can't! 

I love this little cutie to pieces. There is only one person who loves her more (besides Kevin)... and that is herself! If there is a mirror close by she loves to smooch herself.

Cracks me up! It is making me a little sad that we got rid of the majority of our mirrored closet doors.

This girl loves to rock in her rocker... mostly because it gets her closer to the windows so that she can pull on the blinds. She will rarely sit still. 

For her 11 month birthday I dressed her up in this darling outfit she inherited from a friend. Kevin laughed and said that this was the cutest she'd looked in a week (other than Halloween)... since he never brushed her hair while I was gone and she yanked out every bow he stuck in it. I still need to post the pics from last week. The jeggings were mis-used and Kev's coordinated outfits for Cate were pretty awesome.

We spent today doing Cate's favorite things- Crawling and climbing the stairs... and trying to escape or sneak and do things she's not supposed to do!

Can you tell she's proud of herself?

We also played at the park this afternoon and I let Cate do what she wanted to do instead of just carrying her around following Andrew.

The two crazies love to try and race each other up the slides. Cate goes nowhere, but tries really hard. I don't follow the whole "don't climb the slide" rule most of the time. I think of the slide as a baby treadmill. I love it.

I love this pic of Cate freaking out on the swings because she is so excited.

My baby is definitely not a baby any more. I never really felt like she was much of a baby anyway since she's always been such a big girl.

Conversations about Cate lately:

Friend: "She is so adorable. When does she start nursery (class for kids age 18 months)?"

Me: "In 9 months. Yes, she's a big girl."

Random person: "How old is your daughter?"

Me: "Almost 11 months." 

Random person: "Wow, she's a big one!"

Some info about our Catie Cate:

- She wears sizes 12-18 months clothes.

- She freaks out kicking and smiling when she sees her dad now

- She wears size 4 diapers and should probably wear size 5 at night. 

- She eats 3-4 bottles each day (8 ounces) and loves food- especially apple cinnamon oatmeal and pasta with red sauce

- She can turn herself around and go down our small set of stairs ALL BY HERSELF. This skill that Kevin taught her last week has saved my sanity. 

- She has a sixth sense and knows when we've left the gate on the stairs open... and she crawls towards it like her life depends on it.

- She cries if anyone says hello to her and thinks that they are going to take her away (maybe?). Today one of the cleaning ladies said, "Hi baby, you are so cute!" and she screamed and cried for 10 minutes. 

- She finally likes her babysitter Taylor and will smile and play with her maybe 3 out of the 4 hours each week. 

- She blows kisses constantly 

- She and Andrew love giggling together and she'll laugh anytime he laughs

- She is an adorable cuddler and loves to be close by to both me and Kevin.

- She is Andrew's biggest fan... and she is his biggest enemy sometimes. Who knew her baby toys were so cool? 

- Her current favorite toys are Andrew's firetruck, Sophie the giraffe, Talking Elmo and Talking Brobee (she is IN LOVE), and all of the Little People vehicles (mostly because she likes to pull them off the shelf and make them smash onto the floor)

- This month she stuck her hand in the toilet for the first time (ick!), emptied several trash cans onto the floor, and stuck her head through our banister (scary!). She keeps us on our toes and Andrew is always a step ahead of me watching out for her.

We are so excited to spend this month planning her first birthday party!

I'm still trying to decide what I want to do- big party with lots of friends/adults and older kids and some kids her age or small party with family and a few kids her age.... ??? Andrew didn't get a party when he turned one, so at least I have nothing to compete with.

Happy 11 months Caitlin!