Ben loves Caitlin

Gosh, Ben is just so sweet to Caitlin. He loves to hug and kiss her. Her always wants to play games with her. He can hardly wait until she's moving around and interacting with him more.

He always says goodnight to Caitlin and tells her he loves her, and a phrase he often uses is 'Awww. Caitlin's CUTE!' although lately he's also started saying 'Caitlin's pretty!' And he often walks up to her and says 'Hi Caitie-girl!' (which is what Nic and I often call her) and it just melts my heart.

Caitlin's gross motor skills are coming along.

Caitlin is becoming more of an active baby these days, rather than a lumpish newborn. She's reaching and grasping a lot more, showing a lot of interest in her toys, and kicking up a storm.

And oh, does she LOVE to jump! She's hilarious in the Jumperoo. I'll have to get some video of her because she's so funny. Once she gets going she doesn't stop... she has such strong little legs I think she might launch herself right out of it one of these days! And she gives the biggest gummy smiles the whole time.

Another favourite toy is the playmat. She's on it right now chatting and kicking away.

It's so much fun watching her develop and grow.

Caitlin also remains a pretty laid back baby. Sometimes she's so quite you'd hardly know there was a baby in the house! But she's starting to let us know when she's bored or would like a bit more attention. :)

Caitlin's 4 month appointment

Caitlin had her 4 month appointment today. She's still following her growth curves and weighed in today at 7.1 kilograms, so a little more than 15.5 lbs. She's a big girl!

She was fantastic for the doctor. A little crusty, but considering she was dead tired and desperate for a nap I was impressed by how well she held up.

Caitlin also got two shots today. She cried following the first needle, but after the second she settled within a couple of seconds. Just a little rub on the tummy seemed to make her feel better.

She seems to be meeting all the important milestones. The only thing she's not doing yet is laughing out loud. It's interesting, especially considering what a happy baby she is. Ben was much more serious, yet he'd laughed by this age. She does happily squeal and chatter though, so maybe we just need to try harder, or find what it is that tickles her funnybone. With Ben it was bonking myself in the head and dropping things on the floor. Who knows what will get giggles out of Caitlin, but I can hardly wait to find out!

A couple of Ben funnies

1) Yesterday Ben and I were having a nice hug, during which I say 'Ahhh Ben'. Ben quickly replied with 'Ahhh Diesel 10'. I looked over my shoulder to see Ben had a firm grip on his Diesel 10 'Thomas' die cast.

2) I went shopping this evening. When I arrived home I tried on a new top to get Nic's opinion. Ben quickly and enthusiastically said 'It looks nice on you, Mama!'. (Soooooooo cute!)

The Easter express!

Yesterday we went to Tottenham to ride the Easter train. They advertise a steam engine, but really, it's a diesel. Ben enjoyed it all the same. It was cute though. They had some games and the Easter bunny. Caitlin didn't sleep at all, but didn't complain until the end of the ride, and it was a pretty mild complaint.

A few pics from the day. :)

Caitlin's given up the soother

So strange for me! Ben loved his soother at nap and bedtime, but Caitlin has been very adamant that she's not interested. She spits it right back out and sometimes the soother even gets air!

She's happy to be rocked, which we do to help her get into her relaxed/drowsy state, but we don't rock her right to sleep. Usually when I put her in her crib she'll fuss for a moment (like literally one minute) and then she's out. (I've tried the whole routine of picking her back up, rocking some more, etc. but all that does is prevents her from falling asleep.) It's quite something that at this young age that she's able to fall asleep on her own.

Of course, we *could* rock her until she's sound asleep, but I really think that'd be more for me than her. If she can fall asleep on her own I think we'd be doing her a disservice in the long run by getting in the way. And eventually babies get big, and heavy, and the rocking phase becomes longer and longer as babies become older and more alert, and bedtimes become a challenge, and that's when people find themselves at their wit's end. And then people consider hard-core sleep training tactics, like cry it out, and I really, REALLY don't want to go down that road.

Caitlin is 4 months old today!

Caitlin turned four months old today! And these past four months have gone by so quickly. It's amazing how much she's changed and grown in these past months.

Things Caitlin's doing these days:

• rolling front to back. I mentioned this in another entry, and she's kept it up, though she doesn't roll constantly. She does look like she might start rolling back to front soon too; she really cranes her neck sometimes and it looks like it won't be long before her body follows.
• grasping items. She's pretty good at grasping an item and guiding it to - where else? - her mouth! She loves to chew.
• smiley smiles. Caitlin's such a smiley girl. And almost every time she wakes up she greets you with big gummy smiles. So sweet.
• chatting. When you get her going Caitlin can chat up a storm. She seems to have quite a 'vocabulary' already!

She seems to be in the early stages of teething, very drooly, loves chewing on her hands or anything else she can get into her mouth.

She's a great napper and night sleeper, much like her brother. You can put her down with her soother and blanket and she'll just go right to sleep. Most nights lately she'll sleep through until 6/6.30am, though occassionally she wakes at 5am and after a feeding she'll go back to sleep.

Rarely has a complaint and seems to be so content to just observe the world around her.

She loves Ben, and Ben loves her. When she wakes from a nap Ben wants to be the first one in the room and she greets him with the biggest of smiles. He can't wait until she's older and can play with him.

We haven't had a recurrance of the mystery hives that she had a couple of weeks ago, although we have noticed the occassional single tiny hive on her foot. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it, so I guess we'll just wait it out and see. Infants are funny things so hopefully this is just a sign of her developing immune system and nothing more.

So that pretty much sums up where Caitlin's at these days. I look forward to seeing her personality develop over the coming months (and years). Happy four months, Caitlin! We love you! :)

Ben's new catch phrase

"Not today, old man!"

It comes courtesy of Lightening McQueen from Cars.

The scene plays out like this:

Doc Hudson: [Doc and Lightning are racing in the dirt] Yeeehaa! Well, you sure ain't no dirt boy.
Lightning McQueen: Not today, old man. I know all your
tricks.
[Doc suddenly swerves off screen]
Lightning McQueen: [looking for him] Doc! Doc?
Doc Hudson: [Flies over Lightning] YEEEHAAAAA! Not ALL my
tricks, rookie!

And so today Ben recited his new catch phrase, and our conversation went as follows:

Ben: Daddy is an old man.
Me: [laughing] I guess so. You'll have to use that line on him. Do you know any other old men?
Ben: [thinking] Grandpa!
Me: [more laughing] Any others?
Ben: [thinking] Nana?
Me: Nana's not a man.
Ben: Right. Nana's a girl. [thinking] Not today, old girl! [big grin]

I just about fell over laughing. Won't Nana love that??!

And speaking of Grandpa and Nana, they're coming for a visit in May and are expected to arrive a bit before my birthday. Really looking forward to it! They can hardly wait to meet Caitlin and see Ben again.

Ben's soothing ways

Ben has taken to soothing Caitlin when she fusses. Not only is it adorable, but it works!

One night Nic was getting Ben ready for bed as I was getting Caitlin ready for bed. Caitlin was crying as is usually the case after her bath (she really dislikes getting dried off and dressed for bed). We were in their respective bedrooms. Suddenly Ben came running into Caitlin's room 'shushed' her for a moment, and she stopped crying. He'd leave and she'd start again, so back Ben would come and 'shush' again - like magic, Caitlin would stop fussing. This happened a few times, then finally Ben said to Nic 'this will be the last time', and it was... she was happy from then on.

This morning Caitlin was getting a little fussy in her car seat while I was getting Ben and myself in our coats and boots (yes boots, yes we have about 20cms of snow in April, yes Mother Nature is cruel) and so Ben quickly acted giving Caitlin her soother and 'shushing' her, and she settled right down. It's just so sweet, and Ben's so pleased with himself whenever he settles Caitlin.

And the hives remain a mystery.

It's been a week and we haven't seen more hives on Caitlin, thankfully. We still have no idea what caused them though, and unless we see them again we may never know.

The odd thing is I didn't actually treat the hives. I didn't wash the area or use Benadryl, and so if it were a contact reaction I can't imagine the hives would have disappeared until I washed away the allergen.

And considering they were localized hives on the leg it wouldn't have been from anything ingested (not that she ingests anything other than formula).

So unless an insect bite can cause localized hives (I know, usually it's just a welt at the bite site, but being an infant I wonder if it's possible to have a stronger reaction to an insect bite), then I have no idea.