Caitlin, Caitlin, look at you go!

Caitlin's really coming along with her walker these past few days. I don't think it will be too long before she starts letting go. Then I'll really be in trouble!

And the stairs - oh my! We have to keep them gated otherwise she beelines it and climbs the stairs with haste!

A few other things Caitlin's doing:

• wanting to know what everything is called, e.g., she points, waits for you to name the object, then points to something new - the girl is always pointing!
• knows where her toes are and can find them when you ask
• will point to Ben if you ask her where he is
• pretend eats food, which is something she's picked up from Ben and our tea parties
• says 'dada' and 'uh-oh' - no 'mama' yet, but she seems to call me 'ba-ba'
• loves flipping the pages in a book when you read to her
• LOVES to feed herself; we just put her food on her tray and she has at it, and if you try to spoon feed her you have to fill the spoon and pass it to her so she can do it herself, otherwise she shakes her head and gets mad

I'm sure there are a tonne of other things, but this is what comes to mind at the moment.

She sure is a lot of fun. It's such a pleasure watching her learn new things and explore the world around here. My heart just swells right up when I see her beam with pride with each new accomplishment.

Ben - true Canadian kid!

Ben's started skating this winter. Initially I wasn't sure how it would go. He gets so easily frustrated when he's not immediately good at something. We enrolled him in skating lessons - he's had three so far, and he's done SO well! He gets right back up when he falls down and keeps on trying. He's definitely determined!

When Ben first started lessons he hadn't been on skates at all. He was very reliant on a skate trainer to hold onto to assist him with balance. His last lesson, however, he did three widths of the rink with only one fall in the beginning.

I've had him out a few times myself and the improvement each time is quite impressive. And I was so proud of him last week when he let go of the trainer to skate next to me - he announced 'I'm skating! I'm skating!! I'm skating with YOU, Mama!!!' What a wonderful moment that was and one I'll always hold close to my heart.

I'll try to post a few pics in the next few days. I often forget to bring along the camera when we're out - which is probably fine by Ben as he isn't crazy about having his photo taken - but we do have a few.

Cruising and more.

In the past month or so Caitlin's gross motor coordination has come a long way. She's much more quick to get on her feet, she's cruising a bit, and has been climbing the stairs. She's been doing a couple of stairs for a long while now, but only in the past few weeks has become brave enough to climb all the way upstairs. In fact, one day I forgot to close the gate at the bottom of the stairs and the next thing I knew Ben was alerting me that Caitlin was upstairs. I didn't even know she could climb all the way up... or would be brave enough!

Caitlin had a follow-up appointment with the paediatrician. I don't know if I'd mentioned in a previous entry, but there were a few things our extremely cautious GP had refered us for (heart murmur, small head circumference, and red reflexes in the eyes) all of which I'm pleased to say are fine and the paeditrician has no concern with. The only reason we returned is because Caitlin had lost a small amount of weight between her first and second appointments. Today we found she gained, but has dropped in percentile; instead of remaining on the 50th percentile curve she's dropped to somewhere between 50th and 25th. Again, however, no cause for concern because she is gaining and she eats very well; I think she's more likely to take after Nic's side of the family and be smaller framed and lighter weight (whereas Ben was the complete opposite -- always topping the charts, so I'd guess he takes after my family).