Baby Steps

Casey is on her way to walking. This weekend she was standing by herself and then moved her foot a little forward, followed by an immediate fall to the ground. She has done this a handful of times now. Very exciting! She has also learned how to sign "more." This is extremely exciting for mom and dad...we have been working on this since she was about 6months. She can also sign "milk." We're still working on "please" and "thank you."

She's gotten very clingy to mom the past week. She'll be playing with dad in the living room, mom will be in the kitchen...she'll realize this, crawl into the kitchen and grab at mom's legs, pull herself up, put her head between mom's legs and whine, wanting to be picked up.

Last week, we went swimming with Dee and her son Jack (21 months old). I brought her sit-in raft, so she could walk around by herself. She also went down the whale slide and when she got to the bottom, she kept trying to crawl off into the rest of the pool. No fear! She loves the water...whether it be the pool or the bathtub!!

Gramma Gail, Grampa Tom and Aunt Kel will be around starting tomorrow. Coming into town for Tracy and Casey's bdays. Should be lots of pix for next weeks blog!

coloring with crayons

chowing down on dad's casey-size homemade pancakes...yummy!!

oh, hi!

relaxing in her raft...

19 lb Tantrums

I forgot to mention that our sweet little girl was 19 lbs at 11 1/2 months and has phased into mini-tantrums.

Just yesterday, when I wouldn't allow her into the bathroom (I had shut the door and she could not open it) she started crying. When she realized I wasn't going to open the door, she let out an even louder cry. When she realized I was ignoring her...she laid on her stomach on the ground in front of the bathroom door and cried for about a minute. She finally pulled herself together and crawled over to her toys.

She has been doing this in her high chair too. If we don't give her something fast enough she starts a whine...then peeks at us to see if we're getting it for her. If we aren't, she belts out a loud cry, etc. She's getting much better as the days go on. We are just hoping that she starts to realize (sooner than later) that she is not going to get her way by whining.

We've been trying to teach her sign language for words like "please," "more," "thank you," and "all done," however, she seems determined not to learn them. Or at least to not show us that she's learning them. When we try and guide her hand through the motion she tries so hard to pull it away.

Keeping our fingers crossed that this stage won't last long.

Missed Powder

A day late, but def worth waiting for....right!?

Our house got finished yesterday! All the trim and ceiling beams are sanded, stained, put up; the painting is done; the deck railing is tightened; new light put up for our rentors. Fantastic and they finished 3 days early. Why, because the weather is beautiful this week and our workers wanted to go fishing.

Last week was very hectic with all the work going on in the house. Thursday Casey, Frisco and I headed to Denver to visit our friends Geoff and Sarah and their new baby boy, Graham. We then went over to Mark and Amy's new house in the heart of Denver for the night. We woke Friday to a wet snowy mess, however Casey and I made it to the Denver Aquarium that morning. Casey loved the aquarium. She would stare and point at the fish and laugh. We had lunch in the aquarium restaurant and got a free coke!! We then cruised over to the mall for a couple hours, and then dinner at a yummy bbq restaurant, where Casey tried bbq pork, corn muffins, cole slaw, spiced apples and pickles and loved all of them, oh, and we got a free milk!

Speaking of milk, Casey is drinking milk and seems to like it. She's getting much better at her sippy cup, now realizing that it actually has stuff to drink in it...and it's not just a toy.

Friday night we picked Stan up from the airport then headed back over to Mark and Amy's because I-70 was closed. Yep, we missed 2 powder days in the mountains!!!

We did finally make it up Saturday afternoon and got to go riding at Breckenridge on Sunday and Abasin on Monday.

where's casey?

here i am!

puttin' on her shoe

White Easter

It was a hectic week for us. The interior of our house is being worked on...sanding and staining trim, ceiling beam and columns, and soon painting the rest of the house...or at least the main level. We have hired someone to do it! So, Casey, Frisco and I were kicked out Wednesday - Friday, and will be again this week. We do get to come back in the evening for dinner and to sleep in our own beds.

Wednesday, Casey got her first real bruise at daycare. She supposedly pulled on a drawer and it came out faster than she expected and nailed her right between the eyes. No broken skin, but it was definitely swollen when I picked her up and there was a slash mark bruise in between her eyes.

We went swimming on Thursday, just Tracy and Casey. Casey is getting very comfortable on her back and swimming on her belly. She got to stand on her own on the steps and hold on to the wall, which she really enjoyed. It gave her a great view of all the other kids in the pool...so she could stare/people watch.

This weekend was a busy one. We were able to "move" back into the house while Stan was home. Saturday Stan made a really yummy spice cake from scratch. We celebrated our hard work in the kitchen by heading to the Breckenridge BeerFest. We met up with Erica to listen to bands and taste the beers from the various breweries. We finished the afternoon with 2 for 1 apps at Bubba Gump. Casey was a trooper. She spent the afternoon smiling at everyone, passed out for an hour while the band was playing really loud, then hammed it up for everyone at Bubba Gump. She slept well that night!

Sunday, we awoke to new snow on the ground, hence the "White Easter" title. Aunt Kel came over for Brunch, an egg hunt, and some riding at Keystone. Keystone is now closed for the season:(

Monday we were kicked out of the house again, so we went to ABasin so Stan could snowboard in the morning. We then took a scenic route to Denver. We ate lunch at Beaujous in Idaho Spring (famous for their Mountain Pies/pizza's); backtracked to Empire's Diary King for yummy milkshakes; drove "Oh My God" road a very narrow, mostly dirt road going over the mountain from Idaho Springs to Central City (known for their Casino's); took a detour off I-70 to Echo Mountain, basically a terrain park ski resort; dinner at Wahoo Fish Tacos; then dropped Stan off at the airport.

Casey hopes everyone had a Happy Easter!
And she wants to with Grampa Tom a very Happy Birthday on Tuesday!!! See you soon!

chillin' in her chair

bundled up for the beerfest

our easter "bunny"

the other easter "bunny"

showing off her easter dress

last day of riding at keystone

she jumped on that buffalo and rode it...just like her grandma gail

1 down 3 to go

The chandelier is up!

Frisco turned 9 years old!!
Casey has dropped her lunch bottle!

Casey's new schedule:

7:30 - wakes up

8:00 - breakfast & 4-6 oz bottle

10:00 - nap (1 to 1 1/2 hours)

Noon - lunch w/sippy cup of water

2:00 - nap (1 to 1 1/2 hours)

4:00 - snack & 6 oz bottle

6:15 - dinner w/sippy cup of water

8:00 - 8 oz bottle then BED

She's a really good eater. She eats waffles, bananas, vege sausage links, cheerios, puffs, watermelon (her fav), bread/toast, chix nuggets, meatballs, ravioli, green beans (fav), broccoli, corn, pasta, and really anything we give her.

We've been on a bunch of walks this week and a couple times we've been able to stop at the playground for some swinging...which Casey thinks swinging is so funny, she literally cracks up. She's not a huge fan of the slide yet...she's not afraid of it, just doesn't really get it.

Casey and Frisco are becoming better housemates lately. I wouldn't call them friends just yet, but it's coming. Frisco now just stays put when Casey is poking her, patting her, climbing on her or touching her feet. Casey is definitely more interested in Frisco now too. She enjoys handing Frisco a bone and then watching her chew it. She gets excited when she comes downstairs in the morning...she always looks around for Frisco, then points at her and smiles when she sees her. She's petting her now, and she's learning to brace herself for Frisco kisses and Frisco's tail.

Thursday, Tracy and Casey volunteered at Casey's daycare for a couple hours. We helped out in the 3-4 year old room. The kids LOVED having a baby in the room. They would bring her toys, then take them away. They had all kinds of questions about her. But mostly, they just stood really close and stared at Casey.

Saturday we ventured out into the cold, snowy day for the Breckenridge 150 Party, which ended up being pretty lame, so we ducked into Whale's Tail Restaurant and Bar to watch the Final Four. Casey had a field day hamming it up for the nearby tables.

Sunday, our neighbor babysat Casey for a couple hours so Stan and Tracy could go snowboarding together. The night was finished off with hot tubbing, then a mean game of FooDaPoo...just like the old days...BC (before Casey).

"ok, enough smiles...where's my food?!"

let me get closer

daddy and casey playing in our new tent, yes we set it up in the living room

side view of our new tent

Personality

It's been a funny week with little Miss Casey. She is getting a big time personality!

When we used to put her down for a nap or bedtime, we would lay her in her crib, cover her with her blankey and she would put her thumb in her mouth and just lay there and go to sleep. Now when we lay her in the crib, she immediately rolls over then sits up like she's ready to play. She still takes good naps and goes to bed once we leave, but it's pretty funny to watch...kind of like a wind up toy.

She has been mimicking words like crazy. She says hi, hello, bye and dada. This week she has been crawling all over the living, playing with everything in sight and saying, "ewwwwww" to everything. Her coordination is moving right along. She can now put her shapes into the box through the shape sorter and she likes putting things into cups and taking them out. When she gets excited...which is a lot lately...she lets out a high pitched squeal. She's still walking with support, but has started standing without support for a few more seconds and more often.

She's got her first major diaper rash this week...probably due to all the new foods she's been trying out and really enjoying. She basically will try anything! Her favs this week were broccoli, eggo and watermelon.

In other news...we got LOTS of snow last week so Tracy got in a couple days of snowboarding during the week, while Stan hit up Vail on Saturday. We also got a new chandelier for the dining room, so we (mainly Stan) worked on installing it Sunday and Monday.

Happy April Fools Day to everyone...let's hope I don't get fooled by tomorrow's Summit Daily...they've fooled me every year since I've been here!!!

if you look closely, you'll see she is wearing her first barrette

she now feeds herself her bottle

she can now crawl on and off the car,
but can't really get anywhere yet...she has pushed herself backwards a little bit.

sniffy face

Let Me Play

Sorry for not blogging last week. We traveled to VA for the week and we were busy!

The trip included a weekend in Roanoke visiting Gramma Lois. Casey had tons of fun playing and showing off for Gramma, Aunt Donnie, Aunt Linda and Uncle Marvin.

While in VA we also hung out with Grandma Gail and Grandpa Tom, Aunt Marcy, Uncle Stuart, Lily and Jack, who was home from a week long stay at the hospital, diagnosed with bacterial meningitis...he's all recovered and back to his old self!!. Casey could not have been happier playing with all of Lily and Jack's toys. She was frantic trying to get from one toy to the next. She can now crawl into the ball pit through the tunnel (shown below), pulls herself up on everything, pushes around the cars, pushes buttons to turn toys on, and was very intrigued by the ball blower toy.

Casey also got to visit some newborns...We visited Dyani and her 5 week old boy, Harper. She showed Harper how much fun his toys will be when he gets a little older. She was also fascinated by Dyani's cat, who was also fascinated with Casey. The two of them would just stare at each other. We also visited with Kris & Brian's crew of Emilia, Erin, Ellie and 3 week old Evan. Casey had so much fun with all of their toys and watching the 3 older kids run around.

Thursday night, Grandma Gail and Grandpa Tom had Casey over for a sleepover, giving mom and dad a break. We got to enjoy a nice, stress free dinner out with Jessica and Craig...who were also out enjoying a night out without their 2 boys.

The plane ride home was especially nice, because Stan was with us. Casey slept the first half of the flight, so mom and dad could actually watch a movie!!

Casey is getting better and better at walking. She has even stood on her own for a couple seconds here and there. She has also figured out that if you hold something up to your ear, you're supposed to say, "hello" (or hawo...in her language). She has started mimicing words (Ka for Cat, Ba for Ball). She is in a snuggle stage, mostly when she is tired. She'll lay her head on you and put her arms straight down at her side and snuggle. Her last new trick happened yesterday, after a long time of working with her...she blew kisses to daddy...actually putting her hand to her mouth and making the kissing noise.

We had tons of fun visiting with everyone and very glad cousin Jack is back home.
Thanks to Geoff, Sarah, Kaelin and Otto for watching Frisco all week.
Casey wants to wish Auntie Cousin Blair a Happy Birthday!
Enjoy the pix.

all dressed up and no place to go

Gramma Lois and Casey wearing a coaster on her head

rockin' with Grandma Gail

crawling out of the ball pit

hanging with cousins Lily and Jack

showing Harper the in's and out's of the activity mat

Grandma Gail, Grandpa Tom and Casey

zoning out

snowmobiling with mommy

Walk the Walk

Casey is a walking machine. Not completely on her own yet, but she pulls herself to standing position constantly. And she can now pull herself up using her walker and walk on her own. Stan saw her walk from one end of the living room to the other end and then turned and went down the hallway. Unfortunately we did not get it on video, but we did get a little video below. She still drops to a crawl when she needs to get somewhere fast.

Her other new thing this week is pushing around cars, instead of just putting them in her mouth. She grabs a car and crawls around the house pushing it along.

She is still babbling a lot. She's very social...smiles at everyone and is very interested in everyone...sometimes pushing me out of the way so she can see the person behind me in line or someone who walks by.

She is eating all kinds of food now, green beans, cereal bar, toast, watermelon, canteloupe, pork, turkey, ham, kidney beans and she even had a little eel last night...yes, eel. She seemed to enjoy it! She also gets very excited when we give her a sippy cup of water.

She has had a bit of a cold the past couple of days, including a cough, but other than that, she's a pretty happy kiddo.

We head to VA on Friday for the week.
Casey wants her cousin Jack to know she's thinking of him...and will see him soon!

sitting on her car/walker

"what are you looking at?!"

playing with Kaelin

Welcome to Miami

Sorry for the late post!

While our house was being rented out Feb 25 - Mar 1, we decided to head to the beach. Stan's sister, Lisa and her family moved to Boca Raton, FL this Summer, so we went to see what they have been up to.

Stan worked from home Mon and Tues so he could fly with me and Casey to Miami. So glad he was able to do that, because Casey was up the entire 3 hour flight. She was very happy and chatty throughout the flight, no meltdowns, so it wasn't bad. She just wanted to crawl around, stand up, sit down, just very busy. Every once in a while she would grab her blanky and lean back on one of us and even close her eyes, but a few seconds would go by and she felt she was rested and ready to go again. We got to Miami late Wed night.

Thursday we picked the kids up from school, and headed to the beach for the afternoon. Casey wasn't too thrilled with the sand, but was fine sitting on the blanket.

Friday we went to the Miami Zoo for the day. It was a really cool zoo, all the animals were out, it was a beautiful day and the kids had a blast!

Saturday we drove down to the Keys. We stopped at Founders Park in Islamorada for the afternoon. There was a sandy beach and a roped off area to swim in the Gulf. It was shallow and calm enough for the kids to play. Casey loved floating around in her new raft and Lisa even got her to sit in the sand on the shoreline while Stan and Tracy went sailing on a Hobie Cat. 15 minutes to cruise out to deeper water...45 minutes to figure out how to get back in. Quite an adventure. There was a playground for Ashlynne and Morganne to play on. And Max was happy wading in the water and playing in the sand. Casey even took a nice long nap on the blanket!

Sunday we spent the morning at the beach. It was a little windy, but still warm enough for us to swim. Auntie Cousin Blair was in town for the weekend, so she stopped by for lunch at Dave and Lisa's house before flying back to Pitt.

It was a nice relaxing weekend. The weather was so nice. It was really nice to be in shorts! Casey and her cousins had a lot of fun playing. Max and Casey got along great. Max enjoyed bringing toys to Casey and consoling her when she got fussy. He would lean in for a hug or give her a toy to stop her from crying. Ashlynne and Morganne were great at entertaining Casey in the car. And they loved sharing their toys with her too.

Casey is pulling herself up like a pro now. She enjoys holding our fingers and walking around now. She kicks out her feet to walk, and likes to step on anything that is lying around the floor. She has learned the word no and actually listens now, when we tell her not to touch something. She's still on 4 bottles a day (every 4 hours) and eats 3 meals. She's been eating a lot of real food and so far eats pretty much anything we give her (avocado, bananas, bread, turkey, ham, pasta, cheese).

Stan flew to DC on Monday, while Tracy and Casey flew back to CO. Casey slept most of the flight. She was exhausted after a fun, busy weekend with her cousins.

She's back at school today.

Casey would like to wish Aunt Lisa a Happy Birthday (March 3) and her Daddy a Happy Birthday today (March 4)!!

Casey packing for the trip

Get me out of this itchy sand!

Max & Casey at the beach

Mr. Kangaroo chillin'

Casey hanging with her elephant friend

view of the beach in Islamarado

sailing

close up

playing in her raft

cutie

napping at the beach

cousins (casey zoning)

President's Weekend & Valentine's Day

Pres/Valentine's Day weekend was fun, busy, chaotic. Aunt Marcy, Uncle Stuart, Cousins Lily & Jack, Aunt Kelly and Stan all got into town Thursday.

Friday, our friend Erica babysat Jack and Casey so the rest of us could get ski Breckenridge together, while Lily took a full day lesson. Lily took a run on the bunny slope after her lesson to show off her new skills, pizza (snow plow) and french fries (parallel skis).

Saturday and Sunday we took shifts, skiing/riding Keystone and playing with Jack and Casey. Lily took another full day lesson on Saturday. Sunday she took on the bunny slope throughout the day perfecting her pizza and french fries on the bunny slope. Monday she was excellent enough to hit the greens with mom & dad at ABasin.

Monday morning, after Aunt Kel left to head back to Boulder for school, we went to Copper for some tubing. There were 5 different lanes and it was scarier than it looked. One of the lanes even had a jump! Lily went the entire hour, while the adults took turns.

Tuesday morning, Stan flew to VA, while the rest of us went to Boulder to see Aunt Kel's school and apt. We picked her up at the Business School after class, then went to Pearl Street for lunch. It was crazy windy that day, so we didn't do a whole lot of walking around. We checked out her apt, played a wild game of Twister, then headed back to Dillon.

The cousins enjoyed playing together all week. Casey and Jack learned to share toys and followed each other everywhere. They also slept in the same room and did very well. They were all very good at adapting to all the chaos. Lily had fun in the hot tub with the adults and making cupcakes for V-Day. Marcy and Stuart got tons of skiing in. A big difference from East Coast runs. I think we're all looking forward to next year!!

Lily, happy to be skiing

Aunt Marcy and Cousin Jack, hanging with a sleeping Casey

Kel & Tracy getting ready for a run

Cousins

Jack showing Casey the ins & outs of the exersaucer

Aunt Kel taking a break with Casey in the lodge at Keystone

The group (minus Marcy & the kids) at Keystone

Sisters playing twister...Jack & Casey assisting

SuperWoman Casey

Learning to walk