Home for the holidays

We are half way done with the first leg of our Christmas marathon, 10 hours of flying down 16 to go. The flight from London was as good as could be expected, the airline put us in a bassinet row, this meant that we had more leg room and a small hanging bassinet to put Kaitlyn in if she would ever fall asleep. In the first half of the flight she did sleep in it for maybe an hour and then another 1/2 hour on Neal's chest, that would be the last we would see Kaitlyn's eyes closed. The rest of the trip was a constant balancing act between food, toys, crawling, holding and attempting to walk. It was up to us to determine what Kaitlyn wanted next, if we got it wrong we had just a few seconds to try and figure it out.

Once we arrived at at the parents house Kaitlyn was all smiles. This was a pleasent change from last trip where it took her days to get used to everyone. Kaitlyn stayed up very late the first night, and then was up at 2:30am. By about day 4 she was adjusted into her normal routine of naps and that meant a more normal bedtime and morning.

Will write more later, we are having a good time in the US going to all the stores and restraunts.

Early Christmas

Because we will be back in the States for Christmas we gave Kaitlyn her gift early. Mind you she is a baby and will not remember if we gave her 10 presents or two.

She isn't big on riding the horse yet, but she's all smiles when on it.

Pictures, Returns, & A Birthday

If ever there were any doubts who she belonged to it ended with the forehead light. Here is Neal's little clone.

I'm not sure if the last few days have been calm or if I'm just getting used to Kaitlyn climbing everything and pulling stuff down. She loves crawling up on the couch. I keep telling her we sit or lay on the couch not stand, but of course she stands. The problem with her standing is she can reach all the things we have tried to keep from her; remote, tissues, and so on. Oh and the tissues... Another thing we have talked about many times is that tissues are for your nose. After having our talk I put the tissues on the other side of me on top of the couch. Kaitlyn inevitably gets them again. Yesterday I walked downstairs to find each tissue out of the box, laying on the couch or floor. I guess I still have a lot of work to do on what they are used for. =) I was reading What To Expect The First Year and it said we should explain why we do things to our 10-11 month olds even if they don't understand. I think it's because eventually it will click. And the big thing from the book was NO BABY TALK. I know we will have to deal with this when we are back home, but seeing how Kaitlyn is starting to grasp words we will have to insist people talk to her normally. The book explained just what I was thinking. It said if you repeat her gibberish back to her she will not learn how to say words correctly. I haven't heard this before, but it went on to say not to correct mispronounced words. Their reason was little ones cannot say all 21 consonants properly until they are 3-5. Also, correction may stop the child from striving to talk for a while for fear of saying it wrong.

I bought Neal the new ABU yesterday. The manufacturer is getting material from two different places so the shirt and pants are different colors. The pants were a bit more green and the shirt brown. I guess it really doesn't matter because I have to take them both back. Grrr... Because they are the new uniform they do not have a lot to choose from. Next time I will work hard at getting the same color ABU.

Because we are going back to the States next Thursday I'm having Kaitlyn's one year pictures done today. I'm hoping they come out great. I bought her a handmade dress off Ebay that has a cake on the front with one candle and her name "Kaitlyn Joy". Last night I made her a much to large bow for her hair and two matching bows for the dress. Not that the dress needed bows, but I thought a little extra ribbon never hurts. Hehehe...

This is her birthday dress the day it arrived. She will have a long sleeve white top on today with black shoes, white socks and of course the bows I made last night.

To round out our day it's Neal's birthday. I think I will feel a little better about his birthdays when he finally gets into his upper 20s, but 26 is a good start. Out of all things he is having to do his PT test today. Who knows it is sprinkling out it may be under 53 with 20mph winds so he may have gotten out of testing. Now that I think of it he probably put his test off until today because his age lowers his requirements. Good thinking Neal. Here is a picture of the birthday boy with his baby girl; not looking much like a girl I might add.

A Picture Is Worth A 1,000 Words

You never know what Kaitlyn will do when left alone. If I ever need to leave Kaitlyn downstairs alone I first must get the room ready. Like this morning, I put the dogs in their kennel and pick up anything Kaitlyn shouldn't play with. I try to leave the room while Kaitlyn is playing so she doesn't spend my entire time upstairs crying at the gate. Today everything was going as planned until I started hearing dog growls. I could hear their kennel gate rattling as Kaitlyn shook it. I kept hollering down for her to leave them alone, but it didn't help. Kaitlyn kept picking. When I came downstairs not only was I shocked, but I couldn't stop laughing. Kensey was running around the living room while Kaitlyn and Sadie were both locked in the dog kennel. Kaitlyn has never gotten it open before so I didn't expect it to happen this time nor did I think she would get it back shut with her inside. She was all smiles at her accomplishment. As you can see Sadie isn't as happy with her new company.

Yesterday Kaitlyn reminded us baby gates are just in the way. She was crying at the bottom of the stairs while Neal and I both were upstairs. When the tears stopped I told Neal she must have found a new activity. I no sooner got the words out that I heard a familiar hollow sound; Kaitlyn was coming up the stairs. Neal ran to the stairs to find her already near the top.

Castle Rising Castle

Saturday we went to Castle Rising Castle. It wasn't as nice, big, nor preserved as Dover Castle, but it was still neat to see. The family that took over the castle in the 1500s started knocking down part of it. For whatever reason all demolition stopped and the pictures below are what is left of it. As you can tell by how bundled we were it was cold here Saturday. I had Kaitlyn in a sling, but still had to hang onto her to keep the blankets around her. She kept straightening out her body causing her rear to fall out of the sling.