Random Caitlin-isms

So this post is mostly for the family. There are so many little things that Caitlin does these days that I sometimes forget to mention on the phone. I’ve tried (often unsuccessfully) to catch some of these on video to share.

She loves to watch herself on the camera, so you have to work to get a video when she isn’t paying attention so she won’t hijack the camera!

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Last week Caitlin and I were in the kitchen. She wanted a banana and was being rather insistent. I had really been working on getting her to say please, but the more I asked her to say please, the more she whined. Finally I said, “Be nice!” and she stopped immediately and started to gently rub my leg. I had to keep from laughing.

My first thought was Moses. Every time she runs up to the cat, I remind her to “Be nice” or “Be gentle.” The way she was petting my leg is exactly the same way.

Then Wednesday morning her teacher at school stopped me and wanted to show me what she and Caitlin have been working on. Miss Betty asked Caitlin how she was going to treat her baby brother.

She has been working with her to “be nice to a baby” and to touch very gentle. The teacher was disappointed that she wouldn’t do it then to show me (Caitlin had already spotted breakfast being served…) but I assured her we’d seen her do it at home!

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Speaking of the cats, Caitlin LOVES Moses. She calls for him all the time. She will grab his bag of treats and try to coax him down the stairs. She waves to him as she eats dinner in her booster seat. She tries to put the food back in his bowl for him if I forget to put it away before she gets there.

Rafa on the other hand? She chases after him and tries to hit him. He scratched her once after she pulled his tail and neither of them has forgotten it. She will try to shoo him away as she eats her dinner in her booster seat.

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Caitlin will randomly break out with a, “Ooh!’ or a, ‘Wow!’ when she sees something that strikes her fancy. It might be fireworks, a stuffed animal, or a sidewalk chalk drawing of Elmo. She is too funny!

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While she still loves Elmo, Caitlin is currently obsessed with the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Hot Dog song. We have the song on CD thanks to Rylee’s birthday party.

Here is the song for those of you who may not be familiar with the song:

It has been playing on repeat in Caitlin’s bedroom every chance she gets for the last week or so. Caitlin does her own version of the Hot Dog dance each and every time the song plays. It is so darn cute it makes up for listening to the song over….and over….and over….

(Side note: I typed this and then she decided enough was enough and somewhat moved on. Thank goodness!)

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At school last week her teacher told me that Caitlin tells her which songs to sing during circle time. (The teacher in me heard, “Your child is bossy” but that’s okay – no question there where she gets it from!)

Most of the hand motions for songs we knew about, but Miss Betty said that Frere Jacques was one of her favorites. We tried it out when we got home.

Now at first glance it seems like she is holding her ears, but after talking with her teacher, it seems that it is supposed to be putting your head down to go to sleep. I think it is cuter Caitlin’s way!

Here is another one of her favorites:

She loves her music!

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They play Simon Says at school working on identifying body parts. I’d discovered this after bath time one night as I asked her to touch her head, her ears, etc. The Irishman was amazed by this. They play Simon Says every chance they get.

Yesterday when I picked her up from school she pointed to my ears and said, “Ear.” She’s really started picking up words this week!

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Caitlin is still quite attached the the silly pink bear she got from the urgent care center when she bumped her head. He seems to show up everywhere. I am also trying to get her used to the idea of a baby. I gave her one of her old bottles and a baby spoon to use to feed her baby doll. I took it a step farther and pretended the baby was crying and she needed to give it the bottle. She wasn’t so sure what to think of that, but she did show Daddy and her aunties how she gives the baby the bottle, so that was a good sign!

That baby never comes out of the stroller though. She got both the baby and the stroller from Nana for her birthday and she associates the two together. We did find her favorite doll in the Target doll aisle on clearance and we got that for her. It is a doll that you feed and it talks and laughs and cries. We are thinking it may be a present from her baby brother that she gets when she comes to visit him in the hospital.

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Now that it looks like a c-section is in my not-so-distant future I’d decided I was really going to try to not pick up Caitlin for a while. The stinker then decided to try out that, “please” I’d been bugging her about. She stands at the top of the stairs with big puppy dog eyes reaching out her arms and saying, “Puh-EEZE? Puh-EEZE? Puh-EEZE?” It is enough to make me want to melt.

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Elmo is still #1, but aside from Mickey, he has some new competition. Daddy has introduced her to this clip:

The Irishman LOVES Caitlin’s Cookie Monster impression at the end of this clip. She also loves to say, “COOKIE!” Thankfully she is not yet a cookie monster herself. Unlike her friend the blue monster, Caitlin is happy enough to announce that it is a cookie and walk around holding it instead of scarfing it down like….well, you know!

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She is such a character! It is hard to believe her little brother will be here so soon! At my appointment on Monday the specialist estimated his size to be about 8 pounds, 4 ounces. Now there is a pound or so margin of error, but the bottom line is that at 36 weeks, that is a very big baby. They have pretty much ruled out a vbac, and I’m okay with that. She also seemed to think that there is a good chance I could go into labor early due to the size.

I meet with my regular OB today. I'm sort of expecting her to move up the date of my c-section depending on how my appointment goes. We’ll see what she says! I’ve just about gotten things in order this week - the paperwork, the baby clothes, etc. Now all that is missing is a healthy baby boy!