Peter and I are happy to announce that, come the end of February, our little Catherine will be a big sister!
We haven’t really told her yet (9 months is a long time to wait when you’re 2!) but I did discover her reading my most recent library book. She must have a gut feeling and want to be prepared!
The other evening, Catherine, our almost-20-month-old daughter, went to the pantry, pulled a box of crackers off of the shelf, brought it out into the living room, climbed up into her high chair, sat down, and helped herself to a snack.
Last week, we went for a walk down to the playground on our street. We all had fun playing around and taking pictures…
It’s getting colder, so I’m not sure how many more trips we’ll be making to the playground. But it was good to get this one in! More pics can be found [here](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/travels/2007/bradstreet_playground/).
At work today, I proudly affixed Catherine’s first piece of artwork to my desk:
She made it mostly by herself (with a little help from momma for the stamping) earlier this week at the [North Shore Children’s Museum](http://www.northshoreymca.org/pages/11446_north_shore_children_s_museum.cfm). I’m looking forward to seeing more works of our from our girl. 🙂
Catherine is 17 months old as of today!
She has been quite busy in the learning and growing departments.
The other day we were playing with a little beach ball in her room, and I heard her say the word “ball”. Later on, we were out in the living room, and I asked her if she could go and get her ball. She walked over to her room, picked up the ball, and brought it out to us. Wow!
Her manual dexterity has really taken off – she’s great at taking things apart and putting them back together. She’s got the hang of buckles and clasps, and I’m sure that she’ll figure out how to unbuckle her car seat pretty soon. At church on Sunday she had slipped a crayon out of its wrapper, and then put it back in. The other night, she was playing with an accordion filing folder, and it appears that she has learned how to flip through it: either quickly with her first two fingers, or slowly by just flicking her index finger.
A few nights ago, Catherine took Becky’s cell phone into her room, and (probably slightly by luck) speed-dialed my phone and then babbled to me for a bit. She’s got the cell-phone posture down pat – she’ll hold it in between her shoulder and ear, head cocked to the side.
She can now not only climb up the front of her high chair, but also the side, up and over. She can also easily climb up into our desk chair and operate the computer.
She’s picked up from us the practice of blowing on her food if it’s hot. We all have fun taking turns blowing on our food when we have a hot dish. 🙂
As for saying words, she’s got: mama, mommy, dada, hi, hiya, ball, teeth, up, kitty, “ted” for her teddy bear, and we heard her say “might” quite clearly the other night, but there wasn’t any context behind it, so I’m not sure she’s got the comprehension. 🙂 There are a lot of other words she clearly understands, but doesn’t actually say yet, like nose, banana, and shoes.
Dear Catherine, what will you do next?
This isn’t the first time I’ve mentioned diapers on this blog…and probably won’t be the last! I’ve said before that I wanted to use cloth diapers when Catherine was born. What I didn’t want was schlepping all the dirty ones over to the laundromat and pay to wash them! So for a year we used disposables. Sometimes we used gDiapers.
Now that we have our own laundry facilities, and we are working so hard to be green, we are making the switch to cloth diapers. The benefits are pretty obvious- they are less expensive in the long run, softer, make less waste, and are pretty cute! Cloth diapers have come a long way since my Mom diapered me! You won’t find a single diaper pin or pair of vinyl pants at our house! For some good information about today’s cloth diapers see here and then surf around and look at all the cute diapers for sale!
Making the switch is not cheap in the short run, however. A good set of cute diapers can run a person $80-$100! Never mind any accessories that go with it! We decided to ease ourselves into it. We already owned two ‘little gs’ that we have been using the flushable diapers in. I found them on craigslist- a starter pack (2 pants and 10 diapers)- for $10 [normally $25]. I went to Wal*Mart and got a dozen prefold diapers to get us started. I just fold the diapers and stuff them in the covers. The covers get velcroed on around her waist. Easy as pie!
We are still working out the kinks in our system. We’ve figured out washing and drying- we dry on a rack outside…the sun bleaches out the stains! It is a little more work than disposables, but worth it. There are a few things I’d like to add to the mix. I would love to get a couple more gDiaper covers and another dozen diapers. That would set us up with a healthy stash. We need some sort of ‘wet bag’ for the dirty diapers when we’re on the go.
We still use disposables here and there for some occasions, but I think as we grow more and more comfortable with the routine of cloth diapering there will be less and less need for them.
In other cloth news, we have abandoned paper napkins for cloth. We have a few napkins that came with a wedding present (the khaki ones) but I wanted more. I dug through my fabric bin and found some lavender linen fabric from an abandoned project. I whipped them up into little napkins with my trusty Singer and immediately pressed them into service.
These two changes require me to spend a little more time dealing with laundry-type chores, but I feel good knowing that I am reducing both the amount of material things I need to buy and the amount of trash I’m sending to the landfill.
I recently mixed up a tasty little summer salad…and, as it turns out, Catherine LOVES it!
Click the photo for more cute shots!
Here’s the recipe:
1 can of Black Beans, rinsed and drained
1 can of Sweet Corn, rinsed and drained
1/2 jar of Salsa
Mix all ingredients and refrigerate a while- until it gets cold and the flavors have a chance to mix together.
Enjoy!
Peter and I have been pretty dedicated to babywearing over the past year. The stroller comes in handy for long walks and some shopping trips, but there are times when it just isn’t necessary or convenient to lug out the stroller. And there are times when we want to keep Catherine close.
Our two babywearing mainstays have been a ring sling and a baby backpack. These have both worked well for both of us: Peter with Sling, Rebecca with Sling, Peter with Backpack, Rebecca with Backpack. Each has its own pros and cons so we switch between them depending on the situation.
For a while now I’ve been wanting a new carrier; one that is soft and can be used in the front carry or the back carry position. I thought that it would come in handy when the external frame backpack (with its wonderfully large pocket) would be more carrier than I needed.
Something like this:
Thanks to a couple of online tutorials I was able to sew my own Mei Tai carrier. After studying the pattern for several weeks I finally found the time to visit the fabric store. Thanks to a good sale and a gift card I scored a great deal on some beautiful fabric. I was excited to get started, so as soon as we were home and Catherine was tucked in for her nap I broke out the scissors and sewing machine.
A handful of hours later I had a finished project! The carrier is beautiful, fits perfectly and Catherine seems to like it.
One year ago today, Catherine made a dramatic arrival into our lives. From a scary beginning of hospitals, ambulances, machines, and tubes, she has grown into a beautiful, intelligent, curious toddler (yes, toddler!). Becky and I feel unbelievably fortunate to be her parents and to have helped guide her through this first year of life. We can’t wait to see what the future holds!
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Zero Years
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One Year
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Also, on the occasion of Catherine’s birthday, I’m happy to announce that I’ve launched a new blog to share my thoughts on parenting! Head on over and check out Nobody Puts Daddy In The Corner.
