Just Being Silly

Here is Kaitlyn being silly.. Enjoy!

Photo and video editing at onetruemedia.com

Departmental Gymnastics Competition Results and Photos

The competition results and professional photos are here!!! Krista tied for 4th place with 74 points. The 3rd place position was only 1 point away, so she almost tied with her last competition! We're really proud of her because this competition was much larger and more stressful. She really did great! These are the photos from the professional photographers that were on the floor with the girls. We are still awaiting the letter of inviation for the special team "tests". We have decided to let Krista take the tests if she wants to (and she does). We will see what comes of the tests.

11 Months Old Today

Kaitlyn is 11 months old today. It has by far been her biggest month in visible development. This month Kaitlyn has learned to crawl, pull to stand and has even started to cruise! WOW!! She has been a very busy girl these last few weeks!! This month we have also been seeing a lot of verbal development and reactivity also. She will now answer questions by nodding (no and even YES) and will also comment on things too. When her cup falls or when Krista or Erik get into trouble she now says "Uh-Oh!" It is areally funny to hear because she prononunces it perfectly and it is always right on cue! She also does a lot of "tricks" as I like to call them. She will put her hands over her eyes when I ask to play "peek-a-boo", she will clap when I ask, she will wave "bye-bye" on command also. She also gives hugs when we ask and LOTS of big sloppy kisses too With respect to verbal development, she can say--mama, dada, buba (for the tub), coco (for herself), ni-ni (for night-night), guck (for duck), momo (for her favorite teddy bear), and I'm SURE I'm missing a few others.

As far as eating goes Kaitlyn has only tried a handful of new foods. She seems stuck eating the things she likes and doesn't like to try new tastes or textures. She LOVES pasta and bread, any fruit (except the sour ones like blueberries or even strawberries). She isn't into the high protein foods--she does seem to tolerate turkey and cod, but does not like salmon or other fish at all. She loves carrots (but that is it for the veggies and she is STUBBORN about this), she likes saltine crackers, cheerios, biscuits, pretzels, yogurt, and her new favorite is cottage cheese. She loves water also, and I've recently started to give her a little pre-made milkshake drink for babies made with cereal which she will sip (and take a max of 1-2 oz 30/60 ml). She is still nursing several times a day (I admit I don't count) and also several times at night. I do plan on weaning her sometime after her first birthday. I've really been enjoying nursing her, but know that once I wean her she will sleep through the night and we BOTH need that! I nursed Erik for much, much longer than one year and it was wonderful, but I do believe that the majority of the health benefits come during the first year. We've nearly a reached that goal, with not even one single bottle so far in her life.

Kaitlyn is a funny little one, she loves attention and people and likes to make people laugh. She will crunch up her nose and blow out of her nose until you do the same thing. Ultimately it gets us laughing and that is what she is after! She gives kisses and hugs whenever we ask. She always smiles for strangers and LOVES being out and about. She adores riding in the shopping cart or going for walks in her 3 wheel stroller. She is very "portable" which is good since she NEEDS to be. TODAY we moved from the baby carrier carseat to the BIG GIRL carseat. She looks SO small in the big Britax seat! I've been waiting for her to stabilze at 9 kg and also to come as close as possible to 1 year before the transition. I would have waited until 1 year, but really felt that with her legs being crunched up it was no longer safe for her. It was getting hard to put her in the rear facing position when she stretched her legs out, and I know that would be dangerous for her spine and knees if we had to stop quickly. She seems quite strong, so I think forward facing from 11 months is fine now. Her baby carrier actually goes up to 13 kg and she is just a tad over 9 which is the lower limit for the new seat. I will miss the carrier because it was so easy snap into the car (onto the base) and also onto the stroller. We'll get used to the new system soon. Krista and Erik were thrilled today to have all 3 kids facing the same direction!

So that is a brief snapshot of Kaitlyn and her development this month. I can't belive that this time next month she will be ONE YEAR OLD! We'll enjoy every second of this last month though before it is over.

Who is who?

EVERYONE says HOW MUCH Kaitlyn looks like Me and Krista. I thought I'd take a photo of Kaitlyn in Krista's old hat and coat so we could make a comparaison. The girls are the same age in these photos (roughly 10 months old). SO, who is who? Is Kaitlyn the one in the top or bottom picture?

Seriously though, I'd say someone will make a comment at least 3-4 times a week about how much Kaitlyn looks like she belongs in our family. One lady at the baby store today (who witnessed me coming in a LOT during my pregnancy) said that she just HAD to comment. She said that she RARELY sees family resemblances among babies, but just couldn't get over how much Kaitlyn looked like me.

So back to the photos---who is who?

Backyard Progress

Our backyard is shaping up. It feels so wonderful to have spring right at our doorstep, and an actual backyard at our doorstep too!! It is almost like discovering a second house! We have been loving our new house for these last 8 months-- and now we are actually "starting" to have a yard to love too!!!

Today the landscaper brought over a few bushes for the patio--they will give us privacy from both neighbors and also protect children from walking off the boulder retaining wall. It makes the patio feel more homelike now, and less like a construction site!! ;)

They also put a path around the whole house against the walls. There are granite rocks and patio tiles down now which make a path around the house, and also protects the house from getting dirty, and keeps it easier to mow along the house edge.

The weather has been so spring-like today--hopefully it will last so the earth can dry out a bit and then they can plant our grass!

Kaitlyn Our Teacher

Kaitlyn is Krista's lifelong dream come true. This is a fact that Krista reminds me of, on almost a daily basis. Usually it goes something like this: "Kaitlyn is my dream baby, Mama! She is the baby sister that I've always wanted!" It warms my heart to hear these words!!!! And you know what, Krista really means it! She and Erik both ADORE their baby sister!! They get just as excited as Toomas and myself when she learns a new trick, says a new word, or makes a funny face. They are proud of her achievements and her progress--much like we are, her parents!

The birth of Kaitlyn has brought a lot of joy to our family.... loads of fun, new games and songs.... lots of laughs, and a whole truckload of goo-goo's, gaga's and baby-talk!! But with the fun also comes the work!! Now, after just about one year with Kaitlyn, they are both pretty much the experts on babies. They have both learned a LOT firsthand from living with this new little bundle of ours. They've both come to understand that babies can be lot of fun, but also require a lot of work too. They come running when she starts to fuss and needs a playmate, they scurry to pick up her dropped toys, they quickly offer their help with "babysitting" when I run to get the mail...they've learned to be great helpers!!! They've also definately learned that babies needs come first, and because of this, they've learned to compromise. They've learned to be patient. In short, I've seen traits develop in them that as thier mother, I am very proud to see! Living with this little bundle has taught them patience, giving, responsibility and understanding. It is amazing to think that these are qualities that such young children can develop....but they truly have!! Both Krista and Erik are always on the lookout for Kaitlyn's well-being and protection: they straighten her hat if it get crooked, they play VERY quietly when she is napping, they pull up her socks if they come down, they sing her a song if she gets fussy, they run to grab a kleenex when she gets messy, they even warn me if they think a toy is too dangerous for her. It is so amazing to see this maturity in both of them. They have leared a kind of selflessness that one would never imagine possible in such young children. Kaitlyn, this new little life of ours, has brought us many gifts---the gift of laugher, of smiles, of cuddles and of simple joy... but even more importantly she has given her siblings an important lesson about life itself! AMAZING!

Kaitlyn Crawls!!

BIG NEWS!! Kaitlyn has learned to crawl! She's been crawling backwards for over a week now and I was beginning to wonder when it would click. She has known how to scoot for some time (on her bottom) and could get around by rolling or inching, but hasn't done the "proper" crawl until today. It is funny how one minute they can't do it and then the next minute they can! She's been getting up on her hands and knees for 3-4 weeks now and rocking. I knew it was just a matter of a few days until she'd "take off." On the other end of the spectrum, we had Krista who just couldn't wait to get moving! From the day she was born she wanted to be on the go... Erik was somewhere in the middle (appropriately) and Kaitlyn is just more relaxed about things! Here she is:

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St. Patricks Day Pics & Gymnastics News!

A few photos of the girls on St. Patricks Day (Erik was upstairs playing Star Wars).

A bit of good news from us....and although I don't have all the details yet I'm still going to share the news! Krista was "detected" as they say in French, at her competition on Saturday. There is a special select club here in France that has scouts who attend the competitions. It seems that Krista has been identified and will now receive a letter in the mail inviting her to attend the special tests. I'm not sure of the name but it is something like "CREPS" and it is very elite to the gymnastics world. For qualification there are general physical tests (flexibilty, speed) and also specific gymnastics evaluations also (ribbon, cord, hoop). They also examine (and measure) the morphology of each girl to see if they qualify.

We are probabally going to let Krista do the tests since she has been invited (and mostly because she so BADLY wants to). We are not sure what we will do if she makes the team though. The trainings are very rigorous and almost every day of the week! It seems a lot for her age (and a lot for us in the car since it is in the city). We are very flattered that she has been invited though. It is very high praise! We are going to wait for the letter and see what it entails! We'll post when we know more.

Landscaping Project

Well there has been a LOT happening here with a capital "L"!!! The letter L has been implemented in the transformation of our yard this and last week and we couldn't be happier with the outcome!!! I will try to describe the sequence of events, but it is probabally hard to fully comprehend the yard situation unless you have actually seen our yard and the incredible transformation that has occured there. I will post some before and after pictures, but getting a feel for what happened might be hard.

To start off..This is what our yard looked like in March of 2006, just one short year ago! It is followed by a picture of the house right now.

As you can see in the first photo above, there was one ENTIRE level of our house that was not surrounded by earth. The terrace patio gives evidence to this "missing" earth around the house. You can see the two legs holding up the terrace/patio in the picture above, but no earth around it. Our WHOLE yard needed to be filled up to this level because we really wanted a "walk out" yard. Do you have any idea how many SEMI-TRUCKS of earth that equals?! A LOT! We also didn't want our yard to slope. We wanted to have as much flat yard as possible so the kids could run and play and kick a ball without it going into the forest! We have a small playhouse, a swingset and a sandbox all that need a nice flat yard.

We initially tried to grade the yard into the forest with a slight slope. The result did not give us much satisfaction. The slope was steep enough that Kaitlyn would be falling down it constantly. To further push us into our decision about the yard, our next door neighbors decided they were going to have L shaped elements added to their yard so they could make the most out of their yard. We struggled with this decision, but eventually gave in and last week was "L week".

The L's are layed along the property limit next to each other to form a wall (in our case against the forest) and then the land is filled in around them. They have really made a difference in our yard! We actaully have a FLAT backyard now. It will be much easier to mow and maintain and will also be WONDERFUL for the kids to play in! We LOVE our new backyard!!

The next 3 photos follow the process of the "L's". The first is a shot with the slope before the L's, the second is of the "process" and finally you can see the yard finished with the L wall and filled in!

That gives a pretty good idea of what the L's do. They support the land so that the maximum amount of flat and useable yard can be achieved.

Here are a few photos of the shared decent we did into the forest (a before and after shot). We made the access directly on the property lines of our neighbors so we could both use it.

This is a shot of the landscapers during their work and followed by a photo of how FLAT and nice the yard is now after the L's are in!!

So for the next few weeks the project is on hold, since we've been having frost the last few nights, the landscaper wants to wait a bit. He mentioned early or mid-April for the fence and grass. We are REALLY looking forward to this. Although there is still the driveway project to complete (with handlayed bricks), we were much more excited to finish the yard. The driveway currently has gravel down so it is fairly clean and very functional. Not so with the backyard...we haven't even let the kids play AT ALL in the yard since we moved here because it was so dirty and dangerous (with all of the different levels and construction debris). NOW we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Just a few more weeks and we'll be seeing a GREEN grass on that nice flat backyard of ours! We are really excited!

Here is a video:

Departmental Gymnastics Competition

Hello all,


Life has been in the fast lane recently, with simply no time to blog! To sum up, a few of the highlights we've had--- the landscapers have been here working like mad for one week solid. There are still here, and we are now entering week 2 of yard transformation! The yard is really shaping up (something that seemed almost impossible at one point), and I can't wait to share photos of that when the project is complete. There is a lot to explain so I'll leave that for a future blog.

Secondly Kaitlyn is on the move!!! She has learned how to crawl backwards. She is very efficient at getting what she wants now. She can finally, as of last weekend, get from her stomach to a sitting position (and into almost any position for that matter)! Recently I've been spending a lot of my day doing "floor time" with her so she can practice her new skills--this has left little precious time for other activities (notably blogging). My computer has spent days in a row sitting idle in the office--not even a single bootup for the day (that is certainly a record for me!).

The weather has been SPECTACULAR too and we've been getting out a lot, but it looks like this week will be back to more seasonal temps. It was great though getting an early taste of spring/summer weather!

Finally, this weekened was a fun one for Krista. She had her second gymnastics competition. This was the Departmental Competition (similar to a State competition in the US). There were 11 cities represented! She did wonderfully! She had 2 individual competitions and then one group competition. It was held in a gymnasium not far from here and the place was just packed! The team scores are not yet available so we don't know who won yet. I thought I would post a few photos of the day and then maybe (if I have time later) a video of her individual performance.

10 Month Photoshoot

A Day with the Kids/ 10 Months Old!

Yesterday we went to Tubi-Tuba, an indoor recreation space for kids of all ages. Everyone had fun in their own way. Kaitlyn got a chance to play on a soft mat and in a fun plastic ball tank. The bigger kids played in the climbing area and on the slides. I can't believe that their first week of vacation is already over! I think they had a really fun day. I know I did :)

Today, is Kaitlyn's 10 Month Birthday. Because February only has 28 days and Kaitlyn is born on the 30th, we decided that today we should celebrate 10 months. So, HAPPY 10 Month Birthday!!!

Kaitlyn is such a fun, sweet, little baby--and these 10 months have really passed by quickly. Although she has made some advances this month physcially, she isn't yet crawling. Both Krista and Erik already were crawling at this point, but they also weren't carried around as much as Kaitlyn! We are constantly on the go too, and she doesn't have a lot of floor time. I suspect that she is going to catch up really quickly this month though, because she is FINALLY accepting us putting her on her stomach to play. Up until recently her preferred position to play was sitting. Now she actually enjoys tummy time! She is a very smart little girl, and responds to a number of questions and commands. Her favorite toy is her xylophone. She plays it very well and can sit and play it for up to half an hour at a time! She can actually hit the center of the keys perfectly with the stick. It takes a lot of coordination to do that, so I am very impressed. Even when the other kids try to play it they find it hard to hit the keys perfectly on center!


Here is a little montage I did from Tubi-Tuba. I put in a few short video clips so you can see Kaitlyn move around on her stomach and get up on her hands and knees. I wonder how much longer I have to really get babyproofing around here?!

Photo and video editing at onetruemedia.com