Talking, reading, eating

Cate's chair has become a favorite spot to hang out and read. Of course, it's also become a favorite object to try and climb on to get to other, higher spots!

I tried to catch her actually reading this book, but I wasn't fast enough with the camera, and two seconds after this shot, she hopped out of the chair and crawled into my lap to look at pictures on the camera. That activity hasn't grown old yet.

Here's another picture I had to take when I peaked in on her before bed the other night. I love the arms over the head. This is also the only time she's still, so I have to pause and enjoy it.


Sheila was over for dinner the other night, and I made lemon squares for dessert. Cate was hanging out under Sheila when she bit into her lemon square and sent a puff of powdered sugar right down on Cate's face!!

For the past few days, Cate has been jabbering this particular phrase over and over. I'm not sure if it's happy, happy, happy, or Abby, Abby, Abby or perhaps just something in her own language, but at least it sounds like our language!!!

Pictures from the week

Rick was on the look out for a summer chair for Cate, and he found this one at the grocery store, of all places. She enjoys sitting in it with her milk while thumbing through a good book. So cute.


Hiding has become the new thing. She's always enjoyed peekaboo, but only recently has she turned peekaboo into a full-out hiding activity. Below are a couple of examples. She usually finds a corner or a piece of furniture to tuck herself into or under, and then she covers her face. My favorite thus far was the other night when I was running her bath, and I knew she had headed into our bedroom, but when I went down to our bedroom to get her, I didn't see or hear her. I walked around our bed, and there she was, sitting on the floor next to the bed with her eyes covered. I so wished the camera hadn't been downstairs at that moment!!


As you've noticed, Cate has a taken a liking to her pacifier again, and I guess on this day, the pacifier wasn't around. The outfit she has goes with the doll Aunt Laurie and Uncle Zach sent for her birthday. It has a pacifier attached for Dolly, but I guess Cate figured it would make a fine substitute since her pacifier wasn't around.

Just a little more video of Cate kicking the ball around the driveway. I still don't think it totally captures her abilities, but you get the idea. She may not talk yet, but the girl's got a good leg!

Crystal Spring Farm - Lamb Day

Last weekend a local farm in Brunswick, Crystal Spring Farm, was having their lamb day open house. They've had over 100 lambs born there this spring, and we saw three little lambs that had just been born that morning. (not the ones below!)


We ended up going to lamb day twice, b/c the newspaper said it was on Saturday, so Cate and I went over (Rick was working) only to arrive and find a sign in the driveway that said, "Lamb Open House is Sunday. Newspaper misprinted date." That's so Maine! Luckily, the farm and the land are owned by the Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust, and it's part of a Community Supported Agriculture initiative, so the property is pretty open to the public. Cate and I were able to follow one of the nature trails back to where the rams were being kept, and we went over to the other side of the farm to check out the ewes and lambs from afar. Below is the ram pasture.




Then on Sunday we went back again, with Rick, to the "official" lamb day. Cate was able to get up close and personal with a few of the lambs, and I think she said "sheep!"

Cate wanted a boat really bad so her Daddy decided to get her one. After discussing it for a minute we decided to go all out and she got a Boston Whaler. You read that right a 15' Whaler sport. Everyone knows this boat is the unsinkable legend.

Silly Cate

Rick took this picture of Cate yesterday. She had two of her pacifiers and didn't want to let either one go while she was having her milk.

This video was from last weekend, when we were driving home from Damariscotta Mills. We were in slow traffic coming across the bridge into Wiscassett (a sure sign of summer!), when Cate got the hiccups. Then the hiccups got her laughing.

One of Cate's favorite hiding spots is between the wall and the hutch in the dining room. She squeezes back in there and then peeks out and laughs and laughs. She started doing it tonight after dinner, and luckily, the camera was on the hutch. I only caught her peeking out once, of course, b/c as soon as she saw the camera, it was all over. But at least she did a little silly dance for added amusement.

Memorial Day- The afternoon

After the parade (see next entry), we came home, had lunch, and Cate took a nap. When she got up, we went up to Damariscotta Mills, about 20 miles north of us, to the fish ladder. This is an area where every spring, alewives (fish) come back in from the ocean and head up river (through the newly redone fish ladder) up into Damariscotta Lake, where they spawn. A few people at school were talking about how cool it is and how many fish there are and that this weekend was the "fish festival."

When I told Rick I wanted to go, he was definitely hesitant. He reminded me how many times I've dragged him to various events that have been incredibly lame, and I admit, Maine can be a bit unpredictable when it comes to "events." A well organized/publicized event may well end up being two old ladies with a card table of crocheted tissue box covers, set up for 3 hours on a Sunday afternoon. Even Mom and Dad had experience with this such thing- I remember them going to the Wilton Blueberry Festival several years back, and they still swear to this day that not a single blueberry food item was for sale. Then there was the alpaca open house Mom and I went to, and when we got there we saw about four alpacas and the family dog but no one was home. You get the point. The only thing you can be sure of is, whatever the event, it will never be as crowded as what you were expecting. But I digress...

So I dragged Rick and Cate up to the fish ladder, and when it was all over, Rick admitted that it was pretty cool.


This landing/building was the starting point. I was standing on the bridge looking up stream. Behind me was the view below, looking out into the river, which isn't far up river from the open ocean. Looking down into the water below, it was black with fish.
We walked down and back behind that little barn building, which is where the fish ladder really starts. There's a trail to follow that goes along the edge of the ladder, up through the woods, then it cuts out onto a street (they're still working on the wooden walkway all the way up through the woods), then it goes back along the edge of the woods up to the dam at Damariscotta Lake. It literally runs behind people's houses in this cute little village.

The picture below gives you an idea how many fish are working their way "Up riv-ah." It was crazy. Seriously. Even Cate was pointing and yelling at all the fish.

More views of the ladder from the top. The fish are just trying as hard as they can to get through the chutes, against the flow, from pool to pool.

Here we are standing on the dam at the top of the ladder. If the fish make it here, they're home free. Well, until they get snatched up by an eagle, osprey, or one of the other birds eagerly awaiting their arrival!

Rick took this video down in the lower part of the ladder. Look at all of those fish!!!!!! :O

Look at them go!! You can't help but want to cheer them on and feel a little sorry when you see one get swooshed back down a level.

Memorial Day Parade

This morning was Bath's Memorial Day Parade, and it wasn't half bad. Cate thoroughly enjoyed it, and laughed through most of it. She LOVED those little mini cars, laughing hysterically as they went past us, the drivers waving to her. Here's a sampling of her excitement...

And the videos...

Cate also did a little dancing as a float with children playing music went past us.

Cutie

Wow! A picture of Cate looking at the camera without trying to grab at it! Now if only she was showing those little pearly whites....


Cate has only recently become quite a pro at crawling up on the couch, and now that she can do it, sometimes it's all she wants to do. She's pretty good at getting off the couch by herself, but we still worry because sometimes she crawls up on the couch and holds on to the back of it and starts jumping. Obviously we have some concerns about her launching off the couch and onto the floor backwards! But tonight she climbed up on the couch and just sat there. It was so sweet.

One final amusing story.... tonight after her bath, I called down to Rick to come up and help me while I trimmed Cate's toe nails. She goes nuts when you try to trim her nails (toes or fingers), and it sounds like someone is torturing her. It now requires two of us to pin her down, and by the time it's all over, she's literally red all over, tears everywhere, we're sweating, it's a great time. So tonight when we finished and she was still shrieking hysterically, I closed up the clippers and calmly handed them to her. The tears and screaming immediately stopped, she took the clippers, sat down on the bathroom floor, and started pretending to clip her own toenails. What a nut! ;)

16 months and up to no good

We had a house showing on Saturday around dinnertime, plus we had to be at church for a BBQ. Rick was helping to grill, so he had to leave for church early, leaving me to put the finishing touches on the house AND get Cate, Zoe, and myself out of the house by 4:45. I had JUST finished sweeping, and Rick had JUST walked out the back door when Cate went to the now infamous snack cupboard and quick as could be, pulled out the box of Cheerios and promptly dumped them all over the floor. I saw it coming. It was one of those slow-motion moments where I was dashing towards her going, "Nooooooooooooo!!!!!" But alas, it was too late. Once the damage had been done, and she had stomped around on them and threw them around (which is what she's doing in this picture- sweeping them backwards), I figured I might as well take a picture. Then I swept for the second time that afternoon. Then I got all of us out of the house as quickly as possible, before any more messes could be made.

Cate currently loves to kick and throw balls. Just today we went to Brunswick to watch our boys play baseball, and Cate spent most of the time on the sidelines tossing and kicking a whiffleball with a coworker's three year old daughter. Above is a snippet of her kicking her soccer ball in the driveway. I would have taken more video, but my memory card was full and it quit taping.

I think I showed something similar to this before, but it's just so funny to watch. This is Cate when Baby Signing Time comes on. We got her Volume 2 for Easter, and she's learning hat, shoes, socks, car, and lots of other fun signs. But "baby" still seems to be her favorite, and frankly, I'm not sure how she doesn't fall over doing this, b/c she's so into it. We had our neighbors over for dinner a couple of weeks ago, and we put in the video just so that Cate could be our after-dinner entertainment.

One recent afternoon, Cate was upstairs "resting," not really sleeping. She was yelling "Ba, Ba, Ba, Ba, Ba......." really loudly and continuously. It wasn't angry yelling. It was more like yelling just to yell b/c it's fun. By the time I got my camera out to record it, she had stopped, but I filmed going into her room to get her.

Cate hanging out

Yesterday when we got home from school/daycare, Cate wanted some milk and a snack. She got out her baby goldfish while I poured the milk. Then she took them both and went and sat on the steps to snack. Isn't it so funny?

Later on in the evening I watched as Cate stuck her hand in the back of her pants while she was watching Baby Signing Time. I suddenly thought, "Oh my gosh. I've seen this before." Below is a picture of Rick. Compare that to the following picture of Cate. I guess it's one more piece of evidence that she is definitely her father's daughter!