Halloween preview

I found this shiny robe-like material on the Walmart clearance rack for $1.50 a yard, and I got myself a yard. Tonight I managed to sew a simple little robe for Cate and paired it with a white collared shirt (thanks, Aunt Chris). Add the scarf, borrowed from a student and the witch's hat (thanks, Nana), and I think she just might pass for a Griffindor student. Figured I better get a picture of the outfit now, b/c who knows how things are going to go Saturday night or if she'll even let us put this on her. We'll see!

Oh my gosh, is that Harriet Potter?

Rick's mom brought Cate up a little witch outfit for Halloween, and Cate really likes the hat. Now we're leaning toward dressing her up as a Hogwart's student for Halloween. The other night I found these Harry Potter glasses that Aunt Tish had given me a few years back after she was at a Harry Potter party. Cate put them on and gave us a big cheesy smile (this is what she does now when you ask her to smile).

Yesterday in class I was talking with some of my students about Halloween and mentioned we were going to go for a Potter theme for Cate. This morning, one of my students came into my room with an official Harry Potter Griffindor scarf that she is loaning us for Halloween! Now all we need is a black cloak for her to wear with her scarf.

The Nuk is a nice touch, don't you think? :)

Cate giving the smile while eating her Cheerios.

Rick has been having Daddy/Daughter days with one of his coworkers and one of our neighbors. Our neighbor James (above) was home on this day with their 8 mo. old, Nola, and Rick's coworker, Nick, has 10 mo. old, Olivia. On this particular day, the boys were hanging out at our house, eating Burger King and letting the girls play. James is showing great daddy technique to manage a burger while balancing a bottle. Ahh, the skills we parents acquire!!

Cate with all her grandparents

Last week, Rick's parents were up for a visit (and then his aunts were up just for two nights). We took his parents down to Five Islands- Mom, Cate, and I drove down while Rick took Dad and his parents by boat. We had a nice lunch on the dock on the final weekend it's open, and we got some rare pictures of the whole family together. Cate is angry in some of these pictures b/c we made her take her pacifier out of her mouth! :)

Enjoying the scenery!

More dancing

Perhaps you have seen the video that is circulating of a little baby "dancing" to Beyonce's single ladies song. It seems to have become an internet success, and I first saw it in an Anderson Cooper news clip.

Now, I don't mean to be a big party pooper here, but Cate has been dancing to this song since before this other baby was even born. Had I known there was such a demand for Beyonce-dancing babies, I would have put my own vids on You Tube. Anyways, I had to post a little recording of Cate dancing to the song, and I'll let you decide who is better!

New sweater and shoes

Two days ago Cate got a package in the mail from her Great Aunts Chris and Tish. They sent her a super adorable sweater set and a pair of pink and white polka dot ballet flats. The sweater has a dog on it, and the first thing Cate did was grab the sweater and kiss the dog! She also wore the shoes all over the house, which was extra funny since she's never worn that kind of slip on shoe before. I think she really liked them!

You'll have to excuse the red pants- awful combination with her new sweater and shoes, but she had to try everything on immediately, of course!

I spy a Moof

Every kid living in Maine knows what a moose is, and Cate is no exception. She has gotten good at spotting moose in her books, and she has several stuffed moose. The best part? She calls them "moof." I don't know why, but I think it's hysterical. I caught her saying it in the video below....

A Day with Cate

Great- Grandma Sprague- you'd be so proud! Above is Cate completely enthralled with an episode of Lawrence Welk. Rick stopped on this channel, and Cate sat mesmerized by the music. When a guest singer came out on stage, she went to the TV and started touching it.

Cate continues to love her babies- thanks to Gramma for helping develop that love. Heaven knows I wasn't much help when it came to playing with dolls! I think Cate is going to be a girly-girl. Notice that Dolly is wearing one of Cate's diapers. It's also not unusal to find dolls in Cate's high chair and wearing her bibs. :)

A moment of wild craziness (and we have a lot of these!)

Jumping up on the couch.

Being serious and trying not to smile.

Cate eats oatmeal most mornings for breaksfast. It's one of her favorites. This morning she had strawberries and cream, and she's gotten very good at feeding herself.
In addition to feeding herself, Cate now has a little potty chair that she's been using. I wouldn't say we're really trying to potty train, but toward the end of the summer, Cate started showing a lot of interest in us going the bathroom. In fact, I'd say sometimes she showed a little TOO much interest in us going to the bathroom (we'll just leave it at that!). So we decided to get her a potty chair to see what she'd do with it. Well, she loves to sit on her potty, and sometimes she takes a book with her. She has even peed on her potty- though now we have to work on her not jumping right up immediately and trying to reach in for it! But tonight after her bath she said, "Pee pee," and then sat on her potty. She tried to "push," then she jumped up and looked in- nothing. So she sat back down, and continued to repeat this process several more times. No post-bath pee pee tonight, but she seems to have a lot of fun trying!

And before you say, "Wow, she's so advanced," let me share one more story to bring it back down. The other evening I was starting to make dinner, and Zoe came out into the kitchen to get a drink out of her bowl. Cate stood there and watched her closely- she's fascinated with Zoe eating and drinking- and then Zoe left. Next thing I knew, I looked over and Cate was on her hands and knees, tongue out, about to lap water out of Zoe's bowl!!! Ugh!!! So, maybe we still have some things to work on! :)

Rick golfing

Last week Rick and several guys he works with went to Sunday River in western Maine to play golf. Sunday River may be better known for its major ski area, which is visible from the golf course. Anyways, they got some deal on green's fees early in the summer, and they finally went and played.

Rick getting ready to tee off.

What a view!! And the mountains were starting to get some color- more than we have down here at the coast.

Especially for Aunt Chris...

Sorry we've been so behind in our blog updates lately. Can you tell I've started back to work? Ugh. So depressing. But I heard that Aunt Chris was wondering if Cate really was steady on her feet and running well, so this is especially for you. We filmed it just this morning, as Cate had finished her breakfast and was running her morning laps around the house- literally. She runs around and around the house, just laughing and giggling as she goes. When she saw the camera come out, she stopped running laps, but we still caught running and couch jumping on video.

DADDY, ER, I MEAN CATE, SILLY DANCING
Rick may be a bit embarrassed that I am posting this, but I couldn't resist. He taped this the other morning when I was at work. As many of you know, Cate LOVES to dance. She can be in the middle of doing something entirely non-related, she hears a nanosecond of music (like flipping through channels on TV and catching a glimpse of commercial music), and you see her start to wiggle. It's hysterical. So put music on the radio and look out! She can get crazy! Below is a sampling of that. It's mostly of Rick dancing crazy, but the glimpse you'll get of her in the lower right corner of the video makes it worth it. Apparently on this day she's chosen wild dancing over her slower dance, that looks like a cross between strange modern dance and yoga postures. I also get why Rick worries that the neighbors will walk past the house and see him dancing with Cate (note- when you walk past the house, you can't SEE Cate dancing. haha) :) Enjoy!

September update

We wrapped up August with our visit from Laurie and Zach. Above, we're down in Boothbay Harbor for the afternoon, enjoying the sights and popping in and out of shops.

Cate is always fascinated with hats, and occasionally she gives Daddy's a try. Daddy did bring her home a small plastic fire helmet from work, and she wore it in to school the other day when she and Rick stopped by after school to visit.

Last week Rick and two of the neighbor guys took the boat down riv-ah for dinner at the Osprey- a little guys night out. So we women and children stayed home and ordered in. Cate loves her little neighbor friend, Nola, and here she is insisting on helping Nola's mom feed her dinner. Cate loves to feed her babies dinner, but this baby actually ate the food! So exciting!!

Cate and Nola playing after dinner. Cate continued to try and feed Nola imaginary food, and Nola actually would "eat" the imaginary food off the spoon! Cate was in heaven.

Rick was working on replacing parts on the boat trailer one recent afternoon, and Cate found it quite interesting. She plopped right down next to him on his cardboard mat and played with the socket set. Then she took the socket wrench and went around the trailer "tightening" up all loose parts. We may have a Miss Fix-it on our hands!
Or we may have a librarian. Cate continues to love her books, and she was playing in her room recently while I was sorting laundry across the hall in the bathroom. It seemed quiet over there (always concerning), so I went in for a peek. She was just hanging out in the big chair, reading her books.
Labor Day weekend we took the boat up to camp for the first time. It was a beautiful weekend, and it was fun to be able to go all the way around the lake.