Geaux Tigers!

I am way behind on my posts, but I had to go ahead and post this video showing that Cate is ready for football season! In case you can't tell, she is roaring in response to "Go Tigers!" Now if we can only teach her to say "Who Dat!"

Summer Fun

Well, three days after her first birthday, Cate took her first steps! We are excited (and scared) to have a walker. For the most part, Cate will now walk at home, but she is very cautious about walking in public and still often prefers to be carried. One of her favorite places to go right now is the zoo. She has really started to see the animals and particularly likes the sea lions and the giraffes.

Cate waiting to get into the zoo (and loving that she is wearing a hat!).

Cate enjoying the sea lions.

Cate and Mommy

Cate also recently had her first bubble bath...I can't say that this was a great success as she was more interested in eating the bubbles than playing with them. Maybe we'll try this again when she is a little older!


Cate has also learned to throw Ford's ball. This is a constant source of annoyance to Ford, as Cate now tries to steal his ball all the time. Also, Ford doesn't think that Cate throws it far enough, so he usually pouts until someone else picks it up and throws it again. However, Cate is not discouraged by this and keeps trying!

Happy 1st Birthday Cate!

Cate turned one year old on May 16, 2009. On her first birthday, Cate:

• Was crawling and cruising, but not yet walking.
• Took two naps a day.
• Had to be swaddled at night and during both naps.
• Did not have a single tooth!
• Was eating lots of solid foods, despite the lack of teeth.
• Was curious about her surroundings and constantly into everything.
• Enjoyed long walks while riding in her stroller.
• Was obsessed with Ford and Mr. Biscuit.

We celebrated Cate's birthday on the day after her actual birthday with several family and friends. Apparently we should have practiced singing "Happy Birthday" because she was not sure what to make of all the attention. However, she did manage to enjoy her birthday cupcake!

Cate was nice enough to share some cupcake with Cakki.

Cate relaxed with Papa Mike after all the festivities.

Allison, Cate, and John

Happy Easter!

Early April has been a busy time for Cate. She has become a very busy baby, and now that she can stand up, she can get in to a lot more trouble!

Cate pulling all of the doggie-bags off of the roll
Cate pulling over the trash can.
Cate pulling over the cat food (and attempting to eat it)!

Cate's Nana (John's mom) came to visit us for several days around Easter. Nana took Cate and Ford on lots of long walks while she was here, which they all enjoyed. Nana also cooked us many delicious meals, including a delicious Easter dinner.


Cate has become increasingly fascinated with Ford as she has become more mobile. She chases him around the house and "pets" him (more like aggressive patting at this point). Overall, Ford has been extremely tolerant of this, probably because Cate feeds him about half of her dinner every night.

Stay-cation!!!

At the end of March, we had to move out of the house for a few days while it was treated for termites (one of the unfortunate joys of living in uptown New Orleans). We spent three nights at the Embassy Suites in the Warehouse District. Cate enjoyed exploring the hotel room and was especially fascinated by the door-stoppers (which we don't have at home) and the mirrored closet doors. We made several trips to the Louisiana Children's Museum during our stay, as it was located just a block away from the hotel. The LCM has a great toddler's area with lots of soft blocks for the kids to climb on, slides, and even a "Goodnight Moon" area.

Of course, we were glad to get back home so that Cate could get back to practicing her newest skill - standing up!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Cate celebrated St. Patrick's Day by wearing her shamrock dress and "Kiss Me" socks. She also had her follow-up visit with the ENT, who said that her ears look great!

Can You Hear Me Now?

As some of you are aware, Cate has been having problems with recurrent ear infections since early December. After numerous rounds of antibiotics failed to remedy the situation, our pediatrician referred Cate to an ENT (ear, nose, and throat doctor) who advised us that Cate would most likely need tubes put in her ears. Basically, Cate has all of the risk factors for chronic ear infections: prematurity, small size, reflux, and a parent (Allison) with an extensive history of ear problems. The purpose of the tubes would be to help the fluid trapped behind her eardrums drain and hopefully prevent future ear infections. By mid-February, Cate's ears had gotten so bad that the fluid in her ears was seriously compromising her ability to hear (remember how she sleep through a Mardi Gras parade?), so we scheduled her to have tubes put in on March 11. John and I were both confident that this was the right thing to do, but it is still scary when your not-quite-ten-month-old baby has to have surgery.

On the morning of March 11, John, Cate, and I arrived at Children's Hospital at 6 a.m. Cate was pretty confused as to why we were up and out of the house so early, but she was surprisingly well behaved considering that we couldn't feed her anything. Since Cate was the ENT's youngest patient that day, she got to go first. The nurses gave her a sedative (which they called goofy juice). At first, Cate got fussy and seemed to dislike the way she feeling, but after a few minutes, the sedative REALLY kicked in and Cate got very relaxed. She basically let us cuddle her while she lazily blew bubbles.

After a few minutes, the nurse came to take Cate back to surgery. As the nurse wheeled Cate away, Cate showed us that (despite the sedative) she was still her busy self as she stuck one leg up in the air and waved her foot around.

John and I were only in the waiting room for about twenty minutes before the ENT came out to let us know that the surgery went well. Shortly after that, the nurses took us to the recovery area where Cate was in the process of waking up. She was pretty annoyed about how the anesthesia made her feel and about having an IV in her foot, but after about 15 minutes she started settling back down to her normal self (although she still looked a little dopey).

We were out of the hospital by 9:30 am and spent the rest of the day at home playing.

Beach Trip, March 2009

During the first week of March, Cate and Allison went to the beach with Cakki (Allison's mom) and Aunt Chelsea. It was a great trip, but Cate is at a VERY busy age and keep everyone on their toes.

At the beginning of the week, the weather was so cold that Cate had to wear her fleece suit to the beach instead of a bathing suit. Of course, it was also sunny, so she had to wear a sun hat. What a combination!

The seagulls were trying to decide whether or not Cate was a snack.

Cate really enjoyed playing in the sand.

Fortunately, the weather was a little warmer on Thursday and Cate didn't have to wear her fleece suit to the beach.

Happy Mardi Gras!

Overall, we had a wonderful Mardi Gras. Cate was a real trooper and went to many parades. We had no idea how excited people get about babies at parades (or how excited they get about throwing beads and stuffed animals AT babies). John's sister Laura came in town on Lundi Gras (the Monday before Mardi Gras) and joined us for the festivities.

Cate samples some neutral ground grass during Tucks.

Cate and John wait for the next parade to start.

Cate enjoys some toast during Thoth.

John, Cate, and Laura wait for Orpheus to start.

Cate actually managed to sleep during one of the night parades (Orpheus).

"Oh #*@! She Can Crawl!"

That statement is what I heard John yell from the nursery last night. Yes, Cate is now officially crawling. She has been working towards it for several weeks now, employing various techniques including commando crawling, rolling, and creeping, but she finally figured out how to coordinate her arms and legs. We are both excited and terrified, as the house is not remotely child-proofed.

In other news, Cate continues to be on the petite side. At her last doctor's appointment (February 11, 2009), her stats were:

Height: 25.5 Inches (5%)
Weight: 13 pounds, 15 ounces (<5%)
Head Circumference: 42.5 cm (5 - 10%)

Overall, Cate is a healthy and happy baby. In fact, the two things people in public comment on the most are her size (a woman at Whole Foods actually called her Thumbelina) and the fact that she seems so happy. She loves to go in public and smile at people and (more importantly) she loves it when they smile back or talk to her. John and I are not sure how we ended up with such an extroverted child.

We are all enjoying Cate's first Mardi Gras. She went to her first parade last weekend and was an excellent sport despite staying up past her bedtime. This weekend, we are trying to make sure that Cate gets plenty of good naps in so that she will be in a good mood for all the parade action.

Cate's first parade.

Going to a parade with a baby requires some interesting skills.

You can never tell which part of the pacifier Cate will find most enticing.