Happy Birthday Catherine Reese!

Yay, Catherine has made it through her first year! She's healthy, growing, and (for the most part) happy. Today Bill and I were discussing how the realities of parenting either matched or not with our expectations, and it was decided that he has more patients than he thought he would, and I have less.

Our friends came over for dinner and cupcakes, and we had so much fun. Lets just say that Catherine is going t be the most stylish little girl this fall, and there is no way she should be bored with her toys before Christmas. All of the gifts are wonderful, and such generosity is deeply appreciated. I've put some photos here on our Flickr site. Bill took some videos of her having her cupcake, and I will get them posted as soon as possible.

A few more videos

I've been hording the videos. Okay, I've actually been staying up late playing computer games with my favorite people, and have been neglecting the video updates!

This is my favorite activity of Catherine's. I think she looks like such a toddler sitting in her rocking chair listening to her "radio". Bill taught her how to do this, for the record.



More playing...I think those cat toys are more Catherine's than the cats' these days. Poor kitties!



And finally, more playing!

And Action!

Here are the current favorite activities in action.

Helping out with the laundry part one: folding



Helping out with the laundry part two: putting away

These are a few of my favorite things...

Here are some pics of Catherine enjoying some of her favorite activities: working a puzzle, listening to the "radio", and watching squirrels. It is amazing to watch her develop into a little kid now. Her favorite activities become more and more active each day.

And our latest news as of this morning: Catherine thinks cows milk from a glass is pretty neat. According to her, it goes perfectly with pancakes. Yum!

Big Girl Car Seat

Catherine has been upgraded from her Graco Snugride infant seat to a Britax Marathon big girl seat. She did nothing but coo and giggle the whole ride home from the firehouse. Our camera batteries are recharging, but we will get a picture as soon as we go for another ride.

While at the firehouse, Catherine sat on the back of a fire truck with Grandma Ellen while the fireman taught me how to properly install our new seat. It seemed simpler than the infant seat, however, I learned so much from Cliff the Fireman about car seat safety today. Even though it was over 100 degrees, and we were sweating like pigs, Cliff took lots of time to explain every thing and answer all my questions. Firemen rock! Although I probably could have installed the seat on my own correctly after reading the book (LATCH system is sooo easy), I definitely would have had Catherine in the seat all wrong! I'm so glad we took the time to stop by today.

Playing at Southpoint

I know these are all out of order...

This is a small video we took playing at Southpoint mall when Laura, Bryce, and family were in town. It is nothing too exciting, but I thought Grandma and Grandpa Coogan would like to see it for sure!

Trip to the Mountains

Last weekend we took Catherine to western North Caroline to visit with some of Bill's family. It was the first time Catherine has slept away from home since we brought her back from the hospital. She did amazingly well with the trip: no sleep issues at all! These photos were taken by Bill's cousin, Laura. They were so good I had to share them on our blog, too.

Basket Walking

I took this video a about a week ago. It shows one of Catherine's favorite past times...basket walking. She will frequently walk the basket around the house collecting items as she goes. As I watched this video again, I couldn't help but giggle at how fast she crawls at the end while chasing the cat. Poor Sable!

Meeting Cousins!

Last weekend Catherine was able to meet her great-aunt and uncle, Susan and Joe, and her cousins, Laura and Bryce. We spent some time at the play area of the mall, and here are a few pictures of Bryce and Catherine.

Couch Climbing

Here is a short, but cute video of Catherine trying to climb up on the couch.

Toy Box Fun, and Bubble Mania

So Catherine has two new fun activities that have been caught on film: climbing in the toy box, and sticking her face in the bath bubbles! She participates in each of these activities on a daily basis. You can see more photos on our Flickr page. Also today while we were out for a walk, she decided to push the stroller herself, and succeeded! She was standing up holding onto the basket, and pushed it around for about ten minutes. Unfortunately we did not have the camera with us, but considering how proud she was of herself, I'm sure it was not a one-time only performance.