Relaxing after the holidays

Cate really likes to read her books, and this morning she climbed into her bouncer chair with her book and stayed there for about 10 minutes. She looked very relaxed.

This is a dress that Aunt Janice and Uncle Charlie gave her for Christmas.

She loves playing with her "little people" animals that she got for Christmas.

Christmas

I have posted just some of the pictures from our wonderful Christmas. It was such a great day.


Here is our tree on Christmas Eve.

We left out some chocolate cake and egg nog for Santa.

Christmas morning

A beautiful sweater that Aunt Pat made.

Hanging out with Grandma

Playing at her new table that Santa brought

She got a bunch of books from Grandparents Lowe. They are the books that my parents used to read to me as a kid. They brought back a lot of memories

Here is the table set for our Christmas dinner feast.

Frank made an apple strudel from his Father's recipe. It was delicious.

White Christmas

We woke up this morning and this is what our yard looked like. It started snowing yesterday around 2:00pm. We have about 10 inches of snow. It looks like we will be having a white Christmas this year. It took quite a bit longer to shovel our new driveway than it did at our old house. It is fun when it snows and everyone is home safe and sound. Eric was working from home yesterday so he didn't have to deal with any of the traffic problems. It was funny though, because everyone around here started panicking yesterday morning like they were going to be stuck in their houses for a month. The grocery store had about 7 people in each line stocking up on water, bread, and milk. Eric and I thought it was pretty funny because we are used to the snow.

Spoon

I have been working with Catherine on using a spoon to eat. Tonight at dinner she got the hang of it and seemed to enjoy using the spoon.

Here is a video of Catherine going after Buddy. She loves to play with him and I don't think that he loves to play with her.

A Day in the Life of Catherine

Catherine and I decided to make gingerbread cookies today. She helped put some of the ingredients into the bowl and liked watching me roll out the dough. I posted a video of her trying to put on the oven mitt. She opened up the drawer and got out her "mini mitt" and put it on.



Here is Catherine bouncing in her Tigger bouncer. I thought that we better use it before she weighs too much for it. She can't use it once she weighs more than 25 pounds.


I got out some finger paints and she loved smearing her hands all over the paper. She liked squeezing the paint through her fingers.








This is a picture of a movie case with a picture of Matt Damon on it. She has learned to blow kisses recently and she is now trying to kiss pictures of people. She picked up the DVD case and gave Matt Damon about 10 kisses. (The girl has good taste)













This is a video of Catherine playing in a plastic bin. She loves to put a bunch of toys in the bin, climb in, and then toss the toys back out.

Children's Museum

We took Catherine to the Children's Museum today. We have been waiting until she was walking better to take her because we didn't want her to be crawling all over. It was fun to watch her figure things out. She wasn't quite old enough to be able to play with everything but she had fun watching the older kids play. Her favorite thing was playing in the "water room" There was a big tub of water with things that you could put balls on and then they would roll back down into the water. She had fun watching all of the balls come back down. She also liked all of the mirrors that were there. There was also a large hallway with a few rooms in it that showed what Rhode Island was like back in the 1800s. Then there was a giant "woman chair" and you could sit in her lap. There is a picture of Eric holding Catherine in her lap. She didn't want to sit there alone. Lastly there was a room for kids 3 and under. Catherine had a lot of fun in there. I posted a picture of her in a wooden boat that rocked back and forth. Overall it was a lot of fun and I think that she will enjoy it more and more as she gets older. It is fun that we can start going on family outings and have Catherine enjoy them too.






It snowed for the first time a few days ago and this is a picture of Catherine looking at the snow on the deck. The snow melted pretty quick and is all gone now.

Decorating the Tree

We got our first Christmas Tree today! Here are some pictures of us decorating the tree. It was a lot of fun, and Catherine really likes all of the lights.


Drinking a Manhattan...a tribute to the Schmidt family tradition

Mother and Daughter in front of the decorated tree

This is our family one year ago decorating the tree at Frank and Cathy's. Catherine has grown quite a bit since then!

This is our family now, in front of our very own tree.

another walking video

Here is another video of Cate walking. She is getting much more stable on her feet. It is fun to watch her walk because she has such a proud look on her face.

Walking

Here is a video of Cate walking

Play room

Frank and Cathy gave Catherine a wonderful slide for her birthday. She loves to climb up to the top with some of her toys, send them down the slide, and then slide down after them. We have taught her to go "feet first" down the slide, so she always goes on her stomach.

Thanksgiving

My parents, sister, and brother all came out for Thanksgiving. It was so fun to have them all here.


Steph and Q

Our family on Thanksgiving

Eric carving our turkey

Stuffing the turkey

My parents

Cate helped Aunt Steph with her homework

Playing with grandpa

Video of Cate walking. She is getting much better at walking now and seems to enjoy walking more than crawling.

Dancing and Laughing

Here is some video of Catherine dancing in the kitchen. Toward the end of the video you can see her pointing to the the music.


This is a video of Catherine laughing hysterically at her ball. She would drop it on the floor and she thought that it was sooo funny.



It has been really cold this last week. Here is a picture of Catherine all bundled up and ready to go out.

Here is Cate playing with Buddy in his bed. This is the before picture, note who has which objects

Here is the after picture, now Cate has both things. Buddy is such a good boy with her.

Catherine and Daddy

This is a pile of wood that we had delivered to use in our wood burning stove. Eric has been making fires every day to help heat the house.

Dance Fever

Here is a video of Catherine this morning. We were playing some music and Catherine caught the dance fever. She was rolling around and squealing on the floor. It was so funny.

Signing

Here is a video of Catherine asking for more by doing the sign for "more". She also shows you how far she can stick out her tongue.

1 Year Stats

I took Catherine to the pediatrician yesterday. She is as healthy as can be. The new pediatrician was very nice, which was a relief to me because I was nervous to have to find a new one. Here are Catherine's stats: Length- 28.5 inches (32%), weight- 21.6 lbs (61%), and head circumference- 18 in (64%). She weighs enough now to turn her car seat to face forward. I did that yesterday afternoon and she loved it.

Also a new thing that she is doing, is using sign language to say that she wants more and when she is all done. I have been trying to teach her the signs for a while and yesterday it seemed to click for her. We will have to see if she still remembers today though.

1st Birthday

Here are some pictures of Catherine's First Birthday. We had cake on Sunday and then I took her to the park today.

We couldn't get Catherine to wear a party hat

We invited all of her friends to the party

I made her a giant cupcake for her birthday cake

She loves the swings

The slides are pretty big, but she loves to go down them with me