It's A(nother) Girl!! (week 15.5)

Yay! We are thrilled to be expecting baby girl #2 at the end of July. It's been an emotional roller coaster of a pregnancy so far, but this is a definite up! I've been having weekly dr's appointments, and at our check up last week, the Dr was able to get a clear view of the little one's gender. We had her seal the results up in an envelope, which we somehow waited three whole days to open. On Saturday night, we invited our family & friends to join us for the reveal. We decorated cupcakes with pink & blue frosting and everyone had to choose their color based on their guess. Well, pretty much everyone had blue cupcakes except for my dad (who also proudly sported a pink button-down). When we bit into the cupcakes, we saw the pink candies that Sally had hidden inside...yay!!!! We cross-checked the results with what was in the envelope, and sure enough, it said "it's a girl". Beautiful words.

We also had some sad news this week, and had to say goodbye to our lovely cat Annabelle. She was found to have a very large tumor that was causing her great pain. Poor, sweet kitty, we will miss you, the way you constantly nipped at our ankles, peeped at anyone in the shower, and meowed for food if even one morsel was missing from your bowl. Watch over us from kitty heaven.

Ghouls Just Wanna Have Fun

The only thing better than the birth of my first child would have been if she could have held out 10.5 more hours to be born on Halloween, the greatest day of the year.

Since Cate cannot yet read a calendar (try as she might to muck up my blackberry), this year we celebrated as if Halloween and her Birthday were one and the same. As every mother knows, the primary reason to have children is to dress them in silly outfits for your amusement. And what better way to be amused than to invite 10+ other one-year olds over dressed in their silly outfits? Oh...have their parents dress up too! Sometimes I am astounded by my own brilliance. God, I love Halloween.

So, everyone came in costume and looked simply adorable/hilarious. We started Cate in a giant pink stuffed monster costume that weighed more than she did and would be better suited for trekking through the Yukon. When my one-year started showing sweat rings I knew it was the perfect time for a wardrobe change: bring on the butterfly!



This picture is actually taken weeks before the party, but it's the only one I have of the cute little antennae hat, which she left on for approximately 2 seconds, showing absolutely no regard for the fact that I spent at least twice that long pinning the antennae (antennaes? antenni?) to the back of the hat so they didn't flop over her eyes. I swear kids can be so ingrateful sometimes.

We later tried our hand at trick-or-treating with Cate, but since she can't reach the doorbell, say trick or treat, or even eat the candy, our neighbors were stuck with two random adults on their doorstep begging for candy. Awkward.


My favorite thing about this picture is that Sean is smiling. This happens so rarely in photos that I have to overlook the fact that Cate looks drunk. Not pictured: the loads of Nerds and Laffy Taffy I snagged "for my daughter." Ask my smiling husband how long those lasted in the house.

And now for some gratuitous pictures of my daughter discovering the joys of cake, music, playing dress-up and having someone else do the hard work while you sit back and relax.

Sad News

This has been a rough week. We started the week full of excitement, planning for our friend Melinda's visit to town for her art show, a long over due book swap with the girls, and our weekend trip to Oklahoma to visit my sister & her family. We were especially excited to share the news with everyone that Cate was going to be a big sister! We had gotten used to the idea that they would only be 18 months apart & we were so excited about the possibilities! We had her adorable "Big Sister" T-shirt all ready so she could share the news the second we stepped off the plane in Oklahoma. But then everything changed. On Wednesday morning, I went in for my 12-week appointment and received the devastating news that the baby's heart had stopped beating. We were stunned -- we had just seen the strong heartbeat a few weeks before and I had not had any miscarriage symptoms. After we dealt with the initial shock, we had to plan the next steps, which included surgery at St. Lukes on Thursday -- a procedure called a D&C. Unfortunately, some hospital staff still refer to the procedure as an abortion and no matter what your political leanings, it is particularly hard to see "abortion" written on your medical forms when it most certainly is not an election. Thankfully, the procedure went smoothly and I had very little physical pain afterwards. We decided to go ahead with our trip to Oklahoma -- we needed to get away. We had a great time in Oklahoma -- which is much hillier and more beautiful than I would have known. We played in the pumpkin patch & I enjoyed my first margarita in many, many months, and just enjoyed being with family. Now we are working on getting back to life as usual, but being sure not to take life as usual for granted. I know this is a very personal posting but I think it's important -- so many wonderful women have discussed their similar experiences with me over the past week and I can't tell you what a comfort it is to know you are not alone in this. In the shock of the moment, it's hard to ask all the right questions of the doctors, and while you can get a lot of info from the internet, there is nothing like talking it through with someone who has been there. While I pray no one else has to go through this, should it happen, please know you are not alone & you can always talk to me.

Cate takes Colorado

We just returned from Cate's first vacation to Colorado with her fan club, er cousins.


We stupidly decided not purchase Cate her own seat on the plane, and keeping her on our laps was a bit like wrestling a greased pig. While she did refrain from crying, she thought the whole thing was so exciting that she shrieked in ear-piercing tones for the first hour. Of course we felt so much better about this when the man sitting next to us announced that he and his wife had decided not to have children. Hmmm...I wonder why?!



But we did have a blast hiking, biking, swinging, swimming, petting every doggie in town and just generally lazing about! Here are some of the favorite pics from the week.







And in other BIG news...Cate took her first unassisted steps this week! Hopefully she will be more graceful than her mama who fell on her bum while hiking & has the world's largest bruise to prove it!

We're back!

Well, Cate has been delinquent in keeping up with blog, but I've had a talk with her, and she has decided to be more cooperative going forward. And in an attempt to make amends, she even agreed to post some representive photos from the last 6 months.

Cate at 3 months. Favorite activity - bathtime!










Cate at 4 months. New skill - sitting up in her BebePod!


















Cate at 5 months. New skill - tasting toes...yummy!













Cate at 6 months. New skill - eating solids!





Cate at 6 months. Favorite activity - Jumperoo!


Cate at 7 months. New skill -- helping Mommy with laundry. Yeah, right, getting messy!







Cate at 7 months. Favorite activity - chasing kitties...through chairs!







Cate at 8 months. Favorite activity - swimming. I mean, splashing!



Cate at 9 months. Favorite activity -- long chats with kitty.

Too Big for Her Britches

It's been a very big day in the Cunningham household. We started the New Year by having Miss Cate sleep in her nursery for the very first time. And she did GREAT! Possibly her best night of sleep yet. Mom did amazingly well too and was able to tear her eyes away from the video monitor long enough to get about 5 uninterrupted hours of sleep. Heaven.

In other baby news, Cate's waistline continues to expand...much like her mother's -- (not sure who made up these lies about weight coming off so easily when breastfeeding)! Anyways, the little thing has packed on the pounds in the past couple of weeks (from 7.15 to 9.11 in 2 weeks!). As a result of all this binging, she has moved into Size 1 diapers! Such a big girl! Mom is hoping her biceps will at least benefit from this development.

Watch Out Angelina -- this girl's got lips

Wow, it is hard to find time to blog with a newborn (6 weeks tomorrow)! Cate is an angel though. She tries so hard to be good, but between the reflux & gas, the poor little thing is just hurting. She has definitely managed to perfect her pout though...