Time for a Gate?????

So another new milestone has entered into our home yesterday and we are not sure whether to be super excited about it or not. See, Caitlyn is a unique soul and she just lives in her own little world and we are privileged to be part of it, when she chooses! About a month ago she started crawling and then about 2 weeks ago she really started to take off and start exploring the world around her. So she discovered the stairs and at first that was a great thing. She learned how to pull herself up and liked to just hang out there because she was standing, since crawling has all ready become old news to her she wants to walk now! So she would hang out on the floor leaning against the bottom stair.

There were a few attempts to climb them but were never successful and Caitlyn would just get distracted and move on. That was until yesterday... In the morning she made it up her first step and we were all very excited and clapping and that was all she could do until last night...I was getting dinner ready and Mike was mowing the lawn and I was being an inattentive parent when I went over and found that she had climbed two steps...

So I went and got Mike so that he could see and so that he could watch her so I could take pictures. She then proceeded to climb up all 17 steps. 17, that is crazy, and they are steep steps that I am scared I am going to fall down all the time. So needless to say Mike and I were very proud and very scared at the same time, she's not supposed to be doing this for another couple of months. So now we have to barricade and watch her more closely, no more inattentive days for me.

She then tried to go back down the stairs, which didn't go over very well. Oh and right before the stairs incident she was doing this by the fire place, I didn't know she could do the standing kneel and how she even got like that I am not sure. But she loves the fireplace because she can see her reflection in it. All the pillows around are so she doesn't hit her head on the wood, which she does quite regularlly.

Happy Birthday Mike...

Happy Birthday to my favorite guy in the whole world! I honor of his birthday I thought I would share with you some things that you may or may not now about Mike and why I love him so much! He is the best husband and father that anyone could ask for:

1. Mike is a very funny and sarcastic person, most of his humor comes in the form of sarcasm. People don't tend to know this because Mike doesn't talk much when he is in big crowds, but get him in smaller groups and you will see the man who makes me laugh everyday!

2. Mike has only said "I love you" to one person, me of course!

3. Mike is great at impressions and stuff like that. I think his best one is Kermit, which Caitlyn loves, and a dentist drill, but I hate when he does the drill one. He also does an excellent firework show and believes that it should follow church hymns like Praise to the Man and such, driving to church is always entertaining.

4. Mike writes really well. I always tell him he should write a novel, check out his blog under Mike Richards on the links if you like stories about sports. But I would probably never read his book because he likes writing horror stories and that stuff scares me to death.

5. Mike loves when things are organized and believes everything should have a place, even though he sometimes forgets to tell me where that place is.

6. Mike got a 4.0 at BYU for a couple of semesters, this impresses me greatly because I was no where near that ever.

7. Mike does crazy things is his sleep like talk and walk and stuff, but he is always super sweet to me and tells me all sorts of nice things and cuddles with me when he is sleep talking so I like it.

8. Mike hates ketchup and mustard and especially pickles.

9. Mike is very logical in all of his thinking and that is one of the main things that I love about him because I tend to think I am a logical person also.

10. Mike is the youngest of 5 boys and his mom always said that he was her "Ray of Sunshine."

I love you Mike and I hope that you have the best birthday ever and Caitlyn and I wouldn't make it without you!!

7 Months

Another month has come and gone, way to quickly!! Our little Rouske has been learning so many new things and has a ton of new tricks to add to her list! She is sitting up and now had become bored with that, like usual. She now just wants to stand and can pull herself up sometimes. She has learned how to go from her bum to her knees and then start crawling. Yep, she is crawling, sort of. She started a couple of weeks ago and takes about 3 or 4 steps and then falls, scoots along on her stomach and then hops up on her knees and starts crawling again. Sometimes she throws a roll in there for fun! She is a funny girl and has started laughing more and more. Yet, she laughs at the craziest things and most random moments, I don't understand her but I love her! She is a much better sleeper now a days and that is making my life a ton better! She has finally learned the joy of sleep that I have been telling her about all along! We are so excited that the weather is finally starting to get a little warm, it might hit 60 on Saturday and we are more than ready for warmth. This winter just won't seem to die. Caitlyn loves to be outside now and to go on walks around the park. Here are a couple of pictures from a semi warm day last week. The blogger image thing is having problems so there is only two today, sorry I always love seeing tons of pictures, maybe I'll post the rest tomorrow!

Red Sox Nation

There are few things in life that Mike loves more than sports, and by few I mean Caitlyn and I (in that order!!) If you don't have a sports fanatic running around your home, you might not know that it is now baseball season, one of Mike's favorite (next to basketball and football, it actually just depends on what time of year it is!) So we now enter into the new season, and thanks to his friend Eric, Mike actually got to go the the Red Sox home opener a couple days ago and watch them get their rings from the World Series last year. It was a quick trip but he loved it. I always tell Mike that Caitlyn and I are the good luck charms for the Sox, right after Mike and I started dating they won their first World Series in 86 years and then the won their second right after Caitlyn was born. Boston and New England are some of Mike's and now my favorite places. If we ever become millionaires than a nice cottage in Maine would be fun to have!! But for now he will just have to pass on his love of his beloved Red Sox to his daughter. He would probably also like me to note that he is a true fan because he has supported them for the last 15 years through all the bad times and now the good. He says I count because I supported them before they won the World Series in 2004.

Boyfriend

So it seems that Caitlyn all ready has a crush on a boy. This doesn't make her dad very happy because he is supposed to be the only man in her life until she is at least 30 or so and then maybe she can date, but that is still debatable. She gives him bigger smiles than her dad. So her new boyfriend comes from her favorite movie, of course. She smiles so big every time his solo song Bet on It comes on. And as you can see she is sitting up on her own, she started doing it really well about a week ago, she still takes a face plant every once in awhile!! If you click on the picture you can see how big her smile is.

6 MONTHS

Wow! Our little baby is a whole half a year old!! I only wish that the time went by this fast while I was pregnant, that seemed to take forever! Now it seems that time is going by way to fast and that she is growing up too quickly for me. Life has been entertaining and tiring here in the Richards home. That is mostly due to the ever changing world of our little Caitlyn Roo! She is such a little sweatheart and stinker all rolled up into one irresistibly entertaining girl. Here are some more pictures! I apologize for the excessive amount of pictures in her diaper. I am the crazy mom that always has to have her dressed. But, lately all the pictures take place in her diaper because she has to eat naked since she makes such a mess and she likes to scoot around and try to crawl without clothes because clothes make her knees slide out from under her!!


She likes to drink from the sippy cup and gets really excited and crossed eyed all the time from trying to look at the cup. She also gets really excited to be up on her hands and knees.

So jealous that she can do the plank position! I sure can't. She is getting so good at hoping onto her knees, then she pushes up into this pike position. She hasn't figured out how to move her arms yet and usually ends up taking a face plant in to the carpet!

She has now graduated to the duck bath and she loves it. She just lounges around and trys to flip onto her stomach, fun and relaxing for her, not so much for me!! She all ready has the mischievous look down!

We took Caitlyn to the park for the first time since it got semi warm, around 40 or so. I felt like I was back at BYU and at the first sign of warm weather everyone is hanging out in their shorts outside playing Frisbee, laying out and trying to get a tan, now I am part of the Spring Fever crowd!! Caitlyn loves the swing, I know she looks funny in the hat but it was the only thing I could do to keep the sun out of her eyes because she hates having the sun in her eyes!

All for Caitlyn

Mike once again requested more pictures of his little girl since he has hard days at work now and she is one thing that makes him smile. So this week I have been a little out of it on the blog thing since I didn't have a computer most of the time. See, I used to have a computer room and a craft room, not that I am very crafty but it was fun to say that I had one. Now we had to combined the two rooms since we are making the craft room into Caitlyn's play room. Since we have all ready seen how destructive Caitlyn can be, we can only imagine the messes she will get into when she can crawl and walk. So, we are giving her a whole room to do what ever she would like in and then barricading her from the rest of the house!! We think that it will work for about a week until she figures out how to get around the gates! So that has been my fun week of painting and organizing and all the fun stuff that goes along with that, all for Caitlyn. Next month we have to start fixing the actual play room, unless she starts crawling in the next week or so, which is always possible with her. So here are some fun pictures from the last week or so:


Caitlyn has a new toy, thanks to her Dad. He took a box and hooked a rope to it, actually a ghetto extension cord, and a blanket and pulls her around in it! She loves it more than all her other expensive toys!

So this is how my little girl sleeps every night! Seriously! I haven't been able to get a picture in the act but the other night we were getting her ready for bed and she was rolling around and this is what she did! I put her to sleep on her back but she always ends up like this, on the other side of the crib too!! She is a crazy one!

She's just chillin' watching her favorite show, High School Musical 2!

She loves her Daddy, and they always seem to somehow have the same pose going on, it's not staged I promise!!!

She now loves to just open her mouth as wide as possible, which is pretty wide. That is how she smiles and laughs, I think it is pretty funny!