1 Year Studio Portraits

As mentioned in a previous post, we had studio portraits taken for Kaitlyn's 1 year birthday. Here's the results:

Babies and Giants

On July 26, 2008 at 8:55pm, Alyssa Riley Cutforth was born to Dan (my brother) and Kelley Cutforth. She was 7 lbs. 11 oz. and was 18.5 in. long. Today, we went to the hospital to visit the newest addition to the Cutforth family.

Holding Alyssa, it brought back memories of holding Kaitlyn when she was that small. Over the past 13 months, I'd forgotten just how small and light she was at birth. Alyssa had been fed before we arrived, so she was very content to just let us hold her and pass her around. Kelley looked good, but understandably, a little tired. Katilyn seemed largely uninterested in the new baby and more interested in the breakfast bar that Julia (Kelley's friend) was feeding to her daughter (Heavenly, born 9 days after Kaitlyn).

Note: I won Alyssa's "guess the baby" game which is funny because Dan won Kaitlyn's "guess the baby" game .

After leaving the hospital in San Jose, we made our way to San Francisco where we had tickets to the SF Giants vs. Arizona Diamondbacks (section 124, row N). This was Kaitlyn's first baseball game and was an intriguing pitching matchup between Barry Zito (former A's pitcher who signed a $126M contract with the Giants and has been a huge disappointment with a 5-12 record) and Randy Johnson (born in Walnut Creek, 5 time Cy Young Award winner, 10 time all-star, 2nd most strikeouts in MLB history). Long story short, the Diamondbacks beat the Giants 7-2. Johnson was the winning pitcher (gave up 0 runs on 9 hits in 7 innings) and Zito was the losing pitcher (gave up 6 runs on 6 hits in 5 innings).

We met Shawnna's parents at the game and Kaitlyn was well behaved as usual. She enjoyed alternating between all of our laps, playing with an empty soda bottle and making eyes at the people behind us. We left at the bottom of the 8th inning (after Johnson left the game) and headed home to chill out for a bit before dinner and bedtime - another busy, but fun day.

More Walking and Teeth

Since she took her first steps about 1 month ago, Kaitlyn has been perfecting her technique. The video below shows her progress and at the end of the video, she almost stands up from a sitting position - she's never done that before. She's been walking so much (inside and out), that we bought her some shoes to save her feet some wear and tear.

Kaitlyn's first tooth (bottom left) is still coming in and we noticed a second tooth (bottom right) starting to pop up a couple of days ago. Her teeth don't seem to be bothering her much which has been nice (knock on wood). With the increase in teeth comes an increase in the variety of food that's possible. Besides her typical baby food, we've been giving her cheese, banana, ham and bread. She LOVES bread and would eat it all day long if we'd let her. We went out to Famous Dave's BBQ last weekend and Kaitlyn ate most of Shawnna's corn muffin - next time, we'll get an extra for her.

Video of Kaitlyn's Early Attempt at Walking

Katilyn took her first, wobbly steps without assistance two weeks ago. Since then, she has been practicing her technique. She still has a ways to go before she's able to walk around with confidence, but she's improving everyday. Check out the video to see the little walker in action.

4th of July Weekend

Even though this was Kaitlyn's 2nd Independence Day, she still had some firsts to experience this weekend. On Friday, we began the day watching Tracy's Independence Day Parade, Kaitlyn's first parade. It was a 45 minute parade featuring horses, jugglers, fast cars, beauty queens, clubs/groups, clowns and local government officials (clowns without makeup ;-)). Of course, no Tracy parade would be complete without a John Deere tractor. We even knew a couple of people in the parade - our neighbor and a friend were with different Tracy Mother's Clubs.

Kaitlyn was so good the entire time. She just sat in her stroller and watched everything that went by. We couldn't have asked for better weather (mid 70's) and our location was perfect (across from the Grand Theatre). After the parade, we went back home for a nap and then headed to Sears to have our pictures taken for Kaitlyn's 1st birthday as well as Independence Day (pictures from that session will be posted in 2 weeks when we receive our complete order). We ended the day with a great dinner at Musashi Restaurant (Benihana style) with our friends Phil, Charlotte and 1 month old Addison.

Saturday and Sunday were pretty relaxing as we just stayed around home and shared a few more "firsts" with Kaitlyn. On Saturday, Kaitlyn played in her new inflatable pool for the first time. She played and splashed just like she does in the bathtub, but she also tried putting her face in the water a few times.

Today (Sunday), we went for a bike ride with Kaitlyn in the bike trailer for the first time. To be honest, she didn't seem to enjoy it very much. She didn't really look around, didn't make any noise, and even fell asleep for a bit. We stopped to checked on her a couple of times to make sure she was OK. We'll have to try it again - maybe it's an acquired taste. We ended the weekend with Kaitlyn's first tooth brushing. Now that she has a tooth coming in, we want to take care of that little guy.

Kaitlyn’s Birthday and 12 Month Checkup

Shawnna and I stayed home from work to spend the day with Kaitlyn on her actual birthday. The plan was to play with her in the morning, get pictures taken in the afternoon and take her to the doctor for her 12 month checkup in the early evening. Of course, kids have their own plan that doesn’t always match the plan laid out by the parents.

The morning went smoothly as we went for a nice walk around the neighborhood and played with Kaitlyn’s new toys, but she went down for a nap a little later than normal and slept past our picture appointment time. By the time we showed up, the photographer didn’t have time to see us before her next appointment and wanted to reschedule to later in the evening. We accepted the new time and went home for some more fun before the doctor appointment.

At the doctor, Kaitlyn got weighed and measured (21 lbs. 8 oz., 29.75 in. tall) and then she got her immunization shots. She ended up having to get three shots and we were told that she needed to have blood drawn to check for iron deficiency. So, after leaving the doctor with a crying baby, we headed to the clinic for more fun with needles. Suffice it to say, after 3 shots and having blood drawn, Kaitlyn was in no mood for pictures, so we ended up cancelling and rescheduling for July 4th.

The evening was a lot more pleasant as Kaitlyn had a nap and woke up in a good mood, although a little subdued. We had more fun playing with her toys and took some family portraits in the backyard. We ended the day with a nice dinner and dessert – we got Kaitlyn a small cake to enjoy. It wasn’t quite as messy as the one at her birthday party, but good nonetheless.

So, one year down and many more to go. Hopefully, Kaitlyn won’t remember the shots, especially since they make me hold her during the process (no wonder she likes mommy best ;-)). Future birthdays will certainly involve less blood and needles. Now, let’s see what happens on the 4th…

Kaitlyn's 1st Year Revisited

Today is Kaitlyn's first birthday and looking back, she has had quite a year. It seems like just yesterday that she was born. I remember waiting patiently in the hospital room for Kaitlyn to make her appearance and when the moment arrived, it was truly amazing. She was a slimy mess, but she was the most beautiful slimy mess I had ever seen. After I cut the umbilical cord, I followed the nurses around as they performed the standard tests and one of the first things I noticed was that Katilyn had my dimples. After I excitedly told Shawnna the good news (she was still getting cleaned up) she said, "Great, but does she have 10 fingers and toes?" In all the excitement, I forgot to look and had to confirm that all digits were accounted for - they were.

Two days later, Shawnna was discharged from the hospital and we came home with our little bundle of joy. It was a fun and frightening moment the first time we stood in our house all alone with Kaitlyn. No longer did we have the nurses around to ask, "Is that normal?" We were on our own to figure out how to care for a helpless baby. We certainly had our share of sleepless nights, but it was such and exciting time that we gladly adapted.

The past year has gone by in a blur, just like everyone says. So much has changed from those first, anxious moments as parents through the present time when we feel we have a pretty good handle on things that it's amazing to look at all the "firsts" that have happened and see how far we've come. I know this is still just the beginning, but if the rest of the years go by as fast as the first one, we'll be sending Kaitlyn off to college in no time. She continues to amaze me with her new talents every day and she is truly the "cutiest pie ever."

Here's a consolidated list of the first year firsts with links to the original blog posts:

• 1st Month (July 1-31, 2007)
• First immunization shots
• First Bath
• 2nd Month (August 1-31, 2007)
• First time rolling over
• Started sleeping through the night
• 3rd Month (September 1-30, 2007)
• First overnight trip away from home - Seascape Resort
• 4th Month (October 1-31, 2007)
• Started going to daycare
• First time getting sick
• 5th Month (November 1-30, 2007)
• First Halloween
• First Thanksgiving
• 6th Month (December 1-31, 2007)
• First "soft" solid food
• First Christmas
• First playdate
• 7th Month (January 1-31, 2008)
• First time scooting and clapping
• 8th Month (February 1-29, 2008)
• First Sharks hockey game
• 9th Month (March 1-31, 2008)
• First time blowing raspberries
• First time crawling
• First x-ray
• 10th Month (April 1-30, 2008)
• First bruise
• First bath in the big tub
• 11th Month (May 1-31, 2008)
• First time pulling herself up
• First time cruising and walking with a walker
• First "hard" solid food
• First time climbing the stairs
• First word - "Up" (after mama and dada)
• First trip to the zoo
• 12th Month (June 1-30, 2008)
• First tooth coming in
• First trip to the beach and Monterey Bay Aquarium
• First Birthday Party
• First time walking unassisted