Welcome to the world, Margaret Alisse Eckstein! My beautiful niece was born at 2:24 AM, Tuesday, November 29, 2011. She weighs 7 lbs., 1 ounce and is 20" long.
Here are a few pictures that I just had to share...
Maggie and Rikki - face-to-face...isn't this sweet???
She's so smart - she's saying, "Touchdown Mountaineers!"
If I do say so myself...over the past few years, I've done some pretty cute birthday party invitations for Elizabeth and Alex as evidenced below:
Elizabeth's 1st Birthday:
Alex's 1st Birthday (where I learned so much more on Photoshop):
E's 2nd Birthday (was a book of pictures of her throughout the year...) E's 3rd Birthday (definition of over-the-top, the entire Candyland party was actually), which I blogged about here: http://wvu-mama.blogspot.com/2009/01/birthday-party-preparations.html. E's 4th birthday was my first attempt at a pop-up card. I blogged about that as well as her Sesame Street themed event here: http://wvu-mama.blogspot.com/2010/01/happy-sesame-birthday.html. Her 5th birthday were pretty awesome, too...I love Dr. Seuss and blogged about the invites and party here: http://wvu-mama.blogspot.com/2011/01/elizabeths-dr-seuss-5th-birthday-party.html.
For some time now, I've known that I was going with the "A Very Hungry CATErpillar" theme for her her first birthday. (The kid loves to eat!) To be honest, I bought some of the party supplies back in May...so this has been a long time coming. The invites alone, I think are worth doing this party theme! Here's what I've 
done and what it took to get there (work in Photoshop excluded):
First, I started with a spool of brown satin ribbon 1/4" thick. Cut the ribbon into 3" long pieces and heat sealed the edges (that's what the matches are for.) I then hot glued matching brown 'fuzz balls' on the edge of one end of the ribbon. You need 2 ribbons with balls for the antennae for each invitation.
Next, you glue (craft glue works just 
fine) the ribbon onto the back of the caterpillar's face. When you glue them down on the back side, make sure the fuzz ball is on top of the ribbon so when the antennae flop down on the face of the caterpillar, they will be on the correct side. (You don't have to be exact with this as this entire invitation is very forgiving for those of you, like me, who don't really like to measure anything...)
Then, I started assembling. I did a red brad on the part with the face 
(you'll overlap one circle with the next). When you are lining up the circles to make the holes for the brads, make sure you overlap enough that the hole and subsequent brad aren't too close to the edge. Based on how I did the circles in Photoshop, after the red brad for the face, I alternated a dark and a lighter green (coming as close as I could to matching the edge -- and yes, that involved special ordering brads from my favorite local scrapbook store!)
The brad work well as the finished 
product then can be wiggly and inch along, just like a caterpillar. It also allows the flexibility in the invitation for all of the panels to fold around (think like a fan when folding) so that the invite fits well into an envelope to be popped into the mail...
Here's the final product all unfolded (click on any of the images to make them larger):
Where, oh where, has the time gone? I can't believe it's now officially days until Cate is celebrating her first birthday!!!
Cate officially has 4 teeth - two lower and two upper. She is still drooling like a St. Bernard. We may have finally beaten the diaper rash that plagued her for more than a month...thanks to the diaper cream that Anne sold me on by Arbonne.
She took her first
independent steps this month. Major accomplishment!!! She is even climbing up a couple of steps -- no idea how to get down yet...She's becoming such the big girl!
She is completely on solid foods (soft ones), so it's just table food now. She continues to make more sounds, but no words other than "dada" and "mama." She does shake her head no when she isn't wanting a certain type of food that is placed in front of her. Either that or she will swipe it off her tray and onto the floor...
Cate is still a wild woman in the bath. She just loves the water. Now, if we could only get her to love getting dressed, or to love being still for a diaper change...or to love sleeping through the 
night...
Halloween was fun - Cate didn't jump once at the Boo at the Zoo (despite riding the train on my lap and I jumped when someone came out of the bushes at us!) Kitty Cat Cate was adorable (thanks, in no small part to Nana for sewing her costume - and Elizabeth's matching one!) We all went trick-or-treating, and the fun was enhanced by the Koeglers joining us through the neighborhood. The girls' costumes were so cozy that Cate fell asleep while we were out trick-or-treating!
Football season is winding down (and with the season the Toppers have had, I can guarantee you Daddy is looking forward to basketball more than ever!)
Here is her latest quilt picture. Click on the image for it to be larger (actually for any of them to be larger.)
How many steps must Baby Cate take before we consider her walking? 1, 2, 3...6 independent steps tonight!!! (10 months, 3 weeks, 3 days old!) Hope to get some video of it soon!!!! Amazing!!!
I may be partial, but my girls are quite beautiful! We took them to Oglebay today to get some pictures...how they warm my heart!!! (Click on any of the images to view them larger...)
Elizabeth is becoming such a big girl these days. Despite her resistance, she is learning to read...she's joined the Girl Scouts (Daisies, more precisely)...and is playing basketball.
She does really well with reading, when she takes the time to stop what she's doing to focus. 
Therein lies the problem. She doesn't want to have to stop what she's doing to do something else. We're working on that, though... Last night she went all the way through her reading box of words without any issues, whining, etc. Baby steps...
She is quite proud of her vest and to be in the Daisies. The woman who is the group leader is very nice, and understanding of my work schedule, which is nice as well.
Elizabeth has started basketball as well. She is the tallest kid in the group (all of them are in Kindergarten.) She's all legs compared to the other kiddos. After the first night, she said she did as well as John Wolosinczuk...not to burst her bubble, but I wasn't seeing that...she did quite well, 
though...maybe not John Wolosinczuk good, but awesome for a 5 year old with lowered rims good!
On September 20th, Elizabeth had her first school picture day. The outfit I ordered for her pictures came the day after picture day (my luck!), so we had to spend the evening before shopping like a mad woman to get something that would look good from the chest up (because I'm THAT anal-retentive...and despite the fact that she and I had just purchased some school clothes a few weeks before, honestly most of that stuff was too warm for her to wear for picture day!). So, I found a super cute sweater dress (with matching leggings), am able to talk her into thinking it is cute...get her bathed the morning of the pictures (her hair curls better immediately after it has been washed), manage to have her eat without using her clothes as a napkin, get the barrette (that I covered in ribbon while she was bathing - had to match the outfit) in the hair...and we're heading out the door to go to school.
That's when I notice something on her face.
Silly Mama, I ask her if she has food on her face.
E replies, "
Just as I was about to write that with the maturity that 10 months has brought and Cate doesn't seem as cranky all the time, the crying commences. Good times.
10 months has just seemed to fly by -- it won't be too long before I'm planning her first birthday party. (Oh, who are we kidding? I have the first draft of the invitations -- which are going to be darrrrrliiiing -- on my scrapbook table. Too bad I haven't done any scrapbooking since Rikki & Doug's wedding albums last Christmas :-( But, the invites are in a near completion mode...just need to change out the color on one thing and take a pic of Cate in her Halloween costume. Then they'll be good to go!)
Cate officially has 3 teeth - two lower and the upper right. We're anxiously awaiting the upper left as she has been in a bit of pain with the teething...and drooling like a St. Bernard. Not to mention the WORST diaper rash that has plagued her for weeks. Just when we think it's getting better...it will flare up again. Knock on wood, she seems to be sleeping for longer stretches at night, but that is not to be confused with sleeping through the night and letting Mommy get much sleep as a result.
She is in full cruise mode. She loves to be on her feet and moving around. At daycare this week, she really started taking off with a pushing-type walker. She is quick, too, so it won't be too long before we are having to take turns running after her.
In the past month, she weened herself off of baby food. Won't eat it. She had started refusing some baby food at 9 months, but there were times we could still do a meal or so of the gooey stuff. She also prefers to self-feed, so Kennedy is often the benefactor of Cate's misses. She is eating a good variety of fruits, veggies, and other items. She especially loves sweet potatoes, vanilla wafers (which she insists on shoving the entire cookie in her mouth at once), squash, pasta, turkey, and lima beans.
The water continues to be fun time. She squirms a TON in the bathtub. She loves taking baths with her big sister. Elizabeth says "Cate is a wild woman in the bath!"
Here is her latest quilt picture. Click on the image for it to be larger.
Three quarters of a year is behind us - holy crap! Cate continues to eat more and more table food. Shockingly, she is in a lower percentile with her weight I recently learned at her 9 month checkup (she went down to the 50-75th percentile in weight as she currently weighs 20 lbs, 6 oz.). She's in the 90th percentile in height (27-3/4").
Cate is somewhat less cranky of an evening when I'm not yet home...somewhat. We still reserve the right to refer to her as "Cranky Cate" though!
Elizabeth is a fabulous big sister and Cate wants to be in her presence.
Cate is not only pulling up, but starting to cruise...she still loves the pool, but now with it being an end to summer (boo hoo!), baths will have to be it! Still no teeth, but keep thinking they will be coming at any point...
Here's her quilt picture (click on the image to view it larger):
