catherine graduates from food camp!

sweet catherine!

you graduated from food camp today! we are so proud of you. they have a little "graduation ceremony" that lasts 5-10 minutes where they present you with a diploma and you wear a gown and they make you a cap and everybody loves on you and tells you how proud they are of you. i figured you'd love the attention and wearing the little outfit, but i could not have been more wrong!!! the gown was not so bad, but you were completely terrified of the hat! i couldn't figure out why, but you seriously started screaming and swatting at it and burying your head in my chest when we tried to put it on you. or when i put it on me for that matter. perhaps it was because your nap was cut short today, but regardless of the reason, graduation was hilarious because you were so mad about it. yes-i do feel bad for laughing at your misfortune, but you'll laugh too one day!

so food camp ended up being a little bit of a roller coaster with your tummy issues, but the basic result of your 8 weeks there is definite success! you are 70% weaned off the g-tube and you only get milk through it at night. during the day you eat all your little pureed meals by mouth! you are loving green beans-you tell us "beans!" over and over every time you see that's what we're about to feed you. you like fruit a lot too but we have to be careful about how much we give you...your little gut is pretty sensitive to sugar. but it has definitely been worth it!!! we have the protocol to continue weaning you completely off the g-tube, and we're happy to go as slow as you need us to!

we met sweet coen at the feeding clinic. he is your first boyfriend your own age. (sorry doug. and josh. and jeff. she still loves you all very much i'm sure.) coen is hands down one of the sweetest and cutest little boys i have ever met. you two love each other so much! the first 3 days y'all were there together you would walk up to each other and hug and kiss and play and play. you started playing hard to get the next week, but sweet coen is persistent and wouldn't give up on you=) he was most definitely more proud of you at your graduation today than you were. you were pretty furious about it, actually, but he was right next to you cheering and clapping and grinning from ear to ear!!! pictures to come.

what else is new?.....you still love bath time and taking walks and you're talking so much more. my favorite word you say is "hold". you say it whenever you want anything. it can meanyou want us to give you elmo or this book or that cup or it can just mean you want us to hold you. sweet girl. you say it pretty funny with your tongue poked out a little at the end. i keep trying to get it on video but no luck so far. as soon as you see the camera come out you come over to put the lens cap back on. i think you still actually love having your picture taken, but you love even more to play with the lens cap. time-outs are becoming more and more frequent as you approach your second birthday=) we try so hard not to laugh, but your sass is pretty funny. you definitely seem to get that you're in trouble and you're not at all happy about being in time-out. i guess that's the point, right? kacie taught you to say and sign "all done" at the end of a meal so you use it a lot for other things too, which makes me very proud of you!! when you're not happy about having to sit still for your nebulizer you look up at me and say/sign "all done" hoping i'll take the maks off your face! although i sadly can't always grant your request, i am always very proud of you for communicating so well!!!

there are lots more things to tell you, i'm sure of it, but mommy is very very tired. the busy-ness of the davis house is proven by the whole (almost) month that has elapsed since the last letter i wrote you. here are about a million pictures for you to see of that month!!

i love you sweet baby. i have the most fun with you and i am so over the moon thrilled that i get to be your mommy.

having lots of fun in the bath! please try hard to ignore the yucky black around the tile...we're not about to re-caulk the bath tub in a rental house!!

you and veronica having lots of fun together=)

digging your head in there to get a good whiff. my gardener grandmother would be proud=)

there you are!!! smooching on coen!

you were very proud getting up the stairs by yourself!

now you'll go down the (small) slide by yourself too!

you love sitting in coen's stroller!

you're trying to ask coen's mom and me why there are no goldfish in his cup holder...

obviously not making him work too hard...

trying to pick up the flower. pot and all. you were not successful.

he let you borrow his sunglasses. here you're chasing him around trying to put them back on him.

you and daddy like to play in the "pool" and sprinkler!!

the initial shock of cold water wore off and now you're loving it!

for whatever reason, i think it's the cutest thing when you lay on the floor by yourself=)

on the last day of food camp, you got to eat like a big girl in the cafeteria. you did great!

yep. more kisses. is he not the most handsome thing ever?

see how proud he is of you?!

the look on your face set the stage for how you would react to the graduation cap. not so enthused.

you and daddy walking to your last meal with kacie!

coen loved your hot pink graduation gown!

this is right after we tried to get you to wear the cap. you were requiring some serious consoling.

oh sad face.

the feeding clinic staff all wrote you little messages and signed the cap.

mommy wearing the cap didn't help. not at all.

this is not nice, but i just kinda think it's funny.

maybe daddy can make it all better???

nope.

oh my. it somehow got a little worse. (grandaddy will probably be mad at me when he sees this picture for letting you get so upset=))

we'll try mama again.

now that most of the staff left, maybe you'll pose with your diploma?

waving to the camera for a family shot.

kacie is so proud of you!!! (daddy's falling on the ground behind the camera to make you laugh=))