Shrimp and Grits

Pet-sitter for hire!  Will work for a bottle of milk!

Of all our cats, Ash is the most laid-back.  Usually, she’s the only one who will allow Cate to pet or otherwise touch her.  Sometimes Cate takes a little too much advantage of this, as you can see above.

I guess Cate hasn’t yet learned that Ash is not a park bench!

According to the National Weather Service, it’s now official:

It’s snowing. We’ve been in this house a number of years, but this is the first time any snow has fallen on it since we moved in. We don’t get much snow in this part of the state, obviously.

This is also the first time we’ve had snow fall since Cate was born. It’s unfortunate that Cate won’t get to enjoy the snow. She’s old enough to run around in it, but our little bit of snow isn’t sticking to anything except the roof of my Jeep.

That little bit of snow will be gone before morning.

Oh well. If Cate can’t enjoy the “snow storm”, at least she could enjoy a spaghetti storm!

This is what happens when you feed spaghetti to a fourteen-month-old. Readers without kids yet … you were warned!

The Shrimp and Grits family hopes you’re having a ball this Christmas!

Yes, Cate really did help to hang decorations on the tree this year.

Later, she removed at least as many from the tree as she hung!

I know, things have been slow around here.

Really slow. As in … “No updates since the end of August” slow.

Here’s why:

Look, Daddy! I just unloaded the Tupperware again!

Yes, she’s walking. And boy is she a handful!

Got one of these?

It’s called a “Surprise Inside Diego Egg”, and it’s made by Fisher Price. (Or rather, it’s made by some cheap company in China for Fisher Price) .

So what’s the surprise? The surprise is … it’s painted with poisonous lead paint! So if any of y’all have young ones, and you’ve recently bought some Fisher-Price Sesame Street, Dora, or Diego themed toys - make sure that they’re not on the recall list (linked above).  Thankfully, none of Cate’s toys were on the list.

Just to be safe, check the list even if you have recently bought any Fisher Price toy for your young child. (There are a few “generic” ones on the list.)

This is just one more reason why outsourcing American manufacturing jobs to China is a bad idea.

A little while ago, I pointed out that

[O]ne of [Cate's] favorite games so far is Frogger - though her usual strategy is to jump the frogs directly into cars. Given her love of running stuff into and underneath cars, maybe Grand Theft Auto 3 will be her next favorite?

Well, I was almost right.

(more…)

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. — Proverbs 22:6

Cate enjoys a quick game of Castlevania

So we’re training!

Cate is fascinated by the buttons on this machine and the colorful graphics of the older games it plays. In particular, one of her favorite games so far is Frogger - though her usual strategy is to jump the frogs directly into cars. Given her love of running stuff into and underneath cars, maybe Grand Theft Auto 3 will be her next favorite?

Cate hasn’t yet mastered the fine art of getting to a sitting position from lying on her back. But that’s not really what she’s interested in. She is interested in only one thing. She wants to … stand. Stand! Stand! Stand! If she’s sitting, she will attempt to pull herself up to a standing position using nearly any object - some of which won’t support her weight.

But Cate’s toy basket is heavy enough!

Cate can’t decide whether to hold on for support or grab a toy!

Soon, we’ll have to move anything that we have on coffee tables and low shelves. I’ll also have to put up a lot of my electronic stuff, since Cate seems to have inherited my fascination with anything that runs by electricity. She already “cruises” down the edge of the couch to find my laptop computer.

But I look forward to the time we have to toddler-proof the house. I enjoy seeing Cate gain more control of herself and her world.

It’s the end of the semester, and I haven’t been properly updating the blog. But here, without further delay, is this week’s Friday Cate:

Honest, officer! I only had one bottle!

Cate’s recently learned that she can rotate her walker around and move in different directions. She seems happy about it, too!

You know those cute little baby footprints you often see in a frame along with baby pictures? When you see those print-making kits in the store, they seem like an awfully easy thing to use. Just put your baby’s hand or foot on the stamp pad, then press the inked body part onto the paper.

Simple, right?

Cate thinks otherwise!