Monkey See, Monkey Do

Casey is at such a fun age right now, and every day we are amazed at all the new things she is picking up on. We are constantly asking each other, "Did you teach her that?" One of her recent accomplishments is recognizing a ball when she sees one, and she will also call it by name, although it really sounds more like "baa." She tries really hard to say “bubbles,” and she has amused us several times by imitating me when I laugh. She loves music and will sometimes break into a little wiggle dance, but despite many attempts, I have yet to capture this cuteness on video. My favorite Casey funny is this new facial expression she makes by scrunching up her face and sniffling.

 

 I catch her doing it all the time, and she loves when we mimic her and do it back.  Just yesterday, I asked my mom if Casey does it at her house as well.  Not only did my mom confirm that she knew the face I was referring to, but she had seen it before:

Yep, that would be me doing the same “monkey face” when I was about Casey’s age.

 

Here is the live version of the Monkey face!

 

Casey is now quite the crawling pro, and she can pull up to standing on most everything. I am pretty sure it is her new mission to seek out whatever it is she shouldn't get into in record time after her knees touch the ground. Seriously, how do they know to go straight for trouble? Now that she has gained mobility, she has also been making it known that she does not appreciate when this freedom is taken away. The poor child has also decided that being set down in her pack n' play is some kind of excruciating torture, and is not shy in letting her feelings be known about it.

Unfortunately, just as she is starting to explore all these new and exciting things in her world, we got the word a couple of weeks ago that our pediatrician recommends that we go back into full isolation again now that RSV season has officially started. It's not the news we wanted, and I'm sure I'll post more on this at a later date, but for now the hand sanitizer is restocked and lock down has officially begun.

I have actually made an effort to take some pictures lately, although as you will see our on-the -go Doodlebug makes an effort to sabotage almost all photo taking opportunities these days:

 Still can't resist trying to pull off those bows!

 

 Trying to make a getaway

 

 A rare moment where she was holding still...

 

 but it didn't last long.

 

 Lounging

 

 About to make her move.

 

 This face should have been my clue that things were going South.

 

 A full on photo meltdown was about to ensue!

 

 Pack n' play torture

 

 Party in my crib!

 Cutie

 

 Her one and only time to sit in a high chair at a restaurant before isolation began.

 

Two peas in a pod...trying to escape baby jail.

This past Sunday marked 10 months since we brought Casey home from the hospital.  It was also the 10 year anniversary of my brother's death.  When I think about all that Casey has accomplished in her short life, I wish more than anything that Chase could have had the chance to meet our sweet miracle girl. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about him, and I know he is smiling down on us from Heaven!

Miss this boy so much!

Sicky Germs and New Feats

Well another few weeks have flown by and once again, I am a bit behind on blogging. So, I'll do my best to catch you all up on all of our latest. The not so fun news is that although it took almost 14 months, some nasty sicky germs finally found our sweet girl and made their way into the Sattler home. Casey woke up two Sundays ago a completely stuffed-up congested mess. We took her to the doctor after a couple days of trying over-the-counter remedies and a humidifier with no signs of improvement, and the pediatrician confirmed it was a cold. Unfortunately, with all the drainage she was also contagious, which meant she couldn't go to our sitter's house at the end of the week. Thankfully, Gigi was able to keep her one extra day, and I stayed home for the other to get in some extra Casey snuggles. It was rough going there for a few days with some major fussiness (as in wailing anytime I dare put her down), but after about a week of feeling pretty yucky, she has been pretty much back to her normal self. Well actually a more active, mobile, and talkative version of herself! She is officially a crawler and is on-the-go all of the time! She has even figured out how to climb up onto some things and has started pulling herself up on low surfaces and into a standing position. So far Casey has shown absolutely no interest in actually taking any steps forward, even with our coaxing (and physically trying to move her legs for her), but I know it won't be long before she figures it out. As if the crawling excitement wasn't enough, The Doodle has also uttered her first word. I know what your thinking, "Mama" or "Dada," right?   Well as we have discovered, Casey doesn't really like to do things by the book (like by entering the world 3 months early), so in true Casey style her first word wasn't any different. The big first word was..."Uh-Oh!" For weeks now, she has been fascinated anytime someone said it, and has been mimicking the "Uh" part, for a while, but just had not figured out how to say the second syllable. Once it finally clicked, she has become obsessed with saying it, although it has nothing to do with anything "Uh-oh" worthy actually occurring. I may be biased, but it is the seriously the cutest thing ever! If you were a fly on the wall in our house, you might just hear us trying to get her to repeat it somewhere in the ballpark of about 100 times per day. Of course, if you were a fly on the wall in the Sattler house you might also hear some other phrases such as, "No, we don't eat shoes because those are yucky!,"or "Casey, let's not try to bite the kitty's tail." Never a dull moment around here, especially now that little miss has figured out how to move across the room to get what she wants! I think that's about all the news I have to catch you up on. I have been worse than ever about taking pictures lately, but here are a few from recent weeks along with several videos to document her latest feats.
 

  There was a lot of this going on when the week the cold germs hit our house...

 

 and a little more of this... 

 

With rare moments of calm in between.  Normally she doesn't get to play with mommy's Continuous Glucose Monitor, but it seemed to be the only thing that allowed for a moment of peace (and at that point this momma needed a moment!)

We did occasionally get some glimpses of our sweet happy (snotty) girl during the Week of Yuck!

And naps were hard to come by, but she would usually give up the battle once we got in the car.

 On the go!

I was cutting some math station materials the other day, and a couple members of my household thought it was a party!

She speaks!