Jumparooooooo

Is this kid cute or what?? :)

The last four days have been quite busy!! Let's see... Monday I told you all about already. Tuesday... yes, Tuesday. Well, the morning started off well enough. Katherine actually woke up for us to get her ready and as I said I would she got dressed for the day when she had her morning diaper changed. aaahhhh the skies open... revelation... you CAN dress your daughter before she eats!!! Woweee...

Off to school we went where she was handed over to Miss Lisa. I asked Miss Lisa if Katherine had any tummy time the day before and she said a little bit but not much. She said she fussed when Zack (her classmate) started fussing and that was kind of the end of that.

I made it through most of that day without being obsessed with calling. I did call, but I swear it was because I thought I had a mental telepathy signal coming from Katherine saying Mommy.... Are you going to call me today??? Hmmm??? Of course I had to answer!!! Duh. Miss Lisa said everything was fine and that Katherine was doing great. This time I didn't hear her crying in the background. (It also wasn't around feeding time!!)

Stephen and I went to pick Katherine up at around 5:10... I know... Crazy!!! And let me mention how the little gas light was on in my car. For those of you that don't know, Raleigh is having a gas shortage. Apparently we can't get fuel delivered through the pipe line, or some such nonsense, to our gas stations. So after we pick Katherine up I'm on a mission to FIND FUEL!!!! We go to BJs. No gas. And while we're there we have to search for a label maker... *sigh*. The labels we were putting on Katherine's bottles... A MESS!!!! Do not, I repeat, do not, put regular mailing type labels on bottles that get warmed. UG. The sticky horrid mess it makes. (I did find that you can take off sticky ick by rubbing vegetable oil on the sticky part... ) No label maker at BJs. I wasn't spending $30 on a label maker. No ma'am. So we headed down Capital Blvd to continue the gas search and ultimately purchase a label maker. Fortunately we came across a gas station that had regular gas. (Most have run out of mid-grade and premium... I'm too cheap to buy that anyway so that's no skin off my back.)

Gas mission accomplished and we headed to get our label maker. I know having read just sentences before how I refused to pay $30 for a label maker you're curious as to just how much miser darlene paid for said label maker... $15. I know. Good deal you say. I agree.

Katherine was quite tuckered that evening. She went to bed pretty easily as I think her classmates keep her going during the day.

Wednesday morning... She woke up and then fell back to sleep as she was talking to herself in her crib. I wonder what she's saying... Mooooooommmmmmyyyy.... Daaaaaaadddddddyyyyyy..... I'm laying here in a wet diaper.... come geeeet me!!! Pullllleeeeze!!!! Or is it... where's the TV and the boys I like to watch?? (Also known as Ultimate Fighting Championships... don't ask. It's not a pretty story.)

School that day went well too but I had a bit of a setback during the day. My melt down occurred in the morning after I dropped her off and continued pretty much through out the day. I had someone make a comment to me at work about Katherine being at daycare (it wasn't a nice comment) and it sent me into a fit of tears for pretty much the rest of the day. When we picked her up Wednesday she was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo tired. She fell asleep at basically 6:15 and with the exception of about 15-20 minutes where she woke up for her bath after I tickled, undressed and talked to her till she opened her eyes. She slept until this morning at 7 when we had to wake her up. The girl was B.U.S.T.E.D. Poor baby was exhausted from her day of play.

OH I forgot to mention when we picked her up on Tuesday night Miss Donna said that she'd put her in the exer-saucer type thing. She said Katherine really liked it. Hm. Really??? I didn't think she'd be ready for that for another month or so.... So of course I ran home that night and put together her little jumparoo!!! What fun we (I) had with her in it that night. Weeeeeeeeeee

Today she had another great day and she managed to keep her eyes open most of the evening. We played on the floor and in her jumparoo. She's trying SO hard to roll over from her back to her belly. (Pull out that mensa app Daddy!!! We've got ourselves a little genius!!! College scholarship here we come!!!!... Can that go on her college application???) She can get about half way over and then just kicks and kicks trying to get herself momentum to get over. Tonight I was laying beside her saying roll over roll over roll over!!! I felt like I was teaching a puppy!!! She didn't go fetch the stick. :-/

The jumparoo was my favorite part of the night. Katherine was ready to go as soon as I put her in it. The one we have at home plays music when you touch the little toys on the top. She went to town!!!! She was talking to it and concentrating so hard. I did realize that she needed a bit of a prop for her feet. Check out the pictures. Like mother like daughter. We both need a little extra help to make our feet touch "the ground". hehehe (And yes, I found myself quite ingenius at my solution.)

And since I was on a picture roll tonight I took some of her during bathtime too. As you can tell from the first bath picture to the current state, she's started to like bathtime significantly more. Of course I get significantly wetter over the course of the event, but she has a blast kicking away. Stephen was concerned about showing her *ahem* so as you can see she's wearing a washcloth bikini covering her unmentionables. Modesty folks. Modesty.

Photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/daleksza/JumparooBathTime#

Tomorrow finishes up our first week of daycare. Our hours at night are few but precious. Katherine's thriving at daycare and is happy and content with her "teachers". It's great to know that they care about her so much. One of our co-workers has a daughter that goes to the same school. On Monday she picked her daughter up from school early and popped in to check on Katherine. She knew it was Katherine's first day. She said when she walked in Katherine was in the arms of one of her teachers, in the rocking chair, and the teacher was talking to her. She said it was a sweet scene. In the end, when you know you need to work and your child goes to daycare, the most important thing to me, is knowing that she's happy and is being loved and cared for. And of that I have no doubt. As my sister Jacki says... I'm going all soft!!! :) And that's the end of this sappy post....

First Day of "School"

The day arrived. I know. Hard to believe isn't it? Katherine is nearly 15 weeks old and today she went to her first day of "school". We're starting her early. We figure it can only help. :P

We know that Katherine knew something was up this morning. You ask -- How did she know? Stephen and I were both up and dressed by 7am. And we both went in to wake her up this morning. She was looking at us back and forth communicating with her pretty blue eyes... What's going on? Why are you waking me and why are you both here? Daddy -- what's she doing here? You change my morning diaper then you take me to see Mommy and she feeds me and we listen to world news on GMA (and sometimes a good cooking recipe or two... oh and maybe a feel good story). And so the morning began... I fed Katherine while Stephen shuffled things out to the car for my "move in" back to the office. We still watched world news only this time I was pleeding.... please don't spit up on me, please don't spit up on me - for my clothes situation was not a pretty one. (Lesson learned: never try on pre-pregnancy clothes to figure out what you're wearing to work -- the day before you start back to work... apparently they haven't relaxed the dress code to t-shirts and gym pants... I was shocked too. Needless to say my pre-pregnancy weight is still 8-10 pounds and a couple sizes away... sigh... And has my butt gotten larger???) Sorry about that... back to our original programming.

After Katherine ate I dressed her for the day. I had this crazy notion that I wouldn't dress her till after she ate in case she spit up. My logic seemed to fall short of, well, logic as I feed her any other day 4 of her 6 bottles in her daytime clothes. What makes the morning bottle any different? Tommorrow when she wakes up we'll be dressing her for the day when she gets her diaper changed rather than after she eats. I'm hoping that will save us another 5 minutes or so in the morning. (Those who know me well, you understand why even 5 minutes is moy importante.)

Then we shuffled downstairs to head out. I put Katherine in her carseat and as I was doing so I told her about how today she was going to school again. (Remember we were there twice last week.) I explained that today she was going to be going and Mommy and Daddy were going to go to work. Her feelings on the subject: http://picasaweb.google.com/daleksza/MyFirstDayAtSchool#. You judge her reaction. :P

We drove over to the daycare (Children's Academy) and in we both went with little Nugget. Ms Lisa was there this morning. We gave Ms Lisa her bottle, told her what time she last ate and then I hugged and kissed her 3,000 times before we left. Then it began. You guessed it. T.E.A.R.S. A lot of them. My little girl was at daycare while I was leaving her to go to "the place". (Also known as work.) I cried all the way to work. I was able to pull myself (but not my make-up) together just as we were arriving at the office. We trudged ourselves over to the elevator. One of the women we work with was running to catch the elevator. She made the mistake of saying "Wow, both Aleksza's are here today!! Is this a first?" I said yes. Then she asked THE QUESTION.... "Where is Katherine then?" And the crying returned. I replied that she was at daycare and this was her first day. "Oh my" was her response. Yeah. Beautiful. Me, crying in an elevator and walking into our office. I made quite a picture.

I made it all the way to 11:15 when I broke down and had to call the school to check on Katherine. Ms Lisa answered and said she'd taken two cat naps (the girl won't take a long nap) and was just waking up. Ms Lisa was about to feed her. She told me that Katherine fussed a little when we left but not too badly. The rest of the time she'd been happy and smiling. Whew. Two pieces of great news. Then... I heard her crying. Seven infants in the room, and I knew that cry was my little girl's. Ms Lisa confirmed. It sounded like a cry of "are you going to feed me now - I'm hungry!!!" versus, "Mommy, HELP, SOS, I can't stay here another minute." I hung up quickly before I started crying and subsequently may have found myself driving over there to pick her up.

The afternoon seemed to go by slowly. I kept myself busy unpacking my office since I'd moved twice in the 3 months I was out. I had a lot of *junk* to throw out. It was quite a scene in there until around 4:30 when I started to see some space on my desk. At 4:40 I started watching the clock waiting and waiting for 5pm. (Stephen was in a class until 5pm so we couldn't leave any earlier.)

We left the office around 5:05 (I know... we were running late!!!) and headed to daycare. Katherine was in my arms by 5:30. *sigh* But I'm pretty sure she was mad at me. I got one smile when I picked her up. Then she just kept staring at me as if to say - Are you just going to leave me again? *little teary*

Once we got home she started to forgive me. She smiled and talked and told me about her day. Apparently the other kids are loud. She said she didn't get a good nap in because they made a lot of noise. She told me she had some tummy time today but she didn't remember how long she was down for or how many times. I'll have to ask Ms Lisa or Ms Shawn tomorrow when I see them.

Now she's upstairs with Stephen, having her bedtime bottle and reading (drum roll) about the 10 commandments. (Stephen wanted to be fresh when he started that story so he had to stop reading last night when he got to that part... can't read that when you're half asleep - I mean they are the 10 commandments, have some respect! :P)

Apparently we can all survive the first day of school. I'm not crying (anymore), Katherine appears to have forgiven me and the world continues to spin.

The next Gerber baby

I know what you're thinking. Every parent thinks their child is the next Gerber baby. Maybe. But in this case it's true. Just look at her!! Isn't she the cutest baby eva?! Her onesie says it all "Hug Me".

If you come just for the pics here they are right at the beginning: http://picasaweb.google.com/daleksza/Smiley#

So there have been multiple firsts in the last couple of days. I had full intentions on posting last night but as I'm learning... You can't always do all the things you plan!! Baby has other ideas for you!!

Last night for the first time she had two (yes two) giggles. She's been smiling and trying to get the sound out for the last few weeks. Last night as I was changing her into her PJs I was kissing her neck and she giggled. I looked at Stephen and said -- did you hear that!!!??? (He of course like a good dad/husband said YES... whether he did or not - no idea! :)) So I played again and she did it again. All day today I've been trying to get her to do it again. No giggles. But lots of smiles. I'm trying though!!

The other big event was taking a trip to her daycare. Yes, that time is upon us. Monday. Three short days away. I will not be able to take mid-day pictures of my little nugget. :( We will all have to get by on what we can get at night or on weekends. Seems blasphemous doesn't it?? But alas.... a paycheck is a good thing so I will do my part for the greater good (spend) of the Aleksza household. :) I'm looking forward to the work challenges again (my brains gone a little soft) but not to leaving the Nugget. Her "teachers" are very very nice. Ms Shawn, Ms Lisa and Ms Donna. Ms Shawn is there from 9-5 and Ms Lisa is there from 7-3 and and Ms Donna is with her from 3-6. So today Stephen, Katherine and I made the trip in to ask our questions (Katherine had a few of her own for her "classmates") and make sure we were ready for Monday. They were very patient in answering our questions and both even took time to hold Katherine while we were there. She seemed to like them a lot too. I am looking forward to her being able to interact with other babies/kids. She seems a little anti-social right now with other people her size. She doesn't even like the baby in the mirror so much. (More genetics?? We hope not.)

Ms Shawn and Ms Lisa said that she will have three turns of tummy time a day - 15 minutes each. I told them how she really isn't so much a fan and they said "they never are". hehehe There were two babies there today that had been sitting at first and both ended up on their bellies playing. I was playing with them saying look at you on your belly... One of the teachers said that just the day before the little boy hated tummy time. :P Guess it's a force of who's will is greater. So far, Katherine's is greater in the fight between she and I. (definately Daddy's girl) They did tell me that Katherine will remember us. Whew.

We need to find our label maker tonight so we can start to label up her bottles. Every bottle has to have a label with her name and another one with the date on it. We'll have to go get some masking tape this weekend for the date labels. We want something that we can easily take off each night.

Tomorrow I'm going to take over some diapers, wipes, changes of clothes, socks and some bibs to put in her cubby. That way we don't have to schlep all that in on Monday when we drop her off and I'm traumatized. (Stephen's coming with me to make sure I don't high tail it out the door with her.) :)

I asked what kind of clothes they prefer she be dressed in and they said "easy ones". No clothes with zippers all the way up/down the body. They're a no go. As are clothes with buttons. I wouldn't punish them with a button outfit anyway. Yuck. I don't like them myself. The zipper ones I don't have an issue with so I'm glad they told me that. I think the only things she has that have zippers all the way up/down are her sleepers. If it's a one piece they prefer the ones that are snaps up/down and they don't mind pants. (Stephen's not a fan of pants... he likes the white onesie look... Thanks PW!!!) So Tootsie, Aunt Jacki and Aunt Nikki - (Katherine's clothes shoppers) if you're buying her clothes keep in mind - no zippers up/down the outfit or buttons. :)) (And as a side note, my opinion is buttons should be outlawed on all baby clothing period. What a pain in the behind!)

We (okay I) also asked them to NOT tell me if she's had a first. I don't want to know if she has it there first. They said they wouldn't tell us. :) If Stephen wants to know he can ask but I don't want to know. I want to see it myself for the first time versus thinking... HEY, you did it for them... what about US!!?? (As if she'll understand my logic.)

They also told me I could call when ever I like to check on her and/or stop in to see her. I don't think I'll be doing too much of the stopping in. I think it'll be harder for me to leave her - Again!! I probably will call though. I want to make sure she's not in melt down mode.

In other news... I forgot to mention last week that I went to the dentist. Ah, Dr Urlaub. Our witty dentist. He does make me laugh so.... usually while he's got his hand in my mouth too. I digress - While I was there I asked him about when we should bring Katherine in for her first check up. His recommendation was at 3 years old unless her teeth start rotting. (Note witty dentist.) Rotting I say?? Yes, from sleeping with a bottle, not brushing her teeth, etc. (Note: Katherine will NOT be sleeping with her bottle and her teeth will be brushed.) I also asked about pacifier versus thumb/hand. Hands down the pacifier wins. I asked how long can she have it before it will affect her teeth. His recommendation was to take it away at 2.5 - 3yrs old. We were going to try to take it away earlier than that (6months) but we'll see. He said NO NO NO NO thumb sucking. We already had been discouraging that (pull hand out put paci in) so we're good there.

Oh -- yesterday I saw 3 VERY cute costumes for Katherine. (Don't worry Stephen they're still at the store... Katherine and I discussed and we decided you might not be too excited if I came home with another one that I paid R for.) There was a monkey (I call her that sometimes when she's trying to "climb" up my chest), a pumpkin and a chili pepper. hehehehe The pepper was really cute!! Thanks for the costume votes. Aunt Pat Snyder's vote was for a pumpkin and (modest) Aunt Jacki (see her comment) was all for the bee. :P

For those that have given comments (that haven't made me cry! :P) - I thank you. :) Keep up the good work!!

A deer?? Eating our herbs? In Raleigh?

Scene:It's 7:15am and the husband walks into the bedroom talking to his wife who is still pretty comatose.

Husband: "A deer is eating our garden."

Wife: "Huh? How do you know?"

Husband: "Because I just saw it!"

Wife: "What? It's there now."
Husband: "Yup."

Scene: He's standing in the bedroom treating this event as if it happens every morning. Wife LEAPS out of bed and runs downstairs to get camera. We must capture this event. It's a first afterall and we're all about documenting firsts lately. Camera in hand wife tries 4 windows to see where a picture can be obtained from. After trying to take a picture with the flash on (bad idea) a photo was obtained of the event.

Why you say was this such an occassion? We've heard of such things occurring to OTHER PEOPLE but have never ourselves experienced the sight. We have however, wondered who was eating our carrots and other vegetables. I chose to believe that there weren't large 4 legged animals wandering into our backyard eating our produce. Apparently (and this too is a first or at least the first documented time this will be admitted)... I was wrong. (Go ahead. Savor the moment. Yes, I admitted to being wrong. One time. It shall never happen again. :P)

Weeeeeee!!!!

That's what Katherine was saying on her cool new tummy time toy!! Well... okay... maybe that was me. Katherine, me... does it really matter? I think she dug it. This very cool little device allows her to move herself in circles should she choose to do so. She did not choose to do so today. I did - but she wasn't feelin' it. (Flashback: remember those things that you could sit on and hold the wheel in the center and spin yourself silly? I remember going sooooo fast on the thing that I'd flip myself backwards. weeeeeeeee they were fun!!!!... Wonder if Katherine will ever get to that point on this handy dandy thing???) Anyway, this was one of our amazing purchases from yesterday. The mirror is something I added to help her see "other babies". She doesn't like other babies. (OMG -- you don't think she's already like Stephen and I -- anti-social??? 3 months old... can't be!!!)

As I was looking at these pictures tonight I realized I'm one of "those" parents... I'm trying to bribe my daughter to like tummy time. Kind of like AC bribing me to eat my peas in my youth. (I'm still bitter about the jello pudding pop--- No AC I haven't forgotten 20+ years later....) If I'm already willing to buy what ever gadget or gizmo I can find to get her to do something she doesn't want to do (hold her head up on her own and lay on her tummy) what will it be next?? Things to think about...

Below is a link to some other pictures I took today. We had 3 changes of clothes today so we had opportunity for some mild nudy pictures. She's just so cute you want to gobble her up. A couple pictures of our "finds" from the consignmenet sale are included.

http://picasaweb.google.com/daleksza/September162008#

Speaking of gobble... okay, well not really gobble... Goblins is more like it - Stephen and are are "discussing" the need for a Halloween costume for Katherine. Wait!!! Hear me out. I KNOW I have like 5. But they aren't all for this year. (Remember I was buying in advance because they were on clearance and the Thumper costume is an Easter thing NOT halloween... I stand by that.) This year's costume is a bumble bee. I'm okay with the bee for school or a few pictures but I think I'd like her to be either a pea (hehehe ... wouldn't she be cute as a little pea pod??) or a pumpkin. I call her "punk" for my little pumpkin. So use the comment link to tell me what you think. Do I get another costume for her?? Oh... and Stephen doesn't know this yet (guess he'll find out when he reads this hehe) I want to go pumpkin picking. Yay!!!!! I just need to find a place that we can go do it. Maybe a hayride!! Wouldn't that be sooo much fun?? There's so many things we can do now that we have a little Nugget of our own. Oh my goodness... Santa!!! Can't wait to take her for her first picture. She's definately going to help us pick our turkey. :P

A new first!!!

Isn't this the sweetest thing?? For the last few days Katherine has been trying to hold her bottle when she's eating. She usually puts her hands over mine. Tonight while she was eating with Stephen she did it!!!! What a big girl!!!

Katherine is now up to 5.5 to 6oz of food at a time. She's quite the little eater. She's eating 4-5 times a day versus the 5-6 times she used to.

Katherine loves to have her belly button tickled and her legs "eaten". She smiles and sqeals. I love it!! It's amazing how much she's grown. Today we saw a baby that was 5 days old. She was sooo tiny. We remember when Katherine was that little. We also saw a 4.5 month old and she was still tiny compared to him. Tiny yet big all at the same time. 6 days till I have to start working FT again. :( I'm so going to miss being home with her. She's my little sweetheart.

Today we went to a kids consignment sale. It was our first time at one and it was HUGE. The information on the sale said they limit the number of consigners to 1000. We were able to get some things really cheap!!! A new bouncy seat so I don't have to carry the one we have up and down the steps all the time.. another tummy time thing that's like a flying saucer (looks like a ladybug - soooo cute), a little toy thing that sits on the highchair, a baby carrier for Stephen and some other little toys... All for $50!!! We also bought some clothes... I was picky though. I wanted new things for less than $5. Stephen's bird power (cheep cheep cheep) has worn off on me and I think I'm worse than he is now. I figure I need to save money now since later she's going to want Gap, Abercrombie and Express!!

If you're in the Raleigh area the sale is through Friday at the Morrisville outlets. It's called Kids Everywhere. I might sign up to sell some things at the March sale. Make some money so I can buy other things!! :P

Videos

Well, the videos didn't quite work out. I didn't realize that it takes 1-5 minutes per MB to upload. Crazy. Each video is about a minute and the files are anywhere from 112 - 148MB. YouTube was the same way. I tried to upload the files 3-4 times and they failed each time and I can't spend that much time babysitting the upload so until I can figure out how to shrink the files, or I make shorter videos (10 seconds?), you won't see videos posted.

Today was a quiet family day. Stephen put down some grass seed and some dirt this morning but was finished with that by 8:30am. (He's trying to make cushy grass for Katherine's feet!) We spent the day laying on the sofa and loveseat and doing a little tummy time on Mommy's tummy. (If a baby doesn't like Tummy Time does that ever change???) Usually tummy time concludes when she gives me back some of her last feeding. Yuck!!!! At one point today we both had to change all of our clothes.

We're approaching our last week at home together before I go back to work FT. *sigh* I don't want to leave her. When she goes to daycare will she forget who Mommy and Daddy are? Will she remember us?

Katherine's First Playdate

Today Katherine had her first playdate with her friends Alexa and Bryce. Alexa is 5 months old and Bryce is 3 years old. The girls spent quite a bit of time checking each other out. At first Katherine was playing shy and would turn her head away from Alexa. After a few minutes they were on the floor looking at one another and "playing" in their own 3/5 month old way.

We took a few pictures while the girls were hanging out:

http://picasaweb.google.com/daleksza/MyFirstPlaydate

She "cracks" me up!!!

Future Plumber of America? (FPA)

Ok. It's wrong. But admit it. You laughed. I picked up Katherine from off of the floor while we were playing and Stephen said whoa girl!!! That's some butt crack. He took a picture for me to see. Nice!!! What a cute little hiney!!!

I wasn't sure until yesterday but we have a new thing this week!! On Wednesday when we were playing Katherine started opening her mouth really wide and making all sorts of aaaahhhh noises. I realized yesterday she's trying to kiss!!! We experimented with Stephen last night and that's what she's doing. Sooooo cute!!! Of course you become a big slobbery baby mess but who doesn't love a good baby kiss?? (Or two hundred... I'm addicted!!)

Last night I took some video of her too. Little one minute clips. I'm going to see if I can figure out how to post them to the blog. The last time I tried to post a video it didn't work out so well. Hopefully these will post. She's so funny!!! When she plays on her mat she's like a mad woman, kicking and grunting. She's trying to get somewhere for sure!! I recorded a minute of tummy time too. As you'll be able to see -- she's still not a fan. :)

PS

Baptism thank you cards were mailed today!!! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY

Yay!!!

You can now subscribe to our blog without having to use an RSS feed or set up a gmail account!! Yay!!! (Thank you Kate!!!) There were a few people that asked that we get this and I'd been trying to figure it out since the day I started the page. Thanks to the Lassiter crew I was able to get it up and running tonight.

Subscribe away my family & friends... subscribe away!!! :)

(And if you don't subscribe - I might cry. So will Katherine. Stephen might shed a tear too. So do it. Now. Before we're a bawling mess.) :)

Comments... Please!?!?

I was just looking at a friends blog and she had comments from people that read her blog. :( We have no comments. Is anyone out there? Do you see me? Little Katherine wants to know you're there. (Yes, I'm playing the baby card.) :)

I've updated our site settings to allow those that aren't members of Google to post a comment. It will be marked with Anonymous so if you could just sign your name at the end then we'll know who you are.

Send a comment... Or I'll start thinking no one's reading!! oxox

A week.... Already?

I can't believe it's been a week since I last posted. It seems like the weeks flown by and yet at the same time seems like so much has happened!!

Where to start? Can I even remember?? Last Thursday Stephen and I went to the gym for the first time and took Nugget with us. We paid our $10 for the month to use the babysitting service at the gym. We hadn't been to the gym since before I had Katherine so we figured it was time to get our behinds going again!!! (Not to mention we need to wear a bathing suit next month and neither one of us are looking forward to that!!!) We had a nice 30 minute work out. We didn't want to "rush into" it and hurt ourselves. :P

Friday we both worked and then our friends Lee and Sam came over to watch Katherine while Stephen and I went out for date night. We had massages (yay) and a nice dinner. We were home in time to say goodnight to Katherine. :) I'm not sure how good she was for Sam and Lee. Lee said she was a sweetie and Sam said something I think like she didn't cry the whole time. (I heard from Lee and Stephen heard from Sam.) hehe

Saturday was moving day for Lolly. Even Nugget helped! She strapped onto my chest and we did some movin'. By the end of the day we were sweaty, gross and in desperate need of a shower. Nugget included. She was particularly funky because she had her own sweat, my sweat and spit up. A fine smell in the summer heat. Yuck. Lolly is moved into her new place although she does have a lot of unpacking to do!!!

Sunday... After Saturday's exercise we decided Sunday would truly be a day of rest!! We had to go out to get Stephen a heating pad but after that we hung out in the family room and goofed off for the day. Stephen and Nugget napped and I (tried) to write some TY cards. (For those that get them and my writing is horrible... That was Katherine "helping" me... she kicked my arm, belly and chest the whole time I was trying to write. She was really enjoying herself!) Sunday night I cooked dinner and made it a little fancy. :) I made some steak, rice and green beans and served it up in the dining room on our wedding china. I know!!! Fancy!!! I was quite impressed with both my culinary skill and presentation. It was out of a magazine pretty!!! Honestly. :P

This week at work has so far been quite busy. Yesterday I worked nearly all day, today I worked all day and tomorrow's looking like all day too. This week the PT idea isn't quite working out. Today I had to go into the office for some meetings and Stephen was home with Nugget all day. When I got a message at around noon that said "I don't know how you do this all day" I knew he was having a rough morning. Poor Daddy. Katherine wasn't in her happy place today and let him know it. By crying. A lot. Fortunately she took a nice long nap (11am - 3pm) so that gave him a little bit of a break. I got home at around 6 and tried to relieve him. He's now, again, being super Daddy and reading, feeding and putting Katherine to bed. What a guy!!! He's all mine girls!!! (And this time I'm not being sarcastic!!! :P)

So what are some new Katherine things? Hm. She's still fascinated with her feet. Amazing new body parts she's finding. This week she's started to clasp her hands together and squeeze them. Occasionally she'll squeeze a little too hard and surprise herself. And then she looks at you like you did it. She's not quite understanding she's causing her own discomfort or surprise. :P She's now starting to like to be put in the air. (We think Sofi helped her "start" to like it! :P) No jostling though. Just a little airplane-ish lift. No more than 6-8 inches above your head. You get big smiles. But I don't recommend you do it more than once for more than 5 seconds or so. Stephen learned that the hard way. Poor man. Katherine "blessed" him, the boppy, his shorts, his t-shirt, the floor, her clothes.... A mess. He's now gun-shy about putting her up. I just have a burp cloth handy. The first time she spits up on my face though... that'll be over. No more plane!!! :P

She's still no fan of tummy time. I keep thinking it's like laying on her back. Maybe the more she does it the more she'll like it. Yeah, not so much so. We're good for 5-6 minutes max if she's straight on her belly. If she's on her belly on the boppy we might get 10-12 minutes but she's kinda lazy with using her arms then. The girl's not motivated to push up. I keep telling myself there aren't kindergartners who can't lift their head up or crawl. She'll get there. (Right!?)

Nugget Pictures!!! http://picasaweb.google.com/daleksza/WkOfSeptember12008#

And check out my baking skills http://picasaweb.google.com/daleksza/LaborDayTreats#

9.3.08

Today was a pretty nice day. Katherine and I spent the morning together and at noon I "went to work" while she took quite a good nap until around 2:30. She woke up happy and ready to play. We played for a little while and then it was back to work. She was content sitting on my lap as we "worked" and then laying on the floor for a bit.

Tonight we had dinner with some friends from work. It was nice to see them. Nearly everyone was from out of town so it's not often we get to see them. They are the same people we used to travel with when Stephen and I were on the road. Their travel is a lot more than what we do. I'm confident I wouldn't want to do that job again. I'm not built for that travel anymore. It would break me!! :P

Little Nugget and Stephen are upstairs now having the bedtime bottle and I'm sure shortly I'll hear the bedtime bible story start. :) This is my 20-30 minutes of down time for the day and I so much appreciate it. Not that being with Katherine is tough, but it's nice to have this time each night and to know that she's getting special time with her Daddy.

Today I didn't get done any of the things I'd hoped to do. No thank you cards, no laundry and no cleaning the desk. Again the day escaped me. *sigh* I'd say better luck tomorrow but I'm beginning to feel like the situation is hopeless. :P I just got a little behind this weekend as a result of home improvements. I know I'll get caught up. This weekend. :) And if not, next week's another week. Ya can't fret it, right. :)

Seemed like a Monday

I know today was Tuesday, but it felt like Monday. After a long weekend going back to work, even part time, isn't fun. :P Katherine slept until about 7:15 this morning, which was lovely!! When she did wake up she was quite the hungry little girl. She ate her bottle in less than 15 minutes. And shockingly there was no spit up after! She actually fell back to sleep for another hour once her belly was full.

Today Katherine was quite the fidget. She didn't cry so much as yell. Just yell to get my attention so I'd pick her up. Then she'd stop. We played quite a bit today because that was the only way I could get her to stop yelling!! I went out to the store to get a new thermometer for the kitchen (the old one broke) and I carried her into Bed Bath and Beyond thinking she might like the looking around. As I was standing looking at thermometers I hear her burp and then felt my shoulder get warm... UG!!! Bad sign. Then I heard "splat". I look down and all over my foot (wearing flipflops) and the floor is some of Katherine's lunch. Yay. She's got spit up all down the front of her, I have it all over me, all over my foot and the floor of the store. So I try as I might to clean her up with her burp cloth (I was smart enough to bring that in) and then my shoulder and finally the floor of the store. That ended our shopping trip. All I could say was "Really Katherine?? Really?" She smiled and smiled. Turkey!!!!

We took a little "walk" out front tonight while Stephen was doing some yard things. I say walk and it was really just walking up and down the sidewalk in front of the house. Since I didn't learn my lesson earlier today I was again carrying her. She really does like looking around. She's quite alert. We saw a couple of neighborhood kids and a lady and her doggie. The dog licked her foot which had her crawling up my chest. hehe Whenever she gets startled by something and your holding her she curls up and it feels like she's trying to crawl up your chest. A truck drove by tonight and that startled her too. Again we had crawling up my chest baby. :P

We finished putting the dining room back together tonight. And got Katherine's play room back in order. We'd moved the dining room furniture into the play room while we painted. The dining room looks great, if we do say so ourselves. :) Now to get the computer room in some semblance of order. Between working from home and just accummulating so much paper - I'm not sure from what - I've got stacks all around my desk. It's making me NUTS. And I can't go through it and hold Nugget at the same time. She doesn't permit it. :P Maybe tomorrow... We'll see.

I have a lot of things on my hopefully tomorrow list: thank you cards, cleaning up the office so I can work in some order, laundry (dear God laundry)... those would be my top things. Probably in that order too. We'll see how that goes tomorrow though.

Whew

Last week we took Katherine to a photo place to have pictures taken for her baptism. We had our first family pictures taken too. Stephen got all dressed up in his suit and I put on a dress (sans spit up) and we actually made it through the pictures prior to some spit up arriving. (Stephen ended up getting it all down the front of him as we were looking and selecting pictures.) Ahhh, parenthood!!

Picture Link: http://picasaweb.google.com/daleksza/LightsCameraKatherine

Katherine is doing well. We had our first trip to the ER last week for a fever. I know – new parents. Her fever was 100.4 or higher for more than an hour. So we called the pediatrician’s on-call nurse and they told us to go to the ER. By the time we got there and into triage it was 99.4. Then when we went back to the ER room it was 98.6. We aren’t sure what caused the fever. All of the blood work and tests they did so far came back negative. They were doing a blood culture and said that if anything came back “off” we would be contacted. The culture was being looked at yesterday and we didn’t get a call. I plan to call the pediatrician on Tuesday to see if they heard anything back on it. Dr Hewitt, our pediatrician, said no news is good news – so that’s what we’re going with now. She’s not acting usual or seemingly different either so she seems to be fine. Dr Hewitt said it could have been a viral thing.

Katherine's also found a new facination... Her feet! We laugh saying that she found a new body part. She grabs at her toes and feet and is trying to get them into her mouth. She also has a favorite toy -- Leap!! He sings the alphabet. "Hi I'm Leap, Let's sing the alphabet song..." She stares at him with sheer facination. She also likes her (Leap) worm that sings songs about colors, numbers and famous composers. I'm trying to figure out whether it's the voices that the Leap toys have that facinate her or the colors. Those two things seem to be her favorites. Leap by far being the favorite of even those two.

Stephen is doing well. He and Katherine have their Daddy, daughter time each night. They head to her room after I give her a bath to eat her bedtime bottle, read some of her Golden’s Children’s Bible and sing some songs. (They’re in the Old Testament part.) Stephen said he’s learning a lot while reading to her. It seems there was a whole lot of smiting going on. He gets Katherine when she’s sweet smelling and sleepy. I get her when she first wakes up and she’s all smiles and happiness. All in all, we’ve got our routine going pretty well. Katherine’s even sleeping from about 9:30pm until around 7am. Pretty amazing for a less than 3 month old. (We think the sleep gene is mine… I seem to have a talent in that regard.) :P

This weekend we painted the dining room too. It looks great. We did two colors. One above the chair rail and another below. No stripes this time though!! (Katherine's room has stripes below the chair rail.) We did get a little creative though. The top is sponge painted on. We only had one sponge (shoot) so Stephen did all of the sponge painting. He did a fantastic job!!!! Now of course the work continues with moving everything back into the dining room.

We're hoping this week will be a little less eventful than last week was!!! Hope you enjoy the pictures. Now that we have pictures of Katherine in her dress we can get to sending Baptism thank you cards. Thanks to everyone for the patience!! :) I promise we didn't forget.