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!!