Getting Ready for our First Trip

Well I took katie to the doctor one more time to get her all checked out and looked at to make sure she was ok to travel and she was! the only thing i was upset about that the doctor told me was katie has lost some weight since she has been sick. at 9 months katie weighed 19 lbs 12 oz and at 10 months we went in for something I forget what it was and she was down about 2 oz and then when i went in this time just shy of 11 months she has dropped another 4 oz. so in the last 2 months she has dropped about 6 oz. she is down to 19 and a half pounds which is still fine but this cold for over 2 weeks really took it out of her. the doctor told me 2 things. 1. until they are 2 years old, when they get sick, any and all calories they take in go towards fighting off the sickness rather than towards gaining weight. (huh didn't know that) and 2. don't give up on her favorite foods just yet (cus i told her katie wasn't' eating things she usually loved and never turn away) because eating has a lot to do with smell. huh. i did not know that. so the reason she isn't eating much is cus she can't smell if cus she is so congested. well thank you doctor for answering my questions. see ya in another 11 months i hope for her next cold. yeah fat chance but good to know she is doing alright and everything that happened to her during her first cold was normal.

I'm getting all packed and ready to take our first trip together. Bri can't go but I'm taking Katie up to Connecticut to see my Grandmother, katie's Great Grandmother. I think that's so cool to say. Great Grandmother. that's pretty impressive if ya ask me! unfortunately my grandma isn't doing so well and all she wants is to meet her only great grand daughter so we thought the trip was necesarry so my dad flew up from florida to get on the train with me and katie and get on up there to see her!
I have been asking around how to pack and what to pack and a bunch of girlfriends have given me good advice starting with advice about the train. oh did i forget to mention, we are taking the train up because i have a phobia of putting katie in the car for 6 hours when she has never done it before. i know i have to travel with her one day sooner rather than later but i'm trying to work up to it so i thought the train would be better because she could get up and move around and not be trapped in the car seat the whole time. anyway back to advice. my girlfriend told me to bring lots of snacks because it was a great time filler and to go out and get a sticker book. humm.... i thought a sticker book hummm??? but sure enough i went out to toys r us and bought katie a book with stickers. my girlfriend said the will love sticking them on you and on the train and on the paper. but key thing... Don't show it to her until the trip so its something brand new! ohh i hope it works!!!

another girlfriend of mine told me i didn't need much cus everything will be so new that she wont' even play with her toys she will just flip through new pots and pans, and maybe a different book, or just go through the boxes or shoes in their closet that toys weren't really a necessity, but even another friend told me that i need to pack everything but the kitchen sink. just bring it all. ya never know! i had to be careful how much i brought cus we weren't taking the car so we had to carry all we wanted with us. one thing i made sure we brought was katie's car seat. i did pack toys of course cus i didn't want to get up there and have her not have anything to play with; after all my grandma doesn't exactly have toys at her house. anyway back to the car seat, once we got to CT on the train we had to rent a car and drive a half hour to her house so i know i know i know u can rent a car seat to go in the rental cars but u know me, i'm a maniac about A. things being clean, and B. things being safe, and a rental car seat to me says neither of those things. so my poor dad has to lug around the car seat on the trip. now my dad is a big guy so he is gonna look about like Santa with a huge bag of toys on his back. i wouldn't be surprised if security stopped him. haha that would make his day. anyway instead of buying a car seat cover, i borrowed one from a girlfriend who is not a chicken about traveling with her baby, she has traveled in the car and plane with her little one and assured me its not so bad. actually everyone has told me to just get over it and go! so here we go. I'm all packed up and ready to go and tomorrow i will set out on my first trip without bri and my first trip as a mom. wish me luck!!!!

a lot has happened in 1 year!

this was the same week last year. still 5 weeks to go till baby girl was born! ughhhhh i was HUGE!

2 weeks!

Watching Bubble Guppies. Her FAVORITE show!we have watched many reruns since she has been sick. always makes her smile!
It's been 2 weeks and 5 days of benedryl and katie is starting to feel better. she is sleeping through the night next to me in bed (poor bri hasn't been in bed for 2 weeks) and not as congested as she has been so i'm thinking we have just about kicked this cold. sheesh its about time! i just hope she is feeling better and ready to travel because katie and i are taking our first trip together. my grandmother isn't doing so well so i'm taking the train with my dad and katie up to Connecticut to see her. katie has never traveled before and we are only going for one night so i'm hoping she will be fine but it will be an adventure in itself. so this is why i need her better and ready to see her great grandmother. i'm so excited to finally introduce them! what a great photo it will be to have me and katie with my dad and his mom. 4 generations!
in other katie news... she is really trying to use her speech. she is saying "ma ma ma ma" all the time which was the first intentional sound she ever made but that was a while ago but recently it has changed to a TON of "da da da da da". everything is "da da da". she says it like "DA DA" when bri walks in the door so i know she knows that it means dad but recently she is saying it to other things. "Bah" is a new one and its not like she takes a bottle so i dunno waht "ba ba" could be but its not really "ba" its more like "baH". she really works hard to get that "H" on the end of things. she is saying "duH" a lot too i thought maybe she was repeating "dog" or trying to cus we see my in laws dog so much maybe she is trying to say dog i'm not sure but its definitely different than "dada" which by the way is sooooooo cute. i love when she says "dada" and "mama" it just melts my heart. she has also learned to say "up" which is adorable. she doesn't know what it means yet but she loves to say it. and the first time she says it its "UuuuuuuuuP!" with a big "P" on the end. she works very hard to get that "P" but once she says it once it flows better after we tell her "that's good katie". then its "Up! Up! Up!" for 10 minutes or so until she finds something else to do. she is so proud of herself when she says "Up" she gives us a huge smile cus we praise her after she says it. lol but its so cute to see her start to say different sounds.

Doctors :(

Poor baby. It's been 7 days and katie is no better than she was a week ago so i am taking her to the doctors. today we called and lucky us our favorite doctor is working so we made an apt and were off to see her!
katie loves this doctor. we go to a pediatrician office that has a bunch of doctors and i like most all of them but this one is fantastic! katie takes to her so well. dunno what it is about her but she lets her do whatever, look in her ears, her nose, her mouth. whatever she needs to do, listen to her heart. she just sits there and lets her do it. the nurses come in and try to do anything to katie and she freaks out because she doesn't know them. anyway lucky us our doctor is working today we went in for a quick look at her to make sure this cold hasn't' gone to her chest.

poor baby. didn't even want her photo taken. is this the saddest thing ever :( this was taken in the doctors office before we were waiting for the doc to come in. she was all smiles once the doc came in but she really still isn't feeling well and u can tell :( poor little angel.


doctor gave us a good feeling and said "no worries, she sounds great and the coughing is just her clearing out her throat... think of how a normal cold progresses, she should be over it in another week." so... i'm just thinking we have to wait it out. poor little katie you will feel better soon. in the mean time we are still doing lots of fun stuff. we have been playing outside because the weather has been so beautiful. the only thing we really can't do is be around other babies so unfortunately this week will be our second to miss gymboree class and we haven't had a play date in a week which is so unlike us. she is still eating pretty well and for the most part in a good mood except when its time to go to bed she is extra fussy... more than usual that is.
she has been sleeping pretty well with me in my bed. only wakes up if she can't breath which by the way is soooooo sad. she just can't breath through her nose. we have the humidifier going in our room so that is helping i think and the doctor told us we could give her a little benedryl so we have started to do that but especially during naps she wakes up wayyyyyyy before she should because her nose is stuffy. o well she will get over it soon enough. until then i'm just trying to make her comfy because everyone knows a common head cold is the worst :(

saturday

Its so nice today and katie slept this morning a bunch so we didn't make it to the doctors. she isn't feeling much better and i'm worried her cold has gone to her chest cus she just started coughing a little. o wel guess we are gonna have to wait till monday to see the doctor. :( sat and sunday night katie coughed a bunch. she is still in my bed. she has been in my bed since monday night which is awful. i basically woke up with a bruise on my face cus katie is so long these days she kicks me in the face in her sleep. i'm like ahhhhhhh KAtie!!!! i don't' mean to get upset getting kicked in the face and then sitting up to see whats up and she is still sound asleep... ugh i'm so annoyed. i know.. i know.. "put her in her crib she will be fine!!!" but honestly its better for me to have her in our bed than in her crib cus she will wake up i think.
she has surprised me. the past two nights she has slept through the night. she is less congested but coughing now. she slept through the night... as in didn't wake up but she is still moving all over the place just not doing her normal "sit up " in her sleep.
off to the doctors tomorrow to makes sure this cough hasn't' gotten in her chest :(

sick :(

Oh no... we went to aunt jennie's house and met the puppies and her bird "goose" and came home, took a bath and napped! that night katie was extra fussy and ended up waking up around 1am not being able to breath. it was awful. i had to wake up bri to have him set up a bed and humidifier, and everything else i needed next to my bed cus i was holding our little pumpkin and coudlnt' do anything. it was so sad. she was breathing out of her mouth and i ended up holding her all night. poor baby girl, her first cold. i'm hoping it will be gone by the weekend!

well its been 5 days and its friday. her cold has progressed just like a normal headcold which is good beacuse RSV and Bronchaitus is going around so i'm just hoping its not that. thinking about taking her to the doctors tomrrow but they are only open till 12 and fat chance i'm gonna make it by then. eventhough she is feeling sick, this has been the most beautiful week. we went outside everyday and i ran with the jogger stroller. felt good to finally start running again. i havent' run in a LONG time. we went outside and played on a picnic blanket and i dressed katie in the cutest little clothes and took her photo. eventhough she wasn't feeling good she of course had tons of smiles and a bunch of expressions. i never tire of taking photos of her cus each one is different. i just uploaded 108 photos to facebook from this week of her being sick because she is still so anamated. i took a bunch of her sleepign too which is sad, cus u can see how stuffed and chapped she looks but she still looks so precious.

indian giver

Katie has been handing us things for a month or two now but recently she has developed this game where she hands things to us and instead of releasing she pulls it back. My in laws call her an indian giver. hehe so cute. its as if she hasn't made up her mind whether to give it to us or not. here is katie giving something to charlie(my in laws pup) katie loves charlie!
she also plays this game where she places her paci or a toy she is playing with on your knee or on the floor or on another toy (somewhere out in the open) and then goes to touch or grab it and gets super close adn then laughs and changes her mind. sometimes she actualy touches it with her little finger and then busts out laughing and pulls away. its almost like she thinks she isn't allowed to grab it and so she is tricking me or herself as if she is doing something risky or not allowed. its hard to explain but she cracks herself up when she plays it.
i love to sit back and watch her play games with herself that she makes up. she also plays with her shoes by herself. once she is done playing, she brings me the shoe and holds up her foot asking me to put it on her foot. she does the same with books that she wants me to read, and things she wants me to open like puffs. she will bring them to me to ask me to open them. smart little cookie if i do say so myself ;)

she has started pointing to things too. its super cute! sometimes she points at something she wants like her sippy cup and makes a noise like "give that to me!" this was katie telling bri not to touch her chocolate chip pancakes. hehe i have tried to get better at catching katie in the act in photos rather than just of katie smiling or looking adorable cus i have soooo many photos of that.

i left katie with bri's folks for 2 hours again this week which i was proud of. that's 2 weeks in a row and no catastrophes. i am learning to be more comfortable away from katie and she is really a well tempered baby so she doesn't mind that's for sure. its harder for me than it is for her. i got tons of errands done. i got new sneakers and started browsing for katie's birthday party goodies. even tough katie's birthday is in 6 weeks and her baby birthday party isn't until June 3rd, i'm getting soooooo excited, every chance i get i go out and browse for ideas for her backyard birthday bash with all her little baby friends!!!!

i ordered invitations and a banner for the backward and a yard sign for the front sign which all match the napkins and table cloth along with plates. the theme is girly jungle. pink and purple hippos and giraffes and zebras... its just super cute. i shopped around a long time to find the theme i liked and ended up ordering online cus the ones i kept seeing at stores were either too expensive or just boring like butterflies or "1"'s or just pink with a crown. i know katie is a princess i do not need everything at her birthday to tell me that! so anyway the invites are ordered and i'm getting super excited about her parties!!!!!

gymboree at home!

daddy thought gymboree was so cool and loved watching katie have so much fun he thought we would bring home a little piece of class. ;) daddy would get anything for katie. and its's just starting!!!!!

TV and standing changes

i share everything with Katie!!!!
just kidding. i didn't let her eat it but she totally did this on her own. i was holding a cookie in my mouth while picking her up and next thing i knew she had an open mouth around my cookie!!!! of course we did it again to get the photo but it cracked me up!!!


I know i know, babies shouldn't watch tv but katie has shown an interest recently. her corral is in front of the tv honestly it was originally set there for me. katie didn't really care about the tv but all of a sudden she likes watching cartoons. she won't even look at shows with real people, only cartoons. her favorite by far!!! is Bubble Guppies. she LOVES the theme song. bubble bubble bubble guppies!!!! I sing it pretty much all day long and not intentionally! it gets stuck in your head! but katie loves it. it is amazing. KAtie understads when i say "Look Katie" and I point to the TV she totally looks for a minute to see what it is i'm pointing to. i guess i say "Look" alot and thats why she has picked it up. but i know she totally gets it! she is starting to be more independent. I can leave her in her corral alone for 30 minutes and she will just play. i know it doesn't sound like much but she is just starting to learn to play alone a little bit. she is pulling up on absolutely everything so this of course includes her corral. she is becoming more and more confident. she is standing and holding with only one hand! this is huge!!! another big step is katie is starting to stand with one flat foot! she is definitely a tippie toes stander but she has started to do one flat foot and one tippie which is great!
she has also started to venture out and let go before falling down to a sitting position. she used to kind of lower herself to the floor. i haven't figured out if this is on purpose or if she just sees where she is gonna land and lets go. i think she is starting to experiment with whether she can stand alone especially now that she is holding with one hand only.
look at this cute little one hander. hanging out in her corral before bath time!

Gymboree

well. Katie graduated to level 3 with just 4 classes left. I signed up btu canceled our membership come april cus i feel like it will be nice enough we can go to parks and really start to be outside rather than drive 40 minutes and be inside a gym. I think katie will miss it cus she looooooves it so much but its somethign to look forward to next year when it starts to get cold again. here is a pic from her new level three class.
our first level three class we went to, we attended a saterday class so bri got to go with us and take photos of katie and see waht it was all about. our regular day is tuesday but we went on sat last weekend and it was so crowded. i'm not a fan of it beign this full. there were 10 babies which is maxed out and everyone came with a mom AND dad. which is very ususual during the week cus its usually just mommies. so the gym was full!!! she had a ball. i took her to our typical tuesday class a few days ago and there were only 5 babies, each with mommy. it was much nicer. she was so tired after class she didn't make it home. so sweet

Pancake Hands

Haven't written in over a week. humm.. what can i say, some weeks are busier than others. this week katie has continued her sitting up in her sleep business. it has not been 12 nights of almost every hour she sits up in her sleep and cries. what to do.... well i can either go in there and lay her down cus she is still asleep when she does it and she goes back to sleep, or i can let her cry ad figure it out on her own. now of course you will say, let her figure it out. yes yes i hear ya but if i do that she will cry so loud... not even long, but her cry will get louder in her sleep while she is sitting up and she will wake herself up. then she is AWAKE and pissed. so then bedtime routine has to start all over again. it could take an hour. last night i was up from 230-4am because i let her try and work it out on her own cus i was so tired from waking up every hour to lay her back down. now i say every hour but its varies. some nights its every 45 minutes.. NO JOKE for like4 or 5 hours then she passes out around 3 and will sleep til 6. and some nights its every hour and a half or 2 hours. but its still so strange. she is sitting up but asleep. ughhhh so anyway i took her to the doctor because of this along with a whole day with no significantly wet diapers. i know i know I'm a nutso mom but i thought who knows maybe she has some weird thing inside her that eating her up or something and now she can't pee and that's why she wakes up. anyways the doctor said she was happy as a clam and healthy too. so... looks like this is just a stage that she will eventually grow out of says doc. but she did get weighed which is always fun. at 10 months and 2 weeks she was 19 lbs 14.5 oz. this isn't much more than she was at her 9 month check up but the doc said that's normal now that she is mobile so i'm not worried. she eats a ton so there is nothing to be concerned about regarding her weight. now her sleep. ughhhhhh will it ever get better!

in other katie news ;)... she is eating everything in sight. she will tell me what she likes and doesn't' like. but she reaches and tries EVERYTHING!!! and for the most part i let her. one of her favorites is pancakes for breakfast. i discovered this early on when a friend told me her twin girls LOVED pancakes and so after the first try katie was hooked. when she sees the pancake box come out she gets all kinds of excited! its amazing how she knows that the box signifies a food she enjoys. her favorite part of pancakes... or my favorite part (who knows if she likes it or hates it) is when she is done... hehehe cus i put syrup on them sometimes... her hands are so sticky! she just looks at her hands and opens and closes them over and over again trying to figure out what is making her hands sticky. she can't see anything on her hands but she feels it. its so cute. i say... KAtie! do u have pancake hands!!! she laughs and then gives me her hands to wipe off. i usually do this a few times during the meal or else they are so sticky and covered in pancake crumbs it gets hard for her to pick up anymore pieces. i usually clean her hands a few times a meal when she is picking up sticky or slimy things. oooo especially mac and cheese which is sooooo gooey that her hands become so wet she absolutely cant' pick up anymore. poor thing. but all in all I'm so lucky to have a baby who loves to eat finger foods!!!!