10 months and counting

My dear sweet Katelyn Grace,

You are 10 months (and 9 days) old! The time since you were born has crept by and flown by all at the same time. I can remember when you used to fit on my chest, and now when I hold you your little chubby legs have to curl up on my lap with your head on my shoulder. Mommy is no longer having left shoulder pain because she's gotten so strong carrying around your 20-pound body!

10 days old:

10 months old:

You are now crawling at the speed of light, cruising along the furniture like nobody's business, and you have learned to lower yourself down the stairs and from the couch to the floor all by yourself! Mommy and daddy have a friendly wager going based on when you'll take your first steps walking. Daddy says Thanksgiving weekend, and mommy says by your 11-month birthday. We'll see!

You are a super eater! (just like mommy and daddy) You eat everything from chicken to veggies to any kind of fruit, cheese, yogurt, and pasta. You are slowly phasing out of wanting formula, but we have to make sure you get enough calcium!

Some of your favorite things include:

Woof-woof doggy Tech

His water/food bowls (and his food)

Bathtime:

Naked time:

Your mini ball pit:

You are now wearing mostly 12-month clothing, as your torso is getting so long that you grow out the crotch length in EVERYTHING! You weighed 20 lbs and 26.5 inches at your last doctor visit, and you are now sick with your first bad head/chest cold. You had a cold when you were 2 weeks old and another mild one 3 weeks ago that lasted 2 weeks, but this one has been a doozy. We continue to wait for you to consistently sleep through the night like your friend Riley. She is 6 weeks younger than you and sleeps 12-13 hours a night...that's twice what you sleep in one span of time...so catch up already!!

You only have 2 bottom teeth at this point, and we would have sworn that more were on their way with your last cold, but no....so it's now a waiting game for the rest of those toofers. You continue to say "mama", and now you say "dada", "hi", and "bye", but sometimes you don't say them at the most appropriate times. You do mimic us when we're on the phone and we say "bye", and we get such a kick out of it. You do like to scream and talk in baby-speak, and we swear that some days you must be having conversations with your toys. :)

Mommy is also trying to mentally prepare for your upcoming first birthday. Never in a million years would I have thought that the first year would go so quickly. I now understand why so many people say to enjoy every moment, because they truly do pass by too quickly.  Don't grow up too fast, my darling little girl. Mommy and daddy love you so much, and we don't even want to think about the terrible twos.

Love,
Mama



Muddy Buddy

My poor little girl has been sick for the last 3 weeks...first, a cold for 2 weeks that finally went away, only to be matched by a fierce 103-degree fever last Sunday that lasted 3 days, followed by a super bad head/chest cold that has kept Katelyn (and mommy and daddy) up at night 3-6 times per night all week. :( We are all exhausted!  I really wish I had the energy to blog more often, but I feel like I'm being pulled in all directions: work, baby, fitness, husband.
Yes, the word fitness crept in there. That should always be a priority, but the gym is not exactly on the top of my to-do list since becoming a mommy. I can typically get in strengthening exercise at work by doing the same exercises I have my patients do, but the cardio thing is a different issue. My friend Megan roped me into doing a race called the Muddy Buddy tomorrow. Basically, a 2-person team traverses a 6-mile course with a mixture of running,bike riding, and obstacles (like climbing over a wall), and at the end there's a huge mud pit you crawl through together as a team to cross the finish line.

UH-HUH.

Sounds fun, right? Well, not for a girl who HATES to run. But I thought it would be a good motivation to get my butt moving a bit more. So, just "a bit" it was. I've only been running once a week at the most (and have resultant shin splints and plantar fasciitis). I've ridden the bike at work, but that's SO different from riding a trail bike. And don't even mention the obstacles. I hear they're not as bad as they sound.  Yeah, right.

Add to this equation the fact that it will be 38 degrees in the morning and we have to crawl through MUD!  I'm really hoping that I'm being overly pessimistic about the whole thing, and that we'll finish tired but happy (and injury-free). Please be thinking of me at 8 a.m. Pacific that I don't make a complete fool of myself!

Now, on to more important things, like how MY BABY IS NOW OVER 10 MONTHS OLD!

How in the hell did that happen? I will now devote a post in itself to my dear Katelyn girl.

My, how things change.

Glen has Katelyn with him right now at his parents' house, and here I am, getting a little "me" time. What does that involve? Finishing folding the laundry from the weekend. Scrubbing my bathroom floor (how in the world did it get so icky? Ugh!).Clipping coupons. Vaccuming yet again to keep track of the dog's summer coat shedding.

Two years ago, I would have been at the gym, or going to shop for a cute pair of shoes, or perusing the bookstore and sipping a latte.  Those days are long, long gone.  All because of this cutie:

Who, by the way, is 9.5 months old! She started standing in her crib about 2 weeks ago...

Crawling began about a month ago....

We're SO not ready for this girl to grow up!

No Rest for the Weary

So I've finally gotten around to uploading pictures from our Texas trip (Vegas to come). My brother Shawn married the lovely Sarah on 8/8/10 in what we call the "Cowboy Church". Their theme/color scheme was based on sunflowers, so all the guys dressed in [very bright] yellow button-downs, cowboy hats, and boots, while the girls were in simple brown dresses with sunflower bouquets. I got to visit many of my family members, though I wish we could have visited longer.  Even with particular family issues going on (we all have them, right?), we all managed to get along. Glen could not wait to get the hell out of dodge, though.  :)

My grandmother and I:

The lovely bride Sarah

Shawn (bad lighting...not a great pic)

Sealed with a kiss!

My half-sister Brenda and I

Me and My Mom

Katelyn and her cousin Brooke

One of the best things about going back to Texas was the chance to visit our friends Wes and Amanda and their 3 kids Ellie (4), Garyn (2 1/2), and Madilyn (8 months). Madi was born just 11 days after Katelyn, so they will definitely grow up "together", even though we're 2000 miles apart. I realize now that we didn't get many pictures besides those of the kids, but Vegas had much more in store....

For now, here are a few great ones of our short stay with them. Wes and Amanda, we love you and can't wait to see you again!





It was a great, short trip, and Katelyn did very well. So well that she decided to cut her first tooth the day before we left, and her second tooth 4 days later, and she didn't cry much at all. We are so proud of our little munchkin! (Who, by the way, is 9 months old!!!!!!! Where the hell did time go?)

Risen from the dead

Every day, I think about how I need to update my blog. As Katelyn gains mobility, I feel like I lose my freedom to do the things I enjoy. Heck, I don't even get done with things that NEED to be done.  Many of my days after work are spent right on the floor with her playing ("because mom, it's so much better when you play with me!"), then feeding her, then cooking for the adults, then yada yada yada. All you moms know exactly.
My girl is going on 8.5 months old, and is crawling here and there in short clumps, but she hasn't taken off quite yet! (thankfully) My friend Jenny has a 6-month old who is already crawling everywhere and pulling to stand like nobody's bid-ness. So sorry for you, my dear!
We had a great 5-day trip to Texas for my brother's wedding (baby in tow) and 4 GLORIOUS days to follow in Vegas sans baby. At first, I missed my baby girl, but I got over that pretty quickly! When we got back, it took her a minute to remember who we were, but once she did, she clung to me and didn't want to let go. Oh, how I will miss that when she's older.
Hopefully, pics and more verbage tomorrow!

Loving Summer

The summer seems to be flying by, especially since it doesn't stop raining until 4th of July, and that lasts only until about October...so we've been out and about as much as possible to make the most of it!  We are gearing up for a 5-day trip to Texas for my youngest brother's wedding in August, immediately followed by a baby-free trip to Las Vegas for my 30th birthday...eek!

I think about this blog daily and about how I've really dropped the ball with keeping it up-to-date. I'm sure that once the weather becomes gloomy and rainy again, I'll be stuck inside and writing lots more!

Katelyn is now 7 1/2 months old, 17 pounds and I don't know how many inches! She LOVES sitting like a big girl, face-forward in her stroller. She's sitting very well, pulling up to kneeling at her learn 'n groove table:

She likes to scoot on her butt and push up on her knees when on her belly, but she is nowhere near crawling at this point. I wonder if she'll skip that all together, because she loves to try to stand up when she gets the chance!

My 3 Musketeers:

She loves nighttime bottle with daddy (and falling asleep in the middle of it almost every time):

Thanks to daddy and Auntie Amanda, she's already an Oregon State Beavers fan!

She adores woof-woof doggy Tech and anything involving water:

She doesn't have any teeth yet, but still chewing on anything she can get her mouth on!

On July 11th, Katelyn got to go to her first Mariners game ! (even though they really suck, daddy still likes them)  It was daddy's Father's day gift.

The same day, Katelyn spotted her first celebrity! How fitting is it that it was Jason Biggs, one of the stars of daddy's favorite movies...the American Pie series.

What a month!

Catching up on the 6th month

I hope everyone had a happy 4th! As I was uploading pictures, I realized the only ones I took of Katelyn yesterday were on my iphone, and those were few at best. This little girl is suddenly deciding she wants to sleep a lot, except for nighttime! Things are turning around in that department slowly, so I'm sure she'll STTN on a regular basis soon.
With the arrival of summer (if that's what you want to call it...cloudy and in the 60s is not my idea of summer), we have been busy on the weekends. We've made treks up to Washington state the last 3 weekends (except the past one), and we'll be headed back up to Seattle on the 11th for Katelyn's first Mariners game!
Last weekend, Jenny and Kevin so graciously invited us to an open house (they're not selling, just super welcoming), and we got to meet little miss 5-month-old Fiona and a few of their friends and family. Ironically, that was a nice, sunny day. Jenny even went the extra mile and rented a bouncy house for all the kiddos...(good call, Jenny!)

Meanwhile, Katelyn is growing like a weed, changing every single day. She will be 7 months old on Wednesday...where did the time go?  I'll write a separate post that day to list her milestones, more for my sake than yours, because I bet you really don't care one way or another!  :)

Here are a few pics from the past month:

(Future centerfold?? Lordy, I hope not!!!!)

Father's Day

First time in the pool, and we didn't even bother with her bathing suit!

Getting the hang of these things is hard! (Daddy thinks I look like a snaggle-tooth here!)