Merry Christmas!

... A day late! We are in Oklahoma for Christmas and we've had a great time. The best part was, we had a white Christmas! I've been very homesick for Minnesota this winter, so it meant everything to me to have a white Christmas! The sleet started Christmas Eve morning, then gradually changed to snow a little after noon, then it just kept coming down the rest of the day! 60 mph wind gusts made for a seriously awesome blizzard. :) We took Kate outside Christmas Day to experience the snow firsthand once everything had calmed down outside. She was pretty non-reactive to the snow, although once she fell down and her (gloved) hands touched the snow, she was pretty much done and wanted inside.

If I had known we'd get a record setting blizzard in Oklahoma, I would have brought my good camera with me. Of course, all I had with me was my point & shoot. Oh well, I managed to get an "ok" picture...



Kate got all sorts of fun presents. Surely they'll keep her busy for a couple weeks at least! :) Once we go back home, it's back to reality. I have to take her to the doctor for a blood draw on Monday. Dreading that one with every ounce of my being! Poor little girl.

Strep Throat.... AGAIN

On Friday I got a call from Kate's daycare, letting me know she was running a fever, so off I ran to pick her up. Her cough sounded like Croup, and of course they told me she had been exposed to it earlier in the week. Our weekend was pretty rough with the croup, high fever and little sleep. She seemed to be getting better, her fever was diminishing, but her cough just kept getting worse and worse. I decided to take her to the Pediatrician today.

Take a wild guess - yep, it's Strep Throat. They said that in 10-14 days they want to run a blood test on her, that will tell them if she was/is truly infected with strep, or just carrying it. They did say, though, with her symptoms and the way her throat looks, she looks to be actively infected.

They said the next step, as long as we're in there taking blood, is to finish out the rest of the full immunology workup. See what's wrong with her immune system. They've looked for all the "normal" stuff already, so now they'll be testing for the more rare stuff.

I just feel so defeated. I am just feeling bad that I put Kate through the whole awful experience of surgery and recovery, seemingly all for naught. Poor little Kate is such a trooper, but I can't help but wonder if we will ever achieve long-term health with her. I know it certainly could be worse than recurrent strep, but at the same time, it's so difficult and sad to have a child who is constantly sick. I'm very thankful that my job is so flexible. I've been going to work in the 3-4 am time frame all this week so I can get done and be home in time for Jeff to make it to work at a reasonable time.

Because she was sick for my birthday yesterday, we had to cancel all our fun plans, but we're hoping to reschedule my PF Changs dinner for Sunday or something. I'll leave you with a sweet seasonal picture of my little Angel. :)

18 Month Checkup

Overall, all is well! The Pediatrician said her tonsil area looks great, just a little bit of scar tissue sitting there.

She weighs 28 lb 14 oz (90th percentile), and is 34 inches long (99th or greater). When she weighed in the morning of the surgery, she was 31 pounds and change! She's lost 2.5-3 pounds through all this! The Ped said as long as she's still eating well (she is!) then it's totally fine. It's weird to see her slimming down so quickly - she still definitely has a gut, but her face has changed the most I think.

I did mention that I thought I've been noticing Kate walking a little pigeon toed. She watched her walk and agreed, then sat her down and lined her legs up. She said Kate does have some Tibial Torsion and her left is worse than her right. She said most of the time it fixes itself by 4-5 years old, but we will watch it from now on, and if it gets worse she'll send us to Scottish Rite to check it out further.

Recovery III

Jeff is up in Oklahoma at the OU game, Kate is asleep, and I'm bored so I figured now is as good a time as any to update on Kate's recovery progress. So today is, what, day 9? The last time I posted, she was doing great - then, starting around day 6 or 7, she took a turn back downward again for a few days. She started waking up twice a night in pain, needing more meds and comort rocking, and during the day she would be eating, drinking, or playing and then all of a sudden cry out in pain. She'd run over to me and lift her arms up for me to hold her/carry her around a bit. The pain scared her and she didn't know why it was happening or where it was coming from. Poor little sweetie.

Today, however, she was a little bit better again. She was more playful, had a decent appetite, and an even better thirst. She took a few sips of water and drank TWO Capri Suns! Prior to this it would take her about 2 days to finish ONE! The ENT told us at this point not to worry about the nutritional value of what she's eating or drinking, as long as she is. I can already tell she doesn't WANT to drink water when she could have Capri Sun, but that's a battle I'm going to save for when she's feeling better. I'm not going to let her get away with that one! But for now, as long as she's drinking, I'm a happy mommy.

She's supposedly going back to daycare on Monday, though I'm not sure that's really going to happen. Recovery really is taking longer than I expected, and I just don't know if she's ready for daycare. The ENT also said she should be completely off the Codiene before she goes to daycare - which we are still using at night. So tonight since she had such a good day I decided to go without, just giving her regular Tylenol to see what happens. Well, she's been down for 3 hours and has already been up twice crying. Wonderful. She was just due for more, so I gave in and gave her Codiene. We'll just take this one day at a time. At some point she has to go back to normal, right?

Recovery II

I am happy to report that when I was writing my last post, I didn't know it yet, but the worst was over. When she woke up Sunday morning, she was markedly better than the previous days. I also instituted my "forced hydration" policy - if she hasn't voluntarily taken a drink within an hour, we hold her down and force her to drink a 2 Tbsp syringe of water. It has really helped, and just as the ENT said - the more that goes down her throat, the more she'll be willing to drink. I rarely have to force her anymore. She still isn't drinking as much as I'd like, but it's enough to keep her out of danger.

She is still eating pretty well. Her favorites are watermelon (thank God! A great source of water), macaroni and cheese, eggs, mashed potatoes, and sonic ice. I think I might venture out to try her on hot dogs today for lunch. We'll see! Can anyone suggest other slimy, soft foods for her to eat? I feel like she's eating the same things for every meal! I alternate yogurt, applesauce, and pudding through the meals as well. She won't touch Jello. I have Pedialyte pops as well, but she doesn't really "get" how to eat them, and just ends up poking at it, or wanting to carry it around the house and spill it all over the carpet.

Our buggest challenge lately was her drowsiness. That tylenol with codiene really knocks her out. She'd fall asleep while eating or in the bath tub! As much as she hated taking it anyway, I was pretty eager to get her off of that stuff. So as of today, we're attempting to keep her on regular Tylenol! She's about 2 hours into her first dose, and so far so good! She isn't complaining of pain or anything! I think for a few more nights we'll still knock her out with the "good stuff" but try to maintain her during the day on regular Tylenol.

Jeff and I have also come down sick. Of course. We're not sure if we caught the virus Kate had just after surgery, or if we caught something different all together. So if you've been praying for us, now we'd appreciate prayers that we don't pass this on to Kate!

Recovery

I don't even know where to begin. It's a good thing I'm writing this fresh off a good nights' sleep rather than yesterday, I might have sounded suicidal. :)

This is, by far, the hardest thing I have ever been through as a mom. It has tested every physical and emotional boundary I have in my body. All seemed well on Friday morning when we were discharged from the hospital. Kate was up and walking (running!) around, eating well, and drinking at least a little bit.

As soon as I pulled her out of the car when we got home, I knew something was wrong. Her body was burning up. I took her temperature - 101. Her discharge papers said that something is wrong if her temp gets above 101.4 degrees. We just watched her all afternoon, and shortly after we got home, she went down for a much needed nap. When she woke up, her temp was still hovering around 101. By that time, of course it was Friday evening and we were facing a weekend without medical care available to us. I put in a call to the after-hours line of our pediatrician, and they said if it gets much higher, we needed to head to the hospital.

So Friday evening, just as we were about to put Kate to bed, I checked her temperature one last time. 103.5 - so out the door we rushed to the Emergency Room. A nice 5 hour process later, we were on our way home, but they had run another IV on her (poor baby), taken some blood to run some tests on, and given her a couple bags of IV fluids to rehydrate her. They also gave her a good dose of Motrin and some chest xrays. All of those things combined REALLY helped bring the fever down. By the time we left, she was running 98 degrees! Her xrays and blood work all came back normal, thankfully, which means she is physically healing well so far, but that also means she has a virus and there's nothing we can really do for her but tough it out. And the worst part is we can't give her Motrin because of the increased risk of bleeding at the surgery site. We got home around 3 am Saturday morning.

Kate woke up about 8:00 Saturday morning, so we all got only about 5 hours of sleep. The good news is that her fever stayed around 101.5 yesterday, so at least we didn't have to deal with a super high temperature. Her bath was pretty sad last night though, she just sat there and shook with chills the whole time. :(

I think THE worst part of the recovery is the Tylenol with Codiene we have to give her every 4 hours. Not only does it taste nasty (I had some on my hand that I licked off once) but it BURNS as it goes down. I can't imagine how horrible it feels on Kate's throat, and I don't really have to imagine. Jeff has to hold her down in his lap, pinning her arms and head down, while I come in with the syringe, squirt a little into her mouth, and plug her nose so she can't breathe and has to swallow it. Now, this process wouldn't be quite so bad if we only had to do it every 4 hours. However, there is also the ammoxicillin she has to take 3 times a day, and after lunch yesterday, she stopped drinking voluntarily. So, pretty much at any given time, every 30 minutes to 1 hour we are having to hold her down and repeat this horrible process to fight her pain, fight infection, and fight dehydration. I can't believe she still willingly comes to me, we are putting her through so much pain. When Kate goes down for a nap or to bed, then it's my turn to go cry it out. And I've done plenty of that. My heart just aches with worry and sadness for her. She has been through SO MUCH illness in her tiny little life, why can't she just go through the recovery process without having to deal with a viral infection on TOP of it? And then there's worry that she'll slip downhill in the midst of all this and something serious will happen to her. I'm trying not to let myself think about that, because it just devastates my soul.

I totally understand now why doctors don't like to do this surgery at Kate's age. She's just too young for so many aspects of the recovery process. For instance, I can't explain to her that even though it hurts, she NEEDS to drink, or she'll be back at the hospital getting another IV run. I can't bribe her to eat or drink. If we were to go get a milkshake, she can't use the straw, so we'd have to spoon feed her, which she won't let us do. She's at the "fiercely independent 18 month old" stage, and throws a tantrum if I try to help her do ANYTHING. Yet she's not compotent enough with a spoon to actually get it in her mouth, if she were going to eat it voluntarily anyway, which she wouldn't. She actually likes Go-gurt, but once again won't let me help her with it. She's ok with it at first, but once she eats the very top off of the tube, she doesn't understand how to squeeze the yogurt upwards, so she crams the tube in her mouth, which hits her throat, then she starts screaming. The screaming is even worse if, heaven forbid, I try to help her. Then we try the popsicles. We tried regular posicles at the hospital. The first one, day of the surgery, she let me feed it to her and that went great. After that, she didn't want any help. She carried it around, dripping it EVERYWHERE, and not really eating it. She's just not old enough for these things. So at home, we are trying Pedialyte pops. They're basically the same thing as those "pop ice" plastic enclosed tube popsicles. But once again, she doesn't understand the concept of squeezing it upwards, and we can't help her. So, she carries it around, dripping it all over the place. We are going to need new carpet after all this is done. We tried confining her to the high chair when she has one, but she won't touch it. We tried breaking it up and putting small pieces of it in her mouth, but she spits it out.

The only good news I'm clinging to right now is that Kate is still asleep - she went to bed at 6:30 last night, and now it's 7:00 am Sunday morning. This is the first full night of sleep she has gotten since Wednesday night. I'm hoping this will help with her recovery immensely. The other good news is that her diaper is wet. So that staves off dehydration concerns for another 6 hours when she will hopefully have another wet diaper.

I am just praying we see a little bit of improvement today. I can't imagine going back to work tomorrow if she is still feeling and acting like this. The Blairs are coming down this evening to spend the day with Kate tomorrow, but I don't know how I'll be able to do it. I need to be with her.

If you read this, please just say a prayer for Kate. She needs all the prayer she can get. Pray for the virus to go away so we can just concentrate on recovery. Pray for thirst. The doctor said the more liquid that goes down her throat helps everything to heal, and the more she will WANT to drink. Pray for pain relief. The sooner we can get her off the tylenol with codiene, the better. Just pray.

Surgery

Oy what a day. We finally got Kate down for a nap (she looks so tiny laying in a hospital bed! -they haven't delivered a crib yet) so I have a minute to come update.

The surgery went well! Her Dr said her tonsils were adult sized, and her adenoids were taking up 60% of her space back there. Wow! He said she should feel a dramatic improvement while sleeping.

I could have told them this (and did) but she ripped out her IV the second she woke up from anesthesia. They need(ed) to keep running fluids in her, so they had to hold her down and run another IV while she was awake.. Poor thing. They said they had a hard time finding a vein because she's such a chunk, so it was a bit traumatic. They didn't call me back until they were done with that. But really, after that she didn't do a whole lot of crying. Thank God for our portable DVD player and the Backyardigans. I plopped down in a rocking chair and got it going, and she just sat there in my lap and watched. For the first 3 hours or so, she'd just sort of cry on and off for a few seconds, once every 5 minutes. But she's really doing great overall.

We finally figured out one reason she was crying - she was HUNGRY! That's my girl! We started her off with applesauce and she gobbled that down. Then our lunch trays came - she ate a dinner roll, mashed potatoes, and some fruit! Good girl. She's not really drinking though. She's taken a couple sips of water or juice here or there, but she really doesn't want to drink. I find it interesting that it clearly didn't bother her to eat, but drinking seems to be painful.

The most annoying thing is the IV. That thing is in the way and so annoying, and I think that's half the reason Kate is crabby and crying. It really bothers her and we want it GONE! The problem is, they can't take it out until she drinks. So round and round we go.

That's the update for now, hopefully she takes a good, long nap. She needs it. Thanks for all your prayers, I appreciate it!

Tomorrow's The Day

Kate is in bed, and I'm busy with all of the last minute packing and preparation. I'm bouncing between moments of peace and panic. I'm just nervous about the procedure itself - the anesthesia, the removal of the tonsils, etc. I know she will be unhappy and in pain afterwards, but I'm just going to breathe a huge sigh of relief just knowing she came through ok. We report to the hospital in the morning at 6:30 am. The surgery starts at 7:30. All of your prayers are appreciated!

18 Month Pictures

I took Kate out the other day to shoot some 18 month pictures. Next week is just going to be bad with her surgery, and I'm not sure how long recovery will take, so they're a week early, but I figured that's better than nothing. I can't believe how quickly she is growing up! She is looking more and more like a little kid every day.







I'm starting to get a little nervous and anxious about the surgery. I'll just be glad when it's all over with. I still am assured we are doing the right thing, but that doesn't make it any easier. All prayers and words of encouragement from moms who have been there are appreciated!

Sweet Moments

Every minute you spend with your child is a gift, but there are just some moments that are priceless and make your heart ache with the love you have for that little person.

When I was getting Kate ready for bed tonight, after her bath, and putting her PJ bottoms on, I stood her up to pull up her pants. She pulled me in for a long hug, then started swaying back and forth with me in a 2-minute or so hug!! It was SO sweet, made this mommy cry.

We had a fun day today. The Blairs came into town, and we all met up with my parents at a pumpkin patch in Richardson. I think the one in Celina was a little better, but we didn't feel like making the drive all the way out there again! It was fun, and we got some more great pictures! (Once again, see Facebook.)



Jeff turned the big 29 earlier this week. We all went out to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory the night of his birthday. For dessert I ordered plain cheesecake with fresh strawberries on top, and Jeff got Reese's PB Cup Cheesecake. For a while, I just fed Kate bites of whipped cream, with the occasional bite of cheesecake mixed in. Well, then Jeff gave her a bite of his cheesecake. She got a big smile on her face and nodded her head. :) After that first bite, she wouldn't take any more whipped cream, or even my plain cheesecake! All she wanted was Daddy's PB Cup Cheesecake. :) She really does take after him in SO many ways!

Strep Throat Again

I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but Kate has strep throat again. Poor baby. We went to the Pediatrician, and she decided to just put Kate on antibiotics until the surgery - 3 weeks. She said this is getting absurd! So we are hoping this will keep Kate healthy and ready for surgery. She chose a mild antibiotic, to try to ward off diaper rash and yeast infections.

We also got her immunology bloodwork results back. Everything looks normal so far. They do some tests to see if the body is mounting immunities correctly after vaccines, and a couple other tests too. So far so good, but she shared the results with a couple of her immunology colleagues, and they recommended getting 2 or 3 more tests done, just to make sure all is well. I told the doctor how traumatic the blood draw was for Kate, and asked her if there's any way it could be done while Kate is under anesthesia for her surgery. The doctor thought that was a great idea, so at least we won't have any additional trauma caused for my poor baby.

All in all she is doing well. I'm starting to get anxious for the surgery, but after this latest round of strep, I'm just ready to get it over with. This is so ridiculous, and I'm positive now I'm doing the right thing. We can't go on like this catching strep every 2-3 weeks.

Developmentally she is doing great! She is talking more and more, and is getting to the "parrot" stage where she is attempting more words than ever, and loves to repeat after us. She is also getting very good at identifying pictures of things when we ask her where something is. It's just so amazing to watch them learn and pick things up when you don't even realize it's happening!

Immunology and Update

Earlier this week, I thought Kate was getting sick. She was showing me some of her classic very early symptoms, so I scheduled an appointment with the ENT to get her tested for strep. We went yesterday, and the test was negative. The doctor said he was actually really glad to see that, because it likely proves that she's not a carrier who is just going to test positive every time because she is carrying it, not necessarily infected. (If that makes sense.)

He did say though, that after talking things through with my Pediatrician, they agree that they want her to have an immunology workup before she has surgery. They want to make sure her immune system is working correctly because tonsil surgery might be unnecessary if it's actually an immunity problem. In other words, more torture for Kate. The nurses at the pediatrician tried to do the blood draw, but two awful attempts later, they couldn't get any blood out of Kate. :( I felt so awful holding her down while they just dug in her arms. They sent us off to a lab to get it done. I asked them if they had anyone who is really good with babies because Kate had already endured so much. They assured me they were really good, and don't make the poke unless they're sure. Well, it took them two digging tries too. Poor Kate. I was definitely crying with her by the end. I'd never heard her cry that hard. She was crying so hard she was gasping for breath in between sobs. Poor sweet heart. At least it's over and we can try to forget about it. They said she's probably going to bruise pretty badly.

On the way home we stopped and I treated her to some Cold Stone Cake Batter Ice Cream. All her trauma was long forgotten. :)

It'll take the results about a week to come in, so it'll be interesting to see what we learn. After all that, I almost hope we get something out of it, though of course I'd never hope for something to be wrong with her immune system! I'd just hate to think it was a pointless exercise just to torture my baby.

I just hope we are coming to the end of a long stretch of illness, questions, and doctors in Kate's life. I really hope we'll just get through this surgery, make it through recovery, and have a great healthy winter.

ENT Appointment

Overall, it was a good appointment. At least we have a tentative plan of action...

Basically it comes down to a surgery date of November 12, but there's a lot that goes into that. Our doctor said that he REALLY hesitates to do it under the age of 2, but depending on exactly how many cases of strep she's had, the risks of "underage" surgery will outweigh the risks of leaving her with the tonsils. He said that recurrent strep infections can cause heart and liver damage! I didn't know that! Our Ped sent over some of her past strep tests, 5 positive and 2 negative. They only went back to April. I told him that she's had it WAY more than that! His other hang-up was that he's not sure if he'd like her to have an immunology workup before we proceed with surgery. He said he'd talk to our Pediatrician, find out her exact number of strep cases, and just talk to her in general about how she feels about Kate's history and moving forward from here.

So the plan of action is that the next time Kate gets sick, the ENT wants to see her. He wants to be the one to swab her and send it off to his lab, to see if for whatever reason there's a difference. He wants to see what her tonsils look like when she's sick. He said, "For that matter, let me see what they look like healthy." He looked in and commented how huge they were! He said that just shows him how many times they've been infected, just how enlarged they are. After that he seemed less concerned about getting an immunology workup. He said one thing that Kate has going for her is her size. He said she does NOT look like the typical 17 month old that comes through his office! He said she looks more like a 2 year old, in terms of weight and size. (That's my girl!)

We have an appointment one week before surgery to go over where we're at. If she doesn't get sick between now and then, we'll postpone the surgery another month. Jeff and I are pretty sure it won't be more than a couple of weeks, however, before we're in his office with strep again!

Frustration to Fruition

Earlier this week I used my Gymbucks and bought Kate a lot of their adorable Yorkie line. However, I was needing some charcoal grey pants to go with everything, and the smallest Gymboree makes them in is size 3, which would be waaay too big. I had a little extra time today, so I stopped at NINE, yes count them NINE stores that carry children's clothing, and NO one had charcoal grey leggings. Heather grey yes, but not charcoal. I finally got frustrated enough and decided to make my own! I bought some heather grey leggings and dyed them. Here is a little photo journal of my experiment!

Exhibit A: Original leggings



Exhibit B: Soaking in the dye



Exhibit C: Running through the washer



Exhibit D: Finished product!



Exhibit E: Happy coordinated baby!



I would have liked them to come out a little darker, so I might make another pair, or dye over these ones. I'll see how they come through the wash a few times. The bottle of dye said to leave it soaking for 30-60 minutes, but I only left them in for about 10. The pants looked SOLID black, so I was afraid it had already been too long! So I guess next time I'll try 20ish minutes!

Our appointment with the ENT is tomorrow morning. I'll come back and post details tomorrow!

Quick Pic

Not much to say tonight, other than drop off a picture. :)



Kate was in such a wonderful mood tonight. I think she's finally feeling well again. I canceled our appointment with the original ENT on Thursday, and decided to go with my friend's doctor. Our appointment is Friday morning. I haven't really thought about it much, and I haven't let my nerves get the best of me yet. I suppose we'll just see what the ENT recommends on Friday!

Sick Kate

Well, surprise of all surprises, Kate has strep throat again. In our hotel room on Saturday night, Kate woke up crying at 2am, and cried on and off for 2 hours. She made it clear to us that she wasn't going back to sleep, so we packed up and drove home. (Sorry to our Sunday School class in Moore for ditching you!!)

I got Kate in to the doctor this morning - I was sure it would be strep again, and sure enough, it is. We looked through Kate's chart and reviewed her history - June and July were the only months all year that she didn't have strep. Her doctor and I agreed that it's ENT time, and that we need to look into having her tonsils removed. She said that in general they like to wait until a child is 2 to have their tonsils removed, but Kate might be one of those cases where it's simply necessary.

So I tentatively have an appointment scheduled for Thursday afternoon... However, I have a friend who is a pediatric nurse at a hospital and she wasn't particularly thrilled with the 3 hospitals this doctor does surgery at, so I'm not sure if we're going to stick with this one or not. She's going to give me a couple phone numbers to see if we can get in anywhere else in a reasonable amount of time. We tried to get into Children's Hospital, but they aren't taking new patients until November. Because of insurance, we'd have to get this all said and done before January 1, so I'm just not sure that leaves enough time to get everything accomplished, not to mention 2-3 more rounds of strep in that time frame!

It's very stressful though, I'm dealing with some guilt wondering if I'm just being impatient and we should wait until she can actually get into Childrens, or if some of the other hospitals will be just as good??? I don't know. All I know is that I hate being in this situation, but if it improves her health as I've heard from many others it will, it'll be worth it. I'll just be a total nervous wreck when D-Day comes.

Funny Kate

We are in Oklahoma City this weekend for one of my college roommate's wedding. We are having a great time! Anyway, we took Kate to the mall this morning to kill time before we went to the wedding. The first store in the door is Old Navy. Kate turned to look, and saw the group of mannequins standing in the entryway, one of which was a dog mannequin. She FLIPPED. (In a good way!) She started barking, and RAN to the dog! When she got there, she gave it a HUGE hug. She spent a good 5 minutes with that dog, hugging it, petting it, and trying to climb on its back! This sure is one dog-loving kid! Hmm, I wonder who she got that from? :)

Catching Up

I was reminded by my friend, Stephanie, tonight that it has been too long since I've posted. So this is just for you Stephanie!

I guess I just feel like no one is reading my blog anymore, I guess Stephanie is. :) I'll start off with our trip to Chicago - we went to visit my sister, BIL, and nephews Micah and Dylan. We had SO much fun and our visit was way too short. There's a bunch of pictures on Facebook, so rather than post them here, I'll just refer you there. We did take the kids to Portrait Innovations, though, to get a good picture of the cousins.




Boy was that a harrowing experience! I really didn't think we were going to get one with all 3 kids, but thankfully the chairs kept Kate and Micah occupied enough for about 10 seconds that we could get a decent shot! It was very sad to go home, but it was made easier knowing that we'd see them again in Texas at Thanksgiving. I wish we lived closer.

Ever since we have come home, Kate has been having another mini verbal explosion. She has added moon, moo, and shoes to her vocabulary, among a few others I can't remember at 11 pm. :) Her FAVORITE word is shoes. (Such a girl!) Although, her version of "shoes" sounds more like "joos." It's so cute. Every time she sees a pair, or is looking for them, she'll walk around the house saying, "Joos? Joos?"

Her other big smarty-pants moment of the week was that on Dora the other night, they were talking about cows and how they say moo. Kate moo'd, then walked over and grabbed a book, opened it to a cow, showed it to me, and moo'd! What a smart baby. :)

We are officially DONE with the pacifier! We really did need it (and used it!) on our trip to Chicago, but as soon as we hit Texas soil again, the paci disappeared again and has been gone since. I can't bring myself to throw them away though. I feel like I need to get rid of them, though, just so I don't go grab one in a moment of desperation! Maybe I'll keep my favorite one to put away with her stuff as a keepsake... Or is that gross? 25 years from now, when she'll care, it'll probably be all decomposed and nasty. I should probably just take a picture and throw them away. :)

Paci Weaning

Or maybe I shouldn't call it weaning since we've gone cold turkey?

I went out shopping yesterday afternoon and Jeff put Kate down for her nap. When I came home and got her up, I couldn't find her paci anywhere - Jeff said that he had forgotten to give it to her. He said she cried for about 30 seconds, but fell right asleep, and she took a GREAT long nap, like 3 hours!! She never missed the paci!

So, I thought I'd try and see what happened that night if I put her to bed without a paci. She never missed a step! She went right down, never cried, never asked for it or anything! Amazing! So I continued today. Everything went well without a hitch! I guess we'll keep this going, but I can't believe she's taking this so well. I thought this was going to be a battle for the ages! I suppose there's still time for it to get ugly, but so far so good!

The only thing I'm nervous about is our trip to Chicago starting Thursday. I'm not sure how she's going to react to the plane, and the paci is always a good measure to quiet her down... But at this point I'm worried that giving her the paci just that once would undo everything we've worked at this week. I suppose I'll bring one with us and use it only in case of emergency. :)

She is feeling a little bit better today. She felt a little warm but I never took her temperature, I wouldn't be surprised if she was still running a low-grade. My mom is going to watch her tomorrow, because while she was out sick from daycare, a stomach virus swept through the place! So maybe we're fortunate she got what she had, and not the stomach bug! Since we are headed up to Chicago, I REALLY don't want her to catch that, so I want to make sure the virus is completely gone from daycare before I send her back!

Here's a quick picture I took of Kate tonight. You can tell she's not 100% - she looks so pale! Anyway, we're fired up for college football around here!

Sick Baby

Kate had a great stretch of health this summer. This was the longest she's ever been healthy! But we knew it had to come to an end sometime. And of course she picks 1 week from the day we fly to Chicago! I NEED her to be healthy for this trip - not only for her benefit, especially for her ears on the plane ride, but for Micah and Dylan too! We certainly don't need her bringing germs into their house. So I need to do whatever it takes to get her healthy again!

We are supposed to be going to Oklahoma this weekend to visit the in-laws, but I'm just not sure. She has a congested/runny nose, cough, and a fever. I'm not sure how well she'd do on two long car rides and not being able to sleep and nap in her own bed. We will re-evaluate how she is feeling in the morning, and make our decision. We are just running out of time for her to get over this before we head for Chicago!

Of course she has to pick THIS week to get sick!

15 Month Checkup

We had our 15 month appointment this morning! Kate weights 27.8 pounds (95%) and height is 32.5 inches (95%). Her head is back down to 25th % , down from ~40th% at her 12 month. They're not concerned about it though!

Overall everything is great. The Ped said she'd like to see her using 3-6 words, and was floored when I told her Kate has a good 15, if not 20!

The only thing we're watching is the weird skin reaction Kate gets when she eats Oatmeal & Cream of Wheat. The Ped said to wait a month or two, give it to her again, and if she reacts she'd like Kate to see an allergist.

So that's about it!

Where does Dada live?

Unfortunately Kate doesn't get to see Jeff much during the week, if at all. He works late most of the time, gets home after Kate is in bed, and leaves in the morning before she gets up. On weekends he sleeps in late, while I get up with Kate. Whenever I get tired of waiting for him to get up, Kate and I go into our bedroom and wake him up.

A couple times this week I took Kate into our room while I changed out of my work clothes. Both times, as soon as I opened the door, Kate says "Dada? Dada? Dada?" And runs over to his side of the bed! I love that she thinks he lives in bed! LOL!

Poor Kate!

I took Kate to one of those mall playgrounds today.. You know, the soft toddler/kid playground type thing.

Well, Kate found this staircase that she loved climbing up and down. She wasn't really in the other kids' way, she stayed off to the side and climbed. This little girl, probably about 3, came over, climbed in front of Kate, stood in front of her, and kicked her in the chest to make her fall off the stairs! Luckily I was right there and caught her but I was like... What the heck??? The next time she came around, Kate was climbing down the stairs, and the girl kicked Kate in the back to make her go headfirst down the stairs! I was SO mad. I said, "Don't kick her!" but she ran off, and I doubt she heard me.

Seriously though, why aren't parents watching their kids?? It was the first time my mama bear instinct REALLY kicked in, man I wanted to smack that girl!

One Nap

We hit a milestone this weekend I was hoping to avoid for a few more months... But Kate would have none of it. She's down to one nap a day. In the last week she had really started fighting her second nap. Even when we could tell she was exhausted, she just refused to sleep. Thankfully she never cried or anything, but she would just sing and play in her crib for 1-2 hours! So on Friday we decided to give the one-nap schedule a shot and see how she does. She did pretty well! This is only our third day, but the only thing I'm disappointed in is that I've heard they are "supposed" to sleep a good 3 hours when they go down to one nap, but not Kate! She's only giving us 2, maybe 2 1/2 hours. Oh well! The one added bonus we've seen is that before we switched her to one nap, she had been waking up in the morning around 6:30 am. Since we switched her, she is now sleeping in until nearly 8:00 am! I'll take it!

So overall I think it's a positive change, but I was hoping it would happen closer to 18 months, rather than 14. :) I just can't believe how quickly my baby is growing up. She is such a joy to be around - my favorite thing about her right now are her kisses. She is very generous with her kisses and loves giving them! Another adorable thing she does is that she carries around a little toy frying pan and serving spoon around with her, "stirring" whatever food she is "making" and always offers you a bite! It is so cute.

Vote for us!

Jeff and I watch the World Fishing Network (I know, we're dorks!) And they are holding a contest to "adopt an angler" to help the winner learn how to fish better! They're going to send the winner on a fishing vacation for 2... So much fun! They are going to pick the winner from the top 10 vote-getters, which at this point is like 2,700 votes. So enter with every email address you have! You are allowed to vote every 24 hours, with up to 10 email addresses. Please vote!

Thanks!



Click here to vote!

In related news - now that we have our boat in true working order with some updated equipment, I'm going to start a "fishing blog" for us so we can document when we go fishing and what we catch! Watch for the link soon. :)

What does the wolf say?

Allergy

I think I have discovered Kate's first food allergy. Ever since she started eating solids, she has eaten Gerber's baby oatmeal with no problem. A couple weeks ago I decided to graduate her to normal adult oatmeal, so I fixed her a packet of Quaker Instant apple cinnamon oatmeal. (One of my favorites!) She loved it, but a few minutes into eating it, I noticed that everywhere it touched her skin, she was breaking out in hives! I stopped feeding her and washed it off her skin quickly. I gave her some Benadryl and within an hour she was fine. I assumed it must have been one of the additives, spices, or whatnot in the instant oatmeal packet. We went back to baby oatmeal for a while.

This morning I made her oatmeal again, this time however, just normal plain Quaker oatmeal - nothing packeted or added. The same thing happened! I don't get it! Poor baby. So I guess I should just have her avoid oatmeal all together now? Or try it again in a month or two? I guess I'll ask her Ped next month.

Here's the latest cute shot I've gotten of her. She's wearing an adorable hand-me-down from her friend Ava!

First Sentence!

I about fell over this morning when Jeff said goodbye to Kate as usual, but this time in response instead of just saying, "bye bye" she held up her arm and waved, and said, "Bye, Dada!"

So proud of my little girl!

Words

I had to list out all of Kate's words for something else so I thought I'd post them here too, so I have it recorded somewhere! This is what I can think of off the top of my head. Hopefully I got them all!

Mama
Dada
Baby
Bebe (meaning Bailey)
Bow
Ball
Nana
uh oh
ah dah (all done)
bye bye
arf arf arf
puppa (puppy)
bubba
more
ank ooo (thank you)

Communication

I know there are little things here and there that definitely constitute as communication, but we just had a reallly cool moment!

I was on the computer while Kate is eating dinner, and I looked up and Kate was signing "more." She had polished off both her broccoli and strawberries, so I wasn't sure which one she wanted more of. She looooooves broccoli, so I started with that. I brought a spoonful of it over, and she shook her head no as I held it in front of her. I then went and got a strawberry and showed it to her. She signed "more."

It was just sooo cool to be able to "talk" like that with her and not guess at a need for once!!

Quick Picture

I thought I'd post a picture quickly.




When I saw this outfit, I HAD to have it! They really don't make many baby things in periwinkle, so when I saw it, it was all over! I sure hope Kate has a baby sister someday, or all these clothes will go to waste! Either that or I need a niece. :)

Kate is doing so great, and growing up so quickly. She is walking like a pro, and is talking more and more every day. I love to run through her words with her. She is also picking up signing really well! It's really exciting for me (and for her too, I'm sure!) to finally be able to communicate a few of her wants and needs.

A couple cute stories

I know I'm overdue for a good, long post, but I wanted to post these stories quickly before I forget.

On Saturday we took Kate to a mall in Plano that has one of those soft, padded indoor playgrounds. When we got there, she was a little bit afraid and sat in my lap for a few minutes, but as she watched the other kids play, she wanted to join into the action. A few minutes in, she fed off the excitement of the other kids playing, and went crazy. She didn't know how to express her excitement, so she got down on her hands and knees, crawled in a circle a few times, screaming. It was the funniest thing we have ever seen.

Tonight I was folding Kate's laundry. One of her beach towels is a Barbie towel. I've had it for a few years - I don't remember when or why I bought it. So anyway, it is now Kate's. She's never really looked at it before, so I held it up and got her attention to look at Barbie. When she saw Barbie, her face TOTALLY lit up, and she walked over and kissed Barbie right on the lips! Then she said "Awwwww" and hugged the towel. She is so funny!

Update

It's been a while since I've posted! I'm sorry! These days so much of it seems to be same old, same old! In the last few days Kate has really started walking more and more. In fact, today, I'd say Kate walked more than she crawled. I really need to get it on video! She has also really started to utilize her push toys just about full-time. She'd use them sporadically up until now, but just yesterday and today that's all she wants to do is push push push push! It won't be long now until she's a full time walker, if we're not there already!

Her language development is coming along well too!! Quite often she repeats words after me, and I'll have to stop and think, "Did you REALLY just say that???" Of course, her favorite word is still "Bow." It's the cutest little thing, with such a southern belle accent... She uses it in place of any word she doesn't know, and I know I'm going to miss it desperately when she stops saying it. It's one of my favorite things about her. There's even a little boy at day care who has started saying it too, just because of the frequency with which Kate says it! haha.

This past weekend we had our good friends Pete, Emily, and Gabriel Kleiber in town on a visit from Minnesota. It was so much fun having them! We took the kiddos to the zoo and pool, and just enjoyed each other's company. Kate had a good time at the zoo - it was a little hard for her to see the animals, but she did get a close-up glimpse of a big white bird. She was transfixed on it!







In other news, Kate has another brand new cousin! Dylan Blake Hall was born on May 28. We can't wait to go up to Chicago to meet him! He is such a sweetie.



And to round things out, a few recent pictures of Kate. :)

Doctor Update

I got a call from Kate's pediatrician today, and the strep test they sent out to the lab came back negative!! So strange! They said that the most important thing is that the antibiotics are helping Kate get better, which appears to be happening! She made it back to daycare today. I, on the other hand, have a sinus infection and somehow picked up Pink Eye along the way. Beautiful. So even though I got home from work early today, I left her at daycare to minimize contact with her. I don't want her to get this from me!!

Sick Girl

Over the weekend Kate ran a fever, as well as developed a rash last night. This morning she really wasn't acting like herself, so I took her into the Pediatrician. The poor baby has strep throat and an ear infection. This is what, her 6th bout of strep throat? But her first ear infection! I was surprised to see that one. They took one last swab of her throat to send into a lab just to confirm the diagnosis, and to rule out the possibility that she might be getting false positives in the office. If (when) it comes back positive, the doctor is going to call me back and discuss where to go from here. She said she's leaning toward sending us to an ENT to think about taking Kate's tonsils out. I'm not thrilled about that, but whatever it takes to get her healthy again! She just seems so little.

Adding on a cute story from tonight's bathtime... Lately Kate has discovered it's great fun to throw her bath toys over the edge of the tub onto the bathroom floor. Lovely, because, while I do clean the floor, the toilet HAS flushed since the last cleaning, so who knows what sort of nasty bacteria is down there, so I have to disinfect all those toys each time she does it! I've been working on "uh oh" with her for a couple months, and she has said it here and there, but tonight was so funny. She grabbed one of her toys, and said "uh oh!" as she threw it over the edge. Too cute. :) Here is a picture of her from earlier today, still willing to give me a smile despite being such a sickie.

Walking Baby!

Well, first off the bat, Kate is sick again. Poor thing. She was running 103 just before bed tonight. Boo. No other comments on that though, at least she spent the better part of 2, almost 3 weeks well! That was the first time that's happened since November.

Kate has a new word as of today - baby! She's been very good at baba, and bubba, but today she added the "by" on the end of baby! It's so fun to see and hear her add a new word onto her vocabulary every few days!

Finally, the biggest news! Kate truly WALKED for the first time today! And I missed it! Jeff was playing with Kate while I was cooking dinner, and he set her in the Pack n Play. (She likes to play in it!) He said she was holding on to one side, let go, held her balance for a few seconds, then walked to the other side!! He said it was at least 4-5 steps. Big girl!! She's been taking small baby steps of 1, maybe two steps at a time for a week or two, but this was a full walk. I'm so proud of her! I can't wait for her to be walking - then I can put her in dresses finally! (Right now if she wears in dresses she gets too caught up in them and stretches out the front when she tries to crawl.)

Here's a picture of Kate from the other night. We took her to her first baseball game! She did pretty well, after we moved away from a couple of loud drunk guys who really scared her. She loved sitting in the chair like a big girl!

Kate's 12 Month Appointment

Yesterday morning I took Kate in for her 12 month appointment. Her head is 17 3/4 inches (50th Percentile), her weight is 24 pounds, 6 ounces (95th Percentile), and her length - you ready? - is 31 1/2 inches (~99th Percentile)!! Dr Lanman said she's probably going to be tall! It must be my mom's genes coming through, because there's certainly not height anywhere else in the family! Kate is developing and growing so wonderfully, and hitting all of her milestones just as she should. I'm so proud of my baby!!

Kate has several new words this week. First of all, on her birthday, we ran to the grocery store to pick up some food items for dinner. We walked past one of those big ball cages, and as we went past, Kate pointed and said, "Ball?" I was SO proud of her!!! Of COURSE I had to get one for her. :) She loves it!



Second, the girl who keeps Kate for me while I work has a 13 year old son. Everyone calls him "Bubba." He has been home from school for 8 days because his doctor swabbed him for swine flu. Everything came back negative, but the school district wouldn't allow him back in school simply because he was SWABBED for it! Crazy. So anyway, he's been the "special helper" all week at daycare. They said he was so much help, and I've seen him with the kids and babies before, he is the sweetest kid ever. He's so gentle and relates to them so well! It didn't take Kate long at all to catch on to his name, and about Wednesday she started calling him by name! He went back to school today and Kathy said that she kept calling for Bubba all day! SO cute!!

She can also say "bye bye" when she chooses to. It's not consistent, but once in a while she'll use it... At the right time, too!

She is standing up by herself more and more now, and ALMOST taking steps. She will try to take a step sometimes, but fall right away. It won't be long!

We made her first trip to the neighborhood pool today. I wasn't expecting good results considering the frantic panic attack she had a few weeks ago when I put her in the kiddy pool in our backyard. It went just about as I expected. As soon as I sat down at the edge of the pool, she started screaming. She held on to me for dear life, and thankfully only cried for a minute or two. Her whole body shook violenty for about 10 minutes while we sat there. I decided to get brave and sit down on the incline of the kiddy pool, just at the very edge of the water. She screamed again when her feet touched the water, but I just held her and reassured her that she was ok. She shook violently again for about 10 more minutes. (I'm such a nice mom, aren't I??) After she calmed down a little bit, she started looking around at the other kids playing. We spent about 45 minutes total, and by the end I got her to willingly touch the water with her hand, and she even looked around and said, "Bow?" That's a good sign. :) So I decided to end it there, on a good note and not push her any further. We'll push a little more next time, starting with where her comfort level ended last time, and see how it goes. There was another mom there with a baby a few weeks older than Kate. She said her baby was scared to death too, and she said that she just did what I'm doing with Kate, and a few visits later, she loved it! So I'm hoping it'll be the same with Kate. She looked ADORABLE in her swim suit though. I didn't snap any pictures, but maybe next time!

At her 12 month appointment, the Pediatrician told me that it was time to get Kate off the bottle and on to cow's milk from a sippy cup. She said in her past experience, it was easiest just to go cold turkey. So, today was the day! I wasn't sure what to expect because anyone who knows Kate knows how much she LOVES her bottles! It was a little sad this morning when I got her up and didn't give her a bottle. I offered her a sippy cup of milk and she drank a few sips, spit some out, and then sort of sipped on it for a few minutes. Then she was off and playing! She took it all in stride. We figured out that she'll drink it better if it's not super cold. She prefers it closer to room temperature. She did SO well all day! She never cried or anything when we didn't offer her a bottle! I should have known it'd be so easy, that's just how Kate IS. I suppose I shouldn't speak too soon though, it's only been one day. Fingers crossed!

Happy Birthday, Baby!

I can't believe it! Kate is one! What a big girl. I can't even begin to summarize what a joy and blessing she has been in our lives, and I never knew how much love I was capable of until the day she was born. Every day we are thankful to have her in our lives, and although she is growing up way too quickly, it is a privilege to watch her learn and grow.

We are so proud of you, Kate, and love you more than you will ever know. Happy Birthday, sweet girl!!!

Kate took her first step a couple days ago too! She didn't get very far, but she let go of the chair she was holding on to, took one step, and grabbed my hand! I was so proud of her. What a big girl.

When Kate woke up this morning, Jeff and I went in to her room to sing Happy Birthday to her. After her bottle, we packed her up and took her out to breakfast at the Ballard Street Cafe.

Such a big girl in her forward facing carseat!



They made her her own special birthday pancake!



Num Num!!



Dropping her off to go to work.



We don't really have any plans this evening. Jeff probably won't get home from work until after Kate has gone to bed, so we'll see! Kate and I will just celebrate alone tonight.

Happy Birthday Kate!

Lots of Progress!

Kate has had so many big milestones lately! It seems like she is doing something new every day. The most important thing is that Kate is (knock on wood) healthy, and has been for about a week! That's the longest stretch we've had in a LONG time. Yesterday she said "uh oh" for the first time! We've been working on it for a while - each time I said "uh oh" to her, she'd just pick up on the "oh" part of it, and do her puppy love "ohhhhhhh". But she did the full "uh oh" yesterday! It was SO cute.

And today she stood up in the middle of the floor without holding on to anything! What a big girl. She stood for only a second, then fell to her butt and started crying. I'm not sure if it was because she got scared, or if it was because my reaction was a little too enthusiastic. :)

I got her in pigtails for the first time today. They are TOO cute!



She looks SO old to me in this picture. I don't know what happened to my baby, but she's a big girl now! Things are busy around here getting ready for her big birthday party on Saturday! I can't wait!

First Word

Kate said her first full, complete word today! She's been saying Mama and Dada for quite some time, as well as several sounds to make up partial words, but no full object words, until today! She is VERY into pointing right now, and I will always identify what she's pointing at. Today she was pointing at her hair bows on her ribbon board in her room, so I told her, "bow." And she repeated it back to me!!! She says ba, buh, and bo a lot, but this was the first time she's added a definite "w" on the end of the bo. So cute! I praised the heck out of her, she was so proud. She loved to say it over and over the rest of the day, so I caught it on camera!



On the negative side, Kate woke up from her nap this afternoon running a 103.7 degree fever. Poor thing, that's the highest it's ever been. I'm just at a loss. These high powered antibiotics she's been on the last week have worked so well, until now. She's still on them and picked up whatever she has now. We are going back to the Pediatrician tomorrow. I'm sure they'll probably just test her for flu, RSV, and strep throat again. Then I'm not sure what happens, if they will give me a referral for an immunologist or what. I'm just so deeply scared that something is wrong with her. It makes me so sad that she's had such a crummy start to life. So I'm hoping we can get some answers, and hopefully get to the bottom of everything.

12 Month Portraits

Last Friday I took Kate in for her 12 month pictures. She is/was actually healthy with a dry nose for once, so I figured we had better get pictures done! I was really happy with how they turned out.







































Kate is finally feeling better (knock on wood) but she's just been constantly sick. We've been in and out of the pediatrician, trying everything we can think of to get her well. If she gets sick again, Kate is going to have to see an ENT specialist and an immunologist. So we are praying that the poor little dear can stay well this time. She deserves to feel good!

She is just growing in leaps and bounds. She bring so much joy into our lives. She's a very loving baby and loves to give us hugs. Not only us, but dogs, books, toys, and anything soft and cuddly. She says the cutest little "ohhhhhh" when she gives hugs.

I'm busy with preparations for Kate's birthday party. I'm having a lot of fun planning everything out and beginning to get things ready!