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!