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. :)