More T-day pics

Below are the pictures I was unable to upload earlier... first is Katy cuddling with Grammy. She so rarely cuddles with anyone that this is a notable experience.



Then we have cousin Kimmy pushing Katy in the swing. According to the people who remember Kimmy when she was a baby, Katy is her spittin' image. So maybe this gives us an idea of what Katy will look like when she's 6?
All the cousins swinging in a row - hours of entertainment.

Happy First Thanksgiving!!

(Hi. I wrote this message on Friday night and have been trying to upload a few more pics to add to it since then. I'm giving up and posting it without the extra pics...boo)

Greetings from the Bluegrass state! We've been here since Wednesday evening visiting with Brian's family and eating a little bit of food now and then. :) I'm happy to report that Katy had probably the best road trip yet. If I haven't told you about our past road trips - they've been pretty awful. Lots of tears, lots of pulling over, sometimes in not-so-safe places, and not much shut-eye at all. But gradually it's been getting better. And this trip, we had 4 hour, that's 240 minutes, of not a fuss. The end of the trip, though, she decided she had had enough, and got a little frustrated. But heck, I'll take that any day.

Hasn't the weather been awesome?!? Who would've thought that we could go to the park on Thanksgiving Day? Well, that's what we did, and Katy had her first experience in the swing - and boy - she LOVED it. She giggled and giggled, it was so adorable.

Then we dinner with all the fixin's with Brian's Mom and John, along with Danielle and her son Jonathan. Katy actually sat at the table in a booster seat and ate sweet potatoes.

Today we were joined by Mark, Kelly, and Katy's 3 cutie cousins. Once again we were headed to the park, for more swinging, as well as some other adventures. Katy also enjoyed some Black Friday shopping in the Baby Bjorn (baby carrier). I purchased the Baby Bjorn at a consignment shop for $20 before Katy was born, and that is the #1 thing I could not live without. Sadly she is getting heavier, and I don't know how much longer I can carry her on my front. I have looked into getting a back carrier, but I'm just skeptical that she will like anything else as much as she adores her Bjorn. And she gets so much attention from everyone we see.

Let's hope tomorrow's drive is as pleasant as Wednesday's... heading home to the Buckeye state...

Now and Then

I forgot to mention in the middle of all this Michigan hype that Katy turned 6 months old. Let's take a look at how she has changed:

May 2006 - 5 days old

Today, November 21, 2006, 6 months old

It's a shame that every time a baby reaches a major milestone, we take them to the doctor and celebrate by sticking needles in their leg. But that's what we did yesterday. She did pretty well. And she weighs 15 pounds, 6 oz., is 26 inches long, both of those are 50%'ile. She's doubled her birthweight, which is supposed to be some milestone for sleeping... speaking of that: the doc said that if I want to, I can try to get her to stop getting up twice a night. The process of doing that, however, seems daunting. As if on cue, last night Katy only got up once, which she hasn't done in a long time. It's as if she heard us talking and said, "that sounds awful, how about I make you a deal and just do it once?"

She has also started babbling the last few days, which is incredibly cute. She does some combination of "Dadada...yayayay...bababab..." etc. I love it when people at the doctor's office, etc., comment on how adorable she is, but you also want to invite them over to your house later that afternoon to get the whole picture. :)

Aunt Mel's Michigan highlights

Mel - carrying the torch. (see previous post for details)

105,785 (a stadium record) fans rush the field

A few students take home a little souvenir from the game...(I'm not going to say whether Melanie participated in such destructive behavior :))

The cops stand 3 deep to protect that precious goal post.

Thank you Stadium Hat!!!

SHEW!!!! Man, that was stressful. That game reminded me of EVERY game during the 2002 season when we ended up winning the championship - staying just barely ahead the whole game, watching most of the game pacing back and forth, through the cracks of your fingers, coming down to the last second, winning by less than 7 points. After weeks and weeks of hype - the OSU v. Michigan game definitely lived up to it, and the Buckeyes pulled it off. I don't know about you, but I really hope we don't have to play them again for the championship - they were that good.

If you haven't been around to hear about Stadium Hat, I'll fill you in: back during the 2004 season, Articus purchased Stadium Hat for Brian as a birthday gift.
At first we just thought it was funny, Brian wore it to the games, got lots of comments from overly excited Buckeye fans, and that was that. Until last year Brian sold his Texas tickets on ebay, and thus didn't go to the game, therefore Stadium Hat was not present at the stadium. And guess what? We lost. A heartbreaker. So then we started to think...hmmm....maybe there's connection, we've always won as long as Stadium Hat has been present at the game. And since then, we've always made sure it was present at all home games. Stadium Hat has not lost - we think the overall record is about 20-0. So once again, Brian sold his Michigan tickets this year, but luckily, Melanie was going to the game, so she carried the torch, and alas - THANK YOU STADIUM HAT!!!

As for us, we watched the game with our good friends over at Jason and Beth's house. Everyone was such as good sport - having seen how Katy had reacted to all the screaming last weekend at bw-3's, everytime the Buckeyes scored, we all participated in a very quiet, yet very celebratory, O-H-I-O!!

One of the nailbiting moments during the game...

It's sure been crazy around here, though, and Melanie said the game was an experience she will never forget. I'll try to post again later with some more of her highlight pics...

A new day, a new baby

One of the things I didn't expect about having a baby is how often and how quickly they change. Especially now, I think, around the 4-8 month period there is so much going on. I seriously feel like Katy is a different kid every week. I'll think back to last Tuesday and think, "Man, was that just last week she was doing that? And now she's doing this?" Something else that comes along with that is the trail of frustrating things. We just conquer waking up every two hours all night long and then she cries every time you put her down. Then we get over that one and she refuses the bottle. Right now there are several "things" going on with Katy:

1. She's teething - 2 lower ones poking through the gums a couple millimeters. This could explain alot of the problems below.
2. She has such sensitive skin that she has little rashes all over her body at any given moment - at THIS moment they are pretty flared up.
3. She just started refusing the bottle. She's taken one with no problem since she was three weeks old, but now she's decided to be picky and wait for mommy to come home from work.
4. She's also being picky about her solid foods - sometimes she takes it and sometimes she doesn't.
5. She just learned to sit up - all the sudden she can sit by herself and play with toys for 20 minutes or longer. This makes her (and me) very happy.

(This picture makes me think of what you do for a puppy - leave baskets of chew toys laying around.)

And all of this is new this week - incredible, huh? So in an attempt to soothe the teething discomfort I decided to try this contraption: she's supposed to be eating the banana through the mesh part, at first she was confused.

But eventually she figured it out:

So it only makes me wonder what next week will bring... we'll be back to report.

It won't always be this yellow...

Here are some pics of the kitchen progress. We ordered countertops and picked flooring, I think. Brian painted the walls, and I love the color, but without the bright blue curtains I plan to make it looks very very yellow...

I prefer to watch football at home, thanks

Grammy Stansberry came to visit this weekend, and she got to help with stuff like bathtime and eating prunes.














We had a good time watching the Buckeyes set themselves up for the game of the century. (that's the first time I've tried a link, how'd it work out?) For those of you who don't watch college football (bless your hearts), this Saturday the Ohio State Buckeyes (number 1 team in the nation) will play their arch (and I mean ARCH) rival, the University of Michigan Wolverines (who happen to be the number 2 team in the nation) for the last game of the season. The winner of this game between 2 undefeated teams will not only be the Big 10 conference champion, but will earn a spot in the championship bowl game in January. That just about sums it up - and 100's of thousands of fans gathering for the game. huge, huge, huge...

So in preparation for the big event - Grammy purchased Katy a bonafied baby Buckeye outfit. Then we headed to the newest bw-3's to gather with a few friends and watch the Buckeyes score about 50 points more than Northwestern. The only problem was that every time OSU scored and the place erupted in cheers - Katy screamed bloody murder!
It was making me so sad I wanted to cry! So several kind friends ended up taking her outside to walk laps, where she was perfectly content. We're glad to have this information now so we can plan a more quiet celebration for this weekend's game. Katy was very interested in her friend Jack, who was also at b-dub's to watch the game. (Pam and I were wearing exactly the same outift - including shoes - must be the new mom thing). Go Bucks, and Happy Beat Michigan week!!!!

New Development for Daddy's Birthday

Well, this has been a crazy week for us... first we finished up our trip to Pittsburgh, which was fun. We went out to a Japanese steakhouse - which Katy found very entertaining - all except the fire part, that was a little scary. Then we got home Monday evening - the house is a mess, no groceries, no clean clothes, you know the drill. And this happens to be the week that I have CPR training 3 nights in a row for 4.5 hours - eeesh. Katy got to vote in the election twice yesterday (with me in the morning and aunt mel in that afternoon while I was at work), and TODAY is Brian's 32nd birthday. So anyway, lots going on.

So this morning I was talking on the phone with Katy in my lap and my finger in her mouth (a typical posture for me) and I was like, "hey...wait a minute, what's that sharp thing in your gums???" Now, ever since about mid-August Katy has been soaking the fronts of her shirts in 30 minutes or less, putting anything she can get her hands on in her mouth, and chewing on her lip, and I don't know how many people have said, "she's teething". But it's been almost 3 months, I was starting to doubt that that's what it was... but lo and behold - she does have teeth! Well, at least one that's barely poking through, but that counts for something.

Yesterday I declared myself the winner of the "Bad Mom Award". I was trying to fix cereal for Katy in the morning, and I put her down in the Bumbo seat on the kitchen floor (which is hard construction wood right now)... like this...

So I go into the dining room to get the cereal (because all of our food is out there because of the construction) and as I'm rounding the corner back into the kitchen I see my baby girl's head making contact with the floor as she flips herself backward out of the chair!!! It happened so fast that I scooped her up before I think she even realized what happened... she yelped a little bit but I think it looked scarier than it was. So much for the Bumbo seat - I guess she's too strong for that now...

You've got a friend in PA

Greetings from Oma's house! We arrived last night and are getting spoiled Grandma-style until Monday. Katy greeted her with a big ol' messy diaper, then we headed straight for the highchair - complete with my puppy dog chair pad from the 70's. Katy tried to fool Oma by acting like she wasn't tired at all at bedtime - but really she was just wired up from all the excitement. She did her normal sleeping routine and broke that nasty 3 day habit of getting up at 6am and refusing to go back to sleep...

Oma also bought Katy a new toy- a jumperoo... and she gave her a bath in the Big Girl tub!!

And what trip to PA would be complete without a 3 hour excursion to IKEA! Katy entertained herself by chewing on a set of measuring spoons that Oma promptly purchased. The only thing more entertaining these days is any paper bag - the more crinkly, the better....

More to come...