July 23 - 28 Ketchup!! (as in, mommy's gotta catch up on the blog!)

My goodness, mommy's been a slacker updating the blog. I think she was getting disheartened complaining about me and my sleep habits all-the-time. I had a wonderful weekend, though it was mixed with scary stuff and sad stuff.

My Grandpa had been having bad headaches, so he went to the doctor on Wednesday. Mommy and Daddy stayed home and tag-teamed me so the other could work. Fortunately, it was a relatively quiet work day (until just before mommy was gonna log off, then she got pretty busy), and fortunately I was a good napper, because they were able to get lots of work done!

Thursday, grandpa went in for an angiogram. Although Aunt Kelley and cousin Allie graciously offered to watch me while mom was at the hospital, I really wanted to be there to support the g'rents and distract Grandma from what was a stressful few hours. I spent a good deal of time walking around the very nice Angelo lobby in the Firstenburg Tower. Since one of my shoes was in Seattle in Daddy's car, I walked around in my socks. Whew, those things turned black!! :-)
We were very happy to find out that Grandpa's angiogram looked great, and that the coil in his head (for his aneurysm) was working properly. What a relief!!

Mommy and I hung out at the g'rents until Grandma and Grandpa came home from the hospital that afternoon, and then for a few more hours after that.

Friday morning, Grandma called with very sad news. Uncle Monty has lost his battle with cancer. He fought hard for two years, and his will to live was so strong, but his body ended up so weak. We are all very, very sad over his death, but he is no longer in pain.

Mommy and I went over to Grandma's in the afternoon to spend time with her and cheer her up. It's hard to wallow in sadness with a cute little bugger like me around!

Mommy was also very sad to learn about Randy Pausch losing his battle with pancreatic cancer. He, too, fought hard for 2 years. He was an incredibly inspirational college professor from Carnegie Mellon. http://download.srv.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/

Although I can't sit still for 76 minutes, I HIGHLY recommend you watch it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

If you can handle 12 minutes, check this out: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8577255250907450469

****Grandma Gaylor, I HIGHLY recommend you check out either one or the other of the above. Really. It'll make you smile and laugh more often than tear up.


SO, anyway, Mommy went grocery shopping while I played with Grandma, and I even had a well earned nap! Mommy made a delicious dinner for Grandma and Grandpa on Friday, and we had some good family time.

Saturday, Mommy was busy scurrying around getting ready for company that evening. I couldn't let her just focus on THEM, however, so I did my best to keep her busy chasing me around the main room. Mom & Dad got smart on Friday and figured out they could block me off the stairs by using weighted Kirkland brand diaper boxes. hmmmm.... Didn't stop me from going into Dad's office, however. So, Daddy got wise and took those same boxes and a big (weighted) plastic tub and cordoned me off to the kitchen/informal dining/great room area. RATS, DADDY!!! (mommy says, "YEAH DADDY!!!!!!!") That evening, we had a BUNCH of people over (seemed like a gazillion, but there were really 10 of us)

We had kabobs, a really yummy coucous dish, middle eastern chicken skewers, Joe brought salmon, the grownups had beer & champagne, and we had just a ducky time of it. Everyone left around 8 PM, and I crashed hard by 8:30 (until I woke up at 1:20, ugh)

Sunday, Daddy got up with me in the morning and let mommy sleep in. She appreciated that very much, as she and I were up for about 90 minutes in the middle of the night. Daddy and I played in the morning and he made me a yummy breakfast. After Mommy got her lazy bottom out of bed, I had a very nice time with her. Dad spent most of the day cleaning out the garage (no small feat). So, mommy and I had some good girl time. We read books, watched the Wiggles, and played, played, played. The 3 of us went for a very nice walk in the evening.

Overall, it was lovely.

Well, I'd better run, soon. That's a lot of blah blah blah to read! I'll post some updated pictures soon!

July 22 - Poor, Poor, Pitiful Me

I had my first fever today, and I was just a shell of myself. I think maybe it's because my molars are trying to come in. I've been tugging on my ears a lot, which is another sign. Grandma spent a lot of time holding me today, and I let her hold me on the couch, which is unusual. Usually I like my holders mobile!

Mom and Dad took my temp when mommy got home, and it was 101.7. I pretty much just wanted to be held. I was digging into my ear so hard i actually made the outer part of it bleed, which was a shock to Mom.

Mommy gave me some of the good milk and then some liquid tylenol. It seemed to hit me pretty quickly, and within an hour, I was feeling MUCH perkier, and my fever was down. I was walking all around, heading upstairs to play, going back down. I didn't nap well, so Mommy is hoping I get a good night's sleep tonight.

Mommy felt sooo bad for me. I was so pitiful, it broke her heart.

July 19 - I'm Walkin', Yes Indeed....

Huh. So, I tried to post this video in my blog, but I got an error (I didn't think I EVER did anything wrong!)

So, I'll have to do this the new old fashioned way.

Here is a link to my new favorite past-time. You'll need to copy/paste it into your browser: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1014317450502556909&hl=en

July 14 week - fixed, broke, broke, fixed, broke, broke

The subject line more or less sums up my sleep cycle. I haven't been napping well, and except for Sunday and one other night, I've been waking up somewhere between 11:30 and 1. I am only calmed by nursing, which I do for up to an HOUR (poor mommy) I don't know if this is because I am cutting teeth or am having bad dreams or what. This does seem to correspond with the time my folks put me in day care, so maybe the trauma lingers :-(

Except for that sleep thing, life is pretty good. I'm eating well, and my parents have declared month 13 as the "Katie is a Walker" month. In the last 2 weeks, I've given my knees a well-deserved break and am walking everywhere. It's wonderful to watch (so I'm told), but it fills my parents with a whole new sense of dread.

At least they are getting a work out from all the chasing they do.

I'll post pictures from this week soon.

I gotta try to get in a nap (right)

July 13 - A Repeat

I won't even go into details about how I was awake and crying from 11:45 until 1:30 a.m.

I had a good day today, took a couple of good naps in the morning and afternoon. Mom and Dad threw me for a loop; they re-decorated the living room. I have a GREAT play area now. I just need to get used to it a little :-)

It was a scorcher today, but I handled it just fine.

That's all for now. I'm posting a couple pictures of me from yesterday. You can kinda see thhe nice bruise I have on my cheek from my car seat-face plant incident. It's getting better slowly.

 
 
 
 

July 11 - Busta Cheeks

I have been so busy practicing my walking skills that I sometimes set myself up for pretty good spills. I had a semi-doozy yesterday. Actually, it wasn't too bad. I face-planted into my car seat and I have a nice little bruise on my cheek. It's been captured digitally for posterity and future "my parents didn't take care of me" therapy.

Here's some pictures of me in one of my favorite outfits!



I had a nice day today. I took an awesome 2 hour nap in the morning. After lunch, I went with Mommy to get her oil changed. Then we went to Fred Meyer. I was so tired by the time I got home that I took a 2.5 hour afternoon nap!!

Why so tired, you say? Perhaps because I woke my parents up in the middle of the night (3-ish) and kept them awake for about 2 hours!!! Mommy is getting a little worn out by all the interrupted sleep. I'm acting like a newborn again!!

Mommy made a fabulous (or so Daddy told me) dinner tonight. It had chicken, mango chutney, buncha spices and citrus, peppers & onions, & couscous with a cilantro/line/ginger/yogurt sauce. It was a Rachel Ray recipe, so I think it's safe to say it was "YUM-O"

We're hopeful I sleep good tonight! I'm off to give it a shot now!

July 10 - Batter Up!

I can't say I had a great night's sleep. I was up every couple of hours. Lots of nursing. Hard on mom & me. But, I had a great 3 hour nap in the a.m., went to my g'rents to play while mommy went for lunch and a pedi, had an hour afternoon nap, a small dinner, and then I went to David Douglas park to watch my cousin Brad's All-Star baseball team. Unfortunately, they started the game 10 minutes early, and I was nearly 30 minutes late, so it was already the 4th inning when I got there. Brad's team was up 1-nothing. By the end of the 5th, Brad's team was up by 10 runs and the game was over! We'll go to the next game on Saturday.

I was thrilled to see my Daddy was back home! We played and played after I got home from the baseball game. I so enjoyed walking for him and having him read to me and stuff. My family is complete once again.

Cheers to a good night's sleep tonight!

July 9 - Back To Normal

Grandma and Grandpa are BACK! Mommy and I were so excited that we were waiting for them at their house when they rolled in just after 8 a.m. They were SO good to take me today. They were sooooooo tired after their all nighter, driving from LA to Vancouver.

I was pretty clingy to G'ma today. I was so happy she was back. I was happy to see Grandpa, too, but I was a little standoffish with him. I'll get over it.

I really impressed my g'rents with my walking. Grandma said I did more walking than crawling. Tonight, after a nice bath, I was upstairs with Mommy. I surprised her by walking from Mommy's bed allll the way into my room and next to my crib. That was a pretty long way! Someday soon it won't be such a surprise when I do things like that!

That's all for now. I'm pretty pooped. And contented.

July 8 - To Quote Shania Twain... "Honey I'm Home, And I've Had A Hard Day"

Well, the best thing about day care yesterday is I slept like a rock last night. I fell asleep around 9 and, other than my 1:30 stirring, I slept until around 6 this morning!

Daddy took me into day care this morning. I had a pretty strong grip on his pinky while we walked around the room. A little boy named Ethan came over to me and was staring at me. I thought that was alright. Then he handed me a toy giraffe, and I thought, "cool" and sat down to play with it. Daddy took the opportunity to head out.

So, mommy and daddy had higher hopes for the day. I did not, though. When Daddy picked me up this afternoon, I was laying near the door by myself. Teacher Dana was sitting in the overstuffed chair with 2 kids in her lap. As soon as I saw Daddy, I commenced to wailing.

Daddy talked with teacher for a bit. She said that I had another rough day, and that it's totally normal for a kid who is new to a day care. She also said that I did not want to be comforted or consoled by her. I didn't eat very much at lunch, either. I did nap some.

Daddy can confirm I was pretty hungry tonight. I had cantaloupe, nearly a cup of mac & cheese (with carrots, ham, & peas), and FIFTY blueberries (according to Dad) AND crackers! I also drank a lot of Orange Juice, which is newish in my diet.

Mommy was devastated to hear all of this. She made some quick phone calls to see if my cousin Allie or my Aunt Kelley could play with me for a while tomorrow morning. My G'rents are driving home from California right now (Can I get a "WOOT WOOT"?!?!?!) and plan to be back in town Wednesday, 8-ish a.m. After hearing my mom cry on the phone, they really want to be home to take care of me. I need them and they need me!!! SO, if they end up stopping to catch a few zzz's during the night, the plan is for Mommy to take her laptop (and me) to Aunt Kelley's tomorrow morning. She and cousin Joey will play with me for a few hours while Mommy works. The most important thing for Mommy is to be available for a 9:30 conference call. That should last just 30 minutes. I think I can handle that.

I hope that next time I have to go to day care that Mommy and Daddy will ease me into it. I would probably do much better if I a) started going to play groups and b) went to day care for 1/2 days to begin with, not full days. That was pretty cold turkey to do to me!!

Ah well, I don't have to go tomorrow (nyah, nyah, nyah) I was SO tuckered today that I was in bed by 7:45 p.m. and asleep by 8 PM. Mommy has her fingers crossed that I'm down for ALLLLL night!

July 7 - To Quote Baby Signing Times, "A Hard Day"

I had a grrrrrrrrreat night's sleep last night!! 10 whole hours w/o stopping! It's been a while since I slept through the night w/o stirring. I woke up happy and everything was great. And then..... Day Care! Mommy and I come in and there's a boy around my age having a m-a-j-o-r meltdown! He's just returning to day care after an absence of I don't know how long. He wouldn't stop crying unless "Teacher" was holding him. Then another kid showed up in tears. Mommy felt so bad leaving me like that. I doubt the "teacher" could even give me special attention, since she had 2 kids in her arms already. Such a bummer.

Mommy left work a little early to pick me up from day care. Daddy had agreed to do it, but Mommy forgot to leave the car seat at day care. She ran into Dana (the teacher), and she said that I had a tough morning. I was inconsolable. I was crying and carrying on, I didn't want to be held. I took a very tiny nap in the morning, but I rallied and had a 2 hour nap in the afternoon. When mommy came into the room to get me, I was eating a graham cracker at the table. I didn't exactly "freak out" or squeal with delight at her appearance. But, when she stepped into the wobbler room to retrieve my sippy cup, I lost it! I thought she was leaving me again!! Fortunately, she came over and sat with me while I finished my snack.

Then we left and went to Costco and then home. Mommy played with me and let me run around the media room while she watched "The Next Food Network Star" For some reason, she's fairly addicted to that show.

I had a great dinner of rice, chicken, corn & peas, and Mommy also gave me cottage cheese, which I LUV. She also gave me a wonderful bath... No bubbles in the sink, no shampoo. Just lathered me up and put me in the sink. No trauma!

I did a lot of practice walking tonight. I'm getting so good at it. I also showed Mom I know how to sign "Please", "Thank You" and "Hurt". I think those are all new (Mommy hadn't asked about hurt before)

I impress my parents every day!

I hopefully will have a good night's sleep and will have a better day at Day Care tomorrow. The G'rents are coming home 2 days early and Mommy toyed with the idea of changing her schedule this week. She decided to try one more day of Day Care. If it's traumatic again, she may see about staying home on Wednesday and working on Thursday or Friday instead.

Daddy will drop me off at ISNW tomorrow. If it works well, he will pick me up, too. He can be the hero :-)

July 6 - I May Be Broken, But That's Not Gonna Stop Me!

Well, I had another rotten sleep night. Daddy worked so hard to get me to sleep. It worked fairly well, but I was wide awake at 4:30 this morning. Daddy brought me to Mommy, where I nursed for 30 - 45 minutes. Mommy put me back to bed after, and I fell back asleep until after 8.

So, that delayed my day a bit, but it didn't stop me from having a BLAST of a day! When we finally got moving, we met our friend Joe and his 2 daughters, Meaghan and Caitlin, at the Oregon Zoo. We were there for a few hours and had such a great time! The coolest thing we saw this time was the Dinosaur exhibit! I hope we can go again when my cousins are out!! Here is a slide show from our big outing.



We went to the McMenamins on the Columbia after the zoo. I fell asleep in the car on the way there, so mommy hung out with me (and Daddy did, too, to give mommy a potty break) and read a book while I took a much needed nap. We were able to join everyone before the end of the meal, so Mommy was able to eat with them (or have them watch her wolf down a cheeseburger & tots).

After that we went to Uncle Ross/Aunt Lynn's. We hadn't PLANNED to stay for dinner, but when Ross fired up the grill, how could we say "no"? It was just plain irresistible.

I had lots of fun walking all around Ross' house. I managed to whack my head on the side of his Laz-E-Boy and got a raised bump and little scrape on the noggin'. It only affected me for a few minutes, fortunately. Everyone felt sooooo bad for me when they saw the swelling. Some day I'll learn how to really milk that for sympathy!

I fell asleep in the car on the way home from Ross', and this is where my evening took a serious turn. Mommy, in her infinite "wisdom" decided it would be a good idea to give me a bath. She got everything ready, drew a nice hot bath, and then woke me up from my pleasant slumber (Mistake #1) She then stripped an unwilling baby (Mistake #2). Then, she tried washing my hair while I laid on the counter top (Mistake #3.) This has become a traumatic experience for me. She then decided to wash my hair while I sat in the sink instead, because I was really having a hard time (read: I was freaking out) (Mistake #5) She had just gotten my hair sudsed up when I got a face full of bath bubbles, well, in my face. I started choking and crying, and Mommy had to take me out of the water and hold me IMMEDIATELY. Well, my hair was still full of shampoo. By now I am SCREAMING CRYING. I am out of my mind upset. So, Mommy had to power through and lay me on the counter for the rinse. Daddy was there to help out in any way he could. She drained the sink while she rinsed my hair. Since I still had soap all over me, She had to put me back in the sink for the final rinse. I handled that OK, but I was still crying my eyes out. This lasted until well after I had been rinsed, dried, diapered, and sleepered. Mommy finally nursed me back into reality. Oh, She and Daddy thought I'd never calm down!!

To make matters worse for my folks, Missy had pooped in the house, and Mom ended up stepping in it in the laundry room. She's never pooped in there before, so that was unexpected. They are really frustrated with that dog!

Well, I went down fairly well around 8:30, after another 20 minutes of nursing. Fingers crossed that I'm down for the night!

I don't know it yet, but apparently I'm going to daycare for my first time tomorrow. Mommy should've packed my things tonight for it, but she was just too darn tired.

July 5 - Sleepless in S(Ridgefield)

So, it seems I've forgotten how to sleep during the last 24 hours. My goodness, it's been a loooooong day! First of all, I slept through the 4th of July fireworks but woke up before midnight, 12:25-ish, 4-something and again at 5:30 this morning. My poor parents. It might be that I didn't get a great dinner and was just plain hungry. Or I had a tummy ache. Who knows. I spent much of my awake time nursing, which made for an extremely full diaper in the a.m.!! Mommy put me back to bed around 6 AM, and I slept for another 3 hours.

I only napped for an hour and fought going to sleep again tonight. Mommy's fingers are crossed that I'll get a good, recuperative night's rest. Tomorrow we are supposed to go to the zoo, and we all want me in a good mood for that!

Mommy and daddy notice new "smartness" in me daily. The other day, Daddy was reading me a Sandra Boynton book called "From A To Z". When he got to the page with the Frogs, I made the sign for frogs. Daddy was reading "My Nose, My Toes" to me. It's a flip up book (What's under the hat-- my ears... that kind of thing). Daddy got to the last page "What is under the blanket?" Daddy didn't even have the chance to flip up the "blanket" and I was signing "baby" (which is the correct answer!)

I know lots of signs: more, cereal, cracker, baby, milk, frog, dog, bird, cat. I kinda do "Mom", "Dad", and I can also sign "cat", but I do it on my forehead instead of on my cheeks. I like to make cow and duck sounds, too.

Last week while I was at the G'rents, Grandpa put me on the phone with Mommy. Mommy said, "Hi", and I said, "Hi" right back! And it was a repeatable phenom. I've done it several times since. But only when I'm in the mood to!

I'm walking better and better. I can walk from the couch towards Mommy or Daddy, pause and turn in a different direction, and/or turn back and go to them. I have better control and balance daily. I hope to be walking good when the Turners come out for a visit next month.

I think that's about it for me. Hopefully I'll have lots of fun pictures from the zoo to share tomorrow.

July 4 - God Bless America!

Oh, I had just the coolest day!! It started out with Daddy and me hangin' out while mommy caught a few extra z's (she had some sleep issues last night!) I was able to take a really great morning nap which made us a little late for the big (right) Ridgefield 4th of July Parade. I made the most of it, though, as the pictures will show!

There were lots of Kirkwoods/Gaylors in the Parade! My Uncle Dean drove some of his Ridgefield All-Stars baseball team (which I missed 'cuz I was sleepin') Matt was in that part of the parade. My cousin Allie carried a Big Al's sign in front of her PaPa's '39 Packard Convertible. Cousin Joey rode in the back of the Packard.

I got to sit near my cousins and Aunt Kelley and her brother/his wife and her Mom, Sandee. Also a surprise was to see my Aunt Debbie's brother Greg and his wife Carol and their kids. It was their first year at the parade, and they happened to run into Kelley. Small World!







I just love small town parades!

Here is a slideshow of some highlights of the parade. OK, so the highlights are more like "Katie at the parade", but you get the point.



In the evening, we walked down and around to Jay and Stacy's house. They were having their annual BBQ / Fireworks extravaganza. Unfortunately, we had to leave when the party was just getting started, because SOMEBODY (me) was getting tired! Granted, they started the fun just before my regular bedtime. As it was, I didn't get to bed until probably 9:15. Just in time for all the neighborhood fireworks (and there were MANY) to start. I'm a sleeper, though, and I power slept through all the noise. I'm good like that.

July 2 - The Pictures Say It All

Grandma done wore me out!! I had such a wonderful day with her today. We went for walks, watched Baby Signing Times, and had such a great time together. I really like crawling up g'rents' staircase. I make sure I keep g'ma on her toes!

July 1 - Baseball game and teeth!

I had a great day at the G'rents. I surprised Grandma in a big way! She left me on the far side of the living room and went into the kitchen so she could rinse some dishes or something. She was standing in front of the sink, and when she looked up, lo and behold, I was standing in the Dinette!!! I had walked a really long way, all on my own!!

My cousins Chris and Austin had an All-Star game today at 6 PM. I went with the g'rents to cheer them on. Mommy and Daddy came as well. It was neat to watch them, but unfortunately they lost. Oh well. I hope to see some games next season. It was neat they both made it onto the All-Star team (so did my cousins Matt and Brad)

Mommy discovered tonight that I have another tooth popping through!! That explains why I have gnawed my fingers raw on the right side!

Hopefully now that it's come through I will be a little less fussy... until the next teeth decide to show up, that is!!

Peace Out!

Katie