February 22 - Nice weekend!

We Turners had another lovely weekend. On Friday, our morning started FAR too early at 5 AM. Katie woke up and seemed to want to stay awake. After a diaper change, Kevin tried rocking her in the glider in our bedroom. After a time, she got down and came over to where I was laying and said, "Hi-yee". I asked her if she wanted to come up and see Mommy and she said, "OK". So, Kevin brought her into the bed. She immediately started pawing at me because she's pretty much programmed to nurse when she gets into bed with Mommy and Daddy. I gently told her no, and that led to lots of tears. She was lying on my chest and I just kept rubbing her back and talking to her softly. This was followed by restless activity, talking to mommy and daddy and climbing all over the place. Finally, and gratefully, Katie fell asleep until around 7:30. I think she slept for maybe an hour.

Later that morning, Daddy and I took Katie to the Toddler story time at the Ridgefield Library. Katie hadn't been since she was under a year. The last time I took her, she ended up with a cold, so I just hadn't found my way back there :-)

Katie was quite shy and clingy, but she loved the bubbles the Librarian was blowing, and she enjoyed shaking bells, and she seemed to enjoy the stories. After story time broke up, some of the kids hung around to play with toys and to pick out books. Daddy and I picked out 3 books to check out for Katie. She LOVED playing with the toys and watching the other kids. She went up to one girl who was sitting in a chair and kept saying "Hi". The girl was unresponsive-- probably was wondering who this kid was who was in her personal space!!

After we left the library (which took some convincing), we went over to Davis Park to check out the new play structures. Katie thought that was just swell!! They have a play structure for 2 - 5 year olds. Katie is a bit small to climb up to the slide herself, but that didn't stop her from trying! Daddy was her guardian angel on the structure while I helped her pick up some speed on the slide (by lifting her feet up just a bit.) Katie was on cloud nine! There were a couple other children playing on it as well, and she loved watching what they did, too.

The changes in the park are just wonderful. My only complaint is that they did not add a toddler swing to the swings. Katie wanted to swing by herself, but it just wasn't possible. It's too bad she's outgrown the baby bjorn. Could be worth strapping her in just so we can swing!

We'll try to make sure we get over to Story Time and the Park much more often! Kevin was the only Daddy at Story time (no big surprise), and it was so nice having him there. Especially at the park. I don't know how I'll do being Katie's helper up to the top of the play structure and then down the slide. I guess I'll figure something out, but it'll get more challenging as the weeks go by!

After we left the park, Katie had a nice lunch followed by a very nice 2 hour nap!! After she woke up, I brought her over to Grandpa's. She helped plant bulbs while I ran some errands to the mall and Costco. We got there so late that Katie was able to stay long enough to see Grandma. Oh, Katie loves seeing Grandma and Grandpa!

On Saturday, Katie started the day bonding with Daddy. Kevin was reading her stories while I was upstairs resting (another sleepless night), and Katie kept saying, "See Mommy?" Daddy would tell her that Mommy is resting. I came down around 8 AM and Kevin was feeding her breakfast. And what a breakfast it was!! Katie had a tangerine before breakfast. This was followed by 2 Eggo waffles and close to a cup of sliced strawberries. WOW!!! After breakfast, Katie had a nice bath. My belly is starting to interfere with bathtime (I am having some difficulty washing Katie's hair because I can barely reach the sink!), so Kevin shampooed and soaped up Katie, and I got to enjoy the rest of the bath time-- lots of playing with cups and rubber duckies. Katie's funny. We're practicing counting. She is very good at counting to 10, with the exception that she frequently omits the number 4. So, I asked her to count the rubber duckies (there were probably 5 or 6 ducks in the water). She'd take them out 1 by 1, but she'd only take out 3 at a time. So, she'd count "woooonnnnn, twoooooooo, fwee!" and then clap and cheer. It was pretty funny.

After bath, we went on a field trip to WaMu to add my name to the bank account. Katie was very good in the bank, especially considering how long we had to wait.

We got home, I made a quick lunch (couscous with beans & peas) for Katie, watched her wear more of it than she ate, and then I was off to a baby shower for a gal in the neighborhood. Turns out the baby came 2 weeks early, so Delya (the baby) was able to enjoy her mom Ami's baby shower. She is an adorable baby.

There is something seriously in the water in our neighborhood. Out of 5 ladies at the shower, 3 were pregnant and 2 had just had babies (Candace was there with her 3 week old daughter, Opal). There's a woman there who has a daughter 3 months older than Katie. She's pregnant and due about 1 week after me. They are having a boy. I asked her his name, and she told me (Reese). Someone asked me what I was going to name the baby, and I don't know if it's because I hemmed and hawed or because I said we *think* we're naming the baby this, but when I said Margaret, the entire room went quiet. It's like I said I was naming my daughter "E.F. Hutton" So then I said, "but we'll probably call her 'Maggie'" and the women were like, "Oh, that's a great name" or whatever. HUH???

As if I didn't feel awkward enough. The women at the shower all live within a few blocks in the same street and they all know each other really well. We live at the top of the development in a flag lot, and I never see these people. So, I was already feeling like I didn't belong and then the above happened. It could be my pregnancy hormones, but that really bothered me. I guess if I want to be friends with these people, I really need to reach out. Right now, Kevin and I just see them at Christmas and July 4th parties. The new mom, Ami, asked others what they thought about doing a book club. Everyone thought that was a great idea. I thought it'd be fun, but I thought in the back of my mind, "When are you gonna have time to read??? Can I find these books on Audible.com???" We'll see.

I was grateful to be included in the baby shower, especially when I found out I wasn't invited to Candace's a few weeks earlier. Maybe the book club thing will happen and I will have more opportunities to get to know these ladies.

Kevin and I have many thoughts about trying to move back into the 'Couve (maybe eastside or into Camas), so maybe I shouldn't let my left-out feelings bother me so much. Who knows when we'll be able to move, with the housing crisis right now-- could be tough to sell.

ANYWAY, after I got back from the baby shower, we headed over to Joe & Debbie's house. Katie had the BEST time with Joe & Debbie's girls Meaghan (6) and Catlin (4). Katie was grinning ear-to-ear all night, chasing after them, trying to do what they do, etc. We were having sort of a celebration for Ross & Lynn's engagement. We got there around 5:20, Ross/Lynn maybe an hour later, and Andre and Trudy showed up around 7 / 7:15. It was SUCH a bummer we had to wrap things up early, but it's not good to mess with a child's bedtime. Because we forgot to bring Katie's milk, we had to make sure we left at a decent time. As it was, we didn't get home until around 8:30 (30 minutes past her bedtime), and she didn't get to bed before 9. BUT-- she slept very well and didn't wake until 7 AM

The same cannot be said of me. Max got me up around 10:30 and again 1:30. I was wide awake after the 2nd wakey-wakey. That was frustrating. Que sera, sera.

Katie had a good breakfast of oatmeal (with only a little milk this time) and frozen blueberries with, of course, a side of blueberries (and a few rasberries).

Oh yeah-- if I hadn't mentioned it, Joe & Debbie ROCK-- they gave us a bunch of toys, puzzles, books, DVD's that had been slated for the GoodWill. We got lots of story and puzzle time in before she went down for a nap at 11. One of the books is on Potty training. I started reading it to Katie, and when it talked about the potty, I asked her where her potty chair was. She got up and walked over to it. I asked her if she wanted me to read to her while she sat on the potty, and she said, "OK". So, I started reading the book about Prudence and her Potty. There's a few pages that show Prudence in her birthday suit. It talks about her various body parts and what she can do with them. When they talk about her bottom, there's a shot of the baby bent over with her hands on the ground. Katie saw the picture and said, "Upside Down" We have it on video, and it's pretty darn cute!!

Katie took a 2 hour nap and woke around 1 PM and...... YEAH--- she'd POOPED!!!! We were on Day 4, which meant we were gonna have to give her a suppository if she didn't have a BM.

I think we'll have to consider taking her into the pediatrician to figure out why she's so plugged. We do lots of things right with her food, and she gets lots of activity, but something is obviously broken in the plumbing department.

We have some new double-fiber bread (I call it colon blow) that has 6 grams of fiber per serving. She likes the bread very much, so I'm hoping it'll help a little. She gets fruits and veggies every day (LOVES peas, broccoli, green beans), so I'll keep increasing those foods. When I talked to the advice nurse a few weeks ago, she said that couscous is a "neutral" food, meaning not great fiber, but not binding, either. So, we'll keep feeding her the couscous/peas/beans thing and keep trying to give her the whole wheat pasta (which is a little hit/miss)

I HATE giving her the suppositories, even though they work awesome. We've had to do that twice, and now Katie will often refuse to open her legs for us to clean her up when we change her diaper. So, we obviously need to try another way to get her regular. I know a few people who give their toddlers Miralax. I bought some, but I won't use it unless we get the OK from Doc Bader's office.

Oh, I hear the Peanut and Daddy heading downstairs (Daddy gave me some Grown-Up time and took Katie for an hour or so), so I'd better sign off. This blog entry is a borderline novella anyway!!