K has become quite the Mario Kart expert. She sits on my lap facing me, and with her new-found reaching skills, she grabs the controller and yanks, usually throwing me into walls or off cliffs. She also is really good at hitting he button to release all of my items to attack others. Amazingly enough, we usually come in first or second place every time!

She also was able to successfully grab my bowl of cereal yesterday and spill it all over herself, myself, and the floor. I realize that this is only the beginning of food messes.

In other news, I am loving the 10+ hours of sleep she gets every night. I only wish I could sleep as much as she does - a nap before almost every meal plus at least 10 hours of sleep each night? I'd much rather do that than the dishes and laundry everyday.

Today, Mario Kart Wii came in the mail.  We got an amazing steal on the game and I'm glad we were up at midnight checking prices or we would have not found our game at such a low cost.  Anyway, we had to play it tonight.  K was sitting on my lap in between games and Mike held out the steering wheel controller and guess what happened!  K put out her little hand and arm, reached for it, and grabbed onto it all on purpose!  She's our growing little girl!

Yesterday I was in Spanish Fork for work.  As I was driving home, Mike told me about how K was rolling over on her mat.  Like actually rolling over without any help from Mike.  This isn't the first time that she has rolled over while I haven't been home and I'm mostly disappointed.  Apparently she only likes rolling over for Mike.  Lucky guy!

Sometimes being a parent is a real bummer.  Okay, I've only been one for 3 1/2 months but now that K has an actual schedule each day, it's really effected me and my schedule. 

I have a couple of experiences that demonstrate this from the past week.

One:  There was this fundraiser up in Kaysville this past Friday that I really wanted to go to ... the guitarist from Dashboard Confessional ... but I have this baby and finding someone to watch her last minute so we could go just wasn't an option for us.  So we stayed home.  Well, kind of.  I had a staff meeting, then we had family pictures, then we had to go eat at Thai Ruby, but by dinner time, we would have been late anyway.

Two:  Sometimes there's friend-gatherings that I would really like attend but it's tough when we need to be home before 9 pm to start getting K ready for bed. 

I guess really, it's just a tough transition to get used to.  Sometimes I really miss the days when Mike and I would decide we wanted to go somewhere, do something, so we just got up and left.  Now we have to think about feedings, naps, and if K is even going to want to be there with us.  Will we be able to keep her in her car seat or will we need to carry her because she gets upset if she wants to see things and she can't?

But no matter how many hard times there are, we sure do love her and are so grateful for her.  Plus who doesn't love being asked every week, "Is she real?  She looks like my doll ..."  And I'm grateful for those people because now I know what she's going to be tonight for the Family Night Out.

K is getting so chubby. We have been watching other kids as they are getting older and who were born around her birthdate, and they are huge compared to K. They started gaining chub quite a while back but K is just really starting to get into it and I love it. I especially love the chub when she's sleeping. All of her cheek chub just rests on her little neck ... oh I love it.

Little K is growing up so much!  Her most recent thing is her toes.  I don't think she quite understands what they are yet, but she knows they're always there and she can always grab them.

She used to always fall asleep in her car seat but she's starting to get really antsy in her car seat these days.  She doesn't like sitting still in it and she doesn't like to sleep in it anymore.  So days like today make me really wish I wasn't working.  She spent quite a few hours in her car seat today, or at least being transported in it, and so she didn't get much sleep.  By the time tonight rolled around, she was so tired and I felt so bad for her.  But although she would cry a bit and look at me like she was really sad, I would smile at her and tell her I was sorry that she didn't sleep in her car seat and she would give me a big smile.  Her smiles just melt my heart.  I love them.

little arms

Mike made a funny observation yesterday.  I've always thought K's arms were so cute, especially when she stretches.  Her little arms just go straight up.  But now I know why I love it so much - her arms are really short in comparison with her body.  Her fingers reach just above her head and boy, it's cute.

In other news, she has an ear infection and has to take Amoxicillin.  She is so good at taking it too.  Her first taste of it always leaves her with a disgusted expression, but then she goes on to take the rest of it like a champ.  She's such my good baby!

Messy

I cleaned up the worst mess I've ever seen from K this morning. 

See, K and I were intensely watching the news this morning - the live feed of the Chilean miners who were being rescued.  As K sat on a pillow on my lap, I shed some tears and K smiled as we watched a miner being pulled from the mine he had been stuck in for the past 70 days ... it was a precious moment.  (Don't worry, she usually doesn't watch television unless she is able to get herself moved so she can steal a glance before we catch her.)


Then I smelled a funny smell.  Assuming it was her diaper and that her diaper had caught everything, we continued to watch.  It was starting to really smell so after a minute or so, I looked down.  Yep, runny, brown stuff had pooled around her legs and bottom on the pillow.  For the past week, it's been very runny and it's not fun to clean up in her diaper (we're taking her in today to make sure she's okay).  This was a mess.

As I wallowed in self pity, K just smiled.  I don't know if she just felt better inside, if she thought it was funny that I was so miserable, or if she was just glad that I was finally cleaning her up, but she would not stop smiling.  She was so happy.  And that made the whole ordeal 100% better.

bests

Today I feel like Katie has slept almost all day.  Since midnight, she's probably been awake for maybe 5 hours.  Usually she's awake a lot more than that.  And I'll admit, I'm kind of bored.  I got a lot of work done in one continuous stretch, but I feel like a huge part of my day is missing - I have no little girl who wants to stare at the computer screen with me, no little girl who is laughing and talking to herself on the mat behind me, no little girl who likes to stand and open her mouth at me like she's surprised and impressed with herself ... I miss her today.

But it's given me some time to make me realize that she really is the second best part of my day (next to Mike) no matter how hard she may make my day.  Here are some of my favorite parts of the day with K:

Like I already mentioned, she likes to stand up on my lap and once she sees me, she'll open her mouth real wide like she's surprised.  I will open my mouth in response and then she'll just smile.  Oh, I love it.

I also love her early morning feedings.  Some days it's really hard to get up to feed her because although she got 8 hours of sleep, I like to stay up with Mike and play and watch television shows we've missed so I get a lot less sleep.  But I love just being up with her.  It's completely quiet, except for the train, and it's just me and her spending some quality time.

I love her smiles.  She loves to talk to Mike a lot but she gives me lots of smiles.  I also love how she tries to laugh.  She doesn't quite have the hang of it yet, but she tries.  And I love it.

And I absolutely love playing airplane with her.  I lift her up in the air so she's belly down and she flies all over.  She smiles and sometimes squeals and oh, I love it.

So in conclusion, I love that little girl.

grasping

K is holding onto items really well these days.  She loves to hold onto anything that is in front of her.  Unfortunately for Mike, this usually means his arm hair gets pulled. 

We've been working on getting her to hold her toys and look at them.  She does a good job but sometimes she gets too excited and her toys end up hitting her face.  It's always funny after this happens because her expression is one of shock and amazement.  

She is just so fun and lucky for me, because my work hours got cut, I get to spend the rest of the day with her.  We have playing, books, music, and napping ahead of us!

Sick, Round 2

We are sick again this week, all 3 of us, which makes mornings like this one really tough. It's 5 am here in Nebraska which means 4 am in Utah. That's early.

K has been really restless all night. She has been sleeping in a playpen next to our bed this week. It's definitely a lot louder with her next to us. She has such a stuffy nose and she keeps coughing. Poor girl. She keeps crying so we keep putting her back to sleep but I don't feel like I've slept yet tonight so I got up with her to feed her. I want some good, deep sleep.

It's a tough decision to make. Obviously she's not feeling well and fluids help. But at the same time, I've been getting up early with her a lot this week. Is she going to expect me to get up with her this early when she gets better and we are back home? Ugh. I hope not. I like my sleep.

reading and socializing

This week we've been in Omaha visiting relatives.  I almost think K has gotten the most out of our trip.  They have 3 kids ages 2, 4, and 6.  K loves being around them.  The first day we were here, it was obvious that she was fascinated by them.  She loves watching them run around and I'm sure she's dying to do the same. 

Yesterday we went to the zoo.  I was kind of sad because K napped the entire time and I think she would've liked to see all the people and animals.  When we got home though, if she wasn't near the kids and able to watch them, she would cry until I moved where she could see them.

Last night we left her with the relatives and we went out to dinner.  We left during the kids' reading time so I gave her to my sister-in-law who sat K on her lap.  The other 2 girls were sitting next to their mom.  It was such a cute picture of K sitting with all the girls while they read a book.

Lately, K and I have been reading quite a bit.  It's a lot easier here too when there are tons of kids' books around.   But she loves looking at the pictures and looking at the text.  I always feel bad when reading time is over because she seems so interested in the book.  I hate taking it away from her.