What a week!

Well it has been quite a while since I last posted because we have been quite the busy family! Last Wednesday, I packed Katherine up for the weekend and sent her with to my parents house to stay. Her first over night adventure without Mom! Yikes! I was nervous that she would throw an absolute fit, but my parents assured me that she was quite the angel. Thank goodness! Chris and I had our very first date night in more than a year and it was wonderful! The best part was a whole night of sleep without worrying whether Katherine would wake us up or not! Whoo hoo!! Thursday morning bright and early Chris took me to the airport for my trip to Baltimore, MD. I went up to spend the weekend with Cory (Chris's brother for those of you who don't know) while he donated bone marrow. The DOD Bone Marrow program arranged all of our trip plans and I was shocked to find out that I was flying first class to Baltimore! I have never been in first class other than once when I was 3...and I don't remember that! I arrived in Baltimore around noon on Thursday and was flooded by a whole pack of Boilermakers. Apparently Purdue was playing their first round NCAA tourny game in DC. They all wanted to know how to get to the arena for the game and apparently since I wasn't wearing Black and Gold they thought I was a native of the area...NOT! Sorry...wasn't much help to them.

So after that I met up with Cory at the hotel and we explored the Inner Harbor. Cory meanwhile had eaten a snickers, which normally don't bother him, but due to the shots they were giving him for his bone marrow donation, he had a moderate allergic reaction to the one peanut in his mini-snickers bar...NOT a good thing! So off to the hospital we go and Cory gets two bags of Benadryll through an IV put into his system. He was out like a light for a few hours.

The next day (Friday) we were at the hospital for his donation. The process was really fascinating from a my point of view. Probably not so fun if you are on the donating or receiving end of it, but from a spectator it was very interesting. He finished donating and we were on our way without incident...and by this time I had banned peanuts and was on the lookout for anything peanut related.

Saturday morning we woke up and were ready to head home...did I mention that it was FREEZING in Baltimore?! I was ready for some SUN! :) We headed to the airport 4 1/2 hours early in the hopes that we could catch earlier flights and get home at a reasonable hour. Cory managed to do so and was back in Blacksburg in time for dinner. I wasn't so lucky. Because I had already checked my bags, the airline wouldn't let me catch the earlier flight...even though my flight was over booked and the earlier flight was half empty... Here's the kicker...when I finally got to Melbourne at 9pm that night...my luggage had been here since 6pm....so much for staying with my luggage! Oh well...the airlines are in trouble so I guess all common sense has left the industry.

We picked up Katherine from my parents on Sunday morning and I swear to you she wasn't too excited to leave Grandma and Grandaddy's. Great for the mom and dad's ego! haha. Mom said that she was perfect the entire time we were gone, but that she wore them slam out! Ha! I'm glad that Katherine was so good for them, but it would be nice if she had missed us a little! :) Just kidding!

Katherine is growing like a weed still. She loves eating "big people" food and so far her favorites are carrots, green beans, yogurt, peanut butter sandwiches and bananas. She does seem to have some texture issues, but we're working on that! She is trying to stand up on her own now and will balance without holding onto anything for about 3 seconds...and then it's SPLAT! hahaha. Luckily she usually lands on her rear end! She also took her first step the other night but immediately face planted on the carpet...she hasn't attempted it again, but I think we are close!

This weekend we are going to a family picnic with the other families in our Sunday School class, so I will be sure to post pictures of her first trip to the Beach!! I'm just hoping that Daddy takes care of the playing in the sand...I HATE sand in my shoes and I will only sit on it if there is a towel under me...could be an interesting trip to the beach! :)

Until next time!

Laundry and a New Ride!

This weekend Christopher took pictures of Katherine while she "helped" me with laundry...meaning she stood at the dryer and pulled clean clothes out and promptly put them on the floor! It was cute, but not all that helpful.

Today, we received her brand new stroller via UPS. I had decided that for our trip to Virginia lugging a HUGE stroller as well as a HUGE car seat through the airport would be a bit cumbersome. SO...I found a more compact stroller and a bag with wheels for our car seat to go in...problem solved! Katherine and I took our first walk in her new stroller and she was very happy that she could kick her feet in this stroller. When we got home she actually stood up and pushed it while actually walking with it! This is a first as she has been quite the cautious one and had up until today refused to take any steps at all! Here are some pictures!

Enjoy!

"Helping Mom with the Laundry"

Out for my first stroll in my new ride!

Walking around the kitchen with my new toy!

New tooth and milk everywhere!

Well this week has been a whirlwind! I feel like it is Tuesday and it's in fact Friday! Where did the week go?! Katherine has recuperated well from her unfortunate nose incident last Sunday, but still has a little bruise on the top of her nose. Hopefully this Sunday has better results! :) This week Katherine got another tooth! One popped through next to her top right front tooth. So she now has a total of 5 teeth! She was not too thrilled at the tooth coming in as it seemed to bother her quite a lot, but now that it's through the skin all is well.



We have also had some issues this week with her drinking abilities. She tries to drink SO fast that she forgets to breath, so when she comes up for air, she still has a mouth full of milk, which she then lets drool out of her mouth and all over her clothes! So after each sippy cup of milk she now requires an outfit change as she is soaked to the skin and sticky! Not so fun for Mom, but we are working on it! Here are some pictures from this week.



Enjoy!


If you look really hard you can see her tooth to the right of her top front right tooth.

This is our normal milk drinking look here...

I'm quite the ham for the camera!

First Big Boo Boo

After we took Cory to the airport on Sunday morning, we went to Sunday School. Katherine stays in the nursery while Chris and I are in Sunday School and almost everytime we go to pick her up, they say "oh, Katherine fell over while she was standing, or crawling, or whatever the case may be." Well this Sunday we go in to pick her up and before we could even get over to pick her up, both Nursery ladies were saying "OH...she took a nose dive off of the chair we put her in to have her snack. So she's got a really red nose and a bump on her forehead." Chris and I just look at each other, like oh good grief! So anyway, Katherine has a bruised nose from the experience for nose diving off her chair. I think that she's trying to see if she can end up with as many nose injuries as her Uncle Cory and still be able to breathe! I still don't understand why they would put her in a chair when she can't even stand up without holding onto something, but I guess that's why I"m not a Nursery attendant! She was also the only child in the Nursery yesterday, so it wasn't like they were hurting for extra hands! Oh well. We lived to see the new day, so no harm done! Here's a picture of her this morning. It's hard to see it, but her poor little nose has three red spots on it...looks like she skidded across the rug.

Uncle Cory's Visit

Uncle Cory came to visit us for his Spring Break this week! I had a LOT of fun with him. He taught me how to play the piano, tried to make me walk (even though I refused!), fed me some brownie and played with me a lot! Here are some pictures of his week with us.

Love,

Katherine

1 year checkup

Katherine had her one year checkup today. We saw a new pediatrician because our previous one and I had differing opinions. So we saw Dr. R today. She is a very nice lady, but she is a pretty good drive from our house. Good thing Katherine doesn't seem to be a sickly baby! :) She said that Katherine is "beautiful" and very good...if only she could see her at home! Ha! We got two shots today and she was NOT a happy camper. The poor nurses standing outside thought she was being strangled or something. I'm hoping that she will learn to use those lungs of hers for good use in the very near future...as of now the only thing those lungs have done is caused my hearing to go! :) Oh well!!

Our "long and lean" baby is even more lean this appointment. She is 17 lbs. 9oz. and 29 1/4" long. Those stats put her in the 5% for weight and 50% for height! Good thing is that the doctor said she is perfect! Supposedly breastfed babies have a tendency to be on the leaner side...who knew?! We are almost on all whole milk and she is now supposed to eat "big people food" like us! Our last pediatrician never told us what to feed her, so the poor kid has been getting baby food and milk only up to this point (a few fruits thrown in here and there)...well not anymore! It's full steam ahead with "real" food!!

I'll have to post some pictures in a bit when Christopher gets home. Until next time!