Shocking!

Walking into my parents' house is always a big event. We usually have more than one bag and a carseat full of Kate.

My parents' dog Darby may be the happiest and clutsiest big ball of fun that I have ever seen.

On Sunday John was carrying Kate in her carseat, as usually Darby bounded down the stairs straight for him. Luckily John was able to grab ahold of her collar to calm her down, when all of a sudden he felt a vibrating on his hand.

My dad had hit the vibrate on Darby's training collar...good think it wasn't the shocker!

Kate's First Thanksgiving

Overnight With Grandma

Tonight John and I are heading out to celebrate a friend's birthday. Since this is an adults only event, we quickly found ourselves a suitable babysitter...

GRANDMA!!

Babysitting while we were gone quickly turned into an overnight with Grandma. This will be the first time that Kate won't be with us overnight.

Of course I completely trust my mom, and know that Kate will be perfectly fine.

The one who may not be perfectly fine is me. But like taking off a band-aid, I should get this first over night out of the way.

I'm sure it will be hard, but on the upside I will be able to sleep in! : ) (Which to me means around 6:00am)

As Big as Reese

The other day as I was picking Kate up from her swing I stopped for a second and looked at her. I realized at that point that she is now as big as Reese was when she and her mom Heidi came to visit us in the hospital.

At that point I of course could not fathom that my small tiny peanut would ever be that big, or even bigger.

Once I realized that I just had to stop and smile, I really can't believe how much she is growing. It is amazing how much fun it is to be with her as she gets bigger and learns new things.

Then I thought of sweet Reesie Lou and decided it was about darn time to see her again, as well as Heidi of course!

I know I have mentioned this before, but it is such a wonderful gift to have two friends with daughters that are about three months older than Kate. As I watch both Reese and Peyton grow up, I get a little preview of what to expect with Kate.

And let me tell you, it only makes me more excited!

Naked Baby

My once freeze baby of a little girl has now become the incredible naked baby!

It seems that Kate has now accumulated enough fat on her body so that when she has no clothes on she isn't freezing cold anymore. This change happened slowly, starting with her not crying when her diaper came off. Next she seemed fine while her clothes were changed.

Finally, she has gotten to the point where she loves to be naked.

Yesterday I decided to let her "air out" for a little bit on top of her changing pad. As soon as she had everything off, she was moving around like crazy. There were kicks, leg lifts, arm flails, and punches galore. She had even started rubbing around on her belly trying to grab it with her hands.

Along with this activity, she worked out a couple of good stinkers of course. After hearing, and smelling, a couple I started to get nervous. As most people have heard "Where there's smoke, there's fire."

So I reached down to get a diaper to quickly attach to her cannon of a bottom. When I stood back up the protective sheet over the diaper pad was wet (thank goodness it has a plastic lining) and she gave me the biggest smile.

While I was cleaning it all up, and laughing of course, she continued smiling away seemingly proud of herself for sneaking it out on me like that. What a stinker!

Three Months

Kate is now three months old, here she is doing one of her favorite things (swinging in her baby swing).

A Love Affair With the Man in the Brown Truck

There's no need to worry, this is not a post about a trashy romance straight out of my Grandma's old novels! It is a post about the love affair our beagles have with the UPS man.

When John and I got married we had a lot of gifts delivered to our house. This is the first time that our beagles, Nora and Puller, met the UPS man. Every time that he stopped to deliver a package when I was home, he would give the dogs each a treat.

Now this treat was not the normal small-sized milk bones that we give them, but was the extra large sized milk bones made for dogs the size of a mastiff. I am sure they thought it was one of the best things they had ever received.

It was basically love at first bribe.

Not long after this first meeting the dogs began to recognize the UPS truck and would bark hysterically whenever they would see it, no matter if they were inside or out.

Then, one day I opened up the door to pick up a package that was delivered when we were gone, and there were two dog treats sitting on top of the package. It seems that the UPS man didn't want to dogs to feel left out even if they weren't outside when he came by.

A couple of weeks later, on a Saturday, John let the dogs outside and immediately they started barking like crazy. He got up and started to go outside when he saw the UPS man driving down our street. The driver slowed down by our house, did not stop, but tossed out two bones that the beagles quickly gobbled up. The driver waived at John and continued on his way.

This special relationship is strengthened almost weekly through the tossing of treats out of the moving UPS truck as well as the treats that are left on our delivered packages.

Now I'm sure that there are others out there that have great delivery people, but I just wanted to take a minute to let people know how much our dogs love our favorite UPS driver!

Oh What A Night

Whooeee, what a night we had last night!

Little miss Kate did not sleep very well at all. Thank goodness this is an unusual happening instead of the norm!

She went down at 9:30 and proceeded to wake up twice with John and twice with me, until she woke up for the fifth time at 1:30 in the morning with me again.

We tried changing her diaper, giving her the nuk, cuddling her, turning on her rain forest music machine, feeding her, etc. But no matter what as soon as we sat down with her or laid her down, she went crazy. Go figure that we ran out of batteries in the swing the day before and had not replenished yet (this is usually her favorite thing). The bouncy chair was just not going to work as a substitute.

Finally, I started singing to her...much to my surprise this worked! I started with some Raffi classics, then moved onto some nursery rhymes, finally in my sleep deprived state of mind I had no clue of what else to sing.

And of course as soon as I stopped she would start to whimper again.

Then I had a great idea (given to me by Kool 108) to start singing Christmas songs. After one round of "It's the most wonderful time of the year" and "Silent Night", she was down for the count.

So the other day when I shook me head as Kool 108 was playing some Christmas music (way to early in the year) I didn't realize that it would come in handy!

Kate's Funny Feet

Here's a video showing how Kate likes to touch things with her feet instead of her hands. I swear she is more coordinated with them than anything else!

http://www.youtube.com/taylormadefamily3#p/a/u/0/0uEd7Ijubik

I Did an Awful Thing

Last night on my way to dinner with my mom, I hit a dog with my car.

I barely saw it as it crossed the white line, and slammed on my brakes just as I hit it. Right away I couldn't believe that it had just happened, and pulled over onto the side of the road and turned on my hazard lights.

I kind of sat there for a second, maybe in a little bit of shock. Then I realized that I had Kate in the back and #1 shouldn't be sitting on the side of the highway in the dark and #2 didn't feel comfortable turning the car around and driving back to the gas station (by where the dog ran into the road).

As I was sitting there I saw in my rear view mirror, someone walk out into the road, pick up the dog, and walk back. I couldn't really see much more since it was dark. At this point I wasn't sure if I should wait there, go back to talk to the person, or keep on going.

It changes everything that Kate was in the car with me, and that it was just the two of us alone. When you have your young child with you in this type of situation, their well being greatly supersedes any other thought process that you might be having, or trying to have.

So I called 911, not really knowing what to do in this situation, and while I was waiting for the cop to come I pulled onto a side road right next to where I currently was. I finally gathered up the courage to get out of the car and look at where the dog hit. I was so afraid that any blood or hair left on the vehicle would cause me to completely freak out, that it took me a while to calm down enough to look.

I couldn't really see anything, so I got back in the car to wait. When the cop showed up he took a look and shined his flashlight there so that I could see as well. I explained to him what had happened, and it sounded like he was going to go back to the gas station to ask around. He said that it is a good thing that he will be able to let the owner of the dog know what happened.

All night, and still today, I couldn't shake the feeling that I got when I realized what had happened. I feel so sorry for the family that the dog belonged to. As many of my family and friends know, I have two dogs and two cats of my own. This makes what happened even harder for me because I understand how much of a family member a pet can become.

So thankfully Kate was not hurt, even the car was not hurt, but my heart...definitely was hurt.

Why Is That Any Of Your Business?

Yesterday, as I was leaving the parking ramp, the parking lot attendant (who is always overly friendly) asked me if I was still breast feeding my baby.

He asked this while motioning to his breast and making a squeezing and pulling motion. I get this question a lot from people that I know, and I am fine with it. But when it comes from a complete stranger, who is not a doctor/nurse/medical professional that needs to ask these questions, and is accompanies by crude motions, I think I have the right to be offended.

Now really, is that any of his business?

Supposedly he asked this to lead into his next compliment..."Because you are looking very pretty." Sorry, that compliment kind of backfired!

Barely Made It

I barely made it into work this morning and it really didn't have much to do with me taking too long to get ready.

I wake up at 4 every morning and by 5 I am ready with a bottle to feed miss Kate when she wakes up. Though there are times when she wakes up around 4:30, but she is perfectly content to swing it out in her swing while I finish getting ready.

After feeding her a bottle I bring her into her room to change her into her daytime clothes. This is a part of my morning where I often get sidetracked. Kate loves to lay in her changing pad, with only a diaper on, and coo and smile away. This is where we have our morning chats.

Today though, she was extra talkative, and when I put her back in the swing so that I could leave for work, she decided there were some more things to tell me. She was getting so excited, moving all around and smiling like crazy, that I just had to sit down on the floor next to the swing and hash it out with her. Ten minutes later, she was getting a little tired, and I looked at the clock and realized that I would have to drive or be late.

It's mornings like these that I wish I could take her to work with me!

You Know You Have a Daughter When...

... your husband cuts his finger on the washing machine, cleans it up with a baby wipe, and covers it with a Hello Kitty band-aid because those are the only ones you have in the house!

A New Friend

Kate loves to talk to her Cookie Monster friend after he gets done singing her his own version of "Old McDonald"!

Just a Little Juice

These past couple of days Kate has been kind of whiny and finicky when I get her home at night. I was thinking that it could have been because of an upset stomach. Just to see if it would help to get things moving along (hint, hint) I gave her some prune juice.

I know that most adults as they read this will flinch, squish up their faces, and think, "Yuck, prune juice!"

She loves it!

It took her all of five minutes to hoover down three ounces of the stuff.

Then, one pruney smelling burp later...she was back to being my happy baby again.

We may be on to something...

A Day of Fun

Kate is embarking on her very first "Day of Fun" with her auntie Kristen!


I am sure that the two will have a blast, hopefully my little girl is full of smiles and giggles all day for her aunt!

Is this a Growth Spurt?

Ever since last Sunday, Kate has been eating like a hungry hippo! She is still taking about 6 ounces for every feeding but instead of those feedings being 5 to 6 hours apart, she wants to eat every 3 to 4 hours.

Plus she has been super sleepy (practically slept all day on Sunday).

This morning at 2:30am she woke up super hungry, which she hasn't done since I went back to work (4 weeks ago).

But still, not chubby. I am still secretly hoping that she gets chubby, I love chubby babies!

If she keeps eating like this she will deplete my supply!

Ah well, what baby wants, baby gets! : )

All in Good Humor

When John and I found out that we had a baby on the way, we knew that we both wanted to raise our children Catholic. Our only problem with this was that we both wanted to find a church with a priest that made church more enjoyable than your run-of-the-mill Catholic mass. Was it such a weird thought to want some humor mixed in with mass?

Growing up in St. Paul you would think that John had his pick of funny and interesting priests, but it doesn't sound like that was the case. The priests that were at my church growing up were both very family and kid friendly, and made it enjoyable to go every Sunday. Hey, when you have a priest who sporadically breaks out a guitar to sing his homily you can't get bored!

Our first church visit on our search was to the Catholic church in Hugo, let's just say that neither of us were impressed. The Friday night fish fry was pretty good though!

Then, some friends of ours joined the Church of St. Genevieve in Centerville, so we thought we would give it a try. Thankfully, it was perfect. The first mass we went to the priest instructed the deacon on how important it was to joke during the homily (together they kind of put on a faith-centered side show). We have now become members, which involved the priest visiting our home. We both found him to be funny, in a corny grandpa kind of way, which really helped to calm our nerves. Wouldn't anyone be nervous with a priest coming over to their house? I even wondered if we should hide the R rated movies!

To get to the end of my story here...

Today when we were leaving church, Father Tom, with all of his typical humor, pointed at Kate in her car seat and shouted, "Rookie!". Now if that doesn't make you laugh, then I don't know what will. : )