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Sunday, October 31, 2010

Happy Halloween!

We had fun celebrating Kathryn's first Halloween! Since we live "in the country" we don't have any trick-or-treaters, but we still enjoyed dressing her up as a "Katie-Cat" and taking pictures! (As you can see, I have lots of favorites!)
Her little tail!
Daddy's little (kitty) girl
Yummy Reece's...packaging :)
Family shot!
My first Halloween!!
Petting one of her own kind. (She LOVES to do this!)
Our little kitty :)

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Our day :)

This morning I woke up with Kathryn's voice pleasantly talking over the monitor and E. J.'s alarm going off at 6:30 a.m... all while still feeling the effects of NyQuil from the night before. I wasn't surprised she woke up earlier than normal because she went to bed at 5:50 p.m. last night! Needless to say, it was tough getting out of bed this morning, especially for a Saturday!

I left work early on Friday because I had absolutely no voice. On top of having back issues all of this week, I also had a head cold brewing leaving me very congested with a sore throat. Today I have a little bit of my voice back but it sounds really froggy. Even Kathryn thinks it's funny because she was especially smiley today when I talked to her.

E. J. left at 7 a.m. this morning to do LOTS of overtime/off-duty work. Poor guy worked 8 a.m.-1 a.m. today/Sunday on two different jobs and should be home at 2 a.m. He's definitely going to crash once he gets home!

So without him here today, it was just me and Ms. Kathryn spending a pleasant Saturday together.
Good Morning!
(This is actually a happy face avoiding the flash)
After waking up and starting her day, Kathryn...
Feverishly texted
Played in her Exersaucer
Practiced her sitting-up skills (she can't get herself into this position,
but her control is getting much better. She's almost there!)
Spent some time playing on the floor.
Helped me write a paper for school.
This is what she thinks of homework.
I completely agree.
Went for a walk.
And of course, we took Maddie and Oliver along with us.
Helped me cook dinner.
The final result: Penne with braised short ribs. Delish! One of my favorite recipes! It's definitely not a dish for a weekday because it does take a while to make, but I highly recommend giving it a try. You can find the recipe here.
Back to K's activities for the day. It was then time for one of her favorite parts of the day,
BATH TIME!
Chowed down on some delightful rice cereal sporting her
personalized bib thanks to my very crafty Aunt Sue! "Katie-bug"
Cuddled with mom before bed time.
Kathryn...OUT!
It was a great day with my little girl, but now it's time for me to get back to working on that stupid paper. Can't wait until it's DONE!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Dinner at our house lately

For the past month-and-a-half Katie Bug has been loving and doing very well in her Bumbo now that she much more strength in her neck. So, instead of sitting in her swing while we eat dinner, this is what dinner at our house looks like:
(of course, we join her ;) )
However, tonight after dinner we did things a little differently. After E. J. gave K a bath and got her ready for bed it was time for her to eat, but not just her usual bottle...
When we were at the doctor yesterday for my back, we took advantage of being there and asked him about feeding K a little bit of cereal (conveniently he's our family doctor for each of us) because she seemed to be wanting to eat more frequently. He said it was okay to introduce a little bit of cereal at this point. So tonight we went for it!
Daddy giving it a try :)
Excuse my I've-been-laying-in-bed-all-day look. Thankfully the muscle relaxers allowed me to sit up for a bit to feed K for the first time!
They say you know your child is ready for food if they go for the spoon. She was ready to say the least - trying to launch her whole body towards the spoon!
Milky cereal face
She likes it! (Again, trying to avoid the flash!)
15 minutes after this last picture was taken, she started and finished her bottle and fell asleep. First "food" feeding was a success!

Now it's time for me to me to lay down again and keep resting my back. I'm still not able to walk completely upright and I decided it's probably best that I don't go to work tomorrow. I wish missing work was on better terms. Here's to feeling better asap!

Monday, October 25, 2010

BACK....in bed

Ugh! My back is at it again and forcing me to spend lots of time in bed...

I have a history of a bad back and about a year-and-a-half ago an MRI showed that I have a herniated disc and a torn disc which occasionally flairs up and causes me to have incapacitating pain. It's the WORST! I'm basically helpless when this happens. Nevermind not being able to help myself, but with Katie Bug here, I can't help her at all - not even pick her up to snuggle or give her a hug. Breaks my heart!

This past week my back wasn't exactly cooperating, but it was something I could deal with, as I had many times in the past. However, last night it was just getting worse. When I woke up this morning I knew it was bad but I still continued to get ready for work. Then when it was time to dry my hair and I couldn't bend over to dry it. I had to stop and decided it was best that I didn't go to work because at this point I could barely walk.

I called E. J., who had just finished working out at the gym and he drove all the way back home to take care of me. Thankfully, K was still sleeping when I called him and she was just waking up when he got back home because there was no way I could pick her up out of her crib.

I was able to get an appointment with my doctor at 10:45. Apparently Monday's are crazy at the doctors office and everywhere in general...

10:30 - arrived at the doctor's office
10:50 - called into patient room
12:30 - seen by the doctor
1:30 - Target to pick up prescription (K and I waited in the car)
1:52 - text from E.J. - the Dr. office called prescription into wrong Target, would take 15-20 minutes to transfer the prescription to the correct Target
2:10 - another text from E. J.: only one of the perceptions could be filled at Target b/c the other one does not have a contract with my prescription insurance and Target or else it would be $210 to fill!
2:30 - pick up second prescription (for only $15, not $210) from Kroger
3:10 - finally HOME!

As you can imagine...all this waiting around - not so great on the back! Needless to say, I couldn't wait to get home to get in my favorite on-my-side position which is the only way that seems to make me feel better.

Now that I have my meds, they make the pain a tad more tolerable and I'm able to walk around like a lopsided Hunchback of Notre Dame (only when I really have to). E. J. has been a huge help and I haven't had to do a thing around here - just rest to hopefully get better SOON! I hate being helpless.

Tomorrow will be a day spent in bed for me while K is at her grandma's house. Okay, so you get it, I'm in lots of pain, so I'll quit the complaining ;). Here's a pic of me and K resting up (long day) :-)
This weekend was fairly low-key. Kathryn "helped" me fold some laundry. (Maybe I shouldn't do laundry anymore to prevent future back problems!)
And by "help" I mean take clean socks and start eating them...
and look super cute :)
Behind a mountain of whites. So much for helping...kids these days! ;)
Saturday afternoon K and I went to a baby shower for a friend of mine who had her baby at 25 weeks ("normal" is 38-42 weeks)! She and her husband have been though so much, but it sounds like they will all be able to officially come home in just a couple of weeks! Great news for them as things continue to progress in a positive direction.
All dressed up and ready to go. Cute outfit thanks to Aunt Jen!
Then we tried to take a few pictures together before we left. Unfortunately, I've taken so many pictures of K that she now anticipates the flash and it's hard to catch her with her eyes open, but it makes for some funny faces!
That's better!
We had a fairly lazy Sunday. Later in the day I was loading the dishes (perhaps another activity I should avoid to prevent back problems? Sounds great to me!) and looked out the kitchen window and caught E. J. checking out his favorite spot, the pond in our backyard, as he did his nightly feeding-the-animals chores. I like this shot of him, very peaceful. :-)
Speaking of peaceful, the meds are kicking in and it's time for me to lay down and rest up! Nighty night!