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Archives for 2003

Birthday Dinner for Grandpa Orr

Aunt Pat and Uncle Art graciously hosted the family tonight to celebrate Grandpa Orr’s birthday. Both Grandma and Grandpa Ramsay were in town to meet Grant – the newest member of the extended family – and to spend some quality time with family.

We really enjoyed catching up with everyone and watching the babies and toddlers interact with one another. Both Kevin and Will were active, playing with all the wonderful toys in the backyard, from the sandbox to the basketball hoop to the swings. Katherine spent much of the evening watching the two toddlers (especially from the high chair) and socializing with the adults.

Grant, who is a month old, snoozed, ate and generally hung out with Trina, Aunt Pat and Grandma. He is a very adorable baby, with a wonderful disposition. Mandy managed to sneak some food when folks weren’t watching, although she didn’t get any carrot cake…this time. ๐Ÿ™‚

Highlights for Katherine:

  • Steve and I took turns pulling Katherine along in a plastic wagon. The faster we went, the more she would clutch on to the side of the wagon and kick her legs. We could tell that she really enjoyed this because she would start panting (this is her new “thing”) sort of “ha ha ha ha” and give us a big smile.
  • Katherine enjoyed the kiddy swing. Dad pushed her several times and then would grab and release her feet. Katherine thought this was extremely funny and would laugh at dad every time.
  • Katherine got to play on the teeter-totter with Will and Kevin. Will was initially a bit concerned that Katherine shouldn’t be on the teeter-totter (perhaps being too young), but Aunt Pat convinced Will to get on the other side and play with Katherine. Afterwards, he and Kevin both huddled around Pat and Katherine saying “Hello, baby Katherine” and peering into her face. It was a very cute moment. Katherine then crawled over to the basketball hoop, which she managed to face-plant into (mild crying) the pole, but she recovered fairly quickly.
  • The adults all took pictures of Grandpa Orr with the children. Kevin and Will both held plastic balls. Katherine eyed Will’s red plastic ball and grabbed Will’s shirt to try and get to it. Once Will lowered the ball, both children grasped the ball and stared at each other for several moments. I think we managed to capture this on film …er …RAM.
  • Grandpa’s birthday cake had a rainbow with the birthday inscription. This is perhaps a testament to how much we’ve read the “What makes a rainbow” ribbon book, but Steve and I listed off to Katherine all the animals that make a rainbow- Red/Ladybug, Orange/Fox, Yellow/Baby Chick, Green/Grasshopper, Blue/Bluebird, and Purple/Butterfly. Yep, we’ve read this book wayyyy tooo many times!

Many folks in the family were sporting new cars. Jason and Amy just bought a mini-van and Art and Pat a SUV. Both are great for kids. It seems like our children now drive so many of our decisions. It was great seeing everyone. Between us we shot 244 pictures the best of which appear to the right.

Other New Developments This Week…

Katherine’s teething continues in earnest. Patty told us that Katherine has a new tooth about to emerge on the bottom right gum and another up top. I stuck my finger in Katherine’s mouth last night, but didn’t have much luck finding them. The problem is that Katherine would chomp down, and those teeth really hurt!

We’ve got a new game in the morning where Steve and I take turns showering while the other plays with Katherine in the bathroom. She’s now learned that if she crawls to the shower and stands up (with palms on the glass) she can sometimes see the person in the shower. She also crawls to the drawer and pulls it out and pushes it in. yes – we’ve got to put in the drawer locks.

We took Katherine shopping last weekend (or maybe the week before?). Anyway, we hit the Nordstrom Anniversary sale, where we got a couple autumn outfits and some much needed 12 month jammies. She should be all set for the next several months or two more major growth spurts. We also stopped by a toy store, and picked up a toy that Steve and I had been looking at for a while. It’s kind of like a bead maze where the beads move on these wires (this toy’s been around for a while, so you’ve likely seen this thing). Katherine’s still a bit young to grok it entirely, but she does like to spin the beads around and move them up and down a bit. Nevertheless, it’s a great toy for the rest of the family. It’s also a nice change of pace from the other two standing toys that she plays with which are battery operated. (Speaking of which, we think the Leap Frog table is possessed. It will randomly start playing music at weird times of the day, even if we haven’t touched it in hours.)

Microsoft Company Picnic

We went to North Bend to the Microsoft Company picnic today – the first time for both Steve and me (believe it or not!) We wheeled Katherine around in her jogger. She hung out with some friends and soaked in all the sights. Key milestones:

  • Katherine ate a small slice of watermelon, all the way down to the rind. Dad also gave her a few licks of popsicles to cool her down. She wasn’t sure what to make of the artificial flavoring and coloring. ๐Ÿ™‚
  • She watched her friend Audrey bounce around in an inflatable thing. Katherine stood on a ledge outside, clinging on to netting and squealing with excitement.
  • She tried pushing a plastic lawnmower, which wasn’t quite stable enough for her.
  • And….she rode on a horse for the first time! Steve held her on the saddle while the horse plodded around the ring.

Audrey’s Cool Swing System

Katherine’s friend Audrey got a Rainbow System last month, and Audrey was nice enough to share it with Katherine earlier this week. As you can see from the pictures, Steve (and Katherine) had a wonderful time, going down the slide and swinging. Katherine also tried out Audrey’s plastic car. She wasn’t really sure what to make of it, but she gripped on tightly!

Feeding Bisco

It was inevitable. Katherine has started to feed Bisco from her high chair. In the past, she would hold her hand out and drop Cheerios or biscuits to the floor. Tonight, she leaned down towards her foot ledge and seemed to deliberately offer her whole wheat bread to Bisco. She did this repeatedly, despite our explaining that Bisco didn’t need any more food.

Katherine is also really enjoying finger food. Tonight, she munged up banana, cantaloupe, and boiled carrot pieces. We also gave her roasted asparagus stems thinking she wouldn’t eat it – since she refuses to eat pureed steamed asparagus. Instead, she stuck one end in her mouth and sucked out the asparagus from the stem. When she finished one end, she then flipped the asparagus to the other end and went to work on it. This continued until dinner was over, at which point she dropped it on the floor for Bisco. ๐Ÿ™‚

Other favorites: peas and rice, apricots, Zwieback toast (dry wheat toast), and any sort of wheat bread. She managed to tolerate a bit of cottage cheese this morning. She still loves Veggie Booty, but we’ve decided not to give her anymore since it isn’t very healthy for her (or us for that matter).

More Teething, Crankiness and Napping

We read in a book that babies “as they approach a year” try to go from two to one naps. Katherine a couple days this past week decided that she doesn’t need two full naps. She slept as little as 75 to 90 minutes – unlike her full 3 hours a day. Unfortunately, she’s demonstrated through some serious crankiness that she really needs 2.5-3 hours still a day. So, we’ve used all sorts of techniques to get her to nap, from driving her around to walking her in her jogger. I hope this phase doesn’t last too long, as it’s also resulted in her waking up a couple times during the night.

Katherine’s three top teeth are now descending, giving her more of a toddler look. And, we also found that a fourth top tooth will be coming in soon! That makes a total soon of 6 teeth!

Training Mom and Dad

Katherine has really learned how to train us. When she screams bloody murder in her high chair, it means that she wants to sip water from a straw or that she has a dirty diaper. When she squirms off our laps, it means she wants to walk. Most notably, she’s learned how to sleep with Mom and Dad; namely by getting up and screaming every two hours in the middle of the night. This really has a way of wearing down defenses. This also has resulted in Dad escorting Katherine to Mom who feeds Katherine and places her in between the parents.

Generally speaking, we haven’t had any major issues – until last weekend when Katherine fell off the bed!! According to Steve, Katherine and I were snoring and edged him out of bed. He put his pillow to one side of the bed to serve as a bumper and went to the other room. This solution apparently didn’t work. At 4AM, I woke up to the sound of something hitting the floor (THUMP!). I walked around the bed, and lo and behold Katherine was lying on top of the pillow on the floor. She didn’t seem too upset until I picked her up. Interestingly enough, Steve heard the thump from the other room, came running in, grabbed Katherine from me and gave her the once-over to make sure she was OK.

As a result, we’ve decided that its time to start the Farber-izing again and to make sure that Katherine stays in her crib. She cried 30 minutes tonight and made every effort to stay up. As I walked her in the upper hallway towards the family room she peered over the wall, and gave Steve who was on the downstairs couch the biggest smile. Once she realized that it was time for bed, she howled all the way back to her crib.

Gross Motor Skills & Mobility

Katherine is getting faster and faster. We can put her down in the family room, turn around and find her in the kitchen just a few seconds later. Typically, she wanders off the carpet onto the hardwoods, climbs up her highchair, or crawls under the kitchen table. I found her standing next to different kitchen chairs this afternoon.

She can also easily walk along an object like the coffee table. She uses the coffee table cushion to stand up, then walks along the table holding onto the cushion. Everything from laptop power cords to drinks to the remote is fair game for her. Steve claims that she pulled his power cord out of his laptop several times.

She also stands up in her tub when we bathe her and squirms all over trying to get at the toy most out of reach.

Sharon and Jamey Visit Katherine

Sharon and Jamey visited us over the 4th of July weekend. Although the visit was brief, we had a wonderful time and enjoyed seeing them. Katherine had a blast walking with Sharon all over the kitchen and family room every day. Sharon also managed to feed Katherine several meals. After one of her meals, Katherine ended up with dried peas on her eyebrow and veggie booty on her nose! Sharon also changed her first diaper ever, which happened to be a pretty monumental diaper.

They arrived late Thursday and we spent several hours Friday early afternoon in downtown Seattle. We ate lunch at Etta’s (yum), purchased cherries & strawberries at Pikes Place and headed to Pacific Place. After wandering around, we headed back to the car. Having not slept for almost 4 hours, Katherine snoozed all the way home. For dinner we BBQ’ed salmon, ate corn, and had a pretty tasty dinner.

The next morning, after my workout we went to Redmond Town Plaza. We walked around the Saturday market, getting more Rainier cherries and vegetables. For lunch, we headed over to Acapulco Fresh and went home afterwards since I was feeling pretty tired. I took a nap in the afternoon, and Steve took Katherine to Costco. Unfortunately, it became clear that I hadn’t been able to avoid Steve’s stomach flu. I spent the remainder of the day and evening sleeping and fighting off the flu. The next morning, Sharon and Jamey headed back to the airport.

When It Rain It Pours…

This has been one of the craziest several weeks for our family. Steve and I both contracted the stomach flu. Although I managed to shake it in only a couple days, it put Steve on point to take care of Katherine. With his defenses low, he caught bronchitis….hopefully, once he’s better, our family will be healthy again.

Finger Foods

Since Katherine is now 8 months old, we’ve started putting more and more finger foods on her little food tray. Favorites are Pirate Veggie Booty, cantaloupe, Cheerios, rice cakes and teething biscuits. She doesn’t like egg yolk at all. ๐Ÿ™‚ Katherine uses the three finger pincer grasp to get the food and then try to jam it in her mouth. She’s gotten pretty good at this and can get a decent percentage of food bits into her mouth. Much of the food does find its way out. For instance, she’ll suck on the Veggie Booty and then spit it out into her bib. She’ll also chew her cantaloupe with an exaggerated chewing motion and then spit that out as well. Bisco is getting quite a feast now under her high chair.

Gymcrawlers Class

At least once a week Patty takes Katherine to Gymboree and the Gymcrawlers class. We’ve never been to class, but apparently Katherine has a blast! Patty and her daughter Paulette took these pictures at their last class. Katherine crawled into the tunnel for the first time; see her big smile! She also played on the parachute and in the inner tube. We’re thinking of moving her to the Gymwalkers class, since she is now walking with assistance.

Faerber-izing Continued…

We’re plugging ahead with the Faeber method, and so far it’s working well. Since her first two nights, she cried 12 minutes the third night and only 5 minutes the fourth night. Last night, she cried 2 minutes and started to suck her thumb vigorously (we could hear this on the monitor). This crying, sucking cycle went on for about 15-20 minutes. In all, she only cries a few minutes at a time and is learning how to soothe herself to sleep.

The next step is to do this consistently with all naps and during the night. For instance, last night at 11:30, she was really mad that I put her down after I gave her a snack. She spent at least 20 minutes, cycling between thrashing around in her crib, letting out a few cries and sucking her thumb. This morning I put her down semi-sleepy and she did the same for 40 minutes. So, hopefully, this length of time will shorten and she will be able to fall sleep quickly and easily on her own.

The biggest challenge, funnily enough, is coordinating efforts across the entire family. The third night, Steve and I agreed that we wouldn’t go in her room for 15 minutes. Well, as I headed upstairs right as she stopped crying, I saw Bisco padding out of her room! I guess he heard her crying and was checking up on her. Also, last night I had put Katherine down to find Steve holding her 5 minutes later – not realizing that I was letting Katherine put herself to sleep.

Getting More and More Mobile…

Katherine can pull herself up using almost anything now. She uses the toys that hang off of her toy bookcase to get to a standing position. Once she’s standing, she pulls toys, books out of her bookcase and plays with them for a bit. We also removed the Pack and Play and put down her quilt and toys. This is now her area for standing next to her block and table. She crawls between this area and her bookcase freely.

She’s becoming a frighteningly fast crawler. This morning, I turned around to put a music CD in the DVD player. When I turned back around, I found her under the side table picking up device that turns out the lamp. She’s also learned to make a beeline for any power cord in the family room that’s readily available. I guess we’ll be baby proofing the family room some more this weekend.

What an Exhausting Week!

Steve had the stomach flu this week. This flu had made its way around both of our work environments, leaving folks with 3-5 days of GI issues and a nasty fever. Our goal had been to make sure that Katherine and I didn’t get the flu, and so far we seemed to have ducked the virus. Steve basically quarantined himself in the family room for two days, while Katherine and Patty stayed out of the house as much as possible. I took care of Katherine for a couple evenings – which was brutal given that she woke up every 3-4 hours!

Faerber-izing Katherine

We finally decided last night that Katherine needed to learn how to fall asleep on her own. Instead of rocking and walking her to sleep, we’ve prepared her for bed with a bath, books and brief walk. Then, we’ve put her directly in her crib the last two nights. Last night, she cried for 40 minutes straight. She spent almost 30 minutes standing in her crib, clutching and shaking the railing, and screaming at the top of her lungs. When we walked in (5, 8, 10, 15 minutes apart), she had tears running down her face and was convinced that we would pick her up to comfort her. Just as the book suggested, we consoled her (she would momentarily stop crying – and snuffle), but didn’t pick her up. At the 30 minute mark, just as I asked Steve “how much longer do you think this will go on,” she started to snuffle and cry only intermittently. At 40 minutes, the crying stopped!

Tonight, Steve walked Katherine around the neighborhood after her bath and books. Once she was sleepy and had started to suck her thumb, he put her down. This time she only cried 20 minutes before passing out in her crib. All in all, this experience hasn’t been too traumatic for us and Katherine. She was fairly cheerful today and didn’t seem the worse for the wear after her crying jag last night. I passed the 40 minutes of crying reading the new Harry Potter book, and much of the 20 minutes today cooking with the fan on. ๐Ÿ™‚

Katherine Gets Her First Pair of Shoes

To date, Katherine has been wearing her little baby Merrills (3-6 months) and Robeez (6-12 months). Now that she is walking around, Patty informed us that she needs to wear shoes with rubber soles. So we stopped by the local shoe store at Redmond Town Plaza. The owner of the store was very knowledgeable, and the shoe store clerk managed to measure Katherine’s little foot using the silver measuring thingy (size 3D – thin foot!). Anyway, we got a pair of Stride Rites – fairly flexible leather with rubber sole and laces. He said that Katherine can still wear her Robeez inside the house as slippers. But when she is outside she should wear normal socks with the shoes.

Katherine looked very funny walking around the store in her shoes. Steve called it “high stepping” – the owner said it was like learning how to walk again, because there is a good .5″ inch between her big toe and the end of the shoe. That said, Katherine seemed to enjoy the experience and we manage to capture her in her stroller wearing her first pair of real shoes today. How exciting!!

Developmental Milestones

Katherine can pull herself up by herself using either her Neurosmith block, her Leapfrog learning table or her toy shelf. She’s also a very practiced sitter, thunk!, and still loves to walk around. She’s also increased her speed of crawling and modified her technique. Instead of the army-type of crawl, she uses one knee and the other foot extended to push herself forward alternately. It’s not a traditional crawl, but it seems to work fairly well.

Katherine can now sort of clap. If we clap, she’ll get excited and move her hands together. Often times her hands will actually meet – which is what we call clapping. This Friday, she also started to play ball. We spent the last couple days rolling her little ball to her. She would then flap her arms around and manage to hit the ball, sending it back in our general direction. She loves being able to interact with us!

She has also started to push food out of her mouth. Food that she’s liked in the past, like pears and mango, are now on her “do not like” list. When we try and feed her this food, she sticks it out on her tongue and pulls her tongue back into her mouth without the food. Today we fed her the old sweet potato standby which she ate without any issues.