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Patty Salgado

Let’s try this again

I’m going to have to provide feedback to our web site provider, since I just lost my original posting. Let’s try this post again…

Katherine needs to go back to the pool! She’s been doing little froggie pushups in her bath – pushing up and down on her arms while leaning on her knees. She then leans forward and blows a bubble or two in the water. She then sits up and laughs out loud. She’s really getting the hang of being in the water and I think she’d enjoy some of our water baby exercises now. Apparently, she’s been floating on her back in her bath – so this is a good sign!

Katherine loves her ABC book. We flipped through it at least 2 times tonight, pointing to different objects. She would point at objects and we’d say the word. Occasionally, she would say the word too. Unprompted, we got “abble” and “egh.” Once we said the word, we got “babee” and “dohl” for doll. This morning, she grabbed Patty’s house key and said “dohr” for door.

We went mountain biking on Sunday morning. We strapped Katherine into her Chariot (it’s got a neck harness and seat belt) and we went careening thru a nearby park set of trails. Luckily, we put down the clear plastic cover on the Chariot, because it got covered in mud and dirt. Nevertheless, she seemed to do well – munching on raisins and asking for “agua” (e.g. Steve’s water bottle). The only time she made any sort of noise was when Steve would go down the steeper trails with wooden bars – then we’d hear “ahhh ahhh ahh” along with the bumps. I asked her this morning “Did you have fun with Daddy biking and did he go fast?” I got vigorous head nodding and smiling. I guess that means we’ll be biking again. Unfortunately, Steve’s bike gave up the ghost and two links, so Tina towed Katherine home from the park.

Katherine Likes Her Potty – Was it an Accident?

Patty has started to change Katherine in the bathroom with practice potty right nearby. Katherine has taken to reading on her potty, which is very sweet. Anyway, we had a fun evening (without Dad – who is on yet another business trip), and I made a slight error in judgement. I filled one of her juice cups with highly diluted juice. She sucked down about 4 oz of water and wouldn’t let me take the juice cup away from her. Needless to say, after I stripped her for her bath, she headed for the potty with reading material. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her jump up for bubbles and then head back to the potty. By the time the bath was full, she had peed on the potty. Because the potty is so deep and made for older toddlers, she sits on the edge of the potty. I guess we need to find a smaller one, because I ended up having to disinfect the potty, the linoleum afterwards and everything around it.

Farm Animals

Katherine may not be saying much but she understands what we’re saying. I asked her tonight to point to a sheep and she stuck her little pointer right on the sheep in her bus book. She maybe got half of the animals. I’d ask her for her lion and get a hippo – but then she got the lion.

Yesterday, I was chatting with her over dinner and talking about the local farm animal park. I mentioned that we would bring Bisco next time, and I got vehement nodding as if to say we should take Bisco on our next field trip. She also understands that Bisco needs his antibiotics, because she kept pointing at them until I got out the cream cheese and fed her.

Katherine and Mom

Well, now Mom (I) can claim that Katherine teethes when Steve leaves town. In this case, he’s been traveling almost every week this year (grumble), so it’s not all that hard for that to happen. Katherine and I have been spending lots of quality time together these past two weeks. On Monday night, Katherine was inconsolable. She did a lot of “ah ahhing” even as we pushed around the kitchen in a cardboard box. She didn’t want to eat dinner and was just really unhappy. Finally, I asked Steve to stick his clean finger in her mouth, and he said “there something coming out.” I did the same later that night. Katherine cried and I felt her second molar breaking thru her gums (right above her first molar). As a matter of fact, my finger had blood on it, so it must have really been hurting her terribly. We played with her and finally I went downstairs to get a teether from the freezer. Well, Steve tried to give Katherine her baby Advil and it didn’t go so well. I came upstairs to see Katherine streaking by in a blur of pink around her mouth and all down her PJs. Needless to say, she’s learned to spit out the baby Advil. ๐Ÿ™‚

Tuesday didn’t go much better for Patty and Katherine. At 4PM, Patty called to let me know that Katherine was cranky and hadn’t slept all day. I suggested some baby Advil to dull the pain and she finally took an hour nap. Katherine and I went to our toddler group class that night and she did pretty well. She clutched her lamb for the first 20 minutes of class, but was fine afterwards. After class, we went home, played and went to bed.

Wednesday night got dicier. I met Patty and Katherine for her haircut after work. Katherine’s hair had been getting very long, and we wanted her first hairdresser to trim her hair. I got to the store to find Katherine zipping a shopping cart around the store and tearing around. She wasn’t too excited about sitting for her haircut, but I supplied dried apple which kept her busy. Good news is that her haircut looks much better than the last, and she is very presentable. We stopped by Hallmark to get Dad’s V-day card. Katherine grabbed a couple cards, and I chased her around so I wouldn’t have to buy them all. Finally, after Katherine screamed for a few minutes in my arms, I selected a card and we escaped the store. Luckily, the other women shopping at the store were very understanding.

Last night was extremely trying. Katherine has definitely learned when Dad is home and when he isn’t. When he’s home, she sleeps thru the night. When he’s not, she wakes at least once and insists on sleeping in our bed. Not only did she get up at 1AM last night, she woke up at 3AM crying very hard. I walked her around and finally calmed her down by rocking her in her chair. I asked her “do you want to sleep in mommy’s bed” – she shook her head hard. I then asked “do you want to sleep in your crib?” and got more shaking. Finally, I asked “do you want milk” and got a “huh” so we went downstairs and drank milk. She finally fell asleep at 4AM.

Tonight confirmed that Katherine truly understands what I’m saying and that she’s talking to me. She picked up her sticker box and handed it to me. She said something that sounded like sticker and then “pwea” which sounded a lot like “please”!! I almost fell over!

We then went upstairs and Katherine decided she wanted toys out of her closet. I explained as usual that she would have to put one of her toys in the closet to get one out (the room is packed with toys). I asked her “do you want to put your phone in the closet?” She walked directly to her phone, picked it up and handed it to me. After a few more minutes of playing with her new toy (a bus), she went back to the closet. I asked “do you want mommy to put one of your toys away” and she shook her head. Wow!

Quality Weekend with Katherine

We had a wonderful weekend with Katherine. We got up at the crack of dawn on Saturday. Katherine’s been getting up earlier and earlier these days. We suspect that she’s trying to spend more time with us before we go to work in the mornings. ๐Ÿ™‚ Anyway, at 5:45AM she managed to wake me up. Steve took duty until I got around a bit later, and we had a nice time playing until I headed off to the gym. Katherine took over a 2 hour nap! Afterwards, we did a variety of errands from getting dog food, people food, a new shower part and generally catching up from last week. Katherine finally dozed off in the car, we made dinner, got Katherine to bed and watched a fun movie – the Italian Job.

Along with Katherine and Patty, Steve’s been fighting a bad cold. He’s been hacking away and we were determined to stay home today and get some rest. This is especially critical since he’s got yet another business trip this week. So, we stayed indoors (windy, rainy day!), played, baked cookies and had some friends over in the afternoon. Katherine played with her older buddies, Derek and Adam, and had a good dinner. She’s now snoozing away, and I expect that she’ll be back up for a snack in a couple hours.

Katherine and Bisco

They are becoming fast friends. Katherine regularly visits the bag by the door to get Bisco’s leash. She loves it when we put the leash on Bisco. She will then stand or sit next to him and sometimes pet him as well. Before dinner, I also caught Katherine giving Bisco a piece of bread that was supposed to tide her over to dinner. I gave her a small piece; she wobbled around the corner to the family room, extended her arm to Bisco giving him the bread! She also realizes that he loves her orange ball. Steve would give her the ball, and she would walk to the couch and hand Bisco the ball!

Sesame Street

To date, Katherine has shown no interest in TV whatsoever, including the Baby Blah series. This afternoon while she played in the TV room, we popped in a Sesame Street DVD with Ernie teaching the 123’s with lots of music and dancing (think Elmo in metallic pants). Katherine was entranced for 5 whole minutes. She sat on Steve’s lap and watched the DVD until she got bored and headed back to her toys. While we’re pretty happy that she’s not too attached to TV, it’s good to know that she has an attention span when she wants to focus on something.

Eating Everyday Food

Katherine is getting accustomed to eating the same food that Steve and I eat. She ate a couple wontons last night – stuffing and peel. Tonight, we made her tofu and spinach in soup stock and she wolfed it down. We also gave her egg whites for the first time today in the form of scrambled egg. She tentatively ate the first bite. I then spread the egg on her tray and she two fisted it a lot of it into her mouth. No allergic reactions so far.

Tanks!

Katherine now loves to give things to me or Steve. It may be a book, or a Lego or her Little People or whatever. We say “Thanks” and I think it’s finally taking hold. Derek played with Katherine, following her around and picking up her bowls and handing them back to her. I would ask Katherine “what do you say?” and she would say “Tanks.”

Little People

Katherine loves the Little People she got for her birthday. Quick explanation: it’s a line of Fisher Price toys with people who fit in buses, go to zoos (along with Little People Animals) and go to the amusement park. She carries this yellow plastic bus all over the family room. If it’s not the bus, she’s got an animal or person in her hand…What’s pretty exciting is that she’s finally got the hang of cleanup or putting toys in something. So, she puts almost anything in her bus and her Lego bin, whether it fits or not. ๐Ÿ™‚

I also played with her today and showed her how to roll her Little Person wheelchair seat into the back of the bus thru the rear door. She imitated me. How cool is that?

 

Katherine Talking and Walking

Katherine is officially mobile. When we left for our biking trip, Katherine could walk 4 or 5 steps between me and Steve. When we came home, after much practicing, she could walk 8 to 9 steps. Now she can easily wobble in Frankenstein fashion 14 or 15 steps. We play a game of “go to mommy” and “go to daddy” where she will beam and walk between us. Not only is she mobile, she can now squat and then stand back up again. For instance, if we duck behind the coffee table, she will grasp the table with one hand, squat down, peer at us from under the table and laugh at us. Tonight, I caught her walking to Bisco who was lying on the floor. She leaned down, grabbed his head, ears and then nose – at different times. I tried to explain that she needs to be gentle, but that didn’t work out too well. It’s fortunate that Bisco is very patient. He just stayed on the floor looking very resigned.

Katherine is also expanding her vocabulary. Today, I came home and Patty informed me that Katherine says “Up.” She confirmed this by lifting her arms up, looking up at me and saying “Uph.” It was very sweet. So, I spent the rest of the evening saying Up and Down. And we’re continuing to say Thanks (which I’ve heard a couple times as “Tanks”) and we think she is trying to say Bisco as “Bith.” She babbles a lot now, talking to herself as she plays with her toys and walks around.

Everyone Sings in Our House!

With Steve out of town this week, I’ve taken the opportunity to practice my violin warming up for a few minutes each night with some nursery songs and a few scales. For some reason, Bisco has real issues with the violin. He simply purses his muzzle and howls “AWHOOOO” non-stop. Even when I play simple songs, he’ll hop on the couch and moan.

Last night, I took my violin out for the first time in months. Katherine spied it and clung to my leg looking at the violin curiously. When I started to tune, Bisco rushed over and started to howl. Katherine really enjoyed the show – Bisco howling next to me as I tuned and played the violin. Tonight, I took out a harmonica that we got at Sid’s birthday party, and the same thing happened. I want to make sure that Katherine grows up with music (As they say at Tiny Tots “it’s a musical life!”), so hopefully she’ll develop a love for stringed instruments. I took her hand and let her touch my violin and bow, she was so curious!

Curious Katherine

We call her “Curious Katherine” because she wants to check everything out. Tonight, she wobbled behind one of our chairs and found the gymboree parachute that was collapsed. She picked it up (strong!) and dragged it from behind the chair as if telling me “Mom, I want to play with this!” I opened it up and she crawled through. After staring at it, she grabbed the tag and one end and started to roll the parachute back and forth watching it roll across the floor.

During our trip to the Bay Area, she investigated everything around her. On the plane, she would check out her roundabout seat (not that she doesn’t sit in it everyday!) and she would peer at the people around her. She even stood on Steve’s lap and giggled at the people behind her over his shoulder. At the hotel, she checked out all the rooms and found bath salts next to the bath tub. I moved them to a nearby table, thinking she couldn’t reach them. Not only did she reach them, but she also then dropped the bag scattering the bath salts everywhere. I turned around from filling the tub and saw her stick a salt granule in her mouth. Holy Cow! Yes, we managed to get it out of her mouth.

Katherine goes to her first wedding

My previous roomate from Tempe, Sueling, got married this past weekend, so we all headed down to Los Gatos on Friday and came home on Sunday. Katherine was a trooper on the plane rides and drank lots of water to relieve her ear pressure. I’m not sure how parents travel with children, because she only slept one hour on Friday. With all the new experiences, Katherine didn’t want to miss a minute and stayed alert thru the airport, flight and to San Jose. She did sleep to the hotel, but promptly woke up as we carried her to the room. Coincidentally, Steve’s parents  were in town too for the Stanford homecoming weekend, so they visited Friday and saw Katherine’s new developments. For dinner, we went to the California Cafe in the old town shopping center, sat out on the patio with other families and then walked back to the hotel room to watch the last out of the World Series first game. It was a beautiful evening, and Los Gatos is a very “tony” town as Steve’s mother described it.

On Saturday, we had breakfast with Steve’s parents at a local, Southern establishment. We headed back and stopped at the first annual glass art pumpkin festival. Local glass artists sold all sizes, colors and types of glass pumpkins to help raise money for hosting schools. Since we were staying right across from the Los Gatos High School, we stopped by and found a large, colorful pumpkin created by a Stanford grad only several years ahead of us. Since they wouldn’t ship, Steve had to visit a local store to double box the pumpkin for delivery home (it arrived in one piece!). It’s about 18″ in diameter and while orange in color has all sorts of blobs of colors all over it. The artist, when she found out we were from Seattle said, “bringing glass back to Seattle…that’s like taking coal to Newcastle!” I’m not sure how many people can afford the glass art she was referring to! Also, when Steve and I were debating one largely orange pumpkin and the one we bought, another woman explained that the colorful one was better because we could display it all year and it would go with more stuff. Pretty good rationale, so we bought it.

We returned to the hotel. Katherine took a nap, and we headed off to Sueling’s wedding only 6 or 7 miles up highway 17. The wedding was held at a small and tucked away facility with english cabs, a train, play houses and a refurbished barn! The ceremony was beautiful and in front of a lake with fountain with us sitting amongst the trees. (Katherine and Steve stayed outside the ceremony area so she wouldn’t disturb anyone – although it turned out she was quiet throughout.) We ate appetizers, rode in the train, and talked with others at the wedding.  For dinner, we partaked in a 9 course dinner; we were just stuffed and Katherine was bleary eyed, so we had to leave prior to the cake cutting for nap time. She slept for 45 minutes in the car, and then we headed later to Mountain View to synch up with old friends, James, Lily and Kristina. After a short visit, we drove back to the hotel and hit the sack.

On Sunday, we woke early and headed to Albany for a visit with family. We visited with my Uncle Richard, Aunt Susan, and cousins Henry and Ronald. It was good to see everyone, after 7 years! Katherine played or banged on their piano, walked around their house and we enjoyed catching up.  Unfortunately, we had to leave after only an hour and a half to make it back to the San Jose airport in time for our flight.

Getting So Mobile…

Katherine is getting more and more mobile. This week, it almost seemed as if she is approaching toddlerhood. We now chase each other around the coffee table, us crawling and her walking/crawling, which she loves. (Whenever she really likes something, she does her crinkle-nose smile.) She’ll hang on to the coffee table with one hand and walk around it, occasionally leaning down and peeking at us from under the table.

She also is progressing with her walking. Today, she walked with Raman clutching on to one hand only. We came home and practiced some more. She was very proud of herself with mom and dad cheering her on.

Da-Dee

I’ve been pointing at Steve over the last several days and saying “Daa-daa” or “Daa-Dee.” A few times she’s said “Dah!” or “Da-da” – we would nod our heads emphatically and say “Yes, Katherine Da-Da!!” Well, tonight as we were heading into our friends’ house, Katherine pointed to Steve walking ahead and said “DA-DEE.” We’ll see if she does it again! Steve turned around completely surprised and proud of his little girl.

A Visit to the Zoo

This weekend was almost summer-like, in the high 80s and beautifully sunny. We tried to take advantage of the weather by taking Katherine to the zoo today. The Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle was packed with families and strollers. Katherine seemed to enjoy herself. We pushed her and her jogger through the barn area and Savanah section of the zoo. We would pick her up and show her the various animals. Unlike our last trip to the Woodland Park Zoo, we could tell that she saw the animals, and in a couple cases she actually pointed towards them.

We had a fun time having Katherine see the barn animals up close in the petting area of the zoo and in the barn. She ogled at a few, large brown cows and stared at pigs. Steve took her into the petting area of the zoo which had little goats and donkeys. She stood up, holding Steve’s hands, smiling at the goats. In the African Savanah area, the animals were farther away, but I think she did see the lion. She also saw the baby and mama elephants up close at the watering hold and the Sumatra tigers on our way out.

Perhaps the most momentous part of the visit was when we sat in the cafeteria. I was eating a berry fruit juice bar. I gave Katherine a brief taste. She put her mouth over the bar and gave us the funniest “what is this?” look. Despite her puzzlement, she reached for the bar and wanted another taste. Katherine snoozed all the way home and through a couple errands. She woke up extremely warm and unhappy. Thankfully, we pulled into the driveway, gave her a nice cool bath and water to drink.

The Seventh Tooth

I came home Friday to have Patty tell me about Katherine’s seventh tooth coming in. This explains the massive drool, the evening crankiness for the preceding several days. It is her lower second tool to the right of the center right tooth. As of tonight, the top of the tooth has almost finished breaking through, but hasn’t appeared entirely.

Sniffle, Sniffle

I went on a business trip to Texas this past Monday and Tuesday, with Steve taking care of Katherine while I was gone. Given all of the traveling and such, I managed to catch a cold the day I came back. It was one of those runny-nose colds where you’re not incapacitated. So, I went to work the next day feeling slightly under the weather and knew I had come down with a cold by the afternoon. I went home early and worked from home the next day – occasionally feeding Katherine and trying not to get either Patty or Katherine sick. Unfortunately, Katherine managed to catch the cold and trailed me by one day. So, as of this weekend, I’m feeling fine, but Katherine is still on the tail end of her cold. There’s nothing quite like a baby with green snot. ๐Ÿ™‚