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Holidays

Not much to say today…

Not much to say today…

It’s been a brutal week. Steve’s been working late and Katherine brought home her first preschool cold. She promptly shared it with Allison. And, having to get up several times a night has resulted in me fighting the cold too. I’m just looking forward to later this week. Patty should be back (she’s got the flu) and we should be healthy again.

The latest batch of pictures is from Sid’s birthday party and a lot of quality grandma time this week. ๐Ÿ™‚

One major development: my mom and I saw Allison turn over late last week. Allison can now regularly with much high pitched squeals and grunts turn to her side. Once or twice she’s made it all the way over on her own!

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Allison Sarah Bush, Day 2

Day 2 for Allison. Last night Allison slept well for a newborn, waking up every 2-3 hours for “check-ups” by the hospital staff. Steve and Christine got a decent night’s sleep, all things considered. We’re tired but not exhausted.

It’s all coming back to us. We experienced a lot of firsts for Allison today: wet and dirty diapers, breast feeding, yawns, sneezes, fake smiles, turns to the light, etc. The second child is just as rewarding as the first. We missed a lot of “firsts” with Katherine as we were exhausted. It also gives us the opportunity to relive Katherine’s birth and Allison’s own growth plan.

Christine is recovering well from C section delivery. She’s been detached from all of the cords tying her down and is able to move around the room pretty well. Christine and Allison are mastering the art of breast feeding, every child has their own eating preferences.

Steve is spending his time in support of Christine and Allison, posting pictures to the web site and trying to tie up loose ends at work. He’s looking forward to finishing the open items in his parental leave transition plan so he can enjoy spending quality time with Christine, Allison, and Katherine. The people at Pure Networks have been fabulous in picking up any unresolved tasks.

Katherine visited Allison at the hospital today. Grandma Chang and Patty have been taking care of Katherine at the house. Katherine has missed mom and dad dearly and was really excited to meet her new baby sister. Dad met Katherine in the lobby and spent some quality time with her before bringing her back with Patty and Grandma Chang to the room. At Toby school, Katherine stood up during circle time and declared to all that she was a big sister now. Patty and Grandma Chang gushed with pride.

Katherine literally gazed at Allison in awe. It was a beautiful sight. She’s truly a proud big sister and will nurture Allison through her growing years. As a parent, it’s truly amazing to see the sister bond start to form. Katherine will be a great big sister.

Grandma Chang couldn’t wait to hold Allison. She beamed with excitement for new new granddaughter. As a parent, it’s rewarding to see the joy a newborn brings to the lives of extended family.

Nanny Patty patiently waited her turn to hold Allison. We are truly blessed to have Patty as a caregiver. She’s shown great love and guidance for Katherine and helped Christine and I raise a well adjusted child. We’re looking forward to Patty’s help in raising Allison as well.

Mom and Allison are asleep as I write this. I’m publishing it now without Christine’s editorial approval so this entry may be improved later when she wakes up and reviews. ๐Ÿ™‚

Catching Up on Family Events

Our family blog is woefully out of date. I’ll also try to catch up on family events, not just Katherine developments, given everything that is happening.

December was a very busy month….

  • Our family flew to DC to help my mom finish packing and move to Redmond. Katherine learned how to use a camera and got into all sorts of things – packing tape, bubble wrap, etc. We got back to Washington just in time to spend a few days with Steve’s parents before New Years!
  • Steve was working hard getting ready for the launch of his product at CES among other activities.

January was even crazier…

  • Steve went to CES (see his blog entries), caught the crud that’s going around, which developed into a bronchial infection just in time for our vacation!
  • Steve, Katherine and I went with the LeVines to Oahu and Maui for a week. The trip was long, even traveling first class, and the passengers behind us told us about how hard it was to travel with their 4 children years ago. (Hmmm…) Katherine and Sid played on the beach. Steve and Eric learned to surf. Steve caught a sand crab, which we didn’t get a picture of unfortunately. Katherine developed a strong appreciation for sea creatures and learned all about sting rays, sharks, dolphins, etc. The trip back was more hellacious since we got in at 1AM, but in all the trip was well worth it. We learned a ton about how to and how not to travel with Katherine to a vacation destination, just in time for #2.
  • Our radiologist confirmed that #2 will be a girl. ๐Ÿ™‚

Our focus in February is on pre-schools and getting ready for the next child.

  • Steve and I have gone to six open houses so far for preschools and I’ve submitted 3 applications for next September. Fingers crossed that plan A or B pans out for next year.
  • Katherine is growing up so fast. She now sleeps thru the night in her junior bed. We moved her stuff to the old guest room this weekend, so she has her own room. I’m also weeding thru Katherine’s old baby stuff and figuring out what we need to do before May.
  • Katherine just started gymnastics class and she’s fearless. She loves the balance beam and jumping into a foam pit that the gym uses to teach equipment to more advanced kids.

Katherine Developments

Katherine is talking like a little person these days. Today while in her car seat, she recited the days of the week and months in the year. According to her calendar, her birthday is in February and the months of June and November don’t exist. Also, there are only 5 days in the week – Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. She’s trying really hard though. ๐Ÿ™‚

She’s also picked up different songs that she changes at whim. She recently started singing the Old MacDonald song, “EIEIO”, where the farmer has a chicken that says “moo,” and all sorts of other non-farm creatures. Other favorites are John Jingle Heimer Schmidt and the Bingo song – repurposed to sing about Katherine and her dog Bisco.

Katherine loves to crack jokes. After the December Tiny Tots concert, she will say that Mama plays violin and Dada plays the sippy cup! Sometimes, he plays the trombone or tuba. She finds ridiculous ideas funny and just starts to crack up. For instance, Steve was reading a book about a girl who has diarrhea among other troubles and is moody (learning about emotions). Katherine just laughed up a storm tonight – and I don’t think she has any idea what that is!

She really started speaking in full sentences right before the holidays (5, 6, 7 word sentences), and her verbal skills are continuing to progress. She asks “Why” all the time. Tonight, she asked “Why Santa in sleigh?” She’ll keep asking until she gets an answer that makes sense. Along with this is her attempt to reason or negotiate with me and Steve and do Everything Herself (ex. “Me [insert verb] myself”).

Key areas for development are still around sharing and resisting the urge to grab toys from others when she’s excited and a bit of stranger anxiety when she’s not with a primary caregiver. We’ll keep working on it.

Graduating to Junior Bed

We figured that it’s time to introduce the junior bed to Katherine, now that she’s two. We headed to SouthCenter Toys R Us, where they rolled out and delivered a crib instead of bed. Of course, we didn’t discover this until we got home, dragged the crib up the stairs and cracked open the box! Poor Steve had to package it back up, and stuff it back in the Volvo. I delivered it back to SouthCenter (yes, all 30 miles away), and had to get assistance to roll this crib into the store, wait 20 minutes in returns, before acquiring the right product.

The assembly process was a hoot. Katherine grabbed her wooden screwdriver and insisted on helping. Steve may have found the process less amusing, since she got in his way more than anything….She loves to play on the bed. But, she hasn’t gotten to napping in it yet. The first afternoon after we assembled the bed, she insisted on moving all her animals to the junior bed, tuck in her toes and leave the room. A few minutes later, I’d hear “jingle, jingle” of Lambey and her saying “mama?” I figured after 20 minutes and the third time that this was enough and now she’s back to sleeping in her crib. We’ll keep trying to nap in the bed, but it’s going to take a while to transition.

Oh Christmas Tree, Lovely Branches…

While this is K’s third Christmas, it’s the first time that she’s been able to really participate in holiday activities. We started several nights ago by building an “EZ” gingerbread house kit. It’s not clear who got messier – Steve with the frosting or Katherine “organizing” the candy. We debated whether to use the glue gun, but Steve nixed that to be traditional. Suffice to say, we’re using the glue gun next year!! We dripped about a pound of wet confectioner sugar frosting into a plastic bag, cut a hole in the bag, glued the house together and waited for it to dry. Meanwhile, I gooped frosting on gingerbread men, and Katherine glued just about every type of candy on them. They look….a bit unusual, but it’s pretty clear who worked on them. ๐Ÿ™‚ The house has a sort of disorganized look, but K loves it. I’ve had to relocate it, so that she doesn’t pick the candy off to “try it.”

A few days later, we went to Redmond Town Center with friends to take their holiday train. It’s this clown train with lights that tours the parking lots at the mall. Before the train tour, the kids trooped into the Santa house and had their picture taken together. Katherine spied the candy canes and grabbed one ever so quickly. She was reluctant to sit on the stool beneath Santa, but after some convincing she sat down and proceeded to suck her candy cane. All the pictures, I think, have this stuck in her mouth (oh well!).

Yesterday night we finally purchased a big 6-7 foot noble fir. Katherine came with us to the tree sales place in Redmond and watched Steve and the tree guy poke and shake trees. We finally selected a nice thick tree. As the tree guy carried it to the car, Katherine exclaimed “Dada, open car trunk!” We carefully drove the tree home on top of the wagon and put it in the living room. It was fun, but slightly crazy couple hours as Steve strung the lights, K took ornaments out of the Christmas boxes and insisted on trying to put hooks in them. It got a little dicey when she got to the glass ornaments – no causalities until this morning when she pulled one of the tree and it broke.

Today, we made our third annual visit to Nordstorm Santa. K was pretty apprehensive about sitting on Santa’s lap. Steve carried her to the front of the line and they stood to the side watching Santa for almost half an hour. By the end of the half hour, Steve had convinced K that if she sat on Santa’s lap, that she would get a treat or candy cane. She was pretty enthused, running and almost reaching the candy cane basket a few times before our turn. Of course, we got to Santa finally and she exclaimed “no, no, no Santa!” We ended up doing the bye-bye Santa trick, where he leaves obviously and then sneaks behind the chair to get the picture at the last minute. Katherine was so freaked by the incident that I had to sit in the chair holding her with Steve perched on the side of the chair.

Thanksgiving 2004

We had so many memorable activities that it’s worth describing our Thanksgiving week. It started out with the Bush home in Trilogy closing on Tuesday – coming down to the wire right before the Thanksgiving weekend. Suffice to say, everyone was relieved that the closing happened in time for Steve’s parents to stay in the new house. Wednesday was a flurry of activity, as grandparents settled in and Katherine and I ran errands prior to the weekend.

On Thursday, we all trooped over to Steve’s Aunt and Uncle’s house for an extended (and we mean extended) family celebration. With half a dozen great-grandchildren, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, it was a raucous celebration. As you can see, Katherine befriended Mandy, a very patient golden retriever who allowed Katherine to play with her at length.

The following day, we celebrated my birthday at Amy and Jason’s house. You can see the birthday cake which barely fit all 36 candles. ๐Ÿ™‚

And, then on Saturday, Sid and his parents came over to hang out. For a snack, we made smoothies for the kids. They liked it.

Later that evening, Grandma Bush babysat while Steve and I went to the “Incredibles.” Suffice to say, we weren’t disappointed, and I understand the terrific ratings.

Katherine Turns Two!

Katherine has been looking forward to her birthday for days. On Saturday, we celebrated with a friends and then a family dinner gathering. She was a trooper, staying up until 9PM last night – exhausted but so excited to be “Two!” She is trying to form a V with her fingers, but so far the closest she gets are two intertwined fingers.

The best part about birthdays for Katherine is “chocolate cake.” She woke up from her nap right before Steve got home with the cake, balloons and party platters. We made the mistake of showing her the cake from Larry’s Market. Katherine must have said “try cake…pease!” at least 40 times before the party. She tried crying, she tried pleading, but we stayed firm telling her that we had to wait for her friends to arrive. As soon as her first guest, Sid, arrived she headed to the cake to eat.

What else did she eat before the party? A juice box, goldfish and crackers. The party was a hoot, with boys running around the house, the kids playing and coloring a large cardboard castle.

Katherine’s Vocabulary

Steve and I were debating tonight how many words Katherine has in her vocabulary. I would bet that she has 750 to 1000 words. Steve thinks she has over a thousand, maybe even two. Lately, her verbal skills have just blossomed to less everyday words. For instance, she helped us eat “Tacos” tonight, and played with her “Leap-pad.” She can describe just about everything and help us read books. I bought a book called “Truck in the Muck” last week. After only a couple times reading the book, she now follows along and helps me finish the sentences.

Her Favorite Songs

Thanks to Toby School, Katherine’s learned a handful of songs that she sings regularly. One is about fish swimming in the water. She says “fish shwimming in water, bubble…bubble pop!” and then starts in on ducks paddling. She also sings the main words to “ibby bibby spider” and also hokey pokey. She enjoys having me or Steve sing the hokey pokey; she’ll hold on to one of our hands to stick her foot out and also her hands waving them around – followed by a walk around in a circle. She loves being able to sing the songs and put them different parts of songs together. One minutes she’s singing her ABCs, the next she’s singing about spiders and fish.

ABCs

Katherine’s ABCs deserve a mention of their own because she’s made tremendous progress over the last month or so. Previously, she would say “ABC..Dada.” She heard Sid say his ABCs a month ago and pushed thru the Ds. Now she can say “ABCDE…H..GHIJKLOOOPQSTUVWXYZ now know ABCs sing with me!” She will sometimes skip T and then go straight to YZ, but if I say T!, she’ll fill in the rest of the letters. I think within the next 6-8 weeks, she’ll be able to say her entire ABCs without any issues.

Keeping Pooh Dry

Katherine loves potty training. She will run to her drawer, pull out a pair of Pooh undies and then attempt to stuff both legs into one leg hole. We’ve put her in her undies for up to several hours at a time. She’s done a great job, saying “peepee” and running to her little Baby Bjorn plastic potty in the downstairs or upstairs bathroom just in time to go bathroom. She tries to mimic us by using “paper towel” to wipe and then to flush the toilet. We just purchased today a Baby Bjorn formed plastic toilet seat that Katherine used to go to the bathroom on the “big potty.”

The End of an Era – or Decade

It’s the end of a long era. For the first time in 14 years, neither Steve nor I work for Microsoft. Wow! Friends have told us about this, but I wonder how I ever managed to work. We’ve been sooo busy this last month with family, appointments, Halloween, Katherine’s birthday…The list of things to do never seems to end.