Avocado

Yummy! We started solids this past week since Kate is almost 6 months old. She wasn't thrilled with rice cereal, but LOVED avocado. She even leaned over and licked it off the tray! Maybe she will be a little guacamole lover like her dad....hmmm...

Fat Fingers

I was finally able to get my rings off yesterday! Sounds strange, but it does have a story behind it...I had removed my wedding and engagement rings when I was about 7 months pregnant due to increasingly swollen fingers. In September after Kate was born, I thought I'd try them back on again. They really went on pretty easily. However, when I tried to take them off I discovered that they were truly stuck. I pulled and pulled and only made my finger swell. We tried soap, lotion, cold, raising my arm and Windex. No luck. When my finger started turning blue, we decided to go to a jeweler and ask to have it cut off. With tiny newborn in tow, we drove to the closest jeweler and asked for help. They told me that cutting it would ruin the ring. She tried to pull it and twist it as well, but my finger only swelled more and the skin underneath was now raw from our efforts. The jeweler said to wait a few months and try again. A few months!! I thought she was totally crazy. So here we are in February, 5 months later, and I finally got it off. I'm taking it today to get it resized:)

5 months

Kate is 5 months old today! She has been battling an ear infection, so she is a bit under the weather, but recovering quickly. Her newest talent includes sitting:) She can sit for short periods (30seconds) all by herself. She does do a back arch eventually that sends her flying backwards on her head if you aren't careful! She is growing and developing so quickly, we can't wait to see what new trick she'll pick up!

Andrea's photos

http://www.photoshow.com/watch/aw4kd7CB

Photo update

This picture was taken over Christmas break by one of my long-time friends, Andrea Roberts and comes from her blog andrearobertsphotography.blogspot.com. After the disaster with the professional photographer and newborn photos, I was really hoping to get some really excellent, professional photos of Kate. Andrea did SUCH a wonderful job at our session. She was patient, creative, and you could tell she enjoyed what she was doing. I've only had a "sneak preview" of the photos so far, but man oh man did this one turn out fantastic!! I can't wait to see them all!! Way to go Andrea:)

Shots

Kate goes in today for her 4 month shots :( poor babyness. They say it is harder on the parents than on the baby. Loren is taking her today. We do really like our doctor, so that helps, but Kate screams a scream that she only does when she is in pain and it is so hard to hear.

Loren leaves this weekend to go to IA to defend his dissertation. He has his presentation all ready to go, but his advisor hasn't even seen it! Hopefully his committee will be kind! Speaking of committees, I need to put my committee together. I got some mixed news that I don't have to take a statistics class this semester, but that I do have to take it next spring. I'm hoping that by next spring I'll be more adjusted to my schedule and potentially will have a little more time to commit to this killer class. I'm pretty disappointed that I have to take it at all, though. I'm pretty protective of my time and this one takes two half days per week, plus the home assignments. Ugh and YUCK! Not to mention the perfectionist in me has a VERY difficult time not giving 100+% to something...but I'm trying to work on that ;)

Bump

So there are bound to be bumps in the road...and I'm on a long road. Yesterday Kate refused to eat from the bottle. Since we'd been on vacation for 2 weeks, she had only been eating from me. I was a little worried about her taking hte bottle again, but since she had never had problems in the past, I didn't worry too much. I was pretty worried until we discovered that much of the frozen milk I had stored up (gallons...) was bad. We smelled and taste-tested bag after bag of bad milk (talk about fun, no wonder Kate cried!). So hopefully the reason Kate wasn't eating was because we kept trying to feed her rotten milk. Hey- I'd cry, too if someone kept shoving that nasty milk into my mouth.

Then is the sleeping...she had been so good at the 5 hour stretch, but it has apparently disappeared and been replaced by waking up every hour or so all night long. Today Kate woke up at 5:00am and was wide awake. This is a new thing, so hopefully it was just today.

I got all of the mortgage papers in order for the investment property we've put an offer on today, so it looks like that is going to go through. I think it will be a good project for Loren in addition to his part-time USGS job.

I'm trying so hard to have a good attitude, but it is so difficult to leave my little girl. She is so happy and smiley and has such a sweet personality. She is almost always in a good mood. The only time she cries is when she needs something. She is such a cuddler at night, too. She snuggles up next to me all night long. I put her in the middle of the bed to start out, but by the time she is ready to nurse again, she is right there in position. I love how she smells and her soft baby skin. As much as I don't like waking up all night long, I do love having her there with me.