My Smiley Girl

My sweetest little girl is smiling more every day. I finally got some glimpses of these sparks of joy on camera. My favorite is the one where she looks practically flirtatious! Kate's growing like a weed. Her rolls and chub are increasing all the time. We have our 2 mo. appointment tomorrow, so we'll get to see just how much chub she's added.

Some updates from the medium one (Josh's new nickname for her).
1. She loves her changing table. I plunk her down for a diaper change or a wardrobe change and she is so content (if she' s not already hungry or something else like that). That's where the first 2 pics are from.
2. She's attempting to sleep longer at night for which Mom is extremely grateful. Thanks to Amy's counterintuitive advice about putting her to bed early so that she'd sleep longer, I think we're working towards a nice revampage by her schedule. She eats dinner at 8 p.m. and we put her down at 9:30. She doesn't always fall asleep right away, but she does okay. Then, she doesn't wake up until 4 or 4:30! Yeah! Now, mom sorta squandered this blessed time last night and went to bed around 11:45.
3. She really enjoys looking at the mirror that's in the mobile over her swing. The other morning I crouched down so she could see me in the mirror, too. She thought that was great!
4. No progress on the thumb sucking front. In fact, she's awful at sucking her fingers. She really tries, but it doesn't bring her any solace because she doesn't get a good fit.
5. We bought her a bouncey of her own and she LOVES it. She'll bat at the toys and interact more than with any other toy she has.

In other news, Mom is coming today, so Kate's pretty excited about seeing her. I've been talking up the visit of Grandma Kathy. Also, my sister is getting married in 2 weeks. It's unbelievable that my little sis is really really getting married. The Johnson family will be descending upon us very soon, and we can't wait!

Kissing Cousins

Mom is trying REALLY hard to grab a snapshot of me smiling, but I'm making it awfully hard for her. I smile and play when she doesn't have her camera in hand. :-) Here's a fleeting glimpse.



Lydia and Kate both have these sweet T-shirts that say "I love my Auntie." Sunday night we caught a picture of the aunties and the sweeties.

Valentine's Day, Upside Down

Our Valentine's Day was very nice. Valentine's Eve, Josh brought home flowers for Kate and me so that we could enjoy them the whole next day. Next morning, Josh stayed around a bit later, so we opened our cards together. That was nice to be together for a little while. When I planned our menu for the week, I forgot that Wednesday was Valentine's Day, so I had decided on French Toast. I didn't want to go back to the store, so I went with French Toast, but I did it Deluxe style. It was the cheapest, yet fanciest looking meal I have ever made Josh for Valentine's Day. We had such a nice dinner, although Kate was quite insistent that she be intimately involved the whole evening. Ah, the new meaning of intimate evening at home. :-)

Mommy, Lydia, and Me

Occasionally, Dad remembers to take a few pics of Mommy & me!

The Thinking Baby. . and no, we do NOT pose her.

Lydia takes her first bubble bath! We had a fun time finding the clear plastic cup underneath the bubbles.

Kate had her bath after Lydia. Lydia was quite impressed with the process.

Once again, Lydia got down really close to Kate and talked to her, but of course, we couldn't quite catch that moment, so here's the moment right after that. She uses her special 'Kate' voice and usually says de babeee and shhh, nih-nih. . It's waaaay too cute!

Baby Blue Eyes

Eight Week Update:
I finally caught some cute pictures of littlest Kate in her awake state. The daily routine is evolving a little bit, but she still eats every 4 hours. Her time spent nursing is decreasing during some feedings. She wakes up around 7 or 7:30, but hangs out in the crib happily until 8, which lets mom get some well needed sleep. She likes to stay awake after her breakfast for quite awhile, so we usually do our playing during the morning. Today I pulled out the mini-Boppy and we had a really fun time. I get over to Amy's about 12, feed Kate, and then get over to school about 1 o'clock. Some days Kate has been great, and sometimes she's decided to miss her momma. I pick her up after school and we return home for her afternoon snack/supper. After supper, she stays awake, which complicates my job of getting supper together. She nurses again at 8 after which dad spends some quality time (and photo op time) with his little daughter. Bedtime is 10 o'clock thereabouts, after which mom JUMPS into bed to get some sleep before our first night time feeding. Amazingly, waking up twice at night hasn't made me quite so crazy as I thought it would. Sometimes, however, I do wake up not knowing what day it is or thinking that Josh is at home and "getting" Kate. Unfortunately, he's usually long been at work when I have those wishful thoughts.

Fun Facts:
1. Outgrown all of her newborn clothes; we've completely moved on to 0-3 months clothes.
2. Finally found her thumb today. It was soooo cute! She had her thumb in her mouth and her two first fingers over her nose.
3. Jen gave her the adorable I love my auntie shirt AND her jeans. So cute!
4. Today she played in Amy's bouncey seat and had a great time. She is starting to "notice" toys and sounds. She even reaches for things now.
5. Last week she started smiling and cooing at me & Josh. She's growing more responsive every day!

Lydia Changes a Diaper

Read Jen's blog for the story. She's an observant kid, that's for sure!

Sleeping Princess

The pictures say it all. We love our little sleeping princess. She particularly loves to fall asleep in daddy's arms. Who can blame her?

Okay Sports fans

..A message from Josh...Having wasted over a month without getting any sports training in, I felt it necessary to purchase a size 0 soccer ball for Kate's development as an athlete. Here are two pictures of our in-house training session which consisted of keeper drills and dribbling skills. While Kate thoroughly enjoyed our first practice together, she informed me that she thinks the real money is in golf...I guess that means the golf membership for Kate and Dad is just around the corner.