major milestones

A quick update from the Bailey residence. A couple of monumental changes have occurred in Kate's life over the last few weeks. A month ago (or perhaps a little bit more), Kate shifted seamlessly out of babyhood & into official toddlerhood! She stopped nursing. She had cutely begun to say "nush, nush" when she wanted or expected to nurse. I was reminded by a friend that we had always said that when a kid is old enough to ask for it, it's time to quit. In my mind, I was thinking ask for it would sound more like this. "Mommy, may I please nurse now?" So, when I heard the cute "nush, nush," I didn't think of this at all! Well, for this and other reasons, I decided to do it. Kate had absolutely no trouble. I think this really means she wasn't getting much milk really, and was just having a nice time cuddling with mom.

Related to this issue of nursing was the paci! At Kate's last checkup, I asked the pediatrician when a good time to take away Kate's paci would be. She said as soon as possible because the longer you wait, the harder it usually is for them to make a new pattern for going to sleep or soothing themselves. So, we started the very next day & removed it from her whole daytime experience . She didn't typically use it very much during the day, but if she happened to see one lying around, usually lying under the crib, she would pop it in & use it for awhile. She had used it for naps, but she seemed to be pretty content without it & didn't really brook a fuss about it. Two nights ago, we made the last move & I didn't give her one before bedtime. She went down like a champ! The only real distress this has caused us is some serious backtracking in our church behavior. The paci was a mighty convenient way to enforce silence during pray & sermon. So, now we have to train her to keep her own mouth quiet -- quite a different task. The pediatrician suggested replacing paci with snacks and still occupying the mouth with something different than talking. We had already started this fun idea, but the only thing about snacks during church is she eats practically her lunch's worth of cheerios AND it doesn't really preclude her from talking. We've made people chuckle several times by some of her outbursts. If she sees anyone she knows, she calls their name. "Hiya! I-A (Lydia)!" My favorite is that she loves to thumb through the hymnal, but now she likes to sing "Ho-lee" even after the songs are over. On the whole, however, I'm quite excited that she had such an easy transition & I'll be happy for her to learn quietness without a crutch at church, even if it means a few (or a lot) more Sundays sitting outside the sanctuary.

Lastly, for the past two months, Kate has had a growth on her ear. It started off quite small, like a pimple, and after a few weeks of rest, it began to grow. This was a bit alarming, so I eventually was recommended by the pediatrician to visit a dermatologist. My little research prepared me for the fact that they would probably remove it inside the office at that first visit. I dreaded Kate's discomfort and pain more than anything! At our visit, Kate was the perfect little patient! She didn't cry or wiggle ONCE! I was so proud or her and so happy that God had answered my prayers! A couple of tricks to getting her to be calm-- I did bring out the secret weapon PACI for this occasion, and they also let me hold her and had both of us lay on the table. Then, they administered a numbing gel, then some local anesthesia in a syringe, then the dermatologist removed the growth, which by this time had grown to be about the size of a pea. It was pinky/red most of the time. They took a biopsy to send to a lab, and we'll hopefully hear the results this week. I rewarded her immediately with lots of hugs & kisses and then I took her to Chick-fil-A for some lunch AND some ice cream. I kept thinking that she didn't even know why all these yummy things were falling into her lap, the whole doc's visit was so non-traumatic for her! Praise the Lord! And no, I haven't taken any pics of it, not really wanting to preserve it for posterity. The bandaid came off on Sunday and the wound looks okay. The dermatologist cauterized it, so it looks a little black (like a cigarette burn, said Josh). The spot was on the tragus of the ear. (I just decided that it would be IMPOSSIBLE for me to describe it, so I'd find the scientific term for it and YOU can look it up here! :-0)

All this means that Kate is growing up before our very eyes. Today I gave her a bath & I could just see Little Girl instead of Baby. I'm not really sure that I'm ready, but I'm so grateful that God has given me this bright eyed explorer to me and Josh.

One of her latest words is "tank-a-da" -- which means Thank You (maybe the da is dad, but she says it to everyone). Super cute. My favorite thing is that she now (sometimes) uses peeze & tank-a-da all on her own. This morning, I gave her a piece of my cereal and out she comes with "Tank-a-da." So cute!