Little Katie is much more like herself today. Yesterday we were thinking that we might have to call the doctor today to figure out why little Katie was going into those fits of screaming. Today, that is a distant memory.
I’m dragging today. Late night last night…
Another stroll around the neighborhood for little Katie today. Spring is in the air. I think the cold days and nights of winter are past us now.
We went to visit a friend this evening. This is the first time that little Katie has been to her house. Little Katie really likes her…and I think remembers her (she gave her a foot massage the last time she saw her). She just got a package from France, and promptly presented little Katie with a nice dress, and the teddy bear that she used to play with as a child. How nice and thoughtful…it’s nice to have good friends.
Little Katie held a rattle in her hands this evening, but she is not yet aware of the fact that it will make a noise if she jiggles it. That will come in time.
WHAT I LEARNED TODAY
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1)
Filed under 1st Year (2010) by on Mar 8th, 2010. Comment. 
Little Katie finally went to sleep in the “wee hours” of the morning. I guess that her theme song should be something like this. Maybe not exactly…but the “All Night Long” part…
As I was changing little Katie this morning she spit up all over her onesie, then let out a big smile. I think this whole changing this is a bit of a game for her. I changed her into a new onesie, but she was still wet. Wonder if she didn’t spit up again when I was reaching for a bib? If it is a game daddy is not laughing…
2010-03-07 - Park Toucan
We took little Katie for a walk to the park and the lake this afternoon. While we were there we saw another couple with a child that was 14 months old. In exactly a year little Katie will be this old. It was nice to get some sort of a reference point as to what little Katie will be doing next year at this time…basically running around and picking up every acorn that she can find.
See the picture to the right? The one of the toucan ride at the park down the street? It is attached to the ground via a huge spring. It won’t be long before little Katie will be having fun on it…
Hard night with little Katie this evening. She was fussing about and nothing seemed to calm her down. My wife took her into the bathroom for a while and she was distracted by the mirrors and the lights, and stopped crying, but soon started up again. I showed her the “adjustable lamp” (her best friend), and that calmed her down for a while, but she soon started up again. In the end we decided to take a drive (around 9:00pm…so much for the Oscars)…
As soon as we drove out of the yard she started to calm down and fall asleep. She did need to be fed after about 30 minutes on the road, but calmed down again soon afterwards. We arrived back at home around 11:45pm, and little Katie is awake. She was still a bit fussy, but then the situation rectified itself very quickly. What happened? Read on…
My wife fed her and I tried to burp her…and out came this little tiny “burp” out of her mouth. She had this sign of relief on her face almost instantaneously. I then put her in the bouncy seat and we heard another sound… Time to go to the changing table. Success!!! #2!!! She really seemed to calm down this time, so I took her back to her bouncy seat and after a few moments “another sound”… Back to the changing table. A bit more #2…and little Katie was really relaxed!!! Mission accomplished. She was soon feeding again and back to “normal”. Nice to have the old little Katie back…
12:15am – Little Katie is still a bit fussy, so we gave her some “Infant’s Gas Relief” liquid. The directions say 0.3 ml, so we’ll see if it works (and how soon)…
1:01am – Still up and little Katie is eating again. Let’s hope this is it…
2:18am – Little Katie just fell asleep. Time for all 3 of us to sleep now…
WHAT I LEARNED TODAY
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1) What’s all this about a gas shortage? There is no gas shortage as far as little Katie is concerned.
Filed under 1st Year (2010) by on Mar 7th, 2010. Comment.
Little Katie might still be suffering from the effects of the immunization shots. She seems to be fussy at times. For example, today, she was not nursing at the right angle, and the screaming she let out rattled the floorboards.
2010-03-06 - Little Pink Booties
I noticed that little Katie’s hair is getting longer by the day. Nice to see some hair growing in.
Do you like Katie’s little pink booties? (picture on the left).
Another stroll around the neighborhood this afternoon. We picked up the mail on the way home and little Katie’s Social Security Number came in the mail.
This afternoon we did a couple of Skype Sessions. First with my mother, then with my wife’s mother.
11:51pm – My wife and I have been trying to put little Katie to bed since noon, so we are almost at the 12 hour point. She has slept for tiny naps (one for 30 minutes), but not the long, deep sleep that the three of us all need. We are not sure why she won’t sleep, but here are three possibilities:
1) She is still suffering from the “sting” of the inoculation needles and needs comforting (be with us).
2) My wife had some chocolate for lunch…perhaps the caffeine is giving little Katie a boost of energy.
3) She might find the television too exciting…so exciting that she can’t fall asleep. (TV is off now…let’s see if that works).
WHAT I LEARNED TODAY
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1) Little Katie has more energy than we do…
Filed under 1st Year (2010) by on Mar 6th, 2010. Comment.
Little Katie has not been herself since the trip to the doctor. She seems more fussy and sometimes it takes a lot to calm her down. What can you expect when someone you hardly know sticks you with needles?
2010-03-05 - Chicken Salad
My wife was taking little Katie to the changing table and she grabbed a hold of my wife’s hair. She’s learned a new trick. My wife said that it hurt.
I have noticed that little Katie seems to be getting a much stronger grip. This along with those “killer kicks” and she is going to be a little dynamo one day.
Homemade chicken salad for dinner tonight (see photo on the left).
Boy did little Katie ever #2 up a storm this evening. It required a bath. Call in the hazardous waste team!
Little Katie fell asleep early this evening in the bouncy seat After a while we transferred her to the bassinet. If she is far enough into her sleep pattern she will sleep soundly, but if she is not she will wake up and cry to be with us.
WHAT I LEARNED TODAY
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1) Little Katie has found her mother’s hair!
Filed under 1st Year (2010) by on Mar 5th, 2010. Comment.
My wife turned on the baby monitor so we can hear little Katie when we are in the kitchen. Chirps and squeals and Ahh’ss….but no screaming…so far so good.
My wife had to go to the dentist this morning, so I had to babysit little Katie again. She slept for most of the morning, but about 10 minutes before my wife arrived home she started to cry. The first step is to change the baby, and she is usually quite happy during this time… It’s funny, as soon as I button up the onesie, she starts to act up. She knows the process…change the diaper…feed the baby. It’s like: “okay, now that we’ve got that diaper thing done, get me to the table as soon as you can. Maybe if I scream at the top of my lungs you will move faster”.
We are off to the doctor’s office and just before we left little Katie did a #2. We had to bathe her and give her a new diaper. While I was giving her the diaper I told her “See this baby? This is what they call an unused diaper. As you know, it will only exists in nature in this form for a short while…”
2010-03-04 - Band-Aids
Little Katie got her immunizations today. We have never heard her scream so loud, but after a little bit of cuddling from mommy she calmed down. No wonder kids don’t like to go to doctors. You just meet this person and they stick you with something…. We gave her a dose of children’s tylenol, so that helped (we think). She did get a couple of cute band-aids out of the deal (see photo on the left).
As soon as I started to drive the car out of the doctor’s parking lot little Katie calmed down and went to sleep. After a bit of driving around we settled on eating at a Turkish Restaurant. Little Katie slept through the whole thing.
We got a package in the mail from my wife’s parents today. Some dresses for little Katie, some CD’s of lullaby’s, a toy dog, etc. I’ll upload some photos when I get a chance.
Little Katie slept til about 7pm. We were scared to wake her just in case she started to cry again. When she did wake up she could not be calmed down, so we gave her another dose of children’s tylenol. I think she liked the cherry flavor as she smiled a bit…and it seemed to work for a while. In the end she needed another feeding and fell asleep in my wife’s lap. Hopefully she will sleep soundly through the night.
9:35pm – I tried to take little Katie off my wife’s lap and put her to bed. As soon as I touched her her eyes flew open. It was like “As long as I’m here and pretend to be asleep they will leave me alone”. We put her in the bouncy seat for a while. Let’s see how this goes.
WHAT I LEARNED TODAY
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1) No surprise…babies don’t like needles.
Filed under 1st Year (2010) by on Mar 4th, 2010. Comment.
Little Katie has finally found another friend…one that rivals her original BFF (i.e.: Best Friend Forever)…the adjustable lamp…
2010-03-03 - New BFF
Who or what is her new friend? Herself. My wife put the mirror that we highlighted in a previous post directly in front of her in the bouncy seat (see picture on the right)… She sees a reflection of herself in the mirror and is just “sooooo” excited. She kicks the mirrow with her little legs, and doesn’t realize that this is why the person in the mirror is moving. She has conversations with the person in the mirror. My wife and I love this setup more than she does…we can get some rest….
We have an “Energizer Bunny” on our hands. Little Katie just keeps on going and going and never gets tired. She didn’t sleep this afternoon and she is still up…eyes open, examining the world…
I was exhausted so I went to the other room to sleep. When I woke up I got the following two emails from my wife:
10:24pm – It’s 10:22 PM and Energizer Bunny is still up and happily looking around!!! Mommy Rabbit is ready to collapse. 
))
11:11pm – Puppy’s out!
WHAT I LEARNED TODAY
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1) Little Katie’s new BFF is “herself”…in actuality the mirror that we position in front of the bouncy seat.
Filed under 1st Year (2010) by on Mar 3rd, 2010. Comment.
8:15am – Little Katie is having her breakfast. I changed her and took her to the “table”. Her clothes were wet when I handed her off…not sure where that came from. Maybe she did a #1 while I was in the process of changing her diaper.
2010-03-02 - Baby Mirror
We have been noticing that sometimes little Katie is real fussy, and more often than not this means that a nice #2 is coming. Once #2 has been accomplished she is back to her sweet little self. She just had a #2 and the “bath tub” brigade had to spring into action.
As we were giving little Katie a bath we noticed how much she liked to see herself in the bathroom mirror. Once the bath was done we got out the other “toy mirror” we have, and little Katie just loved it (there is a photo of the mirror on the right). She seems to recognize herself in the mirror and is delighted with what she sees.
Little Katie was fussing this evening and nothing seemed to calm her down. I sat her on her back and started to play with her feet, and sang the “Hello My Baby” song, and she started to “coo”. My wife says that maybe she is entering the time where she needs more human interaction.
My wife pointed out how the index fingers of little Katie’s hands are a bit more rough than her other fingers. This is probably because this is the finger that she sucks from time-to-time.
WHAT I LEARNED TODAY
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1) Little Katie’s index fingers are rough because she sometimes sucks them.
Filed under 1st Year (2010) by on Mar 2nd, 2010. Comment.
Little Katie was a fussy little baby this morning. She would not seem to calm down no matter what we tried. Changing (I don’t know how many times), feeding (I lost count), and all sorts of play time.
2010-03-01 - Baby Harness
Since nothing seemed to calm her down we decided that we would take her for a walk around the neighborhood. My wife thought that she would use the “harness” and little Katie just loved it. She had her tongue stuck out for a bit of the time, but soon fell asleep. She seemed fascinated with all the surroundings. Perhaps it was the sensory overload that finally did her in.
My wife and I decided that we would go out for lunch today, and we used the 2-1 Entertainment Coupon to help cover the cost. TGI Friday’s has a great special…$12.99 for appetizer, lunch, and dessert. With the 2-1 coupon the whole bill (with tip) came to under $20. Quite the deal. Little Katie was well behaved…she slept through the whole lunch.
Little Katie is sleeping on the bouncy chair on the bed. She had been here for about 3 hours now. My wife is sleeping in the other room…she’s exhausted and I’m sure she will love the rest. So, I’m baby sitting right now…working on my web sites and watching a bit of tv.
WHAT I LEARNED TODAY
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1) The “harness” works great.
Filed under 1st Year (2010) by on Mar 1st, 2010. Comment.
7:00am – Little Katie was rumbling and grumbling in her bassinet…but her eyes were closed. In the end I decided that I’d better change her as that was probably the culprit. I was right. Lots of #1. In the process of changing her here came #2…all over daddy’s hand. She looked so happy and pleased with herself…like it was a game. As soon as I buttoned her up she started her other cry with the different sound…the “I want food” cry. Quick stop off at mommy’s side of the bed for a refill.
We went to the Mexican restaurant down the road for lunch today. This is the first time little Katie has been here. The manager who showed us to our seat commented on the “chubby cheeks” she has. She behaved throughout the meal.
When we got home we decided that we would go for a stroll to the park and back. This was the time for little Katie to act up…and she did. We were going to go to the lake but decided to turn around and go home due to her crying. When got part way home she fell asleep so we decided we would take a bit of a stroll along the lake. A bit of a diversion from the intended plan, but a crying baby tends to make you adjust your plans…
2010-02-28 - Baby Tub
Sometimes little Katie makes such a mess that you need to give her a bath. We had to bathe her twice today! To the right is a picture of the baby tub that we use. She doesn’t really mind baths that much…but she doesn’t like the facecloth on her face too much.
Little Katie sure does not like to be wet. Once she does a #1 in her diaper she acts up so much that you just have to change her…and NOW. I thought that the absorbant diapers they have now-a-days were supposed to prevent all this crying? Perhaps up to a point…
9:30pm – I decided I would have a nice relaxing snack, but little Katie was having nothing to do with it. Here comes #2 (with sound effects), so I downed my snack and took her to the changing table. Funny…a few months ago I would have gagged at the very prospect of this… Guess when you love your child every changes…
9:47pm – Little Katie can get so fussy when she is being fed. If she’s not at just the right angle or “whatever” she will let out a squeal and start to punch the air. She just landed a nice left hook onto my wife’s nose…my wife said it hurt. Probably hurt little Katie a lot less than yesterday when she scratched her own nose.
9:48pm – Little Katie is asleep now. Usually she gets that fussy just before she falls asleep…and this proves it.
WHAT I LEARNED TODAY
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1) Diaper technology can still be improved upon.
Filed under 1st Year (2010) by on Feb 28th, 2010. Comment.
The earthquake in Chile has been on the news all day today. There was supposed to be a huge tsunami hitting Hawaii, but it did not materialize as they had planned.
2010-02-27 - Canadian Geese
Another stroll around the neighborhood for little Katie and her parents this afternoon. The ducks were all swimming towards us looking for a handout. Plenty of Canadian Geese roaming about. Won’t be long before we will have to keep little Katie from chasing after them.
My wife and I had another Skype session with my mother this afternoon. She noticed that little Katie seems much more alert and aware as she gets older.
7:00pm and I am on “baby sitting” duty. I just got up from a nap after I couldn’t keep my eyes open any more. Little Katie is resting comfortably in the “bouncy seat” on my bed, and my wife has gone to the other room to get some rest. Sometimes little Katie will not rest, and it can be very challenging on my wife and I. At times it is possible to “tag team”, and either my wife or I can keep our eye on her while the other one sleeps.
7:50pm – I just sneezed and poor little Katie went into a full body convulsion. Sorry little Katie. She didn’t wake up, which is good… She is wearing a yellow onesie with flowers on it, and a bright green bib. Glad the fashion police aren’t around…
9:25pm – My wife just woke up. Little Katie is still sleeping.
10:30pm – Little Katie likes to be on her back while I move her legs up and down and all around. I sing her “Hello My Baby” by Michigan J. Frog, and she loves it!
WHAT I LEARNED TODAY
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1) Be careful sneezing around little Katie.
2) She loves “Hello My Baby” by Michigan J. Frog
Filed under 1st Year (2010) by on Feb 27th, 2010. Comment.