No more Delaware

If you've been reading my blog long, you know that Adam and I really want to buy a house. Ever since we were married we've enjoyed driving around on Sundays and looking at really nice houses. We still will take detours into nice neighborhoods sometimes just to look at the huge, expensive homes. I have an on-going list of homes in the area that are in our price range, so just in case they stay on the market, and just in case we actually decide to buy a house, that we will know some options. It's a little silly, but it's something to do when I'm bored. Today we drove down to Delaware to check out six houses in Claymont and Wilmington area. We like to actually go out and do things together on Saturdays, just to get out of the house.

By and large, we were disappointed, but then again, now we know that it's not worth the half hour commute (at least) for Adam to be able to have cheaper property taxes. About half the houses were in decent neighborhoods. One was appealing on the outside. The other two were all right, but nothing special. But the clincher for us was the whole town of Claymont. It might have had something to do with the gray, overcast skies, but the whole place looked a little rundown. All the houses were about fifty years old, and while many of them had been updated and had new paint, the stores and shops looked pretty rundown. Anyone we saw walking around looked unhappy. The kids were all overweight (Actually, I'm not sure what that has to do with anything, but Adam noticed it.) While we were there we drove to Jo-Ann fabrics and we drove through a heavy industrial area. I figured Jo-Ann's would be in a nicer area. Nope. It was in a big shopping area right in the middle of all the mills and factories. Industry is fine, but definitely does not make a nice-looking neighborhood.

So we headed home. About halfway there Katrina was done. She started crying and didn't let up for 20 minutes. Finally, at a stop light, I was able to reach her sippy cup which had dropped out of her seat. She spent the last ten minutes gulping her water, crying at stop lights, but being quieter. Poor girl. After we got home and she ate, I let her walk a little with her lion, and she was so happy to be running around. She's asleep now. Oh never mind. I just heard her playing in her crib.

So yet another housing dream dies. That's all right. We love our apartment. It's stayed relatively clean all week. I wasn't even embarrassed for my in-laws to see our bedroom the other day. The bed was even made! I haven't made my bed regularly for years. But I've been doing it this week. No clothes on the floor by the closet (though a few of mine on the sewing machine from when I get lazy), all of Katrina's are put away, there are no unfolded loads in the dryer. Plus, we have the cutest nursery in the world. So whenever we get the housing envy bug, it's still nice to reflect on how much we like where we live now. (see below, in summer. That's actually the building across from ours, but ours is almost identical.)

Ode to a grill

So I don't post a whole lot of recipes, since, well, I only cook sometimes (three days in a row this week, whoo-hoo, record!) But let's pretend that I'm a really good cook and you all are just dying for me to give you new recipes. I like the ego rush of that fantasy! :]I don't think I've mentioned our new grill. My parents gifted Adam and me with this grill for our birthdays. We've been getting very good use out of it. I have been cooking more lately and sometimes I cook just to try to find ways to use the grill, because it's so fun. I've been wanting one for awhile, which I don't think my parents knew, actually. They just wanted to buy one for us because they love theirs so much.

Since getting it, I have used it to cook french toast, grilled cheese sandwiches, bacon, steak, chicken, and...well, maybe that's it. But we were housesitting for over a week, sick for a week, and I only cook a few times a week anyway. Ours is the perfect size for two people, but I know they come larger, and they also can open wide for more space. Cleaning is super easy.

(So I don't want this to sound too much like a product review, but I will say that the brand is Hamilton Beach. George Foreman grills are similar and I'm sure there are other brands too).

Anyway, last night I made a pretty good dinner. I based it off of one of my favorite dishes that my mom makes, though now that I think about it, pretty much the only ingredients that were the same were the chicken, curry, and green onions. But anyway, here's the original recipe:

Chicken Curry Salad
-cooked, shredded chicken
-cubed apples
-raisins
-chopped celery
-chopped green onions
-slivered almonds (my mom also uses walnuts, but I have developed an aversion to walnuts as I've grown older)

Mix with mayonnaise and curry. Yum. This is best served cold so the mayo and curry can settle into the chicken.

My version--chicken pasta salad
-grilled, shredded chicken
-grapes, cut in half
-cooked and cooled egg noodle pasta
-green onions

Mix with mayo and curry. Chill.

Whenever I actually plan meals in advance and shop for the ingredients, I have this meal and then corn potato chowder, because they both use green onions and celery and I don't use those a lot in many other meals. Yum. Corn potato chowder. I need to go out and buy ingredients for that. I'll post the recipe for that when I make it too.

Developing new skills

Walking around with her lion has become more fun now that Katrina has found she can walk around it and push it the other way. Or sometimes she walks next to it. It means she gets stuck less, which is nice for me. She also feels more confident holding on to it with one hand and bending down to touch objects.

We discovered by accident last night that she can stand by herself. Adam was vacuuming and I interrupted him to watch her stand for a couple seconds, even though it made her kind of upset. I set her down and we watched her stand (crying), start to fall, catch herself, start to fall again, catch herself (cry louder), and finally she leaned forward and caught herself on her hands. I then saved her and we cuddled her and reassured her that her mom and dad really don't hate her. So she can stand, but it scares her really badly to not be holding onto anything. I've tried it a couple more times with her, but she's figured it out and leans back really hard against my hands so I can't let go. Grr. But she stood! For about ten seconds! That's pretty amazing. I think Adam was right when he said that the day she learns to stand by herself, she'll be walking. I'll amend it to be that the day she enjoys standing by herself, she'll walk.

Yesterday evening was one of those really nice ones that makes you feel all good and productive. I was annoyed at first because Katrina only slept for half an hour for her afternoon nap, but once we made it to dinner, she made up for it by obediently eating everything I gave her. She was even good enough that I decided to throw together some dinner right then and there. Usually I have to wait until Adam is home to watch Katrina. Adam walked in the door at 5:00 to a nice dinner of couscous, chicken, and peas. Katrina ate it right along with us and even fed herself chunks of couscous. And no peas were dropped! Then we played, had lots of fun entertaining her, got her to bed, and Adam even still had a few minutes before leaving for his troup committee meeting. I sewed and watched Lost. Just a nice evening overall.

Not crawling

I am a mean, mean mother. I force my daughter to lay on the ground and put tempting objects just out of reach. See:

They must be very tempting, otherwise she will simply cry a little, give up, and play with her feet instead while rolling around.

Seriously though, I really don't make her do this enough. Maybe if I had, she would be crawling now? I probably should have continued to enforce tummy time, but once she could roll over by herself I stopped making her do tummy time everyday. Now she's fine on her stomach--it no longer makes her cry, at least, but she gets too frustrated to crawl.

Sorry about the moping, I just get a little down when I read about babies lots younger than her crawling, standing, pulling up, and even walking. I also see them at church.

On the other hand, I'm getting a taste of what things will be like once she can walk, since any moment Katrina is not eating or sleeping she wants to be walking around with her lion push-toy. I might get a few minutes of her quietly playing with her toy basket, but that's lucky. She rarely likes her jumperoo anymore, except to hold on to it while walking, play a little with the toys, and then move back to her lion and continue on. (She's really good at cruising between things now). It's a good thing the floor around the apartment is currently so clean, since we traverse the entire length of it many times a day. I guess it's also good incentive to keep it clean! Also, we had to buy our first baby-proofing supplies. I tried to make a bumper for the coffee table, but it didn't turn out, so we bought one. We also bought outlet covers. Oh, and a new power strip with a box around it that lets us stuff most of the cords into it.

Well, finally, here's another video of Katrina laughing at her daddy's antics. She loves the evening because he is here and we both play with her lots.

Since it's taking forever to load the video, I'll mention some of the other ways in which Katrina is driving us crazy. First of all, she has something like six top teeth about to burst through. They've been like that for weeks. Even the doctor mentioned how close they are. I've even felt the tips a little. But I think maybe they went back in, because it looks smooth now. Anyway, I just want them to come in. Secondly, Katrina has decided to make every meal a fight. She puts up a fight anytime we feed her anything pureed, unless it's yogurt or applesauce. Unless it's a banana or cheese, she throws her food. Sometimes she throws it a little, eats a few, throws some more. Sometimes she eats half and then throws them. One day she will love grapes and the next every time she actually gets one into her mouth it falls out. That's happening a lot lately--she puts it in, no problem, but then she either spits it out or it falls out. If I feed foods to her, she'll sometimes decide she likes it and then feed it to herself, or she'll spit it out. It's different from meal to meal--and I'm talking about the same foods! I also have fairly good success with half sandwiches of bread and butter. But add jam, and on the floor it goes! You can see how every meal is a struggle. Our good little eater is showing through her true colors (or genes!). A third stress is that she is starting to go three hours between naps instead of two. But usually, after two hours of taking care of her, she's fussy, I'm spent, and so I put her down for a nap. Then she plays in her crib for awhile, cries when she gets stuck, and I tell myself that next time I'll wait longer. Then the next time, I'm so ready for a break that I stick her in early again. She adjusts to a new schedule far easier than I do!

And the other stress, on me at least, is her current ambivalence about nursing. We were going strong with four meals a day, but now, half the time, she doesn't want her bedtime meal. As convenient as that is for date nights and babysitting, it still makes me sad. And it's not uncommon for her to refuse a meal during the day, either. I've never especially wanted to do extended breastfeeding, but I was willing to if she wanted it. It looks like she's well on her way to weaning herself, and that is very sad for me, even though breastfeeding has been filled with just as much or more pain then fulfillment for me. It could be that her teeth really are bothering her. I'm hoping that when they come in, a lot of these issues that I've mentioned will resolve themselves (her eating problems, general fussiness, and reluctance to nurse).

Anyway, the video is loaded and she's finally asleep, so I'm going to go take a shower!

JPW, pt3

I've had lots of good feedback from the video of Katrina walking. You'll be happy to know that while I write, she is walking around with her lion, a perpetual grin on her face. She loves being so independent, plus she can stop and explore things. So while I write this, I am constantly interrupting myself to turn her around when she reaches walls and couches and other obstacles.



I was bored in primary yesterday, which means it's time for another....JUNIOR PRIMARY WISDOM!

For those of you who don't know, I play piano on Sundays for two hours at church. The kids are split into Senior Primary, or kids 8-11, and Junior Primary, kids 4-7. They each have singing time, sharing time (a lesson or activity), and class for an hour. They also meet all together at the end for a scripture, talk, announcements, birthdays, and more songs. Adam takes Katrina for most of it but because he teaches the deacons (12-13 year old boys) during the third hour, we have to alternate and the other sisters in Primary help me out.



The lesson in sharing time Junior Primary was on the Creation. The sister who was teaching stuck numbers on the board with the different creations that were made each day, and then had an activity where the kids were blindfolded and guessed things with their different senses, and then we talked about how Heavenly Father made all of those things for us.



Teacher: "On this day, he made the oceans. Also, what's smaller than the ocean?"
Child: "A water bottle!"



T: "What swims in the ocean?"
Children:"Fish!" "Boats!" "Life jackets!" "Piranhas!"



T: "Adam and Even were created on the sixth day."
Child: "And they were naked."



T: "And what happened on the 7th day?"
C: "Clothes."



T: "Do we taste with our tongue?"
C: "No, with our tastebugs."



T: "Can you tell what this smells like?"
C: "An orange."
T: "Not quite. What is a yellow fruit that's kind of like an orange?"
C: "Orange juice!"

T: "Okay, everyone, make the sound of this animal and she can use her hearing to guess what it is."
Everyone: "Bzzzzz. Bzzzzz. Bzzzzz."
One child: "Oink, oink, oink, oink!" (smart aleck)

We also celebrated the Bishop's birthday with a surprise party and a trivia game.
Primary president: "Who can guess the continents that the Bishop has not been to."
Child: "California!"
Bishop: "No, I've been to California. Though it is a different world there."

I snapped this picture on my phone while I was writing this. I usually let her struggle a bit when she hits a deadend just to see what she'll do and how she will explore and try to solve her problem. So when she ran into the couch, she came up with an interesting solution to get unstuck--pushing the lion backwards!

Now it's naptime. We're going to go walk to the bedroom. Have a nice day!

Happy Saturday

Katrina, walking around with her lion and being all-around way cute.

Well, we did it. We finally went out to eat for Adam's birthday/Valentine's Day. I found a nice Indian restaurant nearby with great reviews, we packed up the diaper bag, and headed out. Adam was hesitant to bring Katrina, but I didn't care. I just wanted to get out of the house and have a nice dinner!

The food was oh so yummy, and luckily we were able to bring home half of it, so more Indian food today! Katrina ate it along with us. She doesn't eat spicy food very often, but she loved it. Unlike what I was afraid of, she was a little angel baby. She was so interested in everything and so patient in waiting for bites of food. The servers liked to come over and talk to her, since it was pretty empty. It was actually really funny--we walked in at 5:30 to a completely empty restaurant. Adam says, "I have a reservation for Adam James," like it even mattered, since we were the only patrons! I had to struggle not to laugh. Only two other parties came while we were there. It's a great restaurant, so I'm not sure what the deal was. But it does happen to be along a stretch of road that seems to have half the stores going out of business (we hit up Circuit City right afterward), so maybe it's just an unlucky place to own a business.

Here's another picture of my hair, with it all down. It's kind of stopped being curly at this point, so you can't really get a sense of how much it sticks up and out.
And here is my new friend! I bought this mini-elliptical and it just arrived yesterday. I tried it out last night and this morning and am very pleased. It has short strides, but I'm short, so it's all right. :] Balancing without something to hold onto isn't too bad and probably adds something to the exercise. It has a good amount of resistance so that even after just a few minutes I was breathing harder and feeling it in all the trouble spots in my legs--wahoo! I'm hoping that adding this to everything will help me feel healthier and lose weight.

And if that isn't enough by itself, the copious amount of Wii sports that we play should do it. :]

V-Day, clippies, and hair

These are the beautiful flowers Adam gave me for Valentines Day. They made me very happy. I love flowers. Roses are quite nice, but since they die so quickly, I prefer receiving other flowers. These ones are bright and fun.

I have been wanting to get little alligator and ribbon clippies for Katrina for awhile, especially since the headbands were such failures (she pulls them right off), and these were cheap at Wal-mart. I decided to stick them all in her hair!

Heart-shaped pizza for Valentines Day!

My new haircut with bangs. I have my hair pulled back in a half pony tail. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. The bangs are awful--they are the trendy get-stuck-in-your-eyes type. I like the look, though. Yesterday she styled my hair curly and it was everywhere! I straigtened it later and it looked so much better, but the ends were all choppy, probably since I told her I usually wear it curly. So I did it curly myself today, and didn't diffuse it like she did. The volume is still a problem for me. I think I look like Cathy, from the comic strip. This is why I don't cut my hair short. If this hairstyle only looks good dried and straightened, that stinks.

A picture to show the length. If I can find ways to work with it, I'll be happy. For instance, I have the longer side of my bangs bobby pinned to the side and the shorter side free. It makes me less crazy and looks all right. And if I need to, I can wear it half-up until it grows long enough to weigh itself down again. Product is only so helpful. I have thick, yet fine hair. I want it to curl, but when it gets too curly, like last night, it just goes straight up and out.

Whatever. It'll grow. Right now I'm just really irked because Katrina won't fall asleep. I need to go rotate her and re-cover her because her blankets are probably all over the place.

Next post will have photos from a real camera, not a cell phone, plus a video or two of Katrina walking around with her lion.

Doctor's Appointment #2

I enjoy our GPS. Today I wasn't able to turn left to leave the pediatrician's office, so I turned right and decided to go home a new route. The GPS took me a nice, leisurely back route that was so much better than the stop and start traffic of Route 30. I really enjoy where we live. Even with all the trees barren and leafless, it's still beautiful country.

Katrina's doctor's visit wasn't quite as painless as I promised her. Good thing she probably doesn't understand me much yet, right? She had to get a flu shot, which wasn't too bad, and get a finger prick blood sample for a hemoglobin test. That was much worse. I think Katrina was much more frustrated with the fact that the nurse wouldn't let her hand go than from the pain.

She is 18.5 lbs, 28 inches long, and has a 18 inch head. That puts her at the 30th percentile for weight, 46th for height, and 85th for head circumference. She also passed most of the milestone questions. I always wonder how fair it is, because she's a month late in her visits, and so they ask questions about 9 month milestones, even though she's ten months. Oh well. We'll be back on track next appointment. Anyway, they make me laugh sometimes. "Does she clap or wave bye-bye? Can she play peek-a-boo? Does she jabber or combine syllables? Does she imitate your sounds?" etc. Who knew peek-a-boo was so important? :] I had to answer no to the questions about pulling herself up on things and crawling, but I think she passed the rest. The doctor isn't worried. I really love Katrina's pediatrician, by the way. She's awesome.

Katrina's napping, but occasionally she wakes up to cough violently. I feel so awful for her. Being sick is not fun for anyone, but especially babies.

Doctor's Appointment #1

I woke up this morning, and guess what I could do? Breathe! Stand up! Eat! Yes, all of my ailments are getting better. Yesterday was miserable. I am thankful for President's Day because Adam was at home all day. He played mommy to Katrina, helped me as best he could, went to the store three times, and took advantage of my weakened state to buy a Wii. Just kidding. Well, not about the Wii, but about taking advantage of me. I gave him permission. Though it may have been a calculate move on his part, because I was too incapicitated to play much, so he got to play all he wanted. :]

I was pretty sure the plugged ducts had turned into full-blown mastitis, since I couldn't stand or even really sit up without feeling nauseous, I had chills constantly, and the pain is much worse than I have previously had. So this morning, even though I feel a little better and can at least walk and drive and pick up Katrina gingerly, I made an appointment with the doctor. My doc is out of town, so I got to see a really nice, energetic female doctor. I think I might try to change to her. She, and all the other nurses and doctors, and well, everyone, loved Katrina. She has some cold symptoms and is feeling clingy, so when people would look at her she would turn her head sideways and lean into me, which of course made them ooh and aah more. She really is a cute baby! I am now on antibiotics and the doctor said that I should feel much better by the end of the week.

Katrina has her next well-baby visit today, though because of our colds, I'll probably sit in the sick kid room. She was coughing pretty badly this morning. I think it's the same cold as I have, so hopefully it goes away soon. Oh, and I don't think she'll get any shots today! I may write another post later today. Have a nice day, everyone!

Plogs plogs plogs

I was planning on having a nice post with pictures of our Valentines stuff and Adam's new tent and talking about how nice it is to be home. Bleh. I might get to that but first I have to complain:

--I got a cold somehow, even though I only went out of the house twice. Either I got it from the teenage girl or from Lunch Bunch, where there were lots of toddlers. I can't breathe and I hate life.

--I have two canker sores, one on each side of my mouth. Eating is really hard and I keep eating acidic foods, which I'm sure is not helping. But we haven't gone shopping yet, so there's not much choice. And you try turning down cheesy breadsticks and heart-shaped pizza.

--I am freezing. The apartment is warming up slowly, and I could get another blanket, but that would require either asking Adam to get it, which requires talking (difficult on account of extreme congestion and canker sores) or moving, which involves great pain, on account of:

--Plugged ducts. Or mastitis. Adam and I affectionately call them "plogs," on account of my inability to say "plugged ducts." It stinks. And hurts. And Katrina was fussy all afternoon and evening and not very helpful in my endeavors to remove the plogs. So I hate life.

--I now have a headache.

--We have no more diapers.

Solution: I am planning on going to bed soon. After I get up the nerve to move. And I should try to pump again sometime soon, but I don't think I can handle it. Maybe I'll have Adam bring the pump close to the side of my bed so I can pump in the night if I need to.

---------------------------------------------
Good things:

--We are home, and we even made money from the whole housesitting gig, which makes sense, but since money was never mentioned, we still kind of wondered.

--Katrina is finally in bed and asleep

--We are going on a date tomorrow for the first time since Katya was born. We are even hiring a babysitter to watch the place while Katrina sleeps. We want to go to an Indian place.

--We actually have some diapers that are too small, but will last us tomorrow morning.

--Adam got me pretty pink flowers.

--We ate heart-shaped pizza for dinner yesterday.

--Adam liked the chocolate and corny LOVE pillow that I left on the bed for him on Friday night (because I couldn't wait another day!)

--Katrina, who had a fever of 101.5 all day Friday and then 103.3, has no more fever and no runny nose. She was great at church, but fussy at Adam's parents' house today. At least church was good. And she's very cute. She likes to say "dungggg" and "donggg" a lot. I thought she might be trying to say "dog," but I think she just likes the sound. I sure hope that dung isn't her first actual word.

--Adam loves his new tent, sleeping bag, and backpack.

--Adam has work off tomorrow.

--Adam is really helpful and nice to me.

Have a nice evening and week and I hope I stop hating life soon.

Fun with GoogleMaps, or Tori Creates a Tag

(Edited to add: if you can't see the pictures in Internet Explorer, they work for me just fine in Firefox, or you can click on View Larger Map).

While wasting away time the other day during Katrina's nap, I decided to look for my old house in California using GoogleMaps and their StreetView function. I couldn't remember the address but I remembered the street, and since my house was the only two-story house on the block, it was easy to find.


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Then I traveled along streetview until I found my elementary school. Here it is, Oakridge Elementary School, in all of its round glory!



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The fun doesn't end there. I could go through each of the rental houses that I lived in in Colorado Springs (five: the first house, Squirreltail, Moorfield, Sherman, that blue house). I'd like to show you the house that I lived in for twelve years, but it's not on StreetView yet.

Here's where I lived in St. Petersburg for three months:


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Okay, that one didn't quite work out right, since there isn't streetview in Russia, and it didn't zoom where I wanted it too. It's showing the metro station instead. If you read Russian, I lived on Sofia Kofalevsky street in a big L-shaped building next to the trolley stop.

Freshman year:


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This is where I lived the year that I met and dated Adam, before I went to Russia and before I got married. If you go to the right you can see where Jolena lived and the house on the corner next to that is where Adam lived.


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And finally, this is my town:



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Hopefully people like my mom and dad, who may not get a chance to visit us for a while, will enjoy looking at the place that I live now.

Ha! I bet you all want to go now and do this yourself. Is this how Tags begin? I'm betting so. Even if you don't all blog about it like me, I bet you'll have fun looking at the places you've lived, and in turn being disappointed if they're not on streetview yet.

So I better go get Katrina now, since she's been awake and talking to herself the whole time I've been doing this. I hoped she would fall back asleep, but oh well.

My tv addiction

I watch several TV shows lately, which is kind of weird, since I rarely follow specific tv shows. But my ultimate tv addiction is the show "LOST." Tonight was a new episode and I'm still in that post-episode ahhhh! mode where I am thinking and rethinking everything and trying to make connections, as well as mourn a character who died (probably). Adam and I watched the first season when we were dating and I've been addicted ever since. Thank goodness you can watch it on the internet too, because last season I had to miss a bunch of episodes because of school.

Actually, I think it's because I don't have homework that I watch so much tv these days. It doesn't go on until after Katrina is in bed, but even when she goes to bed late, she's still in bed by 7:30. We also try to turn it off at 10:00, but often keep watching until 11:00. So that's just a few hours. I don't feel too guilty, because I often combine it with sewing or something else. And it's not the end of the world if I miss a show (even LOST).

Tonight I even watched American Idol. This is the first season that I've watched most of the episodes. Tonight was the first time that I've actually turned on the tv specifically to watch an American Idol episode. I don't know, it kind of feels like I've given into the Dark Side, or something. :]

Life goes on here. The kids are great, the dogs are great. It's raining outside now, which means tomorrow will be another day of confining the dogs inside so that they don't get muddy, and then in turn confining them outside so I don't have to wipe them down. We have three more days here. Adam is on cloud nine because his new camping equipment arrived that he got at a major discount because he's a Scoutmaster. He has a new tent, sleeping bag, and backpack.

Katrina responds regularly to a few phrases. She'll answer to "Come to me," which is cute, if a little pathetic because she can't crawl, so she tries and topples over and then rolls around like a turtle stuck on its back. She opens her mouth obediently during meals when we tell her to. The cutest is when we say "Give me a kiss," she touches noses with us with an open mouth. Or she gives our cheeks open-mouthed kisses. And if I kiss her, she often responds with a click of her tongue that sounds just like the smack of the kiss I gave her. I bought her these magnetic toys at the store yesterday and roll the ball around, trying to get her to say "ball," or "dog" if the dogs are near. She has said some pretty good "ba!" and "da!" noises that seem to be in response to my urgings, but it's just too hard to tell. Oh, and today she army-crawled across the bed three times to get to a jar of ointment of mine that she has always loved. Yay! Maybe she will crawl yet. This was the first time that I put something out of her reach and she actually found a way to get to it. Usually she just moves her legs fruitlessly and ends up pushing herself backwards.

I'm looking forwards to Valentine's Day and a three-day President's Day weekend. Have a good day tomorrow, everyone!

Mama trauma

We had a little incident this afternoon. It was the first time I've watched Katrina injure herself, I think. I've injured her (with baby nail cutters!), the doctors have poked her with needles, and she's had plenty of scratches from her own nails and bumps from falling over. In fact, she falls over a lot, so I just try to keep a watch on her and catch her if I'm near.

Today she was hanging out next to the coffee table, like she loves to do. It's a low one, so it's the perfect height for her to rest her elbows on and play with toys. She loves to either have a pacifier in each hand or a measuring cup. Anyway, she was happily playing when she toppled over. I'm not sure exactly how, since it looked like she dropped straight down as if her feet had been knocked out from underneath her. I'm betting she just went to the side but it looked straight down from my angle. Anyway, her chin banged really hard on the coffee table. I scooped her up right away and tried to pull her hands away from her mouth. For some reason, I'm really paranoid that she's going to chip her teeth. Her teeth looked whole, but there was blood on the top of her tongue. I figured out pretty quickly that since she only has teeth on the bottom, she must have bitten through her tongue completely. Since she wouldn't let me see under her tongue, this wasn't confirmed until later on, when she happened to stick it out and I saw the two puncture marks underneath. I think only one tooth went through, however.

Right after it happened, I have to admit, all I could think of was whether I should call my mom or Adam so they could tell me what to do. Instead, I ran and got a wet paper towel. I shoved it into her mouth and she sucked on it. For as traumatized as she was, she recovered really fast. The gulping sobs ended pretty much as soon as the bleeding stopped. I cuddled her close for a few minutes, but then I put her in her high chair and she happily gobbled down cheerios, cheese, strawberries, and peas (hungry girl! she hasn't gained weight in over a month so she needs lots of food). The only bad thing is that she demands to stand all the time, so I have to let her play against the coffee table still and just park myself right behind her. She's already fallen once more since then (the dogs were demanding my attention, which kept me from catching her), though she didn't smack her face or head that time. During Family Home Evening I let her stand there and caught her several times. I'm not sure why she's suddenly so fall-prone, when she's actually really steady on her feet.

Here are some pictures of the past couple of days.

She was tripping over her pajamas today while playing with the lion, so I took them off and let her play more before dressing her. Oh, and all of these are lower quality cell phone pictures. I took them to send to Adam at work.

Very happy baby!

We kept Daddy company at work on Saturday for a couple of hours. Katrina got to eat off Mommy's jacket.
More walking from today. Look at that belly! She's actually still only 19 lbs. She was that weight at Christmas. She also hasn't grown much taller. I'm not too worried, but we'll see what the doctor says at her appointment next week. Besides, her head is still in the 80th percentile, so it makes up for her 23rd percentile height, right?

And here's the happy baby again. She loves eating peas, I discovered yesterday. She grabs handfuls and shoves them in. No more pureed veggies, hopefully!

So that's all that's going on here. I could go on about Adam's day at work, but let's just say, he's stuck between a rock and a hard place. I told him that I'm just glad he's honest and hard-working, because sometimes you just can't make people happy. Not that that makes much sense to anyone, but you can be content knowing that he had a difficult day and has a difficult week ahead, but managed to keep his head above water by doing his best and working hard. Man, I love that guy. :] Plus, he looked extra sharp in his new shirt and his bull-and-bear cufflinks. Oh, and his borrowed tie. Good thing the bishop has lots of ties that he can borrow, because he forgot his own! Oh well, he won't mind Adam using his.

I'm off to go enjoy the cookies that Adam and the kids just made. We had family home evening with them and I think I put together a very nice lesson on the spot. Now it's time for dessert!

Still pluggin' away

We're housesitting this week. It's been fun so far. The kids are, as always, great, and the dogs are needy and rowdy. They've been especially bad today. I'll start petting one, the other will get jealous, and then they won't leave me alone. I threw them some treats outside to get rid of them for awhile, but Katrina's back down for a nap, so I'll probably let them back in.

Katrina and I spend all of her awake time either eating or playing with her lion. That's what it feels like, at least. She wakes up, I nurse her, we play around in the master bedroom with the lion, we go downstairs and I get her breakfast or lunch. Then afterwards we go into the living room and she plays around on the coffee table, then when she (or I) gets bored, we go back upstairs, play more with the lion, and then I put her down for a nap. It just takes her so long to eat a meal that we don't have time for much else.

Well, one of the kids is home, so I'm going to go downstairs. I have an exciting afternoon planned of reading Harry Potter and ... well, I'm not sure what else. Probably gossiping with the teenagers and cooking dinner. Not too bad, right? Adam has a much harder day. For the next three weeks he has an examiner at his firm, and he's the Deputy Compliance Officer, so he has a lot to do. To make up for missing most of last week, he spent Saturday at the office and went in way early today. Actually, I'm anticipating that he will be staying late and going in early a lot this next few weeks.

Hope everyone is having a great day! It's beautiful weather where we're at.

Friday, already? Weird.

Have I ever written about how awesome Adam's boss is? Adam called in sick to work on Tuesday. A few hours later his boss called and talked to me. He said, "Tell Adam, don't come to work tomorrow or Thursday. And if he can't eat lunch, don't come in Friday." On Fridays the boss buys lunch for them, which is why he said that. So Adam has been convalescing this week with no guilt at missing work. This morning we were both feeling better but still off. Adam debated, and finally he decided he definitely wouldn't be able to eat lunch, and then his boss would chastise him, so he should just stay home. He called his boss, who didn't even ask him how he felt, just said "Stay home!" I think I might have mentioned that Adam's coworker is fighting cancer, and another coworker has a wife with cancer, so germs around the office are not good. It turned out to be a very good thing that Adam stayed home again, because he still feels awful and tired and has laid around all day not wanting to eat but being hungry. I've been only slightly better. Yesterday was much worse for me. Luckily Katrina is all better and loves being able to play with her mom and dad. She walks around the apartment, parking her lion to cruise around the couch and tables, then walking somewhere else. It's way cute.

They're both napping right now. I should, but I keep thinking about all the stuff that needs to be packed before we go housesitting. At least I did a load of laundry and packed up all of my sewing stuff (I have a birthday present to work on), but no one has any clothes packed. And I need to eat too. We still have bland, gentle food, but we're starting to want more. Then again, if we do eat, we still feel funny afterwards, so it's best to stick to the bland stuff.

I wish I had fun pictures or videos to post, but I don't have the energy to transfer them from the cameras to the computer.

I would be looking forward to housesitting much more if we weren't all still recovering from being sick. At least I don't have to worry about dinner tonight. And I know what to expect this time. Plus, I'll be able to use their car, so I'm planning on coming back to our apartment some days and just spending the day here. That way I can bring back laundry, pick up clean clothes, and play with Katrina in the familiarity of our own place.

Update

We're still here, though yesterday was one of the longest days I've ever lived through. Ugh. I'm not sure how I survived. Even after I stopped retching regularly, I felt so nauseated even up until I went to sleep. Adam was even worse. And then what we had been worried about happened--Katrina got sick. She only threw up a few times, and that didn't bother her, but she had several, umm, episodes in her diaper. I'm glad my mother-in-law has been here for so many reasons, but those diapers alone make her a saint.

Even though we're better today, we're still weak and feeling nauseous if we eat too much or if we don't eat enough. It's a tough balance. Adam's mom stayed the night. I can't emphasize how grateful we are for her. If she hadn't come over, we could have probably have taken care of ourselves, since each time we threw up we had a burst of energy for about ten minutes. But we absolutely could not have taken care of Katrina.

So Katrina started walking on her own with her lion. Just a few days ago she was refusing to walk with it each time I tried. But now she loves it and pushes it everywhere around the house. It's nice for her to be able to have mobility without me holding her hands. It's fun to watch.

I've reached my limit with sitting up, so I'm going to go lay down and read more Harry Potter 2.

So incredibly sick

Remember how I mentioned that Adam's family was recovering from being sick? Well as we left that night, it turns out his dad was just then starting to feel sick. Poor guy. I know what he was dealing with. And poor us, because since last night, Adam and I have been so sick that we are out of commission.

My nausea began right before bedtime, but I managed to fall asleep and got almost three hours of sleep before it got too bad and I woke up. I was super worried about passing it to Adam and Katrina but about four or five in the morning Adam got sick too. Katrina hasn't showed too much discomfort, but I'm not positive she's in the clear. It's a nasty bug, though. I slept on the bathroom floor for a couple hours.

Adam's wonderful mother came over. She had it last week (with a broken rib! I can't imagine the pain), so she's in no danger. Sne brought us crackers and liquids and is cleaning and disinfecting everything. She's also watching Katrina. Katrina knows something is up, but thankfully she's behaving very well.

I'm still super nauseated, but as long as I stay on the couch with lots of blankets to fight the chills, I'm good. It's a 24-hour type thing. Adam has a coworker fighting brain cancer, so when he's sick they don't want him anywhere near the office. Poor Adam. He's even worse than me. He's taking a nap, which I'm going to try to do too. The worse problem at this point is my back. Throwing up violently several times an hour wrenched it horribly again.

Hello February!

Febuary. Yep, it looks wrong. February. There.

Sorry, I just was experimenting with saying and typing the word February. Why do we have that extra letter, anyway?

I am in a much better mood since my mopey last entry, but it's taken a couple of days and a birthday party to be in a good mood. We went to the D.C. temple after all on Saturday, and Adam was super tired after having only a few hours of sleep. His sleeping bag doesn't close, which made for a cold campout. So we went to the temple and he headed inside to do work for his great-great grandpa John James. I headed over to the Visitor's Center. Guess what is closed for two weeks for renovation? You guessed it. So I walked around in the fairly cold-but-still-sunny weather. The temple was gorgeous. I'v actually only been there on cloudy days (and during Hurricane Hanna). They must have just barely cleaned the spires because they were so golden and reflective in the sun that I couldn't look at them!

The need for a bathroom sent me up to the temple itself, where I knew there was a waiting room with a bathroom. We stayed there for fifteen or twenty minutes, but Katrina was so wiggly and screetchy that I felt bad, so we went back outside. This time, however, I had changed into a skirt because I felt bad being in the temple in jeans, and Katrina refused to keep her hands under her blanket, so I gave her my gloves. The weather was far less bearable with bare hands and wind on my legs. I trucked over to the nearby chapel and finally found an unlocked door. I carried Katrina's stroller up the stairs and realized only later that I had wrenched my back really badly. I was in so much pain yesterday that I couldn't even hold Katrina. Today I seem to be doing better, probably because I slept all night with a pillow between my legs for better alignment. Still, back pain puts me in a really bad mood, so I dealt with that all Saturday and yesterday.

I was so tired of Katrina and hurting that when Adam got out, I just wanted to go home. So no temple for me this month. It's all right. We have a goal to go every two months. Next time I'll go in first.

Yesterday we celebrated Adam's birthday with his family. His birthday isn't for a few days, but we'll be housesitting, so we got together this week. We really enjoyed ourselves. It's been a month or so since we saw them, which is longer than usual. They have all been sick all month and were very happy to be feeling healthy. I wish I had a picture of the Star Trek cake his mother and sister made him. It was the planet Vulcan with the Starship Enterprise orbiting. Adam really enjoyed his gifts. Today he wore his new shirt and tie to work. We also got a combined birthday present from my parents of a Hamilton Beach grill! Tonight I'm going to try it out. I'm making brinner--breakfast for dinner. French toast, turkey bacon, and maybe some eggs.

I also have some fun projects planned for this month. Included are the pillows and pillowcases that I still haven't made, a foam and fabric cover for our coffetable, a shadow box to show off Adam's medals and awards, and a birthday gift.

Oh, and one last thing. I saw these adorable utensils during bloggy giveaways last week. I think certain of my friends (cough, Elise) would love these for their toddler sons. Just had to share the coolness!