Sharing
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| From Katherine’s B… |
Here again we have Katherine sharing her snack with Hooligan and Hooligan sharing her bones with Katherine. They are such good friends.
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| From February 2007 |
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| From February 2007 |
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| From February 2007 |
How Many of Me?
I saw this on another blog and found it pretty interesting. Go to the site and type in your first and last name and it will tell you how many people there are in the US with your first name, last name and entire name.
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HowManyOfMe.com |
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There are 115,488 people in the U.S. with my first name.
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Statistically it is the 477th most popular first name. (tied with 4 other first names)
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More than 99.9 percent of people with my first name are female.
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There are 12,059 people in the U.S. with my last name.
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Statistically it is the 3045th most popular last name. (tied with 12 other last names)
Apparently my maiden name was much more rare. There are only 660 people in the US with my maiden name and there are currently no people in the with my first name and maiden name so I was the only one.
1 year check up
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| From Katherine’s B… |
Today we went to see Dr. H for Katherine’s 1 year check up. We still have a smart supermodel (tall, skinny, big brain). She is 75% head circumference, 50% height, and <3% weight. Yes, that is right, my little girl weighs in at 16lb 10 oz at one year and is off the charts on the bottom of the chart. Someone has to be down there.
Katherine is very healthy, happy and hitting all of her milestones, so it is not a huge concern that she is so small, BUT the doctor really wants her to gain more weight and percentages by the next visit.
I have been kind of down about it all day. You think you are doing everything the best you can and then you realize that your baby is not eating enough. As Dr. H said, she loves to breastfeed (still 6 times a day). While there are still many benefits of breastfeeding at a year, there is not as much fat in the milk as ther eused to be. Breastfeeding is getting her just full enough to not want to eat as many solids as she needs. She needs more fat and protein to put some meat on her ribs.
Well, I am not really ready to wean Katherine, but realize that I need to at least have more of a plan than our current demand feeding routine. So, the new plan is to nurse Katherine four times a day - in the morning, between breakfast and lunch, between lunch and dinner and before bed. Hopefully that will encourage her to eat more when we feed her solids. Once we are doing that, we will cut back from there as needed. We are also supposed to try to get as many good calories in her as possible. We were even told to do things like butter her bread.
So, pray for Katherine and her eating. She needs to fatten up a bit. Don’t we all wish we had that kind of order from the doctor?
Mom, this is “snot” funny
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| From Katherine’s B… |
Still working on Katherine’s naps. She was so tired. I put her in her crib and she was fine for awhile then she started crying. I took a photo and it was not until I was looking at it on the computer that I noticed her hand. Oooooh gross.
Rubber Ducky, You’re the one
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| From Katherine’s B… |
Usually Sam is the one to give Katherine her evening bath as a part of their bedtime routine. Last night though, he had to go run an errand and I had the “pleasure” of giving her a bath. Now that she has graduated to the big tub, she does not enjoy her bath as much. I am not sure why. She also hates having her hair washed.
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| From Katherine’s B… |
So, to try to make it a little more fun, I put in bubbles and toys and waited until the end to wash her hair. She loved the bubbles and new bath toys.
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| From Katherine’s B… |
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| From Katherine’s B… |
We lined up all of the turtles on the edge of the tub.
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| From Katherine’s B… |
Of course it was a fun game to reach out for them and push them off.
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| From Katherine’s B… |
Oh, no, you had to wash my hair!
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| From Katherine’s B… |
All warm and toasty in the piggy towel.
A year of photography
I have a new interest - photography. I got a new camera, a Nikon D50 for my birthday in September. I have had a blast taking a lot of pictures, mainly of Katherine. Most of my pictures have been taken in automatic mode because I have not learned how to take good pictures with all of the manual settings. This year I would really like to learn to take better pictures.
I have become addicted to looking at photographers’ websites and blogs, expecially those who photograph children. I started listing links to some on this blog. I ran across a number of people who are participating in two different challenges. One is to take a photo a day. Some of the participants use the suggested challenges from the I Love Photography website. Another challenge is to take a photo a week using different themes.
Since it is February 26th and I am just now joining in the fun, I probably will not have my blog listed as a link on other participant blogs and I may just do as many of the challenges as possible. My goal is to better my photography skills this year and to learn to use the many functions on my camera.
So, I am going to do my best to start this project, get caught up and finish it!! There is now a link to my new photography blog in the “Our other websites” link. Check it out and leave comments.
Family Birthday Party
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| From Katherine’s B… |
| From Katherine’s B… |
Katherine is a very well loved little girl so she had not one, but two birthday parties! On Saturday we had a second party for family members and a few close friends. Attending were both sets of grandparents, George and his family, Carissa and her family, Gary and Alysha and kids and Kathy and Sammy.
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| From Katherine’s B… |
I decided to go all out and make the birthday cake myself. I borrowed Kathy’s cake decorating stuff - icing bag and tips - and gave it a try. Decorating a cake is harder than you would think but it turned out pretty cute and I had fun.
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| From Katherine’s B… |
Katherine was not sure what to think of the cake with the candle.
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| From Katherine’s B… |
She knew what to do with her cupcake this time though.
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| From Katherine’s B… |
Katherine got a lot of great presents.
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| From Katherine’s B… |
Here is a new toy for the tub. At the end of a bath it scoops up all the toys and the wather drains out when you hang it up. Plus, it matches her shower curtain with frogs, ducks and turtles.
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| From Katherine’s B… |
She got a lot of fun books.
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| From Katherine’s B… |
And Uncle Will, Aunt Jaime and Sophia gave her a guitar!
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| From Katherine’s B… |
One of the biggest hits was Katherine’s new tent. We had all 5 cousins in there at once. Everyone had a fun time.
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| From Katherine’s B… |
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| From Katherine’s B… |
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| From Katherine’s B… |
Katherine and Caleb are only a month apart in age, but look at that size difference.
Talk to the Hand(s)
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| From February 2007 |
Last year when we had our first family portrait done, we had a picture taken of our hands. So, this year when we had our next set of family portraits, we did the same thing. It is fun to see the difference.
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From February 2007 |
I read in a photography book that it is fun to take the same picture over time like this. So, just like I have taken a picture of Katherine in her rocker with her stuffed lamb each month, I plan to take a picture of the hands of all of our family members each year. I wonder if I could get Hooligan’s paw in teh picture as well. Hmmmm, maybe I will give that a try next.
Funny Hats
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| From February 2007 |
I really wanted a cute hat for Katherine’s portraits last weekend after looking at a log of professional photographers’ blogs. Well, shopping for cute hats at the end of the winter is a little difficult. I found one at Old Navy and Shannon let us borrow another one. Neither really matched anything we had for the portrait but we had fun with them this week.
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From February 2007 |
When I put the fleece hat on Katherine she started laughing and crawling all over the house. She kept it on for quite some time which is odd because she does not like hats at all.
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| From February 2007 |
The next day she broke loose from dad after a diaper change to come find mom. There I was, waiting with another hat!
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From February 2007 |
My sweetie is One!
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| From Feb. Portraits |
Katherine,
Today you are one year old. Wow! You continue to be such a joy. It is amazing how in the last month you seem so much older. You seem like you are more of a little girl than a baby. You have grown up so much and are able to do so many new things.
Just today you climbed up onto the fireplace hearth (not too safe). You also followed me to the garage and started to climb down the steps. You are so much more mobile. You are crawling, climbing, pulling up. You are so fast. Last night dad put you on the floor after changing your diaper so he could wash his hands and when he came back you were no where to be seen. You had already crawled out of your room, down the hall and into the den to find me. It is neat to see you being able to make decisions and act on them by going where you want to go. You are able to stand without holding on to anything for quite a long time and this week you even started taking one or two steps. You will be walking before long.
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| From Feb. Portraits |
We are starting to see your personality and I think you have a very strong will. You are starting to throw tantrums from time to time. You lay on the floor and cry or kick. I do not enjoy that! While you have a strong will, you also are very sweet and sensitive. You love to cuddle. You give your stuffed animals hugs and love to pet Hooligan.
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| From Feb. Portraits |
You love your books. As a former teacher I love to see this. We have piles of books in every room. You like to go over to your bookshelf and pull them all off onto the floor. Then you will flip through them page by page. You are learning how many of your toys work. You have had a lot of them for some time but now you are old enough to sort, stack and put things inside other things. You have always loved to take things out of things such as taking all of the laundry out of the basket. Now you are also putting things back where you got them. I must say I like this because soon you will be able to clean up your own mess!
You are sleeping very well at night now. You are going to bed at about 7-8 and you typically sleep until about 6. That is a large improvement from before. You also are going to bed at night with almost no fuss. I used to have to nurse you until you fell asleep and then carefully put you in bed without waking you up. Now I nurse you and then daddy takes you to your room to change you into your pajamas and read to you. Then he puts you in your crib and walks out. You go right to sleep most nights. We are still working on taking naps that easily and you have some room for improvement.
You are eating much better. You now eat 3 meals and 1-2 snacks a day. I never know what you will want to eat. Some days you love bananas and some days all you want to do is squish them with your fingers. You are getting better at eating “real” food though you still prefer baby food from a jar. Your new favorite food this month is peaches. You are still nursing 5-6 times a day. You don’t show any signs of slowing down even though you are eating more. I have officially made it to my goal of nursing you for one year so now I plan to gradually wean you but I am in no hurry. You are now allowed to have milk, so when you stop nursing I will not have to give you formula. That was a goal of mine. You literally have only had one ounce of formula. That was in the hospital before you were nursing well because your blood sugar was too low.
You are starting to communicate more. You have 5 words for sure - mama, dada, dog, baby, and bye. There are other things you may have said - nana, jack and I am sure many other things. You are also finally starting to do signs back. You sign for milk, more and all done. I need to get better about doing signs again because I sure like being able to communicate. You also have a few of your own signs. When you are not interested in taking another bite, you hold your hand our and shake your head. You also clap, wave and kiss. When you kiss, you say “mmmmma” which is the sound I make when I give you a kiss. It is so cute.
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| From Feb. Portraits |
Katherine, I love you so much. I cannot wait to see what the next month will bring. Happy Birthday.