Fall!

Fall is certainly here. So far the warmest it has been outside today was 58 degrees (we're already back down to 56 at 4:30pm). When we took Cate for her walk this morning, we had to bundle her up in her stroller with a hoodie and a blanket. But, she loves getting the chance to see the trees (and the dog LOVES the excuse to see the neighborhood), so we went anyway.

We also finally put together her baby exerciser/jumper today. She was playing in one at school Thursday when I went to pick her up, so we decided to break out ours too. So far, she likes the animals that light up and play music. She is less sure about the actual jumping, but she kicks her feet on the ground and bounces a bit. She was giving us some big smiles, so I think she accepts her new toy.




On the up side, I think Cate has beat the worst of her cold/allergies. She still has a bit of a stuffy nose, but she is no longer up every hour at night! On the down side, despite being a very good bottle-taker at school for about a month, she has decided recently to no longer really like bottles. Some days she'll eat okay at school, but other days she will refuse all but a couple of one-ounce snacks. She's still eating great when she gets home, so no worries about her dropping weight. But, it does mean she is still waking up at night to eat. We have her four month check-up in a couple of weeks, so we'll have to see if the doc has any brilliant ideas to make her like bottles then.

We are enjoying a slow weekend at home this weekend, but next weekend we are headed to Chaz's hometown in Kansas to see his sisters who are home for Fall Fest/High School Reunions.

Okay, one more "getting ready in the morning" photo, because I think it shows how big she is getting (compared to her morning photo a month ago).

Cate - 15 weeks

So, our baby is already 15 weeks old! Hard to believe. I haven't updated in awhile because I haven't remembered to take any pictures (Dah! Terrible mommy!). So, Chaz staged this picture of Cate "sitting" next to me on the couch.



Life here is crazy, busy, but pretty wonderful. Cate is still loving daycare. She is happily playing most days when I get there to pick her up (on the few other days, she is eating or sleeping when I arrive). She has learned to nap at daycare the past week or so. Now that she sleeps a couple hours during the day, she is a much happier baby in the early evenings when we are all home as well.

Her newest fascination is with her hands. She had found her hands a week or two ago, but she now only wants her hands in her mouth all the time. She will remove her pacifier to shove her whole hand into her mouth! Actually, she has become more interested in her mouth in general. Virtually anything she can grab immediately goes towards her mouth (even though she's not quite coordinated enough to get the items in her mouth on the first try). So, her toys, burp rags, her shirt, etc. all spend time in her mouth daily.

Her newest struggle is that she no longer sleeps long stretches at night. She is fighting a stuffy nose, which I think is a big culprit, but she now only sleeps for 1-2 hours in a row before she wakes up. One of us will go in her room and comfort her (pat her belly, give her the pacifier, talk to her) and she'll fall back to sleep. I'm still feeding her about once every 3-4 hours at night, but she's up more frequently than that. Last night we used saline nose spray (no medicine, it is just salt water) and suctioned her nose out a couple of times when she woke up, and we got one four hour stretch out of her. But, this all has led to a very sleepy mommy. She used to sleep a 6 hour stretch for me, but I haven't slept more than 2 hours in a row now in more than a week! Any advice for beating this cold and promoting baby sleep would be welcomed!

We've had a pretty good weekend. Friday a good friend of mine was in town from Omaha. Cate had met Abbie when she was only a month old (when we were going to Omaha for those specialist visits), but Abbie was excited to see Cate now that she has more of a personality. Cate cooed and smiled at Abbie, and we were all able to get smoothies and go for a nice long walk around downtown. Have I mentioned that the temps here are now about 50 degrees at night and high 70s/low 80s during the day? We now go for lots of walks. It is awesome!

Okay, There are lots more stories to tell, but I'll have to update later. I don't want to spend her entire morning nap typing away on the computer!

College Football Saturday! (in KS)

We had a wonderful first day of college football. A little back story - I'm from Texas, my husband is from Kansas. Between us, we've been to school at the University of Oklahoma, Kansas State University and the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. We really enjoy college football! My favorite school is still my first (OU), but my husband has been a KSU fan his whole life (his dad has had season tickets to the KSU games since 1978). So, when Chaz asked this summer if we could go to a KSU game sometime, I decided to get him tickets to the KSU game over Labor Day weekend.

So, yesterday we got up at 6:30am, loaded up the car by 8am and headed out to Manhattan, KS. The trip only took us 3 hours (including a stop to feed the baby), and she, other than when she was ready to eat, slept the whole way! At 11am, we arrived at some friends' home (Sarah and Justin and their kids Jackson and Levi) to have a football brunch. They had also invited some of our close friends (Kevin and Sarah) down from Topeka. Yes, if you are reading this you realize that all 3 of the adult women there were named Sarah. The two Sarahs that are not me had prepared the most impressive spread of food, including potato casserole, bacon, fruit pizza, scones, bread pudding, etc. Cate had a blast playing with Jackson & Levi's toys (they have a rocking bouncy seat and a shiny rattle!)

Then, at about 1pm, we headed over to a tailgate at the Church that Chaz used to play softball for (College Avenue United Methodist) to see our former bosses and friends Bobby, Erika and their daughter Sadie (plus a number of people from Chaz's softball team). Erika and Sadie took Cate back to their house to play, and Chaz and I got to go to the KSU football game. The game was hot (2:30p kick off), but it was a ton of fun. UCLA put up a fight, but KSU rushed for more than 300 yards and won 31-22.

After the game we picked up Cate (who had a blast with Sadie. Sadie, who is nearing 4 years old, brought out every toy she owned to show Cate, and made up songs to sing to Cate, and otherwise had a blast with our little girl). We then went to have dinner with Chaz's folks before heading out of town.

We left KS at about 8:30pm, and got home at 11:15 (no stop for baby to eat this time, as this is her nightime). All in all a wonderful day!

Of course, I carried my camera around the whole day and only remembered to take pictures at the very end of the day - which is why we look so tired and sunburned. But, Cate loved seeing her grandparents.



Cate, who slept just fine in the car, was up by 6am this morning ready to go. So, hopefully I can get a nap later! But, we couldn't be more happy that KSU, OU, and UNL all won their opening games and we had a chance to see so many dear friends.

Cate's visit to the Lincoln rose gardens

Cate is three months old! We had to run to her doc's office to get a copy of her shot records for her daycare, and they weighed her while we were there - she is now 11lbs 14 oz! We are so excited for our quickly growing girl.

Cate has also continued to show off her newfound rolling-over skills. She still only rolls one direction (tummy to back), but she now does it pretty much every time we put her on her tummy.

Tonight, we took Cate to visit the Lincoln rose gardens. Somehow all our pictures are in front of the fountains, but I promise there were beautiful roses there. She's enjoying looking at her surroundings more and more.

Cate rolls over!

Cate rolled over from her tummy to her back twice in a row tonight! We tried for a third time, but she was too mad that we kept putting her back on her tummy. She screamed pretty loud. But, I think she's getting close to being able to roll over whenever she wants, which is so exciting!

12 Weeks: Cate "Sits" Up (Sort-of)

Okay, so she can't really sit unassisted, but she can sit for very short periods of time in her bumbo chair. Plus, a pretty cute set of pictures of her "sitting" on daddy's tummy on the couch.

I can tell she is gaining more head control every day.








Today was my first day back in the classroom. It was a pretty average first day - filled with lost Freshman and students who were late to class. Actually, though, I think I have a really good set of students this semester (48 of them this time around). I look forward to getting to know them better over the next few weeks.

Cate is still doing well at daycare. In fact, today she took an hour and a half nap for them in her crib! If she will just keep up that napping, I think she will be a much happier baby. On the up side, she is still eating well for them, so I'm pretty sure she is growing fast.

When we do "tummy time", we often put her on a small pillow (so she can look around). Well, lately she has learned to roll over off her pillow! If we put her flat on the ground she can't roll over (so she can't really roll over yet), but she has learned to use the pillow as a ramp to avoid tummy time (which she still hates). So, no more pillow - because she has to learn to roll over all on her own.

She is still not sleeping as well at night as she used to. Last night she got up at midnight and 4am. I'm hoping the better napping at daycare might help us get back to our better nighttime sleep schedule.

Well, it is time for me to go pack our lunches (mine and hers) for school tomorrow!

Catherine Rose @ 11 Weeks

Another early-morning getting ready for school picture. But, she's pretty awesome.