My grandmother and aunt and uncle should be here any minute, and my brother will be here later tonight. It's Sara Kate's first time to meet her great grandmother! We are all excited for them to get here! Time for me to go feed the kiddo so I better get off here.
Ironically, the week of Thanksgiving I ended up having to go to a turkey farm (this was today). When I realized the irony, I had to go back, open the side door, and snap a couple pictures. Don't these guys look like they just want to end up on someone's table? Ha! Actually, big male turkey's like this end up being cut for lunch meat (these aren't full grown). It's the smaller female's that you eat for Thanksgiving and Christmas. And there is your poultry lesson for the day! I actually have a funny story about going into a turkey house with giant male turkeys (I'm talking like 40 lbs!!!). I went in with the farmer and stayed within arm's reach of him. He had these wand things with ribbon on them to wave around to keep the turkey's back because they get mean when they get big and they will come at you. It was completely terrifying. To this day I can see those big male turkeys with their beards (yes they get beards) coming at me. Anyway, that night I dreamed that I was being held down by a giant turkey. In actuality, the cat was sleeping on my legs. Hahahaha!!!!
Sara Kate is teething terribly right now and is just generally unhappy about everything. This morning she cried when she got lotioned up. She cried when I put her shirt on. She cried when I put her socks on. She cried when she got in her car seat. Poor kid is just miserable. She's had a low grade fever and is drooling like crazy. To top her unhappiness off this morning, I set her down at school to play with a toy and a little girl beside her reached over and grabbed her paci out of her mouth. And she cried. Poor baby. Speaking of, I better go....she's about to the cry stage now. Wish us luck with our travels tomorrow, especially with an unhappy teething baby. I'm afraid it could be a rough trip! I'll try to update when we get to El Do!
Is going to be a big cousin to a little BOY cousin!!!!!!!! We are so thrilled for Jenny, Jason, and Hannah!!
I also got her a Christmas bow, and she had to model it yesterday morning, even though she still had on her jammies. It's cute...very different from her other bows.
I also picked up her 'Baby's 1st Christmas' ornament and a few other things I cannot discuss here because they may or may not be gifts. :-) The snowman dress is my FAV!!!! While I was out Sara Kate stayed home with her daddy, and I got home in time to play with her a bit and get her ready for bed. That was our evening!
Saturday night was the BIG game. My 2 teams, battling it out (for those that don't know, I got my bachelors degree from Mississippi State and my masters degree from the University of Arkansas). 
vs.
I didn't get to watch the whole game because we had to go to Wal-Mart for food and diapers, but we definitely watched the end, which was a nail biter!! Hogs came out on top, but it was a hard fought victory. Both teams played great. Now it's onto the final week of the regular season, Hogs vs. LSU and State vs. Ole Miss. Go Hogs and Dawgs!!
This week has been quite hectic as well, and I'm glad the week is half over. The week started like any other week...work for me, school for Chris, and school for Sara Kate. And then I decided to go to the doctor Tuesday morning for a little rash that had been hanging around since Friday. And she told me what I had suspected based on Google...I have come down with a lovely case of Shingles. Ugh!!!! Definitely not so lovely. Chris had Shingles several years ago, and we don't really remember to much about it, other than him remembering it was uncomfortable. My rash is on my right shoulder blade area and down the back of my right arm. It follows nerve paths so the doctor suspected it came down from my brain stem and wouldn't be surprised if I ended up with rash down the back of my neck. I'm on an anti-viral medicine and she gave me some pain pills. The pain is so odd and so hard to describe. Because it travels down a nerve path, it affects nerve receptors. Yesterday afternoon I felt like the back of my arm was on fire. And right now the pain on my back is like stabbing pain. And it itches, yet hurts all at the same time. Of course, my big concern is Sara Kate but the doctor said that Sara Kate would be fine. And the meds wouldn't affect my ability to breast feed her or my milk supply so that's good. I'm just annoyed and tired b/c I'm not sleeping good because I can't get comfortable because of this dang rash. Ugh!! So that's what I've been up to!!
This picture makes me laugh...she's like, you talkin' to me?!?
Now I'll leave you with a little sneak peak from Sara Kate's 6 month photo shoot. LOVE is all I have to say! I can't wait to see the rest!!
- School is still going well for you. Although, it appears that recently you don't want to nap as much. You are taking an hour to an hour and a half nap in the morning and sometimes you still take the long two hour nap in the afternoons, but sometimes it's just an hour to an hour an a half. You make this funny little screeching noise (we think it's a laugh), and the other day one of your teachers told us that you were playing on the floor with your 'friends' and your little screech noise kept scaring a little boy. It kept freaking him out so much they had to move him because he would cry. So you're already making the boys cry!! Ha!
- You still drink only breast milk, but to date, the solids you've had include rice cereal with a little apple and sweet potatoes. Your schedule is a little something like this: nurse at 6, you take your morning bottle around 10:30, afternoon bottle between 2:30-3, you 'eat' with us around 6:30 (this is when you get rice cereal or sweet potatoes), you nurse between 7-7:30, and you get a top off at bed (between 8:45-9).
Letting you gnaw on an apple core
Oh yeah, Gran let you try a lemon! You liked it, but I sure think it upset your tummy later that day!
- You're sleeping habits are pretty much the same as they have been...you go to bed between 9 and 9:30 and I wake you up at 6. On Saturday's and Sunday's you can sleep to almost 7. Sometimes you go to sleep with the pacifier in your mouth (although we always have it clipped to your pajamas), and if you wake up in the night and need it you can get it back in your mouth and put yourself back to sleep. Every now and then when you can't find the paci I'll come give it to you and you'll fall back asleep. As I've said before, I'm very grateful that you are a pretty good sleeper.
- You are definitely teething. It kind of started up again this weekend with you just being plain cranky!! Meme kept you Saturday night so we could run out for dinner and she felt (and then I felt) the little pocket where you're tooth will come in. It's been smooth in the past and now there's a little indention. It's your bottom right. She said that maybe by Thanksgiving you'll have your first tooth. The last couple nights I've giving you Tylenol before bed to ease the pain and help you sleep, and so far so good. I'll have to keep everybody updated on what's going on with that! You are loving your 'Sophie the Giraffe' teether and the rings we put in the fridge/freezer. I also have some frozen apple slices to put in a teething feeder but we haven't tried that. I'm sure you'll like it though because like I already mentioned, you LOVE apple!!
- You can be a major chatter box!! A new thing you're saying 'baba' or 'bla bla' and yesterday you said something that sounded like buh-bye. You will just chatter and chirp and screech. It continues to crack us up! And of course, I love to hear your sweet little voice!
- Just last week you figured out how to wave!! It's so cute! You have your hand turned the right way and everything. I'm not 100% that you know what it means yet. Although, last night you did wave to Meme before she left the house. 
- You are in 6 month clothes or 6-9 month stuff, depending on how things are labeled. Carter's fits you great, Baby Gap fits great, and I recently discovered the Jumping Bean line and Kohl's. They have tons of mix and match super cute and super cheap things. They are a little big (6-9 month) but they work out just fine.
- You've learned so much in the last month, and I look forward to seeing what new things come our way in the next month! Love you bunches, sweet pea!
Today Sara Kate had her baby eye exam!! A long time ago I had heard about free eye exams for babies but kinda forgot about it. At her 6 month appointment, we got a paper that mentioned it, and my eye doctor just happened to be on the list of doctors that provide this service. And I just happened to already have my yearly eye appointment scheduled for 2 weeks later. Perfect! So I asked Dr. Mertin about bringing Sara Kate in and she was excited that the doctors are actually passing out the information to parents. The point of the visit is to check for Retinoblastoma, which is an eye cancer in children...there happen to be a couple of cases in northwest Arkansas that I'm aware of, and she mentioned that. They also check development like, reflexes, ability to follow objects, etc., and they can check for extreme near or far sightedness. Sara Kate did great! She is slightly near sighted right now, but Dr. Mertin said most babies start out that way and it works itself out by the time they are 5. Interesting. I asked about genetics and vision, and she said genetics can possibly give us an idea of what Sara Kate's vision will be like, but not always (Chris and I have pretty good eyes). So only time will tell with that. She also commented on what beautiful colored eyes she has! And we definitely agree! Our sweet pea passed her baby eye exam with flying colors and everything looks great! She will go back when she's 3 and then again when she's 5, or around when she starts school.
