Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Happy (Early) Thanksgiving!!

I would say that our trip yesterday was a success!! It's a 5 hour trip from Fayetteville to El Dorado and we made it in 5 hours and 45 minutes. Not bad! Sara Kate slept off and on from Alma to Little Rock, and then she dozed again between Sheridan and Fordyce. We decided to go ahead and stop at the Wal-Mart in Fordyce for a diaper change and to feed the kid. Would you believe that that Wal-Mart had no changing pad in the bathroom? Oh well. It all worked out. Sara Kate started to get fussy right outside of El Do, but overall she did great. Today we have sat around the house, and we just got back from taking some fall pictures of her in the Arboretum at the high school. They turned out so cute!! These are all pics that Chris took, but my mom got some good ones on her camera, too.
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.

Hope everyone has a blessed Thanksgiving!

Give thanks to the LORD for he is good; his love endures forever.
- Psalm 107:1

Monday, November 22, 2010

Gobble! Gobble!

Ever wonder what the turkey's look like before they end up on your table?? Well here ya go! (If you were not wondering you should probably look no further!)
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!!!!
And now for my little turkey (excuse the blurry phone pics)!
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!

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Weekend Recap

Hope everyone had a good weekend. Ours has been busy. And YAY for a short week next week. And by short, I mean super short! Chris is off all week and I am only working Monday. Tomorrow morning I'm probably going to be thinking, what's the point, why didn't I take Monday off, too. Ha! But lets go back to the weekend.

Actually, let me start at Friday morning. We found out some VERY exciting news!!!!! I haven't shared this on here, but I'm gonna be an aunt again...which means Sara Kate is gonna be a BIG cousin!!
Yep, this little girl...
Is going to be a big cousin to a little BOY cousin!!!!!!!! We are so thrilled for Jenny, Jason, and Hannah!!
Now onto the afternoon. I picked Sara Kate up from school with hopes of coming home, feeding her, feeding myself, changing her, and the 2 of us heading to the Northwest Arkansas Boutique Show...I won 2 tickets on a blog give away. Yea!! Anyway, things didn't go exactly as I had planned. She was super fussy because she hadn't gotten a good afternoon nap (even though I told her school to put her down between 4 and 4:30...they put her down at 5:15 and I got her at 5:30). So she was cranky. She ate pretty good, but by the time I was getting her dressed to go Chris called and said he was on his way home from the church (he had been at a wedding rehearsal). So he came home and watched Sara Kate and I went to the show by myself. I kinda felt like a loser because I was there alone but I was able to take my time and look around and what I wanted. I got Sara Kate the MOST adorable dress....seriously, how stinkin' cute is this?!?!
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 we spent time playing, and then Sara Kate and I ran to town to pick up a wedding gift. Saturday was a big day for us because it was our first time to leave her with a baby sitter that was a non family member. We have dear friends from church that have a 16 year old, and Ali has been chomping at the bit to watch our kid. Chris' mom was busy Saturday so we gave Ali a call. I wasn't nervous about leaving her with someone...like I said, we love Ali and trust her completely. I was more nervous about Sara Kate being fussy because she hadn't had a nap and maybe Ali wouldn't know how to put her to sleep. It all worked out. They played hard while Chris and I went to a wedding at the church, and we were back home 2 hours later. Ali said Sara Kate was fine, but she did get a little fussy and didn't want to take a nap. I figured that would happen. Oh well, hopefully we didn't scare Ali off. Ha!
Here's Sara Kate and Ali...they'll be good buddies!! You can tell the babe has tired eyes.
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!!

Today we had church and our normal Sunday activities. Sara Kate did great in the nursery while I taught kids church during second service. Chris was in there helping out, too. My mother in law and I did a little running around this afternoon, as well. Sara Kate was with us and she was great as usual. I love that kid. This evening has our friend Peter coming over for dinner. He is dog/house sitting for us while we go to El Dorado for Thanksgiving. Speaking of Thanksgiving, we have LOTS to do to get ready...at least we have lots to do in my mind. Laundry, packing, more packing...we're gonna end up taking so much stuff for Sara Kate, I'm sure. This is our first time to travel with her so wish us luck...ha!! It's a 5 hour trip, and she's eating every 4 hours...sometimes she can stretch to 5. But I don't see her hanging in her car seat for 5 hours. I'm just nervous about how it will go...but people do it everyday so I'm sure we'll be fine!!

I'll leave you with another sneak peak of Sara Kate's 6 month pictures. We got the CD Saturday, and I think they are fantastic.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

What's are those things on a roof called? Oh yeah, Shingles!!

Once again, I'm a blog slacker. I got the 'I'm blog stalking you' line from my sister-in-law to be the other day. Ha! This past weekend was crazy busy...Chris had a college friend in town, the last home Razorback game, which meant the all important last tailgate of the season (and I can't believe I didn't get any pictures because all 3 of us all decked out in our Hog attire...darn!!), and Sara Kate decided that sleeping was for suckers! Not really, but her sleeping was a little off over the weekend so that lead to one tired mommy. Instead of blogging Sunday afternoon, I opted to take a cue from the new mommy's guide...sleep when the baby sleeps! And a good nap we both took!
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!!

And how's the babe? Sara Kate is doing great. After a visit with my sister in law last week, Jenny said that she may be teething on the top and bottom at the same time. Jenny could feel something on top, where as we've been able to feel the tooth pocket on the bottom. Still no teeth in sight, though. On the food front, I made butternut squash for Sara Kate over the weekend. And the verdict?? She loves it!! She seriously devours that stuff and gets mad when it's gone. Although we suspect it's affecting her ability to poop. Poor kid was acting constipated and then has had some big poops...joy! I'll stop talking about her poo now. :-) I've got some pears at the house I'm gonna make tonight. As much as she likes apples, I can see her really liking the pears. We'll see!
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!!

Monday, November 8, 2010

7 Months

Sara Kate, you are 7 months old today! What have you been up to?
- 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).
- Solids - I mentioned them above but thought they deserved their own bullet! You don't care for rice cereal alone and your Gran (my mom) gave me the idea to shave a little apple into it to give it more flavor. Well, you are a fan of that!! You also like to gnaw on a piece of apple and you get mad when we take it away because you've bitten a piece off (I told you that we can't have you choking on apple but you were still mad that we took it away). I made sweet potatoes this weekend and I let you lick my finger as I was scraping out the bowl. You appeared to like them! Saturday night Meme gave you a bite and she said you ate them but weren't sure about the texture. Last night was the first night we actually made you a little dish of them and I couldn't really tell if you liked them or not. You ate some bites but then you would spit some bites out. We'll keep trying! Not sure what the next veggie will be...I was thinking peas but then I read that peas are a gassy food and I don't want to upset your tummy. I'll figure it out!
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!!
- There are times when you really like to play and other times you don't want to have anything to do with that! You really like your activity center and can spend a good chunk of time in it entertaining yourself. Saturday you sat in the bottom of your pack and play with toys scattered out and you did great with independent play time! You also spent a good bit of time yesterday playing in an empty diaper box. Nice! Who needs toys when you have an empty box?! Ha!
- 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!
- You are doing great at sitting up by yourself and playing while sitting up unassisted. We still use the Bumbo, but I'm trying to get you on the floor more. You still love to 'stand,' too!
- 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 were waving at us while we were trying to take your picture)
- 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 are in size 3 diapers (we inadvertently skipped the 2 and 1/2). I recently read something interesting about diaper sizing and poo explosions...if the baby blows out the back, then the diapers are too small. If the baby blows out the legs, then the diapers are too big.
- Most of the time, you're such a happy baby! I LOVE to see you smile and grin!
- 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!

Friday, November 5, 2010

"Eye" Spy...

Hope everyone has had a good week. All I've got to say is hooray for Friday!! I've been having a heck of a time getting up this week. Maybe because it's gotten chilly and I'm so comfy snuggled in my nice warm bed. Anyway, only time will tell if Miss Sara Kate will let us sleep in a little in the morning. I probably just jinxed us. Ha!
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.

On a different note, I LOVE a baby with animal footie pajamas!!! Just adorable! My mom bought Sara Kate these jammies before we knew she was a girl, and now she can wear them. I'd say that she loves animal footies, too! They are super fun (and easy) to grab onto!