Kate's check-up

Just wanted to share Kate's 1-year check-up information before the weekend festivities (we're having Kate's family b-day party on Sunday/Monday!). Despite all of Kate's random inconsistencies when she was very young, she is now a very consistent kid with her height and weight; her height/weight/head percentages have been virtually identical for the past 6 months.

Height: 30.25 inches (81%)
Weight: 21 lb. 5 oz. (51%)
Head: 48 cm (99% ... yikes!)

Overall, the doc said she was doing great ... always good to hear :)

We've had a pretty nice week since both girls are completely over whatever fevers they had and the weather has been beautiful!

Bumps, bruises, and fevers

Bumps and bruises first - Kate has approached walking with the same attitude that she approached crawling ... go faster than you can so you end up falling a lot. She's usually a good sport about just getting right back up and plowing ahead, but she's also had quite a few nasty falls where she's toppled into furniture, doors, toys, people, etc. Needless to say, her face and other parts of her body, too, I guess, have a handful of scrapes, scratches, and bruises. Still, she's pretty tough.

Before I go through the fever saga, a few other words about Kate. This kid has quite a vocabulary already, even if most people can't understand it yet. Her favorite "word" is "go ah", which means "go out". Many times a day, often first thing in the morning, she toddles over to a door or window and points outside repeating "go ah!" over and over again. She's also got "words" for ball, balloon (bawoo), dog (woof), pacifier (pa), blanket (ba), and washing up after a meal (wah, while "washing" her hands).

Anna's (usually) such a great teacher for her. For example, the other morning Kate pointed at the toaster and said "pah" (pop?). Anna responded with "That's right, Kate. That's a toaster ... t-oast-er (clearly and slowly). We put bread in it and the toaster says pop when it's ready." Do we have a teacher in our midst?

Okay ... now the fevers ...

Kate had a mild fever (101-102) last Monday and Tuesday. She slept a lot, was pretty crabby, and had a reduced appetite those days, too. We set up a doctor's appointment for Wednesday, but by about 9 on Wednesday morning she was back to her normal self with no signs of a fever so we cancelled the appointment. Then we had about 36-48 hours of fever free time. Then Anna's started.

Thursday evening she felt a little warm, but we'd been running around outside for awhile so we thought she was just a little heated up from that. Friday morning she was okay until she asked to take a nap at 11:30, even without eating lunch. Hmmm ... She woke up with a 102 fever. We figured she'd just gotten whatever Kate did. She slept a lot on Friday night and Saturday during the day, with the same ups and downs that Kate had. She and Matt stayed home from church on Sunday (while Kate and I went to the early service), then she and I played a couple of games of Memory before she seemd to be pretty flushed again. I took her temperature and it was over 105 ... yikes! So we headed in to Urgent Care and spent about 2.5 hours there. In fact, we were there during the time we usually have lunch and start naps, so Anna was particularly hungry and tired. She actually fell asleep on the way home and, of course, woke up when we got home and then didn't take a real nap yesterday. Poor kid.

After all of the work and effort to get Anna to urinate in a collection container, the urinalysis was inconclusive about a bladder infection and, while one of her ears was slightly more red than the other, the doctor said that was also inconclusive about an ear infection. He figured she had some kind of bacterial infection to cause that high of a fever, and thought it was probably either her ears or her bladder. So Anna is currently taking the first round of antibiotics she's ever been prescribed and seems to be on the mend. No fever this morning ... more pleasant attitude ... but still tired, understandably.

Hopefully this week will have fewer bumps, bruises, and fevers! We're all a little sick and tired of being sick and tired (and we're tired of being unable to have contact with the rest of the world). At least the weather has cooperated so we've been able to spent lots of our home time outside of the house.

Portraits

Last week I took the girls in to get some portraits taken. We had done several portraits for Anna when she was little and I thought I should get at least one set of Kate so she wouldn't feel left out :)

Going in to the appointment I had very low expectations. I was hoping for at least one picture that might work, since I remembered Anna's 1-year pictures not turning out too well. I even thought that if we didn't get any good pictures to order, we'd only be out the cost of the sitting fee.

Well, we were more than happy with the pictures we got. I couldn't believe that the photographer got them both to look at the camera and smile at the same time for several pictures! We never have that kind of luck (or skill?) at home! With the pictures we ordered we also got the CD and copyrights to all of the photos so I thought I'd share some with whoever reads this blog. If you're on Facebook, you may have already seen these, but if not ... enjoy!

Happy Birthday, Kate!

Kate is 1! It's hard to believe how fast this past year has gone! Our prediction a few months back was that Kate would be walking by her birthday and turns out we were right. I realized that the transition to walking was complete when by Friday I was surprised if I saw her crawling anywhere. Her favorite activity over the weekend was to walk from one end of the house to the other and back again, often carrying whatever toy was nearby.

Yesterday was a day full of suprises for the birthday girl. She woke up to all of us singing Happy Birthday and then got to open her presents (with Anna's help) before breakfast. She got her muffin with candle for breakfast and then had a quick bath before church. (Anna insisted we have muffins since we had done the same thing for Matt's birthday a few weeks ago; I think this menu item may have to be a tradition for brithdays now).


We came home from church and the girls took naps before the evening festivities. When Anna woke up, she helped me hide a bunch of "1's" for Kate to find. Surprisingly, Kate caught on pretty quickly to the game and, with Anna's help, of course, found all of them.

Then we headed out to Ella's Deli, where we met up with several friends, for Kate's birthday dinner. Dinner, ice cream, and carousel rides were enjoyed by all. Kate loved all of the animated creations, her grilled cheese, her ice cream sundae, and the carousel. What a happy girl we have ...

... until this morning, when she woke up with a high fever. Hmmm ... too much partying? Poor kid has been sleeping a LOT so far today. Hopefully this illness passes as quickly as the stomach troubles last week (which, by the way, were gone by Monday afternoon). We just haven't been having good luck with Mondays lately.

"Why?"

We've officially hit the "why?" stage with Miss Anna Banana. And not just plain ole' "why", but usually a whole question.

Me: I'm going to go put a load of laundry in the washing machine.
Anna: Why do you need to do laundry?
Me: Because our clothes are dirty.
Anna: But why are our clothes dirty?
Me: Because we wore them and you and Kate were playing outside so they got dirty.
Anna: But why were we playing outside?
and on and on ...

Or

Anna: Where's Daddy?
Me: He's at work.
Anna: Why is he at work?
Me: Because he needs to earn money for the family.
Anna: But why does he need to earn money for the family?
Me: So when we go to a store we can buy the things we need.
Anna: But why do we need to buy things at a store?
and on and on ...

I'm glad she's curious, but sometimes I treasure the silent moments :)

The last conversation I mentioned prompted Anna to say to Matt one morning "Thank you, Daddy, for going to work so we can have money to buy things when we go to Walmart." At least she's really absorbing all that's around her so I have the sufficient motivation to continue answering her questions.

On a completely different note, Mother's Day weekend was great (for the most part) in our house. My mom came down on Saturday and met Anna and I for a mother-daughter brunch at our church. We all had a great time together, especially since those at our table were our friends from church who also have a 2 or 3 year old daughter (and a younger sibling). My mom stuck around for the afternoon to see Kate and Matt, but left in time to get back to Eau Claire that night.

My official Mother's Day started at 12:02 a.m. when Anna woke up to go potty ... thanks, Anna ... but then got better when both girls slept in until almost 7 ... whoa!

At that point, Sunday morning started with my "surprises" ... cards, flowers, a balloon. Then we had a challenging morning before and at church with our daughter who is still testing EVERY boundary we set. But after her nap, things went much better. Matt and Anna made a delicious dinner (spinach-stuffed pork chops, broccoli salad, blueberry cobbler dessert ... yum!) while I went for a bike ride and then we played around outside after dinner.


This morning, unfortunately, has not been as pleasant, mainly because Kate threw up all over herself and her carseat on our way to the Petzold's for a playdate. Thankfully, David helped me clean things up a bit before we turned around and came back home. Poor Kate must have caught a stomach bug that's been going around, although I can't really imagine when. Anyway, nothing else has come back up since the first episode and she had some juice, toast, and applesauce at lunch. Hopefully this one goes through fast and doesn't hit anyone else in the family.

Now we just have to gear up for Kate's birthday this weekend; I can't believe she's almost 1!

Her shoes were made for walkin'

Kate is officially walking now. I think crawling is still a little faster, but not by much. She starts, stops, sits down easily, and sort of turns. The only skill she has yet to master is standing up from a sitting position without having anything to hold onto. I think once that happens she'll be unstoppable. Fun stuff ... except for the face plant she did on the driveway last night. She's got a nice scratch on her nose from that one.


Kate has also mastered the correct uses of "uh oh", "dada", and "mama" recently. A few weeeks back she was really working on "uh oh" and would say "uh, uh, uh, uh, ... oh". Now when anything drops she pipes in with "uh oh" and then a big smile. In fact, she woke up on Sunday morning at 5:30 (ugh.) and when I got in her room she was standing up, pointing down, and said "uh oh". Sure enough, she'd thrown all four pacifiers out of the crib (yes, we leave four in there with her). So I gave her one and she went back to sleep for another 40 minutes.

Several times now lately when Matt comes home, Kate is the first one to see him and lights up, shouting "Dada!" while pointing at the door. I get the more subdued, sweet "mama" from her. I tend to remember similar tones for "mama" and "dada" when Anna first started talking, too :) Kate has a handful of other words, but they are a bit more vague ... "oof" for dog (they say woof, right?) ... "abba" for apple ... "nana" for Anna (I think)

Last Friday was Matt's birthday; Anna was THRILLED. A week or so ago we had picked up cards for him and a small gift from Anna (a toy dump truck for him to take to work :) I talked with Anna pretty thoroughly about how these were surprises for Matt and that we weren't going to tell him our surprises until his birthday. For the next week, every time Matt came home from work Anna would tell him "I'm not going to tell you about the surprises until next Friday!" He pestered and pestered, as only Matt knows how to do, but she never really cracked.


So Matt got a special day, complete with "finding his age" in the afternoon and a dinner at Red Robin. I'm not sure who enjoyed the experience more, Matt or Anna. Below is a picture of Anna eating a lemon. We're not quite sure why she kept tasting it, since this was the face she made every time.


Other than the excitement of Matt's birthday, Anna has been testing limits like you wouldn't believe these days. We know that it's just another wave of "boundary identification", but that doesn't make it any easier. It's a good thing that her sweet personality makes up for the battles most days.