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  1. What a Difference a Year Makes

    January 10, 2012 by Katie

    Hope everyone had a wonderful end to 2011, and a positive beginning to 2012. I realize I’m a bit late posting a new year’s post, but when have I ever been on time for anything?

    Never. {Ok, not completely true. Last weekend I worked in nursery at church and was there 2 minutes before the recommended time!}

    I think I’ll go out on a limb and say that 2011 was my most favorite year of life to date.

    Yes, there have been great years before—2008 comes to mind, since we got married and all that jazz—but the year our first child was born trumps them all. In fact, I think it was a little over a year ago that we announced to the world {i.e.: Facebook} that we were expecting. So, basically the entire year was spent preparing for and caring for little Elise, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

    Each month in 2011 had its very own ‘favorite’ event that I will always look back on fondly:

    january

    baby makes first official appearance…{via bump}.

    february

    enjoyed a ‘babymoon’ in Hawaii, including hiking up Diamond Head….{exhausting}.

    march

    apparently a pretty uneventful month as we have few pictures….ooh, but I did get my favorite childhood book sent to me!

    april

    baby shower in KC with some of my best friends….{and babies!}

    may

    2nd baby shower that both Grandmas attended.

    june

    we waited ever so (im)patiently for baby to arrive…{and waited…and waited…}

    july

    best. day. of. my. life.

    august

    took the wee one on a very memorable {and long} road trip.

    september

    met my tiny nephew for the very first time.

    october

    visits from lovely ladies.

    november

    Thanksgiving on Orcas Island with friends.

    december

    our first Christmas as a family of three.

     

    So much has changed over the past year, it’s actually kind of difficult for me to remember what life was like when I had all that free time to do whatever I wanted to do.

    I’m not a resolution person, but I do like to have things to aim for in life, so here’s what I’m hoping 2012 brings:

     

    1. Help Elise learn to crawl, walk, and talk.

    2. A vacation for just the hubby and I. {Somewhere warm, perhaps? And somewhere I can just relax. We’ve gone on vacations this year, but not a single one has been relaxing for me. :) }

    3. More visits to see Grandpa & Grandma H in Idaho.

    4. Spend some quality time with Grandpa & Grandma S, my brother, sis-in-law & nephew. And have Elise meet the rest of her great aunts & uncles at some point.

    —possibly take Elise to spend a week on the farm during the summer.

    5. Run {at least one each of} a 5K, 10K & half marathon.

    6. Read the bible more and get back into a SHARE group.

    7. Learn how to do something new {and do it well}:

    —sign language, French/German/Russian, sewing with a machine, and/or yoga.

    8. Develop the perfect quiche recipe.

    9. Start up my design biz, for real this time. (http://www.etsy.com/people/sweetonedesigns …..sitting idle for 3 years)

    10. Turn 30 with a smile on my face.

    Yeah, I think that’s a solid starting point for me. At some point I’ll merge these with my ’30 before 30′ list.

    Thank you for letting me share 2011 with you. Cheers to 2012, and all that lies ahead!


  2. Too Cute Thursday

    January 5, 2012 by Katie

    {sweet potatoes.}



  3. Six Months

    January 3, 2012 by Katie

    Just when I thought this day would never come.

    Six months old.

    Um, hello. That’s half a year, people.

    Half. A. Year.

    If someone can tell me how this all happened so fast, that’d be great. Because last I knew, she was a tiny baby who I was worried wasn’t getting enough nourishment and just starting to get used to life outside the womb. And now, she’s a chunky babbler who puts everything in her mouth if it comes into her grasp (or close enough to her face…as has happened with my nose several times).

    Reason #1 why I keep a blog: Time flies by so fast, next thing I know she’ll be 18 and I’ll wonder what the days were like when she was this small…and then I’ll look back at these posts and start crying. So even if you don’t read all these updates, they’re here for me to reference when my mind forgets.

    At Six Months

    Size. I don’t have a scale at home anymore but I’m pretty sure she’s around 18 pounds and growing taller by the second. Up until about a week ago she’s been strictly breastfed, but we’ve since added applesauce and sweet potatoes to her culinary repertoire {more on that in a later post}. We’ll find out her measurements at her (belated) six month checkup next week, when she also gets more S-H-O-T-S.

    Movement. No attempts to crawl yet, in fact, no unassisted rolling over either. This could be because tummy time is one of her least favorite things, so mommy doesn’t have her do it as much as she probably should.

    She is becoming a champ at sitting up with only a little bit of support and can pull herself back upright if she leans back too far. Strong abs—unlike her parents. {Too many cookies, caramels, and fudge and not enough any running.} She does enjoy a good face plant when she’s practicing sitting on the bed. Not so funny when she’s on the wood floors.

    She has figured out that she has both a right foot and a left foot, and that they are fun to play with. Also, she knows she can control her hands and grab whatever is nearby, and that her hands are not just random objects that fly in front of her face every so often. Some nights she’ll just lay there in awe and watch her fingers move. When’s the last time you did that?

    Sleep. Darling girl is pretty good to us. Bedtime is now around 7-7:30pm, I still do a ‘dream feed’ at 10pm, then she’s sound asleep until I drag myself out of bed between 8-8:30am and get her up. She’s usually just quietly playing by herself, then smiles and starts babbling immediately upon seeing me. We do get the occasional nights where she’ll wake up crying and then take an hour or two to calm back to sleep, but thankfully, those nights are rare. We have a parental agreement that if this happens during 11pm-3:30am, Todd takes care of her and then if it’s between 3:30-8am, I get up with her.

    Naps. I have to talk about naps, because they have been the only headache she has given us so far. Her usual nap length is now about 40 minutes, but some times she’ll shock me and sleep for 90 minutes. If only she’d tell me ahead of time so I could plan for it and get a solid nap in for myself. {example: as I’m typing this up, she’s been napping for, whoa, 1 hr 45 minutes so far!} She used to struggle going down for a nap, but we’ve had definite improvements in that department. Now we have a little routine, similar to bedtime—change her diaper, read a book or two, sing Jesus Loves Me and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star a couple times and turn on her lullaby seahorse. Then I can pretty much lay her down, say “time for sleep”, and she’ll drift off to dreamland. We’ve moved her to two naps/day now, but sometimes she’ll sneak a third one in during an evening walk.

    Play. Only having two naps a day gives us more time to spend together playing or running errands. And I love that she can go longer durations between naps now and doesn’t get fussy as easily. She can be content just sitting in her bouncer while I make dinner, or playing on the floor by herself. Her favorite thing to do is ‘fly’—basically I throw her up in the air without letting go, while counting to 10. Bonus: it’s a great workout for mommy’s arms. She also LOVES sitting on shoulders (and eating hair while she’s up there) and going Up! Down! Up! Down!…repeat, repeat, repeat until my legs are burning from these squats.

    Adventure. When we venture out, one of us will wear her in our Ergo carrier or just carry her in our arms. But that little tank gets heavy quickly. For grocery store/Target trips, I usually wear the Ergo, or place her car seat in the Snap-n-Go stroller or in the shopping cart (depends how much I plan on buying). One time I tried sitting her in the little child seat in the shopping cart, and the next day she came down with a nasty cold that cancelled our trip back home for Christmas, so I have avoided sitting her in there since. I’m all for building up your immune system, but not when it interferes with travel plans. :)  Since the winters here are pretty mild, we are usually able to get a long daily walk in with the BOB stroller. LOVE that thing. I haven’t tried jogging with her in it yet, since the manufacturer recommends waiting until 8 months, but I’m getting antsy and might try it anyways (anyone else use theirs earlier than 8 months?).

    Love. She loves her daddy. It’s pretty obvious that some days she is completely overjoyed when he gets home from work. I understand and am okay with the fact that she can get bored being home with me all day, so a fresh face is a delight to her. The minute she sees him walk into the house, her face lights up, a big smile appears, and those chunky legs start kicking with excitement. This brings me such joy to see her with him. They also go on daddy/daughter dates every Sunday evening and most Saturday mornings, while I get some much needed time to myself, or occasionally be the third wheel and tag along.

    We love our little Ellie Rose.

    E. Kiss. L. Kiss. I. Kiss. S. Kiss. E. Kiss. What’s that spell? Elise!

    Elise! Arosa! Harris!

     

    And even though the past six months have flown by, she becomes more and more wonderful and playful each day, so we’re excited to see her continue to develop over the next six months. And, hold onto your hats…..become mobile! I get the feeling things are about to get very interesting….

     

     


  4. The Dress

    December 31, 2011 by Katie

    When we first found out we were having a girl, one of the first things I thought was, “she can wear THE DRESS for her first Christmas!”

    {THE DRESS.}

    It’s a lovely dark green velvet dress that I also wore for my very first Christmas 29 years ago. Meaning, it’s old vintage—which is all the rage nowadays.

    I was a June baby—so a month older than she was at Christmas—but since she’s bigger than I was at her age, it fit wonderfully. Have you seen her super chunky thighs and monstrous cheeks?

    And the best thing about it is that my mom made it with her own two hands (and probably some help from a sewing machine). I’m actually surprised that it has survived all these years after having been worn by many of my dolls, but it’s in pretty great condition.

    I felt so honored to be able to pass this dress down to my own daughter, and the look on my parents’ faces when we Skyped with them was awesome. Noone cried though, which is what I was really shooting for.

    Mom says she looks different than I did, so I’m waiting to get photographic evidence to compare side by side.

    Maybe she can pass it on to her own daughter someday. Many many many many years from now.

     


  5. Too Cute Thursday

    December 29, 2011 by Katie

     

    {clean.}