Little Tidbits . . .

~1~

So the other day for breakfast, Pat said he would give Kateri some yogurt.


When I turned around, I saw he had . . .

 

 

 

Come on, Kateri! Don't you know how to eat yogurt yet?? geez.

 



 

 

~2~

 



 

Ok . . . ONE MORE SICKIE POST and then I PROMISE I will stop talking about how we all got sick last week. Hey! It is a rare occurrence so I really gotta milk it for all it's worth.

 

I put a white sheet and a comforter on our couch for Pat the day he was sick, and then I ended up taking his spot when I got sick the next day. Kateri was so cute when both of us were sick, she just kept coming up and wanting to smile and climb up on the couch to snuggle. You can't stay sick for long when you see this face:

 

 

 

 

 

~3~

 

  

I know Kateri is my daughter because she gets ridiculously excited whenever it's time to eat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Food!! Food!! Food!!

 

 

~4~

 

 

The other day, Pat was installing this cool bear bottle-opener on our deck (Thanks Mike and Emily, for the bottle opener!!). Kateri wanted to watch so I took this picture of her learning how it's done.

 

 

 

Apparently, she's also learning how something else is done . . .

 

 

 

Pat seems to approve . . . I better keep an eye on these two . . .

 

 

~5~

  

As you can tell from the previous pictures, it is only the classiest of things that we expose our children to. So of course, Pat has started her early and showed Kateri the wonder of Nascar

 

 

 

I think Kateri is a fan . . .

 

 

 

~6~

 

 

 

On Sunday, we went to Mass at Old St Mary's in DC with Mary and Stephen. Afterwards, we went to their house for an incredible brunch. I should have taken pictures of all the deliciousness. And there was a lot of it.

 

 

Stephen made each person a Belgian waffle and a toad on a hole (or whatever you happen to call the yumminess that is an egg in the middle of a piece of toast all fried in butter).  And on top of that, he made fried Spam. Have you ever had that? I hadn't either. It didn't taste like what I thought it would at all! I did like it thought! There was also fruit (which was our clearly very meager contribution) and we topped brunch off with these amazing scones that Mary made. It was scrumptious!

 

And then we took advantage of the nice weather and went to Great Falls!

 

 

 

 

 

Which was awesome as always!

 

 

Kateri wasn't a huge fan of the ergo-carrier . . .

 

 

 

 

But she graciously put up with being carried in it for about 3.5 minutes.

 

 

Enough time so that we got a family pic. . .

 

 

 

 

 

And we were able to get one of Mary and Stephen and Maddie too!

 

 

 

 

 

Though it was rather too bright for Maddie!

 

 

But she did enjoy it~ it was her first real out-door hike! Which she was very proud of!

 

 

 

 

Stephen brought a survival kit, but no calamities happened and we never needed it. Next time, perhaps!!

 

 

 

~7~

 

 

Congratulations!!!

 

 

My sister in law, Corinne, just gave birth to a beautiful baby girl yesterday!

 

 

Olivia Corinne weighs 8lbs10oz and is 20.5 inches long. She is beautiful! I cannot wait to see this precious face in person!

 

 

 

 

We are so happy for Corinne and Adam!! Congrats!





















Let the Party Continue

So, as you know if you occasionally read this blog, we already celebrated Kateri's birthday. But we didn't throw an actual party because the weekends and the timing surrounding her birthday were too filled with other things. So the best date ended up being this past Saturday.  And we couldn't pass up her first birthday without throwing some kind of party~ so party we did!


We had an owl themed party, mainly because I have been wanting to make those cute owl cupcakes, the ones with oreos for eyes.

So, owls it was!

(some sea-sick owls made it in the bunch). Side note: if you have never tried mint oreos, get thee to the store, but maybe wait until after Lent, because you will NOT want to put the box down until every cookie is gone. Trust me. These things bring the deliciousness of oreos to a whole new level.)

And we tied all the food in to the owl theme, one way or another . . .

(There were a couple of these left at the end of the party . . . I think the 'brown field mice' may have been a slight turn-off in the edible department).

We also had pigs-in-a-blanket, which we of course called 'mice in a blanket', which is MUCH better then 'owl pellets', don't you think?

But I didn't get a picture of those.

Do owls even eat fruit? I don't know . . .

Some things were a bit of a stretch . . .

But you have to work in veggies somehow . . .

Pat thought we should call the lemonade, 'Owl Urine', but we opted to just left that un-named.

And, besides the cupcakes, we had some other little desserts:

And even some of this delicacy:

It was quite a bit of fun!

And Kateri happily enjoyed every moment . . .

And even liked when everyone sang 'Happy Birthday'.

But she didn't quite understand the concept of 'blowing out the candle'.

However, she knew EXACTLY what to do after that!

YUM!

Why waste time?

(And yes. That is a different cupcake, her second.)

And she eventually went on to eat a third.

Which brought her much joy . . .

And Wrigley too . . . See her in the bottom left of the photo?

Team work, my friends, team work.


Kateri had a lovely time with family and close friends. Mac even wore an owl around his neck! And great Aunt Gigi and great Uncle Dick wore owl t-shirts!

Even Wyatt got to join the fun, thanks to Emily!

K-bear always loves seeing Aunt Jeanne

And playing with Charlotte and aunts and uncles!!

Everyone was so generous and Kateri received many beautiful gifts, which papa-bear helped her open.

 

 

 

A huge thank you to all! You made Kateri's day so special and memorable! She loved every moment, and must be a little party loving extrovert because despite a drastically shortened nap in the morning, she was happy and cheerful and loved every moment of the party the entire afternoon! And that is thanks to you! Thanks again for making her day so wonderful!

 

I also want to note a special thanks to Nanny, who unfortunately couldn't come because she was very sick. We missed you! You made Kateri's day extra special in many ways, even though it was from afar! 

{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real}

Doing my first 'link up' ever! Linking up for {PHFR} over at Like Mother Like Daughter to capture some contentment in our day to day lives.

{Pretty}



Nothing says spring like a beautiful bouquet of tulips!


Even when it is 22 degrees outside and snow is covering the ground.


They brighten up the whole room!

And remind me that one day it will be spring and flowers like this will actually survive outside.


My mom generously brought them over for me (and Pat and Kateri) as 'medicine for the soul', and they are absolutely that. It is amazing how much something like this can really make a person feel better!


Both Pat and I got the dreaded stomach flu (thanks, Kateri!) earlier this week.


And it struck just in time to keep us from celebrating Mardi Gras in all its glory! But, as Pat told me last night, it did make it so much easier to fast yesterday (Ash Wednesday) then ever before!


My mom and sister Jeanne also brought us a whole load of groceries, which was an enormous godsend. Jeanne even thought of bringing extra chapstick (the amazing Burts Bees variety, I might add), which was oh so thoughtful! It has been such a blessing for us!

{Happy}

Yesterday, Pat mentioned that I should really take some pictures of the little munchkin playing with her walker. She loves this toy so much (thanks to Megan who gave it to her!) and she uses it for even more then just 'walking'.

It is a PERFECT indoor jungle gym!



Yes, even though it is not huge . . .

She will climb on it and do as many crazy stunts as possible . . .

Which she finds vastly entertaining . . .

And oh such fun!


I have no doubt that she will be a daredevil, especially if she has an audience!

{Funny}

So I decided to try to bake my own bread more often. It tastes so much better and it is nice and economical! The problem is, it is also time consuming and I still haven't been able to figure out how to work it into the day so it's not eating so much time. I have some ideas to try so we will see if it will work! I was talking all this over with my husband,

And then Pat dropped a total bombshell.

He said, "I want to learn how to make bread. Maybe I can make it on Saturday mornings."

WHAT!

(Yes! You did say that, babe! I am not making it up!)

So after I got over the initial shock, I realized I wasn't dreaming and he had just said that. So, like any good wife, I filed away his statement to bring up at the opportune moment . . .

And that moment was Saturday, the day Kateri was sick but before Pat or I had come down with anything.

We were getting low on bread, and I needed to make some more, so I brought it up to Pat to see if he wanted to make it with me, and to my surprise he said he would right then! Well, almost right then. He was doing something or other on his computer at the time.

So he started mixing ingredients and I just showed him things like what the yeast looks like when it's 'working' and the rate to add flour and how to tell when the dough is ready to rise.

I still could not get over the fact that Pat was baking bread and sadly did not take any pictures.

But my sense returned and I snapped some once he was getting the loaf pans ready!

(We ran out of Pam) See! He's baking bread and enjoying it!

After the bread rose for an hour, the next step was to 'Punch it down'. Pat didn't ask questions, and I didn't elaborate. I heard a dull thudding sound, and turned around to see this:



. . .

If you think that the blurred hand in the first picture is due solely to the poor lighting, you would be mistaken!



That bread was getting 'beaten down' like no other bread!



This is what happens to bread dough when a football/baseball player decides to make it!



So Pat divided it, and baked it, and look, it came out quite nice . . .

And quite delicious, I must add!

{Real}

In keeping with Cesar Milan's rules, we don't let Wrigley in our bedroom. Or in any other bedroom, for that matter. At least, not very often. There have been one or two rare circumstances when we have bent the rules.

Every morning, as we get ready, make the bed etc, Wrigley comes and waits for us.

She very carefully doesn't break the rules. At least in her mind, as long as her body is outside the room, she really isn't in it!

She has been a great dog, and I highly recommend anyone with a little one to get a dog. They entertain each other, and Wrigley knows to 'keep away' if Kateri is in a more dangerous mood (Kateri does weigh over twice what Wrigley weighs, so this is a good thing!). It has made my life so much easier!

Wrigley also waits at Kateri's door as we get Kateri ready for the day. Kateri is always looking for the little dog and excitedly shouts 'Da! Da!!' as soon as she sees her. 

It's the little things!





A Big Congrats!

A thousand congratulations to Jeanne, who won first place at the NATS competition yesterday!

I asked her to send me a victory selfie on the way home.

Beautiful girl!

I am so impressed with Jeanne, who has put so much time and effort into voice! She has really perfected the amazing talent that God has given her.

Keep up the great work, Jeanne! I am so proud of you!!

March~ We Made It!

Whew. We survived! We actually got through the February doldrums, and here we are on the first day of March. Success! Luckily we had some birthdays to help us get through the seemingly longest (though shortest) month of the year. Which helped in a great way!

 

And, like the Balrog who cracked his fiery whip as he fell , just in time to twist around Gandalf's ankle and drag him down to the depths below, a no-good, terrible, horrible, very-bad sickness struck one of us as we fled to escape the February days. And the one struck was none other than Kateri.

 

Yes, poor thing. She got sick last night, late last night. Or late to me (which is pretty much anything after 10 pm). She began whimpering and crying at about 11:00 pm, right after we had hopped in bed. I went in to find her in a pool of vomit.

 

So, to spare you all the wonderful details,  we spend the next 4 hours or so giving her multiple baths, comforting her as she was sick again and again and again. Seriously, the hundreds of people I've been blessed to care for as an RN over the past 7 years (cancer, cardiology, pulmonary, hospice, dialysis patients) couldn't prepare me for how hard it is to take care of a little baby who can't even tell you how she feels or if anything hurts! It is so hard!

 

She was such a little trooper the whole time. I didn't take any pictures, but after she was sick and then cleaned up, she would smile and talk and just want to snuggle, and then smile some more. The other major trooper (and hero) was Pat, who cleaned so many sheets, floors, pillows and clothes last night that he deserves some medal of honor.

 

Finally, around 3:30 am, the vomiting slowed down and all three of us crashed on the couch. I realized there was no way on earth I could sleep in that position, holding a baby and awkwardly trying not to move and wake her up, no possible way. Not when 26 weeks pregnant! So I woke up Pat and he went to sleep in bed since things seemed to be settling down, and I went to sleep on the floor in K-bears room just so I could keep a close eye on her. She did sleep a few hours, which was good.

And then little Kateri was sick again in the morning. I was so worried that she had pyloric stenosis, because of the symptoms she was displaying.

Finally, we came up with a strategy that seemed to work (very very small amounts of water over long periods of time) and the sips stayed down! Though she was incredibly upset each time that she could only drink such a tiny allotment. It was such a relief to see her keep something down! And now, there have been no more bouts for the past 5 or 6 hours, which is very encouraging indeed. She has been able to hold down 3 oz of pedialyte at a time which is also oh-such-wonderful news.

So we will try something more solid this evening!

So, some things I am thankful for:

1. PEDIALYTE:

So thankful she could keep it down!

2. Pat's dental saga continues and he had another appointment this morning. Afterwards, he brought these beautiful flowers for Kateri and I:

They brighten the whole room!

3. Kateri just had her 1 year doctor appointment a day or two ago. She checked out to be healthy, and Dr G. said she no longer has any dietary restrictions as long as there isn't a choking hazard.

So. Kateri took that statement to heart.* Who says one year olds don't listen?

*No paper was consumed by any child during (or after) the taking of this photo