Sick Baby :-(

Kaitlin has her first official bug. I feel lucky that we made it until almost a year, especially considering she went to daycare for 6 weeks and didn't get sick there. She has a virus which is causing her to have a red, inflamed throat. We discovered it because she was refusing her bottle, which she hasn't done since back when she wouldn't take a bottle at all in the beginning. She's only had about 6 oz of formula each day for the past 3 days, and today she's had maybe 2 oz (she normally had 16-20oz). I took her to the pediatrician and she said her throat was very red and irritated, and it's a virus that she's seen going around alot in the past 6 weeks. The only treatment is Tylenol and time, so poor baby has to wait it out. She's been doing ok considering, she's just a little bit cranky and has been waking at night, I'm sure because she's hungry. But then once I start to give her the bottle, she won't eat, so we just rock for a while and then she goes back to sleep. We've started to give her more solid food and trying to make her drink more water since she's not getting very much milk. Hopefully she gets to feeling better soon!

Weekend with the Grand-P's

Nana and Pop came to visit this weekend and stayed for 2 whole nights! It was wonderful to have them and Kaitlin really enjoyed all the attention. We went out to eat a LOT (as usual) and visited the Dallas World Aquarium. Here are a few pics:

Meeting a toucan. She didn't mind the animals at all - in fact she tried to jump into the crocodile pit, but see those SCARY bushes in the background? Now those folks, are killers according to one Miss KRK. The only time the tears started was if we got too close to the plants.





Taking a drink break with her new friend penguin that Nana bought her!










Nana and Pop also brought up an old friend of mine. This is my rocker from when I was a baby.

She's very excited that it is equipped to take phone calls. She was worried that with it being almost 30 years old it would be too ancient to keep up with today's technology.








Sunday morning we went to our friend Gabriel's first birthday party. Rafael, Gabriel's father, christened Kaitlin "party coordinator," as she was all too happy to tell everyone where to sit and what to play with.

"You sit over there!"










"Now you turn around this way."










"And you, let me fix your
hair."









Gabriel says "What up? That's right, this is my par-tay!"





After a long weekend, Kaitlin was so happy to have a new place to kick back and relax.

New Swing

It's been a while since we've posted, but I am doing a few catch up posts tonight. Make sure you keep reading the posts below. To make life a little easier, here are links directly to them:

Lake house
Hello

Baths

A couple of weeks ago we picked up one of Kaitlin's birthday presents (a new tree swing!) for her rapidly approaching first birthday. After a few consultations with our resident engineer extraordinaire (Pop), including submission of detailed photos of the tree and the swing hardware, I executed our plan flawlessly. To make things even better, I finished the job before Kaitlin went to bed!

Here are some photos of her first swing: (if you want to see them all, go here: Swing)

Loading up and strapping in!

In-flight inspection:

I think she likes it!

Lakehouse Trip

This weekend was our annual trip to Britt and Christine's lake house. Summer and I are fortunate enough to visit them down there fairly often (it's only an hour drive from Dallas), but we only get together with our group of friends once a year. This year was especially interesting, given that there were two babies and two preggos in attendance. As is per usual, good food and good times were in store for all. Once again, we took a boat ride to party cove and, once again, Kaitlin fell asleep on the ride over. It was great to spend time with our best friends and we can't wait to do it again next year.

Here are some pictures of the trip: Lake house

"Hello?"

Kaitlin has become very adept at making phone calls, texting, etc. It started a few months ago when her Pop gave her an old blackberry (sans battery and smart card) that he no longer used. Her skills were further honed during the week we went to Mexico. While staying with her Nanny and Papa, Kaitlin would play with her toy phone, hold it up to her ear and say "EHH?", which is how she says hello. This little game has morphed into her holding anything she has in her hands to her ear and saying "EHH" whenever she feels like it. She will almost always take a call on her phone if she sees/hears Summer and I on the phone. Here is what it looks like and, in this case, she managed to field this call without anything in her hand -- she's very talented!

No more baby baths!

Kaitlin took her first bath in the big girl tub tonight! The baby tub bath experience has become increasingly difficult, due in large part to how small the baby tub is. The best way I can describe the experience is it's the equivalent of greasing up a potbelly big, turning it loose in 1' by 2' space and then trying to catch it with your bare hands! So, Summer picked up a bath mat the other day and tonight we gave it a go. Although she still enjoyed the better part of the bath standing up, now we have more space to work with!

I've posted some pictures of the event here: BATH TIME

Stupid AC!

Our air-conditioner went out again. The unit itself is less than a year-old, but we seem to be a schedule where every 6 months the damn thing quits working. Thank goodness we've kept renewing our home warranty, so it only puts us out a $50 service fee -- but even that is starting to add-up. I think Summer has solved the mystery though, because it seems to only go out after it's rain and the temperature is high. So, Summer packed up herself and Kaitlin and headed to Nanny and Papa's house yesterday. After work, I stopped by the house, grabbed Bud, some food and a change of clothes and headed over myself for a family sleep-over. Kaitlin had a rough night last night, as she was pretty much up from 11:30 - 2:30 crying. I'm not sure if it was teething, gas or just her remembering that the last time she slept over there, her mommy and daddy left (Mexico trip) town for a week. This weekend we are heading back down to Britt and KC's lake house for our annual get together. We'll post the pics from the weekend early next week, but in the interim, everyone think really cold thoughts in honor of our stupid air-conditioner!

One last note -- for those who did not watch the Rangers/Angels game last night...you owe it to yourself to check out this link: WALK-OFF

July 4th long weekend

I was lucky to have a short week after returning from the Mexico trip and was off mid-day Wednesday. Thursday, Summer had to work so Kaitlin and I packed up and went to swim at Nanny and Papa's. BK and Andrea were over and we all had a fun time swimming. Kaitlin really loves the Princess float her Nanny bought her. We spent the 4th back over at my parents house and were joined by Britt and KC and the Raetz's. Papa grilled ka-bobs, hot dogs and brauts, to go with lots of fresh fruit, chips and salsa, corn, veggies and other dishes. Andrea brought homemade fruit dip and cookie-dough dip, which was to die for! Dad had picked up a bottle of 35 year old scotch that we cracked open that evening to celebrate my recent promotion. I'm not a big drinker of scotch, but this was the best I'd ever had!

Saturday, Summer and I packed Kaitlin up and made the short trip out to Britt and KC's lakehouse. I can now see why my dad referred to himself as a pack mule while we were younger! Somehow though, I had forgotten Kaitlin's swimsuit, so KC Was nice enough to pick one up for us on the way. We recently upgraded Kaitlin's car seat to a big-girl seat and were anxious to try it out on a longer trip. Things were going fine, until Kaitlin demanded to take a turn at the wheel:

She actually did good on the trip down, which I attribute to a more roomier car seat. Kaitlin had been out to the lakehouse before, but this was her first time to ride on a boat! While waiting on our chicken to smoke, we all got in the pontoon boat for a cruise around the lake. Here are a few shots of Kaitlin on the trip:

"All loaded up, got my life-jacket on, but I'm not so sure about this!"

Papa has taught Kaitlin how to point out airplanes as they fly across the sky (would you expect any different from a proud member of the USMC?). So, whenever we are in the pool or on a walk and she hears the engine of a plane, she immediately smiles and points up to the sky, just like her Papa taught her to do. Well, the boat ride really threw her for a loop because she could hear the engine of the boat, but couldn't see any planes in the sky. She spent most of the trip out to the cove pointing to the sky, smiling and looking for airplanes. Here's a shot of her just beginning to point out a "plane":

Kaitlin was clearly unimpressed by her first trip to Party Cove.

We had a great weekend and really appreciated Nanny and Papa putting together a great 4th of July celebration and all of Britt and KC's hospitality yesterday. Next weekend we are making our annual big trip to Britt and KC's lakehouse and several of our friends are driving in, as well. This will be the first time to have babies attend the trip, as both Kaitlin and Maya (Charlie and Sapna Pringle's daughter) will be in attendance. We'll post all about it next week.