9 Months

Just a quick update, Cate was 9 months old Sunday! She went in for her 9 month well-visit and this is what we got:

30! inches long, and off the charts in length.
50% for weight. She's super tall and skinny.

She's definitely going through an anxiety stage right now, she cried every time Dr. M touched her. Hopefully that won't last long.

Lots of pictures, including the mandatory Crying in Santa's lap picture, to come!

A Celebration of Babies

Today, my old RE's office hosted a Celebration of Babies. They invited all of the patients who they helped become parents.

It was so cool. It wasn't a huge deal. Just a tent in the parking lot of the office. Balloons, face painting, and cupcakes for the kids, and pictures with Dr. G. A couple of hours hanging out outside in the nice weather, chatting with other parents.

Jeff and I agreed it was unlike any party we've ever been to. Usually, we at least know someone. Here, we were all strangers, but with something in common. It's not like the RE's office invites lots of chatting and new friends. So it was neat to talk to people who are every bit as grateful for their children as we are for Cate. Singleton babies like Cate were definitely the minority, but what can you expect from a party thrown for former RE patients?

It was awesome. I think Dr. G really liked seeing all the kids, and I know the nurses did. They said they're going to try it every year, and I really hope they do.

Fall Crafty-ness

This is what I did today. I saw the idea on Pinterest, but I didn't have an account when I found it and now can't find it to give credit to the creator of it. If I do, I'll update this.

Supplies: one 12x12 canvas. (I suppose you could use whatever size you want, that's just what I grabbed.) One fat quarter (I think that's what they're called) from the fabric store. Scissors, spray adhesive, black spray paint, staple gun, ribbon, and hot glue. Oh, and paper letters.

First, I covered one of the canvases with the fabric, using the staple gun to staple it to the wood frame. I really should have ironed or washed the fabric first, but I was too impatient to get started. :)

I used my cri.cut to make a stencil for a friend the other day, so I used the letters she didn't need to make this. I laid them out to make sure they'd fit where I wanted them.

My little crafty helper. Totally not interested in looking at the camera.

I used some re-adujustable spray adhesive to get my letters to stick. When I found this on pinterest, she recommended using contact paper to begin with. That probably would have been easier and less messy, but the glue worked just fine.

After I got my letters where I wanted them, I sprayed the whole thing with black spray paint. You can kind of see where the letters started peeling up when they got wet, but they stayed down long enough to get the job done.

I waited about 15 minutes before peeling the letters off. I didn't want them to dry on there, but I didn't want to mess up the spray paint.

I waited another hour or so, then sprayed the whole thing with shellac, just in case. Then, I took some orange ribbon and braided it for the hanger, and hot-glued it to the back. I love it, because it looks like the handle to a candy basket. So excited to go hang it, just waiting for the glue to dry!

This was super fun. I have another canvas, and some more material (that's currently in the washer!) I think I'm going to do a jack o'lantern on the next one, since I can't reuse my letters. Of course, I can't cut out a pumpkin on my cri.cut, so I'll have to free hand it. I'll let you know how it goes!

Days like today

I sure am grateful that days like today don't come around that often.

Jeff was sick, and Cate was grumpy. Extremely grumpy. Like, cried all day, didn't want to be held, didn't want to be put down, didn't want to be left alone for more than 2 seconds grumpy. Didn't want to eat, didn't want to play in the circus trainer, didn't want to lay on her mat. The only crying-free times I had today where when she took her naps and when I gave her a bath. She even cried through supper and refused to eat, which is way weird for her.

I think she's constipated. She strained all morning and finally went after her nap. But that didn't stop the fussiness, so I'm guessing she's still constipated. I made a trip to wal.mart for prunes this morning. She's only had about 8 spoonfuls though, since I'm terrified of giving her too much. I'll ask Mrs. Sarah tomorrow how much she gave her the one other time Cate was constipated.

This child really will eat anything though, because she gobbled up those prunes like no body's business. Maybe she doesn't have taste buds?

Of course, she also gobbled up the few small bites I shared with her of my mint chocolate chip ice cream, so she must have some. :)

To top it all off, while I was eating supper tonight, I noticed that Cate's right eye was red. Not fully red, but much pinker than normal. Being the pink-eye catching freak that I am, this is, of course, making me wonder if babies can even get pink-eye. I mean, we did spend over an hour waiting around for the doctor the other day. No telling what she could have caught there.

I guess we'll see tomorrow.

6 months!

Cate had her 6 month appointment today! Aside from waiting for the doctor for an hour (no exaggeration!) everything was great!

Cate is still right on the 75th percentiles for head circumference and weight. She's still in the 90-95 percentiles for length.

She's doing everything she's supposed to do. Dr. M was stunned when she heard how well and how much Cate eats. She was kind of rattling off 2 oz jars of vegetables, 2 oz jars of fruit, and 2-3 tablespoons of cereal. I laughed. She eats at least a cup of cereal, and 4 oz of veggies every night. We haven't really started fruits yet, except bananas. Peaches are next week, I think.

Dr. M also said Cate is old enough now that we can start giving her Alle.gra for her eczema. I'm super excited about this, because it really seems to bother Cate. She is constantly scratching her leg or her head. Hopefully this will help.

I was super proud of our girl today. We got to the Dr. at 4:05, and didn't leave until 5:35. And Cate was fantastic. She got really fussy about 5, because she had her last bottle early at daycare and was hungry. Luckily, I had a bottle in the bag that she sucked down in minutes. I had really thought we'd be home in time for her to actually eat, but apparently not.

She got lots of vaccinations, including a flu shot, but only cried for maybe 30 seconds. As I told her today, she really is the bee's knees. She thought that was funny, but not as funny as when I go "BRRRRRRR". That's hilarious! :)

A few thoughts...

I had about an hour to myself today. Jeff went to the school to work, and Cate took a nap. It was blissful. I sat on the couch and read. (And because names and storylines from "Game of Thrones" float through my head every time I close my eyes, I started re-reading "The Princess Diaries" for a break.)

I also spent a little time working on recovering our dining room chairs, and I started thinking. (Always dangerous with me). Here are my thoughts:

Every upper elementary and middle school english teacher should introduce three boys (men? guys?) to their students' lives. Their names are Gregor, Percy, and Harry. Those three do more for my reading scores and for getting my kids interested in reading than anyone else. (Maybe I should include their creators too....)

There are 2 incredibly annoying and, I think, offensive commercials running in our area right now. One is about that stupid "Dolphin Tale" movie. It's a preview, and someone says during it "That dolphin is the bravest creature I've ever seen", or something to that effect.

Can I just say, "Courage only counts when you can count." (from Gregor) That stupid dolphin had nothing to do with getting some stupid prothestic tail and relearning how to swim. It's not like it was given the option to say "hey, thanks, but no. I'm good." Ridiculous.

The other commercial is a USPS commercial in which some guy says "I can't think of anything worse than having to stand in line at the post office."Really? You can't think of ANYTHING worse than standing in line?!?! Cause I can think of a few hundred things just off the top of my head, and probably thousands if you give me about an hour.

Also, I was thinking about my favorite fictional literary couples. I came up with my top three.

They are:
Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy- Pride and Prejudice
Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe- Anne of Green Gables
Mia Thermompolis and Michael Moscovitz- The Princess Diaries*
*I came up with this list before I started re-reading the series.

I leave you with a most adorable picture, if you haven't already seen it on FB.

My Cate

I took Cate to a very informal wedding shower yesterday for a coworker who is getting married tomorrow. She smiled and laughed at everyone, and just generally charmed them. She only cried once, and that's when she couldn't see me. She was fantastic. Everyonce commented on what a happy, easy-going, good baby she was. I agreed.

Today I saw Laura in the lounge. She was at the shower yesterday. She told me that she loved seeing me with Cate. She said I looked so comfortable and content and happy with her, and that she could tell that's where I was meant to be.

It may be one of the nicest things anyone's ever said to me. It made me cry when she said it, and it's making me cry typing it.

I can't get over how grateful I am for Cate. Yes, I got frustrated with her today when she decided it was more fun to catch the spoon between her clapping hands than eat the food, and I was truly disgusted when her poopy diaper leaked onto the bedspread the other day, but I still think the is the most amazing thing on this planet.

And she's mine.

Food!!

This child loves her food. She gobbles up everything we put in her mouth. She stares in fascination at every bite I put in my mouth.

Feeding her is something else.

She is going to be a creature of habit. I say this because she does the same thing every time we feed her, with every bite.

She starts by yelling at the spoon. She throws her arms out to her sides and yells at the spoon before I get the food in her mouth.

She chews. (At 5 months, she chews!) As she chews, she brings her hands up and rubs her head; starting behind her ears, going up and over her head, over her eyes and nose, and stopping in her mouth.

As soon as I hold the next spoonful up, she starts over.

This results in cereal (or oatmeal or carrots) transferring from her mouth to her hands to her hair, ear, eyebrows, eyelashes, and entire face. It's ridiculous.

You can't really see it in the picture, but her face is literally covered in cereal, with a fine layer of carrots on top of it. It's in her eyelashes, in her nose, and in her ears. It's like a face mask. Her hands are covered, her chair is covered, and my hands are covered from her grabbing them on the way to her mouth.

Mom has said she used to have to put me and the highchair in the shower after I ate. I'm beginning to see why!

The First of Many

Well, here we are. Welcome to Best and Better Still! As you can tell, it is still under construction. The banner obviously doesn't match the background. I can't get any banners to actually stretch all the way across the top of the page. And I'm not sure if I like the giraffe banner or the pink background better. I'll get there.

This post is called the first of many. Partly because it is the first post here at BABS. Partly because its the first day back to school for teachers. Kids start Monday. But also because today was Cate's first day at daycare.

I will freely admit, I was a mess. Last night I ran around like a chicken with its head cut off, trying to get everything I just knew Cate could not live without today. This included extra formula, 2 (!) pacifiers, a bunny lovie, a blanket (even though she never uses them), 4 sets of clothes, and a gazillion diapers. I like to be prepared. :)

I did well this morning, I think. I dropped her off, got to school (only a couple blocks away), and made it allllll the way to my classroom before I broke down and sobbed. And that only lasted for a minute or so.

It was so much harder leaving her at daycare than it was leaving her with family at my house. Luckily, the day care is an in-home provided by the parent of a former student of mine. So at least I know she can keep kids alive. But still. I got to spend a grand total of 2 hours with my daughter today. Daycare wore her out. She was asleep by 7:20 tonight.

On the bright side, only 184 more days to go until summer vacation, and I can have her all day again. Not that I'm counting.