I have a nice husband...

Who brought me home flowers and chocolates this morning just because. :)

It's very nice to have a husband that kinda 'gets' that even though Kat is a happy baby, she's also very high maintenance... and though I'd like the house to be immaculate, she's always going to trump any kind of chore I have going on. He fully understands that being a Stay at home wife/Mom is a 24 hour job and that sometimes I need a break and sometimes I need a treat :)

I always post how Kat is doing... with not much mention of how I'm doing. That's sort of the way things work anymore. I don't really think much about how I'm doing unless I'm in the middle of a nervous breakdown. My time and thoughts are so consumed with taking care of her, Tim, and the house that I get relatively little time to think about my life.

So I'm thinking about it, and this is how I am:

Blessed- everytime I look at Kat my heart does a little extra bump in my chest and I'm so proud to be her momma.

Loved- Tim goes out of his way to help me when he can or when he actually thinks of it :).

Tired- all the time pretty much, Kat sleeps through the night, but she's a voracious eater and I'm breastfeeding anytime that I'm sitting down (including at the computer) the rest of my time is consumed with dishes, laundry, cleaning, sanitizing toys etc. I operate in a constant state of exhaustion. This, I've come to understand is how moms operate and will continue indefinitely. :)

Stressed- with a single income household we're always trying to squeeze a dime out of every penny he makes. Gas and Electric bills are astronomical in the winter here, so I'm cutting every coupon I can find- planning every meal, and budgeting every expense. Thank goodness for our tax returns or we'd have had trouble paying our basic bills this month. I'm proud that with my anal retentive budgeting, we're still making it and occasionally getting to splurge a little bit. The way things are going in the US right now, we're the lucky ones! I also worry about Kat constantly, but I know that's also how motherhood works.

Sore- She's getting heavier and heavier, so constantly carrying her around with one hand while performing chores with the other puts a strain on my already crappy back... so I'm kinda sore but nothing a nice hot shower wouldn't fix right up.

Forgetful- I try so hard to keep a handle on everything that inevitably something slips through the cracks- I can't seem to keep my brain on one topic for too long, so I've had to start writing everything down and getting as organized as possible so I don't forget anything too important. Unfortunately Tim is even more forgetful than me, so it's really my job to keep this family on time for things :) On time is now a relative term- if I remember within a few days I consider that a success, even if it's technically late.

Wishful- I wish for so many things- a minivan (lol), a dishwasher, a few hours to myself, more money, more time, a few extra hands, more room in the apartment, and at the moment- I'm wanting some orange juice LOL

So there you go, that's how I'm doing now that I've had a chance to think about it. Just heard the dryer stop, off to finish laundry!

My Playful Girl

We were playing and making blanket forts today :) Sometimes I look at her and just can't believe what a pretty baby I have! :) :)

Feeling better and a nice long update...

Kat is and has been feeling much better, looks like that was just one of those lovely 24 hour tummy bugs (which I had earlier in the week) paired up with a fever from teething. She's such a happy kid though, it barely put a dent in her style. She just slept a little extra to make up for the sleep she missed the night before.

Otherwise, I swear she grew last night in her sleep... almost a full inch. You'd think I was exaggerating, but I just put her in her activity chair, and before she kinda tippy toed her way around it, today her feet are both flat on the bottom with room to spare. She sits up higher in it too. I wish I had a picture to compare last night to this morning, but no one sent me the memo that she was going to grow last night :) Gotta love the 4 month growth spurt.

Seems like the frantic feeding part of that growth spurt is over... something not only my left but my right breast are thankful for. (Add that to your 'Things I didn't need to know' list) Growth spurts are rough when you're breastfeeding, if I did formula I could just give her extra bottles no problemo. - as is, the kid just yells until your body starts doubling production for a few days, then you're left sore as heck when it's over and your body adjusts back to where it was! I still wouldn't trade it for anything, and as much as I'll be grateful to wean when she's ready, part of me will miss that special cuddle time with her every day. We're over 1/3 of the way to the 1 year milestone, one that I never thought I'd make it to. In the beginning I was praying just to make it to 3 months! That has got to be my most proud mommy thing.

I also made my first batch of homemade organic babyfood a few days ago- Banana puree. Kat was ambivalent about her rice cereal. but she LOVES her bananas!! She will start crying when they're all gone. I'll have to get some video of her devouring her bananas. I had a few folks question my decision to make her first baby food a fruit rather than a veggie. The standard thinking being that if you start them on fruits they'll get a sweet tooth and never eat their veggies. For formula fed babies that tends to be true, as formula isn't very sweet. What most people don't realize is that breastmilk is very very sweet... and that fruit is usually a step down from that in most cases and better tolerated by breastfed babies. Bananas are also really gentle on the tummy. Our Pedi recommended it, and it's so the right way to go! Next week we're trying avocados. They have lots of good fats in them, and we're hoping it helps with her awful eczema.

She's sitting in my lap dancing to celtic music I have playing so forgive my typos, she likes to rock and swing her arms and legs when there's music on she likes. Come to think of it, this was the music I played for her a lot in the womb, perhaps she remembers it :)

Things are going well here in Michigan, it got nasty cold again. I'll be so glad when Winter is over, I love the summers here- enough to tolerate the winters. It still keeps me dreaming of a tropical vacation. We'll be taking our summer vacation this June, going back home to the East Coast. We'll spend a weekend at a festival I used to frequent so we can introduce Kat to all my scattered festival buddies, then we'll be driving to spend 4-5 days with my mom. I may land a teaching spot at the festival too, so we'll see how that goes. At least I get to see my mountains again for a week or so. I find I miss their friendly presence on my skyline. I guess you grow up so used to something like that, you take it for granted until you land in lake country Michigan :)

The Great Babyproofing has officially begun. We spent last night tearing everything down, dusting, and reorganizing things so that cables are neatly tied together or hidden. And so that we can take anything off lower shelves that Scooter here might get into when she's officially mobile. We also have to bribe Grandpa into coming over and helping us anchor our shelves. Our living room is still in a transitional phase, it almost feels like we're moving because the room feels emptyish. We should be finishing the living room either today or tomorrow, and tackle another room in the house later this month. We're trying to do it gradually so we don't have to rush and

stress ourselves out even more.

Life is busy, and there's little free time... but that's just the way life works when you're a new family. :)

And since you were so good and read through, here's a Kat Picture. She fell asleep in my lap yesterday so I had to snap a picture.

The Muffin is sick and doesn't care...

She woke herself up 4 times last night, has been throwing up, and now is running a fever and she's in a fantastic mood...smiling and playing like nothing is wrong.

She has got to be the most cheerful sick person I've ever met. Now I'm just stressed trying to find the damn baby Tylenol LOL... the hazards of having a cat, she knocks things off the tables and plays with them. It's probably under the couch or something crazy.

I'd say Poor Little Muffin, but she's just happy as a clam! :)

Smiley girl

That's our sweetheart, full of smiles and giggles. We still have to take the pictures when she's not looking at the camera holder, she's too fascinated with the camera to actually smile.

Who needs to crawl anyway?

I shall call her "Scooter" and she shall be my Scooter...

Just as an FYI she started out laying on her side in front of her book that you see open there, I went to grab a water from the fridge and turned around to see her making a break for the front door apparently. :)

She scoots everywhere, I have to watch her very carefully when she's on her tummy because she'll just scoot right off her blanket, onto the floor, and across the living room if I don't watch her! She so desperately wants to be mobile that she refuses to wait :)

Goofy Kid

Amazing kid...

She crows... literally. Everytime Kat is learning some new big skill, she crows the whole time she's doing it and spends about an hour afterwards completely excited and squealing and crowing away.

Even now she's behind me in her activity center, after eating almost 10 whole spoonfuls of cereal feeling pretty proud of herself.

She learns so much, and so fast that she simply amazes me. When kids are this small it's all about the little things. Right now I'm marveling that she's discovered how almost all of the toys on her activity center actually work. Especially considering she's a little short to reach a few and she's only had about a short amount of time to play in it. Originally she'd just bounce and rock in it, now she's spinning the beads, pushing the music buttons, and tugging on the crinkly bee. Having been around many kids, and working in a daycare with infants and toddlers, Kat really still amazes me at how bright eyed, alert, and curious she is all the time.

She gets so proud of herself that you just have to laugh and smile along. I can see her in 9 months or so, walking for the first time, and yelling her head off about it so everyone knows she's proud of herself. :)

First Solids

Yes- I caved and gave her rice cereal before my self imposed 4 month deadline. I've been nursing her every half hour today, and she isn't seeming to get full. We had picked up little bowls, spoons, and rice cereal pre-emptively intending to start next week at the earliest. She's been trying to grab food off our plates for 2 weeks now, crying when she sees me eating, playing with her own little spoon and bowl, and seeming to be constantly starving. It was her time.

So Kat kind of enjoyed her first rice cereal, by the end she was shoving my hand to get the spoon in her mouth. She got a little messy as you can see below. I guess the first time was as successful as it could've been... she enjoyed the food, she even swallowed some of it, and she loves the spoon. We've been letting her play with little plastic bowl and a baby spoon for about a week now (it was the only way to keep her from yelling while we ate) so she was all about feeding herself tonight. As you can see, she was trying to grab that spoon and do it herself. It was actually pretty funny after we stopped rolling camera because she kept leaning forward with her mouth open making insistent little grunt noises :) Not wanting to overdo it, I'll likely give her a little more cereal tomorrow morning, but none tonight until we see how she digests it!

Couch potato

Kat relaxing on the couch, sitting up all on her own like a big girl! She loves sitting up now and checking out her feet... until she tumbles forward :)

Things no one warned me about regarding Motherhood...

1. That I would ever ever get excited and happy over someone else's BM.
Kat was so constipated when she was really little that she would just arch her back and cry... so whenever Tim and I would switch shifts and Kat had pooped, we'd get all excited and high five each other... This is what my world has come to :)

2. That my daughter would feel the world needed desperately to see my breasts.
I am not able to nurse in public or anywhere near other people as the minute I use any kind of cover to conceal the boobie- Kat rips it off and then gives me a big grin. She usually throws the blanket for good measure too. She also pulled my top down in Target the other day, luckily she was in the Moby wrap so I was covered... but still!

3. That my capacity for embarassment and proper social behavior would go right out the window.
So there we are, in line at Target... and I hear Kat give a little grunt, rip a huge fart, and do her business. And when I say loud, I mean people two lanes over looked over to see what on earth that was. She farts like a grown man. So instead of looking around like everyone else (acting innocent) I start laughing so hard I almost pee my pants, and tell Kat she's awesome. I now am entertained by farts... oh yeah, and she burps louder than Tim, so loud she startles herself sometimes!

4. That I would have painful minivan envy...
When you're in a parking lot in below 0 wind chills trying to manueuver a huge baby seat into the base of the backseat of your little Camry, then attempting to wrestle the stroller into the itty bitty trunk... and you look over and see the woman parked next to you push a button and her minivan doors open, she just reaches in and snaps her baby into place quickly, and just slides her stroller into the back... all the while you have snow dripping down your collar, a pulled shoulder muscle, and a baby screaming at all the jostling and cold just watching that lucky woman drive away in her shiny warm minivan... you have minivan envy....

5. That you don't need much to take care of the baby, but the extras sure make your life easier.
There isn't much you NEED to raise a baby- food which you provide, love ditto, a roof over your head.... but all the extra stuff makes Mommy's life easier, not the baby's. But really, when you're the primary food source for a screaming chubby little tyrant- anything that makes your life easier is worth it. One simply needs to press that point when appealing to cheap husbands. :) Don't know what I'd do without my co-sleeper, my boppy pillow, the good breast pump, and her activity center!!

Sharing with my mommy buddies...

If you're always looking for a deal and budgeting every penny like I am, this is an awesome blog to keep track of... they tell you who has what on sale, shares coupons, etc. It's updated constantly and very reliable. Just thought I'd share with you all!

http://babycheapskate.blogspot.com/

We finally found something she likes!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Kat wanted to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day... but especially her Grandma who isn't feeling well. Kat said she hopes Grandma feels better soon so she can come over and cuddle some more :)

Aside from that, Happy V-day everyone!

Today we aren't really doing much. Our anniversary (of when we started dating) is the 16th of February, so we just lump the two holidays together (see what a nice wife I am?)... we'll likely be having our anniversary festivities on Monday. In the meantime I'm spending the day with my most special Valentine- WeeKat.

Oh- and you know how I posted yesterday she's showing interest in food? Last night I had dinner with some girlfriends, and Kat was sitting in my lap. All of a sudden everyone was giggling and I didn't know what was going on... apparently everytime I took a bite of my soup, Kat was leaning in with her mouth open towards the spoon and watching me eat it and looking put out. Sure enough, she did for the entire rest of my bowl of soup! If I didn't know better I'd have said this was a kid already eating solids... she had the baby bird face down. Today she watched me eat my lunch and kept sticking out her tongue and opening her mouth and making insistant little grunt noises...

I'm not sure we'll make it to 6 months for cereal if she keeps up, she wants food and she wants it NOW! :o) I'm still going to try to wait as long as I can... at the very least one more month!

Growing up so fast!

I can't believe how much WeeKat is growing... we had to take her to the doctor earlier this week and she weighs 12lbs 9oz. Her baby chubbiness is already starting to give way to long gangly legs and arms!

Her new favorite activity (which she insists on doing every minute she's awake now, as she always does with any new skill) is walking around the living room while I hold her hands. I kid you not!! She holds her weight all on her own, I just balance her. She moves her feet on her own and sometimes gets excited and jumps up and down. It's a little odd to see such a little thing standing up so straight and kinda walking! Tim is convinced she's going to give crawling a miss and just start walking. I don't think that'll happen anytime soon, but she sure loves to walk around the living room. If we aren't doing that she wants to sit up and look around, she still needs balance for this too, but not nearly as much.

She's already showing major interest in watching us eat (which is a precursor for being ready for cereal and solids)- we still plan to try to wait until the 6 month mark for this, unless she really gets insistent and seems very ready.

Funny though- she's still not rolling over! She keeps getting almost there... and then not... so sitting assisted, laughing, walking assisted, talking, wanting to eat... not rolling over.

Goofy kiddo!

Other than that we're all doing well here in Lewis-land. I hit the 3 month breastfeeding milestone, which was my short term goal when I planned to breastfeed. We're doing great and still going strong, so 6 months- here we come! She still gets a little bit of formula at bedtime, but that's such a staple for her that we're going to stick with it. Kat is sleeping 8-9 hours a night peacefully- I think a lot of that has to do with her new Co-sleeper. Ever since we got it she sleeps better, and so do I. Best 30 dollars I ever spent, such a good deal!

Every day I see more and more of the little girl Kat is becoming, little flashes of her personality. Granted she cries and occasionally is less than pleasant to be around- she's a baby, that's how they work. But I've been around quite a few babies, and she honestly doesn't seem to cry as much or get nearly as upset as often. From what we see Kat is: sweet tempered, a huge cuddler, a clown (she loves making us laugh), very bright (intensely interested in all her picture books, hitting all the intellectual milestones way early, very curious natured), a little impatient but quick to settle down and cool off, independent (sometimes she wants us to leave her alone to do her thing), and just very very loving. I feel so lucky to be her momma, and am really curious how I managed to make such a cool sweet kid!

I truly cannot wait to see the little girl and then young lady she becomes. Granted I'm willing to wait, I firmly believe in enjoying every stage of her life. We may not have any more kiddos, so I don't want to miss a thing with this one if that's the decision we make. On that note, and with The Universe laughing at me for thinking I had any real control over that... lol

Signing off... time to go play with The Kitten!

Kat's 3 Month Pictures! Part 2

Kat's 3 Month Pictures! Part 1

I have to push the Pram a lot....

Long couple of days! Phew.... Tara say relax....

Kat's such a good kiddo, and such a trooper considering she hasn't had a normal day on schedule for almost 3 days now!

Saturday we spent all morning grocery shopping at Wal mart (and we completely regretting going on a Saturday- it reminded us why we normally go there during the day on Monday) Then rushed home and rushed right back out to have dinner with Tim's folks and got home late. Through all this she was SO sweet natured and slept- then slept through the night...

Sunday we spent the morning playing catch up, and left early to have dinner and go see Spam a lot (which was one of the funniest things I've ever seen!), so Kat spent the evening with Grandma and Grandpa... again- schedule out of whack, still just as sweet as sunshine and slept all night again!

This morning we had to get up, get ready, and run out to Target to have Kat's 3 month pictures done... and after days of being out of whack, dragged around, passed about- she was an absolute doll baby and cooperated for all her pictures (we got some good ones too! I'll share them when I get them back in 2 weeks!)....

So finally we get home this afternoon, and she finally just had enough. She cried and was pitiful for all of 20 minutes, napped, and is now on the floor talking to her dollbaby and happy as a clam! Back on schedule like nothing ever happened.

I'm a little scared to have another kid after her, she's just so GOOD... there's no way we could duplicate that :o)

I love my little Kitten...

And if the title of the blog makes no sense to you, you obviously haven't seen Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail a million times, and are out of my demographic LOL
So basically- I love my kiddo and she's pretty awesome and took some ADORABLE pictures this morning.

Avert your eyes!

Kat is eating Cat in the Hat!! It's cannibalism... so sad that such a cute kid went down such a dark road. *shakes head sadly*

Happy Goddess Day Kat!!

Today is Kat's Goddess Day... what's that you say? A new tradition in the Lewis family. :)

Kat's full name is Katherine Brigit... we named her after the Celtic Goddess: Brigit. During my pregnancy with Kat we had a few scary moments, most notably early on I started to bleed heavily. So we did the only thing we could do- prayed. We hadn't realized we were pregnant for long, but we already loved this little baby and didn't want to lose it. We prayed to Brigit to watch over myself, and Kat (and poor Tim as well) during the pregnancy and to bring us a safe healthy birth, followed by a healthy happy baby.

Sometimes the Gods listen...

So in honor of Brigit, we named Kat after Her.

Here is some basic information on Brigit from Wikipedia:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In her English translation of Irish myth, Lady Augusta Gregory (Gods and
Fighting Men, 1904), describes Brigit as "a woman of poetry, and poets worshiped
her, for her sway was very great and very noble. And she was a woman of healing
along with that, and a woman of smith's work, and it was she first made the
whistle for calling one to another through the night.

Brighid was associated with cows, sacred flames, such as the one
maintained by 19 nuns at her sanctuary in Kildare, Ireland. The tradition
of female priestesses tending sacred, naturally-occurring "eternal flames" is a
feature of ancient Indo-European pre-Christian spirituality. Other examples
include the Roman goddess Vesta, and other hearth-goddesses, such as Hestia.
Brighid was also connected to holy wells, at Kildare and many other sites
in the Celtic lands. Well dressing, the tying
of clooties to
the trees next to healing wells, and other
methods of petitioning or honoring Brighid still take place in some of the
Celtic lands and the diaspora.

As one of the most popular goddesses worshipped by the Celtic peoples,
including the druids, many of her stories and
symbology survive in the persona of Saint Brigid. She is the
goddess of all things perceived to be of relatively high dimensions such as
high-rising flames, highlands, hill-forts and upland areas; and of activities
and states conceived as psychologically lofty and elevated, such as wisdom,
excellence, perfection, high intelligence, poetic eloquence, craftsmanship
(especially blacksmithing), healing ability, druidic knowledge and skill in
warfare. In the living traditions, whether seen as goddess or saint, she is
largely associated with the home and hearth and is a favorite of both Pagans and Christians. A number of
these associations are attested in Cormac's
Glossary.

Her British and continental counterpart Brigantia seems to
have been the Celtic equivalent of the Roman Minerva and the Greek Athena (Encyclopedia
Britannica: Celtic Religion), goddesses with very similar functions and
apparently embodying the same concept of 'elevated state', whether physical or
psychological.

Maman Brigitte, one of
the Lwa of Haitian Voodoo, may be a
form of Brigid. It is likely that the concept came to the New World through the
Irish who were kidnapped, enslaved and forced to labor in
the Caribbean alongside the enslaved Africans.[4] Because of
the intermarriage and cultural blending between the Irish and Africans, it is
possible that Haitian Voodo is partially influenced by survivals of Celtic polytheism.
Maman Brigitte is worshipped as the Lady of the Cemetery; her colors are purple,
violet and black. She is the wife of Baron Samedi, and
characterised as a hard working, hard cursing woman who can swear a blue streak
and enjoys a special drink made of rum laced with 21 hot peppers.

On February 1 or February
2, Brigid is celebrated at the Gaelic festival of Imbolc, when she brings the first
stirrings of spring to the land. Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox
Christians, and some Anglicans mark the
day as the Feast of Saint Brigid; the
festival is also known as Candlemas and Purification of
the Virgin.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So basically you have one pretty fantastic goddess, who transcends many cultures and religions. She's always been a personal favorite of mine, and now she has a special place in our hearts and household. So every year on Imbolc/St. Brigit's Day is now Kat's Goddess Day- We'll eat her favorite breakfast (since she's too little, we ate mine this year- French Toast... she'll get it from me so it works lol) and spend the day doing the things she wants to do. And in the evening we'll say a little prayer of thanks to Brigit for this fantastic little blessing of ours, and so Kat will learn- whether she decides to be Christian or Pagan or Vodou even :o) , that she can always talk to Brigit no matter what, and that she's named after a Goddess so hopefully she'll view herself that way, and not settle for anything less than someone treating her as such!

Cutie Patootie...

For your viewing pleasure... more pictures of the WeeKat :o) I can't seem to stop taking her picture all the time!

Playing on the floor with Mommy

Sitting with Grandpa reading a book

Kat with Grandpa, Aunt Katie, and Freya reading Green Eggs and Ham

Kat's Fauxhawk... yay!! :) Punk babies unite!