Bottle Blues
Kate starts going to day care on Tuesday. We've been working with her so she can take a bottle.

So how does Kate feel about this process?

The face says it all...
- posted by Laurie @ 8:10 PM |

 
Daddy Daughter Date
Randy's birthday is coming up this week! Randy is quite a guy for taking on the challenge of fatherhood at this point of his life.

He's not afraid to change a diaper, no matter how poopy.

He knows just what song Katie wants him to sing.

There's this certain way he holds Katie that can calm her down better than anything else.

He calls Katie "my little girl."

He's tried valiantly to convince Katie drinking from a bottle is great fun.

And best of all, he's not afraid to take care of Katie on a night when I've got a dinner date with the girls, even though Katie is wide awake and determined not to go to bed yet.

Happy Birthday Dad!

- posted by Laurie @ 9:13 AM |

 
Parental Control
I've become quite familiar with late-night TV. Nursing in front of the TV in the wee hours is my preferred way of getting Katie back to sleep at night. I've tried nursing propped up in bed, nursing lying down, nursing in the rocking chair, and I just can't get comfortable in any of these positions. What's more, I feel like I handle Kate the safest when I get up and walk across the house to the TV. I wake up a bit, so I'm less likely to doze off and lose track of the baby.

Let me tell you, there are not a lot of late-night TV offerings. Unless you like infomercials, the pickings are slim after 4:00 AM.

I've discovered that PBS replays documentaries during the night. This can be great, unless the documentary moves at a glacial pace. There is nothing like waking up twice in one night to return to the exact same place in the exact same documentary about the dowdy, dull, underappreciated scientist.

I've nursed through a whole slew of late-night cooking shows. Letterman and Conan repeat after midnight. And music videos play most of the night on VH1 and MTV. I can now report that since Katie was born 15 weeks ago, the same 10 videos have been playing over and over again on these two channels.

On the weekends, MTV replaces the pre-dawn video roundup with their strange reality shows. I've taken a liking to these shows. There's the one where college kids pick a date based on the stuff they find in the date's bedroom. There's "Next," the tacky show where contestants are paid a dollar for every minute they "last" with a prospective date. Plus there's my guilty pleasure--"Pimp My Ride"--the show where a crappy car is turned into a gleaming cruise mobile.

One show has captured my complete fascination. It's called Parental Control. MTV describes the show this way: "Thanks to MTV's new Parental Control, Mom and Dad finally have a chance to do something about that poor excuse for a loser their son or daughter calls their 'better half.'"

In a typical episode, the parents explain why they hate their daughter's boyfriend. During this voice-over, the boyfriend peers into the camera with a leering smirk. Then the parents each select someone new to go on a date with their daughter. They usually pick upstanding college students with career goals and tidy hair. The new prospects each take the daughter on a short date, and the parents and the old boyfriend watch what happens on TV at the parents' house.

This is the fascinating part. As they watch the daughter and new date make shy small talk, the parents say things like, "See how thoughtful he is? That's the way you impress a girl." Meanwhile, the boyfriend is barely holding back his contempt for the parents. If the date gives the daughter a flower or takes her to a nice restaurant, the old boyfriend says stuff like, "what an idiot," meanwhile he looks like he'd like to pound the new guy's face into concrete.

When the girl comes back to her house, she has to choose who she wants to keep dating in the future. The boyfriend and two prospective beaus all stand in the living room, and with all the suspense that a reality show can muster, the girl reveals her choice.

The crazy thing is that she usually she selects one of the new dates. The old boyfriend leaves the house hurling expletives, pushing over camera equipment, and taking swings at whoever gets in his way. The parents look relieved, and the girl and the new guy give each other goofy grins. It seems once the girl is given a chance to compare her lousy boyfriend with a couple of other prospects, she gets wise and selects a better choice. This is one of the healthiest reality TV shows I've ever seen.

Reality TV is moving into the most personal corners of every-day life. And in some ways every day life is becoming a reality TV show. I know people who have produced elaborate videos of their own wedding or child's birth, trying to imitate popular reality shows. Businesses in our community have sponsored decorating challenges and landscaping competitions, hoping to cash in on the home improvement reality TV craze. With the dominance of reality TV in our culture, is it possible that "Parental Control" could become a dating tradition for all young people?

Here is a show that actually seems to be doing a good thing for the participants (at least it is for the parents and daughter). The parents get to intervene in a problem relationship, and the daughter gets to think objectively about how her boyfriend is treating her. This seems like a good idea for lots of teen relationship. We could make this a normal part of the teen experience. On your 17th birthday, your parents select two dates for you, and you go on the dates with an open mind and open eyes.

I'm all for it. Let's hope this tradition has taken hold by the time Katie turns 17.

- posted by Laurie @ 2:10 PM |

 
There's Something About Katie
Here's a picture of Katie helping to fold the laundry. This is our favorite game. I pile up some small things on Katie's belly, and she kicks up her feet in delight. She likes the pretty colors, and she coos at all the different textures. Rough, smooth, soft. Such a fascinating game.

Things Katie can do at 14 weeks:

• Katie enjoys sitting on my lap and rocking in the rocking chair. We gaze out the window at the trees. Or we watch TV (despite my best intentions, the TV habit is starting early).
• Katie likes going on a walk in her stroller...most days.
  
• Kate loves to watch a ceiling fan go round. Hours of fun here!
• Katie seems fascinated with the pictures in her board books. She gazes and gasps at the pictures. I wonder what she is seeing. Color? Shapes? Lines?
• Katie helps me do yoga. I pop in my maternity yoga DVD (easy yoga is all I am up for these days), and "taylor sit" in front of Katie on a blanket. I tickle her tummy while stretching this way and that.
  

Other developmental notes:

• Until just the last day or so, Katie has had dark-blue newborn eyes. Yesterday I noticed a ring of light blue around the iris in her eye. Her Grandpa Rubsam has the lightest blue eyes. I wonder if she'll have light blue eyes, too?
• Tummy time is no fun for this baby. We do a little every day, but it's torture. I understand, kid. I feel the same way about jogging.
• Just when I thought her hair was as thin as possible, Katie continues to lose hair. There are spots on her head that are entirely hair free. Poor kid, she's approaching utter baldness.
  

- posted by Laurie @ 12:51 PM |

 
So Big
Kate has already grown out of her smallest onesies and sleepers. I am excited about all the new things she can do, now that she is three months old. She's started to grasp at things, and she interacts with her toys a bit these days. I can't wait until she reaches more developmental milestones. What a day it will be when she can roll over on her own!

Ah, but I'm already a little nostalgic for the time when Katie was at her smallest. I know in my heart this was actually a rather stressful time. I think I operated in a mild panic through Katie's first whole month here on Planet Earth.

We've definately gotten to know each other a little better in the past three months. But there is something about my memories of Kate as a tiny baby. Those wrinkly newborn fingers and toes are special, no doubt about it. I've been trying to write this entry without using the word "precious". But it can't be helped. The first days of a baby's life are simply precious.

- posted by Laurie @ 12:41 PM |

 
Snuggles
The great thing about the name of Catherine is the number of nicknames it can generate. We call our Catherine lots of nicknames, including:

Katie (yes, with a K)
Kate
Kat
Kitty
Kath
(But never, ever Kathy)

We've got lots of terms of endearment for the little one, too. Here are my favorites:

Sunshine
Sweet Pea
Sugar
Snuggle Bunny

And when Kate's got the fussy thing going down, we have a few special nicknames just reserved for the colicy times.

Mrs. Crankypants
Katie McFuss
The FussMeister
Crankinator



- posted by Laurie @ 9:00 AM |