I am happy to report that our nap training is going well. Day 1-4 = 1.5 hours until sleep, with a few visits from Mommy (not good visits). Day #5 = 1 hours until sleep, with only one mediocre visit from Mommy. Day #6 didn't count because she was so tired she nursed to sleep, but Day #7 (today) = 2 naps of going to sleep on her own (she woke up SUPER early this morning after going to bed very late)...one only took 20 minutes for her to go to sleep with NO visits from me, and the other less than 1 hour. Woot!

I had a horrible spell of vertigo last night. This is the 2nd time ever I've had it, and it was not fun. I think it might be from all these spreadsheets I've been looking at at work. And stress - lately I've just been feeling swamped and sort of lost in all the things I need to do and don't have the energy or time to do. I normally work 8 hours in a week, and I've already almost doubled that this week, and it's all been working with spreadsheets with almost 100 columns and thousands of rows. The good news is that the bulk of that is over, I think, so it shouldn't be that bad anymore.
The bad news is I made a dumb error and had to re-do a bunch of my work today. Bleh!

An old high school friend is coming over tomorrow with her son so we can catch up. I've got to clean a little and make cookies.

And this weekend, I think Craig and I will actually get to celebrate our anniversary, which was last Friday (in the midst of all of our exciting sickness days, so we had to cancel our date on Saturday). We haven't had a real date in a while, unless you count a couple of weeks ago when we ran to Target and the Dollar Tree while Kate was with my parents. :D

This will be short for once because I don't have much time. I figured it was better to get something up than keep going weeks without nothing.

I don't think I've mentioned on Pleo yet (which is weird), but I am expecting Foster Baby #2 in mid-February! That means I'm almost 15 weeks pregnant at this point, and about a week and a half ago started feeling less nausea. It was really bad for a while, although I know many have it waaay worse than I did, so I'm thankful for that. I'm trying to get back to eating healthy again, since when I was feeling sick, all I wanted to eat was pickles, fudgesicles, and S'mores Pop Tarts. Even though my nausea has subsided, I still can't smell watermelon or hamburger without feeling sick. :)

Warning - Ashley, this next paragraph contains the word "vomit" a few times.
As luck would have it, right after that gets better, Kate came down with some virus - she was vomiting every 15 minutes for 3 hours straight last Wednesday. It's the first time I've seen my baby vomit, and it was horrible. Thankfully, she was back to her normal self by the late afternoon, and other than not having much of an appetite, was fine since. However, Craig picked it up on Thursday night and kept it until Friday night, and I picked it up Saturday morning and am just now feeling better. Not fun!

It has been one month now since our new congregation formed, and it is going well. Most already know this, but our congregation in Beaverton, OR was outgrowing our building with no viable options of moving/building a larger one, so about 50 of us started a new work in Hillsboro. We have our challenges - mostly with finding a place to worship that is within budget and meets our needs/wants. But we have managed, and are praying for success in finding a more permanent place. I'm grateful to be a part of a new work. I definitely miss my church family at Beaverton, but I know they miss us too and are praying for our success. :)

I'm in day #3 of training Kate to go to sleep for naps on her own. It's hard. She has been going to bed at night by herself for a long time now - we trained her several months ago. But she has needed to be rocked for naps for a while. I didn't mind once she came around to the idea of letting me rock her in the glider instead of having to have me standing up. But after a while, she started fighting it really hard...so instead of it taking 5-10 minutes, it'd take 30 minutes. Just writing this makes me feel ashamed of how much I catered to her, but I did try several times (and in several different ways) to train her before, and she'd just play or whine in her crib forever! One day I did it - she played in her crib for 3 HOURS until I just felt like it was too long to leave her in there...I rocked her for 1 minute and she was out. She is tired - very tired. She is just stubborn, I think.
Anyway, all 3 days I've done this, she has finally gone to sleep. But it's only after about an hour and a half and a few not-so-pleasant visits from me that she'll give up and go to sleep. I'm hoping that by the end of this week, she will be able to get in bed and go to sleep like she does at bedtime.

As far as nighttime goes, I think I recently posted about her waking up way too early. Well, along with this nap training, I've reduced her to 1 nap per day (when it takes almost 2 hours to get her to sleep, 2 naps is just not feasible), and she still isn't sleeping longer at night. Which means tired Kate. That doesn't necessarily mean cranky, but I've noticed she doesn't obey as well when she's tired. The only night she did sleep in was when I put her in bed at 7:30. Every other night, no matter when she goes to sleep, she's up at 6:15. So, this week also starts trying for a super-early bedtime and seeing if that helps. Which isn't convenient, but I'm just curious to see if it works.

I'm sure this is way too much information about sleeping, but if you've ever had kids, you probably understand. I thought the newborn sleeping stage would be the hardest - wrong! :)

I'm ready to be done with work. I think it will happen soon - just a few things I am going to stay for, probably another month or two. I have a lot of important projects at home I need to work on, and can't get to them with work getting in the way. I'm thankful for my job and all that it's meant for me and our family, but I don't think I'll look back.

Last weekend was eventful - we went to Seattle on Thursday morning and stayed until Sunday afternoon.

The Cubs played the Mariners on Thursday afternoon. We left in plenty of time to arrive early so we could take in the whole game. The ride was good - Kate didn't sleep much, but she was a good girl, so that was nice. However, while we were driving, a semi truck tire blew out and hit our car. It put a huge crack in the front bumper, and dented up the driver's side of the car. Although we'll have to fork over $100 to get that fixed, I'm thankful it didn't come at the windshield, plus since it was flying at us and not just on the ground, we avoided the $500 deductible.

The real "fun" started when we got close to the stadium. Apparently this was a popular game to attend, and day games are tough for parking with everyone working downtown. We sat on the off ramp alone for over an hour. We arrived in Seattle at least an hour before the game started, and we didn't get into the stadium until the 6th INNING!!!! Bleh!
We spent at least an hour in traffic, and then another hour looking for available parking. We finally got lucky as a guy opened his lot right when we drove by. We bought a spot, and bought a spot for Jamie and David, who had been looking for parking longer than we had. In fact, they were almost ready to give up and head home. It was very frustrating, but I'm glad to report that we all kept level heads and had a great time when we finally got to the game. Plus, it went into extra innings, and the Cubs won, so all was good. :)

Saturday was Amelia's birthday party. It was one week early since we were all in town (thanks, Jamie!) - the weather was nice, and it was a great time! It is always fun to get all three of the baby girls together and watch them interact. We discovered, after trying to bathe them all together, that Anna does NOT like to share a bath with anyone else. She would cry and cry until the second we took Amelia and Kate out of the tub, and she immediately would be happy as a lark.

Another funny thing that happened was that when I was putting a diaper on Kate after her bath, I gave her a little ball to hold. She dropped it, and I couldn't find it to give back to her. Well, as soon as I stood her up to put her shirt on, I heard a rattling coming from her diaper, and I discovered that the ball was in her diaper. :)

After worship services in Kent on Sunday morning, we had a good lunch with Jamie's in-laws, and made the drive home. Kate slept almost the whole way. In fact, the entire Seattle weekend, she was a marathon napper, and did really well at night in the Pack n' Play. I was impressed - I thought she might not do well in an unfamiliar place, but I brought her blankie and familiar animal and pillow, so that might have helped. It also might have helped that every day we wore her out with running around and playing.

That Sunday night at church back in Beaverton, she took a nasty fall and spent a few days with a bruised eye and forehead from hitting the pew.


This weekend was fun, too. Jamie and David came into town Friday evening, and we had the family over for a BBQ Saturday evening. The girls had a good time in Kate's little froggie pool (except Anna - we discovered that she doesn't like the pool), and Caleb likes playing at the "park" (the play structure in our backyard). Everything was great until Kate rolled her ankle/foot sliding down the slide on Caleb's lap. She screamed and screamed, and we finally decided to take her to urgent care.

We decided on the ER instead, since urgent care doesn't have x-ray. The good news is that the ER wasn't packed, and we got right in and were out within an hour or so. Other good news is that we had good doctors, and her foot/ankle is only strained. The bad news is that the poor girl was scared to death of the x-ray machine, and has had a rough day of not being able to walk on her foot. Every time she tries, she just cries out of pain and frustration. It's hard to watch. And she won't crawl - she only wants to walk.

Tonight after evening worship we went to my parents' house for dinner and fireworks. We kept Kate up way too late, but she is sleeping now and I am trying to convince myself to cut this update short and go to bed.

Just for my record, here are some of the new things Kate is doing/saying:
She is very much a mommy's girl. When people say hi to her, sometimes she just points to me and says, "mama." It's so cute.
We are working her saying "thank you" - she is really good about saying it (it sounds more like "day-do") when we ask, but she actually has said it a few times without prompting. We are also working on her saying "no, thank you" instead of pushing away food and saying "NO!" like she has started.
She lets me rock her to sleep for her naps in the glider instead of standing up now! It's sooo wonderful. I used to have to rock her standing up for 10-20 minutes to get her to go to sleep for naps, and now I only rock her in the glider for 5 minutes and she's out. Not only is it easier on me, it's a lot more "snuggly" in the glider, and I really love it. She's still doing great going to sleep by herself at night and sleeping through the night. Still struggling with her waking up really early, but I'm hoping that improves.


I hope everyone had a great Independence Day. :)

Thanks for all the comments on my last post. You have convinced me that there still is enough life on Pleo to hang around. I enjoy reading your posts, too, and like Cindy said, it's nice to have a record of some of the things going on in my life at certain points.

As an update, cutting out Kate's night feeding worked wonderfully! Our method was just to rock her back to sleep, and if she asked to eat, to tell her no milk - it's time for night-night. The first two nights, she woke up at her normal time (3am-ish), and didn't even ask to eat. I just rocked her back to sleep, and was back in bed within 15 or 20 minutes.
Other than 3 nights of waking/crying due to teething (one more tooth popped through, finally), she has been sleeping 9-10 hours every night for the last 2 weeks! Hurray!!!

Now, if I could just get her to sleep in longer!! haha! She usually goes to sleep around 8 or 8:30, which means she's up around 5 or 5:30!!!! ICK!! And most days, she doesn't go back down until her morning nap. She's so sleepy, but awake enough to resist going back to bed until a decent hour. :) I think we're in this weird transition between one and two naps a day, too, so it makes our days kind of interesting right now when she wakes up so early. I'm not sure if I should put her down later at night, or just keep trying to get her back to sleep when she wakes up that early and hope it sticks one of these days. It doesn't seem like she should have a bedtime later than 8:30, but I definitely think she should be sleeping later than 5am.

Enough of sleeping woes...they really never end, and probably won't until she's a teenager. Especially knowing Craig's and my history of sleep walking and weird sleep behavior. Our children are doomed. :)

We had a wonderful weekend!

We went to the Farmer's Market with my parents to get strawberries. Normally we go to a u-pick farm or something, but the Farmer's Market was so much fun. Kate LOVES to see doggies, and they were there in droves, so she had a heyday. Plus, they have a neat fountain, and it was a relatively warm day, so she enjoyed sticking her hands in the jets and getting sprayed.
I also had a wonderful bratwurst. I have been craving saurkraut (sp?) for forever, but haven't had the chance to eat it since before Kate was born (Craig doesn't care for hot dogs/sausages, so I never make them, and I don't order them out b/c of my soy-free diet...most I'm unsure of the makeup of the ingredients). So, it was delicious, and Kate really enjoyed it, too. :)

Craig is a strawberry connoisseur, or he'd like to think so, so we spent a larger-than-normal amount of time and effort into tasting and purchasing the right strawberries. And he spent a good amount of time yesterday making a good dent re-taste-testing all of them all evening long. This includes his favorite way to eat strawberries, which is cutting out the middle, filling it with whipped cream, and eating it whole. And he spent some more time over the last day considering which ones would make the best jam. Should we make jam out of our favorite kind? Or should we eat our favorite kind and make jam out of our least favorites? Or should we mix them? He takes his strawberry eating very seriously. :)

In the evening we went to Target and Barnes and Noble. Kate had a gift card for Barnes and Noble, so she picked up 3 new books! She also got some Little Swimmer diapers for IF the weather EVER gets hot here this summer and I MAYBE get a chance to use the inflatable frog pool I bought her for her birthday. :)

Over dinner we talked to Craig's mom on the phone, and Kate (through her spaghetti) said, "WUUUUUUMMM EWWWWWW" (love you) and "MAH-MAW" (grandma). It was very cute. :)

Today we went to Red Robin for lunch with the family and some good friends for Father's Day, and then Carrie, Mom, and I spent the afternoon up to our eyeballs in strawberry freezer jam. mmmmm

Can I just say that I am sooo thankful for my Dad? I honestly wouldn't change a thing - he is such a great balance of fun and serious. He has a great sense of humor and made my childhood great, but also gave me rules and boundaries and consequences that helped me learn how to practice self-control and make good decisions.
And I am also so thankful for Craig as a father to Kate. He loves her so much, and she just lights up when she sees him. He can make her giggle way better than I can, and can also be stern yet calm when he needs to be. I'm so excited to raise children with him!

Hope everyone else had a great weekend!

I didn't want to look at the title of my last post anymore. It sounded snobby.

No one really comments on my posts on Pleo - I'm pretty sure everyone is gone, except a few. I still read and comment occasionally, but I mainly check in for the groups. It's kind of sad. I think I came into Pleo during the last several months of its heyday. Like when people used to post a new entry, and seconds later there were comments. It was Facebook-ish back then. That was only about a year or two ago. I feel so unpopular on Pleonast. :)

Here's a question to anyone who reads this, because several of my friends have mentioned it: why not mention your spouse and children's names in your blog if you aren't Gold? I completely understand not mentioning where exactly you live or when you'll be on vacation or what school your children attend, and not wanting to post a lot of pictures, but just not saying their names I don't get. I feel like anything that is public information is sort of fine to repeat. I would tell a stranger what our names are. I wouldn't tell them where we live, although that's public information, too (as well as how much we paid for our house, our phone number, and probably our employers would be really easy to get). I wouldn't tell my birthday to a complete stranger or my SSN, but I guess after working at a credit union for a while, I saw that identidy can get stolen even from people who are extremely careful, and it's usually from stealing mail, ripping off credit cards, or getting someone's SSN and other personal information. I guess my question is - what's the big deal about first names?

As far as an update goes, I'm still working from home 8 hours a week. I would never have guessed I'd be working when Kate was a year old, but it's working out nicely so far. I have to manage my time very well, but I think that's good. I'm able to maintain a source of income for our family while doing a job I really enjoy and not feeling like I'm not fulfilling my other responsibilities.

Kate is doing great - we have been teething and sickness free for at least a few weeks now, and it's wonderful! I'm currently on night two of cutting out her night waking...she usually wakes once in the night to eat, and I'm trying to get rid of that. I'm hoping it only takes a week or less. We'll see.
She is learning so much, and is really funny. She definitely enjoys testing us - but I finally see her understanding and obedience a lot. Almost always now she comes when I tell her to, puts things back where she found it when told, and *most* times she stops reaching for something if I tell her not to touch it.
We had her birthday party at the zoo and invited many many friends. Yes, I am the same person who said I was going to do something low-key. But Craig's mom was in town, so we decided to go to the zoo since my house is half-painted and not fit for much entertaining. And once we invited a couple of babies and their moms/dads, we had to include everyone or else all of Kate's friends wouldn't be there. :) I stand corrected on the birthday party thing.
We got really nice sunshine for most of the zoo trip - but the rain did come and dampen the animal viewing a couple of times.

Craig and I tried this workout called Cross Fit a week ago Monday, and I'm still sore. Yes, still. Let's just say that both of us felt like throwing up at the place, and I could barely pick Kate up for two days afterwards. It was really intense - like a Last Chance Workout (if you watch the Biggest Loser), and completely worse that any conditioning practices I ever did for high school basketball. I actually kind of enjoyed it...but I will have to do it on my own, as the budget definitely doesn't allow for $150-ish/month for me to get yelled at to do push-ups by an ex-Marine.

Happy almost-summer. I finally changed my desktop wallpaper to a beach instead of a snow-covered field. :)