Duet

(Please forgive the early morning bright sun and the finger smudged camera lens)

Christmas

Christmas was really fun this year. It's Kate's third, but the first one when she was old enough to hear about Santa and look forward to presents and stockings and cookie making. On Christmas Eve, we made cookies for Santa and she helped measure, mix and then decorate them. We left a few out along with a glass of egg nog for Santa. She was very excited that he would be eating her cookies.

I got to play Santa for the first time, filling the stockings and putting everything under the tree after she went to bed, and I loved it. I think we did a good job in choosing presents for Kate so that she got some good toys, but they are small and will last a long time. I also helped things by putting away a bunch of toys that she seldom played with to make some space for incoming presents. I felt the urge to buy her more things, so hopefully next year I will remember that just a couple of good toys is all she needs, not piles and piles of them.

On Christmas morning, in the usual tradition, stockings were opened first while everyone was still in their pajamas (or less, in one case).


And after stockings, there was breakfast, clothes and caffeinated drinks for the big people. Kate would play with a new present as soon as she opened it, so after awhile of pulling her away from something to open the next, we decided to just wait to open some more later in the day.

Post presents, we headed down to the lake for a walk and to play in the park. It was a sunny, although cool day and it was perfect to be outside for awhile. Westley had needed a bath earlier in the day, and he did his best to undo the work Graeme did to get him clean.







Later in the day, Kate settled into her chair for a show while we cooked a delicious dinner of prime rib, mashed potatoes, Yorkshire Puddings (only my second time making them and they turned out PERFECTLY. I wish I'd taken a picture. They were awesome), kale and brussel sprouts. A delcious Christmas dinner and a really great day.

mmmm, bbq

Yesterday we decided to do something new, since we have pretty established set of things we do. Some might call it a rut, even. So, we biked downtown and went to the Home and Garden Show. It turned out to be kind of crappy, but I have been to similar shows in Toronto and they are huge. This was kind of rinky. But we did try out a new bbq place afterwards for a late lunch, and that was yummy. We brought home a few bones for Westley, and Kate had been chewing on one at the restaurant. She finished it off later in the day.

Westley update

When Westley hurt his back six weeks ago, I never posted an update that he was fine and people were concerned that he was still suffering. Rest assured, he's totally fine. Both his back, which healed up in just a few days, and his foot which he is still licking quite a bit but isn't slowing him down at all. We took him to the dog park on Sunday (Only short walks! No romping or running! On leash!) and he ran and swam and played. He did have a slight limp by the end, but otherwise you never would have guessed that there was anything wrong.

Good Baboo. Now stay healthy and uninjured for awhile, k?

Westley update

Westley is feeling much better this morning. He was even begging to go for a walk, although he ended up moving pretty slow by the end. He's limping a bit, but I think that is because of the bandages. They will come off this evening and we'll see how the foot looks under there. The side effects of the sedation have ended, thank god. An incessantly whining dog at the same time as a crying baby is enough to drive anyone to tears. Or neglect. You choose.

Poor Baboo, Part 2

It's been a rough 6 weeks for Westley. He recovered very quickly from his sprained back and was doing really great. Then on Saturday, he tore a claw so that it was seperated down it's length, exposing the quick. It bled quite a bit, and was very sore. I took him to the vet today where they sedated him and then removed it. It will slowly grow back and should be fine.

He's in quite a bit of pain now, wandering the house and whining, and not quite recovered from the drugs. He won't lay down though, and is pacing the house. Poor Baboo.

So many things

The problem with not posting for a few days is that there are a bunch of things that I was planning to post about, but now I've forgotten most of them. It's been a pretty busy week, so I'll see if I can remember.

Kate: She has been sleeping great at night, with 4 hour stretches of sleep between feedings. This makes my life much nicer, since I only have one middle of the night feeding, which even if I'm up until midnight isn't so bad. She also broke her routine of the witching hour the other night and slept between 9 and midnight. It was only one night though, she was back to her cranky ways last night. Yesterday she was so great - awake and alert and very cheerful for much of the day. Today she's been sleeping for a long stretch, allowing me to get a bunch of things done (see next paragraph). I'm hoping we're heading over the hump that people report at the two month mark. I've heard a lot of things get better and easier after that.




Me: I got new glasses! My glasses broke months ago, so I've been living just with contacts. It's so nice to have glasses again.


Westley: He's doing much better. He's learning what makes him hurt, and avoiding it. He hasn't had any pain meds today and seems to be ok, although not as sprightly as last night. We'll continue to rake it easy through the weekend.

General life stuff: Since we got up early this morning to go to the records office, suddenly I had more time today. This afternoon, I straightened up the house, cleaned the bathroom (which was disgusting), and tackled the 'to do' pile, which has had things in it since DECEMBER. DECEMBER. I was totally avoiding things in the pile, and it's so good to have them handled. I sent more time worrying about not having done it, than it took to actually do it. Silly me.

Poor Baboo

Last night, Westley went to the nearby unofficial dog park, as he often does a few times a week (not because we are good dog owners but because our friends Kelly and Sarah come and pick him up and take him there with their dogs). Last night after coming home, he started to yelp when getting up on his ottoman. Yes, he has an ottoman. It seemed to get worse through the evening, and I let him sleep in the bedroom since he seemed to not be feeling well.

This morning, he was much worse. He yelped when I pet his side, and although we poked and prodded him, we couldn't find the source of the pain. The yelping always happened if he was climbing onto something, but then happened other times too - if you pet him (but not always) if he turned a certain way, if he bumped you even lightly. So, we decided to take him to the vet this morning to get checked out.

Essentially, it's a sprain either in his back or his leg (the muscles attach to the spine above the pelvis). She found the exact spot that made him yelp, and confirmed that one leg seems more sore than the other. He's now on anti-inflammatories and pain meds, and essentially on bed rest for about two weeks. If it doesn't clear up by then, he'll have to get x-rays to make sure it's not something more serious.

Poor Baboo. He yelped just now when he moved wrong as he woke from a nap.

Finally a new post

Erika has been visiting since the weekend, and I've neglected posting all week. She has been taking a few pictures, so not much excuse not to post. She took this one after I said "these clothes fit last week!":

We had a prenatal appointment this morning. Everything is going great, with 13 lb weight gain so far, great blood pressure, and measuring right on target. We asked if we could take a little peek at her on the ultrasound so that Erika could see her. She didn't cooperate and show us her profile, but we did get to see her which is always exciting.

And here is me and my sweet dog:

Weekend pictures

I shouldn't have promised belly pictures on a particular day. It never seems to get done when I say that. But here is the belly this morning. I should take an evening shot too, since through the day my belly seems to expand and I am definitely showing more at the end of the day.



Yesterday I was volunteering at an adventure race and took Westley with me. The weather wasn't great - very windy and quite cold, but the flowers are out and that made up for the cool weather. It is very typical here to plop your little kids in the middle of a field of bluebonnets for a picture, so I made Westley pose in a similar fashion.

Our sweet baboo

For people without a kid (for a little while longer) we are extremely house-centric. When we moved to Austin from small town New Mexico, we were excited to be moving back to a place where restaurants were open past 8 pm, where there were cultural events and live music every night. But we bought a house, and now we never go out. And then we got a dog, and we settled in a little more. A typical evening in the Reyburn-Henkelman house involves all three of us on the couch watching something on our pseudo-tv.

Here is Westley in his happiest place: