Best friends

Well, not really. Kate follows him around and 'pets' him, which he tolerates for a short time. But, here they are at their best.

Birthday party

On Saturday we went to a group birthday party for the babies in Kate's playgroup. There was a pool of water, a slip 'n slide and a pool of balls. There was great food and cute babies.

Mamas and babies:


We had a gift exchange. Each baby brought a gift, and everyone got to take one home. Here is Kate opening her present:


Then the babies had cake. Kate didn't get as messy as I had hoped, but she did enjoy it.

Sleep update

The last three nights have been good. Tuesday night, Kate woke up at 1:30 and after 50 minutes went back to sleep without me picking her up or nursing (which would include picking her up. It would be hard to nurse without first picking her up.) Then she woke again at 7:00 when I nursed her. She surprised me by going back to sleep until 10!! The last two nights she has slept until about 6:30-ish when I nurse her and she sleeps til about 8. So, we seem to have dropped the 1:30/2 am wake up, and she is getting really good at going to sleep on her own. I don't mind the early morning wake up, but I'm hoping that one will disappear soon too.

Happy Birthday, my lovely Kate

My dearest Kate,
Today you turn one year old. It's been an amazing year, full of laughter, crying and new adventures. You have made our lives better and fuller in a multitude of ways. You are the best, and most challenging, thing we've ever done. I love you more than you'll ever be able to understand. You have taught me so much, and I'm looking forward to all our future adventures.

Love Mummy

brand new:


one month:


two months:


three months:


four months:


five months:


six months:


seven months:


eight months:


nine months:


ten months:


eleven months:


one year:

It's been a long time

I haven't posted a video in awhile. Here is Kate in one of her favourite places.

Phone!!

We have phones again! Cody and Lynette were generous and gave us their old phones to use. I stopped by the Sprint store and got our numbers assigned, and it works like a charm! Yay! Same number, different phone.

Sigh. Just call me inconsistent

In some ways, last night was great. Kate slept without me going in, from 9 until 6. She woke up around 2:30 but put herself back to sleep. So, that was awesome. She's getting much better about putting herself to sleep. She's always been good at it when she first goes to bed, but now she's doing it at naps, and apparently, in the middle of the night as well.

But then 6 am. She started in on the real cry (as opposed to the moaning cry, from which she can calm herself). I went in, and she was sitting sadly in her crib. At that point, the thought of 1.5 hours of working on it just didn't work for me. It would put her almost at wake up time. And my boobs were painful. So, I nursed her and she went back to sleep (eventually. she was pretty awake) and slept until 8.

So, a 9 hour stretch of sleep. Yay! Nursing her back to sleep. Not so good.

But I'm doing the best I can.

How it went

Well, I guess it depends on the point of the training. Is it to get her to sleep longer stretches? If so, then it was successful. She slept from 3 until 8:45 (normally she wakes up around 5 or 6). But if it's to teach her that she doesn't get to snuggle and nurse in the night, then it wasn't successful.

She woke up around 12:45 and I went in and stayed next to her crib while she cried and screamed to be picked up. I kept laying her down, singing to her, telling her it was time to sleep, and apologizing for changing the rules. After a long time of hysterical crying, she stopped trying to get up and laid there whimpering. I thought she was going to fall asleep, but she had a second wind and went back to crying. That happened three or four times. I finally went to check the time, and we'd been doing it for 1.5 hours. Too long. So, at the next hysterical crying, I picked her up and we snuggled. Which led to nursing, because there was no way she was going to not nurse if she was that close to the boobs. She was going crazy. So, I nursed her and put her back in her crib not quite asleep and she then slept through til morning.

Sigh. We'll try again tonight.

Time for sleep training

Last night I decided I was finally done being up with Kate twice a night. Not sure why it took me so long, but there you have it. I have been dreading this process, but I know that after a few really bad nights that it will be better. We want to do it before Graeme starts teaching, since we'll likely be getting a lot less sleep.

Wish us luck. I'll let you know how it goes. I'm DREADING it.

Kate and Beck

Kate and Beck are only three days apart in age, but on opposite ends of the growth chart. It's cool to see the variation of normal, no matter what age we are.

Happy Birthday, Emily!

Happy Birthday to my favourite 4 year old in the whole world! You are one of the coolest people I know, of any age. You are dearly loved. I wish I lived closer so we could spend more time together.

I suppose I am a housewife

On Saturday I got a new vacuum. Not just an vacuum, a Dyson Slim. I found a really good price, and I have been cursing our vacuum for a year. We got a few rugs for the bedrooms, and I haven't been able to get them actually clean since we got them. Our vacuum was so useless, I would vacuum the whole thing twice, in two directions, and it would still be covered in dog hair.

The amount of hair and lint and dirt that came out of the carpets with the new vacuum was DIS-GUS-TING. And there wasn't a dog hair to be seen. I am way way too excited about a vacuum.

No phone

I realized I should mention that my phone is broken (Kate dropped it one too many times) just in case the earlier post moves anyone to call. We're pretty much email only. Graeme has his cell phone, but that barely counts since it's never charged.

Kate's eye

Today we had an appointment with the pediatric opthamologist. She has a 'lazy eye' which has a real technical name which I don't remember but is the result of a muscular imbalance. The amazing thing is that it is very likely this eye thing that causes her neck tilt. So interesting.

But, the result of the appointment is that Kate will need surgery on her eye in about a month. If it was going to get better on it's own, it would have by now. If we leave it too long, it can cause problems in brain development. We have a pre-op appointment on Sept. 4th and the surgery is scheduled for the 9th.

I'm trying not to freak out too much.

What's Cooking Wednesday

Today I made some dried fruit and nut snacks for Kate. These things are delicious. I'm going to have to limit myself to one a day. They would make good snacks for any kids or adults. Seriously yummy.

Dried fruit and nut snacks (from Super Baby Food)
1/2 c dried fruit (I used cherries, blueberries, cranberries and apricots)
1/2 c seeds and nuts (I used sunflower seeds and pecans)
1 c nut butter (I used 3/4 c of cashew butter)

Put nuts and fruit in food processor and process until finely chopped. Add nut butter and pulse until well mixed. Form into balls and roll in coconut or wheat germ. Keep refrigerated since they are a bit sticky.

Too hot

The forecast high for today is 104F. That's too damn hot. Yesterday it was 103. I was going to load Kate into the bike trailer after her nap to go to the pool downtown (the one across the street is closed on Mondays) but it's too hot to have her in the trailer for 30 minutes each way. Sigh. I guess we're staying inside this afternoon.

But, as usual, we're looking forward to the tropical storm in the gulf. That's the difference between Austin and the coast. To them the storms are dangerous. To us, they are much needed rain.

More cottage photos

From the second and third week.

Some cottage photos

I have been uninspired to post, obviously. I have lots of cottage photos, so I'm just going to do a bunch of posts over the next week or so to show what we did at the cottage. People have asked how it was - and it was great. But there isn't much to report. We hang out. Swim. Play. Knit. Read. Great, but not much to talk about.

So, here is the best way to tell you how it was. These are from the first week at the Henkelman's cottage.