It's Alright to be Little Bitty

Taking a break from writing about house building because Katie is doing so much lately, and I don't want to forget any details! 

She's becoming a lot more interactive, and trying to communicate more, as well as showing a lot more understanding of what we are saying. I have gotten the timeline a little jumbled, so these are all stories that have happened in the last couple of weeks.

Her 15-month well baby doctor appointment was this month. I put some Peace & Calming oil on her before going because she started screaming as soon as we started weighing her. This time, she did great through weighing and measuring her length, but she was not very happy with the head measurement at all! Katie only gained 12 ounces in three months, but grew about 2.5". She's tall and skinny, "built like a supermodel", as the doctor says. She calmed back down once we were in the room, but was NOT happy when the medical student came in to check her. She screamed the whole time. Then the "real" doctor came in and she was a little better for her. Then we started talking about giving her bottles at night. The doctor said that if she's eating enough during the say, she shouldn't need bottles of milk at night. We told her Katie eats a lot during the day, and the doctor said "no more bottles". Katie stuck out her bottom lip and burst into tears! She only got two shots this time, and she only cried for a couple of minutes after them. We had a rough first few nights after that, but now she only has a sippee cup of milk at bedtime and only wakes up once to get more. She even slept 12 hours in a row one night! 

Katie loves to be helpful. She has learned where the trash can is, and how to put stuff in there when we ask her to. When Grandma was visiting, she set her breakfast bowl down on the couch. Katie walked up, picked up the bowl and spoon, and walked off. Wondering what she was going to do, I followed her into the kitchen. She walked around (apparently thinking), then walked up to the full trash can and very gently, set the bowl on top of the trash can! I went and told her she was a big help, but it was the wrong place, as I put it in the sink. She absolutely loves verbal praise, so I wanted to make sure she knew she did something good! 

Katie recently discovered the window in her room. Her new favorite thing is to scoot between the window and changing table, behind the curtains, and sit there till I find her. I'll say "where's Katie", which is usually followed by a quiet giggle. Then I'll tickle her through the curtains, which sets off more giggling and a cackle or two.  Problem is that she likes to hide there when she is tired, has a dirty diaper, or avoiding going to bed! 

Katie's also starting to use a spoon to feed herself. 

When she doesn't dump the food out into her bib, she does pretty good. But most of the time she can't spoon feed herself fast enough and starts grabbing handfuls to shovel in. She has such a big appetite! 

Final story. We were at Mamaw and Papaw's house this weekend and Katie was getting a little cranky. To distract her, I asked if she wanted to go upstairs and get dressed. She ran off, so I assumed the answer was "no". Less than a minute later, I heard her crying and looked, and she had climbed all the way up the stairs by herself! I think she had gotten tired of climbing. Sure gave me a heart attack! I flew up the stairs and grabbed her before she could fall. Whew! She is sneaky! 

Well, that's a little insight into Toddlerville. Hope you enjoyed the stories! 

Alissa

We Have a Lot

We Have a Lot

So when we got back home from Fort Worth, I think Neal was abuzz about getting the lot cleared before we even went to bed that night. He had ordered some survey equipment that came in while we were gone, and boy, was he eager to test it out!

Because he had worked so many extra hours earlier this year (and because he works for the State), he has so much comp time and vacation he needs to use very quickly. So, his plan is to take off at 2:00 every afternoon, and take off a few days here and here. All that being said, he went straight to the lot on Monday after work to test out the new toys. The plan was then to rent a "brush mower", and we would both go out to the lot on Tuesday afternoon, and clear some brush and get some surveying done.

Here's a pic of our equipment:

For those of you wondering, we need to survey in order to determine what area to clear for where the house will go, plus about a ten foot construction border for equipment. So, we need to survey to know what to clear so that we can finish the survey. We also need a good path for testing equipment for the slab engineers.

I mistakenly thought I was going to be helping with the surveying, but there was a lot of clearing we needed to do first! Neal was driving the brush mower, so I was hauling big branches and trimming taller stuff (the brush mower can only "climb" so high).

Here's a picture of the lot when we started:

I was amazed at 1) how much work there was to do, 2) how quickly things got cleared with the machinery "mowing" brush! Most of the area was filled with Yaupon Holly and Beauty Berry. Some of the Yaupon were either dead or easily pushed over because of their shallow roots. One of these I was trying to push over, and it snapped off and whacked me in the chest! It was such a hard hit, it knocked the wind out of me. It hurt very badly too. After wallowing and yelling a bit--to no avail, Neal was running the brush mower and wearing ear plugs--I went and checked it out in the truck mirror. There was a big red mark, and was tender to touch. Remembering that Valor essential oil helps bruises, I dabbed a little on and took a water break. I kept reapplying the valor, and the spot never really bruised, and felt better a couple of days later! 

That first day, we got most of the driveway area cleared of brush, and a teeny part of the garage area. This is when I realized how big our house area is! 

More to come, on finishing with the brush and clearing the construction area. 

Alissa

Family "Vacation" and Fourth of July

I've learned that vacation with a toddler isn't very restful, but always interesting! Here are some highlights of our trip.( I had to cut out a few things to keep it not so long)

This week we are in Fort Worth. Neal had a training class, so us girls came with him and stayed a few extra days. The first night, we checked into the hotel, and started to get Katie ready for bed in her pack & play. She slept for about an hour, then started screaming and crying. She would only calm down when I was holding her. This made things difficult for me, like sleep, and going to the bathroom.  Finally, an hour later, after the desk clerk stopped by because of noise complaints (at 8:30 at night?!), we called Grandma to see if Katie and I could crash at her place. She said yes, of course, so we threw stuff in suitcases and loaded back up and headed over. Even though it was late, Katie slept pretty good that night. Plus we were already at Grandma's to play.

The next day, Katie got to go out on Grandma's porch, picked some mint leaves and a katydid, and tried to pet the kitty. The kitty at Grandma's is mean, unlike our kitty, so Katie was absolutely crushed when we said she couldn't pet her. I mean sobbing, slobber falling out of her mouth, heartbroken. But there are doggies there, so that helped console her. After that, we went to get lunch. When she was done eating, Katie walked around the entire restaurant pointing to the pictures on the chairs, and socializing. She is so funny about art and color! Her Daddy stopped by after we ate, too, and got to give her a hug and a kiss before he had to go again. She gets so excited when she sees him, it's so sweet! Later we went swimming at the hotel. She LOVED it! There was a long step she could walk on in the water, and she loved jumping into our arms and "swimming". We were in the water for 45 minutes with her, and she was sad when we had to leave. As you can imagine, that night she slept REALLY well!

We were spending time with Grandma the next morning, and Katie came up to me with a jar of peanut butter, and already had the lid halfway unscrewed. I took this as a sign that she was hungry, so I started looking for a spoon and her cereal. When I came back, Katie had gotten her placemat out of her diaper bag, laid it out on the couch, and set the PB jar right in the middle! Girl knows what she wants, and how to get it too! We got to spend time with Aunt Desi that day, too. We had lunch together, then went to Target. Katie immediately ran up to the giant red concrete balls out front. She would hug one, pat it, then run over to the next one. I think she went to three total. I was a little worried we wouldn't even make it into the store! Aunt Desi bought her a ball, and let her run around the store a bit...not always a great idea, but Katie is so sweet looking that she doesn't look like she'll be much trouble. Let's just say it was a good thing there were three grown ups there to catch her! Katie got to go back to Grandma's (also Aunt Desi's) and play with the doggies. I heard that they licked her and she got to pet them. I think they are friends now.

Finally, the 4th of July!!  Katie's Daddy was off, and we were going to spend the afternoon with Desi's family. She was quite the charmer with a crowd of new people, giving smiles freely, and even wearing her headband with the sparkly stars on it. It didn't take her very long to be comfortable enough to break free from me and run around the house on her own. At lunch, she was so excited I had to do "run-by feedings", where she would take a bite, run off, then come back and get another bite. I've decided this is a good weight loss method: take a bite of food, run a lap, get another bite, etc. We knew Katie would need a nap soon, so we got her changed and into the pool. She spent most of the time on a ledge of shallow water, playing with toys and splashing. Every now and then she would jump into one of our arms. I thought she was never going to get tired, and it was getting pretty late for a nap, so we got her out among protest and got her dried off and dressed. We brought her pack & play, and she slept almost two hours! By then, we were all exhausted and headed back to the house. I think all the grown-ups fell asleep before Katie that night!

Saurday, Grandma and I went to an antique mall, where I saw some interesting decor for our future home. Too bad we don't have anywhere to store it! Later, we went to a wedding, which was very sweet. There are a lot of women in the bride's family, so there were lots of tears and red noses! Also, some mosquitoes at the indoor/outdoor reception. Sunday, we packed up, met Mamaw and Papaw for lunch, and headed home. Katie did much better on the trip home, once I remembered to use Peace & Calming on her. She didn't get fussy at all after that!

So, after the trip, I realized that it was somewhat relaxing because Grandma and Daddy would take care of Katie in the morning so that I could sleep in. Very much appreciated!