Clothes Horse, Daycare & more!

I walked out of the house a couple weeks ago, turned around to shut the door and was greeted by this HUGE moth! As anyone who knows me I get freaked out by 99% of the bugs in this world, especially those that fly! Lightening bugs, lady bugs, butterflys..that's about it for bugs I like! Lol At any rate this moth was literally the size of my hand! Being the "brave" individual I am I waited until Dana got home and let him shoo it away. Pictures truly didn't do it justice but here they are:

Evil moth-hee hee


Eek!


I finally got around to buying more hangers for Karalee's closet! I got a chuckle after going through old pictures of her closet and what it looks like now. She has 70+ clothes easy! Girl is starting to rival her Dad & I in clothes! 'Course if I'd stop buying clothes that'd probably help! Lol She's so darn cute though how can I resist!

Karalee's closet when we first got pregnant


Karalee's closet as of this morning!


She's officially 2 months old today! I can't believe how quickly time has gone! She's started smiling and she loves to "talk" to anyone who'll listen, her strength increases every day, and to watch her personality forming is incredible! She's outgrown virtually all of her newborn clothes which makes me a little sad, it's one of those "my baby is getting so big!" moments. :-) I look at pictures of when she was born and the newborn outfits just swim on her, now we're lucky her sleepers still fit! :-) We just know she's getting close to laughing and we can't wait!

Happy two months! (Sorry about the red eye, darn flash!)


Look at me smile!


I've been taking her out in the Snuggli lately and she loves it! She can look around and be cuddled up wth me! Walking around in it usually puts her to sleep I've found! I love it because it saves my back while letting me snuggle her. She's getting such great neck control that I've turned her around a time or two facing out and she has a good time looking at everything that way.

She had her first trip to the zoo on a Mommy & kid outing a friend of mine arranged. She had fun & was such a trooper because it was ridiculously hot! I don't have the pics from my friend yet but I'll post those when I get them. Her youngest is 2 months older then Karalee and it's amazing what a difference there is in size!

The next day Dana & I took her to the Botanical Gardens, found out later we broke a heat record. What's up with the sun? Lol We had a good time though and Dana'd never been so it was nice to experience that together.

The weekend before she was the star of a graduation bbq, the graduate was happy to have attention diverted from him! Lol

Karalee in her jumperoo, "Is that a bird????"


Karalee in her jumperoo, "All this jumping made me tired"


Karalee hanging out on the couch, Dana thought it was hilarious to have her "Chillin' with her bottle and remote"


Our friend Dana and Karalee at graduation bbq


Dana pretending to get Karalee drunk, is it any wonder I don't want to leave her with anyone? Lol


Daycare is going well, I had a really rough couple days where I just disolved into tears "giving" my baby to someone else but she's so loved and has such a blast there that its gotten a little easier. I still miss her like crazy but I get calls letting me know how she's doing which helps. She's the favorite of the kids there, the liitle boys love to run up and give her a kiss on the forehead then she gives them a little smile and that sets them to giggling and they run off just to run back up and do it again! Lol There's a little girl there who's the "protector" of all so she's assigned herself protector of Karalee which is pretty cute.

Karalee & I her first morning for daycare-I didn't disolve into tears until after the picture!


Karalee & I for daycare


Karalee & I at the zoo


Diaper change!


Diaper change cont! I just loved her face so had to snap some pictures!


Dana & Karalee at the Botanical Gardens "Hey there Dad!"


Dana & Karalee in the tropical rainforest at Botanical Gardens-It's HOT in there so we didn't stay longer then a minute!


Karalee & I at the Botanical Gardens-See how much fun the Snuggli is? :-)


A rare shot of the three of us together! Taken in the Botanical Gardens


Karalee and I had the pleasure of meeting up with Staci, Mike and their son Brody today at REI! Staci and I met while chatting on a pregnancy site, I've actually made several friends from that board! They have a gorgeous family and it was so nice to meet up in person! They were headed home to KS after having gone camping, hiking, rock climbing & visiting friends. I tell ya hang out with them and you realize how wussy the little trails I take are! Hee hee There's a link to their blog on here so if you get a chance to pop over you should, they're a great family. :-) Brody is 10 months old and my gosh can that boy move! I was watching him crawl and it didn't matter if it was rocks, pavement, grass he just got in position and then ZOOOOOOM! Gave me an inkling of what Dana and I are in for when Karalee gets to crawling!

Here's Brody, what a cutie!


Staci & Karalee-Staci was remembering when Brody was that small


Staci & Brody


Staci & Brody


Staci & Brody-"Look Mom a stick!!"


Staci, Brody, Mike & Karalee-Mike had to get in on holding Karalee too, needs practice for when they have a girl! Hee hee


Me, Karalee, Staci & Brody


Brody holding Karalee's hand-He wasn't too impressed with her but decided holding hands would be fun, she wasn't too sure! lol


I think that catches you all up on the last couple weeks of our lives!

Tag you're it!

Here are the rules:

Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves.

People who are tagged need to write on their blog about their 7 things as well as these rules.

At the end of your blog, you have to choose 7 other people to tag and list their names. - Don’t forget to leave them a comment to let them know that they've been tagged and to read your blog.

-I don't read 90% of the things forwarded to me

-I really love early mornings but I'm too lazy to get up usually....well used to be, Karalee has made sure I'm up!

-It's hard for me to let past annoyances go

-Since having Karalee commercials about sick kids (was a St. Judes one yesterday) or news of abuse puts me into tears

-I'm eclectic about music, I like a wide variety and love to burn different genre's onto one cd

Since I've never been a big fan of chain letters or things of that nature-this one just sounded interesting-I'm leaving it open to whoever wants to participate. :-)

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all you Pappa's! For all you son's & daughter's don't forget to call your Dad's and let them know you think they're great! I know I certainly got a great one! Growing up he was often on shifts where I didn't see him too much or when I was in highschool he was an over the road truck driver but you know what, that never stopped him from making sure we knew he cared and was thinking about us. I remember as a kid when he was in the airforce and deployed overseas to Iraq for Desert Storm that during everything that was going on, the crappy weather, the crappy food, the war itself he still found time to bring me back a fuzzy horse statue. No matter where he went when he was in the Air Force he always got me something from where he was for birthday's or just because. I'm sure to him that seemed a small token yet to me it's something I remember quite vividly. I remember how special I felt, how cared about, how loved. It was this little thing that meant so much because it was this way of saying "no matter where I am or what I'm doing I'm thinking of my family." He's always called me "His #1 daughter", Adam was always "His #1 son". Now it didn't matter there's only the two of us so of course we're #1 because it always made and still makes me feel special. I'm #1 one daughter to my dad and that's a pretty awesome feeling. Thanks for always making me feel special dad! Love you!

Now this is Dana's first Father's Day and I hope he enjoys it and realizes how much his little girl loves him and will continue to increase that love. It's been such an enormous pleasure watching him be a dad. There's this change that comes over him when he holds her. He's no longer "Dana, working guy. Dana the husband. Dana, the guys night out guy." He becomes "Dana, Karalee's dad." He's always had this habit that's always driven me nuts of taking pictures of landscapes when we go places. Now I have no problem with that...except he usually forgets to take a picture of the PEOPLE that were there! LOL Since Karalee's arrived that camera has snapped tons of pictures of her and hardly any landscapes. :-) That's just one small change. When he walks in the door from work his face lights up when he see's his daughter. If he's having a bad day a simple text message "Karalee loves you" will make his day. She's smiled at him several times and you can just see he's over the moon when it happens! The pride he has as he watches her explore her world and everyone in it. The joy he takes in picking an outfit for her to wear, he's especially tickled if it says anything along the lines of "Daddy's Girl". It's just been so heartwarming to watch him grow into his role as Dad and to see the pleasure he takes in being Dad. I love you honey! You're a great Dad to our daughter!

Roll On

Here it is! The long awaited rolling over video! Dana shortend it so you didn't have to watch 2 minutes of coaching lol:-)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5550480619977688395

I couldn't get it to show the video here, we're working on it though! Enjoy!

Jumperoo

Karalee is now the proud owner of a rainforest jumperoo! She's not quite tall enough for it yet but she does enjoy being in it which is a plus! I just bounced her up and down a little last night, she was utterly fasciniated by the bird on the one leaf! Lol I think once she gets big enough she's going to really love hanging out in it! It plays music, and has rattles, has a tiger that plays peek a boo and it spins 360 degree's so she can play with everything! I'm so excited about this jumperoo can you tell!? Lol I was playing with her so I didn't get pics of her in it yet but next time I will so you can see her face, she's just so wowed by everything! Lol Here's a pic of the jumperoo itself though.



Karalee also started smiling!! Well she's been smiling for awhile but now she actually aims them at us which is so cool! They start at her eyes and work their way down to her mouth, so adorable! Her little eyes just light up and then poof there's this gorgeous little smile! We can't quite catch it on camera yet as once you grab that she stops and is staring at the camera like "that thing again?" Lol

I know you're all wondering where the promised video's are, well we're making progress in the fact that Dana has started uploading them to the computer now he needs disks because they're taking up too much room so once we get those we'll get them uploaded. We got some video of Karalee "walking" yesterday too in the grass! Told ya she was smart! :-D Not that I'm biased or anything. Wink wink Here's some pics of her standing in the grass with Daddy last night.




Karalee and I were napping together yesterday morning (we do that alot since I don't have to be anywhere in the mornings, least for a few more days!) and I heard her make some little noises so I opened my eyes to find two beautiful blue ones staring directly at me! Was too cute! Told Dana and he said "Wonder if she was thinking That's my mommy and I love her, or if she was thinking Mom...MOM...get up I'm hungry!" Lol

She had a tough time taking the bottle last night. She ate about an ounce and then wanted nothing to do with it but she was still hungry. So Dana tried for about 30 minutes to get her take it with no luck, she just wailed and wailed. So he handed her to me and I tried for about 20 minutes to get her take it since come Monday she won't have a choice but I had no luck either. She just cried and cried, consequently I teared up because I felt so bad. I cuddled her and got her to calm down finally so I gave her a bath and finished up her night time routine, then tried the bottle again since she was calm and she took it finally. Whew. There was only about an ounce left so once she finished that I did nurse her. Dana and I agree she just needs more exposure to the bottle then once a day and I will completly admit it's my fault she doesn't get it more often. I just enjoy nursing her and holding her close so it's hard for me to grab a bottle instead. 'Course I'm also having a tough time thinking of handing her over for several hours 4 days a week to someone else! :-) It's gotten tougher to take the closer we get to my returning to work. On one hand I'm excited about going back to work but man I don't want to have her hanging with someone else all day! :-)

We're going to a baseball game Saturday night which should be fun, it'll be Karalee's first game! Hope the Rockie's win...okay okay at least get a couple home runs! LOL We also have a graduation party to go to that afternoon for our friends son which we're looking forward to. I think that's about it, Sunday is Father's Day so we're letting Dana choose whether or not to go out to eat anywhere. Karalee and I are making the run for his gift either today or tomorrow I think. :-) Well I think you're caught up on our lives now and I hear little one fussing so I better run!

Yard on the way!

Dana's been slaving away the past few days to clear out the jungle of weeds that had overrun our yard from all the moisture we got this winter and he's also been moving rock into place. I got to help for maybe 15 minutes total since Karalee wasn't having any of this "leave me in my bed" stuff. I feel so bad, he's doing so much work and I just haven't been able to help much. Dana said it's okay since I am the primary one taking care of Karalee and the house but I still feel bad lol. Oh well nothing to be done about it! Here's some pictures of the great work he's done!

The southside of the yard, it was Dana's idea to use pavestones to line by the rocks!


Back of the house cleared of weeds


Imagine weeds bigger and in the entire yard like this, that's what Dana battled through to clear the yard


We were talking yesterday at lunch at Dana would like to go looking at digital camera's and get a newer one of those instead of an art chair so I guess Karalee and I will be pooling our money a bit more! LOL We just figured that rather then spend big $$ on pictures every few months (at least for the first year we're trying to get professional ones every other month or so) if we had a better camera we could attempt to do our own.

Took Karalee to my old work and showed her off, naturally she charmed everyone! Made plans with a friend of mine to go to the zoo on the 23rd with her 3 month old and 7 year old daughter, she has a friend of hers coming as well with her kids so it should be a nice mommy and kid outing!

Here's a picture of Dana feeding Karlaee her bottle, she's doing pretty good about taking one. She still fights it at first but she does really well once she figures out it has the same stuff as mom's "bottles".


For fun I thought I'd share some pictures from when Dana and I were little for you all to compare to Karalee. It never fails to blow me away how young my parents looked and were when they had me!
My Dad and I in 1979


Mom & Me in 1980-I was 1 year old


Me in the bath tub 1981


Me in 1980-7 months old


Dana-Clean your street?


Dana in bathtub


Dana w/horse-he and his mom went on trail rides a lot when he was little


Dana and Santa


Dana in Marble CO

Rash mystery solved

So as you know I took Karalee to the doctor yesterday to have her rash checked. Well come to find out it's not a heat rash, nor is it infant acne (least the doc didn't call it that) it's caused from dandruff! Apparently this is very common in babies and it's because their scalp gets oily so dandruff shows up. Well the oil travels downward towards the face and can even get on the chest (which she has a bit of rash there as well.) We have to wash her hair with Selson Blue every other day for a week and then once a week after that and we can also put 1% hydrocrotisine on her rash to help clear it up faster 1-2 times a day. So I picked up all that stuff last night and she got her "treatments". Hopefully it'll be cleared up by Sunday for her pictures! He also listened to her heart and we're still perfect!

I'm so excited about Sunday, our first family pictures! I can't wait! I had to laugh yesterday talking to friends of ours since she'll be a month and a half basically we're just going to skip "official" 2 month pictures and get the next set at 3 months. :-)

I'm also excited because a friend of mine is selling me her electric breast pump that's very good quality and she didn't use much since it just wasn't for her! I like my manual but I just don't see how I'm going to pump with any speed while at work and after talking to my pregnancy board they also agreed and said electric is great for increasing supply and for work so I'm excited to try it! Plus they were chock full of suggestions on increasing supply which I'm going to try because I want to know I've got enough to keep her belly full at daycare w/o supplementing formula if I don't need to!

A friend of mine sent me the soundtrack to Wicked which is really good! If you don't have any idea what Wicked is, it's a musical based off a book that's written from the Wicked Witch of the West's point of view from Wizard of Oz. I personally hated the book and found it to be dull and poorly written, however I hear the musical is fantastic and the music is certainly good!

Well I think that's it in a nutshell! We'll keep you updated and keep posting pictures as we take em'!

Too cute!

I really don't have anything to update just yet, I know we promised video of Karalee rolling over and we promise to get that done this week sometime! :-) I am taking Karalee to the doctor today just so they can check her rash and see if it's infant acne, heat rash, or something else. I'll just feel better knowing she's been seen even though it's not bothering her. Her right ear is red too but she doesn't have a fever or act like it's bothering her, she's sleeping fine so I don't think it's an ear infection or anything. Who knows. Worry wart mommy to the rescue! LOL :-) I'm sure everything is fine I just need to hear it from her doc that she's all okay too. Will update when we get back from the appt!

Took this bathroom pic of her last night before Dana started giving her her bath (she loves baths unless water gets all over her face) and I think it's just so stinking cute I couldn't resist showing it off!


I think we're also on our way to getting back on schedule feeding/napping wise and I'm so glad! She really got thrown off having visiors here and with my luck she'll get back on track just in time to get thrown off again when she goes to daycare! Lol She went through a phase where she wouldn't sleep unless she was swaddled, then it was no swaddling and she slept awesome, looks like we're back in the swaddle me up phase right now so here's a pic of her all swaddled in her blanket from my friend Amber, it's awesome because it has velcro so she can't wiggle her arms and legs out like a regular blanket. She's so wiggly that in a regular one she gets out of it pretty quick and then she's mad because she's not snuggled up anymore lol. :-)

Second Anniversary

It's our second wedding anniversary! For fun I looked up what the "traditional" gift is for a second anniversary ..... cotton. What'd we get each other? I got Dana baseball tickets and he's getting me a double ceiling fan for the living room. Lol There we go bucking tradition again! Lol He's also getting a nice art chair to sit in so his back won't hurt, we're making that his anniversary and Father's Day gift. Karalee's already spoiling her dad! Lol Dana's parents got him a weed whacker that has an edger on it and a weed sprayer for his Father's Day gift. The weed whacker/edger is awesome! I haven't tried it yet but it did a great job from what I saw!

Karalee has learned to roll from her stomach to her back!!! We're so doggone proud! She did it two days ago and did it three times in a row!! That's my girl!! I knew she was a smartie! She can also stand on her own long as someone keeps there hands on her sides to keep her from wobbling over! She's so strong it's just amazing! We do have video of her rolling over and I'll get Dana to help me post that later as it's kinda long. She's also getting over what we found out to be a heat rash, poor kid! I felt so bad! Least it's clearing up now, it was on her neck and mostly on her right cheek.

Here's a pic I took of her yesterday while I was getting ready, I love the red on her! I'm going to have to find some red shirts for her as it looks fantastic on her!



Dana has been clearing our back yard and putting in the pavestones we wanted (Christmas gift from his parents), he's done a fantastic job! I feel bad I haven't really been able to help because it seems the second I pick up a shovel kiddo wants attention! Our friends/neighbors helped him move some of the rock we have so that looks great, we helped them with theirs so turn about it fair play! Lol

I'm on countdown to having to give up my daughter during the day, June 18th I return to work and I know it's going to be so tough! On one hand I'm looking forward to getting back into work mode but on the other I hate the idea of leaving Karalee with anyone, especially for that length of time! Only saving grace is the daycare is great and she's the youngest so she'll get spoiled tons. :-) It's run out of a home and she can only have 5 kids total, only 2 of those can be infants so it's Karalee and another little girl who's not quite a year I think, then 3 other kids in staggered ages. Karalee has met the woman and she did okay with her so I'm not forseeing Karalee really having too hard a time adjusting...me on the other hand am bound to be a blobbering mess for weeks! Lol

Dana parents were here for a week so we went and did several touristy things, went to the Rocky Mountain Arsenal tour which was really interesting, that's the wildlife reserve by my house. Got to see the bison finally and got some pics of that. Also went to the Butterfly Pavilion which is always fun, it's fun to watch the kids run around trying to get a butterfly to land on them, course they don't stand still for longer then 2 seconds so it's usually unsuccessful! Lol Reminds me of being a kid when my grandparents on my mom's side took my brother and I on a boat ride, we learned if you put sugar water on your finger and stay very still you might get a butterfly to land on you. It worked too! Karalee did get a butterfly landing on her carseat but it flew away before I could get a pic snapped. We also went to the Botanical Gardens and that's always a nice place to wander around. Friday Dana called in so we all went down to the Molly Brown's House tour, it was pretty interesting. She was actually called Margaret her whole life and the only reason she's known to us as Molly is because of the musical that wasy done, they didn't think Margaret sounded as lyrical so they changed it The Unsinkable Molly Brown. She had an 8th grade education which was extradoniary in her time, most women didn't have an education at all! She stood 5' 7" which was very tall for a Victorian woman in those days.

Here's some pics from the visit with in-laws.

Buffalo


Karalee showing off her standing skills


Daddy, Karalee, Grandma Karen & Grandpa Norman


Pics of Maggie & Max