I hope you all had a healthy start to the New Year! We spent the New Year sick and sharing the lovely sickness with anyone we came in contact with. Bleh! It started with a cold, I figured fine a cold will be gone in a week. Well for Dana it was, however for Karalee and I, we then caught a bacterial viral infection that settles in your throat and gives you a cough for about 10 days. Now it's not just an average cough, you feel like you've hacked your insides out so that was really unpleasant. In the midst of that joy somewhere along the way-we think we all caught it from someone at the progressive cocktail party our block does since so many of us came down with this and we didn't see each other after that night-Karalee caught a stomach bug that she then shared with me and lets just say it became a great challenge to see which end would get the toilet first. Well then poor Dana and my boss both got that same bug on New Years Eve, his dad caught it on the 1st and his mom caught it on the 3rd, Dana's birthday! Man. Luckily for most of us it was a 24-48hour bug and it was gone but it was certainly unpleasant while it hung around!
Other then sickness though we had a great time! Dana's parents spoiled us all, Karalee has some new toys that she loves to pull out of her toy chest and bring to us that they got her. Much to her delight she got a "Choo choo" lamp so we'll have to find a place to put that after we get done re-doing her room. She also got a "Pony in the box" that pops out and she loves to watch that as you spin the knob for her lol. Dana and I got a beautiful new kitchen table that is huge as one of our gifts-we all went to American Furniture to pick it out-as well as 2 new chairs to go with it (we already had 4 so I didn't think we needed more then an extra 2). The table with the two leaves in it is about 8' long! I LOVE IT! It's going to be so nice to have room for food, plates, AND guests during the holidays!
We kept very busy with Grandpa and Grandma (in between boughts of illness lol) we all went and toured the Wildlife Museum which we'd never been to so that was really fun and interesting. They do a pretty good job of having activities for a variety of ages which is always nice. We went and saw Zoo Lights which is always fun, they do a nice job here of making the lights interesting for everyone, it wasn't too cold either so that made for a nice evening. Other then that we basically hung out at home, Dana was off for 2 weeks which he thoroughly enjoyed! Nothing like sleeping in and hanging out with family to relax you and recharge the senses!
Lets see, Grandma and Grandpa taught Karalee "On, Off, Go" so "On and Go go go" are now her favorite words lol. She's also entered the "MINE" stage as of last week. Uh oh! Karalee has started putting words together so you get "D'ere go" (there go) as she hands you a toy, "Up pease" (up please) when she wants up, as a baby was getting changed "Baby poopy" She cracks us up with how she says "Dirty" it comes out as "Dirtaayyy" She says "Oh dear" if you prompt her. She says "Shoot" if she drops something. She's working on her colors, we're working on letters and numbers too as she lets us but she's not that big into them as yet. "Uh oh" is still one of her favorite phrases and she likes to say it if the phone rings or my timer goes off on the oven. She likes to push us over still and then holds your hand to help you up. She discovered a couple nights ago if you grab Mommy's shirt collar you can make her crawl after you and that leads to great giggles...from Dana! LOL Karalee thinks it's hilarious and hey I might as well be a source of amusement for my family right? She likes to grab our hands now and lead us to wherever she wants to go lol. She also likes to say "Tickles" only it comes out "Ticka ticka ticka" in Karalee language as she scrunches up her face and wiggles her fingers on you. It's so darn cute! She also added "Here go baby" to her vocabulary, we always say that to her when we hand her something and it's stuck lol.
Karalee has a pattern that after we get home from daycare she runs to the fridge, has me open it and she picks out a pudding, or yogurt, or tonight brownies to snack on before dinner. It's so funny, hits the door running and doesn't stop! Teeth brushing has its ups and downs, some nights it's fine and other nights it's a battle. She is also quite the bear to get to bed lately! My gosh. It takes about an hour of rocking, now reading since she likes to bring books to me now, her grabbing her Snoopy blanket, then tossing it, grabbing, tossing etc in her attempt to stay awake. I won't lie, it's driving me batty. I love her but this sleep battle has to stop! We tried moving bedtime later but that just ended with her still fighting and going to bed way too late. Started earlier and it was still a battle. Guess we're missing the sleep cues or something. Need to get another copy of Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child to see what clues it can shed for us. We did end up having to move her bed against the wall and buying a longer bed rail since she moves so much she rolled herself right out of bed one night, poor kid! And no, the sleep fight did not start from this although I'm sure it didn't help. :-) She will sleep if I bring her to bed with us which I do very rarely, mostly because I don't want it to be a habit with her again and also because she's a bed hog lol. I end up with an inch to sleep on that I have to fight to keep! You wouldn't think one little person could take up so much bed! Little stinker.
The baby is doing great, moving a lot and starting to really make my tummy move. It's a lot of fun for me since Karalee wasn't as easy to feel so it's nice to feel this one often. Ironically this one likes to move a ton as I'm putting Karalee to bed so I have a feeling Dana and I will both be very busy during bedtime lol.
