Our Little Ballerina

Cate has been taking dance now for several weeks. This Saturday was "observation day." It sounds kind of like something they do at a zoo and there's a reason for that. Watching a dozen three-year-olds learn ballet is much like.....well, I'm not sure I can describe it. If anything, it's definitely very high energy.

Stephen was out of town for his grandfather's funeral and our babysitter was sick, so Cate, Keaton and I went to dance together. Keaton was very cooperative and slept the entire time. We'll have to work a bit more on his appreciation of the arts. I realize I'm biased, but I thought Cate was adorable. The class performed at least one organized routine to a song. They also let each girl show several skills. I am not a dancer so I have no idea what all these ballet moves are called. I know they demonstrated "first position." I was so overwhelmed watching all that Cate had learned in such a short time that I forgot to pay attention to the names of the various things she was doing. She was having fun and I was very proud of her for trying so hard. I'm looking forward to several more observation days and the recital in May.

Halloween....Part I

I'm sure there will be more Halloween stories in the next few days, but we began the weeklong celebration this weekend and I've already got a few photos. Cate is into Disney princesses, as are most young girls I know. She decided months ago that she wanted to be a princess for Halloween. I took her to pick out a costume several weeks ago. She was very decisive and immediately went for the pink Sleeping Beauty dress. I completed her ensemble by finding a crown and wand.

Last Friday evening, the kids' day care had a "fall festival." I guess this is the new thing to do because I hear that they do it at a lot of day cares, schools, etc. They are still having their Halloween party this Friday as well, so I'm not sure why our particular day care added the festival. But anyway.....most parents sent costumes with the kids on Friday morning. I planned to leave work a little early so I could go get Cate dressed. When I arrived, her teacher told me that Cate was worried all day. She had been saying she needed to go home to get her costume. I have rarely seen her so excited as when I got her dress out and helped her put it on.

She immediately took the wand, pointed it at one of her classmates and said something like "lumpkin bumpkin, I turn you into a pumpkin." The entire room laughed and from then on, she wouldn't stop turning people into pumpkins. Unfortunately, the "spell" was typically accompanied by a sharp wack with the wand. Note to mom: never buy costume accessories that can double as weapons.

They say the cutest things....

I just got home from a weekend in Indianapolis. Stephen spent Friday evening, all day Saturday and most of the day Sunday taking care of Cate and Keaton. I think everyone missed me. It's nice to be needed :)

Cate seemed very excited to see me when I got home. She was a very good helper all evening, even offering to make me a chocolate surprise in her kitchen.

As I was trying to put her in bed, she asked to go to the bathroom (her second or third stalling tactic during the bedtime routine last night). I was beginning to get aggravated with her so I told her in stern voice that she could go potty (her second trip in about 30 minutes), but then she had to get in bed RIGHT AWAY and I added that she wasn't being a good listener and doing things quickly so we can get in bed on time. Her latest trick when I scold her is to say, in a somewhat bossy voice, "I love you mommy." She puts a lot of emphasis on the "love you" part, so it's almost like she's yelling at me, but she's yelling she loves me. You kind of have to hear it to understand why it's so funny.

So, last night, we were walking into her bathroom when she said in her most authoritative voice, "I love you mommy, but you've got to start listening to me."

World's Cutest Witch

Stephen's mom bought Cate this cute little Halloween outfit. I asked Cate to pose for a picture and this is what I got.

The Day Care Blues

A colleague at work told me that when he looked back on the first year his child was in day care, he found he had taken about three weeks of sick leave. Since day care is pretty much a germ fest (by no fault of their own), it's no surprise. Our pediatrician told us that we can expect Keaton to be sick for about one week out of each month for the first year he's in day care. Makes you feel like a great mom, doesn't it? Sending your kid to the petri dish every day doesn't seem like the greatest parenting decision.

Keaton's going through his first day care cold/stomach bug/etc. He's got a terrible diaper rash too. Poor little guy. Even with all that, he's just a happy little guy and always has a smile.

A Trip to the Dentist

Cate had her first visit to the dentist today. She did pretty well with the whole thing. She got her teeth cleaned and counted. The best part? Getting to pick out her very own princess toothbrush and sticker.

Later this evening, Stephen and Cate were looking at some older photos of the kids. Of course, they can't really be that old given that Keaton is only four months old and Cate is just three. Despite that, I couldn't help but think that the time flies by. I heard someone say that when you have young children, the days seem long but the weeks go by quickly.

All Princess, All the Time

It's all about princesses around our house. It all began with an innocent screening of the Little Mermaid a few months back. From there, we had to have a Princess Ariel birthday party. A few weeks back, we went on a scavenger hunt all over town for a copy of Beauty and Beast (apparently no store rents this movie -- it's crazy). Now, we are fully equipped with our Sleeping Beauty Halloween costume and we just watched the movie yesterday.

It's not like we needed any reminder that Cate believes she is a princess....but all the princess memorabilia available in the stores definitely helps keep it in the forefront of our minds at all times. A friend from work (thanks Dorothy!) bought Cate a Little Mermaid costume. It's quite the outfit, with scales and tail and everything. Cate loves it. A mermaid on the go.Yes, it's true. Princesses like Krispy Kreme donuts too.All this mermaid stuff is hard work.

Tales of Tag, Cousins and Smores

I continue to have fun experimenting with my new camera. There are so many things that I can do with it that I haven't even begun to figure out. I am also working on brushing up on my photo editing skills so that I can do all kinds of things with Photoshop. This is a photo I took of Cate running around in our backyard. I kind of like the way it captured her motion...she's pretty much constantly in motion at this age so it seems very appropriate to me. This is a photo I took of Keaton and Stephen. I took several different shots of them together, close ups and a few further away, so I could play around with them. I think we got a few that came out well.

We had a fun weekend with Cate and Keaton, but I had to come to work on Monday just so I could get some rest. I have no idea where these guys get their energy but I'd like to find out and see if I can get some.

Cate helped Stephen with recycling on Saturday morning. This is one of her favorite jobs at the moment. She helps load everything into the car, then goes to the recycling bins with one of us and helps unload it. She is actually a good helper and I think recycling and taking care of the environment are things she should learn about.

Around lunchtime, Cate had her second dance class. I dropped her off for her 45-minute class, then ran to the post office, the car wash and the gas station. After dance, we went home for lunch then Cate and Keaton had their naps. During naptime, I did several loads of laundry, made some cheesecake bars and a pie. Stephen worked on a few things around the house, then put the ladder up outside so he could work on our skylights which seem to leak at the most inopportune times. By the time he got up on the roof, Cate and Keaton were up so we all went outside. Cate and I played ball and a version of "tag" that mostly involved her chasing me around the yard. After about an hour of that, we fixed dinner, everyone got their baths and Saturday was done.....whew. On Sunday, we went to Olathe to visit Stephen's parents. Stephen brother, Ryan, was visiting with his family. Cate had a great time playing with her cousin Quentin who is just a few months younger. They played croquet in the backyard and made smores. As you can see from the pictures, Cate has a very interesting croquet technique. It reminds me a bit of someone chopping down a tree :) But it works for her. She really loved the smores, as did Quentin. Cate kept asking for another "smarshmallow" and Quentin asked many times for more smores.

We started the day out full of energy....this picture of Keaton pretty much sums up how we wrapped up the weekend.

Keaton and Daddy

Smarshmallows

More details to come later, but let's just say that smores and smarshmallows were a big hit with one little girl I know.

Zoo Night

Our local Parents as Teachers program had their Zoo Night on Friday. Stephen, Keaton, Cate and I went with a friend from church, Jack, and his mom, Kelly. The kids had a blast and I got a few cute pictures.

There is a great guy from our library who sings, read books, plays guitar -- he's really popular with the kiddos. He was a the zoo for this evening and all the little kids were dancing and singing with him. A little boy came up and grabbed Cate's hand to dance. She was pretty surprised and later she told me about it (even though I was there and saw it for myself). She said he grabbed her hand and pulled on her arm and she said, "I don't like that."

Besides the zoo and the terrific guy from the library, Parents as Teachers also had all kinds of coloring activities and more fun stuff.

Cate and Pop Pop

Dancing the Day Away

Cate had her first dance class this Saturday. She was so excited that she even requested a bath on Friday evening so she could be clean for class. Since she typically resists her bath, I took that as a sign that she was pretty excited.

She wears a black leotard, pink tights and ballet shoes for class. We bought the clothes a few weeks back when we signed up so she's been waiting for what seems like an eternity (for a three-year-old) to wear them. She was really cute, of course, and I think she had a lot of fun. When it came time for the parents to leave the kids for the class, she gave me a big hug and ran off for class. She came running out when it was over and told me how much fun it was.

More photos

Can you tell I'm having too much fun playing with the new camera and editing?

Black and White

12-month Size Pants

Yes, it's true. He is wearing 12-month size pants.

New Camera!

I got a new camera last week and spent some time this weekend trying it out. The weather wasn't too cooperative, so I didn't get to go outside at all.

I am looking forward to taking lots of photos this fall!

Bear

Cate received a Boyd's bear from some friends as a gift when she was born (thanks to Andrew and Danielle Shull). Somehow that bear ended up being her companion everywhere we go. She adores him and takes him everywhere with her. She has named him Bear and he has quite a unique personality. He likes to dance, play school and occasionally sit at the table with her. Bear is very dirty, but he isn't much for taking a bath. I am sure that he will fall apart one of these days in the washing machine so we've already got a plan to take him to a seamstress for some repairs.

To be honest, there are times that I am sure we have Bear nearby because it's the quickest way to calm her down. If Cate gets really upset, she sucks her thumb and rubs Bear's paw and pretty soon, things are better.

I was taking a few photos the other evening and Cate insisted on posing for a photo with Bear. Too cute.

Cuteness

Doesn't everyone think their child is the cutest ever? I think it may be a parental duty. Even knowing that, I couldn't resist this cute little face.

The Baby Office

Most people are surprised when they learn that I can take Keaton to work with me until he is six months old. I also had Cate with me at work until she was just about six months old. There are certainly some challenges to it, but people seem mostly interested in what kind of baby equipment you must have at work to make everything go smoothly. Honestly, it doesn't take much. As long as you have two good arms, most everything else is an added plus :)

I took a few quick snapshots of my office. I am fortunate to have a nice sized office. I could probably squeeze more stuff in, like a pack-and-play or something like that, if I really needed it. But I get by with Keaton's car seat, a changing mat on the floor, a portable swing I bought on eBay and a play gym. I have a stash of other toys for him including a few rattles and some teething toys that co-workers bought for him. He hangs out with me in my office (they were nice enough to supply some curtains for my interior windows) and he goes to most of my meetings with me, unless he's napping.

There is certainly no shortage of people to hold him. My office requires that I designate two people to be "baby helpers" so that I have backup support when necessary. Fortunately, it's not hard to find someone to hold a baby when I need some help. Our assistant, Winona, is terrific with Keaton and she holds me when I need to run to the bathroom or something like that.

Here are a few photos of my baby-ready office.


This is a photo from the door of my office.


This is my view from my desk.


Keaton's car seat and the changing pad I have for him. I had just changed him when I took this photo. He was happy just laying on the floor, so I let him play there for a few minutes.


Keaton's play gym. He particularly likes the mirror on it. I think he wonders who that really good looking baby is.


I bought this portable swing on eBay when I was bringing Cate to work. It folds up very nicely, so it's easy to transport. Keaton likes to nap and hang out in the swing, so this is really perfect for him.

Obama Shirt

We got an Obama shirt for Cate. She seems to like it.

Second baby

I've always heard that the second child in a family has issues because there are never as many photos, baby books are only half completed (if that) and the attention always has to be shared. While there's not much I can do about sharing the attention, I vowed that Keaton would have a baby book that is just as complete as Cate and that I would ensure everyone got equal treatment in other ways. Now I've figured out why the second kid always feels shortchanged....there just isn't enough time to handle a full-time job, two children, grocery shopping, car repairs, church, volunteer activities and more. Photos, baby books and other non-essential stuff have gone by the wayside. We're doing well to get out of the house every day with everyone in clean clothes, hair combed and full bellies.

I'm trying to do better. Poor Keaton. There are about a quarter as many photos of him as of Cate. I think I documented her birth, her first blink, every spot of drool and anything else I thought was cute. With him, the camera has laid unused for weeks at a time. I love taking photos, but there just hasn't been a lot of time for it.

This week, I got a few snapshots of him. I made the time for it because he is growing so fast that it seems like he will be a toddler tomorrow. He's a really good baby -- sleeping well, charming the ladies at work, snuggling with mom anytime he can.

Graduation

My little brother (not so little anymore, I should probably start saying younger brother) graduated from KU this spring. I never had time to post anything here about it because Keaton was born just a couple days later.

It is hard for me to believe that Jesse graduated from college. He's now spending quality time in the army for a few years, training in Oklahoma and then off to Alaska later next year.

A few random things

I am back to work full time this week. Fortunately, I can bring Keaton with me for a few months so the transition is a little easier. We are on day two at work and so far, things are going very well. I think Keaton likes the new environment and most of my co-workers seem to like him too.

I've got a couple of random photos from earlier in the summer that I thought I'd put here. One is a photo Cate riding the carousel at the mall in Overland Park, the other is a photo of Cate at the Topeka zoo. She likes going to zoo and we went three or four times this summer.

I have some new photos of both Cate and Keaton and I am hoping to get a few of them on the blog later this week.

Birthday Girl

Cate had a great birthday a few weeks ago. She has discovered the Little Mermaid, so the birthday had a princess theme. Her cake was Princess Ariel, Cate wore a princess crown all day on her birthday and there were balloons, wrapping paper and all sorts of other princess accessories. I will try to post more photos soon.

Play Time

Everyone tells you that your children will all be different. It's definitely true and I think I started to see some of the differences between Cate and Keaton before we even got Keaton home from the hospital.

One big difference between them (as infants) is that Keaton likes to play on his tummy. Cate always hated being put on her tummy. With all the "back to sleep" efforts now, newborns don't spend much time on their tummies, so the "experts" really emphasize putting them on their tummies during play time for at least a few minutes each day. Keaton likes being on his side or his stomach. Of course, he really prefers it if I just hold him....but he'll tolerate some play time as long as I'm right beside him.

The biggest surprise? He can roll over all by himself. He did that for the first time about a week ago. He is very strong, particularly when he is angry about something. He turned over when Stephen was playing with him one day last weekend and he's done the same for me. It's hard to believe that he was just born six weeks ago and he's already turning over on his own...pretty soon he'll be getting his own dinner out of the fridge.

Fourth of July

We had a great Fourth of July weekend, for the most part. Stephen and I are still adjusting to having two little ones to cart around. It seems like it should be just double the work to have two kids, but it's actually more like quadruple the work when it comes to getting out of the house.

But back to our weekend. We started things off with a carnival and parade at Cate's school. They organized a "carnival" for the kids with simple games and prizes (fun things like toothbrushes were the prizes!). Cate had a lot of fun, particularly in the parade. We stayed for a picnic lunch and then Cate, Keaton and I spent the afternoon together while Stephen wrapped up a few more things at work. She wore a blue skirt, white shirt and a red and white barette to the festivities. She was quite proud to show off her outfit before school on Thursday morning.



We went to church on the fourth. Our church has a really nice service, followed by cake and ice cream. It was a good, cool way to celebrate the holiday.




A very generous co-worker of Stephen's gave Cate a gift card to Toys R Us when Keaton was born, so we let her pick out something. She got a sprinkler for the backyard and we used it this weekend.


We were planning to eat dinner outside at least one evening because it was unusually nice here, but Cate was frightened by the noise in the neighborhood. It's really out of hand with all the firecrackers and other large fireworks in the neighborhood. I started to feel like we live in a combat zone by the end of the weekend.

We had the idea to go shopping and out to lunch at an outdoor mall in Kansas City on Sunday afternoon. As we were leaving the house, Cate was being difficult and Keaton was screaming like crazy. We decided we were pushing our luck. Even though we had just loaded the car up with the 50 things we need to go anywhere for any length of time, we decided we should stay home. We went out for a casual lunch in Topeka, then stayed around home the rest of the day.

Keaton has arrived!

Keaton Samuel Martino officially joined our family on May 28 at 3:11 a.m. He weighed 7 pounds, 14 ounces and was 21 inches long. I haven't had a chance to post anything here in part because we have serious computer problems at home and in part because I've been busy with Keaton!

Keaton likes to do things at his own pace. We went to the hospital on May 27 at 7 a.m. I was scheduled to be induced that day. We spent all day at the hospital getting medication without much change. My labor finally started to ramp up later in the evening. I got an epidural around 8 pm (I think). The first one didn't work well, so they took it out and gave me a second one. Fortunately, the second epidural worked much better. The fun really started with the second epidural. I started feeling really light headed and my blood pressure dropped as they were working on the second epidural, so anesthesia gave me some kind of medication to bring my blood pressure back up. After that, both Stephen and I tried to catch some sleep. Some time before midnight, I woke up and there were a couple of nurses watching the baby's heartbeat on the monitor (nurses I didn't recognize). I was a little groggy, so I didn't get too upset. I dozed back off and about 15 minutes later, nurses were back again. They left and I was trying to get myself fully awake, Stephen left the room for a bathroom break and in a few minutes, our labor and delivery nurse was back. She explained the baby's heartbeat was decelerating, so they put me on oxygen.

His heart rate didn't come up right away, so they paged my OB. At this point, I started to get a little upset. They turned off the pitocin (one of the drugs that helps induce labor) because apparently that can affect baby's heartbeat in some cases and waited for my OB to call. Fortunately, he was already in the hospital and came up within about 10 minutes. When he called, he said that he suspected Keaton was just getting himself into position for delivery. Sometimes when babies make that final move, their heartbeat goes down some because their head gets compressed. Sure enough, about the time my OB arrived, it became clear that it was time for the delivery. They kept the pitocin off and kept me on oxygen to help out the baby and everything went very smoothly from there.

Keaton developed some jaundice in the hospital, so we spent several days running him back up to the hosptial for check ups. Luckily, it resolved itself and he didn't need any kind of treatment.

We've been home now for about two weeks and things are going relatively well. Keaton hasn't been gaining weight quite as well as everyone would like, so I took him in for a weight check today. He had gained five ounces in five days, which is just about what he needs. He now weighs just at 8 pounds.

Of course everyone asks how a newborn is sleeping. He sleeps about like most newborns. He gets a couple of good long naps (at least two hours) on most days and he is sleeping for two or three hour stretches at night. Unfortunately, he really likes to be held, so he won't sleep for long unless someone is holding him. I have spent most nights sleeping while holding a baby -- not the most restful sleep. I am working on transitioning him to something else (maybe his car seat), but I haven't had much luck with that at night.

You can really see Keaton's jaundice in this picture. His face looks very yellow. The face is always the last place to improve, or so the doctors tell me. His jaundice is completely gone now and he looks much better.


I posted a few pictures here, some of Keaton and Cate. Cate is a very pround big sister. She loves Keaton and is always giving him kisses and little hugs. She has been a little jealous of the time he takes with mom and dad, but overall she has done a great job adjusting. She's going through a little bit of a whiny stage, but I would probably be the same way if I had experienced all the changes she has in the past few weeks.



Everyone here is happy and healthy!


I forgot newborns are so tiny.