Katie had her 15 month checkup this last week (had to delay it a bit because of my trip to Arizona). She weighs in at 24 pounds (60th percentile for weight) and is 31 inches long (50th percentile for height). Dr. Ferguson checked her over and said she is progressing very well and is healthy, so that is a blessing! And only one shot - chicken pox - Katie did the get-all-red-in-the-face-cry-so-hard-I'm-not breathing, but she eventually got over it (enough so that all of the nurses in the office, and the staff at the front desk, got Katie kisses when we left).

Katie is doing a LITTLE better with her eating of late - it's still something of a mixed bag; some days she won't eat much and others she'll eat like a champ. Fruits and vegetables continue to be the biggest problem - often times she'll get them in her mouth and then immediately spit them back out again, but occasionally she'll actually eat some. She's also come to enjoy cereal bars (those are quickly becoming staples), and of course she still loves her Cheerios. But it does seem to be getting better.

Katie's newest activity is to open every cabinet in the kitchen and to remove the little foam rubber stoppers on each corner. There might be one cabinet that remains untouched, but most all of them have been stripped at this point. Doesn't stop her from looking though - Katie went through every cabinet in the kitchen earlier today to try to find any she'd missed. Fortunately she seems to be largely past the "put everything in my mouth" phase - most of the little stoppers she hands right over to us (although once in a while, she wants to hang onto one and run through the house with it).

Katie also helps me now with laundry - she will reach into the dryer and hand me items of clothing, I'll fold them, and she'll hand me the next piece until we're done (usually ... sometimes she decides she's had enough and takes off for the kitchen). Then, when we're done unloading the dryer, I hand her the wet laundry out of the washer and she helps me load it into the dryer. And she chatters at me the whole time. Pretty funny!

We did got to Houston last weekend for the opening pre-season game, and we did take Katie. She lasted about one full quarter before she got tired of the festivities - she'd do pretty well as long as the crowd was into it (she'd often clap when the noise levels got loud, and at one point I swear she boo'd at the refs with me ). Our new seats are nice but I suspect we won't get to many more games this year - too hard with Katie and our babysitter from last year, Debbie, now has her own little one to look after (Alfred Charles born on August 7) - so we're pretty sure that chasing Katie around is not as appealing to Aunt Debbie as it once was!

This afternoon we're off to a local sports bar for North Texas Nebraskans "Taste of Nebraska" - they bring in Runzas, Valetino's pizza, and salads with Dorothy Lynch. So we'll go to that to load up on some good Husker food (they'll probably replay the spring game on the big screens) and then maybe off for some shopping - it's tax free weekend here in Texas, so it's a great time to get new clothes and shoes!

So ... that's all for now; next weekend we're at home and then Labor Day we're off to Nebraska for the opening game of the Bo Pellini season (yippee!). Grammy and Cooky get to watch Katie in Holdrege while we're off at the game. Should be a good time!

We finally got Katie into the pool a couple of weeks ago - we had friends over for a swim and decided it was time to get Katie into the pool! So we got her into her little swimmers diapers and her bikini (yes, she has a bikini) and got her into the pool. We tried putting her into her little raft thing but she did NOT like that AT ALL - I think it was just too scary for her. So Daddy held her for a little while, and then Katie started to splash 10 year old Miranda and she thought THAT was pretty funny! Then Katie spent some time with Mommy and we just "swam" in the shallow end, and that was pretty fun. Eventually Katie did get into her little rafty thing again, and with better luck - she was a little happier the second time around, although still not quite sure what it was all about. We're going to try to get Katie back in again sometime soon - when it's not hot enough to fry her to a crisp the moment she walks out the door!

And we took Katie to Dunkin Donuts this morning - she had a BLAST. She ate a little bit of muffin (and puked ) but she otherwise had a great time and Daddy got some really good pictures.

Katie can now point to her nose, her eyes, her ears, her belly, and her elbow - and if you ask where her feeties are, she puts up one of her feet. We're trying to do one new body part a week, and she's doing pretty well! Katie now imitates us a lot, too - we were sitting at the kitchen table and I crossed my arms ... so then Katie crossed hers. Pretty funny!

Still not having a lot of luck with the eating thing - it's a mixed bag. She simply WILL NOT eat fresh fruit - she'll often try, but then it comes right back out again. She does like cheese and yogurt, though ... and of course, the Cheerios.

Well, I'm off to Scottsdale tomorrow for an audit of our Part D program (now does that sound like fun or WHAT) and then a day and a half of meetings. I'm actually looking forward to getting out of this heat (by going to AZ!). Next weekend we're headed to Houston for a preseason game; I suspect that Katie won't have much to do with it and we won't stay very long at Reliant. But preseason is the best time to try out our new seats, with Katie!