OK, couldn't resist.

Katie's first tooth is now visible above her gum line. Every once in a while I think I see its pair, but then I don't ... so who knows. We did go back to the doctor's office last Friday for a follow up - ears, nose, throat all look good according to the doctor (YAY). This last round of antibiotics seemed to go much better than previous ones, and Skip has become a master at administering baby drugs.

DiAnn and Angie are still with us, but they are leaving this weekend to return to Holdrege. Skip is going to drive them up on Saturday and then he'll fly back on Sunday. It's been really nice having them here. Katie spent today at home with them and likely will play "hooky" again tomorrow so she can get some more spoilin' in with the grammies. It will be nice for us to have the weekend to ourselves - work has been just crazy bad lately. When every day for two weeks involves the words "subpoena", "audit" and "arbitration" - and you're not an attorney or CPA - that is NOT a good thing. And no, those words are NOT all in reference to the same project. Next week I'm off to AZ for a quick trip, so that will be good to see everyone out thataway ... hopefully all of the craziness at work will settle down a bit and I can actually do normal stuff!

Well, TTFN ... need to get some pictures posted so I can go to bed.

Well, it finally happened - Katie has cut her first tooth. She was feeling a bit warm on Thursday night and just not acting herself - so I put my fingers into her mouth and sure enough, two little nubs in there! (Well, I thought it was two at the time ... now it would seem maybe only one.) She slept through the night without any problems and got up the next morning late with Daddy, and she was still running a bit of a temp and just not acting herself, so Daddy gave her some Tylenol and took her to day care with word that she'd been teething (the day care will tolerate a low grade fever if they know the baby is teething).

Well ... about noon I get a call from the day care. 103 temp! So I call Skip, since he is closer to the day care than I am, and he goes to get her while I try to make an appointment at the doctor's office - NO appointments available that afternoon, so we end up at PrimaCare (or, as we affectionately call it at work: doc in a box). We waited there for a little bit and the nurse and the doctor who saw Katie were both very nice - and the doctor quickly diagnosed an ear infection. So ... more antibiotics (but I am happy to say she seems to be tolerating them a bit better than the last time) and she has slept a BUNCH this weekend - still running a fever but she is still her happy little self (except when the teeth get to be too much and she rubs her fist against her mouth - then, she's not real happy).

SO ... not sure what tomorrow brings. If she's still running a temp, I think it's back to the doctor's office to figure out what to do next.

and I'm pooped!

OK, December started with a trip to Austin to see Grandma Betty Jo, Dr. Jim and assorted aunties, uncles and cousins. Katie was still taking her antibiotics at that point for remnants of an ear infection. We got to Austin Friday night, got settled at the house, then the three of us went down the hill to County Line BBQ while BJ & Jim went to a Christmas party. We all ate - Katie included - and then returned to the house to just lay low for a bit.

Katie started to act very fussy after we got her in her PJs ... thought maybe it was teeth and that a little tylenol would help. So I shoot Katie up with some tylenol and was about to go downstairs to get her antibiotics out of the fridge when I hear this "come quick!!!" out of the living room - the ENTIRE LEFT SIDE of Skip - including the entire front of Katie's jammies - is army green. Or, more precisely, baby food green beans green. She had puked all over herself and Skip, and of course being in a strange house without our hostess at home, I end up rummaging through cupboards trying to find towels, cleaning supplies, whatever I could, to try to clean up the mess we'd made (Skip was trying REALLY HARD to hold still on the couch this whole time, in an effort to keep the baby puke somewhat contained). As soon as Katie puked, though, she was fine - her usual and giggly little self. We decided to pass on the antibiotics for that night, gave her some water (cuz we just weren't sure how formula would go down) and she crashed for the night.

The next morning, Katie's fine - still kind of fussy and vigorously rubbing the front of her mouth with her fist - so more Tylenol and she's good. We decided to keep her off of the antibiotics still - we had lunch with the whole family (including Princess Delaney, who HAD to sit by Katie) and then we headed to Houston for the Texans game (with a stop in La Grange - while that town is probably most famous for being a ZZ Top song, there is a gas station there that has THE BEST kolache).

We get to Houston, stop at a burger joint, and again, we all eat, including Katie. We get to our hotel and have to try like three times to get the staff to bring a crib (at one point, a maintenance man brought up a computer cable. Not sure what THAT was about.). Katie's fussy ... try Tylenol .. and SPEWWWWWW all over the hotel bed. So we have to call housekeeping who has to bring an entire clean set of sheets for our bed, but again - Katie's fine once she pukes. At this point, she has no more signs of her infection so we decide we are DONE with the drugs. (She also had not been eating all that well in day care since starting the medicine.) She sleeps well overnight, and because she's acting so well in the morning we headed to Reliant for the football game. Katie did GREAT - she sat perfectly still on my lap for the first three periods (she spent a large part of that time flirting with the nice man who sits next to us) and then she took a nap during the 4th.

Once we got back to Dallas, it was life as usual for just a few days before Skip returned to Houston on Thursday for another football game - Katie and I stayed behind while Skip tailgated with our season ticket "neighbors" who were kind enough to extend him the invite for some food before the game. Skip returned on Friday morning but then Saturday he headed back out again - this time to Colorado for his week long "use it or lose it vacation days" ski trip. So then me & Katie were on our own!!

We spent part of the weekend with my friend Debbie, making Christmas cookies - a tradition we started a couple of years ago and it works well (making sugar cookies just wears me out after a while). I also managed to get my remaining Christmas shopping done AND all of the presents wrapped - whoo! Us girls managed pretty well on our own - Katie did come down with a cold on Tuesday, so I took her back to the doctor fully expecting to get a lecture about having stopped her antibiotics prematurely, but I didn't - but we both stayed home that day (I was getting a cold, too).

My parents started their trip to Texas a day early, so they showed up late the Friday before Christmas, which was really nice to have them here and they enjoyed their "bonus day" with Katie. Skip flew from CO to Kearney, NE on Friday so that he could help get his mom DiAnn and her caregiver/friend Angie down here for Christmas ...but DiAnn got an infection and the intravenous antibiotics she takes really KO'd her. SO ... Skip was stuck in NE with no return ticket! He managed to get on a flight back to Dallas on Sunday before Christmas - he got in at about 5:30 and we came home to spend some time with cousins Paul, Andy, Tiffany and Christian who had come over to watch some football.

Christmas Eve ... time to see Santa, because we hadn't had time to do so up until now, and Katie had the perfect dress and there was no way Gia (the benefactor of said perfect dress) would ever let me live it down if we didn't get Katie's Christmas picture in her little red dress. SO ... load up everyone in the car and head to the mall, where the Santa line is fairly long but it's moving pretty well, AND as a bonus, Santa isn't taking any breaks on Christmas Eve so after about an hour (and a nap for Katie) we finally get to see the big guy. Katie did GREAT - the "elf" told me that it'd be best if we "backed Katie in" to Santa, so she wouldn't see him, she'd just see us. She thought something was funny cuz she laughed and kicked and had a good old time. My dad, Skip and the pros all got some pretty good pictures of Katie.

From there, off to the Silver Fox steakhouse for dinner - I'd decided I didn't want to cook (or, more precisely, I didn't want my mom to have to cook - she's the pro; I'm just an apprentice). We got there just as they opened and the staff there could not have been more accommodating to us (although, for a steakhouse that has high chairs, they had NO changing facilities in the potty whatsoever). We get our salads and I feed Katie and SPEEEWWWWW she pukes all over everything. LOVE-LY. My mom & I take Katie into the bathroom and attempt to get her sort of cleaned up (a nice woman brought us some club soda for her dress), and we return to dinner to find my father has spilled his red wine all over the table. The staff at SF was like a pit crew - six people whoosh whoosh whoosh come in, clear everything, take off the soiled tablecloth, put down a new one, and make all good again. Katie by this point is acting her usual self - the only thing I can figure is that maybe her cereal had been a little too thick or something and she gagged and up it all came again.

Well, we had originally planned to go to church, but I wasn't about to take a puke-smellin' baby into Christmas Eve services. So we drove around and looked at Christmas lights in Plano (one house had music broadcast OVER A RADIO FREQUENCY that was in sync with the 1000s of lights at the front of the house - think Christmas Vacation times 50), came home, got stuff ready for Christmas morning and we all crashed.

Christmas morning Katie seemed to enjoy the wrapping paper and bows more than about anything else, big surprise there. Grandpa did come through on his "threat" and Katie has a puppy - he sings the song "shout" and moves his ears when you press his paw. She thought that was pretty funny and laughed a lot! Grandma and Grandpa left too soon - the day after Christmas so they could outrun the weather. But it sounds like Grandpa might be retired now, so he's got no excuses for not getting in the car, loading up Grandma, and coming down here. (Yes, Dad, that was a thinly veiled attempt to guilt you into coming down here.)

So, at this point DiAnn is doing better - so Skip, Katie and I loaded up the car just last Friday and drove to Wichita, where we met DiAnn and Angie. Skip drove the van the rest of the way to Dallas, and Angie rode with me and Katie in the Acura. We had our Christmas gift exchange yesterday - and now Skip and his mom are out grocery shopping while Angie plays with Katie and watches some football (and gives me some time to do some web mastering!)

SO ... that's what's going on here. OH, no, Katie has no teeth yet in spite of all of the fussiness/rubbing the mouth/drooling/etc. I think I might see some popping up in there, but who knows. She's not yet crawling but she is posturing like she's trying, although she doesn't really need to crawl as she can get pretty much wherever she wants just by rolling and scooting. Katie's newest trick is to make clicking noises with her mouth and tongue - Skip thinks it's really cool that if he clicks, she clicks back. We have no idea how she figured out how to make that noise - I had to try to explain to Skip how to do it, and it took him the better part of a day to figure out how!

Well, off to iPhoto to grab some pictures from the last month for y'all. Hopefully things will settle here and I'll be a little more timely with my updates going forward!! Jen