Well, we are winding down a two week stay from Grammy DiAnn and Cooky, who came for Katie's birthday, along with Grandma Sandy and Grandpa Rich (they only stayed a few days, though).

The Friday before her party, Katie came down with a runny nose. Yippee. So we kept her home that day, as she had her 1 year appointment later that afternoon anyway. My mom & I got to spend the morning at a spa (aaaahhhh ... that was nice), then we came home and spent some time with the rest of the grandparents before meeting up with Daddy at the doctor's office. OH - I did try giving Katie some motrin before heading off to the doc's office, to head off the aches from the shots. She promptly yakked it back up (on Grandpa, though).

Doctor's appointment went well - Katie continues to be healthy and she comes in at just shy of 22 pounds and 30 inches long - 50th percentile on weight and 75th on height. Doc wasn't concerned with her runny nose and she had no ear infection (thank goodness). Then ... time for Ellie and Courtney to come in and do the shots FIVE of them this time ... and Courtney warns us before the last two that they are REALLY going to hurt. Katie cries so hard, her little face gets all red and she does that "not breathing" thing that babies sometimes do when they cry ... and, eventually, she pukes up her formula all over me and the floor. Yippee. So we went home and had dinner with the family (after getting cleaned up first, of course - baby puke smell is NOT appealing). Katie puked again once more the following morning, but generally seemed to be OK (she was pretty tired on her party day, but that's just because she hadn't napped much the day before - I suspect too much activity going on with the grandmas & grandpa).

Her party was really nice, we didn't invite a whole bunch of people, just some friends (Mike and Debbie) and cousins (Andy, Tiffany, Christian and Jody) in addition to the grandparents. Katie got a lot of really nice clothes, some new books, her very own remote control, a fuzzy pink teddy bear, a pillow, and a fridge magnet set of the alphabet (it sings!). And she will eventually get a bookshelf courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa - which will be SO nice, she has accumulated so many books she really needs it.

The cake was not much of a hit (not with Katie, anyway - the adults all loved it). I've decided that if it isn't dry and crunchy and something she can feed herself, Katie wants NOTHING to do with it. Even the baby food that she used to eat like a champ. Day care has been giving her some table food, with some mixed results - today was the best day by far; she ate some banana, some green beans, and a cheese sandwich (yippee!) We are also trying to switch her over to whole milk instead of formula - but you guessed it, she yaks (and just when we thought we'd gotten over that ...). Actually, I suspect the pukies might be due to the fact that she's still congested ... well, at least I hope that's it. It'd be nice to stop dropping $30 a can on formula.

Katie has picked up on a few signs, most notably for "more" (although I think she might think that means "Cheerios") and "no more". And Daddy is VERY proud with what he's been able to teach her: the poopie grunts (sans poop, thankfully). Katie has always made very distinctive little sounds when she's making a poopie diaper, and we've always called them the poopie grunts. Well, now Daddy says "Katie, can you do the poopie grunts?" and she'll go "MMGRRRRR". He's SO proud. He's video taped it, and has promised to post it .... so stay tuned.

Well, tomorrow is all errands and picking up the house and then we head back to Nebraska for a week with DiAnn and Angie. Hope to catch up with a few friends up north and just relax.

TTFN