The elephant in the room

Yes I am aware Katie can't use it for months. but when you see a purple rocking elephant, with crinkly ears and an umbrella at the resale shop, reason goes out the window





Ps. Yes that is a mouse in a hat riding too.


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Bumbo chair and football

A chair that helps little ones sit up. She is a fan.




From haapy to sad... Here's our house just before the Vikings superbowl hopes were dashed




And some reading time with grandma



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Fussy 80%

For those of you who think Katie is a quiet angel, her daycare report card said she was fussy 80% of the time today. Turns out she has diaper rash (which i thought was just wet skin, so I wiped it extra last night... oops). She also may be teething and is lacking sleep per their reports.

Good thing grandma comes tomorrow. Katie can use some extra love right now.

PS diaper rash is red shiny skin. Like non-bumpy poison ivy. I had no idea.


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Katie and Hyde

We've been playing with her a lot. Here's from the other night. Bubbles to giggles in a few seconds.







Also went on a short hike this weekend. She was mesmerized by the tree canopy or sleeping.

Baby's First Bar

We start dodgeball tomorrow night (both of us) and have one of our friends watching Katie in the stands (the organizers have given us the side with bleachers so we can keep Katie out of the fray each week).

In addition, we just learned that Katie will be able to join us at the bar afterwards. Hooray! We are excellent parents.

Daycare Transportation

Day 2's trip to daycare involved breaking out the Chariot bike stroller. I took these pictures this morning:

Katie getting bundled up and strapped into the infant sling.


Strapped in and ready to go!


I asked Ken how it went and he said:

Trip went well. need to work out the kinks like remembering to take my keys and wallet...but all in all, it was a good drop off. Katie was quiet the whole way and smiled when I opened up the cover.

Infusing booze, part 100

My friends make some killer glögg (ie red wine boozy deliciousness). The recipe calls for aquavit, which you can make yourself with this recipe I found in a magazine.


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Why to use your flexible spending accounts

So we just learned that both my work (big place) and kens (10 people) have flexible spending accounts which allow you to pay up to $5000 for daycare annually using pretax dollars... ie you save about $1500 on something you're paying for already. You qualify for about 30 days after going back to work after maternity leave -- though all plans are different.

So chalk it up to free money; it may make the daycare process a little sweeter. Plus, even if you do or don't have kids, health purchases (like doctor office copays, drugstore aspirin, slings, cold medicine or chiropractic visits) can be deducted.

Pretty please look into it.


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Katie in Daycare, Day 1

From Ken about a minute ago:

I just spoke with (name deleted). Katie is doing great. Just had her lunch, she had about a 2-hour nap and played with the kids (which apparently was a little overwhelming and only lasted about 10 minutes). All in all, things seem to be doing just fine Karen will have a sheet filled out with the day recap. She said Katie is very talkative and friendly and seems upbeat!

Sleep

Katie's sleeping so much better now. Smiles and sleep... The rewards for spending 2 months caring for a 9 lb sack of potatoes.

Last night she went to bed at 9:45 and woke up at 6:15 this morning. Ken took the first two feedings so I ended up with 12 hours of sleep. It was glorious.

I go back to work on Monday so I've been squeezing in as much time with her as possible. We've been reading a lot (no indication that she cares except that she sits still and looks generally in their direction).

Ken takes her to the dog park a lot. We use taryn and paul's sweet rainshield all the time which protected her from a downpour yesterday. She likes looking at the drops hitting the window. She seems mesmerized.

She also has started holding her things - albeit poorly. She will hold rings, small toys, small stuffed animals,etc. She's also started putting all of these things in her mouth. We caught her making out with her stuffed duck yesterday, for example

So it seems our sack of potatoes is developing eyes.




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More Katie-Hughes exploration

They were very interested in each other a few minutes ago. First time Katie has given any indication she has seen the cat. She smiled at both the cat and dog today. First time for either.


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Testing a new app

And seeing if I can post from my phone...




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