Day 340: October 31 - Happy Halloween

Tonight was official Halloween Trick-or-Treating, so we met up with all of the neighborhood kids at the subdivision park to begin the Ready, Set, BOO celebrations. Katie did awesome with everything until all of the kids yelled "cheese" for the picture and then she melted.

Daddy took her up and down our street trick-or-treating, and she picked up some candy at each house. By the time she got home, however, Daddy discovered that for every piece the neighbors put in her bucket, she grabbed that piece out of her bucket and chucked it over the side of the wagon. ;-)

Day 339: October 30 - Our own Mini Minnie

Today was the Halloween party at school, so Katie donned the Minnie Mouse dress Grammy bought her. She looked so freakin' adorable in it! We did some Walmart shopping and some pizza eating before Mini Minnie zonked out from a busy day.

Day 338: October 29 - Pumpkin guts are fascinating

In the evening, we carved our Halloween pumpkin. Katie touched the pumpkin a few times, and then would check out her fingers. Daddy picked her up when he saw her crawling towards the massive pile of pumpkin guts on the floor. I'm sure she would have had a blast if he would have let her continue on her path.

At bedtime, we did our normal routine of having bedtime snack on the bed, but I was exhausted from the day, so I ended up falling asleep around the same time she did. You know what that means, *someone* did not get moved to her crib to spend the rest of the night. Sigh! It's probably for the best, because she woke up at 3am pretty crabby. I'm starting to wonder if she's not cutting another tooth, since she sure has been restless at night and she seemed more congested. Let me also say, Daddy and I should not be making parenting decisions at 3am when we're both exhausted. It's not a good combo! I guess there's always tomorrow night to work on the transition again.

Day 337: October 28 - And now transition is on hold

YAY, Daddy's coming home again!!!! After the difficulties of last night, I am SO pleased to announce that Daddy will be back from his trip tonight! I can't wait!

After such a traumatic bedtime last night, which included screams I have never heard come out of her mouth, I wasn't sure what I could expect this morning. I knew I was tired from getting to bed so late, and I was frustrated that I didn't get done what I had wanted to the night before. Katie? The biggest smiles on her face this morning. Little stinker!

She played on the big bed while I put on my makeup, but all she had for toys was a Little People toy, the remote control and my cellphone. I was getting to my mascara when I heard the familiar tone of the speed dial on my phone. I quickly grabbed the phone and hung it up, not knowing who she had attempted to call. About 30 seconds later, Aunt Laura called to see if we needed anything! haha! Umm, no, that would be Katie that tried to get ahold of you.

I sent Daddy a picture of Katie to help him get through his day with a smile on his face. He responded back: You sent her to daycare in that. Can you say ghetto?

We were very fortunate that Daddy was able to get an earlier flight home. He was originally scheduled for a midnight arrival, and I was fearful of what the next morning would behold with both of us being exhausted. It's not historically been a good combo for us. Katie went to bed relatively easy IN HER OWN CRIB, but shortly after Daddy got home, she started crying. He went in and changed her diaper, but she didn't seem impressed with that effort. He asked me if he should go in and get her, and I said, "No, she needs to learn to fall back asleep by herself in her crib". His response was, "I'm going to go get her anyway!" haha! He brought her back into bed, and I have to admit, it melted me watching him snuggling up with her. Daddy missed his baby girl while he was gone this week! I think this crib training deal is going to have to be postphoned until tomorrow!

As you can see with the pictures below, Katie is able to find entertainment in most anything...Mommy's "products", a trash can, a cat toy. Yeah, doesn't take much!

Day 336: October 27 - Transition fail....again

I got an email from Daddy this morning with the subject line, "How is muffin this morning?" Awww, does he love his baby girl or what!!

Today was picture day, and after the debacle of last time's school pictures, I wanted to do better this time around. I probably spent way too much energy stressing about the right outfit, but hey, she's a firstborn child! I had it narrowed down to three outfits, and this morning I decided to go with the jeans and pink top. I wanted her to look cute, but not like she spent all day obsessing about her looks, thus the choice of casual jeans. Unfortunately, when we got to school, I realized that the pink shirt completely washed out her complexion. Sigh! Maybe next time! I got messages throughout the day from my friends wanting to know how picture day went. We won't know for a few weeks when the proofs come back.

When I went to pick Katie up from school, she fell asleep in the car, as she sometimes does, so I stopped by KFC and got some takeout. When I got home, I felt bad about waking her up, so I let her sleep while I sat in the car in the garage with her eating my meal. It seemed like a good idea at the time. What I could not predict is that the short nap she got would cause her to stay up for HOURS past her bedtime!

I tried giving her her bedtime snack around 8pm, like I always do, and she was fine with that, but then she wanted to sit up and play. I tried to get her to lay down, and she was having none of it. I thought, OK, well we'll work some more on the transition to the crib, so I'll put her in her crib and let her play there. Oh no, no, no, no! She started crying with tints of screaming in there. OK, not working. Let's head back to the bedroom and try again. We got back on the big bed and watched some TV, and she calmed back down, so I tried the crib again. Oh NO, NO, NO, NO, NO! I then started thinking, OK my friends have talked about CIO [cry it out] where you walk away and let your child have this cryfest and eventually they learn to soothe themselves to sleep.

I took the video monitor with me and went to take a shower. She screamed the ENTIRE time! After I got dried off, I went back and got her again. I thought maybe getting a top off snack might calm her down and let her fall right to sleep. She took a few sips and then rolled over and perked up like she wanted to play some more. GAH!!!! Two and a half hours after her normal bedtime, she finally fell asleep in my arms on the bed. I didn't dare jostle her by taking her back to her crib, so alas, she spent another night snuggling in the big bed with me. Maybe we'll work on that transitioning tomorrow....

On a more positive note, I got Katie's first birthday invitations done. They turned out AWESOME!! Can't wait to show you the rest of the party ideas I have planned!

Day 335: October 26 - Bird Dawg is born

I put her into our bed at midnight. I changed her diaper, and she still would not settle down, so I gave up and let her snuggle with us. Tired mommy = give up with little struggle Mommy.

I have been so worried about picking just the right outfit for Katie's upcoming photo shoot [school pictures at daycare]. I said I didn't want a repeat of last time, and Daddy's response was: There was nothing wrong with what she worn to school that day. Umm yeah!

Daddy sent me an email on Friday telling me to look at the red mayor signs on my way to pick up Katie from daycare. For the first one I saw, I only noticed that the guy went by "Bird Dawg". When I came upon the next one, I then noticed the dude's name is the same as Daddy's. I got quite a chortle out of it. We ended up stealing one of the signs, because well, it's just too funny. After Daddy shoved the sign in the car and started to drive, he looked in the rear view mirror and said, "Is that a cop back there?" Why yes it was! Luckily he turned off and did not come chase after us for stealing. Can you imagine how funny that would have been? So today I figure I'm going to see if I can find a website with a graphic to play with. Instead, this is what I found and sent them to Daddy:
Bird Dawg said he got the nickname for one reason: He keeps his eyes open and ears perked to what's going on. He has no prior town government experience; Sears has eight years in office, and Holleman has 17. "They've kind of got their ways set," said Bird Dawg of his more experienced competition. "You can't tell a stubborn old man nothing."---and----Bird Dawg, who has no Web site, said he's spread his platform by word of mouth. Besides, he says, people have already made up their minds."This thing's already done," he said.

Day 334: October 25 - Katiebug the Ladybug's first official debut

YAY, Katie slept through the night in her crib again! I heard a noise around 6am, so I turned on the monitor to check it. She was just sitting in her crib looking around. I watched for a minute or two, but then she decided she was hungry and started fussing, so I got up to go get her. Transition worked...at least for last night!

We got to go to our first Halloween party today with all of Mommy's online friends. Katie was an adorable ladybug, but it was kinda chilly, so we had to supplement with her Georgia Bulldogs jacket. She was so quiet and sober, so I think the costumes of the other kids was a little bit overwhelming to her. It was at a local park, so she enjoyed heading over to the water and checking out the geese with Daddy.

Day 333: October 24 - Couldn't resist

Katie, and I, made it until 2:30 am with her in her crib. She started crying, and I was just too tired to deal with it, so I brought her back into our bed where she snuggled until morning. Mommy: 0 Katie: 1

Day 332: October 23 - Trying to transition.....again

I am going to begin the difficult task tonight of transitioning Katie back into her crib. As much as I'm going to miss my little snuggle bunny, I'm worried about her waking up in the middle of the night [like she's been doing lately] and crawling right off the edge of the bed. So far she's tried to crawl on top of us, but I think that's playing with fire. I know she will eventually find a way to crawl off of the bed without waking us up first, so I know it's safest to get her back into her crib. She loves to burrow up next to us when she sleeps, so I'm not sure how she's going to do with the cold expanse of her crib. I bought her some warm jammies though, so hopefully she won't wake up in the middle of the night cold like she was before. Wish us luck!!!!