A sadder first

Yesterday was Kalena's first non-routine visit to the doctor. She's seemed a little off the last couple days, and she had a runny nose and a cough. Normally we wouldn't take her to the doctor for a cold, but this seemed like something more so we set up the appointment. Turns out she has an upper-respiratory infection along with an ear infection in both ears.

I wanted to take a picture of her because she is STILL smiley happy baby most of the day even with all the infection. (Both the pediatrician and PA commented that she seemed to happy to be sick.) BUT, my camera will not even turn on! I don't know what the deal is, it's practically new. Anyway, she is on antibiotics and ear drops for pain so hopefully she will be feeling better soon.

Why I should be allowed to nap at work

I have an issue with being sleepy in the afternoon. It goes all the way back to high school when I used to fall asleep in my 6th hour class no matter what the class was. It is bad enough that in college I always tried to make sure I didn't schedule classes for anytime between 1 and 3 pm. Unfortunately, I can't schedule my work day like I did my college classes which means I have to work during those hours that my body wants to be napping. Generally I just try to make a point to have a variety of stuff to do during the afternoon so that I don't get too dazed out doing any one thing. And the other day I was reminded WHY I need to continue doing that.

I was working with a particular spreadsheet editing some formulas. The spreadsheets I work with always have the panes frozen which, if you didn't know, can make it look like you're at the top of the sheet when in fact you are NOT. The sheet had dates on the left side, and the one at the top was January 2010. I didn't think much of it even though EVERY OTHER TAB in this file started with January 2009. I just went through editing and copying the formulas down the column. Only at some point I scrolled all the way to the top and then when I looked back through the formulas I had edited they were all wrong! I could not for the life of me figure out what had happened. I just changed all these! Why are they not changed?! And I freaked out a little wondering what in the world happened to all the work I'd just done. Then I figured it out and felt like a giant idiot.

The mistake was easily fixable, but I really thought I might be crazy there for a minute when I couldn't find any of my work. I was definitely awake after that though.

Whoops!

Yesterday I was digging through the glove-box in my truck, pulling out loose papers when I pulled out three nice looking 5X7 envelopes. My first thought was "uh oh." I looked at them and yep. They were exactly what I thought they were. Three of Kalena's birth announcements. Envelopes sealed, return address written, and first and last names of the people they were supposed to be mailed to. And no addresses for those people.

I remember now sticking them in there when I mailed the rest so I wouldn't lose them. I figured I would get the addresses and mail them in the next day or so. Only when I did get the addresses I couldn't find the envelopes. I was SURE I had left them on the front seat of the truck. Totally forgot about the glove-box. And then I forgot about the envelopes. Until I found them yesterday. So April, Jason & Tauna, and Maria, if you're reading this, I'm sorry about the announcements. I blame the sleep deprivation.

Flavors of the week

It's Friday, and I love Friday. It's the beginning of the weekend and the weekend means grocery shopping and getting things done around the house and movie watching and all kinds of good stuff. Not that we don't also do stuff like that during the week, there's just more time to enjoy it on the weekend. Since I am in a list making mood today (alright fine, I'm always in a list making mood) here's a list of things I've been loving this week:

1.) My Nalgene. Instead of filling up a regular water glass 8 times I just fill this thing up twice and stay nice and hydrated.

2.) Avocado. Seriously, my menu planning this week has involved me choosing foods solely based on what I can put avocado on. SO GOOD.

3.) Our vacuum and steam cleaner. Our carpets are SO clean!

4.) Brian, who is the one who was actually using the vacuum and steam cleaner. While I was at work. Without me even asking him to do it. Jealous?

5.) This little one for sleeping past 6:30 every day!

It's been a good week:)

Fun times in the kitchen

A couple years ago for Christmas, Kari gave me a bucket of 100 different cookie cutters. Now, this gift was awesome because I love making cookies, but lately it's even more awesome because we get it out and let Kalena play with them while we cook. She used to just dump them and scatter them around the floor, but lately she is very interested in putting them back in the bucket.

I found out the other day that she doesn't just want to put them in the bucket, she wants to put them in whatever is around. Like my boots.




She got them all the way down in the toe too, as I discovered later when I went to put those boots on.

Since it's earth day and all

Did you know today is earth day? Well, it is. The other day I saw a mini-cooper with a bumper sticker that said "I {heart} my carbon footprint." And it made me wonder if whoever owns the car actually does anything besides drive a car with decent gas mileage to warrant that sticker.

Sometimes it is obvious to me how much more the environment is emphasized in Colorado than in Texas. I hear commercials on the radio about how to conserve water and everything they suggest are things I already do. The same thing happens with tips on how to lower energy bills. BUT! That doesn't mean I couldn't do better. I definitely have my bad (for the environment) habits, and since it's earth day I guess I ought to work on those. What about you? Any earth day resolutions?

The Easter Post

Saturday, I went out looking for an Easter dress for Kalena. I know, that's cutting it a little close, but I wasn't looking for anything in particular so I figured I wouldn't have a problem. Apparently I didn't get the memo though, because I went to Wal-Mart AND Kohl's and there was NOTHING. Fortunately Sam's club came through with this lovely bit of pink frilliness (and for under $10 even):


Kalena's a little young for candy or hunting eggs, so we skipped that this year. She did get a set of little golden books though. (We weren't actually planning to do anything, but I am a complete SUCKER when it comes to buying books. I can resist the baby clothes, but not the books.) I wanted to take a picture of her when we actually gave her the books, but she gets so distracted by the camera that she probably wouldn't have noticed she was getting something new. Instead we just watched her be adorably excited and took pictures later. Here she is with some of the books. I'm pretty sure EVERYBODY needs a copy of The Pokey Little Puppy.


The Easter family picture. It's about time we took another one of the three of us. I think the last one we have before this was taken last September. Kalena only smiles when one of us is behind the camera so we settled for her looking in the right direction.


She's a big fan of sitting on Brian's shoulders.


Me with the little one. Or not so little one as the case may be. Hard to believe she'll be a year old next month.

Chompers!

Check out these bad boys!


Yep, that's four teeth on top. They actually broke through her gums soon after Christmas, but it was a little while after that before you could see them. Now they are more visible, but I hadn't been able to get a picture of them until now. They all came through at once so that was SUPER fun. I guess it's better to get it all over at once though right? Ah teething. Always good times.

They're quick learners

Just as we predicted, the dogs are enjoying Kalena much more now that she's dropping food on the floor all the time. Onyx comes over to the high chair to prowl the floor as soon as I take Kalena out. She'll even come over while Kalena is in the high chair and let Kalena pet her. That is a far cry from her old reaction, which was to get up and run from the room as soon as the baby came in. Brenna has always been more accepting than Onyx, and she now regulalry sits patiently while Kalena pets her. Brenna is quickly learning that when she is especially patient she is rewarded with some sort of treat. Bribery. It works on our dogs.

Spelling lesson for the day

"Woah" is not a word. That's why spellchecker underlines it in red. The word is "whoa." AOL had an article today that used the word "woah." Seriously AOL? Do you not even bother spellchecking anymore? I suppose that's why they also had an article that said "a whole nother." *sigh*

Remember everyone, spellchecker is your friend.

Playing favorites

As I'm sure you all know, Kalena spends lots of time with Brian. She gets a fair amount of time with me, but overall she gets more time with her dad. Until recently this worked great. Because she got to see so much of both of us, she was mostly indifferent to who was holding her or feeding her or who she was hanging out with. And when we were both around that was just twice as good in her opinion. Of course, this also meant that she cried anytime either of us left, but hey, you win some you lose some.

Then a few weeks ago Brian had spring break. So he got to be home with her for a whole week. All day, every day, he was there. And since then? He is THE parent. She cries when he leaves. If she realizes she's in a room without him she will crawl around until she finds him. If he sets her down next to me and walks away she cries even though I am RIGHT THERE. Even when I'm holding her, if I walk up to Brian she will reach out both her little hands and get his shirt in a death grip until he takes her from me. Don't get me wrong, she doesn't mind me, she just makes it clear that I am second choice. It's pretty cute really, although I think the cute factor has worn off for Brian.

I think though, that the best part about stuff like this is the understanding Brian gets out of it. He has been up all night with a crying baby because I had to go to work the next morning. He has been home all day with a fussy baby who refuses to nap. He has spent 9 hours alone with a whining, teething 6 month old. And now he's seen just how quickly it gets tiring to be the favorite parent. So someday, when the situations are reversed, he won't ever look at what I'm doing and think, "How hard could it be?" because he already knows.

Stairway to, well, just upstairs

Kalena has decided that climbing the stairs is her new favorite game. She gets mad when we put the gate up so she can't get to them. So these days we get to spend lots of time following her up them.

See how fun?!


Almost there.


Made it!



She doesn't know how to come down yet, so we get to follow her up and carry her back down. At least it counts for some exercise right?

Some stuff

None of these things warrants a whole post, so you're just gonna get some bullet points today.

• Kalena slept until 8:30 this morning. It was a beautiful, beautiful thing.
• After the dogs lie outside in the dead grass, they come in and lie on whatever piece of floor is the cleanest, making sure to leave dead grass all over it. WHY?
• I am nerdy enough that I just googled "lay vs lie" to make sure I was using the right one. Good thing too, because I wasn't. I always get that wrong.
• Kalena went on a solid foods strike last week and refused anything that didn't come out of a bottle. Today she is eating food like this never happened. What's that all about?
• I am so glad that Brian is a good cook and enjoys cooking. If I were responsible for dinner every night grilled cheese sandwiches would be on the menu like 3 times a week.
• Kalena is getting a little girl cousin in August! Yay!

I suppose that's all for now. I have some pictures but (as always) technology hates me.