The Real McCoys: January 2014

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Lots of Firsts!!

Kate has experienced lots of new things the last few weeks. Its amazing how fast she is growing, changing and learning new tricks.

- Babbling: She is a champion babbler now. She has so many different sounds and will go on and on, its as if she's really trying to have a conversation with you.

- Grabbing: She loves her play mat and has gotten really good at grabbing the different hanging animals. She can also reach and grab rattles and her ball.

Tummy Time: She is getting so much better at tummy time. It's still not her favorite, but there's definitely improvement!

Sucking her thumb: She is officially a thumb sucker. She uses it to self soothe, which means she is weaning herself from the pacifier.

Giggling: She has started to giggle! Nothing consistently makes her do it, but it's so cute when she does.

Went to a basketball game! We attended our first SU game, and brought Kate along with us! She liked it, until she wanted to sleep and then it was too loud. She did fantastic!

Played with other kids: She has really started noticing other kids, and loves to interact with them. Good thing she has Sloan to play with during the week, and other babies to meet.

Kate has also started being generally more aware of her surroundings, and loves to look around. She is not as much of a fan of her carrier any more because she faces in. She flipped out in the grocery store the other day (first time that's happened!) and was only content when I took her out of the carrier so she could look around. We have started using the stroller a lot more often for this same reason, and have even started running! So many changes in such a short time, she continues to amaze us every day!

Hi Ho Hi Ho it's back to work we go

It has been two weeks since I returned to work and it has been going very well. I enjoy being back at work and I love having a structured routine again. Kate is doing great at the babysitter. Our babysitter is amazing and Kate loves hanging out with her son every day (he's two weeks younger than her). Our only issue is that Kate has not adjusted to the new sleeping schedule (going to bed earlier/getting up earlier). She has started getting up multiple times a night, when before she had been sleeping at least 5-6 hours straight. I definitely miss the sleep and I hope she adjusts soon!

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Little Fish

Kate had another exciting first when we were home for the Holidays; first time swimming! Chutchie Kristin got her a swimsuit and towel for Christmas, and then took her to the pool at HAC where she works. Kate was very content in the pool, and really liked looking at the other kids and watching the fountains. She got to float on her back and even dunked her head under! We might have a future swimmer on our hands.

Friday, January 3, 2014

Three Months

Kate has really changed over the last month, and very recently has started to do a whole bunch of new things. She ..
- Celebrated her first Christmas
- is wearing 6 month clothes, and is still very long so some 9 month sleepers
- Hates tummy time, but is getting much better at it. She will now hold herself up for some time before crying about being on her tummy.
- Has started reaching for objects, can hold her ball, teether and some rattles. She grabbed one of the animals on her play mat today!
- Still loves her play mat, and is content to kick, wiggle and stare at the mirror for a long time!
- Is still waking up once a night to eat, usually her schedule is 10-3, 3:30-7 and then will sleep again until 9 ish. She has not been as predictable the last couple of nights so we will see what happens, especially with work starting for me her schedule is bound to change.
- She got a pack and play for Christmas to keep here at our house and is now sleeping in that in our room. We've decided to keep her in with us until she is consistently sleeping through the night, the convenience for nighttime nursing is too hard to give up! She takes some naps in her crib.
- She takes a long nap in the morning and a longish one in the afternoon, with 30 minute cat naps the rest of the day.
- Still likes her swing, but we are using it less often.
- Has started sucking her thumb! She still loves the pacifier, but is now pretty consistently self soothing with her thumb.
- Babbles, coos and shrieks a lot! She is becoming more vocal, and has definitely started to "talk" in response to us talking to her. She hasn't quite laughed yet, but still smiles all the time and shrieks when she's excited .. I think a laugh is coming soon.
- Is definitely more aware of her surroundings, she now smiles at the dogs and likes to interact with them. She notices when they come in or leave a room. She likes the TV and loves to listen to music. If I turn music on while I'm nursing, she stops to look for the source and becomes so distracted I have to turn it off.

I return to work part time next week, so my maternity leave is officially ending. I am ready to get back into the routine of working and doing something besides just being mommy, but I have also really enjoyed being home with Kate. My hope is working part time will be a positive experience and a good balance, but I will definitely miss my sweet little girl.

Christmas

We had a very enjoyable week long celebration of Christmas here in the McCoy family. For her first one, Kate made out pretty well. We might have to tell her at some point that Christmas doesn't usually last over a week! Kevin's parents made the trek up here to Syracuse to have our "McCoy" Christmas the weekend before Christmas. We had had a foot of snow on the ground until the day before they arrived, when the temperature shot up to 52 degrees and it rained! We still managed to have a great visit and had a very successful "first" Christmas for Kate.

Just hanging out once everyone arrived:

We went bowling, which seems to becoming a tradition with the McCoy family!

Yay for jeggings and Kate's first trip to the bowling alley!

Our beautiful tree, instead of me decorating by myself this year, we had a family evening and decorated together. I am looking forward to starting that tradition with Kate. All of our ornaments are mine from growing up, my parents still give us each a new ornament every year. There's something so sentimental about Christmas ornaments, I can remember when and who most of mine are from. I was thrilled that my mom, sister and Kevin's grandmother all gave Kate an ornament this year so she can start her own collection!

Getting ready to unwrap presents

The dogs got some gifts too!

Doesn't really get the opening present thing

Yay! a mirror for the car

I got a new lense for my camera .. trying it out on Kevin and Kristin:

We made sure to get some family photos too.

Kevin worked on Christmas Eve, but Kate and I met him out at a bar for a couple of drinks and then we had leftovers from McCoy Christmas dinner back at our house with Murphy.

Christmas day we had a quiet day at home, we actually spent a good chunk of time addressing our Christmas cards, packing and getting ready to drive home. We had Christmas dinner with some of the ortho residents and families.

We actually decided to go ahead and take advantage of the fact that Kevin didn't have any inpatients and therefore didn't need to round on Thursday and Friday and drove home Christmas night. We left around 9:30 after packing the car, and Kevin was a trooper and drove the whole way! We didn't know whether it would be a disaster or not, but it worked out very well. Kate slept the entire way, and it really saved us time to not have to stop and feed her.

Snuggling with Bushia the next morning!

We celebrated "Christmas Eve" and "Christmas morning" with my immediate family, Friday into Saturday. We traditionally decorate our tree on Christmas Eve, and then play Cranium with my siblings. I'm glad we could continue that tradition even though it wasn't really Christmas Eve.

Saturday, we had a very busy day .. opening stockings with my family, going to the rehearsal for Kylee and Andy's wedding, going to Yerkes Christmas with my dad's extended family and then Filliben Christmas with Kevin's extended family.

Yerkes Christmas:

Waiting for Aunt Tacie's hats