Update for Monday, July 18

Last week marked an important developmental milestone for Miss Katie Grace. We took her back to Swedish Hospital for an evaluation of her progress since birth. She's now 5 months old, that's 2 months adjusted age, and she's doing just great! Katie is tracking at around a 1 month old for her motor skills and her thinking processes. We've got a little bit of homework to improve on tracking objects with her eyes, and in one month we'll go back for a re-evaluation. The bad news is that she was a bit fussy, and non-cooperative for this appointment, and the good news is that I'm betting that she'll track just fine next time! In fact, we caught Miss Katie reading the new Harry Potter book this weekend. We snapped this picture after she fell asleep reading (note the cool Harry Potter tattoo on her forehead).

While we were at Swedish, we visited with all of our good friends that we miss so much. We saw Julie and Valerie from 5SW where we spent our bedrest time before Katie was born. We also saw one of our favorite nurses from the Infant Special Care Unit, Carolyn, who was able to weigh Katie for us. Our little baby weighs 11 pounds now! It helps that Katie has friends in the right places!

The weekend was easy-going. Katie had a dinner party for Auntie Liz's parents where she was the good hostess. Then she took a bath on Sunday and relaxed.

See you all soon!

Update for Friday, July 8

I must first aplogize profusely, and whip myself 1,000 times, for going sooooo long between posts. If anyone is still in fact logging on, I promise to reward you generously today with many new photos. To 5SW Julie, Alma, Tami at work, and all of my Mom's friends, you were all right to remind and scold me for letting the blog wither. Mea culpa!

Now back to business- Miss Katherine Grace is about 5 months old now and doing just great. She weighs somewhere between 10 and 11 pounds we think. I'm curious to know what she weighs, and since we're in between doctor's appointments - that are getting fewer and further between - I want to take her to Luna and Mocha's vet here in town to use their big doggie scale to weigh her! Perhaps the next time we have to pick up more food for Luna...hmmmm. In case you don't know Luna and Mo, they're our other babies. Here's a picture:

Now, I'm sure you're not here for the pooches, so here's a picture of our littlest baby. Here Katie is working out in her crib with her wrist 'weights':

After a good workout, we often find Katie on her cell-phone talking to her Grandma in St. Louis:

Katie has been doing so well these past few weeks that we've begun to take her out a bit. In fact, she just didn't want to miss the recent visit of her Great Grandpa and Great Grandma a few weeks ago. Here's some pictures of the sweet days:

After 4 straight days of partying, Miss Katie was pooped out (literally, and figuratively). All she wanted at this point was some cuddle time with her Auntie Liz and a good book:

I've gone back to work full-time this week, and so Katie is on her new schedule of mornings with Daddy. We're blessed with excellent care for Katie in the afternoons; she spends two afternoons a week with our neighbor "Grandma Ruthie", and two afternoons a weeks with my Mom. I'm lucky enough to be able to tele-commute one day a week, so I feel like I'm still here to see Katie grow and change. It's a pretty great schedule, and we're looking forward to making it work.

So, as you can see, we're all settling into our new family roles quite well. It's a absolute joy to have Katie at home, and there's never been a more loving household than one with Julie, Paul, Katie, Matt, Liz, Luna, Mocha, Martin-the-fish, and 19 chickens. It's a zoo, but it's happy!

We're really impressed if anyone is still checking our blog - I promise to get back on track now that I'm at work and I have time to do these things (who knew working would be easier than caring for a baby all day?!!!). One last thing, Miss Katie wants to give you all a big hug, so here goes: