The Absentee Blogger

Well, looks like I'm quite behind on this blog thing. I'd like to say that it was a new year's resolution to start this blog again, but I really just thought of it now. The past 8 months have been a whirlwind. It looks like I actually started a post in August and never finished it. So, let's catch up....

Quickly about me:
May 2011: I found out they were closing the DC office of my agency so I started job hunting. The alternative was to move to Vienna, VA with a 2 hour (each way) commute. That was not going to work.
June 2011: Interview, job offer and acceptance of the offer from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
July 2011: Started my new job and am very happy with the decision. I get to telework every Wednesday, so that should afford me more time to blog!

Chris:
Work, work, work, blah, blah, blah.
November/December: An inconvenient little surgery, but everything is fine.

Katelyn:
Sped through months 8-14. Crawling, standing, laughing, dancing, turning 1, walking, talking. She is so funny! Her 12 month checkup on Halloween she was 19.7 lbs, so she's still a peanut. Her vocabulary is increasing it seems every day and she definitely understands more complex instructions. She started walking in November, and is now off and running. She "talks" constantly and is always asking me very important questions. If only I knew what she was saying!

I will now dedicate the rest of this post to photo catch-up...

May

June

July

August

September (First Hair Cut!)

October (Happy 1st Birthday & Halloween)

November

December

January 2012

Ok, I think we're pretty much caught up. I will try to be better from now on!

A Warrior in the house (Oh, and a 7 month old)

I'm actually going to start this blog post off about myself, so you'll have to scroll down for Katelyn. Five months ago I did something foolish, and signed up for Warrior Dash Maryland. It's described as 12 obstacles from hell along a 3.11 mile course. Some friends of mine at work did it last year, and I thought it would be fun. Plus, since I signed up in December I had 5+ months to "train" and it would be good motivation to lose the baby weight. Well, life with a newborn and traveling husband didn't really lend itself to a lot of extra time that I felt the needed to be filled with exercise. Suddenly the race was 3 weeks away, then 2, then Sunday. I talked to my friend at work and she swore to me it wasn't that bad and I should still do it. So, I sucked it up and did it. I'm proud to say I finished, and wasn't even close to last. It was a grueling course with A LOT of mud. Half-way through I really didn't know if I could finish, but before I knew it I was jumping over fire and crawling under barbed wire at the finish. I felt surprisingly good afterward and definitely had a lot of fun. It's something that would normally be outside my comfort range, but is also something that helps you to know you're stronger than you think you are.


Now onto Katelyn. She's getting more and more personality every day. She is still a very happy baby and a good sleeper. She's trying so hard to crawl, but can't quite get it. Daddy even tries to help.

Instead she's learned she can just maneuver by rolling around. It seems to be working for her for right now. Everything around her interests her, especially Jethro. He sits next to us and she just smiles and reaches for him. He's being very patient with her so far. Hopefully that will continue. She's getting more and more involved with toys and loves to hit the buttons. We have to thank Willow for this wonderfully noisy toy. She loves it!

Eating also continues to be a favorite thing. The girl eats everything! Her dexterity is getting much better and she loves to pick up puffs off her highchair tray. Sometimes they don't make it in the mouth though!

We're still having some breathing issues stemming from the RSV in January. The doctors aren't too concerned, but they've set us up with a nebulizer and she's taking Singular at night. I haven't really noticed much of a difference, but it's hasn't even been a week. She's still positively perfect in every way.

Easter Cuteness

Katelyn's first Easter was egg-cellent. She got a nice basket of books and clothes from Grammie and was super-cute in her ruffled dress that was also provided by Grammie. Between great friends and Grammie we may never have to buy this girl clothes!

6 Months

Can you believe she's 6 months already? The aches and pains I still have tell me it's not been that long, but I can't believe the little person she's becoming. I love walking into her room in the morning (hopefully after 6:00) and saying good morning to her. She just looks at me and breaks into the biggest giggle! It has to be one of the sweetest things ever. Knock on wood, she's sleeping from around 7:15 pm to about 4:00 am. Even at 4 you can usually leave her in her crib and she'll talk herself back to sleep for a little while. The only issue is leaky diapers. Little Miss K has decided to be a stomach sleeper now that she can roll over and the 12 hour promise on the Pampers is not holding up. Any thoughts on that would be appreciated.

We've been battling a month-long cold. We went back to the doctor on April 18th and they put her on Amoxicillin for 10 days. Her cough is a little better, but she's still really snotty. She's perfectly fine with it, so I guess we just have to let it run its course. We go back for the 6 month check-up on April 29th so we'll be able to check back in with the doctor again.

We're still waiting for the moment she can sit up unassisted. She's getting there, but still falls forward. She's starting to stick her little butt up in the air when she's on her stomach. Then she gets frustrated when she doesn't go anywhere. Just like her Mommy, always in a hurry. Eating is going extremely well. We've introduced 9 fruits/veggies so far and she's gobbled them all down. We're also practicing with sippy cups. She mostly just likes to chew on them because it feels good on her gums. No teeth yet, but they are coming soon.

We've also been going to a Mommy & Me swim class on Sunday's. Since I love the water I was hoping K would too. She's always done well with baths, so we thought we would give it a try. To my delight she loves it. She kicks her little feet like crazy. I can't wait for summer to take her everyday!

Other than baby K, life is moving along for the White's. Chris has been traveling. A LOT! We're getting through it, and hopefully things will start lightening up soon. Chris already been with this company for a year and is happy with the switch. Grammie has been wonderfully helpful and we are so thankful to have her close. I have some decisions to make regarding work. We found out Monday they will be closing our DC office in the next 12 to 18 months and consolidating us with the Vienna, VA headquarters. Unfortunately Vienna is 4 hours a day of commuting that I don't have. Two hours is already bad enough. The good news is that I'm not losing my job and if need be I can stay until I find a good fit. They are hopefully looking into some options such as telework that would make things easier. If only those lottery numbers would come through for us! I'm sure it will all work out somehow.

Bath time is especially fun because feet are much easier to nom on!


Exersaucer fun!


Sometimes dinner is tough!


Holding my own bottle!


Happy Daddy's Girl!

Surviving Month 5

Can you believe K is 5 months already? I feel like she changes everytime I look at her. Her personality is really developing and she is such a happy baby most of the time. Daddy is the best at getting big mouthy giggles. She just loves his silly faces. She is absolutely loving food and gets better at eating every day. She's so cute when she opens up her little mouth! Last weekend was a test for Mommy and Daddy. Mommy went away for the weekend and left K and Daddy alone for the first time. Both survived with flying colors. Grammie came over to help on Saturday and was much appreciated. She was even able to tame the wild beast.

K is also loving daycare thankfully. Ms. Willis has been great and K is all smiles when she sees her. She even did her fist art project. She wasn't excited about having paint on her hands, but it's still cute.

She is getting more and more interested with the world around her and loves her exersaucer.

And is mostly just good at being adorable!

Katelyn At 4 Months

Katelyn had her four month check-up on February 21st and is now 13.8 pounds and 24.75 inches long. Such a big girl! There were also more shots, but she was a trooper. She did get a mild fever this time around so we stayed home and cuddled. By mid-morning the fever was gone, but the cranky pants stayed put for a bit longer. Happily she is now back to her cheerful self. Every day seems to bring a little something new. She's rolled over a few times and can push herself up when on her belly. She's moved from blowing bubbles to full-on screaming. Great fun for her, but not so much for Mom and Dad. Hopefully this video will work....



Rest assured I picked her up right away. She's so funny when she falls over! She doesn't quite have the sitting up thing yet.

We bought her an ExerSaucer a few weeks ago, but she couldn't touch the bottom and didn't seem to like all the gadgets. Now she can touch and is starting to look in wonderment at all the different colors. I think there is too much going on for her right now, but eventually I'm sure it will be huge fun. The nice thing is that once she's too big to sit in it, it converts to an activity table. Good job Evenflow on making something that they won't outgrow in 5 minutes! And, good job Dad for realizing it was the better purchase.

Next we're going to start working on cereal. We've tried it twice, but she's not really interested yet. I think we need to expose her a little more to our food and try again. I can't believe we're moving onto cereal already. I saw a 4-day old in CVS yesterday and struggled to believe my baby wasn't that small anymore. Crazy how fast it goes. Everyone tells you it does, but you still don't believe it.

Happy baby...


Sitting like a big girl...

January Roundup

Well, January was anything but dull for the White House. Katelyn spent one week at day care and ended up in the hospital the second week with RSV. While mostly precautionary, it was no less scary. She handled it like a champ and was really good. Everyone marveled once again at our blonde little baby. Blondes must really be few and far between.

She slept most of the time....
And looked so small in the big crib....
We've pretty much settled into a daily/nightly routine. So far our day care is working out very nicely. Our morning schedule changes day to day depending on Chris's schedule, but we're adapting. He's been traveling a lot which makes for some really long days for me. Luckily I'm able to work from home on occasion and Grammy comes over to provide relief. I love picking K up from day care and getting a big gummy smile. Chris and I also went out for a second time on our own. We had a very nice dinner at a friends house with a few other couples. Grammy was nice enough to babysit since I 1) don't know of any babysitters in our neighborhood, and 2) am not sure I'm ready to leave K with another stranger. I know I need to get over that, but I'll take advantage of free babysitting for as long as possible (love you Mom!). Not much else has been going on. Getting into a routine has been the biggest thing since I'm now back to work. It's nice to get out of the house, but the commute to DC is killing me. K still wakes up at least once and I'm not sleeping very well so that is adding to the fatigue. Add to that this really crappy winter and you have a cranky Mommy. Hopefully longer and warmer days are right around the corner. I'm excited to be able to take K out on walks and let her see the world. It is amazing how much she changes almost daily and she seems to be right on track with developing. We have her 4 month (yes, 4 already) checkup on 2/21 and I think she's right between 13 and 14 pounds. She's still on the little side, but it's nice because she's not outgrowing her clothes as fast. She's just realized she can make noise with her mouth. It is hysterical to watch. I tried to upload a video, but it won't work. You'll just have to believe me for now. I think she knows it will get her attention so she just keeps doing it and ends up covered in spit. No surprise that offspring of me and Chris would be a rascal. I know in the last post I promised to write more. Work has been crazy busy, but I'll try harder!