Our lives are definitely different now with Katie. We don't think of her as a hindrance to how our life uses to be before her. Obviously, making her was a choice we both agreed to and knew what sacrifices we had to make. She's so worth it no matter how much we miss staying out late, going to a movie, extra room in the car, etc. etc. She's the cutest thing in the world to us.Unfortunately, we can't always be around to see her be cute. She's starting the New Year off at Grandma's house. I'm going back to work on the 5th and both Grandmothers have agreed to babysitting duties twice a week. We anticipate frequent phone calls the first week or two but all three of us will learn to let go eventually. For Katie, she'll learn her independence and for us to learn to trust our little girl.
We're looking forward to an awesome 2009 watching Katie be mobile and both Yogi and I promote in our jobs. In this economy every little bit helps :o) Best wishes to all of you in the New Year!!
Once I go back to work, the plan is to have Yogi’s mom babysit her Mondays and Tuesdays then my mom on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Yogi and I will both be working a 9-day work schedule with alternating Fridays off. She’s been babysat by both Grandmothers every now and then; although, she doesn’t take it lightly and usually puts up a fight for the first hour or two. I know…my poor baby but the time has finally come for her to get uses to the new environments so Mommy and Daddy can make mola for her diapers.
Before I do go back, Yogi took a couple days off this week so we can take a mini vacation to the bay area to visit the new Academy of Science museum and enjoy the holiday lights and sounds downtown. Katie and her cousin Tyrus hungout and enjoyed the museum like going to the zoo. The colorful fishes were their favorite. Amusingly, Katie gave the same interesting stare to a passenger who boarded the train at Castro on our way downtown. Trust me, there were obvious reason the way he/she(?) was dressed…haha…
Katie turned 4 months today and growing in leaps and bounds. She’s getting around to sitting on her own pretty well and those legs don’t ever like to be bent. She might actually run before she crawls! Yes, we’re very afraid! She also slept through the night last night from 9pm-6am. Then we put her back to bed and she slept till 10am. It’s amazing how soon we’re able to say, we SLEPT IN!! Hope it’s not just an early xmas gift cus we can definitely get uses to that sleeping pattern.
Lastly, I’d like to mention our condolences go out to my cousins for my aunt’s passing and our dear friend Cindy’s family for her passing. Two funerals in one week is not how we wanted to end a beautiful year with Katie coming into our lives. Nevertheless, they suffer no more and can rest in peace.
Katie had a rash that started on her left cheek a couple weeks ago. At first, she seem fine so we moisturized it with lotions and was able to sustain it. But a few days after, the rash spread to her other cheek and neck. By then, she was very uncomfortable and found all sorts of ways to scratch and rub which made it worst. So, we took her in to see her doctor who confirmed she has eczema. It’s a common allergic reaction typically in cold weather conditions when skins are very dry. As to what she’s allergic to? We haven’t yet figured out but it could simply be the weather. Her doc prescribed a tough dose of steroid cream twice a day to make the rash disappear. Amazingly that is exactly what the cream did. Within hours, the redness lightened and the itchiness subsided. However, because the cream contains steroids, it is not a very healthy solution we prefer to use. Thus, we're researching alternative lotions recommended by friends who have been battling the same skin condition with their kids. Hopefully this evil will go away soon for good. It's tough to see Katie not her usual happy self. At night, we've had to swaddle her and keep her hands tie down out of scratch mode. This also prevents her from playing with her bedside toys when she wakes up :o(
Developmentally, Katie is same-o same-o from last week. Since she’s been so bothered by the rash, she doesn’t have much patience to try anything new apart from sucking on her toys. Not at all a bad thing to have her practice her grip and occupy her hands elsewhere other than rubbing her face. We plan to have a better week skin wise then hopefully she’ll pick up on her tumbling skills.
Above pix taken yesterday so her skin is definitely getting better. Yay!
Over the weekend, we visited Apple Hill for the first time and enjoyed it thoroughly. Fall is our favorite time of year and there were plenty of scenic sights to spoil us with. 
Wonder how many apples do they eat daily?
All of a sudden, Katie decided to stop eating and started to push away her bottle at every attempt we try to feed her. Obviously she had to eat and gave in when she’s extremely hungry, tired or being rocked. My Mom babysat her last week and called me frantically to come over when Katie refused to eat after 4+hrs. Even Yogi had a taste of the same when he tried feeding her over the weekend but once he mastered the tricks, Katie calmed and gave in to sucking again. We’re going to try her with my Mom again tomorrow and see how it goes. We also figured she doesn’t like being held in the cradle position unless she’s ready for a nap or hungry. Otherwise, putting her in that position gives her a head start at kicking and screaming. The quick fix is to hold her up right and all is quiet and well again. No doubt, Katie is definitely getting her preferences down and knows exactly how to tell us. I've learned, it doesn't always matter what leads her to these new 'preferences', anything that can calm her down is what really matters.
Despite the new challenges, Katie has sharpened her senses. She’s growing to be a tentative listener. She’s been babbling a lot more and stares at our lips when she hears voices. Lately, she even looks at the foods and drinks that go into our mouths. She’s learning those ‘monkey see’ moves so she can be the ‘monkey do’ soon.
It helps when we continue to broaden her horizon with something new almost every day. We've been keeping busy with lunch dates, made the rounds at my workplace, and visited Yogi's family over the weekend in SF to celebrate November birthdays and the Exploratorium. Today, we broke her into Happy Hour for the first time. Yogi commented that our lives seem to be back to our active ways before Katie but really this is just a phrase when she's able to tolerate all this adventure. Tomorrow is a brand new day...
We finally met Corey for the first time at Alisa and Ed's Babyshower this past weekend. He is exceptionally adorable and well behaved.
We also attended Titus's Godfather's birthday party this weekend and saw the little guy move like magic. One second he's in a corner playing with a truck and the next second he's across the room nibbling on something he found off the carpet. He's loving his independence.
Gabrielle likes to take advantage of the great outdoors with his older sister Noelle.
This pretty boy, Christine is also all smiles. He enjoys hanging out on his swing and watching his older sister play with Elmo.
Elijah sporting his lion costume for this year's Halloween.
And Jaden wondering why he got stuck with an insect costume when everyone was sailing as pirates.
Last Monday, we took Katie to her 2 month appointment. The checkup went very well. All of Katie’s measurements are normal and she’s a completely average baby. Then, she had her first set of vaccines, three shots (two on one thigh and one on the other thigh). It was more painful for Yogi and me to watch than actually getting the shots ourselves. Once the pain from the shots registered, she screamed as loud as we’ve ever heard her. Yogi held her immediately after and she quieted down almost instantly then fell asleep in Daddy’s arms as we walked to the car. She ran a minor fever the rest of the day but her thighs were painfully swollen. Every time she moved them, she would scream at the top of her lungs and was unable to sleep until we held them down. Poor baby… In the few nights after the shots, her schedule was back to when she first came from the hospital. She woke every 2-3 hours for attention but it’s slowly getting better. Yay!!
Lately, we noticed Katie has been napping lightly. Either she sleeps in our arms or not at all and even when she does, it’s no more than 20 minutes at a time. So, Yogi figured the other day to lay Katie out under the play mat to fiddle with her toys and release all of her energy before nap time. So far, it’s been working pretty well. She’s definitely pooped out and will nap through any noise. There’s no doubt she is growing with energy and we’ll probably have to enroll her into karate next month to keep up with her naps :o)
We’re looking forward to our first Halloween on Friday. We will be spending it with friends in the pocket area. It has crossed our mines to visit some of you on Halloween and if no treat then we’ll leave Katie’s diaper as a trick…hehe… We haven’t quite decided what Katie will be but there will definitely be pictures. HAVE A GOOD ONE!! 
We took her to her 2 month appointment today and all measurements are normal. She’s a textbook baby growing at the speed of an average child and doing all the things she should know how to do at her stage in life.
We’re very pleased our hard work has paid off and we have a healthy little girl. Katie also got her first set of shots today. Good thing Yogi works from home today and is able to company us to the appointment. When the nurse made contact with the needles, Katie opened her mouth, took a couple breathes then bloody murder breaks loose. It’s the first time we’ve heard her scream this loud. But once in Daddy’s arms, she quiet down almost instantly and fell asleep on our way to the car. We’re hoping for a smooth recovery from the shots and no bad reactions!
Sometimes we think this parenting gig is easy (woops, am I thinking too loudly?) but really we’ve been very lucky with Katie. She’s been a complete angel moving along on the growth chart and hitting every milestone. Lately, she has been sleeping longer waking only once throughout the night for a feeding; then, she’s back to sleep till daylight. She snoozes in her own room (thanks to our handy video monitor) and once feed and changed, we leave her to fall asleep on her own.
Katie is a lot of fun at home while she’s usually sleeping when we’re out. At times, I think she’s entertaining us more so than we are her. She loves to play with smiles and baby talk in the late afternoon which was normally her most active time of day inside of me.
Us at our friend, Carey's bday party over the weekend.
Katie and aunty Annie at my parents' house. They babysat her for the first time there last week and had a blast!
