December

12 December 2005

I can’t believe it’s been over a month since my last entry, I have since returned to work which is the main contributing factor to not having time to keep the journal up to date. Katelyn turns five months today and as always the time has just flown. This has always been a crazy time of year for our family, catching up with family and friends and also preparing for Christmas.
This year in particular has proven to be more hectic that previous years, we have already visited Santa twice, once at Myer but because we were in such a rush (we were the last in line to see Santa) we didn’t organise to get the photos done so the following week we went to David Jones in Chadstone were we knew there would be no line up to get the photos done. Kimberly was very excited to see Santa the first time and Santa was very nice, even though he’d had a long day he didn’t rush us and he listed to Kimberly’s Christmas requests. Kim asked for a car, I’m not sure why as we all agreed that she would be asking Santa for a kitchen, we even went to Toys R Us to pick one out. Eventually with some prompting we managed to get her to agree on a kitchen. Kimberly asked for a teddy bear for her baby sister, a bear that is as special to Katelyn as Britney is to Kim. She’s so sweet.

The past weekend was also very busy, we finally managed to have some of David’s friends over for a BBQ dinner. To my surprise they even used the pool, Kimberly also had a swim with David as we didn’t want her to feel left out. The water was still pretty cold but she enjoyed herself albeit needing several changes of clothes. Kimberly found a big green cicada in backyard and she wasn’t afraid of it at all. She was happy to hold it but when David told her it was tie for the cicada to go home she gently put it back in the tree. She’s developed an interest in bugs lately and loves catching little insects and other creepy crawlies with David in the back yard.

Katelyn has lost all her newborn looks and has turned into a very cute and beautiful baby. She is still happy go lucky child and smiles and laughs easily. We have now given her solids twice the first time was the previous weekend, we were all having breakfast in bed and Katelyn was sitting on David’s lap. She grabbed at everything he was eating and when grunted angry when we took it away, we didn’t have any baby cereal in the house so I made up some mashed banana. Yesterday a whole week later she gave her some farex, we started with just one teaspoon as per the instructions on the box but ended up giving her a second teaspoon because she was very upset when it was all gone. We’d never seem a baby eat the way little Katelyn did, not only did she grab the spoon to bring it to her both but she also moved her head forward and every time we stopped to get another spoon she was grunt impatiently.

Yesterday Gong Gong, Por Por and Uncle John came over for a BBQ lunch the weather was terrific all weekend and we had lots of food left from the day before.

My days are taken up with work, looking after my two precious girls, and trying to make sure we’re everything is organised for Christmas. Just today I went out and bought Katelyn a Christmas stocking, it’s so hard to find a suitable stocking. I’m not 100% happy with the one I bought but then with only two weeks to go I figured I either settle on something that I can live with, fly to the US to buy one or make one myself, so I chose option one.

20 December 2005 Katelyn’s first tooth
As the year draws to a close and I reflect on all the things that have happened within our family I am astonished by how much our lives have changed. We have had a major addition to the family that will change the rest of our lives for the better. Kimberly has grown from a baby to a little girl, when I look back at her photos at the beginning of the year she is a totally different person to the one she is now. I recall how thrilled I was when I asked her at the beginning of the year how her day at Kindle had gone and she would reply “good”. I never really knew what things had happened during the course of the day, but not when I ask Kim how her day at Kindle has gone she will tell me who she’s been playing with and what activities she’s done.

Katelyn got her first tooth on Wednesday last week, it’s on the bottom and is the right tooth in the centre. She is now taking solids regular and just loves it, we have to hold her hands back because she is always trying to grab the spoon to shove it into her mouth. This would be OK if not for the force that she shoves the spoon, we’re worried that she’ll knock her tooth out. David thinks that there is another tooth coming up the top but I haven’t felt it yet.

We had a busy weekend, on Saturday David took the girls to the park in the morning while I tidied the house and organised things for Christmas. I managed to do the finishing touches on Nanna’s fruit cake as well as wrap all the remaining presents.

October

3 October 2005
We have a very nice weekend, on Saturday we went to the RSPCA open day. They had lots of activities, like sheep sheering, repile exhibit, horses getting new shoes and a jumping castle. The jumping castle was Kim’s favourite she rushed to it, and even though David was standing in line she went past everyone else in line, so I had to go and get her. She was a bit unsure at first as there were a lot of older kids jumping very high so I went to stand next to the jumping castle and held her hand. We had a great day and got chips for lunch on the way home, the line up for sausages was so long and we found out that they ran out of bread so we gave it a miss.

On Sunday we put together a cabinet that we bought from Ikea (Kimbelry was a very good help, and kept saying that she was fixing it). After that we had a picnic lunch at the local park, and Por Por and Gong Gong came over to visit in the afternoon.

18 October 2005

How my priorities in life have changed, today I reviewed my mental to do list and it consisted of mopping the floors, dusting the house, cutting Katelyn’s nails (I did Kimberly’s this morning before she headed off to Kindle), going to the library and doing yet another load of laundry. These things seem insignificant compared to my to do list when I was at work, which consisted of review million dollar investments. But the funny thing is that I find as much satisfaction from my day to day house chores as I did when I was at Telstra (if not more). I know that the things that I am doing at home are for my family, if I don’t keep the floors clean the chances are Kimberly will drop some food and pick it straight up and put it in her mouth. I have become almost paranoid about keep the house clean, and will most likely become more so when Katelyn starts crawling.

We had a German au pair Pauli, come to stay with us on Wednesday, it was interesting having someone share the house with us but I must admit that it’s nice to have the house back to ourselves. We took Pauli to the beach on Saturday, even though it was sunny the water was still very cold but this didn’t phase Kimberly. She was happy to splash about in the water and didn’t want to leave. We had fish and chips for lunch. Kimberly only had a half hour sleep in the car and continued with her water play in the pool (which was also very cold).

On Sunday we took Pauli to the airport for her 11.45 flight and then caught up with Tai Mah and Uncle Rob for yum cha (it was uncle Rob’s birthday). Poor Tai Mah in her haste to get out of the house locked her keys inside and because no one had a spare set of keys we had to call for the locksmith to open the doors.

25 October 2005

Katelyn is growing more adorable by the day, she has the biggest and most adorable smile. The mos retime I spend with her the harder it is for me to return to work, she is very easy to care for and really is such a joy. To be honest a little part of me was disappointed when I was told at my second ultra sound that I would be having another girl, but even before I held Katelyn in my arms for the first time I was as in love with her as I am with Kimberly. Kimberly gave me a glimpse of how I would give and get love from my daughter. I can honestly say that I would not trade Katelyn for the word, not for 100 perfect little baby boys. She is my special special baby girl, and each day as I observe in wonder how she is developing, I am a little saddened by how quick the days are passing and that each milestone will be the very last for me.

I could not be happier with my two perfect daughters but I am a little saddened by the pace in which both my girls grow. Someimtes when I explain things to Kimberly she will tell me “I know, Mummy” and she really does know. I am constantly amazed by some of the things that come out of her mouth;
“that’s a bit difficult” she doesn’t use the word hard anymore
“that’s annoying”
“disgusting”
“I’m all tangled up”
and much much more.

There are so many aspects of Katelyn that remind me of Kimbelry when she was a baby, but she is also completely different. Some of her features are similar to Kim’s and yet her little face is hers alone, her personality is also very much hers alone. I thought Kimberly was stubborn but Kim is like a push over compared to Katie, and yet Katie is a lot more tolerant than Kimberly as a baby.

The weekend that past we spend Saturday at home, Kimberly helped her Daddy in the garden. On Sunday we went to the zoo for Family Week, as well as seeing the animals we also got to see Dorothy perform, yet again. David and I have agreed that we’d prefer not to see Dorothy again until the December concert.

Kimberly was very cute, once again she managed to find a position right in front of the stage, she enjoyed dancing along and didn’t seem to mind whether or not I was beside her.

September

13 September 2005

My little girl is already two months old, she is growing very quickly and is very responsive, I get lots and lots of smiles and she just loves to talk. Wonder where she gets that from?

My time at home is flying by, with only two more months before I return to work. I will definitely miss the time at home with Katelyn, she is such an easy going child. I can honestly say that I cannot remember a time when she was upset for no reason. She is easy to settle, feeds well, very responsive, sleeps well so the only whinge I have is that Katelyn likes to sleep in my arms. I am slowing getting her to sleep in the rocker rather than my arms which at least gives me time to do a few things around the house. The good things is if I can just put her in the cot or on her play mat if I want to get something to eat or have a shower.

I think I’m a more diligent parent the second time around, most days I will apply moisturiser on Katelyn’s scalp to prevent cradle cap. And it’s working too, she’s got great skin. Our routine currently routine is;
feed around 6.30 and back to sleep, which is terrific because I get to sleep in with her,
wake up around 8.30 for a nappy change and some floor play,
9.30 back to sleep for about an hour then wake for a feed and play,
11.30 back to sleep once again for about an hour, sometimes two,
2.00 we get ready to pick Kimberly up from Kindle some days we’ll go shopping
we usually spend a bit of time playing at Kindle and so far Katelyn has either slept or layed quietly in the capsule
by the time we get home it’s time for Katelyn to have another feed, so I grab a quick snack for Kimberly and put on either Hi 5 or Playschool
David get’s home around 5.30 to take over with the girls while I prepare dinner, after dinner it’s bath time, the books and bed for Kimberly. Katelyn is usually unsettled in the evenings so she sleeps in my arms while David puts Kimberly to bed.
Katelyn is still waking two or three times each night for a feed, but goes straight back to sleep after the feeds.

Kimberly is becoming an opinionatedly little girl, telling us what she likes and what she doesn’t. Like all two year olds, she can be stubborn like this morning when I was trying to get her ready for Kindle, I put her socks on and within seconds she pulled them off again. She only likes to wear Bob the Builder socks and I couldn’t be bothered getting them for her (not like her Dad), so I explained to her that I didn’t care whether she put the socks on or not. But if she didn’t get changed quickly then we wouldn’t get to Kindle in time for breakfast and she’d go hungry.

She still didn’t agree to put the socks on, so I went and got changed. Finally she came looking for me and agree to put her clothes on, when she decides to co-operate she’s very helpful. We got changed and she helped me find my keys to the house.

On Monday we went to playgroup for the first time, I was so proud of her. Most of the other children there were a few months older than she is but their language skills were no where near Kimberly’s and even though it was Kimberly’s first time there it only too her a few minutes to warm to it all. She played with the other children, and showed off “her” little sister, Katelyn. We played with some of the toys and went outside to the playground for a few minutes. The weather was very cold and we had to go inside when it started to rain, Kim kept asking me about the park which was just across the road from playgroup and I explained to her that we couldn’t go because it was too wet. Kim then went on to explain to me that we’d get a wet bum if we go down the side, so too wet, can’t go to the park. She has a memory like an elephant, her Uncle rob took her to the park on her birthday and it’d been raining that morning so now she knows not to go down the slide if it’s been raining.

I’m keeping busy during the days with shopping for the girls, they now officially have more clothes than I do. Recently I was organising Kimberly’s wardrobe for Summer and found that she already has three pairs of sandals for Summer, not to mention the numerous t-shirts, shorts, skirts and dresses. Katelyn doesn’t miss out either, she’s got 6 pairs of brand new shoes to grow into and I’ve got a few things that I’ve ordered that I’m still waiting for be delivered.

We’ve also managed to get great tickets to the Hi 5 and The Wiggles concerts coming later this year. Third row right in front of the stage for Hi 5 and front row for the Wiggles concert. Kimberly has nearly all

21 September 2005

We had a busy weekend visiting, we went to Gran and Pop’s for afternoon tea on Saturday, Gran made lovely pikelettes and we bought over some slice and chocolate chip cookies so had a bit of a feast. On Sunday we went to visit Tai Mai for the Chinese Moon festival. We also went to the Footscray market on the way to visit Tai Mah,. There was one man spruiking longans, he was very loud and at first Kimberly was a bit scared (Katelyn managed to sleep through it all, what a champ) but then after a while she was helping him, saying 3 9 9 a kilo, and waving to him.

Kimberly and I have a cold so she stayed home yesterday, we didn’t do much just tried to stay warm. It must have been boring for her even thought her Uncle Rob was here to play with her most of the afternoon because today she happily went into Kindle.

Yesterday we watched Play School in the morning, did some pretend play with the shopping items and played with the tea set. We played with a lot of things, so many that I can’t remember them all, we played with play dough, blocks. Kimberly goes from one things to another very quickly. We made oven chips for afternoon tea, Kim was more interested in the making of the chips rather than the eating.

She may have enjoyed it more if we had a chance to go outside but I wanted to make sure we all kept warm and stayed indoors. I really love watching Kimberly’s personality develop she is show grown up now, yesterday I got her lion hand puppet and said “I’m hungry” straight away she backed off and said don’t me lion. So the lion asked her to get it some food, she said OK I get food, wait OK and did the little hand action that she often does (like the police sign of stop). She then proceed to get the lion some food. In the afternoon I picked up the lion again and said that the lion was hungry, this time she wasn’t worried about the lion eating her, she went and got the lion food, but I said that she was too slow and that the lion felt like eating a baby. Straight away she put two and two together and said no eat my sister, and stood protectively in front of Katelyn, the lion pretend to munch on Katelyn’s leg. Kimberly wasn’t happy with this, she grabbed hold of the lion and motioned to put her sisters leg back, so cute. She’s protective of all of us, but when we ask her who she loves, she’ll say Nathan one of the members from Hi 5.

Sometimes when I say I love you Kimberly, she’ll say no mum (I don’t get mummy anymore it’s mum now) I love Nathan. And I’ll tell her that that’s OK< I love her anyway, I don’t think she really understands as she gets a puzzled look on her face, why would mum love me when I love Nathan?

Katelyn is growing very quickly she is a very happy baby, lots of smiles and even the occasional giggle. I really am lucky to have had two good babies. I love caring for Katelyn and will really miss her when I go back to work. She is so easy going, I often just place her in the rocker while I go about my day to day chores. She’s sitting in the rocker awake keeping herself amused while I type. She does get grizzly at around 4pm for a couple of hours but as long as she’s held she’s happy. I just looked over at her and she gave me the biggest grin, it lights up her whole face.

When Kimberly was around the same age as Katelyn I remember thinking how hard it was to care for a newborn, but now I think it’s so easy compared to an opinionated toddler. It’s so hard to get Kimberly to do anything that she doesn’t want to do, no amount of bribery will work. I got her a bean bag chair cover and told her that if she went to the toilet a certain number of times then we would put beans and she could sit on it to watch Hi 5. So far we only have on cross on the chart, I also made her some Hi 5 sheets (I had to use curtains as they don’t sell Hi 5 material, the lengths that I will go to…) I told her that she couldn’t have the sheets unless she was a very good girl and used the toilet. Yesterday she insisted that I put the sheets onto her bed, but I told her not until she went to the toilet. She sat on the toilet and then Katelyn started to cry so I went to rock Katelyn and the next thing I know Kim has fallen off, poor thing she now has a small cut on the inside of her lip. Of course I ended up putting the sheets on her bed. I try not to back down, but then in situations like this I feel so sorry for her that I’ll almost do anything to make her smile.

I cannot believe what a happy child Katelyn is, she was making a noise just then so I look over to make sure she’s OK only to find her giggling. I’d better not take advantage of her good nature too much, I’m going to pick her up now and do some floor play.

27 September 2005

Katelyn is 11 weeks old today, the time has just flown. Yesterday I took her to get her 2 month immunisation, I was going to pick Kimberly up from Kindle afterwards but was so melancholy and shocked by my youngest baby having to have three injections in her tiny little legs that I went straight home to lick my wounds. Katelyn was a bit unsettled prior to her injections and she cried when they put the needles in her leg. I fed her as soon as I could which helped to settle her and she went to sleep, we had to wait around for 15 minutes to make sure there we no negative affects.

With Kimberly I never went on my own, it was always with David as we only had one car, and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to manage on my own. But with Katelyn it’s too hard for all of us to go, I think Kimberly would be a bit distort if she knew her little sister was getting three needles. As soon as Kimmie got in the door yesterday she wanted to give Katelyn a kiss and a cuddle because David told Kim that Katelyn was saw from her needles. I showed Kim Katelyn’s legs and she frowned and said “poor Katelyn”.

David and I are very lucky that Kimberly has never been jealous of Katelyn, if anything she thinks that Katelyn belongs to her. We try to explain to Kimberly that she is our daughter and that Katelyn is also our daughter, but Kimberly just ignores us and says no Katelyn is mine, Katelyn is my sister.

Kimberly’s speech is developing in leaps and bounds, she used to be confused and say my do it instead of I do it, but now she always says I, but she’s still getting hang of the concept of mine, instead she says my. She can now count to 10 easy and on most occasions gets to 15. She climbs and jumps well and loves drawing and using scissors, her fine motor skills are very good.

We had a busy weekend, we went shopping on Saturday at Chadstone, got Kimberly a pair of Hi 5 sandals and a Hi 5 top as well as a pair of Barbie glowing sneakers (bit tacky but that’s what our little princess wanted). We also went to ELC to get her some puzzles and craft items since Kim will be starting 3 days a week at Kindle next week. David kept the girls busy at the pet shop watching “bunny rabbits” while I did the grocery shopping. ON Sunday we went to Hays Paddock, the weather was lovely and Kim had a great time on the play ground equipment, we had a picnic lunch and got home just in time for Kim’s afternoon sleep. I think she was tired about from running around the playground because she fell asleep in the car after about 5 minutes.

July

Even thought Katelyn wasn’t due til the 11th of July, when we had our OB appointment on the 8th we were already starting to get impatient, I’d been on leave from work for a week so was well rested. Dr. Barabash told us to expect the baby any day now and even joked that he’d see us after breakfast on Saturday so by Monday (the due date) and still no baby I was starting to wonder what on earth was going on. By Tuesday night I started getting what I thought was contractions, but then again I was telling David that I was having contractions for the past four days (I guess this was my way of willing the baby to come).

I called my Mum at 7pm to tell her that I thought I was having contractions and asked her to come over to look after Kimberly. The contractions weren’t very intense was I didn’t expect to be giving birth that night. When my Mum arrived we were surfing the net, and didn’t leave the house till about 8pm, even then I thought we would be told to go home by the midwives. When I got to the hospital the midwives asked me to fill in some forms which I wasn’t happy about as when I gave birth to Kimberly as the France Perry I was usher straight to the delivery suite.

They hooked me up to the monitor that confirmed that I was in fact having contractions about 4 minutes apart and lasting for about 30 seconds. After about half an hour of questions and form filling Dr. Barabash arrived, everyone was still very relaxed. My waters were broken which caused the contractions to intensify, I was given gas to relieve the pain, I wanted to asked for stronger pain relief as the contractions seemed to be coming every 30 seconds and lasting for over a minute. But before I could say anything I was told that the baby’s head was out and to stop pushing, so I gave birth in about 10 minutes from the time my waters were broken.

Katelyn weighed 3.170 kg (7 pounds) and was 49 cm long, head circumference 34 cm. She is absolutely beautiful and is a very settled baby, after the midwives cleaned her up I feed her and then we were ready for visitors. Rob was again the first to arrive followed by Gran and Pop. Both David and I are more relaxed the second time around and my fear of not loving Katelyn as much as I love Kimberly was dispelled as soon as I saw Katelyn. She is just so beautiful and she is such a good baby, she settles easily and seems very relaxed.

Kimberly is coping with having a little sister extremely well, she knows that she needs to be gentle with Katelyn and although on occasion when we’re holding Katelyn she’ll ask for attention she has been reasonable and we have been able to distract her. She is very protective of Katelyn and doesn’t like it when people that she isn’t familiar with hold Katelyn, she tell them “no, my sister”. She knows that Katelyn has come my me and when I ask her where has mummy’s tummy gone she’ll point to Katelyn and say “there”.

As with Kimberly I have a good birth experience and was almost ready to leave the hospital the next day, but I stayed for three nights and came home Friday morning. So far everything is going well, there’s lots of washing to do as Katelyn manages to spit up on almost everything.