Somebody make it Stop!

Once again I return to the blogosphere, a domain I usually leave to my wife. Today she is feeling quite exhausted and overwhelmed, due in part to a little girl who just refuses to take any naps which results in abject crankiness, and because I CAN'T GET HEALTHY. For those of you who read my previous post on my story of sickness, allow me to add a sequel. I would call it a post-script, but this has too many chapters to qualify. When last I left you I was taking meds to reduce inflammation in my bronchial tubes so that I could stop coughing. I was also held to voice rest in an effort to one day speak normally again. Progress was good, after two weeks the coughing was mostly gone and I was starting to fully regain my voice- with brief interludes of hoarse whispers.
Enter Saturday. For some discouraging reason I began to cough with more regularity and force on Saturday. While this frustrated me I did not believe it was anything out of the ordinary. Then came the headache, the sore neck and back, and finally, the fever. By Sat. night I was shivering uncontrollably for about an hour and my fever spiked up to 102.5. YEA! Good thing I'm going back to the doctor on Monday. Of course, that was supposed to be a final check-up and clean bill of health. But nooooo. Anyway, got a blessing, lots of tylenol for the fever, spoke with an on call doctor, his guess is I have a new virus and it is reactivating all my old symptoms. More info tomorrow.
Needless to say I am frustrated. I also feel horrible that Virginia is once again responsible full time for our little Katy and me. Poor woman hardly gets any sleep and I'm not allowed to help because I'm probably contagious and have been cast out into our little office.
Katarina is now five months old. She has an appointment on Tuesday when we should be able to update with height, weight, etc. We are also hoping to be able to start her on some real food soon. She sure likes watching us eat and just loves the little tastes we give her. She is still full of smiles. This week she got to spend a lot of time outdoors, playing in the grass and enjoying the feel of wet grass and dirt in her toes. She would be happy for hours outside. Hurry up spring!! She has also started to roll over and sit up by herself for short periods of time. The rolling over is cute, she gets real excited and then realizes she is on her tummy and doesn't like it anymore.
Anyway. Since I'm the post writer...no pictures. But when Virginia doesn't feel so overwhelmed she might get around to it. Feel free to call and talk to her, she would love some interaction since I'm sick. Love you all.

New Things

As Katarina gets older and more aware of the world around her I find myself more and more excited to introduce her to new things. She is quick to explore new things and happy to meet new people. She has had a lot of new experiences this week including grass, great aunts, pickle juice (I put a little on my finger and she loved it), second cousins, a johny jump up, great great aunts, better sitting, avocado, and the biggest of them all, teeth. Besides the incoming teeth, she has enjoyed her new experiences. She has loved all of the attention that she has gotten from her extended family and was thrilled with grass. It is a lot of fun to watch her in her johny jump up. She hasn't figured out that she can jump in it yet but she likes to sway and spin, and chew on it.

As for the teeth, we are all adjusting to them. She has two that are barely starting to pop up, one on the top right and one on the bottom right. She has a really hard time falling asleep and her naps are averaging 15 to 30 minutes, sometimes she'll sleep for up to an hour in the morning but very little in the afternoon. Thankfully she still sleeps pretty well at night, waking up only once to eat. She is a little more fussy than normal and all she wants to do is eat (which is making me really sore) but she is still pretty happy most of the time and she is so cute I just have to smile. I hope you have a great week (and I hope I survive mine).

Favorite Things

Katarina has a few favorite things. Her most favorite thing is her daddy. Whenever he is around she is captivated by him. When he is in the kitchen she loves to watch him. Sometimes I see her gazing at the kitchen and I think she is looking for him. She will also watch a doorway that he has just left, hoping that he will come back. Other things that she loves are extended family, attention, music, people, standing up, putting things in her mouth, sleeping on someone and two new ones we discovered yesterday, her toes and stake conference. (Stake conference was great because it had so many other things that she loves, her grandma, lots of people, music, her toes and she got to take a nap on grandma.) We all got to spend time with extended family this week. Zach and Jackie came down with the boys. We had a lot of fun with all of them. We took over the Wii fit and Keegan loved it. He probably ran a couple of miles with that thing. Jayme is still sick. His medication has made it difficult for him to sleep, as if it wasn't hard enough already with the coughing. Katarina and I have gotten into some bad habits because of it. The worst one is that I've been so tired I have just let her sleep on me during the day. Yesterday I decided that I had enough energy that it was time to break that habit. Keep in mind that the only nap she had in the morning was a 15 minute cat nap on grandma. I fed her at 1:00 and she fell asleep. I took her up stairs and but her in her bed. She woke up as soon as she hit the mattress. I let her cry for five minutes and then got her out. She was wide awake. I tried again at 3:00 with the same result. At 4:00 she actually slept for about a half hour but then was up screaming. She finally went to bed at 8:30. Needless to say, I followed in her footsteps shortly thereafter. As for putting things in her mouth, it seems like she has a process for it, and I have the pictures to prove it, enjoy.

1. Maneuver into Position

2. Test it Out

3. Go All In

4. Pose for the Camera