Predictions

I don't do New Year's Resolutions. I do set goals throughout the year, but they rarely have anything to do with January 1. That said, I thought I'd make some predictions about the upcoming year:

1. My little bundle of cuddles will become mobile and will no longer want to be a bundle of cuddles. Hard to believe that will happen so fast, but I'm stocking up on cuddles while I have them.

2. I will have more good days than bad, but the bad ones will probably be exceptionally bad.

3. We will revise our financial plan at least 14 times, but will still have an increase in net worth by the end of 2010.

4. I will introduce Kaycie to the beach. And she will probably hate it.

5. I will start many new books, and won't finish half of them.

6. I will grow more as a person than I ever have in a 12 month period.

7. I will blog less, but have more stories I wish I had time to sit down and share.

8. Kaycie's grandparents will be spoiled rotten by the end of the year. Oh wait, I can check that one off now.

We've been blessed more in the past year than I ever imagined, and I'm very grateful. I can only hope the upcoming year is just as good.

Odds and Ends

Thank heavens, my father got the external pins out of his foot today. They put on a full cast and told him it was healing faster than anticipated. His humor was good, which I find amazing considering his normal seasonal grumpiness and the fact he's been out of commission for two months. He goes back in 2 weeks. I hope he's back to being fully functional soon. I hate that his shop's been closed since November, but at least this is a normally slow time of year. Now the sooner he's about to get back open the better.

We did some random shopping today where I racked up on half price gift wrap and ribbon. I'm going to be so excited next year when I pull out my Christmas stuff and find all these items that I will surely have forgotten I bought. We were only stopped 3 times by people wanting to look at the cute baby. She slept through the entire trip, including dinner.

I don't want to take down the tree. Not so much because I dread the process, but because I think it turned out quite pretty this year and I like it when it's lit up at night.

We paid off the van this week, making us officially 100% debt free for the second time. We never would have financed half the van in the first place if I hadn't been 5 months pregnant and parinoid about potential complications generating big medical bills. Thankfully nothing went wrong and we were able to go ahead and make the payoff. We also opened up a savings account for Kaycie, which will eventually lead to an ESA and investment account. We've worked too dang hard to get here, I want to make sure her future is secure and we continue to practice the financial behavior that we'd like to see her follow one day when she's making her own choices.

Greg goes back to work next week. I have no words for how much that sucks. And he likes it even less. I suppose that's the down side of taking 8 weeks of man-ternity leave. I would, however, like to express my deep, deep gratitude that I don't have to go back to work next week. I think dropping Kaycie off at daycare on Monday would be the death of me. I know most of you do it or have done it and survived, and I would too, but by the grace of God and a fantastic husband, I don't have to experience it firsthand.

Now that we're settling into a routine and things are becoming more normal, I hope to start being social again. I'm meeting some fun folks for lunch tomorrow and have a tentative plan for lunch with another friend next week. I'm open for other invitations in upcoming weeks!

Trouble

You may recall that back in July Greg and I made the pilgrimage to South Carolina to visit my BFF Lauren and her family. We came home with a van load of baby gear, clothes, and toys that had previously belonged to Lauren's two boys. I spent the rest of the summer sorting out the toys into things she can play with in the first year and things she can't really play with until later. I have the first year toys strategically placed in the nursery.

At the end of Lauren's visit her family came to pick her up on their way to Hattiesburg/New Orleans for the holiday.. The boys, Edwin and Ian, were very excited to meet Baby Kaycie.

They wanted to see her room, so I took them back to the nursery. As they looked around both boys started pointing out toys and saying, "We have one of those at home!" And my personal favorite, Ian informed me that, "We have a toy like that, but it's a little bit different..."

Umm... No, it's pretty much exactly the same. I'd even say they were bought at the exact same time.

I ushered them out of there pretty quickly at that point. We told Lauren it was a good thing they were going to be traveling and having Christmas before going home because there was a very good chance they'd never remember the incident, otherwise they'd be in BIG trouble when the boys went looking for their toys that were just like the ones Kaycie has!

Christmas

I read something on one of your blogs the other day that got me to thinking. (Yes, I still read all of your blogs, I'm just generally too rushed or tired to comment!) As Kaycie gets older, how can I reconcile the insanity of the holiday season with the celebration of Jesus? I mean, if it's His birthday, why do the rest of us get gifts? I've been thinking about that a lot over the past couple of days.

In truth, Jesus was all about giving. He didn't want gifts, He wanted to give to others, whether it was giving sight to the blind, spiritual gifts to followers, or blessings to those of us who certainly don't deserve it. It makes perfect sense that we celebrate Jesus by giving, both gifts and service. With that in mind, Santa must love Jesus, as he gives to people all over the world!

For years I've heard people say that based on evidence in the Bible Jesus was more likely born during the summer and that our traditional Christmas holiday is just a random day assigned for convenience. The truth is we can't pinpoint any exact day that would be Jesus' birthday, so perhaps we should continue to celebrate the spirit of giving all year. And THAT is what I'd like to teach Kaycie. That and how to feed herself. And not eat her bib.

I stood in my kitchen making Christmas Eve pancakes this morning and listening to my husband play with our sweet baby girl and tell her how cute she is, knowing that I will wake up tomorrow morning thankful that I've been given everything I could have asked for. Merry Christmas!

What Day Is It?

I'm ready for a little routine and normalcy in my world. Not gonna happen any time soon, but I'm so off right now that I don't know what day it is. Literally. I figured out it was Sunday when Greg turned on an NFL game.

BFF Lauren was here for a few days last week and we had a great time. I'm pretty sure she didn't want to leave yesterday. She and Kaycie hit it off quite well. And based on how much Casper is pouting today, I think he misses her too. I sure do. I used to spend several weeks each year at their house in South Carolina and I miss hanging out with her.

Meanwhile, my child is huge. She's up to 11lbs. Her newborn clothes are piling up in the stack of things she can't wear anymore. We were in Vicksburg on Thursday and went by the outlet mall to buy her a few more long sleeve 3 month clothes, because that's what she's wearing at nearly six weeks! And because Lauren has never had the opportunity to buy baby girl clothes. Kaycie smiling and laughing at us quite a bit now, and she loves watching people. Especially her daddy. I should have a lot of new pics to post after this week. Her Aunt Misty is in town from Texas for the week and we're planning to spend Monday visiting with her and several other members of Greg's family that haven't met Kaycie yet. Then we will end up with some type of Christmas plan with our families, although I have no idea what that's going to be yet.

Greg goes back to work the first week in January. I'm dreading that. It's been incredibly nice having him home!

Dear Santa

Dear Santa,

Thanks for the letter you sent to me. I didn't know who you were, but Mommy and Daddy explained the whole thing. I've been a very good girl over the past five and a half weeks. Well, even when I haven't been a perfectly good Tot-possum, I've still been cute! See:

I don't need much for Christmas this year. I'd like some more diapers, I use a lot of those. And a can of formula. And maybe some batteries for my mobile. I just got all new stuff for my birthday, so I don't need much. Oh, and my pup would like some new squeaks, too. I asked Mommy and Daddy what they wanted and they just said, "Sleep." I dunno why.

Mommy said I may get to meet you next week at Aunt Jen's house. That will be fun! I'm really looking forward to my first Christmas!

Love,
Kaycie

4 weeks

Yesterday Kaycie was 4 weeks old. Tomorrow will officially be 1 month. Feel like longer. As of yesterday she weighed in at 9lbs 9oz. Gigantic. And still nocturnal. We'd been having serious reflux issues over the past week. The kind that require wardrobe changes 4-5 times a day. For both of us. We talked to her doc yesterday and with the addition of rice cereal I think we've at least reduced the amount of spit up.

BFF Lauren is coming to visit next week. I'm very excited. It'll be the first time she's come for a visit, it's always been easier for me to go to them since there were 4 of them and 1 of me. She's flying in to stay without the boys for a few days. They'll pick her up on their way South for the holiday.

Oh geez. Is Christmas that close? Geezum petes. At some point I have to go to a store and buy some stuff. I don't think I've ever been this unprepared for the holidays!

Whose Child Am I?

One of the questions I get asked the most is, "Who does Kaycie look like??" Um... I'm one of those people who think babies look like babies. I can't even pick myself out in pictures. I have no idea who she looks like. I did a little research and here are some exhibits for your consideration:

Exhibit A, Kaycie:





Exhibit B, Greg:


Exhibit C, Susan:



I happen to think the answer is obvious from these pictures, although I can see parts of both of us in certain features.

Three Weeks

We've survived three weeks as of today.

Just checking in. I'm still here, just taking things one day at a time. Kaycie has developed some erratic sleep patterns, which means Greg and I have no sleep patterns. I'm trying to keep her awake more during the day, but so far that's been a total failure. When she wants to sleep, she sleeps. And frankly, in the early morning after being up with her off and on all night, Greg and I also want to sleep. She had been giving us 3-4 hours at a time at night, now we're doing good to get 2 hours, then up for two hours, then asleep for an hour, then up again... We've been told everything from keep her awake to just deal with it for the first two months until she's alert enough to understand a routine. We have to get something worked out before two months. I don't know what I'm going to do when Greg goes back to work first of the year.