Kat's week

This week was a busy one, we hosted two Russian judges and had to run them back and forth DT Seattle each day. Kat was a real tooper, as I had to wake her up most mornings to go with me and get her fed and dressed. Dan scored tickets to the Mariners game for all five of us to see the BoSox beat the Mariners, AND we (Kat and I that is) headed to the King County courthouse Friday after dropping our guests off to open our re-adoption case on Friday. It seems pretty straightfoward, I think.



You can't see it, but she's throroughly investigating Pavel's ear.


Sergey, Pavel, Dan, Heidi & parts of the boys


Kat investigating her peapod. We're going to do a little trip this weekend and I wanted her to check it out, as we may be using it for playing or sleeping at some point. She had a great time checking it out.

Baby Backpack

Let's see, after viewing the video here http://katnaps.blogspot.com/2008/07/more-pics-see-previous-post.html of Boo doing his job, who could possibly have foreseen this? At least it was one of the bottles that we don't like. If you want to see older posts (I think you just see those active during the current month by paging down), either go to the "view older posts" link at the bottom of the page, or to the menu down on the right hand side.

Tonite, Kat and our two Russian judges will all go to their first baseball game. Dan got the tx form work yesterday- to see the Boston Red Sox crush the Mariners! It's cool out today, likely to be cold tonite, so we'll see how long any of us are willing to stay at the game. I'm sure there will be a picture or two posted soon.

We finally got outside and tried out the Kelty baby backpack that Uncle Derek, Aunt Liza and Uncle John bought for Kat. It's awesome and we will use it a lot, I'm sure. She loved it in there, loved the new perspective on the world and loved looking up at the canopy above. She also loved the perspective on mommy's hair....... Dan said she was trying to put my hair in her mouth. I guess we know who the designated baby backpacker is.....

Kat's weekend so far

The cleanup crew and the downside of a extra large dog. He likes to pick up the empty baby food jars and clean them out. He also likes to snag bananas that have been opened. He then manages to separate the banana and the skin and just eat the banana. As far as I know, he never had bananas before Kat (neither had I, actually). I'm ecstatic that he doesn't eat (and then puke up) the skin.

Dan makes a baby nest on the couch.

Love the packaging. The box is next.

She does some of her bouncing like this, head back, arms up, like she has completely given herself over to the rhythm. It's a riot.

Kat LOVES it when we blow on her face. I don't know if it's a universal baby thing or is she's a future speed demon who cannot feel enough wind on her face/in her hair.


Today we went to the Seattle Guatemala adoption group picnic. We had a lot of fun, and it was a nice day. Kat was nearly mauled by some bigger adoring girls who loved playing with her (there were only 4 babies under 18 months, as adoptions have ground to a halt.)



Possibly the cutest pic ever. Thanks very much Jill, the box has been a big hit. She also loves the discovery ball and will love the baby legs and robeez, when the time comes. But for now, the box, and packaging is a big hit.

Kat's big weekend

We went to a BBQ at the home of two of Dan's co-workers, Mike & Megan. She was the best baby there (alright, technically also the worst, as she was the only one). She had fun and everyone took a turn holding her and playing with her.



Dan and Kat in the brand new baby prison from Jim & Julia. It came today, thanks very much. It will get a lot of use for many household members.


Kat's first theatre performance- we went to see Wind in the Willows in Volunteer Park, which we all enjoyed. She either watched intently (like when the ducks came out quacking) or played quietly throughout. We found a nice shady spot and relaxed on our blanket. She was a great patron of the arts. She did share my sandwich during the show, apparently she likes turkey and cheese on wheat.



Kat LOVES the baby swings- though in these pics, she's distracted by the baby in the next swing.

Visit to Heidi's former workplace

Kat and I stopped by to visit my former co-workers on Thursday. Janet took these pictures. It was really good to see everybody and I always realize, when we do get together, how much I miss them. We had a lot of fun together (likley too much).

Kat's Room or cats room?

Mel & Greg, I missed your anniversary when I was sending out shout-outs from Guatemala City. Sorry and I hope it was a happy one.

Congrats D & L! And welcome, Eli, to the family!!!! He was born yesterday and I'm sure his sisters can't wait for him to come home. We can't wait to meet him.

Kat's Room or cats' room?
Apparently the subtleties are lost on the resident felines....... There are things that I had never considered when bringing a baby into a pet-run household. For instance, the pets ignore the Cider House Rules that say no barking when the baby is asleep. And the dogs insist on the dinnertime celebration upstairs, even if Kat is sleeping. Trying to rock a baby to sleep when 2 cats insist on using the litter in the next room, followed by the electric litter box sweeper doing its thing over and over and over because the girls can't use it correctly. These all add to the fun. And then there's the clean-up crew. They are very thorough.


That would be Hermy in Kat's winter hat box. She seems to like it there.


Then there's Emma, who took a break from the changing pads to hang out on Kat's bookshelf.

Kat, Daddy and her sock monkey.

I love the ballerina stance in the bouncer. Yes, that is American cheese- we were working on getting it into the hand and then to the mouth. As you can see, we had limited success.


Kat went to the Dr this week- The Center for Adoption, where they specialize in international adoption. The Dr. was just fantastic in my vast pediatrician experience. He was awesome about examining Kat in a way that made it fun for her, he treated the med student with great respect and even asked after us, as to how we were doing, did we have support, any signs of post adoption depression (such a thing does exist, I have read). He did, however, hightail it out of there before it was time to give her the three booster shots that he wanted. He said they see a lot of babies from the clinic that she went to and they have a lot of faith in the Dr and the effectiveness of the vaccines, etc from Guatemala, so he just wanted to re-do her 9 month boosters. At one year, they'll do blood work to check her titers and who knows what else. Oh yeah, he said she looks great- is a great size (possibly a tad on the hefty size) and it was expected that her gross motor skills would be behind. So, I guess our homework for the one year visit is to work on teaching her to feed herself and to crawl.



Tomorrow, we're heading to the Y and after Kat's 2 hours of child care, it's family swim time, so we're introducing her to the pool. She loves her bath, is fascinated by the hand-held shower nozzle- always sticking her hands and often her face in front of it (I use it to rinse her off after her bath), so we figured we'd throw her in the pool and she if she can swim.

It's early, but I'm pretty sure that Kat is a top contender for 'baby of the week' at our house. The last several nights she went to bed around 9:30 (after we stuffed her in a sleep sack), and slept till 9:30 AM, with a brief interruption that falls sometime between 4-6, for a diaper change a bottle (that she feeds herself in her crib) and then she settles right back down for a few hours. We woke her up at 9:30 this AM.....how cool is that? I'm sure that our bubble will burst sooner than later, so we are enjoying the current baby schedule.

The Kat in the Box

Luckily, Dan alerted me to the situation so I could act quickly. I don't think he meant for me to grab the camera....

We went to the Guatemala adoption meet up tonite. A very Seattle cafe- in a church basement, with a playroom and amateur hour going on in the main room (and some pinched face lady came over and closed the door to the playroom, as though we had no right to be there and children should be seen and not heard in a playroom). And a pay-what-you-feel-like coffee bar. Do you think $1.50 for 2 Snapples and 2 cookies was too much?

There were two moms there and 3 kids- all 4+. They were all very nice and Kat had a great time watching the big kids play silly games they made up, like 'burglar', which seemed to consist of one kid "throwing" poison on the other, presumably the burglar. We were all entertained watching those imaginative kids.

And there were two more older girls, but they and their parents didn't deign to come into the playroom until the other children had left. They never even acknowledged the existence of any of the 8 of us who were in there the whole time. It's great to see such wonderful American values being taught to these children. I can't fathom why they bothered to show up, if socializing with other kids/parents wasn't the point of the outing. They could have taken their eco-friendly Birkenstocks and home-grown granola anywhere if they just wanted to feel superior to people, but apparently they had to feel superior to other Guatemalan kids and adoptive parents.

Boo Radley has been driving us CRAZY! I don't know if it's the baby (I don't really think so, I think it's the voices in his head), or maybe the heat but he spends all day and all evening when we're here, walking around coming up for pets and reassurance. EVERY TWO MINUTES he's back and as you can imagine, it gets old fast. I have just concluded that maybe it's the ceiling fans in the family room, as they've been on almost all the time since we got home and the breeze from them causes things to move around and maybe he thinks it's a whole host of ghosts? I have turned them off and he's now resting quietly on the floor and hasn't bugged me in at least 10 minutes.

We have discovered that our YMCA membership entitles us to FREE CHILD CARE!!! While at the Y, and 2 hrs max (I don't know if that's per day or per visit), and within their parameters- 4-8pm M-F, 8-1 Sat/Sun and then some. We were all there last night and probably will be again tomorrow. It's great for Kat, as we'd like her to get used to other people and kids, but aren't ready to do daycare or anything like that yet. But I don't want the concept to be completely foreign to her, especially as she approaches what is supposed to be the 'stranger fear' stage.

I just found that if you hold the arrow buttons and go up (or down) through this post, it looks like a movie of Kat in the box. I LOVE the continuous shoot function of my camera.