Christmas Interruptus: Upper Respiratory Style

...the cough that just wouldn't go away. As I mentioned in the previous Christmas post Kate has been sick since last weekend. She was still functioning just fine until Christmas Day when she stopped acting like her happy self and stayed fussy for most of the day. She kept getting worse and on Friday night after her bath started coughing and choking but couldn't stop. She started throwing up mucus (sorry for the graphic mental image) and coughed continuously for an hour. After talking to her pediatrician back in Texas we took her to the OU Children's Hospital ER last night. We were there until 5 am today, but I am thankful to say her RSV test came back negative--so we didn't have to stay in the hospital for further observation. She has an upper respiratory infection, but since its viral there's nothing she can take to help it. She definitely seems to be doing better this afternoon, but she had to miss two of our family Christmas celebrations and it will probably be at least another day or two before she ventures out of the house.

Christmas, part 1

...our first Christmas with Kate. We loaded up the ole' silver front wheel drive sleigh early on Tuesday morning and headed northeast to Choctaw. Unfortunately Kate has been sick for the entire trip with bad congestion, a barking cough, and a runny nose. Now Amanda and I both have it. Sick or not we had great Christmases--the first on Christmas Eve with Amanda's family and on Christmas Day with mine. I have a literal ton of photos from these days, so there will be a lot of parts to the Christmas post. Here are some of the photos from day 1...


Uncle Jason and Cousin Kason reading to Kate


Aunt Kaci...there is a post coming with some of the fun hats Kate got from Aunt Kaci


Mommy helping Kate open her first present of the year


Kate enjoying her new bouncy seat

Stylin'

...our daughter's increasingly large wardrobe. It's so much fun to shop for little girl clothes and it shows. Our family and friends have been so generous in making our little girl the most stylin' girl in Lubbock! Here are a few pictures of her recent outfits.

Sporting her rainbow leg warmers from Aunt Kaci. She loved them.

We love Christmas! Aunt Kaci bought the shoes in Oklahoma and I got the onesie here...and they matched!

My Aunt Nancy in Austin got her this adorable outfit. She wore it to see Santa. Can you tell Michael is wrapped around her little finger?

And then there's what Granny has purchased. She loves wearing the hat and it comes in handy on freezing days like today.

One potato, Two potato, Three potato, Red Splotches?

...Kate's first attempt at eating baby foods. Well, technically she's been eating the rice cereal once a day for several weeks, but this was her first foray into vegetables. The feeding chart the doctor gave us at the last visit said to introduce vegetables first, typically carrots or sweet potatoes first. So, we started with some organic sweet potatoes (only sweet potatoes and Vitamin C in the ingredients). She was eating them just fine, even smiling every now and then. The kid is amazing at eating off a spoon by the way. Anyway, she was about half-way through the sweet potatoes when all of a sudden she broke out in red splotches from head to toe. Freaked out? Um, yes. Notice there aren't any pictures on this post? Yeah, well you try to think about taking pictures in a moment like that. A couple of Benadryl administrations later and all was good. We won't be trying sweet potatoes again anytime soon. Seems like a strange thing to be allergic to...doesn't it? But, she does love the carrots, so she's not allergic to things the color orange. That was one of my guesses.

A Famous Moment

...a moment of silence at church yesterday. Before I go any further to tell the rest of this story, take a moment and look at the pictures. What do all of these movies/characters have in common? Let's review...

There's Shrek, the lovable, but gross ogre...

The "dinner" scene from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (makes me almost throw up thinking about it)...

Elf, where Buddy the Elf downs an entire 3 litre of Coke at once...

And of course, our daughter, Kate...


Figure it out? Let me answer by telling the rest of the story. Yesterday while at church we needed to feed Kate. Which, by the way, is a much faster process than it used to be. About 10 minutes and she's done. Well...she ate during the sermon and finished just as the preacher was wrapping it up. He closed yesterday by asking us to take a few minutes of meditative silence. Everyone went quiet. Except for Kate. She had the "burp heard around the world," or at least the burp that made everyone in a 6 row radius turn and look. It was the loudest burp I've heard from her yet, which is saying something. But who would think a cute little 4 month old could burp that well? I'm assuming not many people, so I can only imagine all those people in the surrounding 6 rows thought it came from me. It didn't help that we and our friends sitting next to us were now fighting back laughter, which was uncontainable and bursting with gasps and snorts. Not exactly reverent, but very, very funny.

Thanksgiving, Part 2

...the Douglas' Thanksgiving on Saturday. We were able to spend a lot of time with the immediate family, Jason & Kaci and the boys, and Amanda's parents. Well, Amanda was able to spend a lot of time with the family. I spent a lot of time outside playing football with Kason. If you're reading this Kason, congratulations on beating me so badly. It won't happen again...Fred.

Speaking of Kason, here is a series of pictures I took with Kate and her cousins Kason and Krece that I thought was too funny to pass up. Apparently Kate crying had a serious effect on Krece, but Kason remained calm and kept holding her trying to get her to stop.

Things started off okay...

but, quickly disintegrated...

she still won't stop will she Krece...

oh my gosh, make her stop...

Thanksgiving, Part 1

...Kate's first Thanksgiving Day. We were able to spend all day with the Harringtons (and Maynards!), and I think Kate thoroughly enjoyed herself. Or, more likely, everyone else thoroughly enjoyed Kate being there. Not that she didn't have a good time, she's just a little young to say one way or the other. Anywho. Pictures. I have pictures. I have a lot more that I will be posting all week, so stay tuned.

As you can see from the first two pictures Kate was stylin'. Okay, so she is always stylin'. In fact, she owns way nicer clothes than I do--from what I hear, that's called being a parent. I should point out however, that we have bought very few of her clothes, and the ones we've bought tend to be the basic onesies or footed pajamas. Don't you wish you still wore footed pajamas? I know I do.



My Grandma (Dad's mom). She was quite mad at me for taking her picture so much, but little did she know I was hoping to get shots of her not looking at the camera. I took some good ones of her, but this is one of my favorites. One word: Gravitas.

Kate with Grandma Donna.

At the end of the day, it was storytime for Kate (and Papa and Grandma too).