Whew!

I finally have some time to write. I mean, I've actually had time, but I've been playing the new computer game Carl got me for Christmas instead of blogging. Flo on the Go. Sequel to Diner Dash, only it takes place on a variety of sea vessels . . . cruise line, submarine, and everything in between. So close to beating it. Since K's down for a nap, I decided to write today and not play my new obsession. I will beat it by the end of the week, though. I'm very likely going to get on right after I wrap this blog up. Those that know me best know that I cannot stop playing a new game until I beat it completely. And, with Carl being a big computer nerd himself and my new computer crashing and having to be sent back one week after I got it, I don't get to play games very often. Even when K's sleeping.

So, onto more exciting news. The part people actually want to read. Of course I mean the kid. She's growing and growing more everyday. Literally. I think she's in the midst of a growth spurt because she's been eating more and trying to get into our adult food more. So far, she eats Cream of Rice cereal, potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, green beans, bananas, and has recently been introduced to peaches, blueberries, and carrots. I haven't found anything she refuses to eat, although she is not much of a fan of sweet potatoes. I am going to introduce her to peas sometime pretty soon. She still nurses four times a day and is doing great with that. Her six month appointment was on December 18, and she weighed 15 lbs. 5 oz. and measured 27 in. in length. She's tall! She's in the 87th percentile for length, but only in the 45th for weight. That's okay. She's gaining, so they weren't worried about it. Her next appointment is with the endocrinologist on January 20. We're already praying it will be a good appointment. I'm sure it will be. After watching K refuse to take her medicine and us having to force it down literally, we decided to adjust the time she takes it. Instead of taking it at 6:15, she now takes it right at 8:00. I am toying with the idea of nursing her right after and putting her to bed right after that. It would make her bedtime 8:30 instead of 9. Last night we tried it and were successful. However, I didn't exactly plan to attempt. K missed her nap because we took our niece, Ally, to see The Princess and the Frog yesterday. She was grumpy and fussy all afternoon, leading me to believe she can never miss another nap. It ended up being Carl and Ally watching the movie, while I walked around the theater trying to calm her down. The people in the theater probably hated me. Oh well. So anyway, Ally loved the movie and Carl told me it was seriously a cute one. I was glad we left K with her grandma Christmas Day when we went to see Sherlock Holmes, which TOTALLY ROCKED by the way. I just love Robert Downey, Jr! That was one that I didn't want to miss. I did feel guilty, though, that we left our only child elsewhere, while we took in a movie. I remember making the comment to Carl that families are supposed to spend the holidays together, yet we were leaving a third of our family. It was only for a little bit, though. K got tons and tons of presents. The kid really raked it in! Amongst them were an Exersaucer, giant pink teddy bear, many clothes, and many other toys. We actually had to get her toybox out of the closet in order to have a place to put all of her toys. (She didn't have very many before.) It was so much fun watching her open presents and play with the wrapping paper. She actually assisted with the openings of a few presents. I opened most of them and looked at her with a giant smile, saying "Look what you got, Keely!" I have to say that Christmas is so much more fun when you have a little one to share it with. I've been sharing Christmas with the nieces and nephews for a long time now, but sharing it with my own daughter was even more fun. I promise to post pics of the event soon. My camera went kaput, and I cannot get any of the pics off of it. Sucks, but fortunately I uploaded them to Walmart.com and ordered a CD with all 600 pics that were on the camera. We then got a new, much cooler camera. It's an Olympus. Big thanks for the cash we used to buy it goes out to my Momo. So, we'll be using that camera from here on out. I said I would post pics, and I will when I get the CD from Walmart in 7-10 days from the day before yesterday. It only cost me $2.50!

On a much sadder note, although people will likely think me silly for saying so, our dog Cyrano ran away a week ago last Friday. I miss him. He was my best friend for a long time. I don't think I would have gotten through Carl's 80s Combat tour days without him. I just hope he's out there making some other family happy. He's good at that. We checked the pound, posted multiple MISSING DOG ads, checked the papers, made flyers. No go. We also gave up Apostrophe, our beloved cat, who was having bladder issues. We'd taken him to the vet to get the problem fixed, but it was temporary. We knew that the vet would tell us he can do the same thing as before, which he made sure to say was temporary, or we could put him through surgery. We couldn't afford either (or decided the temporary fix was not smart considering it only lasted one month). He seemed to get a lot better for a while, but then he started leaking urine all over the place, which included on K's blanket. We took him to the pound. I told Carl that he owes me two new animals now, and he agreed to get me one. Then, I told him I didn't want any new animals. I just wanted my old ones back. We'll see what happens. I am not totally giving up on Cyrie yet.

Well, all, check back for pics sometime this week. I have them, promise! I will post them, promise! I hope everyone had a happy Christmas and enjoyed all of the crazy snow!

Today

Keely got her second tooth sometime this afternoon. When I picked her up from Aunt Pete's, she had been crying. She looked pretty cute with a tear-stained face. Is that horrible for me to say? Keely looks cute all the time. Really, she does. Ask anyone. So, I decided it's okay for me to think she looked cute with a tear-stained face. And, I am not changing my mind. Anyway, we had our family pictures scheduled for tonight, and I was pretty worried that K wouldn't do so well. She cried in the car on the way home and fell immediately asleep after I nursed her. Then, I had to wake her up after like 5 minutes because we needed to get ready for the pics. She didn't do what I thought she'd do. She didn't utter a sound on the way to our appointment. She stayed awake, too. She didn't utter a sound when we changed her clothes and put her in a very frilly, too-big dress. Or when we put on tights for the first time. She smiled and laughed during our photo session. She didn't cry even once, despite my ESP plea for her to stop doing so well so we wouldn't have such a hard time choosing and end up spending a ton of money. We spent a ton of money. But, we got good pics. I was planning on getting one good shot of our family and that's it. I wanted the $9.95 package. K didn't let that happen. Instead, we walked away with a bigger package, having spend 8 times that amount. Whatever, though, it was worth it. We are getting K's 6 month pics made by CT Photography on Friday, when she'll actually be 6 months old. For those of you out there that don't know, CT Photography stands for Carrie Tungate Photography, and she's affordable and great. If anyone is interested in getting some freelance photos made of their little ones, you should consider her. Plus, she's got a brand new camera! So, I walk away from my experience in the studio thinking that it's okay we spent more than intended. We're getting great Christmas photos, and we'll get great 6 month pics on Friday. Congrats on the new tooth, Keely Star. You're getting so big, and we couldn't be more proud of you. Way to go, kid!