Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Happy **th Birthday to a wonderful mom, Grammy, and friend! We love you and can't wait to see you and celebrate with you this weekend!

Demonstrating her grandmothering skills over Christmas!
This was her Christmas present...one is me, one is Kathryn. Can you tell who's who?

Monday, January 28, 2008

haircut and sleeping

I got my haircut short on Wednesday! I think I'm liking it ok! It's always hard to tell at first!

Yesterday, Kathryn fell asleep on our way home from church (Sundays are hard with missing naps and getting all off schedule!). So, we brought her in and laid her on the living room floor. I thought for sure she'd wake up right away, but she ended up sleeping just like this for a good 30 minutes or so! She was exhausted! Yes, that did end up being her only nap of the day...

Where's your nose?

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Video!

I thought I'd post a recent video of something funny Kathryn has started doing. It's called "Fall Over", and whenever we say "Fall over" when she's sitting on our bed, she'll just flop herself right on over. It's pretty funny, as you can see. As you might be able to guess, also, we have to be careful of her on the bed now, even more so, with her propensity to just fall backwards at any time! No sitting near the edge! She also shows off a few more of the signs she knows. Funny this is, while we were both watching it to see what was on the video, she did all of the things that I told her to do in the video while we were watching it together! Too funny! Enjoy!

Friday, January 18, 2008

first snow!

All bundled up and ready to go!



Not a big fan of laying down in the snow, but otherwise had a great time!

gettin' into trouble

So I put Kathryn in her Exersaucer the other morning while I did the dishes to keep her out of trouble, and this is what happened. It's amazing how much she can get into from a confined spot. At least she had fun!

prayers

Just a quick post about a blog I've been following. Occasionally I'll come across blogs of random people and get sucked in. Either they have children and good advice on motherhood, are funny, have interesting pictures, or amazing stories. A while back I found a blog of a woman named Boothe who gave birth to a baby with Edwards syndrome. I have followed her story and prayed for her and her family for quite some time now (as well as cried many tears over their trials). I've found another blog through my friend Jenny of a family that needs our prayers as well. Tricia has CF and a week ago gave birth to her baby at 24 weeks gestation. Her husband, Nate, has been blogging about the whole experience. It's an amazing story worth following, and keeping in your prayers.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

backwards?

Kathryn loves babies

It's official...for some time now, Kathryn has been crazy about babies. It kind of marks her own transition from baby to toddler. Over New Years, we were able to meet a few of her little friends for the first time. And she loved hugging and kissing on them. Note: she will only kiss babies, other kids, and pictures of them. She will not even kiss us, her own parents!

Here she is hugging Joey Beardsley. What a treat to get to see Matt & Laurie for New Years!!
Is Joey into it, or is he just waiting to be rescued?

And here she is kissing baby Madeline.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

some random pictures

On Saturday I went to get Kathryn up from her nap, and here's what I found... I guess she just didn't want to wear her pants anymore! (The hot pink pile at her feet beneath her bear are her pants, in case you were wondering.)
This was Daddy's idea: to play in the box!

She obviously loved it!


Kathryn also loves getting on the other side of the couch and laying down on the floor to look under the couch through to the other side.
Our tough girl. Go ahead and try to mess with her!

Friday, January 11, 2008

Birthday party

Finally, here's the post about Kathryn's birthday party.

The food..
The cake...(it's supposed to be balloons)

[Some of] the people...

Opening cards and presents!!


A homemade hat from Aunt Ali that she knit herself!
One of my favorite pictures of the day! Thanks Aunt Ali for the hat!!

The cake saga...

She was a little hesitant to touch it when we sat it down in front of her.












But she thought it was great that everyone was laughing, because of her!












Once I gave her a little taste of it, though, she thought it was pretty yummy.


























So she decided to give it a try.













She stuck with the icing for the first few minutes...












But then she went for the cake, and liked that too!












Again, she thought it was the best thing ever that everyone was watching her and laughing at her!














Mmmmm, I love chocolate cake!

Monday, January 07, 2008

12-month stats


Although I need to save the post about Kathryn's birthday party for another time (when I have time to upload all the pictures), I will give you the updated stats on her 12-month doctor's appointment today. But, to appease those of you who crave pictures of our beautiful little girl, I included this one of her after she enjoyed her birthday cake! Our big girl is now 29.8 inches tall (73rd %tile), 20lbs 12oz (45th %tile), and her head circumference is 18.5 inches (93rd %tile!). So, we have a pretty tall, average sized, big headed girl! She's growing so much! She's close to walking, and will now walk pretty well when we hold on to just one hand. She's still unsure that she can stand by herself, although there have been several times when she's stood for about 5 seconds on her own until she realizes what she's doing and sits herself down promptly. She isn't saying any words yet, but signs eat, more, all done, milk, bye bye, hello, and sometimes please and thank you. She loves to blow kisses, but will only give actual kisses to babies/kids (both real and in pictures). She will hug almost anyone and anything. When we tell her to answer the phone and say hello, she'll hold the phone (or her hand) up to her ear and cock her head to the side, like she's talking on the phone. I wonder how she knows what talking on the phone looks like? :) She still loves to eat, and her favorite foods are crackers, Cheerios, bananas, pears, and pasta (wonder where she gets that from, too!). She's starting to sing more now, and especially loves to sing along to Jesus Loves Me, her favorite song. It's funny how at such a young age she can have a favorite song, but she clearly prefers it over the others. She also loves any songs sung by kids, and consequently we listen to her kiddie cds quite often. That's about all I can think of right now...I'm operating on little sleep, because I think she's teething, and therefore has been waking up multiple times a night. She better be teething, and I hope it's over soon, because it's been pretty rough at night! She's been waking up and crying, and after changing her diaper, and usually giving her a bottle (which in the past has put her right back to sleep), she will still scream when we put her back down. And, just as it seems she's about to settle down and go back to sleep, her screaming will start again, and she's been somehow pooping her diaper so that we have to get her back up and start the whole process over. By that time, it's been at least an hour of being up with her! Sheesh! However, each time we wake up with her, it's another reminder to be thankful for her, thankful for the fact that we have a sweet girl, our gift from God. Thankful that we can show her how much we love her by taking care of her when she needs our attention, and by trying to teach her at other times how to sleep on her own. And as we finally get back to bed and try to get back to sleep (which is really hard when it's really early in the morning and you know you have to get up soon after), we are able to pray for her as we attempt to get back to sleep. I know that although it seems like drudgery now, this too shall pass, and we will look back on these nights as difficult, yes, but somehow bittersweet too. For as quickly as this past year has gone, I know that this time will be over all too soon. And although she gets more fun and more sweet with each passing day, every day I realize she's growing up, and the time passes more quickly. It's my prayer that we will learn to savor and treasure each day, the good and the bad, and will draw closer to God as we seek to shepherd this little one entrusted to our care to having a heart that loves and serves Him as well. Ok, this blog has turned from informational to emotional, another sign that I am indeed quite tired! Stay tuned for more pictures from the birthday party that was attended by the paparazzi!

Saturday, January 05, 2008

One year ago today...

One year ago today
You entered in this world
So beautiful and perfect
Our precious little girl.

One year ago today
We first saw your tiny face
Such a beautiful picture
Of God's amazing grace.

One year ago today
We first held you in our arms
How you captivated each of us
With your endearing charms.

One year ago today
We first heard your little cries
We continue to wipe away
The tears from your eyes.

One year ago today
Kathryn Elizabeth Sink
Daddy's favorite picture
Was your "smile" and your "wink".

One year ago today
We never would have known
How much our lives would change
And how much we have grown.

One year ago today
Our hearts would nearly burst
With all the love we had for you
Our little girl--our first.

One year ago today
We prayed right from the start
That God would place His seal upon
Your sweet and tiny heart.

Daily we have prayed for you
Even through the night
That His love will shine through you
That you would be His light.

We are so blessed to have you, dear,
Our precious little girl.
We love you more than anything
In this whole wide world.




Friday, January 04, 2008

Thursday, January 03, 2008

periorbital cellulitis...

When we got home from all our New Years traveling around 9p.m. on Tuesday night, we noticed Kathryn's eye looked a little pink and puffy. We thought it was just due to her being tired, so gave her a bath, put her to bed, and then went to bed ourselves. She woke up in the middle of the night with it swollen and crusted shut (eww!). In the morning, it still looked pretty bad, and her cheek looked a little funny, too. It didn't seem like pink eye since she wasn't messing with it, but we didn't like the looks of it, so we took her to the doctor yesterday afternoon. It turns out she has periorbital cellulitis, which is basically an infection around her eye. The doctor isn't sure what caused it, but said it could have been a blocked tear duct. Her eye on that side has gotten irritated-looking before, and if her tear duct on that side is smaller, as the doc suspects, then it makes sense. Anyway, she is now on antibiotics to get rid of the infection. We were 3 days short of not having to take any antibiotics for the first year of her life...oh well! Anyway, here is what it looked like yesterday.
It looks much better today, although you can still tell it's not quite right. She doesn't seem to be too bothered by it, so hopefully it will clear up soon with the meds and some rest. Here she is taking her nap today. I snapped this picture because of the funny position she was in, with her legs. She moves so much when she sleeps, so we find her in all kinds of funny positions all the time.

Please pray that her infection gets better, and that there won't be any complications from it. Praise God that it wasn't in her actual eye, which can be very serious! Look forward to a birthday post coming soon!

New Years!

Every year for New Years, our group of college friends gets together at various places to celebrate and enjoy our friendship. This year, we were able to have our annual gathering at Andrew's parents house in Alexandria, VA. We had a great time together, but of course missed those who could not make it.

Here's a cute picture of Kathryn that Johnny snapped looking out their front door.
We went into Washington DC for a little while on Monday. It was pretty cold outside, so we had Kathryn all bundled up! She doesn't look too thrilled about the whole thing.


Johnny and I at The Awakening statue.



The girls: Naomi, Jenny, Jeni, Kathryn, and I.

The boys: Jason, Andrew, Chris, and Johnny.

Kathryn at the World War II memorial.


Still at the WW II memorial, with the Washington Monument in the background.
After our annual gift exchange...Jenny got giant holiday lawn ornament bulbs.

Right after the New Years...Happy 2008!!!