starting her young...basketball

Matt worked nights in the PICU last week, and things tend to get a little lonely for me when he's gone evenings and nights, so we tried to fill them up as best we could.  Friday night, Kate and I went to a high school basketball game.  East Grand Rapids (where my best friend Sarah's husband coaches) played at Caledonia and it was only a 15 minute drive from our house.  

I packed lots of activities (books, stickers, stuffed animals) in anticipation of Kate not wanting to sit still.  To my wonderful surprise, she was mesmerized by all of the action on the court and sat on my lap for the first 15 minutes.  15 whole minutes! Any of you that know Kate know that this is pretty incredible:) 

EGR was ahead for the entire first half of the game, so it was extra fun to watch.

By the second half of the game, Kate realized that she could indeed get off my lap and walk on the bleachers, but thankfully she still stayed pretty close and I never had to chase her down.  She yelled at the players every time they ran down the court and clapped whenever the crowd clapped (she cheered for both teams:)).

Unfortunately, EGR ended up losing by 1 point right at the end of the game.  I'd say it was still a success for Kate, though.  She seems to favor soccer a little bit right now, but her grandpa was teaching her to shoot a basketball a few weeks ago, so we'll see where she ends up:)

Happy Birthday to me!

I'm almost 30.  Like next year, I'll turn 30.  That's so weird.

Anyway, Friday was my special day, and we had a good one.  My mom came over to hang out in the morning and once Kate was down, I went to get coffee and read...by myself:)...for about an hour.  That sure felt like a treat.  We played all afternoon and my dad came over after work too.  Once Matt was done in the PICU, he and I went to dinner and a movie.  It's so funny to me that we used to be able to do stuff like that much more often (pre-Kate) and now it feels like such a treat:)

stickers are her new favorite thing

grandpa taught her to stick them on herself and him

On Saturday, Matt and I (both of us - he had a day off!) took Kate to the Children's Museum in the morning.  Matt's parents stopped by on their way through town that afternoon and took me out to dinner for my birthday.  Rose's on Reeds Lake did not disappoint.  Shout out to Kate for taking a great nap on Saturday (2.5 hours!) and a big thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for a fun afternoon of playing and a yummy dinner.

there must be something about grandpas and stickers:)

grandpa's shoes also got decorated

We couldn't get a decent picture of Kate at dinner, but these were pretty funny, so I'll share them anyway:)

double trouble...

Kate hasn't been sleeping all that well for a while.  The transition to one nap has been rough, to say the least.  Most days she only sleeps 1-1.5 hours in the afternoon and gets pretty cranky by the time dinner rolls around.  But she's also waking up earlier in the morning than she ever has before.  Like an hour earlier.  It doesn't make much sense to me that she would sleep fewer hours during the day AND fewer at night, but what do I know?

Anyway, last Tuesday morning Kate woke up screaming at 4:00 am.  She was uncomfortable and inconsolable.  After a dose of Advil at 4 and Tylenol at 5:30, she finally fell back asleep for a little while around 6:00 am.  She didn't have a fever and wasn't acting all that unusual once she woke up again, but I took her to the doctor that morning anyway.  Lucky us, she has not one, but two, ear infections.  No wonder she was so mad! She also had a type of chemical burn on her cute little bottom from an acidic stool (complete with blisters and all).  It looked awful, and I'm sure it felt even worse.  So, she's on an antibiotic for her ears and has a medicated cream to help heal her bottom.

She is definitely on the mend now, but I felt so bad for the poor girl.  Here's hoping we stay healthy for a while!

GRCM

We love the Children's Museum!

we finally got to take Daddy with us for a quick morning visit!

Columbus

In case you don't know, Matt has decided to pursue further training within the pediatric field, focusing on pediatric hematology/oncology (blood disorders and cancer).  He is in the process now of interviewing at different programs (to begin July 2014) to see where the best fit and training will be.  By April, he will submit his rank list of programs, and the programs will do the same.  By May, we will have another 'match day' (just like residency) and will find out where we'll be for fellowship training.

A few weeks ago, he interviewed at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus.  It was a lot of fun to be back in Columbus and to see how much things have changed.  The hospital has at least doubled in size and the city seems to be growing and changing as well.  Kate and I went along with Matt so that we could see family and friends for a few days.  We drove down on Wednesday afternoon during Kate's nap time, hoping she would sleep in the car.  She slept briefly, but not great.  We had a quick Panera dinner with Aunt Barb and then headed downtown to our hotel for the night.  Once we got there, it was long past bedtime, and Kate was super wired.  She thought everything was SUPER funny and could not get enough of running into the pillows on our bed.

Thursday morning Kate and I dropped Matt off at the hospital and then went to see our friend Kelly and her son Noah.  Matt and I used to babysit Noah and his big brother Brayden when we lived in Columbus and I can't believe how big they are now! Matt's interview went very well and I picked him up in a snowstorm in Columbus traffic that night (thanks, Aunt Barb, for keeping Kate!).

We spent Friday with our friends, the Kelleys.  Chris and Lani were our small group leaders when we went to Northwest Bible Church and remained friends long after that.  Their three little munchkins are not so little anymore either!

Kate had fun playing with 'new' toys

...and new friends! 

Matt playing wii boxing with Miles

snuggles

these two liked each other quite a bit:)

our best attempt at getting all 4 kids in one photo

On Saturday, we had a quick breakfast with the Martins before heading back home.  Their son is just a few months older than Kate, so it was fun to watch the two of them interact and play.

Some play time before lunch with Aunt Barb:)

Thanks to Nationwide for interviewing Matt and thanks to all of our friends and family who graciously let us crash their houses! We loved seeing you and loved that you finally got to meet Kate!

sled riding

One of my roommates from college is from Pennsylvania and they call sledding sled riding.  I always teased her for calling it that, but now I think it's kind of cute:) My parent's brought over a sled for Kate a few weeks ago, and we went sled riding...in the house and outside! Kate couldn't get enough of it:)

just too cute

These pictures are over a month old now, but every time I see them, I smile.  We were taking down our Christmas tree and Kate was playing with the fake pearl garland we had on it.  She's so funny.

so much excitement!