A trip to LabCorp

I took Katrina to the pediatrician for a weight check on Wednesday, as well as a follow-up iron test. Katrina's complete blood count (CBC) last month showed her iron levels were low, and the lead test came back with elevated levels (she scored an 8.5; at 10 the EPA investigates your house ... in comparison, a coworker's son scored 2.0). So she was due for an iron recheck and the nurse said they could do it in office. I had plenty of hours from last week and took Wednesday afternoon off. What a day.

Katrina now weighs 19 lbs 6 oz, meaning she has gained just about a pound in two months. The pediatrician ordered a couple of other tests, in addition to the CBC. LabCorp (the lab covered by our insurance) drew four vials of blood from our poor baby ... tests include determining if Katrina's body makes the protein needed to carry iron in her bloodstream, as well as a couple of antibody tests to determine if she has celiac or another type of autoimmune disease. I'm hoping we'll hear the results today so we don't have to wait over the weekend.

The visit to LabCorp was almost humorous. Katrina did fine during the draw. She fussed only a little and sighed, but that was it. All heck broke loose, though, when the technician removed the needle. Katrina freaked out and jerked her arm away. The tech placed a piece of gauze on the draw site with a band-aid and Katrina ripped it off and threw it to the ground! At this point blood was going every where (from the baby jerking her arm around). I couldn't hold her still, she was jerking and flailing so much! The worst part was when the technician gave Katrina a sticker that said, "I'm a brave patient!" ... and Katrina threw it in the technician face. I was so embarrassed!!

Oh, yeah ... and Katrina is 14 months old (as of yesterday!) and can still wear size 3 - 6 months clothing. We have friends whose babies were born wearing size 3 - 6 month and went to 6 - 9 month clothing at 8 weeks. Today Katrina is wearing a top I bought for her last summer (size 3 - 6 months) that was too big for her all last summer. It finally fits her now, although it's still a little big around the straps (it's a tank top/sleeveless blouse).

There was an EARWIG on my toothbrush tonight. I. Hate. Earwigs. Intensely. Extremely. Pure hatred. They would appear out of nowhere in the big piles of laundry we had to do my first summer of Conferences. Sooooooo groooooooooosssssssssss.

Earwigs and other things I hate (but not JB - I don't hate her!)

Welcome home, Daddy!

Yay!!! Ryan just called to say he's in the car on his way home from the airport. I'm SO happy! I've missed him like crazy, and I think Katrina has, too. He's been gone basically since June 11, save a 12-hour stretch one Thursday night to Friday morning. Three weeks is a long time to be gone, darn it!!

We made a banner to greet Ryan when he gets home. It says "Welcome Home, Daddy!" and has handprints of Katrina and the two cats. Surprisingly, Avery was a lot more cooperative than Davis! Davis dashed off as soon as I let go, so I'm finding pink cat paw prints all over the house. And Avery's pawprint is one big hairy blob. :)

EDIT: Argh. I'm trying to add some photos and our upload speed is bottom slow.

I gave up on trying to get the pictures in here and posted them to our picture gallery instead. You can see them here.

Famous Last Words

Mine:

Your Famous Last Words Will Be:

"Nice doggy."

What Will Your Famous Last Words Be?

I made a few guesses and this is what it said Ryan's famous last words will be:

Your Famous Last Words Will Be:

"I dunno, press the button and find out."

What Will Your Famous Last Words Be?

Too funny. :)

Hee hee. Sorry, Marte!! :) (Davis gets around a lot more than I realized she did! She must lead a secret life while I'm at work.)

What You Really Think Of Your Friends

Shawna Rushing is your soulmate.

You truly love Laura Yanchick.

You consider Bobby Rushing your true friend.

You know that Sara Taylor is always thinking of you.

You'll remember Cayden Reynolds for the rest of your life.

You secretly think Ryan Herbert is creative, charming, and a bit too dramatic at times.

You secretly think that Me is colorful, impulsive, and a total risk taker.

You secretly think that Sidra Schkerke is loyal and trustworthy to you. And that Sidra Schkerke changes lovers faster than underwear.

You secretly think Davis is shy and nonconfrontational. And that Davis has a hidden internet romance.

What Do You Think of Your Friends?

Try this... it's fun (and interesting)!!

1. Grab the nearest book.

2. Open the book to page 123.

3. Find the fifth sentence.

4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

5. Don't search around and look for the coolest book you can find. Do what's actually next to you.

5th sentence: "I know."
2nd sentence is much more interesting out of context: I nodded and told Sue what Malachi had said about the chicken being the sacrifice and the eggs being only an offering.

This crazy life.

Life is a wee bit crazy right now. Ryan is out of town (in Colorado Springs, for work) until July 3rd. I have a huge-must-win-or-the-future-of-the-company-is-at-stake proposal due July 10th. Ryan wasn't actually supposed to come home until later, but he worked it out with someone so that he can be home the week before the proposal is due. Ryan's mom and sisters are familiar with what the week before a proposal is like for me. They were out here to visit last summer right before the State Department prop was due ... I think I saw them once. Many long days and late nights at the office.

I thought I would be fine this week working at the office during the day and working some at home in the evenings (on my new work laptop!), but it's tougher than I thought it would be. So the niece of a friend from church is going to watch Katrina for me tomorrow night while I work late at the office, and Thursday night for a bit while I work from home.

(Did I mention that Ryan is gone until next Monday? And that he's working 12-hour shifts out in Colorado Springs? And that he's working midnights ... 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.? Yeah. It stinks, big time.)

Not much else is new. I totally forgot about a children's ministry meeting Saturday morning. And when I got there, Pastor Paul was finishing going over his list of twelve things he'd like to see happen. I'm sure he didn't mean it this way, but I kind of took it as a performance review ... as in, these are the things that I should be doing and I'm not. The fact that he told them to everybody else at the meeting before me tells me he didn't intend it as a list of what I'm doing wrong. I think I just took it wrong because a) I'm tired; b) I had Katrina with me and was distracted; and c) I was super embarrassed about being late to the meeting.

July 7, 8, and 9th is Holy Land Adventure, this year's VBS at our church. And I feel totally underprepared, as usual. I don't know what it is about me lately. I feel like I'm not able to do what I need to do well because I'm pulled in so many directions (work, church, home), yet I struggle to let go of anything and let someone else do it. Am I that much of a control freak? Am I that worried about looking like a failure because I can't do it all?

Now that I'm rambling on and on, I'll leave you with a few pictures of our cutie. :) I had to laugh and slightly grimmace earlier this evening. I was reading a friend's website about their daughter born right before Christmas. She just turned six months old ... and she weighs more than Katrina! She weighs 19 lbs 5 oz. Katrina (yes, at 13.5 months as of tomorrow) has weighed 19 lbs even for about a month now. She randomly weighs 19.5 or even 20.0 lbs on our bathroom scale, but that always after eating and with a full/wet diaper. *sigh* One of these days she'll catch up. Or maybe she'll be a tall skinny volleyball player model person who loves Jesus.

Here are some recent pictures from playing in the yard.

**edit** Stupid pictures not posting the first time. Let's try it again.

This was actually the Friday after we got back from vacation a few weeks ago.
I worked from home that day ... I guess I wore the baby out! (Hey! THIS is that outfit I posted about earlier ... she's obviously a girl, don't you think?!)

Simon and Laura got Katrina a baby swing for her birthday, and she LOVES it!
Daddy took this picture - her first ride in her new swing.

Here she is playing in the back yard last week. Note the insanse about of ivy we have instead of grass. It's good for crawling around in, though. Look, Ma!, Katrina says. No Army crawl for me! :) Maybe, just maybe, she's getting closer to walking?

And finally, yes, Auntie Shawna, your niece ate another stick. :)

"Everyone has 24 hours in a day. Some people run countries; some people run errands."

~ Pastor Chad Clardie

I knew it wouldn't last

Katrina went to bed so easy last night. We read a book, rocked a little bit, then I laid her down in her crib. Last night she looked at me, smiled, and closed her eyes. Not a peep from her!

Tonight, however, is a different story. Katrina is standing in her crib, wailing and sobbing. Note to self: teaching her to stand in her crib was a bad idea. It's cute and all in the mornings to go in and see her standing up, waiting for us to get her, but it's not so cute when she stands and wails at night when she's supposed to be sleeping.

... 20 minutes later ...

Ahh, sweet peace. I went in and rocked with her. I guess she needed a little more cuddle-time or something.

Kim!!!

So I'm working on stuff for the Children's Day Service (this Sunday ... nothing like last minute, eh?) and one of the things the website suggests is emphasizing NAZJAM in Pennsylvania next month. I'm scrolling down the page when I see ... Kim Koneecheewacchee! Okay, so that's not really her last name, but I can't remember how to spell it. And it was her maiden name, anyway. Now she's Kim Bobb (Ryan's gonna have a ball with that one). She lived on my floor in Nesbitt. And she's the speaker at NAZJAM this year! Too funny. Here's the page where you can see her picture ... just scroll down.

Stupid nosy people

We went to a birthday party for a friend's 2 year-old tonight, and while there, somebody asked me if I'm pregnant. Stupid person.

(It didn't help that I had a huge temper tantrum just before we left because none of my clothes fit me and I hate my body and blah blah blah.)

Grr.

*Edit*

Okay, now I can see why she asked. I was wearing this same shirt. I look so fat in this picture! Ugh.

Enlarging our family

I talked to Ryan's cousin Greg's wife Karalin tonight. Er, let's simplify - my friend Karalin. :) Their little boy Davy just turned three and their youngest Nathan is just a few days older than Katrina. Time flies way too fast. That means Bree (Michael and Becky's little girl) is just about to turn three, also. It seems like it was just yesterday that Davy and Bree joined the family ... and now Nathan and Katrina are one!

Karalin said that pre-haircut, Nathan was often mistaken for a girl. I had to laugh, because Katrina is mistaken for a boy nine-times-out-of-ten, even when wearing obviously girl clothing (probably due to lack of hair). In fact, it happened twice tonight at the grocery store. The first time was pretty quick - just a passing stranger saying 'Hi there, little guy!" to Katrina. The second instance happened something like this (I kid you not) ...

Stranger Man walks by and says - "Hello, son!"
Katrina (dressed in denim overalls, yes, but with a white t-shirt with pink and purple flowers all over) - sitting in the cart - "Hi! Hi! Hi hi hi hi!" (she's been saying 'hi' a lot since we got back from vacation)
Stranger Man - "You sure do have blue eyes, little boy."
Stranger Man's wife, as they walk away - "I think that was a little girl."
Stranger Man (looking back at us, not noticing the dirty looks I'm shooting him) - "What? Nah. That's a boy. She just dresses him funny."

HELLO! Do I need to drop Katrina's diaper to show you we have a DAUGHTER?! Bah.

Whoa, it's almost midnight! Time for bed.

First of the pictures

The first day or so of our vacation pictures are up! Ryan will be adding the rest to the gallery soon. Check them out here.

Vacationing

Man, I'm terrible at posting lately. We're on vacation now. I'm sitting on the patio at a bed and breakfast, Ryan is pushing Katrina is a hammock, and Trish and Chris are talking on the other side of the pool. Vacation is good. :)

Today has not been uneventful, though. Below is an e-mail Ryan sent to his folks. We found out by accident today that Katrina is allergic to egg whites. Here's what he said...

We're in Canada now.  Trish and Chris' flight was delayed, but we went to
the hotel and checked in, and then I drove back to the airport to pick
them up.  We're in a bed and breakfast now, and it's really nice.

This morning, we had breakfast in a restaurant near our hotel, and we got
Katrina some wheat toast and some scrambled eggs.  When we were finishing
up eating, we noticed some red spots around her mouth.  As time went on,
the redness was spreading across her face up to her eyes, and some of the
spots on her mouth were turning white like hives.  We got directions to
the nearest immediate care place and took her there right away - if it
kept getting worse, I was afraid that it might make her throat swell and
make it hard for her to breathe.  But by the time we got to the office
(about a half hour after we first noticed it), it was getting better, and
by the time we saw the doctor, there was only a little redness around her
eyes remaining.  He said to get some children's Benedryl to have just in
case and to not give her anything else that might have eggs in it while
we're in Canada, since the reaction may escalate.  She's better now, and
has been drinking a lot of water and has been pretty happy for not getting
her regular naps, so we're trying to get her to take a nap now and she
isn't happy about that.

We'll try to keep you posted - we should have Internet access at the rest
of the hotels while we're out here.  I took about 120 pictures at the
Butterfly Conservatory today, so I'm going to have to buy another memory
card to store all of the pictures (and the one that I have is a 1GB card).
Talk to you later!

Okay, time for me to go. Katrina is signing 'more' like crazy ... she loves swinging! I'm going to take some pictures of Daddy and baby. Hope you all are doing well!

A Great Article

I have a dear friend going through a tough time in her marriage. I've continually struggled with the thought of separation/divorce/remarriage. Er, the idea of other people doing it and the spiritual ramifications - not me thinking about leaving Ryan!! Anyway, we were talking today and my friend shared this article with me.

A Woman in Pain

If you have a moment, hit 'comment' and post a reply - I'd love to know your thoughts on this.

Our baby said "butt" today.

Yes, it's true. She said her first Lexpletive today. (A Lexpletive is a word that I hate ... and there is a list of them.) We were shopping in Wal-Mart and Katrina reached for the buttons on my dress. I said, rather distracted by searching for an item, "You're playing with Mommy's buttons." And she very plainly said, "Butt. Buuuutttt."

What is this world coming to?!!

A neighbor's house is on fire. :( Not our neighbors like next-door or across the road. It's a house that we can see when we look out our front window, up the hill toward Braddock Heights and Middletown. We heard several sirens and then one very close, so we walked outside and saw it. It's huge. :( I pray no one is injured.

CNN Newsworthy

Well, Frederick made CNN again. Hood College Homecoming

Please pray.

We just got news that the brother of a friend from church was in a bad accident at work. Here is what her e-mail says:

I just received word that my brother, Karl, was in an accident at his work. He has the thrilling job of making and displaying fireworks. The building he was making them in today has exploded for some reason. My brother and another man have been burned. There is still one man missing and he may not have been in the building at the time. Anyway, Karl, was flown to Buffalo at their shock trauma with burns over his entire body. I do not know the extent of his burns at this moment. I am asking for prayer for my family as we look at what the future holds for my brother and his family. The other man is at the local hospital. As soon as I know more I will try to update this message. I am just asking for prayer. We will be leaving for New York soon.

Update: I just got a call that my brother and the other man will not make it through the night. We are going to New York now and not sure when we will return. Pray for our witness to other family members.

-- Dawn

Cleaning and such

Ryan says if I get my computer room cleaned that I can paint it this weekend! Whoo hoo!!

Man, I stink!

Er, I stink at posting. Not body odor. At least, I hope not. :) Not much time for posting lately. Here's an e-mail I sent out to family yesterday:

Today was Katrina's nine-month well check. She did great up until her polio shot at the very end ... then anyone listening would think the world was ending, the way she cried. :) She also gave the nurse a very reproachful look as she left the room. Poor, poor baby. Someday she will thank us. I hope.

Katrina now weighs 17 lbs, 2 ounces, which puts her at the 16th-percentile, and is 29.25 inches long (91st-percentile). We saw Dr. Mullen today, the doctor we usually see. Chalk it up to seeing a different doctor, but at Katrina's 6th month checkup, the doctor (not Dr. Mullen) went on and on about how skinny Katrina is and how we may have to change her formula, have blood tests, etc. So of course I've been worried the last three months. Today Dr. Mullen was very reassuring. She says her eleven year old daughter is also tall and skinny for her age, and she had to adjust to the idea that it's okay (and even good) for babies to not be chubby. Of course, Dr. Mullen is 5'2" and probably weights 100 pounds in winter clothing. Ahh, to have that problem... Anyway, she said she would still like to see Katrina put on a little bit of weight. She suggested serving a fourth or even fifth meal a day and trying to incorporate table foods on a regular basis. She said she would tell most parents NOT to add a lot of table foods just yet because the foods we eat are so high in fat and calories, but that such foods would be good for Katrina.

Dr. Mullen was encouraging. She pointed out that while Katrina is slender, she continues to grow taller and increase in head circumference; she's getting teeth (six now!), and is developmentally on schedule with crawling and interacting. Dr. Mullen called Katrina a 'banana baby.' One website says this about so-called 'banana babies':

Long and lean babies (we call them "banana babies") are hypermetabolizers. They burn off calories faster than the plumper "apple babies" and "pear babies." Banana- babies are likely to grow more quickly in height than weight, so that they normally plot above average in height and below average in weight on the growth chart.

In other news, Debbers is having a boy!!! What is up with the baby boys? Leah has two, Jill had a boy, Char is having a boy, and now Debbie and Josh. I guess that just means more husband choices for Katrina. :)

Weight loss is going sloooooooooooooowly for me. Grr.

I'm going to Ohio Saturday and Sunday with Laura (Reynolds) to pick up a dog for them from her parents!

Annnnd... that's all. Life is busy!