Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall!

So, here we are.  September.  I've finally caught up!  I'm actually writing about September during the month of September!  It's been a while since this happened.  Although today is only September 13 (Friday the 13th to be exact), so I'm sure it'll take me weeks to do a posting on the last two weeks of the month, but I'm just happy I've finally arrived at this point.

***

We've had a pretty big month so far.  Our biggest news is that our little bug had surgery on her ears, and is now the proud owner of some ear tubes!  We've been battling near constant ear infections since the six month mark, and our pediatrician finally decided enough was enough.  He wrote us a referral to an ENT doctor at the children's hospital downtown (which we were already somewhat familiar with...remember the garland incident) and Kate's new doctor, Dr. Menezes, had us go ahead and schedule surgery for her.  We took her in on September 4, and they successfully put the tubes in.  She's like a new kiddo!  She seems much more smiley and giggly.  It took a while for us to get taken back into surgery--we had to to be there at 7:15 am and it was about 8:45 before they took her back--but Kate was a trooper.  She played in the playroom and read books, and you couldn't even tell that she hadn't eaten for over 12 hours!  Our team of doctors, nurses and anesthesiologists was awesome, and we felt very taken care of the whole time we were there.  Kate was actually only in the operating room for 11 minutes!  That's right, 11 minutes!  Five minutes for the anesthesia to kick in and six minutes to put the tubes in.  We couldn't believe how fast it was.  She had kind of a rough time coming out of the anesthesia (although the nurse assured us her reaction was perfectly normal), and buy the time we got her home, fed, and gave her a bath, she was back to her old self.  We didn't take any pictures while at the hospital, but we snapped a few once we got back home.

-- Back home from the hospital and I'm clean and fed --

-- I'm feeling good enough to play --

-- Back to my silly self! --

***

We spent some time outside over Labor Day Weekend.  Both Brandon and I have started grad classes.  I've got three more left, and Brandon is just beginning.  I'm so very proud of him!  He's put so much effort into his school work already, and is able to teach himself the things that he doesn't already know. He's got a much better attitude about school than I do :-)

To give Brandon some time to do homework, Kate and I went to the local pool.  We were only there for about an hour before they closed everything down due to thunder, but she really seemed to enjoy herself.  She liked her swimming lessons, but this was the first time she'd been to a pool where there were kids running around, splashing and yelling.  She spent a lot of time soaking in the scenery, and cried when it was time to get out.  I think we'll definitely have to go back again next year.  We used our little pool in the backyard a bit too, although it's not nearly as exciting as a trip to the big public pool!

-- Doing some playing --

-- This chair is just my size --

-- Checking out a crunchy leaf --

-- Giving mom a big smile --

-- Playing away --

-- Splash splash --

We also had visit from our friends the Rybas, who were driving through on their way to Florida.  They used to live in the area (Chad helped Brandon build the bar in the basement), then moved to Des Moines (where they lived near Tara and Erik!).  Now they're relocating again to the sunshine state.  We hadn't seen them in about two years, and during that time their little guy Rece has gotten much bigger, and they added a new little girl to their family.  It was nice to catch up!

-- Hanging out with Rece and Aubri --

***

I love the fall and I don't waste any time once Labor Day hits switching from summer mode into fall mode.  We broke out the fall decorations for the house, and had our first pumpkin treat of the season--pumpkin oatmeal.  Kate loved it!

-- This pumpkin oatmeal is DEE-LISH! --

-- Gotta head to the bath to get de-oatmealed --

-- About to get clean --

-- No more oatmeal in my hair! --

Mini-Movies!

Here are some videos we've taken throughout the summer...enjoy!

Copper and I really aren't too sure about this talking puppy toy...

***

Watch me go!

See how good I'm getting at walking?  Here I am when I first started out...

And I practiced and practiced...

I even mastered walking and talking...

I'm like the Energizer Bunny...I keep going, and going and going... 

I'm getting the hang of walking, but it sure is tricky when you're milk drunk...

***

Chowing down...

***

I melt my mommy and daddy's hearts...

August

Compared to June and July, August was a pretty tame month for us!  Here are some of our favorite shots from the month....

***

Kate continues to be a great eater!  She now has two teeth, and certainly uses them to her advantage.  I know that everyone probably tires of seeing pictures of her stuffing her face, but we continue to be amazed at how adventurous she is, and how she goes at food with such gusto (plus, even though it involves a pretty lengthy cleanup, there's something so cute about the little bug being covered in lunch and grinning from ear to ear).

-- Yogurt continues to be one of my favorites...I like it so much I put it in my ears...up my nose....smear it in my hair.... --

-- Sometimes I even pretend that I'm a vegetarian (although I love me some meat!)...here I am eating spaghetti squash with veggie marinara and cottage cheese......AND check it out, I'm using a spoon!! --

We discovered that our local farmers market offers crates of produce every week for $20.  You can see what you're getting when you order it, and they deliver to your house every Thursday.  We've been taking advantage of this for almost two months, and it's been great!  It's a good way to get fresh produce while supporting some of the local farms, and it's cheap and easy.  When I order the crate I meal plan for the week based on what it contains, and then we put almost everything to use (except for the time we got a bag of radishes...that one kind of stumped me).  It's been a great way to diversify what Kate eats.  I would probably never buy plums, peaches or plouts because I don't generally like them--but we've discovered that Kate sure does.

-- Enjoying my breakfast of blueberry oatmeal.  We get blueberries in our farmers market basket, and I love, love. LOVE them!! -- 

-- Copper is waiting to help cleanup --

-- Enjoying some chicken, peas, and one of my favorite...CHEESE! --

-- This is my Cindy Crawford look --

***

We actually managed to take Kate's 10 month pictures in a pretty timely manner this month!  We were able to get her outside in the sunshine and snap a few pictures.  She's finally starting to get used to walking in the grass, and loves to explore the things she finds in the yard.  She enjoys picking up leaves and sticks and chasing after Copper (chasing is a pretty loose term...he's still much, much faster than her).  We had to come up with another way to get her to pose with the magnets, but this little sign seemed to work pretty well.

***

Kate continues to enjoy the water, and we added a little baby pool to our collection of outdoor toys.  She's not a big fan of her beach hat, but here are some pictures of our little bathing beauty.

-- This water is cold! --

-- I'm the poster baby for sun protection --

-- Playing with my ball --

-- I love swimming! --

-- Enough of this stupid hat! --

-- This is my thoughtful face --

-- Copper pulls lifeguard duty --

***

Kate said her first word!  And no, it's not mama or dada...it's ball!  That's right, we have a future athlete on our hands!  Kate loves to play ball--to roll it, to bounce it, to chase it around--and Brandon and I had been trying to get her to say the word.  It would go something like the...

Mom or Dad: "Kate, do you want this BALL?"

Kate just looks at Mom/Dad and thinks, "Duh, of course".

Mom or Dad:  "Kate, let's play BALL.  Should we bounce the BALL?  Let's catch the BALL.  Where's the BALL?"

Kate looks at Mom/Dad with a look that clearly says "Good grief, I get it, it's a ball!!  Just because I don't talk doesn't mean I can't hear!"

Anyway, it paid off, and one morning, Kate picked up a ball from the floor, held it out to us, and said "Ball".  Then she brought it back in to her body, looked down at it, and said it again.  

And we were amazed by our genius of a daughter :-)

-- Playing ball with Copper --

-- He's pretty quick and tries to run away with it, but sometimes I can snatch it away from him --

-- Modeling my spiky hair --

-- The furriest Snyder baby --

Holy Moly, It's July!

July came and went before we knew it!  But looking back, we sure were busy.  Here's a recap of how we spent our time during the seventh month of the year :-)

***

We started out the month by heading to Pittsburgh for a few days.  We hadn't made the trip home since last summer, and, of course, we didn't have Kate then.  So we figured it was time that we took her for her first taste of the Burgh.  We flew out on the 4th of July, and the whole family was decked out in our red, white and blue to show our pride.  We were able to take a direct flight, and Kate was super the whole time we were traveling.  We had an action packed couple of days filled with friends and family.  It just so happened that at the same time we were visiting, my cousin Garrett, who lives in Colorado, was visiting with his wife and daughter, and my cousin Alyssa and her new husband were in town from Colorado.  It had been years since I'd seen them, so we had a bit of a family reunion.  We had enough time to visit my grandma (who is 97!!) and she seemed to really enjoy meeting Kate.  We also go the chance to check out my dad's new house and to eat some very yummy food.  Unfortunately, we were so caught up in everything that was going on that we failed to take any pictures!  Despite the lack of photographic documentation, we had a great visit, and are looking forward to going back at the end of September.

-- Arriving at the terminal in St. Louis...all mom had was her crappy iPhone...why don't the pictures in the commercials ever look as bad as this?? --

-- We had a chance to do some shopping while we were visiting, and we picked out this bandana for Copper...I thought I'd try it out --

***

We took our first family vacation this summer when we joined the Notz family for a few days along the river in Bellevue.  Bouck and Lisa were nice enough to offer up the cabin to all of us, and we were excited to relax with the family for a few days.  We’d taken a few car trips since Kate was born, and had already realized that space in the car was pretty limited, so we’d started looking for a new vehicle when summer started.  After hours of research and cost comparisons, and several test drives, we purchased a 2012 Chevy Traverse at the end of June.  When we started packing for the Iowa trip, I realized just how great that decision was—we filled the Traverse up, and we filled it up fast!  Kate and I loaded ourselves into the new car, and Brandon and Copper set up shop in the Corolla (which we kept in the family—Shiloh and Dakota are now driving it around!), and we headed off to Iowa.  The weather was beautiful for our visit.  The kids spent some time in their little pool outside, rode bikes, and played together.  Brandon got to spend some time out on the river, and Copper got to sniff around until his little nose was tired.  We actually got Kate onto some type of a nap schedule, and have been able to continue that trend ever since (she’s now napping at home for 60-90 minutes in the morning and in the evening, but unfortunately, doesn’t do the same at school).  We had a family party to celebrate Shiloh and Dakota’s 21^st birthday a bit early, which gave us a chance to visit with everyone and marvel at how big all of the kids have gotten.  We also took across the river to Chestnut Mountain, in Galena to ride the Alpine Slide.  The view from the bluff was so pretty that before we left, we snapped a few group pictures.  When it was time to head back home we were sorry to go, but so thankful for the opportunity to take a little break from the hustle and bustle of everyday.

-- Kate Bug close-up! --

-- Relaxing in the morning sunshine --

-- Kye wonders what, exactly, you think you're doing? --

-- View of the river from the cabin --

-- Copper enjoying the fresh air and sunshine --

-- Kate will love swinging here someday --

-- The cabin <3 --

-- Ahoy matey! --

-- All tuckered out after a day in the sunshine --

-- Playing with my cousins --

-- Cousin pic --

-- Laughing with Mommy and Grandma Brenda --

-- Taking a little bike ride with Kye --

-- Just hanging around at Uncle Shiloh and Uncle Dakota's party --

-- Catching up --

-- Hanging on for dear life! --

-- Snyder family picture --

-- Group shot from Chestnut Mountain --

***

Once we returned from Iowa, we had a few days to get things in order before our next adventure began.   On July 26, my mom came into town to visit for a few days.  Kate and I picked Joma (as we call her) up at the train station and then headed home to get ready for the Relay for Life, which was scheduled to start that evening at 6:00.  I’d mentioned the RFL on the blog before, and had been working to make sure that our team had maximum participation and was organized enough that the event was fun and not a hassle.  I hit up Sam’s Club for water and snacks, baked some goodies, sent out email after email, and even purchased decorations for our team campsite.  We were excited to participate and were thankful that Joma was there to keep Kate for the night, although all four of us headed over to the track around 4:30 to set up our team campsite and walk the first few laps together.  The team began to arrive and we all gathered together for the opening prayer and the National Anthem, and then, all of a sudden, Kate started gagging.  And gagging.  And gagging.  Turns out that while she was playing, she must have plucked one of the tiny Mylar stars from the garland we had used to decorate the campsite, and then tried to swallow it, and it got stuck in the back of her throat.  Now, to be clear, she wasn’t choking, and she could breathe the whole time, but it was really scary just the same.  After a call to our after-hours pediatrician, we ended up quickly packing her up and heading downtown to the emergency room at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.  We had a wonderful experience at the hospital.  The staff was wonderful and we were seen quickly.  There were large fish tanks in the waiting room that seemed to distract Kate and help calm her down.  By the time we were taken to an exam room, she was back to her old self, smiling and playing.  We think that once she calmed down, she must have been able to swallow the star the rest of the way.  They did an xray just to be safe, made sure she could eat, and then sent us on our way.  We returned home and got Kate settled, then Brandon headed back to the RFL to support the team.   I followed a few hours later to help close out the event.  All in all, it was successful, and much more exciting (and stressful!) than we had imagined.

After our eventful Friday night, the rest of Joma’s visit was relatively uneventful.  Our streak of beautiful weather continued and we spent lots of time outside in the yard, enjoying the sunshine (Brandon and I were even able to sneak off and run a few errands together…we said, ‘hey, let’s run out and do such and such…and off we went, no kiddo or diaper bag… it was the strangest thing!).  Kate really enjoyed spending time with Joma, and I really enjoyed watching them interact together.  Visits like these are so nice, but they always leave us a little sad and wishing we were closer to family.  Hopefully we won’t have to wait too long to see everyone again!

-- Kate's snack of choice at the Relay for Life...Mylar garland --

-- One of the perks of the ER at the Children's Hospital?  Baby-sized paper towel dresses --

-- Kate and her Joma --

-- Taking advantage of the beautiful weather --

-- Copper snoozes in the shade --

-- Keeping watch --

-- Quality time :-) --

-- One of Mommy's favorite pictures --

-- Spending some time in my baby-sized chair --

***

July also marked Kate’s nine month birthday.  We took advantage of the nice weather and took her pictures outside.  I can’t believe that the next milestone will be her first birthday!

***

I wanted to take some time to give a little shout out to Brandon for doing an awesome job of finding Kate a new playset...he found this little gem on Craigslist, went and picked it up and then put it back together.  Kate LOVES swinging on it...thanks Daddy!!