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For The Record: Volume 2, Issue 11, Number 2
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November 19, 1998
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Well, this is going to be one seriously short letter as I have NO free time!! First off, want to thank Grandpa for the super cool tape. I really really enjoyed listening to it, and JD looked up when you said his name. He couldn't figure out what was going on. Already promised my mom that I would send it to her so she could listen to it. (Of course, if she was a fantastic and faithful respondent like yours truly she would get her own tapes) By now I hope you have gotten my tape back. I hope you enjoy it. I really have no free time, so the only time I could think of to talk to you while JD was in the bath. I don't think the result is a huge success, but you do have a clear idea of what my life is like! J I wrote E-mail to Mary and I said, you will either find the tape annoying or absoultely hysterical.
Just started work on Monday Nov. 2. Boy does that suck. It's like 3 days a week I have no life! I get up at 6:30, and try to get out the door (with the kids) by 7:15. I get to work around 8:30, leave work at 5. Get home again at 6 - Katie goes to bed around 6:30. Scarf down dinner --- JD goes to bed around 8:30. John gets him in his sleeper and brushes teeth/washes face and hands. From 8:30 to 9 we read stories and say our prayers. Then, if I'm lucky, John and I get 1 whole hour to talk and I'm in bed by 10. So the whole day I see Katie for maybe an hour and John alone for an hour. We don't finish with dinner till after 7, and then we have dishes etc to do. And I miss Katie like MAD! And you can't leave the house after 6:30 since Katie is asleep. And I am SO BUSY at work! I feel equally stressed there! I hit the ground running on the day I went back. They want me to write another press release (did you get the first one I wrote in the mail?) and it's totally new data from a totally new survey. The first survey - NLSY79 I know as well as anyone in the office. This new survey NLSY97, I don't know at all. So I'm trying to learn the survey, learn the new software with the survey, and come up with ideas for this new press release. Add to that the usual meetings, information requests and other stuff and I'm swamped!
On the plus side - some days it's easier to be at work that to be at home! After JD yelling at me all morning and not putting his shoes, or his coat, or his hat on - man, it's nice to say : I'm outa here! And I was gone for 5 months, so all my casual work buddies have missed me and are one by one talking me out to lunch. So that's a blast. But I'm so busy my head is spinning. All this stuff they were just waiting for me to come back.
Katie is slowly adjusting to daycare. She is actually easier to leave than JD - who yells that he doesn't want to go (NO Daycare!! No wanna go! Mommy, Don't leave me!) She is finally taking a bottle, so that was a major success. For awhile there little miss stuborn would go like 10 hours without eating! However, much like JD, she seems to have a very hard time sleeping there. She is way too aware of what is going on in the world around her so she doesn't want to sleep for fear she'll miss something. Here at home she'll sleep for and hour or two at a time - several times a day! At daycare she sleep for a total of 2 hours at the very most, and usually in 30 or 45 minutes stretches. However, when we take her into the infant room she is always all goodness, smiles and happines, just like always. So putting her down is much easier than JD who pushes every guilt button he can find.
Katie is about 20 pounds, and the happiest baby in the universe. Somedays she wakes up in the morning and is completely content there by herself playing with her hands. She doesn't make a peep! She has very thin redish-brown hair. It's like she's the anti-friar tuck! You know how he is bald on top, has a ring or hair and then shaved down at the bottom? Katie is the opposite. She has her mohawk, then a bald ring all the way around her head, and then more hair. She's totally a cutie.
Actually, I've never considered to be all that beautiful. She's so round! However, people are stopping me all the time to tell me how beautiful she is! No lie. People stop me in the supermarket all the time to make faces at her and receive her award winning smile in return. Just the other day I was in the airport coming home from Cincinnati and an older couple came over to say they had been "adoring my baby from afar" and that "her rosey cheeks were beautiful." I'm starting to worry someone will steal her.
OK, it is now November 23, 1998 - five days after I started this. So I'm going to type just a bit more and send the pictures or you'll never get this. (Damn, it's 9pm already. I want to be in bed) Anyway, Katie started to roll over the last week in October, so that's cool. She's not into it at all, and is generally really content to just be in whatever position you put her in. If she's on her back she tends to stay there, same with her stomach. She can basically sit up if you plop her there, but again she has no interest on reaching that state by herself.
Yesterday (Nov. 22) was the first time I saw her actively reach for something. I mean, she's grabbed stuff before, and she's probably even meant to do so on occasion. However, this was the first time she had a toy and I moved it out of her reach and I saw her determined to get it back. Today she was trying to grab my nose. Progress is being made!
I've got to mention that Katie has the most amazing "I'm Ticked off" yell that I have ever heard. It's not like a baby cry at all. It's like you are carrying her around and going through the motions you usually go through before you feed her - and then you think you better change her diaper so you put her down. This is NOT in her plan and she lets out the most amazing pissed off yell - I just have to laugh because it's hard to believe this indignant scream is from this sweet baby. I don't remember JD having this yell. It amazes me every time I hear it. (Which, I must admit, is rather rare.)
Well, there ain't no mor'. Until next month !