Still Alive

To start off with, I apologize for the lack of pictures to accompany this entry. No excuse --I just didn't feel like doing it. Today, Elizabeth and Katara went to the doctor --the youngest had a checkup and they both got shots. Elizabeth just had the one flu shot, but Katara needed three immunizations. So, needless to say, I have been quite unpopular here at home today. I have to help hold Elizabeth down for her shots, and Katara was looking at me when she got hers. Sad day.
Katara is growing fast though. She weighs 12 lbs, 11 oz and is 23.5 inches long. She smiles a lot and is starting to coo. Tyrone thinks she's a bit of a momma's girl, but that's only because I'm the chuck wagon around here. :) Elizabeth is a daddy's girl, so it all evens out.
Lately, Elizabeth has had a growth spurt in the language department. She repeats a lot of what we say and now has a new batch of vocabulary with which she may gab my ear off each day. She says: pillow, piano, caper, paper, dink (drink), baper (diaper), no, pease (please), and moo. We need to work on her pronunciation with a few words --like "sit." It's not quite pronounced right and sounds more like a cuss word...

Blessing and Halloween

This last Sunday we had Katara's baby blessing in Church. --Guess you could say she is "official" now on the Church records. She looked very nice in her white blessing dress and bonnet complete with white crocheted booties from a lady in our ward and a crocheted blanket from her great-grandmother. Instead of blessing Katara in Elizabeth's dress, we actually got to use my own blessing dress from when I was a baby. Didn't know I still had one, but my mom brought it with her. It was a good experience for everyone overall, I think. The grandparents, uncles and some of the great-grandparents were able to come for the event.

On a much different subject, this year for Halloween we really aren't doing much. So far we've only had a big breakfast, bought some candy, and plan on watching some anime shows tonight. The girls --while they may look cute in costumes-- are still unable to trick-or-treat, so we're not going to over-do things here for them. Tyrone, however, was requested to dress up for his Dungeons and Dragons game. So, he (not entirely enthusiastic about putting on a masquerade) decided to go as the newly famous balloon boy. (He's carrying a box around him since the balloon boy was found in a box.) We are sooo funny...

More On Our Newest Princess

So, here she is: a photo of Katara. She's just chilling out on her dad's lap here.

Katara decided to come into the world quite abruptly. When the contractions started, they were about 3-4 minutes apart. By the time I got to the hospital within the hour (my aunt drove me), I was dilated to 8cm and in a lot of pain. Things went really fast, and unfortunately I was not able to get an epidural or any pain killers. (Going "natural" for labor and delivery is possible, but it really sucks.) Luckily, Tyrone did get there in time. The doctor made it too, but just so. The nurses were still tying his scrubs on it seems, and he didn't have time to put his gloves on before Katara popped out. Literally, it seemed she popped out, because I had to ask if she was out or not. The doctor did catch her though. I noticed only afterward that he was still in his jogging clothes --shorts and a tank top, and the nurses were actually joking about this being his cardio workout for the day. Quite the ordeal, in my opinion, and I'm now on break from being pregnant for while. :)

So far, Katara is a good baby. She sleeps more than her older sister did and we've had two nights in a row now with only one wake-up feeding time! However, she usually will be awake for well over an hour after she eats... Currently, she has a bit of a cold.

Elizabeth is still adjusting as best she can to having a new sibling and so are we. I'm sure there are worse things than having two kids, but it's amazing how dramatic Elizabeth has become lately. She even has an "attitude face" that she's started giving us since her sister showed up.