Katie's missing grandad

Don't be alarmed - Katie's Grandad is not missing.

Today Katie has not been a happy bunny (or baby). She screamed and screamed and screamed all day until bed at 7pm. Last time she did this was a few weeks ago when Grandad went home to kent. Is this just a coincidence?

Welcome to the family

This weekend Katie went to Kent to visit her family and friends in Sittingbourne. It was a long, long journey (took us 8 hours to get there!) but well worth it.

Katie met lots of new people - let us tell you a little about it:

Sharon gave her a cuddle, Rebecca made her cry, Jay & Rhys were more interested in the biscuits than Katie (but they are only 7 & 3!), Jenny fell in love, Doug gave her a cuddle and although enjoyed it looked a little awkward, Anne was worried Katie would throw up on her, Katie threw up over Brenda, Ben wants to get to know Katie when she can walk and talk, Marina gave her a cuddle, Dick was worried he wouldn't know what to do with her, Teresa gave her a lovely cuddle and Paul was a natural with her.

What a busy day!

Visitors

Katie had some visitors last weekend. Uncle Matt & Auntie Chell came to say hello.

Matt did a little dance for Katie which she thoroughly enjoyed. Shame we didn't get a photo for you, I'm sure you all would've enjoyed it too.

Katie and Chell were getting on really well too, infact Katie now knows all of Chell's secrets. They were sharing a lot over the weekend. But then Katie was a litte rude. They were having a lovely time cuddling and chatting when Katie projected her vomit all over Chell, which ran down her leg and onto her toes. Not nice. But they both coped remarkably well and carried on their conversation as if nothing had happened.

Katie's looking forward to seeing them again soon.

A BIG thank you...

... to everyone who sent their best wishes to us. We have been overwhelmed by the number of cards, presents and lovely comments.

In total we received 112 cards. All of which were displayed in our living room until today. See if you can spot yours!

We are very blessed to have so many lovely friends :)

More pics

We reckon she'll be a great whistler

"Have you ever seen me dancin'?"

Time for bed

"I love you Mungo - night night"

Routine

Before Katie was born we were given a really good book as a present. It suggests putting a baby in a routine as early as possible to keep parents and baby happy. We think this is a great idea, but we know some other parents disagree.

For us it has worked. Katie is a really happy, contented baby. Of course she has her moments when it all seems to go out the window, but on the whole she is great.

So what does it involve? Well since we brought Katie home from hospital she has gone to bed at 7pm. Between 7pm and 7am we keep the room dark and we try really hard not to talk to her or give her too many cuddles. Even when we change her nappy and feed her, it is all done quietly. We both find this difficult but Dad more than Mum. We often end up telling each other off for breaking the rules! How strict are we! No push-overs in this house!

Through the day - Katie is on a 3-hourly routine. So every 3 hours we wake her, change her, feed her, play with her and then it's time to see if she'll sleep. It's a set order for a reason (comfortable for feeds, doesn't associate feeding with sleeping etc) and it seems to work.

She sleeps really well at night - regularly from 11pm until 4.30am. We're trying to stretch this to 5am at the moment- we're getting there.

New toy

Nanny Waring came to stay last week (Grandad Waring was away playing golf). A big thank you to nanny for helping out - as well as helping with Katie, we now have a sparkling bathroom and kitchen. Also thank you for Katie's new toy. During the day Katie has been sleeping in her moses basket but she is beginning to sleep less now and is spending more time just looking around so she now has a bouncy chair to sit in so she can watch us pottering.

We've shown a photo of Katie enjoying herself in it, because Grandad Waring, although he has paid for it, doesn't know what he's bought!

Katie Ellen Pearson

Well there you go. Katie is now official. She officially exists (what was she before?).

We decided on "Katie Ellen Pearson".

No particular significance of the middle name - it's the middle name of a friend of ours and we like it :)

What's in a name?

On Wednesday we are going to register Katie.
However, there is still some discussion over her official name - should it be Katie or Katherine?

We love the name Katie, and to us she will always be Katie. But one half of her parents has suggested that we register her as Katherine so that she can choose what she is called when she is older. The other half of her parents is not so sure.

What do you think?
All comments welcome

What's Katie been up to?

Katie has been on a number of outings recently, mainly to Formby woods & beach. The weather hasn't been great and so we've wrapped her up well and she looks lovely.

Not so cute Katie

One of the most fun times of the day with Katie is first thing in the morning.

She is so adorable when she wakes up and she pulls so many funny faces, so this morning we were armed with the camera so that we could show you all just how lovely she is.

The thing is, she wasn't quite as cute as usual and the photos we got are not that flattering (when she is 18 she will not appreciate her parents showing her off to the world)

So here they are:

"I only have to look at chocolate and I pile on the pounds"

We'd just like to add that Katie is doing really well and has put on weight, but not as much as it would appear in these photos. She is now 4 weeks old and weighing a healthy 8 lbs. We'll put some nicer photos on soon.