An Unexpected Trip to Kansas

Kayci is amazing. We got a call early Friday morning that Kristi's grandma (the Clara of Kayci Clara) in Kansas wasn't expected to last more than a couple of days. So Kristi's mom and dad and Kristi and Kayci and I piled in the car and drove to Kansas. That's where we are now. We reached Kansas Friday morning at about 11am and went directly to the nursing home to see Grandma. We were all shocked at what we saw. We had just made the trip three weeks before and during that trip she wasn't really there mentally, but she looked just about the same as she has for the past couple of years. But walking into her room, she looked like a completely different person. She was literally skin and bones and ivory white. 

Grandma Weseloh died later that night at about 10:30. We had gone back to where we were staying and were in the process of getting Kayci down and ready for bed when we got the call. We all rushed to the nursing home, along with the rest of Kristi's cousins and aunts and uncles and everyone else. We were there until almost 12:30am and Kayci slept through the whole thing. She was so tired, but I'm glad she did. It allowed Kristi to focus on where she needed to rather than on Kayci.

I mentioned that we're still in Kansas. Today is Sunday. The funeral is on Wednesday, so we'll be here a few days more. Kayci was awesome today. We got up this morning and bathed her and went to breakfast. She and I took a nap together and she napped and played off and on throughout the day. This afternoon after a changing she layed on the floor and looked at me and just smiled and smiled. She made all kinds of talking noises and coos and she and I had a great conversation for about 30 minutes. As I said before, Kayci continues to amaze me. I was enjoying our "talking time" so much that I didn't want to come to dinner, which some in Kristi's family thought was a little odd. You just have to know the importance they place on meal times, I guess. I guess some of those old fogies just forgot what a rush it is when your baby looks up at you, recognizes you and lights up and begns to "talk." I wouldn't have traded that time for anything- even a good home cooked Kansas meal.

9 weeks old

Kayci is 9 weeks old today. I've been really bad about writing in this journal. Maybe at some point in the future I'll go back and fill in the 2-month gap. Obviously a lot has happened. Until then, I'm just going to proceed with a (hopefully) daily journal from here on.

Kristi started back to school on Monday. Today's Wednesday. I'm keeping Kayci for a couple of weeks until after Labor Day when we'll send her to a sitter- Michelle Applegate. It's been good watching Kayci the past few days, but it's also extremely frustrating. I can't get any real work done during the day because we've spawned a baby that doesn't like to sleep on her back- or for more than 20 minutes at a time during the day. In fact- there she is now... Maybe I'll just let her cry this time. I tried that a few days ago. I made it almost 27 seconds before hurdling over cats and furniture to comfort her. Gotta go.

As I was saying, it's really hard to get any work done, which is bad because work has been really slow lately and I need to be finding more work. Kayci just eats up attention. Ever try to type or design a web site with a baby in one hand and a bottle in the other? Even in the Baby Bjorn® it's not easy. Like I said, she doesn't like to sleep very long during the day yet. I have great respect for stay-at-home moms.

In other news... on Sunday Kayci slept in her crib for the first time at night. She's been sleeping either in her pack & play in our room or in between us. Since then, though, she's only slept in her crib once more. I tried to put her there last night when I woke up to her kicking me in the ribs, but she woke right up. So she slept the rest of the night with us.

2-month checkup

Kayci went to the doctor for her 2-month checkup today and got several of her shots. She actually did really well. And she weighed in at 11 lbs 7 oz. She measured 22.5 in. She's really filling out!