Lerch.org Blog

Holy videos, batman!

2008-09-17T09:26:00.000-07:00

Ok - so we've been really slow in getting videos on the web. Needless to say, things are pretty crazy with two little ones, and Kelly is now back at work - yikes!

I got some time a little while ago, so I've posted several months worth of videos (50+ total!). I won't bother to describe them all, but they are up on our youtube channel for your enjoyment. The first video is "Kathryn and Megan Play" (from back in March!), and the last video is "Kathryn shovels sand", taken on labor day at OMSI when grandma Lerch visited the family.

Some other videos, taken by Paul, are up on qik.com: http://qik.com/belbo

Lots of pictures have been posted on our shutterfly site, with more to come. There are now some more July pictures, as well as some of the professional pictures that were taken at the Rose Garden.

Paul also has more pictures on his picassa site.

There are more photos still in my email/hard drive waiting to be posted, so stay tuned!

Wow it's time for an update!

2008-07-26T13:36:00.000-07:00

So to say it's been a while since the Lerch family has posted to the blog is an understatement. In our defense though having two kids under the age of two (which was the case until recently) is just a bit on the busy side. :-)

Kathryn is currently 2 years and 1 month old! She had a great little pool party to celebrate her birthday on June 28th. Her friends Zach, Maren, and Megan were in attendance and we all ate the cake I made. This was very low key and lots of fun!

Kathryn weighs 28 lbs 10 oz and is 2 feet 10 inches high. This puts her in about the 50% for both weight and height. To quote the doctor "it's so average it's not even worth talking about."

Kathryn knows *tons* of words now and is into parroting things folks say. A common stream of words heard is "Daddy...work...car...money...food". This means "Daddy is at work and he took the car. He is working to make money to buy food." She says this every weekday morning. Kathryn isn't speaking in full sentences yet, but that is likely just around the corner.

Without a doubt her favorite thing is to go to the park. She loves to swing and slide down the slide. She also really likes planes - pointing them out as they fly overhead and saying "bye, bye plane." She also often speaks of the beach and the waves. She learned aboout these in Hawaii in June. She tells them to "come on" and wash over her. Her favorite toy is her baby doll. She pushes it in the stroller, feeds it in Jack's swing, and rocks it in the cradle. "Baby" provides lots of entertainment. :-) Mom and Dad love Baby.

Probably the most fun thing about Kathryn is her big crazy laugh. She gets so excited about things - espeically all things with water - she just laughes and laughes. She turns heads with her excitement!

As for Jack - he's gigantic!! Jack is now 7 months old. At his 6 month appointment he weighed 20 lbs and was 29.5" long. This puts him the 90% for weight and the 97% for height. He's a big boy! Jack just had a big weekend recently. On July 12th he got his two bottom teeth and officially mastered sitting up!

Jack is a really easy going wonderful baby. He's always been a great sleeper - yet he still doesn't make it through the night consistenly like his sister did at this age. He currently goes down arouond 7:00 PM and wakes for a 3:30 AM feeding. When Jack does wake up...wow...you'll know it because he has some lungs on him! However, most of the time he is just a super smiley easy going baby.

It should be noted that of course Jack has presented us with some challenges over the last 7 months. When he was very little he liked to be swaddled *tight* or else he would hit himself in the head with his left hand and wake up (queue screaming). Jack also likes to eat. He decided that breastfeeding was to slow for him so at 4 months, on a plane flight to Chicago, he threw in the towel. (Luckily I did have a backup bottle and formula with me as I feared this could happen.) I'm serious about the towel throwing...his favorite item in the world is a blue and white burb cloth that he snuggles with every night. Any piece of fabric will work for him, but the cloth is his favorite.

So a common question I hear is how are Kathryn and Jack doing together? Overall I would say great. Kathryn does have her jealous moments. For some reason when I change Jack's diaper she can get upset. But in general Kathryn loves her "Jacky". Sometimes, a bit too much, as she also enjoys trying to give him the bottle, put the pacifier in his mouth, and nuzzle him. "Gentle, Kathryn" is heard a lot in the Lerch home.

In general I would say March was one of the hardest months for our family. Jack was still very little, Emil had started a new job, my parents had returned to Chicago after months of much appreciated help, and Kathryn hit a real defiant streak. Since then things have only gotten better. I think we are on easy street at the moment actually as the kids have the same afternoon nap time (2 hours!) and now that Jack can sit up but can't go anywhere!

I have returned to work after a 7 month leave. This transition has been made much easier due to our nanny! She is wonderful!

There are tons of pics to check out! We consolidated our pictures at http://thelerchs.shutterfly.com

Also, videos on YouTube are up to date as of February. We'll be posting more videos shortly!

More pictures of Jack

2007-12-23T22:38:00.000-08:00

Photos from the Hospital

First set of new Shutterfly pictures: http://jackemil.shutterfly.com/action/pictures?a=67b0de21b358b22f2582

Jack's new Shutterfly site: http://jackemil.shutterfly.com

An update on our progress:

Kelly pushed for all of 16 minutes. Half of that was spent waiting for the Dr to arrive! We were discharged 30 hours after arriving. This was an induced labor...with Kelly at 6-7cm for 2 weeks the Dr. was worried we wouldn't make it to the hospital. We think it was the right call.

After we got home, though, things did not go so smoothly. Saturday morning Emil jumped in the car as early as possible and went to urgent care because a persistent sore throat. They thought it was a cold, but ran a test for strep throat just to be sure. Ten minutes later, the doctor comes into the room with a prescription in hand for Amoxocillin and says not to go anywhere near the kids for 48 hours...I had strep throat.

Kelly called the pediatrician to find out what to do, and the pediatrician counteracts the instructions a bit. It turns out the real problem with strep in kids is the possibility of rheumatic fever, and they don't get that until age 3, so they should be safe should they get the bacteria. Of course, it still wouldn't be fun, so stay very, very clean for the next 24 hours.

Well, Kelly and her mom have also been feeling miserable, and Kathryn has had a cold for what seems like forever, so Saturday was spent taking everyone except Jack to the doctor. Bottom line is that Kelly has a cold, Kelly's mom and Emil both have strep throat, and Kathryn has a cold but it's triggered an ear infection. Three out of the 5 of us are now taking Amoxocillin. Kelly's mom and I are both feeling a *TON* better, although she has something else on top of the strep, so I'm feeling the best right now. Kelly should be over her cold soon, although she still thinks there's a possibility of her having strep (and she does have some symptoms which could point to cold or strep, and they only did the fast anitbody test at urgent care...they don't do the slower test). Jack still seems fine, and Kathryn has always seemed normal, just a very drippy nose and a cough, but I'm sure she's on the mend too.

What a weekend! We've been using this alcohol-based hand sanitizer before touching Kathryn or Jack or handling anything that might make it to their mouths.

Baby Lerch is here!!!

2007-12-20T13:08:00.000-08:00

It's a BOY!!!

John Emil Lerch born 11:36AM December 20, 2007

19.75" long
9lbs
APGAR 9-9

We will be calling him Jack.

Everyone is doing great!

Baby #2 Game!

2007-11-27T16:52:00.000-08:00

Well, we are getting into the final countdown for Baby Lerch #2! Emil and I are both excited and still in a state of disbelief/denial that there are going to be two babies to care for now. What a big job - yikes!

Emil has decided to run the stats game again - so please do visit our website at http://www.lerch.org/baby and input your guesses for gender/weight/length and date of birth. You do not need to register, but do need to provide a phone number so we can call you! For additional fun Emil has decided to let folks enter in a name they would like to suggest for the baby. We could pick your name since we still haven't decided!

To give everyone an even playing field on which to base their guess I'll provide a few facts about this pregnancy:

It's pretty much the same as when I was pregnant with Kathryn except for me hurting my back (I'm much better now!) I still crave ice cream like before. The only new thing is an addiction to root beer. I would say I was a bit more nausous in the begining with this one.

The heart rate is slower at around 136 beats per minute than Kathryn's was in utero.

This baby moves significantly less than Kathryn did.

I think I am carrying the baby the same as before.

Regarding the due date - when I was pregnant with Kathryn I was in labor for a grand total of 8 hours (very fast for first pregnancy) and I was 4 cm for about a week before her estimated due date. With this pregnancy I am at 4 cm right now! Seeing as Kathryn was 1 day early and I'm already progressing the doctor does not think I'll deliver after December 19th. That being said she has been wrong with my friend twice! :-) Regardless of due date there doesn't seem to be any debate that this labor will be very fast!

Happy guessing!

Even more pictures/videos

2007-08-17T10:26:00.000-07:00

In the last update, I missed a few items:

Pictures and videos from our friend Paul, including a potato salad adventure that Karyn should enjoy
Professional pictures from just after her first birthday, taken at Portrait Innovations.

Enjoy!

New pictures and videos now posted

2007-08-15T14:16:00.000-07:00

Kathryn is now standing on her own, and on August 13th, she decided to start walking on her own. She usually does just a few steps on her own right now, but any day she'll be running around like crazy. With any luck, she'll be running through the fountain near our house before the summer ends.

I've just uploaded a ton of pictures and videos at kathrynmarie.shutterfly.com and youtube.com/lerchfamily. Here's a brief summary:

Pictures:

July pictures:

Kathryn starts to stand on her own. She also enjoyed a visit from grandma.
Birthday pictures:
Pictures from Kathryn's first birthday. She had a blast, and got her very own chair!
June pictures:
Just a few pictures from June, (outside her birthday pictures). We had some serious food fun!
May pictures:

May included a weekend away with our friends the Northams, including a bike ride to the beach. Lots of crawling, and some fun times with Kathryn's friend Abby.
Visit from grandpop Lerch:

Emil's dad visited for some time in April and got to see Kathryn. Here are a few pictures from the trip.

Videos:

Kathryn's first steps: Kathryn takes some of her few unassisted steps
Kathryn has fun with a spoon and then says bye-bye: She's learning a lot these days - eating with a spoon, walking, and talking. Here's a video demonstrating two of the three
Kathryn...the drinking files: Kathryn drinks in a very loud manner...here are a couple clips demonstrating her skills
Kathryn gets tired after dinner: Even tired, Kathryn does some cute things.
Kathryn eats a snack: Kathryn eats a snack
Kathryn decides between dishwasher and phone: Kathryn loves the dishwasher. Kathryn loves the phone. This is what happens when she has access to both
Kathryn walks with mom: Here she is, walking with mom
Kathryn goes for a ride on dad's shoulders: Kathryn loves to be bounced around on dad's shoulders
Kathryn walks with the walker: Kathryn has a walker borrowed from friends, so she's not stuck holding our hands all the time. ;-)
Kathryn and dad go for a walk: She had just learned to walk at this time (with help)
Kathryn plays with the cabinets: She loves to open and close the cabinets
Kathryn and the dishwasher: Kathryn loves the dishwasher
Kathryn dances again: Kathryn bops around again, this time standing
Kathryn Dances: Kathryn likes to bop to music - here's an example

Oh My - Another One!

2007-08-04T10:09:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since our last post, and we have some exciting news to share! We are expecting our second baby! The approximate due date is December 17th, which puts me at about 20 weeks right now. In fact Emil and I have our ultrasound this upcoming Friday, but are still on fence as to if we find out the gender or not. (Ok, *I'm* on the fence, Emil definitely wants to know.) As you may recall we did not find out with Kathryn.

Based on the due date our newest little one and Kathryn will be almost exactly 18 months apart. Several folks have asked if we had planned this, and the answer is not exactly. We always wanted the kids close together, but 18 months was a bit sooner than we had expected. Yikes! This is Kathryn when we told her the news....

We found out we were pregnant on Tuesday April 10th, after watching a TIVO'ed episode of '24'. I just had this strong feeling I was pregnant - and sure enough! Needless to say Emil and I were both more than a little surprised!

So far the pregnancy has gone fairly well, but I was much more nauseous with this one than Kathryn. It was worst from 4:00 - 8:00 PM. This made taking care of Kathryn at night a bit tough. Even the thought of baby food made my stomach turn (still does actually). And changing poopy diapers...forget it! Poor Emil had to do much of the child care himself for about 14 weeks. But now that I'm about half-way there I'm doing great!

I really started to feel the baby move last week, around 18 weeks along. It's very cool. At first this one was only active at night, but now I feel it in the afternoon and when I go to bed around 10 PM. At times I'm a bit sad, knowing this is likely the last time I'll be pregnant. Emil and I are very excited, but our big concern right now is where to put the new baby! Kathryn won't quite be old enough for a 'big girl' bed, and I'm not sure I want to do two nurseries.... hmmm..

Here are a few pictures from our first ultrasound!

Mexico vacation

2007-04-24T15:51:00.000-07:00

The family had a great time in Mexico celebrating Kelly's mom's retirement! We spent the week in Casa Manana in Bucerias, about 30 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta. Emil, Kathryn, Kelly's parents, sister, and brother-in-law were all there.

On Tuesday, Mike, Emil, and Nick went fishing, and Emil and Nick caught some huge Roosterfish. Emil's broke the Mexican Roosterfish record and was 63" long and 96lbs, while Nick's was 54" long and 83lbs. The world record was 66" long and 114lbs. They are some big (and very heavy) fish!

More pictures from April, along with the ones from Mexico, are coming soon!

Happy Easter!

2007-04-08T07:47:00.001-07:00

Time flies, and we can't believe Kathryn is already 9 months old!

She now has two teeth, both on the bottom (February 10th and March 27th). We aren't sure if it's the teeth or not, but Kathryn is definitely a drooler. She wears bibs most of the time now or else we need to do an outfit change.

Probably the biggest change is just how *big* Kathryn has grown. Today at her check-up we learned she is 19lbs and 29 inches long. Thus she's in the 50% for weight and 75% for height.

We are well on our way with solid foods. I think Kathryn has had almost every type of size 2 food Gerber makes. She has also recently mastered picking up small pieces of food (like Cheerios) and feeding herself. She's been a pro-bottle holder for several weeks now, which has been really helpful!

Kathryn still doesn't crawl, but we keep thinking it could be any day! She can get from a sitting position down on her tummy, and even pushes up on her hands, but alas, she only makes backwards progress - which she isn't too happy about! While she hasn't mastered crawling, she has been swimming! She completed her first Baby & Me swim class and by the end was really loving splashing, riding the kickboard, and floating in her own life vest.

Always a social one Kathryn loves going to playgroup and seems to enjoy daycare. However, since many of her friends are crawling she has learned that they can quickly take her toys away. So she's developed an interesting skill to keep her toys - she hides them behind her back! It's pretty cute. When she's not hiding the toys she's banging them together. She especially likes measuring cups.

Kathryn's a pretty vocal kid. She does lots of talking, especially when she's tired. She also just yells sometimes for fun - which is *not* fun for Mom and Dad. When she's excited she will flap her arms up and down and if she's really excited she gets her legs kicking as well! She's got a great laugh. Check out this video of her laughing.

The weather in Oregon has been really nice the past few weeks. Spring is here and the flowers are blooming! With the nice weather we've been heading to the park most days after work. Kathryn enjoys looking at the ducks and loves going on the swing!

We are looking forward to our upcoming Mexico trip! Kathryn has already requested a sombrero.

Pictures from February and March are available, so if you haven't yet checked them out, take a look!

New Videos we've added (we've been busy, so some are a bit older):

Baby's first Christmas
Kathryn plays in her excersaucer
Kathryn gives us a raspberry (this is a skill she quickly lost, but she still likes receiving them!)
On January 17th, we had snow in Portland, and caught Kathryn and Mom playing
A short game of peekabo that got Kathryn laughing
Kathryn got to play with a flashlight, and in the words of Kathy Meier, "discovered the force"
We played with Kathryn and tried to get her to demonstrate moving from sitting to crawling position...but failed
Kathryn and dad played the "hand game" where she bangs on the table and dad follows suit. She loved it!
We got some video of Kathryn at swim class

Kathryn's new sense of taste

2007-02-05T03:57:00.000-08:00

Just uploaded a few pictures of Kathryn's new tasty treats...her feet. Just recently she's taken to putting her foot in her mouth when you take off her diaper to change her (a few photos were left out or edited for publication). It's pretty cute. Anyway, enjoy.

Oh yeah, and she's discovering the computer, too. ;-)

2007 is Here!

2007-01-20T09:23:00.000-08:00

It's been a whirlwind holiday season! The Lerch family was in Chicago to celebrate Kathryn's first Christmas!

Kathryn did great on the flights back and forth. She loved the airport as she is facinated by all the people. She was definetly a head turner hanging out in her Bjorn carrier wearing her little Santa cap. She gave and received lots of smiles. As this was Kathryn's second plane flight she felt she was a pro and wanted to hand over her own boarding pass to the gate agent. Needless to say this was unbelieveably cute.

Kathryn loved opening her presents, and as expected was generally more facinated by the paper than the gift. She definetly made out like a bandit in the gift department this year! Check her out in her 'First Christmas' hat from Aunt Karyn and Uncle Nick.

Developmentally there have been lots of changes! Probably most exciting is that Kathryn has mastered sitting up! She can reach and grab toys around her and is definetly into playing with anything within her grasp. As she also likes faces you are likely to get your nose and lips grabbed when you list expect it. Kathryn has also discovered she can play ball with Mom and Dad, which resulted in lots of giggles! She grabs her feet on the changing table and will sometimes put them in her mouth. Kathryn has also discovered her voice, resulting in lots of loud 'aaaahhhhhh' and squeals.

Some of the most fun, and definetly messy, times we've had have been feeding Kathryn food. After rice cereal, and then peas (not her favorite), we've had all sorts of stuff including oatmeal, peaches, bananas (loves them!), apples, apricots, squash, and sweet potatoes. She always takes the first bit and then scrunches up her face like she doesn't like it, yet always wants more!

On January 8th Kathryn had her 6-month doctor's appointment. She is 26.75 inches long, 15 pounds 1 ounce, head circumfrance 17 inches. This puts her roughly in the 25% for weight and 75% for height.

The latest pictures are Kathryn in the snow in Portland. She even got daycare cancelled for two days, so she got to hang at home with Mom and Dad! Here's all the pictures and videos posted since the last update.

Pictures:

From our photo session to get just the right picture for our Christmas card
The biggest set of pictures ever posted. Taken between Thanksgiving and January 2007
Pictures taken with Kathryn and our neighbor's snowman

Videos:

Kathryn starts to sit unsupported
Kathryn eats solid food for the first time. These are the peas...she remains not a huge fan
Dad and Kathryn play together
Kathryn loves it when the toad in her bath spits at her
Kathryn does her Princess Leia impression
Kathryn gets in her activity saucer for the first time
Seth and Kathryn get a chance to play togther
Pushing the saddle makes sounds...
Baby's first Christmas presents

Wow - what a November!

2006-12-02T18:50:00.000-08:00

The last month has just flown by! Mostly becuase it has been so fun! Emil and I have loved this age. I've been back at work 3 days a week and Kathryn has been going to daycare. She still seems to love the other older children!

This month Kathryn got to see her Grandma and Grandpa Sloan and Grammy and Great Grammy Lerch! In addition, she met her uncles and cousin on the Gehman side over Thanksgiving. Very fun!

As far as Milestones, this month Kathryn learned how to roll over from back to stomach. She does this several times a day now, generally preferring her stomach to her back. Just today she did it during her nap! We also started her on rice cereal. She has taken to it really well and is now *very* interested in food in general. While we don't know exactly how much she weighs our estimates put her about 15 pounds and 25 inches long!

Probably the most thing is that Kathryn really laughes now. She is getting more and more into peekaboo, and will definetly giggle if you give her tummy a gentle buzzing.

We have uploaded quite a few pictures and many , many, many, videos - so please be sure to check those out.

Massive Kathryn update

2006-11-01T21:20:00.000-08:00

Sorry about the large amount of video and pictures, but Kathryn has just been getting cuter and cuter! The last couple weeks have been very busy. She had her second series of immunization shots (for the same things as her first series) on October 25th, which she took very well. She spent some time on that day interviewing for a day care provider and settled on Heidi, an in home provider. Also on the 25th, she decided to hang out in a pumpkin!

She celebrated her 4 month birthday in style, and had fun on Halloween dressing up as a bunny and going into work with Kelly. On 11/1, Kelly restarted work on a part time basis and Kathryn met all her new friends at day care. So far she seems to love them and they love her!

So, the new photos, all 111 of them, can be found on the new shutterfly album.

There are also a bunch of new videos added to YouTube. They are:

Kathryn playing on her changing table
Some activity center fun
Moments later, some activity center craziness
A lengthy interview video
Just some smiles

Grammy L & The Pumpkin Patch

2006-10-14T10:27:00.000-07:00

Grammy Lerch came for her first visit with Kathryn last week! They had a great time playing together with Kathryn's toys including the pink puppy and the little monkey. Grammy also read Kathryn 'Fox in Sox', which she very much enjoyed.

Unfortunately while Grammy was here Kathryn started to have odd night wakings where she required additional burping and was spitting up. Back to the pediatrician we went, where she was diagnosed with acid reflux. Kathryn is now taking Zantac, and so far things have been great!

Our best outing with Grammy was to the pumpkin patch! Kathryn pet her first horse, and saw a donkey! Not to mention all the pumpkins. We got lucky with a beautiful (albeit windy) day. There are some great pictures - so please do check them out!

3 Months!

2006-10-14T10:09:00.000-07:00

Kathryn is now 3 months old! It has gone by so fast. All of her 0-3 clothes are now put away.
:-( But we are now in tons of new 3-6 month outfits! Including her super-cute apple outfit. Check out her latest pics.

In the last month Kathryn did get a cold, even in her eyes (very goopy), and that was no fun. I was sick at the same time with a fever. Emil had his hands full taking care of his girls. The Lerch household was definetly under the weather for about a week, explaining the lack of photos and blogging.

Kathryn now bats at objects, and even grabs some of her rattles and toys. She is smiling and cooing even more now. She has laughed, but just a handful of times. Very cute!

On the social scene Kathryn has been going to weekly playgroups and mom's group. She now notices the other babies and had a conversation with her friend Lucia.

You are number 70981...

2006-09-22T13:23:00.000-07:00

...this is the message we received two days ago in response to the letter that grandfather Mike sent to put Kathryn on the waiting list for 4 season tickets to the Green Bay Packers. Hopefully this will be a good retirement gift for her. Their web page says 57,000 names are on the list and the average wait time is 30 years, but with over 70,000 on the list it could take a little longer.

More Kathryn pictures

2006-09-18T10:35:00.000-07:00

There are more pictures now on Shutterfly, covering:

August 29th-September 7th (most of the time the family was in Chicago)
September 13th-16th, covering some really cute stuff that Kathryn did during a visit from her friend Abby and over the weekend

We have another couple videos coming to a computer screen near you sometime very soon...

What a wedding!

2006-09-18T10:31:00.000-07:00

Tons and tons of pictures and videos await! The family was in Chicago for 18 days to help plan and prepare for Kelly's sister's wedding. Well, the wedding was just fantastic, and there are lots of pictures and several videos of:

Cutting the cake
Dad/Daughter dance
The happy couple's first dance
Kelly's speech, complete with rap to the tune of ice ice baby
Matt's speech (apologizes for only getting a portion...Emil claims he was distracted by the baby)
Mike's speech
The rehearsal

Lyrics to 'Love Love Baby':

They were in Jamaica for swimming and for fun
Karyn with her fam, and Amanda in the sun
Something grabbed her and Nick tightly
And they became an item on the bar scene nightly
Will it ever stop Yo - don't think so!
Now they're in Chicago and that I know
To the extreme their love they can handle
They light up the stage and today they lit the candle!

Nick moved to Chicago even though its cold
he promised to love Karyn until they're old
They work together doing the graphics thing
Last July Nick proposed downtown at the bean.

Love it or leave it Nick had to like flags
He built a wagon to carry the bags
If there was a problem - Yo Nick will solve it!
Check out his hair after the girls mohawked it!

Love Love Baby, Forever Love Love Baby

Pediatrician appointment, including first immunization series

2006-08-29T14:14:00.000-07:00

(if you want to skip all the crazy pediatrician update, yes, there are more Kathryn pictures on Shutterfly!)

It's been a pretty busy time the last few weeks. The family has been working on a sleep schedule, preparing for Kelly's sister's wedding, and traveling to Chicago.

Now that the excuses are out of the way, Kathryn had her second regular pediatrician appointment, which included several shots of the standard CDC recommended immunization series. Looking at the PDF file, she got the "2 month" series, which included:

Hep B: Heppatitus B
PCV: Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine
Hib: Haemophilus Influenza Type b
DTaP: Diptheria, Tetanus and Pertussis
IPV: Inactivated Polio Virus

Wow...That was hard to type. Anyway, it basically 3 actual shots (two in the left leg, one in the right), and an oral vaccine. The oral was a fairly new vaccine that saved her from a 4th shot. Needless to say, Kathryn didn't like that one bit. It was somewhat of a delayed reaction, as she had never had a shot before, and she stayed pretty grumpy for the next 24 hours. Apparently that's actually pretty good, as some babies are grumpy for 3 days, but it still didn't make the parents very happy.

The fun pediatrician update:

Weight: 10lbs, 7.8oz (60%)
Height: 23 in (75%)
Head: 39 cm (75%)

The head went from the 25th to the 75th percentile in 6 weeks, so we were pretty amazed.

Kathryn now smiles in the morning pretty consistently and can control her head better each day. She's also rolling over a lot more and even decided to show the pediatrician her new trick! We've seen lots of "mini-pushups", and we think she's starting to grab for (and kick at) things. She definitely knows her parents faces and voices now. The cutest thing is Kathryn's cooing noises. She loves to say 'gahh' and 'agoo'.

As far as sleep goes, she's not yet sleeping through the night or anything, but will do 5 or 6 hours at a time (usually from about 9PM to 2 or 3 AM). After the 2 or 3AM feeding, she will go back to sleep until 5AM or so, when she'll demand to be held until 8 or 9AM. Naps in her crib or pack 'n play are a challenge, but we are working on it!

More pictures, and another video (Kathryn rolls over)

2006-08-09T10:35:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to mention that there are more pictures of Kathryn up on shutterfly, and there is another video taken this morning. The video is just a little light-challenged, but clearly shows Kathryn rolling over. Use the link above or just view it below.

More pictures are also available on Shutterfly, including the one that came in the announcements. We've basically just done a couple new albums with rough timeframes.

The last week of July album shows various pictures, including the one from the announcement (and another that was a very close second)
The 5th week of life album shows pictures, coincidentally, of her 5th week of life. She's definitely getting more animated. Still waiting to have the camera handy for really good smile...she's doing that more and more.

Kathryn gets her first earthquake...and sleeps through it

2006-08-03T14:54:00.000-07:00

For Kelly and I, it took over 20 years to feel our first earthquake. For Kathryn, it took 43 days. At 1:39AM last night, a magnitude 3.8 quake hit about 20 miles away from us. The whole family slept through it, but the noise and movement apparently woke a lot of people up. More information can be found here.

Kathryn figures out what night is?

2006-08-03T14:52:00.000-07:00

We're on quite the streak lately. For the past 4 nights, Kathryn has been asleep solid between the hours of midnight and 5AM. Being a little superstitious about the whole thing we don't want to claim preliminary victory, but this is a positive sign that sleeping habits may be forming...

Kathryn's web nursery photo finally posted

2006-07-22T11:47:00.000-07:00

So you've seen the video of the photo session...after an email and a phone call, her picture is now finally posted!

Lots more Kathryn!

2006-07-21T07:53:00.000-07:00

Needless to say, the last several weeks have been quite busy at the Lerch household. Kathryn is now 8lbs, 10oz, and we can tell she's grown. We've gotten lots of pictures (direct link new pictures here) and several new videos posted. Very cute! Here's a quick rundown on the pictures:

Kathryn likes to "bird" us (we think she looks like a baby bird asking for food) when hungry. We got this video of it on July 6th.
She started to be able to hold her head up right around July 13th.
We got lots of video of her first real bath (before July 20th it was all sponge baths), the dressing process, and afterwards we posed for a family picture.
Yesterday (July 20) we got some video of her now very lengthy wake up process.