One of Amaya's Favorite "Toys"

In an earlier post, Jan mentioned that one of Amaya's favorite things to do is stand up against the banister guard in the living room, and promised some pictures of her in action. Here they are!

Reading and Umm... Eating Books!

Amaya really enjoys her books. She likes to turn the pages, look at the pictures, and yes, sometimes chew on the pages. She must be trying to get those top two teeth to show up!

Grandma G's Birthday

Amaya had a great time at Mike & Arwen's while celebrating Grandma Gustafson's birthday... she spent most of her evening playing with a farm toy, and refrigerator magnets. She LOVED the magnets!

How Big is Amaya?

With winter rapidly approaching, we pulled out Amaya's snowsuit that I originally bought for her to wear over her "going home outfit," when she was born. I bought the snowsuit thinking that since she was a winter baby, we'd need something warm for her to wear. Little did we know, we'd be bringing home a "little peanut." We'll use it this year, for sure!

October 2008 - Amaya now weighs almost 17lbs

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008 - Amaya weighed 5lbs. 1oz

Have a Great Weekend!

Steve and I took tomorrow off (Friday), so we're heading up to the Cities to do a little shopping, do a little swimming, go to the Aquarium at Mall of America, maybe hit the Children's Museum or the Zoo (weather dependent). So... Have a great weekend!

9 Month Stats

Amaya met her new doctor today - Dr. Marc Matthews for her 9 month well-baby visit. Our old family medicine doctor left the Mayo Clinic a few months ago when his wife accepted another job in Michigan. We miss Dr. Berlanga, but Dr. Matthews was very nice.

Amaya is still considered a "light-weight", and now that she's crawling her weight may drop a little, but he wasn't concerned because her weight has been consistent. I'm amazed at how quickly she's growing. I finally packed away the last of her 3-6 month clothes. (I think she has one 3-6 month pair of PJs that still fit.) We've also just started noticing that some of her 6-9 month pants are getting a tad bit short.

Weight: Almost 17 pounds (7.7 kgs to be exact) - the 19th percentile
Height: 2 feet 3 inches - the 36th percentile

She got the first of a series of 2 influenza shots. She'll go back in 4 weeks to get the second one. She also got the polio vaccine. Amaya cried while the nurse gave her the injections and shortly thereafter, gave the nurse a great big smile. We also had to take Amaya to get some blood drawn. Since she spends a fair amount of time in houses that were built before 1978 (my parents, Steve's parents, and Steve's grandparents), they wanted to check a blood level for lead exposure and also for anemia. There were two lab technicians - one to draw the blood and another to "play" with Amaya during the procedure. Steve and I held her down and I looked the other way. Again, she did surprisingly well!

Amaya also has to have an opthamology consultation on November 3rd. She's had a blocked tear duct since birth and while it hasn't bothered her any, our doctor would like us to meet with the specialists and have them decide if there needs to be any intervention. Most blocked tear ducts will "work themselves out," but since hers hasn't, we'll get it checked out. I'm glad to hear that this shouldn't affect her vision either way. Steve has PERFECT vision and I'm blind as a bat, so I'm hoping that she has daddy's good eyes!

The Best Husband Ever

Yesterday, Steve and I were watching the movie, "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days." At one point during the movie, Kate Hudson's character receives 100 white roses from her love interest -Matthew McConaughey. The card says, "100 times more beautiful than 100 roses." I told Steve that it had been awhile since I had gotten flowers.

This afternoon, while my co-worker and I were anxiously awaiting the possible arrival of JCAHO (the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations), someone comes in the door and asks for Jan Gatzke. Egads! Does JCAHO need to question me personally?!? NOPE! My ever so thoughtful husband, sent me a dozen red roses and a cute teddy bear!! What a surprise! Today I am the envy of all my co-workers! Thanks Steve! You are the greatest - love you!

Rules for Halloween Candy Calorie Counting

There are NO calories in candy if...

1. It is eaten from your child's bag while the child is sleeping.
2. It is left over from the candy you bought to give out.
3. You bake it into another food item like a cookie.
4. It was bought at a half-price sale.
5. You swallow it whole without chewing.
6. If has nuts in it, because nuts are healthly.

A Few of Amaya's Favorite Things

Amaya has discovered a lot of things that can keep her occupied for hours!

1. Mirrors - (lets hope she's not already becoming vain)
2. Water Bottles
3. Furniture - if she can get her hands on it, she pulls herself up
4. Cabinet doors (or anything that has a knob on it)
5. Paper Shredder - I'm not sure if she just likes the sound or watching the paper "disappear"
6. Our new banister guard - click here to see an example - it provides her with hours of entertainment... pictures coming soon!

Grad School Update

So the first month of grad school is done already! Where has the time gone?

The "Integration of Psychology and Worldview" class is interesting, but the "Research Methods and Treatment of Data" class will get progressively more difficult as the semester goes on. The Research class is painful but necessary - by the end of this class I will have a research proposal written so I can begin my Master's thesis.

For those of you who are morbidly curious, here is an example of the articles we are required to read and critique each week for the research class:

Therapeutic Alliance and Treatment Progress in Couple Psychotherapy

The article is actually interesting, if you can make it through the mathematical-type formulas and information.