I Love This Time of Year!

It's finally warming up outside!!! The past 2 days we have been able to get Kaylee out and take her for a walk in her stroller and just get some fresh air! Plus I love being able to put her in her spring/summer clothes because she just looks too cute! Here are some pictures I took yesterday...

I love her sunglasses!

Too cute!
My cool baby :)

I am looking forward to being able to take her outside and lay a blanket out in the front yard for her to be able to play on. When I went shopping for her summer clothes I bought all 12 month sizes...but when I put her in one of the 12 month onesies and a 12 month pair of shorts, they were pretty tight...this doesn't make sense because all of her 9 month long sleeve onesies and sleep n plays fit... so I might be making a trip soon to buy some onesies and shorts in 18 month...that just doesn't sound right! She is growing up too fast!

She is starting to do this really cute thing when she is being held and someone walks up and talks to her and tries to make her smile, she will hug whoever is holding her and bury her head in their shoulder. It's so adorable! She loves it when Daniel or I play with her and try to get her neck or stomach. She starts laughing and has the biggest smile. Her first tooth is completely through now and I think the one beside it is slowly trying to come through.

One thing that I am SO happy about is the progress she has made with her reflux. It has been a week since we cut back her medicine to only once a day and she has been doing just fine with it! She had a few days where she was throwing up(her solid food, not her formula) a couple of times a day but it didn't seem to bother her. Luckily that has stopped and everything seems fine. We have cut back on her gel thickener and I think whenever we run out of the gel that we have, we will see how things go without thickening. It will be weird not having to thicken her formula or give her medicine anymore since we have been doing that since she was 3 weeks old. But it will be nice for things to just be 'normal' and not have to worry about reflux.

I feel like we are very lucky... when she had reflux problems they were severe compared to most... but we are lucky that she has grown out of it so quickly. I know of several babies who have continued to have issues with reflux past the 1 year mark.

I have got to get back into a routine of blogging more often... but things have just been pretty uneventful here lately. I'm trying to think of what I want to do for Kaylee's 1st birthday... like what I want the theme of the party to be, where I want to have it, etc... I know it's early but I figured if I slowly collect things (decorations) that match the theme of the party, it won't be as bad as trying to find a bunch of stuff at the last minute!

First Tooth!

This will be a quick post because... I...Am...Wore...Out! Kaylee finally has her first tooth coming through. It is the bottom middle one. It is just barely sticking up far enough to where I can feel the top of it. She was up until 10:45 last night so I'm not sure if that was bothering her or if she just wasn't sleepy.

Just 1 more week and then her Grandma will be coming up to see her! And then the week after that we will be going back to Tennessee for a couple of days! We have figured out that it is best if we leave for long road trips at night around Kaylee's bedtime. When we do that she usually sleeps the whole way and it makes the trip a lot faster because we don't have to stop for diaper changes.

Other than the first tooth, it has been a pretty uneventful past few days here. I am trying to get caught up on Kaylee's baby book and that seems like it is taking forever. Tonight we used some ink to put Kaylee's foot prints and hand prints in the book. It said on the case that the ink was washable but it made such a big mess! We couldn't get the ink off of her so we had to give her a bath (and I think she still has ink on her!).

Well, like I said, this is a short post... hopefully I can come up with more to write about later this week...but for now, I'm going to bed!

7 Months!

Baby girl, if you don't stop growing up so fast, I don't know what I'm going to do! You turned 7 months old yesterday and you just continue to change every day. I actually think you were going through a growth spurt yesterday because you were constantly fussy and more tired than usual. Your biggest accomplishment this month has been learning to pull yourself up to standing. You even managed to hold onto the edge of your crib and stand there for a few minutes before you fell down! Here's what you've been up to this past month:

• Just like last month, you are still in size 3 diapers. They seem like they are starting to get a little tight on you, so we have been stocking up on size 4.
• Our plan of condensing your formula intake down to 4 bottles a day worked! You take four 8 oz bottles each day (you make it so easy on us!)... I remember when it was a struggle for you to go 3 hours without eating... now you can go 4 hours easily and sometimes you can even wait for 5 hours!
• You eat solids once a day right now, but that is something I plan on increasing to twice a day starting next week. We have been extra careful to make sure we go through all of the new stage 2 foods to make sure you don't have any other allergies and we have pretty much tried everything and you haven't had a problem with any of the new foods. You love eating the solid foods and especially love bath night because you get a very messy Biter Biscuit after you eat to chew on and make a mess before you get a bath!
• You are completely out of 6 month clothes now and into 9 month and some 12 month clothes!
• You sleep for about 10 hours straight each night.
• You would love nothing more than to be able to chew on Liza & Remi's nose...anytime they come near your face you open your mouth really wide and try to pull their nose towards it!
• You are still working on rolling over. This morning, according to Daddy, you rolled completely across the room because you kept pushing your toy just out of reach!
• You do such a good job at sitting up now! You can sit without having to put your hands down to balance yourself and you will even pick up and toy and play with it while sitting up! You still fall down every now and then, and just like I mentioned last month, you think it's funny when you fall over!
• Your bouncer is still your favorite place to be... I even had to raise it up another notch since you have gotten taller!
• You give us the cutest laugh when we try to 'get your stomach or your neck.'
• You have started to try to sleep on your stomach for all of your naps and last night you even rolled onto your stomach when I laid you down in bed and went right to sleep. I am still nervous about you sleeping on your stomach, so I left you there, while I watched you on the monitor, until your Daddy & I went to bed. Then we rolled you back over onto your back and you stayed that way for the rest of the night.

As much as I don't like you sleeping on your stomach, you look so cute when you do!

Silly, silly baby!

Another month has gone by and you are still cuter that ever. We love you so much Kaylee bug and we love watching you change and grow everyday! I hope as you grow up, you always know how much you mean to us! I love you bug! Love, Mommy

Saying 'Da Da'

Kaylee finally said 'DaDa' when Daniel was around on Monday! She has been going through this stage where she will just sit there and keep saying "Na Na Na Na" and trying to stick her tongue out at the same time. Monday night she was in her bouncer while we were eating supper and those Na Na's turned to Da Da's once or twice!

The last few days have been pretty uneventful. I did wake up this morning to find Kaylee laying on her stomach. It was around 6, so earlier than her usual 7:00 wake up time. I went into the bathroom to grab something and when I came back out to get her up, she was asleep again..on her stomach! I know she enjoys sleeping on her stomach when she is laying on her playmat but usually the second she rolls over in her playyard she gets fussy. She fell back to sleep and actually slept for another hour and 1/2.

Yesterday we went and picked up her prints from her 6 month photo session and hung them on the wall as soon as we got home! They turned out great and I love having pictures of Kaylee up everywhere... I just can't get enough of that little monster!

I came across this website (http://laylagrace.org/) and just wanted to share it. I know this family needs a lot of prayers right now. They just lost their 2 year old little girl to cancer yesterday. I read their posts on Twitter and it is heartbreaking to be reminded that there are families out there that have to deal with such a terrible loss, especially in their case where there was nothing else the doctors could do for their little girl and had to bring her home to watch her slowly pass away. Knowing that this little girl was perfectly healthy leading up to when they discovered the cancer is just a reminder to me that I need to be thankful for today because no one knows what tomorrow will bring. I know here lately I have been stressed because of Daniel's job situation but compared to something like this, that is nothing. I am so lucky to have my family here with me and a healthy, happy baby girl. Reading stories like this definitely puts things into perspective.

Here are some recent pictures of the cutest little girl I know!

I was going to fill up the diaper holder on her playyard but decided to throw diapers at her instead! She loved it!

Messy face after eating a cookie!

Today while we were waiting on the people @ Honda to finish working on Daniel's bike, we decided to let Kaylee try out motorcycles. This is a little 50 that I would like to get for her in a couple of years (they even make training wheels for them!)

Vote for Kaylee!

I need help from you guys! The photographer who did Kaylee's 6 month pictures is having a cutest kid contest. The voting lasts from now until Wednesday at midnight. If you go to www.nicolenelsonphotography.blogspot.com and vote for her (#8) I would really appreciate it! The winner gets a free session, that would come in handy for her 1 year pictures, and some free prints! So if you get a chance, please vote for her :)

First cold...and eating things she shouldn't...

It seems like just last week that Kaylee wouldn't play with her toys and never really tried to grab anything. Every day I think she tries harder and harder to get into things around the house. I know that when she starts crawling I am going to have my hands full! Last week Daniel & I took Kaylee to Lowes to get a few things we needed around the house. Daniel accidentally dropped Kaylee's toy on the ground as he was getting her out of the car so we didn't have a toy to carry in with us (it had been raining all day so the toy got soaked as soon as it hit the ground).

I had my shopping list in my hand as I was pushing the buggy and Kaylee kept trying to grab it. Finally I gave in and just let Kaylee 'hold' the list. Daniel pushed her around for a while so that I could grab some things we needed... I turned around to put the things in the buggy and noticed there was a pretty big piece of paper missing from my shopping list which was now covered with baby drool. Kaylee opened her mouth and smiled really big so that I could see her afternoon snack. The piece completely covered her tongue and I didn't really know what to do... do I stick my finger in her mouth and try to get the paper (after I had touched the buggy and a bunch of other stuff) or do I just let her swallow it... well... she swallowed it! She thought it was pretty funny and I think she knew she had gotten away with something she wasn't supposed to do!

Wednesday night I started not feeling that great and also noticed that Kaylee sounded stopped up when she was asleep. She kept waking up coughing and not being able to breathe through her nose so we had to wake her up and give her some nasal drops to help clear out her nose. Thursday Daniel had a tryout a few hours before his plane was leaving for Las Vegas so Kaylee and I drove down to Concord to meet him for lunch before he had to leave. The whole weekend neither one of us felt that great. I'm still sick but I think Kaylee is almost over her little cold and she is back to sleeping much better at night! And speaking of sleeping, she has become a side sleeper. Up until now she would always sleep flat on her back but now she has to roll over completely on her side to sleep at night and there are times that she will sleep on her stomach if she is laying on her play mat.

Even though she didn't feel good, that didn't keep her from playing in her bouncer

The picture is blurry because she wouldn't sit still!

Someone is also getting in a bad habit of rolling onto their stomach when they don't want to go to sleep or right when they wake up from a nap!

She always makes sure to hold onto her paci!

Looking back, baby items we couldn't live without!

Here's another one of those posts that I started 2 weeks ago but never finished. I thought it would be fun to look back and see what 'baby things' we have used the most over the past 6 months. Some of these are things we once used, some we have been using since we brought Kaylee home(I still think the term 'brought her home' sounds funny...like we went to the hospital and picked her out, filled out some papers and bam... we have a baby!) and some we have just recently started using.


1. Summer Infant Baby Video Monitor: I love this thing! When I was pregnant and too fat to get off the couch I would sit at home and research all of the baby products, trying to figure out what I needed and what I didn't have to have. I saw a lot of good reviews on this but still thought, a monitor is a monitor right? As long as you can hear them, that's all that matters... not! This has saved me many trips into Kaylee's room or wherever she is sleeping! I can see if she is actually crying because she is waking up or if she is just making noises as she is moving around. Plus, back when choking was constantly an issue, I would sit and watch the monitor while she slept because I was so afraid she would choke and not make a noise like she usually did.

2. Fisher Price Swing: It's almost like there are stages as babies grow up and there's that one big item/toy that they love. For about the first 3 months the swing was Kaylee's favorite place to be! When her reflux got bad, it was the only place she could 1/2 way comfortably nap during the day. I remember how small she was (well, small compared to now) when we brought her home and put her in it. After about 3 months she started to get to the point where she could lean over the side and hang off the edge of the swing. I didn't put a picture on here, but we also bought a Boppy brand travel swing when she was about 2 months old. She only got a little over a month's worth of use out of it but it was nice to have downstairs (since the larger swing was upstairs) and we could move it around to whichever room we were in. Looking back it's funny because I always had to take the toy bar off the travel swing because she would get so fussy and overstimulated (or mad because at the time she didn't know how to play with it) while looking at it.

3. Fisher Price Glowing Seahorse: Ahh... the seahorse! I don't know if it's the glow, the music or the combination of both but Kaylee loves 'seahorsey.' Anytime she takes a nap or when we put her in bed for the night, we always turn this thing on and she will stare at it until she falls asleep!

4. Graco Pack n Play(with all the extras): This is another one of those things I was tempted to cut corners on and just buy the basic pack n play without any of the extras like the bassinet, music, light, vibration or changing table and I'm so glad I didn't! The changing table was something we used quite a bit for the first month or so... back when we didn't want to change her on the bed because we were afraid of accidents (which it probably was a good thing we didn't because Kaylee had many accidents on this changing pad... conveniently when she didn't have a diaper on). We don't really use it anymore now because she is too big for it and it's much easier to change her on the bed (no more accidents these days). The bassinet part is something else that I love. I really wish I had a picture to post on here of the mattress pad part of the bassinet. It is basically a padded piece of cardboard (or something like it) and the weight limit is 15lbs.... Kaylee is 22lbs and you should see the permanent indention she has left on the mattress pad! I need to get a new one and just get rid of the bassinet part but I really don't want to because when we lay her in the bottom of the play yard she usually wakes up while you are lowering her down plus I like being able to see her from my bed while she is in the bassinet. The light feature hasn't been used much... it's not that bright, but the vibration and music feature have been great. The vibration was a lifesaver when her reflux was out of control and the only way to get her to sleep at night was to constantly keep turning that thing on. The music part is something that we still use... even with the music of her seahorse because it plays for quite a bit longer! If there has been one thing that we have definitely got our moneys worth out of, it's been the pack and play!

5. Graduates Biter Biscuits: Technically this is supposed to be for babies 10 months and up or those who are crawling, but Kaylee loves these things! The only bad part about them is they are very messy... so it is something that she gets every other night, on bath night! These are great when we need some time to clean up the kitchen before Daniel gives Kaylee her bath. One of these will pretty much buy you 20-30 minutes of happiness from her!

6. Diaper Genie II: I have read mixed reviews on Diaper Genies... but I'm so glad we got one! This was actually a gift from a family member and it has been so nice to have! I should've actually bought another one to go in our room (instead of the covered trash can that we use), but it's nice to never have to smell dirty diapers in Kaylee's room!

7. Changing Table: So many people have told me, "you don't need a changing table, it's a waste of money," but I really don't know what we would do without it! It's nice to be able to change Kaylee without having to bend over to reach her (on the couch) or change her in the floor. Plus the 3 drawers come in handy (especially since these are the only drawers we have) for having her clothes within reach when we change her. We have the same changing table that is in the picture below. And another thing that comes in handy, that goes along with the changing table, is the diaper caddy that hangs over the side of it. My mom got this for us after we brought Kaylee home and it is so nice to have diapers, wipes, lotions, creams and her hairbrush all right there.

8. Bumbo Seat: This was only used for about 2 months or so, but I think it definitely helped her learn how to sit up and strengthen her neck. Once she learned how to sit up in the seat without my help and it was time to start solid foods, I used this all the time for her to sit in while I fed her. I would still be using it now but she started to get too big for it and seemed uncomfortable every time I put her in it.

9. Bright Starts Jumper: This is one of those things that I am tempted to say, Kaylee couldn't live without. She spends a lot of time playing with her toys in her jumper and bouncing while watching Nick Jr. There are times that she doesn't even want to be held and will cry until I put her in this thing. This was a early Christmas present from her Grandma & Grandpa and is by far her favorite 'toy'!

10. Summer Infant Baby Spa Tub: Another thing I thought I could get by with (why is it that everything I thought I could do without, I ended up getting and using the most), is the baby spa tub. Thank goodness my mom went to Babies R Us a few days after we brought Kaylee home and bought us this tub to use. It's great because of the little shower sprayer thing that comes with it... so much easier than using a cup to pour water on her head and listening to her scream because she doesn't like it!

11. Primo Bath Tub: Around 5 months, Kaylee started to get too long for the infant tub but still wasn't ready for the big tub. I am so glad we found this tub... it has 2 sides, one for her to lean back while taking a bath and the other to sit up. Right now she is using the side where she can lay down but hopefully before long she will be able to sit up long enough for us to be able to give her a bath!

12. Fisher Price Rocking Chair: I'm noticing a trend with all of the Fisher Price stuff! This was another present from Kaylee's Grandma & Grandpa. She still uses it and is finally playing with the toys on the bar. We got it when she was 2 months old and at the time, it was a lifesaver when it came to giving Kaylee her meds (when she was on Prevacid). It would sit her at the perfect angle so that we could give the medicine to her without spilling it everywhere (ahh... looking back on those days like it was years ago...thinking the struggle with the medicine would never end...). The chair also vibrates which, once again, was good for the reflux issue. This chair was where she first got her legs going...she would kick as hard as she good to get the chair rocking as fast as possible!

13. Graco High Chair: Didn't think I'd need this either... I figured I could just find a way to get by without it. I was wrong... again... this was yet another present from Kaylee's Grandma & Grandpa (what I can't figure out is why didn't they just send us all this stuff in the beginning?!?!), and feeding time has been sooo much easier since then! I can already tell Kaylee is a little impatient because once I get her strapped in and put the tray on the highchair, she will bang her fists on the tray until I feed her! It's cute for now... but we will see how long that lasts!

So those are the main things I can think of that we use the most. I should've done this at like 3 months and then this post at 6 months but that is just another one of those things that I meant to do, but never got around to it... Maybe I will get around to doing another one of these at 12 months!

Valentines Day Weekend

This post is a little late...well, very late, but time has just been flying by! Kaylee had her first Valentines Day 2 weeks ago and it was a busy weekend! Thursday morning Daniel had to leave for Daytona, so it was just Kaylee and I the whole day. We sat around and played and watched tv and I tried to clean up the house a little bit while she took her nap. We went to bed early Thursday night because we had to be up early Friday morning to get ready for her 6 month checkup.

For some reason I have always had trouble getting Kaylee to the doctor without rushing... even when we first brought her home and she had her 3 day checkup, we were running late even with my mom helping me. Friday I had everything together and just had to grab a blanket for Kaylee and start the car. I put her in her bouncer and ran outside to start the car. I got back inside and told Kaylee that we were going to be on time for once and picked her up. And then...I smelled something....

At first I thought...hey, no big deal... I'll just change her real quick. I put her on our bed and pulled her pants off not thinking about what usually happens when she poops while in her bouncer. Yea... all over the inside of her pants, all over my freshly washed comforter, all over her socks and even a little bit got on her onesie (the only 9 month long sleeve onesie I had!). I managed to get her cleaned up, changed, get the comforter back in the washing machine and get her in the car all within 5 minutes!

We ended up making it to the doctor's office right on time. Kaylee did great as usual during her checkup. She started getting fussy when I was getting her dressed while waiting on the nurse to come in to give her her shots, so I figured if she was already in a bad mood before she got her shots, after she got them it was going to take me forever to calm her down. She had 2 different shots and a oral vaccine. On the first shot she never even flinched and didn't cry... on the 2nd shot she cried for maybe 10 seconds and then was back to smiling again. I got her loaded up in the car and we went back home to hang out for a little while before her Grandma & Great Grandma came to see us.

Once again, it snowed Friday night (about 3-4 inches) and Saturday morning Kaylee, Grandma(my Mom) and I went to Target to do some shopping! Kaylee was spoiled, as usual, and her Grandma and I bought her a bunch of clothes and some stage 2 solid foods. I had a hard time finding long sleeve onesies, so we left there and ran over to Kohls to see if they had any. Of course, they didn't...so we went over to Babies R Us and they were out too! I know it's close to spring but it's still too cold for her to wear short sleeve onesies and she has outgrown all of her 6 month clothes. I ended up finding 1 pack of long sleeve onesies a few days later at Carters...so I'm just going to have to make those last until it warms up outside :)

Saturday night my Mom and Grandma watched Kaylee for me while I went grocery shopping. Daniel left for Daytona on Thursday morning and was able to catch a ride on a plane back from Daytona Saturday night instead of staying there until Sunday night and missing Valentines Day with Kaylee and I. Sunday Daniel and I were able to go out to eat for lunch before Mom & Grandma had to leave. The rest of the day the 3 of us spent some time together at the house and then we took Kaylee to the mall in Winston to pick out some cute outfits from Baby Gap! Kaylee was good, as always, while we were at the mall. I think she loves riding around in her stroller and looking at everything in the stores.

Here are some pictures from the weekend!

Kaylee opening her Valentines present from Grandma

Kaylee & Great Grandma

Kaylee with her present from Grandpa

Looking at the caterpillar from her Great Uncle Bubba

My little love bug!

She loved her little ladybug

All of Kaylee's Valentines Gifts(Daniel made the card on the left for her and bought her the flowers and the dog is from both of us...I also bought her a heart shaped balloon that she loved)

Kaylee's 6 Month Pictures

These posts I am doing are completely out of order... I still haven't got around to finishing up Kaylee's Valentines Day post. I've still got a few posts that I have started that need to be finished and it's almost like a chore list. I keep putting off the ones that are going to take longer.

*Note to self- Never get behind on posts again!*

But back to the topic of this post... 6 month pictures! Well, technically 6 months, 1 week and 2 days... but who's counting right? Last Monday Daniel & I took Kaylee to have her picture made. I had been debating whether or not we should do this since money is tight right now but I'm so glad we did it! I found a great photographer in Clemmons, NC and scheduled a photo session. We went early in the morning, 9 am, because at the time when I scheduled the session Kaylee was taking her first nap around 11:30 in the morning and she was usually pretty happy until then. Of course, those plans were ruined because as soon as I scheduled the session Kaylee changed her routine and started taking a nap around 9 each morning...Great!

We got up early and got her dressed and headed out. As usual, we were running late and while Daniel was putting her in the car I was running around the house trying to grab all of her outfits, packing her diaper bag and trying to decide if I wanted to bring any extra things with us to be included (I know...this probably should've been done the night before but I usually forget and then deal with it 30 seconds before it is time to leave!)

Kaylee actually fell asleep on our way to the studio but was in a good mood once we got there. The photographer, Nicole, was great with Kaylee and got a lot of good shots. The session lasted about 2 hours but it was nice because we weren't rushed. At one point when Kaylee started to get fussy because she was tired, we decided to give her a bottle and let her take a VERY short power nap. Even though this is the one thing that drove me crazy only a few weeks ago (with her taking short naps and waking up wide awake and happy...only to last for about a hour), this worked out great in this situation and we were able to finish up with the session.

Other than Kaylee getting sleepy we only had one other meltdown. She was sitting up for a few of the pictures with Daniel sitting beside her and leaned back a little too far and fell backwards and hit her head before Daniel could catch her. Luckily this meltdown didn't last too long... she cheered back up and was back to her happy self in just a few minutes!

Here are some pictures from the session. Thanks to Nicole for letting me post these on here! If anyone comes across this page and is in the Winston Salem, NC area you should definitely check her out! Her website is http://www.nicolenelsonphoto.com/

This is probably my favorite picture of her!

Happy Baby!

Look at those rolls!

This is probably my 2nd favorite one! I love her outfit and the fact that she is standing up!

This picture looks so sweet! My precious baby!

I wish we had went with a professional photographer for her newborn pictures, but I look forward to having her 1 year pictures made by Nicole and hope to get some shots of the 3 of us!