15 Months

Little Love,


Another month has gone by and I swear it's harder to keep up with you each month. From keeping up with how you are constantly changing to telling you 100 times a day to stay out of the trash can, you are always on the go! Here is what you've been up to:

• You're still in size 5 diapers.


• 18 month clothes fit you perfectly but you also wear a lot of 24 month clothes.


• You jumped up a shoe size... you wear a size 7 or 8, depending on the brand. The size 8 shoes you have are a little long on you but we had to order them because the size 7 wasn't wide enough. This is a issue we have every time we look for shoes for you!


• You have learned 3 new words this month, you can now also say "wemi" (Remi), "ish" (fish) and "inky" (stinky). It is the cutest thing when you say stinky because it sounds like you are pinching your nose while saying it!


• You have 8 teeth on top and 7 on the bottom. It's hard to keep track of them because you don't like opening your mouth for me to look!


• You are still doing good with your naps. You will usually take 2 per day.


• You have been sleeping for about 11 hours every night since the time change but now you seem to be going back to 12 hours. At night when you're really tired you get fussy and don't want anyone to hold you or read to you, you just want us to put you in bed and leave you alone.


• You still love holding onto your lovie when you sleep. A lot of times you will pull it out of your crib and carry it around the house and give it 'lovin.' It is the sweetest thing! If I grab it and give it a hug you will run over and hug me while I'm hugging lovie!


• You have been healthy this month... no colds! One thing that has come up though is a bad rash that, at first, I though was a diaper rash. You have had it for almost a month now and after trying several things the doctor suggested, she called you in some antibiotics last night that treat staph infections. Hopefully this will clear it up quickly! You are so lucky so have such a great doctor. She called me from her cell phone after work to check on you and to find out which pharmacy I wanted to pick up your medicine from.


• As always, you're a great eater! But there are some things that I think you have gotten tired of. You no longer want cereal for breakfast and you are tired of the regular flavored goldfish... but I came across sour cream & onion flavored goldfish at the store and you LOVE them (but you have to fight Daddy for them because he likes them too)! You can now eat pretty much anything we eat. I don't have to worry about mashing anything up and I can even give you cereal bars and peanut butter and crackers and you can eat those on your own.


• You still like helping me with unloading the dishwasher and now you will also help me pull clothes out of the dryer. Sometimes I can't fold them quick enough to keep up with how fast you pull them out!


• You still don't like it when I sit down. We are working on that though!


• You still love to read! I keep all of the cards that you have received in your nightstand drawer and you are always opening the drawer and pulling out the cards to look at!


• You still love shoes, hats, headbands, sunglasses, and now belts! You picked up your Daddy's belt a couple of days ago and tried to wrap it around your waist, so he put it on you (wrapped it around twice) and you loved it! You walked around and kept looking down at it and wore it for at least a hour!


• You have started getting really upset when your Daddy leaves to go to work or to go out of town. You run up to him and hug him and sometimes hold onto his leg. Thankfully, once he is out the door you calm down and start playing again.

I've put most of the good pictures I have of you in my other posts but here are 2 of my favorites that I took with my phone.

Daddy put Cool Whip on you!

Goofy!

Even with all of the changes, one thing that hasn't changed is your cute smile or your sense of humor. You are constantly making your Daddy and I laugh at all of the silly things you do... and somehow, even at only 15 months, you know exactly what you are doing when you try to make us laugh. We both love you very much bugs!

Love,

Mama

TN Trip

My attempt to catch up is turning into me getting futher behind! I have 4 or 5 posts that I've started that need to be finished but I can never find the time to go through and pick out pictures to edit and put on here. Anyways, I'm wasting valuable time... a month ago I met Kaylee's Grandma (my mom), Great Grandma and Uncle Quinten just inside the Tennessee state line to drop her off with them so that they could spend some time with her and I could get caught up on some things around here (obviously the blog wasn't one of those things!). This was my first time being away from Kaylee for such a long time and I missed her but was glad she was getting to spend time with family. My mom wrote this for Kaylee a couple of weeks ago so that Kaylee can look back at all the fun she had on her first time staying with her grandparents!

Kaylee,

I, "Grandma" write this two weeks from the date Oct. 13, 2010, the day I brought you home to Lebanon with me, until Sunday Oct. 17. Leading up to picking you up from your mom I was concerned how you would do being away from your momma and daddy for the first time. I have made sure I could see you at least once a month since birth and luckily a few times only a couple of weeks passed before seeing you but it still concerned me that you might not be ready to be with me alone. I am jealous of the grandparents that have their grandchildren living close by because I miss seeing you grow and Bug you are growing every minute. Ok, back to the trip to Grandma's house. I spent the weekend before we picked you up fixing up the extra bedroom and putting out some dolls and things that your momma had growing up. One doll is a doll given to me by one of my favorite aunts in 1964, one day you can take her home and give her "Bug" hugs. Uncle Quinten and I made a trip to Target to pick up needed items and some munchies that both Uncle Quinten and I picked out as well as the list you momma sent me to make sure her "Bug" was taken care of. I always heard babies don't come with directions but you did:)

On Wednesday morning your Great Grandma, Uncle Quinten and myself "Grandma" headed east to meet you and your momma in Newport, TN. As I drove the three hours to pick you up I was excited to see how you would act meeting us at the Cracker Barrel. Your Great Grandma beat me out of the van and you smiled at her but you won my heart when I squatted down and when you saw me you came to me smiling and gave me a hug. You saw your Uncle Quniten and I leaned you over to him and you gave him a kiss. We ate in Cracker Barrel where you ate more than I did, you had a little off of every body's plate.

When we finished eating I let you walk around inside of the store and you did pretty good not touching everything and I finally bought you a Rudolph the Red nose reindeer head band. It took us several minutes to get all the stuff momma had packed for you...toys, highchair, books, clothes and a cooler of homemade food just for you. We loaded you up in the van and you were fine sitting in the back with Granny and momma told you good bye. As we drove out we put the CD that I bought you in Gatlinburg that sings songs with your name added in and we played it for over and hour and a half before you fell asleep. Your Great Uncle Bubba who lives in Crossville wanted us to stop by his church so he could show you off. I wasn't for sure if we should considering you had just been asleep for thirty minutes but I am glad we did because you had a blast. When you first saw Uncle Bubba you kind of cried but he took you and talked to you like you know who I am let's go have fun. After he took you around showing you off we went into the church gym where you played on mobile toys, kicked a ball and made sure Uncle Quinten had a basketball to shoot with. You would run and swing your arms and I was afraid you would fall but you did extremely well. Uncle Bubba took you to meet some other people and you didn't like that so you cried and really anytime a stranger came up the whole time you were here you went to pieces.

Once were arrived at grandma's house you walked around checking out your room and petting Sophia and Argon. You spent a lot of time watching your Uncle Quinten play videos and you talked to the fish. I fed you supper then we went outside for just a few minutes where you watched the leaves blow around. Bath time went really well as you played and tried to hand Argon your bath water. You are such a good baby, I was concerned that at bedtime you would get upset being in a strange room but you went straight to sleep. Thursday morning we were up at 7:00 and you were hungry! I fixed a big breakfast and granny came and joined us.

After breakfast you and I walked Argon around outside then we loaded up and headed to town. We stopped by grandma's work but you really didn't like seeing people you don't know. We met grandpa at Ryan's for lunch and you ate more than I did once again. You had a young boy waving at you and you would just nod your head at him. After lunch we went to Wal-mart where granny pushed you in the stroller and then you walked around some. I bought you a pair of tennis shoes that your uncle Quinten picked out. Once back home you took a small nap then we played ball outside with uncle Quinten.

At supper we watched the DVD of Elmo and the ABC's and I let it keep playing so after you finished eating you would walk around but once you heard a particular song come on you would go back into the breakfast room and just stand there watching. You did really good not bothering things but when you did pick up something all I had to do was tell you once to put it down. You do seem to have a thing with remotes though:)

Friday we spent the day at home, we played outside several times, picked up walnuts or should I say you watched me and granny pick them up. You rode in a wheel barrel while granny pushed. Great Uncle Bubba came as did great great great cousin Nancy and Marvin to eat lunch with grandpa, grandma, uncle Quinten and granny at granny's house. Uncle Bubba brought you some Halloween stuff and you were scared of the Mickey Mouse pumpkin and a stuffed pumpkin but you were scared of both. You kept trying to go up granny's upstairs so Nancy put the pumpkin on the stairs and you stopped dead in your tracks when you saw them on the steps. After lunch we all walked out back and watched uncle Quinten and grandpa run a gas car on the racetrack they built. You walked around and Uncle Bubba messed with you by running through the field. At night you and I would play in your room and you would bring me books to read. You went to sleep really well this night as well.

Up once again on Saturday morning and started off with a big breakfast, then a walk outside with Argon. We picked up granny and drove to Mrs Batey's house (long time family friend) and I just knew you would cry the whole time once you saw her but you didnt. Everybody loves Mrs Batey and you picked up on her kindness immediately as well. Once we left there we drove to the Castle Heights Campus, (where grandma & uncle Bubba went to school)where Oktoberfest was going on. We pushed you around for the first few minutes and then on the football field we put you down but you weren't sure of the type of grass. Finally you started walking and off you went following the sound of the music. You danced and danced and even would stop to see if people were watching you. Next year you will be able to do more of the games and I hope to have you here every October. Once back at the house it was just playing outside or inside and you discovering new things. I showed you a picture of mommy and daddy when they first met and you look at it and smiled. Then you walked around the house saying momma. You didn't sleep good at all this last night and I think you were missing home.

Sunday morning I got you dressed up and we headed to church but you had already been up since 5:30 and only took a half hour nap. You were more vocal and not happy unless we went outside. Once we got to church you dint like the fact a lady stopped to talk to you and when we went into the sanctuary you walked down the isle to the stage. We made it through the start of the music and you started fussing so I took you to the nursery but you cried and cried, they tried to get you to play with the other kids but one little girl came up to you and you looked at her and screamed:( I decided enough was enough so I took you and drove you around and you fell asleep just a half mile down the road. I drove back to church and you slept in the van while we waited on grandpa and Uncle Quinten to come out. After church we ate at Gondola one of our favorite restaurants and then we headed to meet your momma and daddy in Newport, TN three hours from Lebanon. I had packed your supper foods and we stopped at Krystal's to get us all something to eat at the rest area just east of Newport. Your momma came walking up the sidewalk and I had my back turned as I put you down I could feel your body stiffen up and you said "hey" to you momma and went fast towards her. She hugged you the took you to see your daddy who was waiting his turn and you went running to him. You love your momma and daddy and they love you very much. We all sat at the picnic table eating and watching you walk around exploring this new area. I hated to tell you goodbye but you were back where you belonged but I look forward to doing this again soon.

I had sent my digital camera home with Kaylee, so I went back and picked out some of my favorite pictures from her trip!

14 Months

Kaylee,

Here we go again... another month has went by (almost 2 since I'm so late with this post) and I'm really starting to think you will be 2 years old before I know it! These past 2 months have went by so quickly that sometimes I forget how old you are! I'm noticing a trend over the past few months... each month the biggest change in you is usually your ability to get around easier and faster. You keep me busy throughout the day but I love being at home with you! Here's what you have been up to:

• You are still in size 5 diapers but I think you will be needing size 6 in Pampers before long!

• You still wear 18 month clothing but I have recently put your 24 month pj's in your drawer. They are a little big on you but you can still wear them. Some of your 24 month shirts and dresses fit and you even wore a 2T shirt the other day!
• You wear a size 6-7 shoe, depending on the brand.


• You're still saying the same 4 words as last month: Mama, Dada (you don't say this very often), Liza (iza) and kitty kitty (kkk...kkk...). You will also say "what's that" and hold your hand out at whatever you're looking at. It kinda runs together and sounds like "whasthat."

• Technically no new teeth (if I had wrote this on the 12th like I'm supposed to), but I noticed today that one on the bottom that has been trying to come through for weeks has finally broken through.

• You are still doing good with your naps. You will usually sleep at least an hour twice a day. Of course, there are days when you really fight your afternoon nap. This morning you took a 3 hour nap!

• You still sleep right at 12 hours every night. I hope you keep this up and will always be a good sleeper!

• You are still very much attached to your 'lovie.' You love to give it hugs and hold onto it as you fall asleep.

• For the most part, you only have your paci at nap time, at night or in the car. Here lately if you see it in your bed you will go grab it. It's not hard to get it away from you though, I will usually pull it out of your mouth and laugh at you, telling you that you don't need a paci and that you're not a baby anymore. You will laugh and run off to go play!

• You struggled with your first cold this month. It was only really bad in the mornings, you would cough a lot and I felt so bad for you. This went on for about 2 weeks but you're finally over it now.

• We had to put a small heater in your room because now that it's getting cold outside at night, your room is always the coldest one in the apartment. I noticed that after we did this you seemed to sleep much better. You hate being covered up and I'm always afraid you're going to get too cold.

• You're still a great eater. Eating anything and everything we give you! You love it when I pour some snacks in a bowl and let you eat out of it. You will grab a piece of food and make a circle around the living room and then come back for more!

• You're still my little helper when it comes to unloading the dishwasher and you seem to be getting a little better at grabbing the bigger things other than silverware and handing them to me.


• You do not like it if I sit down. You will instantly start crying... can you say spoiled? :)


• If I want to eat something I usually have to walk around in circles through the living room and then back through the kitchen with you following me so that you don't see my food. Otherwise you scream and try to eat all of my food! You are getting smart because sometimes you will stop after going around a corner and catch me walking towards you... my sneaky little baby!

• You have developed an obsession over shoes, sunglasses, hats... anything that you can wear! I think I will be buying you some dress up clothes soon!

• You love going outside now that you are really good at walking. You're not too sure about walking in grass though.

• Your love for books has really grown over the past month. You love to grab a book and bring it to me to read. You will crawl up in my lap just for me to read to you and it melts my heart!

I don't have a lot of pictures to choose from this month, so here are some that I took on my phone so they aren't the best quality.

You found the box that has the "It's a Girl" bubblegum cigars in it and you carry one around with you everywhere!

You love walking around on the balcony and for some reason you really love your jacket

I wish I could've taken this picture with my digital camera... you were laying right beside Liza playing with your toys...you love her!

You are such a blessing to your Daddy and I sweet baby. You make us laugh no matter what and that is something I'm so thankful for.

Love,

Mommy

Pumpkin Patch

I'm really struggling with keeping up with this blog. I've went back and forth here lately on whether or not I want to continue with it. I'm doing it as a 'baby book' for Kaylee and I like being able to add pictures to each post compared to just writing in a book for her... but at the same time, keeping up with this takes a lot of work! I have so many pictures that I need to order to update photo albums but first I need to run them through photoshop. I have the same problem with the blog, I want to clean the pictures up before posting them on here, but sitting down and going through all of the pictures is so time consuming. I have 4 or 5 posts that I need to catch up on and then I'm going to have to figure out a way to stay on top of everything and not get so far behind because I feel like I'm missing the little details that I want to remember because I'm just trying to get the main part of what we did or where we went written down before I forget!

ANYWAYS.... Towards the beginning of October Daniel and I decided to take Kaylee to a local pumpkin patch. This is something we did last year and is a tradition that I want to carry on from year to year. But first, we had to go buy Kaylee some shoes since the only ones she had were sandals that were bought back in August. Shoe shopping for Kaylee is... frustrating! Her foot is very wide and she has a high arch so 99% of the shoes that the stores have won't fit! After trying on almost every toddler sized shoe in the store, we finally found a pair that fit! Thank God they have different colors in this style! We love the shoes and will probably buy her another pair in the next size up.After getting the shoes, we headed to the pumpkin patch. There were pony rides, hay rides and a petting zoo area. While waiting for the next hay ride we decided to take Kaylee to see the animals. She really didn't seem to interested in them and kept watching the other kids.It wasn't long until they were calling for people to get in line for the next hay ride. Kaylee really seemed to enjoy it and just stood in Daniel's lap, looking around at everything.
After the hay ride we saw a trailer full of pumpkins. I had been looking for a good place to get some pictures of Kaylee and the trailer was perfect! She didn't know what to do with all of the pumpkins around her and she kept trying to grab all of them.
We found a pumpkin that looked like the perfect size for her. The one we picked out last year was smaller so it looks like each year we will be picking out a pumpkin that is a little bigger than the last. I'm glad she smiled this year in the picture of her with her pumpkin... last year she looked possessed!
Before we left, we walked over to the barn to let her see the cows and horses... but just like the other animals, she wasn't too impressed. I love this picture of her and Daniel. She is such a Daddy's girl and anytime he is around she always wants him to hold her instead of me.
It was nice to get out and spend some time together as a family. With Daniel being gone every weekend and working during the week, we don't have much time together with the 3 of us. I'm looking forward to the off season so that Kaylee can have some extra time with her Daddy!