A Bugs Life

22 Months

2011-06-14T10:19:00.002-04:00

Kaylee,

I can't believe it has been 4 months since I've updated the blog! Time is flying by and in just 2 more months, you will be 2 years old. I have done a terrible job at taking pictures, it has been a while since I've taken any with my digital camera. I always grab my phone to get pictures of you throughout the day and that is something that I'm really wanting to change.

I also want to make it a point to get more video of you playing or talking. Everything you do is so cute and I want to be able to look back and remember the cute things you say and do.

Here's what you've been up to:

You are still in size 5 Target diapers

You have a few 2T things that fit you, but you mostly wear 3T (and even have some 4T clothes that fit)

You are wearing a size 9 shoe

Your vocabulary has really grown! You still say things that we can't understand but after repeating yourself a few times we can usually figure it out.

A lot of times instead of saying "Hi Mama" to me, you will say "Hi Baby"

You love playing with Liza and you always run into our room when you wake up to go find Remi

You just finished Mother's Morning Out and will be going back again in the fall, you did so well and really changed and learned a lot

You are down to 1 nap each day. You will usually take a nap shortly after you eat lunch and sleep anywhere from a hour and 1/2 to 3 hours.

You still sleep 12 hours every night (and I love you for it!)

During the day you like to climb up on the couch and lay down. You will say night night and cover yourself up with my blanket. Then you will ask for your paci and your lovie. You never lay down long and will get right back up. I think this is your sneaky way of getting your paci during the day.

You are becoming picky with what you eat. You usually end up just snacking throughout the day and won't eat much at breakfast, lunch and supper. If I would let you, you would eat nothing but fruit snacks everyday.

You have learned how to say I love you ("lov ooo") and it is the sweetest thing!

You still love giving kisses. You especially like it when your Daddy holds you and you go back and forth giving both of us kisses.

Speaking of Daddy, you are a Daddy's girl! You ask for him when you wake up in the morning and several times throughout the day. When I tell you he is at work you will say 'work' and continue to play.

You still sleep with your lovie every night, but also sleep with Minnie Mouse and 3 other bears.

Speaking of Minnie Mouse, you are obsessed! When you were out of town last week visiting your Grandma & Grandpa, your Daddy & I were talking to you on Skype and he was holding Minnie. You saw her and started reaching for the computer saying "Min Mouf(Minnie Mouse)" and started crying. We felt so bad!

You love to sing and dance to songs, especially Wheels on the Bus and Itsy Bitsy Spider.

You also like singing your ABC's and can count to 10 along with me.

You love going back to TN to spend time with Grandma, Grandpa, Great Granny & Uncle Quinten. You spent 9 days with them last week and didn't want to get in the car with Daddy & I when we picked you up.

As for the funny things you do... you are trying to learn how to jump. You will stand on the ground and get up to your tip toes and then almost fall over. You are also a copy cat. Yesterday I was talking to you and thew my hands in the air and you did the same thing, I couldn't help but laugh.

I have been working on planning your 2nd birthday party and still can't believe you are going to be 2 years old. I love doing things to surprise you and I'm excited to see your reaction to the things your Daddy & I have got you this year.

I love you so much baby bug!

Love,

Mama

18 Months

2011-02-26T08:31:00.002-05:00

Wow! It has been forever since I posted here, time is just flying by and I have been so busy that I haven't had the time to blog, much less be able to get my mind to form cohesive sentences :) In the middle of December I opened up my own Etsy store selling handmade headbands and never dreamed it would take off like it has, so that has been what takes up every spare second. I named it Little Love's Designs after Kaylee because I always call her my 'little love.' When I get so busy with the store I feel guilty because I don't want to take time away from Kaylee because I know I will never get these days back, so I have been trying to find a balance between the two.

Last week I took Kaylee to the doctor for her 18 month checkup. I was expecting it to be just a normal checkup but things changed as soon as we got there. The nurse came in to get her measurements and walked back out of the room. A few minutes later she came back in and wanted to remeasure Kaylee's head, I still wasn't concerned because this has happened before since her head has always measured large, but then the doctor came in to show me the growth chart and her head measurement showed a spike on the chart. From there I started to panic as the doctor started asking me questions about different symptoms that she might be having that are related to hydrocephalus and brain tumors.

The doctor said Kaylee needed to have a CT scan done asap and went on with the rest of the exam. The CT was scheduled for the following Tuesday morning, unfortunately we weren't at a children's hospital and because of it, Kaylee had to suffer. The CT was ordered to add contrast if needed, instead of waiting to see if anything looked abnormal, the nurse insisted on putting a iv in as soon as we got there. On top of having a unnecessary iv, the nurse also refused to sedate Kaylee before trying to put the iv in, saying she wanted to wait until after. After digging in her arm for what seemed like forever, the nurse made the comment that she couldn't get the iv in because Kaylee wouldn't sit still...really?... she's 18 months old, what did she expect? Luckily there was another nurse in the room that was able to get the iv in on the first try.

We went back for the scan and they let me stay in the room with Kaylee. Thankfully, everything looked fine and they didn't have to use any contrast. It was such a long week, wondering if something was wrong and being worried for Kaylee because I knew she would be scared. For now, we just assume that she is a big baby, if she continues to get further away from the 98% line on the growth chart, there might be more tests run, but hopefully we won't have to worry about that!

But enough of all of that, I haven't done Kaylee's monthly update in 3 months, so here is what she is up to at 18 months:

You are still in size 5 Target brand diapers
You wear 24 month/2T clothes, I just put away all of your 18 month things last week
You are in size 8 shoes but I feel like you will be going up a size soon
You are learning new words all the time, you can say: mama, dada, remi, liza, winston, kitty kitty, puppy, baby, apple, ball, juice, milk, grandma and you have started copying your Daddy by saying "Gah" a lot
You have all of your teeth except your 2nd molars, I think, it seemed like you were teething a while back but you won't let me look that far back into your mouth
You started going to Mother's Morning Out last month at a local church. You absolutely love it and I think it has helped you learn to be away from me every now and then. You go every Tuesday and Thursday from 9-1
You are a bit unpredictable with your naps, sometimes you will take 2/day but other times it's only one. You are always so tired when you come home from MMO and go down for a nap as soon as we get home (the church is only 5-10 minutes away and I do good to keep you awake on the ride home)
You are still my good little sleeper. You usually sleep right at 12 hours each night.
You are still attached to your 'lovie.' You like to carry it around every now and then throughout the day and have to have it with you when you take a nap or go to bed at night.
You still love to eat and now like to snack throughout the day. You love for me to put some snacks in a sandwich bag and you will carry the bag around and eat while you play. You are getting a little picky at supper time though and don't like your veggies as much as you used to. Here lately when I have stopped at Chick Fila I have been getting a small strawberry milkshake. You love to come home and sit on the couch with me and share the milkshake, I think you'd drink the whole thing if I let you :)
You still like helping me unload the dishwasher and will also help with laundry and throw stuff in the trash if I ask you to. You have also figured out that when you're done with your snack, you need to throw the bag in the trash!
You have finally decided it's ok if I sit down, just as long as I let you sit in my lap :)
I have noticed over the past month that you are becoming a mama's girl, you love to play with me and make me laugh and since it's usually just the two of us here, we do everything together!
You have also started giving kisses and it's the sweetest thing! It started with you blowing kisses, then giving kisses on the cheek, but yesterday you wrapped your arms around me and gave me a kiss on the lips twice, it was too cute!

Before I forget, at your 18 month checkup your measurements were 35" for height and you weighed almost 32 pounds! All 3 of your measurements were above the 98% line, as usual!

Even though you are a big girl, you are still my little baby girl. I love you so much and I love all of the time we get to spend together!

Love,

Mama

15 Months

2010-11-19T14:22:00.001-05:00

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

2010-11-16T21:03:00.001-05:00

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

2010-11-06T07:50:00.000-04:00

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

2010-11-02T14:36:00.000-04:00

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!

She's just too cute...

2010-10-10T12:08:00.001-04:00

Another random post... mostly because I'm a slacker and can't get myself motivated to post here more often. I think the problem is when Kaylee goes to bed at night, my brain shuts down and I'm unable to think... much less put together actual sentences that make sense. But I had to do a update because I don't want to ever forget the cuteness that is Kaylee at 13 months! I mean seriously... I'm getting rid of her because she is too cute and Daniel and I can't stand it :)

Poor bugs has had a cold for over a week now. It started out as just a bad cough in the morning but now it's a cough and runny nose. We have been lucky that this is actually her first ever time being sick other than a ear infection. A few days ago I tried to use the nasal aspirator on her and she did not like it. But now after maybe 2 or 3 days of using it she doesn't mind at all. She tried doing it herself yesterday but missed her nose and put it in her eye instead.

One thing that I absolutely love about Kaylee is her interest in books. It wasn't too long ago that I wondered if she would ever sit still long enough for me to read a whole book to her. For a while she has been bringing Daniel and I books for us to read to her but here lately it seems like that's all she ever does. Thursday she melted my heart... she went and grabbed one of her books and brought it to me while I was sitting in the floor. Then she wrapped her arm around my neck and crawled into my lap for me to read the book to her. Coming from a baby who has been so independent and doesn't like to be held, this to me was heaven!

Another thing that I realized this week is she is probably going to be a girly girl. She loves to dress up. She will bring me anything from a hat, hair bow, hair tie, sunglasses or shoes and ask me to put them on her by touching either her head or face or by holding her foot up for the shoes.

This week I will be taking Kaylee to stay with her Grandma and Grandpa for 5 days. It will be nice to get some things done around here but I know it's going to be hard for me to leave her. We have never had any issues with separation anxiety, even though Daniel and I have never been away from her this long, so I hope she will do well and enjoy spending time with her grandparents.

Last Saturday we took Kaylee to a local pumpkin patch. I hope to have that post with lots of pictures up sometime tonight! I love seeing Kaylee grow and change everyday. And even though I love it when she starts doing something that is really cute, it just reminds me of how fast she is growing up!

Cupcakes, first 'Kids Meal' and a few other things...

2010-10-01T11:04:00.005-04:00

I had been wanting to take Kaylee to a local bakery for a few weeks now to get her a cupcake that we could share. Last Thursday Daniel came home on his lunch break so that we could all go to a bakery just up the street from our apartment. I picked out a red velvet cupcake with vanilla butter cream icing for Kaylee and I to share. Can you tell what she thought of it?

It was so good but the icing was very sweet! Kaylee seemed to like it but didn't want to eat too much. I think after a few bites she was more interested in running around the bakery. Oh well... at least she made a mess with those few bites :)
Saturday we went to Winston Salem to get some new tires for Daniel's bike. While we were there we stopped by to see our old neighbors and then went to our favorite restaurant, Firebirds. We usually just let Kaylee eat some of whatever we are having but this time we decided to order her something as well. They had a lot of things on the kids menu... even ribs and steak! We decided on mixed sauteed veggies...

She absolutely loved them! There were onions, squash, zucchini and red peppers. She will eat anything and everything so she also had some food off of our plates like mashed potatoes, fish and bread. I had chicken quesadillas that had chunks of tomato and onion in them. Since I'm not a big fan of either, I would pick them out and give them to Kaylee :)

She has been so active lately that I haven't had much time to post here. She wants my attention constantly when she is awake and if I sit down at the computer she will immediately start fussing! Even though she has been fussy, she is so much fun. Her new 'thing' is to walk around pointing at things saying "what's that." It is the cutest thing ever! She loves for Daniel and I to pick her up and let grab things that she points at, that she normally can't reach. We have these small frog magnets on our refrigerator that she always points to when I pick her up.

We have had to put cabinet locks on the pantry and on the cabinets under the sink, but I left them off the other cabinets because she likes to open the doors and look inside. This is how I found her the other day...

She also loves to be chased around the house, especially by her Daddy! He will jump out around corners to scare her and she will start running the other way and laughs so hard that she just falls down and squeals when he catches her. I have noticed she will walk towards me sometimes during the day and look at me with this big grin and turn around and run, trying to get me to chase her.

One other thing she does that cracks me up is when she stands on her head. She will look back between her legs and start laughing at anyone who will pay attention to her! I really need to get on a routine of posting at night after she goes to bed. She changes so much from day to day and I want to remember these silly little things she does!

13 Months

2010-09-25T20:42:00.001-04:00

Wow baby girl, your 13 months old (well, technically 13 months and 2 weeks since I'm late on this post). Time continues to fly by and I really wish I could find a way to make it slow down. This has been a exciting month as far as personality and developmental changes go... here's what you've been up to:

You are now in size 5 diapers in both the Target and Pampers brand.

You wear size 18 month clothes for the most part, but some size 24 month shirts seem to fit you without being too big.

You can now say 4 words: Dada, mama, kitty kitty (sounds like kkk...kkk) and Liza (sounds like 'iza')

You have 6 teeth on the bottom and 5 teeth on the top. It seems like you have been drooling a lot here lately but I haven't seen any teeth trying to come through.

At the beginning of the month you were doing great with your naps but over the past week you have been only sleeping for around 30 minutes during your morning nap and sometimes wont even take a afternoon nap.

You still sleep 12 hours straight every night.

You sleep with your seahorse but your favorite 'lovie' is a small blanket that has a stuffed animal attached to it. You usually hold onto it when you sleep and here lately you have started carrying it around the house with you!

You had your first ear infection this month. We thought something was wrong because you kept waking up in the middle of the night and then the next night you woke up with a fever.

Like always, you are a great eater! You will eat anything I give you. Your Daddy and I took you to Olive Garden a few weeks ago and you ate some lettuce, onions and tomato and then had some of my spaghetti and a few pieces of bread.

Your biggest change over the past month is you have learned how to walk! You walk everywhere now, only crawling every now and then.

Just within the past week you have started bringing things to me and you get the biggest smile on your face when I tell you thank you. When I'm unloading the dishwasher you will stand beside it and grab 1 piece of silverware at a time and hand it to me. You have tried grabbing plates as well but it's hard for you to get those out. You are already my little helper!

Not only do you like unloading the dishwasher but you love to splash in the water that puddles up on top of the bowls. Sometimes I will get a cup and keep pouring water back on top of the bowl so you can keep playing!

One thing that constantly keeps me on my toes is your obsession over the trash can. You always walk over to it and try to pull stuff out of it. You get mad when I tell you no.

You have also learned to drink out of a straw this month. When I first gave you a cup with a straw you didn't know what to do with it, but in only 2 days you had it figured out! Now you will walk around the apartment with it, drinking as you walk! I keep it filled up with water and leave it out for you to drink whenever you're thirsty.

Here are some of my favorite pictures of you from this past month!

You love to go to the playground here at the apartments and swing! It won't be long until your playing on the playground!

Pretty smile :)

My pretty girl in her first tutu!

Cutie pie

Daddy gave you a mohawk in the tub!

You really are changing everyday and while we have had our challenging days, the good times more than make up for it! Your Daddy and I love you sweet girl!

Love,
Mommy

Our routine at 12 months

2010-08-26T10:14:00.000-04:00

When Kaylee was 8 months old I did a post about the schedule Kaylee and I had got on for the usual days when we hang out around the house. I was looking back on it just the other day and it's crazy to think how much things can change in just 4 months. So here is our usual day to day routine at 12 months:

7:30 am: Wake up, Kaylee goes in her highchair and eats her Cheerios while I check email, etc... then she gets either yogurt or I fix her a bagel with cream cheese, then she usually will only drink part of her milk in her sippy cup

8:00 am: Play time

8:45 am: Finish the rest of her milk

9:00 am: Nap time ( I will either catch up with things on the computer, watch tv, clean up around the house or just take a nap)

11:00 am: Kaylee wakes up and we usually play in her room

12:00 pm: Lunch time

12:30 pm: Play time (I'm usually chasing her around the house making sure she doesn't get into anything!)

1:30 pm: Nap time... this nap has been unpredictable here lately, she goes down so easily in the morning but in the afternoons she will sometimes fight sleep quite a bit!

3:00 pm: Kaylee wakes up and we play in her room (if I need to run errands this is usually the best time to do that)

5:00 pm: Supper time, just like at breakfast time, she usually won't finish her milk so I will save it for later

6:00 pm: Bath time (if it's bath night) or playtime

6:30 pm: Finish sippy cup

7:30-8:00 pm: Read a book and then time for bed

She was on a schedule of going to bed right at 7:00 but here lately it seems like she goes down a lot easier if we wait until 7:30 or 8:00. Her naps really are all over the place as far as the length of the nap goes. A good nap for her is usually around 2 hours. She is so active that I usually can't get anything done while she is awake because I'm following her around, making sure she doesn't get into anything, so her nap times are very important to me just so that I can catch a break and get some things done! I'm sure within the next few months (or maybe even sooner) she will cut back to one nap a day... and I am not looking forward to that!

My Poor Baby

2010-08-25T08:37:00.000-04:00

I knew this would happen at some point, I'm so glad we managed to go a year without Kaylee getting sick, but last Thursday, I knew something was wrong. She is usually pretty much happy all of the time but she started getting really fussy and would hold her ears and scream when she would sit in her highchair and eat.

She did this on Thursday and Friday but on Saturday she quit grabbing her ears but was still fussy. She didn't have a fever and was still sleeping great at night so I thought it might be just pain from teething. On Sunday night, for the first time since she was 3 months old, I had to get up with her at night. She woke up at 12 am, 4 am and then again at 6 am. Every time she woke up I just had to go in and pick her up for maybe a minute and lay her back down. She felt cold (she always pushes her blanket off of her) so I thought maybe she just kept waking up because of that.

On Monday night things definitely went downhill. Kaylee was up several times and instead of holding her for just a minute, Daniel had to sit in the glider with her so that she would fall back to sleep. At 4 am we noticed she felt very hot so I decided to check her temperature... it was up to 103.6 so I gave her some medicine and she fell back to sleep. She woke up a little later and was very sweaty and cold so at least her fever had went down. I was able to call the doctors office and get her in around lunch time. Her usual doctor wasn't there but we ended up seeing the first doctor she saw when we took her in a few days after bringing her home from the hospital. We were in the same room that we were in the first time too. It brought back memories of how small she was and reminded me of just how much I miss my 'little' baby.

Her hair was a mess from sweating the fever out!

The doctor said she definitely had a ear infection but luckily it was only in one ear (her left ear). We got her prescription and made the long drive back to Charlotte. I was afraid that after only having 2 doses of the antibiotic, we would have another long night. Usually I can just lay her down in bed and she doesn't fuss much, if any at all. But last night it took a hour to get her to sleep. I had to eventually just pick her up and sit in the glider with her until she fell asleep. She woke up as I put her back in bed so I ran out the door and she went right back to sleep!

She slept a little later than usual this morning so hopefully she is finally getting some rest and feeling a little better. We had her 1 year photo session on Saturday and I could tell that she wasn't feeling that great. We will be going to meet with the photographer at a different location in September to get some more shots. Hopefully she will be back to her usual, happy self, and we will get some big smiles at her next session!

Kaylee's Gatlinburg Birthday/ Mini Vacation

2010-08-21T13:31:00.000-04:00

On Wednesday afternoon, August 11th, Daniel, Kaylee and I drove up to Gatlinburg to meet Kaylee's Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle, Great Grandma & Great Uncle (all of my family). We didn't get there until almost 7:30 pm so we unpacked everything and let Kaylee play with everyone for a little while. Since we finally had babysitters, Daniel and I walked next door to Calhoun's Steakhouse to have a nice quiet dinner... finally!

After we went out to eat we went to a local grocery store to pick up some milk and juice for Kaylee before heading back to the condo. It was weird going somewhere just the two of us and being able to actually talk!

The morning of Kaylee's birthday my mom fixed everyone breakfast at the condo and then we all took turns getting ready and playing with Kaylee. Before going to the aquarium we went to eat at No Way Jose's for all the August birthdays (Kaylee-12th, Mom-17th, Daniel & I-26th). We told our server that it was Kaylee's birthday so he brought out the sombrero for her to wear but didn't sing because we didn't want Kaylee to freak out!

After we finished eating I remembered I had forgot Kaylee's sippy cup and milk at the condo so Daniel and I went to get it while everyone else pushed Kaylee in her stroller up to the aquarium. While they were waiting on us, Kaylee managed to convince my Mom to take her to the gift shop and buy her a stuffed animal (when we walked into the gift shop I pointed at a turtle and told Daniel that Kaylee would love it... that turtle was actually what my Mom had already picked out).

As soon as we escaped the gift shop we took her out of her stroller to see if she would walk...

This didn't last long so we started taking turns carrying her. This is the first family picture we have taken since Christmas... I didn't realize it until looking back through older pictures. It's something we definitely need to do more often!

There were some exhibits where I don't think Kaylee could see the fish too well, but in the picture below, there was a room with a glass wall and the tank was well lit so you could see all of the fish. Kaylee loved pointing at all of the fish!

Baby & Daddy!

About half way through, Kaylee started getting sleepy but still stayed in a good mood!

I love this picture... it's just so sweet!

I'm not sure why, but Kaylee kept trying to lean around and look at Daniel's face... she just kept laughing!

When she did get fussy, we just tried to feed her to the sharks... poor kid, she has no idea what's behind her!

She paid more attention to the rock than the fish behind her!

I love her smile in this picture... and you can see that mean old tooth(molar) that had been bugging her so much!

She loved the jellyfish!

One of Kaylee's favorite parts of the aquarium was this tunnel that only had a few black lights in it so that the paintings on the walls would glow. We set her down and were deciding who was going to go in with her and the next thing we know, she is crawling in by herself! She even found her way out on the other side. We let her keep going through the tunnel and Daniel went in and go this picture of her (since I couldn't see what she was doing). She would crawl until she got to the point where it was almost too dark to see us, turn around and smile and then keep crawling!

I think this is the best candid picture I have of Kaylee and Daniel. I just love how it looks like she is trying to explain something to him!

Grandma & Kaylee checking out the fish

One of her other favorite parts of the aquarium was the penguin exhibit. They had a tunnel that went through the water and then at the center of the tunnel you could stand up in the middle of where all the penguins were! These pictures remind me of how much she is growing up...

Looking back at her Grandma... I think she thought it was funny that she went in there by herself!

My baby girl... playing with the big kids!

After we finished up at the aquarium we went back to the condo to let Kaylee take a nap while I setup her birthday party. Unfortunately Daniel had to leave late that night so that he could take care of some things back home in NC on Friday.

Friday morning we had breakfast and just spent time hanging out at the condo. It was so hot and humid outside that we didn't want Kaylee to be out in the heat too much. We went out to eat for lunch and the walked a little ways down the main road in Gatlinburg but decided to turn around and head back to the condo so that Kaylee could cool down. Later that afternoon Kaylee's Grandma & Great Uncle Bubba decided to take her swimming. Kaylee loves the pool and was splashing and kicking, but she always tries to put her face under the water. I really need to find someone to give her swimming lessons. I know most of the time for the younger ages it's usually the mother who goes to the swimming lessons with the baby but I don't know that I can handle it. Every time she is in the pool I almost have a heart attack because I'm so afraid she is going to get choked when she goes under!

View from our balcony

After swimming Kaylee took a nap and my Mom, my Uncle and I went to a camping store while my Grandma stayed at the condo with Kaylee. Then after supper we all went walking down the road to look at all of the stores. We found a place to stop and rest where a group had setup to play music. It was finally starting to cool off and was nice to be able to just relax and listen to the music. We headed back to the condo because Kaylee was starting to get tired. I decided to drive back to NC that night because it's much easier when Kaylee just sleeps the whole way and I don't have to stop. These last few pictures are from earlier in the day. I was the first time Kaylee wore that dress and it just looked too cute on her!

Kisses for Grandma

Mommy's big girl!

My sweet baby

We had a great time while we were in Gatlinburg. I'm looking forward to taking her to the beach next spring or summer(hopefully) for the first time and hopefully our vacation can last a little longer!

1st Birthday Party!

2010-08-17T21:07:00.000-04:00

It was 5:30 before we got started with the party and Kaylee was getting fussy because she was hungry! Before my Uncle got back with the pizza we decided to go ahead and let Kaylee open two of her presents. She got a tent with a tunnel and a bunch of plastic balls to make a mini ball pit from her Grandma and Grandpa. I think if she only got the pack of balls for her birthday she would've been happy!

She loved tearing up the paper!

Reading the card on the present from Mommy & Daddy

Her little cupcake hair clippie I had made for her birthday!

She wasn't sure what to do with the cake so she pulled out the licorice antennas first!

She didn't think they tasted all that great...

Then she pulled the eyes off and started pulling off the spots!

At first she only played with the icing but she finally got the hang out it when we helped her dig into the cake!

"Mommy, I have made a mess!"

"But that's ok... it tastes good!"

Someone is having a sugar rush!

After she finished her smash cake we realized she was definitely going to need a bath before opening the rest of her gifts! So once she got cleaned up and into party outfit #2, she got back to work on opening her presents!

Trying to pull the bow off her step stool. I love seeing pictures of her standing up... it reminds me of just how fast she is growing!

Checking out the dragonfly blanket her Great Uncle Bubba got her!

Trying to do the splits on top of her present! This picture cracks me up... and don't worry, Daniel was sitting right behind her in case she started to fall... but she actually just sat there for a while!

Opening her 'big gift' from Mommy & Daddy

Reading a card... I love how she crosses her feet!

So after the party Daniel and I got all of Kaylee's gifts together to load in the car. In between trips he decided to take our miniature dachshund, Remi, out to go potty. He told me that while he was out by the woods he heard something moving around but didn't see anything and just came back inside. We went to make our last trip to the car and as soon as we started walking through the parking lot, I looked up and saw the bear digging Kaylee's birthday trash out of the dumpster! We stood there and watched him and called my mom to have everyone else come outside to look. They grabbed their cameras and got this picture:

He only got into the bag that my mom took down and ate the 1/2 of the smash cake that Kaylee didn't eat! He didn't tear up the cardboard cake board that the cake was on and he ate everything except for the licorice antennas! Who knew bears were picky eaters?

That was a great way to end Kaylee's birthday and will be a funny story that we will tell her when she grows up. Overall it was a great party and Kaylee got to, most importantly, spend time with family that she doesn't get to see often enough. Now I can take a break from party planning for a few months before I do this all over again and stress over what theme to do and what decorations to use!

Kaylee's Lady Bug Party Decorations

2010-08-17T14:19:00.000-04:00

After going through over 300 pictures that were taken while in Gatlinburg for Kaylee's birthday party, I realized I was going to have to break the posts down into 3 different categories: the decorations, the party and then one just going over everything we did while we were there.

Here's your warning in advance... these 3 posts (especially the party and misc post) will be filled with a ridiculous amount of pictures! I'm not even joking... if I had time to put all 300+ pictures on here I probably would have because it was hard to pick out my favorites!

Anywho... for the theme this year I decided to go with lady bugs because Kaylee's nickname is 'bug' and it just seemed to fit! We stayed in a condo in Gatlinburg that we've stayed in before so I had an idea of what the room I was going to decorate looked like but honestly, after we walked around all morning, I was wore out and kinda just threw things together!

So here are the pictures of all of her decorations and the food... I will try to point out little details on each picture!

I made the tissue pom poms before we left and when I got there I had no idea where to put them. My original plan was to have them hanging from the ceiling but those plans changed at the last minute!

View of the table... we really kept things simple as far as the food went

I love her birthday banner that I found on Etsy!

The little pieces that went in the flower pots were on Etsy too. The lady bugs are chocolate suckers! I bought the flower pots at Michaels and used a hot glue gun to attach the ribbon. The plate is also from Etsy and I love how it turned out!

The lady bug cake was adorable! It's made out of red velvet cake and has cream cheese icing. Even the antennas are edible!

I almost forgot her candle but found this one at Target just before we left!

My attempt at making lady bug sugar cookies... they aren't the best looking in the world but were definitely cheaper than having someone else make them. I used vanilla frosting with red food coloring gel and then chocolate chips for the spots. For the head I put chocolate chips in a sandwich bag and melted them, then cut off a corner of the bag and made little ovals (I had to put them in the fridge afterwards to get the chocolate to harden).

I ordered these cupcakes from Lowes Foods (they were so yummy) and then ordered the fondant lady bugs off Etsy. They were too cute!

At first we planned on having lots of fruits and finger foods... then we decided this would be alot easier and well...unhealthy but yummy! There is a pizza place right beside the condos so it was easy to pick up some pizza really quick...and those garlic rolls are delicious!

Kaylee's present table

A close up of the stool Daniel & I had made for her

So that's all of the decorations! I will post the party pictures yet and save the largest post for last!

12 Months!!!

2010-08-12T07:00:00.009-04:00

Baby girl... I should be sad today that you are a year old... but I'm not! I'm so happy to celebrate this day with you... it's the day everything in my life changed for the better... the day life had new meaning... and the day I learned what love really is! This past year has went by so fast and even though I had tried to document it as much as possible, I wish I could go back and relive the last year... but I can't... so my goal for the next year is to write even more about the things you do, the way you are changing and what you enjoy. And also to take more pictures and videos so I can remember this time that I will never get back. Days, weeks and months seem to run together, but here is what you have been up to during this final month of your first year:

You are still in size 4 Target diapers... but I think after we use up what we have, we will switch to size 5. This has been the longest amount of time that you have ever stayed in a diaper size, which is reassuring that now that you're more active, your weight is evening out!

You wear a size 6 shoe (big foot)... really a size 5 1/2 fits you perfectly but you have no room to grow in that size.

You still love Liza & Remi and try to pet them all the time.

You love taking baths and splashing in the water and you also love being in the swimming pool. You still think it's funny to stick your face under the water... the problem is water usually goes up your nose, but after you cough a few times you just laugh about it!

You are no longer drinking that icky formula! For the past 2 weeks you have been drinking regular (2%) milk and you have done great. I mixed it with 1/2 formula for 3 or 4 days and then switched you to all milk and you didn't seem to notice the difference (or maybe you did because now there is never a drop of milk left)! You still have 8 oz of milk 3 times per day all from a sippy cup (which you just started drinking out of the 12 month and up one) except for your nighttime bottle... which we will stop today...on your birthday!

Like usual, you do great with eating anything I give you! You will even eat pieces of raw onion!

You are still crawling around everywhere but I've noticed you have seemed to be crawling less, and walking (while holding onto something) more! You love it when I grab your hands and let you walk around the apartment (I usually just follow you and let you go wherever you want). You are also getting very good at standing by yourself, you can bend over and pick things up without falling and will sometimes stand there and wave your arms and dance!
You have also started standing up without using anything to pull up on! The first time I saw you do this I was amazed... it just hit me that you were growing up so fast!

You are wearing mostly 18 month clothes. We still have some 12 month shirts that fit you and you could still fit in 12 month onesies but they were getting a little tight because you are too tall for them.

You still sleep for at least 12 hours every night. You have started going to bed even earlier than last month... you are usually tired and ready for bed between 6:45 and 7:00... it depends on how long your naps were during the day. Sometimes you stay up until 7:30 or 8:00 but when that happens you usually get pretty fussy.

It's funny because you are very independent when it comes to sleeping... a lot of times you won't fall asleep while your Daddy or I rock you and we have to lay you down and then you go right to sleep. You also won't take a nap with me. This is probably a good thing because you can sleep on your own but when we travel somewhere we have to make sure you have your own space to sleep.

You now have 4 teeth on the top and 5 on the bottom (with another one that will break through soon). Your first molar came in and I could tell it was really bothering you. According to charts I have seen, this is early for it to be coming in, but at least you're getting it over with!

You still get mad and throw a fit when I tell you know, but I think this has got a little better over the past month. You know what 'no' means and if I stop you and make eye contact with you, you will listen.

You still only say 'dada' and 'mama' but just over the past couple of weeks when I point at the cat (Winston) and say kitty you will say 'kkkkkk...kkkkk" so I think you are trying to get it!

Just like you were when you were just a month old, you are still a Daddy's girl. When he comes home and you hear him opening the door you will start crawling as fast as you can to meet him!
You also love it when he throws you up into the air! You get the biggest smile on your face!

The best news from this past month is... no more reflux!!!! We took you off of your medicine a couple of weeks ago and you have done fine! There have been a few times when you have spit up and I think it burned your throat, but once the 2 week adjustment period passed everything got better! And if that wasn't enough good news, you have also grown out of being allergic to apples!

Here are some of my favorite pictures of you over the last month!

Just like I tell you every day, your Daddy and I love you so much! You really have brought us so much happiness over this past year and we cant wait to spend years and years to come with you. Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

Love,

Mommy

This time last year...

2010-08-07T21:45:00.000-04:00

...Was my due date! I was very disappointed when I realized I was going past my due date but excited at the same time because I went in for my weekly Friday checkup and was scheduled to be induced the following Tuesday, August 11th.

I spent 9 months wishing time would hurry up and fly by because I was so excited to meet Kaylee... and honestly... tired of being pregnant! Now, looking back, I miss the days of being pregnant and the excitement of waiting to meet Kaylee. Now I no longer wish the days away but wish for time to go by more slowly to enjoy watching Kaylee grow.

Everyday it seems like she is doing new things and growing up a little more. This morning she had chocolate milk for the first time and the big smile that came across her face after she took her first sip was priceless! Then later this afternoon she was playing in her room and decided to crawl over to one of her toys. As soon as she got to it she grabbed the toy and stood straight up, using nothing to pull up on! This is the first time I've ever seen her do this and just a reminder that she is going to be walking around everywhere before I know it!

So I'm hoping these next 5 days go by as slow as possible. I want to enjoy the last few days of having a 'baby!'

Kaylee's Room

2010-08-04T19:00:00.000-04:00

Before we moved, I kept going back and forth on how I wanted to do Kaylee's new room. I liked her old room but it was very... little kiddie...girly... I don't what the word is for it. It was perfect when she was a baby, but now at almost a year old she is a old woman and needs something more put together and sophisticated :)

So this is what we came up with:

This sign was a gift from my uncle that he brought while I was in the hospital... on our first day home with Kaylee, Daniel wrote her name on it and put it on her door!

This was another gift from my uncle... it's hanging up right when you walk into her room

Another decoration I found in the hospital :)

I decided to change up her bedding to match the new wall colors

This corner is setup pretty much the same as it was in her old room

The one pink wall in her room... I was going to do the whole room in this color but I'm glad I decided to just do a accent wall.

I love this clock! She didn't have one in her old room because I never could find anything I really liked... I found this on clearance at Babies R Us!

These little boxes are too cute! When my uncle brought gifts for Kaylee to the hospital, these are what he put them in!

I'm glad I was able to find a place for this in her room. This was in my room when I was a baby. Daniel cleaned it up and took the old stickers that spelled out my name off of it and added Kaylee's name.

And this is probably my favorite spot in her room... I love the way the tree turned out! At first we couldn't decide where to put it, but it fit perfectly on this wall!

I know Kaylee won't remember her room but I still hope she looks back on these pictures and likes it! I do know that she loves the tree because she always crawls over to look at it... it's too cute!

Because I need to remember...

2010-08-03T14:06:00.000-04:00

...the last month before my baby girl turns 1 year old! I wanted to do another post with some pictures that I took just the other day. I finally found my digital camera... and after not using it for almost 2 months, I got some pictures of Kaylee that I thought were too cute. She is 9 days away from turning 1 and I have so many things that I need to get caught up on that it's driving me crazy! My goal is to get caught up with her baby book and photo albums, write out all of her monthly letters (I have been typing them and then just emailing them to myself to write out later) and then start posting on here a lot more often. And speaking of the blog... it's almost time to have everything printed into a book for the first time! At first I couldn't decide if I wanted to do a printout by calender year or at each of her birthdays, but I decided to go with printing it out right after each birthday.

We are going out of town, to Gatlinburg, TN, to celebrate Kaylee's birthday and I hope to have her 12 month post done before we leave next Wednesday and then update the blog with pictures of the party as soon as we get back!

Here are the newest pictures I have of Kaylee. Her facial expressions just crack me up!

I need to get some pictures of her new room... I love the way it turned out and I actually like it a lot better than her room at our old house. She loves playing with her stuffed animals and giving them 'lovin.'

One of my favorite parts of her room is this tree decal that I found on Etsy. She loves to stand up beside it and look at all of the hearts!

I think the 11th month is such a special one... she is still not a year old, but she is changing in so many ways and really is growing up right in front of us! Daniel mentioned last night that it doesn't seem like she is only 11 months old based on the way she acts. She really is such a smart little girl and I can't wait to see what she accomplishes throughout her life!

Just a Quick Update

2010-07-22T11:03:00.000-04:00

Since I've only posted once this whole month, I figured I better at least do one other post to get caught up on what has been going on. I want to make sure that I don't forget the little details as Kaylee is growing up because I want to be able to look back and remember everything.

We have finally started to get things organized in our new place but at the same time, we still have so much to do! Kaylee's room is done except for organizing her closet and doing a little touch up painting, our room is a disaster (we haven't even started on it) and I still haven't got my desktop computer setup...partly because I have no idea where I'm going to put it. I feel so unorganized and I'm behind on everything which is driving me crazy!

My goal is to at least have my desktop computer setup by the beginning of August so that it will be easier for me to post on here. Just to document some things that are going on in Kaylee's world... she now has 8 teeth! Her top center (right) tooth... I'm sure there's a specific word for that tooth but I don't know it... came through on the 19th and then the one beside it came in the next day on the 20th (note to self: write this in the baby book that hasn't been updated in months)!

It's almost impossible to get anything done here lately because she is everywhere! She is constantly crawling or standing up and walking along the furniture. She has already started the temper tantrum stage... I can put my hand on her shoulder and say "no" and she will completely melt down! She also has extra interest in certain things around the house. She likes to crawl into the bathroom and pull herself up on the side of the tub, and grab either her bottle of shampoo (which she likes to carry around the house) or she tries to grab my razor... apparently she feels the need to shave at 11 months old :)

She still has her obsession over my phone and the remote but now she also crawls as fast as she can towards my flip flops anytime she sees them. She won't bother my other shoes...just the flip flops... I don't get it!

Last night she had regular milk for the first time. I am almost out of formula so instead of buying more I decided now was a good time to switch her over. There are certain things that I can say that I know she understands... anytime I ask her if she wants to go for a car ride she gets a big smile on her face and will hold her hands up if I walk toward her. She also understands when I ask her if she wants to take a bath. She gets so excited and sometimes will follow me to the bathroom to watch me fill up her tub. I also usually tell her to give her baby doll or her little bear 'lovin' when I hand them to her and she will hug them really tight and give them kisses. She will also give herself kisses when she sees her reflection.

For some reason yesterday she was really clingy when it was time for her afternoon nap and especially at bed time. She normally lays down and won't fuss at all but last night as soon as Daniel laid her down she started crying. After a few minutes of trying to get her to calm down while in her crib I decided to pick her up and rock her for a little bit. She laid her head on my shoulder and wrapped her arms around me. It was the sweetest thing!

After sitting there for a little while I tried to put her back in bed and as soon as I stood up she wrapped her arms around me and held on as tight as she could. She finally relaxed a little bit but squeezed tightly again when I tried to lay her down. I hate not knowing if something is bothering her or if she just wants to be held. She usually is too busy to have time for anyone to hold her so the few times when she wants to be held are so sweet!

Here are some pictures taken the last 2 times Kaylee's Grandma & Great Grandma came up to visit. They were able to stay the whole week when we were moving and then came up last weekend to watch Kaylee while Daniel and I went out for our anniversary.

Playing in Uncle Quinten's wheelchair

Hanging out at the hotel playing with her toys...she is getting so big!My sweet girl!

The last picture has a story behind it... last Saturday we all went to a store called Kixx in Charlotte to find some shoes for Kaylee now that she is learning how to walk. I had found some shoes online that were super cute (PediPeds) and this was the only place around the carried them. When we got there one of the ladies measured Kaylee's foot and grabbed a pair of the PediPeds to try on... they wouldn't fit. The lady said Kaylee has a wide foot and high arch and that none of the PediPeds would fit.

So they started trying different sizes in every brand of shoe they had. They had to go to shoes with a stiffer sole than the PediPeds just to try to find something big enough! After trying on almost 10 pairs of shoes they found one pair that fit but her toes were right at the end of the shoe so she wouldn't be able to wear them for long and they didn't have the next size up. We ended up leaving the store without any shoes and had to go home and order the right size(6) in the last shoe she tried on.

The picture below is of the shoe that we ended up ordering. It's made by See Kai Run and they have the cutest styles! We will be going back toward the end of August to buy her fall shoes. The lady who runs the store told me we would probably always have to make sure we go shoe shopping at the beginning of each season when they have the most selection and have the extra wide sizes (the regular wide sizes were too small).

Grandma picking out Kaylee's shoes

It has been such a busy month and I can't believe that in less than 3 weeks my little baby will be 1 year old! I'm excited about celebrating her first birthday but will be sad at the same time. I've enjoyed watching her grow and change every day for the past year and can't wait to see how she changes over these next few months as she learns to walk!

11 Months

2010-07-14T22:50:00.000-04:00

Sweet girl, where did my baby go? You are 11 months old... only 1 month away from 1 year and it makes me so sad. Things have been so hectic in our lives over this past month and I feel like I've really dropped the ball on keeping this blog up to date (even with writing this post I'm 2 days late) and somehow I didn't get 1 picture of you on our digital camera. I've taken tons of pictures, as usual, on my phone but never got our camera out to get some better quality ones... that shows you just how crazy things have been but is still no excuse. I will be making up for lost time this month (as soon as I find the box that my camera is packed up in)! Your day to day routine really hasn't changed much over the past month but you, as a person, have changed a lot! Like I do every month, here's what you've been up to:

Just like the past few months, you are still in size 4 diapers in the Target brand. In Pampers you are in a size 5.

You still get 8 oz of formula 3 times per day, but now you drink out of your sippy cup in the morning and at midday... then you will drink your juice out of it at night after supper, but we still give you a bottle before bed. It's kind of a way to hold on to you being a baby for just another month...then we will probably switch you over to a sippy cup at night as well... and I will be sad!
You are still doing great with eating solid foods and will eat thicker foods now. I just got some new recipes that I plan on making for you this week. You are such a good eater and will eat anything I give you!

You are crawling around everywhere and love to stand up and look around. You can walk as long as you have your hand on something to balance you but I can tell your balance is getting better. There are times where you will stand up and let go of whatever you're holding onto and will stand there for at least 30 seconds without falling!

You are still in 12 and 18 month clothes. Your 18 month onesies now look a little big on you. Crawling has definitely thinned you out! I took you to the doctor last week because you had a infection around your toenail (a ingrown nail from where you'd break your toenail from stabbing it into the ground while in your bouncer) and you weighed 28 (almost 29) pounds.

Your bedtime has gotten earlier here lately and not by our choice. I think you wear yourself out so much during the day that your 2 naps just aren't enough. Now you go to bed between 7:30 and 8:00... and if we don't have you in bed by then, you are not happy! You are still a little angel when it comes to sleeping. 12 hours exactly every night! You will go to sleep without crying and the stage you were going through last month where you'd wake up a few times after falling asleep has come and gone. Now once you fall asleep you are usually out for the night!

You still have 4 teeth on the bottom and now you have 2 teeth on the top. I noticed yesterday that you have 2 more teeth coming in at the same time on the top but you have been handling it great (the only thing I've noticed is your appetite decreases when you're teething.

Your reflux seems to be gone! You spit up every now and then but it doesn't seem to be reflux related. And in really good news... I think you've outgrown your apple allergy!!! You are still taking Zegerid at night but the plan is to stop that next month.
One of the not so great changes of this past month is your attitude. You will pitch a fit if I tell you no or don't let you have what you want. And when you are hungry, like the other day when your Daddy and I had to meeting at the attorney's office... you start screaming and swinging your arms... pretty much a full blown temper tantrum... it's frustrating but instead of giving in we stick to what we say when we tell you no and hope that this will make things easier when you get older.

Here are a couple of pictures from my phone from the past month:

My sweet happy baby! You love playing in Mommy & Daddy's bed!

You love looking at yourself in the mirror and will give yourself kisses... too sweet!

My sneaky little baby... always getting into things!

As always baby girl, your Daddy & I love you so much and we want nothing but the best for you in life. We look forward to celebrating your first birthday next month and celebrating how far we have come over the last year!

Love,

Mommy

Changes

2010-06-29T22:44:00.002-04:00

I have once again done a terrible job of keeping up with this blog... but I do have a excuse... we're moving! I'm actually not too excited about it since we are moving from our house to a apartment. I want to make sure that the next time we move, it's for a long time! Between trying to keep up with Kaylee and trying to pack and take care of a bunch of other things I have been so exhausted that when I do have time to post all I want to do is go to bed!

We are moving this weekend so I'm hoping that next week I can get caught up on a few posts and get back on track! The only thing that I'm looking forward to about moving is being forced to reorganizing everything and decorating a new space. We are going to do Kaylee's room a little different than what it is now so I will have to post pictures of the new place once we get moved in!

So that's all I have for now, it's past my bed time... and I have a long day of painting ahead of me tomorrow (I've grown to hate painting) before we come back home and pack everything up on Thursday to move Friday!

Our Wedding

2010-06-18T22:45:00.003-04:00

After looking at everyone else's posts today on their weddings I decided to join in! Usually I only post about Kaylee because this is her 'virtual baby book' but I guess you could say our wedding was an important part in her life... even though she wasn't exactly thought of yet :) Fair warning... this is probably going to be a long post because the story of what happened before and right after our wedding is pretty funny... plus I'm probably going to get carried away with the pictures!

At first we had planning on going back home, to Tennessee to get married. Daniel and I took a trip home one weekend and looked at several different churches. We decided on one in downtown Nashville that I absolutely loved. It had a huge organ and when we were there, the organist was practicing and played 'Here Comes the Bride'... I got chill bumps!

We were on a budget with the wedding and once we started getting quotes for the flowers to use at the church and at the reception area, I realized there was no way we could afford to do the wedding and reception the way I had envisioned it. On top of the money issue, I was tired of trying to plan a wedding 500 miles away and second guessing myself on every little detail... I think it was my mom that mentioned having a wedding on the beach and after all of the stress, I agreed. That was probably the best decision I made! I pretty much let go of all the details of our wedding. I had a picture of how I wanted our cake to look and told my mom to handle that and planned out a simple bouquet for myself and maid of honor. I had already picked out my wedding dress back when I was planning on getting married in a church but decided to stick with that dress after spending hours thinking to myself that it would never look right.

Looking back, if we would've stuck with getting married in a church, it would've probably been incredibly stressful. We decided to get married in Sand Key park in Clearwater Beach, Florida. To save money, we decided to get married on a Thursday, July 17. Not only was it cheaper to book the photographer and the people who setup the wedding area during the week, but we knew we had to come home that Friday because Daniel had to leave that Saturday morning to go to a race. First of all, let me say that I am terrible at putting things off! Our plane was scheduled to leave Raleigh at like 6:30 am... Raleigh was 2 1/2 hours from where we were living and I didn't start packing until around midnight, the night before we were leaving. I finally made it to bed around 1am knowing that I had to be up in a hour to get ready to leave. And that's where it all started going downhill.

I never heard my alarm and woke up at 4:30. I remember running back in forth panicking, knowing that we were going to miss our plane and we didn't have the money to reschedule our flight. Thank goodness we were flying Southwest and they put us on the next flight out around 10 am for no charge. But there was one little thing that was bothering me... our original flight was going to be a nonstop flight. The one that we got switched to had a layover in Nashville where we would switch planes and actually be getting on the same plane my maid of honor was going to be on. I didn't tell Daniel, but apparently while I was oversleeping, I had a dream that the plane my maid of honor was on crashed on the way to Florida... GREAT! I tried to just forget about it since we had so much else going on. We made it to the airport and I called my mom to tell her that instead of just arriving in Florida, we had missed our flight and were waiting for the next one.

When we made it to Nashville we were told we needed to make sure there were still seats on the connecting flight, so we rushed over to the counter to check in. Of course, since everything else was going wrong, when Daniel pulled out his drivers license to get our new tickets, it broke into 3 or 4 pieces! It was about 30 minutes past the time that the plane was supposed to take off, when they announced that they had discovered something wrong with one of the engines on the plane and were having to get another plane for us to get on. That's where I panicked... and decided it was probably a good time to tell Daniel and my maid of honor about my dream.

After at least an hour delay we were finally on our way to Clearwater. The forecast was calling for rain that day and the next and when we got there it wasn't looking good. Somehow we missed the rain and were able to go by the courthouse to get our marriage license and then spend the rest of the day hanging out. It really was just like a vacation for everyone. We all went out to eat at a restaurant on the beach and then went back to the hotel, changed into our swimsuits and spent the rest of the day and most of the night in the ocean and the hotel pool.
The morning of the wedding we all spend some more time in the ocean and the pool after going to Ihop for breakfast...and getting sick. I don't know if there was something wrong with all of the food or what, but every one of us who ate there got sick! After we finally recovered it was nice to relax since our wedding wasn't until that night right before sunset. I had made an appointment for my maid of honor and I to go get our hair done. We left the hotel for the hair salon and actually saw Hulk Hogan and his daughter ride past us on scooters!
I kept thinking we had plenty of time, but after we were done at the salon and we got back in the car, I realized I only had a little over an hour to get back to the hotel, get dressed and make it to the park to get married. We rushed back to the hotel and I literally had to jump into my dress and rush out the door.

When we got to the beach I had a issue with my dress because somehow some of the stitching that was holding the tulle up on the front of my dress had come undone and I had to hold the front of my dress up as I was walking to keep from tripping all over it. The ceremony itself was great and it all seemed like it happened so fast.

The company we hired to setup the ceremony area did a great job. I loved the colors and the little details were beautiful.

We decided to write our own vows and I'm so happy that we did. I really thought I could hold it together while reading mine... I had practiced reading them and had no problem. But of course...

I cried... lol! We finished up the ceremony with our first kiss as a married couple :)

A kiss right after walking back down the aisle

After the ceremony we walked down the beach taking pictures until the sun set.
Once the sun had set we got in the car and drove back to the hotel for me to change dresses before walking next door to a restaurant where we had our reception at.

It was nice just having a more casual reception because we didn't have to worry about decorating anything. The restaurant had a buffet and after everyone finished eating we finally were able to cut our cake!
Of course, I got him good with the cake... And then he tried to get me back!
We had shared a hotel room with my maid of honor the night before and had a room reserved for our wedding night a few miles away. We didn't make it to the hotel until around 9 or 10 that night and it was terrible! When we walked up to the door to our room it looked like someone had tried to use a crowbar to get in...and honestly, they probably had because it took both Daniel and I hitting the door with our sides to get it to open. Once we got inside, we both just got a creepy feeling. A lot of light bulbs were burnt out and there was a door that connected to the room beside it that had been left unlocked. We opened the door and saw trash everywhere. It honestly looked like someone had been killed in there! The room had an upstairs where the bedroom was. The bed was actually sitting on wooden boards. We looked in the bathroom and while it was big, there was mold in the shower. We decided to go back to the room we had stayed in the night before but first Daniel needed to use the restroom. I sat on the bed terrified the whole time. The hotel wasn't some hole in the wall, it was a Holiday Inn that actually had good reviews.

We left the hotel and hotel and headed back to Clearwater Beach. Instead of spending our wedding night with just the two of us we picked up my maid of honor and headed to McDonalds for a late night snack (and we honestly think that the guy working the drive through window had probably killed someone in the room that connected to ours, lol)!

We stayed up late that night just hanging out and then woke up the next morning and rushed downstairs to the restaurant on the beach below our hotel to have an early lunch before spending a few hours in the pool. Our little vacation really did go by way too fast. We left the hotel and stopped by the courthouse on the way to the airport to get our marriage certificate.

Not only was it a great trip because we got married, but it was so nice to relax and spend time with friends and family!

10 Months

2010-06-12T20:12:00.001-04:00

Another month has gone by baby girl and this has been a month of changes! You have grown up so much and changed so quickly... you are no longer a little baby anymore. You are also getting cuter every day and I just don't know how much more cuteness I can stand! Here's whats been going on this past month:

Just like last month, you are still in size 4 diapers. The size 4 Pampers are getting tight on you but the Target brand diapers still fit pretty good.

Your have cut back to just three 8 oz bottles per day. You have one about an hour after each meal.

You are eating solids 3 times per day now. Just recently I started giving you Cheerios for breakfast to feed yourself before I give you either fruit or yogurt. You have started eating thicker foods this month including pasta which just 2 months ago you wouldn't eat. I'm still making your food for you. It's nice knowing that you are eating fresher foods and I know exactly what is in what I give you.

You have figured out how to use your sippy cup! Right now I will give fill it with 1/2 water and 1/2 white grape juice and give it to you after supper. You sit so quietly in your highchair and watch tv while you drink. You are still using the beginners sippy cup but my goal for this month is to first get you to use your sippy cup more than just once a day and then to get you to start using the larger sippy cups I have got for you.

Your clothes fit you pretty much the same this month as last. Your 12 month clothes are still pretty tight but I feel like your weight is evening out and you might be thinning out a little bit!

You are still my perfect little sleeper at night... sleeping between 12 and 13 hours. I'm not sure why but here lately you will go to sleep and then wake up not long after and sit up and start quietly crying. All it takes is for me to go in and lay you back down and give you your paci and you go right back to sleep. You have been doing this several times each night and I'm hoping it's something you will quickly grow out of.

You are still taking 2 naps each day. Sometimes they are as long as 2 hours and sometimes they are only 45 minutes. I've noticed it all depends on how long you're awake before I put you down.

You now have 4 teeth on the bottom and 1 tooth on the top! I haven't noticed any others that look like they are coming in right now so hopefully you are getting a little break from the teething!

You have done great with the reflux this month... we really haven't had any problems with it! I pray that by your first birthday this will all be something in the past and we wont have to worry about giving you medicine everyday anymore!

The biggest change that I've seen in you this month is your ability to get around! You crawl everywhere! You have got pretty fast at crawling too! You also can pull yourself up on anything and have started walking yourself around the furniture.

I have slacked on taking pictures of you this past month. I have taken quite a few on my phone but they just aren't as good as the ones with my camera. Here are some of my favorite from the past month:

I saw this picture and thought to myself... where did my baby go?

I swear I'm not over feeding you... there's only like 2 oz of food in each bowl!

Your shirt says "I whaley love you"... you are too cute with your hair pulled up!
My little sleepy head

You are my silly little baby!

I love you precious girl! You are going to be a handful but I'm looking forward to every minute of it!

Love,

Momma

Mothers Day Weekend Gatlinburg trip

2010-06-10T11:48:00.001-04:00

Ok... so I'm fully aware that Mothers Day was like a month ago but I needed to go back and write about Kaylee and I's trip to Gatlinburg that weekend. Where did the days of sitting here blogging while Kaylee laid in the floor (in one place) playing with her toys go? Oh yea... she figured out how to get around :) So now my days are spent sitting in the floor playing with her(translation: trying to keep her from busting her head on the tv stand or the corners of our tables) and trying to take a nap whenever she decides to take one.

Anywho... back to work... so instead of my mom driving all the way here to NC to see Kaylee (she comes up once a month), we decided to have a Mothers Day weekend in Gatlinburg. Kaylee's great grandma (my grandma) also came up along with Kaylee's great uncle (my uncle). Of course, the problem with waiting a month later to write about the trip, I can't remember as many details so this post will be mostly pictures.

The first day we were there (we arrived around 2 or 3) we sat in the hotel room and played with Kaylee until it was time for supper. Then we walked down the street to a restaurant where Kaylee decided she wanted to try everything we were eating. Afterwards we walked around looking at the different stores and Kaylee eventually fell asleep in her stroller.

The next day (Saturday), we went walking around again. I was dreading this because if Kaylee doesn't get her naps she gets soooo fussy and usually she won't take a nap while you are holding her... but then this happened:

She was completely out of it! So then I figured... as soon as someone picks her up and we start walking again she will wake up....

Nope! That poor little baby... all she wanted to do is sleep while we were dragging her around town! While we were there we went out to eat at several different places. I don't know if she is already after my money or she just likes my wallet, but anytime I take her shopping with me or we go out to eat, if she is fussy and all else fails, all I have to do is hand her my wallet and she is completely happy!

That Saturday Kaylee's grandma, my mom, decided to take her swimming in the hotel pool. She had bought her this new little baby float but I almost think that Kaylee would've rather been swimming by herself! Instead of playing in the water, as usual, she tried to drink it all (this is why I hate bath time because she does then same thing then).

When she was out of her float she actually tried to kick...now if I can just get her to keep her face out of the water and get her some little arm floaties she will be ready to go!

We woke up Sunday morning (Mothers Day) and all went out to eat for a nice breakfast before driving back home. It was nice to get away for the weekend and for Kaylee to be able to see her family. We are looking forward to going back to Gatlinburg in August to celebrate her 1st birthday!

My little girl is growing up!

2010-06-02T12:25:00.003-04:00

I'm really... really... slacking on posting on here. Today I realized just how much I'm missing writing down so I better get caught up. I still have other posts from several weeks ago (including Kaylee & I's trip to Gatlinburg on Mother's Day weekend...which was forever ago...) but since my brain can only handle things day by day, I wanted to get caught up on Kaylee...what she is up to... and how much she has changed!

About 2 weeks ago she finally figured out how to crawl! It wasn't until I decided I was brave enough to sit her on the hardwood floor downstairs that she finally got the hang of it! I swear that girl is going to give me a heart attack...she will sit up on her knees (sometimes on one knee with the other leg kicked out to the side) and will decide to act like she is going to slam her face on the floor...only to catch herself with her hands once her forehead is about 2 inches away from disaster! She will start out crawling on all fours and then go into a army crawl.

She got her 3rd tooth back in the middle of May (13th) and her 4th tooth came in last week (May 28) when we were back home in TN. Then only a few days later (June 1) her first tooth on the top finally broke through! She has been a little fussy here lately because of the teething and has slept a lot more than normal.

Last week (well, the week before that... May 22nd to be exact) she started pulling herself up onto the furniture. It really seems like everything changed so quickly... she went from just sitting in one spot playing with her toys, to constantly crawling around and pulling up on things. So far she has pulled herself up in her bed(which she has been doing for a long time), the ottoman, our wicker chair, somehow... the corner of the wall and my favorite... she will crawl over to me when I'm sitting at the computer and grab my chair with one hand and the desk leg with the other and just stand here and look at me! It's the sweetest thing but I'm always so afraid she is going to fall and hit her head.

Just recently (last weekend while we were back in TN), Kaylee finally started taking her first steps! It started with her Grandma holding her hands and has progressed into her holding onto things while taking steps!

It is crazy how much she changed within less than a month! I have been working on getting things together for her 1st birthday party and it seems like time is just flying by. She is getting more and more talkative and has a great sense of humor! The sweetest change in her over the past few weeks is that she has went from screaming anytime I tried to read her a book to grabbing books on her own and opening them up for me to read to her. She will sit in my lap and turn each page when I ask her to and it just melts my heart!

I can already tell her 10 month post is going to be the longest yet!

Mother's Day

2010-05-17T22:25:00.000-04:00

So... getting caught up (story of my life)... last week was my first Mother's Day! Kaylee and I were in Gatlinburg that Sunday morning with my Mom and Grandma (note to self: finish that post already!) and went out to eat for breakfast before Kaylee and I headed back home to meet up with Daniel.

When we got home I got my Mother's Day gifts... a teddy bear with a necklace hidden around its neck, a little plaque with a sweet saying on it and cards from Daniel, Kaylee, the dogs and the cat, lol! Daniel had also bought Kaylee a little teddy bear that she absolutely loved, she would not put it down and now sleeps with it every night!

We went to the mall to buy Daniel some new clothes and had planned on going out to eat at Firebirds but I think Kaylee was over being out and about and just wanted to go home and play. So we got our food to go and came back home to relax for the rest of the night. It was a great first Mother's Day being able to spend time with family!

Here are a couple of pictures of the little monster and I after we had breakfast.

It figures... I get a picture with Kaylee actually looking right at the camera and I look drunk!

Kisses for sweet baby girl!

9 Months

2010-05-12T14:03:00.001-04:00

Another month has gone by and you are getting closer and closer to that 1 year mark... it makes me sad... but excited at the same time because you are learning so much everyday! I say it every month but this past month you have really become more active. Your new favorite thing to do is stand up, whether it's in your crib on your own or with your Daddy or I holding your hands you just love showing us the new things you are learning!

You are still in size 4 diapers. They are a perfect fit right now but it seems like you never stay in one size for long!
You are still taking 4 bottles a day but we have cut them down from 8oz to 6oz. After you were on solids twice a day for a few weeks you started not finishing your bottles and it eventually got to where you'd leave 2oz in every bottle. Your bottles are still on a schedule, just not as exact like last month. I have been feeding you breakfast in the morning and then you play for about 30 minutes before you have your first bottle. Then you will have a bottle around 12:30, then one at 4:00 and then your bedtime bottle which has usually been around 9:00.
You are still eating solids twice a day but I plan on changing that to 3 times per day within the next week and hopefully cutting back to 3 bottles a day. You are such a good eater! You will eat pretty much anything I give you. When we went to Gatlinburg last weekend you ate more table food and loved it. You had eggs for the first time, spaghetti and even ate a tomato (this was funny because I hate tomatoes and when I told your Daddy he said, "that's not our child" because he doesn't like them either!). You are doing better with eating thicker foods so I feel like you are getting much closer to being able to eat more of a variety of foods. It's so important to me for you to try many different foods and learn to like them. I'm such a picky eater and I don't want that for you. You have tried so many different foods like fish, chicken, cantaloupe (at first you didn't seem to like it but now you will eat it by itself), mango, broccoli, cauliflower (this and spinach are the only two foods I have to mix with something else to get you to eat), blueberries, cherries...really too many things to name off. I bought a new blender so that I can buy fruits and veggies and continue to make your food. We really only feed you baby food from a jar when we are out somewhere and don't have access to a microwave. I also bought you some Yo Baby yogurt that you love! In the past you would never eat anything cold but now I'm able to give you the yogurt and your fruit cold and it doesn't seem to bother you.
You are slowly learning how to use your sippy cup!
You are still in 12 month clothes but they are definitely getting tight on you. For the most part, 18 month clothes fit you the best... I think I'm going to have to go shopping again soon!
You are still doing great sleeping through the night. Just like last month, most nights you will sleep 12 hours... but sometimes you only make it to 11 hours. You have been doing SO much better with your naps over the past few days. What used to be three 30 minute naps a day are now all at least 1 hour naps! To me this is one of the things I am the most proud of. Not too long ago your Daddy and I could never get anything done because it was a constant battle to get you to fall asleep with us holding you and we were doing good to get you to nap for 20-30 minutes... then there was the issue of you not wanting to sleep in your crib and me always wondering every time I put you down for a nap if you were actually going to go to sleep. Now I lay you down for your naps knowing you will be falling asleep, usually within 5 minutes! It's one of those things I look back and I'm so glad I stuck with it when trying to get you to learn to nap on your own.
You now have 3 teeth that are in (2 that came in a few months ago and 1 that just broke through) but I think you have another 2 coming in on the top. You poor baby, I know this just makes you miserable sometimes. I will be glad when all of this is over!
Your reflux has came back this past month. No where near as bad as in the beginning but you have gotten choked several times. You are still taking your meds once a day but I forgot to give them to you one night and the next morning after your bottle you got choked and had milk run out of your nose again. This hasn't happened in over a month and the medicine isn't supposed to affect whether or not you have milk come up, but it still seems like it does. I feel bad for you because sometimes you have milk come up into your throat and you will manage to stop it but your eyes get all watery and you just sit there so quietly. I keep telling myself at least it's better than it was...but I wish you didn't have to deal with it at all.
Like I mentioned in another post, you love jumping on the bed while I hold your hands! You have also learned how to clap your hands and will sit in the floor and just smile while you're clapping! You love to try to chew on Liza's nose if she walks up to you while you're in your bouncer and you will try to grab Remi if he comes up to you while you're playing in the floor.
You still haven't figured out crawling but you are getting so close. You crawled maybe 2 ft. just the other day when you were in your crib. Your Daddy and I think you are just thinking about it too hard because after you crawled we moved you back and tried to get you to do it again and you just couldn't figure it out.

You go tomorrow for your 9 month checkup and I can't wait to see how much you have grown! I am a little worried though because at your 6 month appointment the doctor said that if your head measurement doesn't level off she wants to have a CT scan done on your head to check for hydrocephalus. Hopefully nothing is wrong and you just have a big head! I will put your measurements on here tomorrow.

Here are some pictures of you from the past month... I swear you get cuter every day!

Playing with your cell phone and monster truck...what a combination!

Silly bug

Precious smile (and look at those teeth!)

At least you can crawl backwards...

All stretched out and relaxed!

I love you so much Kaylee bug, please don't grow up on me too fast!

Love,

Mommy

My little monkey... jumping on the bed!

2010-05-11T20:35:00.001-04:00

Kaylee's newest 'thing' is jumping on the bed... I swear this kid has too much energy! She started doing this last weekend in Gatlinburg, I think she was having withdrawals from missing her bouncer! If you put her in her bed and let her grab your hands she will pull herself up and start jumping (except her feet aren't coming off the mattress...she just keeps bending her knees). It's so funny because her knees aren't that strong and her legs end up going everywhere!

The look on her face is priceless when she starts jumping. She just looks like she is having so much fun and has such a big smile on her face! It's little things like this that make me glad I started this blog... so I can go back and remember all the funny little things Kaylee did growing up. She also crawled for the first time Sunday night! It wasn't very far (just from one end of her crib to the other) but she actually crawled instead of just pulling herself with her arms. Watching her crawl was so exciting because that is another one of those big milestones that reminds me just how fast she is growing up. For the past 9 months I've been able to just sit her somewhere and not have to worry about her crawling away... those days will soon come to an end!

My sweet little buggie

I just love the look on her face!

She is definitely 'Daddy's Little Love Bug'

My favorite 'Mommy Moment' so far!

2010-05-11T13:20:00.001-04:00

Since we brought Kaylee home from the hospital there have been several special 'mommy moments' but I'm not sure any of them were as sweet as what happened a few nights ago...

After being asleep for about 45 minutes I heard Kaylee screaming. I ran into her room and tried everything I could think of to get her to calm down but nothing would work. Finally I picked her up and started quietly talking to her. That calmed her down but when I would try to put her back in her crib she would instantly start screaming like she was terrified... so I picked her up again and sat down with her in the rocking chair. Normally this wouldn't work because she won't sit still and usually the only way to get her to go to sleep is to put her in her crib and leave the room. As soon as I sat down she wrapped her arms around me and laid her head on my chest and calmed down... I couldn't believe it! It seems like something so small but she hasn't let me hold her while she falls asleep in months!

Things have been so stressful around here lately and I can honestly say that sitting there in the rocking chair with her by her little night light, nothing else mattered... I was able to relax... and just enjoy the feeling of knowing that she needed me there. It was one of those special moments that I never want to forget!

My child is...'one of those kids'...

2010-04-25T17:20:00.000-04:00

I don't know how many times I have went out to eat at a restaurant and walked past a table with a kid in a highchair that has 90% of their food on the floor and I thought to myself... that will never be my kid...

I regret to report to you that... that IS my kid! Last week Daniel, Kaylee and I went to Concord and decided to have lunch at On the Border. This was Kaylee's first time in a highchair and she actually did great. I was afraid she would try to lean over and end up falling out but she sat there like a big girl! I remembered to bring her Puffs and Mum Mums with me but the Puffs turned out to be a bad idea. I tried putting some on a napkin on the table and when I turned around to grab something out of her diaper bag she grabbed the napkin and threw the Puffs all over the floor right in front of the waitress.

Then I remembered I had some sanitizing wipes. So I wiped off the table and poured more Puffs out onto the table... bad idea. Kaylee reached up and wiped them all off right onto the floor. Thank goodness the Mum Mum's were a lifesaver! She actually held onto them and ate them. We really need to work on not throwing our food all over the floor before we try giving her Puffs again. We did go out to eat one other time since then and she did fine with the Puffs as long as I handed her 1 at a time. She is also bad about constantly squealing and reaching for things... she actually grabbed the waiters pocket one time when he came to take our order!

Here are some pictures of the little munchkin. The quality isn't very good because I took them on my phone and she wouldn't sit still.

In mid scream...

Looking at her Daddy!
I think this is probably the only time she actually ate one of the Puff's instead of throwing it on the ground!

Getting back on a routine

2010-04-25T15:38:00.000-04:00

The day finally came when Daniel went back to work... it's not the job that he was looking for, but it's something...and something is better than nothing! It's crazy, but after only 3 days Kaylee and I were back on a little routine/schedule of our own. It really does make things so much easier because I can plan my day more around what she will be doing. Here is a look at what our days are like now:

9:00 am: Wake up, solids then bottle

10:00 am: I eat breakfast while Kaylee watches Nick Jr. or plays in her bouncer
10:45 am: Put Kaylee down for a nap and hop on the treadmill until she
wakes up
11:45 am: Wake Up- Usually she will take about a hour nap, but it varies...that
is the one thing that isn't predictable
11:45-12:30: Play time in the floor
12:30 pm: Lunch time bottle
12:45 pm: Play time in her bouncer

1:30 pm: Down for a nap (I either take a nap, pay bills or catch up on things on the computer)
2:15 pm: Kaylee wakes up
2:15-3:30: Play time in the floor
3:30 pm: Snacks while in her bouncer
4:00 pm: Afternoon bottle
4:15 pm: Play time

4:45 pm: Down for a nap (I start supper, take a nap or watch tv)
5:30 pm: Kaylee wakes up
5:30-6:30: Kaylee plays in her bouncer (while I finish and eat supper)
7:00 pm: Solid food
7:30 pm: Bath time or play time
8:30 pm: Bed time bottle and then time for bed

It's hard for me to write all of this in detail because I never know how long her naps are going to last. She has days when her naps are the usual 30-45 minutes but then there are other days where her naps are closer to a hour and 1/2 long. Here recently she has started staying up later than normal and it seems to be working out a little better. She goes to be anywhere between 9 and 9:45 pm and will sleep til around 9:15 am. She falls asleep quicker and sleeps longer so I think we will stick with the later bedtime as long as things keep going good.

I took her to Walmart by myself for the first time last week....yes, in 8 months this is the first time I've taken her with me. I've always had Daniel watch her for me in the past because I can get my shopping done so much quicker, plus the thought of all the germs on the shopping carts grosses me out. I really need to get one of those cart covers... right now I just take 2 blankets with me to cover up the handlebar and the seat. She did ok, but she was restless and decided to scream (just for fun) the whole time I was in the store.

Kaylee and I both hate Daniel being gone during the day but we are making the best of it. She is usually a little fussier in the afternoons but as soon as she sees Daniel walk in the door she gets the biggest smile on her face and is so happy to see her Daddy!

Playing before bedtime :)

I love that sweet smile!

Looking for her favorite toy

First time in a swimming pool!

2010-04-14T20:08:00.002-04:00

Woohoo! This is my last post that I am behind on and then I will be all caught up (and pray to never get behind again)! Last week Kaylee got in a swimming pool for the first time! I am still working on losing weight, so we won't be making a trip to a big pool anytime soon, but for now we have a little blow up pool that she loves!

Kaylee really liked playing in the pool... I realized that we didn't have any pool toys for her so we had to use her bath toys instead :) Of course, it wouldn't be a fun time if she didn't scare her Mommy & Daddy so she decided to lean forward until she fell over onto her stomach and went completely under water! I was holding the camera and Daniel grabbed her up really quick... she actually did fine, she didn't breathe in through her mouth and she just got a little water in her nose. I was sitting there freaking out thinking surely she should be choking on the water or something but she was fine! She actually never cried and looked at me like, 'geeze mom calm down already!'

Here are some pictures of the little water bug!

I love her little hat!

Splashing in the water!

She kept scratching and trying to chew on the side of the pool

My little underwater swimmer after she scared me to death!

8 Months!

2010-04-12T11:08:00.004-04:00

Where has the past 8 months gone?!? Little bug, you have really changed a lot this past month! The biggest difference I have noticed is your ability to sit up on your own and being able to use both hands to play with your toys (without falling over anymore!). Your personality continues to come out more and more everyday and I just love it!

We just switched you to size 4 diapers! They are a little big on you but the size 3's were too small.

You still take four 8 oz bottles and now you are on a schedule with those! You get a bottle when you wake up which is usually around 8, then a bottle at 12 and 4 everyday and then a bottle before bedtime (which is anywhere between 7:15 and 8:00 depending on how sleepy you are). It's so nice to have your bottles on a schedule!

You are now eating solids twice a day (first thing in the morning and then at night around 6:30). You have been trying a lot of new foods including fish and have liked everything! Our friends Kay & Libby have a baby food maker so I have been able to give you more of a variety of foods instead of sticking with only the baby food they have at the store. In the mornings I have been giving you a bagel with strawberry cream cheese every now and then. The first time you tried it you couldn't chew it up but you are getting better at it everyday. I think it's the texture that your not used to swallowing.

I'm not really sure what's going on with the sizes on your clothes... a few of your 9 month sleep n plays still fit, but I think Carter's has started making their clothes differently because you have a few 9 month long sleeve onesies that fit but your 12 month short sleeve onesies look a little tight. I actually put a onesie on you this morning and realized it was a 18 month one and it fits just fine. So I guess you would say you are between 12-18 month size clothes.

You are now taking all of your naps in your crib and sleeping in it at night as well. It seems like you have been sleeping much better since we moved you to your crib and will sleep 12 hours most nights, but sometimes you only make it to 11 hours.

You still love playing with Liza and Remi but here lately you seem to like playing on your own more. You also seem a little less interested in your bouncer. You are usually happiest sitting in the floor with your box of toys and being able to pick out whatever you want. You have a plate that you brought home from your Grandma & Grandpa's house that you love to sit and chew on and push your face flat against it and try to eat the plate!

It is getting so hard to change your diaper and get you dressed now because you are always rolling over. I'm starting to think that you see it as a game. I have to use one arm to try to pin you down while I try to change your diaper...this has resulted in me getting punched several times in the face (thank you very much!) and you have got a few (accidental) elbows to the chin.

You have been going through a stage where you cry when we try to put your arms in your clothes but over the past few days you seem to be getting over that.

I am finally comfortable with you sleeping on your stomach! I still get a little paranoid when you are on your stomach and close to the bumper in your crib, so before I go to sleep I make sure your face isn't pushing up against anything and then I try not to worry about it!

You love going for car rides! Anytime I ask you if 'you want to go for a ride' you get so excited and smile really big! We also took you on your first ride on the dirtbike! I was afraid it would be a little too loud and hurt your ears so Daddy hopped on the bike and sat you in front of him and I was the lucky one who got to push both of you down the street on it! You seemed to really enjoy it and held onto the gas cap since you couldn't reach the handlebars.

As of just this past weekend we no longer thicken your bottles and you haven't had any troubles with it! We still have to make sure you are sitting up when you take your bottles because you get choked pretty easily when you are laying down too much. You are still taking your medicine once a day but I think we will try cutting that out soon and see how it goes!

Look at that little grin!

Pretty blue eyes & big smile!

Standing up by herself!

She loves playing in her crib!

I really think I somehow manage to love you a little more everyday baby girl. You have the sweetest smile and the cutest laugh that can always brighten up my day. Your Daddy & I love you so much!

Love,

Mommy

She's just too cute!

2010-04-12T11:04:00.001-04:00

So Kaylee's first saying was "Hi Daddy!" It was the sweetest thing because she always said it in a very soft voice and would just look at him and smile. This is another reason why I hate being behind on posts... she started saying this the week before Easter and said it all the time when Daniel would come into the room...but now... nothing! She seems to go through stages where she will talk a lot and then a few weeks will go by where she just babbles on but never actually says anything. But when she goes through those phases of being talkative, it is adorable!

She also had her 2nd tooth come in, March 30th I believe... and I'm just now getting around to blog about it! You really should see my desk, when things like this happen where I need to remember the date to put in her baby book I usually write it down on anything near me (which is usually a bill!) so that I can remember to put it in the blog and also put it in her book. It's taking me forever to get caught up on her baby book because of all of the pictures I need. It's so aggrivating to take pictures out of her photo albums to put in the baby book and then making note of all the pictures I need to reorder on Shutterfly. Those photo albums were the only things I've managed to really keep up with since she was born and now they are a mess!

Ok, so I know this was a pretty boring post... so here's a little cuteness before I go!

I got in bed last night and...

2010-04-10T13:21:00.001-04:00

I turned the tv on!!! You don't understand how huge this is for Daniel & I. Since we brought Kaylee home and she has been sleeping in our room, we couldn't watch tv in our bedroom because it would wake her up. But someone is a big girl now and is sleeping in her own bed in her own room! I have been putting off moving her to her bed for so long because I just knew the first few nights were going to be terrible and I couldn't stand the thought of her being so far away.

I finally told myself before we went back to TN for Easter weekend that when we got back home, she was going to start sleeping in her bed. She has taken her naps in her pack n play in our room also so I figured on Monday when I put her in her crib to take a nap she wouldn't like it, but she actually did great...and Monday night, after her bottle, we put her in bed and that was it...no fussing, no screaming, no laying there wide awake...nothing! She went to sleep and actually seemed to sleep better because she doesn't move around as much. Plus, she is sleeping longer now too... last night she slept for 12 hours straight! I am so lucky to have a 'easy baby' but that's just another reason why I only want 1 child... because I've been spoiled by Kaylee and I know if I had another baby it would probably be the complete opposite of her!

Kaylee has gotten so good at napping during the day. I remember not too long ago when I was breaking her from the habit of sleeping only while we held her that I would lay her down for a nap, only to listen to her fuss and scream for a hour and 45 minutes and never take a nap. Then it got to where most of the time when I would lay her down she would fall asleep after about 20 minutes, but I will still sit here and wonder if she was going to take a nap or not. Now, usually in less than 5 minutes she is asleep and there hasn't been one time that I've put her down that she didn't take a nap!

It's so cute when she naps, if she isn't asleep before her seahorse quits playing music she will reach out and turn it back on so that she can fall asleep. She is also really good at knowing where her paci is, so that when she starts to wake up during a nap or at night, she will reach around, grab it and put it back in her mouth without opening her eyes. I really hope she can keep this up now that I have finally gotten used to her sleeping in her own room. Our room looks so much bigger without the play yard in there!

My sweet baby girl...I'm so lucky to have you!

Easter Weekend

2010-04-09T09:30:00.000-04:00

***WARNING*** This post will be filled with a ridiculous amount of pictures... give me a break, ok... it was Easter... and Kaylee was looking extra cute :)

Last weekend Daniel, Kaylee and I took a trip back to Tennessee for the weekend. We kinda celebrated Easter a day early (on Saturday) because we had to drive back overnight on Saturday and didn't get back home til Sunday morning. We drove to my family's house overnight Thursday night and got there around 2am Friday morning. Right now when we have a long drive we try to leave right before Kaylee's bed time and give her her bed time bottle in the car and then she falls asleep and usually won't wake up until we get there (or if we stop somewhere, but she usually falls back to sleep once we get going again). It makes the trip so much easier because we don't have to stop to change diapers!

Friday we decided to take Kaylee on her first trip to the zoo! Daniel had to go to the track so it was Grandma (my mom), Great Grandma, Uncle Quinten, Kaylee & I. We went to the Grassmere Zoo in Nashville and of course, we had to pick a day when it was entirely too hot outside! Kaylee actually did really good though. There were times when she got fussy but she would cheer up as soon as someone picked her up. She saw a few of the animals, but for the most part I think she just enjoyed looking around at all of the people and being outside.

My happy baby!

Kaylee & Grandma

Big smile!

Kisses from mommy

She would not look at the camera!

Kaylee & Great Grandma

Is it just me or does this look unsafe?

We got back to my parents house later in the afternoon and Kaylee & I were wore out! Daniel was able to leave the track early enough so that we were able to go eat at one of my favorite restaurants in TN... Demos'! Saturday morning we woke up with plans of taking Kaylee to a local Easter egg hunt and to have her picture made with the Easter bunny, but it was storming. Kaylee's Great Uncle Bubba came to visit and brought her some things for Easter that she opened up while we were waiting for breakfast to be ready!

Opening her Easter card!

I just love that little face!

Kaylee with her bunny rabbit that is dressed like a ladybug!!! I love it!

Silly girl

Kaylee & Great Uncle Bubba

Daniel had to go back to the track again on Saturday but we made sure to get pictures of Daddy & Kaylee in her Easter dress before he left!

Luckily the rain went away quickly after we had breakfast and we were still able to go to the Easter egg hunt (actually, by the time we got there, everyone had already done the Easter egg hunt in her age group, but there were still plenty of eggs left!). I don't have a copy of Kaylee's picture with the Easter bunny (I left the Polaroids back at home), but here are some pictures of her first Easter egg hunt!

She was so excited when she first saw all of the eggs!

She couldn't figure out that it would be easier to reach the eggs if she would bend her knees

Big blue eyes! I couldn't believe she didn't try to pull her headband off!

Great picture of Kaylee & Grandma!

I just loved her dress!

She was getting fussy and didn't want to look at the camera

After the Easter egg hunt and pictures with the Easter bunny, we went back to my parents house to hang out for the rest of the day.

Kaylee & Grandpa

The hand on the shoulder is too cute!

She loved riding around with her Uncle Quinten

After the rain it actually turned out to be a really pretty day! My mom and I were able to take Kaylee outside and get some pictures with the flowers. I was surprised at how good they turned out, seeing as how I'm not the best at taking pictures! These are some of my favorites!

*The stuff that is hanging down in front of her on this picture is the branches of a weeping willow tree. I should've got a wider shot of her under the tree because it is huge!

This is probably my favorite picture!

She ended up trying to eat the buttercup and did not like it!

It was great to go back home for the weekend but after the long drive back to North Carolina Saturday night, it was good to be back at our home!

Visit from Grandma!

2010-04-07T00:36:00.000-04:00

Why do I keep putting these posts off... because when I finally get around to doing them it's hard to remember what happened which makes it take even longer! Ok, so back to catching up...

The weekend before last (March 26), Kaylee got a visit from Grandma! We woke up early Friday morning, got dressed, ate breakfast and hopped in the car for the hour and 1/2 drive to Raleigh to pick her up from the airport. We spent the day sitting around the house and then on Friday night mom watched Kaylee so that Daniel & I could go out to eat.

Saturday morning after we got dressed and ready to go we went to Concord Mills to go shopping. Daniel had to go to a race, so it was just the 3 of us. We bought Kaylee some summer clothes, size 18 months, because apparently either she is trying to jump right past the 12 month size or Carter's is doing like Abercrombie did years ago... last year's size 0 is this year's size 2! After getting Kaylee some new clothes we went over to PacSun where mom got Daniel some new shorts since he ripped his pants, literally, on Friday when we got back from the airport!

Before heading back home we went over to Toys R Us to get Kaylee some books since they were having a Buy 1 Get 1 Free sale. Ok, this might sound weird... but I haven't been to Toys R Us in years! I honestly thought it was just older kids toys (yes...I do live under a rock!). It's a good thing though because I saw so many things I wanted to buy for Kaylee! She ended up with a ring stacker, cell phone, 4 books and 4 dvds (Elmo & Blue Clues). After all of that shopping I was wore out so we headed back home. The rest of the night we sat around the house and relaxed and Daniel & I were able to go out to eat again, just the 2 of us!

Sunday Daniel had to go back to Martinsville for the race so we stayed at the house and watched the Vols play. We were running behind leaving for the airport because the game was close and came down to the last few seconds. After the game we headed to Raleigh and was able to meet Daniel on the way there since the race was rained out. We dropped my mom off at the airport and headed back home knowing it was supposed to storm, but we had no clue how bad. We stopped to grab some supper on the way home and I decided to check the weather on my phone and saw that there had been a tornado reported just a few miles from our house. On our way home that night we ended up driving through 2 storms that had tornados in them... the first, which I just found out yesterday, was a F3 tornado that was just a few miles off the interstate we were on. Daniel & I thought we saw the funnel but then it started raining so hard that we couldn't see anything at all. The second was a F2 tornado that we were much closer to but were unable to see because it was dark outside. The ground was completely covered with hail and there was nowhere for us to pull over because all of the underpasses were full of parked cars so we just had to drive through it. Amazingly, Kaylee slept through all of this!

Other than the storms it was a great weekend. Kaylee loves spending time with her Grandma and it's nice to have someone to watch her so that Daniel and I can spend time together.

What would we do without the bouncer?!?!

Big smile!

Kisses from Grandma (apparently she thought it was funny!)

Sweet baby girl!

I Love This Time of Year!

2010-03-20T22:20:00.003-04:00

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!

2010-03-15T22:24:00.000-04:00

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!

2010-03-13T15:41:00.004-05:00

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'

2010-03-10T21:53:00.004-05:00

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!

2010-03-07T08:09:00.002-05:00

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...

2010-03-06T20:14:00.000-05:00

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!

2010-03-03T16:15:00.002-05:00

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

2010-03-01T21:02:00.010-05:00

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

2010-03-01T16:38:00.000-05:00

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!

Shopping!

2010-02-27T14:31:00.001-05:00

The day after Valentines Day, Daniel, Kaylee & I met up with Kay & Libby to go shopping at Babies R Us and Concord Mills. Before we went shopping Daniel, Kaylee & I went to our favorite restaurant in Concord, On the Border! Kaylee was a good baby and sat in the booth with us eating her cookies that her Grandma got her for Valentines Day.

Kaylee Bug & Daddy

After eating we met up with Kay & Libby @ Babies R Us. We bought Kaylee some sippy cups, paci's, a bigger baby tub and a adorable swimsuit & sunhat! After Babies R Us we went over to Concord mills mall. Kaylee was in such a good mood the whole day and loved riding around in her stroller. Just before we left she started to get fussy because she was hungry, but as soon as her Daddy picked her up, she was happy again!

She was either happy because her Daddy was holding her or happy because we were standing in line to buy her more clothes!

After we got home and got Kaylee to bed I decided to lay everything out. I had bought so many clothes that I couldn't even remember what all I had bought! So maybe I went a little overboard... but there were so many cute summer clothes!

It took forever to get the tags off of all of the clothes. I like the Jumping Beans brand of shirts that I bought from Kohl's because the only tag they have is a sticker...so much easier to get off than the regular tags!

I'm glad we were able to stock up on clothes for Kaylee. Most of the things I bought were summer clothes in 12 month size. I will be glad when it warms up outside so that she can wear all of her new clothes!

Catching up....Standing up!

2010-02-27T13:00:00.004-05:00

I admit...I've been terrible at keeping up with the blog these last few weeks. I've got 4 or 5 posts that I'm working on to get caught up and hope to have them finished up by tomorrow night. One of them is Kaylee's 1st Valentines post...it's only 2 weeks late...that's not so bad...right?

One of the main reasons I haven't been able to post is for the past 3 weeks Daniel has been out of town Thursday-Sunday and I'm pretty much in survival mode on those days. Then the rest of the week I'm not really sure what I do instead of blogging...but I can just never get motivated to think long enough to make complete sentences!

But anywho... Kaylee is changing so much in so many different ways these days. She has learned how to pull herself up! I can lay her on her back and she will put herself up to sitting and then straight to standing up. She has been doing this since just before Valentines Day but has gotten much better at it over the past week or so. The only problem is once she stands up, she doesn't want me to hold her hands anymore...she hasn't figured out the balance part so I can't let go of her and she usually will just keep pulling away from my hands until I lean her back so that she will sit back down.

She is also getting better at rolling over from her back to her stomach. She has even figured out how to roll over on her changing table. I'm not to happy about this because she tried to roll over while I'm changing her diaper. I took these pictures today... I changed her diaper and let her lay on her changing table for a few minutes while I picked up some things in her room. When I turned around, this is what I saw...

She loves this decorative pillowcase that I put on the wall... apparently she wanted to get a closer look at the black sheep!

She still hasn't really figured out how to get from her stomach to her back, but when she does, I'm in trouble!

6 Months!

2010-02-15T23:01:00.004-05:00

I can't believe my little bug is 6 months old! As fast as the past 6 months have went by, I know that before I know it we will be throwing your first birthday party! I'm a couple of days behind on getting this posted because we have been so busy these past few days. Our biggest accomplishment over the past month has been getting you back on a sleeping routine. You have went from taking 30 minute naps with us holding you to taking 1-3 hour naps on your own in your playyard! Here's what else you have been up to the past month:

You are in size 3 diapers... we are still using the Pampers Cruisers Premium but have started using the Target brand diapers during the day while we are at home (they are 1/2 the price and work just as good... but they have blue & green polka dots on them that show through your clothes... so they aren't great to wear when we go out somewhere)

You take 32oz of formula everyday (one 8oz bottle and four 6oz bottles... we are trying to get that to just four 8oz bottles)

You are in 9 month clothes now... there are some 6 month sleep n plays that still fit but are getting tight (I will be putting those up this weekend)

Like I wrote in my last post, you are learning to roll over. You have pretty much figured out how to roll from your back to your stomach, but still can't quite figure out how to go from your stomach to your back.

You can sit up on your own for a few seconds and then you will fall over. You think it's funny when you fall backwards while laying on our bed!

You have been getting better and better at standing up. I sometimes think you will stand on your own (while holding onto something) before you figure out how to crawl! I can stand you up on our bed sometimes and you will hold onto my shirt and stand there without me holding onto you!

We found out this past month that you are allergic to apples. That was the only problem you had with the stage 1 foods. We started you on stage 2 foods right at 6 months so over the next few weeks you will be trying some new foods and hopefully apples will be the only thing you are allergic to.

You still love to constantly try to suck on your toes!

The biggest change I have seen in you over this past month is your personality. You have become so talkative and are such a silly little girl! Just like last month, you love your jumper and you are constantly bouncing a talking/screaming. Just over the past few days you have also started trying to blow bubbles, but you end up just drooling everywhere! You seem to be smiling and laughing more and more everyday and that's something I can never get enough of!

You are still growing as fast as ever. Here are your measurements from your 6 month checkup:

Weight: 20 lbs 8 oz

Height: 26 1/2 in.

(I think you are actually a little longer than this because when the measurement was taken, you didn't want to lay flat on the measurement chart)

Head Measurement: 47 cm

(Your head was still measuring off the chart and actually spiked a little from your last checkup. The doctor decided that if the measurement doesn't start to level off at your 9 month appointment, you will need to have a CT scan done to make sure nothing is wrong)

You are the sweetest little girl and your smile is something I can always count on to cheer me up! I love you so much baby girl!

Just a few things

2010-02-10T21:11:00.001-05:00

I will be doing Kaylee's 6 month post Friday but I just wanted to do a post today just because this is something that deserves its own post... Kaylee is finally back to taking long naps...by herself!!! It's amazing how much her mood has changed. She is such a happy baby now and does the cutest things! It's great to know that after screwing up her routine, we got her back on track. It was hard...but definitely worth it.

We started off by trying the Baby Whisperer method, but feeding Kaylee every 4 hours caused her to start waking up earlier in the morning because she was so hungry. So now we don't really have a set schedule, but it works for us. Yesterday after sleeping for 3 hours (which seems like forever compared to the 30 minute naps that I have gotten used to), I had to wake her up because she needed her meds and the long nap was going to throw off her eating schedule which would mean bad news for us the next morning.

She took a nap earlier for a hour and 30 minutes and for the life of me, I don't know how. It is VERY windy here today... as in constant 25mph winds, gusting up to 45mph! It is so noisy in our bedroom where she is sleeping and her playyard is right beside 3 windows so that makes it even louder. But I'm not complaining, it's nice to get a break and be able to clean up the house a little bit.

Another thing that I have been excited about is, Kaylee finally rolled over by herself!!! She has done it before when she was in her crib and using her foot to push herself over, but this past weekend (February 7th...note to self to put that in the baby book...) she was laying on her stomach and just rolled right over! She kept trying to do it again but never could quite get it.

I'm sure within the next month she will start rolling all over the place and I won't be able to keep up with her. Well that is all for this post. Hopefully she will cooperate with me Friday so that I can do the 6 month post. And just because a post wouldn't be complete without a little cuteness, here's a couple of pics!

My 2 favorite people :)

She looks surprised...lol

MaMa Blog Hop!

2010-02-07T21:27:00.002-05:00

Sarah over @ My Life as MaMa has started up a MaMa Blog Hop! When I'm not playing with my little monster, I love reading other mama's blogs. Even if I don't know these ladies in person, I like reading their blogs and I have came across several ideas as far as activities to do with Kaylee and ways of preserving memories of her first months, not to mention these blogs are great for a good laugh every now and then!

So go on over to Sarah's page if your a mommy blogger and add your blog to her list!

I want my baby back!

2010-02-02T23:16:00.004-05:00

So I had to go to Target today to pick up some formula for Kaylee she was completely out. We are using the Up & Up Brand and somehow 75% of the time that I go to buy formula they are sold out. They always have all of the other brands and all of the other variations of the Up & Up formula... but never the regular formula. Seriously... if you see that you're always selling out of this one particular item... ORDER MORE! The stuff has a shelf life of 2 years so it's not like it's going to go bad. But anywho... I went over to the clothes section to see what all they had. As soon as I get our tax refund I'm going to be doing some major clothes shopping since I need to get 9 month winter clothes and I also want to go ahead and buy 12 month summer clothes.

The idea of buying 12 month size clothes alone makes me sad. Even though Kaylee will probably be around 9 months old when the 12 month clothes start to fit, it's just one more thing that reminds me of how she is getting older. I found this cute outfit that I plan on getting for her. At the front of the rack there was the Newborn size. And then, all the way at the back, was the 12 month size.

Look at the difference in size! I wanted to cry. This time last year I was pregnant, and though I didn't know if I was having a boy or a girl just yet, I would look at all the newborn sized clothes thinking of what I would buy once we found out what I was having. And now, a year later, I am preparing to buy 12 month clothes for my 6 month old baby :( I wish she was little again, but at the same time she has just gotten so cute here lately! Her smile is the sweetest thing ever. It seems like as days go by her smile gets bigger and bigger!

She has also been doing better with her naps. Even though we are only finishing up day 2 of our mission to get her to take naps in her crib, she is doing great. Today she took 3 naps in her crib. Two 30 minute naps and 1 almost 2 hour nap! It's not easy, and it involves a lot of fussing and picking her up and putting her back down, but she is slowly catching on. The first time I attempted to get her to nap in her crib it was a hour and 15 minutes of me picking her up and putting her back down... with no nap. This morning it took Daniel 45 minutes and then this afternoon it took me 20 minutes to get her to sleep. So we are making progress!

Next week she has her 6 month checkup. I'm excited to see what her measurements are. I also need to make an appointment to have her 6 month pictures taken. We decided to do professional pictures at 1 week, 6 months, 1 year and then possibly once a year after that. I have her 1 week pictures framed and on the wall in our living room. When Kaylee gets fussy I walk around with her and show her the pictures. At the time I thought she was such a big baby, but looking back at those pictures now all I can think of is how small she was. Funny how things change!

Snowed in and getting on a routine

2010-02-01T13:28:00.003-05:00

The weatherman was actually right... we got snow... and a lot of it! It started Friday night and didn't completely stop until later in the day on Saturday. We ended up with 10 inches... 13 inches in some spots along with just a little bit of ice. This was Kaylee's 2nd big snow... lucky girl... 2 big snows in less than 6 months! It was so cold outside that we didn't take her out for long. I bundled her up with a long sleeve onesie, 2 pairs of pants (one with the little feet in them), socks and her fuzzy sweater!

She wanted to try to eat the snow...

I don't know if she liked it or not though...

I love this picture... it looks like we abandoned her in the snow lol
Little snow baby!

I threw some snow towards her!

Last year when I was pregnant I bought the book, "The Baby Whisperer" with the plans on reading it before Kaylee was born. I kept putting off reading it and then eventually lost the book. I have been looking for it for the past month or so and Daniel finally found it for me yesterday morning in Kaylee's nightstand... go figure. Up until last November Kaylee had been doing good at taking naps. She was taking a 3-4 hour nap twice a day when she was around 2-3 months old, then it went to one 4 hour midday nap at 3 months. Every time she would take a nap she would usually fall asleep in my arms and then I would either lay her in our bed or on the couch without waking her up. The beginning of November she started having problems with her midday nap. It got shorter and shorter and then disappeared all together. I think at first it was caused by her reflux not being under control and then the problem was made worse by Daddy being home all day which threw our routine off track.

After a few weeks of Daniel being home Kaylee had turned into a Daddy's girl and was spoiled. She would only take a nap if one of us were holding her. Things have just continued to get worse with her naps. They are very unpredictable and usually only last 30-45 minutes after struggling with her to get her to fall asleep. Something had to change because neither one of us can get anything done during the days because we are either feeding her, playing with her or trying to get her to go to sleep. She has also been a lot grumpier because of being overtired during the day. After reading The Baby Whisperer yesterday I decided I would start the struggle of getting her on a routine today. The book suggests a routine called EASY... Eat, Activity, Sleep and Your time.

The first attempt at getting her to take a nap in her crib this morning was a DISASTER! I put her down at 10:20 and after doing the Pick Up/Put Down method for a hour and 15 minutes it was time for her to eat again... and she still hadn't taken a nap. I was exhausted but stuck to the plan and fed her and let her play. After playing for only a hour I saw her yawn! Great, I did what the book said and saw the first sign of her being sleepy! I ran over to her, grabbed her paci, picked her up out of her bouncer and ran up stairs to put her in her crib. As soon as I laid her down I left the room and closed the door. By the time I took 2 steps to the bonus room and turned the monitor on... SHE WAS ASLEEP!!! I was so excited... this is the first time that she has taken a nap in her crib in several months! Of course, the nap only lasted 30 minutes as usual but at least she fell asleep in her crib. She has been awake for almost 20 minutes now and is still just laying there looking around. It is so hard to stick to the plan and not give up on the Pick Up/Put Down but if it means taking naps on her own and less fussiness during the day, not to mention the fact that I have a little peace and quiet every now and then, then I'm will to do whatever it takes.

I know she was happier when we were on our own little schedule... I was too! She really is a east baby and I'm so lucky for that. She just needs her mamma to get it together and give her a little help. And surprise surprise... she just put herself back to sleep. Ahh... sleep...

That's what I like to hear!

2010-01-30T01:22:00.003-05:00

Kaylee is saying "mama" more and more everyday! Most of the time she screams it when she is fussy but sometimes she will say it while playing in her bouncer. I'm always wondering how she is going to change from day to day! Tonight is her 2nd snow. It seems like these past 2 years it has snowed quite a bit several times here. It never snowed very much when I was younger so Kaylee is lucky to get to see all of this snow! Hopefully the pattern will continue and as she gets older we will have enough snow for her to go outside and play in.

The whole plan of cutting back on her meds didn't work. She has been so fussy and after giving her the midday medicine that we had cut out she seemed to be in a better mood. So that's it for me trying to cut back for a while. Maybe we will try again after she gets past this teething stage since that can make reflux flare up.

I can't wait to get our tax return this year. Since we were stuck in the house all day I decided to make a list of things I want to get with our refund. I have found several larger toys that I would like to get Kaylee and just need to narrow down the choices. I'm also looking forward to going clothes shopping for Kaylee. I have picked out several adorable things at Baby Gap that I can't wait for her to wear!

Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to get some pictures of her with the snow to post on here! Here are some of her '5 month' pictures. I can't believe she is going to be 1/2 a year old in just a little less than 2 weeks!

I love those big blue eyes!

I remember when I took a picture like this just before Thanksgiving, she could barely lift her head off the pillow!

Taking things day by day

2010-01-26T23:51:00.003-05:00

When I started this blog towards the beginning of last year I thought it would be something nice to have to look back on to remember my pregnancy and to use a sort of a baby book for Kaylee. Plus I figured it would be a way for friends and family to see updated pictures of the little monster and to read about how she is doing whenever they get a chance. I would've like to have thought that most things that were wrote on this blog would be upbeat and happy memories... but sometimes they're not.

I think the reason I haven't posted much here lately is because I don't want to write how I really feel... because honestly, right now things just aren't that great... and do I want to write about how bad things are right now for the world to read (or just the one or two people who probably read my blog :) )... not really... but this is what I am using to look back on, and I would like to hope that when I read this years down the road, I will be able to see how far we have come. So this is whats been going on...

We cut back on Kaylee's medicine a week ago yesterday, going from 3 times a day to only twice a day. So far so good... she got choked once right after we cut out the midday dose but other than that she seems to be doing ok. I plan on trying to cut her morning dose in half next Monday. I am so afraid of doing this because the last time we tried to get her off the meds was when she was on Prevacid and it didn't work at all... then after trying to get her back on the medicine we realized it didn't work for her anymore. So I'm afraid of backing her off the medicine and then the reflux coming back and then possibly having the same problem as last time with the medicine no longer working.

Kaylee's medicine is expensive... $200 a month... and right now we don't have insurance because of having to wait for the Cobra rate reduction application to go through. Unemployment income really just isn't cutting it and tonight I realized we only had 2 days worth of medicine left. Of course, I don't just have $200 sitting around, but luckily I had a card for $75 off the prescription and after begging the pharmacist, he agreed to let me just get 1/2 of the meds (which was super nice of him because the medicine comes in 30 packets sealed in a box... so he gave me 1/2 of the box as long as I promised him I would come get the other 1/2 once I had the money, otherwise he couldn't sell that to anyone else). You know it's bad when the happiest part of your day is knowing you just bought yourself a couple more weeks until you have to figure out how to come up with more money for medicine that you absolutely have to have.

I figured it up and 1/2 of the prescription will last us for almost a month at the dosage she is getting right now. If we are able to keep cutting back, hopefully after getting that last 1/2 of the box we will be able to completely get her off the meds (fingers crossed).

I think the last time I posted I mentioned the issue we are having with trying to get Kaylee to take longer, more consistent naps during the day. I'm not sure, but I think I might be making some progress. Yesterday I was able to get her to take two, hour long naps and then 2 or 3 thirty minute naps. She has been fussy a lot here lately which always makes me worry about the reflux. But I haven't heard anything in her throat and there hasn't been any grunting or arching her back so I'm hoping it's something else.

She keeps growing so fast! About 2 weeks ago she went from the size 2-3 Swaddlers to the size 3 Pampers Cruisers and now I think after she goes through this next box of the size 3, she will need size 4 diapers! I can see this being a problem down the road...

She is also getting too big for her Bumbo seat (this makes me very sad). She loves that thing and I always sit her in it on the counter to feed her solid foods. I wanted to try to keep from having to buy a high chair but it looks like that's out of the question now. She has been acting like she is getting uncomfortable in the Bumbo seat and when you try to pick her up, her chubby legs get stuck (picture picking up a baby with the seat still somehow attached to their butt!).

During this time that Daniel has been unemployed I have tried to realize what is most important, which is the fact that even though we don't have much money and are doing good to get by, we have a healthy baby girl, and that is what matters more than anything. I have read other mommies' blogs where they have either lost a child during pregnancy or shortly after their baby being born and to hear their stories makes me realize just how blessed we are.

I have also learned during these hard times just how determined I am to make sure Kaylee has everything she needs. Whether its something like clothes (which we are going shopping with tax return money to buy her 9 month size since her 6 month things are getting too small) or something as simple as formula or diapers. Anytime when we have had a little extra money I go out and stock up on diapers, formula and thickening gel. For some reason it just makes me feel better knowing that we have plenty of those things at home, and when we start to run out I start stressing even more.

I know that we will get through all of this and whether we stay here or move back to Tennessee, I know I have learned a lot from these past 2 months and things have definitely been put into perspective. I look forward to sharing all of these things with Kaylee when she is older. I just want her to know that her Daddy and I will do whatever it takes to make sure she has everything she needs.

Learning to sit up!

2010-01-23T00:21:00.005-05:00

I am slacking on keeping up with things on the blog... Kaylee has been really fussy here lately... I'm hoping it just her teething and not reflux related since we have tried to cut back on her meds. She is also spoiled because of her Daddy so she is always wanting us to play with her or hold her... and the few times that she plays by herself, she always makes sure that we are watching her. She is learning how to sit up more on her own. She still forgets what she is doing and will fall over. I always catch her except for if she is sitting on our bed, she will start to fall to the side and when she falls completely over she smiles really big!

Look at those chubby arms! My little Michelin girl :)

I think she is always the happiest playing in her bouncer. She will start bouncing and look at Daniel & I and when we smile at her or laugh at what she is doing, she will smile really big and giggle and do it again! I think she likes entertaining us :)

Happy baby:)

She has also become obsessed with the flowers on her bouncer. She will either try to lean forward as far as she can to get the toys in her mouth or she will put her face right up against this flower and try to give it Eskimo kisses! It is just the cutest thing because sometimes she will hold her breathe and puff her cheeks out while she rubs her nose on the flower!

Tonight while she was laying on her changing table, waiting for Daddy to get her bath ready, she kept acting like she wanted to roll over. She has came so close here lately. She is finally using her legs to pick her hips up off the ground and will sometimes push herself over onto her side. I helped her roll over on her changing table and the look on her face was priceless. It was the first time she has laid on her stomach there and she didn't know what to think! After 5 months, I think she just noticed the polka dots on her changing pad tonight!She has been doing great at sleeping at night... usually 11 hours every night, but we are still struggling with her daytime naps. I don't know what happened today but she only took one 30-45 minute nap (she did take 2 or 3 ten minute naps)... and when it came time for bed it was bad news. She fought going to sleep from 7:45 until 10:00 pm. I finally got her back out of her play yard around 9:30 and tried to rock her to sleep. She woke up twice with her eyes wide open and looked around. The last time she did this was funny because she picked her head up off my chest, looked up at me, and slammed her head back down and was out within 30 seconds!

We have figured out that she is allergic to apples, which was causing her reflux to flare up, and will probably be having an allergy test done here in a few weeks at her 6 month checkup. Neither Daniel or I are allergic to anything so I'm not sure where she got it from, but hopefully it's something she will grow out of!

My new blog design!

2010-01-22T21:21:00.005-05:00

Finally! My blog has received it's well overdue facelift! Erin @ Designer Blogs did a great job on creating just what I wanted... when I didn't even know what I wanted to begin with! They are having a 30% off sale until the end of January, so go check them out! I also decided to change the title of my blog. When I first started this back when I was pregnant I couldn't really come up with a unique name. I knew the blog was going to be all for Kaylee so using her name as the title was the best I could come up with. Over the past 5 months we have came up with several nicknames for her but the one we use the most is 'Kaylee Bug' or something close to it :) So that is where the new title, 'A Bugs Life' comes from... at first I wasn't sure if I should go with it or not... but I think it's growing on me :)

Just a little note

2010-01-18T22:54:00.001-05:00

Baby Girl,

I usually only write you a letter once a month but I really wanted to write one to you tonight. Today was a fun day because you are finally learning how to move around when we lay you on your stomach and you came so close to rolling over today! I was so excited for you but sad at the same time. You are growing up so fast on me... not only in age but in size. You are getting so big and are bigger than most babies your age. I have tried to start getting videos of you more often because I want to be able to look back on this time and remember all of these special moments. Even after what I went through when I had you, I have caught myself thinking at times that maybe I want another baby just because I already miss you being little... but I just don't think it would be the same because that baby wouldn't be you!

You are past the weight limit on the bassinet part of your pack n play and I have been thinking about trying to get you to start sleeping in your crib since you do such a great job of sleeping through the night. I think you would do fine but I just don't want to be that far away from you and the thought of you sleeping by yourself upstairs is just something that I'm not ready for. I know I am probably creating a monster but I think we will be keeping you in our room for several more months.

I love you so much Kaylee Bug and your Daddy & I are so lucky to have you here with us. Your sweet personality and smile are my favorite things about you and I hope that never changes. You are tucked in bed asleep right now, so goodnight and sleep tight baby girl!

Love,
Mommy

where does the time go

2010-01-13T23:27:00.003-05:00

well it sure doesnt seem like it but my little kaylee bug is already 5. months old that is. before you know it she will be half a year old then she will be 5 then 13 then 20 and so on. im afraid that she is gonna grow up on us so quick and she just wont be a little baby anymore. she already seems so grown up because she sleeps all night long, she is progressing very well, she seems to be very smart and very attentive to things. she has also learned her little "daddy i want that" face that im sure i am gonna see alot in the future and wont be able to say no to...ever. it feels like only yesterday that we got her little bouncy thing that she sits in with her feet touching the floor and she just jumps around in now and when we first got it her feet wouldnt come close to touching the floor that we had to stack pillows and blankets under her feet so she could reach to now talking about having to raise it up a notch cause she is gonna jump out of it one of these days. either she is growing taller so that her feet are on the ground or she is getting fatter and heavier that it cant support her. but its very funny and cute to sit there and watch her bounce and play in it

5 Months

2010-01-13T23:06:00.008-05:00

Kaylee,

Yesterday you turned 5 months old and once again, I can't believe how fast time is flying by. It makes me sad to think that next month you will be 1/2 a year old! This past month we celebrated your first Christmas. We went back home this year and we might possibly go back to Tennessee next year but after that, if we are still living in North Carolina, I plan on us being here Christmas Eve & Christmas Day. As you grow up I want you to be able to wake up Christmas morning and see all of your presents from Santa under the Christmas tree. With your bedroom being upstairs, I can already picture you running down the stairs on Christmas morning, excited to see what Santa brought you :)

I am so happy that your reflux has been getting better over the past month. You still struggle with it at times but it is so much better than just a few months ago. Your teeth are taking their time trying to come in but haven't bothered you quite as much this month compared to last. You're still sleeping great at night... anywhere from 9 hours (which rarely happens) to 11 hours straight. No matter how sleepy I am in the morning I always look forward to sitting up and looking over at you. It melts my heart to see you turn your head towards me and give me the biggest smile when you see me!

During the day you have struggled with your naps. You went from taking 1 long 3-4 hour nap during the day to only taking short 30 minute naps while your daddy or I hold you. Today you did manage to take almost a 2 hour nap while I held you. I hope we can get things back on track with your naps. You have been getting fussy a lot more and I think it is because of your short naps, but I'm sure we will get it all figured out! Your happiest times of the day, other than when you first wake up, is when you are eating! I have been feeding you solids once a day and trying to get on a more consistent schedule with that. We switched you from rice cereal to oatmeal which seems to be working better. At first you didn't like it but now it's not so bad. You still don't like green beans, carrots or peas but you love peaches, pears and sweet potatoes. I always put your Bumbo seat on the counter... which of course, your not supposed to do... :) and feed you that way. You like to grab the spoon and try to feed yourself, but I still have to hold onto it so that you don't stick the spoon down your throat!

You and your daddy have spent a lot of time together over the past 2 months since he lost his job, and I can tell that you really enjoy it. You love to just stare at him and smile and these past few days when he has left the house to go to tryouts, you have been so happy to see him when he gets home. He has definitely spoiled you by holding you all the time!

You continue to amaze me every day by how much you are changing. You still haven't figured out how to roll over yet but you are starting to learn how to sit up by yourself. You can sit without me holding you for a few seconds but then you forget to hold yourself up! You are starting to love your bouncy seat even more and I can tell you are getting taller because now you can reach the floor without me having to put a blanket under you. You also love Remi, Liza and Winston. Especially Remi, you will just stare at him and when we put him in our bed with you if he gets close enough, your eyes get really big and you try to grab him with both hands! There have been several times you have grabbed him, but you just squeeze so hard that he hates it :)

I can't wait to see how much you change over this next month little one! I love you so much!

Love,
Mommy

Almost 5 months and...

2010-01-09T19:51:00.002-05:00

MY BACK STILL HURTS! When will this ever end? Ever since the anesthesiologists played target practice on my back with all of the epidurals and the spinal block, I have had the worst pain in my back... in the mornings it's really sore...then it starts feeling like something is stuck in my back and then by the end of the day the pain spreads to my whole back...

When I went for my 6 week checkup the doctor told me, "Oh, that's normal... the pain will go away within a month or so..." yea...so its been a month and it's still there! And if the pain wasn't bad enough, parts of my back keep going numb. Has anyone else had this problem?

But on a better note... within the next few weeks I will be making some big changes to my blog! I'm pretty excited about it and hope it all turns out the way I want it to!

And even better news... Kaylee has figured out how to feed herself with a spoon! Apparently I wasn't capable of doing this to her standards so she just took over... I caught it on video so as soon as I get it uploaded I will try to put it on here!

Just another day...

2010-01-06T16:32:00.000-05:00

I really haven't had much to blog about lately... and if I did, I wouldn't have time because someone has been fussy! Monday I took Kaylee back to Wake Forest for her 2nd swallow study. It's so funny because the speech pathologist always tells me a lot of the babies don't like the study because of being strapped into the little chair that they sit in while being x-rayed... but Kaylee doesn't mind at all. As long as she is eating she is happy!

The study showed she will still aspirate if her formula isn't thickened but it isn't as bad. The biggest improvement was the fact that only a very little amount of milk is going up into her nose each time she swallows, which is great considering last time we went formula would go into her lungs and all the way up into her nose each time she swallowed. Her esophagus still has damage but it looked slightly better than the last study 3 months ago.

Other than the swallow study not much has happened since I last posted. We are still dealing with the short 30-45 minute naps, which has been going on for several weeks. It's getting old... but hopefully she will go back to the 2-3 hour naps soon... I can only hope right? I found these 3 pictures which are oddly all of her sleeping...

My little angel :)

Taking a nap with daddy & seahorse
She loves her flower!

Things have been stressful around here with Daniel's job search. I really would like to go back to work but it's hard to find a job that is flexible so that I can work around Daniel's schedule if he is able to find a job before racing season starts. Hopefully the next time I blog I will have good news!

Happy New Year Baby Girl

2010-01-01T00:00:00.000-05:00

2009 Recap

2009-12-31T23:42:00.001-05:00

I couldn't let the year end without looking back on everything that happened this year and thinking about how much my life has changed. I found out I was pregnant November 28, 2008 but even though I had 2 home pregnancy tests show positive, I still didn't believe it...

January 5, 2009: This was probably the second biggest day of the year for me... it was the first day I saw Kaylee and was when the fact that I was pregnant finally hit me. When I saw this:

I remember thinking that's weird... that little thing is really inside of me?... then I thought, no...wait... this is just a recording of someone else's ultrasound (yes, ridiculous I know...)... but when I heard her heartbeat for the first time, it was probably the most exciting moment of the year. That might sound weird but that's when everything became real to me and since I don't remember the first time I saw Kaylee, I don't remember how I felt at that moment.

February: From what I can remember, February was pretty uneventful... I was pregnant but not completely uncomfortable... just counting down the days until August!

March 13, 2009: This was the day that we found out I was having a little baby girl! We had my ultrasound scheduled for early that morning... we stopped at Hardees on the way to the doctor's office for breakfast and I got a really big coke and drank the whole thing before the ultrasound hoping it would make Kaylee really active to make sure she would move around so that they could determine what we were having. We told the lady who was doing the ultrasound that we wanted her to write down whether we were having a boy or girl and put it in an envelope. I thought I had saw on the screen when the lady was trying to get a leg measurement that 'it' (Kaylee) was a girl but then after she had us look the other way while she checked, she called the baby a boy... so I wasn't sure what it was. I had thought that it would be a boy along with everyone else except for Daniel who kept saying we would have a little girl.

We were going to wait until we went out to eat for lunch to open the envelope but couldn't wait and ended up opening it as soon as we got home. Daniel & I both were excited to see that it was a baby girl but I still couldn't believe it... I actually got what I had always wanted (as soon as I found out I was pregnant I knew what I wanted to name the baby if it was a girl... we didn't come up with a boy's name until the night before we went for the ultrasound and even then I wasn't sure if I really liked the name).

April: I think this was the month when I really started having problems with my feet and ankles swelling up. Pretty much from April until after I had Kaylee I couldn't get my feet into any shoes and had to wear flip flops all the time. I was starting to get uncomfortable but was still hanging in there.

May: This was the month where I was starting to get bored with the pregnancy. Up until May I would look forward to reading a new week in my "Your Pregnancy: Week by Week" book. By 27 weeks, I didn't care... I was tired of counting the weeks and figured the less I payed attention to how many days I had left, the faster time would go. I had my glucose test this month as well...what fun that was...not! At least I managed to not throw up until the end of the day, hours after I had the test done.

At the end of the month I had my 3D/4D ultrasound done. It was neat to see Kaylee and be able to get a better idea of what she would look like. She still makes this face everyday:

June: June was one of my least favorite months. At the beginning of June Daniel was let go from the team at RCR and had to start looking for another job in the middle of the season. I was so scared because I wasn't sure how long he would be able to keep his job in the shop, how long it would take him to find a job somewhere else (if he even could), when they were going to cut his pay and if we would even have insurance when I had Kaylee. Luckily everything with that worked out great and he was able to find something else and we ended up having double insurance coverage when I went into the hospital to have Kaylee.

I also had to go to the emergency room in the middle of June due to contractions that kept coming every 5 minutes for almost a day (obviously they weren't too painful... uncomfortable... but not painful). Luckily my cervix hadn't changed much so everything was all good for me to go back home. At the end of June I was 34 weeks pregnant and MISERABLE... I remember several times laying on the couch crying because Kaylee would have her foot wedged in between my ribs and thinking I would never make it to August.

July: I was convinced this would be the month when I had Kaylee...HA! Yea right... she wasn't going anywhere! This month was no fun... a lot of swelling, a lot of being kicked by someone *ahem*, a lot of waiting and a lot of wondering... I took this picture the last day of July I believe...Holy crap I was huge! I didn't realize it at the time... though I did feel like a whale.

August 12, 2009: Well actually the whole labor thing started early in the morning on August 11th but someone didn't want to cooperate so it took a little while *read: 30 HOURS*... but finally on August 12th little Kaylee Ann was born!

I would've given anything to have been able to see her as soon as she was born, but I am so thankful that she was ok after everything that happened and I'm glad Daniel thought to take the camera in the operating room to get a picture of her. I really feel that having Kaylee has made me a better person and changed me in ways that I never thought possible. It's amazing how a little baby only a few months old can make you feel like the most important person in the world :)

September: We realized the beginning of September that Kaylee really had issues with her reflux. This was when we started the process of trying to find the right medicine for her. Looking back, I never would've thought that we would've been able to find a medicine that would work for her without side effects and that would allow her to be the happy baby that we knew she was but we finally figured it out at the end of November and things have been better since. It was also in September when Kaylee smiled at Daniel & I for the first time!

October: October was a fun month. We celebrated Kaylee's first Halloween by passing out candy to other kids in the neighborhood. She had a earache so we couldn't get her out to show off her cute little tigger costume but we made the best of it. I was also able to take Kaylee back home with me to see both sides of the family. I was so worried about flying with her by myself but she did great. I got very sick while we were in Tennessee with a 104 degree temperature so my mom drove me back to NC to meet Daniel half way to pick me up. Kaylee started talking a lot this month.
November: In November Kaylee learned how to pick things up and really started playing with her toys. Daniel was let go from his job and also had to have surgery this month but even though it has caused some struggles for us, it has been nice to have him home with Kaylee and I and for him to get to spend more time with her while she is this little. My family came up for Thanksgiving and it was nice to have everyone here and for Kaylee to be able to spend time with them as well. December: This past month has been fun but stressful. With not knowing what is going to happen with Daniel's job search it's hard to enjoy things. Kaylee turned 4 months old earlier this month and she is changing everyday. She is still having problems with getting choked but is still better than she was a couple of months ago. In the middle of December we were able to go to Gatlinburg for my grandma's birthday. I guess you could call it our first family vacation! Later in the month was our first Christmas together! We were able to go home and see both sides of the family which is very important to me for Kaylee's sake. She has really been enjoying all of her new toys that she has to play with! She is starting to laugh at us when we do something funny which is just the cutest thing! All-in-all 2009 has been a great year for me. I look forward to what 2010 brings!

daddys little monster

2009-12-29T22:30:00.003-05:00

my little monster is not really that little anymore. here lately in the past few weeks i have been holding her up so that she can stand and her little legs were so weak that she would just collapse but now she just stands there as long as you hold her from falling forward or backwards. at only 4 months old she seems like she skipped a few months all at once. we had a good first Christmas with her but i think that poor little baby had all that she could take by Christmas day of our 4 day trip back to Tennessee. she did really good with all the different people that she got to see. she has been talking alot and sometimes if she is in a good mood she will just sit there and ramble on and on as long as she wants. its so cute but i just wish we had half a clue what she is saying. this afternoon she was laying on our bed watching her favorite afternoon tv show and i tried to eat her little hand when she swung it at me and apparently i scared her pretty good cause she gave me the saddest little look, she first looks up at you with her big blue eyes and then that little lower lip just rolls out and she stares at you for a second and then...she starts crying and it just makes you feel as bad as u can. i just know that face is gonna come out more often in the future, like when she wants something and daddy wont buy it....then the face will come out and the next thing you know she will have it, i wont be able to say no. as of now she has me wrapped around her little finger, wait i mean around all of her fingers and i cant wait to see what our family's future holds for us.

My baby's first Christmas!

2009-12-29T14:10:00.003-05:00

Well, Kaylee's first Christmas has come and gone. It was great to be able to go back home to see family and friends and for Kaylee to be able to meet some family members that haven't seen her before. So here's a recap of our trip home and tons of pictures (I had a hard time picking out just a few)!

December 23rd
We (meaning Daniel & I... little monster was still asleep) woke up at 5:30 am to get ready for the long drive back home to Tennessee. Daniel took our dog Liza to Mooresville to drop her off at the kennel while I got a shower, finished packing up the car and got Kaylee up and ready to leave. We left around 8:15 am and made it to Tennessee around 2:30 pm. We went by my mom's work so that her coworkers could see Kaylee and then went to my parents house to wait for mom to get off work. That night my mom and grandma watched Kaylee for us while we went to Walmart to pick up a few things before going to eat at one of my favorite restaurants back home (Demos') with our friends Katie & Brandon.

Hanging out on the bed

Christmas Eve
After spending the night at my grandma's house we woke up and got Kaylee ready to go have her picture made with Santa! After having her picture made we walked over to Olive Garden to have lunch with my mom before going back home to get ready for the family Christmas party. Kaylee was such a good baby during the party. She sat in my moms lap while we all played Dirty Santa and she just stared at all of us while we were playing the game.

Our Family Picture!

Sweet baby :)

Kisses from Grandma

Kaylee & Great Grandma

Kaylee & Great Uncle Bubba

Christmas Day
Apparently Kaylee was excited Christmas morning because after staying up until 10:00 pm Christmas Eve, she was up at 6:00 am Christmas morning(2-3 hours earlier than she would normally wake up)! We went down to my parents house to have breakfast and open presents before packing up and heading to Chattanooga to see Daniel's family. We opened up presents and the just hung out the rest of the night at Kaylee's Uncle Keith & Aunt Aleta's house.

Kaylee & Aunt Julie

Kaylee & Grammy

She was so interested in her presents!

Playing with the bow!

Kaylee & Grandpa

Kaylee & Cousin Stella

Day After Christmas
Kaylee slept late and then we got up and went to Daniel's Grandmother's house for another Christmas party. We spent the whole day there before going back to Daniel's dad's house before driving back home late that night.

My happy baby playing with her toy!

Kaylee & Great GrandmotherWe got home around 3:00 am on the 27th and I was so afraid that after sleeping for the whole 6 hour drive, Kaylee would think it was time to wake up for the day. We unpacked the car as quick as we could to get her playyard out. Once Daniel got it setup I put Kaylee in it and covered her up and she was asleep within 5 minutes! She did such a good job traveling.

My first Christmas as a mommy was great. I think as Kaylee gets older I will enjoy it even more. I look forward to seeing the excitement on her face every Christmas morning and starting family traditions of our own that maybe one day Kaylee will carry on with her own family.

Kaylee's First Snow

2009-12-29T10:20:00.001-05:00

I'm a little behind on this post, but better late than never! A couple of weeks ago (December 18th to be exact), Kaylee saw snow for the first time! It started snowing while we were in Mooresville and she slept the whole way home through the snow, but the next day we were able to take her outside to get some pictures. I wish we could've stayed outside a little longer with her but it was way too cold and the wind made it feel so much colder. We ended up with about 5 inches of snow and it took several days for it to completely melt. She loved it when I would stand by our dining room window and let her look outside at everything. Here are the pictures I took of her and the snow!

My little snow baby!

Our back yard
The neighborhood

The snow looked so pretty!

Trying to walk...before she crawls...

2009-12-28T21:10:00.001-05:00

So before I do my big Christmas post I wanted to do a smaller one to include some pictures I took of Kaylee just before Christmas. Here recently she has started to really like tummy time and she likes us to let her stand on our lap even more! It's still weird to see her being able to push herself up so high off the ground when she is on her tummy because just a few weeks ago all she would do was lay there face first on the ground punching the ground screaming!

Standing up with a little help from daddy!

And then she fell...

But she got right back up :)

Drooling and playing on her playmat!

It's so exciting to see Kaylee change everyday. She is going through a stage where she is changing really fast right now and learning to do new things almost everyday. I wish time would slow down!

First Trip to Gatlinburg

2009-12-21T22:02:00.001-05:00

A couple of weeks ago Daniel, Kaylee and I went to Gatlinburg for my grandma's (Kaylee's great grandma's) 75th birthday. Daniel had practice the afternoon that we were supposed to leave so by the time we left and after having to take a detour to get around the rock slide on I-40 it was after 9:00 pm before we made it to Gatlinburg. Growing up, I went to Gatlinburg a lot with my family and I'm sure we will take Kaylee there quite a bit as she grows up. We didn't do a whole lot while we were there...just went to the welcome center, walked around and looked at all of the stores and went to the Dixie Stampede. It was just so cold while we were there that it made being outside miserable.

Here are some pictures from our trip!

Giving kisses to baby girl before the show started @ the Dixie Stampede

All bundled up!
Hanging out in the stroller @ Ober Gatlinburg

*On a side note, while Daniel & I were ice skating (or attempting to) my mom watched Kaylee for us... they rolled her up to the glass wall where you can look down on the ice rink and when Daniel and I stopped on the ice under Kaylee she looked down and as soon as she saw us she gave us the biggest smile! It was just the cutest thing!

Family picture in front of the tree

Hanging out with Uncle Quinten & Great Uncle Bubba Kaylee & Grandma

Kaylee & Great Grandma the night we got there

Playing on the bed

4 Month Checkup

2009-12-21T07:25:00.003-05:00

Kaylee had her 4 month checkup Friday... she is still a healthy baby except for the reflux issue! She got her 2 shots and oral vaccine and did pretty good with them. I held her when the nurse gave her the shots and I felt so bad for Kaylee because she was so upset after the shots. Luckily she seems to do fine with the vaccines and she is usually fine once we leave the doctors office. So here are her measurements:

Height: 25 1/2 in. (75-90%)
Weight: 17lbs 13oz (>97%...actually she wasn't even on the chart!)
Head Measurement: 45cm (>97%... once again, not on the chart)

After we left the doctors office Daniel and I grabbed some breakfast before going over to Target to pick up her medicine... only to find out that they don't even keep the medicine she is on in stock. On our way home it started to snow/sleet. We had to meet with a guy in Mooresville(about an hour away) so we grabbed Kaylee a bottle once we got home and jumped back in the car. We met with a realtor to look at a townhome in Mooresville which would be a lot closer to the new job he is trying to get. After we ate lunch we headed back home and realized we shouldn't have stopped to eat... we had only been on the interstate for 15 minutes before it was completely covered with snow. There were wrecked cars everywhere on the side of the road and we even had someone spin out right in front of us. Luckily we made it home ok... what is normally a hour drive took us about 2 hours.

Here are some pictures that I have taken over the past month with my phone of Kaylee!

Kaylee & Daddy sleeping on the couch

Relaxing after a bottle

Passed out with Daddy again!
Being a good baby @ Olive Garden

happy 4 months birthday

2009-12-19T21:06:00.003-05:00

wow i cant believe my little baby girl has already turned 4 months old. i cant really say if it seems like time has gone by really fast or if its going by really slow. it seems like here lately all the days have been just running together. she does tho seem like she is growing up very quick. its like every day she progresses in some way that she seems to be either learning quickly or just catching on to things real easy, i dunno really what it is. today her voice decided to show back up and be heard again. it was thanksgiving weekend that i think she first discovered that she had a voice but she didnt know how to control the volume of it and that only went on for a few days then we really didnt hear it as much anymore, but today i came in the house after being outside for a while and she was so happy to see her daddy that her voice said it all. i really wish i knew what she was saying but then again once she does start talking we probably will never hear the end of it so for now i think i will just sit down and listen to all the little noises she makes and just laugh about it. she seems to be turning out to be a daddys girl really bad. we have been spending a lot of time together lately and tonight when mommy was holding her she would not take her eyes off of me. i feel bad tho cause i know that soon i will hopefully be going back to work and poor little kaylee buggy is gonna be wearing poor mommy out wandering where i am, well atleast thats what i think. she could probably care less where i go or where im at.

ever since little kaylee was born every day i think we have grown closer as each day goes by. it might be something little every day but its like today when i see her not paying attention to anything but me, that makes me feel like i am being a good father to her. i know alot of times i get really fed up with her being fussy and not doing what i want her to do but i have to stop and tell myself that she is just a baby and she might not always want to do what i want her to do all the time. its just really frustrating when something new is happening that you have never dealt with before and you try everything you can to make her happy and it doesnt work, man it gets frustrating. but one thing is for sure i love that little baby so much and there is not a thing in this world that i would not do for her or her mommy and i try every day to show the both of them that whether its not doing anything for myself to take her off mommys hands so she can do whatever or if its sitting here thro all of the kids shows on tv that of course the most annoying show is her favorite, and i just hate having the dumb little songs stuck in my head all day long. but its fun fun cause i try to sit there and tell kaylee what is wrong with all these shows so maybe one day she will know whats going on in the world...lol

but until she turns another month old i am still gonna take care of her and mommy and love the both of them like there is no tomorrow!

4 Months

2009-12-12T21:23:00.004-05:00

Baby Boo,

You are 4 months old today and I can't believe it. This past month has went by so fast and I also think you have changed more this past month than you have in the last 3. Right after you turned 3 months old you started picking up your toys and playing with them. It is so great to see your face light up and see how happy you are when you are playing with your toys! I bought you a seahorse that plays music and glows and you love it! This week we went to Gatlinburg for your great grandma's 75th birthday and you kept doing the silliest thing with your seahorse... as we moved it closer to your face you would open your mouth up as much as you could and shake your head and then try to bite its nose! You kept looking at daddy and I to make sure we were watching and then after you would bite the sea horse's nose you would look at us and laugh!

You have been doing better with your reflux since we switched your meds. It is so nice now not having to make you wait 30 minutes to eat after you take your meds... plus you love the taste of the medicine! It tasted really bad on its own but I mix it with berry flavored Tums and you love it! You pretty much outgrew your car seat this month so we had to get you a bigger one. The weight limit was 30 pounds on the seat but you just seemed so scrunched up in it that it didn't seem comfortable.

Thanksgiving day we started you on solid food and you have done great with that. You will always open up your mouth so that the food doesn't get everywhere. You have liked everything we have fed you except for peas. Last night while we were in Gatlinburg we went to the Dixie Stampede. You did great and sat in grandma's, daddy's and my lap and watched the horses and all of the people who were dressed up. Your grandma took a piece of a biscuit and dipped it in vegetable cream soup and you loved it. She also dipped your pacifier in the soup and you wouldn't spit your pacifier out!

I think one of the biggest things that have changed over this past month is your head control. You have gotten so much better at holding your head up and can now sit in your Bumbo chair without me having to support your head and neck. You are finally pushing up a little bit with your arms when I lay you on your stomach. You do the best holding your head up when I lay you on my stomach because you lift your head all the way up to look at me and smile!

Right after Thanksgiving you also started teething. You have been extra fussy at times and we are going through so much Oragel and Tylenol trying to keep you comfortable. I will be glad when your teeth come in so you wont be in pain but I know I will miss your toothless smile.

I don't have your 4 month measurements just yet, you go next week for your 4 month checkup and shots and I'm excited to see how much you have grown... but at the same time it makes me sad knowing that you're growing so fast. I sit here and hold you sometimes just thinking I'll never get this time back. I know I will miss holding you and watching you stare up at me, I'll miss your little fingers holding onto mine and that big toothless smile. I feel like before I know it you will be all grown up and moving out of the house! But like I say every month, I want to make the best of the time I have now.

Your daddy and I love you more than anything baby girl and we are so lucky to have you!

Love,
Mommy