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

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

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

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

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

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!

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!