David, Lisa, Kayla & Isaac

So, there are some traits we wanted Kayla to have - my complextion (olive, not prone to burn) and eyesight (20/20), David's teeth (not prone to cavities, didn't need braces) and freckles, and other things of that sort. Why is it when we were wishing for David's teeth that we didn't think about his habit of grinding? And why is it that she is grinding her teeth ALL.THE.TIME??!! Her now 6 (yes! SIX!) teeth apparently are fun to grind and make this terrible, fingernails-on-chalkboard-type noise. What do you do about that?!

Posted by Lisa at 12:18 PM | Permalink

Today was an exciting day of firsts. This morning we put Kayla in the church nursery for the first time! She went in smiling and came out smiling, so all went well! I on the other hand, shed a tear on the way from the nursery into church!! But the nursery workers were either young pregnant women, or grandmothers, so I know she was well taken care of!! It won't be every week that she goes there, as often times I need to feed her during the service. But she is just now wanting to play while we sit there, which is distracting for me and I'm sure the people around us. So when it works out, it is nice to know that she enjoys it.

After church today we made a visit to the YMCA and Kayla enjoyed her first time in a swimming pool!! Unfortunately, the kids pool (shallower, warmer and geared more for fun) was closed due to contamination (wasn't my kid pooping in the pool, I swear!), so we had to go to the lap pool, along with like a hundred other people. It was quite crowded and the water wasn’t very warm, but we still had a good time. Kayla was scared at first- she was whimpering and making sad faces. But we bounced up and down, showed her how to splash her hands and feet and how to kick in the water, and before you knew it she was squealing with glee! It was so precious. And seriously, how cute is she in this suit?!

Posted by Lisa at 06:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Teeth, that is. Kayla cut two new teeth in the last 2 days. I could tell one of her top front teeth (the left one) was close to coming in; you could see it under the surface for several days. Then yesterday it broke through! Today, when David was trying to look at it, he noticed she had cut one of her bottom teeth too (left)!! Didn't see that one coming! She seems mostly cool with it all, not in too much pain. She has been drooling up a storm the last few days, and chewing on everything (although that is not new). I'm hoping that as they were cutting through the surface she was in a bit of pain while nursing, and that is the explanation for why she was pulling off every 15 seconds! I am hoping that is the reason, and now that they have broken through she goes back to eating like normal. Oh well, I guess I'll consider myself lucky that she at least isn't biting me!!

Posted by Lisa at 10:36 PM | Permalink

Kayla is fascinated with her mouth. As mentioned in previous posts, she puts everything in her mouth. The last two days, she has done nothing but stick her tongue out - all day long! She often wakes up blowing raspberries, and continues all day long. She is starting to talk to us more and more, exploring new sounds and pitch. I love it. Somehow it makes her seem more and more like a real person! We have real conversations with each other - her making some noise, and me imitating it! It is quite amusing for both of us!

So, at what point do you consider a child mobile? Kayla can't crawl yet, but she is no longer trustworthy alone!! A few days ago I left her on the floor while I put the junk mail in recycling. I came back maybe 15 seconds later, and she had David's Sports Illustrated magazine in her mouth - and it was not in reaching distance when I left!! And this morning, I left her on the floor with several toys around her as I went and got my cereal. I came back, maybe 1 minute later, and Kayla had a fist-full of cards in her hand, and one in her mouth! The deck of cards was several feet from where I left her! She isn't crawling, but she can arch her back and roll... so she arches to get herself in the direction she wants to move, and then she rolls until she is there! It is quite cute, however, NOW I NEED TO CHILDPROOF EVERYTHING!!!! Oh dear...

Posted by Lisa at 12:35 PM | Permalink

This last month went by really quickly, with us being gone 2 weeks for the holiday's! However, this month has brought some dramatic changes. While we were in DE, Kayla learned to roll from her front to her back! She now does it all the time, rolling from front to back, then almost immediately to her stomach again, and then to her back again. She also can scootch. She is far from crawling, but she can move. We have a mirror on the ground, and I'll leave her at least a foot away from it, and when I come back just a few minutes later, she is trying to lick the mirror! Or when she gets mad at nights, her head is pushed up against the top of her bassinette! And when I lay her on her John Deere mat, she always turns this way and that way, or even gets off the mat entirely!

She is getting much more vocal. She talks to herself all the time and is getting louder and louder! :) We have tried so hard to get these "conversations" on video, but she stops talking when she sees us! So, what I have is a horrible visual video, but the audio is pretty cute! Check it out:
Kayla's "talking" video

Did I mention she puts EVERYTHING in her mouth? My hair, my chin, any toy, books, glasses, burp clothes, clothes, jewelry, playing cards, the mirror, her feet, spoons, the cats.... everything.

Speaking of the cats... Kayla is now quite interested in them. Whenever Wesley is nearby she turns and reaches for him. Buttercup of course is never close enough for Kayla to touch. But Wesley will let her pet him, or grab at his hair. Poor cat is starving for attention, he'll take what he can get! I am constantly saying "gentle" and showing her how to pet him nicely. I am sure I will be doing and saying that for years to come! Sometimes when he walks close she tries to see how she can get part of him inside her mouth! She opens up wide and leans towards him! Silly girl!

She is also showing an interest in food and drink. I had a friend over and we were eating goldfish... Kayla got quite frustrated that we were not including her in our snack! She kept reaching for the bowl, and watching us grab them from the bowl and put it in our mouth. Won't be long before it's your turn sweetie! I got a really interesting book about feeding babies/toddlers/etc for Christmas, and do plan to make my own baby food. Wish me luck! I'm actually really nervous about the whole thing. I still have another month before I plan to actually give her food. But the sadness already begins. :) She is growing up, and that is both exciting and sad. The addition of real food means a begining of her weaning. As much trouble as it was to start, I am absolutely loving that relationship now, and I hate to see it diminish, and dread when it will be gone. It is a precious stage of her life, and of our relationship. I didn't know I would be sad to see it come to an end (ok, I realize I'm a bit dramatic, as I plan to continue to breastfeed for at least a year, but still...).

She also is interested in drinking from a cup. Maybe it's because she is interested in putting EVERYTHING in her mouth, but she really wants to hold a cup and try to drink from it. We have given her water from our glass on occasion, and it is hilarious to see! She laps it up like a dog!! Perhaps that means I should pull out the sippy cut and let her drink some water?!

I've read about a 2-3-4 sleep schedule.... meaning, a baby takes their first nap about 2 hours after they wake up, and then takes their second nap 3 hours after they wake up from the first, and then go to bed about 4 hours after they wake up from the second nap. Kayla seems to be falling into the pattern, give or take an hour! :) But it is a nice and often useful thing for me to remember. She is also cutting back on her feedings. We had been going about 2-3 hours, and now are consistantly going 3 hours, sometimes more. It's lately been around 9, 12, 3, 6 and 9, give or take... however, we won't discuss at this time what happens between those hours of 9-9. She is not sleeping through the night.... not by any means. :) We are still working on that... more about that later.

One more thing I want to make sure I remember is that she is really interested in textures. She is always taking her hand and opening and closing her fingers (almost like scratching) to see what things feel like. She does this to her clothes, to my clothes, to the cat, to the carpet, to books, to everything really. I have been reading lots of "touch and feel" books. You'd think she'd want to feel the fun part of the book, but she'd much rather scratch the smooth part of the book, or try to put the whole thing in her mouth! Oh my... But she is super cute, and you can just tell she is learing so much.

A few notes for my reference:
1. Her eyes are still a slate blue color (aren't they beautiful?!)

2. Her left tear duct is still plugged. The picture below is after she woke up from a nap on a particularily bad day. Poor girl :(

3. She has still not cried real tears.
4. She is majorly cutting down on her spitting up, but is still a spitter at heart!!

We don't have a Dr apt for another month, so my stats aren't official or anything. But on my playmat she is around 27 inches long, and on our bathroom scale she is 15ish lbs.

Posted by Lisa at 05:02 PM | Permalink

We had some interesting plane rides this holiday season - getting in town (into the wrong airport for that matter) at 1:30am on the way there, and at 1am on the way back - both thanks to snow. Not ideal, but that was the worst of our travel problems. Oh, and the airline lost our carseat and stroller on the way home too.... nice!

Otherwise, the holiday's were an absolutely wonderful time with family. We flew into MA on the 20th (well, tried to fly into MA, we ended up in NH, but anyway...) and spent several days with Lisa's parents. We mostly relaxed, played card games, enjoyed the hottub, playing the piano, good food and each other. My parents are absolutely enamored with Kayla - it was really precious to watch them interact with her. My mom loved 1-on-1 time with her, and as a result, I didn't change 1 diaper or give 1 bath the whole time we were there! It was a really nice break for me (and David too). While there we enjoyed spending a little time with our good friends Pat and Katie, celebrating David's birthday at the Cheesecake Factory, a Christmas Eve service with the family, and Christmas Day. Although Kayla was mostly uniterested in the presents, she did enjoy the bows, and the attention! I think it was far more exciting for me seeing all of the things she was getting!! We did, however, get a cute picture of her surrounded by her presents!

The day after Christmas we got up early on the road to drive to DE to visit David's side of the family. His parents were driving up from NC the same day. We stayed with Pop-pop and Lilly, and had a wonderful time visiting them while we were there. I've never seen Pop-pop with a baby before, and I must say that I was surprised how he turned right into mush around her! He nicknamed her "hog jaws" (courtesy of her cute cheeks), and enjoyed cuddling with her and chatting with her!!

This was the first time Steph and her boyfriend Nick were able to meet Kayla, and that was precious to see them together!

Time in DE always is busy - there are so many people to see! We got to see Grandma, Aunt Ruth, Aunt Marie, Aunt Ruth-Marie, Aunt Henny, Aunt Marlene and Uncle Denny, Grandpa and Cathy Thorn, and all of David's aunts, uncles and cousins!! At Grandma's Christmas Dinner there were 34 people in her house! It was so fun to have all of that family together, and the food was excellent! Here are some pictures!!

Two of David's cousins also had children this summer within 6 weeks of Kayla (she is the youngest by a month) but they were all comparable in size! It was so cute to see them with each other. Really, someone should have taken a picture of what these babeis were looking at, because it involved about 20 adults making silly faces, a box of crackers being shaken above the camera to get their attention (and yes, I got cracker crumbs all in my hair because of it!). But as a result, we got some really cute pictures (Kayla on the left, Noah in the middle, and Ava on the right):

Traveling is always a bit exhausting, especially when unpredictable things happen to your flights. But Kayla was an angel (on our flight to MA, we ended up spending 3 hours sitting on the ground before they would let us off. Kayla and I walked up and down the aisle - from 10pm-1am, mind you - and I had people comment that they didn't even know there was a baby on the plane! Many people stopped me to tell me how cute and how happy she was!). And, we also did two 6 hours drives, where she slept most of that time and was calm and happy when she was awake. It was much better than we could have asked. She is such a happy little girl, and roaming all over the East coast, sleeping in several different houses and beds didn't break her spirits! She was a gem! We had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's - special times with family that will long be remembered.

For all of the pictures of our trip, see Kayla's pictures, 5th month!!

Posted by David at 10:39 PM | Permalink