David, Lisa, Kayla & Isaac

Last time I reflected on you Kayla, you were barely a month old. Now you're 8 months old and I can't believe how the time has flown. Mom has kept pretty good notes on you on a monthly basis and it's just crazy to see how much you're developing and quickly at that! You're certainly becoming more of a person. You're still a baby, but the baby you were 7 months ago didn't have much of a personality or anything, just basic needs. Now you're intentionally seeking things out and asking for our attention. It's endeared you to me even more than I could have expected. This "dad" thing is still pretty crazy and I still don't have clue what to do with you at 2 am when you wake up in a panic of screaming, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Mobility: yeah, this took us by surprise, as you picked it up so quickly and with next to no involvement on my or mom's part. The whole I can roll to a toy was fun, but shortly after you decided that rolling wasn't nearly as good as crawling and now you're working on walking. You learned to pull up on the couch, our clothes/bodies, chairs and whatever else was around and can get yourself into a standing position without much difficulty. This is great for you as you can get to things and are starting to walk along the couch, wall, chair, etc, however, it's not so good for us or the cats as we now have to make sure we don't leave anything around that you might get hurt on or break. Baby proofing isn't as easy as one would've thought. We've had to buy 3 gates to keep you off the stairs, out of the Den (where the cat box and food are), out of the kitchen (way too many things in there), and I'm sure we'll be buying more for the top of the stairs, the basement (when we finish it) and wherever else we might need them.

Personality: yes it sounds silly, but you really are becoming more of a person or perhaps a better way to say it would be you're becoming more of an individual. You're able to express your needs to an extent and get to the things you want. It's fun to see you crawl over and sit up and "ask" to be picked up or if we're on the floor you'll just crawl right up on top of us. You like some of your toys more than others (card board boxes and water bottles are among your favorites). You express your desire for things as we offer them to you... You're talking more now, mostly babbling, but it's still fun. You can distinctly say dada and even say it to me. That pretty much melts me. I don't know how to explain it all, but it's a whole lot of fun watching you grow and become your own person.

Food: one word... MESSY! two words... VERY MESSY! You love food, must've gotten that from me :) We've had fun giving you new foods and letting you explore them with your hands and mouth and eyes and forehead and ears and hair and... You get the picture. At first we weren't sure if you had more on the floor and in your bib/chair and on your face than you actually had made it into your mouth, but it was fun to watch. You've been getting people food for 2 months and you sure have improved, you still like rubbing your grubby hands all over your face and head, but you like food.

Things that I'm going to miss as you get older include:
1. Being able to comfort you in the middle of the night by rocking you or letting you sleep on my chest. You're starting to get heavy.
2. Being able to set you down and not worry about what you're going to get into (guess we're past that now though)
3. Missing out on anything while I'm at work

Posted by David at 05:00 PM | Permalink

It's funny how you remember the good times and forget the hard times. When I think back on labor, no big deal. When I think about bringing a newborn home, no problem! When I think about the constant feedings, constant changing of diapers, sleepless nights, blow-outs, struggles with breastfeeding, hey - it wasn't really that bad! And I suppose we did survived, no permanent damage!

We have good friends that recently had a baby. And hearing their stories... well, it brings back memories of hardships I had forgotten. It's funny the things you (choose to) forget. I guess if you didn't, you'd probably never want to go through preganancy and labor and the newborn stage again. Not that any of those things are that bad. They all have their good and bad points, as does every aspect of life. But they are often trying times. All I'm trying to say is that it's kinda nice that you forget some of the hard and frustrating times of having a newborn. Sure, at 8 months we have good days and bad days, good nights and bad nights. The last week or so has been really tough - Kayla's been sick and cranky and needy much of the time. But this is such a fun stage. Every day it seems like she changes and learns something new, or discovers something new, and it is really fun. I'm sure several months from now I'll forget the rough times we have these days.

Each day brings new joys and new challenges, and I'm thankful for the good times we are having right now... and also thankful that I'll forget some of the bad times!!

Posted by Lisa at 10:38 PM | Permalink

Yeah, this parenting thing is fun! It's precious to watch her find such joy out of something so simple!

Other new video's have been uploaded too!! Enjoy!

Posted by Lisa at 02:02 PM | Permalink

So with the warmer weather in town (to stay, hopefully!) we've been enjoying being outside. On Saturday we took Kayla on her first rollerblading experience. I'd say she enjoyed it, but really she enjoyed the first 5 minutes of it, and then slept the rest of the time! Guess she couldn't resist the swaying back and forth and cuddling with her dad!!

Then on Sunday we took her to her first park. We have 3 different parks within walking distance, so that will be fun this summer and in the summers to come! She LOVED the swing - we could have done that for hours. She also enjoyed the see-saw and more-or-less enjoyed the slide (with her dad)! Lovin' it!

Posted by Lisa at 11:20 PM | Permalink

So, I realized something in Florida: I will never get a vacation from being a mom. Granted, while down there lots of people held Kayla, played with her, distracted her when she was fussy, etc. But at the end of the day, I'm her mom, and that is something that no one else can be. It's special that I am such a source of comfort to her.... that I can make things right in her world just by holding her. However, it's also frustrating. I can't "turn off" being a mom. I can't forget that responsibility. I can't take a vacation from it. I suppose it might be different if I was away from her (like took a vacation without her!), but if she is there I will always be on call. I don't know why I thought differently.... but I guess I did. Before having a child, going on vacation meant that you could forget about what you do on a day-to-day basis, relax and enjoy yourself. Now, since on a day-to-day basis I watch Kayla, being on vacation was just different scenery. Being a mother requires constant selflessness; you are constantly thinking about someone else. Their needs are more important than your own. I suppose that's part of the definition of love - putting someone else's needs above your own. I think I discovered that I miss being selfish sometimes, being able to think about just my own needs. For the past almost 8 months, almost 24 hours a day I have been putting her needs above my own... and I'd like a break from that. Not for long, I'd miss her too much! But for a little while, I think it would be nice. Not sure how I'm going to get that, but that's what I would like.

Posted by Lisa at 10:40 PM | Permalink

We went to Meijer Garden this past weekend for the butterfly exhibit. This was Kayla and my second trip- she loved to watch them!! It was fun to see her concentrate and get so excited!!

Posted by Lisa at 01:39 PM | Permalink

Several milestones to report from this past month.

She learned to crawl, as I've mentioned previously. She's pretty quick now, although I know she will get even faster. Sometimes we call her "tripod", because she crawls with 1 knee and 1 foot, like she is 1/2 walking, 1/2 crawling! It's hilarious! She isn't close to walking though. When we hold her hands and move around with her, she is almost too excited to concentrate on not having jiggly legs, and her whole body shakes with glee!

While on spring break, she learned to get herself in a sitting position (from laying down, crawling, etc). That is nice that she is able to do that by herself! Now she can do whatever she wants (sit, lay, roll, crawl) and get to whatever she wants to, and then prop herself up to play with it. It's also weird, when I go to get her in the mornings and she is sitting in her crib!

Since we've been home from Florida, she has learned to pull herself up on furniture. She can pull herself up on the couch... and this past weekend when I went to get her out of her crib, she was standing. Yikes! She changes so rapidly! I was just getting adjusted to seeing her sitting in the crib! This new stage of pulling up means that all my previous baby-proofing efforts of putting stuff on the couch is no longer safe. I left to get a drink today, and came back and Kayla was typing on my computer (which was on the couch... which was far away from where she was when I left her). Yikes! She also has learned to (sometimes) slowly ease herself down to her butt... but sometimes she crashes down and it's no good. She has yet to get seriously hurt, maybe just scared herself really good. I try hard to be right by her when she is standing, just in case. But obviously it's not possible 100% of the time. She gives Wesley a run for his money too, as he is no longer safe on the couch. He remains forever paitent, as she wrestles him, pulls his tail, grips hard, etc. I try to warn him she's coming and get him to move, but he's too lazy. She got hold of his foot and hurt him this morning - he meowed, and when she didn't let go he hissed at her.... but he didn't nip or scratch (I was right there while this was happening too), so I am very proud of his responce to her overall.

She is at the beginning stages of cruising. She will very slowly walk along the couch if a toy is just out of reach. I am sure that in the next few weeks she'll master that skill.

As for feeding, she has really taken control of this. She doesn't enjoy being fed nearly as much as being able to feed herself, so I've run with that. It's much easier on me to have her do it herself, plus it's exciting that she is taking on that initiative. However, it is MESSY! Messy, messy, messy. She likes to squish things in her hands before she eats it, and then later in the meal she needs to rub her eyes, pull her hair, grab her legs, etc. It is messy. Very, very messy. And I'm told it gets worse before it gets better. Fantastic! But, I am doing my best to let her go with it, and trying to enjoy it as much as she clearly is! I try so hard not to correct her, or squash her efforts. I mean, what's a mess? Something that can be cleaned. And I want her to improve, which she will never do if I don't let her explore things on her own. New foods she's tried this month: bread, plums, cheese, cheese quesadilla's, mango, ravioli, crackers (like for soup), sweet potato fries, grapes, garbanzo beans... maybe a few other things. I'm trying to give her something from what we are eating for dinner, as well as some of her staples. I have been giving her small chucks of sweet potato, avacado, carrot "chips", cheese cubes, banana chunks and Cherrio's, as well as 1 combination of food that I feed her with a spoon (apple and spaghetti squash or several fruits combined)... and then a graham cracker for dessert. It takes her about 30 minutes or more to do this all, which means that David and I can eat our dinner, clean up from dinner, and then begin cleaning her off! She is still only eating 1 solid food meal a day, but I am going to start adding another meal this week. I think my (very tentative) plan is to have her eat 2 meals for the next 2 months, and then add the 3rd meal after 2 months of this. We'll see how things play out.

I think we might be down to 4 nursing sessions a day. She has been sleeping incredibly more or less since we've been back from vacation. She's sleeping through the nights withouth needing to be nursed at all!! I'm nursing her when she wakes up around 8:30-9, and then again around 12-1, and then again around 4-5. Then she has dinner (solids) with us around 6:30 or so, and then I nurse her at bedtime, usually around 9. She takes 2 naps: 1 about 2.5-3 hours after waking up, and another about 3-3.5 hours after waking up from the first one. Her naps are typically 30 minutes on the dot, but actually since she's sleeping better her afternoon nap is more like 1 hour or even a little more on occasion! Hopefully we continue this trend.

She is sick for the first time this week. She had a runny nose 1 time before this winter, but it was only for a day or so and didn't seem to bother her at all. Today she is very snotty and has an 80-year-old smokers cough. It is quite pathetic. Hopefully we get over it soon (I am also sick).

I took her to the doctor's just to weigh her in. She weighed in at 17 lbs 2 oz, which puts her at just the 37th percentile! You can tell she is quite active, since she isn't gaining much weight. She's burning it all off! Lucky girl!! LOL. And on my little mat at home it shows she is 28 inches long, putting her in the 90th percentile.

One last note, we just passed the end of the "bucket seat" era with Kayla. I am still mourning it because it was easier not to have to take her in and out all the time! But she is well too long for the carseat. So, into the Britax she goes. Here's a picture of her on the day we brought her home, and then one of her last day in the bucket seat - my has she grown!!

Posted by Lisa at 10:55 PM | Permalink

We just came back from a week's vacation in Orlando, FL! We joined David's family for spring break and had a wonderful time. We stayed at a time share that had multiple pools, a lazy river, mini golf, a view from our room of Epcot and their fireworks... plus sun, 80 degree weather, and family. It was really nice to get away, get a little bit of a break from dealing with Kayla 24/7 and be able to spend some time as a family (the 3 of us), and also to visit with David's family.

We didn't make it too busy of a vacation. We didn't go to any theme parks (Kayla is obviously too young to enjoy or remember it, and although we might have had fun, it wasn't worth the money to us!), but instead enjoyed the pools and the sun and the company.

One day we took an Airboat Tour, which is a motorized (and loud) boat that goes through a swamp/lake in search of alligators. Kayla had to wear a life jacket (which was way too big for her, but I guess I'm glad she had one) and we all wore ear muffs to drown out the loud noises, which Kayla did not enjoy so much! It was fun to be on the boat, but at times I felt like a terible mother for taking her on it. She was cool for about the first 5 minutes, and then she screamed for the next 15 (which you couldn't hear of course, due to the ear muffs and the noise), and then eventually she just fell asleep whimpering. I really couldn't even hold her close, due to the life jacket. I just tried to rock her in my arms, and protect her from the wind with a towel. I had never been on one of these before and didn't realize how loud it was going to be... in hindsight, she probably shouldn't have gone. But we all survived, and she wasn't too tramatized!

Another day we hit Cocoa beach. We had a small tent to keep Kayla out of the sun (I was super vigilent about keeping Kayla out of the sun period from 10-2, and being covered with 50 spf sunblock all of the time anyway, and reapplying it frequently). The good news is, she didn't burn at all (I would have felt horrible if she had), and neither did I, since I took the opportunity to reapply it on me every time I reapplied her. My skin tone is not prone to burning, but being in the winter in MI and not having sunlight and then going to sun often results in a burn if I forget to put it on some part of my body! Daivd was not quite so lucky in the no-burn area.... but he ins't bad, and it was only the last day we were there that he got too much. But anyway, we realy enjoyed the beach. We took a nice walk and Kayla enjoyed the sand between her feet. We ate dinner at a restaurant right next to the water that had a live band playing too! It was really a fun day.

One evening we went to dinner at the Rain Forest Cafe and then walked around Downtown Disney, looking in shops and having fun! Gotta say, we LOVE the Ergo carrier we have. We used it so much this vacation. Kayla loves being close to us, it's easy for us to be hands-free, she takes long naps in it, and I was even able to very descreetly nurse her in it (while we were walking around!).

The rest of the days we just relaxed at resort. We didn't usually make it down there until about noon, right about time for Kayla's nap. So I'd walk around the resort area with a towel covering her stroller until she feel asleep, and then joined everyone at the pool myself. She'd sleep in the stroller for her 30 minute power nap and then wake up ready to play! She was typically content playing with her toys for awhile. Then we took her out and went in the lazy river and the pool. Kayla just loved the water! She would kick her legs and splash the water with her hands, and just smile and relax with us. Plus, how cute is she in her suits?!

It was also really fun to have some time with the family - mom, dad, Laura and David's cousin Feli were there the whole week, and then Steph and Nick joined us the last few days as well. It was fun seeing everyone interact with Kayla, since she has changed so much since the last time they saw her!

It was really fun to dress Kayla for warm weaher, I can't wait for the warm weather to be here in GR too!!

Overall we had a wonderful trip. I can't say it was particularily restful (with two 6am flights, an infant in a new sleeping environment, plus late nights), but it was relaxing and quite enjoyable. It was a nice break from our normal routine and we have many special memories and tons of pictures (see link) to prove it!

Posted by Lisa at 05:36 PM | Permalink

In Kayla's first week, David and I reflected on our first thoughts of her. I thought it would be nice for her one day to read those and figured it's about time we do it again. So, here are our thoughts after several months.

Kayla-bear,

I can hardly believe my eyes when I see the little girl before me! You have grown up so much... you are no longer the little infant I brought home from the hospital. Now you are a baby who can smile at me and giggle and you have such vibrance in your personality! You are eager to take new things in....

I love watching you explore new things, new toys, new atmostpheres, new foods. I love hearing you breathe heavy when you are trying to absorb all of the new information.

I love the way you always know where I am no matter who is holding you. You often turn to me to make sure that whatever the person holding you is doing is ok (is it ok for me to laugh when daddy is tickling me like this?). I love knowing that I am a source of comfort for you.

I love the face you make when you fall asleep while nursing. It's this smug look you give that shows pure happiness and satisfaction. I love snuggling with you at these times before I put you in your crib. Sometimes I want to hold you like that forever. Sometimes you bring tears to my eyes when I say goodnight prayers with you - you are such a joy and a blessing in my life, and I am thankful to God every day for the gift He entrusted me with.

I love our nursing relationship. You are becoming much more social, and it is getting harder and harder to nurse you! I can't have anyone around, even your dad, because you are constantly checking up to see what else is going on, or stare at the pretty pillows around us, or the very interesting (white) ceiling. But sometimes you pull off and stare at me and make cooing noises and smile at me, and then jump right back into eating! It is so absolutely precious. I will miss that.

I am so fortunate that I am able to stay home with you. I'm sure things would work out if I had to go into work each day, but it is such a joy and such a blessing to be able to spend each day with you. Not to say that every day is all fun and games. It's a lot of work to take care of you! Especially on days when you are crabby and need me to hold or entertain you all day long and you decide that you don't need to nap! But most days we have a lot of fun together! You make this lip smacking noise, like you are blowing kisses, and you send them all the time! I just love it! I love seeing the light in your eyes when you see a toy across the room, and now you are able to either roll or slowly crawl towards it. It is so fun to see the satisfaction in your eyes and the glee in your voice when you reach your prize!

I love hearing you talk. I love hearing you explore new sounds and new pitches, and love hearing you blow your raspberries ALL.THE.TIME!

I love how transparent you are at times. You rub your eyes and I know you are getting sleepy. You give a pathetic whimper and pouty face when you are finally giving into your tiredness and are just about to fall asleep in my arms. You start to arch towards me, or get the hiccups, and I know you are getting hungry. You cry when I set you down because you want me to hold you. I love how happy you get when I start taking your clothes off for a diaper change or a bath. I love how excited you get when I come to pick you up out of your crib.

You are such a happy little girl. Yes, you fuss. You dislike going to sleep (you don't like to miss out on anything!), you have your rough moments. But overall, you are a happy little girl.

Having you makes me love your dad even more. I love seeing him interact with you. I love how concerned he is about you (we always check on your before we go to bed, just to make sure you are ok and still breathing!!). I love seeing parts of him when I look at you. I love knowing that you are the product of our loving relationship.

Before you were born, I didn't know if I wanted to have a baby girl or boy. I didn't care either way. I was just thrilled to have a child. But now that you are here, I am so excited to have a daughter. I am so excited to have YOU! I couldn't ask for a more special child. You make me laugh, you make me cry (both tears of joy and sometimes tears of frustration!), you make me appreciate life, and love, and God. You are a special little girl. You make me realize how lucky and how blessed I am.

I love you little peanut.
Mom

Part 2 (David's thought) to follow shortly!

Posted by Lisa at 04:27 PM | Permalink