David, Lisa, Kayla & Isaac

So... I neglected to do a 16 month update. That was right when all the allergy testing was going on and we left for vacation shortly thereafter and I never got motivated. Also, as she gets older there are less dramatic changes to report. So, I'm combining these 2 months together! :)

The biggest change over this time is her verbal skills have increased 10 fold. She can say tons of words, make tons of animal noises (dog, cat, sheep, cow, horse, monkey, lion/tiger/bear, pig, bird, horse, maybe some others, although some are harder to understand!) and repeats words that we ask her to. Recently, she started saying a 2 word sentence.... some request followed by please ("more, please", "up, please"). It is very cute and very hard to ignore, even if what she wants more of isn't something we feel like doing! In the last few days I have heard her say "thank you" after I've given her what she's asked for. It's really fun as she is starting to communicate more and more. It is hard to watch her get really frustrated at times, though, when she doesn't know how to communicate what she wants.

She also likes to sing songs! She can sing bits and pieces of “The Itsy Bitsy Spider”, “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”, “The Farmer and the Dell”… and maybe a few more. It’s so cute!

She's able to point out most of her body parts (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, teeth, hair, chin, knees, belly button, fingers and toes). I also love that when I ask her to come hold my hand she comes running over me and grabs my hand - SO cute!

Sleep habits are still the same... still at 1 nap after lunch lasting for about 1.5 hours, still going to bed about 8-8:30 and sleeping for about 11 or so hours. We are still nursing first thing in the morning and last thing at night. However, while we were in MA we were out and about during Kayla's bedtime and Grandma put her to bed without nursing and I went without pumping and we were both fine. So that nursing may be done soon. We'll see.

She's started learning how to eat with a spoon lately. She's getting much better about it too. She needs help getting food onto the spoon, but after that she is able to guide it to her mouth. She likes to turn the spoon upside down in her mouth, but if she turns it too early it dumps the food out! Oh well, it's a learning process! Sometimes (specifically if we are trying to buy time in a restaurant) we’ll give her a straw, and that will occupy her for a long time. When we were in MA with my parents she was a HAM at the Cheesecake Factory! She was really enjoying the straw and also being able to drink out of a real cup!




She has all 4 eye/canine teeth now.... I think the last 2 came in right before we left for Christmas. These teeth actually seemed to cause her pain and even wake up in the middle of the night crying several times. And it took a long time for these ones to come in. I'd been thinking they'd pop through for at least a few weeks before the sharp point actually made it to the surface. She did not suffer really at all for the first 8 teeth, then the molars caused a bit of pain, but nothing compared to these ones! Yikes!

She has become very affectionate. She loves giving us hugs and kisses and will typically give them on request. Sometimes she just comes over and gives them to us out of the blue! So precious. She also gives Wesley hugs (as always) and now kisses. It's so cute to see that! She can also say "uv-ya" which is "I love you". She usually would only repeats it after we say it to her, but in the last few days she has come up to me and said it to me on her own! Melt my heart!

One thing that she often does that I don't ever want to forget is when you pick her up sometimes she tucks her arms down by her side and snuggles into us. It is so cute, we love it when she does that!

She's had problems the last month with diaper rash, and we aren't exactly sure of the cause. Her bowels continue to be looser than we'd like, despite cutting out all juice (Dr's suggestion). It's probably the loose stools that are causing the diaper rash, so we are trying to work on that because it's SO sad when she is hurting and screaming when you try to change her. Poor little girl :( Also on this topic, in the past month or so she has started telling us when she has a poppy diaper, or saying yes when we ask her if she has one. Hopefully she continues to advance in that area... not that we are looking to potty train soon, but it is a start at least!

She's also started taking a daily vitamin, per her Dr's suggestion. And, well, she LOVES them. It's like candy! Every day she points out the cabinet where we keep them and asks for one.... and we have to start by explaining to her that she only gets 1, and when we give it to her we let her know that this is the last one until tomorrow, and she continues to beg for more for at least another minute (and any time we open that cabinet during the day!)! At least they are tasty!

One other change is that in the last week we moved her car seat to be forward facing. We have kept her rear facing as long as we could.... but her poor legs were pretty scrunched up in there. I have to say that we are both really enjoying this change! She really likes to see where we are going and I like to be able to look back and check up on her!

One last note! She used to “evict” all of her animals/toys from the crib when she was trying to settle down for bed/nap. But lately she isn’t doing that at all. She’s been going down much easier, but even when it’s a struggle, and even when I leave her there for awhile after she’s woken up, her toys are always still in there! I guess she learned that once they are over the rail they don’t come back, so she’s decided they can stay!!

Posted by Lisa at 02:16 PM | Permalink

So... um... I'm kinda working. My old boss from the Bank of Holland called me earlier last week and said that they were totally swamped and needed help and was wondering if I would be able to help out for a little while. So... I made a few calls, sent out a few emails, and figured out a way to have Kayla taken care of 2 days a week for the next 6 weeks. I started this past Friday, just working for 3 hours, and will start working full days on Wednesday's and Friday's this week. WEIRD! Very weird.

I'm actually really excited about this opportunity. I mean, it's only short term, so there's no major commitment I'm making. If I hate it, it will be over in 6 weeks. If I love it, then maybe I can continue to help out in the future when/if they need help. I have said before that I don't regret for one minute my decision to stay home. And I stick by that. There is NO WAY I could have left her like this when she was 3 months old. I just couldn't do it. I didn't know that I wouldn’t be able to do it, but when the time came, I just couldn't. She was so needy and nursing so often that it seemed more trouble than it was worth. But now she is less needy and we don't nurse during the day, so some of those logistics are much easier to think about working. So, for what it's worth, the United States has TERRIBLE maternity leave policies. Some countries allow you to take a year off, and maybe I would have chosen differently after a year. Maybe not. Who knows!

But anyway, my first time back was a bit bizarre. Some things have changed, but mostly things stayed the same. I feel like I stepped into a time warp. It's hard to believe that I've been gone almost a year and a half. It seemed like I've just come back from a long vacation or something! Granted I was only there for 3 hours, and I didn't do a whole lot, but things came back as though I have been doing it all along, so that was nice.

We'll see how working a full day goes. I haven't really ever been away from Kayla for that long of a stretch. And I'm sure that it will be fine... that she'll be fine... that I'll be fine. That is what I keep telling myself! No, seriously, I think it will go well. It's only 6 weeks long and I think it will be a nice change of pace for me, and hopefully also for her. Hopefully it makes me appreciate her more and have more patience for her on the days that we are together. I'll keep everyone posted on how things go. But if you think about it, pray for us!!

Posted by Lisa at 11:32 PM | Permalink

It's always an interesting transition coming back from a vacation. On one hand, it's a let-down. You've planned a fun trip, you go and have the fun, and now the fun is done and it's back to the grind. On the other hand, you've been out of your routine and in some ways it's nice to go back to life as you know it.

Now that I don't work outside of the home, it's even weirder. Sometimes I feel like life is one big vacation (those are the good days!) and sometimes I feel like life is just work. I suppose they both are true. While staying home with Kayla is a lot of work, it's also a lot of fun. I CHOSE to stay home and I don't for one minute regret that decision. Some days I wonder if I'll be able to make it until David comes home.... and some days we do nothing but smile and laugh and have fun together. While on vacation I was able to get a lot of really nice breaks from Kayla.... both of our families were awesome about watching her and letting me and David relax and not worry about her at all. But it's hard to turn the "mom mind" off. You can't really. As long as I'm in a room (or house really) with her, I hear her, have a subconscious eye on her, etc. So it was really helpful for me to get out of the house and truly be away from her! Now that it's just the two of us again, sometimes I struggle to have patience with her... but overall starting back has gone really well!

Posted by Lisa at 10:15 AM | Permalink

This year for Christmas we did another tour of the East Coast! We flew into Boston on December 20th, with only minor delays in our flights. That is actually amazing considering the amount of snow both GR and Boston got the day before and the day after! We were lucky to be able to get in at all! The day after we got in it snowed so hard that we weren't able to even go to church because the roads were so bad! So we enjoyed the day inside relaxing and chatting. The next several days David and I did quite a bit of shopping (due to new luggage restrictions we did a lot of online shopping delivered directly to MA, but also needed to pick up several things from the malls). We left Kayla at home and really enjoyed having some time to just be together. That is actually one of the highlights of this vacation for me; I was able to spend quite a bit of time with it just being David and I. We get quality time with each other at home (especially after Kayla goes to sleep)... but to be able to DO things (like shop) without having to entertaing a child or worrying about when she'll need to eat or making sure to come home before she needs her nap, etc, was truly amazing and refreshing.

We also caught up with our good friends Katie and Pat for dinner one night at the Cheesecake Factory. The night was rather interesting. The traffic was SO bad getting into the mall area that it took them over 3 hours to get there, when it should have taken about 30 minutes (David and I did some shopping at the mall before we were meeting, so we didn't hit that terrible traffic)! David and I ended up getting an appetizer and drinks at the bar while we waited for them. It actually worked out really nice! It was like we went out on a date ourselves... and then after a few hours we went out with our friends! We met up with them again later in the trip for lunch too! We also met with our friends, Matt and Christen, at Starbucks. Our time in MA only overlapped for 3 days (David's birthday, Christmas Eve and Day) so it only allowed us to catch up for a short period of time, but it was so nice to see them. It had been like 3 years since we had seen them last! We treasure both of those friendships and were so glad to reconnect with them all.

For David's birthday, as previously posted, we went to the Celtics game! That was a lot of fun! Part of the story that I didn't share was that my mom was babysitting for us while the 3 of us were at the game, and she had woken up that morning quite sick. We tried to look for someone to come over and help out, and I offered to stay, but when nothing worked out she said she was up to the task. Poor mom was real, real sick though. Kayla enjoyed some of the freedom of being more or less on her own (since my mom was laying down on the couch). Before we left we completely rearranged the living room so it was more baby-proof and so my mom could see Kayla at all times while laying on the couch. Now, my mom likes to clean up toys while Kayla takes a nap... so the house is usually ship-shape! But we knew that it would be covered in toys when we came back, since she wasn't feeling well. What we did not expect was Kayla to have gotten into the storage bin where my parents store receipts in addition to the Tupperware drawer (which we had expected)! In hindsight, we are totally bummed we didn't take a picture of the chaos when we got back! Kayla looked like she was having an absolute BLAST! There were receipts and Tupperware ALL over the living room.... words cannot express.... it was hilarious! I wish I could have seen her expression when she realized Grandma was too sick to stop her from throwing receipts all over the living room.... she clearly had a good evening! And thanks mom for being a trooper! We had a really good time at the game!

Christmas Eve was low key... we relaxed the day away and went to the evening church service. The service was really nice. Kayla loved the singing and looking at the Christmas decorations. She wasn't so keen on sitting still during the sermon. Luckily it was a kid-friendly service (since there was no child care). She wore the CUTEST dress (thank you Mom Taylor!). Someone even commented that she was so cute that she looked like a doll!

Christmas morning we had yummy pecan rolls (yes, Kayla's minus the pecans) and breakfast strata and enjoyed opening presents together! We had a nice Christmas dinner, although at this point my dad was also getting sick, so it was really just David, Kayla and me eating it! David also made a snowman, which Kayla loved to look at and always wanted to touch (until she got close to it, then she didn't want to touch it at all!).

The morning after Christmas we drove to DE. We decided to leave around 10am, so we could get a few hours in before Kayla took a nap and hoped she would sleep for several hours. We turned her to a forward facing car seat for this trip too! The normal 6 hour trip (assuming no traffic and only stopping for gas) took us a little under 8 hours... so we were very happy with that. We stopped multiple times to stretch and let Kayla run around (including at a McD's play area). She did really well in the car, although only took a 45 min nap! :( She entertained herself pretty well and was really good for the majority of the trip, with only minor bouts of screaming.

We stayed at Grandma's house, along with the Taylor women and Uncle Jimmy's family (so there were 15 of us total staying there!). As always, things were busy there. But it is always so fun to have so much family together.

Saturday was the day Grandma did her big dinner... there were 32 of us for that (4 being little ones). This is the 2nd year where all 15 of David's cousins have been there for this (amazing everyone was able to come!) plus spouses, significant others, etc. We joked that this number is only going to grow, as more cousins get married and as more children come along! But it is really fun.

There are 3 babies that were born within 5 weeks of each other (Kayla being the youngest) and it's fun to watch them interact. They played pretty well together, as well as you can expect for that age! Kayla and Ava gave hugs and kisses to each other, that was adorable! Noah was hugging Kayla, which seemed sweet until he took a nice big bite on her cheek! She was so very upset about it, I felt bad for her. I figure it's only a matter of time before she does that to some other child. She often tries to bite David or I (or another authority figure) if she's frustrated.... I have yet to see her try to bite another child, hopefully that doesn't happen, but we'll see.

We made trips to see (great) Aunt Hennie (and Marlene and Denny came also!), (great) Aunts Ruth and Marie at the restaurant, and Grandpa and Cathy. Kayla did really well with all of the transitions and different environments. It is a lot of work trying to watch an active and curious child in a house that is full of breakable items right at her eye level. But she listened better than I expected and we only had 1 minor accident (there were drinks on a table runner at Grandpa and Cathy's house and she reached for it, sending red wine onto the carpet... oops. Thank goodness for Scotch Guard!).

Overall Kayla did really well. She's usually really friendly and willing to go to anyone... however with the large amounts of people, many whom she didn't know, she was more selective in who she would let hold her. It is interesting to me that she recognized David's siblings and immediately felt comfortable with them, but not with cousins and such. You can tell she remembers them from their last trip out here at Thanksgiving (and possibly from trips before). She continued to sleep really well while we were gone, going down easily and taking great naps. She woke up earlier than normal (especially when we were in the same room as her in DE... she woke up and was pointing at us saying,"mama?" "dada?").... but thankfully it wasn't David and I who were getting up with her in the mornings (thank you mom's for letting us get more rest!).

She developed a nervous habit on this trip as well.... twirling her hair! This is a habit that I do when I'm either stressed or when I'm thinking hard about something (David says I do it a lot when I read!). It's something I do totally subconscienciously, although sometimes I am aware that I'm doing it (but it doesn't stop me from twirling!). Well, this must be genetic! She started to do it a little while we were in MA. She did it almost the entire car ride to DE, and continued doing it for the majority of the time in DE. She slowed down when we went back to MA, and has slowed down even more now that we are back home. But I'd never seen her to it before this trip so it's funny that she picked this up during a time of "stress" (being in a new environment with new people and new toys and new routines). I'll be interested to see if she keeps this habit up!

On New Year's Eve we drove back to MA, again an 8 hour ride. Kayla did pretty well on this trip as well.... only a few times where she was screaming. We brought in the New Year very low key (we were exhausted from the drive) and just enjoyed some time in the hot tub and eating some yummy appetizers. We spent the next 2 days doing a little shopping and some returns and laundry and packing and resting.

We had such a wonderful trip and really were able to relax and enjoy ourselves. Despite some minor chaos, we each found lots of time to relax and enjoy ourselves. We love our families dearly and it was special to be able to spend time with them both this holiday season.

Posted by Lisa at 02:19 PM | Permalink