Happy 8 month Birthday Kaylee!

Today Kaylee is 8 months old. Today she started to wave! We went to Target and someone at Starbucks was waving to her, and she waved her whole arm back and forth (different than usual)! Also when we came home Eric waved his hand in and out "hello" and she opened and closed her hand (but backwards at herself). After that she did it several more times and the whole family was very excited about it - she was all smiles and looked proud of herself!

Her grandma bought her a new black outfit we put on with pink hearts. She looks very festive and ready for the holidays. Again, I can't believe how fast my baby is growing and developing! She's a real cutie. We've found that her eyes change slightly with what she's wearing, when she's wearing this black outfit her eyes look real dark like mine.

Hands in Motion

Kaylee's doing  more new things with her hands. She's been putting her hands together and raising them up over her head and then letting go once she's peeking through the hole her arms created. We figure it's her version of 'so big' so whenever she does it we say "SO BIG!"  It's funny to realize how much bigger a baby's head really is in proportion to the rest of their bodies. If I put my arms up around my head there's a lot of extra space. If she does it there's none and her arms are forced to let go as she pushes forward.  

My in-laws are here and we've been having a great time during this Thanksgiving break. Kaylee's grandma's been working with her on clapping. My MIL claps and then Kaylee slaps one hand down over and over. Her grandpa thought that Kaylee also did this as many times as the hands were clapped. 

Anyways, hope you are all having a great holiday weekend! Take care and be safe! 

Pre-crawling!

In the last three days or so, Kaylee's been able to get her knees under her while she's pushing up (during tummy time). So, she's one step closer to crawling! And last night for the first time, I saw her up on her knees and rock a little bit back and forth. It does look like hard work for a baby. You know how you feel when you are doing a push up? That's how she looks, like it's very strenuous for her little baby muscles. You know how you'd like to put your knees down to get out of the push up position or cheat on them? That is sort of what she's been doing up until now.

She continues to sort of roll, twist, turn, climb with her arms and squirm a little closer to places she wants to be.

New Kaylee "signs"

Kaylee has figured out a couple new ways to communicate with us and it's pretty cute (and useful). They are not signs taught from American Sign Language or daycare, they are her own invented signs.

One is turning of the wrists:
She raises her arms halfway up and turns her wrists around and around. This means I want you to hold me, I want mama or I'm bored.

The other one is raising her arms and bringing them quickly together, if her hands were out she would be clapping, then she repeats it over and over:
This means I'm having fun, do it again, or I'm excited.

Kaylee has also recently developed more of an attachment to me. It hasn't really changed much or really been too bad. But what happens is if she wants me to hold her or to come to me, she will turn, twist, stand, anything short of crawling to get at me. She will also attempt to crawl toward me with limited success. She'll still let others hold her a lot, it's just when she gets tired, or is in a certain mood for me.

Giggling sleeper

Kaylee woke me up about 4 times last night wanting to nurse, the last two nights have been bad! I was so tired, but it really cheered me up when I woke up and looked at her and she was giggling in her sleep. It was so cute it wiped from my memory and irritation I had! I am guessing she was dreaming about her Dad playing games with her or else the dogs and their antics. There's something so sweet and utterly enchanting about the voice of a baby. It's so pure and innocent, and sweet! That is, when it is soft. When she's wild and crazy in her jumperoo, it is loud and can sound more like a 'yell'. Not as sweet but still perty darn cute!

Rice is not our friend

Yesterday we went to a Vietnamese restaurant, Kaylee was perplexed by the crowd. She was silent and observant. When we got our food, Eric wanted to give her a piece of rice and I said "No, she will throw up. I don't want her to throw up here." But he tried it anyway, then she threw up twice during dinner. It was not cool but we dealt with it well, she didn't get upset and Aunt B didn't seem to mind either. All in all we still had a good time. Her gag reflex seems to be still well in-tact. A friend of Eric's said that we should try the cheerios that dissolve in the baby's mouth so we are going to experiment with that. I'm a little leary however, because I'm still not convinced that Kaylee has ever really gotten the hang of swallowing pureed food and I think that'll probably come first. There's a reason for my being worried about that, and that is I am having some pain related to breastfeeding and we need to find her another option. Whatever our approach is though we are working at being patient with Kaylee and making it seem like fun. On a positive note, she tasted sweet potatoes the other day and didn't reject them.

Oh, and I have had to be more careful with holding her. She will throw herself towards the edge of the couch or out of my arms towards her Dad if she's excited. But it's good she's so curious and thinks things are so fun and interesting. The other day she was at eye level with the dogs when we first got home, in her jumperoo. She is normally in my arms. She thought it was hilarious to see the dogs barking, wrestling and playing right in front of her. She let out loud peel of laughter and squeals of delight! It made me laugh at ton too.

Oh and speaking of laughing, when we were taking a bath I took the water in my mouth and squirted it in an arc. She thought that was so funny, she couldn't stop laughing. My cheeks got tired of blowing out the water because I didn't want to stop entertaining her this way!

We've been having a good weekend, I am at work. and best get back to it! Take care!

Yesterday Kaylee fed herself 4-5 spoons of cereal. That is real progress. We've been saying all along that it doesn't seem like Kaylee likes to be fed, she clamps her mouth shut and turns her head. The only time she's done it is if she's been distracted, tricked or eaten it right off her bib. So maybe she has the dexterity required to feed herself a little? She still doesn't like cheerios but brings them to her mouth to lick them. If they get into her mouth she tries to spit them out.

So far traits we've noticed in Kaylee:
fearless
funny
happy
talkative (make lots of sounds)
affectionate
observant
engaged

Arm crawling

Kaylee is has been crawling with her arms, her legs haven't figured it out but her arms are trying to go places. She tries to crawl towards a toy, us or the dogs with her arms. Eric and I were commenting last night, if it was safer for her to be on the floor with the dog she'd probably be want to crawl to him. She thinks he's hilarious and laughs a ton at him, I have to watch him so he doesn't lick her too much or begin to paw at her. It's a delicate balance of too much dog to too much baby.

At daycare, they cleaned the carpets in preparation because the teacher thinks all the babies are going to start to crawl soon. A couple are up on all fours and rocking back and forth, or crawling backwards. Kaylee is not quite there yet. But if she becomes determined enough, we see it happening soon. My little baby is growing up so fast! She's "playing" with the other kids now, sharing toys (or more like playing tug-of-war with them). They are deciding still should I keep the toy, should I share or should we just pull it back and forth. What ever it is it's a fun drooly mess of a good time!

Biting baby

So Kaylee has taken to biting me when she feels playful. She tries to bite my clothes and then if she gets hold she tries to bite me. Not fun at all. Eric hasn't been experiencing it, and we think it's because he's not the one who nurses her and she loves to nuzzle and mouth me and this is an extension of that. Now that she's got four teeth that is not cool. We'll work on that...she thinks "NO, KAYLEE!" and "OW, KAYLEE" are really funny. She smiles and let's out a peel of laughter. She doesn't understand.

Daycare said yesterday that Kaylee had some cereal mixed with peaches and seemed to taste it a bit more. So that was encouraging.

Kaylee continues to be super cute, Eric told me that at daycare the call her "smiley". In the group buggy, when she comes around the corner they say all the other babies are just sitting there and Kaylee is the one to greet them with a smile. So sweet!
Take care everybody.

Starting Over

So, I heard loud and clear that the blog and it's security settings was a pain in the arse. I'm sorry for that. I definitely want readers but I was also trying to do my best to keep our family information private. And therefore, names and places will be generalized in order to keep it that way. I also didn't like how my old blog used the baby's entire name for the url.

I will post here from now on. So check up to keep current on cute little baby girl!