Our New House

Well, we have finally gotten all moved into our new home, and we are loving it! Like seriously loving it! We love the neighborhood and how quiet and family friendly it is. We have a lot more space in our new house than we did in our old one, which makes it so much nicer!

We still have several boxes left to unpack, but for the most part, everything is put away and decorated. Kayden is loving her new big room and her new big girl bed. She also loves having carpet, since we had wood floors in the old house. She loves to roll around on the carpet and play chase all through the house.

We've already had a couple block parties with the families on our street, and they were so much fun! There are lots of kids for Kayden to play with, and she already tells me that she wants to go outside and play with her friends! :)

Nick and I celebrated our seven year wedding anniversary this week and as a present to each other on our anniversary every year, we always get something practical usually for the house. Since both of our birthdays are the week before our anniversary, we though this was appropriate. This year, we have decided to get a new door for the front of our house. They are going to come out and put a big piece of glass in it. It's going to look so pretty!

Next week (Thursday) is my sonogram to see whether we are having a boy or girl. I'm very excited and hope that the baby decides to cooperate! Until then....

Better Late than Never

I know this is WAYYY overdue, but honestly, I just don't want to spend my free-time, since there's not much of it, blogging. I guess I don't enjoy it the way others do. Most of the people that read this know what's all going on in our crazy lives anyway, so I don't really see the point in doing it. Know what I mean?

For what it's worth though, I'll post big updates and things that I think are noteworthy, but I'm not going to be blogging big ol long posts like I used to. For me, it's like a chore. I'm not one of those who can sit down and just jot down a few witty things. I am the type that sits down and takes 2 hours to chronologically type out every little detail that has happened since I last blogged, which would be 4 months ago! ha! I know I don't have to do that, but it's just the way my mind works.

My Brother and his baby girl Kylee and his niece Kayden (loves his girls)

ANYWAY......major things.....

1. We sold our house! yay!

2. We close on our new house 2 weeks from today! yay yay!

3. We bought Kayden's new "big girl" furniture from Rooms to go Kids last weekend, which will be delivered the week we move into our new house. Exciting!

Kayden playing at the water park

4. I am 15 weeks pregnant today and feel the baby moving around all the time now. It's very reassuring since I'm such a worrier! :)

5. Kayden is talking in complete sentences all the time now. I have really been working with her to express what she needs and wants (and DOES NOT want) using her words, instead of screaming and throwing fits. She is getting MUCH better! She just gets so frustrated when she is trying to communicate something that she cannot say or that I don't understand.

6. Kayden is permanently down to one nap a day, which although I preferred 2, is much better for her in the long run. She goes to sleep earlier at night and isn't as fussy as she was with 2 naps. Plus, she sleeps a good 10-11 hours straight at night and anywhere from 1 1/2 hours - 3 hours during the day. Which means I usually get a good nap during the day too! :)

7. We have been spending a lot of time packing, but also spend quite a bit of time swimming, going to the park, McDonald's, playing outside and in the sprinkler and spending time with family.

After Church 5/30/10 (My brother, his wife and their kids, my mom and sister us and Nana)

I guess that's about it for today. I'm sure my next post will be in a few weeks once we get moved into the new house. We're super excited for all the extra room we're going to have and the much nicer, quieter neighborhood. I'll post pictures of the house once we get moved in and settled a bit.

We should find out the sex of the baby around the middle of July, so be looking for that post!

Ready for church 6/5/10

Until then, have a great week!

~Corinne

Selling Our Home

Kayden loves to take her shoes off in the car

Whew! It has been one crazy week!!!!

We met with our realtor last Thursday and I don't think we've sat down since! We have painted the "longhorn room," a nice neutral khaki color and decorated the whole thing. We have boxed up tons of boxes of toys and just junk and have been taking loads over to my Mom and Nick's parents houses. Yesterday while Kayden took her nap, I spackled holes in our bedroom walls, put together a storage unit and painted. I am exhausted! Everything is really coming together nicely though and I know that it will all be worth it in the end. I really do love this house (even more now that it is being fixed up so nicely), and I told Nick, that if we could just pick it up and movve it to another part of town and add a room or two onto it, I'd keep it! :)

New toy storage for Kayden's toys (Classy huh?!) :)

Kayden has been such a good girl through all this crazyness. She does so well playing independently now, and has been having such a fun time "helping" me around the house! She's finding all sorts of things to get into! :)

I took Kayden to the doctor yesterday, because I thought she had an ear infection, and it turns out that she didn't. She was a good girl though and got to "go pay" at Chick-fil-a afterwards. Everytime we get into the car, she says, "go pay!"

Waiting for the doctor

Not much else to report. We have been having to stay around the house a lot with the yucky weather, but then it's giving us more time to get stuff done around here! We've had a couple play dates this week, which Kayden really enjoys.

Talk to everyone next week! Have a great weekend! :)

13 1/2 Months

Well I don't have to much new news to report, but no news is good news right???

Kayden and I have pretty much been hanging out at the house the past week or so since the weather's been so yucky and cold. We've had a couple play dates with a few friends and are looking forward to having another one on Friday. Kayden really has fun and it helps break up the day!

We are meeting with a real estate agent this evening to see about finally putting our house up on the market. We have been wanting to move for quite awhile now, especially since Kayden was born. Our neighborhood just isn't what we're looking for anymore and we have quickly outgrown this house. We need something that is a little more practical for us! So we'll see what happens. I'll post again at the end of the week or sometime this weekend.

My sister in law is more than likely going to have her baby this Sunday. She will be 37 weeks on Friday and has been having all sorts of contractions and has already been in the hospital a couple of times for different complications. Kylee Faith is a stubborn little thing already! She was in the breech position when Amy (Trent's wife) was in the hospital a few weeks ago. Then she decided to turn head down...yay! Last week, she apparently turned head up again, so they're going to try and turn her back around on Friday so that Amy can deliver her naturally. To turn a baby, they do it from the outside, but Amy will have to be admitted to the hospital and apparently, it can be pretty painful, so they are going to give her an epidural as well. Hopefully they'll get her turned head down and I'll have a niece this weekend! So for now, I think the plan is that Kayden and I will go up on Sunday to stay and be with the new baby and come back Monday. Nick has to work, so he will have to wait and go up another time. Exciting times!!!

Kayden has learned how to climb up on the futon in her play room. It is lower to the ground than our furniture in the living room, which she hasn't mastered yet. She is like a little monkey and thinks she's invincible, so I have to watch her like a hawk now that she is climbing on everything. I think she thinks she will just fly or float rather than fall since her Daddy "flies" her all over the house all the time.

Jumping on the bed with Daddy

We have been going over to Bebe and Papa's house to visit, and Kayden LOVES to play with their dog Cooper. She calls him, "Capoo." She also calls her Bebe and Papa, "Bebepa," like they are one person! It's so cute! She loves them!

Kayden playing with "Capoo"

On Tuesday, Kayden and I went and met Nick for lunch in Round Rock. Nick got to show Kayden off to all his work buddies, who just couldn't believe how big she had gotten. We ate at Double Daves Pizza. Pizza is one sure thing that Kayden will eat. She really should've been born in Italy! :) Pizza and spaghetti and favorites in our house!

Kayden has 4 teeth left to cut. They are the ones on the sides in between her side/front teeth and her back molars. She hasn't been sleeping too well since her teeth are coming through, but hopefully it won't be too much longer and we can get back on somewhat of a schedule. I wrote last time, that Kayden was transitioning down to one nap a day, and I still think she is, however, she is back to taking two naps a day. Here is our delima though. She usually goes down for her first nap between 9 and 10 in the morning and then is ready for the next nap between 2 and 3 in the afternoon. I try to not let her sleep past 4 in the afternoon, so that she'll go down at a decent hour in the evenings. We try and get her down between 8 and 9pm. HOWEVER....the past week and a half, she hasn't been going down in the evenings until 10 or 11 pm! And I am not a night person! She just goes and goes. No amount of winding down or calming seems to help. And I don't want to put her in her crib to cry if she's not even tired. So I decided yesterday that she is just going to have to only have one nap a day. So I kept her up and she slept from 1pm until 2:30pm. The child still didn't got to sleep until 9pm and that was with a lot of tears. So I don't know. She just doesn't need a lot of sleep I guess. Once these teeth come through, we'll see if we can get back on a schedule!

Kayden and her ponytail :)

Nothing much else to post. Check out the videos at the bottom of the blog. Kayden LOVES to play silly games after she gets out of the bath or when she's getting her diaper changed! They'll make you laugh! :)

We are staying very busy and just taking it one day at a time! Hoping for some sunshine next week! We are ready to get back outside! Have a great weekend!

~Corinne

Kayden's Words

So Nick and I sat down this morning at made a list of all the words that Kayden says in her everyday vocabulary. These are things that Kayden actually will say when given the object or asked what it is. She will also go and get whatever we ask her to. These are the ones we came up with:

Word Pronunciation

brush (hair) Bru

Toothbrush Too Bu

Nana Nana

Stick Sick

Rocks Wock

Plate Pate

Turkey Tukey

Strawberry Trawby

Cookie Cook

Kayden Kay

Poo poo Poop

Diaper Diap

Hanger Ha

Open Op

Sausage Sha

Pancake Pa Ca

Carrot Ca

Corn Co

Hoho Hoho

Santa S Ta

Bottle Ba

Found Me Fa Me

Mommy Mommy

Daddy Da da or Daddy

Lion Li

Moe (the dog) Moe

Baby baby

Go Down Go D

Up up

Come on Moe Come on Moe

Bye Bye bye bye

hi hi

grass ga

I ready I re

I love you I new

Bevo Bebo

Car Ca

Cold Code

Plex Pe

Meow Me

Boat Boat

Book Book

Monkey Mukey

Phone Pho

ball ball

block bock

sheep seep

Brobee Bobee

Pretty Pee

Glasses Ga

All done All du

Dance da

Elmo Emo

Ear Eee

Mail ma

Cracker Cack

yogurt go

shoes soos

cup puc

socks sock

Gabba Gabba Gabba Gabba

Tummy tub

Bath ba

bread be

bowl boo

Quack Quack qack qack

door du

okay okay

Moo moo

spoon sboo

rain wai

apple apple

oh no oh no

no no

toes toes

ear eee

water wa

go go

cheese chee

pumpkin pu

nose nos

keys key

uh oh uh oh

star sa ta

tiger tie

Well those are the words that Nick and I thought of this morning. And again, these are just the words that she says when we ask her what something is or ask her to go get something, or that she uses herself when she plays. They do not include things that she knows but does not say. :)

A Long Time Coming

Ok, so I'm a little embarrassed that it's been so long since I last posted. And honestly, I'm debating if I should even keep up with this blog or not. I'm not sure if too many people read it anymore and it takes me so long to get a blog updated and I am usually interrupted one or a thousand times! :)

It was crazy to go back and look at the last post that I made! I posted just as Kayden was beginning to walk on her own...almost 4 months ago!!! I cannot believe she has been walking that long already! It's so crazy how fast time flies, especially with a little one. She's not so little anymore! :(

Kayden is 13 months and a few days old and is "Little Miss Personality!" She talks up a storm! I was thinking about making a list of all the words she knows and says all day long to put in the baby book. She probably has a vocabulary of about 30 words or so. You can ask her to point to something or ask her what something is and she'll tell you. We teach her a couple new words everyday and she seriously can say them or point to or go get what we ask her the next day. Such a brilliant child! :)

She still LOVES to read and brings Mommy books all the time to read to her. We even read in the bath tub! She has become my big helper around the house! I am loving it, because I can ask her to go pick up the cracker or apple she just spit out all over the floor and bring it to Mommy, or close the doors, or pick up her toys and she is more than happy to do it! Sh loves to help out! If the phone rings, or a timer goes off in the kitchen, she's running saying, "phone Mommy!!" Too cute!

We have had a whirlwind the past few months. Seems like it all flew by so fast, I can't even remember all that happened. Since the last post, which was forever ago, Kayden got to trick or treat as a ladybug for Halloween and I must say, she was super cute! :)

At the end of November, I was admitted to the hospital with double pneumonia and stayed for 4 days. It was horrible and terrible, but it's over and hopefully it will never happen again. The absolute worst part was being away from my baby girl. She did so good though, but wouldn't let go of me when I got home for about a week! :) We missed each other terribly!

Resting and Recuperating

Kayden got to experience her first Thanksgiving, which we celebrated at Bebe and Papa's house. We visited a pumpkin patch, and "pumpkin" quickly became Kayden's favorite word! :)

We were suppose to go up to Ponder to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family this year, but with me just being released from the hospital, I had to stay close to home. We had a great time and filled our bellies! :)

The Christmas holidays were a blast! They were very busy as always, but we had a lot of fun! Last year, Kayden was only about a week old at Christmas, but this year she got to open presents and Santa came to visit her and it was just all around, a great time! We went and looked at lots of Christmas lights around town, and Kayden just kept saying, "wow!"

We did Christmas Eve at Nick's parents like always, and Kayden made out like a bandit! She had a lot of fun opening up all her presents, but she really enjoyed playing with all the bows and boxes best! On Christmas day, we went to my Grandparents house, where my Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Mom, Sister, etc. were and celebrated there for the day. It was fabulous. We stuffed ourselves (I've never seen so much food) and spent great time talking and being silly. The next day, we left early in the morning and traveled up to the Fort Worth area to stay with my Dad and his wife and visit with my brother, sister in law and nephew. We stayed there for two days before coming home to REST!!!!

Kayden opeing her gifts from Santa

We still haven't found homes for all of Kayden's new toys and clothes as our house isn't big enough to house it all! :) So for now, we're just storing most of it in buckets in our living room!

Kayden has almost all of her teeth now, including four of her back molars, two on the top and bottom. It has been torture for all of us while she's ben cutting them! She was doing such a great job sleeping through the night up until about 2 or 3 weeks ago, when those molars were breaking through the skin. I know that some babies aren't even phased when they cut a tooth, but my child just screams at night and wants to be held during the day! It makes it very tough, but at least she's almost done cutting them! I've never seen a 13 month old with so many teeth!! I think she only has two more left to cut! Goodness!

Our biggest challenge right now (even more so than the not sleeping and teething) would have to be eating. Kayden's always battled eating solids, but now she's just soooooo picky. Everyday is different in what she'll eat. Some days she can't enough of something, and the next day, she acts like it's disgusting and how dare I feed it to her!! haha! So everyday is a guessing game and spent just trying to find something she'll eat. She is completely off of formula and on whole milk, so she is starting to eat more, because her appetite has increased. She is also completely off of the bottle and onto a sippy cup. It really wasn't that hard to transition her. She did resist, of course, but it only took a couple days.

We celebrated Kayden's 1st birthday in December. We had a ladybug themed birthday party and Kayden had a lof of fun! We had mostly family here, but a few friends too.

kayden ran around and loved being the center of attention! :)

Happy Birthday to Me

She is still in love with Yo Gabba Gabba, her favorite tv show. It is even part of our bedtime routine in the evenings! haha! She has just about every Yo Gabba Gabba toy made and knows all of the characters by name! She claps along with the songs and interacts with all of the shows. It's really funny to watch.

She is in the process of transitioning to one nap a day, but is not quite there yet. She's definitely getting there though.

She got a wagon for her birthday and absolutely loves to go for rides in it around the neighborhood. She also loves to go to the park and swing and play in the rocks. Since the weather has been so nice recently, we've been doing a lot of that!

We haven't had many playdates lately, because it seems like one of us is always sick! We are all finally well as of this week, and we're gonna try and stay that way for awhile!

Kayden is stacking blocks, playing hide and go seek, peekaboo, chasing the dogs, coloring, and plays very well independently. She loves to go outside and watch the neighbor kids run around and the cars go by. She calls all kids "baby," even teenagers! It's so funny! She is calling me, "Mommy" all the time now, but sometimes gets it backwards and calls me, "Memaw!" haha! I love it!

"playing" with Moe

I'm trying to think if there's anything else, and I'm sure there is, but now that Kayden's awake from her nap, I'm very distracted! If you are reading this and would like for me to keep this thing updated, please let me know. Otherwise I will probably just stop blogging if there's no one really keeping up with it!

Until next time....

Ready or not, Here I come! :)

Okay. So I know I just posted the other day, but I had to just post a quick one again.

Kayden is a walking girl now!!!! She decided to be super brave on Friday evening and just started walking across the living room! Now she won't stop! I just wanted to post a few pictures and link to my videos page so that you could go check them all out!

On my videos page, I have uploaded quite a few new videos. a couple are of Kayden walking, showing off her new skills. I also uploaded a couple videos of Kayden talking. She is saying a few new words now, such as "apple," "no no," and "uh oh." It's precious!

Enjoy looking through the pictures and watching the videos!


click here to see Kayden's 9 month pictures


click here to see Kayden's videos

xoxo

Corinne

9 Month Old Ladybug

Cuddling with Daddy

Yay! I met my goal! I am posting in less than 1 month! Pat on the back for me! ;)

The past 3 weeks since I've posted have gone by very quickly...kind of in a blur actually. We have dealt with sickness, sickness and more sickness!!! This fall season has kicked up all sorts of stuff and it seems like we are catching all of it! But I guess Kayden will have a strong immune system in the end huh?!

Kayden is dealing with another cold as I type, but that seems to be the theme right now, so it's really no biggie. Nick and I both went to the doctor this week and had flu tests done, both of which came back negative! Thank you Lord! I was so extremely concerned that if I did have the flu of passing it on to Kayden. Thankfully, we don't have to worry about that!

Kayden trying to eat her froggy spout cover :)

We are trying to stay indoors more for the time being since it seems that everyone is sick right now. We are holding off on story time at the library, and I'm trying not to take Kayden out to the grocery store or crowded places just to be on the safe side. We are spending a lot of time, however in our backyard sliding down the slides and swinging. Kayden really enjoys playing outside and the puppies love it too!

We have turned our 3rd bedroom into a playroom for Kayden to get some of the toys out of our living room and to give her a safe place to play. She really loves playing in there. We are in the process of turning our formal dinning room into an office for Nick. He needs a more private place to work, because he's on call all the time and it's kind of difficult for him to work and focus with a baby trying to get his computer and what not! I can only do so much! ;)

Kayden playing (eating) in her new sandbox :)

Kayden went in on the 16th for her 9 month well check and got a flu shot. She did great! She has moved to the 80th percentile for her weight, weighing in at 22 lbs, and the 90th percentile for her height at a little over 26 inches long. She's babbling and saying, "Mama," "Dada," "Ah ah," (for uh oh), "bab" (for baby) and a whole bunch of crazy noises as well! :) She's progressing wonderfully!

Overall, things are moving right along. No big things to report since the last post. We're hoping to all get well soon so we can resume our play dates with some of Kayden's little friends and get to sleeping better. Oh and on that note, we started the "cry it out" method again this past week on Wednesday. We had tried it when Kayden was around 6 months old, but just couldn't handle it then. We are now doing it successfully and are seeing some progress. It was getting to the point that Kayden would only sleep if we were holding her in her rocking chair or boucing her. If we tried to lay her down, she'd just wake up and scream. She wouldn't sleep in our bed with us or on the couch or in her crib....nowhere but our arms. So we knew it was time. The first couple of days were very rough, but it is slowly getting better and Kayden is really learning how to put herself back to sleep. We've gone from waking up 8-10 times a night to two times a night just to eat and go back to sleep. Night time feedings will be our next obstacle, but we're just going to focus on one at a time!

I have misplaced my camera once again (this is a daily thing), so I don't have many new pictures or videos. I am posting the few that I have and hopefully I will find it soon! :)

Kayden's most favorite thing in the world to do is read! Being a former teacher, I love, love, love that!!!!! We read a lot during the day....some books over and over again! Below is a video of Kayden reading a book to herself! Super cute! :)

Hope everyone's having a good week and is staying healthy! Until next time....

This and That

Okay. So I know this is long overdue, but I just can't seem to find the time to really sit down and write. I put a lot of thought into these blogs, so I can't just whip something out real quick. My new goal is to get one out every month instead of every week! I'll try to achieve that! :)

Lots has happened over the last month since I last posted. About a month ago, Kayden came down with a cold. Well before it got better, it got worse and developed into an ear infection. After taking antibiotics for 10 days, she finally got the all clear last week. However, the antibiotics took a toll on her body. She was having diahrreah like 9 or 10 times a day and developed a horrible diaper rash. So that also took some time to clear up. But like I said, last week we got the all clear.

Rocking her baby

So life was pretty good up until Wednesday. And that's when Kayden started sneezing, coughing and had a runny nose. "Oh great," I thought. So I waited and watched, and I decided to take her to the doctor on Friday since it was a long weekend. Low and behold she had ANOTHER ear infection. So I am foreseeing tubes in her future, but we'll see. She has been on antibiotics since Friday and just today is starting to clear up congestion wise. It's been rough, because she hasn't been able to breathe through her nose, so it's been hard for her to eat or sleep. Hopefully she's on the road to recovery now and we can mark this ear infection off the list! :)

I'm not sure where to start now. It seems like so much has happened in such a short time! The biggest things that I want to mention are some major milestones that Kayden has reached. She is now standing all by herself! She can go from sitting to standing without holding onto anything. And here it comes......she took her first steps! We got it on video, which I will post at the bottom of this blog. She was so extremely proud of herself when she did it. She had a huge grin on her face and was so excited!!!! We are so proud of her! And at 8 1/2 months old too. Goodness! I think I'm going to be in for it now! :)

I am loving this age! It's my favorite so far! Yesterday I had a doctor's appointment, and I decided to take Kayden with me. She did fabulous and everyone ooohed and ahhhed over how adorable she was! Feeling brave, I took her to McDonald's after we got finished at the doctor's office (I had to get a flu shot :( ). Kayden sat in the high chair like a big girl and ate some of my chicken and played with her toys until I was finished eating. She loved watching the kids playing on the playground. Feeling braver and less like a germaphobe, I whipped out my camera and took Kayden to the playground. As soon as I put her at the top of the slide, she got a huge smile on her face and started waving her hands in the air. She slid down the slide a few times and LOVED, LOVED, LOVED it! :) I climbed all the way up to the top of the playscape with her in my arms, but decided against going down the dark tunnel slide. The thought of her screaming the whole way down or us getting stuck in there didn't appeal to much to me! :)

Kayden has now graduated to taking a bath in the bath tub instead of her big pink duck. She was just too big for that. She LOVES the big bath tub, but I have to watch her every move! She thinks she can crawl around on all fours in the water and pull up on the faucet and side of the tub. The child has no fear and never sits still! :)

She also got her first pair of shoes, which she's not too sure about, but we put them on and walk outside every afternoon to get her used to them. We are also going for walks every evening when Nick gets home from work. Kayden will now sit in her stroller if it's sitting straight up and not reclined back, so she can see everything. Also, we put cheerios or puffs on her stroller tray and she is quite content the whole way! I am excited about this, because I've been wanting to get a jogging stroller and go running with her. Looks like now I may be able to!

My brother Trent, and his fiance Amy got married on the 23rd of August, here at Nana and Grandpa's house. It was simple and beautiful. Kayden did very well, but was just a little overwhelmed by all of the people crammed into the living room.

At Trent and Amy's wedding

We've been going to story time once a week at the library, and Kayden loves crawling all over the place and sitting in the teacher's lap and playing with her puppets! :)

Kayden is completely down to two naps a day and usually takes a long one in the morning anywhere from 1 1/2 -2 hours and usually a shorter one in the late afternoon. It's been nice having her more on a solid schedule. Her bedtime still varies from day to day, but it's getting a little more predictable. She usually goes down between 8:30 and 9:30 at night. Nights are still pretty rough right now. With the ear infections, Kayden hasn't been able to breathe through her nose, so she's had a lot of trouble sleeping. She's also cutting some teeth, so she's had a hard time sleeping because of that as well. One day we'll get a good night's sleep! Someday! :)

8 1/2 moths old

I'm really enjoying staying home with Kayden and watching her learn and grow everyday. We really do have a fun time. We get out at least a few times a week for playdates, story time, grocery shopping, etc. Kayden does very well and loves going places. My little shopper! :)

We turned the extra bedroom/Longhorn room into a playroom for Kayden. We moved most of her big toys in there so our living room didn't look like a Toys R Us showroom! Kayden loves it in there!

We were having a very hard time getting her to eat anything solid for quite sometime. She just decided that she didn't want to have anything to do with it. So I talked with her pediatrician, and she said to not worry about it and that it was just a phase. She would probably go from not eating anything to eating straight table food one day. So I stopped giving her solids altogether for a couple of days and then started putting her at the table in her booster chair and offering it to her 3 times a day. Sometimes she'd eat a couple bites of bread or fruit, but never baby food. Until a couple of days ago, she was pretty much on a liquid diet again. And then we found the secret! Whatever Nick and I are eating, she wants! So we pretty much give her whatever we eat (within reason) cut up tiny for her. She has also decided that hse will eat baby food if we give it to her with an adult spoon and make a big deal when she eats it! So every night when we sit down at the dinner table, Kayden eats what we eat (thus we're eating healthier) and Nick and I clap and praise Kayden for eating her food like a big girl. She loves to eat now! :) It's fabulous! When she went into the doctor last Friday, she weighed 21 lbs and 14 ozs. So she's still gaining fine. She goes back in next Wednesday for her 9 month well check.

I guess that's all to report for now. I'm going to try to squeeze in a shower real quick before the little ladybug wakes up! Sorry it's taken me so long to update everyone. The little Miss keeps me busy! :) Have a great rest of the week!

Good News and Bad News

Can you believe that I am actually posting again and it's just been a little over a week?  That can only mean one thing......Kayden is sleeping! :)

Let's start with the bad news first...get it out of the way.  I had mentioned in my last post, that I had taken Kayden to the doctor because her eye was draining and it turned out that she had an eye cold.  So we treated that and it seemed to get better, but then she came down with massive congestion, coughing, sneezing, etc. So I took her back to the doctor last week on Thursday and her pediatrician said that she had a cold.  Let me just say, that it is so traumatizing for the Mommy and Daddy to see their baby girl have a cold.  She was completely blocked up and couldn't breathe out of her nose.  This makes it extremely hard on babies, because they haven't mastered breathing out of their mouths yet.  She had a very hard time eating and sleeping, both of which required her to breathe out of her nose.  So it's now 6 days later, and she is still congested, but nowhere near the extent to what she was.  I'm not having to use the "booger sucker" near as much, and last night was the first night that she was able to go to sleep sucking her fingers while breathing out of her nose at the same time and go the whole night without having to have her nose cleaned out.  :) Ah the triumphs of being a Mommy!

So there's the first bad news - the dreaded cold.  But there's more.  But you'll have to wait, because I need to tell you the good news first.

The good news is, that since Kayden started drinking straight formula, about a week and a half ago or so, she has been sleeping so much better!  The most that she's woken up at night is 3 times, which is down from 5-10 a night.  And before, when she'd wake up so many times at night, she'd just scream, and I knew that something was wrong.  Now when she wakes up, it's because she's hungry or can't get back to sleep, and just needs Mommy.  I will happily go and feed that child or rock her twice a night rather than 10 times! :)  I am beyond thrilled that this formula seems to be helping her sleep. I really think it was the dairy in my breast milk that was giving her a tummy ache. Poor baby.  But at least it seems we've figured it now and hopefully she'll continue to sleep better and better. I am so proud of her!

Now for the second part of the bad news. I cannot sleep.....EVER!  I have tried what seems like everything.  I have been to see my doctor twice in the past 2 weeks for sleeping problems.  I have such a hard time going to sleep, and then once I finally get there, Kayden usually wakes up and then I am wide awake again. It's a terrible cycle. So I've been extremely frustrated now that Kayden is finally sleeping, Mommy still can't!  I am planning on calling the doctor again today and seeing what another option is.  So I'll keep everyone updated, but for now, Kayden is sleeping better, but Mommy is not! :(

Um, let's see.  Since the last time I posted, we haven't really done much since Kayden (and I) have been sick.  We've just tried to lay low for a little while until it all blows over.  We did get to visit with our Italian cousins yesterday for a little bit, who are in from Italy visiting for a month or so.  It was neat for Kayden to meet her cousins for the first time, and they had fun playing together!

We are planning to go up and see my dad not this coming weekend, but the next, so hopefully we'll all be well and SLEEPING by then! :)

I guess that's all for now.  I jsut wanted to post this quick update while Kayden was napping....she's not a big sleeper during the day, so I have to get what I need to when I can! :) 

Until next time....

Major Milestones!

Well, here we are again...posting much later than I wanted to, but I just can't seem to find the time to update everyone.  And when I do have a little free time, honestly, I just want to lay down and do nothing! :)

A lot has happened since we last talked.  The biggest thing, is that Kayden is now saying, "mama," and "dada."  It is absolutely precious.  She's been saying, "dadadada" for quite a while now, but just started saying "mamama" a couple of days ago. She said it when I was trying to feed her and she didn't want to eat. She reached her arms out and firmly said "MAMAMAMA!" Like quit trying to feed me! I don't want to eat! :) It was precious and she'll get anything she wants when she says it! :)

She is also reaching for people when she wants them.  This, along with "Mamama," melts my heart every time! :) She can pretty much get everything she wants!

She has also started sleeping a little better through the night.  Now when I say better, I mean waking up less than 8-10 times a night! Last night, she only woke up twice and slept for a 5 1/2 hour stretch.  I felt great today! :) Kayden is almost on straight formula now. She has about 3/4 formula mixed with 1/4 breast milk in each bottle, but we'll probably run out of the breast milk within a week. I am anxious to see if the formula helps her sleep better.  She is on Nutramigen formula, which is made for babies with sensitive tummies due to milk allergies and colic.  It is VERY expensive, but I truly think it is helping.  We'll keep you updated on that!

Kayden also reached another milestone this past week.  She learned how to pull up!  It is so exciting and she is so proud of herself! I got a video of her pulling up onto her toy piano.  She now spends most of the day pulling up and standing...up, down, up down...all day long! :)

Every time I go in to get her out of her crib after a nap, or in the mornings, she is standing up just staring at the door waiting for me to come in.  She also is now patting my back when I hold her to get her to sleep. I've always patted her and she is now patting me as well.  She has actually been doing it for quite sometime now, but just recently has started doing it every time I hold her to get her ready for bed.  It's very sweet!

I got her a ride on car that also has a handle on the back that she can pull up on and walk with to encourage her walking. I got it out for her today, but it may take a little while for her to realize all that she can do with it!

So far, I think this is the best stage!  I love the fact that Kayden can interact with me and can express more of what she wants and needs.  It's not as much of a guessing game.  She loves to play roll the ball with her Daddy, which I also got a video of.  He will roll the ball to her and she just laughs and actually does very well with catching it.  Of course she is not rolling it back yet, but I'm sure that won't be too far off!

I took Kayden to the doctor last week, because her eye was draining.  Her pediatrician said that she still has the clogged tear duct, and is having me massage it several times a day, as well as rub an antibiotic ointment in it.  I am really hoping that this clears up on it's own.  Her doctor said that some babies don't outgrow the clogged tear duct and have to have surgery to open it up. We're praying that it goes away on it's own.  She is also cutting her 5th and 6th teeth, although I can't be sure of which ones exactly, because she just won't let me get my finger in there! :) Stubborn little thing!

Overall, everything is going great and Kayden is just a happy and healthy little girl.  She will be  7 1/2 months on Saturday...can you believe it?! 

Until next time....

(new videos posted to youtube. go to youtube.com and type "mommy2kayden" in the search box).