Weaning Efforts Part 2

My first attempt at cutting back on nursing Kaelyn failed miserably. But a couple of days later she got into snacking. As you can see from this picture, she also enjoys throwing her snacks around the room. Kaelyn still won't put anything in her mouth, but she'll open her mouth like a little birdie for mama to put a cheerio or veggie puff in. Last week she was having a GREAT happy day and was just in a wonderful mood. So I thought it'd be a good day to see how long she could go without nursing. We proceeded as normal in the morning and at breakfast. She nursed around 10 as normal but then ate a big lunch and didn't seem at all interested or hungry for nursing again until 2:30. She napped for an hour and a half and then ate lots of snacks when she got up. I was hoping hoping hoping she would make it till bedtime without nursing and she did! She ate a big supper and was just happy as a lark all evening. So we started that new pattern. That means she's only been eating 4 times a day instead of 5! THough she still gets up several times a night and sometimes nurses then as well.

Today was a bit of an off day, though. Kaelyn was normal and happy until about 1pm and then she just kept reaching out to me and crying and crying. So I let her nurse that extra time. I still don't know if that was the problem or not because she was still crabby after. Though nursing perked her up for a little while. Tomorrow we'll try to go back to the new schedule of 4 feedings a day and snacks and meals. If only she would eat REAL solids and not just baby food. Other than her cheerios and veggie puffs she just makes the most HORRIBLE face at any real food. She'll take one bite and then just push my hand away. I even tried to hide real bananas in her baby food bananas. I don't know HOW she knew, but she KNEW! And she did NOT appreciate the efforts! :)

Kaelyn's grandma and grandpa (Sean's parents) came to visit last weekend. Sometimes they bring their own toys to entice her to come over to them! Hey, whatever works! This time, though, they left their toys behind! And Kaelyn is SO thrilled with that! Here's a picture of her riding the princess riding/push toy. It lights up. It plays music. It does it all! I was pushing her around and around the circle in our kitche/play room SO fast the day after they left it here and she was giggling hysterically. I finally wore out and just started pushing her back and forth in one place. She giggled just as much! I was like, aw man, I could have been doing THIS the whole time? This is SO much easier!!! Figures. She hasn't giggled as hysterically since but she still greatly enjoys it. She'll push it around and around and then ride it around and around. TOo bad I have to help her push it! SHe's not the best at steering. She'll run it into a wall repeatedly and then get frustrated. So my back has seen better days but what do you do, it keeps her happy!

Kaelyn still loves flipping through books. Pulling them out of the box we have them in is fun as well. There are some lift the flap books that can entertain her for 15-20 minutes at a time! THat's a LONG time for a short attention span. But that's only if the flap-lifting has sound effects...which I have created! I'm still stumped on what sound to make for a couple of them, but for the most part, they each have a sound and every time she lifts it I make the sound. She really giggles at the sheep going baaaa. I guess I make a good sheep sound, not sure. She also likes the "heave ho!" and "oh no" sounds. Hard to describe, you'd have to see it sometime...and I don't think you will! I'm a little shy about my lift the flap sound effects, ha!

The books that are easier on me are the ones that make sounds themselves. Though Kaelyn seems to get stuck on ONE sound and push it OVER and OVER and OVER again. Good thing it's happy noise so it can't possibly be annoying, right? :)

I'm hoping we can go back to our 4 feeding schedule tomorrow and have success from here on out. If we can go a week or so with it going well then I'll probably try to experiment again and see if we can whittle things down even further. I still have in mind that I'd like her to mostly be done nursing by a year of age or so. If we go a few months after, that's okay, whatever she needs. I'm just ready to not be SO tied down. I can't go anywhere alone for more than a couple of hours. It'll be nice to have that option. Not that I intend to USE that option very regularly, but still, just knowing that I COULD would be SO freeing. I think I'll nurse some parts of nursing. THe way she plays with my hair sometimes...puts her finger in my mouth to play with my teeth, gazes up at me, cuddles into me...okay, maybe I'm NOT ready to be done nursing...oh but the freedom it will bring! I can wear a regular bra again that doesn't unclip. I can take her out to eat without wondering where I'm going to go to feed her. I don't have to keep my eye on the clock constantly when I'm away from her to rush back to her so I don't leave my mom or Sean with a hungry baby they can't feed.

It'll happen. Eventually. Like with sleeping through the night. And like with that, I just wish I knew WHEN so I could have a time frame and look forward to that. Especially with sleeping through the night! If I just had a date or general age range...then I could make it one night at a time looking ahead to that time. But I guess when Kaelyn decides to sleep, Kaelyn will sleep! What do you do! When Kaelyn wants to eat REAL food, she'll eat REAL food! Until then, all I can do is keep trying!

Weaning

Just a side note before I talk about weaning, Kaelyn thumbs everything. She doesn't bang on things with a flat hand, she thumbs EVERYTHING. Here is an example. Nice noisy chair to slap, but no, she thumbs it. It's cute and unique!

Kaelyn will be 10 months old on Wednesday. She shows no evidence of weaning herself so I thought maybe I would try a few things to help her get the idea. When she was 4 1/2 months old she started eating cereal and has since graduated to eating three meals a day with us and some little snacks between. By meals I mean baby food. As you may remember from earlier posts, Kaelyn won't put ANYTHING in her mouth by herself. But she will let me put a spoon in and sometimes bits of cheerios and other finger foods. However, anytime I try real table food...fruit, green beans, cooked carrots, bread, chicken, whatever, she'll only allow ONE bite. Then starts pushing my hand away quite insistently if I try a second time. So baby food it is for now.

Kaelyn has been nursing every 3 1/2 hours for quite some time now and sometimes she doesn't seem particularly desperate to nurse at that time so I thought maybe it was time to try to stretch it to 4 hours. AND since Kaelyn STILL won't sleep through the night and I'm taking the easy way out at this time and letting her nurse when she gets up sometimes just so she'll go back to sleep and let me go back to bed, I figure she probably isn't STARVING to nurse right when she gets up. Last night she ate at 4:15am and got up for the day around 6. Instead of nursing her AGAIN I put her in her stroller to play and showered, then we ate breakfast together. I made her cereal and apples and cherries and she ate well. She didn't seem to care about nursing really until 8:15am so things were going well. THen I hoped that she would eat lunch (solids) around noon or even 11:30 and nurse again by 1. However, at 11:15 she got real screamy and refused to try any solids so I threw the whole idea out and nursed her. After that we went back to our regular pattern.

So maybe she's not ready? Maybe she knows what she wants and it's NOT baby food pears when she knows she can have mama milk? I don't know. I'm not sure where to go next with it. Maybe wait awhile longer until she eats REAL table food a little better and fills up more. She never turns a nursing session down from being too full at this point. NEVER. I really wanted to be mostly done nursing when she turned a year old but I don't really have high hopes for that at the moment. But a lot can change in two months so who knows.

My other idea is not one I care to actually try but I may have to at some point. I might try not feeding her at night. I've done it before and she lasted pretty well till 5am. But it's hard at 3am when she's screaming and I know she'd go RIGHT back to sleep if I just let her nurse. It's hard to NOT do that when the alternative is listening to her scream for an hour or more and BOTH of us losing sleep. So I might try that soon but I haven't quite convinced myself at the 3am time of day!


Besides being a little out of sorts because of my experimentations, today was fun. My friend Andrea and her son Logan came over to play. MAJOR toy explosion. Logan finds toys around here I didn't even know we had! And then Kaelyn has a blast with them after they leave so it works well! It's so nice to see him enjoy new (to him!) toys and Kaelyn likes watching him run around. In the meantime Andrea and I can chat and the time goes SO much faster. I wish we lives in the same neighborhood so it was easy to get together even at the last minute. What do you do. We're doing our best to get together every week or so anyways.

Perhaps my next post can report that Kaelyn is sleeping through the night AND weaning herself easily from breastfeeding. And hey, while I'm at it, maybe she will be potty trained as well. I guess that probably would only be likely if I don't post again until she's, what, 2...3? But hey, a girl can dream, right?

Shoes

Since Kaelyn has been taking 3-4 steps alone lately I thought it might be a good idea to get her a pair of shoes. It's certainly not nice outside so it'll be awhile before she really needs them but I thought maybe she would need to get used to them so she could try them on a bit inside and make sure they fit etc. Here's a picture of the shoes next to Kaelyn. There's a reason for that! Aren't they cute shoes? Don't they look comfy? I guess Kaelyn didn't think so. I had trouble getting them on her in the store but they looked like the right size so I just took them. Once we were home my mom got them on her while she was in my lap. Kaelyn didn't MOVE. She wouldn't walk. She wouldn't crawl. She wouldn't blink. She just SAT there. Very unlike her. And then she burst into tears. So the shoes came off. Ever since then I just SHOW her the shoes and she cries!

I can't blame Kaelyn for wanting to run around in socks or even in bare feet. I prefer that myself. However, there are enough businesses these days that adhere to the "no shirt, no shoes no service" policy that someday, she's going to HAVE to wear shoes! Plus, riding a bike, walking around on cement, playing in the wood bark at the park, those things just scream SHOES SHOES SHOES! I guess there's no hurry but spring WILL be here eventually and then what?! I'm thinking of finding another pair that's more bendy. The ones we got are pretty stiff so maybe she just didn't like the feel of them. If we get more slipper-like things for her to get used to...maybe. Worth a try, I guess!

You may have noticed Ollie in some pictures here. He's been a little diva lately. Always wanting to be in the shot! I think it's because we were away for several days and he wants to be a part of the action. Even the baby action! He's lonely and trying to make up for lost attention time, I guess.

Speaking of being away, we went to my parents house over the weekend because Sean's brother lives near them and he wanted to help him with a project. Sean then had to go on a business trip for a few days after that so Kaelyn and I stayed. It was SUCH a good time. We went to lunch everyday (Chick-Fil-A anyone?!) we did some errands here and there, and just had PEOPLE around all the time. There's something to be said about having someone to chat with! It really works miracles for making the day go by quickly. Today we're back home and back to being alone again so I imagine the day will go slower. But so far Kaelyn has
had a good time entertaining herself with the toys we left behind.
They seem like new to her now. Hopefully that will last the whole day since it's snowing again and we won't go far. Though I do think a trip to the library is in the works....

As for shoes, I just hope Kaelyn doesn't have the shoe issues I had. My feet started growing in third grade. I mean REALLY growing. I went from cute third grade kid feet to size 10 in women's in no time flat. My parents were buying shoes all the time in bigger and bigger sizes and just hoped they'd stop before I grew into the men's section too far. Luckily size 10 is an each enough size to find in women's but I feel like one of my feet is a little bigger than the other so one shoe is always tight and the other loose. I HATE shoe shopping, it's like the worst kind of torture out there in the world. And yet when I HAVE to have shoes it's nearly impossible to find ones I like AND that are comfortable enough to wear for more than 5 minutes. I hope that wasn't Kaelyn's problem with her shoes. They LOOKED comfy! Course, that can be very deceiving in shoe-wear!

Hopefully by the spring I can convince her that shoes are awesome because I'm pretty sure she's going to want to be outside ALL the time. And without shoes her feet will look like an old woman's like mine in no time flat. AND it will limit the places we can go...the no shirt no shoes no service thing and all. Until then, be free and run barefoot little baby!!

Toy Explosion

Kaelyn and I have an issue. It happens everyday. Generally before noon. And continues until she nurses herself to sleep for the night around 8pm. I like to call it the toy explosion. I'm not sure how it happens or why it happens. I just know it happens. EVERY day. It starts out innocently enough. It's time to play. We get out a toy. All is well in the room. But as you may notice about kids, attention spans aren't all THAT long. So we get out another toy. Which gets tosses aside for a third toy. And so on and so forth until the explosion is complete. There's nowhere to crawl. There's no way to walk. There's nothing but toys toys toys. Or so it seems.

Perhaps that's why Kaelyn is sitting so close in this picture. She has no choice!! I must admit, Kaelyn has a buttload of toys. Sometimes I wonder how we play with them all three times a day and STILL get bored! But we do. Let me just explain, though, what I mean by toys. Toys can be light up fancy things that talk and make noise. Toys can be cute stuffed animals or books with flaps. Toys can also be the random jello box, a straw from a fast food place, or a junk mail magazine. Anything she's played with and enjoyed. Sometimes I dig through the box and think, well, she hasn't played with this in awhile, maybe I'll get rid of it. Kaelyn hears the way I think. She'll sneak up behind me (as best as a baby can sneak!) GRAB the toy from my hand (as best as babies can grab) and happily play with it for HOURS (which in baby time is a few minutes) therefore foiling my plan to get rid of the toy/straw/box/whatever. Oh, she's enjoying it again! I'll think. Better hang on to that!


Here's a picture of one of the bins in the family room. I don't have a picture of the actual toy explosion because I think I'd need some kind of wide angle lens or something, it's quite the sight. There is also a basket on the couch with toys and other assorted larger toys laying about that wouldn't fit in this bin. But what the picture shows is a VERY cleaned up area. Our definition of VERY cleaned up has definitely changed since Kaelyn's arrival!

So what to do about the toy explosion? Well, we have a toy box in the room. It's empty. It's too tall for Kaelyn to reach in and get toys so we pretty much use it to set toys on TOP of for her to throw off as a game. It's just easier to keep them out. I think the toy box is there in case we ever want to put the toys away. When we have a fancy dinner party or something. And since I don't really DO fancy, I'm guessing that NEED to REALLY put them away won't occur.

It's just that the room gets taken over. Soon there's nowhere to turn! I guess we could try to put the toys away after playing with them before getting a new one out, but then how do you GET to the ones on the bottom?! IT's quite the dilemma. Though if she's just sleep through the night, I don't think I'd complain about ANYTHING else! :)

YEp that's right, Kaelyn is 9 1/2 months old now and still not sleeping through the night. I thought 9 months would be magic because a couple of friends with kids said their kids just started sleeping through the night right at that mark. Not so much for Kaelyn, I guess. The pediatrician said she doesn't really NEED to eat at night anymore. I know she won't starve, that's for sure. But since she's not one to take a pacifier or ANYTHING else into her mouth, part of me still feels like she needs that sucking at night to go back to sleep. At least easily. I've tried not feeding her, only to be up an hour or an hour and a half and have a crabby baby the next day. I don't feed her if she gets up frequently or soon after going to bed, only if it's like 2 or 3am and has been awhile. Generally she'll go right back to sleep. I think teething is part of her issue at this time. Every now and then she'll get up and eat and then scream for an hour shortly after. A scream like she's in pain. Teething has been hard. That's when we just sit and rock and I listen to a movie to keep my mind off of her poor screaming!

I'm still hoping she'll learn to sleep eventually (sooner rather than later!!!) and all will be well. I don't want to have to just shut her in her room and walk away. She can REALLY cry and I don't think I'd last. SHe doesn't always know what's wrong or why she's awake, just that she needs me. So far I can't turn that away. I tried, I really did!! Oh well, I'm pretty sure by kindegarten...


In other news, Kaelyn has officially taken her first steps. She'll take 3-4 steps at a time before topping over or getting back down to crawl. She just needs more confidence and she's getting there! She has a couple of push toys that she catapults across the room behind She can really go with those! ANd she'll push just about ANY toy at this point, not even just the ones that are meant to be pushed! Her top teeth are really starting to come through too. I wish they would all just pop in overnight without any crying or pain for her. It just doesn't seem to work that way unfortunately for us all!

This evening Kaelyn has some topsy turvy issues. She's been really good at balancing but she must have had a little too much very berry banana at lunch because she's falling around more tonight. This is a picture of her falling as she lunges for the camera. She's so helpful when it comes to picture time. And supper time. And bath time. I could go on.

Someday Kaelyn will sleep. Someday Kaelyn will have all of her teeth. Someday we'll put the toys away and I'll miss the daily explosion. Now as I trip over toys and try to get up amongst the mess I pretend to mind but really, when the toys are scattered it just means Kaelyn has had a good time and in my book, that's all that matters.

Valentine's Day

Kaelyn's first Valentine's Day! Not that she knows or care, really, I guess. But she certainly has enough love in her life to go around!

Monday we went to the Mops Valentine's Day party. We were to bring a treat to share, a decorated box, and Valentine's to distribute. Kaelyn had been playing with an empty kleenex box for over a week so I figured that would make a great box for her valentine's! I put her name on it and called it good. There were some fancy boxes there, but I figure next year Kaelyn can decorate one. This year the kleenex box worked just fine.

She got up early on Monday which worked well. We went for a drive before the party and she took a snooze so she was nice and fresh for the big event. We arrived a little late because she nursed in the car when we got there. All we missed was games, though, and that worked fine because Kaelyn isn't old enough to play much anyways! The party was at the library so there was story time. Kaelyn didn't pay much attention to the story, she was busy playing with my name tag, but at least she didn't fight with the other kids or talk real loud like some of them! I'm sure there was SOME kids paying attention, but it didn't really sound like it! :)

After that kids colored and I let Kaelyn throw some valentine's and crayons off a chair. She was thrilled. After that it was Valentine distribution time and snack time. Kaelyn was a big help in the valentine part, as you can imagine. She just kept wanting to throw her valentine's on the floor instead of putting them in the boxes. I got a plate of food for me, but she had more fun with it than I did. I did let her try little bites of cheese and she actually seemed to enjoy that. But I got a cookie for me and she enjoyed that too. No, she didn't eat it, just held it, crumbled it, and threw it on the floor.

I was worried since there was going to be around 24 kids there, that Kaelyn wouldn't like the commotion, but she enjoyed herself immensely. After the eating etc I just let her crawl around and push a chair across the room, bang on the table, slap the metal chair, watch the kids. She did great. I think I even made a new friend while we were there. When I was on the floor with Kaelyn a little girl I'd never seen before plopped herself in my lap. I'm not sure if she liked me...Kaelyn...or Kaelyn's valentine box which she kept digging through.

Kaelyn got tired of the partying after an hour and a half so we headed home for lunch and had fun the rest of the day. Another highlight of the day was mail time! There was a nice big box in the mail from my good college friend Stana with Valentine's presents for Kaelyn.

These pictures are her reactions to those presents. Typical kid, she wasn't so into the clothes, but she loved the teddy bear, has been flipping through the book, and enjoys throwing the letters everywhere. I need to hang the letters on the fridge because they're a major choking hazard. Kaelyn doesn't really put things in her mouth, but you never know. And a magnet is about the worst thing you can swallow. But I've let her play with them for alittle while and keep a close eye on it. She loves dumping them all out and making a nice big mess!

Sean's parents were also up over the weekend and Kaelyn played nicely with them. They brought her a valentine's day bib which I can't seem to actually USE because it's so cute and so clean! And they gave her a couple of books too. She's strange about books, she has to warm up to them. She wasn't impressed with the books THAT day, but ever since then we flip through them dozens of times a day and she just loves them. Especially the little puppy one. I hear my parents have a Valentine's present for Kaelyn too that she will get THIS weekend. My goodness, not even a huge present-giving holiday and she's getting showered with love! :)

On another note, Kaelyn is getting more and more mobile. She'll crawl off the carpeted areas now onto linoleum and turn around and look back at me like look where I am! Yes, she even bangs the cupboards. So far she hasn't discovered there are fun things INSIDE cupboards, but she will soon enough I'm sure! She likes to walk when holding on to something like a hand or a table-sized toy. She'll push things all the way across the room and back again. Yesterday on several occasions she even took 2-3 steps alone before she realized what she was doing and plopped to the ground to crawl again. She's on her way to full mobility, I'm afraid! My little girl is growing up!

We had a fun day today. This morning we went to my friend Andrea's house. She has a son just a little over a year older than Kaelyn. I'm sure Andrea and I enjoy getting together more than the kids do at this point, but they like it too. They can get into each others toys and have something new to play with for awhile. Kaelyn got up at the PERFECT time this morning, around 6:20. I knew she'd be ready for a nap JUST in time for our drive to Andrea's house. Therefore, she fell back asleep nursing and slept another HOUR. Figures. So she didn't nap at all on the drive. She was still fun at their house for an hour and a half or so before she got screamy from being tired. I distracted her as long as I could because I didn't want to leave, but I had to hit the road before 11 to get Kaelyn a car nap. At least we got to play and chat for a little while! Those that aren't stay at home parents may not understand how much even just a LITTLE time with someone else helps the day flow better! It makes time go SO much faster so I'm really glad Andrea and I have these play dates. Even if they ARE really more for us than the kids! :)

Valentine's Day has never really been THAT big of a day to me. I've always felt like it's more of a holiday invented by card makers etc then anything. But it's a good chance to make sure people you love know it as well. Not necessarily with cards and flowers and all that jazz. Even just the simple words or a nice gesture is enough. I hope Kaelyn knows I love her! I tell her plenty. Sometimes she giggles. Sometimes she pushes me away. And sometimes she puts her head on my shoulder for a snuggle. Someday she'll be big enough to understand what I mean when I tell her I love her. Until then, I'll keep saying it and waiting for the day she can say it back. But it doesn't matter what she says, she's stuck with my love! Valentine's Day or not!

Top Teeth

Teething is the worst. Very traumatic. Kaelyn has had a little cold since the weekend. It's Tuesday now. It's a very minor cold. Just extra sneezing and a droobly nose. But part of me now wonders if it might be partly due to teething. She had a slight temperature on and off over the weekend as well. This morning, after her bath, I laid her down on her towel and wrapped her up and SWORE I spied two little nubs of top teeth! I spotted them again later and was sure, yep, her top teeth broke through. Perhaps that's what happened last night. She was SO crabby all evening long and then was up on and off for an hour and a half. She had FINALLY been doing better at night, only getting up ONCE a night instead of 2-9 times! And then last night she was up twice but once was for an hour and a half. Ugh. I blame the teeth and hope for the best today.

This picture is of Kaelyn and her Violet dog. She loves that dog. She's figured out that she can press its hands or feet and make it make noise. However, her favorite paw to push is the on/off paw. So I'll start a song and she'll turn it off. I'll start a song, she'll turn it off, etc!

We had a fun day, for the most part. Since Kaelyn was up for an hour and a half in the middle of the night she decided to sleep in until 6:45am. That was wonderful! She had been sleeping pretty well lately, getting up only once, but then getting up for the day at like 5:30am. Not appreciated by me! Especially since she gets crabby an hour or so later from getting up too early. But refuses to go back to sleep at 5:30 when she wants to get up. The dilemma. Anyways, I was optimistic about the say since she got up so late. I had a master plan. We'd play for awhile after getting ready, I'd let her eat at 10 and then we'd hit the road. We had lunch plans across town. Just far enough away that she could nap in the car on the way.

Why is it that everytime I make a plan, Kaelyn has a different plan?! :) She got cranky at 9 and started acting tired so I took her back to her room for a nap. She slept for about 40 minutes and then nursed. We played for awhile longer before hitting the road. It was a 35 minute drive and Kaelyn had JUST napped but she was happy on the drive and just sat and looked out the window. I was relieved because longer drives don't always go well if she's not asleep. We got to Culver's and met my co-worker for lunch. Kaelyn loves Culver's. She ate sweet potatoes, but the whole atmosphere of the place puts her in a good mood. She's just cute as a big, smiling, happily screaming, poking the guy in the booth behind us (sorry sir!) Let me just say, on a side note, that everyone at Culver's is hugely friendly. I love that place not only because the kids meal (which I eat myself!) is awesome and comes with custard, but the staff is always SO friendly. They act like they know you and make you feel so welcome. Great customer service.

It was fun chatting with my co-worker and getting caught up on her life and that of her four girls. Whew, four girls! I have just one and I'm worn out! Since we were far from home and it wasn't remotely time for Kaelyn's second nap we went to the grocery store. Kaelyn didn't appreciate the short drive, but it was a short drive so I lived! :) And so did she! I got her out of her car seat and plopped her in the cart. She enjoyed rolling around the store, stealing my coupons and list and crumpling them repeatedly. There really was a helpful smile in every aisle at that Hy-vee. We were constantly smiled at, greeted, asked if we needed help finding anything (which we did since it wasn't our normal store). Perhaps it was because Kaelyn is so cute or maybe the staff is just friendly and helpful! :)

After that it still wasn't naptime so we hit the 1/2 price bookstore. Kaelyn again didn't appreciate the short drive, but what do you do! I brought a few books I had I wanted to sell so we took those in and received $4 to spend! We could have just gotten cash but what fun would that be. We headed right for the kids' section and plopped down right in the middle of the aisle. There was no one else around that area so we had it to ourselves. We did some serious damage. We pulled books down, opened them, read them, lifted the flaps, played the songs. I think we looked at half the books. Okay, so I looked at half the books. Kaelyn looked at maybe 5 and by the time we got to an Elmo book with sounds, she was hooked and refused to look at anything else. So needless to say, we ended up with that book! And a Little Miss Helpful book as well.

It was finally nearing naptime so I felt a longer drive would be all right. Kaelyn actually stayed awake halfway home. She finally fell asleep with her head on her knee, looking VERY uncomfortable, but whatever works! Since she fell asleep so late I continued to drive. I thought when I had a baby and stayed home more I would drive less, but I seem to drive MORE somedays just to keep her asleep. It would be nice if I could get her inside still sleeping. Or even stop the car and keep her asleep. But the minute that engine goes off, bam, open are those little eyes! When we got home we unloaded the groceries and got the mail, all that fun stuff. Then it was time to play.

Kaelyn has a bunch of little stuffed animals, hand sized cute little things, that we keep on the footstool so she can throw them off repeatedly. I took one of those animals and threw it straight up in the air, Wheee! I said. Kaelyn absolutely ERUPTED in laughter. Big, huge, belly laughs. So I did it again. And again. And again. She was laughing so hard I thought she might wet herself...oh wait... ;) She was having such a good time I actually called Sean just so he could hear her. I wanted to badly to get the video camera but I knew if I left the room she'd just try to crawl after me and the moment would have passed so I just enjoyed it.

The day wasn't ALL good, though. Between fun times she had moments of screaming for no particular reason. I blame the teeth. I'm not sure what else it could be. But the good times outweighed the bad, for sure. After super I picked up a chain of rings and dropped them on her tray and got more belly laughts. Sean got a little of that on video, so that's good. We had a lot to do today. I fear tomorrow because we have NO plans. I'll have to come up with something or we'll BOTH be bored stiff!

I hope the rest of the teeth just sneak up on her and appear overnight. I hate that they traumatize her. She doesn't put anything in her mouth but her fingers and the occasional sippy cup so it's hard to get her to chew on anything to help the pain any. Poor thing. I guess that's what being a baby is all about!