Getting a baby to sleep alone

I have yet to figure out how to get Kaelyn to sleep by herself. As in, how to get her to go to sleep when she's alone. When she was first born she would fall asleep whenever and we would just hold her. She was so little, who wanted to put her down! Then I realized I would be much more comfortable sleeping if I put her down somewhere. And I was DESPERATE for sleep, being up much of the night and all. But I fast discovered that Kaelyn would not STAY asleep if I put her down, the little rascal! After many attempts in many different ways, I resigned myself to just holding her. If she slept, she was in a better mood. I found various ways to get comfortable myself. She would fall asleep, I would ease into the rocking chair and lean back. I had several pillows nearby in strategic locations that I could reach to prop my arms and/or head on so I could get some sleep as well. It worked for us.

After many months of this I came to the realization that I could NOT hold her for every nap anymore. I had NO opportunity to do anything on my own. I was just getting tired of sitting around all the time while she slept. It took some time but I perfected bouncing her to sleep and dumping her in her bed. I would then often have to pat her for long periods of time. From there we moved to rocking to sleep, then dumping her in bed.

And that's where we remain. This is for nap times. She also naps in the car pretty well or in the stroller when we go to the zoo. But when we're at home, it takes plenty of rocking, a carefully crafted dump into the bed, and a soft footed sneak out the door.

At bedtime Kaelyn still nurses herself to sleep but this, too, will soon enough come to an end.

However, I am now tiring of the constant rocking. I certainly don't mind holding Kaelyn and watching her drift to sleep. Sometimes it's only a matter of 5-10 minutes. Other times it's a matter of 40 minutes and when I dump her in bed she wakes right back up and we have to start all over again. I'm just getting plain frustrated with it. And I'm starting to wonder, if I keep rocking her to sleep, how will she EVER learn to go to sleep on her own? And why should she? What kid wouldn't be happier with a cozy rocking session?!

Ah yes, she has me well trained.

In anticipation of stopping the night time nursing session maybe in a few months I'm thinking I might want to try something different at naptime and see how it goes. What? I'm not exactly sure. Perhaps take her to her room, read her a few books, rock for just a couple of minutes to relax, put her in her bed and go.

Now, I've tried just putting her in her crib. She thinks that's fun. She gets all wide-eyed and coos and rolls right over and sits up. If I leave her there, she cries. When I THINK she's asleep after a rocking session and ease her into bed and she wakes up, she immediately starts poking the side of the crib and having a great time like she's slept for an hour instead of two seconds. I really think she needs to learn how to go to sleep on her own. And she needs to know that she's okay alone and that I'll ALWAYS come back. She has some severe separation anxiety issues.

So be thinking of me in the next week or so as I experiment. A friend of mine said I probably just need to let Kaelyn know who's boss. Don't let her train/control me. When it's nap time it's naptime and that's that. That makes perfect sense. But that is also SO much easier said then done. When she cries my heart breaks and I just want to FIX it. So we'll see how far I get with the idea. But at this point, I really feel like I need to try something different. There aren't always rockers available when we're away from home...like the in-laws house...when we go camping...if we ever stay at a hotel. I'd be up a creek without my rocker at this point and really need to find myself a paddle so we have other options. Guess we'll see how it works out!

Not sure what I could have done differently to prevent it. I think if I had just laid Kaelyn down when she was little...but then I think about how tired I was and the only way I could keep her asleep was to hold her and just sit. That was the only way I myself was getting sleep as well. It's easy to think about what I SHOULD have done when I'm more well rested now. But actually having DONE it on NO sleep...not so simple!

I guess we'll just see how it goes. I hope it's not a totally miserable experience. I keep reminding myself she won't remember this stage when she's older....but I always will!!!

One year check up

Kaelyn saw the pediatrician this morning, oh joy! She weighs 21lbs 10oz which is in the 50th percentile. She is 29 1/2' tall which is in the 60th percentile. I don't remember how big her head is but it was in the 90th percentile. So she must be smart! :)

The office labeled her "the screamer" because she started screaming big time when anyone barely looked at her much less messed with her! How dare they come near and take her blood pressure or look in her ears? So you can imagine how well it went over when they had to hold her down for shots. That was bad enough but when the actual needles went in, oh my goodness, a whole new decibel of screaming that I never knew existed. The poor thing. But now there are several diseases she will never get so it's all for the best. It sure is hard to watch, though!

Kaelyn recovered well, though, and has been in a good mood the rest of the day (so far!) This is the picture Sean took on her birthday that we're using as her one year picture. Of course he cropped it nicely so it looked better, but you get the idea.

I also asked the doctor about the fact that Kaelyn won't eat any REAL food other than baby food, really, and she just said to keep trying. That's what I figured. She said at some point just stop buying baby food and she'll eat what she gets. Easier said than done. We'll see if she picks up the idea pretty soon on her own before we get too drastic!

We "get" to go back for more shots at 15 months. So with any luck (no offense to the pediatrician!) we won't have to see them again till then!

Kaelyn is one!

Today is Kaelyn’s very first birthday. I can’t believe she’s a whole year old already. She started the day off right by sleeping through the night. I think that is the fourth time that has happened in a year. Great, huh! Something like that. I can’t complain. ANY time it happens, I’ll take it! She got up at 6am and I let her nurse for as long as she wanted. She was still sleepy so she laid on the boppy for awhile and just relaxed. Then we got up and I made some toast for myself and prepared a nice warm bath for her. Bathtime is one of her favorite times of the day so she had fun playing and splashing, as usual. It was an extra long bath just because it was her birthday.

Sean and I got ready and we gave her a present my mom left for her, a cool piggy bank to keep her change in! It’s blue and has her name on the side. She’ll love it. And there was a hole in the bottom so she already loved it!

Then we took off for the zoo. We were one of the first through the gates so we breezed through the jungle and the aquarium before they got too busy. Then we walked up by the elephants because it’s quiet up there and Kaelyn got a good nap in. We swung by the sea lions and then headed for the bears. Kaelyn got out to walk there and enjoyed that quite a bit. We went through the gorilla area and had a picnic. Then through the desert and Kaelyn walked all the way to the butterfly exhibit, a long way!! She was having a great time in there looking at the waterfalls. We visited the zebras and headed home.

Once we got home Sean ran his remote control car all around the yard and Kaelyn was having so much fun with that I brought her afternoon yogurt snack outside to eat. Then she did some swinging and napping and then a couple of small presents for us...The little miss and mr birthday books, a plastic jar of foam animals to empty, and a light up music toy for the car. Along with a birthday card that sings, she loves those. Then we went back outside to play with bubbles and roll the golf ball around on the sidewalk. She was getting a kick out of running from me and I would chase her, catch her, and swing her into the air. And, watching cars, of course!

We grilled steaks for supper and Kaelyn ate a whole container of carrots and a whole container of chicken and apples. And lots of zuchinni bread and a few bites of cupcake too. She's stuffed, I'm sure! We played inside after that since it was getting cold and rainy looking.

I think Kaelyn enjoyed her birthday. She got to do pretty much anything she wanted and seemed to like it all. She was the center of attention but not overwhelmed with lots of people. I asked her if she wanted to have another birthday next year and I think she would prefer to have one next WEEK. It was a great day, I wish we could have this much fun EVERY day! That would be way too cool. But good days and bad, we made it through a whole year together! I can't believe we will no longer be saying she's 11 months or 10 months. No, she's over a WHOLE year old now!!!

Happy birthday Kaelyn!!

Happy Birthday Kaelyn

Tomorrow at 12:01am Kaelyn will be one year old. Wow! She's no longer a baby. She's a big girl now! Sometimes I wonder what the last year would have been like had Kaelyn not come along. I would have worked. Read books. Watched movies. Slept through the night. All of the things that seem so normal. But I wouldn't have gotten any of the sweet smiles. None of the cuddles. No babbling sounds. I'll take the frustrations of being a mom just for the good moments.

I still can't say I ever really want to be pregnant again or go through all of the baby stages. I reserve the right to change my mind later. Part of me thinks Kaelyn should have a sibling but the other part wants to just put all of my time and energy into her and not worry about sharing it with another baby. Though knowing what I know now, if I had to do it all over again, I'd for sure have Kaelyn again. Late nights, early mornings, restless sleeping and all.

Everyone said a mother's love is like no other. Kaelyn can frustrate me to my wits end and then when she falls asleep in my arms the whole world melts away. The worst sound in the world is her cry. I just want to fix whatever is wrong and make her my happy girl again. The best sound in the world is her happy babbling and cute giggle. The best sight is her joy when she sees me after a nap.

Kaelyn, I hope no matter what the future brings for you, you know without a doubt your mama loves you! No matter what you do or who you become, that will never ever change. We made it through this first year together. You've taught me a lot about being a mom. It seems you survived okay even though I never claimed to know what I was doing! I hope in the years to come I can teach you a few things too and together we'll take the future by storm! I want you to be my best friend but you are now, and always will be, my baby. Happy Birthday

Update

Kaelyn is a little book worm! Course she turns the pages so fast I don't usually get to READ it to her. But I'm so glad she enjoys pictures. I hope her interest in books continues when she actually can read. And that someday she'll turn the pages slow enough for ME to read it to her!!

The Hawaiian shirt she's wearing in this picture is from Sean's great grandma. She brought it back from HAwaii last summer. It's an 18 month size so we wanted her to wear it for her birthday celebration since Great grandma would be there.

Okay, so when does the whole separation anxiety thing end? I know I'm probably always going to be Kaelyn's source of comfort and the one she feels most comfortable with, but when will she stop yelling at anyone and everyone else? Family, non family, people that get too close, attempt to touch her, talk to her. Come ON girl!! She's almost a year old now and you'd think she'd realize by now that I'm NOT going anywhere. I don't leave her with people other than my husband or my mom. No one ever hurts her by talking to her or playing with her. I'm just starting to wonder when she'll catch on to that! I suppose one of these days EVERYONE will be a friend and it'll be hard to KEEP her from talking to strangers! Which, as long as I'm around, that will be okay I guess. It just gets old when we have people around when she yells at everyone for just trying to be nice to her! She cowers to me like they're terrifying. They brought her presents this last time, even!! :)

I'm anxious for Kaelyn's pediatrician appointment one week from today. I need to write up a list of questions. I probably need to start giving Kaelyn whole milk. I hope she enjoys it and doesn't resist it like she does pretty much all OTHER food. I don't feel like I can completely stop nursing her until she's getting a balanced diet outside of that. Or at least until she starts getting the milk thing down. Then maybe the rest will fall into place. If she gets hungry enough, hopefully she'll eat real food? Maybe?

She's had a cold in her eyes the last few days. At least that's what I think and hope it is. They're kind of bloodshot and she rubs them like crazy and they get real watery. She doesn't have any other cold symptoms so that's good. She wasn't sleeping real well up until two nights ago when she slept through the night for the third time, yeah! And last night she slept from bedtime till 5:30, then had a nursing snack and went back to bed. So things are looking up in that area again, thank goodness. I'm starting to wonder how I will get her back to sleep at that time of morning, though, when she is no longer nursing. I'm hoping she'll just stop getting up but will I be so lucky? I kinda doubt it. Guess we'll find out soon enough!

This weekend we'd hoped to go to the zoo to celebrate Kaelyn's ACTUAL birthday SAturday, but rain is predicted so we need to think of indoor backups. So far we're drawing a blank. Until then, she's still UNDER one and still my baby! Though I imagine she'll always be my baby no matter WHAT her age!

Second First Birthday Party

Kaelyn's Second first birthday party was today with Sean's family. She had a rough night overnight that involved an hour long scream session and sleeping in the rocker with daddy for awhile. She's been rubbing her eyes a lot and they're pretty bloodshot so I'm thinking she's getting a little cold in her eyes or something. Anyways, due to that long night she slept late this morning which meant she only got a 15 minute nap on the way to church. That's not a long nap! She was good through lunch and then the guests arrived and the screaming began again. She was happy in her swing a few times and enjoyed watching the boys race their remote control cars but she was definitely out of sorts. Her uncle Joe and aunt Dacia and cousin Nevaeh along with Uncle Jason, his new girlfriend, and grandma and grandpa and great grandma were all here. We all milled around and watched the car races, visited outside, Kaelyn did some swinging, Nevaeh did some chalk drawings on the driveway, that sort of thing, most of the afternoon.

Kaelyn napped started at 2:45 and she was TIRED! I felt a little trapped in her room. I closed the door when I took her in and there was so much door opening and closing downstairs and so many voices and noise I turned her music on LOUD to drown it out and then I was afraid to open the door to leave when she went to sleep. Plus I wanted to stay close by in case she woke to get her BACK to sleep because she REALLY needed that nap. I finally left her room around 4 because I didn't mind if she woke up at that point. She was STILL asleep by 4:30 so I kind of woke her because it was getting too late for her to go to bed on time if she slept much longer. We came back downstairs and she was greeted with PRESENTS! Joe and Dacia gave her a musical phone toy, a swimsuit and grass skirt, and a Hawaiian looking dress. Jason gave her a 4 wheel riding toy!! Her uncle James lives in Atlanta and didn't make the party but he sent a couple of books, including a lady bug book that she would NOT stop looking at. I wasn't sure she wanted to see anymore presents after she got that! She also had some clothes and books from Sean's aunt Myra and Uncle Brendel and clothes from his uncle Tom and Aunt Denise. Great grandma brought her a cute one piece short outfit and a birthday beanie baby. And grandma and grandpa had several cute outfits including a hot pink skirt set that Kaelyn carried around EVERYWHERE with her when we went shopping at Kohl's awhile back. They also brought her a push bubble popper and a holey ball.

After the presents we grilled burgers and out came the
cupcakes! Kaelyn didn't put any in her mouth, again, but didn't mind the three bites I gave her. And as you can see she had a great time with the whole thing! Smooshing it around was quite the process. It started with one finger poking it and ended with her gazing into the distance, worn out, I guess! Her sleeves were so messy I completely changed her when she was done.

Once that chore was complete everyone had had enough fun, I guess so we played around a bit here and there and they left. We had quite a mess of tissue paper and boxes to clean up, but that's to be expected! I wish Kaelyn had felt a little better today and been a little less screamy but at least she seemed to enjoy the presents, meal, and cake part. The rest of the day was pretty rough. I always hate it when she's like that when other people are around because I feel like they probably think she's ALWAYS like that and she's just not! Sure she has her moments, but she's a real sweet kid most of the time! Other people don't always get to see that and I wish they could!!

Kaelyn went to bed a little early, all that partying wore her out! We'll see what the night brings, if she STAYS worn out! :) Two parties in two weekends!! Whew! Next weekend is her ACTUAL birthday. Not sure WHAT Sean and I will do, a trip to the zoo may be in store if the weather is okay. I'm hoping I won't be up at 12:01am on her actual birthday to commemorate the event. We'll just celebrate the next day, Kaelyn, thank you very much! :)

Clapping and Dancing

Kaelyn has started clapping along to things and dancing quite a bit as well. We had American Idol on the other night and she just danced and danced. Sean liked that, of course, because they were singing Elvis songs! Sorry, Sean, she'll dance to about anything! She danced away to KGBI on the radio the other day. And she danced to the song her new little musical teapot sings. She's an equal opportunity dancer.

The clapping is cute too. She started clapping from playing a lot of patty cake with my mom. But now she claps for other things too. When we were at my parents house last weekend we went to their church and they had a children's program for most of the service. At the end everyone applauded...including Kaelyn! I feel mighty special today, too, because she nursed first thing this morning and then clapped. I must have made some tasty milk.

On those cute notes, sleeping hasn't been going so well lately. Kaelyn has slept through the night twice in her almost one year. For quite some time she was going to bed around 8:30 and nursing at 5:30am and then sleeping till 7am. That has completely stopped. Now if I'm lucky enough for her to sleep till 5:30 it's REALLY hard to get her back to sleep. Or at least back to sleep in her own bed. This week she just got up for the day twice at that time. A couple of times I took her back to bed with me and with lots of urging she slept on. Once she got up at 4am and partied for an hour and a half. She wasn't even tired, it seemed! And once she would NOT sleep alone from 1:30am on so she had to sleep with me. That night she would NOT stop moving, the only way I could keep her from moving long enough to fall back asleep was to hold her tightly against me. I was exhausted the next day because I didn't get much sleep, but thankfully, Kaelyn was in a decent mood so at least we weren't BOTH grumpy! Just when I was getting used to having my blissful mornings alone to run and get a massage and read and write, of course, things had to change.

I would love to find a way to get Kaelyn to go to sleep by herself. I still have to rock her to sleep for her naps and then dump her in her bed. It's an artform, really. If I try just putting her in her bed she either screams bloody murder or laughs and giggles and plays like it's a great time! Not sure how to transition here...

And I'm not sure how to get her to eat food other than baby stuff. She likes zuchinni bread, gram crackers, and veggie puffs. That's it for "real food." Everything else she just pushes away. She's going to need something other than baby food at some point! But most of the time she won't every TRY anything much less eat more than one bite if she DOES.

Sometimes Kaelyn babbles endlessly. That's pretty cute. She's quite the little storyteller! And now she has stories to tell. We went to the church garage sale yesterday and she picked out a 300 page chapter book. No pictures! She flipped through that thing ALL the way home. I had no idea she was so advanced! And here I keep getting her board books from the library! We'll have to go to the big people section next time!

Tomorrow is Kaelyn's second first birthday party with my husband's family. They're coming to our house. Probably from 6-9 people total. We made chocolate and funfetti white cupcakes this morning so all we have to do is ice them and we're set. We'll have hamburgers on the grill so we have some hamburger patting to do too. We have a LOT of cleaning up to do today, there's stuff EVERYWHERE! Don't want people to have to kick their way in! :) Hopefully the party goes as well as last weekend's. That one was fun and Kaelyn was good and all was well with the world!

Hey, if the party is REALLY good maybe she'll even clap and dance for us! :)

Bad mom

Am I a bad mom? The other day Kaelyn was walking kind of funny and I realized I put her shoes on the wrong feet!

And I really tortured her yesterday by getting out the nail clippers! Some girls like manicures! I'm not one and apparently neither is Kaelyn. She screams and screams like I'm trying to kill her or something. My goodness it's brutal! I have to pretty much hold her down tight to clip them. It's quite a struggle until she realizes I'm not giving up and calms enough to let me get them cut. She still screams but at least hold alittle more still. I did the cutting on the front porch so hopefully the neighbors weren't home to hear cause it was quite an ordeal! :)

Oh, and sometimes I wipe Kaelyn's face too. You know, when she gets baby food on her hand and then wipes it across her nose, into her hear, wherever. You'd think a warm wet washcloth was sandpaper or something! Kids just don't like having their faces wiped. At least not my kid!!

And sometimes I don't let her have things. Like the lighter I use to light the grill. Or scissors. Steak knives. Things like that. She doesn't like it when I won't give her things! She's SO neglected! :)

And I even make her nap too. Take breaks from planning for sleep, can you imagine? Mother's day is coming up, I might be going for a bad mom award! :)

Baby Fears

It seems Kaelyn has gotten over her fear of shoes. Or should I say her hatred of shoes. Not only did she let me try a bunch on her over the weekend but she LIKED a pair and took off running. And in her spare time, this is what she does with mine! You can see several shoes laying around her. She picks them up wherever they are (slippers and sandals also aren't safe!) and carries them around. Sometimes, she gets a little frustrated with the heavy ones!

Yesterday Kaelyn and I went to the zoo (can you believe it?!) with our friend Andrea and her son Logan. Andrea commented that Kaelyn seems to be recognizing them more. I think she's right...she even grabbed for their picture on the fridge the other day! We lasted at the zoo for almost 4 hours! We had a picnic lunch and even saw the big gorilla chase a little monkey. A good time was had by all.

Kaelyn's new game yesterday was toss the golf ball. We were sitting on the front porch step and I would bounce a golf ball on the porch, down the step, and it would bounce onto the sidewalk by the driveway and into the grass. I would then go pick up the ball and when I turned around to face Kaelyn again, who stayed seated on the bottom step, she would get SO excited and squeal and giggle. I have no idea why making me chase a ball was so funny, but it seemed to delight her so we played that game several times for as long as she wanted! As if I didn't get enough exercise at the zoo, huh!

Kaelyn seems to be afraid of strange things. Like shoes. At least that one seems to be in the past. She also seems REALLY afraid of my brother-in-law. He's my sister's husband and the nicest guy. He has two kids of his own and loves kids. There's nothing scary looking or intimidating about him. But every time Kaelyn sees him she just cries and cries. Last time she saw him she didn't immediately cry, but didn't like it if he got too close. Once he even tried playing peek a boo with her around the couch and that didn't go over well! He and Sean and I were sitting in the basement at one point. Sean was on one side of the room with Kaelyn in his lap. My brother in law was in the middle and I was on the far side of the room. Kaelyn just kept looking from me to my brother in law and crying and crying. She would half get up from Sean's lap and then look at my brother in law, plop back down and cry. She wanted to come to me but she didn't want to walk by him, can you believe that?! What's the deal?! I have no idea why she's like that with him of all people. She yells at people often if they get too close and she doesn't know them. But he wasn't near her and wasn't touching her or even LOOKING at her! I guess she didn't want to take any chances. I got the hint and went to her and then she was fine. But she did keep an eye on my brother in law. When she gets older and thinks he's the neatest guy ever we'll remind her of this!!

Kaelyn also seems to be afraid in new places. Or maybe she's just shy. I tried to set her down at the zoo on occasion and every now and then she'd walk a little, but mostly she'd either cling to my leg or raise her hands for me to pick her back up. I think it was being in a different place and/or the people around she didn't know. At least she was mostly happy in her stroller and always happy when I carried her. Like I said, I was worn out from the trip! She would have been more so had SHE had to carry ME around! :)

Last night's sleeping seemed to be a bit more "normal" for Kaelyn. She slept till 5, nursed, then went back to sleep. I heard her thumping around starting at 4:30am so I've been awake since then. But at least it wasn't like the night before. She got up at 4 and just did NOT want to go back to sleep. Sean went in and she was just partying, I could hear over the monitor. I thought maybe if I let her eat she'd get sleepy. No such luck. When she finally DID go back to sleep, I attempted to dump her back in her bed FOUR times and she would just jolt awake and start the party all over again. I finally took her back to bed with me over after an hour of this and she slept till 6:45 on my arm. I was uncomfortable, but at least I could rest a little while longer! I was getting used to her waking me up around 5 and I would stay up and run and get a massage and read and write or whatever! That was my only time all day for such things. Then, two days in a row, I didn't get that time! I missed it! I'm glad today went back to the old pattern.

Over the weekend my dad decided it would be fun to play Happy Birthday on his tonette (a recorder-like instrument) to Kaelyn. He practiced and practiced that and other songs. It's a sad little instrument and the notes just don't come out quite right. Kaelyn, however, encouraged his playing by bouncing along or at least looking pleasant like she was enjoying it. I fear that as her birthday approaches in a week and a half, she will receive a phone call with that music! I can only hope we aren't home, ha! :)

Who knows what babies fear and why, exactly. It'll be nice when she's old enough to tell me. I can only hope I can find the right words to explain to her why something shouldn't be scary. Like my brother in law...or shoes!

Cars and Teeth and Shoes

For some reason lately Kaelyn won't let me brush her teeth! She used to think it was kind of fun but now she just pushes the toothbrush away. She even clenches her lips shut as tight as she can to prevent me from getting in there. Hope she doesn't get cavities! AT this point it's probably more for practice than anything, but we're not getting any practice in now are we!

Kaelyn's new favorite game...watch the cars!! Picture this, I'm sitting on the porch step, Kaelyn is playing on the sidewalk that connects the porch to the driveway. A car approaches...we both hear it, Kaelyn looks up to see it, then turns and RUNS back to my arms with the HUGEST grin. She jumps into my lap and just bounces as HARD as she can squealing as it passes. If I'm fast enough and feel up to it, I grab her and we run to the end of the driveway. She about bounces out of my arms when they go by. I sometimes wonder if people think I'm nuts when they see me running for the end of the driveway with a baby, pointing and squealing and bouncing (both of us!) But when I see her delighted reaction I don't care!

You can see in this picture Kaelyn's new shoes. I call them her technicolor dream shoes because they remind me of Joseph's technicolor dream coat or something. They're mostly blue but have pretty much every other color in them as well. My mom and I got them at Scheel's over the weekend. It was the strangest thing. Kaelyn has never appreciated shoes. She yells at them on sight, much less trying to put them ON her. Friday, though, she just sat in her stroller and I tried several pairs on her! I couldn't BELIEVE she let me do that. Most of them she immediately tried to yank off. These she didn't ! They were SO easy to get on too. Since she didn't try to take them off I got her out of the stroller and stood her up. With a new pair of shoes this is normally where she collapses like she's going to DIE if I don't take them OFF. But with these she just took off running around! It was great! She loves them and even seems to walk a little better in them at times. Way cool!

So Kaelyn is her daddy's daughter, she LOVES cars! She's my daughter too she HATES shoes. But both Sean and I brush our teeth so who knows where she gets that! :)

First first birthday party

This weekend was Kaelyn's FIRST first birthday part at my parents house over in Iowa. She had a little bit of a rough day, really. We went to my niece's soccer game in the morning and Kaelyn had a great morning and a nice long nap before that. But she just wasn't herself at the game. She wouldn't eat much of the lunch I brought for her (sweet potatoes as always), she wouldn't let me set her down to run around, she wouldn't let me sit down, she just wasn't a happy camper. Once we got back to my parents house that "fun" continued. I don't know what her deal was but she wasn't happy at all. She just cried and cried and was real cuddly with me. Again she wouldn't let me put her down, she wouldn't do ANYTHING. She wouldn't eat her 2pm snack so I let her nurse. That made her happy for the time being. And after her nap she was back to her old self again.

Luckily the party wasn't until late afternoon! AFTER the nap that seemed to cure Kaelyn of her weird mood. Maybe teeth? Who knows! Anyways, Sean and my dad went golfing after the soccer party and got home by 3:30 and my sister and her husband and kids arrived just after Kaelyn got up from her nap after 4 so that worked out well. My dad paid my niece and nephew a nickel a pine cone to pick up the hundreds of pine cones in the yard. He was out quite a bit of money! We played outside awhile then Kaelyn opened her presents on the covered porch.

My sister and family got Kaelyn a turtle sand box! I can only imagine the fun (and the mess!) she will have in that once we get sand for it! MY niece and nephew also made very sparkly cards with lots of holes punched in them for Kaelyn to put her finger in! :) And my niece made her a pixo bee. Which she carried around and played with for MUCH of the weekend. IT's already been repaired three times due to the love it has received!

My parents gave Kaelyn a white rocking chair to match the two we have on our front porch. She sits in it at times, but prefers to rock it at this point! They also gave her a blow up pool (again, imagine the fun we will have in that once it warms up for good!) a swimsuit and cover up, some clothes, a Hawkeye cheerleading outfit (which Sean plans to have her wear while holding a GO NEBRASKA sign!), an Elmo potty training book that makes sounds (which she pushed over and over again!!), some Skippy Jon Jones board books, and a musical teapot set that came with two cups and plastic treats (she has been dancing to the songs from the teapot constantly and carrying around the round plastic treat.)

I think Kaelyn made out pretty well for her first first birthday party! We then had hamburgers on the grill and out came the cake! Two cakes, actually, one chocolate with chocolate, the other funfetti white with white. I blew out the candles for her and she managed to get a finger into the icing before they got the cakes away to cut them! We gave her a small piece of each and let her have at it! She mooshed those things around until they were paste! It was like a chunky mud on her hands or something! No, she didn't put any in her mouth, but she let ME put some in her mouth and didn't mind it! She pretty much gags on all foods I try and will only allow ONE bite before pushing me away. But this...not so bad! :)

Luckily, Kaelyn likes to play in water so I got a big bowl of water and let her dip her hands around in it to get off all the goo. That worked well. We played longer outside and that was that for her first first birthday party! This coming weekend will bring her SECOND first birthday party with Sean's parents at our house!

Another milestone, Kaelyn started putting things in her mouth! ONLY her snacks after her nap and only when I hand them to her one at a time in the palm of my hand. For weeks I've been putting them in her hand and shoving it up to her mouth. She's finally getting the idea! But if she takes a snack herself she'll just play with it or toss it. And she hasn't put anything ELSE in her mouth. Which is good since she likes to play with the rocks out front and other strange things! It's exciting that she's getting the picture about the food, though. Maybe there IS hope for her feeding herself someday! Next stop...getting her to eat foods other than baby stuff!!

She did really well sleeping at my parents house, but she started getting up earlier and earlier each morning. Our first night at home she got up at 5:30am and I couldn't get her back to sleep! Her morning nap is stretching longer, probably due to that early rising! I'm okay with that since that means I can get things done now that I usually do before she gets up in the morning.

I still can't believe she's almost a year old. Less than two weeks away!

Outside vs. rainy days

Do babies talk in their sleep? I think mine just did. I just heard Kaelyn making some of her dada noises over the monitor. Then she sighed and went silent again. She sounded pretty sleepy in her speaking so I wonder if she was fully awake. It's not even 6am yet so I was hoping that didn't mean she was up for good! She DID sleep through the night on Easter. But so far just that ONE time. She's been regularly getting up sometimes between 4:30-5:30am for a snack and then sleeping till 7 or so. But compared to what it used to be like, I'm thrilled with that. And I often stay up after she gets up then and go for a run in the basement, get a massage on our massage bed downstairs, read, write, whatever. All the things I haven't really had time or energy for since she was born!

Being outside has been a REAL treat these past few weeks. Many of Kaelyn's toys don't even get messed with until the evening. Making them much more fun at that point since they haven't been over-played with by then! Kaelyn just LOVES
being outside. We play out front a lot. She likes going up and down the one stair on the porch. Playing with the rainbow windmill her grandparents gave her for Easter. Running up and down the sidewalk that goes from the driveway to the porch. Rocking the chair, as you can see from this picture. The other day she would rock it and look over at me and I'd say "rock-a-bye chair!" and she'd just giggle and giggle. Then rock it again. Most importantly, though, is watching the cars pass. Kaelyn seems to be in love with cars. She is her father's daughter! If she's down the sidewalk a bit away from me when one nears, she'll turn and RUN towards me, throw herself in my arms, then turn around and watch it pass and bounce and nod her head. She just loves to watch them zoom by! And despite the 25 mph speed limit, they DO zoom by. She especially likes the big trucks. And the bright red cars.

Yesterday we had our first rainy day in quite sometime. We
were getting spoiled being outside so much. I knew when it rained it would be harder to stay inside. Now Kaelyn's USED to going outside and remembers how much she likes it. I opened the front door so we could at least look out and she just stood at the glass door and banged on it like let me OUT! Not only was it raining but it was cold. It even hailed for a few minutes in the afternoon! We did pretty much everything inside. We played with all the toys in both rooms. We emptied every cupboard. We did laundry. We played with the easter grass, the easter eggs. Kaelyn unwrapped a present meant for a friend of ours. We even went to the library and got an oil change. The day passed much slower than the days we can be outside in the nice weather. But this summer is bound to have days that are either too rainy or too hot to be out so it's good to know we can at least still survive if we have to! Hopefully we don't have to often!

Today we have to attempt to pack. At least I have to pack. With the help of an almost 1 year old! Not the easiest job ever! :) We're heading to my parents house soon for Kaelyn's first first birthday party.

I think she's awake now for real, better go check it out!

SOOO big

I wonder what it is about the expression "so big" that kids enjoy! Awhile back I started asking Kaelyn how big she was and then I would take her hands, wave them above her head and say SOOO big. She must have enjoyed it because after I would do it she would raise her hands up again for me to do it again. I think my mom was doing something similar because now when Kaelyn is running around the house sometimes she'll just throw her hands up in the air. That's our cue to say SOOO big. It seems like most little kids enjoy this game at some point and I wonder why! It's sure adorable, though. Sometimes Kaelyn even does it when I'm changing her diaper. She's laying there throwing her hands up over and over again. Hey, whatever keeps her happy!

Something new I've noticed her doing just this week is asking for more food when she wants it. It started with her snacks after her second nap. She usually sits in my lap and we look at books and she eats cheerios and veggie wheels. I give them to her one at a time as we flip through books. The snack bowl is sitting in the chair next to where we sit and lately if I don't give them to her fast enough she'll reach towards the bowl. Or sometimes just put her hand straight up in the air. Like hello, snack please!! Now at a mealtime if I'm not spooning fast enough she'll reach her hand out in a certain way. Get that spoon going mama! It'd be nice to just give her her own spoon and let her do it as fast or slow as she wants! But anything she has promptly hits the floor. Maybe someday. She's already perfected the, "no thanks" move. I try to give her a spoonful or something and she pushes it away. I call it giving me the stiff arm. Sometimes she's not ready for another bite yet and sometimes she's full or sometimes she sees the color of the food and wants something different. She's getting more picky like her mama, unfortunately! Since I know when she DOESN'T want something it's nice that she's now telling me when she does at times.

We spend a lot of time on the stairs lately. She usually only climbs the first one or two and then throws things off of them onto the tile at the bottom. I leave stuff on the stairs specifically for that purpose. And she's getting better at going down them, with help, of course. Going backwards would probably be best but Kaelyn was just diving face first when we started. She still sometimes tries that move when she's in a hurry but now more often she goes sideways. She'll reach out for my hands then swing one leg over the side of the stair and down. This method could actually work alone someday if she'll hold on to the railing instead of me. Sometimes her steps are hugely exaggerated. Like her leg is searching for the next step through the air. It's pretty funny.

We're looking forward to her first first birthday party this weekend. We'll go to my parents house to celebrate with them and my sister and her family. The following weekend we'll have a party at our house for Sean's family and then the weekend after THAT is her ACTUAL birthday. We haven't decided what to do that weekend but it's going to be just the three of us so hopefully we'll come up with something fun and memorable!

I still can't believe how big Kaelyn IS getting. She has two more teeth coming through on the top for a total of 6. She definitely weighs over 20 pounds. Can't wait to get more exact details on her stats at her next doctor's visit...though I CAN wait to get her shots! :) Her hair seems to be growing thicker and longer everyday. I want to look for some barrettes pretty soon, that'll be cute. And she's running all over the house like she owns the place! Our little girl is growing up!

Easter

Kaelyn's first Easter started out as a huge miracle. She's about 11 1/2 months old now and she FINALLY slept through the night! She was real crabby the night before so I put her to bed a tiny bit early. She nursed herself to sleep and was OUT by 8:15. Normally it's more like 8:30. She slept from 8:15pm-6:50am!!! I did hear one quick wah at about 4:30am but she must have just rolled over because it was short and to the point and nothing more so neither of us had to get up to check on her. AN EASTER MIRACLE! Maybe Kaelyn was just waiting for a memorable date so I would easily remember the first time she slept through the night. As we approach bedtime, I'm just hoping it's not the ONLY night she sleeps through! :) Time will tell! So now you know why I look pretty happy in this picture!

Sean saw Kaelyn in her "easter" dress and said everyone was going to wonder why she had on a valentine's day dress. Well, I said, God is love so it makes sense! :) I chose this dress for many reasons. It was my niece Nicole's dress so we didn't have to shop. It fit decently. We had a pair of red pants that would look okay under it in case it was cold, which it was for awhile. It was short enough that Kaelyn could crawl in it without getting hung up. It was kind of a t-shirt looking dress instead of a frilly dress. I'm REALLY not into dresses. As you can tell by my khaki-flavored Easter outfit for myself! Plus, what does it matter what Kaelyn wears, she's cute in anything!

We wanted to make it to our early church service at 8:30 this morning. Kaelyn got up at almost 7 and then nursed and nursed and nursed. So we had just under an hour to get ready. I don't take much time getting ready and Kaelyn and I didn't play as much during her bath so we even had time for some easter egg fun before we headed out. Kaelyn is much better at removing the eggs FROM the baskets than putting them in. Every now and then she'll put ONE in but usually just one. And it gets tossed right back out. Since we were in a bit of a rush we left the house strewn with easter eggs. ALL over. And I do mean ALL over. What do you do.

We made it to early church and Kaelyn was running around in the back before the first hymn. She usually makes it in our laps through at least that part, but not today! We usually go to late church which is AFTER her breakfast and first nap, but early church meant breakfast time AT church. Kaelyn didn't really want to eat in our laps so I went to the church basement and found a high chair and she really chowed then. That worked. I missed the sermon and a hymn but what do you do. She happily played on the floor in the back of the church for the remainder of the service.

After church we headed to Sean's parents house an hour away for lunch. Kaelyn filled her diaper and then slept the whole way. When we got there I realized I had only ONE diaper in the diaper bag! I couldn't BELIEVE it! I take that thing with us everywhere but I BARELY ever use it. I just hoped she didn't fill another diaper in the few hours we were there...but she did. Luckily Sean's mom had some freebie diapers she had been sent in the mail or something. It worked! And when we got home I STUFFED the diaper bag with diapers! :)

We had a great ham lunch and Kaelyn spent much of the day in the swing they hung for her and in a little red wagon which I dragged around the yard for over an hour. She liked that bumpy ride! She got some easter presents and enjoyed tossing the easter grass around quite a bit. She slept the whole way home and was in a great mood when we arrived.

Kaelyn's first easter was a great success! Good Friday was not such a good friday, she was a real crab. I'm glad things turned around for us the rest of the weekend! I think maybe part of her knew that Good Friday signified the day our Lord was killed. She's too little to understand that three days later he rose again! Now that she knows that she's in a better mood! I can't wait for Kaelyn to grow up and learn more about God. It'll be fun to see faith through the eyes of the child. What we're all supposed to do anyways. Easier said than done!

We have a lot of plans this week, it'll be busy and go fast...we hope! Next weekend we head to my parents house for Kaelyn's birthday party with them. Let the cake smashing begin! What are the odds she'll put any cake in her mouth? Slim to none. But I know she'll enjoy smooshing it up!

Good Friday

I have to admit today feels like Saturday, not Friday. Kaelyn was hungry at 5:30 so I got up to feed her and then she went back to sleep. I went downstairs for a run and was watching the news thinking, why are THOSE anchors on today? It's Saturday! Those aren't the Saturday people. It was perplexing me greatly, apparently, but I finally remembered it's really FRIDAY! Sean has the day off. We have big plans! :) Since it's supposed to rain those plans include Wal-Mart and Menards, who wee!!!

My mom and I took Kaelyn to the zoo yesterday, believe it or not. The zoo was much busier and her stroller nap was very restless. Perhaps that is why she slept for almost an hour and a half yesterday afternoon. Even if she was mostly in the crawling position as you can see from this picture. Ready to go at any moment! She must roll over and attempt to get up but fall back asleep too fast. I often find her this way when I look in during her naps.

I'm hoping she isn't too hot now. I slept in short sleeves and shorts with no covers last night but she still has on her pjs AND sleep sack. Poor thing might be a bit sweaty when she gets up! It's hard to know. The temperature is the same as it has been in here all year but with it being warmer outside it just FEELS warmer in here too.

Kaelyn got an early Easter gift from my parents. Some clothes, some soft sports balls, and this carrot. It's a large plastic carrot, but do you see the top that she's showing us? It has a hole in it! She was so fascinated with it she took it with her to nap yesterday. You'll see it in the bottom left of the picture above. AND when she got up from her nap, I usually sit her on my lap and she has snacks and we read books. She always turns the pages...FAST. But yesterday all she wanted to do was hold the carrot in one hand and stick the finger of her other hand in the hole in the top. Over and over. I still looked at books and she watched but she didn't participate like she normally does. She was too busy. The carrot went by the wayside by bedtime and she went to bed with her 1/8 tsp again.

My mom and I were talking that it seems Kaelyn is more into "hold me, carry me" lately. I had noticed that this past week and my mom said it was the same when she watched her. It used to be when I'd make supper I'd put the kitchen timer on for 5 minutes or whatever and Kaelyn and I would play during that time. When the timer went off I'd go flip the chicken or whatever, set the timer again, then we'd play more. This week, though, during that time of day she will NOT let me put her down. I have to carry her around the WHOLE time I cook, which is not easy on the arms and not easy for the cooking either! And other times of day too, she'll be happily playing outside in the rocks and then just reach up to me and insist I pick her up. The good part is, I'm growing muscle mass on a daily basis! The bad part is I don't want to carry her around all the time, I don't NEED to because she's a good walker/crawler, and my arms can't take it!

Kaelyn did have another tooth break through a couple of days ago so part of me wonders if it's that. Or maybe it's just a new phase. She's mastered walking so now she doesn't have to practice that all the time. Now is she trying to master having me carry her? I thought we perfected that a long time ago!

Just a couple of weeks away from her first birthday, I can't believe it! Next weekend we'll celebrate with my family. The following weekend with Sean's family and on her actual birthday weekend Sean and I will have her to ourselves. We thought about having one big party on her birthday but she's pretty frightened in big crowds with lots of people giving her attention at once so we thought it might be more pleasant for her to do it in small segments. Spread it out a little! And it might be nicer for those attending because they'll have more time with Kaelyn over having a large group all wanting her at the same time. So hopefully she enjoys both parties and it works out well. We didn't want to have either party on her birthday because that wouldn't be fair to the OTHER family so we ended up with her birthday to ourselves. That'll be nice too. No one else was there when she was born, anyways! Maybe we'll go to the zoo! :) We'll see!

Last year at this time I was MAJORLY pregnant and SO hoping Kaelyn would arrive...like NOW! Everyday I'd go in to work and people would say, what are you DOING here?! And I'd be like, well, I'm still pregnant aren't I! I only ended up missing one day of work. I was scheduled to have my water broken on Monday the 27th and so I KNEW I wouldn't be going back to work after Friday. But Kaelyn decided it was time on Thursday the 23rd and arrived on Friday the 24th (at 12:01am) so I missed work on Friday. I was glad because I'd wrapped everything up on Thursday anyways and probably would have been bored. And uncomfortable!!! But I'd been uncomfortable for a month or more by then. And MAJORLY uncomfortable for the last week of it. But here she is, finally sleeping better at night, almost a year old, running all over the place, "talking" up a storm, and monopolizing all of my time and energy. And she's worth it all. People always say that. And it's true.

Have a great Easter! Kaelyn has been playing with easter eggs for weeks now. Hopefully I can interest her in them this weekend for one final go around!!

April Fool's!

I must admit, I stole an April Fool's joke from my friend Andrea. A few years ago she rubber banded her sprayer hose on her sink and got her husband wet. Seeing as today is April Fool's Day and I can never think of anything on my own, I decided to steal her joke. Last night I got out a rubber band and aimed the sprayer. I even tested it and the thing shot all the way across the room! The question was...who would get the spraying? My mom is here to help with Kaelyn for a couple of days and she usually makes breakfast for us so I figured it would be her. But I had HOPES that it would be Sean. When I went to bed last night I couldn't stop giggling in anticipation of who might get sprayed. I just hoped I didn't forget and get it myself! :) Sean was like what's so FUNNY? My April Fool's joke! I said. He was like whatever.

So, this morning, my mom came down to make breakfast. Sure enough, she got it (see the wet spot on her shirt? Probably not, it's dry by now.) The funniest part is when I came downstairs she told me I would never believe what my husband did! :) She even sent him an email thanking him for getting her soaked this morning. And he's at work thinking what the heck?! He has no idea what I did so he probably has no idea what she's talking about and here I'm looking like a saint! :) Unfortunately, in situations like this I can't control my laughing so I giggled too much and she figured out that it was actually me. But not until AFTER the email to Sean was sent! :) hahaha!!!

Yesterday was my longest day away from Kaelyn ever! I went to work, then met Sean at Texas Roadhouse (so full! And we're going to eat it again tonight we brought so much home!) and then I had a church meeting! 7 hours away! Kaelyn survived...enjoyed it even! Get that mama out of my face already!! I feel really refreshed from having been away. Perhaps where I found the energy to play a joke and giggle about it hours after bedtime! :)

Happy April Fool's to you! Hope you don't get sprayed today...if you do, hope you blame someone other than me! :)