Learning Fast

What a whirlwind weekend we had! A month ago my mother in law asked if I'd help arrange a baby shower for Sean's sister in law. Her baby is due in November and she's no longer traveling so the idea was to word the invitation so that people could just bring gifts to my mother in law and she would deliver them if they wanted, rather than drive 3 hours for the shower. Well, when she shot that idea by her family they didn't like the idea, they WANTED to make a road trip! AND they decided that the very next weekend was the time to do it. Incidentally, that was this past weekend. On such short notice there wasn't really anywhere to have the party but my parents house. My mom had already said if we needed to have it there that would be fine. The shower was a surprise to the mother to be and she WAS surprised! Everything went really well. Sean's family arrived and set up in quite a whirlwind fashion. My only regret is that I did barely ANYTHING! I had a list of things to get like ice and strawberries. But I didn't help set up and I didn't help clean up and I didn't do much between! I guess I provided a house...and the plates! :) It went well and she was surprised and got lots of nice baby things so all goals were met!

We were hoping to go to the balloon festival in Indianola, IA over the weekend too but due to rain one evening we didn't make it. I haven't been for several years so I was disappointed. I think Kaelyn might enjoy it too.

Even though Kaelyn doesn't talk yet, she really seems to understand a lot. When you say, hey, you want to go outside? Go get your shoes! She goes and gets her shoes! In the evening I say, Kaelyn do you want your milk? And you've never SEEN that kid move so fast! She gets up and high tails it into the fridge to get her milk! Over the weekend when we were driving to church my mom was showing her a book with lots of items in it. Shoes, ball, cat, dog, train. She'd say, Kaelyn, where's the ball? And she'd point to the ball. She knew ALL of them (except the apple, she had trouble with that one). I was amazed. I didn't know she could do that! We've looked at that book dozens of times and she often points to things and I tell her what they are but I had no idea she knew what they were if I just said the name! Wow, she's getting smart! I think once she starts talking, she won't stop!! She can take her time!

I think she's getting tired of baby food too. She's getting a little more brave about real food. She ate a few bites of baked potato this weekend and now LOVES wheat bread. Or anything bread-like. I still can't get her to even try fruits or vegetables so I try to get a little baby food in her each meal just so she gets a little of that stuff. She seems to be eating more table food, though. Even if it is just cracker and bread-like things!

This weekend also brought about a rather large change. Kaelyn slept Saturday morning until 8:45!!!! A new record. BLEW AWAY her old one of 7:30! I checked on her once and she was just laying there, happily resting, so I left her until she wanted to get up. That meant no morning nap. She usually goes back to bed 2 1/2 or 3 hours after getting up but that would have been almost noon and that's not a great time for a nap. And that, then, would have meant no afternoon nap most likely. So I let her skip her morning nap and she did pretty well with that. That was amidst the shower and she got real tired at 1:30 when everyone was eating. She had a little snack and got screamy so I put her to bed and she konked right out. I heard her at 2:30 but rather than rush right in I let her be for awhile and she went back to sleep. I was glad. It would have been hard to entertain her AND participate in the shower. She was in bed for 2 hours, that was nice. The next day she slept till 8:20! Another no-two-nap day. We went to church and lunch and then headed home from my parents at 1. She fell asleep pretty much right away and slept the whole 2 1/2 hour drive home. But was TOTALLY ready for bed that night at 8 too. It's Monday now and 7:40. She's still not up but I hear her cry a little every now and then. She does that in her sleep ALL the time. It's majorly annoying when I'M trying to sleep!! But since I'm up it's a little better. It still makes me think she's getting up. I prefer her to wake up happy! Then I know she's really ready to get up. So far this morning, I DID go up to get her once at 7 because she was crying more consistently, but JUST as I got to the door she stopped so I went away. Since then nothing has been consistent so I'm pretty sure she's still sleeping.

We're heading to the zoo today, yeah! We haven't been in a couple of weeks, can you believe it?! My mother in law and my niece (from Sean's side) are coming to go with us. It's supposed to be hot and humid so it may be rather sticky, but what do you do. I'm guessing Kaelyn will have only one nap today too so I hope she does well at the zoo and doesn't fall asleep on the drive home so she can nap for as long as she wants in her own bed! I wonder how many of the zoo animals she knows that I don't realize she recognizes!