Planning

I have to admit, I'm a planner. Maybe to a fault. I like things to go as planned and I always like there to BE a plan. Since having Kaelyn, when plans get disrupted it can be even more disappointing to me. My mom comes over once a week. Winter weather prevented that one week. Thus my plans were interrupted. My friend Andrea and I get together every few weeks. Winter weather and car troubles got in the way several times. Thus my plans were interrupted. My in-laws were going to come over on two different occasions this past week. Life got in the way and thus my plans were interrupted. It's not so much the change in plans, really, but as a stay at home mom who spends approximately 12 hours a day entertaining a baby, when you have something set in your mind...a day with a friend, a break with you mom, a change in the everyday play, it's a HUGE deal when those plans get changed! I never did like changing plans much. I guess I'm not very spontaneous, but now, when I go from having a fun day planned to having NO plans, it's like...crushing, I guess would be the word! :)

But onward we play! Because what other choice do we have! The toys gets tossed a dozen MORE times. The cat gets a little more attention, much to his chagrin. The poor guy just wants to nap! And I get to watch Kaelyn that much more closely for yet another day. Though it can be wearing, that's not such a bad thing.

Recently she's starting holding things out to me like, "see what I've got mama?" She grabs on to her pink safety pin toy and holds it up like it's the coolest thing in the world and she has just defeated something huge and triumphed.

Lately I've had a bit of a pretzel habit. The braided honey twists that are the size of a finger. When I eat those, Kaelyn just HAS to have one. Not to eat, just to hold, turn over and over in her hands, and wave in the air like it's the coolest thing since sliced bread. On a side note, strangely for this stage, Kaelyn never puts anything in her mouth. Other than her hands, the spoon I offer at mealtimes, and stress balls. Never any real foods, veggie wheels, assorted objects from the ground. Part of me is thankful for this and part of me wonders how we'll ever get her to eat real food! Hence the reason she can have a pretzel. Not that I leave her alone with it just in case, but so far, she hasn't even considered chewing it. Which is strnage, really, beacuse she sees me eating them. I've always thought that about straws too. She sees me sucking on them so you'd think she'd want to put them in her mouth. But no, she just wants to stick her finger in them. Well, whatever, kid!

I think planning pretty much goes out the window when you have a baby, though. You can plan all you want, it's really what THEIR plan is that counts. Just because you plan to get a good nights' sleep doesn't mean that is what they have in mind! Just because I plan for Kaelyn to nap around 10 and around 3 doesn't mean she'll want to. Perhaps motherhood has been a lesson in spontaneity for me. Taking things one day at a time is definitely something I'm getting better at! Though it'll never be my strong suit. It's funny when people ask, when does she nap? Because until quite recently (see the post about Schedules!) I didn't have an answer for that. "It depends on what time she gets up in the morning," I'd say for starters. It was a complicated process.

So I can't tell you what Kaelyn and I are going to do all day everyday. Even when I think we DO have plans. So I can't tell you how many hours of sleep we'll get or how much she'll want to eat or when. So I can't tell you how long she'll nap or when. So what!

I can tell you I love this kid from the very depths of my soul. That love wasn't immediate for me. I loved her from birth, sure, but the more I get to know her, the more I see her eyes shine when we play something new or open her favorite book, the more I love her. It's a daily event. Even if we do the SAME things day in and day out, she does something EVERY day that amazes me, makes me smile, enthralls me, and makes me love her all the more. I can't plan much these days and guarantee that it's going to for sure come to pass. But I know for a fact that I plan to love Kaelyn for this lifetime and beyond.

Frustrations/Annoyances

Don't you just love when you overhear someone talking about you and your mothering choices? Especially in a negative way? I guess if I had heard "Oh she's such a good mom, she does everything right!" I wouldn't even be talking about it, huh! So here's the thing. I don't leave Kaelyn with strangers. I just don't. She's a mama's girl right now anyways and freaks out when she's with anyone BUT me, other than a few close family members. With whom she STILL reaches and cries for me on occasion. So I kind of feel like I would be a bad mom if I left her with someone she had NEVER met before and didn't know at ALL. I'll leave her with my husband, I'll leave her with my mom. But until she gets over this phase and is happy playing with other kids and doesn't notice my absense so much, is it really so awful that I want to keep her with me? I go to a meeting and there's child care available. I keep Kaelyn with me. The child care provider thought that was strange, I guess and was telling someone else about it. There were plenty of other children being cared for. One even as young as 2 months old and THAT child did just FINE. It was really more the tone of voice and the facial expression that made me feel it was a negative comment. My other defense is that Kaelyn is still nursing. She needed to eat in the middle of the meeting. But even if she was fine with strangers and wasn't nursing, I can't honestly say I'd leave her with people she doesn't really know. Am I being overprotective? Perhaps. I think I'd rather be overprotective than underprotective, though. Maybe I'm even being selfish. Maybe I WANT her to be with me and only me for the majority of the time. I don't think I'll be on my deathbed thinking, gee, I wish I had spent more time with Kaelyn as a child. To not have that regret is reason enough! I guess I'm ranting a bit now, I just didn't like feeling judged. I'm just doing what I feel is best for my child at this particular time in her life. I wish the person would have talked to me if she'd wanted reasons or felt snubbed because I kept Kaelyn with me instead of handing her over. I'm sure she didn't know I could hear or that I was paying attention. It's a good lesson for me in mothering, though. Moms do what they have to do...what they feel is right. And if another mom does things differently than me, I'll try my best to respect it and not judge it. Every kid is different. They all have different needs. Every mom is different as well.

When I was pregnant I found it pretty annoying when people would touch my belly. No one ever touched my belly before I was pregnant! And yes, I realize there's a cute baby in there somewhere. But above that baby are my ribs, my abs (what was left of them!) my belly, my skin etc etc. They weren't touching the baby, they were touching MY stomach and that was just weird! Especially complete strangers and co-workers. Family must have known what I thought of that because they pretty much stayed away from belly touching. Sometimes people would talk to my belly as well. That was better than touching but I still felt like I was in the way of a conversation I wasn't really involved in!

After Kaelyn was born I realized people love touching babies. IN the stomach AND out! :) I went grocery shopping recently and Kaelyn had her lips all sucked in. The check out lady touched her face and said, hey where are your lips? I would never touch someone's baby's face after handling dirty money and groceries and who knows what else! People just love touching her hands and face etc. She's cute, I get it, but it's cold and flu season, back off! :)

I am also annoyed when people take Kaelyn from me when she most obviously does NOT want to leave me or go to them. The other night we were at a function and a lady tried to take her from me. Kaelyn turned away from her and clung to my shirt. She didn't know the lady, we had just arrived, it was a strange place, she wanted her mama. So instead of backing off the lady pryed her hands between me and Kaelyn and took her anyways. Kaelyn promptly started screaming, as I could have predicted, and I got her back shortly. But when a baby turns away from you as you try to take her, why try to take her? Let her warm up a bit. Make funny faces, play with her, talk to her. Don't try to take her away when she quite obviously is happy where she is and doesn't want that situation to change!

I also feel awkward when people are talking directly to Kaelyn when I'm holding her. Again, like when she was in my belly, I feel like I'm in the middle of a conversation I'm not really a part of. They're not talking to me. They're not asking ME the questions, and yet I'm stuck there in the middle. Because if they try to take Kaelyn she'll just yell at them so I kind of HAVE to be there! :) What do you do!

So that's my venting and ranting post for the day! :) It probably sounds like I'm in a bad mood or something! I actually feel pretty decent, just wanted to get a few things off my mind and I figured this would be a good place!

Schedule

I took Kaelyn to my MOPS group meeting today. Many of the kids involved in that group are actually preschool age, but Kaelyn is PRE school so it's okay for me to go too! There are a few with younger or older kids. Or some moms that have preschoolers AND a child Kaelyn's age etc. It's just nice to get out. The group meets once a month from 9:30-11. So far that has worked just great. In the previous months I would take Kaelyn for a drive before the meeting and she'd snooze for awhile. Then she'd sit on my lap and play with a paper cup or a juice box or something I brought with us while the group met. Then we'd drive through somewhere for lunch on the way home and she'd nap again.

Child care IS available at the group so I don't HAVE to keep her with me. And the ladies caring for the kids are very caring and wonderful people. But Kaelyn is still going through her mama only phase and I refuse to leave her with someone she doesn't know and go to a meeting knowing she's probably screaming for me. I just can't do it. Someday maybe I will be able to leave her happily playing with the other kids, but for now, she hangs out with me. She hasn't at all been a problem until today. She gets a little nervous in new places and was a little fussy when we first arrived. The group got going and I let her eat because it was time and she was wanting SOMETHING. Then she was happy for about 45 minutes. Though it was hard to keep her entertained on my lap, it was working. I brought a whole BAG of small toys and she took turns tossing them to the ground or inspecting them. After awhile she got bored so we moved to the floor. That only worked for a few minutes and then I just stood in the back of the room with her. Finally she got more scream-y so I left the group ten minutes early.

So why was this month harder? It's the schedule. During all previous months she was napping 3 or even 4 times a day. Now she only takes two naps. The first nap is generally around 10ish. The group meets 9:30-11am. I did go for a drive starting at 9. We drove through the bank on our way to the meeting. And she DID snooze for awhile. But she still was missing her regular (ish) naptime, I guess. We took the long way home...driving through the neighborhood three times...and she slept some more. She was in a happy screamy mood the rest of the afternoon. I love those happy screams. It's like she's trying to tell me something and it's a good something. She doesn't know how so she just screams in joy. Her eyes are all lit up. It's adorable and I wish she did it all day every day. Except during nap times. And overnight! :)

I remember when Kaelyn was born. After about 2 days of feeding her EVERY hour day and night and having NO idea when she would nap and what she needed I started asking around. When do babies start having a schedule? Two weeks later when I took her to the pediatrician I asked, when will I see a schedule start? I think she told me to give it a few more weeks and Kaelyn would lead me, but I was in a fog so I'm not really sure. I remember asking that question of every mother I could find for a long time. It was my biggest concern. I wanted to be able to predict her better. Why is she yelling at me? Is she hungry? Tired? Bored? Hot? Cold? What's UP with this kid?! I wanted to leave the house but if I didn't know why she was yelling at me, I didn't feel like I could go ANYWHERE!

All of the advice I got from others was wrong. It must have been what happened with THEIR kids or what THEY had read. But I didn't see a pattern with Kaelyn until about 3-4 months of age. At that point she was eating every OTHER hour and would nap every hour and a half for about 30 minutes or so. She never has been a LONG napper. Every few weeks or months that would stretch a little and she would eat every two and a half hours and nap every three hours.

But honestly, it wasn't until Kaelyn turned 8 months old that there seems to be set times for most everything. She gets up around 6:30-7am and eats. I'll give her solid foods around 8. She'll eat again around 10 and nap anytime between 9:30 and 10. Then we'll have solids for lunch at noon and she'll nurse again at 1:30-2. Another nap around 3-3:30 and nurse at 4:30. Solid supper at 6 and nurse/bedtime at 8. Until she hit the 8 month mark EVERY day was different. I may have been able to predict that she would want to eat every two or three hours or whatever, but the timeframe of that was different EVERY day. It's SO nice to have set times now. Though it's not an exact science at least it's more predictable when trying to make an appointment or meet a friend for lunch or whatever. And I DID start leaving the house before the 8 month mark, just so you know! :) As soon as I started seeing a pattern and could predict a bit better when she was hungry vs. tired I ventured out to the grocery store etc!

Other than the Mops meeting this morning Kaelyn had a great day. She played nicely and happily screamed the day away. Though playing with her is fun and getting to rest myself during her naptimes is wonderful, my favorite time of the day is when she gets UP from a nap. I'll pick her up and say, "hey pretty girl!" and she'll lay her head on my shoulder and cuddle. This can go on for 30 seconds or 10 minutes. I look at her in the mirror in her room and her eyes are wide open, she's just cuddling. I could do that all day. My arms, maybe not so much, but the rest of me wants to!

So if you're new to the mom world and are wondering, when will my baby get on a schedule? I hate to tell you, it could be awhile! Maybe you'll be one of the lucky ones I ran into that saw a pattern at 6 weeks or 2 months or sooner. Or maybe you'll be wondering where that pattern is at the 8 month mark. As so many have told me, it WILL happen. And with kids, we never know when or why so just go with it! :)

Growing Up

Kaelyn is growing up. Fast. There are a few things she's not ready for yet. She's too big for the baby bathtub now. It's really pretty funny how much she hangs out. She's overflowing in that thing. But when I tried to put her in the big tub without it, boy did she scream at me! I got out the baby bathtub again REAL fast! She's all smiles again. I'm not sure how to transition to the big bathtub, but I think I'm going to have to do it pretty soon or start bathing her one foot at a time, one arm at a time, etc. She just won't all fit in there at once not too long from now!

She's standing really well now and wants to stand CONSTANTLY. She can stand alone for up to 10 seconds or so before flopping onto her bottom (thank goodness for diapers shielding those little butt bones!) or grabbing on to something. She's constantly pulling herself up on things. I've had to move a few things just these last few days to stop her from pulling them OVER onto herself when she's trying to stand up. Kaelyn may play seated for a few minutes here and there but she'd much rather stand at this point. But when she IS sitting, she's usually crawling. No more setting her on the floor and staying in one place to play. She crawls across the room to get the Desitin, then back for a toy, then over to the linoleum in the kitchen for no reason at all. It's a much more constant motion. When she first started crawling she would only take off if she REALLY wanted something. Now she goes just to go, I think. Just because she can.

I don't know how diapers EVER get changed on kids this age. Kaelyn constantly wants to roll over and take off. Sometimes I get the old diaper off and she takes off, her little nude-y butt waggling at me as she goes. And of course, that's always when the tinkling begins as well. Can't have a naked baby butt and no tinkling! So far she only pooped once without a diaper on, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time before that happens again. I have to constantly distract her while changing her if I have ANY hope of keeping her there long enough to get one diaper off, the new one on, and her pants back in place. She's just too busy to be concerned with such things!

She's sleeping a LITTLE better lately. Now that we're back home and in our groove again. She's only been getting up 3 times a night. Eating twice and once just for a few minutes. I think she just likes to check in and make sure I'm still there. I don't have to pick her up I just lay my hand on her and she goes back to sleep. She's over 8 months old now and I don't know if she really NEEDS to eat overnight anymore or not. Sometimes she's gone as long as 7 hours without eating overnight, but that's pretty rare. And she eats regularly every 3 1/2 hours during the day so if she wakes up and it's been 3 1/2 hours or more, I let her eat. She never turns it away! If she wakes up around 5am I usually have to bring her back to bed with me to get her to stay asleep any longer. She'll just roll around in her own bed and yelp every now and then and not really rest. So if either of us have hopes of sleeping more, I have to cocoon her in my arms and pat her until she settles and then hold her tight so she can't wiggle. That happens several mornings a week.

Poor Kaelyn, it's SO cold here right now I finally had her start wearing a coat. She looks like that kid in the movie A Christmas Story. She can't move anything but her eyes. She doesn't usually appreciate putting the coat on much, but I feel like she's quite warm and cozy in there once we get going! If I just put blankets on her she throws them off anyways so that's not going to work in below 0 temperatures!!

She's getting really onery too. Her favorite thing to do is throw things around. Throw the burp cloth off the couch, throw her table toys off her tray, throw little stuffed animals off the chair, throw books around on the floor. The other day I gave her a big pile of coupons and she tossed those around like they were the most fun things in the world! Moving things from place to place is a big deal. And when she's throwing things, like diapers from the box, and KNOWS I'm watching, you should see that little gleam in her eye. She looks at me like, I KNOW I'm being onery! And I react like it's a big deal...HEY, I say, what do you think you're DOING?! And she just squeals and jumps into my lap. Then gets up and does it again as I try to keep up in re-piling things for her to throw!

She's taking little steps here and there when holding on to things. I'm thinking she's going to walk pretty early. Kaelyn is crawling great but she's way more interested in standing at this point and I think she wants to be a big girl and race around. Maybe another couple of months and that could be the case! Then we'll REALLY have to watch out!

Someday all of this will pass and I'll probably look back and miss it. SOME of it. I don't know that getting up at 3am will be something I'll ever look back on in wonderment! But I'll always remember that gleam in her eye as she makes sure I'm watching when she starts pulling diapers out of the box and tossing them around. HEY! I'll say in my silly voice. I love to hear her squeal. I'll pile diapers back all day long if that's what it takes to get a squeal!

January is a cool month for a birthday

Happy Birthday to Sean as of January 4th. He said his New Year's resolution every year is to not age anymore and then four days later he always breaks that resolution. I have to feel sort of sorry for him because he spends MANY a birthdays outside shoveling in the driveway. I remember not even leaving the house a few years ago because it was so snowy. This year he didn't have such luck and had to go to work on the big day. But when he got home that night I grilled steaks for him, made tater tots, and even had some blonde brownies, quite a treat. I don't get much baking done with Kaelyn always around to help!

So Sean is a big 35 now. I also have to feel sorry for him for marrying so young. I won't be 30 until June so he always feels like the old one in the house. What do you do! He knew my age when he picked me! :) Sometimes we talk about how we met and when we met etc. and how weird it would have been had we met earlier. We met when I was a senior in college and Sean was working in Omaha. I was 20 and he was 25. But what if we'd met when he was in high school? I would have still been in grade school!! I think both of our parents would have raised an eyebrow or two about that! :)

So how did we meet? Well, that's quite a story! I had had a boyfriend at college who I had just broken up with over the summer before my senior year. Nice guy, genuine person, but I was getting really annoyed by everything he did and said so I just knew it wasn't right. A few months later my friends were like, hey Brooke, you aren't dating anyone, you should be dating someone. Not sure why they thought so. Maybe they were tired of me hanging around so often! :) And the internet and email and chatting online was all the rage so I started talking to people through yahoo's chat program. I really don't remember how I ran across Sean but we started chatting back and forth and then we started emailing back and forth and he sent me some pictures of himself and his family. I thought he was way cute. But I was a little internet-dumb so I didn't know how to send pictures of myself. He therefore, had NO idea what I looked like. At one point he gave me his phone number and one Friday night when ALL of my friends had other plans (mostly dates!) I called him. We talked for four hours. After the first 30 minutes, my calling card ran out of minutes so he called me back and we continued talking until the wee hours in the morning. Looking back on that now, that's pretty funny because Sean's a quiet sort of fellow. I really ought to remind him of how chatty he was then! During that conversation we decided we should meet sometime.

In the days that followed we decided to meet in a few weeks in his town. I was going to college an hour and a half away but happened to have a weekend job at a radio station in the town HE lived in. I didn't have to work that weekend, but a friend of mine wanted to visit his family in that same town anyways so we decided we'd drive there, I'd drop him at his family's house, meet Sean, and that way if Sean was crazy and I never picked my friend BACK up... :) Just kidding. We met at the radio station where there was someone else working anyways, so I wasn't in too terribly much danger.

Just to show off Sean drove his baby blue 56 cadillac to meet me. I heard that thing coming a mile away. When he got out of the car I thought, "dang!" Sean looks nice in pictures but honestly, pictures don't do him justice, he's a good looking dude. I remember also noticing his sweatshirt was pushed up on his arms. I don't know why I noticed that, but it's still something I remember to this day.

I think I picked my friend back up at 4am and got back home at like 6am. It was a long date! We played some games and got to know each other and were having SUCH a great time it was hard to leave. After that the emails REALLY started to fly and I visited him everytime I was back in town, which, after a few months, started to be three times a week due to my job. Once I graduated from college I moved and took a full time job at the same station and Sean and I continued to see each other. The following Christmas he emailed me a proposal and apparently I said yes and the rest is history. That's the short version of our meeting, I'll have to expand farther another time. The moral of the story is love knows no age! :)

I've always known I would probably end up with an older guy. I think I only ever dated ONE guy my age and ONE guy a year younger. Everyone else I dated or was interested in was at least a year older, usually more. I think it's a maturity thing. I have an older mind so my mind meets up better with the mind of an older guy. Something like that.

Unfortunately, Sean had to work all day on his birthday. And it was bitterly cold. And Kaelyn had a bad night the night before so she was a major grump all evening. Otherwise I'm sure it was a lovely day for him. We gave him a really cool picture blown up poster size that he took of himself on his motorcycle (which he has since sold to buy a camper...a little more family friendly.) He placed it on the mantel for now, but hopefully we'll get a frame for it and hang it in the basement or something. Not that I mind it, it's a cool picture.

So Happy birthday Sean, may the next 35 years be even better. I'll let you know what it feels like to be 35 in another 5 1/2 years when I get there...hahaha

2009

Wow, another year is behind us, can you believe it? And what a year it was. I learned quite a few things this year...in no particular order.

-Emptying the diaper box is the source of endless joy to an 8 month old. Especially if I try to keep the diapers IN the box as she takes them out.

-My skin can stretch to the maximum and not explode! I really thought it might burst towards the end of my pregnancy with Kaelyn.

-Heartburn is an awful awful thing. Especially when you're pregnant and exhausted and it keeps you awake.

-Kaelyn loves to pound on anything and everything. But for some reason she only uses her thumb. I want to find out why that is in 2010!

-People can run on very little sleep. Though things may be fuzzy and you may not remember what all you did by the end of the day, it IS possible!

-Babies are the hardest job and the biggest joy. I can go from SO frustrated and frazzled to feeling SUCH huge amounts of love, it's amazing.

-There's nothing like watching the peaceful sleeping face of your baby. There's just nothing like it.

-I learned how to do numerous things one handed. Some of them even pretty well! Cooking, baking, cleaning, you name it and I've probably tried it. Anything safe, that is. I never let her help me with the oven or the grill or anything!

-How toys can go from organized in a basket to a complete toy explosion in 5 minutes flat. You should see the living room right now. Not only toys but bits of cut up pictures EVERYWHERE. I was working on cutting some pictures for Kaelyn's book and to distract her from the pictures I gave her the clippings. She enjoyed that a little too much.

-How heartbreaking it is to hear your baby cry and not know what to do to fix it.

-How fulfilling it is to hear your baby cry and be ABLE to fix it.

-I learned what unconditional love is. I always thought I knew but I don't think I ever really experienced it until now. Kaelyn can do a lot of things to make me want to scream, but there's nothing she could do to make me stop loving her.

-Wearing sleep pants for days on end is actually pretty comfortable. Even if I did start getting looks from the neighbors. And my husband!

-Motherhood can be really isolating. Sure, you're never really alone, but without someone to respond to you (other than babbles and yelling) you can feel really lonely.

-You can really get NOTHING done and feel like you've done TONS in a day. Take today, I had all sorts of projects I needed to get done. I wanted to get some mail items taken care of. I needed to do some baking. I would have liked to get those pictures in KAelyn's book. We had some errands to run. We did one errand and cut up some pictures for the book and that was that. We played and played and played. It's hard to say that we did much of anything, but I sure feel like it was a long day!

-Silly games are the best kind. Yesterday I made up a new game. Sort of. Kaelyn helped. I put a burp cloth on the couch. She rips it off and throws it to the floor, then looks at me all mischevious. "What did you do?!" I say in a silly voice and she just squeals. Repeat. For an hour. It was still fun later that evening, believe it or not. For her anyways. And anytime she squeals I'm happy too.

-I learned so much this year but the most important thing was I learned how to be a mom. I think that's something I'll be saying again in 2010 and the years to come. It's not something I'll ever STOP learning, but I feel like I'm a passable mom now. Kaelyn is surviving, maybe even thriving.

-I learned I can't wait to see the next stages in Kaelyn's life. She's standing and trying oh so hard to take steps when holding on to things. I've learned how amazing little lives are. The way they take everything in and observe and are so curious. I can't wait to play make believe with her. She's got quite an imagination, I can tell.

There is so much more to 2009. It's been the biggest life-changing year in my existence. I think anyone who has a child would agree. Getting married is huge but having a baby is HUGER. :) My life is no longer my own because I've dedicated it to Kaelyn. My husband can take care of himself if he has to. Someday Kaelyn will too. But for now, my life is in her hands to monopolize as she wishes! Someday it'll be returned to me and I know at that time I won't regret giving her what I am giving her now. In the year 2009, 2010, and beyond.

Christmas at the in-laws

We were supposed to have our third and final Christmas this past long weekend. It didn't happen as planned. We had been hearing about a big storm coming this way and we were planning to head to Sean's parents house on Christmas Eve, but to beat the storm we left a day early and made it there before the ice and snow began. Sean's parents live in a remote area and I remember stories about them losing power quite a bit when Sean was growing up. I was worried about that and how to cope with an 8 month old in such conditions. They have wood burning stoves so we wouldn't have been cold at least. But they had just put some new power lines up in the area so the power worked just fine the whole time we were there. Sean's brothers were supposed to come over too and the one that lives the closest made it but the other one that planned to come didn't. He lives 3 1/2 hours away and wasn't able to leave until after the storm began. At which time they closed down the interstates and highways leading to Sean's parents house so travel was impossible and treacherous.

As you can see from the picture, though, Kaelyn still had a good time. She's too little to understand presents just yet so she didn't notice them sitting under the tree nor did she care that we weren't opening them. She DID get to open one, though. Socks! Yeah! :) They went with her Christmas outfit and kept her toes toasty on Christmas Day.

Kaelyn's newest trick is to take off during diaper changes. I take the diaper off, she rolls over, sits up, and takes off. In this picture I at least had gotten the diaper back ON, but no buttons have been buttoned and no pants in place. I think it was a good 15 minutes before I was able to do the pants. She just has way too much to do. Normally empty the diaper box. One diaper at a time. They just go shooting over her shoulder one by one as she grins with glee. At least it's a harmless thing to do and doesn't make TOO much of a mess. Who would have thought, of all the toys I brought, she'd want to play with her diaper box! Tis the season to be a baby.

Kaelyn also MAJORLY worked on standing up over the Christmas at the in-laws. Or non-Christmas, as the case may be. She constantly pulled herself up on things, the table, the couch, the diaper box, my leg, my hand, my face...yes she used my nose and lip at one time, ouch! And then once standing, she'll sway back and forth, wobble around a bit, sometimes test things out and let go of whatever she's holding. So far her record is standing alone for 5 seconds with no assistance before dropping to her butt. I'm just glad for that diaper, her little butt bone would be broken by now! :) She's getting better and better and I'm afraid she'll be walking, no, running, in no time! She wants to practice standing continuously. I was just thinking the other day that on occasion, she'll play alone with things and I can read or open the mail unassisted. But now that she's always pulling herself up on things and falling over, the danger for head banging is always there so I have to put anything I want to do aside and make sure both of my hands are either on her or close and available in case I need to shield her from any edges, floors, corners, toys, or anything else that gets in the way as she goes down!

The snow at Sean's parents house was very pretty. They have some huge pine and evergreen trees that were weighed down with all of the snow and very festive. However, the guys that had to dig THROUGH the snow, were NOT very pretty. This is actually Sean. And believe it or not, Kaelyn wasn't afraid of him like that! Though she didn't grin at him either. Sean's parents has a 12 foot drift at the end of their drive. The wind was blowing JUST the right way. Or wrong way as the case may be. They pulled Sean's brother's truck up to the drift and shoveled snow into the back of it and moved it elsewhere. It took three guys three hours to make any headway. And two of the three guys put in more like ten hours to dig a hole big enough to get a car through. Their main goal was to get a car out so they could go buy a HUGE snowblower to finish the job, which they did. Though when Sean and I left, it was still like driving through a tunnel of snow. The snow was completely surrounding the car on both sides, up much taller than the car. I've never seen or driven through a drift like that and dreaded getting home to see our own driveway! For Sean's sake, of course, because I knew I'd be inside playing with Kaelyn. And I certainly didn't mind that over the alternative!

We spent the 5 days at Sean's parents house playing pool, cards, watching Christmas movies (I think we watched about every one ever made!) and eating, of course. Kaelyn's appetite for real food seems to have increased. Right after we got home she actually ate a WHOLE container of carrots in one sitting, I couldn't believe it! Her record before was one container in a day, but spread out over three meals. She just kept opening her mouth and I kept shoveling it in! She never did push my hand away like she does when she's getting full. Not even once!

Our last evening of the visit, Kaelyn was giving me major trouble when I was trying to put her pjs on. She was completely naked and just took off and wouldn't stay put no matter how many times I laid her back down and attempted to diaper her. Sean finally came to see what was going on and ended up just taking her back out to the family room as a nude-y baby. We played our last few hands of cards with her alternating between Sean and I and the table. I only hoped she didn't tinkle on the table. Or me, actually. Sean? That would have been okay! :) hehe

So since we didn't get to celebrate Christmas this time around, the plans have all been re-arranged for next weekend. Sean's brothers and parents will gather on New Year's eve and day to open presents and have the big meal etc. The full extended family gathering will be over the weekend. All of the uncles and aunts and cousins etc. It always seems like chaos to me. We're talking about like 40 people here! They're a tight, close family and it's wonderful. I only have 2 uncles and 5 cousins and they're never all in the same room so I'm used to smaller gatherings. Hopefully Kaelyn will enjoy the commotion, I guess we'll find out!

As for sleeping, that hasn't gotten any better. We were only home one night between my parents and Sean's parents and she did GREAT that night, only getting up once at 3am to eat and going right back to sleep. But at Sean's parents she started crying for long periods of time again and I didn't want to make her scream too long at someone else's house so I gave in and went back to the old ways. So she went back to her old ways. Getting up at 10:30 or 11, then again at 1, 3, 5, and 6. It's like clockwork. We're back home and I'm anxious to see how tonight goes. She's been a happy little screamer ever since we got home and she took a nice long hour nap (that's long for her!) so we shall see. If things don't go well we'll have to regroup after our NEXT Christmas/new year's celebration and go from there. There's probably no use messing with it much now since we'll only be home a few days and then off again for a couple of more days away. I'd probably just get it worked out only to mess it up again by being in someone else's house again. I hope she works it out herself because I just HATE hearing her cry. But I also hate getting up 4-5 times a night when I know she doesn't need to eat more than MAYBE once.

It's good to be home. I'm looking forward to our nice big king mattress. Even if it is on the floor (we ordered a new bed but it's not here yet). Both of our parents have full sized mattresses so I feel like a sardine sleeping. I'm not a cuddly sleeper, I like my space, and in those small beds, Sean has nowhere to go but my face, it seems. As in, he's always in my face! I don't like being breathed on. I sound crabby about sleep, don't I! :)

One good thing about the non-Christmas is that now we have another Christmas to look forward to. Next Christmas isn't 11+ months away, it's less than a week away!!