15 months

Kaelyn had her 15 month doctor's appointment today. Just a check up and some shots. Kaelyn doesn't appreciate the pediatrician...OR her nurses. How DARE they take her temperature! Though I tried to tell her taking it in her armpit was WAY nicer than how they USED to do it! How DARE they look in her ears! And push on her belly! And oh my, you better not even THINK about taking her blood pressure! She was screaming good before the shots were even a thought.

This time, instead of weighing her on the baby scale, they had me stand on a scale WITH her and then without her. Perhaps because she was being quite the little screamer or maybe at this age they don't need to be REAL exact, I'm not sure. Anyways, she weighs about 25 pounds now putting her in the 80th percentile. She didn't appreciate being measured for height either. But she survived and is 30" tall, in the 40th percentile. Does that make her a bit round? Whatever, she's healthy!

After all that she sat on my lap and sniffled and sobbed and clung to her cup and her duck and my shirt. Poor thing. It IS a hard life, being a baby. She was scared to death.

I asked the doctor about her eating, she won't eat many table foods, though she HAS just started picking up on wheat bread so that's good. She said it's a texture thing and to just keep trying and not to be too concerned with it yet because she's healthy and growing well. I also asked how much milk she should drink and she said 18-24 ounces a day is good and I'm thinking Kaelyn gets at least 18 sometimes more so we're set there. She also said her fear of strangers is still normal. Though when I say strangers I mean everyone but me, Sean, and my mom! Even other family members and friends. What do you do!

Then came the shots. That's awful because she's already scared and then you have to put her on a table and hold her down and stick her with needles. She stopped screaming from that pretty fast, though. Just continued with her sobs and sniffling. She recovered the second we pulled into our garage at home. She knew where she was and she let out a little squeal and was her old self again. The next 30 minutes I chased her around and she played like nothing had happened. Then I stuck her in the swing and she pulled off her remaining bandaid and played with that. Gross, but hey, whatever works. It's quiet upstairs now so I'm hoping she's sleeping the rest of the trauma off! :)

Back from vacation blues

I could not BELIEVE how well Kaelyn slept while we were on vacation. I'd put her in her little tent bed in the camper and she'd just roll over and go to sleep, no complaints! Even when she didn't go RIGHT to sleep, she'd just lay in there, happy as a lark, until she DID go to sleep. One of my theories about that was that she had more room. The bed in the camper was a double sized bed. So she could lay either direction and be fully stretched out. She tried to do that in her own bed when we got home and as you can see, the result is quite uncomfortable!

Being back from vacation is tough. We looked forward to it for SO long and now it's just over! Kaelyn slept SO well on vacation and we were out and about doing different things, it was nice! I also think Kaelyn greatly enjoyed being the center of attention at all times and having undivided attention. Don't get me wrong, she gets such attention at home quite often. But there are also phone calls, cooking, laundry, emails, etc that distract her from being the ONLY thing I'm concentrating on, you know? She got quite used to that on vacation and that was probably part of why she liked it so much! That and her camper bed!

I tell you, that camper bed! Amazing! I miss it! Can we go camping again? Even though she went to bed at about the same time, she got up a little later each morning. And HAPPY! At home she'll start rolling around and crying at 4:30 or 5. She's not really awake but she's working on it. This will continue for two hours or so. I get up because it's so frustrating to JUST fall back asleep and have her roll over and burst out with another cry or two. In the camper...nothing. She'd just get up when she was done sleeping, she didn't have to work up to it at all. It was awesome. I didn't have to nap during the day because I actually got to sleep at night. ALL night! I got a lot of reading done during naps because we were all in the camper so I couldn't move around or talk much and we weren't at home so I didn't have any chores to do, really. It was nice!

I think Kaelyn was excited to get home and see all her toys again but she gets pretty bored pretty easily so I think she preferred all the different things we were doing on vacation. Though I did take her to the zoo the day after we returned and she had SO much fun there. She missed her zoo.

We have weekend trips planned here and there, like last weekend we took the camper to Sean's parents house and camped out there. There was a family baby shower and a baptism all in one weekend. Little trips like that are great, but it's just not the same as being AWAY away, you know? We don't have another big trip planned until NEXT July, ugh! Though Sean MAY get sent to Las Vegas on business in January so we may get to go there for a few days. Kaelyn would stay home. With my mom, don't worry! :)

Since getting home, Kaelyn has started sleeping in on occasion, which is really nice. She's slept till 7:30 three times. And 7 a few other times. I think she really NEEDS to sleep until 7 or 7:30 because the past couple of days when she's gotten up at 6:30 she has NOT been in good spirits and goes back to bed within a few hours and naps for a long time. I don't understand why she doesn't just sleep till she's ready to get up! I know she's not ready to get up for the day at 6:30 and yet she's crying and crying so I can't just leave her in there by her lonesome!

Her other issue right now is real people food. Table food. She's getting more brave and trying a few more things. She's started to like wheat bread and she tried a tater tot the other day. But she still won't even try fruits or veggies. And she throws up a lot when she DOES eat something. We went to the splashpad park nearby on Monday and I got her to try some dried fruit. She had a banana chip and liked it and I gave her a dried piece of orange and she seemed to shovel that right in. About 10 minutes later she threw up. A LOT. So much I had to change her. She's done that before when I've fed her the REAL yogurt that has chunks of fruit in it. She hits a chunk and either spits it out, gags, or eats it and then throws up. I'm glad she's seeing the doctor tomorrow for her 15 month appointment so I can ask about that.

Seeing how well Kaelyn slept in the camper I seriously consider getting her into a bigger bed. We'd have to make a full sized bed into a crib somehow, because she rolls around SO much she definitely needs a bed with sides. But she really seemed to like the extra room! I don't know that I've talked Sean into the idea just yet, though! :) Just look at that picture, the poor thing! :)

We have been pretty busy since getting back, though. We have another family baby shower coming up this weekend and lots going on during the week. I look forward to finding out the details on Kaelyn's current stats at the doctor tomorrow. I'm sure she does NOT look forward to it, especially the shots!

I guess we can't be on vacation ALL the time. Tis back to the real world!

First Ponytail

Kaelyn's hair is getting long and it hangs down in her eyes. She doesn't care, but she's so cute you need to see her face! Barrettes work a little but they slide out so easily. Last night I was messing with her hair while she sat on my lap playing and I was pretty sure there was enough to do a little ponytail. So this morning while she was in the bath I grabbed one of those tiny baby rubber bands and here's the result! Kaelyn didn't exactly appreciate my efforts. I tried to be really gentle but she was screaming like I was pulling hairs out one by one. I'm pretty sure it didn't really hurt her, but it was a new experience. Hopefully she'll get used to it. She's napping now and I'm anxious to see if it's still somewhat in tact when she gets up. I don't plan to fix it if it's not, but I may have to take it out and she probably won't like that either!

Ah, the firsts in life! Her very first ponytail! Many more to come, I'm sure!

Colorado Trip-Complete

On Saturday we got up at Kaelyn's normal time at the Cabela's campground and headed home. We drove three hours in the morning, stopping in Kearney for lunch. I had Wendy's and Sean had Arby's. Kaelyn ran around in a hotel parking lot for awhile and played in the camper for awhile. Then we packed up and drove another three hours, finally arriving home at 4ish.

Then the REAL fun began. We unpacked a little but mostly just tried to ease back into being home. Sean washed the outside of the camper and Kaelyn tried to see how many things she could play with that she hadn't seen for a week! It was hard to get home because we knew it was over. And the humidity hit us square in the face the second we walked out the camper door!

Being home was tough at first. Kaelyn got used to her big camper bed and the first night we were home she was up from 1:30-5 yelling on and off. Sean went in twice and I went in several times as well. I even brought her back to bed with us for awhile to see if that would help. That didn't work. I rocked her for awhile at one point too. We hadn't been up that much with her in months. It brought back unfond memories of what it was like to get no sleep! That led to her being pretty grumpy on Sunday and I'll have to admit I was as well! Plus there were 8 loads of laundry to do (which took through Wednesday to get done AND put away) and various other elements of unpacking and settling in. But we made the most of it and headed to the zoo Monday and had a great time there.

Our next vacation isn't scheduled until NEXT July. But Sean has so many extra days off I'm convinced he should use them and we should take another one. Not sure if I've convinced HIM of that yet, but I'll work on that part! It was nice being together all day everyday. I can definitely tell one thing Kaelyn enjoyed about vacation was being the center of attention all the time. She is MOST of the time at home, but there's also laundry, phone calls, bills, cooking, things that get in the way from her getting ALL of the attention EVERY second. She doesn't like that! But you gotta eat! You gotta pay the bills! On vacation, there's not much you HAVE to do. Other than pay attention to Kaelyn. So that was nice for her AND for us!

We hope to visit Colorado again someday. The weather is SO pleasant. The scenery is beautiful. And there's plenty to do and see.

Colorado Trip-Heading Home

Friday our vacation was mostly over. We got up in the morning, packed up, and started to head home. Kaelyn took her morning nap while we drove and when she fell asleep so did I. Sean, therefore, was left without a navigator. And, therefore, we took a few detours! :) Instead of taking shorter routes we headed straight north to Cheyenne, Wyoming. Around lunch time we stopped at a camper store and then we HAPPENED to see a sign for Chick-Fil-A so we stopped there for lunch. Yeah!

We went a bit farther to Ft. Collins and looked for somewhere to let Kaelyn out to run around for awhile. We found a neat downtown area but couldn't find anywhere to park the camper so we ended up heading back to the interstate. We found a rest stop that had some trails and wooded areas so she played ball there for awhile. We didn't make a lot of progress. We drove for like 6 hours and when I did a search it said that drive should have taken 2 1/2 hours. Too many worthless detours!

We landed in Sidney, Nebraska for the night at Cabela's. They allow campers in their parking lot AND they have a campground right there as well. We would have just camped in the parking lot but it was SO hot we decided to try to get a spot at the campground so we could hook up and have AC all night without running the generator. It was really stinking hot. Welcome back humidity! I did not miss you ONE little bit!

Kaelyn enjoyed running around Cabela's for quite some time. She found a big red dog ball (of all things) with a handle and she greatly enjoyed tossing that around the store. She also found stairs that led up to a loft where people were sitting and eating. It'd been awhile since she'd had very many stairs to climb so she went pretty crazy over those! They had a fish tank there too and she watched them for a short while. But at that point she was still distracted by the dog ball. :)

We went to Dairy Queen nearby for supper and then set up the camper for the night. There was a nice playground on the campgrounds so, even though it was hot, we HAD to play. There was no swing, much to Kaelyn's dismay, but there were
a couple of slides. However, the sun was so hot they were BURNING. So I wouldn't let her slide down alone. She was happy enough going down with me. I knew enough to stay on my shorts and feet so I wouldn't get burned. She would have screamed all the way down! And, actually, one of the slides had a turn in it and I ended up peeling some skin off my elbow so I was even more glad I was her ride down!

There were actually people tent camping right next to us. In that heat, that was pretty nuts, if you ask me! That's REAL camping, though. We have all the perks in our camper. We don't camp in discomfort, that's for sure!

We knew the trip was REALLY close to being over. We only had about 6 hours to go the next day to get home. So sad to see it ending. It went by way too fast.

Colorado Trip-Garden of the Gods again!

On Thursday we knew our trip was wrapping up. And we didn't like that idea one little bit! The playground at the campground didn't have a baby swing. It only had ONE swing and it wasn't a baby swing. But Kaelyn did enjoy the slide quite a bit while we were there. Anytime we were on the campgrounds we were throwing her ball around or playing on that slide. She would climb up the slide (with help!) and then run over the bridge that was behind it, then come back and go down the slide. It was nice that it was all at a level where I could still reach her so I could just stand at the side and help her. A couple of times when there were other kids around I climbed up there with her to make it a little safer.

In the morning we went to the Garden of the Gods again to explore a little more. Sean hadn't been there except for that first day we were there for a little while so he wanted to go back and walk around some more. Kaelyn napped well there in her stroller and seemed to enjoy running around as well. We walked the main part of the garden and then drove to the part that had the balancing rock and some of the other sights.

After her nap ended and we were done exploring we went to find a skateboard park we had seen the first day we were there when we were driving around looking for our campground. Sean had
his remote control car with him and he thought it would be fun to run it around on the ramps.
He had a great time with that and Kaelyn liked playing with the car around the parking lot too. There was also a swing at the park so Kaelyn got to finally do a little swinging. She didn't want to stop, actually! When I took her out she ran right back over to it and looked up at it like hey, I'm not done with that yet! The slides at the park were WAY too hot to use. It was getting pretty steamy so we left and went to the Garden of the Gods visitor center. Sean hadn't been there yet either.

After we looked through everything there we went back to the campgrounds. They had a spagetti dinner there that was really good. We just threw the ball around and played on the playground the rest of the evening. We were all pretty sad that the trip was over and not looking forward to the drive back. We enjoyed the humidity-less weather and having the mountains nearby to look at anytime we wanted.

Colorado Trip-Royal Gorge

On Wednesday of our trip my parents and all of Sean's family were gone so it was just the three of us. We decided to go to the Royal Gorge in Canon City which was supposedly 45 minutes away. I think it took about an hour to get to Canon City and the Royal Gorge was outside the city, farther away. When we got to Canon City Kaelyn was majorly ready to get out of the car so we thought we'd see if there were any shops there and grab some lunch somewhere. We first stopped in the train station shop. There is a train that goes from Canon City through the Royal Gorge, something we'd like to do someday. And at the train station Kaelyn found lots of trains! Most of them made noise. We ended up getting her a little train set for her souvenir. It has an engine train with a driver in it. On that there's a button that makes the whistle blow and then it plays music. It has two cars that attach to the back. And a little track! I think I was more excited about the
track part than she was. It's pretty cool! :)

There wasn't much to see downtown. Sean stopped in one art store and Kaelyn and I walked through the Hallmark store. So we stopped in a small cafe and got some lunch. Kaelyn enjoyed playing in the window display. There were sand toys and flip flops up there, after all! Since we were still on OUR time, it was only 10:30 and there weren't many people there. That was nice. Kaelyn had the run of the place and I didn't feel too bad about letting her run! There was a small ramp leading from one part of the cafe into the part where we sat. And once she discovered that she must have run that ramp 10 times! After we were done eating and she went back to running the ramp, she handed her water glass to a random lady who was coming up the ramp. The lady was like, thanks... Then she started looking around like, what do I do with this now?! Kaelyn is becoming quite brave! She went from cowering from any stranger to handing random ladies her drink glass! :) So I took it from the lady and chased Kaelyn down. Again.

By the time we got to the gorge and got parked it was almost nap time. We couldn't BELIEVE when we got to the entrance that it was $25 PER person (Kaelyn was free at least!) to get in! But we drove all that way, we pretty much HAD to go in! There's a big bridge all the way across so after Kaelyn had her yogurt snack we walked that. It's a bummer that they let cars drive on it too. It's not all that big of a bridge, really. And when you have people walking all over it and a car tries to get through, it ruins the atmosphere. Not to mention if TWO cars go on it and meet up. That can be a little tight of a squeeze. When we got to the other side Kaelyn was getting sleepy so Sean walked up some stairs to a viewing area to take pictures and I kept walking Kaelyn in her stroller so she could nap. I walked over the bridge several more times. I figured I may as well have a good view while I walk! And we got some fresh squeezed lemonade that was SO good.

We were almost done for the day when we ran across the yellow train. Sean and I took a picture in that train together when we were there ten years ago. There wasn't really anyone around it so we couldn't take a picture with all three of us, but we took one with each of us and Kaelyn. Pretty neat to take the same picture ten years apart! We looked and looked for that train and it turned out to be close to the entrance! Figures! When we were all done there we drove by a wild west town attraction that looked really neat. It was $15 each to get in and it was already getting late so we headed back and hope we can do that next time we visit instead of paying to get into the gorge park. We stopped by a neat wood carving shop on the way back and that was cool. The carvings were VERY expensive. And Kaelyn was quite upset with me because she wanted to run up and down a ramp outside and I wouldn't let her. Why? Well, there was this big mean looking pit bull outside on NO leash! As much as we hear about pit bulls around here there was no way I wanted her anywhere near one, even if it seemed friendly. Which it didn't. But she was pretty upset with me anyways. What do you do!

We went back to the campgrounds and were able to catch the ice cream social again. Another HUGE bowl of ice cream for me. And no, I didn't share! We were starting to see our trip near its end and none of us were happy about it! But we still had all day Thursday before we needed to start heading back.