The Ocho

Yesterday Kaylee hit the eight month mark. Kinda hard to believe. Seems like only a month ago she had her six-month check up. (Oh, that was a month ago.) It's really impressive when you look at everything she's doing now (off the top of my head):

Crawling all over the house, carrying around her favorite frog toy, following us (and the dogs) from room to room, enjoying eating applesauce, not enjoying eating peas so much, drinking out of a sippy cup, pulling herself up on furniture, pulling herself up on our legs, pulling herself up on the dogs and holding on for dear life as they run off, loving (tackling ) the cats, saying "dadadadadada" and not much else, screaming like a banshee when you try to put her in her car seat, putting herself to sleep in her own bed (almost) every night, (usually) sleeping through the night, putting herself back to sleep when she wakes up, playing quietly in her crib while she waits for us to wake up in the morning, doing "the happy dance" when I come home from work each evening (gotta get video of that), letting go while standing up (and lasting for more than two seconds), taking your hands and walking across the room ...

And it's all really impressive when you consider that just a few months ago she was:

Eating, sleeping, pooping.

Kaylee today: Awesome.

Kaylee in da hood

Kaylee today: Hoodie.

Kaylee's weekend

Kaylee's latest trick is blowing razz berries. She spent most of the night doing this – much to the delight of everyone at the BBQ we took her to. She didn't learn it from us ... I seem to remember a certain baby sitter telling us she was entertaining the kid with them the other night ...
Now I know you're asking yourself – "Self? What's that photo doing here? Neither one of them looks anything like Kaylee."

Well, that's because you've never seen Kaylee with the animals (Max and Eddie in particular. They seem to be the most tolerant.) All she wants to do is love them. So she tackles them with open arms (and an open mouth), grabs two fists of fur and makes grunting noises.

If they could, I'm certain they would attempt to chase her from the house with torches and pitchforks. Good thing they don't have opposable thumbs.

Kaylee today: Puuuaatnndaareeezzz.

It's another video!

Oh my god. Two video posts in one week.
Surely, you must be blessed.

Kaylee today: Watch the movie and see. Geez – you expect me to do everything?

When Kaylee was in Egypt's land …

" … let my puppy go."

Taking requests

Late nite photo shoot

Sooooo cute when she's sleeping.

Walk in the park

We finally broke our string of 100º+ days here in the Old Pueblo, so we celebrated with a trip to the park. We tired the boys out at the dog run for a while and then just wandered about.

Kaylee wasn't sure what to think of her first experience with the swings.
She didn't seem scared – more like concerned.

Since it's not something we see every day, much less sit in,
grass took some getting used to as well.

But she quickly learned it's as good a place as any to tackle Eddie.

And there's cool things to be found.
This stick kept her entertained for a good 15 minutes.

The no-hawk and the faux-hawk.

Kaylee today: Wide-eyed.

Just for GG

Kaylee's new favorite toy – the one she always grabs for when the toy box comes out – is this little stuffed frog thingy. GG must have rubbed off on her a little more than we knew during our visit.

Kaylee today: Ribbit.

Look into my eyes ...

You know that saying "You're so full of _____* your eyes are brown"?

If that were true, Kaylee's eyes would be green. And orange. And yellow.

But never blue.

Come to think of it, she goes through diapers so fast I'm surprised her eyes are any color at all.

Kaylee today: Stewed.

* This is a family-friendly blog,** what did you expect me to say?
** Usually.

The secret

I think we figured it out. Finally. She's been down for two hours and if all goes well, Kaylee will sleep through the night.

We noticed that she's been waking up when we go to bed. We're being extra quiet … but she wakes up anyway. But then it hit us – it's quiet. Too quiet.

Kaylee's room is right next to the cold air return for the AC. It's loud. When it turns off – the TV is making plenty of noise. (Mainly because we have to turn it up so loud to hear it over the AC.) Well, if the AC is off – and we turn off the TV – there's no more white noise.

That's when she wakes up.

So starting tonight we've placed a box fan in her room. We think it should make enough noise to keep her from waking up. Or at least that's the theory.

If it works, I think Kaylee is getting a Sleep Machine for her birthday.

And if it doesn't work – we're sound-proofing her door.

Kaylee today: Ornery.

Kayl-E-Faces*

After looking through this weekend's photos I noticed that Kaylee has gotten pretty good at impressions. Move over Rich Little ... there's a new sheriff in town …

I like them French fried potaters … mmmmmm.

WHATCHOO TALKIN' ABOUT RACHEAL?

Kaylee today: Something.

*Very poor attempt at a He-Man joke. If you get it now, at least I've done half my job.

Makin' trouble

Did I mention that she's pulling herself up on stuff?
The little monkey gets around. And into trouble.
She'll be swinging in the trees before too long.

Potty mouth

Rae tells me she was in the bathroom with Kaylee when the kid stood up – holding on to the toilet – and proceeded to chew on the lid.

Kiss baby at your own risk. Management is not responsible for illness.

Kaylee today: BLECH.

Pictures and pediatricians

GOT BOOGERS?*

In other news: Kaylee finally made it to her 6-month appointment today. (Check out how old she really is – link at right.) Doctor of Babies says all is well – which we're always happy to hear. No scolding from him this time – though I'm sure there's something we didn't tell him about that he'd shake a finger at.

She's officially growing like a weed. (That's Midwest hillbilly speak for "a lot.") She weighs in at 15 pounds 14 ounces, is 27 inches tall and has a 43 centimeter head. (Which means if you're shopping for a hat - I'd go with size small.)

Kaylee today: Squeaky.

*Pic uploaded specifically for Penny who needed a baby photo fix. My fans can be so demanding.

More random updates ...

Tastes like chicken: Seems the omnivore thing didn't go over too well. Feeding became a fight – but went right back to normal once we went back to fruits and vegetables. We'll try chicken again at a later date.

Night night: She's going to sleep easier at night now, but she's not sleeping through the night anymore. Now she's regularly getting up to eat every four hours or so. That's something to bring up with the Doctor of Babies when we see him later this week for Kaylee's 6-month checkup. (Yes, it's only about a month and a half late.)

First words? So far all we've gotten Kaylee to say is random baby babble. But when Rae brought her to bed to feed her this morning she woke me up by banging on my chest and saying "dadadadadadadadadadada ..." She'd go back to babble-speak when looking at Rae – and back to "dadadadada" when I got her attention again. Not sure that it counts – we'll see if she repeats it any time soon.

She found the toybox: So far, her new favorite is at right. It's this annoying cow on wheels that plays "The farmer in the dell" over and over and over and ...

Kaylee today: Pooping. (In her diaper, on the floor, under my chair.)

Can't sleep

So you get an update. Lucky you.

She's an omnivore: Kaylee had her first bites of meat for dinner last night. Or what passes for meat in baby food anyway. Pretty much just pureed veggies with some chicken fat. Looked horrible. Smelled worse. She didn't seem to mind.

She is her mother's daughter: She is currently obsessed with shoes. Her favorite is mostly anything with laces (which she will spend an hour undoing) but I'm sure that will soon be replaced by slingbacks of Italian leather.

What's in there? Another obsession of hers is the fridge. She is bound and determined to get in there sooner than later. She will be playing on the floor, minding her own business, but as soon as you open the fridge she is scooting along trying to sneak a peek inside. The couple of times she has made it in she just pulls herself up on the crisper and stares with wonder ...

Gumming her food: Kaylee still has a toothless smile. (But a cute one.) Her gums are swollen and she is chewing on everything – but she's been like that for months, so I don't know that it means anything.

Well, that killed 10 minutes. Now what?

Kaylee today: Sleeping (which I should be)

YUM!

Apparently, I wasn't doing a good enough job feeding her. So Kaylee grabbed the spoon and finished up on her own this evening.

Green beans – in case you were wondering.

Kaylee today: Slimed.

Beating the heat

What do you do when it's 114° outside?
You swim.

We made a dry run in the dining room the night before.
For safety's sake.

Rae is either going over the pool's special features – or having a discussion I didn't expect until Kaylee was ready to start dating.

DANGER! DANGER! DIVE! DIVE!

"I don't even know why you're talking to me. This is where the cool kids play.
Don't you have somewhere else to be?"

Family swim.

I think we let her cook a little too long.

Kaylee unplugged

After seeing one too many two-year-olds slurping on their pacifiers at the mall we've decided to start weening Kaylee from hers already. (She's already MY kid – she doesn't need anything else people can hold against her.)

It's going well. She doesn't seem to miss it – even at day care. The only time she gets it is bed time. And we'll likely change that once she starts falling asleep a little easier.

Kaylee today: Strong-willed.