Kylie May not so sure she wanted to walk today 355

We attempted to recreate the amazing walking Kylie a few times today, but she was not very interested in showing off (not until Melissa came home, got Kylie out of bed to say "hi" to her, then ended up creating a second wind that resulted in talking, screaming, playing, dancing and a couple walking steps). Today Kylie spent some time with her Papa while I enjoyed an uninterrupted shower, yay. She also took a little trip across town to visit her great-grandparents (also determined to see her walk, no such luck). Add in a couple naps, play time with her daddy (before he headed to work) a delicious dinner, bath, second wind, snack, back to bed and it was a complete day.
I successfully put both of us to sleep tonight, so this wimpy post is a result of still being half asleep, sorry.
More to come soon,
Natalie

The headband lasted about 3 minutes and the outfit lasted about 1.5 hours, not bad ;o)

Kylie has enjoyed playing with this big box, usually she likes to push all her toys around in it, but this morning she decided to get join them in the box, so sweet.

Kylie May took a few steps today! 354

Biggest highlight of today...Kylie took 4 steps by herself!!! Melissa and I were sitting on the floor in the kitchen after dinner and kylie was walking back and fourth between us. She started to take a couple steps on her own then she would fall in to our arms. She got a little more daring and had about 3 good trips between us, 3-4 steps each. It was so awesome! One time she took two steps, stopped and slowly lowered herself to the floor. I wasn't sure she would be walking by her birthday, but if she keeps practicing like she did tonight, she might be, ahhhhh. Craig had just left for work, so I hope she will show off her new skills for him tomorrow when he gets home. He forgot his phone, so I haven't been able to tell him yet, I know he will be so excited.

The rest of the day was pretty average, we went to Barnes and Nobel for story time, had a picnic lunch in the front yard, and played a lot. She didn't nap very well today and seemed a little irritable all day, maybe she is just going through a little bit of chaous before she makes her big transition to walking, we will see.

We tried to get her walking on video, but every time one of us held the phone, she wouldn't try to walk, so sorry we don't have any photos, I will add some tomorrow.

More to come soon,
Natalie

Kylie May go to Gymboree Class today Two 353

Today was Kylie's first day at Gymboree class! We have been thinking about signing her up for a little while now, and when we made friends with Jess and her son Zach (just turned 1 year old) last week at yoga, we decided we would start class with them today. Kylie had a great time, we signed her up for one class a week, but I am hoping we can take advantage of the "open gym" time also. Kylie also got to spend some time with Mimi and Papa today. They got back from a trip to SF and she was eager to see them. One first for Kylie today...while Craig was feeding her apple sauce this morning he put some on a spoon and placed the spoon in front of Kylie. She picked it up and fed herself. It was awesome, we all cheered and she was eager to do it again. She showed off this new skill tonight during dinner too, she's growing too fast!!!!!

More to come soon,
Natalie

Two days ago Kylie found a passy, stuck it in her mouth and walked around the whole house with it for about 15 min, now if we could only get her to take one when I'm at work and she won't sleep.

Yesterday we went to the park and went on the swings...

Down the slide...

And played with a big red ball we found on the grass...

It was SO fun! We are glad the park is just one block away.

Today at Gymboree Kylie practiced rocking on lots of different toys, this was the first one, she was not sure sure about it.

It was a little more enjoyable when her new friend Zach joined her (they both had on grey strips today, one woman asked if they were twins, so cute!)

All the babies (9 months-14 months) pushing the big inflatable cylinder across the room, yay for teamwork.

"Come on Zach, we are almost there"

Parachute time, I want one of these to have at home, it was so fun. 

It's hard to see, but there were bubbles everywhere, Kylie enjoyed trying to pop them.

Kylie May put her mommy and daddy to sleep 352

Everyone was home tonight, what a great feeling to spend time together as a family. After a delicious dinner, we played in the living room until Kylie looked sleepy. We got her ready for bed and all climbed in for a few bedtime stories. With in about 5 minutes Craig was asleep, it took me a little longer (Kylie was performing her gymNURSEtics for about 45 min) but I honestly think I fell asleep before she did too. Next thing I know it has been a couple hours and the first thing that pops into my head is "the blog!" Since Craig was technically off tonight I am going to let him write a little something when he wakes up tomorrow. You all hear from me enough :o)

More to come soon,
Natalie

-It's Morning...Here's the Addendum-

I guess I have to add the addendum since I was the one who fell fast asleep at 9:00 last night, and didn't wake up again until this morning.  That is what you call "making the most of your night off" :-).  Since we are talking about yesterday like it is today I will still reference it accordingly.

Last night Kylie decided she would sleep great....for about 2 hours.  Then....the proverbial wheels fell off.  It was 11:00pm, I think to myself (huge mistake) "alright. It's 11:00 Kylie should pretty much be out for the night."  WRONG!  At about 11:05 she woke up.  It's ok. A small bottle, some bouncing, rocking, and she'll be right back to sleep....I mean it's 11:00 and all.  Strike Two! She decided that none of those things were what she needed to fall back to sleep.  What exactly did she need?  You've got me. We danced, we played, we listened to Lionel Richie, we read books, we bounced, we turned lights on, we turned lights off, we laid down, we stood up, we sat down, we rocked, we ate, we tried a bottle (which went flying across the room), we went outside, we came inside, and finally at 1:00, my arms and back were tired, so I asked auntie Melissa to come hold her for a while.  She did her best and by 1:45 we had both resigned ourselves to the fact that our little late nighter just might never sleep again.  Then 2:00 came, and with it, a small Christmas (in February of course) miracle.  Kylie finally laid her head down, took a bottle, and by 2:10 was back to sleep.  I guess that's parenting in a nut shell.  During our escapade (yes. that's what we're calling it) I questioned (on a couple occasions) the logic and wisdom of having children, but the nano second she was asleep, I looked at her innocent face and thought she was the most precious thing in the world.  I have  a sneaking suspicion that this cycle may repeat itself another time or two over the next 20 something years.

The rest of the night (or morning...you decided what to call it) was smooth sailing, but by the time Nat came home we were both happy to see her.  The rest of the day involved Kylie exploring all the nooks and crannies of the house (mostly to make sure nothing was left on a shelf or in a cupboard).  The nice part about mini Cousteau's explorations is that it keeps the burglars away.  If they were to stop by our house they would be certain that it had already been ransacked and they'd hit the next spot.  Thanks for keeping the robber's away Kylie May.

More to come soon,

Craig 

Kylie May Plays Hide-And-Go-Seek Day 351

Time for a quick update. Then What? Back to keeping Kylie asleep, while Nat works tonight.  It's a full time job. I give Nat credit for handling it while I'm at work all the time. 

Kylie may only be turning one, but I think she is already going on 17.  She is growing so much in so many ways.  Her personality develops more all the time, and every day it seems like she is doing something new physically. 

Tonight her favorite game was to grab my hand, point to a pen (which I then gave her of course), have me walk her over to the cupboards, open it, put the pen down inside it, close the cupboard, then 5 seconds later open it back up and take her pen out.  I think we repeated that process for about 20 minutes straight tonight.  She (and I) was so proud of her accomplishments. Watching her do things like that reminds me that "play" is a full time job for our little munchkin. It is a lot of fun to see how focused she gets when she is in the middle of trying to work on something like hide-and-go-seek with her pen.

Well, another day will bring another story....and even some pictures.

More to come soon,

Craig

Kylie May ate dirt today 350

It's Friday! This week went by WAY to fast! We started our morning with yoga, well we tried to do yoga, but Kylie was more interested in nursing and trying to hug the little boy in our class (which she successfully did a few times, knocking him over, but he was a good sport about it). Kylie didn't sleep to well last night, she was a little stuffed up. So when we got home from yoga she went down for a nice long nap (2.5 hours!). This afternoon we ran some errands and Kylie played in the front yard. I ran to teach at the BI and Craig stayed with Kylie (he stayed over this morning at work, so they had him come in later tonight). Miss May was still up when I got home, so Craig and I enjoyed just sitting on the couch together watching her play. She came over and climbed up on our laps and gave us both big, wet kisses, it doesn't get better then that!

More to come soon,
Natalie

This beautiful tree lives in our neighbors front yard...

and Kylie loves to play with the flower petals.

Then she decided to head back to our yard...

"You comin mom?"

to play in the dirt.

"Can I eat this?"

To late. "Yum"

"Do you think she will notice if I get another handful?"

"Well that dirt was good, but I am thinking I would like a little variety."

"Let's see, what are my options?"

"Oh yes, this looks like some good dirt."

"Yuck, someone put something funny in that dirt! Mom, please get it off my hands ASAP."

Kylie May does a little shopping today 349

This evening has been a little bit of a challenge and therefor this entry will be short and sweet. (FYI the challenge has not necessarily been Kylie, it's just that every time I go in to help her fall back to sleep, I do such a good job I put myself to sleep too. I this is the third time I have had to drag myself out of bed to try and write this blog, I am just hoping to get it done before she stirs again :o))
This morning we took a family trip to the Inland Center Mall, Craig returned some shoes I got for him (to big) and ordered some new ones, Auntie Melissa got a great deal on some cute undies at Victoria Secret and Miss May enjoyed the kids play area. It was a very successful trip, we wore Kylie out just enough for her to fall asleep on the way home, yay! After a nice long nap (over 2 hours), Kylie was up and ready to eat and play. She decided that she wanted to push two of her three push toys at the same time, it works for a few steps then they tend to veer different directions. Then she decided that she was going to try and push all three of her toys, it was interesting to watch her try to figure out how to push three toys with only two hands. She walked from one to the next pushing each just a little before moving on, this lasted just a few minutes until she decided to take off with the smallest one that makes music. We had a yummy dinner, we all ate the same thing, rice, fish and peas. It's so fun to have a few meals that don't require different prep for the little one. Then it was bath time and bed time. It took her a little over an hour to finally fall asleep and she woke a few times between then and about 11. What happened at 11pm you ask? Kylie decided that it was time to be awake, awake and happy and crawling around and nursing like a little gymnast. So another hour + or gym-nurse-tics and she finally fell back to sleep and so did I :o)

More to come soon,
Natalie

P.S. Yes Craig is back to work tonight and he just wrote me saying that he is sad because he feels better awake at work (in the middle of the night) then he did the few days off when he was awake during the day. 30 days is all it takes to create a new habit, so I figure he just needs to take 30 days off to get himself back to normal :o) wishful thinking, but someday we hope he takes a day position, then hopefully he can switch his body back.

She had a death grip on Auntie Melissa's shopping bag

And this is the face we got when Auntie Melissa tried to take it away. Needless to say we let her hold it all the way home.

Post bath exercise around the house

Kylie May Visits Some Friends Day 348

Reunited and it feels so good.  That's what the song says anyway.  Kylie got reacquainted with some of Nat's nursing school friends today.  This is the first time they'd seen Kylie since sometime this past summer (when Kylie was a mini version of her current self).  Ah...the pre-pterodactyl days...life was simpler then. :-)  I didn't get the full report, but I'm sure Kylie dazzled the crowd with all her fun dancing and singing.  Then, I'm sure she terrified everyone with her crystal shattering yells that she is becoming known for.  I don't think anyone wants to be known for how effective they can scream.

One thing is for certain.  The get together wore our little camper out.  She slept all the way home and then decided that wasn't good enough so she slept a little longer.  Eventually the sleep fairy loosened her noose and Kylie joined the crowd.  Her nap, though, insured two things.  1) she would not be sleeping during my watch (Nat had to facilitate a hospital tour) and 2) she would be energetic and playful.  I was right on both accounts.  Kylie and I had a great time building a fort (and crawling through it), playing tea party, reading books, eating, taking a bath, and pushing the strollers.  We had a lot of lost time to make up for, and we did it. 

More to come soon,

Craig

Kylie May's "Wander"ful Day 347

"You can't stop me. You can only hope to contain me" that must have been what was running through Kylie's little mind as we sat at Barnes and Noble story time this morning.  It wasn't actually during story time (she loved sitting and listening to the lady read), but afterwards she was off on another of her big adventures.  Pause. rewind. During story time, Kylie watches so intently as the lady reads the story and shows the pages.  Today, because she just couldn't contain the excitement. She stood up on the bench in front of her, leaned forward, and watched every moment of the story.  Apparently though, the teacher missed some important details because our little anti-wall flower took every opportunity (even the ones that weren't really there) to scream out some random syllables...and yes.  She was the only child doing this.  With nearly every turn of the page came another squeak and squeal from our little book worm.  It was pretty funny.

Ok. fast forward the DVR now. Back to the wandering.  They (the all knowing people that write all the "_________ for dummies" books) say that about the time your child becomes mobile they also develop a healthy since of apprehension when venturing too far from mom or dad.  So, being the inquisitive minds that we are, Nat and I decided to test that theory today with our little Jacques Cousteau.  She started crawling across Barnes and Noble, while Nat and I held our ground and watched.  At some point we figured Kylie would just turn around, see how far away she was, hang a 180 and come back.  Did she do that? No way! Did she even turn around? Yeah. Once. Just to wave and keep crawling away.  It wasn't until she was all the way across the store, playing with the stuffed animals on a shelf that we decided she really wasn't coming back.  When we finally decided to go join her, she was happy to let us join in, but didn't seem to need the company.  Apparently we got the strong independent woman we hoped for. It just came about 17 years sooner than we expected.

The wandering and playing eventually wore her down, so we headed home, took a nap, strollered the babies all over the house, watched the rain fall outside, read plenty of stories (Moo Baa La La La, That's Not my Puppy, Brown Bear Brown Bear, Polar Bear Polar Bear, Baby Einstein-Learn to Count, Dancing Feet, and more....), watched a little basketball, ate, and had a tealess tea party.

Dinner? Grandpa and Grandma invited us over.  It was great, but that wasn't Kylie's favorite part of the night.  Crawling through the couch and blanket fort was hands down the evening's main event.  She was so proud of herself as she wandered her way through the maze and came out unscathed on the other end.  She sat up, gave herself a round of applause, and headed back in to go the other direction.  Had we not gotten tired, that may have continued until the second coming.

More to come soon,

Craig

Date night at Rok N Fondu, wonderful food, amazing company, can't wait to do it again.

Taking Macy and Karly for a trip around the house.

"A little help, please."

 

Unfortunately, some oranges WERE harmed in the making of this photo.

Guys. Guys!? Are you seeing this right now?

Kylie May Sends Her Parent's on a Date Night Day 346

Like a ticking time bomb (one that McGyver can't stop, of course) Kylie is rapidly approaching the one year mark.  The crazy part is that Nat and I have not  been on a dinner and movie date since before she was born. I guess she is an ooooing and cooooing real life reminder of how fast time is going.  Luckily, the stars aligned tonight (I was off, gpa and gma were home, Nat had no other commitments), and we were able to leave Kylie at gpa and gma's for a couple hours while Nat and I did a fondu dinner and a movie.  We both decided that we couldn't possibly love and adore Kylie any more than we do, but sometimes a date night is just what a couple needs.  It was great.

During gpa and gma time, Kylie continued to display her unorthodox (but effective) communication skills.  She reminded everyone in the house that Nat and I were gone by: pointing at the door, saying mamma and dada, making a sad face, and then waving bye bye.  Does it get any clearer than that?...I mean for an 11 month old?  It sounds like that was about her only sad moment (besides getting a toe stepped on during play time), as the rest were filled with music, food, toys, and laughter.

The rest of her day involved a chiropractic adjustment, playing with Uncle Kyle, walking and napping with dad, and pushing anything with wheels all over kingdom come. She loves pushing her babies around in anything that will carry them.

more to come soon,

Craig

Kylie May's first baseball day 345

Another Sunday has come and gone. In many ways it was like most other Sundays, sleeping in, breakfast, church, out to lunch, nap, play time, dinner and bed. But today Kylie got to enjoy her Sunday routine with her Uncle Kyle, Aunties Lane and Quin and Grandma Diana, and she loved it! It was a beautiful, warm day so we spent some time outside this afternoon, we took a walk to the neighbors house and saw their fluffy kitty, we visited with Lance (boy who lives behind us) and Kylie played her first game of baseball. Well that might be a bit of an exageration, but she did stand with me while I helped her hold a bat and Auntie Quin tossed a ball to us. It was about as close to baseball as you can be at 11.5 months old, still unable to stand by yourself :o)

It was a wonderful day, we were sad to say good bye to grandma and aunties. Kyle is staying one more day and Kylie will love spending that extra time with him, I'm sure.
Some photos to recap the afternoon.
More to come soon,
Natalie

Even little girls need to get dirty every once in a while

To bad Daddy was sleeping during all this fun, I'm sure we will play again with him soon.

Uncle Kyle put a pretty flower in Kylies hair, so nice.

throwing wood chips, another good pass time

"High steppin" with Uncle Kyle

Not so happy about Grandma leaving :o( They will come back soon to visit, we promise.

The Day That Is, Was, and Forever More 344

     Kylie woke up this morning to find that she still had a clapping entourage. Her Grammy, aunties, and uncle were there waiting to see her beautiful morning face. After waking up to the smell of bacon, Kylie got to spend some time with her daddy and eat a yummy breakfast before he fell asleep. Everyone then got dressed for the day, and Natalie was off to take some pictures of a family from church. While Mommy was away aunties, Grammy, and uncle tried to get the little monkey to sleep, but she would not have it. Kylie enjoyed walking back and forth in the living room, never falling out of step. Before long it was time to head over to Mimi and Papa's house for a nap while Grammy, Mommy, Auntie Melissa, Auntie Quin (the birthday girl), and Auntie Lane headed to the nail salon for some girl time.
     It was great to spend some time with the girls but we definitely missed Kylie so after we were done we headed back to Mimi and Papa's to pick her up and take a walk downtown in the beautiful Southern California weather. After some ice cream, we made a stop by the kids shoe store and got Kylie some shoes with better soles on them for all the walking she does these days. After some cute shoes were bought and a couple of "bow wow's" spotted, we headed home to get ready for Quin's birthday dinner at Pat & Oscar's. By this time Craig was awake and ready to spend some time with his girls. Kylie was very excited to see him and play with him for a while before he had to head to work again. She had been very vocal all day long but she really put those lungs to work at dinner with lots of pterodactyl squealing. Grammy saved the day by taking her for a walk outside to see and feed the ducks which she loved. After dinner we hoped back in to the car for the short ride home and then it was time for a quick bath and bed time. As much as we love seeing her, our presence does seem to excite her into not sleeping so it took quite a while for her to fall asleep but now she's out like a light and we've all enjoyed a relaxing evening together.
      For us Porterville folk I'm afraid it's the second (more like tenth) verse, same as the first and we will be heading home tomorrow. Naturally we hate to leave this wonderful little family behind, however, as always, we are grateful for the time we got to spend here and look forward to the next visit. During this trip we have been reminiscing about how we were feeling last year at this time when Nat was rapidly approaching her due date and we were all anxiously awaiting the bundle of joy that we now know as Kylie. The year has gone by soo fast and it is crazy how much the little munchkin grows and changes between each of our visits but we wouldn't have it any other way and are so glad that we have gotten to be a part of her life.

More to come soon,
Aunties Quin and Lane

She loves to pull out the pieces of her alphabet mat to chew on

Lots of wagon pushing today

Walking downtown with Aunties

Out of nowhere she started to make this funny face at dinner

She thought it was hilarious when Grammy would blow her hair around

Kyle and Kylie checking out the ducks

The crew at dinner (minus Craig and Natalie)