A year and a half

     With everything that has been going on, I have been slacking. Plus, trying to blog from my phone during naps or at night isn't working out so well when it fails to publish and save. Many things have been going on.

     18 Months

          We had our 18 month appointment on Aug 19th and it was hard. We saw a new resident and a new nurse practioner. Our doctor switched sides of the office and got all new staff, the people I have seen for 20 years and I had hoped my daughter would grow to love, no longer see us. However, in a town where many people are doctorless, we still have one, so I shouldn't complain.
         The 18 month appointment was a check on her development and milestones versus health. It was an hour of questions and forms and judging. Yes, my daughter is tiny (23 lbs at 18 months) and doesn't talk and co-sleeps..but she is happy, eats like a horse and has never really been sick. They suggested speech therapy once she is past 2. Due to her walking early (10 months), her speech could be delayed and take a while to catch up. Instead of waiting that long, I self referred her to Early Expressions and she has an appointment in May 2015 (unless she gets a cancellation call). We are working with her and making her ask for things: "up please" "milk please" "I love you too" "good job" are just some of the mini sentences I am sure she has said, even if I can only understand.

The rest of the days

         The rest of the days have been spent learning and loving.We were even in a wedding, and she was the prettiest flower girl ever (and so well behaved). We have been working on colours, names of things, stacking, manners, and semi-attempting potty training. We have been going for walks, spending time outside and with friends and family. We have been on trips and just been enjoying the end of Summer. She has also been busy growing teeth. Kaelynn has 6 now and her canines are trying to pop through. It's amazing she has teeth now and so horrible on her bad days.

       I am feeling quite terrible that she seems to be scared of Hallowe'en. We took a walk one day with a friend and stopped in at Spirit Hallowe'en. As soon as we entered, she seemed tense. And then I made a mistake...

I stepped on a robot, thinking it just talked, and then her head went POP! She screamed and ran away. I picked her up and she cling onto me for dear life. Nothing would make her feel better, except for a Flounder (The Little Mermaid) trick or treat pail that I made her give to the cashier instead of buying. Even after we had left, I could still feel her clinging onto me. She now seems to be afraid of anything to do with it. Target and the Dollarama's sections seems to scare her, even cute little felted bats and glittery pumpkins. Daddy didn't seem to believe me until he walked down the spooky aisle of the Dollarama with her. She refused to touch anything and then she had a melt down once she saw the severed limbs. I know reassurance and exposure help with fears, but it's hard. Hopefully, she will be good for Trick Or Treating around the neighbourhood - especially since I DIY'd a pretty cute costume.

 

19 Months

      19 months was not much different than 18, but more of her huge personality is coming out. She's definitely the boss of the house. She is loving to her stuffed animals and babies. She offers them snacks and takes them on adventures when we go out. Her behaviour towards the cats is not so nice; she tries to step on them and gets mad when they touch her toys or come near her. She is more than happy to feed them in the morning though, going so far as to lead me to the bathroom and point at the cat food container.

     

 

                       We have some fun things coming up

                       This afternoon, we are going to the mall to see My Little Pony perform. I told her what the plan was this morning, and in her Spotty AMP diaper, she tried to lead me to the stairs all excited...until I told her we had to wait and get dressed.

                      October 4th, we are going to the Battersea Pumpkin Festival. I hope it's super fun. I have never been, but have heard great things from others.

9 Months

                                 

   9 Months in

9 Months out

     Nine months have passed already and so much has happened. Through the stress of tantrums, teething, growth spurts, and moving, I love you so much.

    Next Thursday, she has her 9 month appointment and ultrasound, so measurements then.

Everyday, we're getting closer to walking. Her favourite thing at the moment is to try to free stand and walk around the furniture. I even had to go to LOWES and buy pipe insulation to wrap around the coffee table, just need to get tape since she keeps ripping it off and waving it around.

     She is loving all types of food, basically we are off purees. She is eating bits of our dinner, or if it's inappropriate for a  baby I make her something special. When it comes to snack time, she loves to share: a bite for her, a bite for me (this actually applies to anything as she just tried to stick a fake icecube in my mouth). 

    Her favourite activity, aside from walking, is blowing raspberries. The more the spittle, the better the raspberry. She loves if you blow them back to her too. She has a quirky tongue too - it goes sideways. 

      Her hair is growing and growing. More than not, it's "styled" in a unihorn. It's long in front and long in back, but putting it in a big girl ponytail, it falls out. 

     We are working on separation anxiety. She freaks out if I am not around or in eye-shot. If I happen to not be around, she is fine..but if I come into the room, she freaks out. We had a date night at the movies and my mom watched her. She freaked out for an hour, napped, and freaked out again.  I fed her before we left and left snacks with my mom. She devoured them, and still wanted more. In 3 hours, she needed all the snacks. I've heard S.A lasts about 2 months, I am hoping this is true. Sometimes, I feel like I am losing my mind. Even if I love her so. 

     To semi deal with the S.A (and all  the stairs in the new house), I purchased an Ergo carrier. All the babies shall be worn, plus it puts her to sleep when I'm doing chores.

     

   

Keep Calm and Crawl On

 

  We've entered the stage of randomly screaming at the top of her lungs. Not just any type of screaming either, high pitched, making the cats' ears go back, screams. These, on top of teething screams, are making this a deaf household.

     Today was a horrible teething screaming morning. 15 mins (I know, I know that's not a long time) of inconsolable scream/crying while trying to get ready to go to the park. I managed to get her all ready and with J's help we put her in her wrap. Snuggled in close, she fell asleep a block from home. Once we got to the park, she woke up. We played with my friend and her new dog, and everything was right as rain. Back in her wrap for the walk home and she was out again. Today was the first time I had managed to pee while baby wearing. NOTHING SHALL WAKE THE BABY! I did need help removing my sandals though.

 

 The other night in the bath tub, we had lots of snuggles. Seeing how big she is getting is making me sad and proud at the same time. She's doing SO much. She's growing SO much. She's getting SO much hair. I have a feeling I will be one of those moms that cling on and hug extra long. The embarrassing kind of mom that everyone hates but loves at the same time. I kiss and squeeze her so much, and as often as possible. People say their spouse is their true love, wait til you have a child.

     I have also realized that I had taken her not moving for granted. This morning I was making tea and heard the coin candle holder jingling. I thought she was just playing with it. I look out the door way and YELL at her. She had pulled herself up onto the TV holder and was trying to get the XBOX charger station. Our TV center is one of those cubicle kinds from IKEA, I still see little finger prints in the dust by the XBOX. J asked me why I was yelling at her. He said from now on she's not allowed in the living room unsupervised and has to be put in the Ring of Neglect (exersauser) or brought along for the ride wherever we're going. I have a feeling as she grows older and more adventurous, he is going to be the super worried type. I am already "as long as she's not going to lose an eye or limb, she can try it out" type.

     As for crawling, I have a feeling she is going to skip that all together. When she is getting super fussy, just hold her up in the middle of the room, or flip a laundry basket so she can stand by herself and she is happy. According to Grandma L, J skipped crawling. Crawling is for chumps!

Play date pictures

      The fabulous Allie over at Dear Darling Baby took some snaps of Kaelynn while having a play date at the park. My little girl is full of personality.

Kaelynn's first zoo trip

     Saturday, August 17th, 2013, we took our first family trip to the Toronto Zoo.
     While the drive was long, Kaelynn was a champ. About half way there, she started to fuss. I had a feeling it could have been teeth. I gave her some shots of Camilla and let her suck on the bottle of Jake's aluminum water bottle. She passed out. We made 2 OnRoute stops to pee, feed her, and basically let everyone stretch out.

     Jake, his sister Sarah, and us arrived around 1. We had a picnic in the parking lot. Vegetable bread is delicious. We were in the far parking lot, so we followed the great parade to the main entrance.
Let the animals commence.

VERY unflattering picture of mama

     All in all, it was a very good trip. There was plenty of unhappy children and babies hanging around, but she was not one of them. Due to her great behaviour, daddy bought her a pink and black panda - to commemorate the first of 5 years of the pandas at the zoo.

     We left town at 9 am and arrived home around 1030pm. It made for a long day, but I like to think she enjoted it too.

6 months old

      Happy half birthday kiddo! Time feels like it has gone by so fast! You're getting bigger everyday and you're learning so much! I look at you and wonder "where did my little baby go?"
      You're able to blow raspberries, half attempting to crawl (sometimes), and always attempting to stand. You've got your moods and are now refusing to sleep in your crib, but I am taking all the baby snuggles I can get before you're "too old".

There are no signs of teeth yet, still a little tooth nub that is causing Kaelynn to eat her fists all the time. Even toothless, she is enjoying food. So far, peas, carrots and squash have gone over well. Next we have avacado and zucchini.

 

     Some favourite games are being a Baby Hat. Kaelynn is placed on top of someone's head and while bouncing, someone says babyhat over and over. Hands placed properly, once she's flipped upside down, it's a giggle fit. She's starting to use her Sophie like a teether and has been taking a soother more often. She's gotten into reading her own books and playing with flyers. She will turn the pages and help.

   On Monday, she has her 6 month shots, so her stats aren't too far behind this update. This is convient since on Saturday we are going to the zoo. I hope she enjoys it. (reminder: check Toronto weather).

 

     Today, we gave her a first taste of lemon. She loves garlic pickles, so I was unure about how she would react. Of course, I had to wait for Daddy to come home.





Getting somewhere slow

     In 6 days, little miss will be 6 months old. There has been much improvement in how she gets around. We have a barrel rolling genius.

     I have marked with her cat where she started and that is where she got. She's also gotten into the habit of trying to push off with her legs against something and pushes her head along. She never gets very far, and at least she is on the foam.

First road trip

     Yesterday was our first road trip as a family. A few friends were going to a water park in Quebec with their boys & had invited us along. It was interesting to say the least.

     We get picked up & hit the road. She slept most of the way there, after staring at the boys for a while. We have a pit stop to stretch & I feed her the travel bottle I packed. Back asleep she goes.

     We finally arrive & change into suits. There was a children's splash pool that we waded in for a while. Lots of feeding due to being in the sun/ watching Daddy and the boys run off for the bigger slides. At one point, a mother and her daughter approached me. With everything that's been going around about breast feeding in public, my mind automatically went to they were going to tell me off. Instead, they offered to let me borrow their beach chair, but I was more comfortable sitting on the deck. (What got me was all the little babies around, there was a lack of breast feeding going on). After a feed, Kaelynn just passed out - to the point that I just placed her in her big girl stroller all bundled up to keep warm/sun free.

     One of the dads was unable to go on any slides. He was okay with watching a sleeping baby while I went on some slides - I paid admission, I should have some fun.
     I went down with my brother's girlfriend on most slides. We went down Black Magic a few times - an enclosed slide. Than Jake, a friends son, Kaitlynn and I went down Tornado Alley. The whole time I was screaming "I NO LIKE". The funnel spun it so I was backwards, plus it was dark.

     Jake deserves some sort of medal for being a baby wrangler. He spent most of the day riding with the younger boys or at least following them to where they wanted to go. He made sure an over zealous 3 year old didn't drown in the wading pool.

     We stayed at the park roughly 5 hours. Going home was a whole other story. Grumpy baby. 5 year old in the back, yelling to the front (then complaining about the screaming baby). We had to stop and get something to eat and feed/change her. Once on the road again, nothing seemed better. I gave her crinkly things to play with, fingers to suck. Nope. In the end, I had to creative nurse her. Lesson learned: for our zoo trip in 2 weeks for my bday, bring my battery powered pump.

Pass The Peas, Please

     Kaelynn is 5.5 months old now. She seems to have a strong interest in our food, so this morning she got some Baby Bulleted peas and breast milk.

     She was unsure about them. She would open her mouth for the spoon, but once the food was in her mouth, she decided she didn't want it- I didn't force them upon her. We're going to try again later this afternoon. It could just be she wanted what we have when we have it. She LOVES licking food juice off our fingers.

     Throughout the day, I fed her more peas. Peas after I had lunch, peas after I had dinner. It got to the point where she was opening her mouth for them. I haveno real idea how much I should feed her, but the jar she polished off only had about 2 tbsp worth of peas in in. I figure all day she must have had 1-1.5 tbsp of peas.

      A video from her finishing off her peas for the night.Notice she grabs the spoon to shove it in her gob & keeps lookimg towards her pea pot?  I'm thinking she likes them.(I'm also hoping I don't sound as silly in person as I do in video).

Blurbs from the boyfriend:

"But it's SO watery"

"Think about what she eats on a daily basis.."

5 Months Old

     Five months already. Pretty soon she is going to be all grown up, but I won't think like that.
Kaelynn is getting to be such a big girl. Even in her 5 month Mommy picture, she looks big.

     She is increasingly becoming more vocal & more personality is growing. She has become WAY more interested in food, but I'm waiting. She's getting to the staring/grabbing/angry/feed me too stage. As her Aunt Sarah said on Thursday (while eating Menchie's), "she's making me feel bad". She's been playing with her new Munchkin spoons, and sometimes even gets the right end in her mouth. She hates when it's empty, so when it's time for homeopathic allergy "meds", I place a small bit on her spoon.

     Her sleep has definately changed in the last little while. Recently, she has been trying to roll from her back to her front, and this has carried over into sleep. I lay her on her back to sleep, and she will roll over half way, wake herself up and have a freak out. She's also got the skills now to pivot herself. I place her in the bed facing in one direction, and in a few minutes she will be the farthest thing away from the first position.
     For the past 2 nights, I have brought back the bassinet and she's been in there. She JUST fits. Lastnight, she was in there until 4am, but then from 4-9am, she was in bed because she didn't want to be in her own bed/or tired me didn't wait long enough to put her down.

 

 

     She's become to get more interested in her toys. I was at Toys R Us picking her friend up a birthday gift, and of course we had to walk out with something for her. I got her an OBall. She loves it. I also got her a rattle a few days ago, and she's just getting into that too - with lots of head smackings.

 

     As in the previous Torticollis post, she now is able to sit by hersel unassisted for a little bit. She is even able to sit up, and not in a tripod position. I am always close by, but it makes me happy - even if sometimes she almost topples over on top of Bandit.

     There are the beginnings of tooth nubs in her gums too. Tiny teeth for a tiny baby. Yet, they cause her big stress. I feel so bad that I can't really do anything to help her. She doesn't like her teething toys, she spits out fingers now, teething homeopathic liquid doesn't seem to help. I am so glad that adults don't remember teething.

 



    ...and now for a touch of cute...I love making cute lil baby leg warmers now, pity it's Summer time.