bored ...

I'm posting right now totally and completely out of boredom - this is brutal.  longest day ever. ugh.

To kill time, I've been reading other people's blogs - i was inspired by one, which I'm now starting to follow.  The writer has a very positive, spiritual message and definately relates to new moms, motherhood and relationships in general.  In one of her posts in particular, she refers to her daughter as "her very own little Buddha".  Which could not be closer to the truth for me - Kylie is barely talking and already, I am so inspired by her innocence and authenticity.  Its the simple things in life that give her joy - we could all use a lesson like that.

As I think of it, here are some of Kylie's "joys", (and ours too) :)

• Our kitty, Mr. Blu.  She calls for him from the moment she wakes up, "Owww" (her version of meow)
• cheerios, (or Joe's O's)
• the first time she sees mommy or daddy in the morning
• swinging
• her books
• being silly with daddy
• singing songs with mommy after bathtime, while we lotion her up and put pj's on
• waving her fingers and saying "hi" when her hand pops through her sleeve
• maggie the puppy (x2 - we bought a back-up, 'just in case')
• bedtime snuggle bear (need to get a back-up of this guy)
• babies

Tuesday Schmoosday ...

Ok, so here's what we've been up to the last few days:

Last Friday we looked after our neighbor Johanna's little one for the day.  Charlotte is about 9 weeks old.  she was born just in time for the major blizzard that we had back in February - good timing Charlotte.  She is a cutie - I already forgot how little they are, and how much they still can't do, but how much they still need.  She was very cooperative though - and I'm pretty sure she enjoyed our walk to the park that afternoon.  I actually am quite proud of myself that I managed to transport both babies there without the convenience of a double stroller.  I loaded Kylie in the backpack carrier, and Charlotte reclined in the stroller.  Our friends and neighbors, Terri and Hannah came along too.  It was Hannah's first time playing at the park - and the girls had a blast.  Terri documented the day including some great photos on her blog, (click here for a link to her blog, and more of Terri's beautiful pictures!)

Saturday was all about house cleaning and laundry - blecch.  Kylie helped by taking a looonnnng afternoon nap - *sigh*  Not, overly exciting to say the least, well, except for this moment... and I think it speaks for itself ...

Sunday was for running errands.  Daddy went for a well-deserved bike ride with one of his buddies, so Kylie and I got up early and decided today was the day we would finally make it back to JC Penny to pick up the portraits we had taken ... back in February! 

Of course, we got there an hour before the mall even opened.  So, we decided to kill an hour at the local Starbucks.  It had been so long that I'd even been to a Starbucks, I had no idea what to order - thankfully, there was no one in line behind us - so there was no pressure deciding.  I ended up with a soy chai latte, a side of soymilk for Kylie to try (she was indifferent about it), and a slice of pumpkin bread for us to share.  We each got a stool at the counter looking out the window and enjoyed our morning snack together.

When we finished, we went over to Michaels, (I can never resist a craft store), we strolled around the store, without an agenda - which can be pretty dangerous to the pocketbook in a place like that.  But, we were responsible, we had fun looking, and managed to escape with only $5 damage - Kylie got a toy boat for the bath, a cute little watering can to help Daddy with the flowers, AND some wooden alphabet blocks.  Not bad.

Happy Monday...

... two days late - oh well.  What a great weekend - I was really sorry to see it end :( Only thing that would have made it better would have been if I wasn't sick.  This is day 7 of the spring cold... and day 5 of full-blown laryngitis. Good news is I don't have to answer the phones at work - so I've been getting a lot done!!

Weekend started with a birthday party for our favorite 2 year old.  Little Miss Mary Jane had a BBQ in her backyard with all her friends - good food - and fun times... Kylie and MJ shared a swing ride - we all talked and ate and played.  It was fun to see so many kids & babies in one place - and nobody had any meltdowns, or catastrophies - which is often likely to happen when there is sugar and party hats involved.   MJ's party favors for her guests were hula hoops.  I tried it out for Kylie when we got home that night - must be that I need more practice - but Kylie found it absolutely hysterical :)

Sunday, Kylie & I ran some errands - and when we got home, Daddy installed the swing on the front porch for us ~ yay!  Its great that it faces the street and she can still see the people that walk by, and you know she says, "Hi-yee" and waves to every one of them ...

Here's one I've been dying to post.  Of course, this all happened by accident because Mommy was on the phone and not paying close attention to what Kylie was doing - but we had a great time still : 

This girl is WAY smarter than we give her credit for - I KNOW now that she understands more than we think she does. A couple things we've noticed over the last week:

• 
  
  when you give her the baby comb or brush and ask her to "brush her hair", she moves the brush right up to her head and starts "brushing" - adorable!
• 
  
  when I sing, "How much is that doggie/kitty in the window?", she responds with a "woo, woo" for doggie, and and "oww, oww" for kitty.  She hears the dogs in the neighborhood barking and will bark back with "woo, woo" too - so freaking cute.

Here's a cute video for some proof - I took this with my cell phone last night after her bath (you can hear me struggling to talk - just ignore me, lol, also the quality isn't that great b/c of cell phone, but you still get the idea):

This week...

Yesterday, I woke up with a sore throat and headache from hell... good thing I had the day off already, cuz I would have taken a sick day.  Better than Tylenol though, was when I got Kylie up and laid her on the changing table, she pointed at me and said, "Hi Mama".  It was great.  Melted my heart.  She's been "Da-da"-ing all over the place, and finally I got a true ma-ma.  I'm in love.

Of course now she says hi and waves to everyone.  But, I'm glad she's not a real shy kid, cuz both her parents are pretty social people - it just might be a little awkward if she were shy.

So, here's the latest thing: I've been needing to give Kylie a bath every night lately, because she's become facinated with putting her hands in her hair when she eats - especially if its yogurt or bananna. This is from this morning's breakfast so you get an idea:

Since its Friday, our neighbor Johanna, her daughter Charlotte, Kylie & I took our weekly field trip to the downtown library for their Mother Goose on the Loose story time. Kylie is really becoming familiar with the whole routine - its really cool to see her face light up or see her start clapping if she recognizes a song or rhyme.  I was a little worried today though how she would be, since she has shifted her morning nap back to 10:30-ish, the same time story time starts.  She was a little sluggish at first, but about 15mins in she got her second wind, and was smiling, and clicking her sticks together like a pro.  Today Kelly (the designated Mother Goose on Fridays) handed out colored scarves to play with - Kylie really got a kick out of that.  And as soon as we were back in the car - she was out for the count... and still sleeping - which is why I even have the opportunity to post this :) Ha, ha... I just realized that the angle of this picture makes her new shoes look HUGE...

That's all for now, I'm gonna throw some laundry in and get some "momma" stuff done while I still have the chance.  

p.s. I forgot to mention - Kylie has been sleeping through the night ALL WEEK LONG :)  Hooray for sleeping babies !! (TK - I know  you will second that!)

Ok, here we go... Here's my modest attempt to document our daughter's first year here... I started a baby web page, which went well at first - until I got an email from the "site administrator" letting me know that I haven't made any changes to the site since September of 2009. So... I've got at least 6 months to catch up on ... [sigh.] Will I ever learn that procrastination gets me nowhere?!

Anyway, here's what's new: Kylie is 10 1/2 months old. At her last weigh-in she was about 17 lbs. She eats like a champ - feeding herself finger foods and she's been using a sippee cup in place of the bottle for at least the last 4 months.

She's been crawling for about a month now, but her method of getting from place to place has evolved from the standard 2-handed, double-knee'd crawl. Currently she's planting her left foot sole-to-floor, and dragging her right knee behind her. Occasionally, she'll toss in the full version with both feet flat on the floor and "walk" on both hands and feet. Its like watching her do a walking version of the yoga pose "downward dog" ... too funny. Here's an example, (also starring our new kitty, Mr. Blu)

Here's another one showing Kylie playing with Blu... he is just an incredible cat. He totally tolerates her and his coping mechanism for not dealing with her antics at the moment - simply roll away... love it!

More Kylie can do as she's quickly approaching 11 months:

She says, "ki-ki" for kitty, says "da-da" all the time and we even suspect she says "happy baby" (I have witnesses!). She is whining when she doesn't get what she wants (like play with the knobs on the stereo), and clamps her jaw down tight when she doesn't like what you try to put in her mouth. She is mimicking sounds and always seems to be singing something.

Oh, and she has 4 top teeth, and two bottom, and a molar even poked through just over a week ago - crazy.