Trick or Treat!

Kayla was definitely the cutest duck on the block this year!

She rode around with these goulish characters

It was cold but she was a real trooper! 

I found out that she knows some more words I hadn't heard her say - I'll be updating the post below!

At 15 months:

Kayla can find her:

• Fingers/Hands
• Toes/Feet/"tootsies"
• Nose
• Ears
• Mouth (moves her jaw up and down)
• Tongue (sticks it out)
• Teeth (grins)
• Belly and belly button

And she can say:

• Baby
• Ball
• Bear
• Belly
• Belly Button (sounds like baby)
• Book
• Bubbles
• Bye Bye
• Car
• Cow
• Cracker
• Dada/Daddy
• Duck
• Green beans (guh buh)
• Hi
• Mama/Mommy
• Moo
• Outside
• Puppy
• Quack
• Squirrel
• Waffle
• Woof

She also says the phrases:

• Uh oh
• Oh no
• I don't know
• I did it

She loves "Itsy Bitsy Spider," "Old MacDonald" and "If You're Happy and You Know It."  She adores being read to.  It seems like she's picking up more and more every day.  When we hold her up to our family photo wall, she can point to all of her grandparents, herself and Shaun and I when we ask her to.  It's so funny that apparently she's a mouse at daycare because at home she is a whirlwind.  I'm totally loving it though. 

I just crossed three things off our baby bucket list.  I'm a little surprised at myself that I have nothing to add to it right now - but I'm sure more will come as she gets older and is able to do more.  I don't want to get too far ahead of myself.  I'm still enjoying her being little.

Fall is here

This weekend was truly divine.  I love the days when the air turns cool enough to merit long sleeves all the time even though the sun shines so bright during the day.  I love the amazing colors. 

I love mums and jack o'lanterns and funny little pumpkins on my front porch.

And I love the treats. 

This weekend it was roasted pumpkin seeds and cake pops a la Bakerella (I can't believe it took me so long to really pay attention to her and try these things out!).  I made cinnamon french toast for breakfast and Shaun made an amazing chicken and gnocchi soup for dinner.  Delish.   

My mom and I took Kayla to the park on Saturday.  We met some friendly dogs and Kayla chased the ducks.

Then we carved and colored our pumpkins for the front porch.

My camera got quite the workout this weekend too.  I'm finding myself becoming more and more comfortable with my camera in my hands - capturing the moments as they happen.  I'm finding that I'm grabbing a few more "wow" shots among the usual so-so stuff, and that makes me happy.  Sometimes I really have to debate with myself when chosing shots for my Project 365 blog.  It's a nice feeling. 
We're quickly coming into my favorite time of year.  Halloween is right around the corner and then it's on to Thanksgiving - from then to New Years I am in full out holiday nerd mode.  We're slowly but surely starting to establish our little family traditions and it's so much fun.  This is exactly what I'd hoped having a family of my own would be like.

Late to the Party

So as usual, I’m falling behind again.  On picture taking.  On blogging.  On everything that’s going on in the world.  Driving around each day I see maple trees that have already gone scarlet and started dropping their leaves – an ever present reminder that if I don’t get out soon, I am going to miss photographing another spectacular fall.  So I’m going to spill out the details of the last few days in order to prepare to write about the fun stuff we plan to do this weekend (pumpkins, cake pops, fall pictures and whatever else we can fit in!). 

Backing up to last weekend, we went to our friend Addison’s first birthday party on Saturday.  What an event!  Adam and Kristen have a great playroom for the little monsters, and Kayla loves playing there.  Miss Addison is up on her feet and unstoppable – cute as a button and growing so fast!  She totally dove into her smash cake too.  Yum!  It’s hard to believe that it’s been over a year since Kristen and I were having lunch together when Kayla was just a few weeks old and Addison was still an inside baby. 

Then things turned iffy on Sunday.  Kayla started acting fussy early in the day, and woke up from her nap with a fever.  We kept it pretty well in check with medicine, but it was obvious that she wasn’t right.  I put her to bed early on Sunday night, deciding to play the next day or two by ear.  Monday morning she woke up burning hot – I could feel it before I even laid my hands on her.  So it was ibuprofen and into bed with me for a morning of rest and Nick Jr.  It was always very evident by the ebbs and flows of her energy level and number of smiles how the medicine was working for her.  She happily munched on her breakfast while I talked to a nurse from our doctor’s office, deciding not to bring her in right away as long as the medicine was keeping the fever under control.  She ate her lunch and took a nap without a fuss.  The nurse called back while she was asleep to see how she was doing.  Have I mentioned how much I like our pediatrician and the office he works in?  Although our 15 month appointment was a bit of a disaster (not really their fault), they really do care about their patients.  Since there wasn’t an obvious cause for the fever and Kayla seemed better, we skipped taking her in. 

Tuesday had Kayla back at daycare and me back at work.  She was sluggish and quiet, but got through the day.  I was exhausted, but I managed too.  Life was mostly back to normal.  Until Wednesday when the rash broke out.  We got a call from daycare and apparently Kayla had a case of Roseola.  Thankfully by the time the rash shows up its no longer super contagious, and it didn’t seem to bother her, so she was allowed to stay.    The rash was still pretty obvious at bath time last night, but by this morning had really faded.  She’s still fussy and we’ve had some rough mornings, but I think the worst is definitely over with. 

So there’s the big update of what’s happening in our world.  Hopefully I’ll have another one with some pictures from the weekend! 

15 month checkup

Well that was a disaster. Normally Kayla reserves the tears for when the needles come out. Not today. From the second the doctor touched her she cried. And cried. Then for a change of pace, she cried some more.

On the up side, her growth is right on track (21 lbs, 12 oz and 30.5") and she's hitting all of her milestones. She got 3 shots and mommy got 1 (flu shot), so we are all set for winter.

She is slumbering peacefully in my arms right now. Hopefully we will be all clear to go to the zoo when she wakes up.

Still here, still busy!

It seems like the days are really getting away from me now.  Fall is here, and the sights and sounds of the season are everywhere!  We went shopping for pumpkins today, and now have three really nice ones adorning our front porch along with the incredibly priced mum I bought at the produce market.  I'm looking forward into digging into the biggest pumpkin and roasting the seeds.  We want them to last until Halloween though, so that will have to wait a couple of weeks. 

Kayla turned 15 months old on Thursday.  I didn't hop on the scale with her this week, but we will get the word from the doctor on how she's doing in a few days.  We'll be headed there Monday morning and then hopefully to the zoo on Monday afternoon.  The zoo should be an adventure - Kayla loves animals, and she's starting to warm up to people when she's in unfamiliar situations.  She likes to smile and wave and say "hi" to people now.  She's also saying "bye."  Particularly once she puts her Baby Stella diaper bag over her arm and struts out of the living room. 

We are now almost 36 hours removed from our last nursing session.  I was very proud to hit each milestone with that - getting started, being able to pump while working full time, surviving a major supply drop and being able to provide for her the entire first year.  I didn't mind continuing to nurse her morning and night, but it just felt like a good time to move on.  She's now used to coming back downstairs after PJ's for her bedtime snack, and she didn't fuss at all this morning when Shaun got her out of her crib and we waited until around 8 am to give her breakfast.  So far the transition seems to be a non event.  I hope that continues. 

Monday is a bank holiday and teacher inservice day at Kayla's daycare, so we are going to enjoy the rest of our long weekend.  I'll check in again soon!