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! 

Catching Up

The weeks are busy and our weekends are getting even busier; kind of amazing for the amount of time I feel like we spend at home but somehow the days keep rolling and I keep feeling like I'm struggling to keep up.  Work has been out of control busy with trying to get our new software rolled out by the end of the week while pretty much flying solo.  Shaun's schedule is changing which means Kayla's daycare schedule is going to be changing.  That has me a little bit stressed out.  Add the fact that for the last week or so, Kayla has found 4:45 - 5:30 to be a more acceptable wake up window than 6 - 6:30 and I feel like I'm running on E. 

Wednesday of last week, Kayla had her hair trimmed for the first time.  Her bangs were just too long, so we asked Grandma to trim them up for us.  Much better!

We've had some great times though while the time flies by.  Last weekend we finally made the trek up to the Lititz Farmer's Market.  My dad and step mom came up to walk with us and we enjoyed a sunny Saturday together.  We shopped and went to the park and did a TON of walking.  It was great to watch Kayla climb and explore, and a perfect photo op. 

Later that day my mom came up to visit.  Kayla apparently had enough exercise because she all but darted out the door when Nana said "walk."

Sunday we had a relaxing day at home cheering for our favorite football teams and hanging out with friends. 

This weekend was another busy one.  Aunt Paula came home to visit and she and Nana came with us to visit the local Alpaca farm. 

Kayla didn't seem as interested in the animals as she was when we went to see them back in the spring.  She was far too busy running all over the yard and climbing everything in sight.  We left before we all got too much sun and came home for lunch.  Daddy was just getting home from work at the time Kayla woke from her nap, but by then she was in utter meltdown mode from being tired still.  She screamed for close to 90 minutes on and off, mostly on.  She was a total peach once we got her calmed down, but for a little bit it was damn near unbearable, and it derailed our plans to visit the Ephrata fair that evening. 

Today was much better.  She was up early again, but took a longer than usual afternoon nap, and we had zero fit pitching. 

I'm hoping to get to bed early tonight so tomorrow I am ready to dive headlong into one more week of hell before things slow down a little bit at work.  I hope.  I hope.  I hope. 

The Vocabulary Grows

In addition to the previously mentioned words, Kayla is now saying no, bubble, ball and more.  She only says "more" when we read her "What does baby say?" book.  I nearly fell on the floor when she did it for the first time yesterday.  Shaun was reading the book to her and when he said "what does baby say?" she said "more!" 

She's starting to use Mama more, but not Dada so much.  This morning she said it when Shaun came downstairs, so I think she's getting it.  Her most frequently used phrase is "na na" which in combination with some gesture seems to translate to "I want that."  She walks over to the fridge and smacks her lips when she wants a drink.  She's also learned to throw her hands up when one of us says "touchdown!"  It's so cute.

First Family Vacation

After a nice long weekend of family picnics and warm weather, Shaun, Kayla and I took off for a few days at the beach.  Tuesday morning we packed up our car and hit the road towards OCMD.  We stopped at the Gap Diner for breakfast and continued on South and East.  After a quick trip across the street for a baby flotation device and some adult beverages for our evening, we hit the indoor pool at the hotel.  I wish I had brought my camera down for that, because I've never seen Kayla smile so big as she did while floating around the pool in one of these:

After a while we headed back upstairs to get ready.  After showers, baths, blow-drying and dressing, we made our way to Phillip's for Shaun's favorite treat - the seafood buffet.  Once we'd eaten our fill, it was off to the boardwalk.

And I realized during this time that it was Kayla's 14 month day.  *sigh*  She is getting so big. 

So we walked and we enjoyed the evening breeze coming in off the ocean and were happy.  So happy that someone was completely exhausted by the time we got back.  Oh - and Kayla was pretty tired too. 

We settled into the room for the night, with her completely conked out.  That is, until the lovely hotel decided to give us a "welcome call" AT 8:30 PM - she was inconsolable for nearly an hour.  Thanks so much Holiday Inn...

Anyway - Wednesday got off to a great start.  We had an amazing breakfast at the Bayside Skillet, followed by some beach time while the sun was not too hot.  Kayla was very excited to play in the sand. 

Not so excited about the water...

But still liking the sand.

We did a little more pool time after the beach, followed by lunch and a family nap.  We had dinner out at BJ's on the Water, then Kayla and I did another walk on the boards.  Today we were up and at 'em early for the ride home, and we've been getting back into our routine.  I can't believe this mini-vacation is all but done already, but we have a lot to look forward to in the next few weeks. 

Clinging to summer

Fall is in the air, no doubt about it.  As we run full-speed towards Labor Day I wanted to take some time to enjoy what's left of summer.  Shaun went over to watch college ball with the boys, so Kayla and I took a walk around the neighborhood.  It wasn't a long one since it was so hot, and about half way through Kayla was attacked by a leaky sippy cup that ended with her being drenched in cold water.  We enjoyed the stroll though, and heaven knows I needed the exercise. 

It really was lovely, even though it's in the mid-90's and humid.  I'm really starting to look forward to our real "last blast" next week.  I just have to survive 1 more day of work and then it's a week off for the little family.  We're home for the weekend and then Tuesday morning we take off for Ocean City, MD for a few days.  We'll spend time on the sand and in the water and strolling the boards.  I'm really excited to have a few days away from the craziness that has been our daily lives lately. 

Kayla is doing well in the Fuzzy Bear room at daycare.  She sits down at the table and munches her waffle happily every morning when we arrive.  She waves goobye and I am left wondering where this sudden independent streak came from.  We haven't gotten any bad reports so far, so I'm assuming all is well during the day.  I hope that's truly the case, because we may have to up her to going 5 days a week in the near future. 

It's hard to believe she's nearly 14 months old already.  This time last year I was just getting ready to go back to work; now she's walking and talking and I still tear up a little bit when it comes time to go in the morning.  The more things change...