11 months old

Where has the time gone?? I can't believe that in a few short weeks Kayleigh will be a whole year old! I have been doing some thinking about everything that's changed in the last year. I don't think I could list all of the differences. I will say that I could definitely get used to working 5 months and then having 7 months off every year!! :)

Here is the list of what Kayleigh should be able to do this month

Kayleigh should be able to:
--Get into a sitting position from stomach (check)
--Pick up tiny object with any part of thumb and finger (check)
--Understand "no" (not sure about that one, but what does she do wrong that she would need to hear it?!?!? :) She can shake her head "no". Does that count??)

Kayleigh will probably be able to:
--Play patty-cake (clap hands) or wave bye-bye (check)
--Walk holding on to furniture (check and scary!)
--Point or gesture to something to get needs met (check, especially with a bottle!)

Kayleigh may possibly be able to:
--Pick up a tiny object neatly with tips of thumb and forefinger (check, or close to it at least!)
--Stand alone momentarily (check, but it's really like a second!)
--Say "dada" or "mama" discriminately (no, but she's starting to say mama more!!)
--Say one word other than "mama" or "dada" (no)

Kayleigh may even be able to:
--Stand alone well (I think you know the answer to that)
--Indicate wants in ways other than crying (Do you mean by pointing to it?!?!)
--"play ball" (She does this with Erik, but I think she really just drops it)
--Drink from a cup independently (check if you count a sippy cup!)
--Use immature jargoning aka gibberish (she babbles to herself, but I'm not sure that it's the same thing)
--Say three or more words other than "mama" or "dada" (again, I think you know the answer already)
--Respond to a one-step command without gestures (nope)
--Walk well (must I even comment on this one?!?!)

Southwoodstock

On Saturday, my neighbor, Jenna, Erik and I all ran in a 5K. It obviously wasn't the first 5K for Erik, but it was for Jenna and me. I won't give you my time, but I finished, and did it a little faster than I thought I would. Jenna and I have been running/walking in the mornings, so we were preparing for the race. I dind't mention it to many people, because I was afraid that I wouldn't keep up with it. It's hard getting up extra early in the mornings, but it was worth it when I finished the race.
Anyway, I felt like patting myself on the back and bragging to everyone about my latest accomplishment! :)

New "recipe"

I had heard of this from my mom, but didn't know if it would actually work. It's a "recipe" to remove stains from clothing. For those of you who know Kayleigh well, you know that there is no diaper that can hold her pooh when she has a blow out. I tried this the other day on clothes of Kayleigh's that had already been washed and dried, so it takes out old stains, too!
You need:
Chlorox 2 (the powdered kind)
WHITE dish soap (like Ivory)
boiling water

Mix the Chlorox 2 and dish soap to make a paste. Rub paste into the stain (I used a toothbrush). Next, pour the boiling water over the stain. Wash. You do NOT have to repeat! I honestly have clothes of Kayleigh's that I haven't let her wear in a couple of months because of the stains. She can now wear them again! Yahoo!! (Yes, she can still wear clothes that are a couple of months old--she's short!)

Let me know if you try the recipe and it works! I'm not sure if it works on every stain, but if it can work on blowouts, it's gotta be good!

More firsts

Last night, we took Kayleigh to her first FSU baseball game. We thought she would enjoy it since she likes to be outside, and enjoys watching Erik play softball. We were wrong. Every time the crowd cheered, Kayleigh cried. After a couple of innings of this, I took her to where the concession stands are and as soon as we got out there, she perked up. We stayed out there until I could almost not hold her any longer (she's not light!). When we got back to our seats, she did much better. FSU was losing at the end of the 8th inning when we finally left.
Kayleigh's other first last night happened in the car. A lot of times, Erik or I will end up sitting in the back with Kayleigh. It's almost easier after getting her into her car seat to stay back there with her. I sat in the back on the way to the game. Kayleigh had a sweater on her lap and used it to play "Peekaboo". She kept lifting it up over her face and then would pull it down and smile. It was cool because I didn't realize that she would start to do that at such a young age.

Te amamos abuela!

I know that this blog is normally for happy things, but I wanted to let people know that my abuela (dad's mom) passed away this morning. While we are grieving here, we know that she is enjoying herself in heaven. Please pray for my dad, uncle Jorge and abuelo as they are grieving the loss of their mother and wife.

Long overdue

Erik has a camera phone, and I was looking at the pictures the other night. I found these pictures of Kayleigh from when we were at Sam's Club one day. Doesn't she look too cool for school??

Kayleigh's first tooth!

I couldn't believe it when I saw it. I picked Kayleigh up from school today, and when she smiled at her teacher, I saw a little tooth peeking out. You would never guess where this tooth is, either. It's not in the middle on either the top or bottom. It's one of her long "fang" teeth on the right side! Kayleigh's teacher noticed the tooth yesterday, so I'm a little sorry for being so unobservant, but who would think to look there first?!?! She also said that Kayleigh's gums looked white on the other side she's about to get one there, too. Sure enough, Kayleigh should have another tooth by the end of the week! Now I know what the gums look like right before a tooth comes in, but I sure never would have thought to look way on the side on the top for a tooth! It'll be awhile before I can get a picture of her tooth, so bear with me. I hope that her other teeth come in quickly so that she doesn't look like a vampire for long!
P.S. I think she just realized that she should be drooling a lot, and I just saw her push some drool out of her mouth. Take my word on that one.
P.P.S. Happy tax day! Did you get your taxes done???

Plotting her escape?

I took this pictures earlier this week, but they are too cute to keep to myself. Shortly after Kayleigh started crawling, she started to pull herself up. It's not too surprising for those that know her--she's been able to put weight on her legs since she's been able to hold her head up on her own! When I took this picture, Kayleigh had crawled over the the french doors and then used them to pull up to look outside. The dogs were on the deck, so I think she might have been trying to either get a better look at them, or reach the door knob to go outside with them.

Another New Look

Since the last background wasn't a family favorite, I made it my mission tonight to find another one for the blog. After searching through several sites, and then looking at pages and pages of backgrounds, I was thrilled to find this one! I thought it was perfect for Kayleigh since she is the little penguin in our school group, and she's always hanging out with her penguin friend, Mumble.

Daddy's girl

Erik was thrilled the other morning when he was holding Kayleigh and she didn't want to leave him to come to me. It's always a little sad when your child would rather have someone else, even if it is her dad. Kayleigh is turning into a daddy's girl, always getting really excited when he comes home from work and wanting to be with him all night before she goes to bed. She even wants to be with him in the middle of the night! She has not slept well this week, and Erik has spent a lot of time upstairs with her trying to calm her down and put her back to sleep. I'm so glad he now has the middle of the night duty. :)

New game

Kayleigh and I are having fun playing a new game after her bath. When I get her out of the tub, I usually put her on the floor in her room to dry her off more and put a diaper on before she has an accident on the floor. Her new trick is to roll over and crawl away from mommy. I have to say that I really get a kick out of it, and haven't minded her attempts to break free! Last night I started following her, and she would take a few crawls (what would you call it???) and then look back to make sure I was still there. It cracks me up to see her little naked bottom sneaking away. I would take a picture of it, but I'm not sure she would appreciate me showing that off to everyone. I think I would have to censor it if I did get a picture! :)

10 months!

It seems like Kayleigh has changed a lot this last month. I know that not everything is a big step, but they are all milestones, aren't they? Kayleigh started to crawl this last month. I'm pretty sure it's when she started to shake her head "no", and this last weekend she started shrugging her shoulders all the time, like she's saying, "I don't know". Too cute! It was a hit in Mobile, that's for sure!
I realized tonight that I hadn't put up her 10 month pictures, and when I realized this, I ran upstairs to catch her before Erik put her to sleep. We just got a couple of pictures before she fell from her standing position and decided she'd had enough. Who can blame her? She was trying to get ready to go to sleep and I come running, blinding her with the flash. Gotta love your mom!

Mobile, Alabama

After a "helpful" weekend in Mobile, we're back in Tallahassee. I had to put helpful in quotation marks because I don't feel like I did very much. I guess I was there to watch the kids so everyone else could clean. We enjoyed our awake time so much that Kayleigh wanted to stay awake most of the nights, too! On Monday night, Kayleigh wore her first bow in her hair. I MUST go and buy some now. I didn't think she had enough hair to hold a bow, but Taylor's bows have small enough clips to hold her hair. The cousins got along extremely well, but weren't good at taking pictures together. Mom said that if she ever started a photography business, it would be called, "Just Missed It", because she would either snap the picture right after the girls stopped smiling, or right before they smiled. We don't think she'll make much money...