Wow - a lot has happened in the last few weeks! Kaylee is now five months old - where did the time go? She learns so much every single day now, and it's so fascinating to see her make connections. She has such a delightful personality as well and we are captivated by her smile and laughter. She is truly a delight to us and to everyone who meets her, and we are so blessed to have her in our lives.
We've had a cold snap over the past few weeks and as a result, we've been staying close to home. We've also been wearing long sleeves, warm fuzzy pants, and winter themed things... Here's one of our favorite long sleeved onesie's that Kaylee wears often - isn't it cute?
Frosty the Button Snowman
Kaylee has been growing by leaps and bounds for the last few weeks. Every time I do laundry I have to sort through her onesies and sleepers to separate out the ones that have gotten too small. Her legs, arms, and trunk are very long, and she's busting out of everything since we started eating real food!
Speaking of real food, we bought a few of everything stage one just to see what her preferences would be. I also tasted all the food before giving it to her, and quite honestly, found it a little bland. It must be from the canning process - the jars of food felt like they had no color and no flavor to my palate. With the prices these days, however, we decided to try making her baby food from fresh food, to see if it was difficult or if we could save some money. The bonus is that it really tasted so much better. We had everything we needed, but had to pick up a few ice cube trays. All we did was to steam or boil the food and puree it with some of the cooking water in the blender.. then freeze it in ice cube trays. Pictured below is what we got done to start.... and since this time, we have added peaches, pears, and applesauce to the mix. I'm trying to decide if bananas can be done or not - they might have to have some citrus or something added to them to avoid turning brown, so I might just mash bananas fresh as I use them. I can try stewing them though, just to see. It's so easy to use the food, as well - just chuck 2-3 cubes in a bowl, microwave one minute, stir, microwave 10-15 seconds more, and it's ready to go!
I think we'll definitely keep making her food at home, based on how good it tastes and how inexpensive it is. Soon enough she'll be eating it less pureed anyway, where we'll be able to mash it with a fork instead... It's not really that much work and we're glad to know exactly what we're feeding her.
Pictured L-R: Butternut Squash, Green Beans,
Baby Carrots, and Sweet Potatoes
She is still enjoying the exersaucer every day, developing her balance and coordination as well as working on fine motor skills. It's amazing to see how she can use her fingers now, stand up with minimal balance support, and play independently for 15-30 minutes at a time, whether in the exersaucer or on the floor. She's still having a little love affair with her monkey, too.
Here are some more pics of her in her exersaucer...
Mom, are you taking my picture?
Oh, hey! That flashy thing is flashing at me!
I think I'll just get back to playing here...
Oh, you want more pictures of my cuteness?
I was just about to taste the birthday cake candle...
Look how well I can grab this ring!
Kaylee also has gotten very keen on anything that moves or makes noise in her environment, and she's starting to put things together - like action/consequence. She has started watching things on the television, and she loves the shows they have on the local PBS Sprout station - they are geared toward very small children and toddlers, and are very simple, brightly colored, musical, and short segments. We've been watching Caillou, Sesame Street, and Barney a little here and there. Here's a picture of Kaylee and Ian watching something on TV.
Kaylee and Daddy watching TV...
Kaylee still loves to snuggle in the chair and usually she falls asleep while we are holding her. Once in a while the camera is in reach, and I snapped this cute shot of her napping one day. She looks so peaceful, but don't let her fool you - she's just charging her batteries for later!
ZZZZzzzzzzzzz......One of the fun parts of watching Kaylee grow and learn new skills is watching how she likes to do things, sometimes in a repetitive or obsessive kind of way. Now I don't mean obsessive in that she can't be distracted away from it or that she freaks out if we get her to stop, but more in a sort of "Wow! This is fun! I want to do it a LOT! I've never done it before!" type of obsession. We're always reminding ourselves that this is the first time she is discovering these types of things. She is learning a lot about how things feel on her fingers now, and below is a movie of her scratching and feeling the suede chair we sit in regularly. Also, when she is sleepy, and laying in our arms quietly, she just kinda gazes up at us and reaches up and touches our faces and winds her fingers in our hair while she is going to sleep. It's really very sweet...
Kaylee touching the chair with her fingers...
One day, I got right down on the floor with her and played around with the macro setting on my camera. I got this really cute bright eyed shot early in the morning... Note that she is playing with Monkey. Monkey seems to be her best friend at this stage in her life...
Kaylee playing with Monkey...
One afternoon, Ian had Kaylee in his office for a while so I could work on some paperwork in the living room without being distracted. He came out to ask me a question, and we heard Kaylee talking and fussing a little in the background, as it was close to her nap time. He might have been gone two minutes... and when he got back, she had fallen asleep, in the kissing Monkey position. Ian thought it was so cute that he came back to get the camera...
Kaylee fell asleep on Monkey in her exersaucer.
When Ian ran to get the camera to take a pic,
Kaylee momentarily stirred from the noise.
This is the result - so tired.. can't stay awake..
And yet another instance of Kaylee falling asleep around naptime before we get a chance to put her down in her crib... and Monkey must have been exhausted too, because he's sleeping right beside her. Mocha was kinda sleepy too...
Kaylee and Monkey taking a nap together...
Speaking of Kaylee and all this sleeping, she usually wakes up in a talkative babbling mood. One day, when Ian went in to get her after a nap, and took the camera with, this is what he got:
Kaylee talking to Daddy
She sure is getting talkative these days... she has these cute little high pitched squeals and she's starting to try and form lots of different sounds, too. Sometimes it sounds like she's saying Mom, Mom, Mom... I'm sure she's probably not, but it's kinda fun to listen to her... here's another clip of her talking to us...
Kaylee talking to us - note that Monkey is close by!
*Note: these last two videos are a little strange in aspect ratio because they were shot vertically and something got messed up during the conversion process. Usually they are sort of vertically letterboxed, but this time they got sort of flattened. I'll try and figure it out before next time.
Some more pictures of cuteness:
Mommy's little snuggle bug!
Chewing on her fingers...
Getting animated for the camera...
Squealing at the camera. I was playing
around with the macro settings for this
shot. :) Kinda wish it had been a movie
though, she was pretty loud and excited!Until next time! :)
