Baby Jail

So Kaylee started crawling on Ian's birthday, May 27. Within two weeks, she got VERY GOOD at it. Within another week, she crawled so fast that I could hardly keep up with her, and I couldn't set her down without following her every move. So I was having a hard time to get anything done.

Complicating that matter was the fact that at about the same time, Kaylee figured out how to get out of her walker. I was in complete shock one evening, as immediately after I set her in her walker to go get a drink, she gave me a look (most parents will know the LOOK), reached her little arms over the walker's tray, grabbed the edge in her little chubby hands, and heaved herself out using her arm and stomach muscles. After we got over the shock, we laughed our butts off and knew we were in big trouble.

We had to get a gate. Not just ANY gate, but a BIG gate. Our living room is the simplest room to baby proof, and the TV is in there (she LOVES television!), so we had to get a gate 6 feet wide! The simplest and least expensive solution was to buy a dog gate.

So here is the new Kaylee Containment System. Not sure yet how we're going to circumvent Kaylee with the simple open/close mechanism once she figures it out... but we will (very soon!) have to install a plastic shield on the inside of the door with some cable ties or something, as there is a pet door there and she will eventually figure out that she can use it to climb up the gate.

This gate is nice and high though - higher than her crib rails with the mattress dropped to the lowest setting. I hope she doesn't start climbing out of that anytime soon...

The new gate. We actually have the joints locked, but
Kaylee is strong enough to bend it out of square, so it
looks a little crooked here, because it's somewhat flexy.

Sometimes Kaylee likes to shove her legs
through the gate and visit with us while
we are doing stuff in the kitchen.

Sometimes she just yells. :)

Starting to get a little perturbed...

Hi everybody! Can anyone come
and open this door for me?

S'mores and more!

Last night we thought we'd try and do something productive. We have a fire pit in the back yard and it had been laying in disrepair (half of the cinder blocks are broken and the walls were semi collapsed from a couple seasons of snow, and there were large weeds growing all around and through the fireplace). We thought we'd take Kaylee down to play outside on the grass, and that we'd at least re-stack the bricks and clear out the weeds and grass, and when we went down to check it out, it had already been fixed up and cleared out by our neighbor, Glenn. (Yay, Glenn! You rock!) So we decided that maybe we could have a campfire, since it was all ready to go, and we had lots of wood.

In this area, you're supposed to get a burn permit before making a fire. In Caribou, it was a seasonal thing; you get the permit and keep it posted near where you make fires. In Limestone, we weren't sure about where to get it and what the regulations were, so we did what we always do: we live next door to the police station, so we went to ask the officer on duty what the deal was in this area. He wasn't sure, so he did some calling around for us, and then offered to drive Ian over to the Base Fire Station (Loring AFB - now defunct) which is still manned 24-7, to pick up a burning permit. When Ian got back, he told me that our burning permit was only good until midnight and that we need to run out there and pick up a burning permit EVERY SINGLE TIME we have a fire. Which makes sense, in one way, but is totally annoying at the same time. Anyhow, now we know where to go and how it works here...

So long story short, we got some supplies from our camping gear and decided to cook our supper (Kaylee had already eaten) and treats over the campfire. It took a while to get the fire going, as our wood was still too green, but we eventually succeeded with some fire starter bricks (the sawdust/wax kind), and we had fire roasted hot dogs, toasted buns, and s'mores for dessert. We invited our neighbor, Kelly, to join us as well - after all, the more, the merrier, and it was such a nice evening for a visit by the fire.

The mosquitoes and black flies were out in full force, but we had a citronella torch burning behind us, and it really helped. I only had one mosquito bite and Kaylee had two blackfly bites on her little head when we went back inside. It was cool to watch the bats swooping around eating mosquitoes as twilight got darker and darker, and there were even a few fireflies left, flitting around and blinking.

Kelly brought her camera and posted the pics on Facebook, which I am sharing here with you all... Thanks so much for the conversation and pictures, Kelly!

Georgine getting the first round of hot dogs
going on a hot dog/marshmallow roaster...

Ian holding our very active Kaylee!

Roasting our all-beef Oscar Mayer weiners... mmmmm,
they smelled sooooooo good as they started sizzling!

Kaylee trying out her first marshmallow. :)

Giving it a little lick, to see what it is...

Mmmm, this marshmallow tastes pretty
good, Daddy! (see all the little bites she
took off it?)

Pure sticky cuteness!

Molly, who is Kelly's owner... :) She seemed to enjoy
the campfire and especially all the graham crackers
dropped on the ground by Kaylee...

Ian toasting up another hot dog bun
while Georgine and Kaylee watch...

Georgine about to re-place the hot dogs on the skewer
for Ian so they won't fall off into the fire.

Kaylee likes campfires!

Molly just chilling out by the fire (actually by the bag
that had the leftover hot dogs hiding in it...)

Molly intently watching Georgine finish making her
s'more, hoping for a s'more incident to provide her a
sticky, melty treat!

Eggs and teeth. And cuteness!

It's been another big week....

At Kaylee's doctor appointment last week, the pediatrician suggest we start giving her proteins and more table foods. Of course I'm paranoid and terrified that she'll choke, as she sometimes gags on anything with too much texture if I feed it to her on a spoon... but surprisingly, if she can feed herself small pieces, she seems to chew and gum on it and do OK eating it. We're still working out the mechanics of having a drink and a meal - Kaylee eats very well but doesn't seem to have a huge appetite for formula or juice or drinks - so I push bottles on her during the times in-between meals.

Tonight we decided to start her on real people food, and started with scrambled eggs. Since I didn't think one egg looked like much after I beat it with a fork, I added a second egg. She ate most of it by herself! And she seemed to enjoy it... We got some pics that also show her teeth. She has 6 in now, the two uppers have come down enough to see in pictures now, and she is chewing like there is no tomorrow so probably has 2-4 more teeth imminently approaching.

Kaylee showing off her mad egg eating skillz!

Look at my SIX teeth (and bits of egg!)

She's such a tall baby now.. she can reach up and grab my computer, the remote control, the phone, anything off my lap. And usually does so with great pleasure and giggles.

We had Shannon visit us for a few days last week as well, and here's a photo of Shanny and Kaylee. I think they enjoyed each other. Kaylee certainly seems to go to her cousins without hesitation.

Cousins Shannon and Kaylee

Taken by Shannon in the car en route to Presque Isle

For Independence Day we went to Canada to visit some of our relatives from Fredericton and from Red Deer at Georgine's grandparents. We did dress for the occasion, though.

Red, White, and Blue Jeans!

I just love Kaylee's ear to ear crinkly nose smiles she's been giving us...


Until next time!

Our Well Baby!

Kaylee & Daddy being silly!

Today was Kaylee's 9 month checkup (postponed from June, when we had some stuff come up causing us to reschedule). She did not receive any vaccinations today, but they pricked her finger to check her hemoglobin which was good, and to take a small blood sample to check her for exposure to lead (standard in this state).

So our baby girl is growing by leaps and bounds! She has only gained one pound since her last checkup in April - she weighs 18 pounds 10 ounces now.... but she has grown FIVE INCHES!!! Today she was 30 inches tall!

Also, she has been very active lately, climbing and walking around on the furniture and pulling up on everything, not even needing a good grip any more. She can stand in her crib, her pack and play (play pen), on all the living room furniture, and against the walls, kitchen cabinets, and the bathtub. She doesn't like to be restrained at all, and is on the run anytime she is on the floor. She even demonstrated her amazing ability to get out of her walker yesterday by defiantly climbing out of it while we watched her. The walker is now put away, and the exersaucer is not far behind (we're currently using it to block off a set of electrical outlets we have the TV gear plugged into).

Good thing her baby gate arrived today. We are going to have the living room be a baby safe zone. :) It's currently where her toys, books and the TV are, so we'll use it as a play area. We'll have to get a doorknob cover and install a hook and eyeloop combo on the door on the exterior door, so she doesn't accidentally get the door open.

She is also paying more attention to TV shows, looking for toys when we hide them, playing pat-a-cake responsively, waving hello and goodbye, and trying to say different words. We're going to try more foods on her as well, including more proteins in her diet, and more self-feeding bite sized foods. Should be an interesting experience.

Can't believe how quickly she is growing and changing... better not blink!

Standing, Walking, and more teeth...

No picture this time (haven't unloaded the camera yet and the teeth aren't in enough to be easy to capture on camera) but Kaylee cut two more teeth over the weekend! Her top two front teeth are there - one is completely broken through and one is partially broken through. Now her bites have substance!!!

Also, she is walking and standing and getting around quickly. It's really mind-blowing how quickly this is all happening. The other day I cleared our cleaning supplies and "stuff" out from under the kitchen sink and put our plastic Tupperware type stuff under there instead.

All this teething is wreaking havoc on her sleeping and eating though. :) I just get it figured out again and there's another tooth!

More to come....

Crawling and Kneeling and Teeth, Oh My!

I cannot believe it's been a full two months since the last multi-picture and movie update. The time goes so fast and we're so busy around here... ESPECIALLY since Kaylee learned how to crawl last week. Oh my goodness. She has grown and changed so much in two months....

I think perhaps instead of waiting to do a long update I'll try and do smaller ones weekly - let's try it for a bit and see how it goes! That is my good intention, at any rate...

Let's get a quick recap on what we have been doing...

We posted a quick update after her last set of shots and then Easter. After that, we were in Fredericton for 2.5 weeks having adventures with Aunt J and Uncle I's kitties and dog. Kaylee loved watching the animals rip and tear and generally act crazy all day long.

While in Fredericton, we got to catch up with lots of friends and family, though on a much slower pace than I was used to pre-Kaylee. We also had purchased a new stroller in April and we test-drove it in the Regent Mall and downtown quite a few times. Kaylee LOVES the stroller, where she can sit up and look around and see everything that's going on. We relaxed a lot during our stay in Fredericton though, and had a really nice time, shopping our way through the thrift stores and spring sales and finding a lot of great deals on clothes for Kaylee for the next year or so. We also had lots of coffee dates, and even a few playtimes with other kids!

Kaylee at Smitty's at Regent Mall, while we visited a friend.

May was also a busy month, with Kaylee growing out of quite a few of her clothes (she's very tall, and most of her things got too short both in the body and legs!) and she was learning something new every day. Her eating and sleeping have been a little all over the place with her growth, and developmentally, she has learned that if she moves her mouth and tongue around while vocalizing, she can make different sounds. So now instead of just yelling, her yells end in this cute little "way-oh-way-oh oh-eee-oh-eee" sort of thing.

Warmer weather has also been slowly arriving here, and a couple weeks ago we started having our lawn mowed, saw our first mosquitoes and black flies, and then started enjoying some beautiful sunshine in the afternoons. We have rediscovered our enjoyment of some of the simpler things, like flying kites and blowing bubbles. We have enjoyed kites together for years, in Florida and up here, and have done bubbles on family picnics in the past, so we decided to see what Kaylee thought of them.

Kaylee and Ian sitting on the lawn; Ian flying an Elmo kite.

And a few shots of Kaylee I took while we were outside:

She seemed to enjoy touching the blades of grass.

Cute hat courtesy of our dear friend Jens;
cute face courtesy of good genes. :)

Since the weather has gotten warmer, we've started putting her in some of her footless pajamas with bare toes instead of socks, or even a tshirt and shorts pajama set if it's really warm... She's so cute when she sleeps... she likes to get on her side or her belly and cross her legs and put her hands up by her face.

Kaylee all snuggled up in her crib...

Oh, and then there's also snuggly lazy chair time...

Kaylee snuggled up in Daddy's arms/lap.

Kaylee started practicing getting up on her knees right about when we got back from Fredericton. She first could only do it when her feet were braced against the couch or the wall, and then she started to get stronger and stronger. Here's a few progressive videos of her first attempts at getting up on her knees...

I think I can do this, but it's a lot of work!

Ooh! I can really get around if I concentrate!

Making a break for it. :)

Another newer development in the last few weeks is that Kaylee has learned how to wave hello and bye-bye, as well as clap her hands. Here's a shot of her waving at the camera (please ignore my toes!). Note her red knees, this is the second or third day after she started crawling, and she got carpet burns because our rugs are a little rough. I've been keeping her legs slathered up with baby moisturizing cream and now they are not burned, but are a little rough and dry. I guess she toughened up a little.


Kaylee is also playing with her toys more independently and seems to really enjoy a few shows on Sprout and Noggin. On Sprout, we watch Sesame Street every time it comes on. We also watch Bernstein Bears, Thomas the Train, Caillou, and Fifi and the Flowertots. Occasionally I feel my brain cells crying out in agony, but most of the time it's manageable. Actually, I still love Sesame Street myself and enjoy watching for some of the really old shorts from the 70's that they are still using in their programming. I saw the counting pinball song the other day (onetwothree FOURFIVE sixseveneight nineten ELEVENTWELVE bee doo doo doo do do bee doo doo do doodle do bee do do! ELEVEN! insert funky music here....)

Kaylee playing with the laundry basket we keep
toys in rather than the toys themselves... hehe

What is it with babies and electronics? She
refuses to leave this stuff alone! Here she
is sticking her fingers into the slots for the
memory cards on Ian's Gamecube.


This is the crinkly crackly dragon ball pit that
all the colored balls belong to. Kaylee loves it
and one day I got her quietly playing with it in
the pack and play.

Classic baby game... Peek-a-boo! Kaylee LOVES playing this with anyone, anywhere. You can hide around the corner, behind your hands, under a blanket, etc. She LOVES it!

Kaylee and Daddy playing peek-a-boo!


Kaylee waving again... note the Gator Baby bodysuit.

A little shot of her teeth... she only had two here.

But more were on the way - this is teething time.
The drool is amazing! She now has FOUR teeth!

One night she conked out on the floor mid-bottle. Note how
many of her close friends (Pooh, Tigger, and Monkey) are nearby...

We've tried a few more foods out on Kaylee recently as well. One day when Mom and Dad were over, I tried a broccoli, potato, and cheese casserole on her (Heinz Canada makes quite a few combinations we can't get over here, and though I mostly make my own, I pick up the new ones once in a while for taste testing and traveling). Yeah, so she didn't really care for it.

Yeah, um... YUCK. Why are you still feeding it to me?

We've really enjoyed all the new sounds and the "talking" she is doing with us. We haven't really heard any words yet, but she sounds like she's trying to say "Da Da Da" sometimes. She moves her tongue sometimes to change sounds and she moves her lips other times, and sometimes she does both, so it makes for some hilarious faces, too.

Here's a few small sounds...


Here, she is a little perturbed that we haven't
magically made her supper ready in 3 seconds.


More talking!


This one was taken VERY recently and we
hear a lot of this every day now. Cute.. :)

Speaking of talking, here she is on the phone
with her Grandmother in Florida. She doesn't
speak on the phone yet, she just looks at us in
shock and surprise and excitement, and tries
to mouth the phone and push the buttons. If
you listen really well, you might almost hear
Ian's mom in the background on the phone.

We are very blessed to have very sweet family and friends and we get sweet little surprises here and there, like the sunhat in the outdoor pictures above, and this gorgeous little dress, below. It arrived here on a Saturday and I took Kaylee to church on Sunday wearing it. It looks so cute on her! She also got a stylin' pair of pink sunglasses with it, but we didn't wear them for the picture. It's not the greatest picture, but I wanted everyone to see how cute she is! The dress reminds me of those embroidered pleated smock dresses from the 70's...

Kaylee wearing her new pink dress from
Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Tim. Thank you!

Again, apologies for taking so long to update... we've been busy bleah yada yada but that's really not a good reason to take so long... I'll try and post pics more as we take them. Thanks for keeping up with us! Until next time...

One more....

I wanted to share one more of my favorites of Kaylee from our Easter photo shoot. I just love how she looks in this side profile...

And by the way... Happy Birthday, Uncle Jeremy!

Happy Easter!

First, a quick update: Kaylee had a "shots-only" appointment this past week, and she now weighs 17 pounds 5 oz. A far cry from the teeny tiny little petite darling we brought home from the hospital last September...

I found out today that the magic picture taking ingredient is.... (drum roll, please!) NANA! We managed to get a ton of shots of Kaylee with and without bunny ears, adjusting and readjusting, and this is one of the winners!



Until next update,
Ian, Georgine, & Kaylee

Almost 7 Months!

I never know where to start these updates. So much happens every single day and I don't want anyone to miss any of it, so I just keep snapping pictures and writing stuff down. These updates take hours (go through a month's worth of pictures and movies, choose the ones for the blog, make low-resolution copies so they upload faster, uploading, writing, editing!) - but they're a labor of love, and I really enjoy doing them. I need to figure out a way to make a copy of them for Kaylee, since they're a great record of her first year. Anyhow, on to the good stuff!

First, the past months of drooling and chewing and fussing have paid off. Kaylee has TEETH. As in more than one. As in TWO TEETH so far. And more are on their way. In barely two weeks, she has gone from one tooth barely showing (in the photo below), to two teeth well on their way up and hugely visible. I'm still working on getting a pic of the latter - when I get it I'll post it as a small update. You can barely make it out, but if you click on the picture to maximize it in your browser, you can see the white line of the lower front right tooth sticking through her gum. The first tooth broke through on 3/11, and the second arrived on 3/19 (front bottom left), so she now has both her bottom front teeth. They're very cute, and very sharp. I'm trying to redirect her biting to her teething toys.

First tooth - 3/11/09

Also, this past month, we got a box of love in the mail from our very bestest friends in the whole world - and inside was this adorable coat with a note that read, "Because every girl needs a fabulous coat!" This isn't the best shot of Kaylee in the coat, but you get the picture. The very next time I get her dressed up I will take more pics front and back so you can see how adorable this coat really is. The clothes sure don't last very long at this age, when they grow so fast! Thanks for the gorgeous coat, Matt, Jen, Emma, and Will! And for all the other goodies, too! You guys are the best!

Ooh, it fits PERFECT!

Here's one of Kaylee and Mommy just chilling out. She's such a happy baby!


Here are another few pics of snuggle time - these were taking during the super fussy couple days right before the first tooth broke out.

Kaylee and Mommy on the snuggle chair...

Kaylee drooling and chewing on Mommy's knee...

Kaylee immediately after the drooly chewy knee session...

Mocha likes to jump up and snuggle with us sometimes. We have been trying to teach Kaylee how to pet Mocha gently. Mocha is a very docile, tolerant cat. Kaylee starts out gently touching... and then she gets excited and grabs a big handful, and then when she gets even more excited (if that's even possible!), she screeches and that's usually when Mocha has had enough and jumps down and leaves the room. Suzie usually totally ignores all the Kaylee/Mocha loving sessions. Mocha will also snuggle with Kaylee and I in our bed if we happen to be there taking a nap. Mocha just likes a warm body to cozy up to...

Kaylee petting Mocha.

One thing that's been very very neat to watch is how Kaylee is putting things together now, and how fast she is learning and remembering things. One example is the interactive toys she has. Her exersaucer has a teapot that plays music. You have to tap the top of it to start the songs, and it plays through a repertoire of about 5 different ones. There are also little flashy lights that blink on and off while it plays tunes. One day, it clicked for Kaylee how to make the music play by herself and she was SO EXCITED! Now when we put her in the exersaucer, she immediately plays a few songs on the teapot before exploring the other toys...

Kaylee posing with the teapot as it plays her a song.

One of the first times we realized Kaylee knew
exactly what she was doing to play music!

A couple random pictures of our happy smiley baby!

Hi! Can I take a picture, too?

Uh, yeah okay, so where is my lunch again?

Hey! Look how fast I can run across the kitchen! My feet are totally blurry!

I like Nana's measuring cups. They taste like cookies!

Wearing a cute new outfit from Aunt Jennifer.

Another great smile!

Now we think our daughter is very photogenic and cute, and has a wonderful smile. But don't kid yourself - there is a lot of work that goes into photographing babies. Just wanted to show you an amusing example of what goes into a photo shoot to get one or two great shots. Remember that really cute St. Patrick's Day pic from a couple weeks ago (a couple updates ago)? Well, here are a few of the St. Patrick's Day duds. Very cute duds... but duds.

Oh, look! My Monkey!

Oops... I fell over!

What do you mean the camera isn't ready?

I DON'T WANNA TAKE PICTURES ANY MORE!

We have an adorable girly pink Gator onesie for our baby Gator. One afternoon, while Kaylee was in an exceptional mood, I took a few snaps of her in her crib. She had just learned pretty good sitting up skills, and we recently added a crib bumper to help her keep her arms and legs in at night (she is sleeping MUCH more soundly now that her arms and legs aren't constantly getting stuck!).

Baby Gator!

Every girl needs a pair of fluffy bunny slippers...

especially when they taste so good!

Hey. I'm sitting!

I'm still sitting... don't I look cute?

Kaylee has also been spending quite a bit of time on the floor, which is great for strengthening exercise as well as learning how to get around and exploring her world. She loves to play with her balls and toys, she scooches around the room, and she's getting stronger and has gotten up on her hands and knees quite a bit the last week or so. She's not crawling yet, but we think she's getting close...

I'm kinda getting bored here. Can we do something different?

Yeah! This is more like it, I like rolling around and playing with my balls!

Look at all these cool balls! They taste pretty good, too!

Balls rhymes with crawls. Let me practice what I need to do to crawl...

This getting ready to crawl thing is hard work!

A video of Kaylee up on her haunches, rocking a little,
getting ready to learn how to crawl. Ironically, this is
set to the score of the movie, "Times to Come," which is
based on the H. G. Wells story of the same name. We
thought this was hilarious.

Since Kaylee is getting around a little more now, we are finding that we have to occasionally contain her if we need to leave the room for more than a few seconds. We brought her pack & play into the living room, and she spends a little bit of time in it. Most of the time she doesn't mind too much, but if we leave the room for too long, she lets us know she isn't too happy about it. If we go out to prepare a meal or something, we usually bring her into the same room as us so she can maintain eye contact - this avoids tears, usually.

Kaylee quietly playing in her play pen - note the little
furry sentinels on guard, keeping Kaylee from harm.

Aww.... what a great smile!

Kaylee and Grammie Rioux...

Along with Kaylee's great smile comes her awesome giggles and screeches. We managed to get a few in movie form... we're now working on the screeches becoming a little more volume controlled - she's loud enough that it hurts our ears and we need to teach her the difference between loud and quiet.

Kaylee making mommy giggle...


Daddy making Kaylee screech!

And a random video of Kaylee learning how
to play Nintendo with Daddy... She knows
she should be pushing buttons on the controller...

And one more cute pic just to get you through until the next update! Thanks for keeping up with us!

Bye! See you next time!