Six Months and Counting...

So much has happened at our house since the last update! We are amazed at how fast Kaylee changes, how big she is growing, and the cool things she is learning! She LOVES books and she LOVES young children's television programming. Right now we keep the TV tuned to PBS's Sprout channel. There are lots of age-appropriate shows on, and she especially seems to love Sesame Street (especially the musical numbers and Elmo's World) and Caillou.

Also, Kaylee is such a HAPPY baby!!! We are so blessed to have a baby that lights up the room wherever she goes. Everyone comments on her great smile, enjoys her laughter and babbling, and we certainly agree with them. It sure makes the middle of the night and early morning trips into her bedroom worth it when she is so thrilled just to see us. She smiles EVERY SINGLE TIME!

On to stats: Kaylee was 6 months old on 3/5, coincidentally Georgine's birthday. It's so neat that our birthdays are exactly 6 months apart. We might start a half-birthday thing with her when she's a little older - not a big drawn out affair, but maybe a special treat on her special day.

Kaylee had her 6 month well-baby visit and shots yesterday. As usual, she charmed everyone at the clinic, especially the nurses. And she did so well, she only cried for a few seconds after her shots and was quickly consoled. It's so hard to hold your baby while they get shots and know what's coming for them - we're doing it for the better good of both her and everyone else, but she's so little.

Kaylee now weighs 16 pounds and 4 ounces, and she's 25 1/2 inches tall, basically near the 50th percentile on both measurements. I thought for sure she was over 18 pounds, judging by how difficult it's getting to carry her in her car seat now, but we probably have a couple more months before we need to move her into a bigger convertible car seat. We also need to consider getting her a stroller soon, it'll sure make trips to the mall easier, though they have strollers at the mall, too. The mall strollers are geared toward bigger children though, and they aren't very supportive for wiggly babies.

Kaylee also continues to eat cereal, fruits, and veggies, and is doing really well. She had her first soda cracker last week, and I'll probably try graham crackers or arrowroot cookies or teething biscuits soon. She loves to chew, but needs stuff that turns to mush. What messy times we're going to be dealing with soon!

She is teething hard now, and she really means business. You'll see several shots of her with her fingers and hands in her mouth and chewing on things!

Developmentally, she is passing objects back and forth in her hands, tracking moving objects with her eyes, developing a little separation anxiety, playing Peek a Boo, and starting to learn we come back when we leave her sight (leaving the room, hiding behind a blanket or a corner, etc.). It's so much fun to play with her and see how excited she gets when we come back.

On to the new pictures and movies!

Enjoying some floor time... smiling and
telling us big stories...

Playing with her dragon ball pit - she likes to chew on
the dragon's fins, as they have crinkly stuff inside and
make crunchy noises...

Completely tuckered out after a hard evening of playing.
This is snuggle time in on Mommy in the rocking chair
right before putting her in her bed...

And finally, in BED! Snoozing happily....

She's on the move now! We find her in a different position almost every time we check on her during the night. It's especially amusing when she ends up perpendicular to the crib bars. She's almost tall enough now to touch one side with her head and one side with her feet! When we notice her start to be up on her knees or grabbing the bars and pulling up on them, we'll be lowering her crib mattress to the bottom level. We don't want her toppling over the rails!

A couple pics during a little photo shoot we played around with. I *love* how these pictures turned out. All we did was drape a piece of black velvet over a rocking chair and use both natural light and a fill in flash. I love that there are no shadows behind her (the black velvet absorbs any shadows from the flash) and her features really stand out.

Kaylee and Monkey - BFF

And here's a shot of what she was doing while
we were getting these cute pictures!

She has a couple really really cute sleeper sets that are made of fleece and have cute stuff on the bottoms of the feet and on the butt. This particular pair has a ladybug on the butt. I believe I referred to it on an earlier post but never showed a picture...

Kaylee practicing sitting up. She's starting to get pretty good, but she can sit up for a LONG time when she's got her Boppy pillow for additional support. Notice the outfit she is wearing; in December it was too big, in January it fit her perfect, and by Valentine's Day, the sleeves barely reached her elbows! We're having that trouble with lots of her clothes - they still fit her body but the arms and legs are several inches too short!

Kaylee sitting with the help of Boppy!

Kaylee is mostly mesmerized while Ian plays Nintendo. The graphics are very child friendly, the music is catchy, the colors and action are compelling, and Kaylee loves to try and touch the buttons on the controller and "help" Daddy play.

Kaylee "helping" Daddy play Nintendo.

Kaylee in her Bumbo chair - I love her little CSI: bodysuit.
It stands for Cute, Sweet, Innocent.

Daddy and Kaylee playing. He is pretending to chomp her all up and she is screeching and laughing. We usually laugh just as hard as she does when we play like this.

Daddy chomping Kaylee to bits!

More Daddy chomping, in action...

Kaylee and Mommy playing one evening. She
gets VERY excited and giggly when we play!

Kaylee and Papa (Georgine's dad, John). We usually go over to Nana and Papa's for a sleepover every couple weeks to give Daddy a break, whether just to have a quiet night or to get some extra work done, undisturbed. Sometimes it's distracting to work from home! We always have a good time on our sleepovers, and Nana and Papa and Grampy Green enjoy the company. As you can see, Kaylee quite adores her Papa, too. Reminds me of Shanny when she was a baby...

Papa snuggling with Kaylee...

Another pic of Happy Girl Kaylee, playing on the
floor. See how well she is holding herself up?

Sometimes she gets quiet and "talks" to
us as she is playing on the floor...

I love this close up shot of Kaylee. She
was just quietly looking at me.

Yet another pic of Happy Girl Kaylee. Can you
believe how many happy shots we get? She's
so cute! (TOTALLY biased, here...)

Here's a cute series of her sitting on the couch with Monkey.

Just noticing the camera...

Going back to chewing on her fingers...

And giving Mom the smile she was hoping for!

Another series of some floortime shots:

Hi, Mom!

See how I can hold myself up now?

Mommy, you're laying on the floor with me! Cool!

I think I'm going to start chewing on my fingers again...

Here's a shot of me holding Kaylee, and my grandmother (also named Georgine!). This is taken at my mom's, the day we celebrated our birthdays together. My mom's birthday is on 2/27 and mine is 3/5, and ever since I became an adult, if we are together to our birthdays, we usually celebrate them both at the same time. This year we each baked a cake: Mom made a chocolate layer cake with a yummy broiled glaze and peanuts on it. I made a pineapple angel food cake with pineapple coconut whipped cream. They were both yummy, and almost everyone had a piece of BOTH cakes. MMMmmmmm, cake!!!

L-R: Georgine Johns, Kaylee Johns, Georgine Rioux

Also last week, we got a surprise in the mail from the Hundred Acre Wood. Aunt Jennifer sent Winnie-the-Pooh and some of his friends to come live with Kaylee! As soon as we opened the box and passed them to Kaylee, she squealed over each one. They are all happily living in the basket in the living room with Teddy and Monkey and the Pooh lovey and Bun-Bun the Bunny lovey, where Kaylee plays with them every day!

Kaylee and Pooh...

Kaylee and Tigger...

Kaylee and Piglet...

And a couple other friends from Disney World: Dumbo the Elephant;

and Pluto the Dog!

Also, a very nice lady from my mom's church made this adorable hat for Kaylee. It's got a really cute spiral pattern on the top, and it falls into a really cute ruffle around her head. Since the temps have warmed up quite a bit recently, I have been wearing it on her for the last week or so. It looks cute on her, don't you think?

Kaylee modeling her new hat!

Sometimes when Kaylee is playing in Daddy's office and doesn't want to be laying on the floor or sitting in her exersaucer, Daddy puts her in one of the small round laundry baskets we carry her toys around in. She's a perfect fit, and it helps support her as she is still working on her sitting skills and balance.

It keeps her toys nearby;

And she doesn't seem to mind! :)

I recently found a walker at the thrift store for Kaylee. Once I scrubbed it's nooks and crannies, I intended to bring it down to the basement and take Kaylee down there with me when I was sorting things out. However, she is scooting around really good and would get into the things I am sorting (tools, which are NOT baby-friendly), so we're just using it in the kitchen for now. So we have both a walker AND an exersaucer for her. She likes to be in the walker in the kitchen when I am busy cooking supper, where she can look at herself in the dishwasher (shiny black plastic which acts like a mirror) and bump into my legs once in a while, while she follows me around.

Following me around the kitchen...

Lots of teething - poor baby... We feed her in a booster seat that puts her at the exact height to taste the edge of the counter top in the kitchen. She's really chewing everything she can, at this point. We're just trying to keep clean chewy things within reach of her and redirect her when necessary. For how much teething she's doing, she's still pretty happy, for the most part. Don't worry, the teeth aren't actually through yet, she's still just gumming it here:

Oh, this feels SO GOOD!!!

Well, that was a LONG update with TONS of pics and movies. We'll try and do them a little more often, but hope you enjoy!

Until next time, lots of love from Ian, Georgine, and Kaylee! XOXO

One more picture....before I update soon...

Kaylee has her 6 month appointment on Monday, when I'll get her measurements udpated.... I'll post a real update after that. But here's a photo until then...

Monkey and Kaylee just hanging out a couple days ago...

Not an update, but....

Just wanted to share another pic. I'll have to update in a week or two, when I have time and inclination. I'm currently in the middle of my second cold in two weeks.

But Kaylee is STILL cute. Way cute. And we can't stop taking pictures of her. This is from a quick impromptu photo shoot in her cute fuzzy polka dot jammies with the bug on the butt (to come at a later update) which we did in the rocking chair with a piece of black velvet draped over it as a backdrop. Can I just say black velvet makes for AWESOME pictures? There are no shadows behind her at all!

Anyhow, on with the cuteness. Enjoy!

More cuteness.

heheh.... she was yelling when we took this one...

Because it's the weekend of Love....

You get TWO Valentine's cuteness pictures....

Happy Valentine's Day!

Frosty Times

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! :)