Lots of new experiences - and one old, familiar one...

Age of Lad Kaitlyn:  11 months and 3 weeks

Family,

And a good Monday evening to you from the Queen City - another amazing (and busy!) week in the

K's first visit to Prosperity Park!

books, and plenty to report in the life of the Munchkin.  On the mobility front, our little motorboat is now crawling at WARP SPEED, MR. SULU - it is AMAZING how quickly she can get from point A to point B now!  She's definitely gaining confidence, and she is ALL ABOUT going into the enclave in our room now (that's where we moved all the "breakable adult stuff," and she is quite fond of pawing through EVERYTHING whenever she gets the chance).

I got this, daddy!!!!!

It's actually SO CUTE how she crawls over to us and pulls up on our pants now.  I can tell my back is taking a beating, but I can't resist picking her up every time she crawls over, that huge smile on her face as her hands pound the hardwood with a vengeance.  She's over 21 pounds now, and my scrawny arms can tell!  Putting her into the crib (which is fully lowered now) is no small feat!  

K's first ride in the shopping cart - she was
such a trooper!  

On the parental front, JT and I officially cracked open:  "What to Expect:  the Toddler Years" this week.  This monster is 855 pages, but something tells me we'll read it cover to cover.  It details the next 24 months for a child in terms of general expectations, milestones markers, how to deal with potential problems, and practical solutions for items you may worry about as a parent (i.e. a falling child).  It's actually already been helpful, as we learned that "child is able to put objects into a container" is apparently a 12.5 month milestone.  Well, sure enough, K did it 3 times on Saturday, so we'll take it!  Another milestone in the books, baby!  It's all about celebrating the small victories. :-)


She's still not walking yet (and realistically that will be awhile), but she has definitely started cruising in earnest!  Previously it was a few timid steps, and you could tell that she wasn't terribly confident.  Now, however, she pops up on a moment's notice (it's INSANE how big she's gotten - stuff that was out of reach just a week ago is now fair game for her - and typically ends up in her mouth...), and she can definitely take 3-4 good, steady steps to obtain something that's a bit further down the couch.  In terms of transferring, I've only seen it once (from the coffee table to the couch up in the bonus room), but JT saw it in Atlanta, so I can confirm it wasn't just a freak occurrence!

As for the week itself, two highlights for me:  the first was at daycare on Wednesday, when our Lady Kaitlyn's artwork was featured in the lobby at Primrose! :-)  That's right, sports fans - the next Picasso has arrived, and her work will reap MILLIONS. :-)  Ok, that might be a stretch, but seriously - it was pretty freakin' cute.  See, every day at Primrose, there is new "student artwork" on display up front.  Well, K's made a few pieces of art in times previous (which usually means they dipped an appendage or digit of my daughter into pain - hopefully not lead based - and then pressed it onto a sheet of contraction paper), but this was the first time she "made the cut."  I had to take a photo and send it to Jenny - proud parents, we were!

The other milestone is in the language department.  Now, whilst I have NO PROOF of this, I am fairly convinced that K associates the concept of me (meaning the male running around in her life all the time) with the syllables "dada."  Granted, she doesn't always say it when she looks at me, and sometimes it's a bloody string of 80 dadadadada's, but I still feel confident that she's referencing me (she either wants me there, she's acknowledging my presence, or just testing out her vocal cords with something she knows will glean a reaction from me).  I definitely don't think she's completely made the mental leap - but it's only a matter of time.  A recent article in the paper discussed the importance of "using complex words and sentence structure" to help develop babies' brains.  Consequently, I spent the entire drive to daycare discussing pulsars and quasars with my daughter.  I'd like to think she at least has a vague understanding now of red shift/blue shift...

In other events, we did have a familiar issue rear its head again this week - K has YET ANOTHER ear infection.  We noticed a lot of snot on Thursday, and she REALLY had trouble sleeping (lots of crying out, woke up several times during the night, exceptionally, stuffy, etc).  As with the night before I went to Costa Rica, I spent the better part of the evening in her room with her asleep on me.  She didn't sleep great, but the angle at least drained enough fluid that she could get some rest.  I however, did not, and I was awake from about 2 AM on (meaning I was a zombie on Friday night).

The girls - BFF's at an early age!

Thursday night was rough emotionally as well, as K for some reason reached for me when both Jenny and I went in there to soothe her.  Jenny felt awful and kept saying, "she doesn't want me because she doesn't know me."  It was heartbreaking - both of my girls felt awful (for different reasons), and I was powerless to do anything for either of them.  Jenny is such an amazing, wonderful, dedicated mother, and it breaks my heart to hear her say things like that (especially since I know they categorically aren't true).  K knows who puts her to bed, and on the rare night where I put her down, K will just stare at the bedroom door, waiting for Jenny to walk in.  The last time she was actually waving at the open door and empty staircase, as if she were willing Jenny to arrive so she could say hello and get a hug.   Oh, and for the record, the next time she cried out, she DID want her mommy.   :-)

Well, the good news - K is into golf from an
early age.  The bad news - she's pretty sure the
primary purpose of the driver is to charm snakes.

We took K to the doctor on Saturday, where our doctor confirmed once again that yes, she did have an ear infection.  They put her back on the strong stuff, and less than 72 hours later I think it's already made a HUGE difference.  Her face is less swollen, her balance is better, and she woke up happy this morning.  She's definitely breathing better and draining less, and so I am hopeful this will knock it out quick.  The diarrhea hasn't started yet, and we've got her on 2 yogurts a day to try and keep her (fairly) regular.  Stay tuned for more updates on that front (because I KNOW you are interested...).

Saturday was also a first for K - her first birthday party (as a visitor that is, not as the guest of honor)!  The Parkhouse clan was hosting Reid's 3rd b'day, and so we went over for about 2 hours to hang with them.  There was a good crowd, and K was MESMERIZED by all of the other "little people" running around.  Most of them were at least 2 years older, but her best friend Avery from daycare was there as well, and so they were able to crawl around and play together.  It was SO CUTE to watch them in action - they really are friends, and you can tell it by how excited K is when she sees her at daycare.

The weather Sunday was just epic, and so we went for a walk, stopping at the local park so K could try swings for the first time!  She was less than impressed, as all she really wanted to do was get onto the playground and eat wood chips.  Once I wasn't paying attention to her (for seriously all of about .0000007 seconds), and I looked down to find her munching on something.

K thought it was a GREAT idea to try and
stand using this...until the reverse spin came
back after her.  Suddenly she wasn't such a fan...

Well, I get in there to do a mouth sweep, and a huge chunk of wood falls out - out of control.  That girl will eat ANYTHING (wonder where she gets that from).  She definitely wasn't sure of the grass (very brittle and dead) at first, but by the end she was motor boating on it nicely.  That park (right by the house) will be so much fun come summer time once she can run.

We also pushed our luck and took K to Wal-mart, where she rode in the shopping cart for the first time ever.  She was an absolute ANGEL - I cannot believe how well behaved she was from start to finish.  You can tell she loves looking at people, and Wal-Mart is quite good for that...

So all in all, another very busy and very productive week.  My gout is on the mend, and I actually ran for the first time in a month this weekend.  That was good to help clear my head, and it also served to wear me out ahead of going to bed last night, with the end result being that I slept the best I've slept in probably 6 weeks - fingers crossed that can continue, as it's amazing what a difference a good night's sleep makes.

Ok, signing off for now - chat soon!

Love,

Sam and Jenny