Turkey and smashed potatoes

Hey loved ones!  Happy Thanksgiving!  No crazy Black Friday shopping for us today.  We found the good deals online with free shipping!  No crowds!  We had a lovely Thanksgiving at home with Mike's Dad.  Mike cooked a great turkey in the Big Easy.  So we decided it was time for Kaylen to have her first turkey dinner.  Although she mostly choked on the turkey, I think she enjoyed it.  She enjoyed some mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes too.  Here is a video for ya.




Here is another video of Kaylen clapping......




I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and hugged your loved ones!  We love you all!

Moving Right Along

Hey friends and family!  We are moving right along!  It's gonna be Thanksgiving this week and Christmas will be here before you know it.  Kaylen turned 9 months on the 15th!  She is still cruising the furniture and now she can stand alone without holding on!  No steps yet but soon enough.  She is really observing the world these days.  She wants to touch everything, and put it in her mouth.  She loves our phones, remotes and pens.  She also has learned to clap her hands.  And we are teaching her to wave goodbye.  We had her 9 month appt and her pediatrician was very impressed with her social skills.  KJ will stare you down with her serious face until she decides she likes you, but then she smile and laugh with you.  She is now 20 pounds (75th %), 29.5 inches (97th %).  She had another couple of shots but she barely cried.  She is such a good baby.

We went to  a friend of mine's daughters second birthday.  It was at a My Gym which was really fun for the older kids.  KJ enjoyed interacting with the other kids, once she warmed up.  We put her in the tub of balls but she wasn't too sure about it when she started sinking!

We also got to visit with Mike's cousin Crystal.  She used to live in SoCal but now lives in Georgia.  She has two daughters, Aubrey and Reese.  Reese was born exactly one month after Kaylen.  It was fun to get them together.  We went to a park next to the Rose Bowl and had a blast swinging on the swings.  We wished they lived closer.  Hopefully they will move back one day. 

Here is a fun pic of Kaylen not holding on to anything.  And she loves to put socks in her mouth.  Silly girl!

Now for some videos!

This first one is of Kaylen and her crazy tongue!



This one is of her cruising the couch.  She is much faster now but its what I have.




And this last one is her laughing hysterically at Daddy!  I love it!  The first few seconds are dark but then I turned on the flash.

Cruising!

Hey everyone!  Another month has flown by!  KJ is officially on the move.  She can crawl around pretty fast now.  She can pull up on anything and now she is cruising the furniture!  She has more balance every day.  I see her contemplating letting go of the furniture but then she chickens out.  I am sure walking is just right around the corner.  We got a leather coffee table to make things easier.  She loves it. 

KJ was 8 months old on Oct 15th.  And now she will be 9 months in a couple of weeks!  Here are some pics.

And then she grabbed a pen to play with...........oops!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well Mindy finally got to come visit us on Oct 24th.  KJ & Mindy became the best of friends.  There was a lot of laughing, giggling, tickling, snuggling, smooching and fun times.  Oh and lots of picture taking.  Mindy's the best!

Mindy will be giving me all the photos taken this past week but here are a few to tease you.

 Here is another adorable photo of KJ

Now we all know how much I love Halloween.  Of course my daughter has to have good costumes!  Two of them in fact.  Aunt Barb got her a pink leopard costume and I had to put her in a beaver costume!  We took lots of pics even though it was hard to get her to look at the camera or smile sometimes.  Thanks Mindy for the awesome pics!

So on Sunday Oct 30th, Mike, Mindy, Barb and I went to Belmont Shore to walk around and see the doggie parade.  There are like 500 dogs in costumes.  Mindy was in heaven.    Here is our favorite dog,  happy as can be, letting everyone take his pic.

We even had a couple of strangers wanting to take KJ's picture of her in the pink leopard outfit.  Kinda strange but kinda cute. 

On Halloween, we celebrated Mike's birthday.  We went to the LB Aquarium and then had lunch at the YardHouse.  They brought him a chocolate souffle with a candle and KJ helped him blow it out.....well sort of.

Here is a video of KJ when she first started pulling up on the couch.




Here is one of her eating a teething biscuit for the first time



And my favorite video this month....Mindy feeding KJ....they had a lot of fun

Getting around

Hey friends and family!  Guess I didn't make another post in September.  Wow how time is flying by!  Well Mike had to go on a business trip to the central coast so it was just KJ and me for a couple of days.  Daddy was surprised when he came back because KJ was moving around so much more!  We need to do some serious baby proofing!  She can definitely army crawl now.  She likes to get on all fours then put one arm forward then one leg, then she falls.  She also figured out how to go back to a sitting position from her belly!  She is moving all around the living room.  She also likes to stand up and hold onto the rail of her crib or the coffee table. She is able to put one foot in front of the other and walk with us holding onto her.  I have a couple of videos for ya at the end.  Oh yeah, KJ has four teeth now!


Here are a couple of cute pics.........

KJ loves Daddy's XBox remote control.....she loves the TV remote control too!

I love this onesie....its from our friends Marco & Stephanie....from their East Coast trip which included Portand Maine.....its says "I'm a keepah!"  with a lobster on it.   Gotta love it!

So some of you may know already, but my friend Janet is having her second boy this month and my friend Kim is having twin girls probably early November.  So Janet, Courtney and I threw Kim a baby shower.  Usually you don't have a second kid baby shower but since its twins, we know she would need more stuff!  I have to show you Janet's incredible cake making skills.  Kim's twins are named Sydney & Kensey.

I am not nearly as talented as Janet, but I made Kim a diaper cake.  I know Mindy was very disappointed that a diaper cake did not involve any real cake to eat.  But Janet's cake was delicious!  Chocolate cake with cookies and cream filling and the top layer was yellow cake with fudge filling!



Here is my diaper cake...............

Well Mike & I enjoyed a nice dinner out with our friends Marco & Stephanie this past Friday.  This was only the third time we have had a date night together since KJ was born.  We had a lovely dinner and KJ did well for Aunt Barb at her house.  Thanks Aunt Barb!  Now that baseball season is over, she is taking her vacation.  So Aunt Cyndi is helping us with child care on the days that I work.  And hopefully Aunt Mindy will be coming to visit at the end of the month!

Now for video time................


Here is KJ eating butternut squash for the first time.  She was eating with her mouth open which is not her norm.  But she really likes it now!





Here is KJ trying to crawl............



This one is only a couple of days later.  She started doing the army crawl to get to her toys.

Growing up fast!

Hello everyone!  Can't believe September is more than half over!  KJ turned 7 months on September 15th!  Not too much to update you on but let's see what's been happening.  KJ is really good at sitting up, and for long periods of time.  She likes to play with her toys and sees just how far she can lean over before falling onto her tummy.  She has been rolling over on her tummy when sleeping.  Guess she likes it there.  We think there is a second tooth coming so this position may be more comfortable?  Who knows.  She also likes to get up on all fours and rock back and forth.  I am sure it won't be too long before she figures out how to coordinate her arms and legs and start crawling! 

Here are more pics of KJ in her adorable USC dress!

Check out my one tooth!



Here is just a cute pic of KJ

Well, we have almost outgrown the infant car seat.  One of Mike's friend gave us their nice car seat that works until 65 pounds so we decided to start using it.  Since KJ can sit up now, that is what she wants to do.  The infant car seat makes her lay back which she doesn't want to do and gets upset.  The new car seat allows her to sit more upright and see more things around her.  She definitely likes it much better.  Plus, she was getting too heavy to carry around in that car seat!  So now when I go shopping, I just put her in the shopping cart with the cute cover that Barb got her.  Also, she sits in the high chair in the restaurant now.  She is growing up!

She loves to take drinks from our water glass also.  She is learning how to suck out of a straw too!  She also likes her sippy cup.  Again, she is still learning.  Her favorite thing is still her bottle!

Here is a pic of KJ playing with my iPad.  She loves to watch Baby First TV, especially if we are watching football.  Even though she doesn't mind watching football!

We went over to Aunt Barb's one day and KJ was sitting in the grass.  She wasn't quite sure what to think about it.  But she kept playing with it!

Here is a pic of Barb with her two babies!

Grandpa came to visit this last weekend.  Mike & his Dad went to the USC game.  We had a great time as always.  Grandpa enjoys his weekends with us.  He even rocked her to sleep while I was at work.  Good job Grandpa!

Here's the gang in their USC gear.

Here's a fun pic of Mike & KJ just playing around.  She loved sitting on his shoulders!

I only have one video to share with you this time.  KJ's new favorite game is playing Peek A Boo.

Firsts

Well I didn't think it would be a long time before posting again, but here it is the end of August already!  Guess we have been busy!  We have some new firsts this month!  KJ got her first tooth, can sit up on her own, and we had our first overnight stay in a hotel!  Whew!  More details later in the blog.


KJ turned 6 months old on August 15th!  Half a year!  Wow how time flies!  We have already started her on solid foods in addition to her formula.  She gets 2 solid meals a day and 2 bottles in between breakfast and dinner.  She has tried sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, avocado, and pears.  She likes everything but the peas.   I don't blame her!  We are trying apples, squash and green beans next!  Obviously she is  a good eater!  She had her 6 month appt on Aug 19th.  Daddy got to take her since I worked the night before and was sleeping.  They had a fun day!  She weighed in at 18 lbs 2 oz (90th percentile), height was 27.5 in (97th percentile).  She got more shots too.  She did really well!

After I got up on that day, we headed down to Carlsbad to meet Grandpa Mike!  He had a really nice condo style room with two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a kitchen!  KJ did really well on her overnight stay.  She slept in her pack n play.  We realized on Saturday that she had cut her first tooth!  The pediatrician mentioned she saw it but we could feel it on Saturday.   No wonder she had been a little crankier than usual.  Not as bad as I was expecting though.  We went to the San Diego Zoo.  It was my first time going and Mike hadn't been since he was a child!  KJ sat in her stroller without the car seat so she was facing forward.  She got to see a lot!  We saw koalas, elephants, a tiger, a lion, camels, and zebras,  just to name a few.  We were there 4 hours and still didn't see everything.  KJ was done so we figured we could always come back.  Maybe when Mindy comes to visit!

 Another first.  We put KJ in a swing at the park for the first time!  She didn't seem happy or unhappy at first.  Then we started swinging her higher and higher.  She started giggling! 

KJ has also been sitting up on her own these days.   We put her in her pack n play sometimes with a bunch of toys.  She will lean over to get them and still manage to stay in a sitting position.  But then sometimes she will fall over on her tummy.  She continues to play and have a good time.  She can scooch around but is not crawling yet.  I am sure it will be soon enough!

Here are a couple of videos of KJ laughing.  The second one was posted on FB already.  She loves to crack up at Daddy!  She doesn't crack up at Mommy like this!  So adorable!