Happy Baby

This picture perfectly captures our little girl right now!  She is such an incredibly happy baby.  On a typical day, she will fuss when she is hungry, and get a little fussy when she's tired and ready for a nap.  That's pretty much it.  She is happy to be where we put her, and just soak in the world around her.  I love the huge smile she gets when she sees us.  She has become quite a "talker" and it's fun to listen to her coos and giggles.  We feel so blessed by our little Kinley.  She is such a joy to be around!

Sleeping in the Crib

Tonight was Kinley's first night to sleep in her crib.  I knew that I wanted to get her sleeping in there by the time I went back to work.  I didn't know if it would take her a little while to transition or not, so I wanted to give myself plenty of time.  Plus, she has just outgrown the bassinet.  I remember when we would lay her down at one end of it, and we could keep her Sleep Sheep down at the other end.  Now, she takes up almost the whole length and there is no room for the sheep.
We got back from La Vernia late Tuesday night, and she was thrown way off, so I decided last night would be her last night in our room.  John gave me a hard time about it, telling me I would never be ready to do it.  He's right that it was hard for me, but I know it's what has to be done, and putting it off isn't going to make it easier.
Tonight, I gave her a bath and read her a couple of books.  Then, I rocked her in her room until she was asleep.  I put her down and she got comfy and continued snoozing.  We will see how she does.  Lately, she has been waking up sometime between 5:00 and 6:00, though she's not really ready to get up.  We usually just put her pacifier back in her mouth and she sleeps until 7:00 or so.

Update 7/29/12:
Kinley has been doing great in her crib.  We usually have to go in once in the early morning and put her pacifier in her mouth and she sleeps until it's time to wake up.  Other than that, we haven't had any problems at all.  She is such an easy baby!

All 4 Granddaughters

This week, while we were in La Vernia, was the first time my mom had all 4 of her granddaughters in the same place together.  We have a few cute pictures of her with both Emily and Kinley, but not all 4 girls together.  We tried to capture this moment a couple of times, without much success.  Both times we tried, Emily wasn't really in the "mood" to take pictures (she's going on 3 . . .) and Kinley is 3 months and "unfocused."  The first time, was Friday afternoon, while my mom was watching Emily for the day.  Gramps was working, so we tried with just Gran.

Kinley eating, and a teenager who can't stop texting for 2 seconds

The TV must have been interesting

Emily was not interested!

Kinley distracted by the TV, and again, Emily NOT interested!

Since none of these turned out all that great, we decided to try again Sunday after the baptism, with both Gran and Gramps.  We had about as much success as the first time.  Maybe Christmas will work out better!



Kinley's Baptism

Today, our sweet baby girl became a child of God.  It was such a special day, that I have been looking forward to.  We decided to have Kinley baptized in La Vernia, because we thought it would be easier for a lot of our family to make it from Austin.  It's not quite as long of a drive as it is to Houston.  Also, Kinley's Gramps could baptize her.

Saturday, we spent a lot of time getting ready for the big day.  We ordered BBQ from Bill Miller, but we were making the side dishes, plus fruit and veggie trays.  I spent a lot of the afternoon making potato salad (almost 20 pounds) while my mom put the finishing touches on Kinley's dress.  Right before Kinley was born, my mom offered to make Kinley's baptismal gown.  She had the idea to make it from her dress from her wedding with my dad.  I thought this would be incredibly special, so I accepted her offer.  The dress turned out beautifully!

On Saturday evening before the baptism, John's parents had come in to stay for the night, and all of my brothers were in town.  We had dinner together at my mom and Bob's house.  We were pretty tired from a busy day, but had an even busier day coming up on Sunday.

Mommy and Daddy with the star before her big day

Sunday morning, we were up early to get ready.  I got up to feed Kinley and then started getting myself ready.  We planned to get to church about 45 minutes before the service, to try and take some of our pictures before the service.  We knew it would be best to get Kinley dressed at the church, because it would be too hard to stuff her dress into the car seat.  As soon as we got her dressed and ready, she wanted to eat.  She had no interest in taking pictures.  So, that plan backfired on me.  We decided we would just have to do all the pictures after the service instead.  Kinley was very alert and happy throughout the service.

When it came time for the baptism, she was still very alert.  When I laid her back for Bob to sprinkle her with water, she made eye contact with John and gave him the biggest smile.  It was so cute.  She did great with the baptism - the water didn't seem to bother her at all.  I expected her to be getting tired after that, but she didn't seem to have any interest in sleeping.

After the service, she was starting to get a little fussy because she was tired.  That just figures - hungry before the service and tired afterwards.  It seems that good pictures just weren't in the cards for us.  We had to just take pictures with her crying, or with her bottle or pacifier in her mouth.  Towards the end of picture taking, she fell asleep (as seen in the picture at the top).  We tried, but things are just unpredictable with a baby.

Very alert during the service

The baptism part of the service

Pouring the water 

Getting baptized

Being presented to the congregation

All 3 of Kinley's godparents

Unhappy baby!

With Kinley's godparents - Scott, Kathy and Todd

Our family

With both sets of grandparents

3 generations

With all of my brothers

All of our family that was there

Finally a sleeping baby

There's the sweet girl we know





After the service, we had a lunch at the church.  We had about 50 family members and friends there to celebrate with us.  I had quite a bit of family drive in to Austin to be there with us, and that really meant a lot to us.  Kinley slept through pretty much the whole lunch.  We had my baptismal dress, and planned on changing Kinley into it during the lunch.  Since she slept most of the time, we didn't change her until the end, when we were opening her gifts.  She got some very sweet, meaningful gifts. 

We had such a special day, surrounded by a lot of loved ones.  We couldn't have asked for a better day!

My grandpa with Kinley.  I love this picture!

4 generations

Kinley's cake - it was delicious!

My brothers at lunch

Emily - she had a fall at the beach a few days before this

Rachel with Kinley

A special thanks to Aunt Rachel for taking pictures all day for us!

3 Month Pictures

Today we took Kinley to have her 3 month pictures taken.  I had a couple of coupons from JC Penney's, and I thought I would try them out.  I was pleased with how they turned out. 

Getting ready to get started

Kinley was happy when we got there and got started.  She was fascinated by all the lights, so it was hard to get her to look at the camera.  We did get some good shots, though.  Then, I wanted to change her into a different outfit.  She was starting to get pretty fussy, so I thought we were just going to have to call it a day.  She started falling asleep while I was holding her, and I decided she's still young enough that I didn't mind having some sleeping pictures, too.  So the photographer got some really sweet pictures of her sleeping.  After that, we decided on which pictures we wanted to buy.  Then, John and I went out into the mall to grab some lunch and do a little browsing.  Kinley slept most of that time.  She's such a good baby!

Worn out after her "photo session"

We were happy that we got some good pictures to choose from.  I'm hoping at 6 months, we may get a few more smiles.

By far, my favorite!

A shot of the whole "outfit"

Profile view

Sweet, sleeping baby

Love this sweet little face!

Precious!

This was the "enhancement" we decided to buy





Crib Mobile

Today we finally got Kinley's crib mobile set up.  We had put it together a couple of weeks ago, but didn't have batteries for it.  Today we got it all in working order.  It has animals hanging from the edge, but it also projects images up onto the little canopy thing.  It plays music, nature sounds or a heartbeat sound.  I swaddled Kinley up and put her in the crib to watch it.  She was completely mesmerized by it.  A few minutes later when I went to check on her, she was sound asleep.  Such a big girl!

3 Months of Kinley

Kinley is 3 months old today!  I can't believe the time has gone so quickly.  Our little girl is such a joy to us.  It's hard to imagine what our lives were like before her.

We haven't been to the doctor, but I know she's growing.  We did an unofficial "weigh in" the other night.  John got on the scale and then held her and we subtracted the difference.  She is around 10 pounds, 4 ounces - still small for her age, but she's growing.

Here is a "snapshot" of Kinley at 3 months:

**  She is still wearing some newborn clothes, but moving into 0-3 month clothes.  All of her newborn sleepers are too short, but everything else that is newborn sized still fits.  Most 0-3 month things are big, but she's slowly growing into them.
**  We are using up the rest of our newborn diapers and moving on to size 1.  Overnight, we use size 1 diapers, because they hold more.
**  She has just started taking about 5 ounces per feeding.  Just this week, we have switched to our "big" bottles.  They seem so huge, but she's outgrowing 4 ounces at a time.
**  For a little over a week, she has been sleeping through the night.  She goes down around 11 or 12 and sleeps until 6 or 7.  It has been nice to start getting more sleep at a time.
**  She loves to sit up and look around.  She has big blue eyes that are so curious all the time.  If she's awake, she does not want to lay back in your arms, she wants to look around.
**  She smiles at us all the time -she definitely recognizes mommy and daddy now, and smiles as soon as she sees us.  It melts my heart every time our eyes meet and a huge grin breaks out!
**  We are getting more baby talk, and some giggles are starting to come out, too.  It is the cutest little sound!
**  She loves to sit in her bumbo and just look around.  She is holding her head up really well for longer and longer periods of time.
**  She is starting to bear weight on her legs.  Standing is a good alternative to sitting when she's looking around.
**  She's still not a huge fan of tummy time, so I don't know that we'll have any rolling over any time soon.  I need to be better about putting her down on her stomach, but she just gets so aggravated.  She does work her legs pretty good, and ends up scooting around when she is on her stomach.

We are so blessed to have such a sweet, happy baby in our lives!  I just love being her mommy!

Here are some other shots from our "photo session" today.