Look What I Found

I knew it was only a matter of time before this happened.  I was in the kitchen cooking dinner, and had put Kinley down in the living room to play.  She never stays playing for long by herself, and instead decides to go "exploring."  I looked down and not only had she dumped the dog food out, but she also had some in her mouth.  And yes, I'm the mom who grabbed my phone to take a picture first!

A Visit From 2 Uncles

Scott had off work today, so he decided to come visit Kinley.  Since he was coming down, I asked Todd to come over, too.  We had a good time sitting around and visiting.  Kinley had a great time playing with both of her uncles!

Jenna's Birthday Party

Today was Jenna's birthday party!  Jenna is the daughter of my friend Nikki, who I teach with.  Jenna and Kinley go to the same babysitter now, too.  Kinley had fun playing with Jenna's toys and her friends from the babysitter.  She also had her first cupcake!  She thought it was pretty delicious!  I can't believe we will be doing this ourselves in a couple of short months.  The time just flies way too fast!!

Getting candy from the pinata

"Oooooh, yummy!"

"Can I have this?"

Playing with some tissue paper

"It makes a fun sound!"

"Is this one for me?"

"I found a book"

"Let's see how it tastes."

Riding Jenna's new horse

Jenna with her birthday cake

A New Tooth

We have a new tooth on the top now!  They are slowly, but surely coming in.  She was so cute with just those 2 bottom teeth, but she is becoming more and more interested in food all the time, so I know it will be good for her to get more teeth.  We were at the store, and I just barely managed to capture the new tooth.

Big Girl Bath

We finally decided it was time to get rid of the baby bathtub.  Kinley is sitting pefectly well, and the baby bathtub doesn't really allow for much movement, so I thought she would definitely have more fun in the big bathtub.  I bought a big mat so she wouldn't slip in the tub, and we filled it up.  John got in with her at first, just to make sure she would be ok, but she had no problem with the change at all.  She loved all the space, and quickly started crawling to get her toys.  And boy did she love splashing!  Bath time has definitely become a favorite!!

Play Date With Isaac

Today, we were out of school for MLK day, so my friend Nidia invited Kinley and I over to play.  Kinley and Isaac are both mobile now, so we thought it would be even more fun to watch them interact.  They are very close in age, so it was fun to watch them play together.  I only got 1 picture of them today, because we were just busy talking the whole time.  Hopefully we'll go back to play again soon.

Escaping from baby jail!

Shopping Like A Big Girl

A while back, my mom offered to make a shopping cart/high chair cover for Kinley.  I was going to buy one and she said she could make it much cheaper.  Now that Kinley is getting bigger, I have kind of been hounding her about getting it done.  When she was here over New Year's she got it finished for us.  We have used it a couple of times for restaurant high chairs, but this was the first time we used it at a store.  She was so excited to be able to sit up and look around, rather than being confined to her car seat!!

Crazy Hair

It has been quite chilly lately, and Kinley has been needing to wear a hat to and from Dora's house.  She had a bath last night, so her hair didn't have much oil in it to weigh it down.  When I got her home this afternoon, it was standing straight up and I couldn't get it to lay down at all!  She looked so funny.  It reminded me of what my mom has told me about my hair as a baby.  My hair used to stand straight up all the time - and plenty of pictures show it.

Pajamas From Uncle Scott

Uncle Scott was at the grocery store one day and texted me a picture of some pajamas he saw.  He said they were a 3-6 month size and I told him that would fit her, but probably not for much longer.  They were on clearance, so he bought them for her.  He sent them to us, along with some of her favorite snacks.  When I opened the package, I wondered what sizing chart the company used, because the pajamas were HUGE!  She will definitely be able to wear these for quite a while!!  Thanks Uncle Scott!

9 Months of Kinley

Another month has flown by!  Our sweet girl is 2/3 of the way to 1 year old.  She is such a sweet, sweet baby.  She makes my dream of being a mommy even better than I ever imagined.  Her little personality emerges more and more all the time, and I just enjoy every second with her.  Her sweet smile just lights up the room, and she makes us laugh all the time with her funny little noises and gestures.

We haven't had too many changes since 8 months.  Of course, she's making more new sounds and figuring things out all the time.  We're pretty much on the same feeding and sleeping schedule as we have been for a little while.  It's working pretty well.  We have started experimenting with a few different table foods.  I have tried a couple of the stage 3 baby food dinners that have more texture to them - little bits of pasta, etc., but she acts like they are gagging her.  She might be like her mommy with food texture.  She does fine when I give her something off my plate that needs chewing/mashing, but something about the baby food with "chunks" in it.  I don't know that it's all that crucial to do the stage 3 foods.  I'm sure she'll be ready to move past baby food soon.

Here are our 9 month highlights:
**She is mostly wearing 6 month and some 6-9 month clothes.  She still has some 3-6 month things that fit, but if they are pants or have long sleeves, they're too short.  She can still wear some dresses and stuff.
**We are starting to use up the rest of our size 2 diapers.  I have found that Huggies seem to be a little bigger, so we're using all the Pampers, then Huggies, and then we'll move into size 3.
**We are using the same feeding schedule as last month.  A big bottle in the morning and at bedtime and 3 small ones during the day.  She also gets 3 meals of baby food.
**She is still a fantastic sleeper.  We have had a few nights where she has woken up and cried, and we're not sure why - maybe teeth.  On a regular night, though, she sleeps 10 hours or so, easily.
**One top tooth has broken through - the top left.  We can see the top right one, but it hasn't come down yet.
**She is getting better at getting to what she wants.  I have a feeling she'll really be crawling soon.  She loves to pull up with our hands, but hasn't figured out how to pull up on something by herself yet.
**She loves to babble and make noises.  When she does something that makes us laugh, she will keep doing it.  She gets tickled so easily, and I love to listen to her laugh!

We absolutely love this sweet girl!!  I can't wait to see what the next few months have in store.

9 Month Dr. Visit

We took Kinley for her 9 month checkup today.  I needed my annual checkup, too, so John and I both took the day off, and we just made it a doctor day.  When we got to Kinley's doctor, we didn't have to wait long at all, which was really nice.

Her 9 month stats:
Length:  26.75 inches (25 %)
Weight:  18 pounds, 5 ounces (43%)
Head Circumference: 17.25 inches (46 %)

So, she's getting more around the 50%, except for her height.  I was pretty surprised, because she only grew 3/4 of an inch in length from her 6 month to 9 month checkup.  Dr. Flanagan said the last measurement could possibly have been wrong, or she may be about to hit a growth spurt and will shoot up some.  He wasn't concerned at all.  I was concerned that her weight percentage has kept creeping up, but Dr. Flanagan says she's perfectly fine.  He said once she's crawling, she will start working some of that off, anyway.  I swear half of her body weight is in her thighs!  They're massive!!

Kinley has hit all of the 9 month milestones, except crawling.  She's SO close.  And really, it's a few days before her actual 9 month birthday, so she may get there.  She gets on her hands and knees and rocks, and she can get herself back into a sitting position.  She will reach for things but either flops down on her belly, or ends up pushing herself backwards.

It was a pretty short visit.  She is doing really well.  Dr. Flanagan did say she had some fluid in both of her ears, but it was clear.  He said it could just drain off, or it could turn into an infection, but there was no way to know what would happen.  He wrote us a prescription for an antibiotic just in case, which I thought was nice.  At the end of the appointment, they did a heel stick to get some blood to check for anemia.  That came back perfect, so we headed out.  I made the appointment for her 1 year checkup (tear) and that was that.

We had time to kill before my doctor appointment, so we stopped by Dr. Chatman's office since they're in the same building.  Dr. Chatman was so excited to see her, and again, could not believe how much she looks like John!  Of course she asked when we'll be back again as a patient!!  Then, we went to Dr. Turner and everyone in that office was thrilled to see Kinley.  None of them could believe it has already been 9 months, and frankly, neither can we!!  Time waits for no one!

**Update 1/12/13 - Kinley officially crawled for the first time today!  Just one day after her 9 month "birthday."  She got better and better as the day went on, so we're definitely in trouble now!!!

New Year's Day - Mommy & Daddy Date

Since my mom and Bob were in town, John and I decided to take advantage of free babysitting!  We had not been on a "date" in quite a long time, and we knew the time together would be really enjoyable.  Back in early December, John told me all he wanted for Christmas was a date with his wife.  So, I started thinking about what I could do to make that happen.  When I was in La Vernia for Christmas, a Groupon came up for the outdoor skating rink in Discovery Green, which is in downtown Houston.  They convert part of the park to an outdoor skating rink for a few months in the winter.  I thought it might be something fun and "outside the box" for us to do.  In addition, I was given a very generous gift from one of my students for Christmas (a $100 bill) so I decided to use that for our dinner.

We started out by going to a late afternoon movie.  We went to see This Is 40, which was funny, and we both enjoyed the time.  We haven't been to a movie in a theater since before Kinley was born.  Then, we went to dinner at Salt Grass.  We had an appetizer AND dessert, and it was all delicious!  Then, we headed downtown to ice skate.  I was pretty nervous, because I hadn't ice skated since I was in college.  John spent a lot of time ice skating when he was growing up in Canada, so he got into it pretty quick.  We both ended up taking a little spill at different times, but it was a lot of fun.  It was something totally different, and we really enjoyed just getting out and doing something together.  Gramps and Gran enjoyed their time with Kinley, and John and I had a great time just reconnecting as a couple.