Turkey Day

Oh my gosh, I'm a slacker!  It has been about a month since I last updated this.  Things have been busy!  Let me bring you up to speed....

1. K-Mac has four teeth now.  She has her two bottom teeth and her top vampire teeth.  It is probably twilight fever.
2. She has a walker that we got for cheap on Veteran's Day.  She is always cruising in it!
3. K-Mac's favorite movie is Sleeping Beauty.  She'll watch it again and again for hours.  
4. She loves food!  She's always eating cake or soup or bread.  Whatever we have!
5. She even plays with wooden toy food.  Seriously.  Loves.  Food.
6. She isn't growing like she used to so we have to go back to the doctor.  We aren't worried, she's all over all the time so she burns those calories (lucky).
7. She is a cheerio addict and calls them num nums.
8. She saw her first theater film- Footloose!
9. She is clapping!!!!!  It is the cutest thing!  Whenever she does anything, even bad, she claps.
10. She had a lovely first thanksgiving!  And I have the photos to prove it...

Chilling while momma and dada cook 

Our feast

FOOD!

K-Mac's plate.

We love turkey...

Is there something on my face?

All done!

The agreement was that if I showed this photo....

....I had to show this one too.

Happy Thanksgiving Ya'll!

Toothy Smiles

CAR SWINGS!

Sleeping...mid jump

This time last year, we were starting to buy pink clothes.  We learned that we were expecting a pink, not blue bundle of joy.  I was so convinced she was a he.  Hubs, on the other hand, knew for certain that I was carrying his daughter.

 I guess he can be right once.

In K-Mac land today, things are moving a lot faster.  I felt like I was pregnant for two years and here we are.  She is already eight months old!  So, I guess it wasn't very age appropriate, but we took her to go pumpkin picking this past weekend anyway.

The Horse we attacked.

The lovely Autumn Acres, to be exact.  While we were there, we got to pet the animals and go on a tractor ride to find a pumpkin.  She couldn't be bothered with the chickens or rabbits.  K-Mac wanted the horse.  My heart smiled.  The problem with her wanting something is that she typically growls at it and smacks it in her excitement.  This reaction holds solid for everything from toys to food to people.

So my kid punched a horse in the face at a petting zoo.

Tractor Rides

Yeah, we left to go on a hay ride before PETA showed up.  We sat in the front and her eyes were glued to the big ol' wheels the whole time.  When it was time to get off and get a pumpkin, we kind of just held her up and waited until she growled at one.  Lucky us, she wanted a small one.  THANK YOU LORD.

I think I failed to mention, she's a candy corn

Needless to say, it was a long afternoon for her and she was asleep in hub's arms before we even got back into the car.

In other news, I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but she has TWO TEETH.  Her bottom two teeth are finally in and all sorts of tiny and adorable.  With her new found teeth, she has been exploring a wider variety of finger foods.  She enjoys yogurt covered cheerios and banana shaped cookies.  It disturbs me that all of the cookies she tears apart have faces on them.

Mostly Asleep

Speaking of tearing apart cookies...We were finishing lunch the other day when I cleaned her up and took her into my office to watch me do some work.  She didn't want to lay down though so I put her up on my lap.  She started laughing and I asked her what was so funny.  She SCREAMS and slams a cookie into my shoulder, exploding crumbs everywhere.  Yes.  This really happened.

Wouldn't change a thing.

Eight Months and Counting

Yesterday, K-Mac turned eight months old.  She's been getting into any and everything possible and has quite the personality these days.

First off though, I want to put out the two photos at our sides.  This is slave labor.  Daddy was feeling sore and stiff and K-Mac was feeling sorry for him.  She was hitting his back and scratching it.  Massages!  It was adorable and when I caught her and took her picture from in front of her, she seemed stunned.

K-Mac is also on mommy's best buddies list.  She has (finally) started to say momma!  It was one of the best feelings ever the first time I heard it.  Yes, she usually only says it when she's mad or wants to be picked up but the point is, she is calling for ME.

Little Peanut is also eating big kid food!  She eats little cookies, finger foods, cereal puffs, wagon wheel cookies, and dried yogurt.  This comes in handy when we are food shopping or when she wants a little snack while I'm busy.  It makes me sad though when she turns her head when I try to feed her a cookie and then promptly picks it up and eats it on her own.  She's growing up so fast!

I'm also starting to think about her first birthday!  I've been considering a few different themes.  I like sock monkey, hungry caterpillar, animal prints, and elephants.  Now to narrow it down.  This is going to take some serious thought.

Applefest!

This past weekend was our town's good ol' fashion apple festival.  So we loaded up the stroller and met hub's family down there to eat some kettle corn, bbq, and drink apple cider and fresh lemonade.  Oh, also to shop.  Obviously.

We enjoyed the afternoon.  K-Mac got to sit on a tractor with her daddy which was pretty cute.  She also got a new bib, thanks to papa, and her mommy and daddy sure got a ton of new crafting ideas.  We really need to get cracking on all of that and the etsy store but we've been busy.

While we were there, K-Mac and I got on the swings too!  It's not the best picture, but it was nice that we actually have a picture of me with her!  I swear she is going to think that only hubs took care of her one day.  He's in so many pictures with her!!

When we got home, someone was still trying pretty hard to crawl around.  She does this thing where she gets on her knees like an inchworm and tries to push out while her hands are still up in the air.  Then, when her hands get down and she moves them to pull herself, she forgets to move her legs.  It's adorable to watch but after about thirty minutes, she's not happy, and she won't hesitate a single second to let you know all about it.

I know that crawling is not exactly a milestone.  Many kids never crawl and most learn to crawl backwards first.  I also realize that as soon as she is mobile, she's going to take off and get into everything.  People are always threatening me with the inevitable future.  The thing is, I have a handful of siblings and I've read a few books in my day.  I would not have had a baby if I wasn't ready for that.  I'm ready for the high energy, and I guess that is one of the benefits to having a baby earlier in life (but not too early!  Just in case K-Mac ever reads this..).  Back to my point, I can't wait to see her crawl.  She squeals with pride every time she rolls over or says dada.  K-Mac has the warmest smile I've ever seen and I can not wait to see what she figures out on her own next.

I'm sort of hoping she says horse next, because hubs said that if she does, we get to go pony shopping for her.  Yes, I'm setting my hopes high, but they never really fail me.

K-Mac and her favorite toys!

Seven Month Stories

I went back to school the day after my last blog post.

Obviously.

September 1st, K-Mac went to the fair!

K-Mac, Mommy, & Uncle David feed the camel!

Flash!

She was growling at the goats.

Ignore their scary eyes.  I swear we weren't feeding zombie animals.

Daddy and K-Mac after the long day!

On September 11th, we went to FAMILY DAY at Daddy's unit.  Another long drive but so much fun!

The diva didn't want to wake up..

But we met daddy's friends and rode in his special truck!

Woo hoo!

Driving.

Learning to be the gunner.

Hardcore!

Recently, K-Mac has started laughing a lot more, rolling over constantly, and trying to crawl.  She calls for "dada" on her monitor in the morning and makes "mmm" sounds when she wants something.  Some days she will reach for someone to pick her up and shows a preference to hubs and I over less seen friends.  Seven months and time is flying!

Good Night Blogger!

Another long drive



First we ate a big breakfast!



Next we played for a little while.

After that, K-mac napped!

When we woke up, we were with daddy.

Daddy missed putting stuff on our heads.

It was a nice visit!

We drove up to visit Derek a few hours away on his half-day training yesterday.  We went on a walk, went out to eat, checked out the base, and ended up at Walmart.  While in the check out, K-Mac looked at hubs and said "daada".  We're not 100% positive if she meant it because when I asked her to do it again she just smiled at me. 

How rude.

Seven hours of driving.  Four hours of hubs.  One happy momma <3

Six Months

Our sweet little peanut is growing up so fast.

On Sunday, K-Mac turned 6 months old and today she had her six month appointment.  It was a nice appointment because for the second time ever, daddy went with us.  She's pretty blunt about picking him over me (ie; not crying when daddy gives her a bath, refusing nap time unless daddy puts her down, staying up to see him when he gets off of work at super-dark o'clock, etc) but I'm not offended.  In fact, I love it and it makes me want to cry.  But that's beside the point.

I know, I know, you guys want some measurements.
Birth:  7 lbs 4 oz       +   20.25 inches
Now:  14 lbs 15 oz   +  25 inches

At her four month and this appointment, I filled out "surveys" on what K-Mac can do, sometimes does, and never attempts.  Last time we were concerned that she clearly favored one hand and leg but that worry is long gone.  At this particular appointment we didn't have any worries.  Yes, she doesn't exactly get on all fours and certainly isn't crawling but that's okay.  At this stage, babies are very different.  I walked at 8 1/2 months while hubs didn't even crawl at that age.  It doesn't matter because now we are both running and hardly fall down while walking.

Haha.  I've got jokes.

But, for those of you who want to know what most doctors expect from the six month social butterfly stage, we will break it down and enlighten.  Red means we don't do this (yet!).

Behavioral

• Begins to play social games (K-Mac loves peek-a-boo, dancing, and so big)
• Establishes routines (we're so blessed that she made her own and stuck to it so far)
• Has a special blanket or toy for self-soothing (we don't have this yet- she clearly likes toys that play music or are soft to cuddle but she'll take anything)
• Plays with toys: banging, dropping, swinging

Development

• Begins to speak single consonants (we get ababa and maaaaa and dadadadada but I don't think they *mean* anything yet)
• Rolls over both ways (not all of the time, she still struggles)
• Looks for dropped toys
• Begins to "tripod" when sitting (that's when they put their hands out front to support themselves)
• Gets on all fours (it's very rare and I think it is an accident when she does it)
• Transfers objects from hand to hand
• Rakes at small objects with fingers
• Shows displeasure with loss of toy (Um, more like gets super pissed)
• Recognizes parents and shows stranger anxiety (she'll bury her head in my chest but smiles at strangers)
• Attempts to feed self
• Smiles, laughs, squeals (we squeal hardcore)
• Puts weight on legs

Feeding

• Eats routine meals
• Eats solids
• Uses sippy cup
• Drinks 4 oz of juice a day (Guess we'll start this for real now)
• Drinks water (fluoridated)
• Gnaws (On everythingggggg)

Sleeping

• Consoles themselves when put in bed awake (Yeah, but sometimes we just cry-it-out- sue me.)
• Decrease naps (unfortunately)
• Sleeps through most nights :)

So that sums that up!  Now quickly, I'm going to run through some likes and dislikes of our six month world.

Likes

1. daddy, daddy, and....oh yeah, daddy
2. spinning in circles with momma
3. momma pretending to drop K-Mac (my kid is twisted)
4. her stupid cat and the dogs
5. the high chair and the freedom it provides
6. trucks
7. when people pretend to eat her feet
8. watching momma cook
9. BEING OUTSIDE
10. the stroller and momma's baby backpack

Dislikes

1. socks
2. green beans
3. napping for more than 30 minutes a day
4. bath time
5. having shirts put over her head
6. when she smacks herself in the face with a toy
7. getting changed in a public restroom and someone flushes (OMG)
8. when momma stops her from eating grass/dirt/bugs/leaves/twigs/multicam
9. sitting still
10. SHOTS, like the 3 we had today, although we still love that oral rotavirus thing.  YUM.

So there you have it!  Half way to her first birthday and already such a little character.  It's been a great 6 months and we can't wait to see where else K-Mac and our adventures will take us!



Big Girl!



Sippy Cup Adventures

K-Mac is growing up too fast.



Ignore my dirty kitchen please.

 On August second, she drank out of a sippy cup for the first time.  She actually enjoyed it.  Bye bye bottles.  It's a Nuk Learner Cup but really operates like a "real" sippy cup.  She holds the little handles and drinks from a little spout.

Also, I don't know if I mentioned it lately, but K-Mac hasn't taken a bink (paci, nipple, or whatever you call it where you are from) in months.  HEART BREAKING.  Although I'm glad that I won't have to break her of that habit in a mad panic before she starts preschool, she is still a baby, and I want her to BE a baby. 



Shade twins!

 She's not fighting anymore when I put shades on her.  She used to try to take them off, so I'd let her, and try again later.  Now she rocks them.  I'm probably annoying with this but I want her to wear them and protect her eyes.  Those eyes are too pretty for cataract surgery right now.

K-Mac also met ALL OF HER COUSINS!  It's important to me that she's close to them.  I love my cousins.  They're really like siblings who live in another house sometimes.  I feel sorry for people who don't have cousins they're close to. 

Now for a fun story!



So Proud!

 So, K-Mac's youngest uncle spends his summer days and after school time here with us.  He's actually a big help for a nine year old in fifth grade.  He helps me clean up around the house, hands me wipes while I change K-Mac, entertains her while I'm busy, etc, etc.  He decided he's ready to help me feed her baby food.  This is a big step.  He thinks she's gross when she eats but this is his only niece and he wants to help.  RIGHT ON.  So I tell him to pick out a food and get a spoon and get all set while I fix my hair.  He picks out carrots and a yellow spoon....then he gets bored and leaves her with the OPEN container in front of her in the high chair.  Now, he doesn't leave her, he just starts watching some game on the tv right next to her.  But when I come out of the bathroom, K-Mac has dumped the whole thing of carrots on her tray and is splashing in it and feeding herself with her fists.  I let her continue but let me tell you what...never again.