A delayed Merry Christmas

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!  Our house guests have now left and our house is getting back to normal.  The holiday was filled with some fantastic high notes of Kylie's 1st Christmas.  We had family photos (with 18 people!) on the 23rd, celebrated Christmas Eve and Christmas brunch with my family, and then spent most of Christmas day with M's folks. Yesterday we spent the majority of the day with my family again before some left town.

Kylie's first Christmas was all we were hoping it would be.  She took on the schedule busting festivities with a smile and was such a trooper.  Everyone spoiled her with all kinds of toys and clothes.  She easily had the most gifts both at my families gathering and my DHs.  A moment didn't go by when I didn't think of our most precious Christmas miracle.  She wasn't too interested in the presents but did enjoy trying to eat the bows.  We're now deciding how to store all our little angel got...it's mind boggling ow much stuff such a small baby can have!  And in big news Kylie's first tooth broke through on Christmas day.  It's a bottom one and she's been so good about it.  A little more waking up at night but not too crabby or anything.

Another high note was seeing my cousin, his wife, and their kids, Jack and Delaney (3 & 6).  I only have 3 first cousins and this is by far the closest one.  He use to come and spend every other Christmas with us when he was little (divorced parents).  And now we get to see him every 3 years or so.  His kids are adorable and his little girl adored Kylie.  Jack, his son, adored my dog and insisted it was his by the time he left.

We haven't collected all the pictures taken by others yet but here are some from the holiday...I'll probably post a few more later on, the best of the best if you will =)  But here are some good ones with various family members.  We had group shots taken so I'll post those later too.

With Great Aunt Karen

With 2nd cousins Delaney and Jack

With 1st cousins Cailey and Piper

Her pile of presents

Getting ready for bed last night in her new "It's Pasture Bedtime" PJs =)

There were a few tough things about the holiday too.  My brother and his daughters (twins girls from IVF) live two miles away and have been completely uninvolved with Kylie since she was born.  They have been around her 3 times for a collective hour of elapsed time.  So effectively they are strangers.  It has to do with some old tired family issues...my siblings are my 1/2 siblings and they think I'm the favorite child.  My parents work really hard to be fair about everything but they won't let it go.  So it appears that not only have I paid for their insecurities my whole life now my daughter will too *UGH*  It makes me sad and is beyond stupid in my book.  I just thought that once I had a kid (each of my siblings has two kids) they would be able to look past the childish crap but I was wrong...pitiful.  But I can't change it so I'm trying to let it go, after all we have our own family now and it's time to move on =)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas (or whatever you may celebrate) and is getting rested up for a great new year!  My work is closed this week so I have the whole week off *YIPPY*  I'm going to work on some initial baby proofing since Kylie's probably going to be on the move soon and try to get around to see some friends I haven't seen recently.  M is taking today off but will work Tu-Th.  Silly boy!  No big plans for NYE, we'll probably be catching some z's when the ball drops. 

All ready...

Hey there bloggy friends!  Hope you are all doing well and had a great weekend.  We were busy but the important part is that we are now ready for the holiday =)  Presents are wrapped (all 30 of them!) and cards are in the mailbox.  Whew.  I didn't realize how much time that actually takes until I needed to fit it in around feedings, naps, etc. 

Family arrives on Wednesday and leaves Sunday so it'll be a busy time.  All in all we have 20 family members here over the holidays...11 of us live here but 9 are in from out of town.  I doubt I'll get much time to blog so I wanted to take this opportunity to wish you all a wonderful holiday!  For those  who got your miracles this year I hope we all find moments to take in the amazing gift we've been given.  For those who are still waiting I wish you lots of strength and hope your miracle is waiting for you in the coming year.  Your support means so much to me and I am thankful to call you friends!

On a lighter note, here's what Kylie will be doing to cope with the family madness ;-) 

That's a New Belgium Frambozen for those who care *yum* Kylie just likes the top to suck on...

Videos

Last night while folding laundry I flipped on the video camera to catch Kylie and M playing (instead of folding laundry of course), they had been playing this game for a good five minutes before I got the camera...too stinkin cute for words!

A few days ago Kylie decided that coughing is the funniest thing.  She likes it most if she coughs and then you repeat it.  At first I was determined not to encourage her but it's so darn cute I can't resist playing along.

Thanks for your phone app suggestions to my last post.  It is suppose to arrive this afternoon and I'm looking forward to loading all the apps you mentioned.  I'm still feeling guilty about the $15 a month data plan, after all it could go to her college fund, but I'm hoping it's so useful and fun that I get over that =)

Thanks!!!

For all of those who commented on which pictures they liked, thank you!  We ended up ordering an 8x10 collage with two family photos (2 & 11) and four Kylie solo shots (6, 8, 13, 17) for each of the photo albums we're giving as Christmas gifts.  We also ordered our Christmas cards with one family shot (11) and two Kylie shots (8 & 17).  Everything should be ready to pick up the middle of this week =)

I'm starting to feel ready for the holidays and it's a good thing because they're just around the corner!  Saturday we managed to order cards, write our newsletter, wrap 1/2 our gifts and finish all the decorations on the tree.  We have one gift left to pick up (a small one for my 17 yr old nephew...any ideas?), we have to finish wrapping the albums and frames once we get pictures this week and we have to send our cards (about 50 of them).

The rest of our weekend was pretty busy too.  Friday M had his company party and all three of us went.  Kylie was good but we had to leave during the gift exchange at 9pm because she had enough.  Can't blame her, we'd been there since 5pm, I'd had enough too *jk*  Saturday night we went to a hockey game and made it through 2 periods and listened to the rest on the radio on the 40 min drive home.  She was such a trooper through all of it!  I figure it's practice for the holiday craziness around the corner.  My cousin, his wife and two kids (3 & 6) will be staying with us and in all we'll have 18 family members for the holidays.  Luckily my parents will be hosting the big gatherings *whew*

Kylie has now eaten oatmeal, sweet potatoes, squash, pears & bananas.  We'll try carrots for the first time later today and plan to try avocado later this week.  So far her favs are oatmeal and pears.  Her least favorite so far is bananas.  Funny because everyone told me she would love, love, love them. 

Yesterday I did something I said I would NEVER do.  I ordered a smart phone.  I can hardly believe it.  M and I are not phone people.  We do not text, we prefer email.  So why you ask?  M is planning on getting the iPhone when it comes out on Verizon because he's a gadget guy and just can't help himself and I didn't want to be left behind =)  I got my degree in computer science so I'm not exactly technology adverse but I just couldn't see paying the monthly fee for data.  But in the end I decided if M and I are both going to work then there should be some small perks...and I guess this is one of them.  So for any of you who are in the smart phone world - suggestions for apps? 

Wow, that was some serious rambling in many directions...and my post got rather long so I'll sign off.  Hope you girls are starting the week off well!!!

Oh, yeah...can't forget a picture of Miss Cuteness =)  This was us after M's work party on Friday:

6 Month Pictures - Please Vote

This weekend was a blur.  Friday night went like any other evening but Saturday morning Kylie woke up at 3:30am with a 101 fever.  We think it was still due to her Thursday shots =(  After some Tylenol and nursing she went back to sleep.  Poor little girl...and poor tired parents.  Later that day was the rescheduled photo session (always best after a 3:30 wake up...no need to comment on the bags under our eyes..lol) for Kylie's 6 month pics.  She was NOT going to smile.  No matter what idiotic things her parents tried (and we tried allwe knew!) she wasn't giving up the goods.  So I went and nursed her in a changing room hoping that some food would improve our shoot.  It helped and we got some photos which I need your help with.  If you could vote on your favorite 2 family shots and 3 Kylie solo shots it would be a huge help.  We decided to do photo albums for family and do an 8x10 collage of the day she was born, another one of her 3 month photos and then a final 8x10 of these 6 month photos.

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After the marathon photo shoot (1-3pm) we had to be at my company Christmas party at 5.  She was such a trooper but the level of activity with 40 people all coming up to her and getting in her face, grabbing her cheeks and talking loud to her was a little much.  Our plan was to skate out about 6:30 but we weren't able to get out until 8.  Then we had to stop by my folks to say happy b-day to my sister...and you can all remember how much we wanted to do that.  But we did and Kylie got to meet her Aunt.  We managed to leave there by 9 and when we got home we thought we'd forgo the oatmeal, juice and bath part of her routine and get her fed and to bed.  Well, it was a good idea...but didn't go as planned.  She was in her crib by 10 but off-and-on crying until about midnight when she let off on an all out crying jag.  We had to get her out of her crib and change her clothes because she was drenched in sweat.  She didn't have any fever though so we weren't sure what it was.  It sounded like a pain cry and was accompanied by a gasping sound.  I was starting to think a midnight trip to the ER was needed but I sang to her and she calmed down a bit and then I fed her and she sacked out about 1.  She was up bright eyed and bushy tailed at 7:30 yesterday and managed to have a fairly decent day mood wise.  We got the tree put up, the outside lights up, went to the grocery store and packed away some 6-9 month clothes that are too small and got out the 12 month clothes.  Whew, it makes me tired reliving that!  Last night she went to sleep at 9:30 and didn't get up until 8 this morning and seems to be in a much better mood.  Mom and Dad still got up at 6 though.  We're now thinking Saturday's debacle was because she is use to cluster feeding in the evening but with all the parties she didn't get to do that Saturday.  Lesson learned!

Ok, this post is OOC...please post a comment (even you lurkers!) and vote on your favorite pics!

Correction to Stats - Six Month Appointment

Kylie had her wellness visit last night and despite a lingering cold and having to get four shots (8 vaccines, including flu) she did great.  She weighted in at a healthy 18lbs (90th %) is 25.5" (50th %) long and has a head circumference of 17.5" (75th %).   This was 4 oz mor than she weighed at the docs last weekend and 1.5" shorter than our at home measurement.  So she remains our little chunky monkey but has come off the 95-97th % line.  The doc listened to her chest closely because of the lingering wet cough and luckily her lungs are clear and so are her ears so she doesn't need antibiotics which we're thankful for.

The big news for me out of the appointment is that while she's been slobbering on just about everything since 3mo the doc seems to think she may cut a tooth within the next month.  That has sent this breast feeding mom's head spinning.  For any BTDT mom's, advice? 

The only questions we had for the doc were revolving around food and sleep.  We were curious when we should go from feeding Kylie one time a day to two times a day.  The answer was pretty much anytime.  And our sleep question was about swaddling.  She still sleeps in a swaddle sack but is starting to....errr...fill it out =)  So we were curious if there were transition strategies.  The doc said there's really no concern with her staying swaddled if she tolerates it but that most babies her age don't.  We're considering using our week off between Christmas and New Year's to remove the swaddle.  I just hope it doesn't ruin a good thing of her sleeping for 8-9 hours in a stretch!

So far this morning she seems a little sleepy but not too uncomfortable from the shots =)  The great news is that after her flu booster in a month she doesn't have to have more shots at her 9 month appointment and I think then next round of shots is at her 12 mo appt! 

So there you have it...her 6 month wellness visit has come and gone.  I'm still shocked!  Here's a picture of her and M in a new outfit that my MIL bought for her.  The shirt says "Who needs Santa when I have Grandma" *lol*  And BTW it's a 12 mo outfit that doesn't in any way look too big, OMG!

Six months old!

Kylie turned six months old on Monday, I can hardly believe it! 

Stats - The doctor weighed and measured her on Saturday - the stats are 17lb 12oz and 27".  That appointment was for her cold and her official six month appointment is tomorrow.  She's growing and changing every day at this point.  I'm officially packing up most of her 6-9 month clothes and pulling out the 9-12 month ones.  Crazy! 

Favorite things - Baths, being read to, gnawing on her hands, running her hands through my hair, watching the fish tank, watching mom or dad dance as silly as humanly possible, watching her own hands, grabbing her toes, putting anything she can get her hands on in her mouth, kicking her legs wildly and grabbing at toys while on the activity mat and watching the dogs.

New skills - She knows her name and looks the direction of mom or dad when they call it out, passes toys from hand to hand and sits up for 10-20 second stretches.  She's not rolling over either direction yet or making any moves toward crawling.   

Mom and Dad's favorite things - all the giggles...she is a bundle of smiles and laughs and we love every second of it!

I took some pictures and videos on her actual 6 month b-day (Monday).

Happy first thing in the morning

Playing on her activity mat

Playing with her new toy

Happy birthday little girl!!!