Solid Adventure

In the beginning of September we introduced Kayley to solid foods. Since then we have given her a small taste (1-2 ounces) almost every day. She really seems to enjoy it. Every time I show her the small bowl of food and her spoon, she gets really excited. During her solid food feedings it’s also been a time of learning for her. Not only are we trying to teach her etiquette for eating solid foods (keep your hands down and off the end of your spoon, don’t chew on your bib, don’t try to lick or bite your highchair, etc.), but we talk about what she is eating. We tell her what she’s eating, what type of food it is, how it grows, what it looks like before it’s made into puree, how we prepared her food (I make all her food), and may other things. Plus we’ve been trying to teach her a few hand signs for all done, hands down, and no. It’s a fun time during our day. 

Here’s a look at what Kayley had tasted thus far in alphabetical order:

Apples: Uh, a bit more please

Avocado: Mommy doesn't like avocado, but I do

Banana: I love bananas!

Carrot: So good! I'm so happy!

Golden Acorn Squash: I'm really not too sure about this one, but it's okay.

Green Beans: Te-he, green beans are tasty

Pears: Pears! Oh my gosh I love them!!!

Peas: I love to get peas everywhere.

Pumpkin: Hmm, pumpkin is alright.

Rice Cereal: I don't like rice cereal! I want something else!

Sweet Potato: Sweet potato is yummy

No allergies so far! We'll continue her solid adventure.

What October Brings

The start of October has signaled the start of activities for me the past couple years, and I’m glad I’ve been able to enter October with confidence that I can do these activities while being a new mom with a sweet baby girl. October is a time where I continue to be a Sunday school teacher, but I also take on the role of being one of the Christmas Musical directors for the Children’s Christmas Musical. Sometimes this also means creating backgrounds, props, etc. I’m not sure how involved I will be in that area this year, though I know I’m at least going to be giving input. Andrew marks the start of October as the time where he loses me and finds himself somehow painting something or making something. Though he just realized this happens twice a year, because I love helping out with Vacation Bible School during the summer too. ^_^

It’s also a time during the year when we plan the next two big holidays; Thanksgiving and Christmas! Whoohoo I’m looking forward to them both! Especially since they will be Kayley’s first!!! We haven’t figured out what we’re doing for Thanksgiving yet, but our Christmas plans are starting to come together more. We will be celebrating Christmas in California this year. We’re even making a little road trip out of it. I know, some of you probably think we’re crazy to do this during winter with a baby who will be 7 months old, but it’s a lot cheaper to drive to Cali from Seattle than it is to fly. Plus, I really enjoy road trips and we want Kayley to enjoy them (or at least begin to get used to them) too.

Christmas this year is going to be one to remember! Not only because it will be Kayley’s first, but it will be the last Christmas we will ever have in the house I grew up in. That’s right, my mom is moving! After being in the same house for just over 26 years, she’s moving. How do I feel about this? Well kind of sad. I mean she’s moving out of the house I lived in until I went off to college. It’s where I learned how to walk, celebrated my first birthday, rode a bike for the first time, had my first pets, and accepted Christ! It’s where I helped oversee the construction of the playhouse my Grandpa built for Tim and me, I helped remodel the kitchen, I sponge painted my old bedroom with my Grandma, Smokey the rabbit is buried in the backyard (and I believe at least one hamster is lost in the walls…), it’s where I got ready for my Jr. and Sr. proms, it’s where I did summersaults down the stairs and my head hit the wall (not the most brilliant idea), a hundred sleepovers with tents built out of sheets and clothes pins took place there, I had my first cake fight with my best friend (all in good fun of course), I put on dance, singing and modeling shows with friends for our parents, it’s where I performed and recorded puppet shows with my friend Cindy. It’s where I grew up!

Me and my mom and dad. Kayley totally sleeps like that.

My first birthday cake being stolen from me. And I thought my brother and two dear friends loved me. ^_~

My first real bike. I named it Shorty

Dressed-up for Halloween, but I wore the Rainbow Bright outfit with friends on many other occasions.

Dressed-up for tea

My first two rabbits, Smokey and Chocolate

Sr. Ball photo op!

After the cake fight with my best friend.

 But… I’m not that sad about it all because my mom is moving to the Seattle area! Now that I am truly excited for! So, planning for Christmas is different this year because it involves planning for Kayley and I to stay in Cali longer to help my mom pack up a bit and go through some things. I don’t know how much longer we’ll be in Cali past Andrew, but probably to at least mid-Jan. We won’t be working the whole time. This also gives Kayley and I extra time to spend with Andrew’s folks, and an opportunity for Kayley to meet some of our Cali friends in person.

October this year brings lots of things to plan for and look forward to.

Me and my mom

Pumpkin-ing

While heading home from the Fall Conference we stopped by the Carlton Farm’s Pumpkin patch, just like we did last year. This time we met up with some friends, Wesley, Kelly, Jeremy, Hiro and Isamu. We started off our adventure by taking a hay ride down to the patch. Kayley enjoyed looking at the people and feeling hay for the first time. 

The hay ride

Then, Jeremy, Isamu, Andrew, Kayley and I went through the corn maze. We had to find the 10 riddles to figure out what the secret phrase was. They give you a map to use if you want so you won’t get too lost. We had fun zigzagging through the maze together trying to figure out the best way to go to each riddle. I think Kayley enjoyed looking at all the corn and at the people (sometimes very hyper children) that passed us by. It was a bit chilly when we first got there, so we had Kayley’s hood up. Well, her hood is a bit too big for her and loves to fall down over her face. So every once and a while she’s start making noise or kicking her feet in her Bjorn to get our attention to say “I can’t see!”

The maze

Following Isamu through the maze. He had great sense of direction!

In the middle of the corn maze

After we successfully found each riddle and discovered the secret phrase we joined Wesley, Kelly and Hiro in the pumpkin patch to find the perfect pumpkins. I found two small ones that I thought would be cute for Kayley, so I held them both up to her at the same time to see which one got her attention the most. She reached out and hit both of them at the same time! We ended up getting both. One is hers and one is Hoshi’s, I just don’t know which is which.

Looking for the perfect pumpkins

It was fun to point out pumpkins to her and talk to her about what pumpkins are and what color they are, etc. We ended up getting five pumpkins this year. No there is no secret message in the number of pumpkins we bought this year. =P This year we bought one for each member of our family including the cat, and one to make something out of. I think I’m going to make some baby food for Kayley and some pumpkin bread for us. I’ve never made pumpkin bread before, so we’ll see how that turns out. Hopefully delicious.  

Riding in the wheelbarrow and checking out our pumpkins

We had a great time with our friends at the pumpkin patch. I hope we can make going to Carlton Farm after Fall Conference our little family’s tradition and it would be fun to have people join us on the adventure again. Next year Kayley will probably be walking through the patch! Oh that’s going to be so much fun!

Pumpkins!

FBC Fall Conference

This last weekend we headed up to Warm Beach to attend our church’s Fall Conference. We had quite a packed day as we headed up there. We started if off by visiting my grandma in the hospital. She had a heart attack last week and was admitted to the hospitals to make sure she was okay and to have some tests done. She’s home now, thank God. But we wanted to make sure we saw her before we were gone for the weekend. Kayley was a wonderful visitor and made Gram Bell light up whenever she smiled. We were very glad we were able to stop by and see her and cheer her up a bit before heading up north.

Our next stop was the outlets for some shopping. Kayley got to ride around in her umbrella stroller for the first time and seemed to enjoy being able to look straight ahead and check out all the sights right in front of her instead of just being able to see whoever is pushing her. Plus, Kayley really enjoys sitting whenever and wherever she can. We ended up only buying things for Kayley: a couple warm PJs and some 9 month long sleeve onsies and some pants since it’s starting to get cold and wet outside. We had the pleasure of running into Pastor Craig and his wife Lois at the outlets and ended up running into them again at Five Guys where we all ended up having dinner before driving the last little bit to Warm Beach.

She just woke up from a nap before we put her in her umbrella stroller for the first time. I think she was a bit confused before she decided it was a fun thing

 Going to a conference with a baby who basically only breast feeds is a lot of work! Especially when she doesn’t take a bottle (we kind of gave that up…). There’s no leaving her in the nursery with a snack to hold her over until mommy is done and comes back to feed her. This was the first weekend excursion we had where we had a set schedule, and Kayley’s schedule had to work around it, instead of having no schedule at all and planning our day around her. It was different to say the least. Plus, when you have a baby who loves to look at everyone and everything, and refuses to take naps when she’s tired because she just wants to look and study everything, it is also hard. You end up having a baby who is so tired she doesn’t know what to do with herself, and ends up not sleeping well at night because she probably is afraid she’s going to be missing out on something.

Kayley loved being at the Fall Conference though! She loved being with her friends in the nursery, she seemed to really enjoy the walk we went on in the woods, she loved seeing so many people around her all the time who would stop and say hello, and she loved all the hugs and smiles people gave her. We have a very loving church family and I think she’s starting to get the idea that she’s a part of it!

Andrew and I enjoyed our time at Fall Conference too. Yes we were tired, but it was great to be with our church family all weekend long. We even had the opportunity to lead the junior higher and high schoolers in worship together – the first time we’ve ever led worship together! We didn’t get to attend much of the sermons or small groups since we were leading youth worship, but it was great to hear bits and pieces about them and what people got from them. I’m looking forward to listening to them online since I didn’t get to listen to any of the sermons at all. As soon as we were done with worship, Kayley would be hungry, and by the time she was done eating, the sermons were done. But I really enjoyed getting to know individuals from church more by sharing a meal with them, or bumping into them during our walk in the woods down to the water, or helping out in the nursery with them.

Someone asked us if we plan on attending next year. We immediately said yes in unison. They then asked us if we could change our decision about going to fall conference this year, would we? We both replied with a firm no. Over all we both enjoyed our time at Fall Conference and hope even more people come next year. This was my third year going, and Andrew’s fourth, and it’s something we both look forward to. So we both can’t wait until next year when Kayley will be almost a year and a half and probably trying to run all over the place. 

The beautiful view down at the water

On our walk we saw many spider and showed them to Kayley

Kayley also got to see her first banana slug (these make me think of Humboldt)

And a snake! It was hard to get a picture of since it was slithering away in fright (I almost stepped on it... I didn't see it on the path at first since I was looking at all the plants on the side of the path)

This trip was the last time Kayley will use her Moses Basket. As you can see, she is almost the same length as it

Family time at Fall Conference