Music and Parties

The kids at church were amazing during the kids Christmas Musical. I’m so proud of all their hard work. They were so great at remembering their lines and cues. This was my third year helping to direct the Children’s Musical at church and I am always so blown away by the kids. Way to go FBCers! I wish I had a picture to share, but alas, our camera’s battery was dead…

Alright, let me back up a little bit because this last weekend was packed! Friday I baked all day. I love to bake and share sweets with friends. So I decided this year I would make small bags of cookies for each person who performed in the musical. I made four batches of cookies: one of peppermint cookies, one of ginger cookies, and two batches of butter ball cookies, one red batch and one green. Kayley had fun following me around the kitchen, and using my pants to pull herself up into a standing position. I think it’s so cute when she comes up behind me, holds onto my legs tight, pulls herself up and just holds on. She has since found out that if she holds on really tights to my leg while sitting, I can take small steps and move her with me. It’s pretty funny. I can’t wait until she can “help” me in the kitchen.

Saturday was dress rehearsal for musical. We did a total of two run through; one where we stopped a lot and tweaked many things (it was our second time on stage with the kids), and a second run through where we told the kids we would only stop if we hit a major hiccup in the performance. We didn’t, so we had a great first run through.

During practice Kayley stayed at home with Andrew. My first time leaving her with him for an extended period of time. She stayed with him while I was gone at practice and for half the time when I was at the high school girls Christmas party (I’m part of a group of women who help facilitate events for the girls and are there for them if they need someone to talk to, pray with, etc.). She had a nice long nap, two solid feedings, and some fun play time with her daddy. Andrew needed to get some shopping done though, so he dropped her off with me at the party. 

Peek-A-Boo in a cubby with Daddy!

It was so fun to hang out with some of the high school girls from church. We made crafts together, made a delicious dinner, Vickie shared a short devotional, and we decorated and ate cupcakes. It was wonderful to get to know the girls more and learn about way I can be praying for them. I look forward to getting to know them more and to see how God will use this newly formed ministry to enrich the lives of those involved with the ministry. 

Craft time

Making spaghetti and meat balls

I think Kayley had a bit too much fun with her daddy all day and then at the party, because she got extremely hyper after her bedtime feeding and ended up staying awake until midnight. @_@ We were doing our best to get energy out of her, but she just had so much energy! When she finally started slowing down we did her bedtime routine a second time and she finally fell asleep. So glad for the six hours of sleep before the musical performance.

Sunday was the musical, followed by lunch with some friends, and then we headed home to finish cleaning our home and prepare for bible study. We had an extended time of fellowship during our yummy potluck, a short devotional, and a fun game of the White Elephant Gift Exchange, followed by the game Munchins. It was a great night! All the gifts in the exchange were great. I couldn’t decide what to steal. 

White Elephant Gift Exchange

But now that the weekend is over we are preparing for our trip to Cali! So excited we get to have Christmas in California.

On the Move

We have a mover! Two weeks ago Kayley started to do what we labeled “tripod scooting.” Basically while sitting she uses her hands to pull herself forward while one leg is down folded in front of her and her other leg is bent so a knee is up and her foot is on the ground so she can use it to help push herself forward. 

Tripod Scooting

She’s been doing her tripod scoot in our kitchen mostly since it’s a smooth wood floor. She has tried to do it on the carpet, but hasn’t been as successful since it’s harder to scoot on carpet in general. Before and during her practice of this skill she has also been practicing getting in the crawling position, and how to go from the crawling position to sitting. And she has learned how to go from lying on her tummy to the crawling position. It’s really been exciting to watch each new skill she is developing, and each new variation of it as she learns what works best and gets her to where she wants to be.

On Saturday night, while she was in the crawling position, she pulled her legs up underneath herself twice and moved forward for the first time. She did this again on Sunday right before our bible study and moved forward even more. Monday and Tuesday she was having fun crawling after toys she wanted. I was having fun crawling right behind her and pushing the desired toy a little more out of her reach so she would crawl more. She is really perfecting this skill fast and is even picking up the pace too. It’s crazy how much she has advanced in this area in such a short amount of time. 

Crawling

One thing she does need to work on and remember is that it is always a good idea to look at where you are going. There have been several occasions where she starts crying because she was looking down while crawling and crawled into a wall, table leg, couch, etc. During all this though she is teaching us areas in our home that need to be child proofed or moved. Today I had to close the door to one of our bathrooms because she discovered Hoshi’s water dish and food bowl are on the floor. We also need to move our bathrooms’ trash cans under the sink so she doesn’t try to crawl to them and get into them. Don’t want the baby to eat cat food, used tissue or floss!

And speaking of on the move, we have a new car! We realized we needed more space than what either of our cars offered for things we want to do, and everything we need to take with us, so we decided it was time for an upgrade. We’ve been car hunting for a while, but finally decided on the Hyundai Veracruz. We really like it and are happy to have it. We’re still getting used to it since we only just got it Monday night, but we already like it more than the silver car (which we traded in) and think our road trip to Cali will be a lot more comfortable now. The only problem is that it does not fit in our designated parking space (which is surrounded by four posts since it is a corner covered parking spot), and the closest guest parking spots are really narrow, so if a car you’re parking next to is super close to the line, you can’t get the car seat out… So it’s parked on the street where the white car used to be parked and the white car gets the covered spot. I guess I’ll just build up more muscles whenever I carry Kayley out to the car in her car seat and with our bags. We’re totally thankful for finding this car and being able to get it. Thank you God!

Teething

Two Thursdays ago we discovered that Kayley has her first tooth cutting through. She was chewing on my finger and I felt something sharp, so I looked in her mouth to find a tiny bit of her bottom front left tooth cutting through. She has been really teething since! Her front left tooth has come through a bit more, but there hasn’t been too much of a difference.

This unfortunately means our poor little girl has had a hurting mouth for nearly two weeks now. And this morning we noticed her bottom front right tooth is just starting to cut through her gum. She has been chomping away on toys, cloth, fingers, her clothes, basically anything she can put in her mouth (thankfully she hasn’t tried to bit the cat or kids in the nursery at church) to try and sooth her pain. Sometimes she bits something the wrong way making her mouth hurt more and suddenly cries out in pain. It’s very sad to hear and I really do wish I could do more for her.

We’ve been putting Orajel  in her mouth, but it only seems to be helping with her pain a tiny bit. At night or when she has been really fussy during the day we’ve been giving her some infant Tylenol. But what seems to work best for her is cuddles. Since her first tooth started coming through she has become a lot more attached to mama, and wanting cuddles only from mama and no one else. This is also because she is starting to have attachment issues (no stranger anxiety yet, so hopefully she will love meeting everyone in Cali during Christmas). There is a distinct cry for mommy, and if you are not me, it can be very difficult to calm her down. Thankfully if there are a lot of people around this does not seem to be too much of an issue yet because she is distracted by watching everyone. But in a one-on-one situation she is more likely to do her mommy cry.

I’m hoping these teeth will finish cutting through soon and that we’ll either get a little break, or many will come in at the same time and quickly so we can just get it over with. It hasn’t been too bad yet (we’re all still sleeping pretty good through the night), but I am a little afraid at how it might be and feel bad for the pain Kayley is feeling. But at the same time I remind myself that Andrew and I went through the same thing and survived, and so did our parents.

Preparing for Christmas

Our home is decorated for Christmas! We actually decorated Saturday after Thanksgiving, though we weren’t able to put ornaments on our tree until Monday night. Oh I love decorating for Christmas. ^_^It just seems to light up our home and helps there be a constant reminder that it’s the time of year where we celebrate Jesus birth.

Kayley didn’t help with the house decorations, but she had her little part in “helping” to decorate the tree. We bought her her first Christmas ornament and decided that all our “first ornaments” would go on the tree first. We each put our own up, and Kayley of course had help. She mostly wanted to try and eat her ornament. 

You don't know if an ornament is good unless you first taste the box it came in

My first is the top left, Andrew's is the clown, and Kayley's is the Precious Moments one.

After that we put up the rest of the ornaments that we picked to decorate the tree this year. We had our choice selection lying on the floor and had Kayley sitting on the floor a good distance from them. That didn’t stop her from trying to scoot and crawl over to them though! We let Kayley help put up non-breakable ornaments and before we knew it our tree was covered!

Helping mommy put Rapunzel up

Helping daddy put Donald Duck on the tree

It’s so fun having our tree, lights and other decorations up. Kayley likes to look at the lights while she plays with her toys on the floor. I’m sure if she knew how to crawl more efficiently she would constantly be over at the tree. 

Family together with our decorated tree

Reaching for ornaments while holding herself up standing.

Thanksgiving

We had such a lovely Thanksgiving weekend. It was jam packed with activities and people we love. We started off Thanksgiving nice and easy, made some muffins for breakfast and then made the mashed potatoes and two apple pies for dinner over at my sister’s. I think it is safe to say that Kayley enjoyed her first Thanksgiving. She loved spending so much time with her Aunty Heidi, Uncle Rick and her cousins DJ, Sara and Katie. Too bad she couldn’t eat the Thanksgiving meal because it was phenomenal! I believe everyone had a hand in making some part of it (besides Kayley). Kayley was eying our food though while we were eating, that is until she took a nap in her uncle’s arms.

Carving the delicious and extremely moist turkey

Such good food!!!

Kayley sound asleep in her uncle's arms

We had a great time with our family eating, talking, playing games, and just enjoying one another’s company. Oh it would be so awesome if we could have a meal like Thanksgiving once a week! Though I think I would also have to join a fitness club and diet in order to not gain extra pounds. We of course did our tradition of going around and saying what we are thankful for. And we were even able to video chat with my mom, oldest brother, his wife and their son. 

The cousins.

I have to admit that one of the highlights was spending time with my nephew, Derek. He was on leave from the army, so it was great being able to see him again. We hadn’t seen him since last December. And of course it was great that he was able to spend lots of time with Kayley. 

Chewing on her cousin's dog tags

Friday we actually participated in some Black Friday shopping, but we started at about 9:30am. Our one and only goal was to go to the Carter’s store to get some clothes for Kayley. They were having a 50% off sale, but you got an extra 10% off if you got there before 11am, plus we got an extra 20% off because of a coupon we had. We saved a lot of money on some much needed warm clothes, plus an adorable Christmas outfit. We were planning on Kayley meeting Santa that night and we wanted a super cute outfit for the photo op. The picture with Santa is adorable! Thankfully Kayley was totally cool with sitting in the lap of Santa (who had a southern accent. Maybe he vacationed in the south a bit this last year). She almost went for his beard once, but thankfully didn’t grab and pull. I think we walked off all the calories we gained from our Thanksgiving meal walking around the mall all day Friday.

I love that she's looking up at Santa and he is looking down at her.

 

Saturday we headed down to T-town to hang out with Mike. Kayley enjoyed seeing her uncle again and was showing him her best behavior when we went out to lunch. She also showed Mike her object permanence game of dropping toys on the ground, looking over to see that they’re still there, and then looking at mom and/or dad and asking for the toy to be picked up. 

Kayley and Uncle Mike

Kayley’s first Thanksgiving was fun and full of things to be thankful for. I know one thing we’re all thankful for is that Christmas is getting closer and that we’re spending it down in Cali! Whoohoo!

Thanksgiving family squishy picture

Snowmen at the mall