All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth...

 

Well, Kerala got her Christmas wish. Her bottom two teeth broke through her gums on Christmas Eve. They are still coming in but she is no longer in pain. Besides getting her two front teeth, Kerala also got a ton of cool toys, books and clothes. Kerala (with the assistance of Ellen) even gave us a present - an ornament with her hand print. We had a very successful first Christmas.

This evening we had a very very sweet musical moment. Troy started to play the piano and Kerala crawled over to it and got on her knees and started clapping. It was like she was Troy's audience and you could tell that she was really psyched to hear Troy play. Since we last blogged Kerala has had a number of milestones, including eating meat for the first time, figuring out how to climb the stairs (uh oh) and responding with clapping when we ask her to clap. She is also laughing more and more each day and it really seems like she is developing a pretty funny sense of humor.

Tomorrow morning we head out of town for Kerala's first New Year's trip. Have a great New Year's everyone!

9 months

 
 

It's hard to believe that Kerala is nine months old today. She has grown so much since we have brought her home, it's just unbelievable. She still continues to clap and now is waiving a ton. She doesn't seem to waive when people are coming and going, but rather waives all of the time. We have only seen her waive in response to someone a few times. It's pretty cute though because you will be doing something like feeding her or changing her diaper and she is just waiving at you. She is still cruising around and has attempted to move along with my big exercise ball. We are thinking that maybe with the push toy she is getting for Christmas, she will start trying to walk a bit more. Also, she is progressing quite well with food lately - she is definitely very into finger food. She loves the Gerber puffs and cheese. I tried giving her hummus the last couple of days and let's just say she didn't seem to be a fan.

Also, it looks like Kerala might be getting her first tooth. She has a little bump on her gums and Ellen thought it looked a bit white. She has been drooling a bit more and has had a runny nose for awhile. Hopefully, she will have her first tooth shortly.

We had a really great weekend. Yesterday we headed over to JT and Tamra's for a holiday party. Kerala had a blast chasing all of the kids around and playing hide-n-seek with Henry. The blogged photo is Kerala kissing Carys at the party. The kids were surprised with a special visit from Santa at the party as well. Kerala did quite well on santa's lap, although she did tug at his beard. We had planned on doing our tree today, but we got about a foot of snow yesterday so the tree will wait until next weekend. We figure it's probably best to minimize the time we have with the tree in our house.

A couple more videos

Here's a video of Kerala dancing to one of her favorite CDs.



And another video of Kerala showing off her skills on the piano. She's gifted.

8 months, 3 weeks

I know it's been awhile, but we have been pretty busy around here. Troy is getting ready for finals and I had a pretty busy week last week at work. Fortunately, my new group at work allows me the flexibility to leave so that I can get home to have dinner with the family, play with Kerala and put her to bed. Unfortunately, that means that some nights I am up until the wee hours of the morning getting all of my work done. It's not ideal and I do feel like I am missing out on a lot, but we are making it work.

So we have added a new element to the blog - videos! Troy has been taking a ton lately and this is one of my favorites so far. As far as Kerala, she is doing awesome. This past week she started to clap and even wave a bit. She is also cruising around on the furniture. Because of Kerala's mobility and her ability to climb on things, we ended up ordering some new furniture so hopefully she won't be able to pull anything down. Sleeping is also getting better here (although right now it's almost midnight and we have had to go in and console her a couple of times already). Last night was the first night in a long long time where she slept through the night!

8 months, 1 week, 3 days

 

It seems like Kerala is finally over the stomach flu - she finally has gotten her appetite back and is eating like a little piggy now (what a relief). While her appetite is better, her sleeping habits have gotten worse. We were at Troy's mom's for Thanksgiving weekend and she had a horrible time sleeping. I know part of it had to do with being someplace new, but her sleep habits have also been worse since we have been home. I have read that it is common for babies to go through separation anxiety when they go to sleep, so perhaps that is what this is. Kerala is definitely experiecing separation anxiety and stranger danger during her waking hours. She freaked out this past weekend when some salespeople approached us while shopping. They were telling her how cute she was, but she wouldn't have any of it.

While Kerala is a bit frightened by new people, she is really psyched about animals. Lately, she has tried to tackle our cat and is constantly chasing our cat around the house to try to get close to her. Poor Cloud use to be safe under our dining room table, but not anymore since Kerala is getting quite good at maneuvering through chairs. Kerala also experienced a couple of puppy licks on Sunday from our friends new puppy. She thought it was the funniest thing to have the puppy lick her hands and cheek - I will admit that I was a bit freaked out about it, but Kerala seemed to really love the puppy.

Kerala had a very successful first Thanksgiving. On Thursday, we had dinner at my mom's and Kerala had her very own sweet potato. On Friday, we had our second Thanksgiving dinner for the weekend and Kerala ate all of her rice cereal, a jar of baby food, and some white potatos that we mashed up for her. Other than sleep issues, she was in great spirits all weekend.

8 months, 2 days

 
 

Well, the bug that Kerala got infected Ellen, Troy and me this past week. It seems like everyone is finally getting over it, but Kerala is still a bit under the weather. The doctor said that they are seeing a bug in little ones and it takes about a week or so to get it out of their system. Hopefully, Kerala will be back to her normal self by Thanksgiving. Because we were all recovering this weekend, we really didn't do much at all (although we did finally babyproof our staircase).

Kerala is mastering the art of pulling up and has started to learn how to get back down from the standing position. At the beginning of her pulling up phase she would basically get stuck standing up so that we either had to get her down or she would lunge off of whatever she was holding onto which was a bit problematic. Now she can basically go back down to a sitting position without too much difficulty. She will still occassionally let go of whatever she is holding onto to lunge after something (i.e., the cat, Troy or me).

We have also realized that Kerala is getting quite fast at crawling when she sees something she wants. Typically, you can tell that she is going to go after something because her eyes get really huge (i.e., the blogged photo) and then she makes a go as fast as she can.

7 months, 4 weeks

 

Kerala has had a couple of milestones this past week - good and bad ones. The bad one was that she got her first case of the stomach flu. It was a very minor case, so it wasn't too bad. The other milestones are all pretty positive ones. She has learned to crawl while holding something in her hand. Normally, it's something small and she is able to move around no problem, when she tries to hold something like a 48 oz tupperware container (one of her favorite toys of late) she has some difficulty moving around. Her other big thing lately has been pulling up on everything. Troy had to move her crib mattress to the lowest level this past weekend, but unfortunately that didn't stop her from pulling up on the side of her crib this evening. Troy and I will have to figure out something since she if she falls while standing up she can get her legs through the crib slots. Hopefully, the fact that she is in a sleep sack will prevent her from attempting to pull up during the night.

This past weekend was our last music class for a bit and it was Kerala's best class ever. She was super vocal and seemed to have a ton of fun. It was also pretty funny to see her go after the toys that the teacher put down for the other babies - as soon as she saw the teacher take the toys out of the box, she attempted to make a beeline towards the other babies' toys.

Finally, I know our picture postings have been somewhat behind, but that is because we have been mostly shooting videos of Kerala. We will definitely get back into taking regular photos once the novelty of the video camara wears off - which I hope is somewhat soon for Troy since he keeps playing practical jokes on me w/ the camara.

7 months, 3 weeks, 1 day

 

Kerala has been sleeping really really well lately. She has been taking longer naps during the day - about one hour in the am and two hours in the afternoon and has been a great mood when I get home at night. The other night when I walked into the house she started bouncing up on down on her knees because she was so excited. Getting her to go to sleep has also been a bit easier, but I think that's because we pushed her bedtime back 15 minutes so she is a bit more tired when we put her down.

Troy and I finally got a video camara so we can start uploading little films of Kerala shortly. It's kind of funny, we don't let Kerala watch any tv other than K-TV (Kerala-TV). She seems pretty confused seeing herself on the tv or computer. Troy took some great videos of her today crawling around and jumping (assisted by Troy). Her new fun game is for you to say "jump, jump, jump!" and then make her go really high in the air on the third "jump." It's cute because you can tell she is anticipating her big jump by the way she bounces her legs. It's really fun to do since she has this crazy big smile on her face the whole time.

7 months, 2 weeks, 5 days

 

We had a wonderful weekend - very relaxing with nothing really planned. Troy attended his first music class with Kerala and me yesterday. Unfortunately, Kerala wasn't super into class. She did get excited when we played with instruments. My favorite part of the class was when Troy had to dance around in a circle with Kerala and then spin around in circles with Kerala and another dad and baby in the class. It was pretty cute. We have one more class and then we will be taking a couple of months off from music class. We are going to sign Kerala up for the next age group, but that class doesn't start until after the first of the year. In the interim, we will definitely listen to her cd's at home - her favorite one lately is her African Music Playground cd that Auntie Kim sent her. She gets so excited when the music starts and you start dancing with her.

Yesterday, we had to make a run to Kohl's and buy Kerala some warmer clothes for the winter. We got her a ton of fleece shirts and pants. Hopefully, we have stocked up enough so we won't have to make another shopping trip for awhile. We also finally ordered some babyproofing gates. As many of you knew, we have a railing around our stairway that is in need of some major baby proofing. We should have the gates in by next weekend.

The blogged photo is a picture of Kerala kissing her I am Sam doll. Kerala's big thing lately is to screech at the doll and then try to kiss it. I don't if she thinks it is a little person or what. It's pretty cute though because it really does seem like she is trying to kiss the doll and not bite his head off.

7 months, 2 weeks, 2 days

 
 

I know it has been awhile since we have blogged, but we have been pretty busy around here. I really do want to blog on a more frequent basis, but sometimes it is just hard. Kerala had her first halloween yesterday - she was a mouse. We basically just had her in the halloween costume for photos. Kerala attended her first halloween party at a party hosted by our friends, Mike and Tiffany. There were five other little ones there, so Kerala had a blast. We stayed back at the house, while the other little ones went trick or treating.

Kerala has begun to interact with other babies a lot more. She will now squeal really loud if she is sitting next to a baby. At storytime this week, she grabbed the costume of a little toddler and once she got his attention she shrieked and kept shaking her head no. Unfortunately, the little toddler didn't understand why Kerala kept telling him no so he responded with some head shaking of his own.

Kerala is also starting to pull herself up a lot more on things. If she is playing at her leapfrog table she will pull herself from a knealing position to a standing one. We have to be really careful now because she has toppled over a couple of times in the process of trying to pull up onto things.

7 months, 5 days

 

As you can see by the photo, Kerala loves to chew on everything. We thought her chewing was under control, but on Friday night she proved us wrong by biting off a piece of one of her board books. Fortunately, Troy was able to get it out of her mouth, but it was pretty scary. Sleeping seems to be getting much better. The last two nights she went down pretty easily. Last night I put her to bed with her still be slightly awake and she fell to sleep without a fuss. Tonight she cried for about a minute after I put her down and then went right to sleep. One thing that we have changed is that we have put something in her crib that smells like me. The first night it was a t-shirt. When Troy and I went to check on her she was sleeping hugging the shirt. When we checked on her again, however, she had the shirt covering her face which made me a bit nervous so we took it out. Now she sleeps with a burp cloth that I slept with a couple of nights. I don't know if it makes any difference at all, but I am hoping it does.

Kerala is progressing quite well on the crawling front. She seems to be getting up on a all fours a bit more consistenly rather than just army crawling. She is getting quite good at making a beeline for things that you don't want her to get. We definitely have to watch her!

7 months

 

As you can tell by the blogged photo, we have a bit of baby proofing to do. Kerala is now quite the master at army crawling and was super excited to check out the blue light on Troy's computer. Fortunately, she isn't the fastest crawler, but we won't have long before her crawling is out of control.

Lately sleep has been somewhat of a problem for Kerala. At night she refuses to go down and it's quite a battle. I have been rocking her to sleep, but now she even gets really squirmy with me rocking her and it now takes about 45 minutes to get her to go to sleep. As many of you know, Kerala hasn't been the best sleeper and it seems to be getting much much worse lately. During the day she seems to nap okay - taking about a 45 minute - 1 hr nap in the am, 1 - 1 1/2 hours in the afternoon and sometimes a 20-30 minute nap in the late afternoon or early evening. We would like her to nap a bit more during the day, but she really isn't much for napping. Hopefully we will be able to resolve these sleep issues and by her 8 month birthday I can report that all is well with her sleeping.

We are still moving along with solids pretty well. We just wrapped up the trial run of peas and I don't think she was the biggest fan. She would eat them, but wasn't super excited about them at all. Tomorrow we are moving onto oatmeal, so we will see if she likes that better than rice cereal.

6 months, 4 weeks

 
 

Check out Kerala in her very cute Illini outfit doing the field goal sign. We have two new games that we have been playing with Kerala. The first one is giving her rides around in the laundry basket. She gets super pscyhed if you move her in front of the mirrow. The second game is playing with our big blue exercise ball with Kerala. She really loves it if you bounce the ball or pretend like you are going to roll it over her.

Kerala is still practicing crawling - sometimes she will move really well, but most of the time she makes a couple of attempts at moving and then sprawls out on the ground. Her most recent activity has been doing the downward facing dog yoga position. She will get in a crawl position, but then raise her bottom really high in the air so it really does look like she is doing yoga.

Kerala has been progressing very well with food. Although tonight she was not excited about food at all. She had a bit of rice cereal and then a couple of small bites of peas. I am not sure if she just didn't like the peas or was not really hungry since she really wanted to nurse right before dinner time. We will try peas again tomorrow and see how that goes.

6 months, 3 weeks, 1 day

 
 

We have had a busy few days - a crawl, sweet potatoes and a marathon guest. On Thursday night, Kerala started to crawl a bit. It wasn't pretty, but she was on all fours and crawling a bit. She has only crawled on all fours a few times since, so hopefully it wasn't a fluke and she will be on her way. Even though she isn't up on all fours, she is learning to army crawl and to creep across the floors - she is definitely mobile which means we are off to buy baby fences this coming weekend.

Kerala has started to really like solids. She now gets super excited for her feedings, which is really cute. Similar to her cousin Hannah at this age, she will start to wave her arms in the air once she sees the spoon. Today wrapped up her three day trial of sweet potatoes and she is a fan. Tomorrow we are going to try pears, so we will see. The only negative to her increased interest in solids is that she is drinking less milk, which isn't good. Today, she wasn't really interested in the bottle at all and Ellen struggled to get her to take what she did. Hopefully, this is just a very short lived phase and she will be back to her usual consumption of milk.

This past weekend we had my friend Laura stay with us. Laura ran and finished the crazy Chicago marathon. Great job Laura! We had a very nice visit - Laura even watched Kerala for us Saturday while Troy and I attempted to install Kerala's fancy new car seat. Unfortunately, the car seat won and we had to ask our friend Tamra for assistance (thanks Tamra)

Finally, this past week Troy and I (mainly Troy) set a new record for photos. Troy took almost 400 photos of his little baby. Most of the photos were taken when Kerala was helping daddy fold clothes (the blogged photo is one of those - Kerala loves to munch on her wash clothes).
.

6 months, 2 weeks, 3 days

 
 

We have added a new element to the blog page to track our introduction of new foods to Kerala. I have also included her response. She actually did a lot better tonight with her rice cereal - this time we mixed it with water which she seemed to tolerate. We also tried a bit of very ripe avocado last night, which she did not seem to like at all. So far Troy, Ellen and I have mashed up bananas for her, but this weekend we may consider trying some commercial baby food to see if she likes it any better.

As you can see by the blogged photo, Kerala is getting really close to crawling. She is constantly up on all fours, she just can't figure out how everything works together. She has pushed herself backwards a couple of times, but usually she will move either her arms or legs and then collapse. She is getting really strong though - I am just amazed. Kerala has also began to kick her legs in the bathtub. Usually Kereala only splashes with her arms. Recently, she has realized that she can also splash by kicking her legs, which results in much much bigger splashes. The bathroom is truly a mess during Kerala's bath time. Finally, Kerala has added "da da" to her babbling vocabulary. It's quite cute - this morning Troy and I woke up to "da da da da da da da...."

6 months, 2 weeks

 
 

Everyday we see signs that our little girl is getting bigger. Today, we had to move her crib mattress down two levels because she was starting to grab onto the side of the crib. We don't think she could have pulled herself up, but we didn't want to take any chances. Today, we also realized that we had to move up a level of diapers since she kept having accidents in her size two diapers. Kerala is also on her way to crawling - on Friday night she pulled herself all the way across our bed. She wasn't getting her bottom up, but she definitely has the arm strength so we don't think it will be much longer before we need to do some major babyproofing.

This past week, Kerala had a pretty funny experience at her story time. Apparently, she got so excited that she scared the two toddlers that were sitting in front of her. Ellen wasn't sure if she was excited over the story or the possibility of grabbing the two toddlers in front of her. I hope Kerala doesn't get the reputation around the neighborhood as a bully.

As far as eating is going, we introduced bananas to her this weekend. She seemed to like the bananas a bit more than the rice cereal, but that isn't saying too much. The doctor said that it's not that big of a deal if she doesn't eat the solids since we are just trying to introduce her to using a spoon and swallowing solids.

6 months, 1 week, 1 day

 

Kerala finally had her first real meal of solids - and when I mean real, I mean she actually got a couple of spoonfuls of rice cereal. She still isn't psyched about it, but at least she is making progress. It seems like every day she gets a bit more cereal. She has been grabbing the spoon out of our hands and putting it in her mouth - unfortunately, in the process of grabbing the spoon she gets cereal all over her hands but that's okay. She does reach out to grab the bowl, but so far we have been able to keep that away from her.

The blogged photo is Kerala playing in the tray attached to her booster chair. Ellen had the great idea of filling it up with water and letting Kerala splash in it, which Kerala loved.

6 months, 1 week

 

Poor Kerala has had a cold the last few days. She is super congested and it's just the saddest thing ever. Hopefully, she will get over it pretty soon. Despite the cold, she has actually been in pretty good spirits until the evening. Right around bedtime she gets pretty congested and fights (even more than usual) going to sleep.

Kerala has started to sleep on her belly a bit. Sometimes she will roll over onto her belly and wake up totally upset that she is on her belly, while other times she is perfectly content sleeping on her belly. It's pretty cute to see her pop the binkie in her mouth and then immediately her head falls to the bed - it's amazing how comforting the binkie is to her.

As far as food is going, we have made some progress. Kerala actually is super psyched about water now. She is able to drink from her sippy cup, which is super cute. She has even taken a couple of sips from my glass of water as well. Today, was the first day it seemed like she actually "ate" some rice cereal. It wasn't a ton, but she definitely got some of it in her mouth. Our doctor said that once Kerala has mastered the rice cereal we can add a fruit to breakfast and a veggie to dinner. Hopefully, we will be able to do that next weekend.

The blogged photo is Kerala on the swing at the park. She really enjoys swinging. She is a bit small for the swing, so we put a blanket behind her - otherwise, she is perfectly content. Poor Troy had to listen to me say "not so high" about a million times (I am a bit over protective). Also, check out Kerala and Silas at their music class in the September photos. Kerala and I are really enjoying the class, especially since Tamra and Silas are in it as well.

6 months, 3 days

 
 

Check out Kerala in her cute hat that Ellen knitted for her. It's great because it's big enough so Kerala doesn't realize its on so she doesn't try to take it off immediately. Thanks Ellen - we love the hat! Kerala definitely looks like an urban baby in it.

Kerala had her 6 month doctor appointment today. The doctor said that Kerala is doing great and was even amazed at some of the things that Kerala was doing during the appointment. Kerala more than doubled her birth weight (yay!) and is back to her 75% for height. Her doctor said that we should introduce solids now - start with cereal and once she has mastered cereal add fruits and veggies. We tried cereal again today and Kerala was not a fan. If there is no food on the spoon she will play with it and stick it in her mouth, but once we add the cereal she doesn't want to have anything to do with the spoon. So something to work on. Ellen is going to try to give Kerala a bit of breakfast tomorrow and we will try dinner tomorrow night. The doctor also gave us the go ahead to make our own baby food (everything except for carrots and spinach). Depending on how well cereal is going, Troy and I may try to make up some food this weekend. The only down part to the appointment was the shots Kerala received. She has been a bit fussy today and now has a little bruise on her thigh from one of the shots. We have been giving her tylenol and hopefully she will sleep pretty well tonight. It was a bit difficult getting her down tonight even though she was clearly tired.

6 months!

 
 

Well Kerala turned six months today. In honor of her half birthday, we tried a bit of rice cereal for lunch. Up until this point, she had been exclusively nursed with a bit of formula this past week. She did not appear to like the cereal very much at all. She maybe took half of a spoon and then spent the rest of the time trying to avoid having the spoon near her mouth. It's funny because everything else she tries to put in her mouth, but not the spoon. We also tried giving her a bit of water, but again she was not super psyched about the water. She did enjoy throwing her sippy cup, so that's a start. Grandma Perry was able to witness Kerala's first "solid" meal today, so that was nice.

This past weekend, we enjoyed a really nice bbq at Chrissy's and Sean's. Kerala was super pscyhed to see her friend Valerie Violet. Kerala squealed at Valerie and kept trying to munch on Valerie's shoes, which was a bit odd. Lately Kerala has been obsessed with whatever has been on her feet (check out the pictures of her trying to munch on her pumpkin slippers that Grandma Perry got her). We wrapped up the weekend with a visit from Grandma Perry, which was very pleasant.

Also, thanks Chika for the post about Kerala's outfit. Believe it or not, we got that outfit for $.75 from the Salvation Army! Troy and I are going to head there this weekend to see if we can get some cute fall clothes for Kerala.

5 months, 4 weeks

 

Lately, we have been able to explore Kerala's closet a bit more and put her in clothes 6 - 9 months old. Everything is still a bit big (some are really big), but it's nice that she is moving up in size. She does have quite the range - there are a couple of sweaters from when she was 0 - 3 months that she can still fit into, but for the most part she is in either 6 months or 9 months clothes.

Kerala has gone to sleep so well the last two evenings. When I put her in her crib she doesn't fuss at all, but instead goes right to sleep. Although I doubt it will, I hope this trend continues. I wish I could say that napping is going as well. Kerala had a particuarly rough time going to sleep during the day - some days she falls right to sleep and some days she does everything she can to fight sleep. Any suggestions for naptimes would be greatly appreciated by us (and Ellen)!

This week Kerala attended her first story time. A local children's shop hosts story time every Wednesday. Ellen said Kerala was fascinated by the other children there and the actual storyteller who was apparently very animated. Ellen and Kerala even picked up two new books that Kerala is really enjoying chewing on. One day she will love to read and not just eat her books.

Finally, I forgot to mention Kerala's new activity in the bathtub. If you trickle water from a cup right in front of her she tries to grab it with her hand. It's really cute to see her grasping at the water and trying to figure out why she can't grab hold of it. Also, bathtime seems to be getting more and more crazy with water splashing. We bought her these cups that she can fill up with water and she has gotten quite good and splashing the cups so that water goes everywhere (including all over Troy's face).

5 months, 3 weeks, 4 days

 

Lately, Kerala has been trying to grab everything in sight - including the camara. If she is anywhere near the camera, she starts to do everything she can to move towards it, which is pretty funny to watch since it's a lot of wiggling around. Her interest in the camera lets us take some pretty good close ups of her.

Today, Kerala seemed to have a pretty rough day sleeping wise - Ellen has noticed that Mondays tend to be the hardest day for her, which is a bit sad. Overall she seems to be adjusting to Ellen really well and super pschyed to see her in the morning, but I think it is hard for her after we have been together all weekend. Although this past weekend, I didn't get to play with her as much as normally would because I get pretty sick and ended up having to go the doctor on Saturday to get antibiotics. Fortunately, my illness did not prevent us from going to music class with Tamra and Silas. It was really fun to go to music class with a friend - unfortunately, now someone I know will know how horrible my voice is.