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.