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!