10 months, 1 week, 1 day

 
 

Since our last post, Kerala has been quite busy. This past weekend we had a three day weekend that was jammed full of fun activities. On Saturday, Kerala had music class and two play dates. The first play date was with our friends Deb and Chris and their son Felix. Kerala and Felix did really well together - it was one of the first times that I felt like Kerala was actually playing with another baby and not just doing her own thing at a play date. Kerala had a blast chasing Felix around and playing with Felix's puzzles (we need to order some for Kerala based on how much she enjoyed Felix's). After the play date, Kerala had another sort of play date at our friends JT and Tamra's. We shared a babysitter (Ellen) w/ JT and Tamra that evening and Kerala played a bit and then went to sleep over at JT and Tamra's while the adults attended Festivus (a party our friends host to celebrate Festivus from Seinfeld).

On Monday, we went to the Children's Museum with Tamra, Silas and Henry. Thank goodness we were going w/ Tamra because our car broke down on Sunday and Tamra was able to fit three car seats in her car. Henry, Silas and Kerala had a blast at the musuem - there were a ton of activities for Henry and a number of baby friendly crawl spaces for Kerala and Silas. Check out the photos from the museum to see Kerala standing on her own in one of the baby crawl areas.

Kerala has been cracking us up lately. She has been really high energy and fun. As far as milestones, she was bear crawling tonight, which means she was crawling using her feet rather than knees. We don't know if this means she is closer to walking or what - it was quite amusing seeing her crawl around with her butt in the air. Also, Kerala is standing more and more on her own, so long as what she is standing on is soft (i.e., our bed, the mats at the Children's museum). She won't really stand by herself on hard surfaces unless she is distracted by whatever she is playing with.

Our biggest issue with Kerala lately has been sleep (isn't this always our biggest issue?). She is sleeping really well at night - typically 7:30/8:00 - 7:00 w/ very very very little, if any, fussing during the night. The problem we are having is with naps. She cut out her afternoon nap 3 days last week. On Monday we thought we would experiment and try to cut out her morning nap so she would take a longer afternoon nap - that didn't work very well (actually she had a major meltdown over it). This past week Ellen has been experimenting with pushing her morning and afternoon naps back a bit. She has been going down around 9:50 or so for her morning nap and then not going down until about 3:30 for the afternoon nap. We have decide if this is going to work since it does mean that there are some days she doesn't wake up from her afternoon nap until after 5:00. So far this hasn't messed up her bedtime routine, so we will see.

9 months, 4 weeks

 

As you can see by the photo, Kerala's two bottom teeth are coming in. They are above the gums, but not completely through yet. She is also working on one of her top front teeth. You can also tell by the photo that she is in a desparate need for a haircut. We are planning on getting it cut this coming weekend.

The weekend started off on a great note but ended on a not so great note. Kerala had her first music class with mixed age students. I was a bit nervous about how she would do since sometimes she gets a bit shy in new settings, but she did amazing. She was crawling all over the place, playing with the musical instruments and even crawled up to the teacher during the good-bye song and gave her a hug. After music class, Kerala got to visit with Grandma Sue and Connie, a friend from downstate. She had a very nice visit, but you could kind of tell Kerala was a bit out of sorts.

On Sunday morning, Troy and I woke up on our own without Kerala crying to wake us up. We were shocked that she had slept in and we started to think that maybe she inherited our love of sleeping in. Troy brought her upstairs at about 8:30am (almost 2 hours later than what she has been sleeping to) and after about 15 minutes of playing Kerala threw up all over us. We took her downstairs where she continued to be sick - it was not pretty. Both Kerala and I changed our clothes at least 4 times. After being up for an hour, she went back to sleep for two hours. When Kerala got up from her morning nap she threw up again - not a good day. Kerala was up for two and 1/2 hours and then took a pretty short afternoon nap. Fortunately she didn't get sick again, but she was still really out of sorts - tired, cranky at times, super cuddly at times. When we spoke to the doctor earlier in the day, she said there really wasn't much we could do other than pedialite, nurse her often, and introduce bananas, rice, apples and toast back into her diet slowly. By bedtime, Kerala was in better spirits, but still sick. Hopefully, she will be better tomorrow.

9 months, 3 weeks, 3 days

 

I am happy to report that our sleep training is still going really well. At night, I can put Kerala down in her crib and she rolls over and goes to sleep - no fussing at all. Hopefully, this isn't a short lived phase. Troy and I are still shocked at how well this has gone - she really hasn't cried at all. I still rock her for a bit before she goes to sleep, but I generally put her down while she is a bit awake so she can learn to fall asleep on her own. Also, we have eliminated the night feedings, since she really isn't waking up for them now. Because Kerala is sleeping through the night, she is waking up about 45 minutes earlier. It's nice to have Kerala up a bit earlier in the morning so I can play with her for an extra 30 minutes or so before I head off to work, but some days I also really miss my sleep since I can no longer sleep in.

Kerala is now getting really good at waiving on command and she now consistently waives good-bye. This morning I was practicing blowing kisses to Kerala while she was eating breakfast and it really seemed like she was imitating me. Hopefully, she is picking up that as well. Her babbles continue to sound more and more like words and Troy, Ellen and I swear that she has said "daddy" twice when looking at Troy.

I am looking forward to the start of our music class this Saturday. Our last music class ended about 2 months ago. This class is for mixed age students, so Kerala will be in a class with 9 month year olds - 4 year olds. I am anxious to see how she does with the older kids. Usually she is fine w/ older kids. In fact, she tends to freak someone of them out because she chases them around or grabs onto them. Over New Year's she had backed Rollie and Henry (both 2) into the corner of their little play school bus - it was quite funny.

Below are some links to some additional videos Troy made. Don't worry everyone, someone was behind her during the stair climbing video (in fact you can see Troy's hand in places). Hope you all enjoy.

9 months, 3 weeks

 

First of all, I apologize that we have not been posting very frequently. We went away for New Year's and have been trying to get back into the swing of things around here. Kerala had her first trip out of the state over New Year's. Every year we get together with friends over New Year's in Michigian. In the past we have rented three houses - the quiet house, medium noise house and loud house. This year we still rented three houses, but instead of the medium house it was the kids' house. In our house there were two other families and Kerala had a blast playing with all of the kids. We did have some trouble with sleeping while we were away, but it did seem to get better as the trip progressed. Kerala also had her first major injury (check out her nose in the photos). She was pulling up on our bed on the trip and fell and hit the bridge of her nose on the bed frame. We felt so horrible. Fortunately, she only cried for about 30seconds when it happened and the bruising is basically gone now. Poor girl.

Since we have been back we have done a bit of sleep training and (knock on wood) it has worked really really well. Troy and I realize that we can't go on forever rocking her to sleep, so we now put her to sleep when she is a bit drowsy and lately she has fallen right to sleep. Also, I have begun to cut out her night feedings. At first we were just going to cut out her 3:00am feeding, but last night she slept through the night completely (missing her midnight and 5:00am feeding), so maybe she has decided she doesn't need them either.

Since we last blogged Kerala has learned to waive when you say hello to her and, occassionally, good bye (although she typically claps her hands when you say good-bye). She is also babbling a lot more and I feel like some of the sounds she is making are sounding more and more like words.

One final note, my friend Kristy e-mailed me a very sweet story about her son Rollie. For those of you who know Troy, you know that he just has a way with kids. Kids just absolutely adore him and want to be around him. Anyway, Kristy and Dave and their two children, Val and Rollie, stayed in the kids' house over New Year's. Rollie who just turned 2 this past October really enjoyed playing with Troy over New Year's. Kristy e-mailed me to let me know that when she was tucking him in bed when they got back home from the trip she said "I love you Rollie" and Rollie's response was "I love Troy."