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."