13 months, 5 days

 

We all had a great weekend. On Saturday, we went to Kerala's music class where she had a blast running around. We finished the day off at Henry's and Silas' birthday bash. Kerala had a great time playing with all of the little ones. Unfortunately, I didn't take a ton of photos, but check out Kerala and her bud Valerie Violet in the April photos. Kerala was sporting her new party dress that her Auntie Heather, Uncle Ryan and Cousin Hannah bought her for her birthday.

Yesterday, we took advantage of the fabulous weather with a trip to the park and a walk. We spent an hour (which in toddler time is an eternity) at the park. We had a great time and Kerala got to hang out with Silas and JT. On our evening walk, Kerala walked the entire time. She did fall a couple of times, but she got right back up. She was super psyched by the puppy that she met a long the way and even tried following the puppy when his owner and him started to go off in a different direction.

The only mishap from the weekend was when Kerala was flattened by a little girl in music class. Both Kerala and the little girl were running around and Gracie (the little blue eyed linebacker) ran into Kerala knocking Kerala down. Kerala was fine - I think she was more shocked than anything else. I felt really bad for little Gracie - she kept asking her mom if she was going to receive a time out.

Lately, Kerala has been doing the cutest little dance when we sing "Five Little Monkeys." During the song, Kerala will tap her head when we sing "one fell of bumped her head" and she will point her finger as if she is saying "no" when we sing "No more monkeys jumping on the bed." It's so funny how she picks things up. I always tap her head when I sing the song to her, but I didn't realize she was making the connection between her head and the song.
Kerala has also added "apple" to her list of words and today she pointed to her "mouth" when I asked her where it was.

1 year, 3 weeks, 5 days

 

Kerala and I have had a fabulous week. I have been home on vacation and Kerala and I have had such a blast. We have been really really busy with trips to the Nature Museum and the Children's Musuem in Oak Park. Kerala really enjoyed the butterfly haven at the Nature Museum and was enthralled with two dead butterflies. The Children's Museum was okay, but I don't think we will make the trek out there again. We also went to story time at a local book store. Unfortunately, Kerala did end up making a little boy cry during story time. He seemed to be a pretty sensitive little guy, but I did feel pretty bad about it. She didn't hit him, just yelled at him. While we can't really reason with her, we have been trying to say no. She clearly understands no as evidenced by her repeatedly telling me no when I was trying to put a diaper on her tonight.

Kerala has picked up a number of new skills this past week. She is now quite capable of climbing on furniture. Unfortuantely, today she has been trying to climb onto the window sill, which is problematic. She seems to be doing well with her communication skills. She typically points to her nose and tongue if you ask her. We have been working on belly and cheeks, which she seems to be figuring out as well. She also responds with what sounds like "moo" when you ask her what a cow says.

As far as food, let's just say Kerala enjoys somewhat spicy and flavorful foods. Troy made chili this week and I thought that there was no way she was going to eat it because it was too spicy. She gobbled it up and seemed to really enjoy it. One of her favorite dinners is this dish called the Chila Fry that we get from a local mediterannean restaurant. It's pretty fun to expose her to different foods and see her reaction.

1 year, 2 weeks, 4 days

 

Well, it isn't easy managing a blog and being a working mom - so that's why I haven't posted lately. Kerala has been doing fantastic. She primarily walks now, which is quite exciting. She loves to walk down the hallway carrying something (usually a box, a ball or these two huge red plastic pot holders that flop while she walks). She also seems to be doing pretty well with developing a vocabulary. While she isn't consistent, she seems to trying to say new words everyday. Yesterday during breakfast she kept looking at Cloud and saying what sounded like Cloud. Also, in the last two days it seems like she is pointing a lot more, which is helpful for us to figure out what she wants (although, sometimes she just points for the sake of pointing).

The only down point in the last couple of weeks was Kerala getting a fever. Last weekend she had a pretty high temperature Saturday and Sunday. This resulted in some restless sleep over the weekend for the whole family since Kerala was up quite a bit during the night. While her fever went away on Monday, Kerala did not resume sleeping through the night until last night.

As you can tell by our photos we are still trying to get organized with all of the fabulous birthday presents she received. Her favorite toy lately has been this duck that sings the chicken song. She just hugs that thing as soon as it starts to sing. Because of space constraints, we are going to have to rotate her toys, so some of her birthday toys will be going away for about a month.

So lately I have been on a big kick about the family eating healthy. With Kerala eating what we eat, Troy and I realize that we are going to have to change our eating habits. While we aren't horrible eaters, we do order out a lot and tend to rely on very quick and processed meals for dinner. Lately, I have started to try to make meals the night before so that all we have to do is heat them up when I get home. Troy has been enjoying it, but Kerala wasn't the biggest fan of what I made this week - stuffed shells, stuffed peppers. Hopefully, Troy and I can come up with recipes that please the whole family.