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."

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!