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.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KERALA!

 

Okay, we didn't post on her birthday, but that's because we were busy celebrating it. Kerala had a fabulous birthday weekend. It started off with a visit from her Aunt Kim from Arizona. Unfortunately, Kim was at our house for all of two minutes before Kerala fell walking and cut her lip. This was the first time we have seen blood. Kerala is fine, but it was a bit scary.

On Saturday, we hosted two birthday parties for Kerala. It was pretty crazy and, I must say, very exhausting. Kerala did really well at both parties. She even danced to her favorite song while watching the video of herself dancing on tv - it was pretty funny to see to Kerala's dancing at once. She really enjoyed her cake and she would say "ooh" in between bites. Not only did she eat cake for the first time, but she also tried pizza and loved it.

Kerala was able to show of her new walking skills at the birthday parties. She is definitely very wobbly, but seems to be getting better at it each day. She has even figured out how to turn into her room from the hallway. We have a couple of videos of her dancing that we will post soon.

As far as other developmental milestones, Kerala is actually getting a small voculabulary. In addition to saying "cheese," she consistently says "dada" and "baba" (for bottle). She has said "mama" in the past, but that is not as consistent as "dada" and it seems to only come out when she is really upset. She has also said "shoes" when playing with her shoes and "moo" when you say the noise.

Finally, we had our 1 year doctor's appointment yesterday. As many of you know, I am always worrying about Kerala's weight. Troy and I were going into the appointment thinking she would be somewhere in the 18 lb range, but we were wrong. She is a bit under 18 lbs, but is still in the same weight bracket. The doctor wasn't worried at all and told us not to worry. The shots didn't go as well as they had in the past and she really hated her tb test.

11 months, 4 weeks, 1 day

 

Well, we are down to our last week before Kerala turns one. The blogged photo is of Kerala and our cat, Cloud. Kerala LOVES Cloud and Cloud tolerates Kerala pretty well. Kerala has gotten into the habit of giving Cloud a hug everytime Cloud comes near her. We don't usually let Kerala pester Cloud, but Cloud does seem to come up to Kerala to antagonize her. Kerala has learned to play games with Cloud, which is pretty funny. Troy and I will help Kerala waive a string at Cloud and Kerala just cracks up everytime Cloud goes for the string. Also, Kerala likes to play catch with Cloud (for those of you who have never met Cloud, she actually does play catch). The only problem with Kerala playing catch is that she typically throws the wad of paper (Cloud's favorite catch toy) at Cloud's face.

Since our last post, Kerala has been making great progress towards walking - she has even taken a few steps on her own before toppeling over. She will generally try to walk if you hold something out for her that she really wants (i.e., cheerios, tv remote, phone). She has also been doing really well if you hold onto her hands. Kate, a friend of Kerala's and Ellen's, told Ellen that she doesn't think Kerala will learn to walk, but instead just learn to run. I thought that was pretty cute and sums Kerala's personality up really well.

Kerala's babbeling is really sounding more and more like words and it really does seem that she is trying to have a conversation with you. Troy and I also think she was saying cheese this evening. It really sounded like it and it wasn't the first time that I had suspected her of saying cheese. She was saying it during snack time. Kerala has also been signing "more" which is very fun. I must give the credit of her learning sign language to Ellen since Ellen has been really consistent with it. Troy and I try to be consistent, but sometimes we just forget.

Kerala is still working on her top two front teeth so she has been pretty fussy at times the last couple of weeks. Her top left tooth has broken through the gums, but we are still waiting for that top right which we can see just beneath the gums. Her recent teething has resulted in a horrendous runny nose.

11 months, 1 week, 1 day

 
 

I know it's been awhile since we have posted. I have been really busy at work so at night I usually end up working after Kerala goes to sleep and haven't had time to blog. I am not complaining though because my job has been flexible enough so that I can come home and play, feed and put Kerala to bed. Since our last blog, Kerala has been mastering her push toy and everything else in the house that she can push (i.e., landrey basket, box of goldfish crackers, etc.). Kerala also figured out how to push her little monkey stuffed animal around on her push toy - it was pretty cute and, I thought, quite clever of her to figure out. She is also still obsessed with her books. At least once a day, she takes all of her books (and there are a lot of them) off of her bookshelves and reads them.

Today, we took Kerala to her first haircut - we did splurge and take her to one of those fancy kid hair places (mainly because we were afraid to cut her hair ourselves). Anyway, she did pretty well until about halfway through it when she decided that she just had enough and she wanted out of her little car chair. The first hair cut package included a film of tte haircut, which we watched when we got home. Fortunately, the experience wasn't too traumatic for Kerala as she was laughing at the film.

Kerala is in the process of having her two top front teeth come in. She has been drooling like crazy and pretty fussy. With the teething and her giving up her morning nap, there has been some major fussiness at the Smerry household lately. We still try to get her to take a morning nap, but we may be giving up the nap completely after her top teeth come in. We are hoping that the teeth have been interfering with her sleep schedule and that she will resume her am nap.

Also, I must say that I think Kerala may be going through a growth spurt. She has been eating her table food like lately (although she has not been drinking as much from her bottle). Today, for instance, she had 2 1/2 pancakes and a serving of fruit for breakfast and then another pancake and a good portion of a banana two hours later. Troy and I are kind of shocked at how much she has been eating lately.

10 months, 3 weeks, 5 days

 

Well, it has been chilly in Chicago. On Saturday, we ventured out to go to Kerala's music class. We had the pleasure of bringing Henry, JT's and Tamra's almost 3 year old, to class. Both Henry and Kerala seemed to really enjoy the class. Henry told me that his favorite part was the singing and that it was super fun. Kerala's favorite part appeared to be playing the drums. She managed to play every drum in the classroom. On Sunday, we stayed in because it was way too cold to take Kerala out. We occupied our time by letting Kerala explore the textures of cool whip. She had a pretty fun time putting her hands in it and playing with it with a spoon. She did get to try a bit and, as evidenced by the photos, she seemed to like it.

Lately, Kerala has been fascinated by her books and flipping the pages. Given how active and on the go Kerala has been, I am amazed at how long she will sit and read books with us. She does flip the pages at warp speed, so we try to tell as much of the story or describe the pictures as fast as we can. It's pretty cute though when she is reading a book by herself, she will lay on her tummy and just flip and stare at the photos. She does have a couple of favorite books that she lights up whenever you read them or get them down from her bookshelves. Her favorite one for the past month or so is a dog book that she received for Christmas. The book is very interactive and lets babies feel different textures and make the dogs move - unfortunately, she has read the book so much that a couple of dogs are missing their heads and legs.

Kerala still is making progress toward walking. It seems like she will stand and bear crawl the most right before her bath after we get her out of her clothes. Hopefully, she will put together the fact that she can stand and wear clothes at the same time.

10 months, 3 weeks

 

Lately, Kerala has been standing more and more on her own. She is able to get to the standing position by herself, but usually plops down after a couple of seconds. Last night, she stood for maybe 5 seconds and then fell on her butt. She is a really good sport about falling and rarely cries. Ellen also noticed that she may be saying her first word (or sort of word). Today, while making a bottle, Ellen asked Kerala what she was making on a couple of different occasions and Kerala responded by saying "ba ba." Ellen and I both refer to her bottle as ba ba, so this is very exciting. Kerala has also mastered her two favorite push toys - a little car push toy and a laundry basket. It's the funniest thing watching her push them around the house since she looks like a little penguin.

As Kerala is getting older she is getting to be more of a handful. She really likes to crawl under furniture or a couple of her toys. There is one toy in particular, her Leap Frog table, that she likes to crawl under. Unfortunately, once she is under the toy, she usually gets stuck. She has also figured out how to get out of her exercauscer. Troy and I relied on it as a place for her to play for about 15 minutes in the morning while we both got ready for work and school. The other day she figured out that if she leaned over far enough, she could shimmy her way out. Unfortunately, this means I have to wake up about 30 minutes earlier. Waking up a bit earlier normally wouldn't be that big of a deal, but for some reason Kerala decided to wake up at 5:30 am the last couple of days which is killing us. Hopefully, she will sleep in tomorrow.

Everything else is going well here. Troy and I have been pretty busy with work and school. Right now, Troy is studying for the patent bar which he plans to take in March - wish him luck.