14 months, 1 week, 3 days

 

Thank you everyone for your responses regarding milk. I received a number of great suggestions and Kerala's milk intake is getting better. Unfortunately, we have to add Ovaltine to her milk to get her to drink it, but at least we are getting somewhere. Today, she was actually really excited to get her milk, which is such a nice change. Her improved milk intake has made up for her not so great appetite the last couple of days.

This past weekend we bought Kerala a doll stroller that she absolutely loves. She saw the stroller at a bbq on Saturday and was quite obsessed with getting her hands on it. I ran out that evening and picked one up for her and she has been playing with it ever since. It's pretty funny because it's the same brand and style as her actual stroller. She looks pretty cute walking around with it. She usually puts either her duck, a doll or my phone and a sippy of water in the stroller as she pushes it around. Unfortunately, she now wants to push everything around - today at the zoo, she insisted on pushing her stroller rather than sitting in it or walking with us. It made some slow going, but we still had a good time. She got very excited when we saw the dolphins and elephants, but other than those animals she didn't really want to have anything to do with animals.

Over the past couple of weeks, Kerala has added quack, tree and bowl to her vocabulary. When you ask her what a duck says she will generally respond with duck and when she picks up her duck she usually says "quack quack." She also seems to be having conversations with herself, which are pretty cute. I can't wait for her to really begin talking because she sounds like she has the sweetest little voice.

13 months, 3 weeks, 4 days

 

I know we have not posted forever. Things have been somewhat hectic and Kerala actually has not been feeling very well the past few days. She had a somewhat high fever towards the end of last week and, while the fever is gone, has been super super cranky this past weekend. We did make it to music class yesterday and Kerala had a special treat with a visit from my friend Tania. Tania and I became friends in 4th grade and she has been traveling around the world for the past 2 1/2 years. Kerala got to meet Tania and received a beautiful dress from Ethiopia.

Kerala continues to do well with developing a bit of a vocabulary and knowing her various body parts. This past week we realized she would point to her hair and feet if you asked her where they were located. Also, when you ask her what a horse says she will respond with "neigh neigh." Occasionally, she will also respond with panting if you ask her what a dog says. With respect to words, she may say a word a few times and then not say it again for a while. It does seem like most of her vocabulary is based on food - wa wa (water), apple, nana (banana), cracker, cheese, chex, and kix. We have also been working on high fives, which she seems to be getting somewhat.

We are still trying to figure out the sippy cup thing. I think I mentioned before that she takes water just fine, but refuses to take milk out of the sippy cup. This has definitely been a more difficult transition than when we transitioned her from nursing to the bottle. I am actually quite stressed about her milk intake. We still do a couple of bottles and are supplementing with extra yogurt and cheese, but the whole thing has me a bit freaked out so if anyone has any suggestions we would love to hear them. Today I sent to Target to get some different sippy cups to see if that would work. A number of people suggested using the sippy cups with the straw, but Kerala is having a difficult time figuring out the straw thing. We will keep plugging away, but beware Ushma (my roommate from college who is now a pediatrician) you may be getting a panicked call from me shortly.

As far as general family matters, this week is a very exciting week for the Smerry household - Troy is graduating from law school! We are so excited. Unfortunately, this does mean that he will have to start studying for the bar shortly. His graduation is this Friday. Northwestern does allow parents to bring their kids across the stage when they receive their diploma. While seeing Kerala up on stage would be adorable, the ceremony begins at 1:00 which is when Kerala goes down for her nap so she will miss it.

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.

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.