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!

8 months, 1 week, 3 days

 

It seems like Kerala is finally over the stomach flu - she finally has gotten her appetite back and is eating like a little piggy now (what a relief). While her appetite is better, her sleeping habits have gotten worse. We were at Troy's mom's for Thanksgiving weekend and she had a horrible time sleeping. I know part of it had to do with being someplace new, but her sleep habits have also been worse since we have been home. I have read that it is common for babies to go through separation anxiety when they go to sleep, so perhaps that is what this is. Kerala is definitely experiecing separation anxiety and stranger danger during her waking hours. She freaked out this past weekend when some salespeople approached us while shopping. They were telling her how cute she was, but she wouldn't have any of it.

While Kerala is a bit frightened by new people, she is really psyched about animals. Lately, she has tried to tackle our cat and is constantly chasing our cat around the house to try to get close to her. Poor Cloud use to be safe under our dining room table, but not anymore since Kerala is getting quite good at maneuvering through chairs. Kerala also experienced a couple of puppy licks on Sunday from our friends new puppy. She thought it was the funniest thing to have the puppy lick her hands and cheek - I will admit that I was a bit freaked out about it, but Kerala seemed to really love the puppy.

Kerala had a very successful first Thanksgiving. On Thursday, we had dinner at my mom's and Kerala had her very own sweet potato. On Friday, we had our second Thanksgiving dinner for the weekend and Kerala ate all of her rice cereal, a jar of baby food, and some white potatos that we mashed up for her. Other than sleep issues, she was in great spirits all weekend.

8 months, 2 days

 
 

Well, the bug that Kerala got infected Ellen, Troy and me this past week. It seems like everyone is finally getting over it, but Kerala is still a bit under the weather. The doctor said that they are seeing a bug in little ones and it takes about a week or so to get it out of their system. Hopefully, Kerala will be back to her normal self by Thanksgiving. Because we were all recovering this weekend, we really didn't do much at all (although we did finally babyproof our staircase).

Kerala is mastering the art of pulling up and has started to learn how to get back down from the standing position. At the beginning of her pulling up phase she would basically get stuck standing up so that we either had to get her down or she would lunge off of whatever she was holding onto which was a bit problematic. Now she can basically go back down to a sitting position without too much difficulty. She will still occassionally let go of whatever she is holding onto to lunge after something (i.e., the cat, Troy or me).

We have also realized that Kerala is getting quite fast at crawling when she sees something she wants. Typically, you can tell that she is going to go after something because her eyes get really huge (i.e., the blogged photo) and then she makes a go as fast as she can.

7 months, 4 weeks

 

Kerala has had a couple of milestones this past week - good and bad ones. The bad one was that she got her first case of the stomach flu. It was a very minor case, so it wasn't too bad. The other milestones are all pretty positive ones. She has learned to crawl while holding something in her hand. Normally, it's something small and she is able to move around no problem, when she tries to hold something like a 48 oz tupperware container (one of her favorite toys of late) she has some difficulty moving around. Her other big thing lately has been pulling up on everything. Troy had to move her crib mattress to the lowest level this past weekend, but unfortunately that didn't stop her from pulling up on the side of her crib this evening. Troy and I will have to figure out something since she if she falls while standing up she can get her legs through the crib slots. Hopefully, the fact that she is in a sleep sack will prevent her from attempting to pull up during the night.

This past weekend was our last music class for a bit and it was Kerala's best class ever. She was super vocal and seemed to have a ton of fun. It was also pretty funny to see her go after the toys that the teacher put down for the other babies - as soon as she saw the teacher take the toys out of the box, she attempted to make a beeline towards the other babies' toys.

Finally, I know our picture postings have been somewhat behind, but that is because we have been mostly shooting videos of Kerala. We will definitely get back into taking regular photos once the novelty of the video camara wears off - which I hope is somewhat soon for Troy since he keeps playing practical jokes on me w/ the camara.