Lil Traveler

Thanks to mommy's friend Tracy from college (yes, another sorority sistah), we got to take a girls trip all the way from the West coast to the East coast. Whew. What a trip ;-) But it all went pretty well - luckily we had an extra seat (even a whole row on the way out). Kaelyn is officially not much of a plane sleeper - but she LOVES to crawl under the seats! SO much fun. She just loves the airplane and enjoys watching out the window. When we land she does the sign for more!!

When we arrived she was a little disappointed to have to put on the big winter coat again...of course once we got outside she was more than glad she had the warmth. Her face was just in complete awe of the chill. I wish we could read her mind, but I think she was saying - "What the heck just happened? What are you doing to me? Are we IN the freezer? Is this some kind of joke?"

But as you can tell from the following pix it was all so worth it. Kaelyn just LOVED baby Bella (she's 6 months old). She couldn't love her enough, give her enough hugs or kisses. Lucky for Kaelyn, Bella was sure to reciprocate with outstretched arms and eager hugs. Unfortunately, Kaelyn left Bella with a big old cold. Meanie. We feel soo bad. But thank you Auntie Tracy and Bella (and Uncle Paul!) for such a fun girls week ;-)

Bye bye Ditteh

Unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to our kitty Fremont this weekend. He wasn't well all week last week and had stopped eating. I took him in on Saturday and found that he had kidney failure. It has taken me this long to be able to think about getting this post up here. Kaelyn absolutely loved her "ditteh" as she called him. She routinely looked for him and gently petted and hugged him. This last week he was starting to put up with her for extended periods of time and I thought he had really come along. Now I realize he was not feeling well and couldn't get up to get away. But in the end, he had a lot of love from Kaelyn all week and she sent him off all full of hugs.

I was lucky to get these photos of Kaelyn loving her kitty for her memories. More often than not, a camera was nowhere handy during their many love sessions!



Kingston and Kaelyn both really miss Mr. Fremontster. Kingston has been sleeping in our bedroom during the day which is unusual. I think it's because that is where Fremont usually hung out. They had a guarded friendship - and although Fremont "acted" like he was annoyed by Kingston's antics, I know he really enjoyed the addition of a dog to the household.
Kaelyn still looks for him under the bed and around our room. It's painful to watch, something much sadder than I ever imagined. I only thought about missing my own cat, I didn't realize how much everyone else would miss him as well. I was worried about how the introduction of both the dog and Kaelyn would go with a cat who was getting older. Fremont quickly put Kingston in his place but also would curiously visit him in his bed at night and enjoyed being near the dog when he was in his "calmer" moods! With Kaelyn, I'll never forget when we first brought her home from the hospital. In the middle of the first night when we were up feeding her, Fremont was right by my side, sniffing her head and sitting on the armrest of the chair. He soon began sleeping under her bassinet. I remember worrying that we would wake up to find him on top of her, but we never did! He loved her from the beginning. And he put up with her more than any other child! Quite an adaptable guy, it turned out.

Fremont Montgomery, who had many nicknames such as Fremontster, Freebies, Freeloader, Monty and Count Fremont, lived for 12 years. He passed away pretty much twelve years to the date from when I brought him home to my apartment when I was in college. He's had many roommates and friends over the years. And he's really been there for me through a lot of stuff. Even though he wasn't the cat I was looking for, when my friend Stacy and I saw him at a pet store, he was missing a tuft of hair from his head (he had tried to get out of the cage and ripped his hair out). Knowing no one would buy him with a bald spot (that supposedly wasn't going to grow back), I took him home for $50. His bald spot grew back within a month or so and he's been a blessing to me for all these years. He was my first pet and will always hold that special place and bond in my memory. I'm so sad that Kaelyn only got to know Fremont for a year. And I'm so sad not to have my buddy to cuddle and hug.

AXO reunion

Last week we visited some of mommy's sorority sisters who are all moms now! Unfortunately, this is the best pick I could get of the kids. Remington in the background, Molly, Kate on Deb's lap, Colin, and of course, Kaelyn.


Kaelyn and Remington took full advantage of the gorgeous day and played with the water table in their birthday suits!


Here's cutie Kate!


Kaelyn and Remington had some fun on the steps!

Enjoying the Beach

While those back east are experiencing nothing less than arctic cold, we have been blessed with wonderfully warm weather! A week ago, we spent a weekend at the beach. First we went to doggie beach - and you can tell, we all had a blast! Too bad we didn't realize how warm it was going to be or we would have put on our beach wear! The tides were out so far you could have walked 50 miles up and down the beach. So much space and so much sand, it was unbelievable!







We went back the next day to our own beach and had a great time there too. She just loved running around all over the place and dipping her feet into the cold water!

The Learning Curve

I've wanted to post about all the things Kaelyn can do now so I don't forget! This week we had some leaps in learning so I thought it would be the perfect time to post!

Of course, you all know she started walking more than crawling during the last week of November with Grandma and Grandpa in town. She's even starting to kind of run as you'll see in my next post! But in the meantime, she's discovered she likes to feed herself more than she likes it when we feed her. This means we have to be choosy about what goes in her bowl - b/c she's not very clean about it. And she's starting to get a little angry when we don't allow her to use the utensil herself. Here she is with some yogurt - I know, it's not that bad...it's not even in her hair. But it was still more messy than we prefer. I have now officially gone to a meeting not knowing I had yogurt on my pants ;-)





Kaelyn is also learning sign language. The first one was "all done" and she's known that since just after her birthday. Then came "more" which she started using extensively once she figured it out around Thanksgiving time (she now uses it for anything she wants as if to say "can I have that? Can I do it again? Can I get some help with this?). A couple weeks ago she finally startded doing a sign for "drink" so we knew that was specifically what she wanted, and about a week ago she picked up "eat" so now we will know when she is hungry. She even goes to her high chair, tries to get up, and does the sign for eat! But the big news is that when we were at the beach this weekend (you'll see in a later post), I told her to say "hi daddy" and she said, plain as day, "hi dada". Yup. Two words at the same time! We came home that night and Mike said "do you want more eat" and she signed "more" and then "eat" - yup, two signs at once! We've even heard her say "thank you" a couple times. Brilliant, I know. She'll be in the special school in no time ;-) Here she is signing "more."



Other things she can do, just for the record:
stack things
push bottons on and off
open our doors
blow kisses and give hugs
blow and shush
pour fake tea from the teapot
stir things
stab pieces of food with a fork
just starting to dip foods into sauces
play ball with the dog

I'm sure there are others but my mind is blank now.
This final picture shows her finally discovering that she could get into her little kitchen. This took much longer than we thought it would!

Happy New Year!

Kaelyn was burnt out on photos by the time we were celebrating New Year's...but she wishes you a happy, healthy, financially sound (prosperous seems like a far reach for some at this moment in time) year.

We have a lot to be thankful for as we embark on 2009. Health has been something we've taken for granted and are so glad to have not only our own health, but the good health of all of our family and friends. Our family and friends are another thing we are extremely appreciative of. So many of you who read this blog have played a major role in the first year of Kaelyn's life and we want to thank you for lending a hand, showering her with gifts, loving our little girl, and always being there for us when we needed you. It really does take a village, and with all of you spread throughout the country, we don't always feel like we have one - but we know we do and we can count on you. We cannot believe the love we see showered upon Kaelyn - it is truly wonderful and will fill her up for her lifetime. Thank you thank you!

Traveling Tot comes with Paparazzi

Everywhere she goes, photographers are sure to follow. I'm sure Kaelyn feels much like Suri Cruise, or Shilo Jolie-Pitt. And she's just as cute. Now if only we could get the millions for getting her into the Enquirer! Especially for the poor photogs who had to stand in the snow to get these shots!


The day after Christmas it warmed up to a nice 20 degrees, so we decided to make a break for it and visit the snow. It was just like in the movie the Christmas Story. We bundled her all up to the point she could barely move her arms. Luckily Auntie Marlene built the snowman in advance, so all we had to do was plop her down and get the shot of Kaelyn's first visit to the snow! Much to our surprise, she actually got quite a kick out of the freezing cold, blustery wind blowing her face numb. Of course, maybe the smile was actually frozen onto her face? She never did move - she just stood there smiling, politely pleasing the photographers!





Then we were on to the rest of the annual (25th, I might add) sister cookie bake. She did real well and even did a little mixing of her own. She never even pulled a plate of cookies down!



The rest of the week we visited several other friends and family. We visited mommy's friends Tracia and Ryan and their three boys (who are all grown up now) - Reed, Riley, and Dakota. Riley was born the year we got married - I can't believe how big he is!! It was so great to see them again, it's been too long.



We got to see our birth month cousin - Camden - who was born just a week before Kaelyn - with Kathy's cousin Cheryl (among several other family members who we didn't get in photos...bummer.



And the yearly visit with mommy's friends that she met while traveling to Europe in high school. Shelley's three kids didn't make it into the photo, and Erica's hubby Brad was pulling double duty at another party, but we did get Bill, Aimee, Shelley, Pat, and Erica all together for a great shot! It was so nice to catch up - although too distracting with Kaelyn to really get a solid story out of anyone. Ah, welcome to parenthood!


Overall, our traveling went really well. Kaelyn was a "lapchild" on our flights since we did not buy her a seat. To date, we had been lucky on every flight to get a third seat at no cost, but not this time. The flight out went fine - we had a great tailwind which decreased our airtime by 1 whole hour. This was fine by us as she had skipped a nap and was nowhere near ready for bed. We kept her busy with toys and eating. She had trouble the first night of each house we stayed at (3 total in two weeks) - she would wake up at 2am (home time) exactly and be up for about 2 hours. We ended up having her sleep in our bed on those nights which we've never done and took a bit for her to get used to! Otherwise, she slept well, ate well, and traveled well on the plane back. Daddy's magic got her to sleep for 2 hours on our return flight. She's been sleeping like a baby since we got back - 13 hour nights and two 2 hour naps during the day. We are so lucky ;-)