By Request

Some photos of sweet girl.

Garbanzo Beans!

Just add this to the list of things Kaylynn loves to eat. I made her some for dinner tonight, thinking she'd hate them. I was expecting that "ugh, Mommy what in the world is this junk" face, but instead, she chewed (sorta, as well as she chews), swallowed it, and hit the tray smiling, saying "More, Mommy!".

This makes me so excited, because it's just one step away from loving hummus and if there are 3 of us who eat hummus, we'll just be a hummus eating family.

Did I mention that I love hummus? Hey Jessi, fly to Houston and make some already. Your's is the best!

One day, I'll win!

I have a few blogs that I love to follow and they do cool giveaways! One day, I WILL WIN! I promise.

Anywho, one blog I love reading is Lil Blue Boo. She (Ashley) is a working woman, turned stay-at-home Mom, who sews some pretty awesome things. She is so kind as to draft patterns of things she really likes (some are free, some are not). And she gives awesome tips on how to repurpose t-shirts into really cool things.

Well, there is another blog (Brixton Lane) who is holding a GIVEAWAY for 4 of Ashley's new patterns! Check out the beautiful fall photos on her banner. I'm jealous. It's still summer here.

I may be the only person who reads my blog that cares about sewing/crafting blogs, but that's ok. It's my (ok, our, but you read Brian's ramblings, too!) blog and I'll write about it if I want.

Talky McTalkerson

I unexpectedly took Kaylynn to the doctor today. She had low-grade fever since Saturday, and took a 5 (yes 5) hour nap at Grandma's on Monday. Of course, it was basically nothing (probably getting over a mild virus), but I got her 2nd flu shot that we didn't think we were going to be able to get, so yay!

Kaylynn is up to 19 lbs, 9.2 oz. She's right on track to hit 20 lbs around her first birthday. Kaylynn was sitting there jabbering away to Dr. P. She mentioned that we're going to have quite a talker on our hands. Such a smart girl! Definitely takes after her Daddy! Her words aren't clear and precise, but you can definitely make out some words and has a sound/object association thing going on. She can say:

Mama (her first)
go (probably her 2nd word) - she says it and points at random things. probably no association.
dere (there) - she points at things and says this. we repeat, "that's right, the ___ is there"
ight (light) - said while pointing up at any light fixture
da (dad) - sometimes. ask her to say "dada" and she says "mama". no idea.
usss (Gus) - her BFF
'lo (hello) - said while putting her hand up to her ears
hey - said when she waves
dog - she will actually point at random dogs and say "dog".
den-dal (gentle) - we tell her to be gentle with Gus and gentle when she smacks Mommy in the face. She'll repeat the word, then will actually be gentle for a few whacks.
Oee- Zoe (we said this tonight for the first time...as she crawled after the cat, who wanted nothing to do with her).
uh-oh - for no apparent reason.

Talky McTalkerson - Your mommy and daddy are so proud of their sweet, smart girl!

PS, we're starting to wean you off the bottle. Starting with your night bottle. You drank it out of a straw cup tonight. A new kind too, you worked pretty hard for it.

My "Aha!" Moment

As I mentioned earlier, I am doing the "Bible In 90 Days" at my church. I've passed the halfway mark, and I am pleased to report that I am right on track. Sometimes I don't read my full 12 pages, but I make up for it the next day.

The readings are getting easier to physically read, but the entire Bible is hard reading. At our weekly meeting this week, I had my "aha!" moment.

I'm sure many of you know that life is stressful right now for Brian and I. Brian works all the time (much to his dismay) and has school, which leaves him for very little Kaylynn time. I work all day, get more time with Kaylynn than Brian, but still not as much as I want. I am in charge of all "household" matters, which is hard when all you want to do is hang out with your sweet girl. The house won't clean itself...and I'm sure if you saw mine, you'd say "Yeah, and you don't clean it either!" I've been waiting for life to get "normal". You know, when you just live and enjoy life.

The beginning of the book of Ecclesiastes starts off by saying that everything is "meaningless." Kinda depressing, right? But not really! What the video talked about yesterday was that we assume normal life is a monorail, going smoothly in one direction, not diverting one way or other other. But in reality, life is a roller coaster. It has ups, it has downs, and that is the TRUE normal! Life isn't supposed to be easy. Ecclesiastes teaches us that we aren't to seek out our own life fulfillment, but celebrate the joys that God gives us, as well as the adversity, because if we didn't have adversity, we wouldn't see the joys as joyful.

I think this particular book answers that question "Why do bad things happen to good people?" They aren't necessarily "bad things", though our human heads understand them as bad things. It's really just a downward part of a roller coaster and we have to work hard to overcome the adversity so we can enjoy the next joyful part of our human lives.

This helps me keep on. Knowing that there will be joys amongst adversity. That life will not be easy, and that's NORMAL! Kaylynn is definitely a joy to our life, even though we (ok, Brian) overcame huge adversity when she was being born (she wasn't born at an ideal time for him). But the best news is that we got through and celebrated the best joy we've experienced!

Aha! :)

Party at the Museum!

Just a few of my favorite pictures of Sweet Girl at the birthday party.

At The Children's Museum downtown, they have a room upstairs, just for toddlers 3 and under. In it, they had these 2 cars (well a car and a truck). Because Kaylynn inherited her great-grandfather's "Driving Gene" she would have been happy to spend her entire time on the car, but we drug her away and made her play with some other things.

You can see how excited she is to be driving.

Her first passenger.

"Hey kid, no one likes a backseat driver."
Daddy and daughter out for their first drive together. Kaylynn is beating on the dash so people will get out of her way.

Our little Beethoven playing with Jason the birthday boy.

10 Months!

And a CLEAN post! Geez.

Dear Kaylynn,

You are quite the sweet girl. Everyone thinks so. We can't go anywhere without people commenting on how cute and friendly you are. You've never met a stranger. Why, even today, on your 10 month birthday, you were passed around a baby shower and were nice to everyone (except you broke a lady's necklace...)

Biggest news is that you've finally figured out the crawling is the cool thing to do. You take after your mommy in this aspect, as I didn't crawl until I was 10 months old either. If history repeats itself in you, you'll be walking around 13 months. Just in time for your cousin to turn 1! You're getting pretty good at the crawling. You can drag things with you when you crawl, and can even manage to get around wearing dresses.

You are pretty much feeding yourself all finger foods. We still eat yogurt and oatmeal fed from a spoon, but other than that you feed yourself.

You're doing all kinds of cute things like pointing to everything, playing ET with mommy at dinnertime, putting your hand to your ear and saying "hello" (you learned that from Grandma Frink), but your favorite new actvity is opening and shutting drawers. It's crazy. You also really love your friend, Gus. He just sits there and lets you pull his ears, crawl on his back, pull his tail, grab at his jowls, everything. He's such a good dog with you!

Tomorrow you go to your very first birthday party - Jason Soenjoto's 1st birthday! I can't wait to see what the Children's Museum is like.

Happy 10 month birthday, sweet girl! Only 2 more until 1 year!! It's going too fast!

Love,

Mommy

PS, here's a video of you and your bestie!

Mouths

Hayley was trying to get a video of Kaylynn chasing Gus. Here's is a conversation that was had while she was trying to record:

BvF: You think Dallas can beat Carolina tomorrow?

Grandpa Moore: Yes! Dallas is going to kick Carolina's ass!

:: Hayley sighing and getting pissed off because she has to stop recording because of the use of the word "ass" ::

Grandma Moore: Y'all, Hayley can't get a video because of your foul-ass mouths.

...

On the Move...

...finally. :) Knocking on 10 month's door, Kaylynn finally figured out how to do it. She doesn't go very far, but it's progress none-the-less. You can see what happens when she gets frustrated. She's not as fast crawling (yet) as she is rolling.

She doesn't really crawl in this 2nd one. It's to show you what happens when she gets frustrated. It also shows you that I need to vacuum.

A Link for the Outdoor-sy Types

http://thewoodlandsparks.blogspot.com/

All about parks in and around The Woodlands area. I am excited I stumbled across this. Once Little Bit is mobile (like running and playing mobile) I want to be a frequent park-er. We don't have trees in our backyard, so it's not ideal for fun outside playing (in other words, it's too dang hot without any shade.)

Thought I would share!

To Baby Industry - A Follow-Up

Dear Baby Industry:

After further review, I have found some solid colored long sleeved items (at Baby Gap...)

I am now debating on whether or not I am annoyed at the fact that you insist on making them all onesies instead of "big girl" shirts. I think I am starting to be "over" onesies, except you are making quite hard for me to move on to anything else this winter.

::sigh::

I'll take what I can get. :)

Sincerely,

Only Moderately Annoyed in The Woodlands.

Why?

Dear Baby Industry,

This is the question I ask you, "Why is it entirely impossible to find plain, solid-colored t-shirts for babies/toddlers? I wear plain colored shirts all the time, yet when I want to find some for my daughter to wear under things this winter, I can't find any. It irritates me that they have to put some ridiculous cartoon character or sparkly flower or something else on the shirts, ruining the ability to wear it underneath something else, unless I want said character or flower to show through. The only plain long-sleeved items I have found are white 12 month onesies and I am done with onesies.

She's not even 1. Thus, there is no need to plaster Dora or Elmo or Pooh on everything - she doesn't even know who they are!!

Baby industry, please appeal to those of us who do not want to be walking advertisements of cartoon shows everyday of our life.

**aside** Before I offend anyone, I am not saying I am opposed to Kaylynn wearing things with cartoon characters on them. I have personally bought her a "My Little Pony" shirt because I, myself, LOVED them when I was growing up. She will wear it and any other things that she'll acquire through the years. I'm just saying that there should also be (affordable) clothes out there that do NOT have those things on them, too. Everything in moderation, people! **end aside**

Sincerely,

Cartooned-Out in The Woodlands

PS, I know I can find some online, it's a matter of not wanting to pay shipping for 2 $4 shirts. Perhaps I should just stop complaining. :)