Also, here's me chatting with Kyla - I think she is a bit more talky in this one than she was with mom.
~Dad

Finally! I caught the roll on tape!
~Dad

Kyla is a chatterbox...



And she's working on sleeping through the night! We've got two whole nights under our belt :)
Not too shabby. Right now me and kp are getting some girl time and listening to opera. She likes it. And its in german so maybe she, like her mom can learn a totally useless language.
Sorry for the lack of posts...been logging some serious hours at work and caught a nasty bug. I'll try to be better in the next few weeks.

Look How Big I've gotten!!




Now her tummy fills this whole outfit...and we have had to go through the clothes drawer and get rid of all the "newborn" stuff! All the outfits I thought would be too small for her when she was born but actually fit just right are now too small!
Mark and I made a trip out to target to stock up on some fall clothes...picked up a cute pair of jeans, some little jackets and sweaters and some cute pjs.
She is going to be well dressed! And I'm sticking on one more pic of another cute outfit that a coworker made for me...so many talented people!



If you can't tell, it is a little giraffe on the front of the onesie..Kyla is shocked/excited out of her mind about just how good she looks (if you can't tell already by her expression...)



My goal for the next few days is to capture the little one rolling over...she has been doing it for about a week and half but gets camera shy whenever I try to capture it! So stay tuned for this...

Also, big welcome to baby Thandi! She was long in coming but my friend Mikki and her hubby JQ now have this sweet little cutie to call their own....
Babies everywhere!!!

Kyla Makes a New Friend!

Saturday morning fun



Dog days of summer
The local pool by us does the last day of the season as a dog day...for $3 your dog can swim. pretty darn funny.



This is what Kyla did amongst the barking.



Phoenix loved it...

So Much Good News!

I have lots of good stuff to share...
the first thing is (that I have been quietly trying not to tell...)
Judd got married!!! We are just so thrilled for him and his new wife Jana. When we first met Jana we knew right away that she was a pretty special lady...not to mention a wicked photographer and designer. We flew to Boston last week end for their wedding. That's where all the fun pics are fun!
I have only a few shots of the happy couple before my battery died...




The next big news is we have a porker on our hands! Kyla had her two month appointment yesterday and she weighed in over 10 pounds! Not too shabby. She also survived her shots although the look of utter anger that took over her face after the first poke was a sight to see. She then, however, went on to have her best night of sleep ever (per Mark). Who knows maybe shots help sleep?
I'm documenting the start of her thigh roles:



Someone was excited about it...


The last big news is I can wear my normal pants now!! Woohoo!
And now off to sleep for me...
Welcome to the family Jana! We're excited to have you ;)

Some sweet family time..

This past weekend we had the chance to make a spur-of-the moment trip to Boston for a family celebration (more on this later!) And it proved a great chance for Kyla to
1. fly
2. meet Great grandma Robertson
3. be super cute in her little outfits
4. hang out with mom a LOT!
5. meet her future best friend Ryland Kraper (but my camera was out of batteries at this point so I'm waiting for Cate to post the pics!)

Here are a few pics from the weekend...


Hanging out with Great Grandma R


Helping Daddy work


Playing with Grandpa


Looking all cute with my daddy


Hello to my great-grandmas!


Been a long day :-)

I'll put a link to Cate's blog when she has time to post some pics of the Ryland meets Kyla extravaganza...we were so glad to be able to say hello to the Kraper family for at least a little bit...it is funny to hang out with Cates with a baby because we can say we knew each other way back when in college when we were single and so young...and now we have babies!!!!

Crazy how time flies...
Baby K has her two month appt. tomorrow and her first round of vaccines...send some good thoughts to Mark tomorrow night that she won't be too fussy and that he gets some sleep. Especially because he is getting his first ever cavities filled today...poor guy and what a time for me to be on nights!!

Who Loves Pictures of KYLA!!!!

Cause I know you don't get enough...here are a few that my good friend Cherish took during her time with us. We are so blessed to have a professional photographer who is willing to take them for free :-)























Ok the last of the onslaught!
Hope you enjoyed them and again, much props to Cherish...they are good because of her!

She Smiles!!

With a little prompting she smiles for us! She has been working on it for the last couple of days but now is actually giving for-real smiles-what a treat. The video goes sideways at the end but you get the idea. Thanks to Cate for the idea of making that noise...it makes Ry cry but Kyla loves it!

Four Generations

This past week was a big week for a lot of reasons...it was my last few days off before work started back again (more on that later) but for more fun reasons it was also the first time Kyla got to meet one of her great grandmothers-my mom's mom, Ruth. We were thrilled to have the two meet and it was just really special to see four generations of ladies get to hang out.

Needless to say, Kyla loved all the attention and was just as cute as ever. I think she is finally getting bigger though because one of the outfits that used to work as a dress now isn't long enough and only works as a shirt!

I'm including some of my favorite pics from the weekend....





My mom also got a few sweet photos of me and Kyla, and I have to admit, I am going to miss her a ton being at work.


Grandma meets Kyla :-)



My grandma also brought the very sweet gift of a locket that her grandparents had given to her when she was a little girl...there is a lot of history in this locket and I'm excited that Kyla will be able to have this little piece of our family's history...My grandma is working on getting a pic of she and my grandpa that can fit. In the mean time, I'll hold onto it until Kyla is a bit older...



Here's a final shot of the four generations...

Kyla is still working on the smile thing, but "not crying" is also a perfectly acceptable face for a photo :-)

Back to work for me!

If you haven't already...

You should read my friend Cate's blog-her most recent long post is a really insiteful and thoughtful look back on early motherhood...

Good to read and relate to!

Our Baby took her first dip this weekend and Amelia and I were lucky enough to have it on tape! Part 1 & 2 included below:

Eye Candy

This is what happens when mom gets bored; an afternoon photo shoot by a very amateur photographer... Also, the cap and shoe were a gift from a very talented co-worker and the background is a quilt courtesy of my mom..

Enjoy!

















I stuck a few more on facebook too...I am pretty much that parent who is going to make everyone look at pics of their baby whether or not they want to...

Remedial Athletics

Today is Kyla's one month birthday...it is hard for me to believe that she was born a WHOLE month ago...some days it feels like yesterday and some days it feels like she has been here a whole heck of a lot longer...

I have a couple of activities to document....

1. Homemade pickles.
Our garden has shown the ability to grow inordinate amounts of a few specific vegetables, namely, spaghetti squash, giant zucchini, yellow squash, and kale (which I will never be able to eat again due to consuming a large amount of kale soup in my first trimester, during which I was always nauseous, so now, thinking about kale makes me slightly ill). Anyways, one of the very crafty and creative girls in our small group made homemade pickles last week, and Mark and I pretty much ate the whole jar ourselves. SO we decided we should make our own!
And hence, (with a recipe from www.annies-eats.com-link on the side) pickles!



They are a success, albeit a rather garlic-y success!

2. Remedial Running
After much encouragement from my hubby, I went for a run this morning and did yoga yesterday, hence the title of this post. I have truly begun remedial athletics. I am reminded of my sophomore year in college, when I ate an Olive's cookie every day and was surprised when my pants somehow "shrunk" in the wash...I pretty much feel like I'm starting from there. My glory days of yoga are a distant memory and it is sort of a miracle that I can still touch my toes. I am starting to do the following yoga video again as it is an AWESOME at home workout-hands down best yoga video out there. I just have to remind myself not to be discouraged when I fall over in my living room and start laughing at myself; usually Phoenix mocks me from her seat on the couch:



I also went for a big 2 mile run this morning, Phoenix dragged me the first half, and I dragged her the second half. Pretty fair exchange. Had to dust off the old running shoes.



4. Baby K.
So when I started this post, she was sleeping peacefully in her crib and I was going to proudly post pics of her and call it "successful sleep training," however, right now she is screaming from her crib and I'm about to go down and try to calm her down, so saying "successful sleep training" seems a bit hypocritical, so I will console us all with cute pics of her:







Anyways, I go back to work in 1 (!) week and can't decide if I'm thrilled or crushed. I have very much liked being home, but in talking with a few other residents, we wish we somehow could space out maternity leave-take a day here, a day there, so I get to have more time with her later in life. But alas, that doesn't quite work and so I will await the arrival of my mom and gma who are going to come next week to ease the transition to daycare...

Will probably have more thoughts the closer I get!

New Blog!

So after an accidental changing of my old template and then losing that old style, I had to resort to coming up with a new design. Not so much because I didn't like the old one but due to my lack of computer skills.

So! Don't think you're at the wrong blog because of the new colors...let me know what you think!

And here's a funny pic of Kyla for your trouble:

Will Sleep Anywhere but my Crib

Blargh.
That's my thoughts on sleep training. So of course, there are as many theories out there about sleeping and babies as there are babies and each one claims to be the PERFECT solution for your crying, not sleeping baby. In the interest of speaking on this matter, I read the two diametrically opposed books: "Happiest Baby on the Block" and "Babywise." If the two authors ever met and tried to discuss baby-rearing, I have no doubt it would result in a mud fight with hair-pulling. Strangely enough, a similar thing occurs between parents who espouse one method or another...you are guaranteed an argument between someone if you bring up these two books and state yourself STAUNCHLY behind one or the other in a large group of parents. Relatively entertaining.
But the truth is, I think you gotta go with what works for your life and baby which could be one, the other, a combination, something in the middle. This being said, we are in the midst of trying to help Baby K sleep in a predictable schedule in her crib. Mostly because she is going to be heading to daycare in a week in a half and for me to be feeding/working, a good solid schedule will be VERY helpful. She did great (relatively speaking!) last night in her crib, but today, as evidenced by the following photos, seems completely willing to sleep ANYWHERE but her crib.



Also, note that she has almost completely wiggled out of a very snug velcro swaddle. Quite the escape artist!




Oh well, we'll keep trucking!
Also am in the midst of trying to get myself a bit back in shape...I had initially thought about documenting a "reverse bump" photo series, but decided it was a bit too depressing for me. I have done yoga once (!) only and will eventually try to get myself running, but right now the combo of too hot and feeling too slow are getting me down. So I'll keep walking for a bit longer...