Pulling Up

We got Kylie this toy yesterday to replace her Exersaucer and Jumperoo.


She crawled right over to it and used the sink part to pull herself up to standing. This was the first time she's pulled herself up by herself. Way to go Kylie! She's played on it for most of the day.





We decided to do some rearranging in Kylie's room to make some room for this big, ole toy. We moved Karen's chair to our media room so now we have just the one rocker in the baby's room. And we moved her crib and dresser around. I think this is the fourth or fifth time we've moved the furniture in her room (and the sweet thing isn't yet a year old!)

Nothing more to share other than this scrapbook page that I completed for class last night. Click here for a closer look and for details.

Wood worries

Kylie isn't fond of the wood floors we have in our kitchen/dining areas. She prefers to stay on the carpet in the family room. If I pick her up and put her somewhere on the kitchen floor, she'll play for a while and then quickly crawl back to the safety of the carpet. If she's in the family room, I can call to her and try to entice her to crawl to me. She'll just look at me and pat the wood floor as if to say, "You see this? This isn't fun to crawl on and I'm simply not going to do it."


Another curious thing that's just developed is that she's pulling on her shirts. This just started last week. She'll be playing along and then reach down and twist her shirt or pull at the collar of it. It's so interesting to watch her become aware of different things. Before I know it, she'll be taking her clothes off and trying to run around naked all the time.

She's cut her left top front tooth. It will be a while before it grows out enough to show in pictures but it has cut through. The right one is still cutting.

Here's some other recent pictures:



And here is the scrapbook page I created in last night's class. I learned several new things in making this. I was pretty giddy once I had completed it. Karen said I was beaming. I just love learning new stuff about Photoshop! For a closer look and to see the details, click here.

Baby Loves Disco

One highlight of the weekend was attending Baby Loves Disco on Sunday. Around 150 parents and children showed up at the Wonder Ballroom to shake around to some 70's music.

Kylie had a big time looking at the lights and disco ball overhead.


As well as watching the tons of bubbles.




Karen and I had took turns holding Kylie and dancing with her and each other. Nice tongue-biting action here!


And---you aren't going to believe this----Karen and I WON the Hustle dance competition. Sure, a kid was the judge but hey, I was happy nonetheless. We won a Baby Loves Disco cd. I was just a little bit tickled.

Now that's some livin' out loud!!

We also enjoyed visiting with some friends on Saturday. Their daughter, Jillian, was nice enough to share her toys with Kylie. It's easy to see why parents buy so many new toys for their kids. Kylie LOVED playing with some new toys. She was so excited to pick up and play and slobber on someone else's stuff! She was completely engaged and quiet for over an hour. Karen and I got to have some actual grown-up talk with some adults without a fussy baby crying for attention. I was in heaven!

And of course, I can't end a weekend post without showing you the scrapbook pages that I worked on this weekend.

This one was a challenge from my class. There were six parts to the challenge but the hardest part was that the page had to be completed (after your pictures, paper and elements were chosen) in thirty minutes. So it's a simple layout but I'm pleased with it. For the details or a closer look, click here.


And here are two side-by-side pages that celebrate Kylie's accomplishments during her eighth month.




For close-ups and details, click here.

Oh, here is one more picture to share. Kylie is perfecting her kissy face because she knows we love it so much. She sucks in her cheeks, purses her lips and makes this face before she makes the smooch sound. Here she is kissing me thanking me for her meal. You are most welcome Baby Kylie!

Doc Visit and Restaurant

Kylie had her nine month doctor's appointment today.

She is 28 1/4 inches in height which is an increase of 1 1/2 inches in 3 months. Her height is at the 75%.
She weighs 17 pounds 4 ounces which is an increase of 12 ounces in the last month. Her weight is at the 25%.
She has been consistently 75%/25% since she was born.

The doctor was great and let Karen hold Kylie for most of the exam. We only had to put her on the table for a couple of minutes. The doctor checked her teeth and told us one of the top ones was ready to break through any day now. Kylie endured her one shot (Polio vac.) very well--just a few tears and no aftereffects.

Earlier in the afternoon and before her appointment, we took Kylie out to eat for lunch at our local Red R*bin restaurant. Here she is getting ready to go:




I had the rattle she is holding in my coat pocket (you know you are a mom when you have toys in all your coat pockets). Anyway, she hadn't seen it in a while and was so happy to have it again. She held on to it for most of the afternoon.

She was our best good-girl at the restaurant. This was only the second time we have taken Kylie for a meal (other than when she was a newborn and asleep in her bucket carseat). We were a bit nervous but Kylie was fabulous. She was flirting with everyone around her. She ate the snacks we brought her without making any mess. She was quiet and fun.


Until, just as we were getting ready to leave, Karen and I explained to her that she would be going to the doctor's office later in the afternoon. We told her about the upcoming exam and shot. And then this is how she looked--


I wonder where she got that snarl?

Class challenge

Tomorrow/Thursday Kylie has her 9 month doctor's appointment. Please keep us in your thoughts as Kylie goes through another round of shots.

Today my Photoshop class was issued a challenge. There were seven requirements to the challenge. I found the hardest requirement was to make the layout about myself.

I worked on it from 6pm until 10pm but I'm proud that my assignment was "turned in" on time. Here it is:


You can click here for the details.

Hungry Cupcake

Kylie had a growth-spurt day today. The little darlin' was up at 4:00 am and ravenous all day. She ate way more than usual and was fussy most of the day.

We did get gussied up to visit Karen and her two co-workers at a nearby conference facility. Karen was working with her two training guys to get them up to speed on a new course. Karen and I had just purchased this outfit at Gymboree (see the cupcake?) so I thought it was a good opportunity to try it out.







Don't worry. I did put socks and shoes on the sweet baby before we went out and braved the cold, winter day.

Anyway, I took the guys some Moonstruck Chocolate and we had a nice, brief visit. Then Kylie and I went to the grocery store.

Let me ask all of you something. Is there anything I can do to make loading Kylie in her carseat easier on her?

She gets happy and excited when I put on her coat and hat. But the moment I sit her in her carseat, she begins to cry. It doesn't matter if I sing songs or make funny faces or offer toys or anything. By the time we are a few miles down the road, she stops crying and is happy again. But the loading her in the seat makes her sob. I don't rush her but I am pretty quick about getting her loaded. But she is not a happy camper in the process. Do all babies go through this?

Anyway, I was able to finish this scrapbook page tonight. This was from the first lesson of the four-week Jessica Sprauge class I'm taking. I'm tickled that I've already learned several new things about Photoshop from her. If you click here you can get a closer look and see the contents description.

Weekend News

We had a brief bout of sunshine on Sunday and I snapped these pictures--these are straight from the camera.






I love the blur on this one. It's indicative of Kylie-on-the-move. "I'm going to get you Mommy!"


And here's some play pictures of Karen and Kylie.





This one cracks me up. It looks like they are singing a musical together.


How beautiful and sweet!


I'm enjoying some new music. I bought this cd titled Putumayo New Orleans Playground. It was playing the other day at Gymboree and I simply had to have it. It's delightful.

As a coincidence, I happened across this Powell's Books and Music link which has some other Putumayo music. I downloaded the free Israel song and have played and enjoyed it several times.

Before Kylie, I was all the time buying new music on Itunes and loading them in my ipod. Nowadays, finding new music selections is pretty low on the time & money list. But maybe I'm making a small comeback. And have you heard that Jack Johnson has a new cd coming out-- pretty cool!

On Saturday, I attended my very first book signing. Ali Edwards was signing books at a nearby Portland store and I showed up, met her and got my three books signed. I've seen her picture, her son's and husband's pictures, and yet it was so trippy meeting them all. I managed to make some small talk about her latest 365 Flickr project. She made lovely eye contact and thanked me for my many compliments. She was wonderfully tall (you know I like that in a woman), and her clothes were so well put together and she had the prettiest skin and teeth. I felt like a star-struck goofball.

She signed my books "Capture Life". How cool is that! (PS--you know you aren't cool when it is 2008 and you still use the word "cool" to describe cool things. Someone give me a new word so I sound a little more up to date please.)

Anyway, last year I attended a lecture held by The Yarn Harlotbut didn't brave the long book-signing lines because I was pregnant and tired. So here I am, on the downside of my thirties and attending a book signing for the first time of my life. It was memorable and fun so I highly recommend meeting your favorite authors if they come to a town near you. But go ahead and have your picture made with them. I was too shy to take my camera to meet Ali and now I really wish I had.

That was my weekend. How was yours?

Gymboree Fun

Kylie and I went to Gymboree several times this week. When we are at class, it takes Kylie around ten minutes to get the lay of the land and then she's off and crawling all over the place. I managed to take some pictures on Thursday and I made this fun scrapbook spread:


You can see a close-up of the pages here and here.

Or here is a link for just the pictures.

For you scrapbook enthusiasts, here's the information about the spread:
Template- Jen Caputo Collection #12, scrapbookgraphics.com
Orange paper- KPertiet CKU_kit, designerdigitals.com
January Stamp- KPertiet Postmakred New Years 08
Epoxy dots and alpha- Manda Panda set, sweetshoppedesigns.com
Fonts- Century Gothic and MA Sexy.

Have a great weekend everyone!

9 months old

Kylie is nine months old today. I'll post her milestones later--after we go to the doctor's office next week.

Like most babies, Kylie loves playing with her two new teeth. She is constantly running her tongue around them which makes for some interesting photos like this one:


and this one:


But that's the great thing about digital cameras. If you take 60 pictures, your odds of getting a decent one are pretty good. I think these two are sweet.

I'm so surprised at how big her hands look in these.


Of course, when Kylie is done with the camera, she isn't shy in letting me know about it.


Bye Kylie! And Happy Birthday!

Crawling video

We shot this video last Friday. Kylie had been crawling around her room and the hallway like crazy. She had been chasing balls and toys and having a big time. So I had the bright idea to grab the video camera.

Whenever Kylie sees the video camera she freezes. So I haven't been able to capture her funny laugh, her rolling and such because she just stops what she is doing and looks at me when the camera is in my hands.

So I enlisted Karen's help to encourage Kylie to keep playing and crawling.

What I didn't know was that Karen would grab the CAT TOY to prompt Kylie to crawl. On the video you get to hear my incredulous, yet highly amused laughter. Heaven help us-- a cat toy.

Without further ado, here's Kylie's military-style crawling.

Weekend

On Friday I took Kylie to Gymboree and the little darlin' crawled right out of my lap and across the floor. I spent most of the class trying to keep Kylie from eating other baby's toes. It's amazing how fast they change. Just this past Tuesday, she was content to sit in my lap during class. Now she is crawling all over the gym floor.

I bought a new diaper bag today. My first diaper bag was as big as a desk! And I had it crammed full of blankets and outfit changes and bibs and all manner of things.

The new diaper bag is still larger than my purse but much smaller than the original and now it holds only the essentials.

We had a pretty relaxing weekend. We took lots of pictures including this one:


And I took the time tonight to make this page:

Photos

Ali Edwards is doing a cool project titled "365- journey of a self, photo a day in 2008." Click here to see her Flickr site. It might be fun to join in. Heaven knows I take photos of Kylie almost every day. It might be nice to take more photos of other things.

Here is another site doing something similar for 30 days.

For now, here is a scrapbook page I whipped together tonight. Click
here for a closer look.

PS- You know it has been a long day when I use the oh-so clever word "here" four times in such a short post.

New Things

Thank you to everyone for your comments on Tuesday's post.

Miss Kylie is doing a few new things and I thought I would share them with you.

She is more and more interested in standing. She's not pulling up yet but she's getting more solid on her feet.

Here she is standing against a turned-over laundry basket.


When she sees me raise the camera, Kylie will squint her eyes. She knows that flash is coming and she's not standing for it.
(I love her belly in this picture) NO CAMERA MOMMY!


Kylie has always been a foot fetish girl but now her fascination is with other people's toes. You have to watch your toes around her or "the shark" may crawl over and gum them.


You don't want me to gum your toes and make your socks soaking wet? Well here, I'll kiss you and make it better!

I love the kissy face and I'm so glad I finally got a picture of it.

Lastly, Kylie's hair is starting to grow long again. I swear the color of her hair changes from day to day depending on the lighting and what she's wearing. Most days, it looks ash blonde to me. But it's getting long and wavy and curly again.

As I'm helping her stand, I have plenty of opportunities to marvel at the back of my little girl's head. I think the back of her head (or any baby's head and neck for that matter) is so pretty.


Let's take a close-up of that darling ash-blonde hair flip.


So cute it makes me gasp! She gets lots and lots of neck kisses.