First Easter Egg Hunt

Since we live in the Northwest, it was not surprising that it rained on Palm Sunday and pushed the Easter egg hunt at church indoors. For 3 and under, the eggs were hidden in the nursery. Here are Kalaya and her BFF Elena finding eggs on their first hunt!

Holding the eggs was definitely the best part! (and putting them in their mouths!)

They preferred taking the eggs out, rather than putting them in the basket!

Their moms totally shop for them together, note the matching shorts : )

Spring Break

We have been busy, busy, busy during the last week! My teacher friends and those taking classes were on spring break, so we went to visit with friends! Let's see, where to start:

2 weekends ago: I took a much-needed trip to Silverton to go visit friends I taught with my first year teaching! I haven't seen them since my baby shower and the hospital when Kalaya was born! It was a lot of fun just hanging out and catching up with my mentor teacher Jennifer and her almost 4 year old son Tommy. We walked to a duck pond, had lunch and just spent time together chatting. Being moms together has brought us even closer and it was so good to see her! Tommy was so sweet with Kalaya, he kept saying he wanted a baby sister too!

1 weekend ago: We drove down to Cottage Grove to see our friends Chris and Lindsey Morin who just had a baby at the beginning of February named Stella. We were all on the orientation team together in college and all started dating our now spouses right around the same time. We also got married the same year and now our daughters are less than a year apart. Fun! We spent a Saturday night at their house, went to dinner and hung out. It was really fun, but at first very frustrating. Stella is the absolute lowest maintenance baby I have ever been around. She is only 6 weeks and can completely fall asleep on her own, sleeps on anyone, anywhere and in any situation. She didn't cry the whole time we were there!! At first I was completely jealous and in shock (as was Nelson), but then came to some realizations. I realized that as nice as that would have been, I realized that babies truly, truly, TRULY are all different. It wasn't anything we did or did not do that made Kalaya's sleep habits they way they were/are. There's nothing Stella's parents are doing/did to make her sleep the way she is. It was definitely an "aha moment" for me to see just how completely different newborns can be. And, if truth be told, I'd rather have a high needs baby first, so I didn't get the complete shock the second (or third, or forth) time around. That being said, Stella was beautiful and Kalaya was totally fascinated by her.

Last week/this past weekend: We had play dates almost every day! We had a mommy group play date at our friend Naomi's (and Emily!) house. We had a play date with Elena (and Sarah!) with a walk through Portland on a beautiful sunny day and a trip to meet the daddies for dinner at Hooters. (yes, that's right. I love their wings, what of it???) We had a super fun reunion with other girls from my college of ed group with 4 babies, 4 mommies, 1 daddy and one extra friend. We stopped to see our friend Marlee, who I used to nanny for. We had lunch with Naomi, Emily, Heather and Nathan. We went shopping. We went to Salem for a funeral, thought it wasn't for anyone I knew, we just went for support and to see family. We went to our first Easter egg hunt! Kalaya was good at picking up plastic eggs and putting them in her mouth, but not so much at finding them or putting them in her basket herself. She did find a special egg though that meant she got a special prize of sidewalk chalk shaped like eggs! Fun! Whew, that's a lot of stuff! It was a fun week, but today we took the day completely off and rested. (and did a lot of laundry and cleaning!)

Kalaya is now doing 3 signs regularly! She signs dog all the time when she sees Pippy or someone says dog. She does the more sign when prompted and when eating. Tonight she did it in a different context; we were singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and when I finished, she did the more sign to sing it again! She is also signing nurse/milk when prompted. Last night she was sitting on my lap and started pulling at my shirt and when I looked at her, she signed nurse! It is amazing to see her communicating!! We're working on "eat", "water" and "all done" next! Oh and "Mom" and "Dad" too!

Kalaya has outgrown her infant car seat! She is now in a seat that will last her almost until she is out of a car seat! (until she is 65 pounds) She is not quite too heavy for her infant seat, but she is too long! I did a lot of research and found a seat that will be rear facing until 40 pounds and has a 5 point harness until 65 pounds. It is the longest for each that I could find for a reasonable price. And it is side-impact tested. This thing is huge and safe and she seems to like it! She is growing up so fast....I am in total denial that we're just over a month away from her first birthday. I'd better get out of denial a little bit to start planning the party! She also went from laying completely down today to sitting all the way up without help today. She is creeping "army style" around, usually to get to Pippy's dog toys; gross! She has been pretty fussy today and when I stuck my finger in her mouth, I felt 2 molars starting to poke through! I bet that HURTS! Hopefully she can sleep through that challenge!

Interesting Article

This topic came up with a group of mommy friends yesterday, so I did a little more research. Thank goodness Nelson and I had a girl so we didn't have to make this choice yet. We had already decided to say no for future boys and this article reinforced that. Just thought I'd share. I totally respect people wanting to match their fathers and sons, it makes sense. Nelson said he'd be happy to explain to his son one day why the two of them look "different".

http://www.mothering.com/health/the-case-against-circumcision

Baby Swing

We FINALLY found a park with baby swings to try out and Kalaya absolutely, positively LOVED the swing!! She laughed and giggled and squealed, it was so cute!!

She's wearing green for St. Patrick's Day

So excited!!

I swear, the swing is moving, you just can't tell : )

Just hanging out watching our friends Nathan, Naomi, Logan and Mason play!

10 months (plus 2 weeks)

Miss Kalaya finally had her 9 month appointment. I got really frustrated, because it kept getting rescheduled! I understand why well-baby appointments are not top priority if there are sick kids needing to see the doctor, but it took forever! We really like our pediatrician, but we decided after all of this that we are going to switch to one closer to home. (We had been going all the way back to Tualatin for each appointment, because we liked our doctor so much) I've been asking around and think we have found a new doctor. She was highly recommended by a friend who said she is very supportive of attachment parenting. (co-sleeping, long-term nursing, etc)

The appointment went really quickly! The 9 month appointment is a nice relief because there are no vaccinations involved! Usually we have to wait a fair amount of time, but this time we went right in and we were even early! This was the first time Nelson has missed an appointment, which he was disappointed about. But, the visit we had scheduled around his work was canceled. So, it was just Kalaya and I. It was right around nap time, so she was kinda fussy, but a little bit of nursing made everything better and she did great! She weighed 18 lbs 14 1/2 oz (35th percentile), was 30 inches long (96th percentile!!) and her head circumference was 18 inches (84th percentile). Dr. Wu said she is very alert and seems to be a happy, healthy child, which we knew! We talked about her eating habits, sleeping habits and about when to turn her car seat around. I was surprised, since a lot of families I know turn the seat around at 1 year. Turns out you should keep them facing backwards as long as possible, AT LEAST until they are 2! Glad I asked the doctor! She is right at the limit for length in a car seat, so we have to get a new one SOON! Luckily, my parents have said that they will get that as her first birthday present, since they are kinda spendy!

It is so fun to watch Kalaya grow and change, she is doing so many things! She is clapping, giving kisses, playing in new and interesting ways, rolling all over the place and attempting crawling. She is really taking her time becoming completely mobile, but I see crawling in the very near future!! It's sometimes frustrating to have a baby that is "on the slow end" of crawling. (not my phrasing) While we are perfectly confident and comfortable in our daughter's ability to become mobile, others are more anxious. We're starting to get, "She's STILL not crawling?? Hmmm..." and it's hard not to notice that most other babies her age are cruising around everywhere and many are walking. I know I'm not supposed to compare my child to other babies, so I really try not to, but I can't do anything about those other parents comparing their baby to mine. One person went so far as to ask, "Are you sure she's 'okay.' Do you worry there's something wrong with her??" Thanks, like that helps a lot. Yes, we are sure she's okay and no, we don't worry right now. Get back to me in 6 months if she is still rolling to get around.

Kalaya has a mouth full of teeth (8!) and we think more are on the way! Her hair is getting longer too, long enough for little "Pebbles" ponytails! I need to take a picture of that and her teeth. Her language skills are so close to actual words!! And she has now signed two words! Her first was "dog" (2 pats on the leg) and her latest is "more" (touching the fingers together on each hand and bringing them together). She has done both several times and in the correct context. Very exciting!!