Keep everything out of arm's reach!

At the end of January Ky had a great time visiting his Uncle Adam & Aunt Liz in Indy. It was a long car ride, but Ky did pretty well. On the way there & back he slept most of the time,while mom and dad tried to navigate the crazy new toll system in Illinois. (We only missed one.)

Ky had fun showing Uncle Adam and Aunt Liz how much he had grown. He demonstrated his ability to eat lots and lots of food, with no signs of getting full. He also showed them how he could stand holding onto furniture, and how he can get in the crawling position but will not stay there. He also received some great new toys. Slobber/chew proof blocks and a hippo from his great Godparents (aka Mama & Papa) Vander Heyden. Ky did have issues when Adam wore his baseball cap. (see above photo)--good thing he removed it. Aunt Liz was good to him and let him play and even eat the newspaper. Their new house is really nice. We enjoyed seeing it and all the things they have done to make it home--kudo's Adam and Liz on the Master Bedroom walls, I am inspired...If i had taken a pic, I would have blogged it.

During our time in Indy we were also happy that we had the chance to see Tori (my college roommate) her husband and her new baby-Wesley. Wesley is 5 months (in the pic) and as tall as Kylan--but much thinner. He also has alot more hair than Ky. Speaking of which, the debate is still out on what color hair Ky has. There really still is not enough to tell. Sometimes it looks blonde, sometimes red, and sometimes light brown. I think it is going to be like his dad's, but only time will tell.

So after the trip to Indy we celebrated Debi's B'day at our house. We had a very nice time when Pop's and her drove up for the day. We had brunch and just enjoyed chatting. The next day we watched the superbowl with our friend Mark. The picture of Ky in the Red hoody is from that day. Ky decided he wanted to be cool and sag his pants like all the other cool boys do. We tried to explain to Ky that most of the cool boys don't wear vinyl pants under their jeans--but he just wouldn't listen.

The biggest event after the superbowl was Ky's new discovery that he can use almost anything to pull up and stand. He is now a very serious cruiser. As long as he sitting close to something, he will pull up and walk around. So now we are seriously moving things around and out of his reach at his height level. Boy--sometimes it is hard to keep up with him. It is amazing the things he finds!

That should wrap up this entry...I know I am behind on blog entries--but I am already working on the next to catch up. Stay tuned to the next blog entry which will reveal Ky's expanding vocabulary.

I've got Teeth!

Kylan has had an adventurous last couple of weeks. Two of his bottom teeth have popped through. I am figuring this is why he had a crabby spell earlier in the month. They aren't out enough to be visible in pics, but I am sure they will be soon. His food choices have also rapidly expanded with these sharp incisors poking through. MMMMM Teething crackers....

Ky is still rapidly learning about the world around him. He played in the snow and made his first snow angel. He also ate snow--we made sure it was not yellow. He really likes snow. YUM YUM!!! By the way this was the first snow that stuck on the ground since the day we moved. So this is really the very first opportunity Ky has had to see what snow is.

Kylan has mastered waving "HI/BYE" now. He will often accompany the wave with "IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII" (No h's or b's) And another favorite past time is eating his feet, whenever they are not socked. YUM! No crawling yet....it is really frustrating for us as parents to have him crawl all over us, but refuse to crawl on the floor by himself. Perhaps he is more of a mountain climber. We are always putting him on the floor on his tummy, but he just rolls over. Occasionally he will even get up on all fours and sometimes he will actually be on his hands and feet (no knees), but that will soon be followed by him rolling over or reaching over to one of us so he can crawl (literally) into our laps.

So I should probably explain a few of the pics. Kylan has been wanting us to dress him up like "Skeletor" for months. --NO--I am not lying...he is always grabbing the outfit in his closet...We finally gave in. He had a lot of fun in his glow-in-the-dark costume. And yes, he did go "ROAR".

Kylan also does get occasionally tired of all the attention he receives when he goes out for a night on the town. The "Cabbage Patch Doll" comments can be a bit much. So he chose to go "incognito" for one of his nights out. Unfortunately, it appeared that he actually received more attention, and people recognized him as the "Cabbage Patch Doll" he is anyway.

And lastly, Ky got to meet his second cousing Desmond at his Aunt Lisa's and Uncle Ryan's birthday party. They really had a good time playing with blocks. Ky was quite intrigued by Desmond's mobility, yet had no desire to venture out on his own.

Stay tuned for next week's posting...a weekend with Uncle Adam and Aunt Liz...

Ky's New Year pics

Pics to come...
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KY's new year

Well Ky got off to a great start with the new year. We went over to a friend's to celebrate--and Ky refused to go to sleep. He insisted on celebrating the new year as well. So he went to bed about 1:30 in the morning on the drive back home.

We are still expecting Ky to start crawling or something any day now. If in a seated position, he will try to grab onto something to pull himself up....He also is now starting to "cruise" when he is standing (walking on his own while hanging onto things.) Often times his attempts to stand turn into lunges where he is on his hands and knees. If he can just figure to move his hands and knees alternately he will crawl. Usually he does one or the other and just ends up sprawled on the floor and then he rolls to his back.

Shortly after the new year Ky came down with a cold. He was very cranky! Life was rough. Thank goodness my mom came and visited us for the new year. It was great to have her. Kylan really took to her quickly and seemed to forget his crabbiness. (It had been 4 months since he last saw her.) Kylan showed Grandma all the many noises he can make with his mouth. And Grandma showed Kylan that she could bark like Bear. Ky loved it and would laugh each time she barked (the things people do to get babies to laugh.) Ky also smothered grandma in kisses...

Once Grandma left Ky went back into his cranky spell. He is frustrated, now that he can pull himself up, he always wants to be standing and moving---but I don't want him doing it unless I am there to make sure he doesn't fall into something (he will forget to hold on at times and fall.) So after talking to some mom's I invested in a exersaucer. I spent a whole $2.50 at the Salvation Army for one (I love the salvation army!) This exersaucer is so cool! Granted it was a bit dirty when I got it (must have been sitting in someone's garage)--but a little soap and some lysol, a laundered seat-- and it looks as good as new. The exersaucer allows him to stand and jump--it has little springs in the legs...also it is not overwhelmed with toys--like a lot of exersaucers are these days. I can put various toys in the little compartments for him--and it seems to do the trick--for a short while anyways...and then Ky wants out and he wants to cruise on his own....Please God let him crawl soon!

Lately Kylan has discovered his tongue. I find him sticking it out. Man--he has a long tongue. I am going to get a picture of him doing it soon.

Dad is having a lot of fun with Ky too. Especially now that he says "DA DA" on a regular basis. Of course Ky has no idea what he is saying, but his father enjoys responding to him whenever he says "Da da da da..."

On Jan 8th Ky went in for his 6 month physical (even though he is 7 months now). We are no longer allowed to make fun of his weight. Ky weighed 20 lbs on the dot, which puts him in the 74th percentile.....20% less than before. The doc said that based on rob and my heights, Ky should be somewhere around the 70% so now he is on track. He is also 28" (80%) and doing extremely well....she was surprised to find that he could already pull himself to standing.

Over this weekend we had an incident with my car. I am not going to go into detail right now..but at some point in the future I do want the opportunity to look back at these pics and laugh (probably will be several years.) So for now, we cannot close the driver's side door. The tow truck comes for it tomorrow...and I am sure it will be a pricey repair.

First Christmas

First Christmas

Kylan had a great first Christmas. The week prior to Christmas Kylan volunteered 8 hours ringing bells for the salvation army. He made a LOT of money! People can not resist a cute baby...not to mention one with a read set of antlers. it was fun. Kylan would stare people down until they noticed him and then he would flash them a big smile. Suckers!! It was all for good though..

So Kylan likes presents alot. He especially likes the paper that presents are wrapped in. He would pull the paper off the present and then eat it.

I think his favorite present was from Nana. She got him this cloth book that was packaged in a plastic pouch. He loves the plastic pouch. What a great present!

On Christmas day, Kylan met his newest cousin--Dominic. He seemed very intrigued by this little person that was actually smaller than him.

Kylan is definitley the best present we have received this year. He is so much fun.---moody at times, but fun! (Of course we had to wake him up christmas morning...) --Oh yeah that is another thing--over Christmas Kylan slept several nights in a row straight through...I am talking 10 + hours. What a great present for us!

He just continues to grow by leaps and bounds. He is babbling so much now. He says "DA DA" though not purposefully. He moved around a lot by rolling and is still getting on his knees--though has yet to crawl. The biggest thing that Kylan is doing is pulling up to stand. He has been doing that with our hands for the last month or so, but now he has something that is the perfect height so he can do it all on his own--his toy box. So at the top of this entry, you can see some action pics of him pulling himself up. After he gets up, he does a little dance of celebration and then plays with his toys. He is growing so fast! He is going to be mobil in no time. I hope we are ready for that.

Boy--I know there is more to add, but I can't think of it right now. The sad thing is I had already typed this blog up once and then blogger crashed and I lost it all. Well, if I remember anything else, I will be sure to add it later.

Thanks to everyone who sent Christmas cards. I apologize that we were unable to get Christmas cards out to everyone--it was a bit hectic with the move. Next year we will get it done for sure. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

6 months

SIX MONTHS!!! cont'd

Well...we are finally moved!!!

We had originally planned to move on Friday, Dec 1st...but there was just a small blizzard that tossed that plan out the window. It was funny. I called the movers the night before and asked if they wanted to reschedule. The lady told me "no, we never cancel due to weather." Well the next morning Rob and I got up bright and early and lets just say it was pretty scary looking outside....I called the movers again and left a message asking at least for a later start time so that the snow would have time to taper off and some serious plowing could begin. Shortly after that, the movers called asking to cancel due to the weather and to reschedule for the next day. Very amusing! Unfortunately that totally threw off our plans. We were trapped in pretty much an empty house with little to nothing to eat. Rob trudged through the snow to the nearest gas station and brought back watery cappacino and packaged muffins and donuts. YUM! Then we unpacked a few boxes that actuallyhad games in them and played. We received over 12 inches in less than 12 hours and the wind was just plain nasty!

The snow gave us a chance to break out the new snowblower and see how it worked. It was fun. Well moving day went smoothly with exception of robby locking the keys in the running vehicle. The move took a total of 8 hours, maybe less --not including travel time. The following week we had a goal of unpacking one room a day--which actually worked our pretty well. At this point the house is mostly unpacked with exception of the basement and the office. Things that can wait with the Holidays.

The closing of our old house was unfortunately also delayed due to the blizzard. We wasted a whole day in Milwaukee waiting for the postponed closing only to find out that it would not happen until two days later. ARGH. But all went well, and within days the new people has moved in. They got a great place. We did a lot to that house. And now we have lots to do to the new house.

So lets get to the important stuff...Kylan.

My boy just continues to grow by leaps and bounds. He is eating all types of food. I am experimenting with making his baby food and it is actually going very well. I steam his veggies, put them in the blender and then fill ice cube trays with the food and freeze it, then put the cubes of food in plastic baggies. Each cube is about one serving. I take it out in the morning to let it thaw and he has his food for the day. And talk about much cheaper. I bought a bag of carrots for 60 cents. This bag of carrots made 18 ice cubes of carrots...which is equivalent to 18 stage 1 jars of carrots which would have cost me around $9/$10 to buy. MUCH MUCH smarter to make your own food. Unfortunately there are some veggies that I cannot do myself because I cannot puree them fine enough--like peas and corn.

Well anyway back to Kylan. The kid babbles. All sorts of stuff comes out of his mouth. He is also sitting on his own. He can sit easily for 10 + minutes on his own. He also rolls back and forth, stomach to back, back to stomach. And lately he is getting up on his knees. A couple of times I could of swore he was going to crawl. I think it may happen any day now. Which really has me worried. We are still organizing the house and are not prepared for a mobile child. He is also very coordinated with his hands now. You really have to be careful when shopping with him. He snatches things here and there--and of course they go right to his mouth. And lately he has figured out how to shake his head "no". He looks really weird doing it. It is a very exaggerated motion. He is also making kissing sounds with his mouth now too...He just has to figure out how to give you a kiss instead of drool on your cheek...

Kylan is also the happiest baby --everyone tells us that...oh yeah and that he looks like a cabbage patch doll. Yeah that one I don't think he will ever live down. HE LOVES PEOPLE. The best thing I can do with Kylan is take him out. For example, the other day he got his flu shot. We walked into the clinic, the receptionists cooed, ooh'ed and ahh'ed. Then he went in to get his flu shot, where the nurses coo'ed, he cried for 2 seconds, when the nurse began to coo and away went the tears and a big smile took over his face. Then we went back out the waiting room, but a nurse came and asked if she could show him off to some coworkers. I said fine by me..and off she went with him (with me tagging along behind.) It was a long time until I was able to leave.

He also love cameras...he will stop crying just to smile for a camera. He loves having his picture taken.

So Kylan had his six month birthday. He celebrated by eating his pureed carrots and rice cereal. YUM YUM!!! Kylan won't have his six month appointment until early January due to the move. However, I did have him weighed with all his clothes on Shortly after his six month birthday and he weighed almost 22 pounds with all his clothes on. He is a big boy to be lugging

cell phone number is still the same...and I am not sure I feel comfortable putting our landline number on the web. That's all for now....Expect Christmas pics next blog entry.