Happy Birthday Kayden!!!

Our little love bug is one! I can hardly believe the year has flown by like it has. This has been a bit of a rough week for her. We started out at the doctor with a diagnosis of hand-foot-mouth again. Thursday (her actual birthday), she burned her finger on her candle. And Friday we had her one year check complete with three shots. She was a trooper though and ready to play at her party Saturday!

Kayden definitely keeps us all on out toes more that I ever would have imagined possible for a one year old. She is constantly climbing and getting into things. So determined is she to do everything Keeley does, and more! She even showed us this week that she can do a forward roll all by herself!

At her doctor's appointment, they said she is obviously fine on her motor skills. She needs to have one word and she has several. In order of appearance, her words are "keeley", "dada", "mama", "cheese", "quack", "night night", and "this". Dr. Frank said they like for the kids to be off baby food by 15 months. I laughed and told them that she started refusing baby food at 7 months!
Stats:
Weight: 20.5 (37%) - probably a little low because of her hand-foot-mouth
Length: 30 (78%)

She is getting skinny just like sister did when she started moving!

We celebrated her birthday at home on her birthday with cupcakes I made just for that night. She wanted nothing to do with them and kept pointing at the fridge until I got her ketchup and syrup.




We had a little party for her at The Little Gym with our friends Landon, Levi, and Judah. The kids all played hard and had fun.

Sunday, we opened presents. I think Keeley might have enjoyed opening more than Kayden, but they both liked playing with the toys.

Reading with my girls.

I included this for my brother...you'll notice big sister is actually opening the present.

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

I think that, deep down, everyone wishes they had a two year old to wake them up at 5:30 in the morning singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" at the top of her lungs.

Admit it, you are envious of my life right now :-)

"mommy got so sad"

I've been trying a new discipline strategy with Keeley where I tell her "This is so sad. I think it is time for some quiet time in your crib" It is working quite well for the issues we are having. Every time I get her out of her crib, she replays what happened to me and then she frequently tells Kelly. Last night the very first thing she did when Kelly got home was run up to him, look down while pointing to her feet, and say "feet, table, mommy got so sad. get in crib" Cracked me up. Today, I was listening to the girls on their monitors during their nap. About an hour and a half into Keeley's nap, I heard her say "feet. got sad. in crib." I don't know if she was still fully asleep or in her waking phase but it was her toddler babble voice, not her awake voice. I laughed out loud.

Obviously this will not work for us for everything or always, but right now it is clearly making an impression!

One more week

Kayden will turn one in a week. Today she learned how to climb on to the kitchen chairs, and then the table. And got angry with me when I blocked her from crawling into the gutter. What are we in for?

Chocolate Pudding

We love chocolate pudding at our house. I try to only let Keeley have it because Kayden is a little messy with it.

Here is Keeley. Notice how careful she is being.

And now Kayden.

"Pick me up Mom"! How can you resist that face (even covered in chocolate pudding!)?

Play-doh

My baby is growing up so fast. Here are both of the girls having some play-doh time. Kayden is 100% fine playing sitting in a chair just like big sister.


A little bit of a Buddha belly :-)


Keeley is making snakes - her favorite play-doh activity.

Kayden 11 months!!!!

How is it possible that she is almost a year old? She is more trouble than ever now that she is nearly running. She climbs all over everything including tables, up slides, onto the couch, on top of the toilet, into the bathroom sink. She can even almost get out of our garden tub. You name it, she's there! Nothing is too scary for her and no bumps and bruises deter her (you'll notice one in the middle of her head in the picture!). There might be a few tears spilled but she is quickly right back at it.

She also talks a lot right now. She can say "dada", "keeley", and "there". Notice that "mama" is missing again. I think that is totally not fair. "Dada" is the most clearly intelligible to other people but she definitely has a word for the other two.

She can sign "more" and "milk" and we are working on her signing "turkey" because that is, by far, her favorite food right now. If she is pointing at the refrigerator and you ask if she wants turkey, she gets a huge grin on her face and giggles. Signing is going to be even more important with Kayden than Keeley because she has absolutely no patience. I'd like to say she gets that from her dad but he has the patience of a saint....

Life is so exciting as babies turn into toddlers. Kayden is intent on copying Keeley. You can often find Kayden trying to put on a hat or sunglasses - and she wants no help from you! The other day Kayden start throwing a huge fit when I gave Keeley her plate of food for lunch. I had already put Kayden's food on her tray so I was confused. Kelly asked her if she wanted a plate. She quit fussing and was totally happy when Kelly moved all the food from her tray to the plate.

When she wants to read, she'll bring you a book, hold it out and grunt impatiently until you read it with her. However, she doesn't actually want you to read it but just flip the pages really quickly. She loves to dance and be sung to. She waves good bye and hello. She also likes to put objects in/on other things. For instance, if there are pieces of toast on her tray, she'll stick them in her cup. Dog food is still a huge attraction to her although now she really knows she's not supposed to be in there and looks startled when you catch her.

Even though she is not sleeping well at night, she is still so sweet when she wakes up. Kayden is definitely still a cuddler and would prefer it if you rocked with her all night. She is eating really, really well so it will be interesting to see what she weighs at her one year check up. I fear she may surpass Keeley who still only weighs 23 pounds!