13 months

I really didn't think that I would continue to post something each month once Kylie turned one, but there have been so many changes in her already that I HAVE to post something. :)

Kylie amazes us everyday with something new that she learns, says, or does. To save time, since I have already typed two posts today, I'll just make some bullets and hope that they make sense.

• We have a walker! Kylie started really walking 2 weeks after her first birthday. She had been taking 2-4 steps at a time for about a month and then all of a sudden was walking everywhere and was really good at it! It's not easy getting video of a walker... here's the best one I've got right now!

• Kylie has 10 full teeth, with quite large bottom molars. Her top left molar just cut through in one spot, so it's well on it's way. By the end of the month, she may have 12 teeth! Oh and her molars have been the worst teeth to cut for her. She goes through obvious bouts of sharp pain and sleeps horribly. Sometimes it's worse when they are on their way down as opposed to when they are actually cutting through the gums. Seems opposite to me.

Look at all those teeth!

• Words: says Mama, Dada, duck, dog, book (on occasion), milk, more (Mo mo), down (dow), shoes (more like shus), banana (today she said some kind of combination of the sounds over and over because she was excited to have one as a snack)
• Food: loves mixed veggies (gets so excited when she sees you take them out of the fridge and sometimes can't wait for you to warm them up, so she eats them cold.), fruit of any kind (lately still mandarin oranges, pears, bananas, and peaches, cantaloupe, plums, nectarines, blue berries, grapes, of course applesauce almost daily), meats (deli meat: she loves that they give you a sample at the grocery store, chicken, tried pork chops yesterday and LOVED them), yogurt (she gets yogurt everyday as a snack before naptime, kind of turned into a routine of ours, but she loves it. Doesn't matter what flavor and it gives her the extra calcium and protein that she needs!) All in all, you know she loves a food if she hums 'Mmmm' while she's eating it.

• Loves to wear bracelets. She always loved playing with her rings (the little rings that link together and hold toys on larger objects if you want them to), but now she uses them mostly as bracelets. She has had up to 8 on one wrist before and just continues playing. She has added sandals and flip flips to the list of items that can be bracelets. Same goes for bibs and dirty shirts/shorts from her laundry basket.

• LOVES TO DANCE. You can just say the word 'music' or 'dance' and she will move her body in some fashion of dance. Our favorite is when she is standing and she moves her body to the side like she is working out her obliques. Once again it has been difficult to video this because she sees you taping and stops and charges you to grab the phone or camera. I have a video, but it is sideways. It may just have to do.

• Throws temper trantrums: These started about a month before she turned one. If we took something away or didn't pick her up when she wanted us to, she would hurl her body forward and slam her hands on the floor in front of her over and over again while wailing. If you tried to console her, without picking her up, rub her back or something, she would just hurl her body backwards. You pretty much would just have to make sure that she wasn't near the tile or coffee table during these episodes. She has gotten better with taking something away, especially things like the remote or my phone that she has now learned are not toys. When she is tired/hungry she will still throw a tantrum. If she wakes up in the night, normally because of teeth, she will be extremely upset to the point of trying to climb out. Hence the next bullet.
• Almost fell/climbed out of crib. Exactly a week after her birthday, Kylie started climbing on top of the railing on her crib and almost hurled herself over a few times. The mattress was already on the lowest setting. The last time, Casey was within seconds of her falling. Scary, annoying, and exhausting times. Once she was asleep, she normally didn't try it again. We researched about what we should do, good ole Google. Most everything said, "time to switch to a toddler bed" and there was NO WAY we were going to deal with that. Kylie is only one! So we also read somewhere that they tried taking apart the crib and putting the mattress on the floor inside the crib. Worked like a charm. The first night she was asleep in 7 minutes. She still tries to climb up (her toes are amazingly strong and sticky), but I think we have a little while until she is tall enough to truly climb out again. Oh our little firecracker!

Kylie loves her Daddy.

Growing up too fast!!

One Year Portraits!

Alex, one of Casey's many gorgeous sisters, so graceously spent a couple of hours in the Texas summer heat, on one of her free Saturdays to take Kylie's one year pictures. They are everything and more than I could have hoped for. I would post all of them if I could, but I am going to try to make a set of my top 10. Here it goes...

Top Ten Kylie: not in any particular order

Favorite Mommy and Kylie Picture

Favorite Daddy and Kylie Picture

Favorite Family Pictures

Thank you Alex for such a great experience! They are absolutely wonderful and really showcase our beautiful baby girl! :)

Little Firecracker

This nickname was given to Kylie pretty early on because of her birthday. Little did we know that she would fulfill the duties of this name so quickly. She is definitely our 'little firecracker' and I wanted to share some thoughts of why this nickname fits her so well. (I am also posting this so I can document this aspect of Kylie's life.. before we forget all the details!)

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Right along with learning to crawl, Kylie was already interested in how things work. For example, opening and closing doors were at the top of the list. She would crawl as fast as she could, still does, to an open door just to open and close it from the other side. We were of course concerned with smashing fingers in the door (runs in the family.. haha), so we would watch her or find something else that would interest her enough to forget about the door for a little while. Now, if that's what she wants to do, by golly she will do it.. Ahh, already got the attitude. She especially likes going inside a room and closing the door behind her to go play or get into something she knows she shouldn't be getting into. Yes we do have one of those little keys in case she learns how to lock the doors. :)

Not long after learning to crawl came pulling up. Very quickly she learned how to pull up on furniture, like her crib, the walls, coffee table, the couches, etc. I would find her sitting inside of the coffee table hunched over reaching for an object on the other side. This is definitely a normal thing for babies to do, but it is the more recent occurances that have me baffled.  

When she got really good at pulling up around 10 months, she learned how to step over the high chair rails and would stand there pulling every single item out and would throw it on the floor. I store bibs and washcloths (used to be wipes too, but that quickly changed when she learned how to take them out of the tub..) under the chair for meal times. She sometimes would put them back, but mostly just left them on the floor. Quickly this became her favorite pass time activity. Easily would happen 3 or 4 times a day and still does.

Just before 11 months, Kylie started climbing up on everything! Started with her new car seat and then she tackled the couch!



 

 Daddy works from home on occasion. More so recently since he just finished his last project and is just working on office stuff that he can just do on his computer from home. Kylie knows that he is present and will do ANYTHING she can to be in the same room as Daddy. This is her seeing the light on under the door and sticking her fingers underneath. She also bangs, recently learned gently knocking, and reaches for the door knob. Oh we are going to be in trouble when she is tall enough for the door handles!

 Kylie's favorite place to be is outside, no matter how bright or hot it is. She tries so very hard to get out there when Mommy says no not today. Poor thing! If the temperatures would just go down! Since Mommy normally doesn't take Kylie outside, except for the park early in the morning, the second Daddy walks through the door she asks him if she can. By 'ask' I mean, pointing at the door, pointing at his shoes, bringing Daddy another pair of shoes, crawling/walking/running as fast as she can to the backdoor, grunting/high pitched hmphs as she points, etc.

 Kylie knows the 'no no' places in the house and the 'not a toy' items that are throughout the house. That being said, she is a toddler and still wants to play in and with these things so badly. She loves any kind of remote and somewhere in the middle of her 12th month she put two and two together. She realized that she could use her climbing skills elsewhere besides over floor objects, up her crib and couches. One day, she pulled out a pillow out of this basket we used to block her from getting to the end table that was FILLED with things she wanted but could not have, climbed inside to get closer and sure enough got to some remotes. From then on, it'sb een almost impossible to keep her contained. Yep Kylie is a toddler. :)

Here's Kylie sitting inside her toy basket in the living room. Not long after this picture, she climbed out knocking the basket over and spilled toys everywhere! Kinda funny..

 I looked up from writing a grocery list, only seconds after I last saw her, and this is where she was. Sitting on top of her hutch reading a book. Too adorable not to take a picture, but definitely had to teach her that we don't climb up there. This was 2 days after her birthday. Yesterday, I think she got up there 3 times. She was more mischievious than normal yesterday. :) Oh and her toes are soo strong. It amazes me. Really all of her amazes me.

I has taken me over 2 weeks to FINALLY finish this post. Life has definitely been busier now that we have a walker. Hopefully it all makes sense. At least I'll have something documented for her baby book. :)