13 months and growing fast

This post is mostly going to be for my memory because Kayla is growing so fast and I am so bad with remembering dates and times. Just one of the many reasons I love blogs.

Kayla is 1 year 1 month 2 weeks and 3 days old today.

She has grown so much in this last month or so it amazes me.

At her one year check up on 6/21/12 she weighed in at 19lbs 15oz 50% with a length of 29.5 inches 56% and a head circumference of 17.5 inches 43%

In a year Kayla has gained 9.8lbs and grown 8 inches taller and her head has gotten about three inches larger. She gained more weight in the 9 months in my tummy than she did in the 12 months out here.

So as we have noticed she is a peanut. Not really as she is close to average all the way across the board but she was born so stinking big it just seems as if she's a peanut now that she is not in the 90% of everything.

Some note worthy accomplishment include...

1. Kayla is.fully weened!
I say that with excitement but at the same time sadness. I never thought I would ever feel sad about weening! I mean what's there to be sad about right... I get my body back, no more inconvenient nursing breaks, no more having to "hide" while out in public to nurse, no more battling with the nursing cover. But I am sad because that was such a special bonding time with Kayla. It was a just her and I thing. A snuggle and cuddle thing. A I'm providing for the needs of my baby thing. It was a love thing. And I will miss it.

2. Kayla now has her own bedroom!
Well not exactly her "own" room but she is no longer right next to mommy and daddy's bed. We moved Kayla's crib into her big sister Kiara's room. Now both of my little girls play and sleep in the same room. This move had some really great benefits. 1. I get my bedroom back! Some space of my own is nice. 2. I can have access to my bedroom even when she is down for a nap. One not so great thing about the move is that Kiara gets up earlier than Kayla and wakes her up :( Were all adjusting

3. I'm finally getting Kayla to drink whole milk!
When we began to ween, Kayla wanted nothing to do with whole milk and fought the weening process. Can't say I blame her, my milk is probably a whole lot better then that cows milk ;) I tried for about 2-3 weeks before I gave in and bought....OVALTINE!!! It says it has healthy stuff in it (you know vitamins and minerals, etc) and she will drink it. So I try to get in at least one cup a day along with other dairy.

Kayla LOVES:

BABIES!!!
Oh wow! I'm sure some of you have heard me explain how much of an obsession this girl has with babies but I don't think anyone can really understand it until you've spent a day in my shoes.
1. When she wakes up the first thing she does is too look up at the picture of herself as a  newborn baby and says baby! baby! BABY!!!
2. She will get really excited and began the same baby! baby! BABY!!! every time she sees a baby in a book, magazine, pictures on my phone, photos online, ANYWHERE.
3. If there is a baby in the general vicinity of where she is, she begins her mission to get to the baby, touch the baby, squeeze the baby, pick up the baby, hug the baby and kiss the baby.
4. She plays with her and her sisters baby dolls all day long. We keep one in the car just so she doesn't have to go without having a baby by her side.

she maintained her composure for a moment...

but then could no longer contain herself, she just had to touch him!

     
It may not sound like it but I really love how much she loves babies. She is genuinely loving towards them, and completely adorable when she hugs and kisses them. On the other hand it can be a struggle when babies are round because she has not mastered the gentleness she needs to keep them safe. So I have to be ever mindful of her every move.

SWIMMING!!!
This one is pretty new. We've been to the splash park, the big pool and spent many afternoons in baby pools. But it wasn't until this last week that her love for playing in water really grew. We spent two days playing in our friends baby pools and boy did she have a blast! She lost her fear for the water completely and didn't even seem to mind that one of the days the water was pretty cold. She learned how to climb in and out of the pool, which seemed to fascinate her. She sat down, stood up, splashed around, and even dipped her face in (she was trying to drink it, yuck!)  I loved watching her. Her face lit up with joy!

BANANAS!!!
This girl is so silly. She adores bananas. You should see the excitement on her face every morning that she has a banana. I used to cut it up for her but now I just brake it in half and hand it to her and she double fists it.

check out those cute pigtails

playing dress up

Baby babble...
Kayla's vocabulary continues to grow.

1.  momma
2. baby
3. upa (up)
4. all bun (all done)
5. kkkiiii cccaaa (kitty cat)
6. ella (what she calls dogs)
7. bbbkkkk (bike)
8. ball
9. she used to say dada but has somehow lost her interest/ability to say her d's hence her problem with "all done"

The fun part is how much her non verbal communication is growing

1. shakes her head "no"
2. signs "more"
3. signs "please"
4. makes the sound you make when you just took a big drink and it was satisfying "tttt aaahhh", when she wants a drink
5. points to...EVERYTHING
6. brings me her shoes when she wants to go outside (I love this)
7. makes a funny quacking sound when she sees ducks or anything she thinks looks similar to a duck
8. makes a funny barking sound when she sees dogs

Kayla is learning her body parts too! She can point to her nose (she just figured out how to stick her finger up it, hopefully that wont last!), her ear, her belly button and her hair!

As I've mentioned before Kayla gives great hugs but they somehow have gotten even better. She is such a lover! She will now give them to me on her own as well as when I request them. I can even request "squeezy hugs" and she will wrap her arms around my neck and squeeze as hard as she can. I melt.

She also has learned the art of the closed lip kiss, not that I didn't love her open mouth slobbery kisses but these ones are even better. She sucks her bottom lip in to make the kissy sound and leans towards you to let you know she wants a kiss. I double melt.

Food...

Kayla has become quite the picky eater I'm fairly certain that she makes up her mind on weather or not she will like the food based on how it looks at the moment. There are days she will refuse to eat something she loved the night before. Ugh!  So eating is a hit and miss. I take comfort in the fact that I can always fall back on fruit and PB&J

Spaghetti is one of the few things she never turns down

I love her more than any amount of words in a blog could ever explain. Thank you Jesus for this sweet little girl.

I'm so blessed to be called mommy

I really can't remember how I felt before I had children. Sometimes I think aahhh wouldn't it be nice to just have one day... one day where my only responsibility was me.... 

Not like "send the kids to the grandparents" and have one day alone type of day.  But a day were my mind didn't know they existed.  There would be no thoughts of... are they ok? Are they behaving well? Who needs a bath next? Did I make sure they packed their toothbrushes? When was the last time I picked out Kiara's hair? Do they miss me? Wonder what time they'll be home?

No!

A day where it's just me

(...doing what?.... I don't know.  What did I do before I was blessed with children? What in the world did I do with all those free hours? I mean I know I worked but what about the other 16 hours in the day? I bet I slept more.)

 The truth is that, that is the only way it would truly be, just me. If I had no memory of them.  Because after Christ and my husband they are my world! And I don't want to know what life would be like with out them now. 

I am so blessed to be called mommy by these two beautiful little girls

Summer Fun with Faithful Friends part 2

Our friend Erin stopped by on memorial day and brought us a super cute bouquet of flowers in a mini glass Dr. Pepper bottle! We invited her to stay for dinner and had a nice time chatting while my children climbed her like a jungle gym. 

Here's a few from one of our Ashby splash park dates with Molly and her boys. Kiara and I were housemates with Molly and her oldest Asa for over a year. So our kids have "grown up" together.

And our two little peanuts are only 6 months a part so they too will grow up together. That makes me so happy to think about.

Double leg hole swing, Fun!!!

This was such a fun day at the pool. My dear friend Yvonne invited us to swim at her pool and we invited Molly and her boys to join us. I felt so blessed to share the day with two great sister's in Christ and their fun children

This summer has started of with so much fun, I'm so excited to see what the Lord does with the rest of it.

Summer Fun with Faithful Friends

Now that June has come to a close and summer is in full swing I thought I'd do a post or two highlighting some of the fun we've has with our friends these past few months

Back in May we had a wonderful dinner with our friends the Deutmeyers.

Look at these two cuties!

Molly's ranch potatoes were soooo good!

Also during the month of May our church had our Mission to the city. Which is a mission trip to Des Moines! It includes all the activities you would find on a regular mission trip minus the traveling long distance... and you get to sleep in your own bed!

Since I'm a mother of two, serving Des Moines looks different for me and other stay at home mommies. Which is why some of the wonderful mom's created Mom's Mission to the City. There were opportunities to serve/share the gospel in realistic mom ways. 

We attended three of the MM2TC events but unfortunately I only remembered to bring my camera to one of them. 

We went to the Scottish Rite Park retirement home and the kids sang and then handed out pages that the Sunday school kids had colored. 

Beautiful new momma Amber and her darling little girl  Jocelyn

 Each of the kiddos took turns telling everyone their name, age and favorite summer activity.

This is my friend Meg's oldest son Quinn, he did great speaking!

If I counted right (there was one mom and child there that were not in photo) there was 10 moms and 20 children present. And that doesn't even count the babies that were still being carried in some of the mom's tummies!

The kids had fun playing around the pretty water fountain they had out front.

After their debut at the Scottish Rite the girls and I joined the Rude and Kurth family for a picnic lunch under the pavilion at the fire station. Where these two cuties got a good look at each other.

This is Titan, the youngest son of my friend Meg. Isn't he handsome!

Here's a few from one of our bible study hang outs at the De Vries. I love these people!

Our bible study added 7 babies in the last year!!!

More to come...