Baby Bootcamp!

After receiving wise counsel from my good friend Valerie, I decided to re-evaluate Kaylee's daytime sleep routine. When Babywise says that the average time to have "waketime" at 12-weeks old is around 45-60 minutes, they fail to mention that it INCLUDES eating time! So I have been doubling up on the time she should be awake which totally makes sense as to why she wasn't napping without her swing or bouncy seat! ~sigh~

So this week, we started Baby Bootcamp! I'm praying for strength, endurance and patience as I let my little girl cry it out in her crib. Day 1 - Perfect! She went straight down and stayed sleeping for her whole nap! Day 2 - She started figuring out that she was being trained and had to put up a bit of a fight. But she stayed down most of her naps. Day 3 - Daddy participated! I had a church staff meeting, so Nick did the feeding, changing, playing and napping! She tried to pull the "Daddy's little girl" card on him, but he did great! She was in her crib when I got home! Day 4 (today) - She went on a nice long walk with Granny and Pops and only cried for about 10 minutes for her most recent nap. She is getting better! My hope is that after this week, she will have more of a routine to count on and we will have a happier baby!

She is still sleeping through the night, so I'm thrilled. And when she wakes up in the morning, she smiles at us when she sees us. So all in all, it's been a great week!

(Kisses from Sydney)

DR. VISIT UPDATE
Kaylee went to the doctor for a check up. She weighs 10.0 pounds and is growing very healthy and strong. Dr. Sanford said that she is on track to being a tall & thin little lady. Hooray!

Multi-Cultural Day, Part 2

Well, it's official! Kaylee has been swimming! Yesterday, we spent the day with Sara, Helen & Jillian at their house up in Murrietta. It was a wonderful day for us girls to catch up and watch these little girls get to know each other. There is something about getting together to have our daughters get to know each other that never stops tripping me out. Helen, Sara and I have been friends since highschool and the fact that we are now getting together so our DAUGHTERS can meet is just insane to me. Aren't we still in highschool? Can we really all be this old? ~sigh~ I know that most people reading this that are older & wiser than I am are rolling their eyes or laughing at me...but it's still a new experience for me. So I continue to TRIP OUT!

Anyway, some updates since the last "Multi-Cultural Day" are:

Kaylee seems to be catching up in size to Jillian. The gap between them is beginning to shrink. Although, Jillian is still very much the older & wiser friend. :-) After all, she has experienced a lot more life than Kaylee has.

Facial Expressions

It's totally fascinating to me when Kaylee develops a new expression. Right from the get go she had her super concentrated look where she'd draw down her eyebrows, squeeze her lips together, and just concentrate...





But the best expression (and most recent), besides her most famous AUDIO expression, is the smiling. It's funny because whenever she smiles, we're like, "what the heck did we just do to make her smile?" So then we try to do everything we did in the last 30 seconds to try to make her smile again. In actuality I think she's figured out a way to get us to start acting strange...not that we needed a kid for that...

I have no excuse...

I was going to try and think of something to say like, "Oh this is just some random picture that randomly ended up in our pictures" or "here is an 'update' picture"... and even though it's all true, I really just think it's cute. Yes, I'm one of THOSE parents!
-NICK

Feast Night

So this is from July 3rd, when Jeanne-Marie's family was in town from New York. Rick, her dad, mentioned that he'd like to cook for the Home Fellowship (Bible Study Group) that night... even though I said there were like 20 people in the group (there were about 30 at the house that night!!). Nevertheless, Rick pulled off a gourmet meal for 30 people... I'm getting hungry just thinking about it! And then, it was perfect, after dinner we heard explosions outside which turned out to be fireworks.

Me Oh My! Milestones!

Kaylee is 8-weeks old and developing more and more everyday. She has been cooing all week and as of yesterday, I can confidently say that we've seen her first "social smile." When laying on her mat for playtime, I get really close to her face and the conversation goes a little bit like this:

"Kaylee, can you say Daaaaddddeeee?"

~Kaylee opens her mouth, moves her tongue around~ (warming up!)

"Kaylee, say Daaaaaddddeeee!" (Good thing nobody can see or hear me doing this! I feel silly!)

~Kaylee "coos" back~ (success!)

Now, just like any Grandma will say that the gas smile was a real smile, I say that the coo in response to me talking to her is Kaylee actually trying to say Daddy! Don't burst my bubble, I really believe she's talking back! :-)

As for smiling, it's still pretty random. But when Nick speaks to Kaylee, that's when the smiles come out the most. I don't know for sure, but it looks like we are experiencing the beginning of a very beautiful Daddy/Daughter relationship. She is SUCH a Daddy's girl already! ~sigh~ I think she actually gets that from her Mommy.

We don't have pictures or video of this yet, but I'll try to get some up soon.

Blessed

The past two days have been a little more tough than usual. My Dad, Smom and the kids went back to NY on Wednesday and Kaylee is either going through a growth spurt or missing them as much as I do. The result of a week long vacation/visit with family is a sweet baby girl that does not want to sleep...at all. She'd rather cry...and cry...and cry...and cry just a little bit more. Short of choosing baby Benadryl to calm her down, I submitted to the swing. And now I'm blessed with this beautiful sleeping baby to my right while the "Praise Baby collection" plays softly on the computer. God bless the people who thought of turning regular worship songs into lullabies and God bless my parents who bought the whole pack of them for us! Anyway, as she sleeps soundly in her swing I had a moment to rejoice in the things that God has blessed me with.

It immediately brought me to last night at Bible Study. Our home was filled with the usual people who make it our "home" and Nick was teaching on Mark 9:30-32. He asked each of us to look at the way we respond to situations that prove to be challenging. As we did that, I couldn't help but see that the Holy Spirit had taken over and now, my husband had willingly allowed the Spirit to use him to speak to our group. By the end of the night, I couldn't help but thank the Lord for all He has given our family. Oh, what a proud wife I was, to see my husband using his gifts as a teacher to help others draw closer to God. ~sigh~

So today, as I am more exhausted, more frusterated and more confused on how to make Kaylee's world more comfortable, at least I can rest in the confidence I have that I am truly blessed!

Thank you, Lord for...

*A husband who seeks You in all he does and who responds to the Spirit's call in his life.

*A beautiful & healthy baby girl who continues to grow everyday!

*A family who supports us in everything we do.

*A group of friends who are more than just good friends...they really are family.

With time to reflect on things that I am thankful for, how could I not share it?

New York meets San Diego

This past week, our New York family came out to meet Kaylee for the first time. We have had a packed week of fun activities! Sea World on the 4th of July, trips to the beach, trips to the pool and the most fun of all...hanging out at home together doing nothing at all. It's been wonderful having family here and we will be sad to say good-bye tonight. Here are a few pictures to recap their stay with us.

To infinity, and.... well, y'know.

So one day we noticed a black metallic pod lined with chrome on our doorstep. Having received a mysterious object the week before, we found a slot in the pod that matched the object shape. When we put the two together the top opened up! Tendrils of mist rolled out as the top slid aside, and inside the pod, we found.... well, just look at the picture.

Actually, I came across this picture when sorting through our camera. This is the hearing test they do at the hospital. Yeah, I know it's not a new pic, but a fun one at least!

Before / After

I couldn't resist this...




<----- Before

After ----->

By the way, notice how the dog has her paw on JM's belly. Who says dogs don't know what's up when women are pregnant?

Multi-Cultural Day

Jillian, one of Kaylee's first friends, came over to visit with her mom, Helen Spafford. The first time they hung out, the moms forgot to take pictures, so this time they snapped a few. Man, we thought Kaylee was a little whitey, but I guess there's some olive/tan complexion in there after all! [Kaylee and Jillian]
["One of my first friends!"]

One of my favorite pics so far

I've called this picture "The Last Tic-Tac"... for whatever reason, that was the first thought that entered my mind when I saw this picture.

That pink blanket is actually kind of a like a straight jacket with velcro on both sides so that she stays swaddled... yeah, see that arm? She's a regular Houdini!

My Girls

The other night we were just winding down after a busy day of doing nothing... well, okay, we were taking care of a new baby all day... drinking coffee... y'know, "day off" type of stuff. Anyway, the dog jumps up on the couch and lays down awkwardly on the armrest and the Boppee. I look over to see what she's up to and she turns around a couple of times and then positions herself so as to snuggle up to Kaylee.

So when people ask how the dog is doing with all of this change, I can safely say that I think Sydney is handling it just fine.

Bath Time II

Here are a few of the follow up pictures from bath #1. Yeah, there was a little bit of crying, but in the end at least she smelled better (not that she stunk). It's funny, because now she likes taking baths. Now if only could get her to enjoy going down for a nap a little bit better...

Bath Time!

So, after a couple days we figured we should give her a bath. It's not that she stunk, it just seemed like the right thing to do. Check out the hoarse crying... yeah, now she's got way more power in them lungs.

Fresh out of the oven

Here is probably the earliest video that we'll let you watch of Kaylee... I think this is the next morning. It's funny to see now because she's not actually "winky" like that anymore.

Birth Announcement

Kaylee is about 3 1/2 weeks old today and so we're going to literally have to pummel this blog site with a bunch of pictures and videos in order to catch up. So bear with us as we rush to get everything uploaded.

A good place to start is with the Birth Announcement. As you can hopefully see at the bottom, she was born at 7:46 PM on May 24th, weighing in at 6,7, and 19" tall.

Even though she was a couple weeks ahead of schedule, she was in no hurry to join us "on the other side," taking nearly 22 hours of labor time. All props to JM who endured the whole process without an epidural or any kind of pain medication. She won't brag about it, but I can! That's right!

If you're interested in seeing more pictures, you can check out (and order prints) from this link:
https://www.collages.net/ConsumerSite/GuestLogin.aspx?eventcode=340768

Never thought we'd be bloggers...

Okay, so I'm guessing everyone's first blog is something stupid like what I'm writing all because they don't want to have a blank blog, and at the same time they have nothing to say. That's me right now. I'm writing this in the little spare time that I have.

So that's all folks, ttfn, and all of that.

-Nick