Elmo & Talking -- Written By Bel

Every once in a while we will put Sesame Street on for Kayleigh. Most of the time she doesn't pay any attention to it at all. However, recently she discovered that she absolutely LOVES Elmo! Whenever he comes on, she will stop whatever it is that she is doing and look at the TV and laugh!! I thought it was just a one-time fluke thing, but she does it every time!

In general, she has become a very vocal and interactive baby. She can say Mama (me), Mom (we think is Laura), she waves hello, says "buh-buh" and waves good-bye, claps her hands & has even started to dance and/or bounce!! She is crawling like a pro now and will trample over anything that gets in her way, including people. Haha! She crawls to the couch & walks from one end to the other, she has mastered getting back down to the floor from a standing position (without falling flat on her face), kneels, and is still learning to get back down the one step in the den.

Her latest favorite activity is to crawl up the stairs in the den, attach herself to the gate we have up there, and sing, scream, talk, babble, dance, for a good long while. Sometimes I'm afraid she's going to climb straight over the gate! It is very hard to get a clip of it because as soon as we take out the camera, she becomes preoccupied with that and stops whatever cuteness she has been exuding at that moment. Here's a little snippet of it, and hopefully we'll be able to get more of it soon. (Don't judge me on my lack of Lady Gaga lyrical knowledge - I'm surprised I know the song at all!)

Kayleigh's Baptism -- Written By Bel

This past weekend Kayleigh was baptised into the United Methodist Church! Laura & I have been attending services there since May and ultimately decided that this was the church we wanted to bring Kayleigh up in. Her Godparents were my sister, Mary and our closest friend, Matt, that I have known since high school.

Kayleigh was a perfect angel throughout the church service and the baptism itself. As part of the service, the pastor walked Kayleigh throughout the congregation to introduce her to everyone, and I think everyone was happy to get to see her up close too :)

During the party afterwards, Kayleigh wasn't as happy because her top 2 teeth decided to shove their way through that day, so she was in a bit of pain :( She now has a total of 4 teeth!

Thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate with us that day. Our little angel is blessed to have so many people that love her in her life.

From Crawling To Standing To Climbing In 2 Days -- Written By Bel

By now, Kayleigh has fully mastered the crawl.



The day after she started crawling, she started pulling herself up into a standing position. She has been able to bear her weight on her legs since she was about 4 months old - She could even pull herself up to stand if she was on your lap & you grabbed her arms. But now she's crawling to things & pulling herself up on her own! I've even walked into her room & found her standing in her crib!!!



And it wasn't long before she found her way to the steps in the den, which she can now easily crawl up into the kitchen.

Crawling -- Written by Bel

Sunday was a very big day for us...we learned how to crawl! Kayleigh has been getting into the position now for a while but that's all it was for the longest time. But then she leaned forward to get to her toy piano & I guess that sparked something. Still not crawling, but definitely trying to move on her own.

Later that afternoon, we held her Winnie The Pooh bear a little out of reach & she crawled right over to him!! What a huge difference just a few hours makes!!

Unrelated but funny, Kayleigh discovered how to kick off her pants. She did this all herself.

Little Yellow Taxi -- Written by Bel

Kayeigh's BFF Kira gave her a toy taxi a few weeks ago. Normally she plays with it for a few minutes and then is done, as she is with every toy. For whatever reason, she found it particularly entertaining one day and laughed at it for a good half hour.

We're Back & Starting Foods -- By Bel

We took a brief hiatus there for a while, but we're back & can't wait to share everything with you! So much has been happening & Kayleigh has been changing so much!

One of the biggest changes is that she has started eating solid foods. We were lucky enough to have our friends buy us a baby food mill, so we have been making most of the food she eats & with organic fruits & vegetables. Our first try was some mashed bananas (or naners as we've been calling them). She didn't seem to like those too much, as evidenced by her gagging. LOL. We tried a few times, and she finally stopped making faces, but I still don't think they're her favorite.



The second food we tried was avocados and she LOVED them!! Since then she's also had rice cereal, oatmeal, apples, peaches, pears, carrots, sweet potatoes, blueberries, nectarines, and most recently green beans. Her favorite by far remains avocados.

More Blogs To Come

I know we haven't blogged in a while, but there are new posts coming! The hard drive on our computer is full so we cannot upload any of the pictures from our camera to the computer. We're hoping to be able to fix this shortly, and when we do, we will have plenty to say! Sorry for the hiatus - things have been crazy around here, but we're starting to get back into the swing of things :) More Kayleigh to come soon so stay tuned!

FEED YOUR STASH FRIDAY GIVEAWAY

I have been wanting to try cloth diapers for a while now, but haven't had the cash to do so. A friend of mine told me about this giveaway contest so I figured I'd enter & see if I can win some free cloth diapers to try. From what I have researched, the BumGenius are the ones I would want to start off with - they are the most like the disposables I am currently using & will make the transition easier on me. Wish me luck!

Kayleigh Says "Mama" -- Written by Bel

For weeks now, as Kayleigh has been babbling we have all been encouraging her to say Mama, as all mothers try to. We have been unsuccessful up to this point & cannot really get Kayleigh to mimic anything vocally yet. Usually she starts making a noise & then we imitate it back to her & she repeats it. Yesterday was different.

We were at my parents' house, as we are on every Tuesday, and my mom kept egging her on with "mama". My mom does this every time she sees Kayleigh & usually nothing special happens. However, yesterday Kayleigh finally repeated it all on her own!! I know that she has no idea what the word is & that it has no real meaning to her yet, but she still said Mama!!! :)

4th Of July Laughs -- Written by Bel

What a great weekend!! I'm so happy that the weather held out & that we were able to do such wonderful things!

Since the dawn of time, my family has been going to our friends Florence & Angelo's house for 4th of July festivities. This year was Kayleigh's first & she had a blast!! At first, she was afraid of their dog, Sandy, but after we showed her that it was OK she just found her amusing and the craziest case of the giggles ensued!!! We were throwing the ball back & forth with the dog & every time Sandy jumped, or in some cases just moved, Kayleigh was in hysterics. She got herself so worked up that eventually she was just laughing at everything, even the dog toy! The only way to share this with you is for you to see it for yourself. Sometimes it's hard to hear because we're all laughing but you can definitely see her shaking. And at some points, she laughs so hard that you can't tell if she's laughing or crying - I assure you that she is laughing!! Her faces are priceless!!!

Then on Sunday since the bar that I work at closed early, we were able to go see Laura's band, Musaic, playing at Carolina Blue. We met up with Grandmom, Grandpop, Aunt Stephie & Auntie Cait. It was a great show! We got to sit outside & eat our dinner under one of the tents - the weather was gorgeous!! Kayleigh loved the music & her Auntie Cait was definitely her favorite person of the night - Kayleigh loved her pretty shirt & watching her dance :) Kayleigh is definitely the coolest kid ever - Not only was she an angel most of the time, but she impressed us all when she was able to sleep through a live band!!