Day At The Park -- Written by Bel

It's been a while since the weather has allowed us to venture out to our old favorite hangout, a local park. An even rarer occasion that Laura was able to join us! But what a beautiful weekend!!!! We could not resist dusting off the old stroller & going for a walk to the park.

Kayleigh enjoyed the ride in the stroller, especially when the wind came & blew on her face.



When we got to the park, the first thing we did was ride on the swings, like old times. K enjoyed flying around :)



Now that Kayleigh is getting bigger, she was ready to try out the slides for the first time! She wasn't too sure about it at first and I had to hold her all the way down. But eventually she let go & laughed all the way down to either Mommy or Marmy.



There was a big tube slide that I took her down, but I don't think she liked that too much - it's more for the big kids anyway.



All pooped out, we headed back home for supper. Poor Kayleigh started to doze while clinging to her stroller, and then took an almost 2 hour long nap (A rarity these days)!



I hope you all had the chance to get out in the beautiful weather we had this weekend :)

Hide & Seek -- Written by Bel

Kayleigh has been running around all over the place these day & getting into everything! There's so much for her to explore & I love, love, LOVE watching her learn something new. She has a new favorite game - Hide & Seek. Well, the Kayleigh version of hide & seek. Laura hides in one of our bedrooms in the house, Kayleigh runs down the hall to find her & as Kayleigh approaches, Laura pops out of the room and yells "Boo!" You would think this would scare Kayleigh, but she gets a kick out of it! She runs back down the hallway laughing and goes right back to Laura for more. We have gotten some seriously great laughs out of this game.

Here's a clip of Kayleigh playing Hide & Seek, Kayleigh style. She also laughs her butt of when she watches the clip with us!

(*The head bump is not as bad as it sounds - she was fine right away. However, it does get funnier & funnier every time we watch it and even Kayleigh has taken to laughing at it!)

Kayleigh's First Year -- Written By Bel

I cannot believe how quickly this past year has flown by!! So much has happened & so many things have changed. It's hard to imagine that the Kayleigh I have now is the same tiny little girl that we brought home from the hospital over a year ago. I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful angel in my life :)

Walking & Such -- Written by Bel

Yes, yes, I already know that I am the world's worst blogger as I have not written anything since November. And a LOT has been happening since then!! I'll try to post as much of it as I can, but we'll see...

Kayleigh has been constantly growing & changing, seemingly overnight at times. Her hair is starting to grow, she has a total of 6 teeth now, she's eating lots & lots of new foods (when she's not allergic to them!), and her vocabulary is getting larger. She can say about 10-12 words & has assigned meanings to most of them, including pup, Mama, Elmo, shoes, and Harry's favorite, dude.

One of the craziest things that is going on is that Kayleigh is officially walking!!! And not just taking a few steps here & there, but WALKING, walking!! And that happened overnight. One day she just stood up in the kitchen & walked all the way down the hall into her room and that was that. My life has not been the same since. LOL.

Every night leading up to that we would sit in our den & Kayleigh would walk back & forth between Laura & I. It was about 6-7 steps at a time & she would fall a lot. She did this for a very long time. And then last Sunday, BAM! She was walking. And even trying to walk down the steps in the den (or as we like to call it, jumping face-first onto the floor from the steps). Here's a video from January of Kayleigh "practicing". We haven't been able to get a recent video of the walking, but we will post one soon!

Bucket Screaming -- Written by Bel

This is one of Kayleigh's favorite new pastimes. There's not much else to say about it...

Kayleigh's First Halloween -- Written by Bel

This year was Kayleigh's first Halloween & we made sure to have a blast! Our cousins Kirsten & Marissa were visiting us for the weekend so they got to go trick-or-treating with us & share in the fun :)

The day started off nice & relaxing.

It was REALLY warm outside but it looked like it was going to rain any minute, so Mommy & Kayleigh got our costumes on & headed out for trick-or-treating. Kayleigh even sat for a few minutes so that we could take some pictures!

My Friend Jim's parents' sent us a trick-or-treat sack that had Kayleigh's name printed on it! We couldn't wait to try it out! Thanks Mr. & Mrs. Fedor!!

Kayleigh wasn't too sure what to make of everything, but she held up pretty well. It looks like Reeses PB Cups are her favorite!

About halfway through, we decided to give Kayleigh a break & stopped at the park that we normally take walks to so that she could have some fun in her swing. Look out for the flying devil!!!

By the end of it, Kayleigh passed out & it started to rain. Can't wait to see what next year will bring!

Trip To Smithville -- Written By Bel

This weekend our cousins Kirsten & Marissa came for a visit and we took a trip down to Smithville to check out the shoppes & do some fun fall exploring :) It just so happened that we walked into an Irish festival that was going on that day! I took advantage of the chilly weather & bought Kayleigh a shamrock hat to keep her little head warm.

Kayleigh went on her first train ride throughout the historic village. It was all decorated for Halloween & it was a beautiful fall day out.

After the train ride, Kirsten & I took Kayleigh on the carousel. We had a great time, but I don't think Kayleigh liked it too much! Maybe next year...

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.