Kaiya Jo Update

Alright, so I know I have slacked BIG time on our blog recently. Holidays are fun but very stressful!! I'll try to get back on track.

Kaiya is doing great, she is almost 18 months old and just a bundle of joy!! She is so observant, it just amazes me. Josh and I can do things, just everyday things that we aren't specifically showing to Kaiya and the next thing we know, she is mimmicing them. Just tonight the things I can point out. Josh and I were trying to move her HUGE dresser, so Josh was pushing it - next thing we know Kaiya is next to the dresser pushing and grunting like daddy did. TOO FUNNY. Or - she LOVES to unload the dishwasher with us (I told Josh tonight we need to get it on video so when she is older and says how much she hates doing it we can show her that at 18 months she LOVED helping mommy and daddy! His response was if we get it on tape she will demand back pay for all the help she did without an allowance!!) So tonight, after she got all the tupperware out of the dishwasher, she pushed the drawer back in, closed the dishwasher and then started to push the buttons on it as if to start it - and even went to the start button to push. Josh and I just stared in amazement, NEVER have we showed her how to do it, just saw us and figured out that was the next step!! One more example, I was dusting earlier - tonight Kai grabbed my rag I didn't put away and started dusting things as well.

She is such a little helper. She LOVES helping us whenver she can, unloading groceries is one of her favorites. She is a great gopher too - if we need to pass stuff to each other in different rooms Kai is up for the challenge! Can give her something and say, go give this to daddy or mommy and she is off! We can tell her to do things like to go put shoes away, or clothes in the hamper, or get my a book from under the chair, or go get her giraffe, or shoes, or milk, etc (pretty much ANYTHING) and she will do as we ask. I just am amazed at how much she understands.

I was just telling Tiffany how I was worried about Kaiya because other friends tell me how many words their 18 or so month olds know and I was saying that Kaiya didn't know many. However, I then sat down and wrote down all her words she knows AND signs and I felt MUCH better, as she is doing better than I thought!

Words she says: Bob, Doggie, Hungry, mommy, daddy, kitty, meow, woof, up, stop, tickle tickle

Signs she knows: bath, more, thank you, please, water, milk, elephant, eat, juice, bird

Body parts she points to: hair, tummy, toes, mouth, eyes, nose, ears, head

Actions she knows: kick in the water, splash hands in the water, blow bubbles in the water, clap hands, high five, touch down!, hugs and kisses when asked - and I'm sure I'm forgetting some - Josh is currently working on pound with her :)

She feeds herself now with spoons and forks, infact if you try to help her she pitches a fit! She is trying to put her own shoes on, usually can't get them but she tries. She does get her own slippers on and loves putting her hat on herself. She likes drinking water from a normal cup, we usually just put a little in as a lot does end up on her but she does get a good amount in her mouth too.

We bought her a potty - and really all we are doing right now is letting her sit on it while we go potty (more so mommy than daddy) and just get used to it and see it. There is no formal training going on.

She is constantly into everything - she LOVES to climb, climbs on our bay window all the time - even moves her chair over to the window to climb up on it. Will climb on our dinning room chairs or pull herself up onto our corner table/bench in the kitchen. She has NO fear. Here is her standing on her tippie toes on top of a heater exchange pulling herself up on the window to see mommy coming home.

She is a VERY independent little girl and is starting to test mommy and daddy's patience. If you tell her no or take something away from her, she lets you know she isn't happy. Will fall on the floor and start crying. I try not to laugh or smile because its cute - right now - until she does it in a store!! 18 months and throwing mini tantrums already - YIKES!!! We are gonna be in for a long 'terrible twos' considering they have started already!

But all in all she is a great child, we can go anywhere with her and she is very relaxed and just goes with the flow.

Updates

Updates on Kaiya and Mommy

Well, I am knocking on wood as I type this, but Kaiya has been back to sleeping through the night!! Literally, the day Tiffany added a morning feeding of cereal (getting her to 3 a day) she slept through the night that night!! So we are at 3 feedings of rice cereal a day and 5 bottles - 2 bigger ones in the morning and evening and smaller during the day when she is getting the cereal and this seems to be the magic that was needed to get her back to sleeping at night. In a couple weeks we are going to start adding fruits/veggies to her meals!! I wanted to wait a full month of the rice cereal before starting the other options, we aren't in a rush. So until the next hurdle..teething probably...we are back to sleeping through the night and I couldn't be happier!



She is doing a wonderful job at sitting up on her own, she is a pro. We still have tumbles every once in awhile but she is pretty good for the most part, she sits and plays. She is also getting herself geared up for crawling!!!!! She will be on her tummy and rocking her pelvis up. She seems to do it more when she is naked, as I believe she can move easier than without a clunky diaper/pants. Here is a video of her, we have another one that has more but she is naked, and I didn't want to post that on the web. But you can see in this one her hip movement to try to get going with crawling...



Brewers on Deck

We really are lucky - Kaiya is a great baby, she rarely is fussy and when she is, there usually is a reason for it. Today, we went to Brewers on Deck at the Midwest Airlines Center downtown. It started off on a very rocky start (long, long, long lines) but after we actually got into the event, it went much better. Josh got some autographs, we got a family picture with Jeff Suppan (pitcher) and just walked around. Kaiya was GREAT, she slept for a lot of it, but when we did wake her up to get the picture then she was a smiley, happy baby! She loved looking at all the people and giving them big smiles!! She is a very smiley baby.

Accomplishments

Kaiya has some new accomplishments she wants to share with you. She sits up on her own pretty good now. Sure, every once in awhile she will topple over, however she is doing pretty good. Here she is sitting on the couch, so she has some support, but she sits up on her own without support, I'll try to get some pics of that.

Here is a video of her sitting up...apparently I had the camera sideways - and I can't figure out how to flip the film, so tilt your head - lol

She also rolled over about 3 times from her back to her tummy - The 'Hard' way - but she doesn't do it consistently and we have yet to get it on film - But we are trying!! Here is a video of her just lying down...no rolling over...