WALKING

Walking, walking, walking - its official, we have an 11 month old walker. She is still a little unsteady, and goes for crawling at times but for 11 months, she does well for walking! She was cruising for awhile but just these last couple of days, especially in Eagle River with my father telling her - NO, you walk - come on - you can do it - WALK....she is now walking multiple steps on her own with no help!! She is so darn cute to watch! (now, until she starts running away from us). Here are some videos I got of her today. Sorry, first one is sideways - rest should be good.

Notice the tongue out towards the end of this video.

4th of July

I'm a little late on my blog, sorry, things have been hectic and I am without my laptop right now. Anywho - the family ventured Up North to our house in Eagle River for the 4th of July. I love it up there - its so peaceful.

We went to Watermelon fest, which is basically a bunch of art vendors - we went to the 4th of July parade in downtown Eagle River and Josh and I went to the Land 'O Lakes Fireworks by ourselves (very dissapointing fireworks I might add). Kaiya was interested in the parade for about 10 minutes - she would wave at the people and clap for them. She did love the ice pops that one of the floats was handing out. Then she wanted to get down and explore, enough waving at people!

We didn't get out on the boat at all, which is fine. The weather wasn't the best - it was a bit chilly. We did get to just relax and that is the most important part!

There was a rough part of the trip - Kaiya wasn't sleeping well up there. She would not nap (and when she did it was a struggle) and she didn't go down like her usual self, she woke up most of the nights as well which is not like her. So that part was stressful, but other than that we had a good time. Here she is in her 'toga' after she woke up from one of her naps.

My dad and I went fishing - he caught more than me but we had about 6-7 fish between us. I love fishing, I HATE touching the fish - they are slimey and nasty. My dad wanted to take a picture of me with one of my fishies I caught - he was trying to zoom and get the picture just right while I was holding the slimey fish!! So my expression in the picture was me telling him TAKE THE FRICKIN PICTURE ALREADY!

Can't walk on the grass!

Josh had his end of the season party for softball. Here is a picture that Tiffany took of Kaiya and I at the party, this is one of my absolute favorites of her and I!

Kathy, the athletic director, took Kaiya and put her on the grass - which she never was on before as I would always have a blanket or mat down for her to play on. Kaiya had no clue what was going on! She didn't want to put her feet down on it - she was walking like a little hitler - sticking her foot way out in front of her and only putting it down when she had to in order to take her next step. It was so cute!

Happy Birthday to the Eagle River Children's Museum!

Our recent trip to Eagle River was A) not long enough and B) resulted in a melt down over ice cream and C) landed us two snowmobiles for the winter!!

In Eagle River, WI, where my family has a house, there is a children's museum - have never been until just recently, as we had no reason to before! The museum has lots of areas, and it lets kids learn about things hands on. There is a shadow room, where you stand infront of a wall and a flash puts your shadow on the wall (it was SO cute, Josh and Kaiya were standing in front of the wall and the flash went off - the sillouette was of him holding her hand - I tried to get a picture but it didn't turn out). They have a shopping area to shop for fresh food (plastic of course).

A bird wall where you can push the different birds to hear their sounds, a water play area, a fake hospital room, etc, etc. A place where you can put yourself in a bubble.

We found out Kaiya is still a little too young for the museum, maybe in a couple months when she is walking it will be better. But anyway, it was their 11th year birthday party so we went to see the museum and participate in the party.

They had games for the kids to play, a person playing guitar for the kids. Kaiya enjoyed watching the other kids and listening to the music.

For their birthday cake, they had dilly bars. Josh and I got one but we didn't get one for Kaiya, she was going to share with me. So I bit into it and then let her take a bite - that was the end of it. OMG, she absolutely LOVED it, she started grabbing it with both hands and her eyes got wide and she just mowed down!! So then, after her and I shared it, it was gone - and that did not make Kaiya a happy camper as you can tell from the pictures below!!

It was seriously the cutest thing, the pout face over the ice cream being gone!!

Some fun Videos!

Some random videos from the past few days. Kaiya feeding herself which she loves doing! And Kaiya playing with her toy where she puts the ball in.

Eating Mac & Cheese

Eating Banannas

Playing with Toys

Visit with Great Grandma

Kaiya and I went to visit my Grandma (my mom's mom), she is in an assited living house as she has alzheimers. Its really sad going to visit her as she doesn't remember a thing, and she wont' even remember we were there - but it means something to me that Kaiya will have pictures of her Great Grandma Walker, even if she won't remember her at this time. Going there is hard, we get the same questions over and over - how old is she, what is her name - we (my aunt MJ and I) continue to tell her, as well as that is her great grandaughter. She has no clue who I am until we tell her (over and over) and each time the reaction is the same. I also get comments from her about Kaiya's name, why would I name her that? Its so weird? Would I like to have that name? Its hard to hear, I just brush it off (and thank god Kaiya doesn't understand right now). Its just Kaiya has a different name than those given "back in the day" - and I know she doesn't know any better, she can't help it.

But it is funny too - I have Kallie, who is my therapy dog and whom I have taken to nursing homes - and taking Kaiya into the assisted living place my Grandma is in, Kaiya acted as the 'therapy kid'. Everyone loved her, she brought smiles to their faces - it was great!! So there was multiple positives out of the day today.

9 month check up

9 months, really!? Wow, time flies!! She has now been out in the world as long as she was in my tummy and man, is she growing fast!! She has gone down a couple percentiles with her weight (18lbs. 15 1/2 oz- 50%) and height (27" - 40%) but her head is still up there (80%)- so basically - she has a big head!

The doctor said she is advanced in a lot of things - eating, she has already eaten pieces of food herself and can now do a lot more!! Eggs, toast, melon, berries, etc!! Oh the possibilities!! Standing - Kaiya is getting very good at standing without holding onto things. She will even be at a sitting position and without having to grab onto a table, will get to standing on her two feet!! So yeah, walking is probably not too far behind. Here is a pic of her standing without holding onto anything - she doesn't even wobble when she stands on her own!!

Clap, clap, clap your hands!

Kaiya's new trick is clapping, she just started doing this the other day! She also will take and clasp her hands together. The changes are happening so quickly!! I think she will be walking soon, which is scary as she is fast enough crawling!! She is starting to let go of things while standing, and she stays up for about 5 seconds before falling - OR - lowering herself to the ground with control. Lots of changes coming!!

Some more little friends...

These cute little guys are white capped sparrows! I am so excited, I'm just getting a lot of different friends this year!! They are so cute!! Kaiya is taking after me, enjoying watching the birds we get at the feeders. We will sit in our picture window and just watch them fly by.

Little Visitors

I've had some cool new (and some old) birds visiting my feeders today. One was a blue little finch like bird, whom Rocco scared away before I could take a picture of it :( And the other, so I'm told, is a red-breasted grosbeak! Very cool I think.

I also think I have a tenant for my one, lonely bird house I have 'for rent'!