Parks 2 days in a row!

Today Kaylee and I made the trek down to Aberdeen to see John at work and then headed to a lovely park in downtown Southern Pines. It was a picture perfect park, in my opinion. Two play structures: 1 for big kids, 1 for little kids. A lot of nicely mowed green grass, sandboxes, and picnic tables. It was time to nurse Kaylee so I looked for a bench out of sight of the dad's playing with their kids, but no bench was out of sight or even slightly hidden. No matter what bench you sat on, you could see every aspect of the play structures. My first thought was "who didn't put a bench to allow for some privacy?!" but then I quickly realized that the layout of the park was pure genius from a parent's point of view! I was very impressed. So we went home instead. Yes, I know I could have nursed at the park, but Kaylee is so easily distracted these days that it would have been difficult anyways.

She enjoyed the bucket swings again today.

Happy Memorial Day!

After church today we went back to the park with the buckets swings (the one we tried on Mother's Day). Kaylee loved the swings! It was too hot outside to stay long, but we had fun for a little while.



Caution watching this...the camera-man got a little artsy with the camera!

31 days shy of 1 year

Okay, okay...it's really 32 days...this staying at home thing has really started to mess with my internal calendar! On the 22nd I thought it was the 26th, yesterday (wednesday) I swore it was Friday, and today as I started this blog I really thought it was the 28th. So I'm going to go ahead and finish the "11 month celebration" blog post and hopefully no one will read it until tomorrow. ;) I really need to get out more.

Happy 11 months Kaylee! Next month at this time we'll be in California celebrating her 1 year birthday! This month we've spent a lot of time indoors because of the darn weather. Thunderstorm after thunderstorm, rain rain rain, and next week is the start to hurricane season...awesome. Today is beautiful though and I think we'll take advantage of it and drive the 45 minutes to a nice park.

So what has Kaylee been up to lately?

She transitioned effortlessly from 3-4 naps per day to two 2-hour naps. I can't even tell you when it happened. I think it just happened one day. She has made her own schedule and sticks to it on her own.

• Wakes up between 7:30-8
• Eats breakfast at 8:30
• Nap 10-12
• Lunch at 1:00
• Nap 2:30-4:30
• Dinner at 5:30
• Bedtime at 7:30.

Everything is pretty much on the dot. In fact I don't need a clock most of the time! We spend the rest of the day reading books, cuddling, and dancing to music (video below). Watch carefully at the 6-8 second marks for the hair blowing.

She does the inch worm move and rolling to get places, but still no real crawling. I blame myself for this. Kaylee spends A LOT of time on my lap because she is a cuddler and I absolutely love it! She has all the pieces of crawling down, we just need to the put them together.

So I have had to set a goal for myself to actually "put her down". I also need to have more play dates. Poor kid doesn't realize that other babies are crawling, and thinks that mommy crawling around on the floor is just plain hilarious. So hopefully I'll have a better crawling update in just a week or two now that I have "a plan".

But what she lacks in the crawling department she has made up for everywhere else!

She is starting to use a spoon and fork correctly. It's hit or miss whether the food actually makes it into her mouth, but she has the action down pretty good. She eats whatever we're eating for dinner, and the nights we eat things she can't have yet (like pizza) she has leftovers. Her favorites are any type of meat (chicken, beef, pork, turkey), rice, and broccoli. And twice a day she has her staple of oatmeal with either applesauce or pear juice mixed in. I have been teaching Kaylee a few Sign Language signs like "more", "all done" and "hungry/eat". When she's done eating I say and sign "all done" and I inadvertently taught the dogs that this means "okay, come clean up the floor". Here they are waiting patiently for their "sign".

She is great at drinking from a regular cup and loves water bottles.

This was at Jordan Lake with our neighbors/friends.

She says "babababa...", "mama" and "dada" but not to us quite yet. I'm pretty sure that she says "bye bye" (ba ba) when she really does mean bye-bye though. She loves to wave. She hasn't figured out how to talk into the phone yet, but she waves to daddy when he talks to her through the phone. Does anyone else hear "i love you" at the 10 second mark? haha

We celebrated my first Mother's Day. After church we went to a park so Kaylee could try out the bucket swings, but she slept the entire time so we just took a stroll around the park.

It is difficult to catch a picture of Kaylee focusing on the camera anymore, especially if there isn't anyone behind it doing a song and dance act to keep her attention. So for our recent self-family portrait we gave up trying to look a the camera too.

And last but not least, just because I think it's a cute picture...another trip to Starbucks. I shared my pumpkin loaf with Kaylee which she loved, but I think she preferred the bag.

(I made this bow too!)

The second shirt

I finished this the same day as the purple shirt, but I had to wait to buy the strawberry buttons this weekend so I'm finally taking pictures. I made the matching bow too. :)

First time spaghetti

I covered Kaylee with a big piece of fabric because I thought she would enjoy eating spaghetti with her hands, but she would only eat off of a fork. She's not this smooth with a fork but she's getting there.

(This should be animated with 3 pictures.)

Who needs a pattern when...

you have Holt bloodlines! ;) My last attempt with a pattern went awry, so today I drew my own pattern out of plain white paper and made a summer top for Kaylee.

Believe it or not, this one is actually my "test" shirt because I didn't want to ruin the fabric I really want to make the top out of. I have a couple of things to adjust about the pattern, but this one turned out great! I am really proud of my sewing skills...who knew I had this in me!?! I get really excited when the buttonholes work. I still had to get out the sewing machine manual to walk myself through the steps, but they came out perfect!

The fabric is from my mom's stash. There is so much of this particular fabric that I "might" make the same top for me! Matching mom and daughter outfits! We'll see...that will take a lot of white paper to make a pattern for my size. ha!

**UPDATE** I suppose I should have waited to blog until after I tried the shirt ON Kaylee! I had to add 2 pleats in the front to make it fit. It actually makes the shirt look even cuter, in my opinion. The arm holes are big enough and it's long enough that I'll be able to let out the pleats and the top can grow with her!

And here is the next project! I can't wait to put this one on her! Stay tuned for pics!

Kayteedids on Zibbet!

I have been a sew-aholic and bow-aholic this last week, and my shop is finally up and running. I've switched over to Zibbet from Etsy, due to Etsy's selling costs and over-crowdedness. (this is a blog with made up words apparently) I really, truly am seeking feedback from my friends (you) so please send me an email, leave a comment, or call me with any suggestions!!

I am also in need of a more professional looking banner for my Zibbet page. There is a weird size requirement and I cannot figure out how to get it to work. So, I am offering 1 lb of Starbucks coffee to whoever wants to make me a digital banner! Contact me for the specifics if you are interested.

Kisses through the door

'Sew' cute!

Well, I finished the outfit for Kaylee. I followed the 9 month pattern size but it is definitely an 18 month size at least. This is why I don't try to make clothes. So much for it being a cute summer outfit. Now it will have to be an "out of season" winter outfit. Sigh. It's not like I can tell her to hold still while I measure her. Nor can you try the outfit on her with things pinned together. Double sigh. I do love it though and I am proud of my sewing. AND I learned how to make button holes! So it was a mostly-successful project.


On a more successful note, I also made this shirt...without a pattern! Granted it's the easiest thing in the world to sew, but maybe I should just go with the patterns in my head rather than store bought ones. It's a "pillowcase" shirt based on the "pillowcase dresses" that are the newest fad (out here at least). It looks super cute with Kaylee's jean capris. I suppose I could have made it a dress, but that would have required making a matching underwear/diaper cover thingy. Plus I like the look of it over the jeans. :)

(this fabric was from my mom's collection so it's extra special)

Family resemblance

I found this picture of Mandy at 11 months and thought she looks like Kaylee.

Happy Mother's Day

Me and my mom 1978

Mom and Mandy 1980

Daddy's girl

I'd like a Tall Vanilla Latte with extra whip please!

(just kidding, it's water)

We went to visit Daddy at work yesterday. We sat on the patio eating organic, all natural fruit leather and washed it down with some delicious triple filtered water. What a big girl!