Month 7 in pictures

Month 7 has turned out to be a busy month for Kaylee! Because we waited until 6 months old to start solid foods she was ready to skip pureed food and moved straight to chunks and thick fork-mashed foods. Here is what she has tried so far (all homemade): apples, pears, bananas, peaches, avocado, mango, zucchini, sweet potato, sticky rice, and carrots. Her favorites are apples, bananas and sweet potato. Here are the many colors of Kaylee:

zucchini and rice

avocado

carrots

Somedays she refuses to be fed and will only eat if she can do it herself. She's pretty good at it so I let her do her thing.

Just this week we tried out these fun food, teether, chewing things. She loved the cold canned pear slice in this one.

We also started the transition from the bassinet to the crib. We're still in the process, mostly because mommy hates walking all the way to the other end of the house when Kaylee wakes up every other hour. (Our house is a rectangle and we're literally on complete opposite ends) However, Kaylee does seem to enjoy the crib and usually plays and talks to herself for 15-30 minutes before she cries out in the morning. This is what I come into:

excuse the bed head! haha

Kaylee has been sitting up unsupported for a couple of months now and is now headed in the direction of crawling. I stole the idea of the progression photos from our friend Amy whose daughter, Sofia, is 3 days older than Kaylee. Although, Amy captured Sofia's movement much better. :)



She also has an obsession with her feet! Its actually helping her roll over from back to front and is really cute. Unless of course you're changing her diaper and 1) have to battle her for her legs, and 2) have to really watch for her rolling off the table!


And to start off month 8 we celebrated with snow!

Christmas Story anyone?

Another beautiful day...

I am slowly starting to get my etsy shop up and running again. With a broken sewing machine currently, I have switched over to making hair bows for babies until I get the machine fixed. And since I have such a cute model to show off my bows I end up taking pictures of her rather than the actual bows! haha I am making a few bows for some of the baby girls in my mom's Bible study to hopefully get some feedback before I make a bunch to sell. As for today's photo session, here is a picture of Kaylee...I mean, the flower clip. :)

1st picnic!

One of the downfalls of living in the south is the bugs...they're big! And because of the bugs I rarely enjoy time outside. However, in the middle of winter there are no bugs, but who goes outside in 20 degree weather? Not me, and especially not Kaylee. Fortunately, my dad must have brought the California weather with him and left it here for us because today, while pouring rain in CA, it is 65 degrees with clear blue skies! So Kaylee and I enjoyed a picnic together on the front deck. We both really enjoyed our time in the warm sun with oatmeal and homemade applesauce for lunch.

Visitors!

This past week, Grandpa Rowe and Michele came out to visit Kaylee! It was obvious that Kaylee recognized her Grandpa from all the daily "skyping" we do. She was fascinated by him and was immediately comfortable with him. Video chatting is an amazing way to keep families close!


Tonight's entertainment: Mommy singing and dancing! (and you wondered where Kaylee got her long tongue...sheesh!)


We walked around the Raleigh Flea Market for the first time since moving here. The weather was wonderful this week! Then we headed to Red, Hot, and Blue for dinner. It's Grandpa's favorite restaurant. Kaylee was a big girl and sat in the restaurant high chair! She also tasted a lemon and a pickle for the first time. She liked both of them and wasn't happy when mommy wouldn't let her actually eat them!

"My little bear is growing up"

That's from a country song that John and I seem to quote daily. :) Yesterday I went to our one nice grocery store (similar to Lunardi's, Whole Foods, etc) for some specific items that Walmart doesn't carry. So since we were in a "safer" environment I had Kaylee try out the shopping cart seat! I'm not ready to outright expose her to the craziness of our Walmart. I found this fun seat cover at TJ Max for way cheaper than regular stores. It has rings and a stuffed cat and dog attached to it, and it worked very well. Kaylee seemed to enjoy the views and all the ooh's and ahh's she elicited from other store patrons. Such a big girl!!

Check out my fashionable cheetah jacket! Thanks Michele! I wear it a lot since it is so cold right now!!

Proof!

Incase you didn't believe my statement that Kaylee is standing...here is proof!

One handed!

Thanks Michele for this cute outfit!! :)

A great way to end 2009!

Kaylee turned 6 months old a few days after Christmas. What a great time of year to have a 6 month old! She is so interactive and aware of things and was full of smiles for everyone.

Here is what she has been up to lately:

• She weighs in at 15 lbs and is 26 inches long. She has tripled her birth weight and grown 9 inches in 6 months!
• She knows her name and smiles when you say it.
• She is sitting up unsupported for a few seconds at a time, we're working on more daily.
• She stands while holding onto our fingers or an object for at least a minute. She has to be wearing the socks with the grippy stuff on the bottoms or else she does the splits. :)
• She talks a lot at home, but appears to be shy around other people.
• She is mastering the thumb sucking and loves to hold onto something while she sucks. Her new favorite thing to hold onto is a floppy bunny with big, long floppy ears from Michelle.

We started rice cereal on Christmas day. I am so glad we waited until 6 months to start solid foods. She was a pro at eating as soon as we put the first bite in her mouth!

Yummy!

I wipe my own face too!

I want to try it myself!


She must have decided that she is a big girl now...I handed her an empty sippy cup one day just to play with and she knew exactly what to do with it. So no more bottles!

She also held on tight and rocked herself on her rocking moose! I only intended to put her on it for a picture but she seemed to have a blast!

This is fun!!!


We were able to Skype with my dad, Michele, Mandy, Seth, Crum, and the "other" Haaks on Christmas!


Aunt Charlene and Uncle Tim came for Christmas this year. What a treat!


Happy New Year to you all!

Merry Christmas!

Another first-time mom lesson learned...

I wish we had enough money to do one of those "watch me grow" professional photographer packages, starting with those adorably posed newborn shots (like these....so cute), but such is the life of a one income family. So for 6 months AND Christmas (fortunately they coincided) we went to one of those "mall type" photo studios. Unfortunately our young photographer must have been really hungry because she rushed us so she could head out to lunch. I had come prepared for several outfits on Kaylee but was only allowed 2 (even though on the phone they said I could bring as many as I wanted). I also had ideas of poses I wanted: Family Christmas, family regular, Kaylee standing (she's really good at it!!), and Kaylee with her favorite blanket. I had to force the 2 family portraits even though I had scheduled a "family session", not an "baby session", but I didn't get the other two poses of Kaylee. This was my first time doing something like this and on the phone they said it would take 2 hours. So I let the photographer do her poses first and by the time I asked for my pose ideas, she said we were out of time (maybe 20-30 minutes total). I was sad. We looked through the photos she took, and understood why people pay good money for a real professional photographer. We picked 2 poses and left feeling scammed. I know, I know...I should have spoken up while we were there, but I thought maybe that was just the way it was. I complained to a few friends who said I need to call the shop and complain because their own experiences had been wonderful. We'll see if I do that, I haven't decided. I HAVE decided that I will be saving money for the next 6 months to go to a professional for her 1 year pictures. Infact, whenever we make it out to CA we'll be going to see my long-time friend, Raquel, who owns Lifestages Photography!! Anyway, enough of my venting. Here is one of the poses of Kaylee (it doesn't scan well).


I'll post the Christmas photo after our cards are mailed. :) But for now here are a couple I took at home.

Bumbo fun

These rings are the best toy and currently Kaylee's favorite. I highly recommend getting these for any infant. We have them hanging from her car seat, bouncy seat, exersaucer, and she holds them in the bumbo. She likes to pull them, throw them, shake them, and most of all, eat them. She's got a tongue that rivals Gene Simmons! haha