rhythm {in} chaos

Playtime

Here are some videos I took of Kaydence today. I didn't get it on camera, but she clapped for the first time today!

Our little baby chicken is such big stuff these days. She is standing by herself fairly well now and has even taken two steps by herself (we'll have to get some video of it pretty soon). She still has a little bit too much momentum when she steps forward so she has a little ways to go yet before she starts walking on her own, but I think we'll have a walker by Christmas. It's so surreal to think that we have an 8 month old already. She is growing so fast!

Here are some of the things she has been up to lately.

- She said da-da for the first time yesterday (it wasn't crystal clear, and of course she doesn't know what it means, but I heard it).
- She can stand by herself and walk along furniture now.
- She tries to pull herself up from a sitting position, but she hasn't quite mastered that yet.
- She still doesn't like textured foods. I tried giving her some organic puffs several times and she refuses to open her mouth (go figure, something she actually can put in her mouth and she doesn't want to). I was able to slide one into her mouth at one point and she gave the most disgusted face I've ever seen (it was very comical) -- they dissolve fairly quickly, but she just can't figure it out yet.
- She scooted on her belly for the first time the other day and since then I have seen her get up on all fours in a crawling stance, but she hasn't actually crawled yet and I've only seen her scoot on her belly twice.
- She wants to walk around the house with me holding onto her hands all.day.long!
- She loves playing peek-a-boo with her blankie (there is a video of her playing peek-a-boo with her cousin Makenna below).
- She got her first cold this last week and she has been such a trooper suffering through a stuffy/runny nose.
- She LOVES anything shiny -- whenever she sees anything shiny (car door handles, light fixtures, faucets, knobs, metal strainer, etc.), she has to touch it!
- This is something she has done since day one, but I don't think I've ever mentioned it, she loves getting her finger nails clipped!!! Can you believe it?!?! She literally sits as still as can be and lets me hold her hand while I clip her nails. She watches ever so intently. I hope this keeps up. You don't know how grateful I am to have a baby who doesn't fight me when I cut her nails...I would be so worried I'd clip her skin. Only bad thing is Teirney said that probably means she is a girly girl all the way and will want manicures and pedicures all the time. Oh well, that's part of being a girl, right? :-)

I'll probably think of more things after I post this, but oh well.

So this last week, I had to make a very difficult decision. I decided to take her earrings out. :-( ::sniff, sniff:: I didn't tell many people, but one of her ears was pierced at an angle, so you could see the back of her earring from the front. I thought this may change once I could take her studs out and put different earrings in that had smaller backs, but alas, the 6 weeks were up and I tried different earrings, but you could still see the back. I struggled long and hard with the decision, but I finally came to the conclusion that I didn't want her to have to grow up with one ear that she would constantly have to be careful with what earrings she wore. And as she gets older, she will probably wear heavier earrings and I didn't want that hole that was lower to cause her grief. I had a really hard time with the decision and have had some guilt over it. But in the scheme of life, this is not a big deal. I much rather fix it now and get them repierced correctly, than have her have to live with it the rest of her life. I'm just hoping the holes will close quickly. In the meantime, I know I may be "judged" by some moms who see my baby with holes in her ears and they will probably wonder what kind of mother I am -- piercing my baby's ears, taking them out, only to repierce them again. Ugh...it pains me to wonder what people think, but I just can't let it bother me. I know I love my baby and just wish her earring hadn't gone in at an angle the first time. :-( Okay, moving on.

We are almost done introducing the basic fruits and veggies. I still have broccoli and cauliflower to do yet. This last week, I was able to puree a bunch of fruits and veggies to stock our freezer for awhile. I love making her baby food and am so glad I chose to do so. The other weekend I had to buy a canned fruit and veggie when we went out of town because I forgot to take her food out of the refrigerator before we left. She actually didn't like it and I had bought pears and sweet potatoes, which she ordinarily loves. I'm going to try asparagus this week, which I'm sure she won't like, but maybe I'll try mixing it with something to trick her. :-) I made a baby stock the other night that you use as a liquid to mix with other veggies, or the baby can drink it alone as well. You just boil asparagus, leek, and sweet potatoes together for 1 hour. Strain the veggies and freeze the liquid (I plan on using the liquid in other baby food recipes that I'm going to try). Then, I pureed the veggies and froze those as well and I'll introduce that to her after I introduce the asparagus this week. We'll see how it goes. Below is a picture of the acorn squash I made for Kaydence the other day.

Here is the video I spoke of.

First Halloween

I'm a little late in posting this, but here are some pictures from Kaydence's first Halloween. She went as Sophie the giraffe. She had no idea how cute she looked. :-)

Here is a video just before her daddy took her trick or treating.

Kaydence + Nap = Happy Baby

Kaydence is always happy when she wakes up from her nap, so I had to get it on film. She doesn't like to stay in her crib very long once she sees me though, which you'll also see.

Our Pumkin in a Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday we took Kaydence to her first pumpkin patch. We had such a fun day. It was cold, but sunny, so it felt a little warmer than it was. We took a hay ride to the pumpkin patch and Kaydence loved it! She was fascinated by all the random "big orange balls." I wonder what went through her little mind -- she tries to figure everything out. I love the expressions she gives us when she is discovering new things. Unfortunately, I put a hat on her that covered her face in most of the pictures. :-( As I was taking the pictures, I was wishing I would have brought a different hat for her. Not to mention, one of the guides kept referring to her as a boy because her hat looks like a boy hat. Oh well, now we know for next time. Afterwards, we went home and made butternut squash soup. It was such a fun Fall day! Here are some pictures from our special day.

7 months

Kaydence had her golden [month] birthday on Wednesday (October 7). We are so proud of our little peanut -- she is growing up so fast! Some of the new things she can do now are as follows:

- turning the light switches off (she hasn't quite mastered turning them on yet);
- she discovered she can blow now -- she purses her lips together and makes noises as she blows (I tried getting a video of it, but of course she refused to perform for the camera);
- she also discovered how to breathe loudly through her mouth so she that can hear herself;
- she has cleared the following fruits and veggies as being non-allergenic for her: peaches, pears, plums, bananas, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, zucchini, and peas;
- fake coughs (all.the.time)
- plulls herself up to stand from a seated position (video posted below);
- makes no attempt to crawl, or even scoot, but loves to walk while she holds our hands;
- doesn't talk a whole lot, just coos a little;
- graduated from the bumbo to her big girl high chair;
- drinks from a sippy cup; and
- dances to music.

Sadly, I know I am missing some things. I realized today that I need to be better about keeping up her baby book. I am behind on logging some of her milestones and one of these days I will need to sit down and wrack my brain to write them all down. I know I will thank myself one day.

I'm making all of Kaydence's baby food. At first, I wasn't sure how much I would like doing it, but I have come to love it. Kaydence is eating 2 meals a day right now, breakfast and dinner. I'll usually give her cereal and fruit for breakfast and a veggie or a combo of veggies for dinner. She actually loves peas! Well, peas mixed with pears. I would have never thought to put that combo together, but the day I started her on peas, she wasn't loving them and pears were the only other thing I had at the time, so I gave it a try. She gobbled them up like crazy. I'm not a big fan of peas either, but I tried the peas with pears and I actually liked it too...go figure.

Kaydence is such a good baby -- very content and mild mannered. And so far she is very gentle. She isn't much of an aggressive grabber of things (at least yet), she needs to check it all out first. She is such a little blessing to us and makes us smile and laugh everyday -- we are so proud of her.

Below is a video below of Kaydence pulling herself up into a standing position when she was sitting on my knee. She is such a strong little thing. The other day she stood for 3 seconds all by herself, without me holding her. At this point, it appears she could be walking before she crawls (just like her daddy). We'll see, we're still working on the crawling with her.

Enjoy!

Rubber Ducky

"Rubber ducky you're the one...you make bath time lots of fun..."

Our bathtub was out of commission last week due to some plumbing issues, so Kaydence got to have a bath in the kitchen sink. She loved it!