Ante Up!

We had another "poker party" at Grandma and Grandpa's house with G.G. Pat today. It ended up being LONG even though we were TRYING to make it a shorter game! We played tournament style this time (that's where you play until all but one person has run out of chips and they win) with less chips. Phil and his mom ended up playing heads up for at least two hours (maybe more..) , trading chips back and forth, but eventually (finally) Phil won. It was WELL past Kyra's bedtime then so she was mostly just napping. Kyra did REALLY well there all day. She wore her bee top and skirt that she's just now fitting into which impressed her Grandma B. She was a really good girl and was good at nap times and even napped in the pack'n'play there. She practiced drinking out of her new, non-leeching plastic tippy cups, read her books and played with her dolly. Such a sweet baby!

Sleepy Girl!

Today, after church, Kyra took a 2 and a half hour nap! Apparently playing with the toys in the nursery (my good girl stayed in there for ALL of service today!) wore her out! She mostly skipped her 5:00 p.m. nap since she didn't wake up from the 2:00 p.m. nap until 4:30! We had a BBQ/Potluck to go to tonight and it was thundering and lightning when we got there so it turned into an indoor party instead of a backyard party. It was lots of fun and Kyra was charming, cute and well behaved almost the whole time. She even fell asleep right on schedule at 8:00 in her wrap carrier.

Baby Clotheshorse

Today we tried on a bunch of Kyra's 6-9 month stuff to see what would fit! I'm AMAZED that she was soooo patient about it! We spent an hour trying on clothes, although, we did take a couple short breaks for a snack and some tickling and funny faces. She did so good! It's so funny seeing how some of it fits. One outfit, the little dress fit great, but the bloomers were so big that she's going to wear a pair of 0-3 month bloomers we still have that are about the same color. She's still such a petite little thing when it comes to how big around she is, but she's certainly growing lengthwise! She's got long, narrow feet too so I think she's definitely going to be taller than her Mama.

Exersaucers are Awesome!

Kyra is REALLY starting to enjoy her exersaucer so I think we may be moving it from the nursery out to the livingroom in the near future. Oh where, oh where to put all the baby stuff? But then... when you have an infant that really only wants to be put down if it's fun to be down (and even then only for 10 minutes at a time) you have to have fun options or you'd never get to use sharp objects, the oven or the bathroom! That and since we spent less 2nd hand on the swing, the exersaucer and the jumperoo together than the exersaucer would have been new.. I don't feel too bad.

Born to be Worn!

We went grocery shopping today. :) Kyra is SUCH a good grocery shopper. I've always heard women complain about how much harder it gets to go grocery shopping all of a sudden when you have that first baby so I did not anticipate it to be so easy! She rides in her wrap carrier, one of the mei-tais or in her Ergo and she talks to me and watches things and people. She NEVER fusses and once in a while she even steals a nap. She spends lots of time looking for Phil because she knows that we usually see him at Wal-Mart and gets very excited when she does find him! I always see lots of people who are trying to carry their infants and toddlers while shopping (or worse, infants in bucket seats!), chasing their toddlers through the store, trying to soothe screaming babies and toddlers in the cart or struggling to get the groceries in around their HUGE infant bucket carseats without waking the little one inside. It just looks like so much extra stress and WORK! They always look like their backs hurt and their nerves are worn. They all need to know about babywearing! I always wish they'd notice my little Kyra and ask about her carrier and if it's hard to use, but she's so quiet, she hardly ever gets any attention at all beyond the cashiers commenting on how cute she is and what a good baby. If only they knew that without that lovely carrier she's be just another screaming infant!

Like a WEED!

Kyra sure is getting tall! She's outgrowing the length on a lot of her 3-6 jammies and stuff already. I'm gonna have to get the 6-9 month drawers out this week and start trying to go through them to get out the jammies and one piece summer stuff (and anything else summer that isn't too huge around the middle). She didn't feel like having her picture taken today and decided instead that she would try to EAT the camera! Silly baby.

Kisses and Ice Cream

Since Kyra is getting to be SO impatient about eating and trying to take anything we're eating, we've been giving her a little breastmilk "ice cream" every couple days. It's actually just some expressed milk that's frozen in a zippy bag by putting it in a bigger bag full of ice and salt and mushing it around, the way you made ice cream in school or at camp. She really likes it, although.. she does spit out as much or more than she swallows. :) We've decided to start working on a tippy cup with her too since she's never really taken to the bottle and she's nearly 5 months anyway. She's started a new thing where she'll purse her lips and then blow against them until it puffs out. We can't tell if she's trying to make kissy noises or blow raspberries.

Little Sailor Girl

We had a funeral to go to today on somewhat short notice for the mother of a close friend of Phil's family. I know that babies aren't really held to tradition as far as dressing for funerals go, but I didn't want to take her in her jammies or in something bright yellow, pink or red. I finally dug out the 6-9 month navy blue sailor dress she got from G.G. Pat to try. It actually fits pretty good since it's sleeveless and she's getting so tall! She could have fit in the bloomers twice though, once in each leg so we had to put her white, ruffly pants on her. I'm so glad she got those, they've been a life-saver since they fit so good and are a neutral color! Phil's best friend growing up and his wife had a baby girl almost two months ago and this was the first time we'd seen her. She's such a cute little sleepy thing! I already miss that stage. Then again, Kyra never looked that little! All that hair she's got, she looked too old right from the start.

A Cool Pink Hat!

Well, we didn't win today's softball game, but boy, it was a good game anyway though! Before we went to the game, we stopped at Target so Kyra could "try-on" some convertible carseats before we bought one online. They have a lot of their summery stuff on clearance and so I was looking at the baseball hats since we've been looking for a cap that isn't WAY too big for Kyra since she always likes ours so much. They had a pink one with a star on the front and a lavender one with flowers on the front. When I showed them both to Phil and asked if we should get the purple his exact words were"The pink one's so COOL!" *lol* He insists that he meant the star on the front, but even so, those are not words you would have heard coming out of my husband's mouth before Kyra!

A Baby for the Baby!

When I was little, I collected Cabbage Patch Dolls. I have gotten a few more since them and have saved them. Yesterday, I went back and got one of the "baby" ones down off the shelf for Kyra to play with! She thinks it's pretty exciting! I'm gonna have to dig around and find the rest of the baby dolls for her. You know, some people may say that boys and girls would play the same way if we didn't treat them differently.. but I don't believe that for a minute! Kyra's favorite toys are already the soft little toys and the ones with faces. My nephews favorites at this age were always cars and blocks! She thinks her doll is pretty funny. :) Lots of giggles and grins when she sees it!

Webcams Are Great!

So now that she's mastered rolling over and laying on her tummy leaning up on her arms, Kyra is working on push-ups! She's doing pretty good at getting her shoulders and chest up off the ground too. It was HOT today so we had the air running for part of the day and we kept pretty cool in the house. Kyra got to wear one of her cutest little sun-suits though. After Phil got home she was sitting on his lap while he was at his desk and she realized that at that angle she could lean over and reach her toes with her mouth! She leaned over and bit them a couple times but then mostly switched to just lunging at them. I think she realized that it HURT when she bit her toes! My cousin Marie is in Wisconsin for a few weeks visiting from South Dakota and right now she's in Reedsburg with my Grandma Betty for a few days visiting my parents. Since we haven't seen Marie for a LONG time and she hasn't seen Kyra yet, we got on the web-cam to talk to her and Grandma Betty, Grandma Susan, Grandpa Roger and Sandy, my parents' neighbor. Kyra wasn't willing to talk or show off, but she did chew on her doll and didn't scream. :)

5 Months!!!

Kyra is five months old today! She had lots of fun playing in her exersaucer while I got her cake ready for blowing out her FIVE candles. She was VERY interested in her cake and candles and was laughing and giggling... until I pointed the camera at her. :) I know, it looks dangerous in the video having the lit candles on the tray of her highchair.. but she can't reach the stuff on the tray! (She can BARELY reach the tray. :)) She's still just a little punkin'! Happy 5 Months Kyra! We're SO enjoying having you here!

Tummy Time

Now that Kyra's able to roll onto and off of her belly, she's MUCH happier with tummy time! She's also VERY cute while she's having her tummy time. :) Just in the short time since she's started being more willing to lay on her belly, she's getting so strong! She's holding her head up so well now while she's on her belly!

Goodbye Denali Cat

Today we took Denali in to be put to sleep. He was just getting SO sick, although for someone who didn't know him they may not have noticed! He was still awfully strong and social for a cat who hadn't really eaten in about three weeks. Phil decided he didn't want to be in the room, so we just took Kyra with us and she waited in the waiting room with Dad. The staff at the vet were wonderful and it wasn't as bad as I expected to be. It was over VERY fast. We're sure going to miss our Denali though. He was such a wonderful cat. We're probably going to wait quite a while before thinking about another kitty. Finding another that is as accepting of a baby would probably be impossible! I know that when we're ready to get another it will take us a long time to find one that even comes close to measure up. We're sad to say goodbye to our bed-warming, baby-loving, potato chip-munching buddy.