Can't Believe Our Baby Bean is ONE!!!!!

Well, it's official, she's a year old already!!!! She had quite an eventful birthday too. Since they had rescheduled my OB appointment from last week for 10:00 a.m. monday morning, we got up and headed over there first thing after breakfast for a check-up and my GTT. Then Kyra napped while Phil and I worked on getting things ready for her party that evening. After she woke up, she had a little lunch and opened her birthday gifts from us. She like the mega-blocks and especially the Elmo book but was not quite as fascinated by the clothes. :) She got a card in the mail from her Grandma and Papa in Wisconsin and thought that was very exciting when Phil showed it to her because there were two dogs on the cover. A tree had fallen in the park and the management was busy for most of the day trying to get it cleaned up so they weren't in the office for us to grab the key to the rec hall where her party was going to be and we finally got it just a couple hours before party time!



She had lots of fun at her party. Several of her friends and their parents (our friends, nice how it works out that way) were there and also her Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Jackie. The party was Elmo themed (very lightly Elmo... Mama's not that ambitious.) We had red plates, napkins, etc. and red and yellow balloons. I brought her Hokey Pokey Elmo, thinking we would set it on one of the tables for a decoration but she wanted to play with it in the Super Yard instead. She played with the other little girls for a while and then decided that she would rather sit on Mama or Dad's lap and socialize with the grownups. :) We had sloppy joes, chips, berries and veggies so nothing fancy, just easy for Mama and good leftovers for Dad's lunches this week. There were cupcakes too! Angel food and confetti and a sugarless banana raisin for Kyra. They were decorated with Elmo faces and a few Zoe faces too because Mama got brave and decided to try. i think next time we do cupcakes for something, I'll make a bunch of the Sesame monsters because they actually turned out sort of O.K. and weren't super hard to make. She was too busy to eat much beyond a few animal crackers but loved the cupcake she had after most of her guests had left!!

Doctors Appts

Recently, both little sister and the Bean have had doctor's appointments so I'm updating on those. :)

Kyra's one year appointment was on the 7th. I was amazed at how good she was!!!! The only time she fussed at all was when she got her shots (four of them poor thing!) She was 28 1/2 inches long and weighed 17lbs on the button. Her doctor (who is GREAT) is wanting to watch her weight closely over the next two appointments (at 15 months and 18 months) as Kyra's weight has dropped off the normal weight chart by just a tiny bit. She's not TOO concerned though because it seems like Kyra has Phil's metabolism and is just gaining slowly. The doctor feels that her birthweight was possibly a little higher than it should have been due to maternal environment and that things will even out this next year. She's definitely growing upwards and her head is growing, she's active and has hit all her developmental markers on schedule too. As long as Kyra gets on a normal growth curve next year, she doesn't care if she gets back up on the chart or not. The doctor has us working on incorporating more high calorie foods into her diet so that she can get the calories she needs to keep up with her metabolism without having to be eating ALL day. Right now we're doing Carnation Instant Breakfast/Boost daily and working on transitioning her over to whole milk from the formula.

Little Sister's appointment was on monday (the 19th) and everything looks pretty good. Her heartrate was right on and she held nice and still for the doctor to listen to it, something Kyra NEVER did! My tummy is measuring a little ahead so they're going to do another ultrasound at our next appointment in 3 week (oh darn, we get to see LS again!) and then they'll do one more towards the end of the pregnancy. We're not too concerned as I was measuring ahead with Kyra too at one point and she wasn't huge, just a little on the big side at birth. I had my second one hour glucose tolerance test too and am really hoping that either I pass and don't have to take the three hour test that I had to take with Kyra, or that I fail SO miserably that the dr. is willing to just go ahead and say I have gestational diabetes and need to do the GD diet and monitor my sugars. Honestly I wouldn't care which at this point, I just really don't want to have to take the three hour as last time it made me feel SO awful and drained for a couple days after.

Since I don't really have pictures relating to doctor's appointments, instead I'll put up pictures of Kyra having spaghetti for the first time on sunday night. :)

Catching Up

Well, I've gotten very behind so this may be long! First, Kyra had fun on her first New Year's Eve. We spent it at our friends' house and Kyra had a blast playing with their kids (or at least watching their kids play, she got a little overwhelmed. ;) ) She did NOT do what I was thinking she would and doze off in one of our laps or in her BabyHawk carrier so she stayed up until midnight!!! We were amazed. She was a little glassy and wide eyed by that time though. She crashed in the car on the way home and woke up at home just long enough for us to get her diaper changed and get her into bed. She woke up for an hour around 6am and then went back to sleep until noon! (She's "toasting" with the last two drops of Dad's sparkling cider in the picture. No, we don't give our daughter beer.)










We had company over Saturday and Sunday and she seemed to like that! Amy, John and Tristan came Saturday and she had a blast playing with Tris, but he didn't have quite as much fun playing with her since her idea of playing is taking whatever the other person is playing with and passing it back and forth. He did really great with trying to share the toys he wasn't currently using with her though! Phil's family came over on Sunday afternoon and Kyra showed off most of her tricks. She did fall down and bump her little head twice and made a much bigger deal of it than she normally would have because all those grandparents were there to say what a poor baby she was. :)

This past Monday, Amy did one year pictures of her. We even had it all figured out so that Phil could go and hopefully keep her in a better mood, but as it turned out, she was teething poor thing and was just a snot for Amy. I was thinking when we were on our way home that I'd be surprised if any of the pictures turned out, but even with my snotty daughter who was more uncooperative than usual, there are SOOO many cute, adorable shots!!! Amy is just a genius. The shoes she is playing with in the one picture are her first tennis shoes and the ones she's wearing now.











Some of the pictures were a group of birthday cake shots. We took a practice cake along and let Kyra play in it to have pictures taken and it was so funny. Kyra has never had anything sugarier than a vanilla wafer before, so the frosting was a little bit of a surprise for her. She was a little tentative at first, so I dabbed some frosting on her mouth and then she slowly leaned down with one hand and foot on either side of the cake and tasted it directly! It was so cute! She did pretty good during that part of the shoot until she dipped her feet in the cake accidentally and decided she was too sticky and got all upset and started fuss, so we stuck her right in the tub. :)















If you click on the "The Hardestys" link on the right, it links to Amy's blog where there are some more of the pictures if you scroll down to the post titled "Kyra is 1" and/or click on the top link that says "Portrait Photography" and then the one that says "Recent Photo Sessions".

It's been quite a bit easier than I expected to get Kyra to start to understand about things she's not supposed to do. I know she's going to have phases where it's NOT so easy, but we've been really surprised so far! The other day, she was playing in the living room and I went in the kitchen for a minute. All of a sudden she stopped babbling and got really quiet so I went in to check on her and sure enough, she was standing over by the coffee table holding a plastic decoration she knows she's not supposed to touch. I said, "You know you're not supposed to have that," and held out my hand and she immediately gave it to me, but started crying right away and had about a 20 second tantrum. Silly girl.

Kyra's First Christmas

Christmas morning, Kyra got up just after six!!! Someone must have told her you're supposed to get up early on Christmas for presents but it sure wasn't me or her Dad! After she had some breakfast, we settled down and let her "open" her presents from us with some help to remind her to TEAR the paper, not EAT the paper. I was surprised how good she did for her age actually! She got some jammies, a book and a hokey pokey Elmo and in her stocking were some bath toys (ketchup & mustard squirt bottles and measuring cups & spoons), a tiny stuffed Zoey monster like the Elmo she opened the other day and a toothbrush. She opened her book and immediately took it over to Dad, waving it around for him to read to her! She did ok for the first few pages but was just too excited to really settle down and read so after about half the book we moved on to other stuff.


When she got to the Hokey Pokey Elmo, she was sort of bored after taking off the paper and just finding a plain brown box, but boy, as soon as I got the tape split and she got a peek in between the flaps that changed fast! I'm pretty sure she thinks it's the REAL Elmo that came out of that box! She got very excited and leaned right in to pull him out. While she was having a bottle after opening presents she laid down on her dog in her Super Yard and just stared out watching her Elmo.









After she was done opening presents, she had a nap and a bath. She tried out the new bath toys and thougth they were pretty great and just right for playing with in her ducky tub. After her bath, I did the best job of weighing and measuring her that it's possible to do at home with a very wiggly 11 month old who doesn't really want to be weighed and measured!!! The best I can tell, she's about 17 lbs and 27 inches.


















Phil's mom and step-dad came and picked us up in their Hummer as the roads here were still way to icky to get our car out and took us to a family friend's for a Christmas party during the afternoon. Kyra LOVED the ride in the Hummer, even if she had to ride in her old carseat that she's not fond of. She had fun at Tricia's and was actually a VERY good girl considering that she couldn't get down and play! She loved watching all the people and ate lots of turkey, stuffing and rolls off my plate (and drank lots of my water.) Grandma and Grandpa had brought her some presents and after we got home that evening, we let her open them in an attempt to keep her awake until it was closer to bedtime!! (It was only around 6:30 when we got home.) She got some cute rubber duckies and squirty fish for bath time, some cute clothes in the next size up and some Christmas themed Weebles. She sat right down on the floor and played with her Weebles, ducks and fish for around half an hour, not in her Super Yard or anything, just sitting and playing! It was amazing! When she did finally get to bed, she was out very fast, the poor thing was just exhausted. She had a very fun first Christmas!

Sitting With "Daddy" Claus

Since we plan on letting the girls know right away that Santa is just fun to pretend, we don't have to worry about them knowing that Santa isn't real! One very nice thing about that is that instead of lugging Kyra to the mall to sit on a stranger's lap who she probably would yell at anyway (or pull his beard knowing her), Phil just put on his Santa suit and she sat on his lap for pictures! She knew immediately that it was her Dad, even though he changed in the other room and then came out to "surprise" her and was not at all upset (in fact, she barely even seemed to notice other than trying a couple times to get ahold of that beard!) She did definitely decide that she was not going to kiss him with all that fuzzy, curly stuff on his face.
She also got to open her very first Christmas present while she was sitting in his lap to help keep her occupied long enough for Mama to get a bunch of pictures. (Technically, her first Christmas present was the wagon that Gramma Susan and Papa got her when they were here, but she didn't actually OPEN that one.) She had lots of fun opening it, even if we didn't let her eat the paper and was quite impressed with the Elmo inside. The next time she was on the floor crawling around, about five minutes later, she made a beeline for the first present she saw. It sure didn't take her long to get that figured out! Luckily I wrapped all hers in the same paper, so hopefully she'll be able to tell which ones are NOT for her too.

11 Months!

Hard to believe it, but Kyra is only a month away from being a year old!!! We had our last monthly birthday party for her on Friday before bed. She still didn't get any cake, but she did at least get some animal crackers! She's growing and changing all the time! Today, she took two unsupported steps while Phil was watching. Of course, she wouldn't do it again for Mama to see, but she's getting there! Really, if she was more confident, she'd probably be walking already since she has the strength and the balance, just doesn't trust herself to try it unless she's too distracted to realize what she's doing!

Snow Baby!

Sunday was sort of a lazy day at our house since we got up to go to church and ended up staying home all day due to the weather. Kyra was pretty fascinated watching the snow fall outside the window so after her nap we bundled her up in the 12 Month snowsuit she got as a gift from a friend in Wisconsin and took her out just long enough for her to get a better look.


Playing in the snow wasn't much of an option since there wasn't really a spot to get to and since she couldn't really move once she was in her snowsuit, but she sure had fun with Dad looking!

Little Sister is GROWING!!

Well, to begin with, that second front tooth popped through yesterday afternoon after I posted yesterdays blog, so it does certainly look like we're going to have two front teeth for Christmas here!
Phil's work Christmas party was last night and it was for grown-ups only so we left Kyra with Chip and Angi for the evening (they claim she behaved herself) and got to go out with just us! It was fun and dinner was yummy, although I think I should have eaten more ahead of time because by the time dinner was served I was really hungry! I forget sometimes how much of what I eat a tiny little growing person as little sister sucks up! We're 23 weeks along today and I'm already sick of baggy maternity clothes so I decided to dress up last night. Kyra and I went "junking" at Salvation Army and found an empire waisted stretch green velvet dress and a sweater that closed with just a hook and eye at the top. Although neither was maternity, I think it worked and am just really hoping that it conveyed more of a "pregnant" vibe than a "chubby and my dress is too small" vibe.
Kyra was exhausted when we got home and finally got her in bed (after 10!) and barely made a peep all night. She even slept in until nine this morning and would have slept later if I hadn't gotten her up! We can't let her throw her schedule off completely. :) She was in a good mood all morning and is napping now. It took her 45 minutes of chatting with her teddy bear to decide to go to sleep for nap, so she can't be TOO tired after last night!

Two Front Teeth for Christmas

Yesterday, Kyra's 3rd tooth poked through! It's the right upper one of the front two and the one beside it looks like it's going to come through VERY soon so it's looking like baby girl is going to have her two front teeth in for Christmas!
She has another new word already and a couple of new "tricks". She says "go, go, go!!!" when we're going out to get in the car. She waves bye bye too. She won't SAY bye though, just wave. She will grab a specific toy when asked now as long as she knows what you're asking her for, especially if it's the monkey she swiped from G-Gma Pat. She also will give kisses to her stuffed animals (and sometimes her parents) when asked. So cute! :)

Dad's not Bubba Anymore!!!

Kyra has finally, officially said a word clearly enough (and knows what it means) to call it her first word. I was really hoping for "Dad for her 1st, or at least Mama, but no, on Friday, she said "DOG". "Dad" on Saturday and now that she's got a couple down, she's decided to start working on "Baby", "Bye Bye", "Hi" and "Yeah". I'm worried that now that she's starting to talk, she may never stop! Her favorites are definitely Dad and dog though. Now if we could just convince her that not everything with four legs is a dog!

Today, she got to stay with us in service at church instead of going to the nursery because it was the kids Christmas program! It was great and she was so good! We sat up in the balcony so she'd be less of a disturbance and she actually watched most of the program and even "sang" along with the kids for a lot of the songs! Her favorite part was at the end when a man was doing a snare drum solo on stage and she was just fascinated. Considering her obsession with percussion instruments and her rapidly developing sense of rythym I'm thinking I may need to invest in some earplugs before our darling girl is old enough to think about joining the school band!

Thanksgiving!!!

Kyra's first Thanksgiving was pretty laid back (which was great for me!) Since it was Phil's nephew's birthday and his parents didn't know if they'd have plans or not and since we didn't know he was going to be able to be off work all day until the weekend before, we planned a quiet Thanksgiving at home with just the three of us. It was wonderful, although, I strongly reccomend against planning on cooking an entire Thanksgiving dinner with a 10 month old and while 4+ months pregnant! This was the first time I've made the whole dinner by myself but since it was for just us there was no pressure and it was really pretty fun! There are a few little changes I'd make for next time (especially now that I know more what I could have ready the night ahead of time to speed things along) but all in all I think it turned out pretty good for a first try. Phil was great with keeping Kyra entertained and out from underfoot and for the most part she was in a pretty decent mood! She really enjoyed her dinner, even if all that variety at one meal gave her a bit of a belly-ache the next day. Phil took some pictures and videos of her EATING her first Thanksgiving dinner but she wasn't feeling very cooperative so it wasn't until he put the camera down that she started all the grinning and going "NUM NUM NUM!" while she ate! It was really a wonderful Thanksgiving, especially this year when we have so much to be thankful for with Kyra healthy, happy and growing to share it with and another little girl on the way who so far seems to be just as hale and hearty as her big sis!


So here's our dinner, served of course on my Fireking and Lusterware because there isn't a more appropriate time of year than Thanksgiving for shiny orange dishes.










Kyra's dinner included roast sweet potatoes, baked acorn squash, turkey, jellied cranberry sauce (yes out of a can... I figured she'd choke on whole berry sauce and jellied cranberry sauce homeade is something only Martha Stewart does), mashed potatoes with broth substituted for the butter and milk, stuffing and a very few bites of pumpkin mousse. And no, she did NOT eat this whole plate full of food, even though it is just a saucer. :) Her favorites were mostly the things she could pick up and feed herself, as usual but she did decide that the mousse was pretty good, even if she did have to eat it off the spoon!