Monday, May 31, 2010

Devoted Dad!

Well, yet another busy week has passed since my last post. Lets see what has happened...

Last week Kaylee and I really worked on our napping. She seems to be going down for her naps just fine, however not sleeping for very long. About 45 minutes in the morning and about an hour in the afternoon. I have had mixed comments about this. Some people say its very important to maintain the schedule of 2, 2 hour naps a day, others say that at least she is napping and the longer periods of time will eventually come. So I spent a lot of time trying to soothe her in her crib (without picking her up) after she woke up after the 45 minutes for the next hour to try and make her understand that this is a 2 hour event. Sometimes this worked, sometimes this didn't. I guess we will keep trying to battle this hurdle.
Another sleep issue... The nights... My perfect sleeping 11 hours a night for about 5 weeks straight baby has done a 360. It has been almost 2 weeks of Kaylee getting up throughout the night. As I have said before, sometimes I can simply give her the soother and she goes back to sleep (which is most of the time) and other times she has a bottle and goes back to sleep. I have tried feeding her as much as I can, thinking she was simply hungry- however this tactic has not worked. Saturday night, she woke up at 3:30am and decided she was having nothing to do with going back to sleep. We rocked, we ate, we took a soother, then she started laughing and trying to get me to engage in playing (which I did not). This continued until 7am. I even attempted to bring her to my bed to sleep. This is something I have not done at all, due to starting bad habits as well as the animals in the house. I have worried a cat might jump up or roll on her. Anyway, this also did not work. At 6:30 Jordon got up and took her for me so I could go lay down. Of course I was in bed til about 7am when she really started to fuss- of course now she was tired from being up most of the night. She went back to bed until about 8:45 but that was it. Lets just say Sunday was a long day.We spent a lot of time outside this weekend, because of the beautiful weather once again. It seems Kaylee loves to be outside and is actually becoming quite a little social butterfly. No longer does she fuss when someone else holds her, she is actually smiling and flirting with them. I thought this was awesome as she was becoming very attached to only me for a while. Friday evening, I had an appointment to get my hair done- back to blond baby!!! I told Jordon that I would put Kaylee to bed so he could relax as Fridays are normally the nights he comes home and has a few cold beer to wind down from a long tiring week. Of course he came home to tell me all his buddies were playing baseball that night and he couldn't go. I felt bad- for about 30 seconds! I haven't had my hair done in months and months and I really needed to get out of the house if only for a few hours. Needless to say I LOVE MY HAIR! Thanks to my Mum for sending me the cash to get it done- shes awesome and I love her!!!!!
I have really been on Jordon about spending more time with Kaylee as he works long hours throughout the week and some days gets home in time to simply see her fall asleep. This weekend I have to say he stepped up. He played with her on our bed for a while Saturday afternoon trying to wind her down for a nap, he stayed home while I once again left Saturday night for dinner with my girlfriend Adele, and Sunday after I had been with her most of the day, he put on the Snuggli and mowed the lawn with her. We were unsure how she would react to this but she loved being outside, and actually fell asleep- even with the noise!
So this is a big THANK YOU to my hunny for doing awesome Daddy Duty this weekend!!!
Aside from that, Kaylee is happily rolling over many, many, many times in a day! She loves to roll over, look up at me, whine until I put her on her back so she can show me how she does it all over again. It is quite adorable!
It is so amazing to watch an infant become a little person. While it is exhausting and sometimes frustrating, it is also extremely rewarding to see her learn new things, eat EVERYTHING and laugh when I make a silly face at her!
I have been trying very hard lately not to become a hermit. I am a home body and I know this. I like to be close to home or at home puttering around. This has caused me to say "No" to going out a lot. I tend to blame it on the fact that I have Kaylee, however she is becoming much easier to bring out and much more adaptable to new places and situations. I made a deal with my friend Jenn to try and get together every Wednesday, if only for a walk with the dogs. I really have to stop hibernating at home. I am fine once I get out the door, it is just getting my butt out the door.Anyways, that's all for today. I promise to write soon! Enjoy a few pictures of my beautiful growing Toots!

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

All the fun stuff!

Well, what a week. My goodness. I am going to skip right past the fact that possible teeth= ear infections= fevers= hell. Topic is now closed.
Aside from that Kaylee has been wonderful. She has been exploring the world of rolling over and seems to have a different reaction each time. Sometimes she is so content with herself for doing it and other times she just gets plain old mad because she does not enjoy being on her belly. At first I thought this was going to stop her from rolling over once she realized that she ends up on her belly she would stop doing it. It has not deterred her however. One thing that does deter her, is me, watching her, waiting for it to happen. It seems she is on her back and content, the second I turn my back she is on her belly. Little fart!

Anyways, I did get some pictures of her in the act!
This past week we have also been trying a lot of different baby foods. So far we know she loves carrots, apple/blueberry, banana's are alright but not a fav and pea's she simply will not eat. She also loves cereal. I mean loves to the point that I cannot shovel it in fast enough. She gets very angry with her mouth wide open while I refill the spoon. Too darn cute.
The heat this weekend was lovely for me however did not turn out to be such a hit for Kaylee. She wasn't feeling well and then add that heat, she was down right cranky. I had in her just a diaper but she wouldn't nap. I figure mostly because she was just uncomfortable. I had a fan going but she was still warm.

In other news- about a month ago I received a gift from a girl I work with at RIM and I have to say- it is awesome!Its a little sheep that you put in the crib that makes soothing noises. It has the ocean, whales, a river and a forest. You can put it on for 25 minutes or 45 minutes. I put this on each and every night before Kaylee goes into her crib and she falls asleep to it. As I mentioned last week I think, she has not been sleeping through the night anymore. While she doesn't wake right up, she starts crying, I go in, give her the soother, she stops immediately and goes back to sleep. While it only takes a second, its still that interrupted sleep and I find I am back to being more tired again- as I was in the first couple months. Any suggestions Mom's? Do I just let her self-sooth and cry til she stops?

Oh last week, I had an enjoyable evening. Jordon's boss Darren came by on his big motorcycle and took me out for a drive to see if I liked it. Now I know they can be dangerous- but this was fun!! I loved it. LOL.

Lastly, I just changed the settings on this so that anyone can leave a comment on my posts. Before you had to be a "member". So heck- leave me a message and help me with all my crazy nonsense questions! hehe

Enjoy a few pictures!!!

Thursday, May 20, 2010

4 Months and Full of it!

Well the last week has seemed like Kaylee has changed so much, so quickly! I feel as if overnight my baby is turning into a little person.

Within the last few days, she has become SOOOO MUCH more vocal. Now, she has always coo'd and caw'd but now its more along the lines of talking and yelling. If I am doing something and have her on the playmat alone, she begins to yell and if I don't react in a timely fashion then she begins to scream. She has also started picking everything up and putting it in her mouth, actually playing with toys and also she requires being kept busy all the time. Long gone are the days where she would lay in her swing watching the musical teddy bear mobile above her head while sucking on her soother.
Tuesday evening we also hit a big milestone. KAYLEE ROLLED OVER!!! I have been bragging to anyone who will listen, so if you have already heard- I am sorry for repeating myself. LOL.
Tomorrow will be Kaylee's 4 month birthday. I am a little frightened by that thought. Where on earth did the time go and what on earth did I do before I had her in my life. hahaha.

On a more serious note, I am reaching out to fellow Mom's. Yesterday Kaylee refused to eat. She normally goes through 8, 4oz bottles a day. Yesterday it was a fight to get her to have 3. I am not sure why. She did have some cereal and even tried some baby food peas- which by the way was hilarious to watch her face. I did some reading online and it says that baby's who are cutting a tooth often refuse to suck on a bottle as the sucking sensation tends to bother their gums. So I am not sure if this is the case, but between not eating and for the third night in a row getting up every hour, I am not sure what is going on. Any suggestions Mom's?

I have begun doing research on preparing baby food. My girlfriend Krystal posted on her blog about her experience making her own food and I plan to tell all of you about my experience as well. Start with vegetables, try the came thing for 4 days to see if the baby has an allergic reaction and don't force them to finish a certain portion. That all seems easy enough. Any other suggestions on this topic?
I have to say, last night she bounced in her jolly jumper for about an hour. When Jordon came home we sat in front of her and let her try a couple baby foods- peas and apple-blueberry. Of course the fruit was a hit... The look on her face when it came to the peas was hilarious. I have also detested peas and therefore made Jordon take a bite just to see exactly what she was eating... The face he made when he took a bite was exactly the same as the one she had made. Then he said "Making her eat that is cruel". HAHAHA. Poor little monkey!
After Jordon gave her a bath and dressed her, I sat down in the rocking chair with her bottle to do our evening routine. She shove the bottle away, flailed her head, cried and absolutely refused to let that bottle near her mouth. I ended up reading her a story, putting her in her crib and she was fast asleep within minutes.
At this point, I was at a loss... Why will this child not eat! Grrr. I finished making supper- grilled chicken breast halves, grilled asparagus, and chicken stock rice. I could barely hold my head up by my last bite. Jordon took one look at me and said "Jaym, go get in the bath. I will clean up and make you a decaf tea. Bed early tonight for you". It was as if he read my mind... And while he always does the clean up of dishes and the table, I normally make sure to wipe down my stove and counters...I had no energy to do it, but would I really want to come out and see it dirty in the morning... Ugh, I wiped it down... Call it my OCD but I really hate a dirty kitchen.

After my bath I jumped into that wonderful king size bed so fast, I couldn't even pull back the sheets. Sleep came easily and my first 1am wake up came hard. What is going on with this baby!!!!

Anyway.... My neighbour- the one I made the garden for... Let me tell you... She cried and cried and cried. Thanking me so much and then ordering her hubby to go get the watering can and water her flowers. Adorable. My good deed really made me feel awesome.
Other then that, I want to send out a little note to my Nanny. She is an incredibly strong woman who is going through some health issues right now. That being said, I know it is nothing she cannot handle. She is amazing!

On that note, I am going to throw in a couple pictures of Kaylee over the last couple of days... if I do say so myself, she is the cutest baby I know ;)

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Video

Just a little of Kaylee making her new favorite noise! LOL

Good Deeds and the Jolly Jumper!


Well, as I have mentioned, Jordon and I have been working very hard on our yard and garden. Last night our sweet old neighbours came over or a little chat. This is very common. They are probably in their mid 80's and while they are sweet as pie, she is only able to get around with her walker and he does his very best to take care of her. Needless to say she commented on my garden and began to cry. She started telling me how very much she missed being able to garden and look out at her flowers. I felt terrible.

So this morning I decided to do a good deed. I took a wheel barrel of soil, and about 10 little flowers and went to work on the small garden that was once their around her precious rose bush. It took me about 40 minutes to weed the garden and then not long at all to get the soil in, the flowers in and then run for the hills! I know she is going to come out tonight when her and her husband go for a walk and see it. I know that she will likely cry and be happier with that little garden that took an hour of my time and maybe ten dollars. I also know that at the end of the day, I will feel good about doing something so small for someone who will truly appreciate it.
This is the little garden I cleaned up and put a few flowers in.

Anyhow, this is Kaylee's Korner and for that reason I am going to get back down to business.


Last night for some very strange reason, she was up every hour from midnight on. I am saying, pretty much like clock work she would wake up crying. I gave her the soother the first time, 1am I gave her a bottle, and her soother calmed her every other time until 6:30 this morning when she was up for her usual day. I am beside myself. My lovely little girl that sleeps 11 hours each night exhuasted me last night. When 6:30 rolled around today I wanted to pull the blankets up high and pretend I couldn't hear a thing. Of course this never works!
On a better note, this past weekend, Jordon bought Kaylee a Jolly Jumper. Let me tell you- she LOVES it. She sits in it for an hour or more at a time a couple times a day and looks so darn cute. For this reason, I also love it. It tires her out, entertains her and I know she cannot get hurt in it. What a great investment! Anyone else love theirs as much as I love mine?

Anyway, thats all for today. I think I am going to find a good book and sit in the sun on the back deck until my little miss decides to wake up for the afternoon!
Have a great day!

Monday, May 17, 2010

Infatuated!

My beautiful little Girl!

Wow! almost 2 weeks.... 12 days since my last post... I am not sure what to say except that summer is here, I have been outside so much, enjoying any nice weather we get and I also find that Kaylee is becoming so busy that sitting in her vibrating chair or her swing just doesn't cut it anymore.

Ok, so because I haven't written in a while, I am sure to write a novel, so bare with me here guys!
First of all, for anyone who knows me well, they know that I spent each and every summer as a girl in Bobcaygeon where my family had a trailer. Each weekend we would drive the 2 hours out of the city of Toronto and head up north to a little piece of heaven. Some of my absolute best childhood memories take place up here. It is afterall where I learned how to be that tomboy that I will always be at heart. Needless to say, over the years, my sister and I were generally the only kids in the park. Other children came and went, however we had been going up pretty much our whole lives. A lot of the other people in the park became our extended family. Watching out for us as we went too close to the water or getting into mischief as we shouldn't have been. Anyway, there is a point to this story... My Mom and Dad opened up the trailer this year for the 21st season in a row.... While many of the people up north are no longer up there due to many different reasons, others are still going up there. When they opened the trailer, a lot of those same people that watched me grow up and guided me along the way couldn't wait to speak to my parents about their new grand daughter. A second generation of "weekend trailer trash" as we often joked. So I would just like to say a special hello to those weekend Bobcaygeon people who follow my blog and are looking forward to meeting Kaylee as much as I am looking forward to introducing her.

Yep... Thats me up north- Maybe 12 years old?

Now that I have that out of the way, I can stop being so sentimental and tell everyone about my busy 2 weeks.

As I mentioned in my last blog (oh so long ago)... We had a playdate at my friend Jenn's house. While the playdate turned out be only Jenn and I (with of course the children), we still had a great time. Because of the smaller crowd, Kaylee was amazing. She layed on a playmat content, played with new toys that Jenn's daughter Kenzie was more then happy to share and- get this- she even napped at Jenn's house in the playpen!!! This was so exciting as I have been planning my trip to Toronto and was not sure how Kaylee would take sleeping in a playpen as she has only slept in her crib. Anyhow, we really enjoyed the day as well as Jenn's hospitality.

This is a picture of Kaylee in the Bumbo on her playmat as she tends to dislike laying down now adays!

Also in the last couple weeks we has Aunty Amanda's 25th birthday party. It went off without a hitch. She had no idea and was completely shocked. I had told a fib, telling her we would be going to Boston Pizza for a quiet dinner for her birthday and my first Mother's Day. This turned out to be a party with about 20 people and a really great time.


Amanda- Blowing out her Birthday Candles!!

Speaking of... My first Mother's Day. While I did say that I got my pile of dirt, it is pretty much now all in place. The 8 YARDS of soil have mostly found their place in both the front and back garden. Jordon worked insanely hard on filling the garden, replacing all the stone around the front garden with granite from a job site and working on the grass. Our home is beautiful and I love it. Mother's day we spent, as a beautiful little family enjoying each others company. I will admit, I did not get a card from Jordon.... First Mother's Day and no card... I know, I know.... I shouldn't complain, but sometimes its the little things men seem to forget. I did however get a beautiful card and doll from Amanda. She really has one of the biggest hearts around.

Now that Kaylee has been having naps, which I might mention are nowhere near 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon, but closer to 45 minutes to an hour. This is fine with me for the simple fact that she is sleeping through the night. While she naps I have probably gotten worse with my cleaning. I used to make sure the house was tidy and somewhat presentable should one of our neighbours stop by for a beer, which does tend to happen throughout the week... Now that I have time, I have begun making sure everything is CLEAN. I am now sure that I need to find a little hobby that I can do at home while she naps.... Come to think of it, I really should write my blog each day while she naps. haha.


The other day I decided I was going to start my own company. As anyone who knows me knows, I love food, I love to cook and I love to serve others. So, my bright plan was to start a small catering company and see how it goes from there. I have just created an ad that I am going to put on kijiji and on our mailbox on our street and see what kind of reaction I get. I figure it cannot hurt to try.



Last Thursday we also had our second set of needles. I feel exactly the same about them now as I did after the first set of needles. It is horrible to watch your child go through the pain. The after hours of those needles were not fun by any measure either. She had a fever, she was throwing up for a good portion of the afternoon and was all around cranky. She would not tolerate being put down. She simply wanted to be held and to cry for a good portion of the day. Friday she was also very fussy and slept more then usual. Thank goodness she was back to herself on Saturday.

Today- Monday... My house is spotless, the laundry is done, Kaylee is napping and now I am sitting here pondering what to do. I suppose I will go and look through my recipe books until I find something that catches my eye. Or maybe I should jump on the ellipitcal.... Hmmm. Tough choice- food or exercise.... HAHAHA!

Overall, I have to say that while she may not sleep like most babies and she may have a tad of a temper, I am utterly infatuated with her. She smiles and I can't help but smile, she laughs and I laugh, she learns how to make new noises and I watch her discover something new. I could watch Kaylee for hours when she is happy. I cannot find any other word besides infatuated. She is beautful and smart and quick and she is the most significant part of my life. I have never been so proud then to say I am Kaylee's Mom. I look forward to going through all of those milestones and cannot wait until the day she understands my "I love you's" and can say it back!

Anyways, I will leave you with some pictures from the last couple weeks, and I promise to write more often!

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Too Cute!

Kaylee "Seriously Mom... Bubbles on my head... Not even funny"

Well Kaylee was wonderful today! I hummed and hawed over whether or not to go shopping due to her naps, and in the end decided I was going to try it. If it didn't work, I would live and learn. So off to Walmart we went.... She was wonderful. That being said, I lost her favorite toy... She has this soft rattle with a Tigger head on it that she loves to suck and chew on... She must have been playing with it and it seemed to have disappeared. I didn't realize of course until I was at another store. I called when I got home but they had not seen it. Kind of a bummer considering it was a gift and when I went back to the place it had been purchased (Chapters), there were none there. I guess we need to find a new favorite toy.
Anyhow, We were gone from around 12:30-3. When I got home, I went through our routine and put her down for a nap. Without questioning me she went down and slept until 4:30! Awesome. She also still went down tonight at 7ish. I was thrilled.
This face reminds me of the mask from the horror movie "Scream" lol.
This morning when Jordon left for work he moved my car onto the street. I was curious as to why but figured maybe he wanted the rain to clean off the driveway or something bizarre like that. Anyway, around lunch time, a tandem dump truck showed up and dropped 8 YARDS OF SOIL!!!! For anyone who doesn't know, that is a whole heck of a lot of soil! I asked Jordon what on earth was going on and he explained that this was half of my Mother's Day present. We have a large back garden we have planned to get to and now that it is all cleaned up we needed soil (and a lot of it) to fill the bed before we can put all the seeds in my greenhouse in the ground. Needless to say he surprised me. What a sweet thing to do. Give me the garden I wanted. He also told me I could go to a garden house such as the Farmers Market and pick out a few things to put in my garden. I thought that was a really awesome gift. Gardening is something I have learned I really enjoy and now I will have a large garden to play in this summer. So good job Jordon! Totally impressed.

Anyway, back to Kaylee... Tomorrow we have a play date at my girlfriend Jenn's house. Everyone cross your fingers that she does not shriek the entire time like she did when I had the play date at my house.... I am really hoping she enjoys it and is not cranky.
Tonight, I gave Kaylee her bath, which isn't something that happens often. It is almost always the job Jordon has taken on however tonight he was shoveling dirt to the backyard with our neighbour! I took a couple cute pictures! Hope you enjoy!!! Oh and thanks to everyone for the Nap feedback!!!

The boys staring at the huge job ahead of them...

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

One day at a time!

Trying to Crawl

Well, where to begin... I suppose the last few days have been all over the place. We have been working very hard at this napping thing and while some days it seems to work quite well and she goes down (although never for an 2 hours. Usually closer to 45-minutes to 1 hour), other days it does not seem to happen at all. I have been trying the same routine each day. I found that for Kaylee, going down for a nap at 9am was too early however by 10am (ish) she is usually tired enough to crash for a little bit. Around the 45 minute mark she begins to fuss and I have been going in to give her the suss and then leave the room. For 2 days in a row, she cried for the next hour and 15 minutes as I continually went in to sooth her and then leave the room. I don't care what anyone says... It does go against a mothers nature to just let her baby cry.

Anyways, there have been the few days in between where she simply refuses to go down for a nap. I go through our regular night time routine with a bottle in the rocking chair until she begins to dose off but as soon as she is in her crib she begins to scream and cry like you have never heard before. Aweful....
My Smilin little girl!!!
Anyhow, I know it is a work in progress and I will continue to keep at this new step for us. I do have a question for anyone listening however.... What do you do about your "routine" when you need to do something through the day. For instance, today I needed groceries and to mail my Mom's Mother's Day card... This required 2 stops.

I first ventured to sobeys at 1:30 and it took a little less then an hour, then off to the post office at the SuperStore to send the card... Ok I then ended up wandering around the Joe's baby clothes until Kaylee was screaming and I was forced to leave. So by the time I got home it was 3:20 and she was wide awake from our little adventure and refused once again to nap. I tried leaving her in the crib and letting her know it was nap time but to no avail. Ok so the question- when you have errands- must you work them around the "nap time" or can you work the nap around your errands? I have a play date to go to this Thursday and it will interupt this "Scheduled nap" as well... Is this not a smart move?

Anyway, other then that, on Sunday I attended my girlfriend Nicolle's surprise baby shower. It was a great hit! Anna and Sheena did a great job with everything! She seemed surprised, I was happy to see many of our old friends together enjoying the company... Not to mention it was really nice to speak to other Mom's, relate to them and speak to adults and not babbling as I spend many of my days doing. I opted not to bring Kaylee with me for the simple fact that she does not seem to be crazy over crowds of people and I didn't want her to cry and fuss the entire time. Jordon spent the day with her and I must say.... From what I gathered from him when I got home, it was a tough day.... He said "She's in her swing... I have to get out for a little bit and have a break... I am going fishing" and off he went!I think he got a good taste of what I do each day. That being said, men are not quite the multi-taskers women can be. His dishes from anything he managed to eat through the day were where he had sat to eat it, her outfit was laying on her change table, and the dogs were still not fed. When I asked why everything was a mess he said "I can't do everything at once Jaym"...
Picture of Nicolle on her way into the surprise shower!

Hmmm, funny concept! Us ladies seem to manage somehow... HAHAHA.
Anyway, I love that he watched her for the day because I had a fantastic time!

Today Kaylee was wonderful. We went out and she did not scream the entire time (there were moments however I do think that is somewhat normal)... She had a nap in the morning for over an hour and while she didn't nap in the afternoon she did lay quietly in her swing for a half hour.
Tonight she seemed conpletely pooped and I put her down at 7:30. She has been amazing at sleeping through the night lately and therefore I have been able to enjoy most evenings to myself.

Tonight however I feel absolutely exhuasted as well. Must be all the extra chores I am doing while she naps... Its amazing how fast you can teach yourself to move when your child does lay down- in order to accomplsih as much as possible! Today's task- shampoo the living room couch... Daunting but necessary.

Anyhow, enough for todays ramble. I am going to try and get back to doing this blog more often as I do enjoy it and when I don't do it for a few days, my posts just seem to get longer and drag on!
Have a great day!!!!

Hanging out in our Bumbo!