Get Ready, Set....

...but we're not quite to the "Go" stage yet. She's SO close!

When she gets tired of practicing her crawl stance, she likes to take a break by lounging on her side for a few minutes. It looks like she's getting ready to do some leg lifts. It cracks us up! If we only had baby leg warmers!

A New Friend

Yesterday, I got to spend some time with Anne, a dear friend since college, who is visiting Nashville for a few days. We haven't seen each other in about a year and a half, and in that time, we each had a baby! It was really special having Ryan and Kaitlyn meet for the first time. Ryan is 14 months old and spent most of his time running around and checking out Kaitlyn's toys. Since she's still not very mobile, Kaitlyn was content to watch his energetic motions with fascination. It gives me a glimpse of what life will be like for us in a few months! There was a little incident involving a toy cell phone that they both wanted, but it was resolved without too many tears. And somehow, Anne and I managed to have a little adult conversation in between all the madness. I'm learning that moms have an amazing ability to multitask!

In other Kaitlyn news, she has become a rocking maniac. She rocks when she's in her Exersaucer and somehow manages to move it all the way across the floor. She loves rocking back and forth in my lap or when I'm holding her in a standing position. Yesterday, we put her in her jumper for the first time (the kind that hangs in the doorway). She was in heaven as she was bouncing around to her heart's content.

Kaitlyn's still just thinking about crawling. She gets up on all fours many times throughout the day but hasn't figured out how to coordinate the arms and legs into any meaningful forward motion. She still scoots around Army style to get wherever she wants to go. But that's just fine with me! She's pretty easy to supervise right now :)

Rock-n-Roll Baby

Christmas Celebrations, Part 3

After Christmas, we drove to Memphis to be with Jeff's family. With nine adults, two babies, and two dogs, it was a full house for several days! But it was a very special time since we're rarely all under the same roof. And it was doubly special for Mimi and Papa Greg because it was the first time that they had both of their grandchildren together.

Mimi and Kaitlyn

Noah and Kaitlyn got lots of clothes, toys, and books. They also got their very first pair of Robeez.

We tried to get them to model their new shoes, but Kaitlyn was more interested in her new remote control, and Noah was apparently trying to eat her shoulder.

It's always fun getting the cousins together. They keep getting more and more aware of each other. They always seem more interested in what the other one has. Should make things interesting as they get older!

We were blessed to have Aunt Gayle join us for Christmas this year. She was great with the babies, and she gave the dogs lots of love and attention. Poor Kasha and Chloe...they used to be the center of attention before the babies came along. Now they spend most of their time chasing each other around outside.

With so many people together in one house, it nice to have fun activities to do. So Jess bought a puzzle with a travel theme (sure to go over big in our travel-loving family!) Jeff got things started, and then the rest of the family got hooked. We finished the whole thing in less than 24 hours. It was actually a challenging puzzle since the whole bottom row of locations wasn't even pictured on the box. Try working part of a puzzle with no picture to reference! We were very proud of our completed puzzle, so we had to take a picture :)


Thanks to Jess for taking most of these pictures!

Christmas Celebrations, Part 2

Here's a cute picture from Christmas Eve dinner. Why play with new toys when there's a bowl around? Kaitlyn had us in stitches all evening with her antics. At least it allowed us to eat dinner in peace!

Christmas morning was filled with excitement...for the adults. Of course, Kaitlyn had no idea that Santa had visited the night before, but we were eager to celebrate her first Christmas. She was a great sport for the first few presents, happily ripping paper and chewing on ribbons. But apparently it's hard work opening presents, and she started getting a little cranky after a while. We opened the rest for her while she watched and took a much-needed break.

Here she is eagerly opening her first present from Santa...

...and here she is towards the end. She's not too sure about this strange new contraption.A little later, we took a picture of Kaitlyn with all of her Christmas morning loot.


And finally, some Christmas family pictures.

Christmas Celebrations, Part 1

After being out of town for a week, we are glad to be home! We spent a few days with my family in Fayetteville, and then traveled to Memphis to be with Jeff's family. It's always fun to be with loved ones over the holidays. Because of our travels, we celebrated Christmas several times, including one with just the three of us before we hit the road. Santa and the grandparents were very good to Kaitlyn this year, and she now has lots of new toys to play with and clothes to wear! Our car was packed to the roof with baby gear and gifts on the way home!

Like all babies, Kaitlyn had loads of fun with the wrapping paper. And she was moderately interested in the actual gift too! Here are a couple of pictures from our first celebration at home with Mommy and Daddy. Even though she had no idea what was really going on, she still had a great time.

In Fayetteville, we made the rounds to some extended family members. Here's Kaitlyn with Aunt Judy, my late dad's sister, on Christmas Eve.


And with Jerry and Sue, my mom's brother and sister-in-law.


The family visits continued on Christmas Day. We dressed Kaitlyn up in her Santa dress and took her to see my 97-year old great Aunt Lena. She can't get out of the house anymore, so she was happy to get a visit from her festive "great-grand-niece."


We ended up the day by visiting with Jim and his family. It was Kaitlyn's first time to meet Danny, Moneca, Dan David and Jon Morgan. I can't believe that Dan David's in high school! Time certainly does fly!

More pictures to follow in the next couple of days!

Christmas Girl

Here is Kaitlyn's official Christmas picture, taken by her own personal photographer, aka Daddy. We really have too much fun playing dress up with her!

Jeff and I have noticed a significant increase in Kaitlyn's activity level lately. When she's awake, she's constantly in motion. And those hands never stop grabbing for anything within reach. Although she's not crawling yet, she can pretty much get anywhere she wants to go with a combination rolling/scooting motion. We can tell that she wants to be able to move more quickly (i.e crawl), but she just hasn't figured out how to coordinate those arms and legs yet. But that's okay with us! I don't know if we're ready for the craziness and the childproofing that comes with increased mobility!

Her First Tooth!

Kaitlyn has officially entered the world of pearly whites. After her lunchtime bottle, I noticed a little spot on her bottom gum. I put my finger in her mouth and felt a sharp little tooth sticking out. Those things come up fast! I checked her mouth a couple of days ago and didn't feel a thing! I haven't gotten a good look at it yet, much less a picture. She either sticks her tongue out or puts her fingers in her mouth whenever I try. Fortunately, she hasn't been fussy at all with this first one. In fact, she's been sleeping a lot more the past few days. Maybe the whole teething process will be like this :)

Breakfast with Santa

Yesterday, we attended "Breakfast with Santa" at our church. One of the great things about being a first-time parent is having a reason to attend all those church functions that we never went to before. Our children's ministers, Janet and Melanie, put together a fun-filled program that included Christmas carols, stories, crafts, breakfast, and, of course, pictures with Santa. There were almost 200 kids in attendance, so Santa was definitely one popular guy!

We were hoping for the best when Kaitlyn met Santa for the first time, but we were prepared for crying. After all, a stranger in a bright red suit with a white beard covering his face is a scary prospect for a baby. I kind of "backed her in" to Santa so she wouldn't get too freaked out. She barely even looked at him. Instead, she was delighted by all the wonderful sights and sounds in front of her. She flashed the biggest smiles while the camera flashes were going off around her. Maybe she has a future on the red carpet!

Kaitlyn and Mommy

Kaitlyn with Mommy and Daddy

Kaitlyn, Kasha and Mirrors

Two things that Kaitlyn loves to do during the day:

(1) Look at herself in the mirror. It's instant entertainment that apparently never gets old.


(2) Watch our dog, Kasha. She also loves to grab a handful of fur and yank with all her might. We're working on the meaning of "Be gentle." Until we master that concept, Kasha has learned not to get too close.