Time flies when you are having fun!

Yes, I am a slacker! I know it has been awhile since I have blogged so I figure I will make up for it by overwhelming you with pictures galore. We have been busy the last few weeks and many things have changed in such a short amount of time. Here is the abbreviated version of our adventures.

* Kaylie has gained enough weight to avoid the dreaded feeding tube. Last week she weighed a solid 14 lbs. 5.5 oz. That is 3 oz. more than she needed to gain. The next step is feeding therapy. We have an appointment set for our initial evaluation on September 26th. That is the earliest they could get us in. The evaluation is 2 hours long and incorporates information from an occupational therapist, speech therapist, dietitian, as well as a psychologist to assess if her eating is due to behavior. Until then, we will continue to keep her off of all solids. We have increased her formula to 28 calories per 2 oz. helping her to pack on the weight.

* Kaylie is standing for short amounts of time on her own. You have to catch her off guard to do it. Usually she will just let go by herself without even realizing she did it. One day she stood for a good 30 seconds while turning to look at the dogs. Impressive

*She is squatting in a way that keeps her hinney off the floor.

* She is trying to stand up on her own.

* She now knows who da da really is. Jason walked into the room the other day and she took off towards him while repeating "da da" over and over.

* She has finished many 6 oz. bottles as well as drank over 30 oz. in one day. This is a huge difference when you see that prior to the medicine you may have gotten a bottle with 5 oz finished and maximum of 22 to 24 oz. in a day with 20 being the avg.

* She has her first tooth bud. I think it is trying to push its way through today. Many of the pictures I took from my gym have a variety of faces in which she is sucking on her mouth. The others that did not make it on were deleted due to excessive drooling. The other key is the amount of mouthing she is doing. Every toy has gone in her mouth today.

*She has started to hold a 4 oz. bottle and is working on an 8 oz.

When she is fussy at a restaurant we give her a spoon. Surprisingly, she loves them and stops crying. I am assuming it feels good on her gums. It is somewhat entertaining to watch until she flings it across the restaurant.

The first time she held her bottle we were at an all you can eat Chinese restaurant so this picture had to be taken with Jason's phone. Heaven forbid we miss a first.

Kaylie and Kalie got together to play. They had a blast splashing around in the water. Kalie has just started walking. Woo Hoo! Hopefully, Kaylie will catch on a little quicker because of that. She tries really hard and then looks confused when she lands on her bottom. She is determined and will catch on sooner than later. Jason and I need to make sure we are truly Kaylie proofed!

We decided to go to the Frisco Athletic Center and try out their pool. We had so much fun. Their is a huge splash pool for the younger kids with slides and spray fountains. This is in addition to the huge slide for the older kids as well as the lazy river and the main pool. At 4:30 the indoor pool opens up. This is similar to the outside just a little smaller.

In case you are wondering, yes...this suit is new and yes, I do spoil my child. I have gotten a lot of use out of all of her suits this summer and after taking them to the beach they were kind of nasty. For 7 dollars I couldn't pass it up. It doesn't help that she looks adorable in it.

Yes...this suit is new as well. I have stopped buying her clothes until she is in the next size so I thought buying two new suits would not hurt. I promise I will not do this when she is older. You can hold me to it!

It's like I caught her doing something wrong.

Aren't the two love birds adorable. The girl at Fletch's daycare better keep away if she knows what is good for her!


This is my absolute favorite picture of Fletch. He is standing so well. It just blows me away how grown up our babies are becoming. Every time I blink one of them is doing something new.

For the remainder of the summer I decided to join "My Gym." My Gym is a place where Kaylie can go to work on a lot of her motor skills. The first time we went it was crazy with kids everywhere. Since then they have opened a Tuesday class and are limiting the size of the class we originally attended to keep it from being crazy. This makes me very happy. Today we tried the Tuesday class and thank goodness their were only two other kids. We basically had free play on all the equipment. She and I had so much fun.

Kaylie is crawling up an inclined plane. It took her awhile to get the courage up to do it. Later on she crawled over and did it without any prompting. At one point she even tried to climb up a steep slide and was smart enough to use the edge to help her because she kept slipping. How smart is that?!?

First day in the ball pit was pretty scary. This time she was all smiles.

She loved pushing the balls all around. I think she figured out how to do that by watching some of the other kids.

As you can see by the picture the swing was not her favorite place to be.

After a few minutes she let go of her death grip and enjoyed the ride.

This was the best part of the day. I thought Kaylie was going to freak out over the zip line. Boy was I wrong. She did it three times. The trick was when one of the girls put an orange ball in to help keep her from flopping around. I think it gave her something to chew on taking her mind off the fact that she was flying through the air.

They were high of the ground and went somewhat fast. How fun is that!

For some reason she is fascinated by the steps. She is getting really good at going up them. We are working on the going down part.

Free play

Right before class ends they are given time to sit and play with each other while the parents stand back. They bring out a lot of different sensory toys to play with. These blocks were actually shakers. She loved them. We have recently purchased some more musical instruments for our house.

Their were so many other fun things for her to play with that I could not capture do to safety reasons. I didn't think getting a picture was worth my child falling off a plank or slide. Maybe next time!

Follow Up

First things first...Today Kaylie is officially 11 months "corrected" and let me tell you in the past week she has changed. It always amazes me how quickly their personalities change as they grow. She seems so much more alert and aware of her surroundings. She is exploring everything around her and trying to find different ways to do things. Her favorite thing to do is take toys out of a box and place it back in. Her other favorite thing to do is to take something and use it to skate across the room. To do this she gets into her crab walk position and pushes it around. The neat thing is when she takes another toy, places it on the original toy, and continues to skate. That takes a lot of brain power. As each day passes she relies less on us to hold her and actually stands somewhat independently. When she is not trying to stand she can stand for a good 30 seconds. The other day she actually turned to look at the dogs before gently lowering herself into a sit. It is only time before she stands up. Right now she balances herself by sitting in a squat with her baby booty off the ground. How cool is that. It is only time before she starts walking.

Now with that being said...As much as I love being with her this summer the child has turned into the Energizer Bunny. This morning she was EVERYWHERE and for those of you who have seen me first thing in the morning you know that when I am tired you can not speak to me until I have had a Diet Coke. Unfortunately some of you have figured that out the hard way. This morning I could not drink one fast enough. I blame it on her very FULL belly. It is amazing what a few extra calories will do for your energy level.

This morning we had an appointment with the dietitian and as expected things went well. The medicine we are giving her to help with her appetite is working very well. As of right now she has eaten 27 oz and still has one bottle left for the day. We have finished off 3 - 6 oz bottles today which is more than she used to eat in an entire day. With an incredibly happy heart I think I can officially call her my little butterball.

Her weight for today was 14 lbs 3 oz. That is a 15 oz increase from the first time we saw him in May. For the GI doctor to be happy taking away the possibility of needing a feeding tube I calculated she needed to be 14 lbs 2 oz. We go back to see him on Thursday and I think he is going to be pleased.

Most likely at our appt on Thursday he will refer us to a feeding therapist at Our Children's House of Baylor. The program is intense for these little ones but hopefully we can over come this last hurdle of eating solids and move on.

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers. Please pray the GI doc will feel the same way we feel now and that Kaylie will continue to eat and move forward.

Fourth of July

Since we had just come back from our trip we decided to spend the 4th somewhat quietly. We ended up staying at Blake and Jolie's so that they could go to the lake to spend time with their family. It benefited us because we could enjoy their pool. This was the first time Kaylie actually allowed us to put her in the float and let her go. Overall our low key day was rather enjoyable.

Her hat is a little big for her. Here is a picture of her crab walk. This is the way she likes to crawl.

Galveston

For those of you that know Jason and I you know that we love to travel. Since February of 2007 we have not been able to travel and had become incredibly stir crazy. This summer we had the opportunity to join Jason's family for our first official trip as a new family. We took a healthy baby to Galveston to enjoy a week full of fun and excitement with her grandma, great grandma, great grandpa, and several other special family members and friends. It was wonderful to see how much they enjoyed being able to spend time with Kaylie doing exactly what Kaylie likes to do. We had a blast and felt so privileged to be able to take our finally healthy baby girl to explore the world that God has created for us. I hope that this is the first of many more family vacations to come.

Kaylie discovered she loves windows. Jennifer also discovered she likes windows. It made me smile as Kaylie laughed at her.

Jason's cousin Hillary. Kaylie really wanted her hat. Hopefully that means she is an Aggie and not a Longhorn.

Getting ready to go to the beach. I do not think she knows what she is in for!

Our first time as a family to go to the beach.

On this trip I realized how much a parent does for their child that is completely out of their own comfort zone giving me so much respect for our mom and dads. I personally hate the sand. It grosses me out when you realize it is every where. This trip, as Kaylie crawled all over me with her sandy hands, I realized I didn't care anymore because she was having fun. It didn't matter that I had sand in my hair and all down my suit because I love my child and would do anything to know she was loving her life. Thanks mom and dad.

To my mom...sorry about the Tilt O' Whirl!

Kaylie enjoyed eating the sand. She was ok with the water until we put her closer to the waves. She freaked when the first wave broke near hear. I do not think she liked the sound.

Clean up consisted of a baby and a hose. She looks happier here than she really was.

Since it is the middle of summer in Texas and the temps are close to if not in the 100's we decided to set up her pool under a tent on the porch of the house we were staying at so she could play. It was great. We did not have to worry about her getting burned and everyone was able to enjoy watching her play.

Kaylie got the biggest kick out of pulling everything out of the bag that is behind her. I have never seen her throw things so hard just so she could get to the next thing. I ended up leaving the bag their for her to play with. She was entertained for several days with this.

As you can see from the mess behind her she is proud of herself.

The pink sting ray and orange starfish are two of her favorite toys.

Galveston Part 2

She is destined to be a dentist when she grows up. She is obsessed with teeth.

She is also obsessed with taking the pacifier out of Jason's mouth.

Watching her problem solve how to take this hate of was rather funny.

On Wednesday we went to the Aquarium at Moody Gardens. I took some photos while we waited to go in.

This picture is our signature picture where Jason puts his arm out. The only problem is fitting a 3rd person in this. I personally think it turned out pretty well.

Jason and I were not really sure if she would pay any attention to the fish. We were pleasantly surprised to see how much she loved it. She was so excited to watch the seals swim by.

This is my favorite picture.

Grandma Chris

Great Grandma Jo

Great Papa

I think we wore her out.

Galveston Part 3

This hand puppet was an otter that grandma Chris gave Kaylie from Moody Gardens. She smiles every time she sees it.

Right before we went to the beach for the last time we were blessed to have Safelite come out and fix our windshield. On the way to Galveston we were very blessed to get there safely. While we were driving in downtown Houston something flew up from a truck in front of us and hit our windshield sending glass inside our car. Thank goodness my wonderfully talented husband did not even flinch. As the guy fixed the windshield he found the culprit. We were hit by a solid metal ball bearing that was about a 1/2 an inch in diameter. The guy told us people die from this. I thank God for getting us there safely!

Our last day at the beach.

She was able to relax the last day and seemed to do a lot better with the waves.

I know it is hard to see but we put her name in the sand.

The Macmurphys first family vacation.