Valentines Day 2012

Like every Tuesday since the school year started, I had to go into work today. This is really not a bad thing, I actually enjoy my one day a week being in the world of adults - though I often find myself interacting with them like I do with my child, like making funny noises when describing things. I always go into work without any worries because my pastor's wife watches Kyleigh and I know she is getting the most wonderful, personal care and she gets to play with her friend Clayton (or as Kyleigh says, "ay-ton.") So like every other Tuesday, I went into work.

I had a pretty normal day - staying super busy from the time I got there to the time I left. Today was a little different though. I got the most adorable picture of Kyleigh sent to me from Sheri. You can see if you agree. :)

And now we reach the real reason I decided to write today. I can't believe how big my little girl is getting. This last week was a rather rough week - Kyleigh was sick from Wednesday until Sunday. Not much sleep was had by anyone (well I'm not sure how much Jon was affected). Since she was running a really high fever for a couple of days, I took her to the Doctor on Friday. Turns out my little girl had gained almost another whole pound since a few weeks ago.

She's still such a peanut compared to other little ones her age, but at 14.5 months she weighed in at 17 lbs 10 oz which is huge because at her 12 month check up she weighed in at 15 lbs 4 oz.

My little girl is also getting so talkative and really seems to know how to get her point acrossed. I'm sure most people in a relationship did all sorts of "special" things today. Our "special" was picking up our daughter, going home briefly to unload the car of my work, picking up our other car from Jon's parents' house, dropping off our family car to get the muffler fixed and then getting McDonald's on our way home. Now that Kyleigh eats solids we generally get her the McBites and some fries. She loves that she can eat food like Mommy and Daddy. Since Kyleigh and Daddy got the McBites Shareable size, I gave Kyleigh to Jon so they could share their meal. She was slowing down on eating and starting to goof off. We'd asked her if she wanted anymore fries or chicken "cluck, cluck" and she shook her head no. A few minutes later though, I heard her saying "I wan cluck cluck" as she pointed to where her pieces of chicken were sitting. I couldn't believe how clear it was. Though Jon had no idea what she had said - I guess I just hang out with her a lot!

Other recent conversations from Kyleigh include:

Bedtime delay tactics:

•  As Mommy was holding her and rocking her back and forth after a diaper change and a bottle (all possible needs taken care of): Kyleigh looked up at Mommy and said "cack-er." This is comical to me because I was the queen at these kind of delay tactics. Though I always thought my parents were having a "party" after I went to bed which was why I'd try to stay up.
• A couple of weeks later: same scenario. Kyleigh pointed at her eye and said "eye." Mommy said, "Yes, that is your eye. But you need to close your eyes so that you can go to sleep." Kyleigh then pointed at her ear and said "ear." Mommy said, "Yes, that is your ear. I know you can hear me and know that it is time for your eyes to close so you can go to sleep." As you can guess this just started the pointing at her eye again. We did this a couple of times with her pointing at her eye and saying what it was and then me telling her to close her eyes and then her pointing at her ear. Finally I figured she'd delayed enough and put her in her crib for the night.

Playtime:

•  Generally when I'm working, Kyleigh is in her pack-n-play playing with her toys. Her most recent "hobby" is standing up and walking along the edge as she knocks on the wall right next to her pack-n-play. I typically will respond with a knock, knock...who's there? Of course, it started out that I rarely got a response other than a quizzical look. She surpised me the other day by saying "Ky-ee!"
   

Kyleigh is still not walking -  though for the past 7 months she has been pulling herself up on furniture and walking along it. She was standing alone the other day until she realized what was going on and then sat down. Everytime I try to get her to walk to Mommy, she gives me a huge smile and shakes her head no.

She is also growing into a tease! She loves to put her cracker in the face of the dogs and then pull it away. I think she has discovered this gets the best response. She has tried all sorts of things like her toys, their toys, her felt cookies that her Aunt Missy made her, etc. You can tell she is trying to find out what gets them super excited. Once she finds something that they want, she keeps waving it at them and when they try to get it she pulls away and laughs at them. The dogs are so good with her, even when they are trying to grab food from her!

Miscellaneous things I love about being Kyleigh's Mommy:

• I absolutely love getting her up from nap time. I'm usually working when I hear her little voice through the monitor. Sometimes, I can go right up to get her. Other times I'm in the middle of something and have to wait a few minutes to get her. It doesn't seem to matter though. When I reach the top of the stairs, she starts jumping up and down laughing and continues to chatter away. I guess she is telling me about her dreams. :)
• I love how a boring day can be brightened by her little voice and laugh.
• She is such a happy baby - most of the time!

I'm so glad that I have my little Valentine to enjoy! I'm hoping that I'll be able to get some Valentine pictures of her, though they obviously will be a little after Valentines Day.