Jump-a-Roo

Wow! What a fun time Kayla has in this Jump-a-Roo. Take a look!

First Thanksgiving 2007

I tried not to get this bib dirty to take pictures. She went through about 3 outfits this day b/c of Dad spilling coffee on the chair and her, and some very explosive poop. She had fun the whole day though and it was nice to be home with her.

We had a "Thanksgiving" dinner with Chad's parents Sunday afternoon after the dedication. We had ham then and a "tur-duck-en" on Thanksgiving day. You'll have to ask Chad about it. It was good, but a new experience. Kayla did really good this day. I fed her the carrots and a bootle about 11:30 AM and she was asleep the whole time we ate. Chad invited a couple of friends over and it was the 5 of us (including my Dad) for Thanksgiving dinner at our place. This picture is from the Sunday dinner where I used my fine china. I like to do that each year.
The evening after all the food.
My dad had a lot of fun playing with Kayla. He kept her the next day when we were both at work and it went over well. He got to feed her babyfood and experience all of her moods. They had fun together.

Kayla's Dedication 11-18-07

Us on stage with Kayla at her dedication. She was really good the whole time. We brought her to the nursery afterwards though.

I was so glad that Nan and Papaw got to be there for this special time.

We're proud parents.

Our friends the Vega's dedicated thier precious second daughter, Naomi this day also.

We dedicated Kayla to the church last Sunday. It was a very joyous occasion with Chad's parents there and many of our Rogers friends to watch. It all seemed pretty fast. They called us on stage and read her bible verse that we picked for her. (Numbers 6 24:26) We found out that her name means "enchanted". We always new she was our little fairy tale princess. Anyway, Scott Page prayed over us and they gave us a prayer book for our baby. We tried to video tape it but for some reason it didn't come out. We will always have this special time in our memories though.

Chad's uncle gave Kayla a great dedication gift. It was a Precious Moments bible with her full name inscribed on the front. She can have this her whole childhood and be her first bible. Thank you Terry and Faye it is very sweet.

Babyfood

YEAH!! We're now on babyfood!! As you can see its a really big adventure everytime. She's getting the hang of eating it now, but at first she would spit it out just like she did the cereal. Now, she acts unsure at first then she recognizes it and is all about opening her mouth really wide and actually grabbing the spoon herself. It gets all over the bib, her mouth, shirt and the Boppy seat. It seems to clean up easily though and not stain the clothing.
We've started with Sweet potatoes and ventured out to Carrots on Thanksgiving Day. I usually feed it to her first at her lunch and evening feeding. She'll usually take just about 1/2 of the babyfood carton then have a 6 oz bottle.
She eats every 3 hours nowdays and still even wakes up for a night feeding. I try to break her of that, but I do like my sleep and usually give in, b/c I don't want to be up all night trying to soothe her. I figure she'll grow out of it. (maybe, hopefully). Meanwhile, we're having fun with the new adventure of babyfood. She seems to take to it well.

New Jumperoo

Nan and Pawpaw got Kayla her new favorite toy. Its the Rainforest Jumperoo!!! This is the best invention ever!! It is such a great parent relief when she wants to play and needs to burn off a lot of energy and you are exhausted or need to do housework. It is very interactive and educational for her and lets her bounce till her heart's content. She loves it!! That is until she gets tired and fussy and wants to be held or do something else. She always keeps us on our toes!! We love her for it. We love to see her smile and laugh at anything.

5 months old!!

This was actually an evening of one of the days I had to stay home with Kayla b/c she was sick. We brought her to the doctor and he just thought it was a virus. Apparently it was b/c when Chad's parents came in the next weekend, they got sick too. Sorry about that. I think we're all over it now. It was a bad one that I hope won't happen again.


We were trying to get a smiling picture on her 5 month birthday and this is as good as we got. She was getting over being sick and didn't feel 100%

Kayla Gail is 5 months old now. She's really growing up fast and getting a personality. By the last doctor's visit she's about 14 1/2 pounds. Her favorite thing to do now days is blow rasberries "bubbles" and she's getting really good at it. She gets on a roll and doesn't stop. She's finally well now and in good spirits everyday. She is still a pretty mellow baby and is pretty content most of the time, but she does like to squeal in a very high pitch when she gets excited. I like to give her a lot of kisses and she's getting to where she will try to chew on my nose if I get it close enough. She's teething right now and drooling like crazy. We probably go through about 4 bibs a day. She loves to stand up on your lap &/or bounce. She is almost sitting up and not really rolling over as much. She loves to play with her toys when she's in the mood. In the morning we'll just lay her down on her back and she's content with that. She loves to be held and smiled at, and she'll return the favor a lot. She's getting to know us and her grandparents pretty well. Chad keeps saying "da-da" to her hopeing that they might be her first words. I don't really care what they are. I just want to hear them.

Family sickness

Me and Kayla at the hospital. If you look closely at her arm, she had an IV in and an arm board on to keep it straight. She was a good trooper. She didn't cry very much and was really content the whole night. We were so sleepy, but very concerned.

So, here's the story of this weekend. Friday evening, I went out with some friends for dinner and shopping. As soon as I left Kayla threw up her formula she was eating. After about 2 hours, Chad calls me and tells me that she has been throwing up all evening to the point of dry heaving and throwing up bile. I called the "after-hours clinic" and they told me that if she was coughing to the point of waking herself up, then go to the ER. Well, when I came home at about 8:30, she still was throwing up, so off we went to the ER at Washington Regoinal. The doc took a while to see us and mean while Kayla was sleeping, but when he did, he found that she has an ear infection and a stomach bug. He wanted to just feed her Pedialyte and see if she held that down. Well, we feed her 2 oz and she threw it up about a minute after. So, then it was time for the IV. It was a challenge for the nurses to get the IV started in her little veins, but they finally did about 12:30 PM and it had to run for about 2 hours. So, we were in for the long haul. I slept off and on with Kayla in my arms in between doctors, lab techs, and nurses coming in. After the IV was finished, they gave her an antibiotic for the ear infection through the IV and we fed her 4 oz of Pedialyte slowly and she kept it down. We finally left the hospital about 5:00AM and got about 3 hours of sleep when we came home.

This weekend we've stayed home to take care of Kayla. Its been nice for the family to have alot of together time. We only fed her Pedialyte yesterday and she kept that down pretty good. Today we've been feeding her half strength formula and she threw up one of the feedings. We've also had to give her medicine for the ear infections which is horrible to watch, b/c we have to force it down her and make her not spit it out. Its been a trying weekend and she's still not 100%. Chad's not been feeling good and I vomited by supper. We're just all sharing the virus. Its easier for us to get over though and we can take medicine for it. I'm staying home with Kayla tomorrow so we'll see what happens. I just want her to stay well. I'm tired of these silly viruses.

1st Halloween

I got the bright idea to carve our pumpkin a week and a half before Halloween and it was old and moldy that night. Oh well, its a lesson learned and it had caracter. I'm glad it didn't burn up.

Kayla was a Pretty Pink Flower for her 1st Halloween. I think we had more fun than she did, but she really didn't mind being in the costume. We couldn't get a good smiling picture in it though.

It was so fun to show her off this year. We went to Chad's work (Wal-Mart home office) and walked around the cubicles to show her off. Alot of familes come up there on Halloween all dressed up and get candy. She can't eat candy yet, but it was really fun for Chad's coworker's to see her. We then treked through all the traffic and made it home by about 6. We got about 40 trick or treaters in an hour then went out to eat pizza with friends. Their little boy was a cowboy. It was so fun seeing all the babies dressed up this year. It will be more fun next year when they actually know what is going on.

4 months old!!

Her 4 month birthday picture!

Her first pair of shoes from Grandma Nan, many more to follow. It looks like she's gonna have a shoe fettish too.
She love to hold and chew on her feet.

Holding her head up really well now.

She loves to give us a big smile. Especially daddy and his funny faces.

Well, our baby is growing up so fast. We had her 4 month check up last week and it went pretty well. She is now 14 lbs, 24 inches and in the 75th percentile for her age. The doc said she is very proportional. We are so proud!!

The milestones are: She's able to play with a toy while on her tummy, roll over to her tummy, but hasn't mastered rolling from tummy to back. (she gets frustrated easily) She can transfer a toy from one hand to the other and blows rasberries all the time. Kayla has a small laugh when she is really happy and smiles really big. She is more interested in toys and can interact with them more. We really need to get her a bouncer b/c she loves to bounce when we hold her up. I read something that said that their brain is a little more advanced than their movements so they get frustrated b/c they can't do what they want to do. We've definately experienced that. She's so much fun to be around nowdays and is sleeping through the night more. It really depends on how she feels and how much she's eaten before she goes to sleep.

We're having to take her to get an ultrasound on her left hip b/c she might have hip displatia. The doc says that this can interfere with her walking later on. Also, she still has a heart murmur and we're sending her to the AR Children's Hospital Cardiac Clinic here in Lowell in Dec to check that out further. By then she'll be almost 6 months old. The doc says its not a big deal, just need to keep an eye on it. Surgery could be possible. EEEK!!

The Cereal War

What the heck is this stuff???!!

She's warming up to the idea. Sh'e messy though!

We've now taught her how to feed herself!! :) She like to hold the spoon. I guess that means she likes it.

On Kayla's 4 month birthday, we started to introduce rice cereal to her diet. She protested greatly and quickly told us that she would not have any part of it. At first, I just made a little bit (what the package told me to do) and fed her the cereal and the bottle. Alternating the bottle and cereal to calm her down, but still get some cereal down her. I was really tempted to feed it to her through the bottle, but quickly learned that you have to have the special nipple to do that. Since then, I've gotten alot of advice in relation to the cereal eating event, from family, friends, coworkers, and our doctor. He said to just be gradual and have fun with it. So, since then, thats what we've been doing. I just give it when its convenient for us and she's in a good mood at home. Someone told me to do it about an hour after her normal bottle feeding time so she's not crying for food, but still could eat. That seems to work out great! She'll now eat 1 oz of cereal in about 5-10 minutes and will let me know when she's done. As you can see from the pictures, she's still messy, but cute with it. They are even trying it at the daycare.

War Eagle Craft Fair

The family at War Eagle. 10-20-07. It was a really pretty day and pretty scenery.

Mom, Me, Brittany, Kayla and Tristin. This was the first time we put Kayla in the stroller and not her in the car seat sitting on the stroller. She liked it alot, she got to see all the people. I learned how good those strollers work on gravel. They really make those things well for people like me who beat them up.

Kayla in her crafting outfit. She loves to stand up on your lap nowdays and is laughing and smiling really big.

During our hour and a half wait in traffic to get to War Eagle we had fun in the car with the babies. Kayla had a really stinky diaper that we had to change in the front seat of the car, and Tristin was as crazy as ever. They we're both really good babies and we had fun.

We went for brunch at IHOP before War Eagle.

My mom and sister can in town for this year's craft fairs and to visit for a weekend. It was so fun to have the babies together again. They really interact with each other more nowdays. Tristin is scooting and will be crawling then walking in probably another month. She's always on the move, compared to Kayla who is more mellow and content with just lookin around.

Going Home in October

The family at the reunion picnic wher we got to show off Kayla to all his old classmates.
Kayla and Tristin playing together. Tristin would put her mouth on Kayla's head and roll aroud with her.

Kayla and Nan at Grandma's house.

It really makes me sad that I haven't posted any blogs in a while. It just takes time, and between work and being with Kayla in the evenings, its just not possible. I vow to catch up today though.

We went home Oct 13th weekend for Chad's 10 year high school reunion. It was loads of fun to see family and friends we haven't seen in a while. Kayla stayed at my sister's house with her cousin Tristin the night of the Homecoming game. They played together so much that they shared their sicknesses. Kayla got Tristin's cold and I had to hold her in an upright position all night so that she could breathe b/c of her stuffy nose. We got her some Little Noses and took her to the doc when we got home and he confirmed it was a cold and to just keep doing what I was doing. Thanks doc, thats why we pay you the big bucks. Kayla has been sick most of October. She started out with a virus and had to stay home from daycare a couple of days before we went home. It lasted about 2 weeks. So, for a while, she had a stuffy nose and loose bowels, but still really happy baby. I thought she would never get over it and that it was just the norm of her bowel movements to be loose. She finally had a few days of normal poop and then we got shots. But, thats another blog. Nan had alot of fun keeping Kayla. She had so much fun that she opted to follow us home and keep Kayla for 3 days to keep her out of daycare in order for her to get well. It worked pretty good.