Monkey Girl

Kayla is a monkey. She is a giggly, playful, roly-poly monkey. Now that she knows how to get around she is on a mission of exploration. She is zooming from place to place, toppling everything within reach and tasting everything from her new doll to her mommy's leather purse. She is also perfecting the art of standing up. She pushes up to standing using lower shelves. She pulls to standing using higher stools. She has even been trying to stand without the aid of any props, but this usually just results in her doing a bizarre handstand that would make most yoga teachers proud. All she wants to do, now that she's figured out that she can, is use anything and everything to climb up to a standing position. She tried using her new drum (thank you, aunt K)...fail. Turns out that the little solo drum is not quite sturdy enough to be used as a crutch. Then she tried her new ball shooting elephant thing (sorry, there is just no better name for it). Fail again. Also rickety, the elephant let her down, refusing to let her climb it like a ladder. She fared better using Mommy and Daddy, pulling and pushing at legs, shoulders, stomachs, heads...whatever it took to get her to a full upright standing posture. She also fares better using the TV stand, but there is the occasional kaboom moment with that one...so hard to know when to step in and when to let her explore and experience on her own. I think we're finding a pretty fabulous balance though.



Kayla's biggest event as of late was her trip to Daddy's office party. She woke up at 730am that morning and was so excited to find not just Mommy, not just Daddy, but Mommy, Daddy AND Aunt K, ALL OF THEM RIGHT THERE AT THE SIDE OF HER CRIB, YAHOOOOO!!!!!! that she couldn't stay asleep long enough to get in a decent first nap. So, when she woke up after only 20mins, I was terrified that the party was going to be a nightmare...that she wouldn't make it through more than thirty minutes before she was tired and cranky and ready to pass out.






I stand corrected.

Not only did Kayla make it through thirty minutes, she made it through two HOURS and thirty minutes and she made it through in rock star style. She smiled and laughed at everyone and everything. She made friends on the ferry, friends in the elevator, friends in line to see Santa...she was hilarious. She just grinned and grinned and grinned. It was so much fun. Plus, the party was just all around impressive. They had free pictures with Santa, the most amazing balloon animal artists (that's right, ARTISTS), free pillow pets for every kid, a free Build-a-Bear workshop, great food, Disney movies playing in the conference rooms...it was adorable. The kids loved it, from the eight year olds down to the eight month olds.


Kayla attempting to out Santa...




Kayla and her Mama




Kayla saying "Wait! Turn me back around! I want to keep an eye on those weird furry things!"




And Kayla thinking that Daddy may have finally lost it...




Kayla is now officially in the Christmas spirit and is ready to get out to Washington to celebrate the Big Day! Until then, she'll keep practicing for Christmas by opening gifts, hanging ornaments, sitting on Santa's lap and participating in any other holiday fun she can.


Kayla's First Christmas Ornament!




Of course, the present unwrapping...well...it's a work in progress...

Continual Growth and Failing Force Fields

A wise Benjamin Franklin once said "Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning." Fine, Ben, fine. Continual growth leads to great things, blah blah blah. I am certain that one day, as I watch Kayla approach a podium, preparing to make her acceptance speech (Nobel Prize...Presidency...), I will agree. That said...currently, continual growth is leading to this: a certain little baby crawling around the room at the speed of light and exposing our apartment for the certain death trap that it is.

Kayla is a crawler. No more army crawl, no more worm-dance across the carpet, she is up on hands and knees, boldly going where no Smush has gone before. And, unfortunately, those destinations tend to be the rickety DVD stands, the multitude of TV related chords, the piece of plastic wrap that somehow managed to slip, fall and wind up under the edge of the couch...the kid has Danger Radar and not in the Spidey Sense - danger is near, seek safety - way, but more in the Evil Knievel - "Did someone say "danger"? YAHOO!!!!" - way. How? Why? I don't know, but she somehow manages to spot the ever-so-dull looking DVR machine from across the room and she zeroes in and *ZOOM*, in the blink of an eye she is on it, trying to pull it, bite it, stick her fingers in it...what is the appeal??

And so, it appears that the time to baby proof is upon us. And let me tell you, this is no easy task. When you think of baby proofing, you think of moving breakable objects off of lower shelves, you think of putting locks on cabinets that house chemicals, you think of plugging outlets and securing bookshelves, and all of these things are good. They're great. And they aren't enough. What you probably haven't thought of is where you are going to put those two tall DVD towers that, no matter what you do, are topple dangers. You probably haven't thought about what you're going to do about the DVD and DVR players that are sitting on the exposed shelves of your TV stand and which have no other place to go. You probably haven't thought about the fact that there are chords in your living room that have to be there (hello, you need light...), but that are baby magnets, no matter how far behind that lamp you try to shove them. And you probably haven't thought about the fact that pretty soon your baby is going to be pulling up and oh God...it's a whole other world of dangers. I've been trying to baby proof, but it is so freaking hard. Thank God for the Exersaucer, which is the only way one can run to the bathroom, run to find a phone or run to answer the door, when baby is awake, without having to worry about baby trying to take her own life into her hands while you're out of sight.

For awhile, we thought we were safe. Yes, Kayla was crawling, but she seemed to be trapped on the rubber play mat we'd set out in the center of the room. She would zoom around the play mat, but when she reached the edge -ERRRRRRRRRK- she would stop, freeze and then retreat. "Perfect," we thought, "invisible force field!" And so we were safe for a time, but tonight, Kayla managed to penetrate the invisible force field, escaping onto the wooden floor and from there...to infinity and beyond! Now her crawling knows no bounds and she is into the dining area, the kitchen, and anyplace she darned well chooses, in the blink of an eye.




Alas...

And so the baby proofing takes a new turn. And really, it needs to take two turns, because now we not only have to consider new rooms, but really, Kayla is looking like she's about to figure out this whole pulling up thing too, so now we have to work on baby proofing from that angle as well. Oi vay.



All that said...I am just stupidly proud of her. Every time she crawls a little farther, a little faster, looks a little more aware, I just swell with pride. I love watching her learn. It is absolutely amazing.

Oh, Snuzzles...you are almost 8 months old and you are just more fun and more exciting every day. Thanks for making mommy and daddy's year.

Speaking of which...a few long overdue photos of Snuzzles past month:

She got to celebrate her Great Grandma's birthday...




She went on her first hike...




It was exhausting!



She had her first Thanksgiving...






Complete with dill pickle (Thanks, Grandpa)...



She got to experience Christmas a la Busch Gardens...





And met Santa!!!!!


She got to have one dinner in the bathtub...(because sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do)



And she was generally a cuddly, snuggle, bundle of yumminess...


Love you, Snuzz.

Darned Technology

Our computers are busted. Well, okay, busted is an overstatement. Our laptop's harddrive is full, so we can't download any photos onto it (or new software for that matter - sorry iTunes). Our desktop's monitor has been removed to the living room where it is currently serving as our TV since our TV's bulb blew AGAIN. Supposedly it hasn't blown in five years, but having had to replace it numerous times in just a couple year period, the hurt feels so much more present than that...Anyhow, so I am woefully unable to upload photos onto the site and that is making it hard for me to feel motivated to write. I have the CUTEST pictures waiting for upload. For Thanksgiving, Kayla had a fabulous "My First Thanksgiving" onesie, complete with turkey and a matching brown tutu. Come on, you knew there'd be a tutu. There will likely be a tutu for every holiday from now through...well...whenever she learns to say "No tutu, Mama" and according to the books, she won't be forming three word sentences for at least another year and a half - wooohooo!!!

Anyhow, I haven't abandonned the blog. Hang in there and I will be with you as soon as I can get our house's computers smacked back into shape.