Ariel Mermaid Duck

The past few weeks have been filled with "firsts" for Kayla. The first first, she met her first Europeans, Aunt Lucy, Uncle Franco and Cousin Devin.





This brave family flew from across the world, Lucy 7 months pregnant!, to meet little Kayla and show her some love. In honor of that feat, Kayla decided she had better perform a feat of her own and so...she rolled over!!! That's right, Kayla has mastered the art of rolling over and, not one to be satisfied with being average, she decided to master the more difficult task of rolling from her back to her front first. And she is SO proud of herself. She now starts to throw herself into a roll before you even get her down on the ground, arching her back and throwing her legs over, ready to show that she is, in fact, a marvel and a wonder.



I am not going to lie. I am mind-explodingly proud of this new skill. And I am also irrationally proud of the fact that she started off going in the most difficult direction. Being an overachiever, I admire her drive and desire to be exceptional. Oh okay, I'm just retardedly impressed by EVERYTHING she does, difficult or not. This is why I have 5,000 pictures of her doing nothing but reaching for a stuffed monkey. I am her mother. It is my job.

Other firsts: Kayla spent the last two weeks with her Svoboda relatives in Stone Harbor, NJ. This was Kayla's first time at the beach and though it's hard for a 4 month old to appreciate the fun of the beach, she did appreciate some of the bonuses to being near it. 1. She loved being surrounded by relatives who wanted nothing more than to spoil her rotten. I don't think she spent more than 5 minutes entertaining herself all last week and I certainly didn't hear any complaints from her about the constant love and attention. 2. With the help of her Grandpa, she discovered The Baby in the Mirror. Like most things baby, her interest in the Baby sprang up over night. One day she couldn't have cared less and the next she was smiling and giggling and 100% in love with the Mirror Baby (i.e. herself). 3. While Kayla isn't really old enough to go in the ocean (waves...jellyfish...seaweed...sun...), she is old enough to go in the pool and go in she did. I didn't even attempt to take her in the first week, assuming that the chilly temperature of the pool would make swimming a non-starter, but desperate for a new activity in the second week, I took her in and VOILA! Ariel Mermaid Duck! She LOVES the pool. LOVES. Even with her little teeth (okay, gums) chattering, she giggled and squawked and kicked and paddled her way through that pool, like a crazy little fish baby. 4. Keeping with the water theme, Kayla also took her first outdoor shower at the beach and apparently, that too, is an AMAZING find. She loves the shower. Like will let you hold her head under the spout as water pours down her face, before coming out a-sputtering and a-giggling, loves the shower. She is hilarious. I have never seen a baby get dunked under water and just laugh her way out of it as though it is a fabulously entertaining game. The kid is a water fiend. A true Water Baby a la Kingsley. That's right. English major whaaaaaat.

Photo Proof:

Pool Time




Shower Time (Typically taken with the theme song "Singing in the Rain" graciously performed by Mama)

Time to call Child Protective Services?

Apparently not!


What else...Kayla loves long walks on the beach at sunset, she loves bright green leaves against a bright blue sky, she loves listening to Uncle John make gasping noises, she loves Cousin Julie the baby whisperer, she loves Uncle Erik taking her for a Waltz and she loves...well, she loves snuzzling with mama at about 6am before the rest of the world wakes up. She may not have loved the beach - too hot, too sunny, too limited in terms of room to roll around...but she did have her own personal kingdom built there each and every day. Some day she will look back on that and be sorry she wasn't more impressed. At least she better. It took an army of at least four relatives to cart her "kingdom" down there each day!

Kayla's Castle

Perfect for the Princess' Naptime

Kayla's Private Lagoon

Slaves (read relatives) carried water in buckets across burning hot sand to fill the Lady's pool each day.

And just to up the adorable quotient...





Actually, there is just too much cuteness for one post. I'll have to head the next few posts with beach pics, because I don't want your heart to explode into fountains of puppies and fluffy bunny rabbits if I overload you now.

I can't get over the fact that Kayla will be four months old this Sunday. In some ways time has flown and in others, the last few months have felt like the movie Groundhog Day. I am realizing more and more that parenthood must be taken day by day. Trying to look at it in any longer reaching terms is far too overwhelming at this stage and maybe always will be. For now, I am just trying to hang onto Snuzzles and her wonder-baby ways. My mom used to sing me a lullaby that went "Cleaning and scrubbing can wait til tomorrow, for babies grow up, we've learned to our sorrow. So quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep. I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep." Those words now mean so much more to me as I watch Kayla get bigger and bigger every day. They also mean more to me now that I have become a serious cleaning-cooking-housekeeping slacker...but that's another story.