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...