So today was Kylie’s first Thanksgiving. It was a good night for her, as she got to try some new food. Well a new food at any rate. Tonight, in honor of Thanksgiving, we gave her some Sweet Potatoes. She seems to like them, and so that officially begins her introduction to “jar food”. Before this all she has had is milk and rice cereal. She still loves the rice cereal so we now have two things that she can switch to instead of having milk all the time. I have some really nice pictures of her eating the sweet potatoes in her Babee Tenda feeding table, and as soon as I can get caught up on getting pictures into the gallery they will be there. Some of the pictures are of me feeding her and some are of Tiffany feeding her. At any rate I hope to be caught up with the pictures by the end of the month.

Kylie is 5 months old today! It has been an exciting month as we have watched her develop even more. As I had mentioned in a previous post she has started to talk, and unlike the previous post, we know now that she has some knowledge of what she is saying, as opposed to just mimicking sounds. She now says “Da-da” almost every time she sees me, thus re-enforcing the idea that she actually knows what she is saying. She also seems to like the sound of my voice as she will almost always look around for me when she hears my voice, which makes me very happy. In addition to the talking she is now eating rice cereal. It took a few tries to find the right consistency and preparation method for her, but we have it pretty much figured out now. There is no real science to it, she seems to like it to be a little on the thicker side, almost like chunky apple sauce, preferably made with water and then warmed in the microwave for 10 seconds. Not only does she seem to like this, but she literally grabs for the spoon and brings it to her mouth on her own. On another note, earlier today Tiffany told me that Kylie pulled herself to a standing position while playing with one of her toys at Grammy Bev’s house, so this appears to be the early stages of her standing on her own as well. As far as locomotion goes, she is not quite crawling yet, but she has become rather adept at slowly pulling herself across the floor to get to where she wants to be. Sometimes she gets her knees under her though and shows great potential for crawling. I see no reason why she wouldn’t be crawling by Christmas if not sooner, then the real fun begins, or so I am told. All in all she is doing very well and is still a very happy baby. Her next doctors appointment is scheduled for early January, so we will have height and weight updates then.

The following is taken from an email that Tiffany gets every week from a place called Baby Center:

Want a foolproof way to make your baby laugh? Mimic his facial expressions and sounds. Not only will he be tickled pink, but he’ll also learn something about communication, since imitation and repetition are key ingredients in early brain development. If he hears you say the same words often enough, he may even begin to make some almost recognizable noises, including ones that sound suspiciously like “Ma-ma” and “Da-da.”

That being said…Thursday 11-3-2005 Kylie said her first word. She said “Ma-ma” while sitting on her Uncle Chris’s (K) lap while he, Aunt Tracey and Tiffany were all sitting around talking. I am not certain if she actually understands the meaning behind the word and knew what she was saying or not, but it is still rather exciting. Not to mention that Tiffany is thrilled that she said “Ma-ma” as her first word.