More anxiety

Recently Kylie has been having a hard time dealing with Tiffany being away from her. I say Tiffany because that is mainly when it happens, when she leaves the room or puts Kylie down. Kylie will begin to cry the moment Tiffany is out of site or out of her arms. I had mentioned separation anxiety in a previous post, and it would seem that it has returned in force. According to Tiffany’s messages from babycenter, this is still perfectly normal:

If your child gets upset when you leave her now, she’s right on schedule. Twelve to 18 months is prime time for separation anxiety — a psychological term that means your baby can’t bear to be without you. The best way to handle painful farewells is to keep them short and sweet. Say goodbye with a quick kiss and head out the door. Don’t sneak out, but don’t prolong the agony with extended hugging and comforting. Your baby’s tears will subside soon after you’re out of sight. It’s hard not to feel guilty, but in the long run you’ll help your child become more independent if you don’t hover.

Though this is normal it can sometimes be very frustrating. I think I understand why she is having this issue mainly with Tiffany though, as she tends to still spend more of her time with me due to work schedules and such. In any event we know it is a temporary issue, and ultimately a good one.

New categories

I have decided to add more categories for the posts; I feel that this will further help me see the things I write about. I have also decided that I am going to allow multiple categories per post, i.e. a post about Kylie being tagged both Kylie and Family. This is something that I have been avoiding but I think it makes sense. As such I am going to start to go back through the archives (at least for the general category) and re-categorize posts. I am also hoping that this will prevent the general category from being the catch-all that it has become.

One year checkup

Kylie had her one year check up today, and I have to say we are more than happy with the results. Kylie now weighs a healthy 21.8 pounds and is 28.75 inches tall (2 feet 4.75 inches), both of which are within the 50th percentile for her age. In addition to this her head is 46cm around (which is actually in the 75th percentile for her age). The doctor had asked how she was doing with walking, because as of our last visit with him she was just starting to try to walk, and at this point Kylie promptly began walking around the room. He was rather pleased to hear that she had been walking since about 9 and a half months and said that this was early for her to have been walking so well. He than asked what, if any, words Kylie had spoken; so Tiffany and I began rattling off words: “Mama, Dada, Mommy, Daddy, Nana, Baby, Hi, night-night…” He cut us off right about then and said that this was very good as children who walk early tend to not talk early, and then he said something that caused both Tiffany and I to both feel very good about and beam happily about for the rest of the day; “She is developmenttaly advanced for her age.” We are both so very happy and proud of Kylie. We have our next checkup in about 3 months, so I am sure there will be more information by then if not sooner.

End of a visit

Today was Mom’s last day visiting us here in MI. As such today was a very easy going day. Mom packed up all her stuff during the late morning and early afternoon and just relaxed. After Tiffany came home from work we decided to go out for one last meal. So we called Chris and Tracey and we all decided to go to Red Robin because it was near the airport and they have pretty good hamburgers, which Mom enjoys. After we were all finished we stepped outside and Mom said her goodbyes to everyone and then Tiffany, Kylie, and i all drove her to the airport. When we got their i walked Mom inside and we found out that her US Air flight had been canceled and she was rebooked on a different flight with Northwest. So we drove around to the Northwest terminal and I again walked her inside. This flight was not scheduled to leave until 9:19 so she was in for about a 2 hour wait. I walked with her to the security check point and said my goodbyes there. Mom was one of the lucky ones to be chosen for additional security screening and so she went off to the side. I watched as they made her go through the metal detector that also blows little puffs of air at you to see if you are hiding anything and then continue on. I am not exactly sure what all went on in that process as I have not spoken with her about it. After this I went back home and as it turned out Mom’s flight was delayed but they were leaving tonight. She just called about 15 minutes ago to tell me they were boarding. She will call me and let me know when they land. It was nice to see Mom again, and I am especially glad that she was able to spend so much time with her grand daughters. Tiffany, thank you for making this possible.
[ Edit / Insert]
It is now 12:45 am and Mom just called to let me know that she made it back to NY safely, my brother is already there to pick her up (I spoke with him about 30 minutes ago) and he will take her home.

A lot of walking

Today we decided to take it easy and just have a nice relaxing day. We started off by going out to Dearborn to visit a craft store that Mom has ordered some things from in the past. She was just curious to see the place and it turned out to be a neat little craft store. Although no one bought anything it was still a nice little adventure. After this we decided to go walk around the Ikea in Canton. All I can say is this place is huge! There was a lot of nice stuff to see and they display it nicely in the showroom. I am positive that there are things that I did not see. I really liked how they had displays up that showed how you could live in X amount of square feet. At least twice i found myself saying something to the effect of “I wouldn’t want to live in a place this small, but if I had and I could set it up like this, I think i could do it.” I used to not understand what the big hype about this place was, I actually know people who drove all the way to Chicago just to go to Ikea and I never understood why. But after seeing this place I kind of do, I am not saying I would drive that far for a store, but for some people I understand why they do. In any case, this is definitely a store i will be visiting again.

Happy Birthday Kylie

Today is Kylie’s birthday! Happy first birthday Kylie! Though we had her party last Saturday, today is the day she turns 1 year old! It is hard to believe that a year has already gone by and that she has gotten so big. It has been a very exciting and eventful year in her life. She has grown and accomplished so much. Some of the milestones she has hit this year include (in no particular order):

  • Rolling over
  • Crawling
  • Walking
  • Climbing
  • Talking
  • Gaining 4 teeth
  • Partially feeding herself

For a more in depth look at some of the things that have occurred in Kylie’s first year, read through her archive.

Dinner and dessert

Today we went out to dinner with Chris, Tracey and Delaney. Seeing as how Mom likes steak we decided to take her to Outback Steakhouse for dinner, where prior to this she had never been. Dinner was very good with the exception of them not getting Chris’s steak right. Is it just me, or does it seem like no matter where you go to eat these days you almost never get a perfect order? I mean there is always at least one thing wrong with someone in your groups order. Is this due to the wait staff or the cooking staff? I think that might a topic for further exploration in another post. Anyway…for the most part dinner went well. The most important part is that Mom enjoyed her meal. After dinner we all decided that some dessert was in order, so went and got some ice cream from Cold Stone, this place has rapidly become my favorite ice cream place ever. Afterwards we all just went home and relaxed, it was another very nice day.

A bittersweet day

First of all I would like to say Happy Father’s Day to all the Father’s out there.

Today we spent the day with my brother at his in-laws house (because they have a pool). It was a very nice day, filled with fun in the pool and grilling and just good times in general. For what I think may be the first time, I actually went swimming with my daughter and though it was short lived (the water was a little chilly for her) it was very nice. We even got some pictures of her and I in the water and they will be posted when the rest of the pictures get posted.

On a more personal note… today was both a happy and a sad day for me.

It was a happy day because today is my very first Father’s Day as a father. As those of you who have read my site ever before you will know that I am the very proud father of a very happy and out going little girl named Kylie. She entered this world on June 20, 2005 and my life has been brighter ever since. Well last year Father’s Day fell on the 19th, so I was not a father on Father’s Day last year, but I have had the joy of being a father for almost a full year now. So today is a happy day for me.

However, today is also a sad day as it is the first Father’s Day since my Father passed away. I spent a good portion of the morning silently remembering some of the things that my Father and I used to do, and one memory stood out more than any other, and I guess that has a lot to do with the day.

When I was younger and still in grade school I remember the school giving us a coupon for a free breakfast at McDonalds on Father’s Day. It was never much and Dad always had to pay for at least one breakfast, but it is something that I remember doing with him every year for a number of years. This memory is one I never really thought of before, but today it seems very special, very much missed and very vivid.

I would give almost anything to have one more Father’s Day breakfast at McDonalds with you Dad; I love you and miss you very much. Thank you for everything you tried to teach me and to instill in me. I know I am the man I am today at least in part because of you. I love you. Happy Father’s Day!

Kylie’s 1st Birthday Party

Today was Kylie’s 1st Birthday Party (many MANY pictures to be placed up as soon as I can) and I think it went pretty well, with the exception of the tremendous heat, but even that was not too bad. I would like to thank Mary Jo and Steve for letting us have the party at there place, that was very kind of them. We had the party in their pole barn, which allowed for everyone to be out of the sun, it must have been at least 15 degrees cooler in there. Today seemed like a very long day for me, but I think that is because I was busy all day. Kylie got some very nice gifts and we would like to thank everyone that came out to the party, and everyone that gave Kylie a gift or card, or just wished her a Happy Birthday in general. Kylie really enjoyed her cake (we made a little one just for her) and her ice cream. I have a bunch of pictures of her eating and making a terrific little mess. All the pictures will eventually make it up into the gallery but it will take me some time so please be patient (we took over 350 pictures just of the party), I will post a message saying when they are up.

Making Cake

Chris, Tracey, and Delaney came over today to spend some time with us and Mom. It was a nice time and many pictures were taken, I am sure that will become a trend throughout this week. Tiffany made a very good dinner; it was a pasta chicken dish that she has made before. It contains pasta, chicken, carrots, and broccoli and is very tasty. After dinner everyone sat around and talked, and Mom spent a lot of time with her granddaughters. Tiffany and I made the cakes for Kylie’s birthday party, which is tomorrow. I am very happy to say that I helped make and decorate these cakes, and we even have pictures to prove it! They will be up with the rest of the pictures from this month. I am sure they will be up late as there are bound to be many of them, between Kylie’s 1st birthday party and Mom being here I think it is safe to say that a lot of pictures will be taken. All in all today was a very nice day, I am sure tomorrow will be crazy!