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.

I put up (some of) Kylie’s eleven month pictures today. They can be found in the gallery in their rightful place. I say some because the rest will appear in the New York trip set once I get them up. I am hoping to have them up by the end of the week, as I am working on them when ever I have time and am awake to do so. When they are up I will announce it.

Today marks Kylie’s 11th month, which means that in just one short month she will be a year old! Where has the time gone? It seems like just the other day she came into this world and made our lives a much happier place. My how the time does fly!

Let’s see what has happened this month in Kylie’s life?

1. She had her first pancake on April 23
2. Followed by real blueberries on April 24
3. And a new car seat on April 25
4. We all lost a very Great man on April 28 and had a few real hard days thereafter.
5. She then got sick for the first time, and had to visit the ER, also for the first time.
6. Kylie also started using a new word at a perfect time!
7. She then endured the second of two very long trips in a short amount of time with her usual grace and charm.
8. And on May 13 we discovered that another tooth had come through.

Though it may not have seemed like a lot, this has been a pretty busy month for Kylie and all of us. In addition to all of the above she continues to walk better and display more of her own personality on a daily basis. She also continues to show that she understands more of what we say, and that she is also learning “right” from “wrong” as far as things go around the apartment. (In other words she knows that she is not supposed to play with certain things and when she starts to and we say her name, she knows why and stops doing what she shouldn’t be, like playing with/reaching for the sprockets on Daddy’s bike.)

I do not have this month’s pictures ready to go up yet, and with the wedding being tomorrow I am sure they will not be up then either. I will try and get that taken care of as soon as possible, and will announce when they are up. (This also includes all of the pictures that were taken when we were in New York.)

Today Tiffany informed me that Kylie has another new tooth coming through, this time it is on the top and in the front. It is the front top right tooth (left if your looking at Kylie) and it has just started to break through the gum. This will be Kylie’s third tooth as her bottom two have been through for a few weeks now.

[Edit: 5/14/2006]

When I awoke this afternoon (I worked last night) to watch Kylie while Tiffany went to work, I had the opportunity to bravely stick my finger into Kylie’s mouth, and I was able to feel the tooth! Right where Tiffany said it was, it is just barely out of the gum so we will have to watch for it to fully come out. I don’t think I ever would have thought that teeth could be this exciting! 🙂

A lot of things have been going on during this last week, and as such this almost got over looked. This week while out here in NY, Kylie has picked up a new word, “Nana“. This has become the word that she uses to refer to my Mother, her Grand Mother. Before this week she did not use this word, and since we got out here she has been using it to refer to her Grand Mother. She will say “Nana” and look right at my Mom, and when she holds Kylie, Kylie will repeatedly say “Nana” in a very excited tone and bounce in her Grand Mother’s arms. We are very happy that Kylie has chosen now to start using this word.

Kylie has been sick the past few days; she has vomited twice (something she has never done before) and has had a lot of diarrhea, which is also not common for her; and with the upcoming return trip to MI, Tiffany was worried about her being dehydrated. So I finally agreed that we should go ahead and go to the ER. So we went up to Albany Medical Center’s ER last night, and let me say that I was not very impressed. They got us into triage rather quickly and then over to the pediatric unit in short order, which was nice, but that is pretty much where the good stuff ended and my patience ran out.

We were in the pediatric waiting room for about five minutes when Kylie needed to have her diaper changed again. It was at this point that Tiffany realized that for some reason we did not have any wipes in the diaper bag. So I went to the pediatric nurse’s station to ask for a few, explaining that Kylie had soiled her diaper and we did not have any. At this point the nurse stated that they did not have any as they used washcloths and that she would gladly bring me some into the waiting area. So I returned to the waiting area and informed Tiffany and so we waited, for five minutes. Thankfully this whole time Kylie was an angel and did not fuss as she lay on a table waiting to be changed. I then decided that enough was enough and went and found a bathroom and returned with some damp paper towels so we could clean Kylie up and change her. To make a long story shorter thirty five minutes, two soiled diapers and two trips to a bathroom to get damp paper towels later we were called into the pediatric unit…the nurse never brought us any washcloths.

They did some basic checks on Kylie and told me what I already knew; Kylie had a stomach bug and was moderately dehydrated. After she drank a bottle of a pedialyte and nursed, I went and told the nurse we wanted to be discharged. She tried to give me some story about needing to stay because Kylie was on the edge of needing an IV for dehydration and what not, and that’s when I told her that we weren’t going to let them give Kylie an IV and that they had not informed me of anything I didn’t already know before I got there and we were ready to leave, considering they had told us that they would have been happy if Kylie was able to drink three ounces of the pedialyte, and she had already drank six ounces and nursed. So the nurse consented to get the resident on duty to check her and let us go.

Now enters the head resident, who is different from the original attending who check out Kylie to begin with. He tells us that Kylie was no where near needing an IV and doesn’t know why the attending and this nurse had told us that. Stated that Kylie was only slightly dehydrated and no where near the level of dehydration that would require an IV, and that furthermore all of her responses seemed normal for a child that was clearly tired. Told us just to make sure she is drinking some fluids and that the bug would work its way out of her system.

So basically it was a waste of a few hours to go to the ER, but with the upcoming 600 mile trip, we decided it was better to be safe than sorry. So far today though, she is doing much better and we are hoping that it will last through tomorrow’s trip home.

With such a long trip coming up Tiffany and I have become increasingly more aware that Kylie was rapidly out growing her old car seat, which was part of a transportation system in which the car seat came out and attached to her stroller. Seeing as she is now big enough to sit in her stroller without need of the car seat, and as I stated, was rapidly approaching the size limit of her current car seat, and we wanted to make sure she was not only safe but comfortable, today we purchased her a new car seat; The Alpha Omega Elite.

This is actually a 3-in-1 car seat that features a rear facing car seat (which she is still in until she reaches 1 year old and 25 pounds), a front facing car seat, and a booster seat, so essentially this should be the last car seat that we need to buy for her. Of course this also means that should she need to ride in my truck we have to plan well enough ahead so that Tiffany can leave the seat with me so I can place it in my truck (I had a base in my truck for the old car seat to attach to, but the new one doesn’t get taken out like the old one).

It was kind of expensive, but that is to be expected. At least this will last us until she is ready to sit in the car without a booster seat. So like I said it should be the last car seat we need to buy for her. Now we just need to put it in and we will be all set. I am looking forward to using it on our upcoming trip and hope that Kylie enjoys it and that she is more comfortable in it.

I would also like to take a moment to thank my brother Chris and his wife Tracey, who offered to front us the money to purchase the new car seat if needed; though we did not need to take them up on the offer, the fact that they did offer, both to help us and to help make sure that their niece was safely taken care of, means a lot to us. Thanks you guys.

Tonight Kylie ate her very first blueberries, not jarred baby food blueberries, but actual real fruit blueberries. She seemed to enjoy them very much. Tiffany placed about 10 in a bowl and cut them in half and Kylie tore into them. Not only did she enjoy eating them, but she also had a grand time making a mess with them. She dumped the bowl on her feeding table and got juice all over the place. By the time she was finished she needed a bath. I know I took pictures of this event, so they will be up with the next month’s photos.

That seemed to be Kylie’s thoughts anyway, as she devoured her first pancakes this morning. Tiffany decided that she would give Kylie her first very own pancake today, and she seemed to really enjoy it. I was not there to watch her eat it myself, but judging from what remained on her plate I would think that Kylie did enjoy it. I am not positive, but I think Tiffany took a picture or two, and if she in fact did, then they will be up with next month’s set.

Kylie turned 10 months old today, and let me say it has been an exciting month. I know, I say something similar to this every month. But seriously it has been.

Kylie has hit another pretty big landmark in her development. As I had mentioned in a previous post, Kylie had taken her first steps, and now just a few weeks later, I am proud to say that for all intents and purposes she is walking. I state it that way because it is really up to her. She will walk around the living room all day now. She does this with a combination of cruising along the furniture and “free” walking in open spaces. Her free walking is still rather slow, but she is capable of walking a fairly good distance on her own when she chooses. In addition to this she can even walk while holding rather large items if she wishes.

On top of the walking Kylie has had the opportunity to try a lot of new foods. Including celery, peas, corn, mashed potatoes, and some other things as well that I don’t have pictures of. Like some small pieces of meat, string beans, and various breads. As you can see from the pictures, she is very capable of feeding herself as well.

Also Kylie has started to display her own personality, which we are very happy to say she tends to have a very happy disposition. She continues to smile a lot and be very loving towards the people she knows and recognizes. In addition to that she seems to be very outgoing as well. Though this is something we will have to pay attention to as she gets older and teach her about strangers and such, we are still very happy that she is so happy and out going.

Furthermore Kylie has begun to show more developed signs of communication, as she will now wave good-bye (she moves her entire arm to wave, and it is very cute), and has shown blatant signs of understanding some of the sign language that Tiffany and I have been trying to teach her, most noticeably the sign for “eat”.

She also continues to talk up a storm and knows the difference between “Mama” and “Dada” and that they correspond to Tiffany and me respectively. For instance when Tiffany is gone to school or work and she wants to get my attention, she will often say “Dada”, thus showing that she knows the difference in the words. In addition when Tiffany is home she will walk up to her and say “Mama” and give a very big smile.

Over the last month or so we have also been able to get her into a pretty regular sleeping pattern as well. We lay her down for a nap about every three hours, and when doing so tell her that it is time for a nap and as such she no longer fusses to much when I do lay her down. I think she understands the word nap, because when I am with her during the day and I pick her up and tell her it is time for a nap she seems to start to calm down somewhat before I actually get her to her crib. She also understands “night night time” and correlates this term with going to bed for the night.

On a slightly different note, this month also saw Kylie’s first Easter. We were unable to get her picture taken with the Easter Bunny, like we did with Santa Clause, due to the lines being to long on the day we went, and Kylie already being very tired on that day.

We have also started to work on plans for her first birthday party, nothing is set yet we are tossing around ideas and trying to rough out a plan. It is a day that Tiffany and I are very eagerly looking forward too. I also happen to know that her Aunt Sissy and Grandpa are looking forward to it, as then they should be able to give Kylie ice cream.

In addition to all this have managed to get the pictures for this month up already, thus getting me back into posing the pictures on time. I will finish up editing the details of the pictures (the dates, events, and descriptions) later on during the night.