Today is a very exciting day for Tiffany and I, as today Kylie took her first steps! She was able to take three consecutive steps without holding on to anyone or anything today, and she did it without falling! She was actually walking to Tiffany from her friend Erika. Later when they got home and I woke up, Tiffany showed me by having Kylie walk to me! It was incredible! They say that after a baby takes their first steps they rapidly progress into walking all on there own. Tiffany is both happy and sad at this; she is happy because it is amazing and a very big mile stone for Kylie, but she is also sad because Kylie is growing up so fast and walking marks the beginning of the toddler stage. Perhaps Kylie will be able to walk fully on her own by the time we go out to New York to visit Grandma and Grandpa, which would be truly awesome! Not to mention if she was able to walk on her own in her Aunt Sissy and Uncle Jason’s wedding. In any event, this is very exciting stuff!

Tiffany subscribes to an email from babycenter.com and today it contained the following information:

If your baby seems more clingy than usual, she’s probably feeling separation anxiety” perfectly normal for a 9-month-old. It’s really a good sign, showing that she’s now able to distinguish between the familiar and the unfamiliar. She may refuse to open her arms to other adults, even ones she knows, and she may find bedtime distressing because it separates her from mom and dad. Separation anxiety usually peaks between 10 and 18 months and then gradually fades. With extra cuddling and reassurance from you, she’ll get through this stage and back to her social self.

This is good to know, and I am really happy that Tiffany gets these messages because they have provided some good information multiple times now. I like that the messages follow along with Kylie’s progression as far as age and tells us things to look for at these times. Something tells me my parents could have made good use of the internet and the information it can provide while I was a child.

Kylie had her wellness checkup today and I am happy to announce that the doctor says she is in excellent condition. He said that her ear infection looks to be just about cleared up and we should finish out the medicine and all should be well. He was interested to know that as a kid I had some major ear infection issues and said this is something we will have to watch for in Kylie as well.

She is now weighing in at 18 pounds and 10 ounces and measuring 27 and 1/2 inches long (2 foot 3 and 1/2 inches tall). These are both within the 50th percentile for her age and the doctor said this is perfect. The circumference of her head is now 44.1cm (about 17.4 inches) and that measurement falls within the 60th percentile for her age group.

We asked the doctor what we could feed her safely as far as “grown up” food was concerned (mainly because certain people [a certain Aunt can be seen giving her a bread stick in one of the pictures to come* ] refuse to respect our wishes that she not receive anything other than her baby food). He stated that it was really up to us (and that other people should respect the wishes of the parent regardless) with the following exceptions:

• No whole milk or whole milk products, including ice cream.
• No strawberries or anything with strawberries (with the exception of Gerber items).
• No peanuts or anything made with peanuts or their oil.

Everything else is pretty much ok and at our discretion. I think the following months will be rather interesting as we experiment with what else to let her try.

* On a side note, why is it that people can not seem to respect the wishes of the child’s parent? As you will see in the picture once I post it, Kylie was given a bread stick by one of her Great Aunts. This was done at her Aunt’s bridal shower, which I was not at, while Tiffany was out of the room. So the Great Aunts (one took the picture) new we would not want this to happen and waited until they knew Tiffany was not around to stop it, and had the nerve to take a picture of it as well. I just don’t get it, why can’t people just respect our wishes?

Kylie is 9 months old today and is still a very happy baby. Her ear infection does not seem to be bothering her as much now that she has been on the medication for a few days and she has been sleeping better as well. I think one cold that led to an ear infection in 9 months is pretty good.

Well this past month has been pretty interesting. We got to go visit Uncle Chris, Aunt Tracey and Cousin Delaney at their place, and Kylie absolutely loved her little cousin. I am hoping that they grow up to be very good friends, we just need to wait for the weather to break and then try to get together for as many play dates as possible.

This month has also found Kylie with her first toy obsession, so to speak. She has a certain toy, which we refer to as “Bug”, that she has decided to take everywhere with her. She will carry it around with her all day, bring it to bed with her, and has even had it in the bath a time or two. It has gotten to the point that we now use an extra pacifier clip to attach it to her when she is in her car seat in the car or riding in her stroller, so she can take it with her places without to much fear of losing it (the fear being mine and Tiffany’s, not Kylie’s).

Kylie also got the opportunity to try some honeydew melon this month, which she seemed to enjoy. We are looking forward to possibly introducing more food, but we will ask the doctor first at her appointment tomorrow.

I do not have the pictures ready yet for this month, I know I was doing so good too, but I will get them up as soon as I can. I am hoping to have them up by the weekend, as I am sure I won’t have a chance before then. Sorry Mom. 🙁

Kylie has been real fussy lately; she has been crying a lot when we try to put her down for naps, waking up in the middle of the night and crying a lot, things like that. For the most part we were chalking it up to her teething and the fact that she also has a slight cold, in addition to these things she also had a pretty bad diaper rash which we also contributed to the teething and her cold.

However, the other day Tiffany noticed that Kylie was playing with her ear a little more than usual so she decided to call the doctor and see what they thought. They suggested that it might be an ear infection and that we should bring her in, so that’s what we did. I brought her into the doctor’s today and it turns out that at that time she had a 103 degree fever (we had been aware of the fever as well and thought it was also due to the teething, we were also giving her Baby Tylenol for that) and, as it turns out, an infection in her right ear. So we now have some amoxicillin to help take car of that.

Other than the ear infection and the slight cold though, Kylie is doing very well. She is slightly under 19 pounds and still a very happy baby (she was not happy when the Nurse Practitioner checked in her ears). Her next doctor’s appointment, coincidentally, is on next Tuesday, so maybe I will have an even more detailed status report after that.

I had mentioned earlier that we were aware of Kylie’s fever and were giving her Baby Tylenol for it, well it turns out that we were not giving her enough. We had been giving her .4 ml and as it turns out, based on her weight she can have literally 3 times that amount (1.2 ml), so that would explain why it never really seemed to help her all that much. Also, when we took her temperature using a digital thermometer and checking under her arm (axillary method) her temperature was never higher than 100 degrees, the nurse had taken a core reading (taken rectally). In addition to this we have been giving her PediaCare for her cold, and the nurse practitioner said that at Kylie’s age that stuff really doesn’t do much for their symptoms (runny nose and such), I thought that was kind of interesting.

Today is Kylie’s 8 month old mark. She has grown considerably since her arrival, as is to be expected. It is fun to watch her learn new things and make new discoveries. Everyone says becoming a parent changes you, and you know what, everyone is right. Although I must admit it is a good thing. Sure I could do without being woken up by her suddenly crying in the middle of the night for seemingly no reason, but I can’t do without seeing her smile at me when she first wakes in the morning, or holding her through out the day, and there has never been a sound more beautiful to my ears than her laughter. Yes, I am proud to be this little girls Father.

This being said, I am happy to say that for the second month in a row I have her pictures up on time. They were posted earlier this morning and can be found in the gallery. This month’s pictures include images of her first standing in her crib, and her first experience with carrots and Cheerios. In addition we also have pictures of Uncle Chris, Aunt Tracey and Cousin Delaney visiting for the first time since Cousin Delaney’s arrival. And of course there are other random pictures in there as well. Now we just have to wait and see what happiness next month brings.

Wow, so I think there are a few things that I have not had the time to write about for Kylie recently and for that I apologize (Mom that is mainly directed at you :)). So here is what I am going to do, I am going to start with the most recent stuff and work my way back. Here we go…

Today Kylie had a doctor’s visit, which was originally scheduled for the second of the month but we somehow managed to miss it, and as expected everything is fine. She is now 26 inches in length (2 feet 2 inches tall) and weighs 18.04 pounds, and her head is 17 inches in circumference. So all in all she is happy and healthy, well she would have been happier if she didn’t have to keep getting shots when she went to the doctor, but they are necessary. On top of the clean bill of health the doctor said that she could start eating regular Cheerios, so we gave her some of those tonight and she seems to like them. Look for some pictures of her first time eating/playing with Cheerios when the next set of pictures goes up.

Ok, so going back in time now…. Kylie has become, over the last few weeks, very proficient at pulling herself up to a standing position. She can now accomplish this almost instantaneously if there is something for her to use. In addition she has now become rather adept at walking when she has something to hold on to. For instance, she will now pull herself up using her LeapStart® Learning Table and then walk around it to the side facing the love seat, slowly reach out to the love seat (moving further around the Learning Table to reach it better if need be) and grab a hold of it, then walk down the side of the love seat to where the couch is, crawl the short distance to the couch and pull herself back up, and then move along the couch to the coffee table and then walk around the coffee table. It is rather fun to watch her learn and grow like this; she is a rather smart child.

In addition to learning to pull her self up and walk around using the furniture, Kylie has discovered that she can stand up in her crib if she so desires. This is a little bit more difficult for her than other means of pulling herself up, as the crib does not have any ledges for her to use in pulling herself up. She has figured out how to grip the bars to use those however, and she must be comfortable with walking around her crib as well because the other night she was looking over (yes over) the top of her crib looking out her bedroom door. It was actually very cute, and I am not 100% sure, but I think I have pictures of that to put up in the next picture update as well.

Before she learned she could pull herself up to a standing position; Kylie learned how to sit up on her own from a lying position. She does this every now and then when it suits her, but for the most part she likes to stand more than sit. Sometimes when she is playing on the floor she will sit up to play with a different toy or to look and see where I am, but other than that she prefers to crawl to something and pull herself up to her feet.

I know I had mentioned in her six month old post that she was teething, and I am not certain if I have mentioned anything since. Well there is an update on that front as well. Kylie now has two teeth! Her two lower front teeth came through a little while ago and I have finally been able to see them, as she would not let me see them before. Actually she let me see them and used them to bite me all on the same day! She obviously did not bite me in order to hurt me or anything, but she did actually leave two little teeth marks in my finger. In addition to these two Tiffany says she can feel a third one starting to come through in the front as well. As usual I have not been able to feel it yet, but take her word on it.

Phew, that was a lot. I think that brings everything up to date. I really hope that in the future I can find the time to post, and remember to post, these things in a more timely fashion, but we all know how fast the speed of life is.

Today Kylie turns 7 months old, well actually in a few hours, and as such I am pleased to say, that I have new pictures up in her gallery. These pictures are of her seventh month and include pictures from Christmas Day. I think this is the first time that I have actually had the images up perfectly on time. So I would like to say congratulations to me. 🙂

Something interesting happened today, and it made me surprisingly happy. Let me explain. Earlier today Kylie, Tiffany, and I were all home and awake, this in and of itself is actually odd considering my work/sleep schedule, but that’s not the interesting part.

I was sitting on the couch either eating or watching some TV or something, Kylie was on the floor happily playing, and Tiffany was at the computer doing something. So there we all are doing our respective thing when Kylie decided to start crawling over to see me. This of course made me happy as I love when she comes to see me on her own. So she was getting close and I had moved over on the couch so she wouldn’t have to crawl under the coffee table to get to me, and I was getting ready to put my hands down for her to grab onto and pull herself to her feet, which she has now almost mastered using any stationary object. At this moment Tiffany turned from the computer and started to talk to me about something she had just read, as soon as she started speaking Kylie stopped dead in her tracks, looked up at me and smiled and then started crawling towards the direction of Tiffany’s voice. Now I am not to sure how I should have taken that, but it made me feel really good, and it had a lot to do with the smile that my daughter gave me before she turned away from me.

See normally at this time of the day it is just Kylie and I at home, and I think she may have forgotten that Tiffany was here. But when she heard Tiffany’s voice she flashed me this smile that said “Daddy I love you, but I am going to go see Mommy,” and it was that love from her for both of us that made me feel really good and, in a way, proud. So I told Tiffany what was going on, as she could not see Kylie from where she was, and I sat and watched as Kylie crawled around the love seat, looked and saw where Tiffany was (and got another big smile on her face), and then continued to crawl all the way over to her Mommy. Tiffany of course was very happy with this situation, and I was as well. I am very glad that Kylie loves her parents so much, and I hope that never changes.