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.

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?