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.

Over this past week Kylie has been crawling around a lot more, well not necessarily crawling, more like pulling herself around with her arms and pushing with her feet. She has even gotten very good and pretty quick at it. Well this week she started pulling herself up to a standing position. She has become fairly decent at this in a short period of time, and seems to get frustrated when she can’t get up. At the moment it is easiest for her if she crawls over something that kind of lifts her a little and then she grab on to something else, like the couch, to pull herself up. She doesn’t walk anywhere, she just stands their, but she is clearly pleased with herself. I know I am very proud of her for accomplishing this, as is Tiffany. We have been letting her pull herself up using our hands, and then when she is standing, having her walk around while holding our hands. She is a little unsteady and her legs don’t allows seem to want to cooperate, but she really likes to walk around.

I can’t believe it has been six months already since Kylie blessed my life. The time has gone by so fast! She continues to grow and learn and change right before my eyes on a daily basis.

She is now almost crawling and can maintain a sitting position all on her own, well if someone helps her sit up anyway. As for the almost crawling phase, she has finally figured out how to pull her knees up underneath her when she pushes up on her hands, and she will now rock in this position. Occasionally her knees will slide forward together from the rocking, and then she usually falls down to her tummy as opposed to moving her hands forward. I expect that she will figure out how to crawl any day now, and some people are even saying it will happen before the New Year. I think that would be great, I would just need to start “baby proofing” the house, as this is something I have not worried about yet do to her inability to move to other rooms on her own.

She also continues to show early signs of teething. She drools a lot more now than she used to and she seems to enjoy sticking her finger in her mouth more than before as well. Tiffany says she can feel a tooth coming in as well, I have not quite been able to feel it yet, but I am sure Tiffany can, she seems to be more in tune to those things.

Kylie is still having issues with her right eye as well. We have an appointment to go see a pediatric ophthalmologist on the 27th to take care of her blocked tear duct. Some days this issue seems to clear up and others it seems to be really bad. When I post the past months pictures up tomorrow night at work, you can see in it the pictures. Some days the outside of her right eye looks really red and irritated and other days it seems to be fine. The only good thing is that this redness does not seem to bother her, and she is still always really happy.

Also this past month Kylie had her very first picture taken with Santa. This was such a fun occasion, and everyone at the store commented on how beautiful she was, and that she was such a happy baby. The people taking the picture were exceptionally amazed as she only needed one picture taken because she gave such a good smile on the first take. This picture will also be in with this past months pictures as soon as I get them up.

This past month also marked Kylie’s first adventures with stage 1 baby food. On Thanksgiving she had sweet potatoes for dinner, and seemed to enjoy them. Since then she has had sweet potatoes on a number of occasions and does in fact like them, and she has also started on green beans. This now complete out her current menu at: milk, rice cereal, stage one sweet potatoes, and stage one green beans. Soon we will add more to the list and find out what else she likes.

I have come to learn that one of the most beautiful sounds I have ever heard is that of my daughter’s laughter. When she laughs, it does not matter how tired I am or how bad of a day I am having, I can not help but feel better and smile. I now also cherish nap time, not just because I get to get some much needed sleep, but because Kylie naps next to me. This can be seen in at least one picture that will be uploaded as well. Kylie and I spend a lot of time together, and nap time has become a sort of tradition, I guess working midnights has some advantages in this case.