Kelsie and Santa!

Here are some pictures from Kelsie's first visit with Santa! Ok, several! She fell asleep on the way there and we had to wake her up, so she wasn't too sure at first. She cried initially but then warmed up to him after he gave her a dolly from his big toy bag! He is such a good Santa!

Santa also posted more pictures if you are interested in seeing all of them!
https://picasaweb.google.com/112638560030102639834

First steps!

Kelsie took her first solo steps today!!! For about a week, we have been able to get her to stand up on her own if we first get her in position and help her find her balance. She is now doing so well standing up on her own and she usually thinks its pretty funny too. She laughs when she realizes she isn't holding on to anything. This morning, I stood her up and backed away and she took 2 steps towards me! I tried and tried again to get it on video to no avail. I did get her taking one step though before she got tired (or bored) of trying. :)

Here she is standing up. This is the first day I have seen her move like that while standing up. 

And here is her taking one little step. (But it still counts!) :)

Dare devil

I haven't had much time to post lately as we are busily trying to prepare for Christmas! But while I'm at work taking a little break to pump, just thought I would post a few pics of my daredevil. She is so active all the time and climbing and into everything. We met my friend Kelly yesterday for coffee and Kelsie figured out how to stand up in her high chair! We put barricades up in our living room to keep her confined but she still always tries to figure out a way to climb over, crawl under or go through it and often succeeds!

Always pulling up on my leg

Standing up in her high chair

She loves to play with her advent calendar

 

 

 

 

 

Just a sweet picture of Kelsie and mom, it was cold out so I let Kelsie wear my scarf

Surprise!

Nathan took me out at 9am yesterday morning but didn't tell me where we were going, just said we wouldn't be back until night. We had a family Christmas gathering at 5 pm in Greensboro but he told me he had something else planned for the first part of the day. So we packed up Kelsie and everything she needed for a day out. Then we got in the car and he told me I needed to pump milk for Kelsie's next feeding but still didn't tell me where he was taking me. Then he pulled up at a spa and told me I had an appointment for a massage and facial! He said he would take care of Kelsie and be back to pick me up after my 2 hours of pampering. I was so surprised and excited! And it did not disappoint! I haven't had time to myself like that, much less to be pampered, since Kelsie has been born. It was just so wonderful and relaxing. And theres even more...after he picked me up, we had lunch and then he started driving west down I40 but, again, didn't tell me where we were going. Then he surprised me by going to Furniture Land South to pick out new bedroom furniture, something I have been asking for forever! Then we went to our Christmas party with the family, had a great time, and didn't get home until after 11pm. Kelsie enjoyed every minute and was such a good girl. It was a an all-around fabulous day with my little family. :)

Sleep!

My dearest Kelsie,

You are 9 months old, don't you think you should be over this middle of the night feeding? Ok, once, I'll give you, but every 4-5 hours? Why must you wake up twice every night and demand to eat? I am so tired! Please sleep!

Love, Mommy

Holiday rush

Finally, some time to sit down and blog. I've had so much on my mind lately but not near enough time to actually sit down and blog. With Christmas upon us, the to-do list is even longer than usual, but some days, I don't feel like I even make a dent in that list. So writing on my blog, unfortunately, is rarely something I get around to. And the Holidays, no doubt, is always a busy time for everyone. But its also a wonderful time, so I don't want to get lost in the hustle and bustle and lose sight of the true meaning of Christmas.  This is also Kelsie's first Christmas, so that makes it even more special to us.  Here are a few pictures from the past week...

Where did that pretty tree come from? And when is Santa coming?

I was bad and let her try a chocolate chip cookie...she was a happy girl I tell ya!!

 But she has CF, so she can have all the calories she wants!

Silly girl helping me decorate the tree

And a random video of Kelsie eating her vegetables!

Crazy day

Kelsie is finally asleep. And I just wish I could curl up and go to sleep with her. We had a fun day shopping at the mall with Kelly and Ava but its also been an exhausting day. This morning Kelsie was playing with her stuffed animals in her room while I walked into her closet to get something. When I stepped out of her closet I saw her just sitting there playing with a bunny, but something didn't seem right. Couldn't put my finger on it, but something told me to check her mouth and, sure enough, there was a black plastic peg in her mouth!!! I looked around thinking where in the world did this come from!? Because I always check to make sure there aren't any small pieces lying around before I sit her down. And then I noticed the bunny was missing an eye....yes, within the 10 seconds that I was in the closet, she had managed to pull the eye off the bunny and put it in her mouth! I had no idea the eyes of a stuffed bunny could out so easily!!!! I was so upset, it literally brought me to tears. She came so close to choking on that thing! Ugh, needless to say that bunny is now in the trash!

Then we went shopping and Ava threw up all over Kelsie. And I just happened to capture the moment! Lol!

And Kelsie's face just cracks me up, she has no idea whats coming...

Then after more shopping, I had to get assertive with a man at the mall who personalized my new Christmas stockings and messed up the embroidery. It took some convincing, but I eventually got my money back.

Then I stayed out too long and made the mistake of trying to drive home after 5:00. From experience, I know that Kelsie doesn't like riding in the car that late and boy does she let me know. I had to stop and feed her and then she tried to take the wheel...

She eventually fell asleep to me serenading her with Silent Night and the rest if the drive was peaceful.

We had a fun night playing once we got home but she got a 2nd wind and decided she wasn't interested in going to bed.

My gymnast

So I decided I didn't have the energy to put her to sleep either and at 9:00 we just put her in the car. It forces her to sit still long enough to let her tiredness overcome her, something that can be quite the ordeal otherwise. Yes, I admit, I am a little jealous of those of you who can just lie your baby down to let them fall asleep on their own.

9 months old!

Where does the time go? My baby is already 9 months old! And boy is she busy! She is seriously on the move ALL the time, and into everything! She makes me smile everyday. And every night when she falls asleep in my arms, I stare at her perfect little face and think how great a gift it is that she is mine! On this Thanksgiving, I am so thankful for her and that God made me her mother.

A quick summary of new milestones:

She said "mama" for the first time (the day after she turned 9 months.)

Climbing stairs.

Ate meat for the first time last week. Mmmmm chicken.

Waving her hand like she is saying hello or goodbye, though it doesn't seem to have any meaning yet.

Stands up just holding on with one hand and will reach down to pick up a toy.

Eating finger foods now. And feeding herself. She really likes puffs.

Drinking from a sippy cup on her own a little better now. (but she doesn't really like the water or juice that I put in it.) We've given her a few sips of our sweet tea and you can tell she is a southern girl, because she loves it!

Feedings:
5 feedings during the day and she still wakes up once (or sometimes twice) in the middle of the night to eat.

Sleep:
3 naps (anywhere from 40 min. - 1hr 30 min each). Usually about 3 hours total of daytime sleep.

Still wearing the nighttime hip brace and I just hate it! She wakes up so many times at night and I have to believe the brace has something to do with it. 2 more months...and hopefully we'll get good news that she doesn't need it anymore!

She loves to play with my hair when she is falling asleep.

Likes to play with paper and tear it into little pieces.

Loves to play with shoes, whether they are on or off her feet. Or someone else's.

Is starting to understand "no no" and sometimes she listens and turns back and other times, she just takes off crawling as fast as she can and laughing.

Getting her diaper and pajamas on after bath every night is a 2 person job because she is constantly moving and trying to crawl away.

CF stuff: Thankfully she has been super healthy and still hasn't even had her 1st cold! She gets 3 enzymes with each feeding and we are doing chest PT twice a day. She takes multivitamins, Zantac and Prevacid for reflux, and iron. She gets a 1/4 tsp salt per day. And that's pretty much all we have to do for her CF right now. Next appointment is in January.

Here is a preview of her 9 month photos. More to come soon.

Black Thursday night...

On Thanksgiving night, we left Kelsie home with her grandma and grandpa and Nathan and I went out for some late night Christmas shopping! Toys r us opened at 9pm so we made the drive to Cary to get some deals for our little one's first Christmas. But we were a little surprised at how long the was! Oh my....the line was wrapped around the shopping center. In this picture, we had been waiting 45 minutes and had about 25 more to go. Once we got in, it felt kind of like organized chaos. There weren't any shopping carts when we first went in so they handed us big shopping bags. But within the first minute in the store we already had more big boxed items than we could carry so Nathan managed to find a cart and we continued on our way. It was a little crazy at first but I'm glad we went. We did get some good deals. And it was nice for just Nathan and I to get out for a couple of hours on our own.

Adventures with Kelsie

Kelsie runs away naked

We play in the water

We go to the grocery store and Kelsie picks out crab legs for dinner...

Kelsie plays with my hair.

Kelsie learns to climb up a step...

And then she learns how to climb a whole flight of stairs...oh my oh my!

Kelsie attacks her cousin Katie with lots of love!

Look at me!

Kelsie likes to help me with the dishes .....

She's a little ham

Getting brave, holding on to the rolling rack with just one hand

Why did you close it? I was playing with that mom!

I'll just hold on with one hand

Bathtime

Bath time has been rather difficult lately because Kelsie just squirms all over the place! We tried buying a bigger baby tub that would fit her better but she just tried to stand up and crawl out of it, making it very difficult for us to contain her. So then we just tried bathing her in the big person tub but it was even worse - a giant slip and slide just waiting for an accident! So one night as we were in the midst of trying to bathe our wild child and I thought "this would be so much easier if I were just in the tub with her". So thats what I did!

 But since it doesn't make sense to do it every night, we bought a bath seat that suctions to the tub and holds her in place. She doesn't like it as well but it sure beats her taking a nose dive and taking water into her lungs!

Peek a boo

In the midst of trying to get Kelsie to sleep the other night, she decided she would rather play.  And it just reminded me that sometimes if you just relax during those times when they are fighting sleep, you can capture some really sweet moments. :)

A little cuteness from the day

Kelsie is pulling up on EVERYTHING lately! Even me. 

And here are a few pictures from the past week

I'm done with my nap mommy!

Hello. I'm Cute.

Shopping with mommy! :)

Lusakuenos come to visit

Our wonderful friends, the Lusakuenos, were in NC this weekend and stopped by yesterday for a visit! We had such a great time catching up and were sad to see them leave. Jess and Michel were both in business school with Nathan and we all lived in the same student family-housing community at UNC, were in bible study together, and spent a lot of time in fellowship with them during our two years living at UNC. We are so thankful to have met such a wonderful couple during our time there. They are two of our dearest friends and we miss them so much since they have moved to Atlanta. It was so much fun to see them, and to see how much their son Bentley has grown! I used to babysit him when he was just a few weeks/months old and now he is 2! Hard to believe. Kelsie just thought he was great and really enjoyed the company. When she first saw him at the door, she started kicking her legs and squealing, clearly so excited to have another little friend to play with! We look forward to their next visit!

Kelsie meets Michel! I think she is surprised how tall he is!

Michel reading a story to the little ones. So sweet.

Jess and I with our kiddos

Kelsie kept laying her head on Bentley's shoulder and was trying to drink his milk. 

 

 

Yes, yesterday was also the Carolina/State game. We don't have to talk about how it ended though.

New CF drug

Story about new drug for CF. This doesn't treat the type Kelsie has but still promising for the CF community.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7386952n

Great weekend! And HALLOWEEN!

 HAPPY HALLOWEEN! It was Kelsie's first and she sported her cute costume without any complaining. :)

 And we had a great weekend! And it was full of lots of fun, new things for Kelsie. We went to my parent's house on Saturday and surprised them with our cute lil watermelon! My Dad even had some real watermelons from his garden that he loaded on the back of a trailer, making for some great poses of Kelsie in her Halloween costume.

We also walked to my great aunt and uncles, Wade and Ether's, house and let them meet Kelsie for the first time. It was an extra treat that she was dressed up for Halloween. I still love walking down that old country road...

Then when Nathan and dad went deer hunting, mom and I went to visit my cousin Laura and her family. Kelsie rarely gets to see her cousins, Gracie, Rylie, and Cole, so it was fun to give them some time to play together. Kelsie was really excited to have another baby to play with and was all over Cole, who is just 4 days older than her! She was a little rough, but he took it like a man. Hehe.

We spent the night at mom and dads and Kelsie took her bath in grandma's sink. And had her dinner in the same high chair I used 28 years ago!

On Sunday, we went to church with my parents and Kelsie had her first experience in the nursery. I am very weary of taking her into the church nursery for fear of so much exposure to other germy kids, but I know we have to do it eventually. So, I decided to take a different approach...I wiped each kinds hands down with sanitizing wipes and cleaned all the toys, but then I put her down and let them play. I have to make sure I do what I can to keep her healthy but still want her to be able to have the same experiences she would have if she didn't have CF. And I am so glad I did because I know she really enjoyed the interaction with the other kids (all of whom are also her distant cousins). From left to right, Dallyn, Jake, Morgan, and Weston.

After church we went back to my parents and dad showed Kelsie his pigs.

Then we went to Nathan's parents house for lunch. Kelsie got to see her great-grandparents and Aunt Emily too. Kelsie's Nana loves Christmas and always decorates her home so beautiful for the season. This year, it is decorated extra early!

 

On Halloween night, we dressed Kelsie up and let her greet the trick-or-treaters. The kids loved seeing her sitting by the candy bowl. It was so much fun! 

Trick or treat!

Trying to sneak and eat the candy!

And I had to get a few pictures of her on the front porch in her sweet little pumpkin dress! :)