Raising Kit

first and last pictures in her infant seat – it is currently being borrowed by friends of ours and Kit has graduated to convertible car seats

I’m not entirely sure I can clearly articulate where the time has gone the since Christmas.  We seem to get busier & busier.  I’m sure some of that is involved with chasing around the little wiggle worm known as Kit.  Thankfully, I’ve been keeping little notes on a desk calendar of what’s been happening – I think she may get a kick out of reading them later on in life.

Kit enjoyed Snow Day at school.  Well, she was somewhat unimpressed by the snow, but did enjoy sledding with daddy.  Unfortunately, the next day (Michelle’s birthday), Kit got a fever and was generally cranky.  So we cancelled birthday plans.  Ultimately, it is discovered she has an ear infection, and gets her first round of antibiotics.

words cannot express how much this girl loves to eat beets

We spent the month of March speculating whether her fussiness & grumpies were due to teething.  We can say with certainty that no tooth popped thru.

twinsies in white shirts & jeans with Uncle Scott

Kit hit the 9-month marker and promptly started walking down the hall with her push walker toy.  This has become a favorite activity in the morning while mom & dad get ready for work.

celebrating St Patrick’s day & her 9 month birthday in style

Month 10 also brought the daycare germ factory to Kit in the form of conjunctivitis…the dreaded pink eye.  So between the ear infection, 9 month well-baby appointment, and pink eye, she went to the doctor 3 times in about 3 weeks! 

the little girlies celebrating Easter

The push walker really gave Kit the confidence to start standing up for a few seconds at a time, along with doing a pretty good squat.

bath time is so much fun! (I promise it is, she’s just not a fan of mama pictures interrupting her fun)

Steve & I also went out on our first date since New Years Eve – we hired out one of the daycare teachers to babysit, so it went rather smoothly.

she usually still sleeps on her back, but I will occasionally find her on her side or tummy in the morning

One of Kit’s first negatives happened in April – her great-grandpa Wayland passed away.  Kit and I went back to Nebraska for the funeral.  We were a walking circus through the airport.  I had her in a carrier strapped to my front, had her carseat backpacked onto my back, and was pulling a wheely suitcase with a diaper bag.  Amazing how much stuff a baby adds to the mix!  Also, I had a motherhood initiation ritual – she barfed on me 10 minutes before our plane was boarded on our way back to LA.  Thankfully, I was prepared with extra shirts for both of us, but no amount of wipes can wipe the stench away.  We both had baths when we got home!  And it turns out the vomit was a precursor to a fun illness that manifested later in the week…but more on that for the 11 month update!

playing with Uncle Jimbo – she likes him!

snoozy baby on the plane

Stats from 9-month well-baby visit:

Length: 27” (33rd percentile – I’m questioning the nurse’s measurement here)
(Michelle was 29.5” – no stats for Steve)

Weight: 17 lbs, 9 oz (no change from 8 month sick visit – 29th percentile)
(Michelle was 19 lb, 1/2 oz. – Steve was 18 lb., 4 oz.)

Head circumference: 42 cm/16.5” (6th percentile)
(Michelle was 17.5” – no stats for Steve)

Diaper size: size three disposable diapers

Clothing size: 6-9 or 6-12 months (but sometimes even bigger sizes that seem to shrink a bit) – we’ve hit the point where clothes should be lasting a little longer

Foods: still breastfeeding (no formula ever) with 16-20 ounces a day at daycare, starting to eat finger foods (including school lunches and snacks) and mastering her pincer grasp.  Favorites include yogurt and beets (which really makes for fun diapers).

Nicknames: Monkey, Godzilla, Sweet Pea, Munchkin Pie

Words: Mama, dada, cat (“dhat”)

First things first – Kit is still a toothless wonder.  She’s clearly following in the footsteps of her mama and Uncle Jim, at least in terms of cutting teeth. 

Kit has had a big eighth month.  She’s turned from a rollie pollie little ball of baby into a rollie pollie crawling baby, who also likes to pull to standing.  Actually, that’s all happened in the last week or so!

Kit also got to meet almost all of her extended family this month.  We weren’t anticipating this trip, but her Great-Grandpa Rex had a severe heart attack, and we really wanted to make sure they were able to meet each other.  So we left on a Thursday afternoon, from 75 degrees and sunny in LA to 5 degrees and frigid in Omaha.  Brrr!  We got to spend the night with Grandma Denise & Grandpa Rob.  Uncle Jim got to meet his favorite niece, and helped give Kit her morning container of yogurt (he missed her mouth a few times, haha).  Then we headed out on Friday to trek down to Kansas to see the Kennedy relatives, including Grandpa Danny & Grandma Donna. 

super spaz

We were able to spend time with everyone except Great-Aunt Cheri and Great-Uncle Darrell (bummer!).  Calli even got to play a little with her cousins Khyla and Aubrey.  We went back to Nebraska on Saturday, spending more time with Grandma Denise & Grandpa Rob…then we went on to the Fox house to spend the night with G’ma Liz & G’pa Jeff, after spending a bit of time playing with Auntie Karissa & Uncle Broc.  We all went to brunch the next morning, where Kit also got to meet her Great-Grandma Pat.  We all missed Auntie Kristina, and are anticipating seeing her in April.

Now here’s the part where I get to brag about my little girlie.  She was an angel on the 2 plane rides from LA, sleeping all the way to Denver and quietly playing/snuggling to Omaha.  Then she slept almost the entire drive down to Kansas.  And slept almost the entire drive back up to Lincoln.  I thought for sure our luck would run dry on Sunday, with our flights back to LA.  And guess what?  The girl-who-doesn’t-nap slept pretty much the entire time we were flying.  I do think it helped that we were able to keep her in her infant seat for those flights (word to the wise – Southwest was not crowded on our flights that happened to occur as the Super Bowl played out, so they let us take a 3rd seat even though we hadn’t paid for it).  All in all, it was a very smooth trip.  I’m crossing our fingers that our trip in April will go as smoothly, but I’m not counting on it, since Kit has become rapidly mobile.

Length: –didn’t measure–

Weight: 17 lbs, 9 oz (from visit to pediatrician for illness 1 week prior to her 8 month birthday)

Head circumference: –didn’t measure–

Diaper size: size three disposable diapers

Clothing size: 6-9 or 6-12 months (but sometimes even bigger sizes that seem to shrink a bit) – we’ve hit the point where clothes should be lasting a little longer

Loves: being outside, being around people as long as it’s not too terribly loud, eating food, crawling, pulling to standing, petting her kitties if given the chance, playing with anything that makes

Hates: having her face washed, anything and everything when she’s really tired

visiting the World’s Biggest Ball of Twine

Great-Grandma Pat

Great-Grandma Doris

cuddles with Grandpa Dan & Grandma Donna

From Kit’s appointment on 12/21, with comparisons to mom & dad:

And the tracking of diapers, etc:

Just for reference, the cheapest I’ve managed to get the diapers is $0.20/each.  Plus, they’re getting more expensive as the sizes go up (although less are used on a daily basis).  So that’s that!

With the holidays, I haven’t had time to put down words for Kit’s 6 month update – I’ll provide a combined narrative for the 6 & 7 month updates.  But I’ll share some pictures from Kit’s 6th month…

First time on Dumbo at Disneyland

This is how she sleeps, with her arms above her head.  She likes to play with her ears as a self-soothing mechanism

Making funny faces

Her first Turkey Trot 5K – with Carrie & Dave

Wild thing, you make my heart sing…

Eating peas

Sitting – propped by chair

A special gift

More funny faces – what a goof!

And the photos from her monthly shoot: