Kaelia - 10 Months

Kaelia is now 19.1 lbs., 29.5 inches tall, and has a head circumference of 17.5 inches at 10 months. A couple of teeth are just moments away from breaking through, and her hair is getting longer and longer. Little curls are even starting to form in the back of her head; it looks like she will end up with a full head of curls!

Aside from her physical appearance, Kaelia's physical development has grown. She has been working toward more and more milestones - especially walking. Kaelia moves around the house quite fast by crawling and cruising furniture. And just at the end of this month, she took her first couple of steps! She has been diving toward us throughout the entire month, and then was finally able to add some steps to it. She was standing up against the coffee table in the living room and wanted to come over to me. Then without any fear, she simply lunged toward me. Her feet scrambled two steps before falling face first in to my lap. Kaelia was so excited and proud of herself and has not stopped attempting to walk ever since.

Kaelia's personality continues to shine as well. She really likes anything interactive and silly, yet she is a great snuggler too. She also likes to read books (especially touch and feel books and anything with baby faces), play peek-a-boo, give-me-five, play in the sand, destroy puzzles and stacked blocks, and she loves to play with her sister. Kaelia is finally at the point where she understands Taelyn's little games like "tickle Kae-ya," pretending to sleep, and wrestling. So now Kaelia will play back. After Taelyn tackles Kaelia to tickle her, Kaelia will flip around, get on top of Taelyn, and smack her in the face to get her back. Or when Taelyn gives Kaelia a hug, Kaelia will sometimes hug back and give her sister a great big slobbery kiss on the face. Taelyn will often ask Kaelia to "fall asleep" so Taelyn can tuck her in and then surprise her by saying "awake!" Now Kaelia will lay down on the pillow patiently while Taelyn puts a blanket and a stuffed animal on top and then scream with excitement when Taelyn yells "awake." It has been such a joy to watch the two girls interact.

The usual babbles are a daily part of Kaelia's day, while she will also repeat sounds that we say when we try to pair a word with an object. If we see a dog, for example, we will tell her that it is a dog over and over again, and then Kaelia will say "duh" for "dog." She does the same for cat too. And during the end of this month, we think she said her first actual word without prompting. Justin usually gets her out of bed in the morning when she wakes up, and she has started to say "da" when she sees him. She does the same when he comes home from work. We are not quite sure if she is just saying the "d" sound or if she is actually saying "dad." She does not say that sound very much during the day when Justin is at work, so it looks like it might be her first word!

Taelyn's First Haircut

After two years, we finally took Taelyn in to get her first haircut. Though we love her crazy curls, they are certainly a crazy mess when she wakes up in the morning, so we needed some help. Taelyn did a fantastic job with this new experience. She got to sit in a little pink car while the stylist cut her hair; she had a great time with this part of the day. Soon after he began, however, the stylist learned that an endless amount of detangling spray would not help him cut her hair, so Taelyn then had to get her hair washed. She found this quite interesting and clung to her daddy for support. Once she got back in to her pink car (and with a little help from Abby and a Kit Kat bar), she settled down much better and sat very still for the stylist. Here are a few pictures to recap the day.




Before Shot







Getting Her Hair Washed







Sitting Nicely for the Stylist







Abby Keeps her Company

Kaelia - 9 Months

At nine months, Kaelia is now sparkling with personality. She claps her hands and likes to do so when her sister does something entertaining. And she waves when she is happy. She will often wave while she is eating because she gets very excited to grab her food. Kaelia is eating table foods now in addition to her baby food and formula.

Kaelia has also learned several sounds that she likes to say over and over again so she can "talk" like everyone else. She still says "ba, ba, ba" and has now added "mum," "da," "ga," and "ka" to her vocabulary. She will say "mum, mum, mum, da, da, da" repeatedly, and Taelyn has been trying to get her to say "T, T, T" along with it. Perhaps Kaelia will catch on to that soon.

Kaelia continues to motor around by crawling and cruising along furniture, and she has also attempted to stand alone. This usually lasts for about one second while she has made it four seconds before sitting down.

At this month's doctor's appointment, Kaelia measured 19 lbs., 28 inches tall, and had a head circumference of 17 inches. The doctor was very impressed with her developmental accomplishments as well.

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Taelyn - 2 Years

At two years old, Taelyn is now 26.8 lbs., and 34 inches tall.

Taelyn is definitely a big girl now that she is two. In addition to sleeping in a bed, she also likes to sit at the table in a big girl seat instead of her high chair, reads big girl books (not board books), and she now refuses to take a bath. Instead, she wants to take a shower! And the initial stages of potty training have been going on for quite a while. Taelyn will tell us when she needs to use the toilet and will sit there for a while until she gets bored. Then we put her diaper back on and she ends up going to the bathroom shortly after. She has had one successful toilet attempt so far. Potty training is by no means complete, but she's getting there.

Taelyn's talking has grown quite a bit as well. She is speaking full sentences, using phrases and words that we have never specifically taught her. She learns from everything around her. She especially loves to tell us when she is hungry. She will announce that it is breakfast time and that she wants to eat Honey Crunchies cereal. Or if she wants a snack, she will say, "Mommy, eat snack... T eat dried fruit." The girl loves to eat! Taelyn also knows all of the letters of the alphabet (although she still has trouble saying V and W), basic colors, and at times she can count up to ten. We are still working on her counting and identifying what each number looks like. Sometimes she gets the numbers right and sometimes she doesn't. But she seems to have mastered 1, 2, and 3.

Some other activities that Taelyn loves are coloring, painting, playing with play dough, making a "tent" to crawl in to, reading books, playing with stickers, dressing up as Abby, going for walks, playing at the playground, swimming, and smelling flowers. Whenever we go for walks, she stops at every flower to smell it. And she always says, "No pick flowers. Hmmm [as she smells them], smell nice." She likes to give herself little reminders about what is and is not acceptable behavior, and she knows that she should not pick flowers from flower beds.

Taelyn also loves to play with her sister (and fight too). When we make a tent, she insists that Kaelia comes inside to play with her. Taelyn will also "read" books to Kaelia; this is pretty comical because the book is always facing Taelyn, and she tilts it upside down to show Kaelia what is on the page. Taelyn will also try to make Kaelia laugh by making funny faces and tickling her. While she loves her sister very much, Taelyn also likes her own space and doesn't want Kaelia to touch her or her things at times. One of Taelyn's most common phrases lately has been "No, Kae-ya" over the many things that Taelyn doesn't want Kaelia to touch. We are working on the phrase "No thank you, Kaelia" instead.

Here are some of our favorite Taelyn pictures and memories from the past year.

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Kaelia - 8 Months

This has been such a great month for Kaelia: she has learned to crawl, pull herself up to a stand, walk along furniture, crawl up one step, turn the pages in her books, and "talk" a little more! Kaelia went through the stages of mobility so fast. She attempted to crawl during the first week of the month, and was fluently crawling by the second week. During week three, she was already moving along the furniture.

Kaelia's verbal knowledge is increasing as well. She loves to hold her books by herself and turn the pages. She also started using the "b" consonant by saying "ba ba ba" over and over again. She especially likes "talking" to Taelyn; the two of them say "ba ba ba" to each other while with each syllable, their faces get closer and closer together.

At 8 months, Kaelia is now 17.7 lbs. 27.6 inches tall, and has a head circumference of 16.7 inches. Her growth was not a significant gaon from last month due to all of her sudden activity level.

Taelyn's 2nd Birthday Party

Birthday parties are not always the fun and games the people think of when it involves babies and toddlers. While Taelyn's first birthday party was a bit overwhelming for her, her second was a small improvement. Still filled with up and down moments, overall, she had a great time. Taelyn insisted on wearing her Abby costume all day (including nap time) and then to the party. She opened presents at home where she got a huge stuffed caterpillar from Kaelia and a sticker book and castle from us. Taelyn loved them all.

We then went to a local restaurant that has picnic tables set up around a large playground/kid playing area for the birthday party. There are several jungle gyms, a climbing wall, coin-operated riding machines, and a bouncy castle. 15 of Taelyn's favorite people in South Africa came to join in on the festivities.

The start of the party did not look too promising. It was raining (the only time all week) and Taelyn was incredibly cranky from waking up much earlier than usual from her nap. But as the party went on, so did the rain, and Taelyn warmed up a lot more, having a fun-filled time. She enjoyed repeat trips to the slide, and we could not pry her away from the bouncy castle.

When it was time for cake, everyone crowded around to sing Happy Birthday. Taelyn was already familiar with the song thanks to a great Elmo card from Great Aunt Andy that had been singing to her the entire week before. But because she was a bit cranky that day, she immediately clung to me at the start of the song in a bit of a panic. At the end of the song, though, Taelyn started smiling and clapping. She then proceeded to blow out the candles and had to stand on the table in order to bend over close enough. With a little help, the flames were out, and we all enjoyed eating her Winnie the Pooh cake. Taelyn really liked this part too, contrary to her first birthday.

Overall, the party was a success. Taelyn came home exhausted and happy with a full bell and fun gifts from her friends.

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Got My Nose

Justin and Kaelia had some good laughs the other day as Kaelia tried to eat his nose. She also had the hiccups which made her laughing even funnier. Here is some footage of it all.