Sunday, October 30, 2011
Friday, October 28, 2011
Less than 2 Weeks Until the Big Day!
It's so hard to believe that Kinsey's birthday is less than 2 weeks away! I'm not really sure I can say the past year has flown by - we definitely went through some of it in a fog and it took a while before we (or at least I) stopped worrying every second and started to enjoy her all the time instead. I still worry, but I'm so excited to celebrate!!
I got the birthday pictures from the photographer today. I was going to wait to share them, but they're too darn cute to wait! Pictures are at the bottom of this post.
The big news this week is that Kinsey has passed the 18 lb mark! She is up to 18 lbs 2 oz! She also grew again - now just shy of 29"! The Dr. said that puts her a little above average for her height and about 25th percentile for weight. Also, I think I've neglected to mention that she’s gotten more teeth – up to 7 total now (4 on the top and 3 on the bottom)! Another one on the bottom is coming in too, so she’ll have 8 soon.
We got Kinsey a new bathtub this week - it's an inflatable tub that fits inside the regular tub so she can sit up and we don't have to worry that she's going to hit her head if she tips over. She still loves laying down in the tub and kicking her legs to splash like crazy, but she likes sitting up and playing with her toys too! Here's a video and some pictures: http://youtu.be/RcQBGUT60wc
I got the birthday pictures from the photographer today. I was going to wait to share them, but they're too darn cute to wait! Pictures are at the bottom of this post.
The big news this week is that Kinsey has passed the 18 lb mark! She is up to 18 lbs 2 oz! She also grew again - now just shy of 29"! The Dr. said that puts her a little above average for her height and about 25th percentile for weight. Also, I think I've neglected to mention that she’s gotten more teeth – up to 7 total now (4 on the top and 3 on the bottom)! Another one on the bottom is coming in too, so she’ll have 8 soon.
We got Kinsey a new bathtub this week - it's an inflatable tub that fits inside the regular tub so she can sit up and we don't have to worry that she's going to hit her head if she tips over. She still loves laying down in the tub and kicking her legs to splash like crazy, but she likes sitting up and playing with her toys too! Here's a video and some pictures: http://youtu.be/RcQBGUT60wc
That's it for this week - Look for a special Halloween edition of the blog on Monday :)
Here are the birthday pictures:
Here are the birthday pictures:
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| So Pretty! |
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| She dove right into the cake and put it in her mouth, of course |
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| Then she wasn't so sure about it . . |
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| I love how she's looking at it trying to figure out what it is! |
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| And then she decided she didn't like it! |
Friday, October 21, 2011
Getting So Big!
Kinsey is doing new things all the time and every time she does something new I am just in amazement! She might be on a different schedule, but she is definitely learning all the time.
We went out for breakfast on Sunday and decided to try the restaurant high chair instead of taking her high chair (which has much more support) with us. She did great sitting in a regular high chair - I was so proud! She is really stable sitting up but still falls backwards once in a while and I was worried she'd fall back in the high chair and fall over, but she fits in it much better than I thought and it would be pretty hard for her to fall. That's also a relief for us that we don't have to take her chair with us. Now if we're out and decide we want to go eat, we can do that without having to worry about what we'd do with her without her chair.
Last Saturday was the Halloween Doors & More fundraiser for Community Hospice PedsCare. We all got dressed up and had a great time. Kinsey's costume was the hit on the party! When we first got there, she was fussy about something and we almost left, but she got over it after a little while and we were able to stay and enjoy the party. Kinsey went trick or treating at the doors, got a ladybug painted on her face, went through Candyland and danced in the disco with daddy :)
Last Sunday we also took Kinsey to the Zoo for the first time! The weather was nice, although it could have been a little cooler. Kinsey liked it because she likes being outside, but she didn't really notice the animals much. She did seem to see a giant anteater when he came right up the window once though.
After seeing how well she did with the walker my dad bought, I recently found another one at a consignment sale (so we could give the other one back to my dad to keep at his place). This one is a Jeep and it's so cute with an engine and horn! She loves it! Here's a picture and video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nI8n2YVnbs
Kinsey also really likes to sit on the floor and play with her toys. She does a great job reaching for her toys and picking them back up if she drops one. We bought some foam mats for her to sit on - they look like wood flooring, but are nice and soft so if she falls over, it doesn't hurt. We also usually put the Boppy pillow behind her so she doesn't fall over backwards. And with the Boppy, she can sit back up if she does fall back onto it. Here are some pictures and a video of her playing on the floor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNLMdS-jNq4
We are practicing with a sippy cup. You have to be able to suck to get anything out of a sippy cup, so we found one that is soft enough to squeeze and she loves drinking from it! But we also realized she can suck on it a little bit on her own, which is amazing! She drinks water, apple juice and formula from the sippy cup and we're up to about 2 oz in a single feeding. I also use the sippy cup to give her a little water when she's eating and the food gets caught in her cleft. And we've started taking it with us so she can have a few sips of something cool when we're out in the heat. Her sippy cup also has handles that she actually tries to hold onto!
That's it for this week - 20 days and counting to her 1st birthday!!!!!
We went out for breakfast on Sunday and decided to try the restaurant high chair instead of taking her high chair (which has much more support) with us. She did great sitting in a regular high chair - I was so proud! She is really stable sitting up but still falls backwards once in a while and I was worried she'd fall back in the high chair and fall over, but she fits in it much better than I thought and it would be pretty hard for her to fall. That's also a relief for us that we don't have to take her chair with us. Now if we're out and decide we want to go eat, we can do that without having to worry about what we'd do with her without her chair.
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| Sitting in the big girl high chair! |
Last Saturday was the Halloween Doors & More fundraiser for Community Hospice PedsCare. We all got dressed up and had a great time. Kinsey's costume was the hit on the party! When we first got there, she was fussy about something and we almost left, but she got over it after a little while and we were able to stay and enjoy the party. Kinsey went trick or treating at the doors, got a ladybug painted on her face, went through Candyland and danced in the disco with daddy :)
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| Dancing with daddy |
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| Family Portrait |
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| She was facinated by the paper lanterns hanging from the ceiling in Candyland! |
Last Sunday we also took Kinsey to the Zoo for the first time! The weather was nice, although it could have been a little cooler. Kinsey liked it because she likes being outside, but she didn't really notice the animals much. She did seem to see a giant anteater when he came right up the window once though.
After seeing how well she did with the walker my dad bought, I recently found another one at a consignment sale (so we could give the other one back to my dad to keep at his place). This one is a Jeep and it's so cute with an engine and horn! She loves it! Here's a picture and video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nI8n2YVnbs
Kinsey also really likes to sit on the floor and play with her toys. She does a great job reaching for her toys and picking them back up if she drops one. We bought some foam mats for her to sit on - they look like wood flooring, but are nice and soft so if she falls over, it doesn't hurt. We also usually put the Boppy pillow behind her so she doesn't fall over backwards. And with the Boppy, she can sit back up if she does fall back onto it. Here are some pictures and a video of her playing on the floor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNLMdS-jNq4
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| Reaching for her toy |
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| Posing and smiling for the camera |
We are practicing with a sippy cup. You have to be able to suck to get anything out of a sippy cup, so we found one that is soft enough to squeeze and she loves drinking from it! But we also realized she can suck on it a little bit on her own, which is amazing! She drinks water, apple juice and formula from the sippy cup and we're up to about 2 oz in a single feeding. I also use the sippy cup to give her a little water when she's eating and the food gets caught in her cleft. And we've started taking it with us so she can have a few sips of something cool when we're out in the heat. Her sippy cup also has handles that she actually tries to hold onto!
That's it for this week - 20 days and counting to her 1st birthday!!!!!
Friday, October 14, 2011
The Countdown Has Begun!
Monday was Kinsey's 11 month birthday so we're now in the countdown to her amazing 1st Birthday! As I write this, there are 27 days until her birthday!
We began the countdown with a birthday photo shoot on Tuesday. Even though she's not a year old yet, we had to do the photo shoot early so I could use the pictures for her invitations :) We did a cake smashing, but since you have to do those pictures last, she was tired and over it by then and didn't like it very much. She did reach out and grab the cake right away and get a handful of icing, but then seemed irritated that it was stuck to her hand. Anyway, I have a couple of the pictures, but you'll have to wait to see them until her birthday, but here's a sneak peak:
The photographer we used for these photos was a new one to us. She has a 14-month old daughter who has Downs Syndrome and she is focusing on taking pictures of children with special needs. It was really nice to meet her and talk about our experiences. She invited us to attend the mom's/play group for Downs Syndrome, which sounds really interesting to me. I never thought about it before, but because boths conditions are a result of extra chromosome material, they have some things in common. And of course since most Trisomy 18 babies don't survive, there's no mom's/play group for us. Many people have told me about a couple of other moms in Jax with Trisomy 18 children, but I've never reached out to them. I've had mixed feelings about it, but maybe because Kristina's (the photographer) daughter is about the same age as Kinsey it was different.
I think it would be interesting to check and it out and at the very least get together with Kristina and her daughter Giselle again to play. Kristina mentioned to me that Giselle doesn't like other children much, but she kept getting close to Kinsey and reaching out to touch her and stuff and Kristina was really surprised. It was cute to see them together. At the end of the photo shoot I took a couple of pictures of them:
Jamie and I also took Kinsey to the pumpkin patch on Monday. We took some pictures of her amongst the pumpkins in the cute halloween outfit I made for her, but she wasn't really into it and wouldn't smile. We may take her back and try it again another time. I'll post the pictures for halloween, but here's a sneak peak:
Tomorrow (Saturday) we are taking Kinsey to a HUGE halloween party! The event is called Halloween Doors & More and is a fundraiser for the Hospice PedsCare program that has been so great to us. I volunteered earlier this week to help set up and got to see what the event will be like and it looks really cool. Kinsey will be dressing up as a ladybug. I will be a Butterfly and Jamie is going as a nerd :) Ill share pictures of the event and our outfits next week.
We've been trying to teach Kinsey to lift her arms up to help us pick her up, but she hasn't really responded to it much. This week one of her therapists lifted her own arms up while saying "up, up, up" and Kinsey actually raised her arms! We'll keep working on that and hopefully she'll get better at it.
We found a new food that Kinsey likes this week - corn. She downed a whole jar of corn & summer squash the other day! She still won't eat fruit unless you disguise it in a veggie (which I find really funny because you have to do the opposite with most kids). The one fruit she will eat is an oatmeal cinnamon applesauce. I bought some stage 2 foods that have chicken in them, but we haven't given that to her yet - we'll see how that goes. . . We still haven't given her any pumpkin yet since the last rash. The rash was completely cleared up until this Wed. when it started to come back on her face and one hand. I put the cream on it again and it looks better already. I haven't made an appointment with the allergist yet to find out what's causing it though.
Anyway, that's it for this week. Lots of activities (and pictures) will be coming in the next few weeks!
We began the countdown with a birthday photo shoot on Tuesday. Even though she's not a year old yet, we had to do the photo shoot early so I could use the pictures for her invitations :) We did a cake smashing, but since you have to do those pictures last, she was tired and over it by then and didn't like it very much. She did reach out and grab the cake right away and get a handful of icing, but then seemed irritated that it was stuck to her hand. Anyway, I have a couple of the pictures, but you'll have to wait to see them until her birthday, but here's a sneak peak:
The photographer we used for these photos was a new one to us. She has a 14-month old daughter who has Downs Syndrome and she is focusing on taking pictures of children with special needs. It was really nice to meet her and talk about our experiences. She invited us to attend the mom's/play group for Downs Syndrome, which sounds really interesting to me. I never thought about it before, but because boths conditions are a result of extra chromosome material, they have some things in common. And of course since most Trisomy 18 babies don't survive, there's no mom's/play group for us. Many people have told me about a couple of other moms in Jax with Trisomy 18 children, but I've never reached out to them. I've had mixed feelings about it, but maybe because Kristina's (the photographer) daughter is about the same age as Kinsey it was different.
I think it would be interesting to check and it out and at the very least get together with Kristina and her daughter Giselle again to play. Kristina mentioned to me that Giselle doesn't like other children much, but she kept getting close to Kinsey and reaching out to touch her and stuff and Kristina was really surprised. It was cute to see them together. At the end of the photo shoot I took a couple of pictures of them:
Jamie and I also took Kinsey to the pumpkin patch on Monday. We took some pictures of her amongst the pumpkins in the cute halloween outfit I made for her, but she wasn't really into it and wouldn't smile. We may take her back and try it again another time. I'll post the pictures for halloween, but here's a sneak peak:
Tomorrow (Saturday) we are taking Kinsey to a HUGE halloween party! The event is called Halloween Doors & More and is a fundraiser for the Hospice PedsCare program that has been so great to us. I volunteered earlier this week to help set up and got to see what the event will be like and it looks really cool. Kinsey will be dressing up as a ladybug. I will be a Butterfly and Jamie is going as a nerd :) Ill share pictures of the event and our outfits next week.
We've been trying to teach Kinsey to lift her arms up to help us pick her up, but she hasn't really responded to it much. This week one of her therapists lifted her own arms up while saying "up, up, up" and Kinsey actually raised her arms! We'll keep working on that and hopefully she'll get better at it.
We found a new food that Kinsey likes this week - corn. She downed a whole jar of corn & summer squash the other day! She still won't eat fruit unless you disguise it in a veggie (which I find really funny because you have to do the opposite with most kids). The one fruit she will eat is an oatmeal cinnamon applesauce. I bought some stage 2 foods that have chicken in them, but we haven't given that to her yet - we'll see how that goes. . . We still haven't given her any pumpkin yet since the last rash. The rash was completely cleared up until this Wed. when it started to come back on her face and one hand. I put the cream on it again and it looks better already. I haven't made an appointment with the allergist yet to find out what's causing it though.
Anyway, that's it for this week. Lots of activities (and pictures) will be coming in the next few weeks!
Friday, October 7, 2011
Swimming, Laughing & Swinging
Last weekend we took Kinsey back to the beach to play in the ocean again. Here are some pictures:
Yesterday, Kinsey and I were shopping and a lady came over to say hello to Kinsey. She started playing Peek a Boo with her, hiding around the corner of the stroller then popping out where Kinsey could see her and saying “Boo.” Kinsey just stared at her for a long time, then cracked a smile, then started laughing every time the lady appeared! It was so cute! She laughs all the time now, especially when Jamie tickles her with his beard, but she hardly ever laughs at something she sees. I just LOVE her laugh so much – it makes me the happiest person on earth J
This weekend is a new adventure for us – Kinsey is spending TWO nights at Pop-Pop’s house! I’ve never been away from her for 2 nights. I’m sure she will be fine and have lots of fun with Pop-Pop, but I already miss her. Jamie and I are going to Orlando tomorrow to see Cirque de Soleil to celebrate his birthday (which is Sunday).
Kelley (the Nanny) took Kinsey to the playground near our house the other day and put her in the baby swing and she loved it! I took her again the next day and took some pictures and video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nByCLs-fvYQ
That's it for this week :)
Saturday, October 1, 2011
"Walking" Backwards
About a month ago my dad bought Kinsey a walker to keep in his RV (he wanted something she could play in when he babysits her). She liked it from the start, but the first couple of times she was at his house she just sat in it. But last weekend she learned how to start moving it - backwards only though. My dad brought the walker over to our house to show us and we kept it here so she can play in it. She LOVES it! She stands up in it all the time and scoots all over the house. Of course, we constantly have to turn her around because she backs herself into something and can't go forward. Here's a video of her "walking" backwards: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUh6754vNYo
Kinsey is doing really well with her "solid" foods. We've started breaking up her feedings so she gets the bottle and food about 30 min. to an hour apart and that seems to help her eat even more. We learned this week that she will eat while sitting in her stroller - that will make it much easier to feed her while at Disney on her birthday (not like we can bring her high chair with us and she's not stable enough to use the ones restaurants have). She still isn't gaining as much weight as she used to, but she is up to 17 lbs 7 oz these days (that's a 7 oz gain in about 3 weeks).
The rash is still sticking around and we ended up going back to the dermatologist last week. She said to keep using the prescription cream on her face when the rash flares up and gave us a new prescription for an oil to put on her arms and legs. These both seem to keep it under control, but we'd still like to find out the cause. I have the phone number for the allergist so we can get some blood work done and hopefully find out if the rash is caused by an allergy to something. We did take pumpkin out of her diet for the last week because the rash seemed to flare up last week the day after she ate pumpkin. We'll see what happens when we give her that again (it's one of her favorites so let's hope she's not allergic to it).
We got the rest of our beach photos this week. Unfortunately there weren't many good ones other than the ones we already had. I've posted the pictures at the bottom of the blog. The week after next we are doing Kinsey's birthday/halloween photo shoot with a new photographer. She specializes in children with special needs and doesn't put a time limit on the shoot (or will allow you to come back another time to finish it if necessary). I'm excited to see how she does compared to the photographer we've been using since Kinsey was born.
Here are a couple of photos from this week:
That's it for this week. Here are the beach photos:
Kinsey is doing really well with her "solid" foods. We've started breaking up her feedings so she gets the bottle and food about 30 min. to an hour apart and that seems to help her eat even more. We learned this week that she will eat while sitting in her stroller - that will make it much easier to feed her while at Disney on her birthday (not like we can bring her high chair with us and she's not stable enough to use the ones restaurants have). She still isn't gaining as much weight as she used to, but she is up to 17 lbs 7 oz these days (that's a 7 oz gain in about 3 weeks).
The rash is still sticking around and we ended up going back to the dermatologist last week. She said to keep using the prescription cream on her face when the rash flares up and gave us a new prescription for an oil to put on her arms and legs. These both seem to keep it under control, but we'd still like to find out the cause. I have the phone number for the allergist so we can get some blood work done and hopefully find out if the rash is caused by an allergy to something. We did take pumpkin out of her diet for the last week because the rash seemed to flare up last week the day after she ate pumpkin. We'll see what happens when we give her that again (it's one of her favorites so let's hope she's not allergic to it).
We got the rest of our beach photos this week. Unfortunately there weren't many good ones other than the ones we already had. I've posted the pictures at the bottom of the blog. The week after next we are doing Kinsey's birthday/halloween photo shoot with a new photographer. She specializes in children with special needs and doesn't put a time limit on the shoot (or will allow you to come back another time to finish it if necessary). I'm excited to see how she does compared to the photographer we've been using since Kinsey was born.
Here are a couple of photos from this week:
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| Sitting up like a big girl (wearing an outfit Aunt Linda bought her) |
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| My Gator Cheerleader |
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