Lets see....What has happened since the last update?

Kayla is still working on her top right 2nd tooth. It is poking through but just a tiny bit. She went in for her 9 month check up. Her new stats are 17 lb 5.5 oz (25%), 26 1/4" (25-50%) and 45.3 cm (90%). I am sure we has grown since then. She is always growing. Kayla likes to stand next to the couch now. She can stand for a good amount of time before she plops down on her butt. I bought her a walker at the last mom to mom sale I went to. We are playing in that a little everyday. We also work on crawling around the family room. She isn't quite mobile yet, but is starting to be on her stomach more and will stay on her hands and knees!!



Lindsay, Luke, Mom, Kayla, and I took a road trip down to Indy to visit everyone. It was fun. Got to meet up with pretty much all of the family that was in town and then some. We met the newest member-to-be Monica, ate some cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory, socialized, and drove....A LOT! No more roads with young babies/kids.

Not much has happened with Todd and I. We work, we come home and play with Kayla. I have started attending a Zumba class at church. This program is kicking my butt, but I love it. My mom and boss are both coming with me tomorrow. We'll see how it goes.






We went to the park on Sunday and had a little play time.

Hello everyone! I know, I know, it has been way too long since my last post. So I am taking the time to try and fill you all in on the goings on at the Caruss house.

Kayla has started to sit up on her own. She is so stable. She goes from a sitting position to rolling all over the floor. You put her in one spot and come back and she is in another place altogether. The one thing we can't seem to get her to do is to stay on her stomach. As soon as her stomach hits the floor, she is already trying to roll over or on to her side so she won't have to stay like any longer then she has too. She is teething nicely. She only seems to really cry or get fussy when she is a sleep. During the day, she just chews on anything and everything in site. She has had the 2 bottom teeth since she was about 4 months old. She popped through the top left around 7 months and is popping through the top right one now. One day a few weeks ago, she wore 3 month onesie, 6 month overalls, and newborn shoes. Now she is fitting nicely in 9-12 month clothes. She still has really small feet but hit a good growth spurt. We bought a little inflatable pool and seems to be a investment. Kayla LOVES the water. She will splash and splash as long as you'll let her. She loves bath time. We are working on standing. All she wants to do is stand on one foot, bend at the waist, and look down at what she's doing. This causes all her weight and momentum forward. Doesn't work so well. She is expanding her diet regularly. She is eating more and more. I feel like I'm over feeding her but I guess I'm not if she keeps taking it. She is starting to get some baby fat rolls on those legs of her. So cute.

As for Todd and I....hm. Well not much is going on with us. We are both still working full time. Todd still has his part time job after regular work. Kayla and I try to have dinner ready for him when he gets home so we can sit down for a nice family dinner. Then, some days, it just doesn't happen. Oh well.

Here are some random pictures from the last 2 months or so.

Stomach Bug

Our happy, smiley little girl got an ugly stomach bug. Last Friday night, we just started throwing up before bed. This continued on for several days. We thought she was getting better and then she would do it again. We wanted to wait at least 24 hours before sending her back to daycare. Then like clock work she would throw up at night and we would have to hold off for one more day. Thursday was our first throw-up free day! We were so happy. This meant that we were able to send her the next day and we could get back to work. We knew that we was getting better when she started downing all her bottles. Before she would have about 24 oz, cereal, and veggies in a day. Now she is having about 30 oz and cereal a day. She definitely has her appetite back. She is back to her giggly normal self.

While at the doctor, we asked about the bump/rash on her head. We found out that it was "Ringworm". Ringworm is a fungus (not an actual worm) that develops when moisture collects in a spot over time. We figure it was her sweat collecting on her boppy pillow. We have made changes to help fix this problem. Also, we were told to put a cream on that spot for a few weeks. It already looks a TON better. It is hardly noticeable now. I had to pick Kayla up from daycare the day we found out what it was. We started putting bandaids over it and all is good.

We had our 6 month check up on Thursday. With being sick recently, Kayla lost some weight. She only gained 1 pound since her 4 month appt. They aren't worried about her being in the 10-25% for weight because of her throwing up or that she is in the 10-25% for height. She just hasn't hit her growth spirit. We always knew she had a big head but now she is in the 90-95% for head size.

Kayla is doing better with her development. She can now sit without support for longer and longer. She is up to about 2 minutes. She still hates to be on her tummy so she doesn't get much tummy time. She is doing better at pushing up and holding herself there. We are just waiting for her to be mobile. Shouldn't be too long from now. She loves her exersaucer. She can spend a long time entertaining herself in there. It is nice that she can keep herself busy.

We took Kay on my parent's boat yesterday. She had a blast. We put her in her exersaucer and placed her on the floor of the boat. I honestly don't know if she even knew where she was. She couldn't see over the sides of the boat and was having fun playing. We put a hat on her and she was the cutest thing I have ever seen. Todd took a picture with his phone so we have one but not one to put up.

Nothing has changed for Todd and I. We are still working and enjoying having Kayla around. Kayla and I went and watched Todd play softball on Friday night. She was having a blast and got to meet other kids. Her and a 10 month girl had a staring contest. I don't know who won because I lost interest. We have our family fitness day at the end of the month. We should really start working on getting ready for that. It has been hard to go anywhere since Kay has been sick. Now that she is better, we'll start going for more walks. We will walk to get away from all the construction that is going on right outside our house. We will have a nice paved street but we can't use our driveway or garage. Hopefully by the end of the week we will be able to.

That's all for now!
Ally

Mother's Day 2010

So I got to have my first ever Mother's Day on Sunday. It was a fun filled day. It started with a trip to church and then back home for a little bit before heading to my parents for the afternoon. We had delicious steaks! The whole meal was more then enough. We then got to sit down and give mom/dede her presents. Lindsay and I got together and did a photo shoot with the kids, framed the pictures and gave that to her. She loved it! Well, who wouldn't....pictures of her grandkids that she probably couldn't get on her own. Here are a couple of them for ya.





After pictures and some cake, we all tried the 'miracle berry'. Lindsay and Brian brought these tablets of this dehydrated berry that alters your taste buds for a little while. Sour cream tasted like cream cheese, lemons tasted like lemonade, limes like limeade, grapefruit like sweet candy. It was great! Different but fun!



Once all the festivities were done we went home, dropped stuff off, picked up some other stuff and headed to the Mimi and Papa's house. Got to talk with them for a couple of hours, ate pizza, and gave Mimi her collage picture of Kayla. She seemed to like it.

Since we did all this on Sunday, Todd and I didn't get to go out for MY Mother's Day dinner (that I was being treated to by my loving hubby). We had to reschedule it for today. I am excited. We got a Lindsay to watch Kayla and we are going to Benihanna and maybe a movie. It will be nice to get out. I have been inside the last 2 nights cause of the rain and b/c Kayla was having a few bad days.

Here is a family picture of us from Sunday.



Talk to you all later!
Ally

Cereal!

So tonite we tried cereal for the first time! If I had to say, it went pretty well. She seemed to enjoy it enough to pull my hand close and keep asking for more. I say she ate a good amount. Here are some pictures.







In other news:
Kayla got her second tooth not long after her first one came in. We are just waiting for more to pop thru. She seems to be teething, drooling all over the place and placing everything in her mouth that she can get her hands on.

On Wednesday (while I was out), Todd reported that Kayla finally turned from her back to her belly.

So Sunday will be my first Mother's Day! I can wait to get to experience what my family has in store for me.

Happy Mother's Day to all you Moms out there that do what needs to be done day in and day out.

Ally

Runny Poop

Tonite after Kayla had her dinner, I put her in her exersaucer to play while we ate our dinner. Right before we were finished, we noticed that the bottom part of her exersaucer was filled with this runny green POOP! 'Oh goody' I thought. While Todd was cleaning up dinner, I was cleaning up Kayla. We have come to love our bath time! She kicks and kicks and loves how the water feels. She just grins from ear to ear.

We have started getting into a routine where her bed time is 8:30-8:45. That is a whole hour earlier then before. To our surprise, she has done great with this new change. She still sleeps through the nite until we wake her up at 7 am to get ready for the day. Today was a little hiccup though. She decided to wake up at 5 am! She was coughing and was having a hard time breathing. I sucked her nose out, gave her some Tylenol, and 2 oz of formula and put her back to bed. She then slept until 7 when Todd woke her up. This bears the question, should we increase her formula intake or start her on solid/cereal? Since Todd is not a fan a change, I think we might up her formula intake. To do this, we could either add more to her current bottles or add one more 'dream' bottle.

As I mentioned before, she started rolling over. She only rolls from her Tummy to her Back and usually to one side over the other. Yesterday, I was having tummy time with her and she refused to stay there. 6 times she rolled over so she wouldn't have to do tummy time! 6 times! I finally gave up and decided we would work on it more tomorrow. So today, after the bath, I laid her down on her tummy and again she just rolled over. I came back and put her back and again she rolled. Another 2 times she rolled to her back to get out of tummy time. I held her leg down so that she couldn't roll. She was not happy about that (of course). I put her on the boppy pillow to help prop her up and she just laid over it and started to suck on it. Not the point baby girl... We will continue working on it.

Tomorrow, Kayla is going to spend some time with Mimi while Todd and I go out. Maybe she can get her to stay on her tummy. She seems to like it when Mimi is down there too, talking to her. She will be 5 months old next week. I can't believe it! Time just is flyin by.

I wasn't a fluke!

So today Kayla figured out how to roll from her tummy to her back. We have been working on tummy time to help with developing her neck and arm muscles like the doctor said. She has been doing really well today with keeping her head up. I think she got annoyed with how much I was putting her on her tummy and wanted to do something about it. She put her arm up, laid her head down, and all the sudden the back of her shoulders were on the ground and her knees where twisted and on the ground as well. She was all twisted up. I kept watching and saw her legs follow the direction of her shoulders. She laid there on her back looking at me. I could tell by the look on her face she was thinking "What just happened?" and "I hope mommy doesn't get mad". I looked back at her and smiled one of the biggest smiles of my life. I was so excited I picked her up and hugged her, kissed her, and just kept clapping. She just started smiling from ear to ear. I put her back down on her tummy and after a few more minutes, she did it again! It wasn't a fluke! Todd got home about 10 minutes later and I told him what had happened. He said I was making the whole thing up. We watched her for a while and nothing. I think she was tired from the previous times. She mustered up some strength and rolled. Todd just smiled and encouraged her. Later we had Laura and Roger over and we were doing more tummy time and just kept rolling from her tummy to her back. I think she was showing off her new trick for them. I'm not sure how we are going to keep her on her tummy to help strengthen her neck/arm muscles if she keeps rolling over. Just got to keep telling myself that she will figure it out and to just wait for her to be ready.

Hester the Easter Bunny & the Zoo

Yesterday, Dede, Kayla, and I went to Somerset Mall to see Hester the Easter Bunny! After Kayla and Todd came to see me at work, we made the short treck over there. By the time we got there is was around 12:30. There was a line of parents and children of varying ages in the 'Easter outfits' waiting patiently to see Hester. We took our place in line, to find out that Hester takes her break at 1 for her carrot juice and carrot muffin and they had already decided where the last kid was going to be before her break. Sad to say, we weren't it. So we had to make the choice to wait it out or to come back at another time. We decided, this was the reason we were here so we waited it out. We figured out that she would be seeing Hester around 1:30 when she was going to need to eat again. While Hester was on break, we decided we should start feeding her so she wouldn't scream and cry while up there. She didn't eat as fast as she usually does so we had to stop to get her picture taken. She is not one to stop once she starts. For some reason, she was ok with it today. She was able to finish up her bottle afterward and we on with the rest of her day. Here is her picture.

Later that day, Todd, Kayla, and I went to the Detroit Zoo. Of course, everyone else had the same idea. We got there just after 4 and the zoo closes at 5 so we just started walking. We were out of there by just after 5. For her first visit, she didn't really seems to care. She started out sleep but then was up for almost all of it. Here are some pictures of the day.

What A Day.....

Where to start? It has been a crazy busy day. Lets take it one at a time.

Kayla's first tooth popped through! When I picked her up at daycare they said that she had been crying. Well, come to find out it was because one of her teeth finally popped through. It is in the front, middle, and on the bottom. We knew it was coming and we are all excited it finally happened.

Then we hurried to the doctor's office for Kayla's 4 month check up. She got 2 shots and one oral medication today. She did GREAT!! She got the shots and only cried for literally 15-20 seconds. After that, she was back to her happy cheerful self. Here are her stats:
current (previous)
13 lb .5 oz (10 lb 7 oz) - 25-50%
24.5" long (22.5" long) - 50-75%
42.2 cm Head (39.4 cm Head) - 75-90%
To sum up, we are lower in the weight scale, average in height, and have a big head!
Also while at the doctor, she wants Kayla to work more on tummy time. We need to strength her neck muscles. Also, her head is starting to round out nicely. Her flat spot is still there but less prominent. We need to work on both of those things before her 6 month appointment.

Lastly, it was so nice and warm that we took the coat off Kayla's car seat. In Kayla's mind she is thinking "Now that the thing is off I can finally play with that darn bird that has been dangling from my car seat handle for the last 4 months. Who knew that the thing vibrated. I can catch his foot and pull. He is great to play with."

Tomorrow we are going to go see the Easter Bunny with Dede and then the Zoo with daddy and mommy. Pictures to come. Check back for more updates!

Dedication went well

Well, we had Kayla's dedication to the church on March 21st. It went great! we finished up our bottle, burped, and tooted all before going up in front of everyone. While we were up there, she was a perfect little angel. She held her head up, looked out at everyone and I think even gave a little smirk. Once we sat back down, that’s when she decided the milk wasn’t going to stay down. It wasn’t bad but enough that if we were caught up there when that happened, it would not have been good.

It was nice to have a lot of our relatives come and support us. My grandparents came all the way from Indianapolis to share in this occasion. Thanks guys! Afterward, we went to Sheild’s for a lovely lunch and some socialization. Lucas and Charlie play well together. I think it helps that all the kids go to the same day care.

Tonight we are celebrating Brian’s birthday! Whaaa Whooo! We are going ‘Feather Bowling’. Something that none of us have tried before. Should be fun and interesting to see how we do. Kayla gets to go spend the evening with cousin Charlie, aunt Lisa, and Uncle Craig. Then tomorrow spend the whole morning with cousin Lucas. This girls gets around.

Kayla is sooo close to rolling over. You can see it in her face that she is determined but at the same time, happy with the way things are. She lays on her side a lot and I sometimes ‘help’ her get to her stomach. My little TV watching daughter was laying on her play mat and wanted to see the TV so she started to roll on her side and couldn’t quite see so she arched her back and kicked again and got a little further. Her foot then felt its way to a pole that is attached to the mat and pushed off. I just stopped what I was doing to watch b/c I thought it was going to be her first roll. It wasn’t. She sprang back to her original spot and just stared at me thinking ‘what just happened?’

As for us:
Todd is still working hard during this tax season. In addition to the account firm, we has increased his hours at the jewelry store. I feel like I hardly get to see him during the week. He can’t wait for softball to start up soon and maybe some Monday night street basketball (since he doesn’t have school to worry about anymore!). Apparently early morning basketball isn’t enough for him.

As for me, I learned how to knit. My sister recently learned and taught me how to do it as well. It’s fun, relaxing, and easy to pick up and put down. I am working my lovely full time job and doing some freelance work on the side when I can.

Starting Out

In just under one week, our baby girl will be dedicated at church! This is very exciting for us. Family members are coming in from different areas to celebrate with us. Here is a great way of describing what it is to dedicate our baby girl.

"As believers we are called to recognize that children belong first and foremost to God. God in his goodness gives children as gifts to parents. They not only have the awesome responsibility of caring for this gift, but also the wonderful privilege of enjoying the gift. Because children belong to God and are given by grace as gifts to parents, it is only proper and appropriate that children be dedicated back to God."

Sunday will be a special day for her dedication as it will also be her 4 month birthday. What a better way to celebrate then to giving her back to him? She is the joy in our lives and we couldn't be happier. As we watch her grow, we are amazed each and every day at the new milestones she is accomplishing. When she first started sleeping through the night (at 4 weeks old believe it or not) to finding her hands to her first smile to her first giggle to recently learning how to roll on her side. We are only inches away from learning how to roll over. For some reason, she is really angered when she is put on her stomach. Even with having tummy time everyday, she is still not fond of it.

We went to JC Penny for her 3 month pictures. Here are a few-

In addition to all these milestones, she is becoming a very talkative little girl. She loves to laugh and play with anyone that will spend time with her. Family, friends, and even strangers. We can be changing her diaper and she will be all smiles and giggles.

Thats all for now. Check back for more updates on the Caruss Clan!