Happy Easter!

Yes, an Easter post and it's nearly June... Kiera had a great first Easter and just wanted to share some pics!  Went to church in the morning and awoke to her easter basket after her morning nap.  A trip to the Del to see the Easter bunny and honey baked ham at Grandma and Grandpa Kelly's house.  A fun day had by all!  

Surprise!

We took a last minute weekend trip to see Grandma and Grandpa Bengfort in Coeur d'Alene, ID a few weeks ago and we decided to make it a surprise for Grandma Jean!  We showed up when she was at work and sent Kiera in to surprise her.  What a great surprise it was!  Kiera was a great traveler and slept on both long flights and she loved hanging out at Grandma and Grandpa's house (much bigger than our place!) and loved the dog Mitts!  We also got to go skiing and sample some interesting Northwest Rocky Mountain Oysters aka Swingin Steaks.  : )

11 Months!

How is it possible that my baby will be ONE YEAR OLD in just over a week???  This is still the 11 month update since I am way behind in posting, but holy cow, it is truly amazing how far she has come in 11 months in the world!

Here's what Kiera is up to at 11 months:

- She is definitely walking all over the place and is finally secure enough running around that I don't feel any need to be there to catch her when she tumbles.

- She is just like her daddy... she is SO social!  She loves to wave at anyone she sees.

- She has gotten more affectionate and gives the best hugs and kisses!

- She is going great with her signing.  We didn't teach a lot of signs but she definitely has the milk, eat, more, and all done signs down.  If you don't pay attention to her milk sign (which is the most frequently used) she gets right in your face and does it until you acknowledge her.  The girl expresses what she needs!  (She is doing her milk sign in the picture below!)

- Her favorite things to do include eating, carrying around her little stuffed animals, making animal sounds, going for walks and waving at the birds (she gets SO excited when she sees one and says "Bird!!!"), airplanes, and people, pulling things out of the drawers and cupboards, and of course reading books... and pulling them all off the shelf and throwing them on the floor.  : )

- She pretty much eats whatever we eat, although I try to include extra fruits and veggies.  We still have a small amount of baby food we give her occasionally until it's gone, but she much prefers eating cut up big people food or taking bites of our food.  She understands "chew" after taking a big bite and does well with all of the new foods.  We haven't found anything she just wouldn't eat yet.  

- She has stopped using bottles or having her milk heated at all and is drinking her breastmilk from a sippy cup while I'm at work.  I just started the weaning process, cutting out one of four feedings/pumpings and will cut the rest over the next few weeks.  So hard to believe that she can have cow's milk soon!  I have been looking forward to this for a long time, but now that the time is almost here it makes me a little sad.  I'm proud that we've made it a whole year with breastfeeding and I don't think I'll miss washing the pumping parts and bottles every night!  

- She is wearing a mix of 6-12 month and 12-18 month clothes and still on size 3 diapers.  Mostly 6-12 month pants and 12-18 month tops with a few 18-24 month items as well!  She has some size 9-12 month shoes that she wears occasionally, but they are really still too big.

- Daddy's favorite time of day is getting her out of bed in the morning. It's his special time with her and I love waiting for my cue to come in and feed her when they both say "Momma, Momma!"  

- She loves to play with my make up and hair brushes and pull things out of the bathroom drawers.  This is usually how she entertains herself while I get ready in the morning.  She has learned to brush her own hair.  Such a girl!  She also loves hair bows, although if you tell her she has one in her hair or she reaches up and finds it (and excitedly declares "Bow!") she will pull it out so she can carry it around and put it in her mouth.  

- She's still napping twice a day around 10 and 3 and is a great sleeper at night from about 8:00-7:00 or 7:30.  She has always been good about us putting her into her crib awake to fall asleep on her own but she had a brief period for a week or so where she would cry and cry when we left her.  Ugh it broke my heart, but was hard because if I went in there, she would be even more upset when I left again.  Thankfully, she's back to herself!  We also started letting her take a little bunny with a tiny blanket attached into bed with her and she loves it.  

- She got some new room decor... aren't those number cards just adorable?  : )

So crazy that her next monthly post will be the big ONE year!!! : )

10 Months!

We finally got a new camera, therefore there will be a lot of photos in these posts!!  YAY!  It was a long time coming, but the desire for better photos of Kiera growing up, the ability to snap a picture when I actually want to rather than waiting 12 seconds (important with a little one!), and the hope to someday learn to take great photos finally pushed us over the edge.  After much deliberation we finally decided on the Canon 60D and so far we love it!  I sadly haven't had the time to learn a whole lot anything about it yet, but apparently even a dummy can use it on the auto setting and take much better pictures than the point and shoot.  : )

Kiera is all over the place!  Between her speedy crawling these days and her short stints of walking, she is definitely keeping us on our toes.  Here is what she's up to at 10 months:

- For the first time she protested her monthly photos in the chair!  She is on the go and doesn't really want to sit still for anything, including photos.  She has learned how to get out of your arms by straightening up her body and sliding down... makes things a little challenging!

- She is officially walking!  She is definitely at the age where she is injury prone but is pretty good at walking around and just falling on her butt or catching herself with her hands when she loses her balance.  When she takes a lot of steps, she often turns around once she has reached her destination and looks back at you with this big smile and just waits for you to praise her for her walking skills.  : )

- We had to install a gate at the bottom of the stairs (only our bedroom is upstairs now so she doesn't really go up there) as she can now climb the stairs.  I went up behind her to see and she made it all the way to the top.

- She says lots of words, or tries!  Lots of babbling and she definitely says momma, dada, more (this was probably the first word other than mama and dada... fitting for her!) when she wants more to eat, bye bye, baaaaa (bath) , nanana (mimicking me when I say no no no), yah yah yah (ok that may not really be a word, but she likes to say it), nanna (banana), nigh nigh (night night).

- She is loving her sippy cup with the straw and can pick it up and drink it by herself.  We only put water in it for now but will probably have her drink milk out of it soon since the plan is for her to drink her milk our of it at a year.

- She still loves reading books!  We got a new bookshelf to house her growing book collection which we love.  The drawer base is just the right height so she can stand at it and pull the books out.

- She is completely obsessed with waving.  She waves when we come into her room, waves at herself in the mirror, waves at dogs we see on the street, waves at anyone who will look, waves at the moon and birds, waves when she hears the front door open, and of course when saying bye bye!

- She loves eating anything with her fingers (actually hands now as she likes to shove fistfuls of food in her mouth).  She will still eat some baby food and rice cereal and oatmeal, but definitely prefers the finger food and has eaten everything she has tried so far.  She has tried too many things to list: peas, broccoli, carrots, chicken, ham, turkey, fish, wheat bread, cheerios, cheese, noodles, rice, bananas, pears, apples, avocado, beans, and even a sweet potato french fry the other night.  : )  Her 8 teeth are coming in very handy for all this eating!

- She is wearing a combination of 6-12 and 12-18 month clothes. Still wearing size 3 diapers.

- We went to the zoo and saw the pandas.  She is at the age where she can actually see the animals you point out to her so we hope to go more frequently.

- She is on the same sleeping schedule 8-7 or 7:30am with two 1.5 hr naps around 9:30 and 2:00 and the same eating schedule with milk at 7, 11, 3, and 7 (ish) with solids at 11 and 7 and an occasional snack in between.

- She loves opening the drawers in the bathroom and pulling things out.  We need to make another trip to babies r us for some drawer locks!  In the mornings she loves sitting on the bathroom floor with me in front of the mirror and playing with my makeup, combs, and brushes while I get ready.  Such a girl already!  : )

Look who's walking!

It's been a LONG time since I've posted a video of Miss Kiera... so here she is walking and talking!  Such a big girl now!  Love her : )