Tuesday, January 19, 2010

6 month well visit.....2 months overdue!

Today we had Karsyn's 6 month well visit....even though she is 8 months old! I didn't mean to put it off for so long but November and December were such crazy months and I just kept forgetting....add that to the fact that we have been in between health insurance plans and here we are.....2 months late.


The visit went really well. Our pediatrician, Dr. Goebel, said that Karsyn was doing very well with meeting milestones and that she is very healthy. She is still very much on the petite side. Weighing in at 14lbs. 11.8oz. and she is 25 1/2 inches long. That is 5% for weight and 8% for height. I was concerned with these numbers when I first was given them because she has always been around 15% but after reassurance from both the nurse and dr. that she is growing perfectly on her own growth curve I am no longer worried. They said she is just going to be tiny. Not like Little People Big World tiny....just a little girl. I guess she will just stay petite like her Aunt Holly!


At 8 months she is a busy busy little girl. She loves playing with her toys and she tries to grab anything and everything within her reach! She crawls....but not forward completely.....she can go forward slightly but she mostly crawls backwards! She is starting to attempt pulling up. She is constantly trying to pull herself up on her crawl and cruise jungle! She waves and it is the funniest wave I have ever seen her whole hand and all her fingers move. It is very cute!! She mimicks kisses and will blow kisses.....which I just absolutely LOVE! Her vocab consists of DaDa, Bubba and Bye bye. No MaMa yet but I am working hard on that one every day!! She LOVES animals! Cats, dogs....and as we discovered this weekend....turtles too! She will now drink from a bottle! This is a major acomplishment considering a month ago she wouldn't even let a bottle touch her lips. She now gulps down juice (loves Pear juice!) or breast milk out of a bottle. I haven't tried formula yet, but I may soon just for a back-up just in case. Puffs are still her favorite snack. Although, lil crunchers (cheese flavor) come in a close second! After naptime when I go get her out of her bed she is either sitting up or is on all 4 rocking. (seriously cute!)



Her schedule is pretty set and like clockwork I know what she needs at each point during the day. She gets up between 7:30 and 8 every day. She plays for a little bit and then is ready for breakfast. Her favorite things to eat for breakfast are Gerber yogurt, mangos and pears. After breakfast she plays for a little bit longer and is ready to go down for a morning nap by 9:30. This nap generally lasts for about an hour....maybe longer if she didn't sleep well the night before. After her nap she is ready to nurse. She is a really quick eater....10 minutes TOPS! We usually run errands or just play during this time. And she eats a snack before we go get Kara from school at 2:50pm. After we pick up sister we come home and play for about 30 minutes, nurse and she is ready for another nap. This is her long nap of the day....usually 2 1/2 hours! I try to get things done during this time.....most of the time though I relax. :) After her nap she is ready to nurse again. I normally feed her dinner around 6:30 or 7 then she gets a bath, PJ's, plays with Daddy for a little bit, nurses again and goes down for bed around 8:30. She still gets up once each night to nurse. I am working on breaking this habit but for now I don't mind. I really do enjoy nursing her at night. It's quiet and she is so sleepy. I just rub her hair and stare at her pretty little face. It's nice quiet time with my little peanut that is growing way too quickly! I wish I could stop time.

Here are her 8 month pictures taken on Friday night. It is getting hard to get her to sit still while we take them and actually pay attention. She just wants to grab her sign, chew it or pet the lamb. We probably took 30 pictures hoping to get just 1 that would work!

"It's my sign....I'll crinkle it if I want to!"

"How could I possibly look at the camera with this bear sitting next to me!?"




"What....is this what you want?"





"Fine....take away my sign....but I'm still NOT smiling!"

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Disney World-Day 1 (Morning)

Decemeber 26th was our first day in the parks. We woke up around 5am and took a bus to our Disney hotel, The Wilderness Lodge, to check in. Luckily they had a room available early so we were able to drop our stuff off and head to the park. We took a boat over and it was really chilly! But when we arrived at the Magic Kingdom we were in awe and it made the cold boat ride worth it! The girls just kept repeating "I can't believe we are really here!" And all that Jeromy could say was "WOW!" That's a pretty incredible feeling when you hear your 30 year old husband have the same wonder in his voice as your children!! (Disney will have that effect of you!)




We headed down Main Street USA and hauled it to Space Mountain to get our Fast Passes. We were all very excited to ride it! The park wasn't very busy so we decided to take our time and figure out what to ride first. Our first ride was The Haunted Mansion. I didn't take any pictures of the girls in line because we walked up and were immeadiately escorted into the "Parlor" to wait to board the ride. I have to say that I'm pretty sure that The Haunted Mansion is the coolest ride! I have never seen ghosts portrayed more realistic then on this ride! Pretty awesome.....but then again....it's Disney so I wouldn't expect any less! Feeling amped up from riding our first ride we went over to Fantasy Land, parked the stroller, and began riding more rides. Our second ride was Peter Pan's flight. It was awesome because we again walked right up with pretty much no wait. The line constantly moved. What was even more incredible about that was that every other time we passed the entrance there was a 30+ minute wait! So arriving at park opening was definitely worth it! We also rode Snow White's Scary Adventure, It's a Small World and Mad Hatter Teacups. Karsyn LOVED riding along....the whole time she would laugh and slap her hands. She was enamoured by the scenes in the different rides and she truely had fun. Before leaving Fantasy Land we had to stop by the Sword in the Stone for some classic pictures. My parents have pictures of my sister, brother and I trying to pull the sword so I had to carry on the tradition with the girls.

(Getting ready to board Peter Pan's Flight)

(Our 1st Family picture in the park....riding "It's a Small World")

I need to add that there is just something about Disney World that makes you feel like a kid again! You have no worries or concerns....just living in the moment! I certainly took that opportunity and enjoyed every minute!



By this time our Fast Passes were ready to use at Space Mountain so we headed back to Tomorrow Land for our 1st Roller Coaster of our trip! Jeromy and I had to take turns riding with the girls because Karsyn could not go on Space Mountain. So Jeromy and Karlee went first and then Kara and I took our turn. Kara was such a brave little girl....she chose to ride in the front cart....her first time!! I usually close my eyes while riding roller coaster but this time I decided that I wanted to see everything so I kept them open. It is an awesome ride and probably the most fun I've ever had on a roller coaster! As we left the ride Kara and I stopped by the photo booth to check out our picture and I couldn't help but laugh....Kara's hands were up and she was smiling and there I was behind her with a nervous grin on my face! LOL! I guess she really is braver then I am!



We had all decided to meet back at the Baby Care Center so Kara and I headed down Main Street to meet Jeromy, Karlee and Karsyn. We were stopped by an afternoon parade. If you haven't ever experienced a Disney parade you are seriously missing out! I don't think that any other parade will ever compare! I don't have any pictures from this particular parade. And while I'm on the subject of bragging about Disney's features I'm going to take a minute to brag about their Baby Care Centers......AMAZING! They are so incredibly nice! Spacious rooms with areas to nurse, feed, change and play with your baby. Karsyn and I spent quite a bit of time in them relaxing while Jeromy took the girls to do different things. There is one in all of the theme parks and they are all very nice! Much nicer then having to change a diaper in a bathroom and nurse on a park bench! (Although I had to do that a couple times too!) We had time for just one more ride so we chose Pirates of the Caribbean! One of my family's all time favorite rides. And with the additions to make it go along with the movie it has added that much more realism to the ride! There were several points during the ride that Kara would say..."How did they get the real Captain Jack Sparrow to come work here?!?" It really is THAT realistic!

By this point it was lunch time and time for us to head to Epcot for the remainder of the day. So....we hopped on the monorail and headed to Epcot!

I was going to do each day in it's own post but due to the incredible amount of memories and pictures I am going to have to do 2 posts for each day.....maybe more! :)