Catching up!

Well, I have waited waaayyyy too long to post to this blog. We have been so busy and I have so many new pictures I haven't had a long enough span of time to work on this. But I'm just going to do it. We were in Chicago area for 3 weeks visiting family and friends. We managed to squeeze in a trip down to KY during that time, which was tons of fun. In the past week or so Kaelyn has started some "real" food like squash and peaches. She seems to be liking it. She had her 6 month checkup on the 22nd and she is just growing in leaps and bounds - she measured 28 inches long which put her in the 99th percentile, and 16.5 pounds, which was 60th percentile. She's growing over an inch a month! Her 9 month clothes barely fit her - but luckily it's summer and it's mostly the length that doesn't fit, so with shorts you don't notice. We have been enjoying weekends at the beach for the past couple of weeks & it has been lots of fun. We are just trying to enjoy the summer here as much as possible because I know what comes next...winter! Last week Kaelyn had her first "modeling" job - she was a foot model! Our neighbor is a professional photographer & he is shooting a toy catalog, so she got to model a pair of Robeez shoes. She got to keep the shoes, along with some other baby swag. Too funny. Kaelyn & I went to our first outing yesterday with a new mommy/baby group we joined - it was at the beach (of course) and I got sunburned. Today we are going to a pool party in the afternoon. This stay-at-home mom stuff is rough. Barry said he's going to get me a box of bon-bons to complete my look. I have no shame - sounds good to me!

Here's Kaelyn in her new "suit" that my mom got her. She's a glamorous bathing beauty.

Eugene & Abby's rehearsal dinner in Chicago. We had just landed not even 2 hours before this, and Kaelyn was at home with my parents screaming her head off for hours...poor thing. I spent half the night just calling to check on her.

At Eugene's wedding. We had a really fun time. We did lots of shots!

Eugene & Abby - the happy new couple.

Ella had everyone over for dinner when we were in Lexington. It was great - unfortunately Kaelyn fussed a lot, but we still had a really fun time.

While in KY, we went to my favorite place - you guessed it, the Herb Farm. Though they were highly outnumbered by females of all ages, Barry & Tim still joined us.

Last time I ate here, none of us had babies. Hope it wasn't something in the food.

Kaelyn in her 4th of July outfit. She enjoyed celebrating her independence.

My brother and his girlfriend, Kim, finally getting to hold Kaelyn without her crying. It's all in the timing.

For some reason, Kaelyn kept crying when she saw Zach - but, then she got over it bigtime & was his new biggest fan.

I love my Uncle Zach!

Zach taught Kaelyn how to wear her hat. She's all street now yo...and I, clearly, am not.

Her new kitty cat hat. It's really for winter, but I couldn't wait.

While we were in Crystal Lake, she rode in the shopping cart like a big girl for the first time ever! This was actually the 2nd time because I didn't have a camera the 1st time. Never, ever leave the house without the camera.

Here's all of us at the beach a couple of weeks ago. It was impossible to get all of us (namely, Kaelyn) looking at the camera at once, but I thought it was super cute.

Mommy and baby enjoying the beach.

There was this little island off the beach and the waves just sort of went around it - you can sort of see how they actually cross over eachother here. Well, where they cross, a sandbar has formed and you can just walk over to the island. You just don't want to get stuck over there when the tide comes in!

Here's Barry checking out the sandbar. He looks more like he's trying to cross over the border illegally. Kaelyn & I stayed on dry land. We actually all got caught in a big rainstorm just minutes after this. Very messy.

Here's Kaelyn on her 6 month birthday enjoying her baby einstein toy. Love that smile girl.

Happy Daddy's Day Barry!

Well, it's Thursday now, & I tried uploading these pictures on Sunday actually in celebration of Father's Day - but the system kept crashing. So here we are. We spent a nice Father's Day together relaxing around the house. I went out and got Barry sandwiches from one of his favorite places, that I actually don't like - which makes it all the more appealing to him of course. But it was his day after all, so I conceded.

Daddy in his new Celtics hat. He loves watching the NBA finals & was very excited when they won the series Tuesday. Not sure it I'm using all the "proper" terminology here - long story short...Celtics won, Barry happy.

Kaelyn loves to fall asleep on her daddy

Kaelyn's new thing is she loves to jump & she wants to be active all the time - so we went out and bought this monstrosity that we soooo don't have the room for. But it keeps her entertained for awhile, and for me, that's good enough.

I guess she had had enough

The theme is...tiny baby

We apparently have a little thumbelina on our hands - Kaelyn is shrinking before our very eyes! No, it's just that a lot of these pictures she looks so tiny - it's just too cute!

Look, she's barely bigger than a badminton birdie! Our new badminton set came with this awesome oversized birdie & racquets, so we thought it would be really cute to put her next to them and make her look like she's really tiny. I'm not sure the effect worked, but it's still cute.

Look how tiny she is next to mommy!...and I shall call her mini me.

Look how tiny she is in that high chair! I guess she's still too small for this one. I thought she would have a great time sitting up higher with mommy & daddy, while she played with some toys on her tray. Not so much - she can't even reach the tray.

Look how small she is compared to this caterpillar we found in the yard. Ok, now I've taken it too far. This is her new "hungry caterpillar" toy which a neighbor gave us. How nice - and she really likes it.

But she still always goes back to the classics...her hands.

No news, just pics

Kaelyn has been having more and more unhappy outbursts lately - we're not sure what that's all about. She's usually pretty content overall, but twice today (of course when I was out at the store & couldn't leave right away) she just broke out into sheer unhappiness. It starts out with her getting a really serious look on her face, then I try to make her smile but with no success. I've discovered that's the sign of bad things to come...when she won't smile for me. Then very shortly thereafter, she gets super-pouty-face as we call it (which is adorable and heartbreaking all at the same time) and then she just starts crying uncontrollably. She started doing this for the first time when my mom visited a few weeks ago. We thought she was teething, but it doesn't appear she is. Hopefully it's just a phase. Either way, she's still just the best!

I think this is my favorite picture right now. She doesn't even look like a baby here...she looks more like a toddler to me. Maybe it's just me.

Even though we have a high chair now, I just haven't brought myself to use it quite yet. She just started getting the hang of this Bumbo seat, so I've been wanting to try that instead. Eating cereal was a huge mess yesterday, so today I got smarter and put her in a wipeable seat with a wipeable bib. She looks like she's ready for her first haircut - the bib completely overpowers her - but she has no hair to cut.

Mommy and baby in our first summery dresses of the season.

Daddy & Kaelyn spending some quality time together after breakfast.

Something old, something new

I'm going to do a bit of backtracking here, along with some up to the second photos. Just been working on stuff around the house & chillin out with my girl...Kaelyn. Barry's parents leave after this weekend (they have been renting a place here for the past 3 months!) - so it will be back to reality for Barry & I as our private date nights and weekend excursions will be coming to an end - at least the 2 of us alone that is. Kaelyn is so well behaved though, it won't really be a big deal. Plus I love being with her - we'll just have some limitations. Like no more going out with friends til 3am like last weekend. Oh well.

Here's an "up to the minute" pic of little one. You'll notice in most of these latest pictures she has a bewildered look on her face - not sure what that's all about. Maybe she's sick of getting her picture taken. Oh well, she's just going to have to get over it, because momma's not stoppin anytime soon.

This is Barry's version of getting baby ready for bed. This is why I try to let him have as little contact with her as possible! Just teasing.

Last night I attempted once again to give her cereal on a spoon since the formula just isn't cutting it. She wasn't very happy with this though either and made lots of disgusted faces that I couldn't capture with the camera fast enough. This is the best I could get.

Then after I put cereal in her mouth...surprise, surprise...her hands went in. What a mess. I know the lighting here isn't great, but check out those big eyes!

Last weekend Barry & I explored a walking trail in Marblehead. Along the way we came across a school & swings - yeah! I love swings! I don't think it was intended to hold our weight, but we had lots of fun acting like fools.

Here's where I start to backtrack a bit. I've been meaning to put these pics up for awhile. These are from when Scott and Ella visited us last month. We had a great time exploring the area.

On a duck tour in Boston (we all got to take turns "driving" the boat)...

Eating pastries in Portsmouth, NH...

Still eating pastries...

In a pub in Boston near Fanieul Hall (have no idea how to spell it). Good times. Ella didn't drink of course because she's el preggo, but she still managed to get hit on by a redneck from KY. I think he followed her from Lex.

Memorial Day Weekend

Well, it's Memorial Day weekend - not a whole lot going on here. It's almost 80 degrees out today, but our house is remarkably cool since we have no air conditioning. Almost no homes in this whole New England area have air - I guess because they're all so old and it doesn't usually get all that hot here. I think it's stupid though. We worked in the yard the other day and planted flowers and some herbs and veggies. I've never tried growing veggies before, so we'll see how that goes. Friday was my bday #32 - we were supposed to go to the Melting Pot (super yummy) for dinner, but Kaelyn had a slight fever from her immunizations, so we stayed home. We're going to try going there tomorrow instead. Can't wait.

When Kaelyn had her immunizations the other day for her 4 month checkup, she weighed 13 1/2 pounds (50th percentile) and was 26 inches long (90th percentile) - she's grown 5 inches in 4 months! No wonder nothing fits her. Hopefully she'll keep it up and be tall and thin.

Blowing out my candle. We couldn't get 32 to fit on that cupcake.

Taking a little catnap in the afternoon. I love lazy days.

Kaelyn and her new friend that my mom made for her.

She loves her new giraffe. She especially likes it's smiling face.

Here'a a short video we took of Kaelyn playing with her giraffe. It doesn't show her usually sparkling personality - we'll have to try again to capture that.

Kaelyn is 4 months old!

Well, Kaelyn is 4 months old today. I can't believe how fast time is going. It feels like just yesterday and yet forever ago that she was born. I can't even believe there was a time in my life I didn't have her - a year ago she was just a little bean. Actually, a year ago we didn't even know for sure we were pregnant. I was actually in Virginia with my mom at my Aunt's house on this day last year - I had a feeling I was prego, but not positive. I didn't find out for sure until I got back home & took a pregnancy test on May 25th - we had friends over to our house that night for my bday & I told them the news. It was so exciting. That feels like forever ago, but it was only last year. Wow, so much has changed. I couldn't be more in love with our little Kaelyn-boo.

We took this tonight. She's like a little angel. We had on matching outfits...sorta.

Flying Baby. Barry likes to "fly" Kaelyn around the house...she really likes it too.

Here's from my 31st birthday party last year. Look at Kelly's belly. I told everyone I was pregnant that night!

Me and my girl Heidi. This is a really symmetrical picture!

Woo hoo!