Outside time

We have been spending more and more time with Kaylor outside. She seems to like it, even the picture in our blog title doesn't depict her joy.

We went to the St. Patrick's Day parade this past weekend with Aunt Bea and Lolita. We first had an impromptu sleepover Friday night at Aunt Bea's and hung out for a while there with a night of pizza with some other friends. We woke up and got a late start to the parade BUT we made it on time. We had a lot of fun but were getting a lot of sun so we jetted out a little early. We ate lunch and did some shopping...Carters is a love/hate relationship. We love to go there but hate to spend money. They had some pretty good sales, however.

Aunt Bea loves holding her. We're so grateful that other people like to hold our child when we are eating. Her outfit is provided by Aunt Lolita. The bib is more displayed in the blog title picture

We also gave Kaylor her first lemon. She wasn't impressed.

Earlier in the week, we took Kaylor to her first softball game. It was a high school game Ginny was working. Lolita gave Kaylor her hat to wear, it was surprisingly a bit too big.

We were really shocked when we put Kaylor in her stroller (because all of us were super hot and it was hard to hold her on a bleacher, just keepin' it real) and she fell asleep on her own. We think the sun wore her out!

3 months

We have felt kind of weird telling people she was 8 weeks old before she was 2 months old. Now, she finally caught up. She was officially 3 months old her her 12 week birthday 18 March 2012. Not much has changed. She's about 13 lbs. and still as alert as ever. She can sit up from laying down, with assistance and she have even stood up with assistance.

During the day, Ginny watches a girl of 7 mos. of some friends in the area. Kaylor is not quite at the age where she can "play" yet but they definitely recognize each other. Watching the other young girl, Anna, it's nice to look forward to what we have. Anna goes down for a pretty good nap 1-2 x a day and sits up all on her own. These will be happy memories of our little Kaylor when she gets to that stage.

Speaking of, Ginny and I bit the bullet last night and put Kaylor down before she was actually asleep. She cried for about 12 minutes before she fell asleep and slept pretty much through the night (she woke up at 2 for a diaper change and a quick snack). I felt empowered that we actually got it done. Ginny got a little teary-eyed. But we did it. Now on to naps.

Here's a little picture of our precious gem. The dress is from our friends, Mike and Adrienne. Very cute!!

Our new endeavor.

Last Monday (a week ago), Ginny text me from work and said I should download an APP for my phone called myfitnesspal. I wasn't sure what it was but Ginny and I have both been trying to shed a few extra pounds. We already have cut out fast food, except for the occasional, "we're running around too much and need something quick," stop. We also try to stay away from soda (tangent, I LOVE Dr. Pepper and Ginny LOVES Diet Coke [YUCK!] but when we drink more water and less soda, our body craves the water. If we listen to our body, it really knows what it wants and we should give it to it.) We also have realized eating at home is much more cost effective and, again, our bodies crave "real" food. So, I downloaded the app and we have been gung-ho(whatever that means) ever since. I've lost 3.5 lbs in a week and Ginny has lost 2.5. It's a great app and I HIGHLY recommend it. We have already branched out to Aunt Bea and will continue to shout it's praises. We strive to do some form of exercise everyday and that helps to keep us good and healthy and within our caloric allotment.

Adventures of Kaylor and dad

Since Ginny is my sugar momma, it is only natural that I watch our little girl at home. Even though ( not so secretly ) Lolita our hispanic maid should be watching her ( complete inside joke ). So, of course, Kaylor and I do the usual. When she starts screaming, I scream back at her until I realize she isn't trying to out-scream me and I need to fix her a bottle. We sing. Well, I sing and she just looks at me and then gives me that overly generous smile, all-the-while thinking, "dad, you're so cute." Sometimes she will join in with me and sing as well. We play hide and go seek but she never comes to find me and I ALWAYS find her.

Here are some pictures of our adventures. I had to get some floor cleaning done so I strapped on the baby harness and away we went.

She was good for through the kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and dining room but by the time I got to the living room, she was a bit restless in there. But she held on for the most part. What was she gonna do, jump out of the harness? No child of mine is going to jump out of anything unless it's on fire.

Later that afternoon, she was a little fussy. We have always known she loves to be facing outward and is very content watching TV, for the most part. By sheer circumstance, I also discovered she likes to be bounced on my knee, only facing outward, though. So, I put al of these together, added a little patting of the back and this is what happened...

Yes. She fell asleep, hunched over. She's done this once before. Ginny thinks I'm a pro at getting her to fall asleep. I just think there is something in my DNA that allows my pores to admit a narcotic. Ginny can't stand a chance if she lays on me. It's my X-Men power. YAY! I put people to sleep.

Also, here's a picture of the proud Noni, my mom, holding Kaylor. My parents came to visit this week and they were about to leave and my mom wanted a picture. So, I took one but Kaylor is not the photo loving type. This is the best one out of about 10 pictures.

4 Months Young

Our little Kaylor has made it two months with amazing, flying colors. Yes, I know I put 4 months in the title. Funny story. An old friend came into town and visited our ward this past Sunday. She asked me how old Kaylor was and I immediately replied, "4 months." I think I've been so worried that I might be like other guys and forget her birthday or something like that. But, she is only 2 months; of course, I corrected my mistake quite quickly and was oh so embarrassed. To let you know we are still with our little girl, here are a few pictures of her. Of course, one with Sophie and the other...against a pile of clean clothes. I feel like our laundry machines don't stop. Sorry the Sophie one is so small, still figuring out this whole new camera stuff.

STATS:

11 lbs. 12 oz.

23 inches

She's starting to "talk" to us a lot, especially when we talk to her. She talks to Ginny a lot during feedings. We've both witnessed her laugh and even giggle. She smiles upon coercing. She has been very good about sleeping at night and even has slept for over 8 hours...wow!! She even sleeps like both of her parents, on the stomach and one leg kicked out. (see below) We are so blessed with her and are so excited to continue growing with her.

A day out an about

Last night, Aunt Bea came in and we and Auntie Leesa went to the Hammond Mardi Gras parade. Ginny used our little harness and Kaylor enjoyed a good little nap in it.

This morning, we all went to eat Sushi during the minor hurricane we had here then jotted up to Amite to go to Hudson's Dirt Cheap. For those of you don't know what Hudson's is, you're missing out. Basically, it's a cross between Goodwill and Ross. Quite interesting. The aunts thought that Kaylor needed a new ride.

Doesn't she look absolutely thrilled?

Ginny and I ran into another store for a few minutes and the Kaylor was talking to Aunt Bea.

Here's a little video of their conversation.

Throwed Off

This past weekend, Ginny had a great opportunity to present a portion of her thesis at the SEACSM conference in Jacksonville, FL. She created a poster and displayed it for a few hours while others attending the conference came and asked her questions about it. She was a bit nervous at first but then really enjoyed it.

We took the opportunity to take this trip as a little pre-Valentine's getaway. We knew with school and work, Valentine's Day would not be as special as we would like. We left Thursday morning and arrived later that night. Kaylor was a trooper and only became fussy the last couple of hours of the trip. It's the longest we've required her to be in the car seat. I rode in the back with her for the last hour or so keeping her plug in her mouth because it was the only way she would sleep.

On the way there, we stopped at BabiesRUs to get a baby harness. We ended up with the Mamas and Papas Morph. We were going to get one anyway before this weekend of Mardi Gras parades but now we are very glad we got it earlier, especially since we may not be going to any parades; pending weather. We absolutely love it and we got an excellent deal on it because it was marked incorrectly(more than half off). Kaylor loves it too. We strapped her in quite a bit over the trip. She sleeps in it quite comfortably. We even had a guy stop us and ask us about it because it looked so comfortable for baby and parent. We highly recommend it.

We were able to meet up with a friend from Ginny's high school days, Monica and her husband Brent. The drove a few minutes to meet us for sushi at Jacksonville Landing. They are a great couple and too bad we don't live closer.

We also are incredibly obsessed with custard, if you didn't know. And what, might you ask, did we do for a fun adventure? But of course, we found Shakes, a frozen custard establishment. It was about 25 miles away but took us more than an hour to get there. This actually reminds me of something Brent said at dinner, "we don't measure distance here by miles but by time." Ginny told me this about California as well. But the custard was well worth it.

The conference ended Saturday but we just chilled another night

and left Sunday morning for the trip back. We stopped at a preplanned destination for Slupper (a late lunch early dinner) at Lambert's Cafe, home of the throwed rolls. It is amazing. I first visited the restaurant while on my mission in Missouri but we saw a sign for one in Foley, AL and had to go. Ginny (and Kaylor) had never been so we took a "little" detour and made our way there. The food is traditional and delicious. In addition to your meal, servers bring around extra sides like fried okra and smothered potatoes that you can munch on for the remainder of the evening. Also, if you put your hand up, a delicious, fluffy, heavenly and warm roll is thrown to you. We definitely will be going again.

On the way back, Kaylor was a bit done with the car seat idea and wasn't overly patient with us. At one point, Ginny even leaned over the car seat to, uh, soothe Kaylor so she would go to sleep. We were all ready to get back home.