1 Year Old

My 1 Year Old Baby Girl before church the day after her birthday.

This post is a little late, but better late than never, right?

Saturday was my little bug's First Birthday. Wow, what a year. I can't believe it's been a year already. We had her party while we were home for Thanksgiving.

Here is her picture with her cake.

Grandma (my mom) said that she is the cleanest birthday girl she'd ever seen. :) She didn't get it all over her and she didn't really eat any. Guess that's not a bad thing. :)

There were a lot of people there to celebrate her first birthday with her. We were excited to see everyone. There was one important person who was unable to celebrate with her and that was her daddy. He was upstairs sick. :( It was very sad. He hated to miss her celebration. However, we were very glad that he was upstairs not sharing his germs with everyone.

When we left for SC, Kayden was unable to walk. She was crawling all over the place, would stand unassisted for a few seconds, and then would sit down and crawl. She would walk for a little while holding our fingers. The first night we were in SC, Aunt Emily started encouraging her to walk on her own. She took a few lounging steps, but nothing more than that. However, by Sunday, she was walking way more. She still preferred to crawl, but she was starting to walk more and more. Now, she is walking all over the place. Yes, things are very different in the Elliott household.

So, what has this milestone brought to us?

• Kayden is no longer drinking formula. :) She took to milk like a champ! I don't care for milk, so I was a little afraid she wasn't going to like it either, but she didn't act like she knew any different the first time she had it. So...no more cans of formula!
• She loves water. She drinks at least 3 sippy cups/bottles of water every day. I'm so proud of her!
• She says "Baby", "bye-bye", "Ma-ma", "Da-da", "uh-oh"
• She is learning sign language. She signs "more", "eat", "milk", "bye-bye", "duck", "all done."
• She sleeps through the night. She has been doing this since 6 weeks old (off and on).
• She loves her friends at church. She doesn't mind one bit when I drop her off in the nursery.
• She has learned to turn the TV off by pressing the button. She also loves the remote. She has turned the TV up so our down the street neighbor can hear it. She has also recorded a show and changed the channel (luckily what she recorded was cartoons and she turned the TV to the history channel).
• She doesn't like shoes or socks (at least on her feet). She enjoys taking her shoes off, then her socks and chewing on her socks.
• She loves giving kisses. She is now doing them on her own without being prompted. She loves to crawl up in our laps and snuggle. That's the sweetest part.
• She DOES NOT like wearing hats. Every time I put a hat on her, she takes it right off. She also doesn't like for me to wear a hat. She takes it off my head too. :)
• After turning 1 year old, she now gets to sit facing forward in her car seat and see where she is going. This didn't seem to effect her one way or the other...but it is a right of passage.

Now, enjoy watching our baby girl grow up over the past year.

Kayden in the hospital after being born.

1 Month Old...She loves smiling

2 Months Old--She LOVED her excersaucer

3 Months Old--Sportin' the Clemson attire

4 Months Old--1 Easter. She was excited about her Easter Basket! :)

5 Months--First Mother's Day--Parent/Child Dedication at Open Door Baptist. The dress she is wearing is from Uncle E's mom (my best friend's mother-in-law). She found the dress at an antique shop and said that it reminded her of my wedding dress. I felt this was the most special time she could wear it.

6 Months--Met Cousin AG for the first time

7 Months--Daddy was at Fort Jackson, so she was really excited about being reunited with him for the weekend.

8 Months--1st Trip to the Beach (Myrtle Beach vacation with Auntie Alli & Uncle E)

9 Months--This is the only picture I have of her with a hat. I LOVE this picture. She's my little diva. If you can't tell already, she loves the camera...and the camera loves her. :)

10 Months--1 Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

11 Months--Helped Daddy put her ornament on the tree

First Sickness

Well, it was bound to happen and I guess we're blessed that we made it almost 11 months before it happened. She's had 2 ear infections since she was born, but neither of these slowed her down. Last night, our little bug started running 103.6 temperature. We got very little sleep last night and other than the fever there don't seem to be any other outward symptoms. Her fever went down last night before going to bed. When she woke up this morning her fever was 99.6. However, throughout the day it has risen to now 102.5. I called the doctor and we have an appointment at 4:10. She looks pitiful. Usually I have to listen to her cry to put her down for a nap. A few mintues ago I placed her in the pack and play and she went right to sleep. She's been whining for the past 24 hours. We're praying that it's nothing serious, but I will update after the doctor.

**Update: After swabbing for the flu test (which is HORRIBLE btw), it's been determined that she does not have the flu. The doctor pricked her finger and did a blood count check to determine if she has a bacterial infection or a viral infection...the test gave no definative answers so we are going in for a follow-up tomorrow. Hopefully we'll all get some rest tonight and she'll be back to her normal self tomorrow. Bless her heart she is just pitiful.

I double dog dare you not to smile

If You're Happy & You Know It

10 months

Well, I realized the other day that it's been a while since I've updated our blog. Shame on me. Then, I kept putting it off again because I just felt overwhelmed with what to write. I decided that I could go back and update everything we've been doing for the past 2+ months, or I could just start with now. So...in the interest of time and space (not to mention your interest) I'll just start with now.

Kayden is now 10 months old. I cannot believe that a little more than 10 months ago she was still growing in my tummy. It's amazing to think about. In many, many ways I feel like she's always been here with us.

This is my 3rd week of staying home with Kayden. I LOVE it. I'm still trying to find a routine that fits us. Some days, we are still in our pj's at 10, but we're coming around. My neighbor and I have been walking almost every morning so that helps to motivate me out of the bed, at least. :)

Kayden is growing by leaps and bounds. She is experimenting with walking. She will walk around holding the furniture (or as the "experts" call it, "cruise.") She also loves to push her walking toy or anything else that will move when she stands and pushes it. She also enjoys holding our hands to walk. Her form is getting better every day. She is also experimenting with standing on her own. She will push up or pull up on the furniture and then let go. She will stand there for a few seconds and then sit down. I really think that she has the ability to walk on her own, she just doesn't know that she has that ability. I'm not sure that I'm quite ready for that skill yet. :)

This past weekend we took her to Vollemer Farms. This is the place where we pick strawberries in the spring. They have a pumpkin patch where you can pick your own pumpkins. They also have a play area called "The Back Forty" where they have a pumpkin bounce, a cow train, a corn crib and other activities for kids of all ages. We had a good time. I think we wore Kayden out. But she enjoyed watching the other kids play. Here are some pictures for you:

Some of the skills Kayden now has:

1. She is standing some on her own

2. She is starting to walk while holding on to something

3. She loves "hugging" her baby

4. She likes giving kisses (sometimes :) )

5. She can say "hey"

6. She can wave hello

7. She is learning sign language and can tell you when she wants "more" of something

8. She can hold her hands up when you ask her to say "yeah!"

9. She has learned how to crawl under furniture when she wants to get out of her "cage"

10. She can turn the tv off by using the remote :)

Most importantly she has captured her mommy and daddy's hearts. We are absolutely smitten with this little girl. I love her so much and am constantly in awe that God chose me to take care of her.

No donkeys sleeping in your bathtub

So, I was driving home from work tonight and this commercial came on. Honestly, I don't even remember what they were advertisting, but the opening tagline was "Something stupid...a random Minnesota law prohibits you to drive across state lines with a duck on your head." I don't remember what the commercial was for, because I got caught up thinking, "why in the world would you drive anywhere--must less across a state line--with a duck on your head?"
Then the next thing it said was, "Something stupid...a really dumb Arizona law prohibits you from allowing a donkey to sleep in your bathtub." Again...why would I let a donkey sleep in my bathtud? More importantly, what happened to cause them to need these laws in the first place? I'm imagining some farmer's wife getting kicked in the head because she didn't know that her husband had let their donkey sleep in the bathtub for the night and went in half asleep to take a bath. Or some poor guy with his pet duck leaving Minnesota and getting pulled over because his duck's favorite place to sit is on his head.
I decided to do a little google research and see if there were any other laws that were rediculous...here's what I found...
Thanks to http://www.idiotlaws.com/ I found a stupid law for every state...
Alabama: It is illegal to eat icecream on Sundays.
Alaska: It's illegal to view a moose from an airplane.
Arizona: It is illegal for 6 girls to live in a house.
Arkansas: It is illegal for you to beat your wife more than once a month.
California: You must obtain a permit from a sherriff to crossdress.
Colorado: It's illegal to let your neighbor borrow your vaccum.
Connecticut: It's illegal to cross the street while walking on your hands.
Delaware: It's illegal to pass out on the boardwalk.
Florida: It's illegal to be electricuted in the bathtub.
Georgia: You must own a rake or you will go to jail.
Hawaii: It's illegal to put any coins in your ears.
Idaho: It's illegal to not have a smile on your face in public.
Illinois: It's illegal to give a dog a lighted cigar.
Indiana: It's illegal for a barber to threaten to cut a kid's ear off.
Iowa: You must have written consent to throw things in the sidewalk or street.
Kansas: Damaging a vending machine that took your dollar is against the law.
Kentucky: A woman must get her husband's permission before she can buy a hat.
Louisiana: You can go to jail for up to a year if you make a promise you don't intend to keep.
Maine: You can be fined for leaving your Christmas decor up after January 14.
Maryland: It's illegal to take your camel to the movies.
Massachusetts: It's illegal to not believe in God. You can go to jail for up to a year and or be fined $300.
Michigan: It's illegal to let your pig run free without a nose ring.
Minnesota: You can go to jail for sleeping naked.
Mississippi: It's illegal to shave in the middle of main street.
Missouri: It's illegal to get an elephant drunk or high.
Montana: It's illegal to point sprinklers so they annoy passerbys.
Nebraska: Donut shops are prohibited from selling donut holes.
Nevada: (why couldn't I have lived here hee hee) It's illegal for a mother to give her daughter a perm without a permit.
New Hampshire: It's illegal to pick up trash or repair park benches in the White Mountain National Forest Park without a permit.
New Jersey: Without a note from your doctor, you won’t be able to buy an ice cream cone after 6pm. This is considered illegal and you can be fined or jailed.
New Mexico: Women are prohibited from being unshaven in public.
New York: A couple cannot get a divorce for irreconcilable differences unless they both agree.
North Carolina: Fornicators that register as a married couple to get a discount might find themselves legally married. According to state law, the couple are legally married.
Ohio: Catching a mouse in your house is illegal without a permit.
Oklahoma: It's prohibited to do your own hair without a license.
Oregon: It's against the law for a wedding to be performed at a skating rink.
Pennslyvania: It's illegal for housewives to sweet dirt under a rug.
Rhode Island: It's illegal to sell both toothbrush and toothpaste to the same person...on Sunday.
South Carolina: All males must bring their firearms to church because the indians might attack. (I have to do 2 since this is my state)...Men can beat their wives only on SUNDAY and only on the steps of the courthouse.
South Dakota: Horses are prohibited from entering the Foutain Inn unless they are wearing pants.
Tennessee: It's illegal for a woman to ask a man on a date.
Texas: You must get permission to eat your neighbor's garbage. Failure to do so will land you in jail.
Utah: It's against the law to not drink milk.
Vermont: In Barre, Vermont they made it a law that everyone should bathe on Saturday night.
Virginia: It's illegal to tickle a woman.
Washington: It is grounds for arrest if you are caught wearing a life jacket.
West Virginia: Children are not allowed to go to school with breath smelling like wild onions.
Wisconsin: You can't play checkers in public.
Wyoming: It's illegal to leave the fence open.

OK...so what are your favorite stupid state laws?

Oh the beach is calling my name!!!

This has been a rather stressful summer. Kevin's been gone for 4 1/2 weeks now and I've been working and taking care of Kayden and our home all by myself. I hesitate saying that I've been taking care of our home...becuase I have literally done the bare minimum. :)

Well, this time next week we'll be on our way...as a family...to Myrtle Beach! I'm so excited. This will be Kayden's first trip to the beach. It will our first trip to the beach as a married couple. It will be our first family vacation. And it will be our first vacation with friends and not family (although our dear friends Alli and Erik are very much family to us).

I'm looking forward to the time to spend with our dear friends. I'm looking forward to reuniting our family before we have to hit the ground running back to work and school. I'm looking forward to relaxing in the lazy river and on the beach. And YES...the seafood!!!! :)

Kevin and I will also being setting some goals for our family as well as our future. I'm most looking forward to this. I am trying to set some big goals for my Mary Kay business and need to sit down with Kevin to talk about them. I'm really excited about this!!!

Oh where oh where have I been?

OK, so it's been a really long time since I've last posted anything. It's been a crazy few months. I could make excuses, but I'll just say that life has been happening. :)


One of my new favorite songs is Darryl Worley's "Sounds like life to me." The first time I heard it I turned the radio down because I wasn't in the mood to hear "truth" spoken to me at the time. :) I was dealing with craziness at work, still adjusting to being a working mom (well, I'm STILL adjusting to that) and feeling generally overwhelmed. Then I heard this song where a guy is talking to his best friend who has "fallen off the wagon." He finds him in a bar and asks him what's going on. His friend starts telling all his "woes." After listening to him for a few minutes he did what any good friend should do. He said, "This isn't what you want to hear, but it's what I'm going to say...Sounds like life to me, ain't no fantasy. It's a common case of every day reality." So, that's what's been going on in my world...LIFE.





Here's what life is holding right now:





1. Kevin's in Columbia, SC in Chaplain School. He is doing well even though we miss each other terribly.

2. I am still working full time, building my Mary Kay business and taking care of little Bug and our apartment all alone. I miss Kevin terribly...did I mention that already?

3. Little Bug is growing by leaps and bounds. She is 7 months and 10 days old now. She is amazing. She gets really excited when she sees me. She's always smiled, but now, she flaps her arms and kicks her legs. It's AWESOME! She also gets excited when she hears her "da-da's" voice.

4. She LOVES to take a bath. The very mention of taking a bath she gets all excited and starts to giggle.

5. She has just recently become fascinated with her hands. Yesterday I was trying to feed her and she kept looking at her hand and would open it and close it and she studied it intensely.

6. She has learned how to use her toys the way they are supposed to. She loves buttons. Telephone buttons, remote buttons and buttons on her toys. Last night I put her in her crib and a few minutes later I heard music coming from her room. She had pressed the button on the music thing on her crib.

There are many more things that are going on here, but I think that about covers the big things. I just got a new computer today. When I get everything set up, I'll post some new pictures of Little Bug. I think I might even have a video or 2 for your viewing pleasure. I know you're sitting on pins and needles waiting for it. (Mom, you'll have to be patient and wait...sorry. :) )

Kayden plays with her toys

Kayden's New Words

12 Weeks

Tomorrow, my little bug will be 12 weeks old. I have had a blast at home with her and am grieving the time that I will be away from her. Monday is going to be hard and I would appreciate the prayers of my brothers and sisters in Christ.

Here are some of the things that I have learned over the past 12 weeks:

1. My daughter is a precious gift from the Lord.

2. I get frustrated and overwhelmed when things are out of order in my apartment.

3. I am terribly unorganized (hense the frustration and overwhelmed feelings)

4. I am not very disciplined, but I'm working on that.

5. The next 3 months are going to be hard, but well worth it.

I have a huge goal to get my Mary Kay business built up over the next 3-4 months so that I can stay at home with my little bug from now on. If you think of me over the next few months, please do 2 things: 1) Pray, Pray, Pray! Pray for my emotions and for my discipline. Pray that I will keep my stamina and my focus. 2) If you know anyone who would like to be pampered with a facial and possibly earn free products, send them my way (preferably give me their names). You can help me build my business. :)

Some of the things that Kbug is doing now are:

1) Smiling--A LOT! She loves to smile. She smiles when something funny is on TV. She smiles at her toys. My favorite smile is when I go in to get her in the morning and she realizes I'm there. She looks at me with this big toothless grin.

2) She loves to dance. She likes it when we move her to music. She also kicks and moves her arms when she hears music.

3) She is trying her best to sit up. She will pick her neck up (almost her shoulders too) and lifts her legs trying to strengthen her abs.

4) She loves to stand up on our laps. She will lock her legs so that she stands up.

5) She loves to be read to. I try to read her a book every day and Kevin reads a story from her Toddler Bible to her every night. We are reading through the Bible with her. It's precious.

6) She loves talking. She will sit and talk to me for hours. She has new sounds all the time, but right now she loves to squeel.

7) She loves her "binky bear." This is a Pooh Bear that's holding a small blanket. She's been snuggling with this in her car seat and sometimes her swing since she was about 3 weeks old. She sees it when we're putting her in her car seat and starts to smile and swing her arms. Then she grabs the bear and hugs it. She's so cute with it!

Sleep

So, I'm realizing that I'm much different from a lot of other moms. I'm not really sleep deprived. Kbug sleeps like a champ...most of the time. She takes at least 2 long naps a day (usually from 11-2 and then again from 4ish- 6ish). Then she sleeps in 3-6 hour intravals during the night. When she wakes up at night, she usually eats and then goes right back to sleep. However, on Sunday I noticed something very important. Kbug didn't take her normal naps on Sunday because we were at church during the first nap time. She wasn't having any part of her nap during that time. You see, Kbug has just this past weekend started discovering her world and she wanted to see EVERYTHING. She wasn't content to be cuddled in my arms, she wanted to be up where she could see. So, since she didn't take a nap that morning, she was too tired and restless to take her afternoon nap. Since she didn't take a long nap in the afternoon she was too tired and restless to sleep on Sunday night. I would have personally thought that more naps would equal less sleeping at night. However, what I have found is that more naps during the day equals more sleep at night. Yesterday I tested this theory. I woke her up at 9:30 yesterday morning so that she would take her morning nap. She slept from 12:30-3:30. I woke her up and fed her. She went back to sleep at 5:30 and slept off and on until 8:30. I woke her up, fed her and bathed her and then she went back to sleep at 10:30 and slept until 5:30 this morning! When she woke up, she ate and was back asleep before 6 and slept until 7:45!!!! This is ROCKING!

For your listening pleasure

I can't believe that Kayden will be 7 weeks old tomorrow. Time is flying by so fast. Today we noticed that she was making some noises that sound a lot like laughing. I decided to video that so that those of you who are out of town can hear her. Yes, a lot of the video is me trying to make her laugh. She's so sweet. We have a lot of fun together. She is also trying to "talk" to me a lot now. It's so much fun watching her learn every day. This isn't the video I had hoped to put on here, but the other one wouldn't load. I hope you enjoy this video.

Spiritual Disciplines

As a general rule, I'm not very disciplined. It's not that I don't have it in me...but I'm usually just too lazy to care.
When I was in school I would wait til the last minute to work on a paper or study for a test. I did well (mostly A's & B's) but I just did what I had to do to get by.
My apartment doesn't get cleaned on a regular basis, mainly just when I'm tired of the clutter and about to go out of my mind.
Even my spiritual life has lacked discipline. I confess that I don't spend the time with the Lord that I know I need to on a daily basis. Again, it's not that I don't know I need to or understand what I'll get out of it, it's just that I let other things (mostly laziness) get in my way.
Our Care Group is doing a study on Spiritual Disciplines this semester. The guys are meeting together and then the girls are meeting together. I am learning more and more about the importance of being disciplined in my spiritual life.
This week we discussed Bible intake. Basically, reading the Bible daily and knowing what is in the Bible, as well as memorizing and meditating on particular Scripture and then applying it to our lives. This is the place where I most struggle. I have realized that when I'm not reading the Word, then I feel guilty and stop praying and then a vicious cycle begins. So, this week I have committed to reading through the Psalms (by reading 4 chapters a day). I am working on memorizing and meditating on the first 3 verses of Psalm 1.
What about you? What Spiritual disciplines do you struggle with and what are you doing about it?

Widget

First Month

Ok, so I've been a little busier than usual and am a few days late on writing this post. Truth is, I've sat down several times since my last post to write about various topics (Christmas, mine and Kevin's first anniversary, New Years, looking back on 2008, my goals for 2009) but every time I sat down and opened this screen, I was too tired to think of what exactly I wanted to write.

This week has been full of taking care of Kayden for essentially the first time by myself since she's been born and trying to get our apartment cleaned up. :) So, I'm just getting around to writing about her first month...

Monday was January 5th. That was Kayden's one month birthday. It came around so quickly. I wasn't sure why it came so quickly until I read my stepdad's blog yesterday. (See it here.) Anyway, I am amazed daily by Kayden and what she can do. She is already smiling at me. On Sunday Kevin and I went to the grocery store. Kayden slept through the whole trip until we got to the cashier. She woke up and was smiling at me as I talked to her. I realized that we needed a news paper and when I walked away she began to cry. As soon as I came back she started smiling again. The pediatrician said that this is a 2 month old skill. My little girl is sooo smart. Now, on the one hand I love that she's ahead of the game, but on the other hand I'm sad that she's already starting to grow up so fast. :)

Kayden is also holding her head up already. We really never had to support her head like you would with normal new borns. It's been amazing.

We have had an amazing month with her. She sleeps well and she hardly ever cries. She only really cries when she is hungry...and then you can probably hear her within a 10 mile radius. :)

I decided that I'm going to take her picture every month on her month birthday to see how she is changing. I'm posting here her first picture taken as well as the picture I took of her on Monday. It's amazing how much she has changed already. Enjoy.

30 minutes old.

1 month old