Days of our Laives

I found a cool list of tried and true baby toys.  There are a lot of teething toys, obviously because when it comes to putting something in baby's mouth, it's hard to be safe enough!  But the list also has learning toys, like stacking by color, and cars/planes/trucks.  Unfortunately I didn't see any musical instruments.  Oh well.

I hope I remember this correctly because the doctor was talking really fast: Weight: 17 lbs 2 oz (19th percentile) Height: 27.25 in (20-something percentile...27th?) Head: 44 cm (?) (49th percentile) Yay, Kira's head is more on the normal side  =)

Once Kira was about 4 months old, we switched from size 3 diapers to size 4 diapers, and she's been using size 4s ever since.  I remember I went to visit a friend of mine whose daughter was 10 months old at the time.  She was shocked to hear that Kira was using the same size diaper as her 10-month old daughter!  Truth be told, when Kira was 4 months old, the size 4 diapers were definitely on the big side, but they fit A LOT better than the size 3 diapers; furthermore, the size 3 diapers were leaking!  Now the size 4 diapers fit just right.  Keep in mind, the box of the size 4 diapers say they are appropriate for babies weighing 22-37 lbs.  Kira is about 15 lbs. Trevor and I are thinking it's time to switch to the size 5 diapers because she's leaking again.  We've had 3 major poo catastrophes in the past 5 days, and if you count pee catastrophes, then there have been 4 incidents in the past 5 days...that's alot!

Kira is scratching the finish off of her crib with her teeth!

Kira is having sleeping issues.  First of all, as mentioned previously, she had a night terror , and that was pretty disturbing.  Besides that, Kira has learned how to stand up in her crib.  It's like a game to her; the second I put her down, she rolls over, gets up on all fours, shimmies her way to the edge of the crib, grabs onto the bars, and heaves herself up into a standing position.  Yesterday at naptime, I put her down 5 times, and each time she ended up in a standing position.  The major problem here is that she can't possibly fall asleep if she is in a standing position, and furthermore, she doesn't know how to go back into a lying position once she is standing.  That means I can't exactly just leave her standing.  So now I'm forced to hold her and pace back and forth until she is sleepy enough to not want to bother getting up.  After trying to put her down 5 times, I paced for 20 minutes before Kira fell asleep.  At bedtime, I put her down 3 times before I...

Kira just woke up screaming.  I went into her room to check on her and she was trembling (and crying).  Both arms were outstretched and shaking!  Poor thing!  I immediately picked her up and did my best to soothe her, but she continued crying.  I was a little bit alarmed, so I took her into my bedroom where Trevor was just about to fall asleep.  I said to him, Kira is shaking!  And he just drifted off to sleep...what a big help he was!  After a minute, Kira stopped crying, picked up her head, and started looking around.  Eventually, she went back to sleep. I was curious to know whether she had a bad dream; I found these articles: Dr. Greene: The Truth about Dreams, Nightmares and Night Terrors Babycenter Expert Q&A Babycenter Article: Night Terrors The difference between a nightmare and a night terror is that the former happens during REM sleep while the latter happens during "light non-REM" sleep (a stage of sleep following "deep non-REM sleep", which occurs ab...

Kira is 9 months old today and here are some changes that have taken place (as of today).  - Lowered crib mattress.  Trevor shifted it to the lowest setting after she almost climbed out.  It's a scary thought, but if she did climb out, she would have fallen, possibly breaking her neck.  **shiver**  - Big girl carseat.  Kira still fits in her infant car seat , but today we were forced to use the convertible car seat because Trevor drove away with the infant car seat base in his car.  Surprisingly, Kira fit very nicely in the big girl car seat.  I think we'll just keep it in my car and use it from now on.  - Medium flow bottle nipples (an upgrade from the slow flow ones she's been using since birth)  - New foods to try: yogurt, pasta, mashed fruits and veggies rather than pureed

Forgot to mention that Kira can now drink from a straw!!  I'll try and catch it on video.

Last week we had some out of town visitors over for lunch: my friend, Kim, who I've known since Loveboat 2000 , her sister, brother-in-law, and her new baby niece!  Kim's sister is such a great mom; so attentive and it shows in her baby, who is so happy and well-adjusted.  The baby is only about 4 months old, and she's starting to play with toys!  I remember those days with Kira!  I had no clue what toys were good for Kira.  Now, Kira definitely has certain preferences when it comes to toys.  I'm not sure if these toys are necessarily "good" for her, but they are her favorites anyway. 1. Lamaze Chime Garden.  Kira likes this toy because it appeals to all of her senses.  It is very colorful, lights up, plays songs, and "chimes" when she taps the flowers.  The flowers also have different types of fabric for the petals, making it fun to touch.  She also likes to put the flowers in her mouth, so it appeals to her sense of taste, too!  haha.  2. Neptune ...

In a few days, Kira will be 9 months old; she's grown and developed so much!  Here is a list of Kira abilities that I *love*!  In no particular order: 1. Eating Cheerios.  A few weeks ago, my mom put some Cheerios on Kira's highchair tray for the first time.  She could see them, finger them, and once in a while, she could pick one up.  But on her first try, she wasn't able to get them into her mouth.  After three days of coaching, she got one into her mouth on her own!  Now she can pick up Cheerios with her thumb and index finger, bring it to her mouth, and let go so her lips can take over.  It's so cute!  Sometimes the Cheerios end up in her tight, little fist.  In those situations, she opens up her hand and uses her palm to push it into her mouth.  Furthermore, she eats the Cheerios at her own pace, which is so cute.  Sometimes she'll stick two in her mouth.  Other times she'll suck on the one Cheerio, moving it around in her mouth until it dissolves away befo...

I was waiting for Trevor to post about the apple picking pictures, but I guess he forgot. Here they are! If Trevor has time, he may post process some more pictures we took that day. We took so many. Click on the picture to see more.

Hi Everyone.  Kira has been a very busy baby lately.  She is working hard on her crawling.  She has no problem getting from point A to point B as demonstrated previously , and now, she can go a few inches with her belly off the ground!  She gets up on her hands and knees and rocks back and forth as if willing herself to move forward.  Sometimes she actually does move forward, albeit just a short distance! Last week Trevor, Kira, and I went to a dinner party.  We had such a great time, especially because most of the guests had young babies just like Kira.  Trevor and I took turns eating dinner, watching Kira, and chatting, just like the other guests!  It was great to have a social evening with babies integrated.  Nobody  minded that some sentences were not finished because attention was diverted to a fussy baby.  Ever since that night, Kira has been talking so much more than before!  She projects her voice, enunciates her "words" clearly, and varies the type of words.  For exa...

Here are a few pictures to start off the month.   Kira in October . And just in case you missed it: Kira in September .

Kira has always been very vocal , and now she makes distinct "words".  Such as: fwa, whua, wawawa, bwua, shhea, mummum, mama, bababa, etc.  But she never really connects these sounds to any specific object, hence we're still waiting for her to say her "first word". I think her first word is going to be "whoa whoa", which means doggie in Chinese.  Sometimes she'll look at Logan and say "wawawa", or "whua whua".  Like in this video: