Look At Her Go!!!

Last week, on Christmas Day, KalissaBear officially took her first "steps" crawling. She was so cute and wobbly! Now, just a few days later, she has got it down and is crawling all over the place! Aye yi yi!!! Can't turn our backs for a minute (as you can see from the video)! I don't know anything about baby development but everyone seems to be shocked that she is already crawling at 5 months old. While I'm happy that her physical development is going well, I'm also kinda sad that everything is happening so fast!!! All I can do is try to capture everything on video so I can treasure these moments forever since they obviously aren't going to last long in reality! Pray for me!

Closing Out 2009!

Wow. What a year!!! This time last year we were celebrating the tiny little life that was growing inside of me and praying that he/she would "stick". Matter of fact, one year ago today, we were at our first doctor's appointment and saw our little bean's heart beat on the screen. When they turned up the volume so that we could hear it, I thought I would die!!! What a blessing!!! So the impossible became possible and here we are one year later celebrating Kalissa Rae's first Christmas.

Our first Christmas with all three girls was beautiful. Kalissa must have known something special was happening because on Christmas Eve, the child would NOT go to sleep! She was all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 10:00 p.m. which is not typical of her.

On Christmas morning, she was the first to awaken....at 5:30 a.m! I quietly fed her and then brought her into our bedroom so she could wake her Daddy (he wasn't too excited about that! *lol*). Once he was up, we woke her sisters who didn't mind being up so early because they couldn't WAIT to open their gifts. All week, we had to hear Qiana beg to "open just one present".

First things first, Al had me open a specific gift of mine...it turned out to be The Temptations Christmas CD. Once I had it opened, he pushed 'play' on the surround sound (he already had it set up) and filled the living room with the music of my childhood Christmases. Awwww...I told y'all he's wonderful. Once the mood was set, the girls began opening their gifts and they were nothing short of ecstatic. Here is Kali with some of her presents. She was MUCH more interested in eating the wrapping paper! *lol*

My mom arrived a few hours later with more gifts and then we started our phone calls to our family members. Ahhhh...it was a beautiful day!



In addition to our first Christmas, Kalissa turned 5 months old! Along with this milestone came crawling!! Not scooting...the girl is on her knees putting one hand in front of the other and CRAWLING!! She started this on Christmas morning and has been getting better and better. I'll be posting a video soon. Everyone who has seen her doing this keeps saying she is moving out the way for her little brother/sister! Ha! We have yet to embark on that journey *lol*. Also, she is pretty much an 'unsupported sitter' now too. Notice on the Christmas Eve video, she is sitting up through most of it. She props herself up with one arm (she can't yet get all the way up) and waits for someone to put her in the sitting position and then she's able to stay there for quite a while. She also got her first cold last week!


Yes, 2009 has been a wonderful year for us. Our family is flourishing...the older girls have embraced Kalissa wholeheartedly. Candy, 16, is sooooo in love with Kalissa that it just warms my heart to see them interact. Qiana, almost 11, loves her too and shows it just as much. With them living 3 hours away we are thankful that their mom helps to facilitate their bonding by meeting us half-way every other weekend. We couldn't have hoped for a better blending of our families than what we have. I feel so blessed and am looking forward to 2010!!

'Tis the Season!

Okay, so I am officially in the Christmas spirit! Over the weekend we took family pictures, set up the tree, and gave from our hearts. Yep, that'll get the ball rolling! One thing that Al really wants to do is have our own family traditions...something that the girls will always think of fondly at this time of year. For me, I associate Christmas time with COLD WEATHER (that east coast snow!) and the Temptations Christmas album. My mom would blast that album all season long and I still love it to this day! We also would have these German calendars that had a piece of chocolate for each day in the month of December. We would take turns "opening the day" to get the candy. I can't remember hardly any of the gifts I received as a child but those three things will always be in my heart. We want the same feelings for our girls.

One of the things Al came up with was giving to Toys for Tots. Being a former Marine (I know, there's no such thing), T4T is a charitable organization that he wants us to be a part of. Soooooo, we each picked out a toy and dropped them off at the local Babies R Us. It feels good to give back!


Like most families, we trimmed the tree together. Well...Al and the older girls did. Kalissa and I just watched! It would have been nice to have had the Temptations Christmas album playing but we did turn off the t.v. for the occasion! Putting together the tree (yes, I only do artificials...I just can't get into the real trees) was a lot of fun. It's not quite finished though because we ran out of garland. Speaking of...is there a garland shortage this year?? We had to go to 3 different stores to find some!

We also took family pictures at Sears. I was really impressed with the job they did! Our photographer was great and was very patient with Kalissa. Miss KRae was cranky because she hadn't slept all day. She gets like that when her sisters are in town...she doesn't want to miss anything!


And here's my little Covergirl in her solo photoshoot. She was workin it! *lol*




As you can see, I just couldn't pick one or two shots! I had to have them ALL. Luckily, Sears knows moms like me and allows you to purchase all of your pics on a CD and gives you full copyright release to print your shots however you want them. Let me know your favorite and I'll be happy to send them to you! Hope your Christmas season is in full swing and if not....head on down to your church and get a dose of 'feel good'! *lol* If your church is anything like mine, the messages at this time of year are powerful and a sure way to get you all warm and fuzzy inside!

Rollin'!

During today's tummy time, Kalissa surprised me with a back to front roll. As soon as she did it, she looked shocked...not sure if that was from the act of rolling or me clapping and saying, "Good Girl!" over and over. *lol* Here is video of her second attempt:

Daddy got home soon after and she was more than happy to show him her new accomplishment. After about 4 or 5 times, she's rolling like a champ and won't stop doing it! *lol* What's next?!?

Oh Those Pearly Whites!

Finally! Kalissa decided to let me capture her teeth on film! *lol* She got these babies one week apart when she was 3 1/2 months old. Today, I rubbed my finger along her top gums and felt the makings of another little bud. Maybe it'll break the surface by next week. Although her teeth are coming in rather early, she's perfectly "average" in her size. At her 4 month check up last week, she measured 24 1/2 inches long, with a 16 1/4 inch head circumference and weighed 14 pounds. That put her in the 60th percentile on all counts.

As far as her development, she is reaching for and able to grasp her toys pretty well. She is still working on rolling from back to front but she shows more of an interest in wanting to learn to crawl! The cutest thing is her kissing! If you make a kiss noise at her, she makes one back! Of course she doesn't do it by puckering her lip...she actually does it by sucking on her bottom lip. Either way, it's just the cutest thing and I'm out to get it on video! *lol*

Hey Mikey....She Likes It!

Y'all remember that commercial? *lol* Well that's exactly how I felt today when I offered Kalissa her first taste of vegetables. She has been getting 1 serving of oatmeal each day for the past month and I felt it was high time we tried something new. Al wanted her to have veggies before fruits and I was dreading giving them to her! I expected to end up wearing most, if not all, of anything green. Well today I was pleasantly surprised. Kalissa not only ate a whole serving of green beans, she gobbled them down! Mission accomplished. I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised...at 4 months old now, she weighs 14 pounds.

In other news, we had a wonderful first Thanksgiving! Al fried a turducken (a turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken) and made his famous greens and sweet potato pie. I handled the mac & cheese, dressing, and mashed potatoes. My mom brought cranberry sauce and cheese cake. Al's friend, Teddy, also joined us.

We stayed away from the stores on Black Friday and instead visited with the Woods family. Everyone was there so Kalissa got to see all of her aunties. Here she is being a social butterfly and then knocked out after it all! *lol* She has this new sleeping position with her hand behind her head. Awwww! Isn't it funny that she still managed to get the back-of-the-head bald spot even though she barely has any hair? *lol*

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

I know that's actually the title of a Christmas carol but it should be a song for Thanksgiving! This is my favorite holiday of all holidays and I'm so glad it's finally here! Every year I am grateful and thankful for all of the blessings I'm given and this year there is no exception. Well, except for the ultimate blessing this year: my darling baby Kalissa Rae!

My Thanksgiving week began at church where I had the pleasure of listening to a spoken word performance (how cool is it that my church even had a spoken word performance?!?) that listed all the things this young man was thankful for. It was so cleaverly written and I wish I had the ability to write my thoughts so eloquently. But I don't. So....I'll just list a few of the things that I am thankful for this year.

I am thankful for my family. No matter how small or spread out we are, we are a family and I'm thankful to have them.

I'm thankful for my friends. Old and new, I'm thankful to have people around me who care.

I'm thankful for my health. I may get up a little slower than I used to and tire out faster but I'm thankful that I don't have any major ailments at this time.

I'm thankful for my home. It may be just a little condo but it's a cozy little place to lay my head.

I'm thankful for the brave men & women of the US Armed Forces.

I'm thankful for every day of the past year and look forward to the year ahead.

There are soooo many things to be thankful for that I can't even begin to list them all. It's a good thing that I give thanks every day so that I don't have to worry about forgetting something tomorrow! *lol* I hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving!

Toys for Our Tot

My mom, Kalissa's Oma, visits at least once per week and she usually brings her some sort of little gift...a bib here, an outfit there, etc. Now that Kali spends time in her playpen, Oma decided to load her up with toys. Last week, she brought over several Baby Einstein items and Kali went to town with them! So far she seems to prefer her jingle ball and the red block. There's also a blue block and a yellow one but she only reaches for the red one right now. Kalissa also has an insatiable urge to be mobile! When I put her on her back, she immediately twists to try to turn over (makes diaper changes REAL fun!). She can turn over from front to back but hasn't yet mastered going from her back to front. It certainly isn't from lack of trying though! I predict she'll have that down in the next couple of weeks. She is also trying to crawl! Yes, I said crawl and she's not even 4 months old. She gets up on all fours and then rocks back and forth. I'm not sure what to make of all this early development...Pamela says she's growing up fast in order to make way for a new baby! Hmmmm, she may be on to something. :) Here's Kali trying to get her crawl on! *lol*

Mumbo Bumbo

A couple of days ago, Kali and I attended my church's small group for moms. There are about 5 other moms in the group with babies ranging from 7 weeks to 4 years old. Kalissa loves being out and about with me and is just a sponge, absorbing everything and everyone around her. Anyway, the group's "head mom" offered a Bumbo Chair for Kali to sit in. I had seen these chairs before but didn't really know if Kalissa would like it (she's very particular about her products *lol*). Low and behold, she sat in that chair for an hour and seemed to love it! Of course I had to go get her one. She loves being able to sit upright and have the use of both hands to play with her toys. This seat will be high on my "must have" list for new moms...moreso than a boppy. I've tried and tried to use my boppy pillow but Kali hates it and it doesn't provide enough support to keep her from tipping forward. I'm not sure how much longer we'll need this chair because at the rate she's going she'll be sitting up on her own in no time, but until then it's her new best friend!

Go Chargers!!

Yesterday, the Chargers pulled out a BIG win over the Philadelphia Eagles! I can't help but think our little hometown cheerleader had something to do with that. :) You know her Daddy does nothing but watch football on Sundays from 8:00 a.m until the last game ends around 8:30 p.m. so it's only natural that we get her started early. My brother was of course rooting for the Eagles and texted me to "remember where I came from" when I teased him about the big lead the Chargers had. True.... but we are 100% San Diego girls now! Goooooooo Chargers! :)

Sidebar: Why does Kali look like she's sportin a mohawk?? *rotfl* Oh, and her second bottom tooth arrived yesterday too!

Growing Up!

Well folks, it has come time for us to put up Kalissa's playpen! Gone are the days of being able to plop her on the couch for a few moments. She never really ever enjoyed her swing so it's been moved to a corner and is on its way out to storage. Yes, Kalissa Rae is growing up and growing FAST! She's 3 1/2 months old and already has her first tooth. We estimate her to be about 15 pounds. The Infant Growth Chart puts her in the 85th percentile (heavier than 85 out of every 100 infants her age) for her current weight. We'll find out her official weight in a couple of weeks at her 4 month check up and see what her doctor has to say about it. We're still only feeding her solids once per day. She's eating 3 tbsp of oatmeal for lunch and then she gets a tbsp of rice cereal with her first and last bottles of the day. In between that, she gets 2 additional 5 ounce bottles. That's a total of 4 bottles (5 ounces each) and 1 oatmeal feeding per day. I certainly don't think I'm over feeding her!

Too funny, I tried giving her stage 1 chicken yesterday and she WAS NOT having it! She screamed the whole time and refused to swallow!! I thought she would welcome the taste of chicken but that was a big swing and a miss!! *lol* I guess I'll wait a couple of weeks before trying it again. She's doing okay with oatmeal and I don't want to push her faster than she's willing to go on her own.

In addition to her size, she's getting better with her dexterity. She wants everything she touches to go in her mouth. She discovered her toes on Wednesday and yes...in her mouth they went! *lol* She smiles a lot more and when I tickle her cheeks she pooches out her lips! Soooooo cute!! She still LOVES LOVES LOVES her Daddy. At the sound of his voice she cranes her neck trying to locate him and as soon as she does, she SQUEALS and smiles so big! It really is a beautiful sight! I'm sooooo jealous because I have to work HARD for just a giggle. I'll try not to complain...they have what they have but we have our moments too! They're just not as animated though! *lol*

Playing Match Maker

Last week, one of my best friends (Katrina) sent me a video of her grandson eating his first lollipop. Noah was tearin that sucker up! She sent it along with a note that Noah is going to be Kalissa's future husband. I took one look at this picture and agreed that we MUST do all we can to make this holy union a future reality! *lol* Can you blame me?? Look how cute he is!! Don't worry, we're not wanting our babies to grow up anytime soon...we're just having fun daydreaming.

Speaking of growing up too soon -- little miss KRae sprouted her first tooth yesterday!! The girl isn't even 3 1/2 months old yet! I'm trying to get a picture but everytime I pull down her lip to look at it, she cries. It's the cutest little toof I've ever seen! *lol*

Well...The Color Matches

Kids say the darnedest things. And when they do, you usually can't help but laugh. I've discovered that grown people also say some pretty hilarious things. This morning, I met up with Al at the car service shop. Al was standing outside the establishment while I had Kalissa sitting in the corner behind me so she was not in the way. An older lady was finishing up her business at the counter and then exited out the door where Al was standing. She looked at Al and said, "That's such a beautiful baby you have in there". Mind you, Al was not interacting with me or the baby so he asked the lady how she knew Kalissa belonged to him. At this point, I walked over to hear her response. I fully expected her to say something like, "she looks just like you" or something along those lines. I wasn't expecting to hear what she did say. Okay, are you ready? She took one look at me and then looked at him and said, "Well....the color matches so I just figured she was!" *ROTFLMAO*

Happy Halloween....

I'm not a big holiday person. The only holiday that I love and look forward to is Thanksgiving. There's really no commercial pretentiousness with Thanksgiving...just good food with good friends and family. I love it. Of all the other holidays, Halloween is probably the one I could do without however, I participate with giving out candy because I feel it's my duty. I mean, when I was a child there were plenty of adults who made Halloween fun for me so I'm just giving back. Last week there was a Halloween parade in my neighborhood so we packed up baby and checked it out. Kalissa didn't seem to have a good time...it was way too loud with the fire engines and stuff so we didn't stay too long.


One highlight was this horse! The picture doesn't do it any justice but this horse was gorgeous! Its' mane and tail were to the ground and it was as black and shiny as a piece of onyx. I'm not into horses but this one was very beautiful.


Today, we spent our Halloween bowling and if we get any kids tonight, we'll hand out candy. I quickly discovered that my hip cannot yet support me bowling so I politely made my way over to the bar for a beer and fried mushrooms. mmmmmmm!!!
This picture of Kalissa and me makes me wonder if my child is ever going to grow some hair!! *lol*

All Night Long....

I am happy to report that at 14 weeks and 1 day old....Kalissa Rae FINALLY slept through the night!! And not just the book definition "through the night" of 5-6 hours either! I put her to bed at 10pm last night and she awoke at 6:20 this morning. WOOOO HOOOOO! She is also doing very well at eating from a spoon. Today was her 4th go at it and she cried very little through the feeding. We're still giving her a bottle between spoonfulls but progress is being made. In the words of Wendy Williams: "She's doin' it!"

My, What Big EYES You Have!

That is the very first comment that people say when they see Kalissa. I can't blame them...she does have some pretty large peepers! *lol* She got them from Daddy and it's the one trait that I actually prayed she would get from him (his eyes were the first thing that made me take notice *lol*). So it's no wonder that she gets a lot of comments about them. The next thing people usually ask is her age. When I tell them 3 months old, it's THEIR eyes that get all big! Now I don't know too much about babies so I don't look at her to be large. She's got rolls on her thighs and her sister kindly pointed out that she has cellulite (kids say the darnedest things!) so I know she's chunky but nothing out of the ordinary, right? Well, lately Kalissa doesn't seem to be satisfied with just milk. She's still waking up every 3-4 hours looking for a bottle. And in my constant quest for baby knowledge, it seems she should be sleeping a good 6-7 hours during the night. Enough is enough!

Sooo...I enlisted the help of my friend, Tanyetta (see her blog to the right of the screen), because she is the only person I know who's my age and who's been there, done that, and is doing it some more! :) She posted some great tips on her blog to help me get started. I was happy to see that she fed her baby rice cereal IN A BOTTLE *gasp*! Of course we were all fed that way by our parents but everyone seems to have a problem with it nowadays. Both of Kalissa's grandmoms suggested it early on and I tried it when she was 6 weeks old but she ended up with constipation so I stopped feeding it to her. I don't know if it was too early or the fact that I was giving her like 4 tbsps in a 5 ounce bottle (told you I don't know what I'm doing!) but either way, I freaked out and went back to just milk. Now that she's older, I'm giving it another go. This time, I'm putting ONE tbsp in a 5 ounce bottle right after a nice warm bath and it seems to be working! Last night, she slept 6 hours! WOOOOO HOOOO!

So with rice cereal tried and tested, I'm moving on to oatmeal from a spoon! Last night was her first time and she WAS NOT having it, lemme tell you! My child screamed and screamed until Daddy came to the rescue. After I put some oatmeal in her mouth, he handed me a bottle of water and told me to let her drink some so that what's in her mouth will go down as she swallows. From that she will learn to swallow when food is put in her mouth. BINGO! Give that man a prize, it worked perfectly! She seemed to like it just fine so I'll continue with oatmeal in place of one of her feedings for the next week then work our way up to fruits and veggies. I'm sooooo excited...my baby is growing up!!!!

What Can I Get for a Buck??

I love bargains. I love blow-out sales. I once got a pair of sandals from Robinsons May for 47 cents. Maybe they weren't the cutest shoes but for 47 cents they were good by me! To know me is to know that I love nice things and designer labels but I very seldom pay full price for them. I look at it as a challenge to see just how cheaply I can get things.

My mom may have one-upped me last week when she got an outfit for Kalissa for ONE DOLLAR at H&M. A brand new, two-piece outfit from a retail store for a buck?? Well shut the front door. I'm impressed! *lol* Here she is modeling her latest gift. It actually came with grey shorts but since the weather is cool, I paired it with some navy leggings. Gotta love it!

On Your Mark....Get Set....Roll!!

I am soooo happy to report that the tummy time paid off in a big way! This is video of Kalissa in her crib on Friday...

My girl was trying sooooo hard to roll over! She almost had it so I knew it was just a matter of time before she was strong enough to make it all the way over. I figured she was on target to do it by her 3-month mark which is this Friday.

Well, when I laid her to sleep Saturday night, she was on her tummy as usual. At about 1:00 a.m. she started to cry and I went in to check on her. I wasn't too surprised to find her on her back! Since it was the middle of the night, I just flipped her back over and soothed her back to sleep. 10 minutes later...WAAAAHHHH! I went into her room and yup, on her back again! *lol* Ever since the day she was born, she hates being on her back so there's no way she's going to sleep like that. So while I'm happy that she reached the "roll over" milestone (on time), now I've gotta deal with her crying because she CAN roll over. aye yi yi. This kid's gotta learn to reverse roll or warm up to being on her back FAST!

I tried all weekend to capture her rolling on video with no luck. Of course she decided to perform for her Daddy while I was out getting my MRI today. Not to mention she gave him her first laugh on Friday too (although my mom swears she laughed out loud for her last week during our "date night" but since we didn't hear it we said it doesn't count! *lol*) No, I'm not jealous. It's okay that he gets all the good stuff even though I'm the one taking care of her all day and night. Nope, I'm not jealous at all. : )

Baby Babbel...

Next week, Kalissa will turn 3 months old. I always go online to compare her developmental progress with other babies her age (since I have no idea of what's "normal"). What I found is that babies her age are awake most of the day. Not our baby! Kalissa still sleeps a good portion of the day. She sleeps about 4-5 (sometimes 6) hours at night, wakes up for about an hour and then goes right back to sleep. During the day, I can count on her sleeping for 2-3 hours and then waking up for an hour and then back to sleep. So, reading that other babies are up a lot more than that had me worried a bit. Should I be??

I decided that I would give her more stimulation when she's up and incorporate "tummy time". So far, so good! She's been staying up about 2 hours each stint which makes me feel a lot better. She also babbels up a storm during her "tummy time". That's real cute and all during the day, but at midnight? Not so much. *lol* I was hoping she wouldn't wake Al. Since he is the working parent, he has never had to get up in the middle of the night with the baby. I let him get his sleep so that he's well-rested for work in the morning. He returns the love on weekends where he'll take her first morning feeding so that I can sleep in.

Here's Kalissa talking up a storm last night:

Bone Crushing Delivery??

Okay, so you guys know how I've been complaining about my left hip ever since I had Kalissa? Well, after 2 months and it still causing me pain I finally had it x-rayed. Low and behold, turns out I have a fractured hip! I'm having an MRI done next week. I've never had any type of injury or fall so I have no idea how this happened. After having my baby, I couldn't walk at all. While still in the hospital, I kept complaining to the doctors about my pain but they attributed it to the c-section (and probably thought I was just being a wimp). Before having to get the c-section, I tried pushing her out for about an hour. Could this have caused me to fracture my hip? Who knows. Hopefully the MRI will be able to tell about how old this fracture is.

The good news is that I finally know the source of my pain. I feel like going back to the hospital and saying: SEEEEEE!!!! I told you something was WRONG!!! The bad news is that my doctor put me on crutches so as not to make the injury worse. Ummm...somebody 'splain to me how I'm supposed tote around my daughter while on crutches??

It takes a Village...

Over the weekend Al and I took Kalissa to spend time with her extended family. Her Godfamily was thrilled to have her over and see how much she has grown. KRae is becoming quite the social butterfly. She's one of those babies who doesn't do a lot of fussing and lets everyone hold her. The only drawback is she's a spitter-upper so she drenched Pamela's shirt by the end of the visit! ...we're hoping she grows out of that!





Pamela loaded her up with lots of winter clothes and her Godsister, Ariel, made her the most beautiful picture! I absolutely love it!