Toys, Toys Everywhere!

Just how many toys are too many for an 8 month old baby girl? I'm starting to ask myself this question. The toys are taking over. I guess I only have myself to blame...I'm the one always searching for new ways to keep her stimulated. However, it's not always me giving her new things. The Sock Monkey she's playing with to the right was a gift. Her Godsister, Ariel, made her a set of monkeys a few months back and she's just now gotten interested in them. And therein lies the problem! I get her a toy and it may be a little too advanced for her so I have to put it away for later use. Then I go back to the store and get her another toy because she didn't get any enjoyment from the first toy. After a few tries of this you end up with a playpen that is no longer good for anything except storing toys. No? Just me? Hmmm... At any rate, at least the playpen is being used for something since the child won't actually play in it!! Of course Kalissa sees nooooo problems with having so many toys. Variety is her spice of life! *lol*

But the fact is, we are already working with limited living space so the toy situation is posing a problem. Right now, she hasn't really outgrown any of her toys yet so I can't get rid of any. Once she does lose interest in the infant toys, I'll start to box them up and move them to storage. In the meantime, I will try my hardest to stay out of the toy stores and keep telling myself she has ENOUGH! Especially when she pays more attention to a cardboard BOX than she does her store-bought toys. This is Kalissa getting hours (literally) of entertainment after a trip to Costco.

Hmmp. I will definitely think twice before buying any more toys!

8 Months In....

Kalissa Rae turned eight months old today! She is getting to be such a big girl. Now that the weather has turned a corner, we're getting out and about more and more. She now rides in the front compartment of shopping carts. No more lugging her around in her carseat! She's eating more and more foods with heavier textures and she gained her third tooth today (upper left central incisor)! But the biggest news is that she is finally SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!!! *stadium applause*

It's been 11 weeks since I started monitoring her sleep/feeding patterns by writing them on a schedule sheet. That helped because Al and I could keep track of when she last slept or ate but it wasn't really helping me to get her on a true schedule. So about 6 weeks ago I stepped it up and dictated nap times and feeding times. No more eating and sleeping all willy nillie. She got a morning nap and an afternoon nap and absolutely NO sleeping after 3 o'clock (with the intent that she'd be good and tired by an 8:30 bedtime). That was all fine and good but she rarely would go to sleep at the exact time that I wanted her to and she was still waking up in the night to be rocked back to sleep. It was getting worse too...she would wake every hour after around 2 or 3 a.m. At that point, I had had enough. I was ready to incorporate "cry it out". Al's a supporter of it and my pediatrician is too. I had to at least try it. So about 3 weeks ago, we started Operation Sleep Through the Night. Phase One was letting her cry it out for her day time naps. I still couldn't bring myself to let her cry at night for fear of keeping my neighbors up. I put her in her crib at her designated nap times and that's when the drama began. The first couple of times, she cried for up to 45 minutes. After about a week of this, she no longer cried when I put her down for a nap. Success!! Well, not so fast. She was still waking up in the night but usually only once. Because of my neighbors, I found myself going in to comfort her back to sleep. Al finally said, enough is enough. I HAD to let her cry it out at night if she was ever going to learn. I finally gave in....time for Phase Two. I sent my adjacent neighbors an email and asked them to work with me for a week. If it didn't work after a week, then I would try something else. It took 2 nights! The first night, she woke up and cried for 20 minutes. It killed me not to go get her. The second night, she cried for 10 minutes. Again...agony! But then...we had a breakthrough. She slept through the night once, then again and again and now look:

The smiley face indicates that she slept through the night. I don't even bother with that any more because she has been sleeping through ever since. She goes down for naps without crying and is in bed by 9:30. In the mornings, it's ME who is waking HER up for breakfast! Ahhhhh...I am exhaling FOR REAL. I used to dread going to bed and now sleeping is soooooo lovely. In addition, I have at least 4 hours each day during her naps to do ME! I'm loving this schedule. I only wish I had tried Phase 2 sooner!! I told Al that earlier on she wasn't ready. He said, "No...YOU weren't ready." Point taken.

Photo Deal

We got our first family portraits done back in December. I was so excited to have purchased the entire photoshoot on CD so that I could do my own enlargements. In my mind this route would be cheaper than having to order enlargements and reprints from Sears. The CD and the picture package that we did choose ended up costing just under $200. We then took our CD and made copies and enlargements at Wal-Mart. 8x10s are priced under $3. A bargain compared to having them done by Sears.

In our living room, we have a large framed picture above the fireplace that I wanted to replace with a family portrait. The frame is for a 20x24 picture. To my dismay, Wal-Mart doesn't do enlargements of this size. I then checked with Sears and they would gladly do it for $179. Ummmm...no thanks. I did a web search and found this site: www.nationsphotolab.com They advertised a 20x24 enlargement for $11.50. Yes, $11.50. What did I have to lose, right? I downloaded the software, uploaded my photo, paid my $11.50 (plus shipping) and less than two weeks later, my photo arrived.

This photo of the photo doesn't do it any justice. The quality is PERFECT!! I didn't know if the enlargement would be fuzzy since the original jpg seemed small, but nope! It's crystal clear and was printed on heavy photo paper. I'm very happy with the outcome and you know I love a deal! Just wanted to pass along this super bargain!

Nature Girl

In just a few days, Kalissa will turn eight months old! With this realization also comes the realization that I really need to get into some other shape than I am now. Al has been so kind as to let me know that I can no longer stand on the excuse of: "I just had a baby". No...I didn't just have a baby. It's been almost a year. It only took me 6 weeks to get back down to my pre-pregnancy weight, however, my pre-pregnancy belly is nowhere in sight. I kept hoping it would just go down but eight months later and it's still here. Now that spring has arrived, wearing oversized sweaters is no longer an option. I've got to get physical. Last week Kali and I met up with our friends at Mission Trails Regional Park for a "leisurely stroll" with our babies. I guess I should have known that it was going to be a workout since they referred to it as an "urban hike"! *lol*

Needless to say, the mountain kicked my butt so much that I decided to go back again today for a second butt kicking. We didn't quite make it to the Mission Dam on the first hike (we ran out of time), so I was determined to make it there this time. After 1.75 miles of uphill walking, we arrived at the dam, took a breather and relaxed in the shade for a bit. Kalissa loved looking at the water and I'm sure she wanted to get closer but I decided we should stay safely behind the fencing.

The good thing about exercising outdoors is you HAVE to get back to where you started. At a gym, you can just stop once you feel tired. As exhausted as I was, it was time to head back to the car. The descend back completely drained me. The sun was unrelenting. Kalissa was sleeping. I wanted to cry. Man, I'm out of shape! *lol* On a brighter note, I got some really cute shots of my baby and she got to feel grass and dirt for the first time! Yes, I know it's kinda late for that but we live in a condo and you know how I feel about messy babies. *lol*

Born to Dance...

There have been some reports in the news lately about babies and their natural abilities to dance. Apparently there is a science connected with it. I don't know about the science of it all, but I do know that my baby LOVES LOVES LOVES to dance! The lovely thing is, she has no musical preference -- it can be just a simple tune from her toys but as soon as she hears music, look out! *lol* Every morning she gets her dosage of Hip Hop Harry and this video is the result. I am completely taking credit for this trait. That's because while I was pregnant, I made it a point to drive to work while blasting Beyonce(so she can feel the beat)....not to mention the fact that back in the day I was a force on the dance floor, despite what the kids may say. *lol*



Did you see her stand unassisted?!? She's doing that more and more...we're just waiting for her to get up the nerve to take a few steps. For now, we'll just keep music in her daily routine so she can dance her heart out!

A Day at the Park

Qiana has been bugging us to go to the Wild Animal Park for some time now. The answer has always been "no" because that's not a place you just up and go to...it's relatively expensive and we would want to make a day of it so it would take some planning. Well, she turned 11 this past Tuesday so Daddy and I planned to celebrate by taking the kids to see the animals. We went ahead and got the family a membership so now we can go to both the Wild Animal Park and the Zoo for free until this time next year.

So yesterday we packed up the kids and met my mom at the Wild Animal Park. I wasn't sure how Kali would react. She's really never been out for a day to anywhere! She did really well! The first stop was at the carousel. This would be her first carousel ride so I was excited for her reaction. I think in the beginning she liked it but then she got dizzy and wanted it to end!


The next stop was the petting zoo. Qiana bought food for the animals (some sort of deer species) and quickly made friends with them. Daddy spotted one seemingly calm deer who was just chillin and took Kali over to it to get a closer look. At home, every time I let her touch Graham, she cracks up laughing! She loves the feel of fur. Well, I guess to her there's no difference between a 7 pound toy poodle and this 300 pound deer! She reached out to touch it and immediately began giggling once she could feel his fur. Yup, she's got all the makings of being an animal lover just like her mommy!

We stopped and got a bite to eat and little missy ate from Oma's plate. Kalissa wants to try EVERY thing now! She really likes french fries. At one point Oma gave her a sip of sprite and I told Daddy on her! *lol*


Next we headed over to see the lions and take the safari tour. We had only been at the park for about 3 hours but Kalissa was winding down fast.
By the time we got on the tram for the tour, she was knocked out. We decided to call it a day but we'll definitely be back. It was a great family day and we can't wait for the next one!

Feeding Frenzy

At my last trip to the grocery store, I noticed some new finger foods that I hadn't seen before. Kalissa has finally warmed up to the Gerber Sweet Potato Puffs so I thought it was time to try something else. I decided to try the Gerber Wagon Wheels, Yogurt Melts, and Lil' Crunchies (they're like mini cheese puffs but without the orange cheese). Not only would this be an experiment in her trying more textured foods but also in letting her begin to feed herself. Lemme tell you I am NOT looking forward to teaching her to feed herself. I can't stand a messy baby and I'm not looking forward to letting her cover herself in food. However, the fact is...she's growing up and I have to let her. Sooooo, I pulled out her Bumbo chair, sprinkled a few of the different snacks on its tray and let the games begin! She actually didn't do so bad...messy hands, but that's about it. She liked everything but the Wagon Wheels and after I sampled one, I understood why. Yuck. She's still working on getting the pincer grasp (using her thumb and pointer finger to pick up objects) down and when she masters it, it'll be easier for her to get foods into her mouth. Right now, for the most part, she's picking up her snacks by the fistful and trying to shove them into her mouth. Obviously that technique isn't working so well. *lol* I've been incorporating snack time each day so that she can get her practice in. I'm prepared (sort of) for it to get messier before it gets cleaner. *sigh*