Love Hate Relationships

Kalissa has a love/hate relationship with food. Some days she's open to trying everything you give her and yet other days she wants no parts of anything. The good news is that she's getting better! It's been about a month since we gave up baby food cold turkey and we're making progress. Feedings are taking less and less time and she's eating more and more different textures. Today I decided to try the Gerber Graduate banana cookies. I had tried these a couple of months ago but to no avail. I wasn't really expecting anything different today, but I just wanted to give her the opportunity to feed herself a snack. Low and behold she loved it! She liked it so much that after a few bites, she decided to stuff the whole thing in her mouth! *lol* The result of that was a big mess that she ended up spitting most of it out onto the floor (Graham was happy to clean it up!). She had cookie EVERYWHERE!! I quickly cleaned up her hands and face but not before I snapped these pictures!! : )

I suppose I have to get used to her being messy sometimes...all for the sake of her advancement! *sigh*

One Plus One Equals Thirteen

Kalissa Bear is 13 months old today!! Seriously, time is just flying by!! She is growing into a little lady more and more each day. Physically, she's still a little above average. She weighs about 23 1/4 pounds and is about 29.5" tall. She's gotten 3 more teeth since her birthday with about 3 more waiting to poke through any day now. This brings her teeth count to 11.

Developmentally, I think she's off the charts (but doesn't every mommy?) She knows all of her body parts (thanks to "Your Baby Can Read") and is fascinated with looking at herself in the mirror! She LOVES LOVES LOVES to touch my belly button. She touches hers and then finds mine and then cracks up laughing. I don't know if it's the fat that's so funny to her or what! *lol* She also has a special interest in nipples -- be it mine or daddy's. Any chance she gets to look down my shirt, she's taking! That wouldn't be so bad if she didn't poke and squeeze them. But unfortunately, she does!

She loves all things electronic. If it has buttons, she wants it. I often hand her my camera just so she can push on the buttons until her picture pops up on the screen. Then she gets excited.

She STILL loves to dance. She's getting better at it too! She'll even dance when there's no music if you tell her to. *lol*

Most importantly, she's adjusted so well to me going back to work. Today when I got home, she didn't really greet me. She just continued to read her book with Daddy. I think that's a good thing because she's showing me that she didn't miss me. I don't want her to be sad missing me all day so I was happy to see that. She eventually came over to me like it was no big deal.

We're still having issues with food but we're working through it. I feed her table food daily and I think she's getting used to it because meal times are getting better but she still needs work.

Thirteen months in....the fun is really beginning!!

Small Miracles

So I haven't been a working mom for a whole week yet but I've already experienced my first breakdown. Yesterday I worked a 12 hour day!! I had my first board meeting that I had to attend after work so it was a long drawn out day. By the time I got home it was 8:30 and I had driven as fast as I safely could so that I could hurry up and see my baby. But I was too late. Al told me she went to bed about 15 minutes prior to my arrival. I was devastated. I went to her bed and got her up. I just wanted to see her and give her a kiss. Kalissa wasn't having it...she cried and kept squirming away from me! I put her back to bed and broke down. I never want to miss putting her to bed and just 3 days into returning to work, I did. Of course Al is not one for a pity party so he basically told me to suck it up. He told me that she is safe in her bed...sleeping. She had been bathed, fed, played with and loved by both him and my mom. I was at work doing what I had to do. He was right. I pulled myself together, ate dinner and finally went to bed after a looooong day.

This morning I got up and Kalissa didn't miss a beat. She gave me her usual morning smile and was a trooper while I got ready for work. She sleeps until about 6:30 am so I get up at 6 so that I can get myself ready as much as possible before she gets up. I end up with 45 minutes to get her ready and she isn't being rushed or anything. This system is working well. I felt a little better for last night after having our little time together this morning but I still felt bad for having to take her to daycare.

Anyway, here's the miracle. I get to work and realize it's going to be a very busy day. After about 15 minutes...the power went out in the building. No phones, no lights, no air conditioning...no coffee!! *lol* After 2 hours, we got word that the electric company couldn't have it restored for another 3 - 6 hours. So management let us go home! HALLELUJAH!!!! Lemme tell you...they didn't have to tell me to leave twice! I made it to the sitter's in record time! I couldn't WAIT to spend the day with my baby!!!

Coincidence?? I think not. Thank God for small miracles. He knew I truly needed this one.

Back on the Grind

After a whole year with my little KalissaBear, I returned to work today. We knew the day would come, I just thought I would have a little more time to prepare for it. But when opportunity knocks...you'd better open the door!

Everyone thought I would be upset at having to leave her all day but I wasn't at all! We got to the sitter's house (my neighbor who's running a day care from her home) with plenty of time for me to stay with her while she got acclimated but we didn't even need it. As soon as Kalissa saw all the toys, she began clapping her hands and dancing around. That was my cue to leave! *lol*

I did check on her during my lunch break and Miss Nettie said Kalissa was napping after a morning filled with play. She said that Kali is just fabulous and soooo independent! This I already knew.

Daddy picked her up around 4 today and when I got home he was just finishing up her bath. Awwww. Then Kali and I spent some quality time playing and loving on each other. I could tell that she was glad to see me. After just a couple of hours, she was ready for bed. I miss her already!! But I know it is time for me to go back to work so that I can help build a better future for her. It just makes every moment we have together that much more special.

Mommy's Helper

Kalissa is growing up soooo fast! She loves to help out and do things for herself. Earlier this week, she ventured into self-feeding.

I know I have to let her do more of this but I am sooooooo not feeling her getting messy during feedings! *lol* When she's all finished eating, I give her a wet wipe and tell her to wipe her mouth. She gets it in the right place but of course she still has a dirty mouth when she's done (Nana tought her that). At least she knows what I'm telling her to do. She's so smart!

Bubble Bath...

Last month, Kali finished her 4-weeks of swimming lessons. She was supposed to go twice a week for 4 weeks but we ended up not going to the last week because we had too much going on and the class was just doing the same thing over and over and over again. I had thought the class would introduce new skills over the 4 weeks but it didn't and I felt Kalissa had learned all she was going to learn in that class. Which wasn't very much! *lol* I guess the whole purpose was to get them used to being in the water and that was accomplished. So after being out of class for about 2 weeks, Kalissa decided to show off something she learned: how to blow bubbles!

She didn't do this at all during class so I didn't think she had actually learned how to do it. She would put her face in the water but she wouldn't blow so I was surprised that she picked it up. Just goes to show that she stores things in her memory and then pulls them out when SHE wants to. She's a smart cookie!