Kasey's First Birthday

11/28 - Kasey turned 1 year old today

At her Dr appointment they said she is doing great developmentally. She weighs 21.8lbs (61%), 29 1/2 in tall (61%), and her head is 18 inches in circumference (68%). They said that it's normal for breastfed babies to go lower in % at this age, but that her proportions were very good.

How time has flown. She's gone from a little tiny baby to little girl with such personality so quickly. She's walking, eating most foods, babbling lots, and dancing.

She walks all over the place now, not much crawling. Sometimes she just walks circles in the house. Greg says when he's cooking she will walk around the house saying ma ma. She's also trying to climb on everything. Not quite tall enough for most things, but she tries. It's very cute when she climbs in Landon's couch or his chair at Grammy's. You can tell she's proud of herself.

She's still drinking breastmilk. She'll drink about 5 times a day, and I'm still pumping twice a day at work. We have so much going on that we haven't tried cows milk yet. Pediatrician says to try it that 99% of kids outgrow issue with milk protein by the time they are 1 year old. I have a strange feeling that Kasey isn't over it yet. We might try some Soy milk until I'm off work for the holidays. Food wise Kasey loves proteins - chicken, egg, tofu and even some beef. We try to give vegetables first so she gets some, but she doesn't seem to like them as much. She's pretty independent and prefers to feed herself vs being fed with a spoon or fork.

Kasey says Ma Ma, Da Da, Ba and some other sounds when talking. She says Da and Ba for most things. She's not really saying the name when we ask who ma ma and da da are, but she's starting to look at the right person when we ask where ma ma or da da is.

Landon and Kasey are getting along well for the most part. Kasey wants to do everything Landon does and if they are playin g with Kasey's tiys Landon is ok with that. If Kasey wants to play with Landon's trains or Cars we get the "Mommy/Daddy get her I don't want her playing with my trains or Cars"

Kasey loves to dance, sometimes even without music. It's very sweet.

Kasey has decided that she doesn't want anything in her hair. Whatever we put in she takes out - that's why pictures lately she doesn't have her hair done.

For Kasey's Birthday we had a family party at the house. Greg made cupcakes and icing and I decorated them. I made a K & a 1 out of cupcakes; colored the icing, and made butterflies out of melting chips to put on the cupcakes. It was a hit. Landon was a good big brother helping to blow out the candles, helping with presents some (he just started opening her presents), and he helped blow up balloons and decorate for the party as well.

Here are some pictures: For more pictures click here

That night we had the Turners from down the street over to play and eat dinner. When the boys were playing Kasey was in there playing with them which was a little weird. She's supposed to be the baby hanging out with the adults - not so much any more

Kasey's Icing face with Grammy and Gramps

Pops, Aunt Cindy, Aunt Laura, Rachel, Landon, Aunt Jody, Me, Kasey, Uncle Buddy, Greg, Nanny and Grandma

Kasey trying her first chocolate cake - she seemed to like it

Landon's making sure she's doing it correctly

In her1 Bib eating some vegetables

Had to get her picture quick before she took her hair down

We made the cupcakes for Kasey's birthday. She's still not doing dairy so we made them with Soy milk and vegan butter. They tasted great to me. Greg did the baking and icing making, I did the coloring and decorating. A friend of mine from highschool on facebook pointed me to a book that told me how to make these butterflies. They are basically separate wings and antennas that you put together with icing in the middle.

It's hard to read the lettering, but it says Kasey's 1st Birthday.

Here is a close up of the 1

Thanksgiving 2009

Friday after Thanksgiving we had Thanksgiving dinner with Greg's family and enjoyed visiting with them. Greg's Aunt and Uncle from Austin were in town and his Grandfather flew in from Odessa. Most of the sides were made with special butter and no cheese so I was able to eat almost everything - I don't get that to often with not being able to eat dairy.

Uncle Buddy, Nanny, and Grandpa

Grandma, Aunt Cindy, & Rachel

Uncle John, Aunt Jody, Pops, Grandpa, Nanny, & Uncle Buddy

On Thanksgiving afternoon Landon, Greg & I drove to College Station to see the A&M vs Texas game. We happened to see Dave and Tracy as we walked up to our seats.

Dana, Landon, Greg, Doug, Tracy & Dave on our way to our seats at A&M vs Texas football game

We went to Conroe to visit family for Thanksgiving. It was a very short trip but we had a great time eating and visiting with everyone. Several family members live in the Houston area, but we also had cousins come in from Midlothian, and cousins fly in from Las Vegas. We got to see cousins that we don't get to see often and it was fun to see all of the kids playing.

On Thanksgiving trip she started playing with sorters. She was able to get circle in, but got frustrated trying to get the other shapes in. She also played a lot with stacking toy. She was very proud of herself for putting stars on her stacker

Landon, Ashlyn, Kasey, Julia, Dillon, Haley & Ayla

I'm not going to put everyone's name, but there are 27 family members including my dad taking the picture! This was the first time we had had this many of us together in a long time.

Ready for Aggie Football day!

Landon, Dillon, Julia, Kase, Haley & Ashlyn playing

click here to see more pictures of Thanksgiving activities.

Few more updates...

Kasey started standing up on her own without holding on to anything in the week before Thanksgiving.

11/22 - Kasey learned how to pretend eat. She was holding some strawberries from Landons kitchen and offered me some. I pretended to take a bite and chew. then she started doing the same thing

Kasey likes to put objects into things so I decided to see if she would help clean up. We were cleaning up Landon's kitchen. I would give her something and tell her where to put it. She would put it in the drawer and then clap when I would tell her thank you. It was cute.

11/15 - went to Korea for business trip. Of course Kasey slept through the night every night I was gone. Everyone seemed to do ok. It's a long trip over there - about 24 hours door to door. It was cold, but we had some good meetings.

Couple updates, Kasey starting to walk

11/9 - Kasey took several steps on her own today this evening. We have a car that the kids can ride in. Of course both of them want to be in it all the time. Kasey doesn't understand that Landon should get a turn. She's pretty determined to get in it even if Landon is there. At one point I pulled her away from the car, and she walked 4-5 steps to it. Later we were getting ready for bath and she took several steps again.

We got to visit with Brittany and Ayla at moms today. We had lunch and let the girls play. It was fun to see them together. They are about 3 months apart in age. Mom got some cute pictures and posted them on facebook.

11/8 - Kasey started clapping today while dancing

11/6

I walked into the room after putting bags in the car, and Kasey said Ma Ma

Kasey started turning the push carts that she uses - before we would always have to turn it for her. She did this first at Grammy and Gramps.

Greg went out of town to see A&M vs Colorado game. Friday night Grammy and I took the kids to Santa parade at Willow Bend Mall. The parade was really an advertisement for several things, but Santa was "good". It was fun to see him walk around with the kids and give them fives. The guy talking through most of it was the conductor from Polar Express. I'll post some pictures from the weekend a little later

11/5 - Kasey really said Bye Bye

first week of Nov - Kasey will take a few steps when trying to walk to Ma Ma, but usually sits down or grabs for hands.

Landon wrote his name for the first time - 11/2/09 - He had been showing more interest in drawing letters. He's been able to draw L for a while and just started with A. We went to dinner at Durkins in Frisco (great Pizza place), and they gave him some paper and crayons. He wrote his whole name.

Landon had his first burrito at Freebirds (11/1/09). We've been there many times but usually he has a kids Quesadilla or just shares with us. He ate about 3/4 of it. He had a 1/2 bird, but it was the same size as Greg's.

Halloween 2009

We did a couple things for Halloween. I had gotten the kids multiple costumes at the resell store so that they could use them for dress up and wear different things to different activities.

On 10/24 we had a neighborhood Halloween party. The kids had fun with games and getting little prizes. We had kind of expected bounce houses and such, but was still fun.

10/30 we had our last playdate (I organized a weekly playdate at a park from June through Oct). This was at our gym. The kids got to run around in their costumers, play games, decorate a cookie and participate in a cake walk.

For Halloween we had Grammy and Grandma over for dinner and fun. The kids got dressed up and we went trick or treating with some of the neighbors. Devon and Dillon from next door, Liam and Peyton & Miya and Joe from down the street. The kids seemed to have fun. We had strollers for the little ones, and the big kids went trick or treating.

click here for pictures

Kasey 11 months

Last 1/2 of Oct started putting balls and toys into things (like her dinosaur toy or basketball toy)

She likes to say hi. Often she says Hi Da. Everytime she hears Greg's voice she says Da. We ask her who I am and she says Da. She talks quite a bit though.

She's better sleeping better lately (knock on wood). She'll go to sleep between 8-9. Sometimes get up as we go to bed, but then sleep until morning (anywhere from 5-7am).

She loves to dance. Music from kids music to Country to heavy metal she starts dancing. She'll even dance sometimes when there isn't music. It's pretty cute.

She's still walking around the house with walkers. She hasn't quite figured out how to turn them so we have to help out. 11/3 she walked behind me down the hall holding on to my pants. Still not taking her own steps though. It will be soon enough.

Kasey climbed up into dish washer...

Here are some pictures from October.

Kasey in her Aggie Onesie made by cousin Debby - 10/2/09

Mommy got to go to Gymboree with Kasey as a nice treat because Landon got sick - 10/9/09

Kasey Napping at Landon's tball game - 10/18/09

Playing at the park by our house - 10/19/09

Before Mommy and Daddy went on date to Roys and a movie -10/24/09

Kasey climbed up there by herself - she was very proud - 10/25/09

Kasey in her Halloween shirt - 10/25/09

Kasey at a windy tball Practice on her 11 month birthday - 11/28/09

Myers Flu

Landon's fever broke over the weekend, but we kept him out of activities until Wednesday. Greg and I got sick during that week (now we think we had flu as well). Then on Friday Oct 16th Kasey started getting fever so we called the Dr to make appointment. Greg took her in that afternoon and guess who had the flu. She has to take medicine because of her age. So far she's doing pretty well. She hasn't needed medicine for her fever since 4:20am this morning.

Landon woke up on 10/8 with a high fever. We took him to the dr on Friday and he had the flu. They didn't test for sure, but were 99% sure it was Swine flu. Because it's more serious for Kasey to get it, Kasey and I moved into my parent's house for the weekend to be safe. Of course Landon didn't understand, but it was the right thing to do.

Since we've all been to the Dr in the past couple weeks. Landon now weighs over 35 lb, and Kasey weighs 21lb 12oz.

Kasey is wearing 18 month clothes. The pants are to long, but for most things fit outside of that.

Kasey has started in the last week or so dancing with music. She rocks back and forth to music on her toys, when we sing or hear other music. It's really cute.

Kasey was singing in the car with Grammy to kid CDs - 10/7/09

Kasey had last level 2 gymboree class - 10/6/09

Moves to Friday class in Level 3 10/9 at 12:15

Kasey was sleeping through the night for about 3 nights beg of Oct, and now she's started getting up again in the middle of the night