Outdoor Discoveries

Kaylee has been feeling better and we spent the better part of the day exploring the front yard today. I wanted to be sure to write down Kaylee's first experience with dirt. She LOVES it! I have a raised bed around one of our trees, which Kaylee walked over to. First she put one hand in... felt around, then in went the other hand. It was fun to watch her explore this new and interesting stuff called dirt.

Kaylee also got to meet a frog today. Daddy found a cute little tree frog in the grass and showed it to Kaylee. She actually touched it! I'm sure she was actually trying to grab it so she could shake it around or taste it. Fortunately the frog was able to hop away.

But Kaylee's favorite thing in the yard has become the flowers. She is really drawn to my batch of Forget-Me-Not's. They are such a vibrant blue. She loves to pick the flowers off and roll them around in her fingers. I saved a few bunches that she picked and will press them to put in her scrapbook (if I ever get around to doing that). She also likes the bright red flowers on the azaleas.

I'm always impressed with Kaylee's attention to detail and her curiosity about the most ordinary things. It helps me to notice the beauty in the everyday, ordinary moments of life.

Trying something new

A friend told me about this free service and I thought it might be a fun thing to try. I've never been very good at keeping a journal myself, but now that we have Kaylee I want to be sure to write down all the milestones as well as the little precious moments, so they don't get lost from memory.

Kaylee is now 8 1/2 months old. Just last week she started doing all kinds of stuff by herself. For a while now she's been finger walking and I was getting worried that she'd never learn to crawl because it's just too cumbersome and not as efficient as walking. Turns out she just needed the right motivation. Grandpa Lange came to visit last week (April 19 - 22) and he has a special ability to make babies cry. So Kaylee learned to crawl out of necessity - to get away from Grandpa! (Poor Grandpa) By the end of the visit, Grandpa was okay. He was able to charm some good smiles and giggles out of her. :)

Around the same time Kaylee also suddenly started clapping, which is just adorable. She also came up to me as I was sitting on the floor and pushed her self up to standing off of my legs! I quick had to catch her so she didn't fall over, but I was completely floored that she could do that! I'm excited about her new mobility and can't wait to watch her explore her world.

In this picture you see Kaylee exploring the grass at a nearby park. I'm so glad she wasn't afraid of grass, like so many babies are. Rather, I think the grass was afraid of her! She was fascinated by it and kept pulling and pulling at the blades.

She hasn't been in a very exploratory mood this last week however. She started getting a fever on Monday. By Thursday, she still had no other signs of what was causing this fever, so I took her to the doctor. They measured her temperature to be 104.3! The doctor suspected Roseola, but the rash never came. Finally by Friday I noticed some congestion. What an awful cold! Thankfully, neither Jeff or I have it... yet! It's been a tough week. Kaylee's been VERY clingy, rather listless, irritable, and has difficulty sleeping.

Well, I should put in some recent pictures. My Dad took some great pictures when he was here last week. We took a day trip to Deception Pass one day, and another we went to the Museum of Flight down in Seattle. Unfortunately, we didn't get to spend enough time down there. But we did get to tour the original Air Force One jet and watch some documentaries - including one on the Blue Angels.

I love this picture of Kaylee sticking her tongue out at Grandpa!

Dad serenades Kaylee with the harmonica.

Look out, Kaylee's driving!!!