Shopping Cart.

So today was a little milestone for us -- and just one more reason why I have an awesome daughter! We did some shopping -- we went to Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, Babies R Us..you know, the usual. Well, I decided that I didn't want to take the stroller in and out of the car each time. So I decided to put her in the cart for the first time. Not the little grey or red buckets that are attached to the carts (like usual) but the BIG girl part of the cart. And she LOVED it. She caused such a ruckus in Babies R Us as we were walking thru the aisles. She was so proud of herself :) And so was I. She kept grabbing the metal bars in front of her and jerking her body back and forth -- and then she'd start giggling like she'd just heard the funniest joke in the world. And then the happy baby babble would start. This went on for almost an hour, never ceasing and almost getting louder after each cycle. Everyone kept looking at us as we walked by and not a single person could resist smiling at her. *sigh* I truly feel blessed to call her mine.

The whole reason we were at Babies R Us was to stock up the reserves again -- can't believe how low I got this time. I literally had enough formula for one more bottle and maybe 3-4 days worth of diapers. Pampers was running a great promo, buy 2 boxes and get a $20 GC..plus save $8 if you bought a big box of wipes too. *cha-ching* Not to mention, I got an email for a "member's only" sale going on today, so my jars of baby food were 20 for $10 bucks, making them .50/each. Definately had to stock up for the rest of the month. We're on to our 2nd round of 2nds -- so many tasty choices this time! Still have a few left to try from the first batch, but I'll mix those in somehow.

Went ahead and gave her just plain Jane Winter Squash tonight and she scarfed it down. Something about the way it smelled made me slightly jealous. I feel like she almost eats better than we do some days :)

Last but not least, her sleeping habits are quite extreme lately. I find her just randomly "passing out" in the most compromising positions. One minute she's being loud and destructive -- the next, you turn around and she's literally passed out. Like narcoleptic style. Observe. She seems to be content though. haha

Well, we're off to the Jones' again this weekend -- MeeMaw and PeePaw enjoy the time they get to spend with us and the little -- I know Gamma and Gampa Cartier are anxious for their turn. We're doing our best to schedule a trip down. Miss you both xoxo

Tickle Monster.

I have the silliest daughter ever -- she just officially hit the 8 month marker yesterday and she seems to be growing so fast before my eyes. She loves to be tickled now..and goes into fits of laughter even if she just thinks you're going to tickle her -- armpits, knee caps, ribs. And she's been just randomly hysterically laughs for long periods of time in the "Fun Zone" :) For no reason. We'll just walk into the room and there she is just laughing. She's become one of the loudest babies ever. EVER.

Re-read this month's chapter in my book and noticed a few milestones that I want to focus on for the next couple weeks. Clapping for starters. And kisses or perhaps baby sign language. OH and saying "mama" haha She's got the "dadadadadadada" thing down..all day long. But luckily for me, that's just easier to say and she's not really saying it to anyone. Just random noise. *wink*

Weekend Wrap.

So as you know, we have a perfectly "healthy" sick baby -- well I thought the worst was over. And then I got sick and now Jason's closely behind. And it appears that I've regifted the cold to Baby K. Boo. She's still in high spirits and has a great attitude about it, so I guess I can't really complain.

Friday marked her first day of real crawling -- yep, knees high and one little shaky hand in front of the other. Such a proud mommy. She still prefers army crawling though and uses them both intermittently. She's gotten amazingly quick at going from a crawl to a sit and sometimes I see her throw her body backwards and almost "body" slam the floor. Don't know what that's all about haha looks painful :)

She's decided that she does not like her Spinach and Potatoes 2nd food -- She gets all watery eyed and gags on every couple of bites and shakes her head from side to side like, "You really expect me to keep eating this?". So we've decided to put that one in the back of the drawer and start the Turkey Vegetable Dinner meal today. She's finally graduated from being a vegetarian..haha!

We went to the Shelbyville Chili, Chicken and Chocolate Cookoff this weekend on Saturday. They had a little Miss Chili Cookoff Contest that several people said she could've won had she been entered. Well, duh! HAHA Just playing. But seriously, as soon as she's walking, I'll let her strut her stuff if that's what she decides. I have a little "Miss Chili Cookoff" trophy somewhere around here myself :) One lady in this little shop on the strip thought she was "sooooo cute" that she gave her this cute little pinky fluffy tiara for the "princess that she was". I don't think she even knew it was there, but she milked the crowd that gathered. Jason's going to have his hands full when she gets older and boys start to think she's cute.

Last, but not least -- Kadence got to sit in her first high chair this weekend and apparently did quite well. I've been holding off on even trying until she could sit on her own..we haven't attempted shopping carts yet either. MeeMaw and PeePaw had her Saturday night while we went on a little date and they went to Taco Bell for dinner and gave it a whirl. She loved being able to reach everything on the table and caused quite a disruption before just leaning back and "chilling" with her leg up. She cracks me up.

Perfectly Healthy "Sick" Baby.

Yep, that's what the Pediatrician told me. She's a perfectly healthy "sick" baby, ie this is normal and she's fine. Was really happy that she didn't end up having pneumonia the way she's been wheezing and rattling in the chest. She is still super happy and not cranky -- no fever and no change in her eating habits -- still a PIG! Pediatrician said to call back if any of that changes and we'll go from there. She didn't give her any antibiotics because she says she prefers to see little ones this age fight it off on their own. Said we're looking at a week to two weeks to get over it. So all in all, I'm happy with my healthy "sick" baby. HA HA

She does crack me up though -- even though she's been through a couple rounds of shots and had some "bad" doctor's experiences with the cast/hospital and all -- she LOVES the doctors. Pediatrician went to take her temperature in her bum, and she beamed her the biggest, happiest smile in the world. HA And she loves the crinkle paper that they put on the bench. She just loves making so much noise with it and ripping it and throwing it everywhere. Snapped this picture while we were waiting for the doc   :)

Movin' Down.

Baby K is finally moving on down.....
the crib notches that is :)

Walked in this morning and saw her little head peeking over just a little TOO much and a tiny hand grabbing the side of the crib. So yep, it was time to bump her down to the bottom. Now it looks like she's in a mini little jail cell haha

Other news, booked a doctor's appt for her later today. Noticed yesterday that she seemed kinda congested and Darth Vader like. Had a little wet cough last night and I put some Baby Rub (by the makers of Vapor Rub) on her chest to see if that would help her sleep ok. Only heard her cough once on the monitor next to my bed. Woke up this morning and she sounded much better. About an hour ago though, the coughing started up again. Very wet. Kinda freaked. Don't wanna sick baby. AND our pediatrician is out of the country until August 1st, so I had to schedule with the replacement doctor. Makes me even more leary. *sigh* Pray for a accurate diagnosis and a quick recovery. She's still in good spirits/mood but I just feel awful about it!





xo

New Book!

So we signed up for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library -- basically Kadence will get a new book for free every month in the mail until she's 2 I think. Well, she got her third book in the mail today -- "POUCH!" and I can't wait to read it to her when she gets up from her nap :)

Real Deal.

So I'm a beaming proud mommy right now. I've been saying it for months -- I wish Kadence could sit up on her own, there's so much more we could do once she reaches that milestone. We've even held off on buying certain toys because they wouldn't be any fun until she did. WELL....

She's fully sitting up on her own now!!!! No little hand holding herself up. Goes from an army crawl, to her little knees, to down on her little butt..and finishes with a priceless "look ma, no hands" expression. Bad picture, she's still kinda unsure sometimes of herself and every time I try to take a picture, she breaks concentration and starts coming my way. But I snapped this yesterday..and no (haha) the Bumbo in the background is not holding her up.

And we got a few "crawling" steps in their yesterday too. She gets up on her little hands and knees and does a whole lot of rocking. Sometimes I think she's even just gonna stand up and pass the whole crawling phase all together.  x(crossing fingers she doesn't haha)x

Other than that, not much is new with us. She's gone thru a couple of her second foods -- Summer Vegetable Medley. Blueberries and Apples. And now we're working on Corn and Butternut Squash, which let me tell you, might be her favorite yet! And I think I'm going to bump her regimen up to more than 3 a day. She doesn't seem to be getting enough food right now and she hasn't been gaining weight like she use to -- but yesterday she was super fussy for more food. So maybe we're hitting another growth spurt? Who knows! :)

Self Feeding.

I guess having your little one feed themselves does come with it's own complications. She's been making quite the mess lately since she's decided that bottle time is now also play time. She loves taking it out of her mouth and just sucking on the side of the bottle -- which leaks milk everywhere. And more often than not, she grabs the nipple as she's bringing it down to her face resulting in, yep you guessed it, milk in the face :) It's a joy!

On the other hand with her solid foods -- which we're not even going there yet with the self feeding haha -- she's been eating a blueberry and apple combo and seems to love them. Growing up so fast!

Indianapolis.

So we got home Wednesday night from our semi-spontaneous 3 day trip to Indianapolis -- and it was such an awful drive back. It took almost 9 hours to drive only 5. I'll get back to that. The trip was awesome over all though. Jason's sister Amanda works for Omni Hotels in Dallas, so we were able to stay at a 4 diamond hotel for really cheap with the F&F hookup. We got up to our room and ripped open the curtains to find a great view of the Colts Stadium and some of downtown. We showered up and headed towards the mall. But not just any mall, but the coolest mall ever. The 4 story monster was connected to over 10 major hotels and the convention center via Skywalks. EPIC! We did some light shopping and then walked around forever trying to find a "family" friendly restaurant to take Baby K -- so we ended up at Hooters :) HAHA

The next day we got up early and had room service for breakfast -- and then headed off to the zoo. Let me just say that it was definitely one of the best "family" zoos I'd ever been to. They had a huge splash zone for kids to run thru and almost all the exhibits were inside or had covered areas. We got to touch dogfish sharks in the Oceans exhibit. Got to hand feed a mama giraffe and her baby in the Plains.

Saw a decent indoor dolphin show..wished we would've gotten some pictures though, it was quite dark in there and my cameras flash didn't wanna cooperate! They had a really cool viewing dome though underneath the water that was in the middle of the tank. So before and after the show, we just sat down there and watched the dolphins swim around us. Kadence at first didn't notice them because they were towards the back of the tank and because it was so dark, visibility for her wasn't good. But then one swam right over top and she couldn't stop looking at it.

They also had a couple walrus, some California sea lions, tons of penguins, a polar bear, cheetahs [!] and some beautiful tigers that they are trying to breed as part of a special program. They had a great African plains section too, but it was quite hot, so we shuffled thru it fast AND we skipped the train because of the heat. All in all, the zoo rocked! We got back to the hotel and had a late lunch via room service and took some naps. Woke up and got ready again -- walked around the mall a little to scout out some food. Ended up outside in front of the capital building and snapped a bunch of shots of the city. The one of me and KK on the steps is probably one of my favorite pictures of us ever!

Sun went down and we ended up back at the hotel and at the restaurant -- we were afraid of being a little undressed and with a baby so we sat way in the back. HAHA but everyone seemed to gush over how cute she was and no body minded her noisiness :) Fell asleep late and woke up early. Loaded the truck and away we drove. This is a picture of the old building outside the front of the hotel. Beautiful! Wish it wasn't abandoned.

We stopped at a roadside little shop to get some tomatos and they told us they couldn't sell them to us in "bulk", so they pointed us up the road to a whole seller. We ate a quick bite in their little restaurant -- which was AMAZING by the way -- and backtracked down the road. We went for #20lbs and ended up with #50. HA We have quite a bit on our hands for sure! Looks like we've slated Saturday for canning, so I'll keep you guys posted.

About an hour or so down the road, the truck went dead -- we'd run out of fuel, even though the truck said we still had a quarter tank left. We called EVERYONE! There's a program in Kentucky called S.A.F.E. patrol and they help motorists for free with road side assistance. They said they'd be there in 45 to an hour. Hour later, no one's there and Jason calls and they said they'd called the State Patrol for us and they weren't coming. Called the State Patrol and they'd never heard of us and didn't know where we were, but they were sending someone, they'd be there in 5 minutes. Thirty minutes later, still no one and we'd been passed by 2 State Troopers that we attempted to flag down! The long and the short of it, we finally got a patrol guy out to us -- I asked him if I could sit in the back of the patrol car for some AC for Baby K and I and he said "the backs open". So I hop in and shut the door [yes, I'm a dummy] and there is NO AC running. So now I'm locked in the back of the patrol car..with a screaming baby..pouring sweat and getting claustrophobic..and no one can see me panicking and trying to get their attention. Almost 10 minutes later, I'm about to pass out and the officer sees me and s-l-o-w-l-y walks up to the door and opens it. He says he has to leave to go get gas for his cruiser and NEVER shows back up. Meantime, someone from a towing service has finally showed up with 5 gallons of diesel fuel for us and $60 dollars later, we're back on the road and in the AC. So we spent a total of 3 hours out in the heat, no AC, only one bottle full of water for Baby K..luckily she was happy go lucky for almost the whole time. Thank God.

Sweaty Betty for sure!

Regardless of the breakdown, we had a great trip overall. Looks like we might be going to St Louis next :)

New Cousin.

So Baby K has a new little girl cousin as of last night. Her name is Rilee Doyle [last name undecided]. She's 5 pounds, 1 ounce and she was born 5 weeks early. She's in NICU, but don't fret, mama and baby are doing great! Congrats guys. Can't wait for everyone to get together and play :)

Rilee Doyle with her daddy Eric.

7 States.

Fun fact, Kadence has been to 7 states in less than 8 months. That's crazy! Tennessee. Alabama. Florida. Georgia. North Carolina. Kentucky. Indiana. So many people I know havent even left the state they were born in. Little road trip warrior.

Road Trip.

Nothing I enjoy more than waiting to the last minute to pack for a trip. You'd think after having a kid and learning that it's not as easy as it once was to just pack up and go -- not to mention keeping Jason on a time schedule -- that I would learn my lesson. But alas, I found myself frantically running around the house taking clothes out of the dryer, washing bottles and loading the car, all the while sweating after I just took a shower and did my hair :)

But one thing was a little easier this morning -- feeding time. I am so grateful that for the last week or so, Kadence has been holding her own bottle. Was so easy to hear her wake up, make a bottle, pop it in her little mouth and finish packing her stuff in like one of 10 bags for her! HAHA [no exaggeration!]

So off we go again. This time to Indianapolis, IN. I love semi-spontaneous adventures!! And I love my life.

Sittin' Up.

Jason and I were watching a movie on the couch Friday night after eating dinner -- Kadence was playing in her new little "Fun Zone" as Jason calls it...happened to look over at her and freaked! She was sitting all by herself! Unfortunately, her toys were far out of reach, so I only got to snap a quick picture or two before she toppled over trying to grab them. Later on in the night, we saw her do it again. Isn't mastered yet, but she's getting there!!

Wish I could've back dated this post to keep 'em in order, but I'll try to post more often when things happen!

2nds.

OMGosh, yep, it's official. I'm a dork. We went to Walmart last night and Babies R Us today and loaded up on some new goodies for Baby K's pallet. When we got home, I went on Earth's Best website and was AMAZED that they had so many varieties of 2nd foods :O) Let the fun times begin! We're starting with:

There are 46 different "flavors" to choose from. And at 4 days a piece for each new one..geez who knows if we'll ever get thru them all! Should be fun though to see her reaction to certain textures and tastes.

Teeth.

OMGosh, sorry guys. Totally forgot one of the biggest things! She has 2 teeth now!! We knew the first one was coming, but it seemed to take forever. She started getting really fussy one day and I popped my finger in her mouth and there it was! I tried everything by the book..including last but not least Orajel (with some complications). Gave up and made her a bottle and we had silence :) Didn't realize that we'd lost track of time and she was just hungry! After that, not another peep about her tooth. And one week later, she had a second one. It's been impossible to snap a picture of them -- until this past weekend at the lake. She couldn't help but show off her cute little pearly whites! <3

This totally looks like a "myspace" self portrait shot. She's starting young!

.

Flying By.

As for the title, well, you guessed it -- days and milestones are "flying by" And way too fast I might add. Well, Kadence is now 7.5 months old almost. Again, flying by!  I can't believe the last update I posted was in April. I'm fired. I'm truly sorry guys.

I guess I'll just pickup where we last left off. Last post was about her 1st solid food :) Since then, she's had all the regular 1st foods..Peas, Carrots, Squash, Prunes, Pears, Bananas, Apples and today, Sweet Potatoes. So far so good. No allergies to report -- but I will be avoiding prunes like the plague from here on out. The diapers were quite rancid I must say. HA She was up to 2 jars a day and I've decided today to bump her up to 3 jars daily now. We went to Babies R Us yesterday and I got super excited about the #2 foods (yes, I'm a dork). They're so fun looking..all kinds of mixed things with blueberries, mangos, etc. Can't wait!!


Peas! Looks like she took the little picture.

 So easy for me to bunny trail right now -- but I'll keep things in order the best I can. Hmm, what's next. The beginning of May, we took Baby K to her first zoo here in Nashville with MeeMaw and PeePaw and she absolutely loved all the animals. We made a little book to commemorate the trip and it turned out great!

After we left there, we started a 9 day vacation -- first stop, Florida for a couple days. Top 3 highlights: (1) She meet the rest of her FL family. (2) She played in the sand/salt water. (3) She played with her cousin Zoey who just turned 1 recently. On the way back, we stopped at Gamma and Gampa's Cartier's house in Alabama and spent some time with them. It was my mom's birthday and my second mom, Barb, got to meet KK! There's a little zoo nearby, so we took Kadence to see some more fun animals!

A couple days after getting home from our trip, Aunt Amanda and Uncle Topher came to visit here in Nashville! They bought Kadence this ridiculous 53.5" teddy bear that she thinks is the coolest thing ever! It makes me laugh every time I walk into her nursery to do anything. She got to spend a few days with them while we had a little bit of "us" time to relax. We end capped the week by taking her to the lake for the first time with everyone. She had a blast. Didn't get her in the water yet though.

As if our life couldn't get any busier, Kadence and I drove to NC with MeeMaw and PeePaw the last weekend in May to meet up with Jason and his grandparents for the holiday weekend. We hit up some flea markets and antique stores in Georgia the first day for Jason's birthday :) Then we went hiking up White Side Mountain, NC with KK in a stroller almost 2 miles. That was interesting to say the least! Let me tell you, those 3 wheel jogging strollers are pretty intense -- I highly recommend them for off roading experiences. HA Hiked to see some waterfalls and drove home the next day. I don't think Kadence has every slept so well!

At her 6 month appointment, she weighed in at about 16.7 lbs and was still in the 95% for her age in height. We still aren't sure where she's getting it from since I'm only 5'4" and Jason's at 5'9" -- maybe she'll be a volleyball player!

Kadence in the pool for the first time! Thankfully it was warm!

Spent the 3rd weekend of June down at his parent's house and went to Bell Buckle, TN for the RC Cola and Moonpie Festival. Was quite a bit of fun for being slightly redneck. We missed the hog calling and eating contest though on account of rain. Had us some RC Cola and HUGE BBQ stuffed potatoes though :) Later on that night at church, Baby K started "creeping" ie army crawling across the floor towards MeeMaw's brightly colored toes. Oh Lord, the crawling and fun times are about to start!

And lastly, 4th of July weekend was a blast. We got to go to Tullahoma, TN to see an airshow and some great fireworks. The loud noises freaked Baby K out at first, but she was generally fascinated once she got use to it! Think she was kinda mad when they were over. HA Got to go to the lake as well and she finally got to go swimming in her big pink blowup car. Got some great shots from the weekend including her two little teeth finally!

Like I said, time is flying by so quickly. So many fun things planned for this summer for us -- spontaneity is our greatest attribute. Who knows where or what we'll be doing next.