Christmas Vacation.

We just got back yesterday from a weekend spent in North Carolina with Jason's family. Everyone was there, minus Auntie Amanda and Uncle Topher! (we missed you guys) It was a great time of year to drive thru the mountains and see how beautiful things out there, wouldn't trade it for Tennessee though I don't think -- I love looking at it, but I'd hate driving the winding roads all the time and the potential for snow is much greater than it is here. So I'll pass, but always love to visit. Unfortunately, we were banking on snow for the weekend, but to no avail :(

We loaded up us, Kadence and his parents + 2 large dogs in the Explorer to make the trek -- had to pull a little trailer behind us loaded down with all our stuff. I'm glad my old girl was able to make the journey with no problems :) Kadence did fairly well with the drive surprisingly. She's still having major issues with her teeth though, so she was fussy at times. She has one that's broken through on the top back right (not a molar) and a molar that's starting to crest in 3 places on the bottom right. And it seems like every time she opens her mouth, you can see little white blotches just under the gum every where. Poor thing!

Kadence got all kinds of great toys for the holiday -- she got her first baby doll + baby stroller from Papa and Nana. Cutest thing ever -- when she unwrapped it and we held it up for her, she literally leaned in to kiss it like 8 times! She's never done anything like that before. She's barely starting to give Jason and I kisses! She enjoyed pushing it around in the stroller and dragging it around all day. Haven't decided what to name her yet, but we'll keep you posted :)

She got lots of puzzles and books -- MeeMaw & PeePaw got her a kid friendly Bible that she can cart around easily and play with. She also got her Fischer Price zoo set that I've been...I mean, she's been dying to play with! Let's see, she also got a Elephant Poppin' Ball thingy and one of those corn poppers that you walk along the floor and it makes tons of noise. I'm sure I'm missing a couple things, but all in all it was a great Christmas morning!

Highlight of the weekend (one of many): Kadence decided to climb over the top of Clement (big golden retriever) but he didn't get the memo, so half way over his back, he stood up real quick and started to run off, causing Kadence to do a front flip onto her back on the other side of him -- she proceeded to just giggle like crazy. Apparently she enjoyed it! HA

That's all for now. Will keep everyone posted.

Stomach Flu.

*WARNING: this post is not for the week of stomach*

So we started this week off with Kadence randomly throwing up on me Monday. It was lovely. And lucky for me, I was home alone -- so I had to try to maneuver that whole cleanup process of her and I and the house on my own. FUN. Tuesday we went the whole day and she seemed to be fine until about 5 o'clock. I was making dinner and she was playing in the FunZone, when I suddenly smelled the most awful smell of my life and looked over the counter and yes, you guessed it, she's playing in her poop *gag* So I clean everything up including giving her a bath and manage to not burn dinner :) Jason got home shortly after and we proceeded to have what I thought might be a good evening. Laid Kadence down for bed with a milk bottle in her belly. Like 5 minutes later she starts shrieking at the top of her lungs. I tried to calm her down but to no avail so I made the mistake of picking her up -- and yes, you guessed it, she projectile vomited yet another entire load on a very surprised and disgusted me. Why does she wait till I pick her up?! HAHA (she's evil) So back to the bath tub we BOTH go and Jason gives her a bath (trying not to puke himself. men are wimps) whilst I take a cold shower and clean up real quick. Finally get her to go to sleep after all that and we sit down around 8:30 to watch some TV.

Well, 12:45am rolls around and I'm up sick in the bathroom with what we've now dubbed, "The Flu With A Vengeance" -- Kadence proceeds to wake up about 45 minutes later and is finally hungry after her whole episode earlier..and whilst making her a bottle, I have to run and have another episode. And then sleep at last.

Luckily for me (and her) that was the last of it for us. We had a couple lazy days of getting our strength back and eating the B.R.A.T. diet :(  Jason ended up getting it on Thursday, but he's recovered now too. We thought she might've had a milk allergy when it was only her because she was coming out both ends and kind of had a little rash after certain events through out the day. We've switched back to Silk just to be on the safe side, but I do think we all got the bug and it started with our little angel (sarcasm). Point of origin: Perhaps the church nursery on Saturday? Although MeeMaw and PeePaw kept her that night/following day at their house and seem to be fine? Who knows.

Other than that, life is back to normal and we're looking forward to getting out of the house this weekend. It's cold here in Nashville, but not unbearable. It goes from 30 one day back to 60 the next. The frequent rain though has made it kind of a dreary Christmas season. I wish it would just hurry up and get to the snow -- at least that's more pleasant than rain -- well, kind of :) It's definitely prettier!


xo

My Daughter, The Ham.

So Kadence has reached another milestone since her one year birthday -- she now meets the requirements to turn her car seat around and be a forward facing baby :) Unfortunately, she's only been in the car twice since this has happened and it's been at night both times -- so I don't think she really can appreciate what this means now...and it kinda freaks her out on the back roads with people's brights being right in her eyes. But nonetheless, it's nice to be able to turn and talk to her while I'm in the passenger seat!!

So as the posting says, my daughter has been a little ham lately. Often times I'll be working at the computer and hear her start laughing uncontrollably for no reason behind me. I look over my shoulder, and it's just her sitting in the middle of her fun zone, laughing for no apparent reason. She's so easily amused :) Last night we got home after her slumber party at MeeMaw's this weekend and Jason climbed into the FunZone to play with her. He took one of her squeezy toys and like a typical guy, started to try to "annoy" her by blowing it in her face. Well, it backfired on him and she actually thought it was the funniest thing and actually forced him to do it over and over again. Enjoy :)

Old Saint Nick.

So for those of you that stumbled onto my blog for perhaps the first time, here's the progression of today's photo shoot with Santa. Enjoy xo

Click on the picture to make it larger :)

Affection.

So Kadence has been acting sweeter than normal lately -- I'm not complaining, but I thought I'd share some cute moments. She's been having trouble getting to sleep the last couple nights. We're in the process of weaning her off formula and only giving her a milk bottle before bed. She's not quite fond of this and it's been showing. So last night I was sitting on the ground by her crib and I'd reached my hand thru the bar to grab her foot. I was rubbing my thumb back and forth against her skin and she reached out to grab it -- and then pushed it back down on her foot as hard as she could. She let me do it a few more minutes and then she repeated the process. At one point, she even put her own hand down on her foot and did this raking motion back and forth -- trying to repeat what I was doing but to no avail. She grabbed my other hand and placed it on her other foot :)

Then this morning when she woke up, I was making a kissy face from a distance while leaning over her crib and she came right in and landed her forehead on my lips...and then her nose and then her fafa. It was like she wanted me to give her kisses!!

I love that she's starting to be more cute and cuddly and learning how to express her love for us. WAY better than when she was a little blob that barely smiled HAHA


xo

Play Date + Hip Appointment.

{KADENCE'S FIRST YEAR BOOK CAME IN THE MAIL TODAY!!!}

So Kadence and I had a play date last night with one of her new little BFF's and her mommy. It was great to have some adult conversation and her two year old, Dylan is GREAT with KK. They're like two peas in a pod. I can already see all the trouble they're going to get into as they get older. Tattoos, boys, sneaking out..maybe I'm getting a little ahead of myself, but it's sure to come. All and all, it was a great night -- dance off, random nakedness and O's everywhere! They may have had more fun than us :)

As for today, Kadence had a followup appointment over at Vanderbilt for her hip. Dr. Mencio said that everything was still looking good and improving. Unfortunately he said it's still too early to know for sure and there's not really anything they can do but sit back and wait a little longer. We scheduled another appointment for her 2 year birthday and we'll go from there. He gave me a copy of her X-ray and explained where the hip "needs to be" by then..hopefully it will continue to drop into place. If not, he was talking about actual surgery taking place to cut a slit into the bone, tilt/angle it down and then take another piece of bone from a different place in her leg and fill in the slit they cut to push the hip down. Hope that makes sense in text form -- I completely understood what he was talking about doing which is a first with him. He's usually very cryptic and non descriptive, but he hit it on the head this time and made it black and white for me. So everyone keep praying that Kadence will continue to progress in the right direction. I don't even want to imagine that fiasco and/or doctor bill when that time comes!!

xo

Tree + Milk Face.

So I finally just bite the bullet and put our Christmas tree up this morning. It looks a lot different then I remember it last year. We bought a 6.5' pre-lit fake tree during Black Friday last year and I guess I just didn't remember it being so "bare"..yeah, bare is the word I would use. There's a lot of empty spaces -- so I might steal an idea from my mom and the trees I use to have growing up -- and stuff a bunch of stuffed holiday animals in the back of the ornaments to make the tree seem "fuller" haha I also for the first time ever put some lights up outside on our balcony. Should have saved that joy for Jason since he's the one that wanted them there, but I'll wait till we're in a house next year and put it on his honey-do-list :) Kadence had a great time watching me and she still doesn't know how she feels about the tree. She keeps staring at it all lite up. Can't wait for tonight to see her face when it's the only thing shining in the living room!!

So to elaborate on the title -- Kadence had her first complete bottle of Silk just now. I've tried giving it to her the last couple bottles she's had and I think the fact that it's cold throws her off a bit. She denied it for breakfast, so I let it sit out in the bottle for an hour or so and she sucked it right down. When she was all done, she looked up at me with a sloppy milky face and a big toothy grin. Thank God she likes it! Seriously, I'm thanking Him! Now hopefully it filled her belly enough for a nap. Now that makes ME smile!

xo

1 Year CheckUp.

So we had KK's 1 Year Checkup today and everything went great! She's 20 lbs 13 ounces -- 66% in her age group. She's 30 inches tall, which drops her down from 95% to 77%, so she's not growing like a weed at the moment and her head circumference is at 65% I think.

The pediatrician gave me some good tips on how to get her going on a sippy cup which I'm hoping will work since I already have a wide selection of cups that she WON'T use..haha But looks like I'll be buying one more type to see if it works out for her.

As far as the whole milk debate goes, she said I can give her Silk (the unsweetened kind) a couple times a day and if I don't want to go that route, I can try to supplement her milk intake with other things that give her the same vitamins that she needs, ie fruits and veggies. I think I'll start with the Silk and see where that goes. I know she enjoys the soothing aspect of a "bottle" during certain points in her day.

She also gave me a couple meal "plans" so I can see what a weeks worth of food should look like for the little monster. It's refreshing to see something on paper and have a general idea of how the day pans out instead of just being told that she needs 5-6 fruit servings a day and 4-5 veggies, etc. I was starting to go crazy trying to find "serving" sizes online..but now I see that "servings" are actually much smaller than I thought so this should be a piece of cake.

She got 2 shots today and had her foot pricked for an iron test. I knew she wasn't going to be happy about it so I got out a rice rusk when the nurse came in and handed it to KK. As soon as the nurse started pricking her everywhere, she raised such a commotion. When it was all said and done though, Kadence looked at the nurse, then looked at me, then looked back at the nurse, stopped crying and took the loudest crunch/bite out of her rice rusk and went along with her business like it never happened. I couldn't stop laughing!!

Finally home and she's napping. So all is good in the world. Hoping to put up the Christmas tree tonight or sometime tomorrow. Cheers.

xo