Just hangin' out mom. I got myself turned around here and I'm not sure what to do next. Not even sure how I get turned around actually. So how do I turn back around?



Kacey really likes to babble. I tried to get her on video but she quieted down a bit. She talks in this but not like before I pulled out the camera. I figured the grandparents would like the video anyway. The cat was behind me and Kacey kept raising one hand high in the air and almost preaching to the cat. It was very cute. :)

It has been pointed out to me that I have not posted a video of Miss Jo crawling yet. So here it is! I took it this morning. Bonus, it includes standing and cruising too!!!

That's 2/3 of a year!!! How can it be? Kacey looks just as surprised as I am....



Today she tried hard boiled egg yolk and really liked it!



In class today, the teacher did bubbles, here's a short video. (You also get to see Taline lifting her dress and showing off her goods!



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I think we are making progress on the nighttime sleep. Last night she cried at 3:30 for 5 minutes and again at 4:30 for 5 minutes. At 5:05 she woke up for good and I went in there at 5:15. Crossing my fingers that she skips the 3:30 and 4:30 wake up calls!

After a few days of whining and a bubble on her gum, her top right tooth has finally broken through! YAY! The other top one is staying well hidden so it might be a while. Hopefully the waking up at 4am will disappear soon.

About that 4am wake up, we have started letting her cry it out. We know she can sleep through until 6 as she was doing it before Christmas so we want to get her back into that. I think she just developed a bad habit of waking up and expecting to get fed. It's hard to hear her crying at 4am (or 3:30am like she did this morning!) but hopefully it will payoff, and soon.

Another really cool thing happened that I am very excited about! The last couple of days when I went in to get her from her morning nap I have spent a little time trying to teach her about her crib toy. She has this:



When you push the parrot button it lights up, plays music and the monkey moves around. I would take her hand and push the button and she was kind of doing it with my help a little bit. I was hoping to get her to learn it so it could entertain her in her crib a bit so she wouldn't just wake up and cry.

This morning I heard her talking after her nap and decided to go get her. I walked in to find her talking to it and it was on!!! She had turned it on all by herself!! I know she is learning tons of things now but this is the first time she has learned something that I have specifically taught her. I was on cloud nine and felt so proud of her. It's just amazing what their spongy little brains can learn and how happy that makes us.

And now for your video viewing pleasure:

Jamie got Kacey on video going from sitting to standing. It doesn't normally take her this long to do it but I think she was distracted by the camera.



This one is for Grandma Marie and Grandpa Jim. Kacey standing and playing at her music table.

and to think I was only spitting out cheerios. She thought it was the funniest thing ever.

Look mommy, I can hold the sign all by myself!



Today we went to visit daddy at work and Paula got to feed me my lunch!



We also went grocery shopping and I got to ride in the cart! So much fun!!!!



Here is a picture of me and my daddy. Isn't he handsome? He's my favorite daddy ever!!!



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I love standing as much as possible now. As soon as mommy or daddy sits me in front of my jungle toy, I try to stand up. I also like crawling over to mommy and she puts her hands out and I grab them and stand up. If mommy holds my hands I can walk all the way from the back of the house to the front!

I love butternut squash, avocado and yogurt. I also really like sucking on lemons when we are at a restaurant. Mommy knows she is not supposed to give me lemons but she gives me just a tiny bit since I like them so much. I like carrots and cheerios. I don't like bananas and pears. I am undecided on apples. Today mommy let me lick one and I liked it alot, then she cooked and pureed me some and I didn't like it. It's very confusing! I got to try a teething biscuit yesterday and I liked that very much.

I am having trouble sleeping past 4 am. I really like to wake up early, I am not sure why mommy and daddy don't understand how much fun it is. This morning mommy was mean to me. She came in and patted me and told me to go back to sleep and then she left! I cried for 10 more minutes and she did it again! I cried for 15 minutes and then for 20 minutes. I finally got my way after crying for one hour and mommy got me up at 5am and fed me. I then fell asleep and went back to bed at 5:30. I woke up at 7 and mommy had gone back to sleep so daddy got me up. I sure hope mommy let's me get up at 4am again tomorrow!!! (edited by mommy to say, no way! We will Ferberize this child and get her to sleep until 5:30 if it kills me!!!!)

Only one more week until I am 8 months old. Mommy is having a hard time with this. She keeps telling me to stop growing so fast. I see her have tears in her eyes sometimes when she is feeding me. She just looks at me and cries a little. She smiles at me though so I think they are happy tears.

Grandma Pat keeps coming over after work to play with me. It is so much fun!!!! Today she held me upside down. I liked it so much I kept putting my head upside down on her lap so she would pick me up and hold me upside down again! We did this over and over! It was fun! She likes to feed me my dinner and read me stories. I love Grandma and have so much fun when she is here! Thank you Grandma!!

It has been fun to write my very own post. I hope you liked it and will come back again. Thank you for reading all about me. I love you!

Love,
Kacey Jo

Kacey sure likes the cheerios! We tried them for the first time last night and caught it all on video. It's a long video, sorry, but it's really cute! I promise!

She ate 3 more this morning!

Oh Miss Jo, what a proud day to be here, in the greatest country on the planet. I am truly proud to be an American today and I must admit that I don't always feel that way. Your daddy is going in to work late today as he and everyone he works with wanted to stay home to watch the inauguration. It's ok that you slept through it, in fact it's great that you slept through it! That allowed mommy and daddy the ability to just sit and watch.

I am a republican and your daddy is a democrat. He actually said to me that if I didn't vote for Obama I could look for my divorce papers. (I don't think he really meant it :) Well I did vote for Obama. It was the first time I have voted non-republican for a president. I was moved to. I think the change will do us good. I think it is beyond amazing that only about 60 years ago segregation was alive and well yet here we are welcoming in an African-American president. Sweetheart, you are blessed to be living here. I look forward to your future. I truly hope that in your lifetime it will not be a big deal to have an African-American, a woman or a gay person as president. That anyone who is not white and male is welcomed and accepted and the focus is on what they do in office, not their sex, color, religion or sexual orientation. Today, I believe that will happen someday.

So wear your Obama onesie proud today and don't forget to thank Uncle Laine for it!

She can pull herself up!!!

Jamie saw her do it yesterday morning. She was sitting in front of her cruise n crawl toy and he watched her move her legs around until she was on her knees. She then reached up and pulled herself to a standing position!

This morning she did it for him again twice and I got her to do it for me once. Unfortunately I didn't get a video of it (not yet!) but we got a pic of her so proud of herself.






Another pic, here she is with her big new puppy dog from Great Grandma Peggy. So much to play on the floor with!

Grandma Marie and Grandpa Jim gave Kacey this music table. She loves it! She especially likes opening and closing this little lid.



Last weekend we went to the park and Kacey really enjoyed the swing! I think she liked watching the kid next to her more though, you can see she is a bit distracted in the video.



And of course we had to go down the slide. She didn't think much of it this time. The video is only 7 seconds!



Here she is going for a walk in the park with daddy. Her first little steps!!



This last one is from this week. We went to the park with Ellis and they got to swing together.

Oh my, with the Flotsam cursings and dildocam updates (another update, everything checked out perfect so now I am scheduled to see an internist next week), I have neglected the Kacey updates! Don't worry, I took tons of pictures to make up for it! So this shall be another one of those picture posts.

Kacey likes being the center of attention. Literally. She made her way to the center of the floor, laid down, and played by herself for about 15 minutes.


Mommy and Kacey wore matching outfits!


Kacey enjoyed playing with Dash and his daddy's shoe. (Kacey calls it playing, mommy calls it licking)


Kacey kissed a new person! Vivian was visiting from Hong Kong!


Kacey got to see Sossi, Gen and Chiara! They all agreed Kacey is growing up pretty cute!

Orangie wants a diaper too!


Mommy hosted a girls only night and Jamie got home early. He was scared!


Kacey enjoyed going on the swing!


She also enjoyed playing with the grass and leaves.


Jack came to visit!

Oh Flotsam!!! How dare you challenge me to your precious 30 day shred!!! Oh sure, you didn't specifically write that you were challenging us but you talked about doing it yourself. How am I supposed to sit here with my flab around my belly and not take that as a challenge? So I ordered the dvd and then I tried it out last night. You know what it did? It kicked my butt!!! Last night I got hot and a bit sweaty and my legs hurt and my arms hurt. This morning when I picked up Kacey my arms hurt and when I got up from being on the ground with her my legs hurt!!!

Oh curse you Flotsam!!! What have you gotten me into????

the dildocam.

I know my faithful IF readers have missed my regular posts about the dildocam but I did not miss it at all. Last Friday I went in for an ultrasound (for this silly abdomen pain... still don't know what it is!) I get taken to the u/s room, handed a big piece of paper and told to undress from the waist down. I follow the instructions and tuck my undies under my jeans (that's what everyone does I am told!) I hop up on the table with my silly paper skirt and wait. The technician comes in and asks for the rundown of why I am there. She has my lay back and starts to apologize.

"I am so sorryyyyy, I may have to do an internal u/s. I know it sounds awful but.."

I cut her off and explained I was a pro and had no problem with an internal. She then asked for that history which I explained and she actually looked relieved.

"So many women become terrified when I tell them I need to do an internal. It's nice when someone is used to it."

Oh how I wish I wasn't. The days of terrified are long behind me.

She did the external and decided she did want to do an internal. This was kind of neat though. I saw my uterus. No big deal. Did you see that? No big deal. It was no big deal. I saw my EMPTY uterus and it was no big deal. What a feeling that was! I wasn't asking about my lining or looking for a heartbeat or searching for movement. Just nothing and it was no big deal. What a wonderful experience! YAY for the dildocam!!!

On a little side note. She checked my ovaries. Righty had 4 follies and lefty had 5. I never had that much action going on without drugs. Very interesting. They were all small follies and not getting ready to drop into the old ute. Just hanging out, waiting for the go sign to start growing again. Hmm, interesting. That was also no big deal, just interesting.

... even better when they are mixed together!

My clinic is giving away a free IVF Cycle. Click here for the details. Thanks to my anonymous poster that brought this to my attention.

...at least when it comes to music. A virtual $ to anyone that recognizes the cd Kacey is holding.

Kacey sleeps with her little pink kitty. She always has her in her hand, mouth or both when she is in her crib. It's very cute, sometimes if she is very tired, when you lay her in the crib her arm will dart out and grab kitty. She usually doesn't even have to have her eyes open, she just senses kitty. I hate to think what would happen if kitty wasn't there!

Lately we have had trouble getting our nap schedule back on track after the big holiday naplessness. This has involved ALOT of crying it out. (Ferber method no longer works for us, it just riles her up each time you go in there.) When she cries she usually is crying into kitty. The end result is a soaking wet kitty that is very crunchy once she dries out. Kitty get pretty gross ;)

I am sure you can see where this is heading! I needed to wash kitty and had to time the laundry to start as soon as Kacey woke from her nap. It then had to be dry before she went back to bed. That's all kind of a pain and got me to thinking we need a backup kitty, kitty insurance if you will.

So I tried very hard to read the tag on kitty and finally made out that she is from North American Bear Company. Specifically she is this kitty.



So I looked up what stores carried their toys and found out that "Once Upon a Time" here in Montrose carries them. So Kacey and I went down there to get her backup kitty.

We saw this kitty, which is a mini version that squeaks. When I squeaked it for Kacey her eyes lit up and she got the biggest smile!




We then found a purple one just like the one we have and a monkey too. Kacey got really excited at the purple kitty (I am sure monkey will grow on her) So now we have a family at home.



So thank you to Aunt Lucille! This is what Kacey decided to get with the Christmas money you gave her!

Yesterday we went to my Aunt Sue's for lunch and Sue was talking about Kacey's hair and my dilemma in deciding to trim it. She mentioned she used to cut my cousins hair so I asked her if she would go ahead and trim Kacey's bangs. She said it would be fun and grabbed her scissors! Kacey loved it. Sue first combed down her bangs and Kacey kept trying to grab the comb, we then gave her a tea bag envelope to play with when Sue pulled out the scissors and it worked.

Here is the video of her hair getting cut:



Here is some video that my cousin Megann took before the actual cutting:



On last video extra. Kacey standing and doing the splits. She did this over and over and had so much fun! You can see her new haircut too!



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Here are some random videos from the weekend of Kacey just playing:

Her hair is now in her eyes. I am so torn. Do I give her her first trim? Or do we keep pushing the hair back out of her eyes? Any and all comments are welcome! When did you give your little one their first cut? Did you do it or take them somewhere? If I do get her a trim, do we just do the bangs or snip a little mullet too?



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and here is her 31 week picture taken on New Years Eve. She has her party skirt on! Unfortunately she melted down shortly after this and was in jammies and in bed before everyone got here**



**For the 4th year we have hosted New York, New Year. We invite people over to play poker and celebrate New Years at 9pm. This way the partyers have time to get to their other parties and the early birds have time to enjoy celebrating the ball drop and get to bed at a decent hour.

Kacey is in her room right now crying/hyperventilating. She is just sooooo tired! The holidays have done her in. All the grandparents and daddy being home has just given her too much excitement and reasons to be awake. We are both paying for it in losing those hard won regular naps. She has not gone down for a regular nap in about 10 days. I know I can get her back on track but it just sucks having to fight with her on it again. We had it sooooo good before the holidays! Fortunately her nighttime sleep is still doing pretty good. She is still going down between 6-7 and waking up around 6 with no wake-ups during the night. That pretty much rocks!

But the daytime naps are a different story completely. In the last couple days we have pretty much given up the afternoon naps and been focusing on the morning naps and getting those back. We are doing the Ferber method, hence the screaming right now. It's so hard to go in there at the designated times and see that adorable little face look up at you with such sadness, begging you to save er from the crib jail. It's hard being a parent and knowing what you are doing is the best thing in the long run even though it feels like the worst thing in the short run.