Dear Grandparents,

I know you like to buy me baby related paraphernalia, so here are a few things to consider:

Mom went through all of my clothes the other day and realized I don'’t own a single pair of pajamas for 12 months, the next size I'll be wearing! Remember these will be my summer sleep clothes, so look for light weight/breathable fabrics.

Also, I can always use size 4 diapers, regretfully the ones that work for me are Huggies; often the most expensive! In the near future I will also need some little swimmers diapers since I'll’ (hopefully) be in swim classes starting in March.

You might be interested to know that it looks like my "big boy" room is quickly taking on a Curious George/monkey theme. I already have a comforter for my twin bed and a plush monkey chair. I figured out I like monkeys during library storytime when I had a monkey puppet read me some books. The next week mom let me pick out any puppet I wanted to read to me and I once again chose the monkey! Although, I think I'm starting to like puppets in general too!

Love, Baby Kyle

P.S.-Save Easter weekend for a special event, more details to come!

I thought I didn't have much to report...

I'm exhausted and have no idea why...Kyle and I have just been doing our normal weekly stuff. He is becoming Mr. Personality more everyday! He'll actually try to engage us in what he's doing now, which is really cute.

We ended up in a Steinmart today and good grief it must've been senior discount day! There were so many grandmas in there Kyle couldn't get enough attention. I kept hearing them say "Look at those blue eyes" and "He just makes me want to go see my grandkids"! From what Kevin said, Kyle was also very popular at dinner tonight (He went to Wendy's with Kevin and Neal so I could have a break). He stared at one college girl in line so much she commented that if any other guy looked at her that long she'd be offended! He also came home with a playskool race car, courtesy of the Wendy's employees. This little guy has got some power; and I'm pretty sure he knows it!

I guess there's really not much to say...Kyle is still sleeping pretty well at night. We've had him start sleeping in his playpen in our bedroom because we'll be traveling to a wedding in March and that will be the setup there. He's adjusted to it almost effortlessly. At one point he was waking up around 9:30 and having trouble putting himself back to sleep. I remembered the doula from our mom/baby group suggested that even older babies sometimes like to be swaddled when they sleep (if you have trouble sleeping without at least a sheet over you, then you know what she means). Well, he now sleeps all wrapped up in one of his quilts (thanks Crothers)! I always put a blanket with him when he takes his naps in the swing, but today I learned that he just likes blankets!

We went on a walk and I was putting him back in his stroller after doing some shopping with him in the sling and he was fussy, kept grabbing the sling. I took it off and gave it to him and he was thrilled; just kept holding it in his hands and putting it up near his face. After the sling had gotten stuck under the stroller wheels a couple times (it's quite a long piece of fabric), I exchanged it for a blanket I had in his diaper bag, which he still loved! (Side note: please don't buy him any more blankets. We have so many that there are some with tags still on them)!

Also, he's eating cereal twice a day now; his favorite time to eat is when we're eating! If I snack in front of him in the afternoon, sometimes he wants a teething cookie or just a bite or two of cereal simply because I'm eating! Drinking is yet another thing! He is fascinated when we drink anything in front of him out of a cup; especially if he can see the liquid through the cup. Kevin has started taking an empty Circle K soda cup with him when he walks Kyle down to get a soda so that Kyle won't ask for his cup as he drinks it on the way home. On another eating note, nursing has become quite the chore because Kyle notices everything. He'll be eating and the cat will meow or Kevin will walk buy or the microwave will ding; just about anything is cause to pop off and look around to see what's going on!

That's about it!

And the decision is...

So I broke down, purchased the Consumer Reports highest rated forward facing car seat. Basically it was on major clearance, $30-$50 off depending on what fabric you wanted. We installed it in the car to make sure it would fit (we found out after we bought our new car that Kyle's infant car seat was a little snugger than we would've liked), and it does. For any other new parents that might be interested, the Cosco Summit model 22260 is $69 at Big Lots this week (at least in Tucson).

I figured if Kyle needed a different seat down the road, we'd cross that bridge when we came to it.

In other news, I picked up Kyle's most recent portraits and they are his best yet I'd have to say. He is soo cute with all the motorcycle props! I made another appt. to get his pictures taken again when he's 7 months old; I think that'll be close to Easter. Also, Kyle has been eating a bowl of cereal and half a jar of baby food every night for dinner. He just loves it; practically inhales the stuff. And, ah yes, he was 19 lbs, 27 1/2 inches at his WIC check up on Tuesday.

On Monday I signed him up for "movers and shakers" classes through the Tucson Parks & Rec department. Regretfully, I forgot to sign him up on Saturday for his classes and didn't get him in to swimming, but we are on the waiting list for all of those classes, so cross your fingers that we get in! I am so looking forward to doing something new with him...I'm not sure if he's bored with our weekly outings to the park, mom/baby group, and storytime, but I'm ready for a change!

That's about it; he's still sleeping like a champ!

Sweet sleep

2/9/06
As many of you know, Kyle sleeps with us. We put him to bed in his crib, then transfer him to our bed when we go to bed. Well, last night we decided we'd "play dead" or pretend to sleep when he woke up in the middle of the night. Little guy did great! He would fuss a little and put himself back to sleep in five minutes or less; and he ate less often: Once when we brought him to bed at 11:45, again at 3:45, and this morning at 7:00 when we all woke up.

I'm not going to get my hopes up, but he's also doing better during his naps; being able to put himself back to sleep if he wakes up sneezing and such. It's only been a couple days that we've been implementing new middle of the night sleep waking procedures.

If nothing else during this process, we know we've got a little genius on our hands. Of course, we've always thought he was smart, but last night when Kevin would go in to give Kyle a little pat if he woke up, Kev found him all the way in the corner of his crib closest to the door. He definitely knows we don't disappear when he goes to bed! Also, he's figured out how long we wait between times to come pat him when he wakes up. He hardly fusses until the 5 minute mark is reached, then he lets out a howl. We're going to up it to 7 minutes tonight I think and see how that goes.

2/13/06
UPDATE:
Kyle sleeps in his crib without so much as a peep now until we bring him to bed with us! This happened three nights in a row! However...

Kyle loves to sleep next Kevin when he sleeps in our bed. The problem is that Kevin moves quite a bit and it's been waking Kyle up to the point where he's unable to put himself back to sleep. So tonight we'll try Kyle sleeping in his crib the whole night instead of joining us in bed. I'm a little sad because my favorite part about this whole process has been waking up to Kyle smiling, cooing, and playing with us in the mornings!

In other news, we traveled to Chandler for a bike race this weekend. I had a good time, although failed to make it to the main event. Kevin went on a road bike ride and Kyle got to hang out with a good showing of his grandparents while we were there!

Nothing too new...

Thank goodness for this journal! I picked up a baby book to fill out for Kyle last week, and if it wasn't for this blog, I'm not sure I'd remember things like "The first time mommy and daddy heard my heartbeat was..." or "The first time mommy felt me move was...".

Kyle is doing well; looking more like a little boy everyday. The reason Kevin hasn't posted any pictures lately is because I left our camera in PHX a couple of weekends back. We'll hopefully pick it up this weekend. I'm going to try to do a state championship qualifier race on Sunday. We'll see how that goes. BMX practice was thwarted tonight by a shredding sidewall.

Kyle actually thinks some things are humorous now. He'll just laugh out loud at us or his baby video. I laid him down on a blanket today and dragged him around the house. He thought that was great! As far as eating goes, he kind of snubs the baby cereal now, but loves the liquefied baby veggies we feed him every night.

Also, he's been falling asleep or just playing when we drive in the car now. This is sooo nice compared to the screaming that used to commence. I've been doing some car seat research, as he'll be moving to something new as soon as he outgrows this infant seat. Thankfully, our infant seat is one of the one's that goes to 29", instead of just 26". I guess Ellie is pretty much out of hers now at 9 months and she has one of the 26 " seats.

My favorite seat is the Britax Marathon. However, it's also very pricey. I've been looking for something that'll fit Kyle in height longer than it'll fit him in weight. It seems that he may have some tall genes working overtime in that little body of his and we don't want to have to buy yet another car seat after this one simply because the restraints won't go any taller. The car seat that Consumer Reports rates highest is currently on clearance at BRU, but I've read too many reviews from too many parents who say their tall toddler did not fit in this seat. Ah well.

Here's to sleep!

Are you sure you were pregnant?

So, we still have a few mementos hanging around the house from before Kyle arrived. I noticed the 7 up bottle of soda from when we were in labor still resides in the fridge...

And I haven't quite been able to bring myself to the point where I can throw out those first home pregnancy tests we took when we found out we were pregnant. I know, I know what you're thinking, "Mindy, you peed on those little sticks. That's so gross!". I thought that after Kyle arrived, I would no longer need the the HPTs as evidence that I was/had been pregnant. Ah well. Maybe I'll just take a picture of em...the lines that show you're pregnant are still perfectly clear.

Pictures

I was picking up today and realized we have a lot more framed pictures out and about now that Kyle has arrived. Not only that, but they are professional pictures. Good grief. I never used to care about stuff like that; getting pictures taken every so often to document the months and years. Kyle gets his picture taken every 2 months or so. The pictures he took this week are sooo cute; I can't wait for them to come in. However, that also means I need to go purchase some more frames to put these up, LOL.

I had never done this before, even with Kyle, but I spent a good $80 on pictures of him this time. It was some special engagement that they weren't taking coupons for and now that he's older, well he just gets cuter every time we get new pictures taken of him! So there went my Christmas money; funny what is more important once you have kids. I thought, 20 years from now, when Kyle's in college, will I remember the clothes I bought with this money? Naw, but I will remember those pictures!

Nothing new...

So another leaky diaper this morning...this is getting really old. There is one brand of diapers that Kevin and I both noticed fit him really well when he was younger, so I went and got some of those this morning to try out at night. Of course, they are one of the more expensive brands, but if I don't have to wash his swing pad every morning, it's worth it for me!

I laid on the floor this morning with Kyle, both of us on our backs, and read him a couple books. Boy was he tickled! Then we went to babytime at the library this afternoon. He just loves it now that he's older...which, by the way, the little guy turned 5 months last week.

Babies r us sent me a coupon this week so I went and got a few things I'd been wanting to buy, but really didn't want to pay full price for. Things like baby food bowls with lids, a stroller cup holder, a food grinder, and some sippy lids for the baby juice he'll be getting soon.

I put together his activity table earlier this week also. He really likes his little baby friend's table, but didn't seem as excited about the one we own. It says it's for 6 months plus, so maybe he'll like it more in a couple of weeks!

That's about it!