Do Ba-Way With ME!!!

I hear this phrase all. day. long. Maybe I should translate this for you.....Do Ballet with me! And seriously, all day! After another exciting day at gymnastics, I wanted to show you Mackenzie's first love.....ballet. This was from about a month ago, but the love affair is still growing strong :) And we owe this future prima ballerina's love of dancing to watching the Barbie Nutcracker movie. Thanks Barbie!

Sweet Giggles

Finally got some good Keelyn giggles on tape. Enjoy :) I know I did!

Publish Post

4 Month Doctor's Visit

Last week, Keelyn turned 4 months old. It is just crazy how fast it flying by this time. In ways I am so happy (because I just love when they get older, can play with toys, be more content w/o mommy holding her 24/7) and in other ways I'm sad that she is growing up so quickly. And it's just crazy because when you are cooking dinner with a fussy baby attached to you and a toddler hanging on your feet, time cannot move fast enough and then all of sudden you look back and say, where'd the time go???

Anyways, I digress..... Since Keelyn turned 4 months old, we had her regular doctor's visit last week. And once again, I just seem to grow small babies..... I really wish I could chub them up a little to make sure they weren't so small on the charts, but this time I'm not nearly as worried about it. She weighed in at 10 lbs, 13 oz (just 1 oz shy of her sister at this juncture!) which is the 5%. Her height was 24 inches, or about 50%. So, she's growing nice and skinny :)

The doctor wasn't too concerned about the weight. She said she's happy and healthy and fine on all other points she looked at, including an impressively strong head/neck control :) That's my girl! She said she wished they didn't focus on the percentiles sometimes (and noted that as an adult, I might be in the 5% myself, HA!). She's gaining weight and that's what is important. It's just always hard when you have a 100% breastfed baby, I'd like to know exactly what she's getting, but she seems content after feedings, so we'll assume it's okay.

She also reassured me that Keelyn's sleeping habits were quite normal and told me we were just lucky with Mackenzie (I pretty much knew this!). She said I should start putting her down sleepy but not asleep to let her learn to soothe herself, especially since she won't take a paci. And if I wanted/needed to, she might need to cry it out at night if she's wanting to eat every 3 hours or so. I had been worried b/c being on the small side, I didn't want her to really need to eat if she was crying. Ironically, since that visit, literally that night.....Keelyn has been sleeping better/longer at night. Guess she heard what her option was, and didn't want to cry it out either! So, for the last week, she goes down around 9pm (last feeding around 8:30) and I wake her back up a bit by putting her sleep sack on her and lay her in the crib with eyes open. She nods off easily (that goodness!). I then wake her around 11pm for a little extra food before I go to bed! And she's slept til at least 5am, and sometimes 6 or 7am. This morning was a 7am'er and it felt GREAT! Please keep it up baby girl! I really don't want to do the cry it out in the middle of the night thing. Of course, I also don't want to be your personal pacifier for the next year!

Although due to the low weight, we did decide to go ahead and start her on solid foods right at 4 months. So far, she's not impressed, but with Mackenzie we started around 4 1/2 months and by 5 months she was eating, so I'm counting on a few weeks of spitting it out & crying before she'll actually eat anything! Here's a video of her response to the first feeding:

We've Come Full Circle

Today, I found myself sitting in a seat watching my little girl take her first gymnastics class (kind of like where my mother spent many an hour of her life!). I can't believe that she is this big already! We spent the morning watching a little DVR of a collegiate gynmastics meet to get her pumped up for her first class. It's just a little class at a local community center, but the price is just right for our needs :) She's been so into ballet, but the ballet class was a 'mommy & me', and this mommy doesn't want to have to be involved to that level with a baby strapped on me. And the gymnastics class was a mommy gets to sit and watch class. Perfect! Can't wait to watch her in the upcoming weeks! It is too stinkin' cute to see her in a leotard walking across a balance beam! Don't cha think???

And a few pictures as well..... She is going to class with none other than one of her best buds, Mady Kay. We got them to pose before class started - they love each other so much!

They sat right next to each other.....I mean RIGHT next to each other when class first started!

Mackenzie, ready for her dismount!

MK on the trampoline

Our Budding Singer/Musician

With a daddy who loves to write, sing, & rock out on his guitar (and a mommy who also has a love of music both singing & piano), we really hope that Mackenzie, too, will develop a love of music. (I hope I don't struggle with forcing her to do this because I so want it! I also want her to do whatever she wants.....I just hope those two things are the same!) Anyways, so far, she definitely enjoys singing & her music class. Here's some videos of her budding musical career. Maybe these will be worth something when she becomes a famous musician in about 2o years!!! Sorry again for the sideways video (it takes to long to edit!) but I particularly like the burp mid-song and she keeps right on going! Then, in the music class video, they are singing a song about going places & she volunteers "Chuck-E-Cheese" which is what they sing the last time through :)

Mmmmm......Fingers!

It's time for another Keelyn update. My poor second child just doesn't get as many posts/pictures/etc as my #1 did. So, here's my attempt to write some more about her! I'm still surprised that she will not take a pacifier (given that my 2 year old still sleeps with hers - yes I'm wimpy about that....!) And at first I was worried she might instead suck her fingers. Though after many weeks of fussiness that seemed like a little paci would help, I started thinking, please suck your finger! However, it appears (at least so far) that she just likes to chew/nibble on her fingers & not suck on them. And sometimes it keeps her happy for a bit! So, here's a video of me trying to get her to smile, but she just wants to eat her hands instead! Also, here is a picture of her in her "Itsy Bitsy Baby K" onesie. This was our nickname for her (but just between Brannon & I since we didn't give out her name ahead of time and both sexes would've started with a K) and I just barely managed to get a picture of her in it before she outgrew it (and she doesn't grow fast.....it just took me that many times of her wearing it before I took one......!) Note that she's also eating her hands in this photo!

A Few More Snow Pics

So, finishing out our snow fun pictures..... (and on a side note, per my mom's concern, the child screaming in the sledding video is not Mackenzie! She loved it, it was just Ella squealing with delight while watching Mackenzie sled!). Another video is at the end of the post showing Mackenzie eating what she called "Ice Candy"! She loved to pick up the ice on top of the snow and take a bite! We had to make sure it was still clean ice :)

Keelyn - enjoying the snow from inside her warm & cozy carseat

Waving to me before another ride in the sled

Tromping around the backyard

Eatin' her ice candy!

The Perfect Use for our Backyard!

When we moved into this house, we were in love with the big backyard. It's so big & open, but it's only drawback is that is a bit hilly. However, we said it would be the perfect place to sled. Little did we know when we said that back in the fall that we would actually get enough snow to really put that hill in our backyard to its best use! We got an old plastic storage container to use as our georgia ghetto sled! BUT it worked pretty well as you can see (and when you hear our friend Ashley saying it won't work, she isn't referring to the sled, just telling Mackenzie if she didn't sit in the back that it won't work :) :

Christmas Afternoon

After finishing opening presents with Meemi & Poppee, we headed over to have Christmas #2 with Granmommy & Grandaddy. Mackenzie was a bit more "with it" at Christmas #2 and was a little more aggressive in opening presents (also wanting to open others gifts as well!). The good times continued for her & I hope she knows in future years how blessed she is to have such great, loving grandparents who are not afraid to spoil her a little and love on her a lot!

Demonstrating her mad gift opening skills :)

What's that Granmommy?? (I like how Granmommy is demonstrating the use of a pink boa :))

Trying on her new high heels, or princess shoes!

Granmommy adding to her accessory collection with her first watch

Apparently exhausted from the events of the morning, this is how Keelyn spent the afternoon!

After gift opening, some Wii playing provided entertainment! I can't believe my parents got a Wii before we have one!