18 Months

Kiley turns 18 months old on Monday...18 months!  How is that possible??  Time is really flying by!  She has her 18 month check-up on Tuesday.  Luckily there won't be any shots!  The 2nd does of Hep A has to be at least 6 months after the first one, which she got 5 months ago.  I'm curious to see how tall she is & how much she weighs.  It seems like she's been growing, growing lately.  Her hair is getting longer too.  It's almost long enough to push behind her ears, which is what I'm going for.  We're not fully potty training yet, but we have started a little bit.  No hurry, she's still little! 
Kiley is such a big talker!  She loves repeating words & stuff.  She can say about 100 words.  She also loves being around people.  She can be in a grumpy mood & then we go to church or something & she will just brighten up.  We predicted that we would have an extroverted, talkative child since we are both introverted & pretty quiet.  It's looking like we were right :)

Cute words Kiley says: 

• Library (sounds like i-baby)
• No (I know I won't always think it's cute, but right now it's just cute how she says it)
• Ooh-ooh (monkey sound; not really a word, but it's cute!)
• Bog Baby (it's a book we read from the i-baby; she'll randomly say bog baby sometimes!) 
• Belly.  When she says it, it sounds like baby...so if she pats my belly...no, I'm not pregnant!
• Light (she pronounces it "yight")
• Rain; When it rains she'll say "Waiwing, waiwing"
• Baby, because it's always cute when a baby says "baby".  Oh, and "baby" is anyone under the age of 5 :)

Have a great weekend!

What we've been up to...

We've been keeping ourselves busy lately.  Kiley hasn't been too fond of going to bed at night.  I think we've figured it out though...she has to get all her playtime in first.  So as long as we have lots of tickles & laughs & running around, then she's fine going to bed.
This summer, Kiley & I have been going to a baby signing & music class.  She's really enjoyed it.  She knows a lot of signs.  It's very helpful with communicating with her.  Brad knows a lot of sign language too, so he's been teaching her a bunch.  Kiley really likes music too.  She likes to play on the keyboard.  In the class, the teacher would say/sing a phrase, like "bah, bah, bah" & then the students would repeat it in the same rhythm.  Kiley really likes that part.  Hey, if you're in Lubbock & have a baby or toddler you should join our class!!!
Brad & I have been reading the Love & Logic books.  I highly recommend them to anyone who has kids or teaches kids or knows kids!  Basically, you are teaching kids how to think for themselves & become responsible adults.  You allow them to make mistakes while they're little & the stakes are not as high.  The natural consequences do the teaching.  (They say Love & Logic kids sometimes wish they could just get spanked cuz then it's over & they don't have to think as much!lol P.S. I'm not anti-parents-who-spank!)   Also, you respond with empathy and sadness, not anger (love that part!).  There's a book that's geared toward parents of younger kids.  I'm reading that one now.  I won't try to tell too much about the books because I'm sure I'd leave out a lot & not do it justice, but I really think the books have a lot of good points!!  We like to read a lot of different books & then pick what we like out of each of them.  That's what we did with the infant sleep books.
I guess that's about it for now.  We'll be headed to Plains next weekend for the annual Watermelon Round-up.  I think Kiley will really enjoy it.  She looooves watermelon.  And people.  She'll have fun playing with "Nah nuh" (that how she says her cousin Diana's name).  I'll be running in the 5k.  Which probably means I should get to running more again!

Lovely Weekend

So, we didn't win the Covenant contest.  I'm actually really glad for the lady who won.  Hers was a picture of her little boy smashing a pill container because he had just finished 4 years of chemo.  Yeah...I can't be too sad about losing to that! :)  And it's really cool that I got so many votes.  Thanks friends!
We went to some garage sales this morning.  I think we'll have to teach Kiley a little more that you don't buy something at everyone :)  We did get some really good deals though.  Kiley got a couple of toys for really cheap & I found some clothes for her for 50 cents each!  Then we found a toy kitchen for her.  It was really cheap so I didn't want to pass it up.  Brad didn't think we'd have room for it, but I though we would (I will make room!).  I told him if it didn't fit then we could sell it at our garage sale :)  I think she'll really enjoy it, especially as she gets older.  And right now she loves opening & closing doors so i think she'll have fun with it now too.  She's napping right now so I haven't actually gotten to see if it fits where I wanted to put it in her room.  *fingers crossed!*
Not much else going on around here.  Just enjoying a nice weekend!

She thinks she's sooo big!

AAAAHH!

That is how I feel right now.  I entered Covenant's "Share Your Moment" contest.  Everybody who enters gets a free reusable shopping bag or something.  The grand prize is an ipad.  Now, I would never buy an ipad for myself (or at least not in the near future).  But I would gladly accept one as a prize :)  So, my video of Kiley has been ahead the whole 3 or 4 weeks of the contest.  Well, the contest ends tomorrow & now I'm not ahead anymore!  My competitive nature is coming out!  I am only competitive if I feel like I have a shot at winning something.  Or if I am competing against Brad :)  Anyway, if ya wanna vote, here's the link:

http://apps.facebook.com/promosapp/280491/entry/295011

I realize I will probably not win at this point, but I must keep trying!  :)

And a picture, just for fun :)

Happy Independence Day!

Happy 4th of July!!  We've had a great day celebrating our freedom & hope you have too.  Me, my mom, & Kiley went to the 4th on Broadway parade.  It was Kiley's first parade.  She seemed to really like it.  She would wave her little flag & sometimes wave at the people on the floats.  She would dance when there was music.  Her favorite floats were the Spanish radio stations (I guess because they had brightly colored cars), the Lubbock Right to Life float, and some big vehicle that I think was with the police or fire station.  She has a wide range of tastes.  We grilled out for lunch & had some friends over.  We played games after lunch & it was a lot of fun!  Kiley took a big nap.  Then we had church tonight.  That was good (although somewhat frustrating since there was no baby class; we managed, though).  We're not doing fireworks or anything...Kiley doesn't stay up that late.  It's been nice having two days off...I don't wanna go back tomorrow!  Oh well, only two more days then I'm off again; I guess I can't complain!  We have a family reunion this weekend...should be fun!
Have a happy & safe 4th of July (what's left of it!)

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the great dads out there!  I am blessed to have a wonderful, Christian, hard-working Dad who tells some of the corniest jokes I know :)  Thanks to him & God I knew what kind of man to look for, and now Kiley gets to have an awesome Daddy too!  (even if he does throw her in the air & have her do flips & all kinds of acrobatics, which she loves...)  We are very blessed :)

We gave Brad his present last month (I'm no good at keeping secrets!)  We had gone to the Mud Room (paint your own pottery place).  We decorated a tile for him.  Kiley fingerpainted on it (she loved it!) and then I put her footprint on it in gray & made it look like a saw by adding the teeth & a handle.  Then I wrote "Best Daddy I Ever Saw".  In hindsight, I should've let her fingerpaint in a lighter color instead of green, because after they fired it you couldn't see the footprint very well.  Oh well, it's a Kiley original :)

I know this day is not a happy one for many people, whether it is because of the loss of a dad, not having a dad, or not getting the chance to be a dad.  Just wanted you to know that I'm thinking of you today also.  Stay strong & keep the faith!

Running to Rescue

This morning the three of us participated in the Running to Rescue 5k.  Mostly I wanted a 5k to run in, but this really is a good cause.  The money was raised to support The A21 campaign.  The group's focus is to fight human trafficking.  Sadly this is a big problem for the world today.  Millions of women are victims of human trafficking & are forced into this horrendous crime.  It's easy to ignore it or think that it doesn't affect us or that it only happens in the movies.  (I remember watching the movie Taken several years ago.  That movie freaked me out because you know that kind of thing happens all the time.)  I'm glad there are groups like this & events like this to raise awareness of this horrible industry.



As for the race itself, it was pretty good.  It was held in Vintage Township & we raced around the neighborhood.  You had to do three laps for the 5k.  I lined up with the runners (toward the back since my running is not that fast, lol).  Brad had Kiley in the jogging stroller & he was lined up kinda between the runners & walkers.  It was soooo hot.  We realized when we had already left the house that we had forgotten sunscreen & hats & Brad's sunglasses.  And the saddest part was that I just cleaned the car out yesterday...we had all that stuff in there before I cleaned it out!  It was hard for me to tell how good I was doing (since you had to do 3 laps, it felt especially long!), and since Brad kept catching up to me :)  I tried to run as much as I could & only walk a little (and walk fast when I did have to walk).  My time ended up being 38:04!  I'm pretty pleased with that.  My goals were pretty similar to my first 5k:  finish, not be last, and finish in at least 43:20 (my last 5k time) but I really wanted to finish in less than 40 minutes!  What I like about running is that you can compete against yourself & try to beat your own time. Sometimes it is easy for me to feel like I'm not doing that good when there are people who finish in less than 30 minutes, but I just remind myself that I haven't been running that long & when I started I could not even run 2 minutes!  Oh, and Brad finished in about 39 minutes...and he hasn't even been running or anything!

Summertime!!

So, once again, it has been forever since I've posted!  I won't even try to fill in everything I've missed.
I'm very excited that it's summer!  I think Kiley is the perfect age for this to be a really fun summer!  So far we've gotten to:

• Visit LOTS of family
• Take a road trip through Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri!  It was a bunch of driving, but we had fun.  Kiley did great, but I know she was glad to be home & not have to be in her carseat.
• Go to two family reunions (Gunselman reunion at Fall Creek Falls in TN, and the annual Seaton reunion in Brownfield, TX)
• Go paddle boating.
• Go on a big long hike (where we learned that the backpack carrier that we have isn't all that great, and we should've just used our Ergo which is an awesome baby carrier!)
• Go swimming (Kiley enjoyed it, but was very clingy to us)
• See some miniature donkeys
• experience our first communicable disease as a family (Kiley got Hand, Foot, & Mouth Disease...it's a virus, no biggy really...you just have to wait it out.  She gave it to Brad & he was pretty miserable.  Luckily I passed on this one.  Maybe it's my super-immune system I have from working in Micro!)
• run a 5k!  That was actually back in April.  I ran (well jogged/walked) & pushed Kiley in the jogging stroller.  Our time was 43:20.  Not bad for a first!

What we have planned for this summer:

• Swim lessons!  Kiley's going to be taking a parent & me swim class starting a week from Monday.  It's a two week class at Texas Tech.  I think she'll love it!  Brad will be going with her since I have to work during those times.
• Music & Signing class!  One of our friends is teaching music classes.  She has a baby class and also recently got trained (or whatever) to teach Baby Signing Times.  So, it'll be a music & signing class.  I'm really excited!!  Kiley loves music & she knows several signs too.
• Another family reunion.  It's in Brownfield...another one on Brad's side.
• Just the three of us trip.  I want to take a trip up to Amarillo & take Kiley to the zoo and to one of their splash pads at the park.  Amarillo's not very far, which I like because I'm kinda still roadtripped out from our trip east earlier in May.
• Another 5k....or 2.  I want to try to run 1 each month.  We are doing one on Saturday (Brad, too).  I wanna see how well I do without the stroller, so I'm gonna let Brad push Kiley at this one :)  I enjoy running.  It's my "me time".
• RELAX!  Well, it sounds good in theory.  I'm terrible at relaxing...just ask Brad.  I usually manage to find things to do always.  *sigh*

Cool things about Kiley (since I know that's what people really want to know about):

• She is amazing (it had to be said :)  She is learning so many new things!  It's crazy to think how little she was last summer.
• She can say a bunch of words:  Dada (says it ALL the time), Mama (says it if I'm lucky!), Doge or da doge (long "o" sound) = dog, dackkk = duck, dow = down, ba = ball, kee = keys, baybee or bebe = baby (which she calls anyone under the age of 5, lol), yay, beaw (soft "r") = bear, and the cutest recent one she says is "mem" or "amem" when we pray (for amen).  She loves trying to repeat words.
• She can sign several words:  milk, eat, food, more, finished, and down.
• She has two molars FINALLY starting to poke through.
• She is an excellent walker now.  She started walking at about 13 months.
• She is fearless.  She is a little daredevil, and I blame Brad!  She looooves being thrown up in the air, and being chased & tickled.  I kinda taught her something bad too.  One day I was trying to make her laugh so I was falling onto the bed after saying "1....2....3!!!"  Then I had her do it.  Now she loves it & she remembers it!  Occasionally she's gotten the look like she's gonna fall backwards on the tile so we have to stop her!  Also, in the baby class tonight at church, she kept getting up on the chairs & then standing up & letting go (yes, mother, I was right there...)  I foresee lots of roller coasters in her future :)

And, that's all I've got.  Maybe I'll get better at keeping up with this blog.  Maybe.

Our Little Toddler

I am a terrible blogger.
Kiley is 1 now! It's so hard to believe. It doesn't seem like it was that long ago that we were seeing her for the first time & I kept asking Brad if she was okay because she wasn't crying a lot, LOL. Now, she's practically walking (took 5 steps today!), has EIGHT teeth, and is such a goof-ball. She likes to make silly faces. We're pretty sure she can say the word dog...it sounds like "doe". Although sometimes she calls other things doe, so who knows!lol She doesn't say mama much (figures!) but sometimes she'll say dada very clearly.
Her 1 year check-up isn't until April. I'm very curious how much she weighs. I've tried using our scales to weigh her, but I don't think they work right. At her 9 mo. check-up she was in the 17% for weight, 50% for height, and 75% for head (gotta have room for those brains, right?). It seems like she was 17 lbs. forever, but I think she's finally bigger than that now! Also, pray that the shots go well. Shots make me so nervous. But it's the lesser of two evils in my opinion (disease vs. possible side effect of shots)
I'm hoping we will get to swim a lot this summer. Kiley LOVES water! She looks like a little frog trying to swim in the bathtub. There's also some classes at the community centers that I think she would enjoy. I think she'd like being around other kids too. She's usually just around me & Brad, but she likes being around other kids like at church & stuff. She likes Bible class, but sometimes she's the only one in there. Oh well, more attention for her I guess :)
Well, that's all for now! Happy Spring!

~Amber