A gigantic 6 months old

Dear Kaylee,

A few days ago you turned 6 months old. I know I am, once again, a little late with the blog thing. I have a fantastic excuse this time though! We were trying to get Drake's baptism and your blessing arranged and executed. It required an inordinate amount of house cleaning and long segments of time where your Mother sat around and imagined the worst. It was the second time we would be spending any amount of time with your siblings "other family" and my brain would not allow me to imagine this day going anyway other than badly. On top of that, your Daddy would randomly start breathing very deeply and get this I am going to throw up, pass out and then die look on his face. You see sweet bug. Your Daddy is a brave brave man, but he is very afraid to speak in public...out loud at least. He will publicly mutter from time to time. But standing up, in front of people, and then talking at the same time is something he dreads more than...well...many things (all bad).

I am very happy to say that everything went fantastically. All of the family members, yours and the other, were very well behaved. They even talked to each other in some cases. Your Daddy did a beautiful job on your blessing and did a great job baptizing Drake. Everyone behaved themselves...well...except you. You were very happy and cute, until it was time to bless you. Daddy held you and you were fine until the elders all placed there hands on you...and you freaked out. You cried, nay wailed, through the entire blessing. As soon as they uttered the word "Amen", you were over it. sigh

So...anyway

We are all very happy that the day went well and is over.

This month has been about food. I have to admit, I was not really motivated to get you to eat food. Bottles are very easy and highly convenient. I am extremely lazy. So fixing a bottle is an easy out when you are hungry. We started with the cereals, but we only gave them to you very occasionally. Then we moved on to vegetables. I gave you a couple veggies, but you seemed uninterested. I used this as an excuse to not push the food. You didn't seem to want it...why switch. Then one day, a couple of weeks ago, you must have had a growth spurt because you started eating 6+ ounce bottles every 2 hours. It was time for more substantial food. After a little coaxing and taxing all of Mommy's "get the baby on food" tactics, you decided that food was good! You eat everything placed in your mouth except peas. You clamp your mouth down hard and refuse them with an intensity reminicent of a person willingly die for their principles. I can't say that I blame you. Processed peas are horrible. Frozen peas aren't so bad. Hopefully you will acquire a taste for them in a few months.

You are a fantastic sleeper, hitting the sheets between 8 and 9 pm and not opening your eyes again until 7 or 8 am. It is awesome. You only vary from this on nights when we REALLY need you to sleep. Those nights you decide it is time to party like it is 1999. You will stay up till midnight or later and then wake up two or three times during the night...just as a check to see if we were still sleeping. Luckily we have discovered this loophole and remember now to assure you at bedtime that we absolutely do not need you to sleep...ever...at all. We remind you that you are welcome to stay awake as long as you would like. It seems as long as you know we don't need you to sleep, you are able to do so very well.


Sweet bug, you are adorable. While we loved to hold you and cuddle you; it seems you really prefer to lay on a blanket and roll around or sit in an excersaucer. You get so much attention from your sibbling and from your cousins. Aunt Stacie babysits you right now and her boys think you are their little sister...who was misdirected to the wrong house. So much attention and hands passing you around sort of drives your desire to lay or sit and play. You have almost stopped putting things in your mouth. Your little fingers will probe and grasp object, but you no longer explore them with your mouth. There is an intensity to you when you examine an object. It is amazing to see your focused. We so enjoy watching you.

I am excited to watch you grow more. You have already started the "inch worm" crawl and I fear we only have a couple more months before you get the hand/knee coordination going and you will be off. You are growing WAY too fast my sweet little girl. I really wish you would slow down. I know you are highly motivated to catch up with you brothers and sisters. It must be enormously frustrating to watch them walk, talk, and play. But, it would be a tremendous favor to your parents if you would decide to slow down...just a little.

We love you sweet bug. Talk to you soon.

Love,
Mommy

Awesome...like a hundred billion hot dogs sir!

As I may have mentioned before...we have four cats in our home.

I love my cats...for the most part. Lets face it, they are cats. For those of you who either own, or have owned a feline, you will need no more explanation than that last statement. They are cats. For those who have never owned one, everything you have read or have heard about cats is totally true. They have attitude, over run your home, and treat you with general disdain...unless it is feeding time at which point you become their most favorite person in the WORLD!!! They are cats. 'Nuff said.

Several times a year we have to "de-fur" the cats. It is a task that has to be done by me...because John has a very mild allergy to cats and performing this chore threatens to put him in the hospital. He can't even be in the same area of the house when I do it. De-furring is basically just brushing the cats. I should do this a couple of time a month. But... it is very messy and I am very lazy, so it gets done on an "as needed" basis. Spring time, and the subsequent shedding of the totally unnecessary winter coat, escalates the "as needed" to "code red". There is so much fur coming off of these animals it is unreal. So a few days ago, I sucked it up and did the nasty. I brushed all four cats.

We bought a new cat brush, and it is awesome. Check out the pics!!!


This is the mound of hair that I removed from the first cat...Pipen. I put my flip flops next to the pile of hair for reference.

This is the piles of hair after all four cats were done. This beach towel is a LARGE towel...So much hair came out of those cats it amazes me to look at. I didn't take a picture of my clothes after I was done. I was so covered in hair I had to shower.



This is the mighty and powerful "Defurminator" tool I used. I think this is the most expensive brush on the Petco shelf...and worth every single penny!

AWESOME!

Equal time...ummm no

I had a friend point out to me the other day that I tend to write a lot about my baby, but not so much about my other four children. It seemed a bit lopsided. She was pointing this out to me in a kind way, thinking that I might not have realized I was doing this. It was done with the best intentions. The funny thing about this conversation was my response to her, and her subsequent surprise. I know it is lopsided...and I do it on purpose.

Blogs are funny things. They allow outsiders an inside look into your life, and in some cases, your head. I enjoy some aspects of this. I have mentioned before how much I enjoy reading blogs. It is a little surprising to me that I also like to write on this blog. For whatever reason, I find it cathartic. I have little problem laying out my life and my thoughts in this medium. I do, however, have a problem laying out the lives of my kids. Hence, the reason you will see very few blogs written directly about my older kids. It is about respect.

With Kaylee, there are few boundaries. She is a baby. Her life revolves around her latest exciting discovery...like her feet. No invasion of privacy there! My older kids have lives. They are still young, but it is amazing to me how quickly they begin to have a need for their own space. To invade that space here, or really any public arena, feels like an exploitation. Those stories are theirs to tell, not mine.

So, for those few who might have been concerned that I don't love my older kids as much as my baby; you can relax. You will see the mommy letters on their birthdays, and the kid speaks. I will write about them when I feel the story relates to my life and how they impact me, but I will not write about them on a regular basis. This is the line that I have laid in the sand, and I will not cross it. I love them too much to put their lives on display for others amusement.

Ok...thanks for listening...you can go back to whatever you were doing.