Tennessee Family Vacation (A week of Firsts)

Every year we travel to Waverly, TN to visit Pat's family. This year was Kyle's very first time to TN, and he loved every minute of it. I was a little worried about traveling that far with Kyle, but he did real well. Of course it took a couple of rest areas to get the whole thing down we did great. We left on Saturday and traveled to Louisville, KY where we stopped and spent the night a a Hyatt (of course). Saturday night we went down to 4th Street Live where they have all the night life. We took Kyle to his first Hard Rock. We did not eat there, but did buy him his first Hard Rock T-shirt. We ate at a place called Red Star Tavern outside on the patio. Kyle was able to sit in the high chair for the first time and of course thought it was a wonderful experience! He procede to bang on the table, laugh and yell. After dinner we walked around down town and just took in all the sights. We had a great night sleep and started on our way to TN Sunday morning. Kyle did well again for this leg of the trip. We arrived at our destination around 3pm. Waverly is appox. 70 miles west of Nashville. We had a great relaxing week of fun and lots of food. Kyle had his first bath on the porch in a dish pan..LOL Kyle also went swimming for the very first time and he loved it so much. He was kicking and laughing.

8 Months

Kyle is 8 months old and raring to go! He is getting around like a champ. He is not yet crawling but sure finds ways to get from point A to B. He has opened his first cupboard of course under my watch. I have started to baby proof but can already tell that I will be needing to go over things by crawling around. He sits up and plays really well and loves to travel around in his walker. He really loves to bang his toys on other toys and make tremendous amounts of noise. Our new thing is talking. We started about two weeks ago with "ba ba ba" that turned in "Bob" and into "da da da". Now he talks and just random sounds and words come out. He will be a talker that is for sure, because he can go on for hours. Kyle is enjoying the end of summer and really still loves to go on walks and swing at the park. We are enjoying everything we can because my little baby is now turning into a big boy. :-)

Summertime 2009

Summer has been great so far.. Kyle is getting more and more animated every day. He seems to be getting so big fast, but yet everyone warned me that would happen. We do not go back to the doctor until Sept. for his 9 month appointment. I know that he has grown a couple of inches and gained a couple of pounds for sure. We have graduated to stage 2 foods and still have not found one we do not like. I myself am surprised at all the different baby foods that are out there. We have even started to buy some stage threes because 8 months is coming up quick and I want to be prepared. During the summer I can and garden so I am pretty excited to get to the farm market and make some fresh veggie varieties for Kyle.

Last week my nephew, and Kyle's cousin Brody turned ONE! Happy Birthday Brody! We had lots of fun at his birthday party. There was a bubble machine and lots of toys to play with. Kyle was able to swing for the first time in a baby swing and he absolutely loved it. Brody had a Nemo themed party that my sister did a wonderful job on.






We are headed to Tennessee on vacation and this will be our first road trip with Kyle. Pat's mom has not seen Kyle since March so she has a big boy surprise when we get there. We will be stopping and staying in Louisville to break up the trip. Pat and I have done this now the last few years that we have gone down to visit, and it works out great. This year we are excited to go to the Slugger Museum and get Kyle his first engraved bat! We will post all about the vacation once we get back. This vacation will be primarily for resting and relaxing. This will also be Kyle's first swimming pool experience, we have the new baby float and plenty of sunscreen packed up and ready to go.

Below I posted the video of Kyle in the baby swing. My new mission to find all parks with baby swings!

7 Months Old

Kyle is 7 months and growing like a weed. We love eating! We are trying all kinds of new foods and loving it. We also are a huge fan of water in a sippy cup. This little boy has tons of personality, and loves to show it. He laughs out loud at most things. He is super ticklish! I mean all over too. His neck belly and sides are the worst and his feet can be depending on the time. We are not crawling yet but we can roll and scoot like crazy. It should not be very long now. He loves to play on the blanket with his stacker toys and blocks. We love to investigate all objects and put them right into our mouth.

We are sitting pretty good, but still a little wobbley. Kyle's favorite thing by far is his bouncer. We love to move the parts so the animals will make sounds and we love to jump up and down in it. He can swivel himself at 360 degrees so that he can play with all the toys. Some other things that we are really into right now are walks in the parks, reading books, and petting the dog ( or should I say grabbing hair).

Six Months Old

Kyle is six months old today and boy is he getting big... He is really starting to show his personality. I can not tell you how much he smiles and really likes to laugh. There is not too much that we cry about, just if we bump our head while rolling around on the floor or if he is hungry. He loves to play with all of his toys and is very inquisitive as to how they work. I have been told that he is a "thinker"! Now that it is getting hot we are pulling out all the new outfits since we do not fit in the 3-6 months anymore. We went to our recent doctors visit and we are now 16lbs. 15 ounces (you might as well call that 17lbs) and 25.5 inches. Doctor says we are growing at a normal rate. We can now start stage 2 foods andwe should be crawling, sitting and pulling ourselves up on things by our 9month or next appointment. Stay tuned for some of our summer adventures and future summer outings!

Time for Serious Play

We are well on our way to the six month mark... boy how time flies! Kyle is doing so many things and fast. In the past couple of weeks we think everything is funny, we roll over in our sleep and like to sleep on our tummy, and we absolutely love to grab noses and hair! We love to talk and talk and talk. Kyle is also really involved in play time. Almost every night we read and he loves to turn the pages... I am not too sure he understands what the story is about but he loves to listen. We love to play with our Fisher Price song toy (I have included a video of floor time right after a bath time) and other random toys we love to put in our mouth now! Come on teeth...:-) He starts to wave and do high 5 but his true love is his bouncer now! Take note on how interactive Kyle is with this toy... he love to bat things around with is left arm! Does this mean we are left handed? Time will only tell.....

My First Mothers Day

(Photo by Leticia Horry/Natural Reflections)


Before I was a Mom,
I never tripped over toys
or forgot words to a lullaby.
I didn't worry whether or not
my plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom,
I had never been puked on.
Pooped on.
Chewed on.
Peed on.
I had complete control of my mind
and my thoughts.
I slept all night.
Before I was a Mom,
I never held down a screaming child
so doctors could do tests.
Or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night
watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom,
I never held a sleeping baby just because
I didn't want to put her down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces
when I couldn't stop the hurt.!
I never knew that something so small
could affect my life so much.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a Mom,
I didn't know the feeling of
having my heart outside my body..
I didn't know how special it could feel
to feed a hungry baby.
I didn't know that bond
between a mother and her child.
I didn't know that something so small
could make me feel so important and happy.

Before I was a Mom,
I had never gotten up in the middle of the night
every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.
I had never known the warmth,
the joy,
the love,
the heartache,
the wonderment
or the satisfaction of being a Mom.
I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much,
before I was a Mom .

This poem was sent to me by my friend Kathryn and I wanted to share it with you!

Spring Time

Spring is in the Air! That means new flowers, aromatic smells, and lots of sunshine. Already this spring Kyle and I have been on a few walks, sat in the thick green grass and have done hours of rocking on the porch. I love spring and I have plenty of plans for Kyle and I this spring since it is his first. Amongst those plans I have decided that it is time to do some "spring cleaning". I am preparing for a garage sale. It will be 6 years that we have been in our house this Aug. and it is definately time to get rid of some stuff. I am excited to get some room back in our house!
It is also time to plan the annual garden. In a week or two my friends and I will venture to the nursery's to buy our garden plants. The garden is ready and just needs to be tilled. I am excited for when Kyle will be able to help mommy plant and take care of the garden. I remember doing this when I was younger with my grandparents and I know that Kyle will enjoy it too! :-)

*(Photo by Leticia Horray/Natural Reflections)