13 Months

(I'm finally not two weeks behind on this!)  My baby girl is no longer an infant.  She's a toddler.  It's both happy and sad.  It seems like just yesterday I spent my entire day nursing then changing her.  ;-)  It's amazing how as she grows I adapt and some things become so much quicker and easier but there's also new difficulties.  Keira is just the light of my life.  She is soooooo much fun!

Her biggest talent..... She's walking!  It is the cutest thing I have ever seen.  One night a week ago Laurie and I gave it a try not thinking anything would happen.  We had her walk to each other and she was ready!  She did it like it was nothing!  And she was just about as proud of herself as we were of her.  She clapped for herself and gave shouts of glee while flinging her arms in delight.  Although she has loved walking with assistance for a looong time, she always got so upset if we tried to let go of her hand or when once we tried to trick her with markers- she certainly wasn't going for that.  But all of the sudden she gained confidence and was ready to do it all by herself.  That night she walked all the way down the hallway from the living room to the back bedroom.

By two days later she started walking everywhere, she's barely even crawling now.  And she couldn't be happier.  I think it's been a source of frustration because she loved walking, but I just couldn't spend my entire day walking her everywhere she wanted to go.  So now it's great!  Her falls barely slow her down, she pops right back up.  She's quite fast, it's faster than crawling.  She also loves to stop and pick things up and carry them around with her.

She loves her new rocking chair.

While in Mississippi she got her top two teeth.  So now she has a grand total of four!

I'm trying to get her used to using cups.  This was the first time she did it properly, by herself.  She still loves her bottle, especially warmed milk.  But with meals we use sippy cups.

She loves "baby"ies and loves hugging them and seeing me hug them.  She also loves cuddling with her blanket in the crib.

She's quite verbose.  She has me impressed.  :o)  She can repeat the following words after me:  Mommy, Daddy, baby, hi, bye, bye, dirty, yuck, mmmmm, ba ba (bottle), teeth, cheese, juice, wow, whoa, oh oh, tree, Jason, Jase, thank you (she tries), and a few others I can't think of right now.  Now, I'm not saying everyone would understand these words, but I do!  ;-)  

She pretty much tries to say anything we say.  She tries to do everything we do.  She follows us wherever we go.  And even tries to make the same expressions or noises we make.  A couple examples:  Tonight I was starting the dishwasher and she came rushing over and tried to turn the knob.  Sometimes when I bend down or do something difficult while I'm carrying Keira I make a little grunting sound she thinks is funny.  So now when she lifts something heavy or sometimes just bends down she makes a little grunting sound.  It's so cute!  (LOL- Chris was afraid he accidentally taught her grunting noises because he's getting old.)  :-)

Now it's especially important to be the best role model I can be and live by the moto "Do what I say AND what I do."  I feel like it's so important for her to be surrounded by people who love her, want the best for her, and will be wonderful examples to her.  I feel so thankful to have such great friends and at least a couple of wonderful family members close by.  Although I think daycare can be great, and is for many, I'm sooo thankful Keira doesn't have to go and that I get to be her primary caregiver.  I love and cherish every minute I spend with her.  I hope that I will be a great example and role model to her and pray that the Spirit will help guide me.

Since We've Been Home

I was shopping for Keira's Birthday and bought myself something.  I've wanted a glider since before Keira was born, and finally we found one for 75% off!  It was the display model, but it works great!  I'm so excited to have it for the next baby too!  :o)

We celebrated Mariana's 30th Birthday!

Keira has spent lots of time with her favorite babysitter, Aunt Laura!

We went for a wonderful fall hike to see the changing leaves.  However, we didn't quite have enough time to make it to the higher country where they're really changing, and there's quite a bit of fire damage from previous years where we chose to go.  Still a great hike though!

Grammy & Grandpa Visit

A couple of weeks ago Keira and I flew to Mississippi to visit Keira's Grammy and Grandma Tallman. We had planned this trip several months ago but since then Chris started taking the Fire Academy and didn't want to miss two classes while we were gone, so instead he missed out on the fun!

Grandma and Grammy at the Memphis Airport. They were ecstatic to see her!

Grammy borrowed a bunch of toys from a friend and Keira loved all of the new things to play with! She really enjoyed the horse and caught on quickly.

Keira was definitely spoiled for a week! (But isn't that what Grandparents do best!) The main thing she wanted to do there was have us hold her hand (preferably both) and walk. Grammy was so sweet to grant her wishes.

Keira's Grandpa's hobby is flying RC Airplanes. Keira was intrigued and started saying "wow" for the first time ever while watching them fly. That word sounds sooo sweet in her cute little voice!

Keira loved playing the piano! I'm really hoping she will learn how to play it.

She also loved her birthday gift, Chris' Dad's rocking chair from when he was little. It's still in great shape. She has so much fun on it!

I finally know what humidity is! (Although it wasn't bad while we were there.) We took Keira to an awesome Splash Pad and she enjoyed playing in the fountains, and........

She also took many steps!!! The day before she started taking 4-5 steps back and forth between myself and Grammy. But here she was standing by us and then took 7-8 steps away from us and towards the fountains. It was amazing and she was sooo happy! See videos below. :-)

Ironically my aunt and uncle live about 20 minutes from where Chris' parents live. So we had a fun day visiting them. Despite the lack of sleep, Keira did so well and was so cute and well behaved! (And it's a good thing since my family has super high expectations for her since we were apparently perfect.) We enjoyed going swimming, visiting, and eating at Chili's.

Keira loves her Grandpa and even kind of learned to say his name while we were there.

Grammy, Uncle Jeremy, Grandpa, and Daddy when he was young. Keira liked the picture.

Grammy also saved lots of her boys' toys and they spent hours playing together!

Not the greatest sideways video, but you'll see the cuteness of a few steps.

This one is the end of the first time she walked there. (Please excuse my excitement and delight.) ;-)

First Steps

Today, 9/9 was Keira's due date. I have to admit, I had that date so stuck in my mind that sometimes it's hard to remember that she was actually born in August instead of September.

But more important and exciting... Today Keira took her FIRST STEPS! She walked from Grammy Tallman to me taking about four steps all by herself! We were so proud of her, and so was she! It was soooo cute!!!

Today she also started saying "Wow!" Her little high pitched excited voice is just the cutest thing in the world!

Happy 1st Birthday Keira!

We had a wonderful celebration for Keira on her actual Birthday, August 24, 2010. Chris came home from work for several hours in the afternoon and my both my sister and brother were there. It meant so much to me that the three of them were there. It was sooo much fun! In fact, I've never had so much fun on a birthday before! You'll have to excuse me, there are a ridiculous amount of pictures because it was just so much fun and Keira was so cute I just have to put lots on here.

Keira was actually kind of interested in the gifts and even helped open some of them.

She loves to read. Uncle Jeremy gave her some of his favorite books from his childhood.


This was one of Keira's favorite gifts, from Auntie Wals. She opened it in the beginning and didn't want to look at anything else for a while. Keira is growing up waaayyy too fast! For her birthday she got a lap top, keys, and a cell phone.
I think she was more interested in the spoon and plate than the actual cake.
But she enjoyed shoving it in her mouth!
Keira knew exactly what to do with her phone! (Which is kinda funny since I'm the main person who talks on the phone and I always use an earpiece and don't hold it up to my ear.) Uncle John was very impressed since this was the first time he saw her stand by herself.

Keira LOVES her doll!
She also loves the drum set we got her. She looked like a pro playing the drums!
All day long we played with all of her new toys and had soooooo much fun! It was awesome having so many toys for her to play with! Here's everything!!! Yes, she was quite spoiled. But yes, she did deserve it. And yes, she really did need it!
Happy 1st Birthday my Little Sweetie Pie!

The Birthday Party

Keira's 1st Birthday Party was the weekend after her birthday. There are several baby friends turning one within a month, so the girls had a party together. We celebrated Keira, Chanley (Alysha and Ryan's girl) and Sydney (Jessica and Andrew's) girl. I was very blessed to be a part of the party, or should I say, Keira was, since she'll never have a party this nice again. I was lucky enough to be with the two most creative and crafty girls I know. And in case you wondered, everything was their idea. Although I did help make the decorations, I can't take credit for coming up with any of the ideas. It was at Alysha's condo complex's outdoor pool. The weather was perfect, and I think everything else was too! It was so much fun and we got to see lots of our good friends!

Still impossible to get a great picture of all three of them. Jessica made these AMAZING matching dresses for the girls. They looked soooo cute!
Sydney
Chanley
Cake time was sooo much fun! The girls' personalities were so cute! Keira thought it was just the best thing ever squishing the cake in her hands and getting all messy. She resembled Shrek afterwards with green frosting all up her arms, on her face, and even her hat. Chanley couldn't figure out why the other two would want to get all dirty. Once Keira tried to touch Chan's arm with her frosted green hand and Chanley just looked at her with a look of "don't touch me!" and scooted away. She did dig in a little towards the end though. And Sydney wasn't going to mess around. She knew that cake is to eat and sure had fun doing it!

Bring on the cake!
Really Mom? I can get all dirty and eat it!? Soooo fun!
The Planners after a late night, early morning, party fun, swimming, and cleaning up. I think our girls had a SWEEET 1st Birthday Celebration!