Little Walker???

We went to a friend's house for a playdate lunch today (with Erin & big sis Ellie) and Kaylee pulled herself up on the little toy walker they have and walked across the room all on her own! She ran into a dead end at the fireplace, so I turned her around and she walked all the way back, too! Only slipped a couple times, which was funny, because she was still holding on to the handle of the walker, but was completely under it except her arms and head and got this, "what happened?!?" look on her face. Of course I left my camera at home, so didn't get a video. Oh, well, I'm sure she'll do it again!

8 months & counting

These are a couple pictures we took last week - took a bunch in this outfit and her Santa photos outfit to get some for this year's Christmas cards. Ended up with a bunch of good ones that we had to narrow down - we picked 4 to put on the card.

Kaylee is 8 months old! Seems like the time has flown by, but I also can't seem to remember what things were like without her around! I guess we got out of the house more? Though staying in and watching her grow up has been quite entertaining and fulfilling in and of itself; I must say I haven't really missed watching movies that much!

We finally got the professional portrait taken at Kaylee's church dedication...

We had to lower Kaylee's crib...again...she's now pulling up on anything she can get her hands on, and I walked in to see her standing up in her crib today, waiting for me to rescue her. It would have taken some REAL effort on her part to get out of the crib at this point, but we went ahead and lowered the mattress today rather than waiting until we absolutely had to. Hopefully she won't be climbing out any time too soon!

Maybe watching her pal Erin is helping motivate Kaylee to do more, sooner. Erin's 8 months older than Kaylee and walking and Kaylee basically crawls after her all day on the days they're together (usually twice/week). Very cute, but I think she gets frustrated that she's not able to keep up and do everything Erin can. Soon enough!! Slow down with the growing up so fast!

Kaylee is also a little sponge! She knows quite a few words...
**Puffs = Gerber Puffs/a baby finger food; she LOVES them
**Bee = a stuffed bee on a string in a hive that's hanging from her closet doorknob; pull the bee and it plays a lullaby
**Shadow = our cat's name
**Tigger = a little stuffed Tigger toy (not our other cat, sorry Tig)
**Smacky = her stuffed giraffe
**Baby Kaylee = a photo collage of her in her playroom
**Splish Splash = splashing in the tub (if we say it, she slaps the water and it gets on everything)

Hmm. I think she either knows or is learning "Erin" and "Dada" and maybe "Mama." I know there are more words she responds to, but I can't think of them. Oh, we have flashcards and she can pick out the baby and teddy bear cards (except that they've been put away for a week now...oops).

I can't think of anything else for this post; more photos after Thanksgiving, I'm sure - hope everyone has a happy holiday week/weekend!

Unfortunately, no, we didn't go to NYC

First of all - if you click this photo and look closely, you can see Kaylee's little teeth coming in! She's very stingy with showing them off and we hadn't been able to get a picture of them before today (of course when we were trying...here I wasn't actually going for the teeth shot, but got them in there!).

We dressed Kaylee up in one of her Christmas outfits today to have photos done with Santa at "Christmas in Central Park." Scanned in the images and of course they're not as good as what we bought printed (scanner is on its way out for one thing, I believe), but they'll have to do for blog viewers.

We took the family pic first, then the one of Kaylee alone with Santa and Mrs. Claus (in case she freaked out, we wanted one good pic!) - she did great, though, and when I went to get her from Santa, he said he would just keep her the rest of the day and she could be in everyone else's photos, too. :-) She was dressed for the occasion! We figured we'd see more kids dressed in holiday attire for pics with Santa, but I think Kaylee was the only one! I did see some in red or green, but not a specific Christmas outfit like hers. She got a lot of comments on it. Well, she does enjoy the attention!

Dr. Jekyll and Miss Hyde??

Kaylee with Grampa, and with the folks.

And here's our little daredevil - she likes being upside down, and will even throw herself backwards while we're holding her to get us to do that sometimes!

Dancing Queen, Young and Sweet, Only Seven...Months

(Well, almost 8 months!)

Not sure of Kaylee's true first day of doing it, but she's been dancing to music this past week. Moreso to kids' songs or if I sing a dumb little song to her, but if she's standing up somewhere (holding on to something), she starts bouncing along. So cute! Also yesterday she successfully clapped on her own for the first time! She was very excited about that.

So these pics have nothing to do with dancing or clapping, but they're cute anyway. :-)

"Okay, Dada, so you said first I click here, then I just need to type SesameStreet.com. Uh, Dada, how do you spell Sesame...? "




Oh, man! What is that crazy Elmo doing???

Yet another new second cousin!!!

Kaylee has another second cousin - her 3rd this year since she's been born!!! This is also the 3rd female born this year in my maternal grandparents' family. Kaylee started the trend, followed 6 months (exactly!) by Brennan, and now nearly another 2 months later by little Esther. Way to go trying to balance out the male/female ratio, Lowe fam!! Unfortunately, we won't get to visit with the new family any time soon, since they live in MD, but we are at least blessed with computers and blog updates these days. :-D

Here's a photo of the new cuz and the new family of 4...my cousin Jonathan, wife Elisha, son Caleb (2 in Feb) and introducing: Esther Mae Lowe, born 11-16-08 at 5:59 AM. 8lb 8oz, 19.5"

Welcome, Esther!!

A-maze-ing!

We went to Uncle Shuck's Corn Maze last night with our small group. Wow, it was cold!! Next year we'll have to go earlier in the season (yesterday was the last day it was open this year). We made it through half of the maze (there were two sides) before calling it quits.

Brief tooth update

Kaylee's bottom middle left tooth has broken through now, too! Just a day behind the other...yesterday I could feel it just underneath her gums and today it's through.

Another first

Kaylee has her first tooth! Well, partly. The bottom right middle tooth has broken through her gums. I thought I saw something yesterday when she was eating, but then I forgot to check until today. And it's already through! She hasn't been fussy about it or anything, and she's still been sleeping great, so I didn't even think she was teething yet! Awww, my baby is growing up. So lots of firsts this past week...1st vacation, crawling, teeth...what's next? Seems like everything's happening at once!

Gatlinburg - too many photos!!!!!

View from our cabin's deck - daytime, and in the morning (hmm, wonder why they're called the Smoky Mtns?)







Biscuit & Tater (Kaylee & Nate, for those uninformed...)
I think Brandon must have been hypnotizing the babies as I took that second shot. They seem to have the same dazed expression!











Just another normal day with the fam.










Nate being cute. (I don't think he can control it...it's powerful stuff.)














Kaylee on the Ober Gatlinburg tram, and a view of the fall colors from up high.











Jamie & Kaylee enjoying the scenery.














Nate trying out Kaylee's jumper...maybe in another month or two, huh?














Kaylee was absolutely riveted by all our activities...we thought it was funny that we ran across a sign for "Sleepys" while she was out!

On the MOVE!

How have I forgotten to post this? Kaylee started crawling!! She'd gotten better at rolling/flopping/scooting around on her stomach, but hadn't quite figured out how to do more than just rock back and forth on her hands and knees until early last week. She's still a bit unstable, but has managed to crawl up to about 6 steps in a row before giving up. I think she's figured out, though, that she's faster doing her commando crawl - she uses mainly one arm/elbow to scoot herself forward and pushes some with her feet (while reaching out with the other arm to get what she's going for...even if it's still a few feet away...or using that hand in a "normal" crawling way - yes, it's a bit funny looking). She's getting pretty fast; we're going to have to keep our eyes open!!

Evil Miss Piggy??

After having snorted accidentally a few times, Kaylee recently figured out that she can do it when she wants. So for the past few days, she's been doing it nonstop!! Goes along well with her "evil baby" stuff. :)

TN Fun

We made it to TN without any meltdowns - Kaylee or otherwise. :-D She was great; slept for quite a bit of the drive. If we'd driven straight through with no stops it probably would have taken us about 3 hours, but with a gas fillup/diaper change stop, a bathroom stop for us and another diaper change stop, it took just over 4 hours. Not bad - we were figuring maybe 5. We've taken some photos (of course), but I doubt I'll upload any until we get home, since I'm just using Jamie's laptop to check email and post here.

Today we rode the tram up to Ober Gatlinburg where we walked around a little and had lunch, then we briefly walked around Gatlinburg, but had to get back because of sleepy and hungry babies. Tomorrow we're taking Kaylee to the Aquarium; hopefully she will enjoy it - I know quite a few friends who've taken their little ones to aquariums and all have said the babes loved looking at the fish, as well as people-watching (Kaylee does love people-watching!!).

Time for bed, so signing off...more soon, with pics in a few days!

More Evilness

We're going to Gatlinburg this Friday-Tuesday with my cousin, his wife & 3 month old son for a long weekend away. We haven't taken that long of a ride with Kaylee before - it's about 3/3.5 hours if you drive without stops, which we know we'll have a few of this trip - so we're hoping she does well - preferably sleeping most of the time!! She has gotten into the habit of talking VERY LOUDLY in the car (and sometimes at home), usually when Jamie and I are trying to talk, but at other times, as well. I'm hoping we don't have this to look forward to for the entire drive this weekend!!

Also, Kaylee still likes to play in the tub, but she's been grabbing the edge lately and trying to pull herself up. She gets frustrated, so we help her stand - she does well on her own, but we keep a hand closeby in case she tips.