Happy Halloween!!

In honor of the holiday, I wanted to post these pictures of the ever famous Halloween bib that my mom made for Kaiya. During Ziggy's recent visit I let him borrow it. :) Have a Happy Halloween!


We are just gonna hang out at home and hand out candy. I'll dress Kaiya up in her costume and a couple friends might bring their babies over for pictures. Other than that... pretty low key.

More pictures

These are pictures taken over the past few weeks. The first set of pictures were taken Friday night while watching the St. Louis Cardinals win the World Series. Our friends, Patrick and Nicole spent the evening with us. Below is Nicole & Kaiya chilling with Cookie Monster. Kaiya has her curly after-bath curls going on. :)



The next picture is from a week & a half ago when Kaiya was home sick with her first cold. I took a vacation day and Aunt Bekah came in for the day and we went shopping. As you can see... the nose is running. Poor thing is probably wondering why we were taking her out and about! :) But Kaiya loved the Kohl's cart where she could ride in the front and hang out with the Grinch. We didn't hear anything except for squeals of delight. We put the Grinch back before leaving... but continued to find bright green hair on Kaiya the rest of the day. :)

These last pics were taken today! She is all decked out in her pumpkin patch outfit. She has now reached the point where she recognizes the camera and gets an automatic grin on her face when she sees me get it out. This is new this morning... so that will be fun. I won't have to spend time making crazy faces in order to get her to smile. :)

Cause for Celebration!

Tony passed his Part 2 Boards!!!

After much sweat and tears, we found out Friday that Tony passed. This is really important because now he gets his license on time. Phew!

Here are a bunch of different pictures that we have taken over the past 2 weeks. The first pictures are from when my parents were in town and we went out to dinner in Old St. Charles. After dinner we took a short walk down Main Street and came up to the horse drawn carriages. The horses, Lewis & Clark (very fitting, huh?) were very friendly, Lewis especially. He put his big nose right in the stroller and gave Kaiya a good sniff. She was delighted, of course! :) This picture was taken this past weekend when Tony's mom met us in Chicago.

It was apparent that Kaiya had lots of fun -- she slept the entire way home -- not even waking up to eat. :)

This picture was taken on Monday with Daddy. She holds onto his hair for dear life and loves riding so high.

And finally, the slippers... Handmade by Grammi (my mom). They stayed on just long enough for a picture. And then... they became wondeful toys. :)

Vote for Kaiya!!

Hi all. Just wanted to ask you to take a quick minute to vote for Kaiya's picture. I just entered it in the Shutterfly.com fall colors photo contest. You have until the end of the month to vote -- the top 50 vote getters will move on to Round 2, and the top three will be selected by Shutterfly. Here's the link: http://photocontest.shutterfly.com/action/photocontest/vote?entry=157268 (Make sure to give her 5 stars!!)

Thanks for voting!

6 Month Pics

I was very pleased with Kaiya's six month pictures. Definitely hard to choose which ones to order. But... they are pretty inexpensive so I got most everything that I wanted. When I get her a halloween costume, I think I am going to take her in to Penney's and get just one picture of that taken. I'm hoping Aunt Ruthie will help us pick a costume out from Old Navy. They have some pretty cute ones. We are off to Chicago tonight after work. I have a church library workshop that I'm attending. Tony's mom and brother are driving over Saturday to watch Kaiya while I attend the workshop. We'll head home Saturday evening around 4 -- so it won't be a long trip, and we'll have Sunday to recoup. (And Tony will appreciate the quiet house for studying!)

My First Lemon!

Over the past weekend Kaiya got the taste of her first lemon. She sucked on it for a really long time before she realized how sour it was. Once we pulled it away from her she puckered up really big! :) The sour look lasted for only a few seconds and then she wanted more of the lemon!

Boys... LOOK OUT!

Here are more pictures of what Kaiya is up to while we are working and at school! So much for Tony needing a shotgun -- I think we are going to have to keep Kaiya locked up inside the house. Turns out she is one fresh woman! :) Grabbing behinds and sneaking in for big hugs. These pictures are too cute.

Caught in the act!

Leaning.... leaning...
Gotcha! Big Hugs!

Fun in the Sun -- Is it really OCTOBER?

Here are a couple pictures taken middle of last week when we had some really warm days. It was in the 80's -- perfect weather for the kiddie pool and a naked baby!

Munchkin Land

We welcome you to Munchkin Land, fa la la la la la la la...

I'm thinking there is the most resemblance to the one on the far right.

Piggy Tails

Here is Kaiya with her piggy tails. When we took them out, they remained in place. Tony mentioned she looked just like that munchkin on Wizard of Oz with the piggy tails on the top of his head. I'm gonna have to find a picture and post it to compare. :) She thinks she is hot stuff.

Here are the pictures. Check out Ruthie's brown hair! Very cute.

1) Ruthie & Kaiya on the hayride.
2) Picking leaves
3) Got it!
4) & 5) Kaiya chowing on the apple
6) Picture by the pumpkins at the market.

Apple Picking

We had a fun Saturday morning out and about in the apple orchard. This is our second time to pick apples this fall -- it makes great baby food, yummy treats, and just good snacking. This is probably one of the last weekends to pick at the orchard we go to, so Ruthie and I wanted to make sure and stock up. And stock up we did... :) 45 lbs of apples later... we are busy busy busy! One of the varieties that we picked will keep through the winter if we store them in our fridge! Amazing... so we got plenty of that kind. Kaiya enjoyed picking very much -- only she was pretty intent on picking the leaves (see pics below). When we were finished and waiting for the hayride to come get us and take us back, I gave her one of the apples to play with. It went straight to the mouth! I decided to bite a chunk out of the apple and give the apple back to her and she went crazy over it. She rubbed it all over her face and just slobbered all over the thing. We got such a kick out of it. After apple picking we bought lots of veggies in the orchard store. Got butternut squash, sweet potatoes, & green beans for making Kaiya's baby food. Yum yum... :) Ruthie also bought a pie pumpkin to make pumpkin pie from scratch. That was her project Sunday evening. It provided us with some good laughs... she was really puzzled that after the timer ran out her crust didn't look done and the pie seemed really soupy. She had me come look and *surprise* the oven wasn't turned on! We couldn't decide which was worse: 1) Ruthie not realizing the oven wasn't on -- even when the pie was supposed to bake at 375 for 15 minutes and then the oven turned down to 350 for the remaining 35 minutes -- which she did. 2) Me commenting on how good the pie smelled while baking -- when the pie really wasn't baking at all. Tony decided that we are both airheads! :) And it gave us all a good laugh.

I have more pictures to post from apple picking but blogger is being difficult. They will come later. By the way... Ruthie says the pumpkin pie is great!

New Words

Kaiya has really been experimenting new sounds this week. And this morning she said what every daddy wants to hear! Tony was changing her diaper and she said "da da" so loud that I could hear it in the other room. He's like -- did you hear it? We were amazed for a moment -- and then after the 80 bajillionth time this morning, with it very apparent that she doesn't associate Tony with "da da" we decided not to get too excited yet. :) But it is definitely fun to hear her making different sounds. Last weekend she started growling and now we are in the dada phase.

Wheelies

So yesterday I was on my way home from work on the Interstate and heard the sound of a motorcycle next to me. All of a sudden I hear the engine rev and I look over and I see:
Now... my mouth drops open -- I can't believe this guy is seriously doing this on the Interstate! He held the wheelie for about 15 seconds or so... then cruised on past me weaving around traffic. It was pretty cool (I did have to pick my jaw up off the floor of my car and continue driving). But seriously... isn't there a place and time for this? It was almost rush hour -- the Interstate was busy -- w/ everyone going around 65 mph. I couldn't help but wonder what if he fell over in front of me. I'd totally cream him. Hmmm... but he did have a helmet. As if that's gonna matter. :) Wonder who's son, father, husband, brother he was? Bet they would be thrilled to know that's what he's doing.

Threading

So Monday night I went and got a pedicure with a friend and Ruthie (who sweetly cuddled Kaiya to sleep while we were relaxing). After the pedicure we were walking through the mall down to the food court for dinner & birthday cake and anIndian woman asked if we wanted to have threading done. I had heard about threading on TV or in a magazine and thought it would be interesting to have done. It was less than $10 so I decided to go ahead and try it. My eyebrows always need help anyway... So I did it. It was was less painful than waxing and she was extremely precise. I still have no idea how she did it. But here is a picture that I found online of the technique. It's not too popular over here in the States, but from what I have read it is taught to young girls in the Middle East like little girls here learn to braid hair. Very common.

Balloon Glow

On Friday we went down to Forest Park for the Balloon Glow. It was neat to see all the balloons lit up and glowing. It was an absolute zoo though... lots of people. We were able to go right up to the balloon's basket, look in, ask questions, etc. So that was fun -- wow, those baskets are tiny!! Kaiya was terrified of the balloons when they would light up. The sound of the gas igniting the flame scared her to death. Once we got up close I had to hold her. And each time they would light up she would grip me as hard as she could. Then she would get a look of terror on her face -- at the same time really wanting to look at the balloon. So she would look at the balloon and just flinch the whole time. It was funny. Took a couple pics:

Celtic Woman

So... Wednesday night I sat down to feed Kaiya and was just flipping channels. I came across PBS and they were playing a concert of the Celtic Woman. When I was in junior high I was introduced to Enya by a pen pal. She sent me the CD for my birthday. I fell in love with the sound of the music and have always really enjoyed that style when I really want to relax. And so the other night when it was on, I couldn't even get Kaiya to eat -- she was so taken with it! :) All she wanted to do was watch the ladies sing. So we are watching and then the station pauses for some fund-raising blurb. And I find out that Celtic Woman is coming to the Fox here in St. Louis, next April. And with one of the donation levels they will give you a pair of tickets to see them -- first come, first serve, starting with the first row of the orchestra pit to row 17. Tony's in the other room, (probably just praying I miss what they are saying)... and I exclaim, "WOW! They are coming to St. Louis! Did you hear that Tony? I would just love to see them in concert. I love that type of music." He knows my love of Enya -- the first CD he gave me when we started dating was the new Enya CD. :) Meanwhile I am doing complete justification in my mind. Well, PBS is a good station... and they do have programs like Sesame Street... and now that we have Kaiya we should support that... sure she's not old enough for it yet, but she will be soon! And then I hear: "Okay -- if that's what you want for a birthday present go ahead and get it." I race to the phone, give out all of my personal information. Excited, I call Ruthie and have her flip on the TV so she can see what I'm gonna get to see in April. Like a good sister, she muffled a laugh and told me it looked good. "Oh, you'll really enjoy that." As if I wouldn't pick up on the fact that this whole episode confirms how old and boring she thinks I am. :) No matter -- I know that Kaiya will be jealous that she can't go. I snuggled her to sleep on the couch watching the rest of the concert. Here are the links to little clips of the concert (it takes a minute or so to load after you click the link):

• http://www.celticwoman.com/clips/orinoco.mp3 (audio)
• http://www.celticwoman.com/clips/orinoco-hi.mov (video)
• http://www.celticwoman.com/clips/fair.mp3 (audio)
• http://www.celticwoman.com/clips/harrys.mp3 (audio)

www.celticwoman.com (I can't be too big of a dork -- their website claims they are the longest ever artist to be at #1 in the Billboard World Music Charts.)

Carrots!

Last night was a major (well, probably minor) milestone in Kaiya's life. She had her first food -- Carrots! I was pleasantly surprised with her reaction and appetite. She looks extremely pained with her first bite, but once it was in her mouth she got really excited.

It's as if she is thinking -- "They've been holding out on me. Who knew food was this good?"

As you can see, Money Bags was also very interested in this adventure. He had to be sitting right in the middle of the action and got very brave and took a sniff. He has decided to stick to his low calorie cat food and leave the carrot-eating up to Kaiya.

So... she really ate the carrots much better than the cereal I started feeding her last week. It's fun -- and she slept pretty good last night, so that was great too. We've had 2 nights in a row of good sleep.

My class Tuesday night was pretty uneventful. The only interesting Dirk news to report is that he is pursuing a practicum at one of the local youth services. I have a friend who is currently working on her practicum there and so I let her know to be on the lookout. Wonder if they will pick up on his creepiness? I can only hope. I also hear that I missed a pretty good story about guardian angels while we were on our break. But I am almost positive there will be more to come from him in future classes. I'm halfway finished with this class already!

Just call me Pebbles

Time to update the blog with some pictures that we have taken over the past week. The sitter has had fun with Kaiya's hair lately -- too cute! She is now sitting up pretty well on her own. When she gets excited while sitting up she will usually fall over into a face plant, but it doesn't phase her a bit. Here are couple pictures of her sitting up and the hair.
Last night we took her hair out of the pony tail and it remained in pony tail position. :) It was so cute we had to take a picture (of course).

We went out to dinner last night with Tony's friends from school for Nate's birthday. Kaiya was pretty good and even decided to fall asleep right as our food came, so we could both eat while the food was hot. Perfect timing.