July 2014

This month has been a lot of fun. Kollyn is 8 months old today. She is learning and growing so much every day. I love watching it!

She pulls herself up onto everything she can. Chairs, the entertainment center, me, her car seat, me, and did I mention me??? I'm apparently the best jungle gym ever.

She's also started holding her own bottle, but only if she really feels like it. She's a pretty lazy eater and would rather us do it all. :)

We've started putting her in the cart in the actual seat, instead of bringing in her car seat. And she won't sit and look straight forward. She has to be turned around and looking at everything. She is so curious and LOVES to go shopping. Sometimes, when she's having a bad day, I have to go to Wal-Mart or Target because getting her into a store makes her happy.

Her favorite toys are things that we don't buy for her. She loves envelopes, especially the ones with the crinkly windows, water bottles, my chapstick tube, and anything I have in my hand that isn't one of her toys.

This is how much she loves her water bottle. She tried to force herself under the chair to get to it, then got really mad when I took a picture instead of immediately helping her get her "toy".

She loves watching David play video games. Mario Party 4 is a favorite of hers to watch, I'm assuming since it's really colorful, and she loves watching him play Mass Effect online. Not sure why, but I'm assuming it's because of the colors and the action. She tries to climb up and touch the people on the TV.

David mowed the lawn a couple Saturdays ago and since the weather wasn't too hot, Kollyn and I sat outside on her blanket while he mowed. She was enthralled. She isn't afraid of loud noises and is intrigued by the lawnmower. She just sat and watched him for most of the time we were outside. She tried to explore the grass, but she didn't really like the way it felt on her hands. She would get really upset if she touched it. I don't blame her. It's definitely not as soft as Utah grass.

While she didn't like touching the grass at all, she did like looking at it.

She finally figured out that she could get onto the the concrete driveway without going on the grass, she started bear crawling on it, since she was wearing shorts. She won't crawl on anything other than carpet on her hands and knees unless she's wearing pants, and even then it's iffy, so she does what I call bear crawling, up on her hands and feet.

Everyday she amazes me with just how much she loves with dad. She doesn't sit still like this with anyone else the way she does with him. She snuggled with David's mom a little a few days ago, but mostly, only he gets the nice, still, calm Kollyn that you see here. Normally, she has to be going and going and going, like the Energizer bunny. These moments are very precious to me because I love seeing her sit still with someone, even if she won't do it with me.

Kollyn had her first official playdate this month. We drove up to Spring to see a friend of mine that has a little girl just a few days older than Kollyn. Kollyn loves being around people and was trying to share her "toy", again not a real toy, but her friend didn't want the receipt, no matter how many times Kollyn tried to put it in her mouth. We had a lot of fun up there. She crawled around and shared her toys with her friend and my friend and I got to spend some time together. It was a lot of fun! I'm glad we were able to do it!

She has officially learned how to feed herself so we have started doing Baby Led Weaning (BLW). She doesn't really let us feed her much anymore, except yogurt which she loves, so we've had to do what we hadn't planned on doing. She is a natural self-feeder. She started with puffs and yogurt bites from Gerber and now she eats pretty much everything herself. Her favorites are red bell peppers, blueberries, meatballs, cheese, black beans, rice, and bread. We tried French toast for breakfast today and even though it ended up mostly smashed between her fingers, she seemed to really enjoyed what she got in her mouth.

She is a ham and she knows it. She's constantly smiling her big smile, nose crinkled up and everything, but this is the first time I've been able to catch it on camera. She does it when I get her out of bed in the morning, she does it when I come into the same room as her, she does it when I smile at her, she just loves smiling. She also loves her mirror (typical girl, right?) and likes to lick it and give it kisses (great...). She's recently started giving kisses, but mostly just to me and only when she feels like it. They're big, open mouthed, tongue all over my cheek kisses and I love every single one. Even the one that ended up with her biting my nose with her two sharp little teeth.

We went to lunch a week ago or so at our favorite restaurant in Houston, Lankford Grocery. It's so good and really cheap! It's cash only so we have to know we're going, but we would go whenever we can. They're only open from 7 - 3 everyday though, so it's lunch or no dice. This is the second time we've been and the first time Kollyn came with us. She loved it. Everyone around us smiled at her, talked to her, commented on what a good girl she was, and she was smiling the entire time. She also loves playing with straws and Lankford is the only place we've found that has them in plastic wrap instead of paper so she's able to chew on them without having the wrapping disintegrate in her mouth. Everything they make there is amazing. Just a shameless plug for what we think is one of the best restaurants ever.

And that's been our month. David and I teach the 12 and 13 year olds in Sunday School and we love it. It's literally the best calling ever. David thrives in that environment and has so much fun with it. Having church at 9 is hard for us because Kollyn sleeps later than most kids (her normal wake up time is between 8 and 9 but the other day, and today, she slept until almost 11!!) so we have to wake her up which she doesn't like, but once we get to church, she's in her element. I am always amazed at how much she likes being around people. She loves people, loves being around them, and loves smiling at them because they smile back at her. She is more David's child in that way than mine, since I'm more of an introvert. I'm glad that she got that part of his personality. I want her to enjoy being around people.

Well, that's July. I've been keeping busy taking care of Kollyn. She's very active and loves getting to everything she shouldn't. David is almost done with his internship here and we'll be heading home soon. I am heading up in a little over a week because we have a few things that need to be taken care of with our apartment up there that won't get done unless I go in to talk to the management company in person. My friend Tricia, she is an amazing person who I love dearly, is flying down so that she can help me drive up. I seriously can't even say how great of a friend she is. And she just offered it and basically wouldn't take no for an answer. She knew I needed to get home early and I couldn't do it alone, so she insisted that she come and help me. She's an amazing friend and I am so lucky to have her in my life!! I love you Tricia!

David finishes up his internship the end of the week I leave and will come up a week after me. He's still looking for a job for when he gets up there, so I want him to be able to just focus on that and not worry about the apartment, hence why I felt it was the best option for me to go up early and get all that taken care of. He has learned a lot during this internship and has really developed his skills and the way he handles problems. It's been interesting to watch him grow and learn as he does this.

We are looking forward to our move back to Utah, and are so glad we've been able to be here. We are so grateful for David's parents who let us stay with them this summer. Kollyn loves them. She crawls around looking for his mom (Nana) and when his dad (Papa) gets home from work, she gets really excited and smiley. She loves looking at them during dinner and playing games with them. We are going to be sad to leave. It has been a great experience here and we are so lucky to have the support of our families!

Playing Catch-Up: Kollyn Months 0 - 7

I'm terrible about blogging....Really terrible. Though I don't feel too bad about it because I've been so focused on Kollyn and her growing and budding personality. Because of this, this post is going to be really long. I plan on blogging at least once a month (I'd like to do it once a week but that's definitely not going to happen) about that month's biggest happenings.

Kollyn has grown so much in the last 7 months. She has two teeth, one (the bottom left) she cut on her 6 month birthday, and her second (bottom right) was 2 weeks later (to the day) when she was 6.5 months old. She is very much her Daddy's girl. She loves to talk, is very loud, and is getting more and more social everyday. She hates being left alone in a room and now that she is crawling all over the place, if we leave her in a room she quickly follows us where ever we are. She is such a quick learner and loves to play, smile, and pull hair. She likes laughing but her giggles are hard to come by, unless it's David. He can get her laughs from her whenever he wants and I love that they have such a special bond. She is into everything and basically has no fear. The vacuum intrigues her, she eyes the stairs with the eye of a mountain climber, and is constantly trying to see how far she can push her boundaries.

She is probably the world's best kid. We are so lucky to have her. I keep thinking that she is the perfect baby for us, especially since we weren't planning on having children this soon after we got married and we were really scared that on top of having a surprise baby we'd have a high needs baby. Our prayers there were definitely answered. She sleeps through the night, has been since 6 weeks, likes to play by herself even though she likes having someone in the room with her, and is just so happy pretty much all the time.

She is always making the funniest faces. This face was when she was two weeks old. I was so lucky to capture it on camera because she hasn't made it since. But she definitely has her wide range of emotions and crazy faces. She's a ham, but very seldom actually makes her faces for the camera. We are lucky to get them at all.

She loves her cousins. She loves spending time with them, playing with them, reading with them, and laughing with them. She loves being held by them and being shown new things. These are just a few of the many pictures I have of her with her cousins. 

This is her meeting her new cousin Owen for the first time. She was enthralled and loved watching him. It was weird to look at him and think that she use to be that size. She's grown so much!

It was very special to me that I was able to take some pictures of my first child with my grandparents. They have been so supportive of me through everything and I am glad I have pictures of her with them. Especially since at the beginning of May, my dear Nana passed away. She had suffered from many health problems for much of the time I knew her, yet most days she seemed very happy and tried to put on a brave face. I am so glad that I was able to get some pictures of her with Kollyn so I will have those memories and be able to show Kollyn that her Great-Grandma Nana loved her and was so happy she was here.

 I especially love this one of Nana and Gramps looking down at her and her looking up at them.

Kollyn loves her Daddy. I wasn't able to breastfeed, probably won't be able to with any of my kids, and thankfully David was so willing to help take care of her, feed her, get up with her in the night. He has been the most amazing father that I could ask for to Kollyn. I believe that he really needed that bonding time that comes with feeding (the unexpected pregnancy was very hard on both of us, but I believe it was harder on him because he wasn't experiencing it like I was). I believe that he was able to develop that connection that he has with her because he was able to do those middle of the night feeding sessions and getting to experience that closeness with her. 

I love how excited she gets when he comes home from work. She smiles the minute she sees him, she watches the door like a hawk (she seems to know when it's almost time for him to get home), and when I say "Who's that?" She starts crawling toward the door as fast as she can. She loves him so much. He can get her to giggle and laugh like no one else can. She's definitely a Daddy's girl. Here are some of my favorite pictures of my two loves.

During our failed attempt at co-sleeping. She's too much of a wiggler to make it happen, but they sure did love snuggling together and sleeping a lot.

The look on her face makes me so happy. She literally stared at him like that all through dinner one night. She loves having him as her Dad.

They love playing in the water together. She loves to sit and watch things going on around her from the safety of Dad's lap.

He loves feeding her, whether it's a bottle or actual food. And she loves having him feed her.

I had a hard time at the beginning of her life and suffered from pretty intense postpartum depression. I'm not afraid to admit it (at least not now), and I'm glad that David had the courage to go above me and talk to my doctor. I needed a lot of help and wasn't willing to admit it. I've been on medication for it and it has really helped a ton, like a total night and day difference. I was feeling very upset because I didn't feel that immediate connection and bond that you hear about when I first saw Kollyn. It took me a couple months to get that warm fuzzy "glow" that you expect when you have a baby. Now, I love doing things with her and we are best buddies. :)

A little blurry but we had the same face in this picture

Kollyn has had a lot of fun experiencing new things. She gets to one milestone and can't wait to get to the next. She hits them all right on time, or early, and is growing so fast and I love it. I'm one of those strange moms I guess, the ones that can't wait for their kids to grow up. I am loving each new stage. Sometimes I think back to the baby she was and wish for those snuggles, but I love watching her grow, develop, and show her personality more and more everyday.

Kollyn's first Christmas!

She use to love being snuggled and would fall asleep almost instantly. Now she doesn't care for it so much unless it's David doing it.

She loves to be outside and go on walks in her stroller. She is a total outdoor girl and would play outside all day if we let her.

She does really well in the car. She use to hate it but seems to have learned that car seats aren't so bad and that car rides can be fun.

She loves to smile and laugh. These smiles are kind of illusive, I only have a few pictures of them, but I love how big she smiles and how her face crinkles up sometimes when she does.

She loves to move. She has been bouncing from birth basically, and the arms of anyone would held her for a while would get really sore, so my sister Melissa let us borrow their Jumperoo. It has been a lifesaver! She could bounce in there for hours. A few times she's even bounced herself to sleep in there!

The day she learned to sit up for longer than a minute without falling over, May 17 2014. She was 5.5 months old. 

We went to the zoo on Memorial Day with some new friends of ours (they have a little girl not much older than Kollyn) and Kollyn seemed to really enjoy it. She liked looking at the animals, meeting another baby friend, and chewing on the fan they gave us.

Kollyn's first selfie! ;)

Sharing David's shoelace with her baby friend. One of David's friends from Texas (where we are for the summer because of David's internship) had a baby about 2 months ago. When Kollyn first met her, she was so excited and tried to crawl over to her and share the shoelace with the baby. It was really cute.

Once we found out which toys she liked, we used them to motivate her to sit up. She didn't like to sit up because she wasn't moving around. So we enticed her with toys and she has become a regular pro.

June 15 2014, exactly 6.5 months old, Kollyn learned to crawl. All she needed was incentive and that came in the form of David's shiny, red, Xbox controller. She would  crawl after it when we put it just out of her reach. Once she learned how, it only took a couple days to get to the point where she wasn't falling on her stomach every 2 feet. She is going all over the place now.

And it isn't just David's controller that entices her. She loves following mine across the room too.

She wanted to work out with Dad.

Another controller picture.

We love our little family, and we've had some pretty fun adventures together. When Kollyn was about 4 months old, David's grandfather (Grandpa Cunningham) passed away. It wasn't long after David had hurt his knee (at the airport he fell on the escalator trying to get back to my nephew who, totally out of character, didn't want to go down once we had gotten on) and he had needed to drop out of the semester so he could focus on physical therapy and healing, and because he couldn't actually sit for that long with his knee bent. We decided it was best for us to the go to Arizona for the funeral and left the day we found out when the funeral was, since it was the next day. We stayed with a friend of mine in Las Vegas (thanks to Sara, Jacob, and Vince for letting us crash at your house!) and finished the trip up. We made it to the church just in time for the funeral. Kollyn did amazing in the car. She slept a lot, played with her toys, and was overall a happy baby.

On the way back up from the funeral, we went to the Hoover Dam (to celebrate Kollyn's 4 month birthday) and had a lot of fun walking around with her in the Ergo baby carrier (thanks for the recommendation Carlee!). We didn't stay for long, but we did have a good time there.

Kollyn's blessing was on December 29, 2013. She was almost a month old. We did it at my parent's ward in Midway, Utah. We did it then because that was when David's parents were in town for the holidays and we wanted them to be a part of it. It was a really special experience. She wore a dress and booties my parents had brought home with them from Estonia just for her. It was very special hearing David bless our little girl with the things every parent hopes their children will have: health, happiness, and a good life. Then we had friends and family over to my parent's house for lunch.

When Kollyn was 4.5 months old, we decided to try starting her on solid foods. Her first experience was oatmeal and she seemed to really like it. She had already had a small amount of mashed potatoes (from dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Johnson's house, they're David's grandparents) and really enjoyed them. She did really well and learned how to use the spoon quit quickly. We didn't get heavy into feeding her solids until after we moved to Texas when she was 5 months old. As of now she's had squash, peas, carrots, pears, peaches, apples, mangos, baby yogurt, bread, mashed potatoes, bananas, and chicken. She's liked all of them except the squash and bananas. She likes bananas but definitely not as much as the other stuff. Mangos are her absolute favorite.

Her face after trying squash....She wasn't a huge fan.

She loves to swim. She loves the water and bathtime. She cries when we take her out of the pool or the bath. She's a natural water baby and I definitely plan on getting her into swimming lessons as soon as possible. :) And I may or may not push her towards playing water polo (but I definitely will).

This last week, June 29 - July 6, we went up to Lake Powell for my family reunion. It was a long drive (about 22 hours) but we had a lot of fun. It was our way of celebrating our 2 year anniversary (June 29) and Kollyn's 7 month mark (June 30). She had a lot of fun. She got to play with her cousins, go swimming in the lake, and ride on a boat for the first time.

Riding on the houseboat to get to the spot we were going to dock. Another rare Kollyn smile.

She loved swimming, once she got use to the water since it was a little colder than bath water and the swimming pool we go to in Katy.

She had a lot of fun riding on the boat. She would be crying, then instantly quiet down when the boat started going. She loved to watch the people behind the boat either wakeboard or tube and seemed afraid for them because after the first few tubing runs, she would grab our arm and not let go until the end of the run.

She loved playing in the sand. The waves scared her at first, then made her laugh. She had a lot of fun playing with Dad and watching the sand slid out from under her with each wave.

The last 7 months have been eventful, from moving 2 times (once to Orem and once to Texas, and another move back to Orem in about a month) and watching Kollyn grow to watching her get shots and learning how to be parents. It's definitely a learning experience, but we are so lucky to have this little lady in our lives and I promise to do better about blogging our adventures. She is the cutest kid and I'm excited to share her with everyone. :)

If you made it to the end, good for you! Thanks for reading all that! I promise I'll do better!