We took Karys to the rodeo this past Saturday with her friend Haylee and her parents, Travis & Jennifer. We had a great time but we were sad to discover there was no petting zoo! Apparently the Katy Rodeo is too small for things like that. So we decided we'll take the girls to the Houston Zoo sometime next month and let them visit the petting zoo there instead. We did get to walk around and see all the different animals in their pens. Karys got to see lambs, pigs, cows, horses and rabbits. Neither of the girls were scared of the animals and were more than willing to stick their hands in the pens and try to touch them all. More than once we had to stop Karys from trying to touch the pigs because they will bite! But she seemed to have a good time looking around and taking everything in. So I think they will really enjoy the zoo next month.

Karys has learned a new sound! When we ask her "What sound does a cow make" she says "mooooooo"....only without a pronounced "m" sound if you can imagine that. I'll try to get it on video sometime soon. But it's really funny. If anyone even says the word cow around her, she starts moo-ing. Such a smart girl we have!

Karys also got 2 Elmo video's this weekend! My mom's friend, Leigh, passed them on to us since her son had grown out of them. We really appreciate it and Karys is already hooked on "The Best of Elmo"! This child cannot get enough of Elmo! So thank you, Leigh for the videos!

We have Karys' 1st birthday party in just 5 more days!! We just have some last minute preparations but other than that, we're all set! It should be spectacular! We will be sure to post pictures as soon as we can afterwards!

And most exciting this week?? Months ago she had said "mamamamamama" but had never said it again for some reason. Last night she was saying it all evening! I was so excited - it was the cutest thing I've ever heard her say. So I had to mention that she re-learned how to say "mama" :)

Karys is officially off the bottle now! She is also off the formula and drinking her whole milk like a champ! She's doing very well with it and will take somewhere around 10-14 oz a day of milk. Instead of a night time bottle, we warm some milk up for her and put it in a sippy cup. But during the day she likes her cold milk. It was a little sad because I packed up all her bottles and formula containers this weekend and came across her newborn bottles. I got all teary eyed because my baby has grown up so much in the past year. But she'll always be my baby...

I also ordered her birthday cakes Friday after work - I'm very excited about it because I gave the place a copy of her invitation and they are going to customize her own cake! And they will make her a smash cake to match! We're still deciding on what to get her for her birthday - and we only have 10 days left to decide! It's crazy how fast the time has gone by.

Her big thing lately has been Sesame Street. There is a segment during the show called Elmo's World that she will run to the TV too watch. She has a fascination with Elmo! And I have to admit, he's pretty cute and I catch myself singing along with him. Haha!

We had to install a gate at the top of the stairs finally because we just cannot keep up with her all the time - she's too fast! She can't figure out how to crawl up the stairs still and we haven't encouraged that just yet. But when she does, we'll have to install another gate at the bottom of the stairs as well.

We are teaching her new words just about every other day too. We have a picture book we go through and learn all kinds of new things from. It's really cute to watch her correctly point things out and very good for her memory and learning skills to develop. She's such a smart little girl already!

One new thing that she's doing is learning the hand movements to Itsy Bitsy Spider. Yvonne has been working with her on it and we play it at home too. It's really cute to watch her do that!

This coming weekend we have cousin Zoe's 1st Birthday Party and then we are going to the Rodeo with Haylee and family so her and Karys can visit the petting zoo! So we should have some really cute pictures to post next week!

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's crazy to think that this day last year I was in the hospital with false labor - only to have our precious daughter grace us 2 weeks later. It was such an anxious time for us!

Karys has been doing great with her whole milk and is now drinking up to 7 oz a day (I think most doctors recommend no more than 16 oz a day). So it looks like she likes the whole milk - which is wonderful! We are on our last can of formula now and once that runs out, we're stopping bottles. Right now, she takes 1-2 bottles a day.

As for the pacifier, she's done really well with only having it for naps and bedtime. I really thought she'd throw more of a fit for it but hopefully that's a good sign that when we decide to stop that, it will not be so difficult. We'll definitely save that for over a weekend!! The sooner the better!

She's learned a new noise - we call it the Kissy noise because it's the sound of a kiss. She started doing this the other night. We thought it was hilarious and super cute! There's a video of it posted on our family blog.

She's also learning to say Thank You - but it comes out as "da-doo" right now. More and more we'll hand her stuff and get a small "da-doo" in return. Yvonne has been working with all the little ones on this and it's very cute and sweet. We think manners are very important to start stressing early. And hearing "da-doo" is adorable too!

Only 15 days now until her 1st birthday - so exciting!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's hard to believe that in only 23 more days, our precious baby girl will turn 1 year old! This year has gone by so quickly... We've started the birthday party planning process now and her invitations mailed out just today. We are so excited! The theme of her party will be Cupcakes! We already have all the decorations in and we're going to speak with a cake lady next week about a special cake. How fun!

Karys spent 5 days with my mom this past week while Tim and I went to NY with some friends. We missed her like crazy and I won't be leaving her again any time soon - that's for sure! But she did really well with my mom and I know my mom was glad for the one-on-one time she had with her. I don't know what we'd have done without her! She loves her Nana :)

Her bottom tooth broke finally through this week too so it looks like we're in the clear for a little while. That was her 8th tooth. She now has a very toothy little grin!

We started her on whole milk this week and she doesn't seem to hate it, so that's a good sign. She will take a few sips of it right now. We're hoping to break her from formula and get her off the bottle within the next week or so. We'll tackle the pacifier after that - as I feel that will be much harder to do than the bottle. She isn't very interested in the bottle anymore but she has unfortunately become very attached to the pacifier lately. I am now only giving it to her at naptime and bedtime rather than whenever she wants it. We'll see how this goes...

Her walking is great and like I mentioned before, she no longer crawls at all. She has actually started to try to "run" more and more. It's funny to watch her. She definitely moves around! We even had to put a few cabinet locks in the kitchen this week because she finally figured out how to open them and we certainly don't want her in the cleaning supplies!

She also does have curly hair. It's so cute! My mom fixed it when we were gone and she had a head full of little curls - just like me and my sisters did when we were babies. I'll post pictures of it soon hopefully. It's really just too adorable!!

Other than that, she is really learning new things and making new sounds and talking in longer "sentences". She is a very smart little girl and if we ask her to go and bring us something, she will walk right over to it, pick it up and bring it to us. She understands and comprehends so much more than we give her credit for I think. We love how smart and how inquisitive she is! She is just the light of our lives!! I don't know what we ever did without her in our lives.

We'll keep everyone posted with any new developments! We can't wait to see everyone at her birthday party!

Karys hasn't been feeling well the past few days - and seems to have had everything from running a fever to throwing up. She's been really fussy and irritable and it's been obvious she has not been her typical happy self. We took her to the doctor this afternoon and it turns out our little one has a mild case of Bronchitis. The doctor prescribed her some medicine to take for the next 5 days. She even had a fever of 102 at the doctor this afternoon and weighed in at 22.5 lbs (a bit of a drop from earlier this month).

Hopefully the medicine works quickly and Karys starts feeling better soon!

It's hard to believe Karys is already 10.5 months old! 

She has been doing really well with her teething lately. Since the 7th tooth broke through, she's finally had a little relief so that's good. However, it looks like her gum is starting to get white where the 8th tooth may soon make it's apperance. We'll have to keep an eye on that. But I *think* that after the 8th tooth, it will be a while before any more are due to show up. So that's the positive!

So many other mommy's have asked me about piercing Karys' ears and how she is doing. To put it simply - she's done amazing. She has not messed with them, played with them, had any trouble sleeping with them (this had been my main concern), etc. She let's me clean them and turn them daily and it takes all of about 2 seconds to do. So she really doesn't seem to mind them. We've had no problems whatsoever with them and they are simply adorable on her. And Tim just adores her in them - it makes her even more girly!

As far as the walking goes - she is everywhere! She walks from the kitchen to the family room, to the bedroom to the living room and beyond. She walks in circles sometimes just to walk I think. She's really gotten the hang of it. However, Brinks' tail will knock her down so she has learned that if he is coming at her, to squat down until he passes. It's pretty funny :) It hasn't been a month yet since she took her first steps and she's already gotten so much better! Her balance is really just incredible.

She did learn something new last night and it's really cute. We got the idea from Stacey and our Pat The Bunny book. We ask her "How big is Karys?" and she puts her hands above her head while we say "Sooooooo Big!!". It's really one of the cutest things we've seen her do yet. I'm sure our sitter will ask us why she is walking around with her hands above her head! Haha!

She loves eating her big people food and some of her favorites are green beans and chicken nuggets. She also had hot dogs and macaroni with her friend Haylee the other day and loved it! I cannot even express how much we love that she feeds herself. This way we can all eat dinner together and at the same time.

She loves books! She is always thumbing through them and a lot of time will be more content with a book than her toys. She is learning lots of new words and picking out pictures for us. A few of the things she knows: Mommy, Daddy, Brinks, apple, banana, drink, bottle, dog, light, etc. She also loves to turn the lights on and off and will zoom in on a light switch if you are walking by one.

I'm about to start planning her birthday party, as it's only 1.5 months away! I cannot believe our little angel will already be 1 year old! As of right now, I still plan on doing away with the totsite at that time and just use our family blog for updates, but I may change my mind.

But in the meantime, keep checking back for more updates!