The past few weeks have been pretty busy for us! Karys got to meet some of her cousins that came in town from Wyoming last week and this past weekend her cousin, Zoe, was in town and came over for the day on Saturday to play. They were really cute to watch! Karys seemed to enjoy taking Zoe's pacifier out of her mouth to put in her own mouth. Then she would try to put it back in Zoe's mouth. I guess Zoe had finally had enough though and once Karys tried to take it from her again, she blocked her! It was so funny! They played together really well and seemed to enjoy each other's company. Seeing Karys next to Jace and Zoe (who are both a little over 7 months old) made us really see how much bigger she is! She's a very long little girl! They just looked so small next to her...hopefully she'll take after her Daddy and get to keep that height! :)

Today I leave for Colorado for a work trip so it will just be Daddy & Karys at the house. I know Tim will do a great job with having her by himself and is probably looking forward to a little one-on-one time with his little girl :) I will miss the two of them like crazy but luckily I will be back in town Friday night and we can have the whole weekend together!

Karys finally said "Ma" - but I've yet to get her to repeat it to say "MaMa". It's really amusing to Tim when I am saying "ma ma ma" to Karys and she responds with "da da da". This literally happens every time. We can't help but laugh! We bought her a few new toys last week and she seems to be most interested in the blocks. She likes taking them out of the container and playing with them on the floor. She has really started banging her toys against stuff - she likes the noises it makes I suppose. She's just learning how everything works. One thing she doesn't like is her brush though and Tim and I can't help but laugh at the look of disgust on her face when her fingers touch the soft bristles. She obviously doesn't like it but keeps looking at it to try and figure out what it is I think. She'll set it down and then pick it right back up again! With the same look of disgust each time! :)

She's still scooting around everywhere but her favorite position right now seems to be sitting upright with her toys. She's not as happy being on her tummy or her back anymore now that she's mastered the art of sitting up. Unless she is getting tired, she'd rather not be laying on the floor. We're still chewing consistently on that thumb but have no teeth that we can see yet. My mom and I thought we felt something on her bottom gums but I'm not sure if it's a tooth we're feeling or not. I guess we'll know soon enough! Until then, I'm just loving her little gummy smile :)

It's crazy to think that in less than a week Karys will be 7 months old! I will probably only update this website until Karys turns 1 year old in March. After that I will just update our family website so you'll have to check there for pictures and updates! The link there is http://daugherty-family-news.blogspot.com.

We hope everyone has a great week!

Karys was finally able to make it down to the beach this past weekend! The weather was absolutely wonderful the whole time! She mostly just played on the towels in the sand and watched her Daddy and Brinks run up and down the coast. But we did get her in the water a little. She would only start to fuss when the water was racing up towards her, but then would try to grab at it. All in all, we think she had a good time! We were really happy to finally be able to take her down to the beach though! We were able to get everything in just one car (even Brinks!) and although it looked like we packed up enough to travel for weeks, we were happy to learn that Karys travels really well. She easily adapted to being out of town and not in her own surroundings which is great!

Unfortunately, with Karys having had her routine shots in addition to a flu shot that was recommended by her doctor on Thursday afternoon, she was not feeling too well for most of the weekend. We had more than our fair share of extreme fussiness, high fever, projectile vomiting, sleepless nights, runny noses, etc! It was quite an ordeal! And on top of all of this, we believe she has really started the teething process now as well. She wakes up in the middle of the night screaming and shoves her hands in her mouth at every chance. It's really sad to watch her in pain. Hopefully a tooth will break through soon and provide some relief for her. So far we can't see anything but we've been told that she is indeed teething. I guess we're in for more sleepless nights ahead! And she still has her runny nose, which the doctor said was due to sinus. She's still not 100% today but hopefully we'll get through this soon!

While at her 6 month checkup, Karys weighed 18 lbs 3 oz which is in the 90th percentile! But the most astonishing was her length of 28 1/4" - which puts her off the charts for her height!! Goodness! We know she is definitely taking after her Daddy in that department! Dr. Lentsch told us she was "huge, but in a good way"! It looks like we have a very tall, lean little girl! She'll go back to the doctor in about a month for a second flu booster shot and then again in December for her 9 month checkup.

Other than that, things have been progressing with her pretty well. She can sit up very well now - which we are thrilled about! She is still quite fascinated with Brinks and loves to watch him and will giggle when he walks by her. She's babbling nonstop now and throwing all kinds of new sounds into the mix - still no MaMa yet though. And DaDa is still her absolute favorite word! She's just getting stronger and more curious as each day passes. We're just happy to have her in our lives and watch her grown and learn. And we've got so much more to look forward to with her!

Much Love!
Tim, Steph & Karys

Karys turned 6 months old on Saturday! It's crazy to think that she is half way to her first birthday already... She has changed and learned so much in this first six months and we can't wait to see what these next six months have in store for us! She's just amazing and so much fun!

Tim went out of town on Thursday so it's just been me, Karys and Brinks for the most part. She really has been an angel and it really hasn't been as much work as I thought it would be - and I've gotten to spend a lot of time with her since it's been a nice long 3-day weekend! :) She loves to play all day long! This morning Karys and I went up to the beach house with my family for the day. Karys did really well, but we still couldn't take her down to the beach because it was raining almost the whole time! But Tim comes back on Wednesday and then Thursday after her 6 month check-up, the three of us and Brinks will head to the beach house a long weekend. Hopefully the weather is nice this time! :)

Karys has been sitting up and playing a lot more - she's getting so strong. Her new thing is bouncing up and down either in her exersaucer or on our laps. It seems she always wants to jump! She still wants to know and see everything that is going on around her too. She is very curious about everything and will grab for anything within her reach so we've tried to remember to be careful if we have her too close to something after she broke my glass bowl a few weeks ago! :) And she loves glasses - so if you are wearing them and holding her - watch out! Haha! 

We hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend!

Happy Labor Day!

We took Karys swimming again on Saturday. It had been a few months since she had last been in the pool because of all the rain we had been having earlier this summer. The faces she was making were pretty amusing. She wasn't crying or fussing, but she certainly wasn't smiling for us either! Check out the pictures in the Photos Section :) We pushed her around in a few floats and let her stand on the tanning ledge and carried her around for a bit. She seemed to be trying to take in everything that was going on. She did pretty good before deciding she'd had enough swimming.

Karys is starting to sit up pretty good now too! We've been practicing every day lately and each time she can sit up longer and has more control before slowly going forward and rolling onto her back. We're thinking/hoping she might have it down by the end of the month. The toy that keeps her most occupied now is her exersaucer - we seriously don't know what we'd do without it! It keeps her occupied for so long at a time! It's truly wonderful!

Miss Yvonne had an unexpected family emergency out of town this week, so Karys is spending time with lots of different family members this week! We're so thankful to have so much family around to allow Tim and I to not have to use much vacation. I was home with Karys one day and Tim will be home with her part of the day on Wednesday, along with his mother, and my Aunt Sandra has graciously offered to keep her 2 days this week!! Even my Nana is going to help out and keep her one day! We're very grateful to ALL her special sitters this week - you guys have really come together and helped us out more than we can say!! I don't know what we'd do without all of our family! No doubt Karys will be extra spoiled this week too with all the one-on-one attention she'll be receiving :)

We're on her last meat now and she has really seemed to enjoy them all - though we both have to agree that the Ham has been her favorite of them all. She just seemed more eager to eat that particular meat more than any of the others. And we have also discovered she loves Bananas & Mixed Berries for her fruit! She gets so excited :)

We'll also be taking Karys out of town for the entire weekend for the first time at the beginning of September when Tim returns from Vienna. We're going to take her to the beach house for a 3-day weekend. Last time we were at the beach, it was raining so we couldn't bring her down to the water. So hopefully it won't be raining or too hot and she will enjoy it, but we shall see!!

Karys has been on a roll this week with the new things she has started doing. Tim and I finally caught her rolling over from her tummy to her back - we knew she was capable for awhile but I guess she finally realized she was capable too! It's the cutest thing and now that she has mastered it, the minute she is placed on her tummy she flips right over! She can almost roll back to her tummy from her back but she hasn't quite figured it all out just yet. But it's really adorable to watch her squirm around! When she actually is on her tummy, she moves and scoots all around. That is, until she gets frustrated that she isn't actually going anywhere. Then she will just flip over :) I guess we should cherish this time that she still isn't quite mobile before we really have to start baby-proofing the house! My guess is she will go after Brinks first as he seems to fascinate her more than anything else at the moment! She is constantly reaching to try to grab him when he walks by.

She's also becoming better and better each day at sitting up on her own. If we help her into position, she can sit a few moments all by herself - until she either gets too tired or looks to one side and falls over. But we're getting there! It's just amazing to watch how she learns and figures things out for herself. She certainly knows what she wants and will go after it!

We've also started her on meats at the instruction of our doctor. So far she has had chicken, beef and now turkey. She seems to really enjoy all of them, though Tim and I certainly cannot stand the smell! It doesn't seem to bother Karys much, as she eats it all right up! We weighed her this past weekend for her 5 month stats and she is weighing in at 16 lb 10 oz and is almost 27" long!! She is growing like a little weed!! It's crazy to think she has put on almost 10 pounds since we brought her home from the hospital. She was so tiny!!

It was a beautiful weekend and we got to spend a lot of time outside. Tim hung up her swing outside by the pool and she was swinging while we were swimming. She really seems to like it outside. She was very content for awhile sitting and playing with her toys and just looking around. She's just such a great baby! We literally have so much fun with her! Sunday night she was just a laughing at her Daddy, who was making weird faces and sounds at her. We couldn't stop laughing at how funny she thought the whole thing was!

Karys will be 24 weeks old this Thursday. It's hard to imagine that last year at this time I was only about 2 months pregnant! That seems like such a long time ago now. We're just so glad to have her with us now! She is literally the best thing in our lives!

Tonight we'll be going out to dinner for her Nana's birthday. She loves to sit up and look around at restaurants and see everything that is going on. Then she usually passes out for a while :) So we'll see how it works out tonight!

Stay tuned for more updates....she is always doing something new!

It's hard to believe that our little angel will be 5 months old on Wednesday!! I know I say it all the time, but time really does fly by! She just changes so fast and each day is just an absolute joy with her. We are so blessed to have such a sweet little girl.

Karys has finished all of her Stage 1 foods and loved them all except for the peas. We tried again on them and she just will not have it. She also seems to prefer the oatmeal cereal over the rice cereal and if we give her the rice cereal, she will "cough" so that she doesn't have to swallow. Smart little thing isn't she?! Besides that, she isn't really a picky eater but she definitely knows what she likes and doesn't like! I also think we are in the beginning stages of teething. There is so much drool! We keep bibs on her all day and change them out because they get soaked! She also "chews" on her fingers, bottle, pacifier and anything else she can get her hands on rather than just sucking on them like she used to. I can't feel anything yet though so we'll see what happens.

She's getting a lot stronger too! She enjoys her tummy time more and more and will push herself all the way up with her hands now and pull her knees under her. I don't think she's quite figured out how to do this at the same time but it sure is cute to watch her go from one position to the other! She tries so hard! She can certainly scoot around while she is on her tummy as well. Even Miss Yvonne has mentioned this to us this past week. She is starting to sit up pretty well and we will keep the Boppy around her for support. But she is learning how to use her muscles to keep herself from going all the way forward now. I will love the day when she can sit up on her own and I have a feeling it isn't too much further off!

Karys LOVES to play! She can entertain herself for about 30 minutes at a time in her exersaucer and she likes her playmat way more than she used too. But she loves to play with people and the two other babies Miss Yvonne keeps. She will laugh at the other kids and smile nonstop for Tim and I. She is just so much fun!! We just can't get enough of her! Seeing her laugh and smile just makes us so happy that we can't help but laugh and smile with her! She is so funny!! She literally cracks us up! But it seems that no matter what we are doing, if Brinks goes by, she is just fixated on him. I'm not sure what it is, but she seems to be just utterly fascinated with him! It's pretty cute and it's hard to get her attention if she is watching him.

She is such a happy baby too. We are so thankful for her personality!! The child rarely cries...it's insane! I took her to the mall this past weekend with a friend of mine and we were there for about 5 hours and she just looked around at everything and slept. She was just so good! I was very proud of her! She does like to talk a lot though! We sometimes have to pause or mute the TV if we are watching something because she gets so loud! :) It's so cute though! She will just talk and talk and talk....guess she takes after her momma! Hehe!

She's just growing up so fast! And we just cannot believe how blessed we are to have her in our lives. She is our greatest gift and we are enjoying ever minute of being her parents!!

These past couple of weeks have been so much fun! We've learned a lot about Karys and her likes and dislikes when it comes to her veggies! We first started her out on Squash, which she really liked. From there we introduced her to Carrots and then Sweet Potatoes - both of which seem to be her favorites! Sunday night we tried to give her Peas and she just wouldn't have it. She opened wide for the first bite and then just stared at me with a look of disgust on her face. Tim and I couldn't help but laugh! And she promptly spit them out and then kept coughing them out so that she would not have to swallow them. Both Karys and I were completely covered in the Peas and it was then we decided to switch her to Green Beans instead. And she liked them!

Tomorrow we will begin introducing her to the fruits and maybe come back to Peas another time to see if her opinion of them has changed any. :) But she certainly loves her solid foods! She gets very excited and is very willing to eat! She reminds us of a little bird because she sits there with her mouth wide open waiting for the next bite - and if it's not quick enough, she'll start getting upset!

The past few nights have been a little rough as she has woken up countless times in the middle of the night! So last night we got smart and put her on her side to sleep rather than on her back and she slept all night long again. I guess we just needed to find out how to make our little girl more comfortable! :)

During her tummy time, she scoots around and moves all over the place! She will push off objects that are behind her with her feet to move herself forward and she'll pull her knees under her as well. We're not anywhere near crawling I don't think, but you can just see the developmental process beginning here! She doesn't seem to mind tummy time nearly as much as before now that she can lift herself up pretty well and we're really happy about that too!

She's just growing up so fast it seems! She's already going to be 21 weeks this Thursday! We are just having so much fun with her - especially now that she is so interactive and grabbing for things and laughing all the time at us. She really loves to sit up in her Bumbo seat and look around to see what is going on. It seems she is always doing something new and it's just so exciting to watch her learn. She is truly the greatest blessing in our lives! She is just so much fun to play and cuddle with!

We'll take some more pictures and post them soon!

Love,
Tim, Steph & Karys