Kacey: 19 months

Kacey hit 19 months on February 1. I love this age. She is learning so much so quickly, her personality is starting to burst out, and she is able to play by herself and with her sisters for a bit. Though with that comes the illogical tantrums and a busy, busy body. But just about everything she does is so innoncent and extra cute.

Kacey is a jabber-mouth. She talks all day long. I took her to the doctor for her 18 month check up and the doctor asked how many words she has, if I had tried to count them. She suggested that the average number of words for a child her age is 5-10. I laughed... oh she has way more than that! Honestly, I don't think I can count them all. It seems that nearly everyday she has a new word. She attempts to repeat most everything she hears. She has just started putting two words together, most commonly "where (fill in the blank)?". Her phrases include, "Where'd it go?" "There it is!" She also might be the most polite toddler ever. She nearly always asks "please" for an item, and without prompting responds with "thank you!" She recently has picked up on "more" which she pronounces so well and "mine" and "no" have slipped in. I'd rather she didn't know those two, but with two older sisters it was bound to happen. Kacey is able to communicate most everything she needs, which is so helpful! Though that vocabulary could still grow. We do play the guessing game from time to time while Kacey simultaneously signs and says "please", with no context to back her up.

All three girls share a room. Typically Kacey goes to bed an hour before the older two. However, sometimes the three of them go to bed at the same time. When that happens we often hear Kacey in the bedroom loudly repeating, "Hailey. Hailey. Hailey!" or "Keira. Keira. Keira!"

She has started getting into pretend play, especially with baby dolls. She brings a baby and a blanket to me, asking me to wrap up baby, then she hugs baby and shakes rocks her. She puts her finger to her lips, "shhh..." and pretends to feed baby a bottle. She also has picked up on pretending to eat the play food from the play kitchen. Of course it's absolutely adorable when the puts a toy purse in the crook of her elbow and waves "bye-bye" and walks away.

Kacey loves books. She is a book monster. If I mention books she drops what she's doing and literally runs for the bookshelf. She grabs a book and pats the couch where she wants me to sit down. Kyle and I look forward to the day that we can sit on the couch and just sit. While we love to read books to Kacey, sometimes you just want to sit. Anytime we take up residence on the couch Kacey comes running over with a book to read and often throws it in our face. 

She loves to push the stroller around. She doesn't just walk with it, she runs. She zips all around the house and over obstacles on the floor. She has a toy lawn mower outside that she loves to push around too.

Kacey has become quite possessive of any objects she has been playing with, or wants to play with, or has looked at it in the past 24 hours. If the girls touch anything she thinks she has laid claim to she erupts in screams. 

Kacey's eating habits vary day by day. Somedays she will gobble anything up I give her. Other days I'm not sure what she's eaten. The only sure foods she'll eat are fruit. She LOVES fruit. And yogurt. She has a daily gogurt and apple sauce pouch- she'd live on those if I let her. She loves snacks and sprints for the pantry at the suggestion of it. She also will routinely devour eggs.

I recently took away Kacey's pacifier. She had gotten to the point where she would sneak it from her bed and run away and hide with it. She also talked with it in, or sometimes took it out to talk. It was a hard first few days, she was very sad to not have her pacifier with her. But she has moved on. The only problem is if she wakes up at night (which still happens often) I don't have the pacifier as a quick way to help her back to sleep.

Kacey's latest trick is jumping from the stairs, off the couch, and off the window seat in her bedroom. She has no fear and does it over and over and over. Maybe I should stop her so she doesn't get hurt, but it keeps her entertained and helps her burn some energy. She loves to jump on the trampoline at my parent's house and also gets both feet off the ground when she jumps from the floor.

Of all three girls Kacey is the least of a people person. She is scared of faces she doesn't know and is clingy to me. She screams and cries while I check out at Costco and the grocery store. Men with beards especially terrify her. She is not a fan of nursery. She stayed for the first time last week. When I checked on her I'm pretty sure she was whining and crying next to the door, but at least she wasn't screaming. So that's a success!

Kacey loves to color. On anything and with anything. So far the worst has just been pencil on the wall and dry erase marker on her shirt. I can't sit down and write without her hovering asking to color. "Color. COLOR!" 

Kacey loves to run and hide. Her favorite spots are behind the couch in the living room, behind the curtain in her bedroom, or just in the middle of the room either standing or laying down with her hands covering her eyes. She runs away at the mention of bedtime and brushing teeth, and of course while I'm trying to get her dressed- that can be a wrestling match.

While she may be busy, she helps keep us on our toes and sure is entertaining. It's fun to have another personality in the house to add to the chaos. :)  

NORTH CAROLINA

My brother Curtis and his wife Chelsea have been living in Raleigh, NC for the past 5 years. He has been going to graduate school at NC State and is finishing up with his PhD this summer. He is pretty impressive to me. He's like my Dad, smart without trying. I'm pretty proud of him and excited for him to finish up and move on to life after school. 

I have wanted to go out to visit Raleigh while they are there. With his soon-to-be pending departure, it really was my last chance to check out the area they have grown to love and call home. My parents were flying out to visit mid-April, and they invited Kacey and I to tag along. Hooray! I made arrangements with Kyle's mom to come watch the older girls while I took off for a week. That was so nice of her to do that for me! 

We started our trip by touring around Raleigh. Curtis and Chelsea took us to the flea market they go to each Saturday. It was like a giant outdoor DI. Seriously. You could spend forever there sorting through the endless amounts of junk to find the one or two awesome things hiding, which they usually do find. 

Curtis then took me on a tour of his work area at the university. He is studying food science, with his research focusing on whey protein. Don't ask me anymore, I really don't know more. But I DO know that he knows how to make cheese. And knows plenty about other dairy products. His new upcoming job involves yogurts and sour creams and things... But I'm all about the cheese. I saw where the milk is pasteurized, the ice cream is churned, and where he makes his cheese. And I learned all sorts of things that I have probably already forgotten and couldn't repeat back to you. But it was all interesting, I promise. 

We checked out the azalea gardens that are found at the local TV station. Totally random. But they were beautiful. Apparently we were just a week late, they were in full bloom just the week before. But there were still enough in bloom to get a picture of what it had looked like.

Raleigh is beautiful. So many trees. It is SO different from Utah. Driving down the freeway, both sides of the road are lined with trees. There is shopping and houses behind it, but you have no idea it's actually there because the trees are so thick. It feels more like driving through a forest. Raleigh also has a number of lakes and parks. We visited Lake Johnson and walked the 3 mile loop around it. My dad was kind and waited in the car while Kacey napped. My mom, Curtis and I enjoyed the scenery and chatted while we walked. It would have been fun to rent a peddle boat or canoe to take around the lake, but rentals weren't open at the time. I don't remember why. 

After a couple of days in Raleigh we packed up the rental minivan and drove a few hours to the coast to visit the Outer Banks. This was a big highlight of the trip. It was all awesome, I loved Raleigh, but the Outer Banks was pretty cool. I loved learning the history of the first English settlers to the Americas, and learning a bit about the pirate history in the area. 

We visited the beach for a few minutes and Kacey dipped her toes in the water. In April the water was still cold. It took her breath away when it touched her feet. But at least she can say she's been in the Atlantic Ocean now. 

We visited the Bodie lighthouse, one of many lighthouses along that stretch of islands. It was neat to learn the history of it. It is one of the few remaining lighthouses with the original lens inside (from the 1800s).  

To preserve the lighthouse, they only let a certain number of people inside at one time. We had to make a reservation to go up inside it. The wait turned out to be worth it. It was so cool to be able to climb the stairs to the to top and take in the view. Those stairs are floating, each connected to the one before it. Just the thought of how it was constructed so long ago was fascinating to me.

After the lighthouse we visited the Wright Brothers Memorial. I had no idea Kitty Hawk was on an island so close to the ocean! The area where they tried out their airplanes was actually a large sand dune. It is now covered in grass to preserve the hill, but there are huge sand dunes still nearby. I didn't expect that. 

The next day on our way back to Raleigh we stopped at a nature preserve to try to spot some animals. We didn't end up seeing much, some turtles, a water snake... we heard some frogs clicking and talking to one another. The walk along the boardwalk was still fun though.

Back in Raleigh we relaxed, enjoyed good food and picnicked at Pullen Park. This park was awesome. All I could think of was how much fun Hailey and Keira would have had there. It had a train that went around it, a carousel, a huge playground with all sorts of things for kids to play on, a lake where you can rent peddle boats, and plenty of grassy area and trees (perfect for slack lining!). It was pretty fantastic.

I really had a blast in North Carolina. Thank you Curtis and Chelsea for being fun hosts and spending time with us! It was so fun to visit somewhere different, see new sights and experience new things. I had my first taste of hush puppies. They are so good! Before hand I didn't know what they are. They're basically deep fried cornmeal batter, like breading around a corn dog. Anyway... North Carolina is pretty cool. Curtis and Chelsea are soon moving on to their next adventure: Boston. Sounds like the makings for another great vacation!

KACEY 8, 9, 10, 11 MONTHS

Whoops! Somehow 4 months has passed without mention of Kacey. That is a long time in baby-time! Now I get to rack my brain and try to remember all of the changes she has made in the time.

Photo credit to Aunt Brittany

At about 8 1/2 - 9 months Kacey started saying "uh-oh!". Her first word. She began picking up on the drop it-uh oh game babies like to play. By now at 11 months she is proficient in this game. It's especially funny when she says "uh-oh" before even dropping her toy. It's fun to see her brain working.

At about 8-9 months Kacey started rolling all over. That became her main method for getting around to where she wanted to go. She eventually became strategic at her rolling and could roll and rotate her body to position herself in the right direction where she wanted to go. At 10 months she finally started to crawl. Kyle and I tried to encourage her to crawl for a couple of months but it only frustrated her. One day it clicked and she took off. No army crawl, no scooting. Just real hands and knees crawling. Now she is starting to get into everything. She has discovered the fun that can be had in the recycle bin, where the snacks are kept in the pantry (I think we need to move those up a shelf), where the pots and pans are, and she's found how fun it can be to open and close the cabinet door under the sink where the garbage is kept.

At 10 months Kacey also started pulling herself up to everything; the couch, the door, her crib, our legs. She is all about standing. She even will stand on her own for a few seconds at a time. She loves this game. She crawls over to the bottom stair, pulls herself up, lets go and stands on her own, sits down and does it again. Over and over. She also loves to walk behind the ride-on jeep. Kyle and I watched her maneuver that thing last night. She pushed the jeep until she came to the stairs. We watched as she thought and thought about how she was going to move it away from the stairs so she could push it again. She walked all around it, looking at it, trying to push it here and there. Eventually she figured it out and moved it back a few feet before pushing it forward again. She was so determined and so concentrated on moving that jeep. 

Kacey has clapping skills. She actually makes an audible noise. She claps for herself when she does something good, she claps when she's happy, and she claps when something is funny to her. Yesterday I was attempting to get her dressed for bedtime. She kept wiggling her way away from me. I said to her, "Kacey. Come here please." She looked at me, waved bye and started walking along the edge of the couch. She looked back, laughed and sat down on the ground and clapped. Kyle said, "Is that her first joke?" Possibly. It sure seemed like it.

She started waving at about 8 months. She waves hi and bye. She also waves for goodnight and nap time. If I can get her to wave before putting her in bed I feel pretty confident that she understands it is time to sleep. She still wakes up a couple of times at night. (Seriously! When will it stop!?) I have finally taken to picking her up, giving her back her pacifier, and saying goodnight again. Once she waves to me I lay her down again and don't hear a peep for a few more hours. In addition to waving, at 10 months she began to pick up on some sign language. She knows "more" and "all done". If I ask her if she wants something to eat she will sign "more". Or if she wants more to eat and starts to scream (her normal instinctual reaction for more), just ask her "what do you say?" and she will nicely sign more. She hasn't totally picked up on signing "all done" on her own, but if I say it she will sign it. She understands the meaning, because she will begin to push on the tray on her high chair anxious to get down.

Kacey dances with her head. She wiggles it back and forth along with clapping when she hears music. She also waves her head back and forth just in interaction with people. Kyle and I laugh at the funny things babies can get adults to do. It's kind of hilarious to see adults playing along waving their heads back and forth just like her.

We're pretty done with baby foods. Kacey eats what we eat, as long as it is small enough and soft enough. Kacey loves yogurt, all fruit, avocado, cheese, crackers, and apple sauce. If she doesn't want to eat something there is no amount of offering it to get her to eat it. When she is done she'll swat it away or take it and drop it on the floor. This month I've started to introduce her to whole milk. We have started offering it at meal times. I still nurse her throughout the day- the longest I've nurse of all three girls. The end is in sight! 

At 9 months, Kacey is our earliest teether. She has her bottom two front teeth. Hill babies get their chompers late. There isn't much to indicate any others are coming soon. Maybe a small bump up top, but those teeth still don't look like they'll be bursting through any time soon.

She is pretty much adorable and a lot of fun. Her sisters love her and she loves them. It's fun to see them play together. It will be fun (and a bit crazy) once she is running around the house with them. That will be here before we know it!

Her birthday is just two weeks away, and I can't believe it. Time really flies. Though admittedly, I like this stage so much better than the newborn stage. It's so fun!

KACEY: 7 MONTHS

The advantage of having Kacey's birthday on the 1st day of the month, means the beginning of each month is an easy reminder that she is one month older. So here we are at the start of February, and the start of another month for Kacey.

This girl is 7 months old. Say what?!

At least that's how I feel. Suddenly she is getting so big. Kacey is now rolling from her tummy to back, in one direction only. When placed on her tummy her immediate response is to roll. She will even begin to roll before she is completely on the ground. I have also watched her try to roll while sitting up. It's kind of hilarious. We're working on rolling from back to tummy, so she can do a full rotation. She's getting there. She will twist her top half and reach with her outer arm to grab whatever I am trying to lure her with (puffs work great!), but doesn't move her lower half.

Her other big milestone last month was the introduction of solid foods. She makes some of the best faces when eating. She is slowly getting more accustomed to the veggies we've been giving her. If in the right mood she will devour carrots and squash. She isn't as much of a fan of peas and green beans. Though mixing them with the sweeter vegetables helps. She really doesn't eat that much and is easily distracted. It's ok, she's just experimenting with new tastes and textures right now anyway. We're still practicing with the sippy cup. I don't know how much she actually gets out of it (not much), but at least she doesn't chew on the spout anymore.

She does love puffs. They entertain her for a good amount of time. She is able to get them in her mouth about half of the time. She usually has a few stuck to her and a nice pile that collects in her lap. 

That blonde hair- I just love it!

As adorable as she is, she is a stinker at nighttime still. For about a week she began sleeping most of the night, only waking once between about 1:00 - 2:00 am. This week has been back to waking every 2 hours again. Someday we'll all get a full nights sleep again! Right? Someday...

KACEY: 4-6 MONTHS

Kacey is now 6 months old. Last I posted she was 3 months old. So much happens in just 3 months time in a baby's life!

The biggest accomplishment she has reached is her ability to sit on her own. She has always wanted to be upright. When she was newborn, being held upright and facing forward is what calmed her. By 4 months I was able to sit her in the bumbo seat where she could sit up and play while watching her sisters run around. Now she sits without support, which mean she can cruise the store in the shopping cart, and can splash and play in the bathtub. Life has improved greatly with this new found skill.

Kacey is our observer. I'm not sure if it is due to her personality, or if it is because she has two older sisters to watch and learn from. Of course it could be both. She usually is content to sit quietly while she observes her surroundings. This of course changes once she's tired. Then she turns into a wild child who likes to gargle the saliva at the back of her throat, make raspberry noises, and bend and arch her back.

She has a thing for faces. She will latch onto any skin she can find when you pick her up. This is especially true when she is wild and tired. I have a pretty good idea it's nap time when she begins to grab onto my face and try to eat it. 

I just love her blonde hair. When she was born I thought for sure she'd have light brown hair like Keira, but it's coming in blonde like Hailey. She has pretty blue eyes with long lashes. She gets so many comments on her eyes. Lucky girl!

Kacey loves her sisters. She gets excited when they play with her. She kicks her legs and smiles. It was so funny to watch her interact with Keira the other day. Kacey sat in her bumbo and Keira was behind her. Kacey arched her back and leaned waaay back in her seat, tipping her head upside down. She looked at Keira and laughed. She did this over and over again.

She clapped for a couple of weeks. When we clapped, she would copy. And then she stopped. Now she brings her hands together in a fist and shakes them as if to say, "yay me!" 

She is beginning to tolerate tummy time more. She has rolled over a handful of times. I'm not so sure she even knows what she did. She now will hold herself up with her arms. She has scooted slightly on her tummy by pushing with her feet. Once she figures out what to do with her arms she'll be moving all over. Not fast, nor crawling, but she could at least move herself to something she's interested in. 

Kacey adds a lot to our family already. We love her. Though I'd give her bonus points if she'd learn to take a bottle and sleep all night. Someday. :)

KACEY: 2 AND 3 MONTHS

Time has flown. Like is totally zipping by at ultra speed right now. I can't keep up! Kacey is already 3 months old, nearing on 4. I totally missed posting 2 month pictures, which doesn't matter too much, because honestly they were taken when she was nearly 3 months old anyway. This is life at the moment, I'm usually trailing behind. But today I am getting caught up. Hailey is at school, Keira is off playing with Rara Park, and Kacey is taking a nice afternoon nap.

So, let's talk Kacey.

She's getting big. Just like her sisters. She is already sporting 6 month clothing and I'm thinking I need to start digging for 9 and 12 month soon. Either the clothes we had for the other two girls have shrunk over the years, or Kacey is tall. Maybe both.

Those smiles. They make the mid-night feedings worth it. Even if the smiles come at 4 am. It is getting easier and easier to get Kacey to flash a big gummy smile. She is so close to laughing. She makes a little noise like she wants to laugh, but it isn't a full on baby giggle yet. Soon!

Her coos and oohs are equally adorable. Conversations with her are the best. She has to be in the right mood for it, but when she is all other cares melt away.

Kacey is picky. She is picky about how she is held and who she goes to. Her preferred hold is facing forward with her back to your chest, fully upright. She wants to see the world and be a part of it. If she is fussing, this hold will typically calm her right down. It's like magic. Yet again, we didn't get a snuggly baby. She may not snuggle, but she does have a preference for Kyle and I. Honestly, this girl may cause us trouble in the future. She will often cry for anyone but Kyle and I. The second Kyle or I take her, she settles right down. Though, I do think she's making improvements on being a bit more friendly, at least towards her grandparents. Unfortunately she is not the most friendly with strangers. While I was changing her diaper in a public restroom a nice woman commented on how cute she is and leaned in a little closer to look at her. Kacey immediately errupted. Little miss sensitive.

She has begun to grasp toys, mostly in the past week or so. Of course once she snags it, it heads straight for her mouth. Her mouth is where her hands spend a good part of her time, along with her blanket. It's amazing how a fist full of blanket will calm her down.

Sleep. Sleep, sleep, sleep... This is what I wish she would do all night long. Actually she really doesn't do too bad, if I was willing to go to bed at 7 or 7:30. Kacey's first nighttime stretch of sleep extends for 4-6 hours, but starts early. I'm usually up feeding her by 12:00 or 1:00 am. And then every 2-3 hours after that until about 6 am when she's ready to play. Lately I've been able to get her back to sleep after that so I can sneak in another hour for myself. She is starting to become more consistent in her daytime sleep, though I really haven't hammered down a good schedule for her yet. I'm sure if it was just the two of us all day we'd have something figured out. Unfortunately for her she is the third child and is drug all over the place while I run errands or take her sisters places to play. Typically though she wakes, eats, plays for an hour and then sleeps again, but only long enough to be ready to eat again two hours after her last feeding. Though by the afternoon she will settle down for a longer nap.

Her sisters absolutely adore her. They love to hold her and play with her. Especially Hailey. Kacey gives Hailey some of the best smiles. Now that Kacey can sit up in a bumbo seat it's fun to watch her as she watches her sisters play. She tracks them all around the room as they run around together. It really won't be too long before she'll be running around with them too.

We blessed Kacey over Labor Day weekend. Kyle's parents flew into town, and his cousins from Colorado made the drive out to spend the weekend with us. Kyle of course gave her a fantastic blessing, centered on being of service to others. Kyle said as he held Kacey in his arms just before beginning the blessing, that Kacey looked right at him and gave him the most tremendous smile. It was a sweet moment for him. Kacey's beautiful lacy eyelet dress was made by her Rara Hill. She looked adorable in it.

Kacey previously had wanted to be held constantly. As she has grown she has become more ok with being put down. That has made life easier. It's still busy with her frequent feedings, but at least she's more content to be entertained by objects around her.

We love you Kacey K!

REALITY

The reality is everyday life with three kids is HARD. I admit it, most days I feel like I'm going crazy. The house is usually a disaster, we've eaten way too much pizza, cereal, and whatever-you-can-find for dinner; I can't seem to get anything accomplished (even just a simple trip to the UPS store to drop off a prepaid package takes me weeks to do), let's just forget about the library fines I've accumulated, and please excuse the ever constant brain fog and exhaustion.

I feel like I haven't sat down and played with Hailey and Keira in months. We've been able to sneak in some book reading here and there, but not nearly as much as we used to. We spend a lot of our time cooped up inside, the girls forced to play on their own. Thank goodness for Legos! Seriously. They have been a life saver. The girls play with them daily. Kyle will come home from work and play alongside them as well. I have come to realize how awesome Legos really are. The play is ever changing and endless. They never tire of Legos.

I do think we may be on the upswing. Kacey is starting to sleep more at night and becoming more consistent in her sleep patterns. The newborn days are so precious, yet so SO hard. How can one little person occupy so much of your time? It is amazing how quickly time flies by, before I know it, it has already been 1 1/2 - 2 hours since she last ate and time to eat again. I find myself thinking all too often, "Seriously... AGAIN?" 

Through it all I am so blessed to have an amazingly understanding husband who ushers me out the door for some ME time as often as he can. (Even though I do typically end up with Kacey tagging along, we're pretty inseperable right now. A baby has got to eat when a baby wants to eat...) He plays with the girls when he gets home and he'll take Kacey for a bit and work his magic to get her to smile and almost laugh. If I need help getting dinner going, he jumps right in and gets things started. The poor guy has been sleeping in the basement almost every night for the past 2 months. He is too light a sleeper, every little noise Kacey makes keeps him up, while I slumber on. He tells me it's OK to go to bed at 9:00 and doesn't complain about what a LAME-O-BORING-SAUCE I have become. I really don't consider myself lucky... I knew what I was getting when I married this man. Best choice ever.

Blessing number two has been having my parents living just 5 minutes away. In the past two months my mom has rescued me more times than I can count. When I couldn't keep my eyes open, she watched Kacey so I could sleep. When I felt bad for neglecting my older girls, she took each of them out separately for their own special Rara time. When we were attacked by a stomach bug she spent everyday that week with us helping me survive. When I need to go to the store she tags along because she remembers how crazy shopping with small children can be. She doesn't complain when I drag her all over town looking for ridiculous items I can't seem to find anywhere. Really, having her so close has been a lifesaver. 

This third child really has thrown me for a loop. We started out good, but then in the past month it has become hard. And I knew that would happen. I knew it would get hard. But this feels so much harder than the other two ever were. I know it'll get easier over time. For now I'm just trying to keep my head above water and figure out how to adjust to having three little ones. Of course there are no regrets. I just am ready to feel normal again. 

(More evidence of my inability to accomplish anything: these pictures were taken the end of July, almost 2 months ago. I am just now finally getting them to the blog. Too bad Kacey already doesn't settle down to sleep like that anymore... Boy has she grown!)

Kacey: 1 week

Kacey is 11 days old today, and already I feel like she's grown. Well, I know for a fact she's grown, because I took her to the doctor and already she's gained back her birth weight plus some. But it's not just that. At about her one week mark I looked at her and swear she had already grown overnight. Her cheeks are filling in, she's more awake and alert, and that mama sense just tells me she's grown. It's inevitable, she needs to grow. I'm happy to see her grow, but suddenly I realized how quickly she'll lose her newborn-ness. So I tortured her. I pulled out the camera to try to get a few shots of her before that newborn look passes away.

Kacey is a fantastic baby. She hardly complains. When she does her cry is so mild it's adorable. When it really gets built up it sounds like an evil laugh. That's how she sounded when she was born, she came into the world sounding her evil laugh of a cry. When she wants attention that doesn't warrant a cry she squawks. One loud squawk, that's it. And the grunting. She grunts and grunts when she is trying to wake up. Or when she really should be sleeping but can't quite settle down.

Kacey really is so patient and thankfully not fussy. Fingers crossed she stays that way. We are only 11 days in, it could all change. We all love to cuddle her and are grateful she has such a mild temperament. Now if only she didn't want to party at 2 am. :)