something cold, something new

Something cold: We have a cold working its way through our house. It’s the first time we’ve all gotten something this winter. Actually, Kailyn hasn’t gotten it yet. Melia just had a runny nose and was tired, Graig felt terrible for a few days, and I’m just feeling congested and run down. We hope Kaily doesn’t get it at all, but if she does, we are praying for a mild version.

Something new: Today Kailyn rolled over by herself! Her physical therapist made her monthly visit yesterday, and she gave Kaily another good report. She is progressing exactly as she should for her adjusted age of three months. We are so thankful! The PT gave us some things we could do with Kaily to help her catch up to her actual age of almost six months. I was working with her on rolling over when she decided to do it by herself! She also didn’t hate tummy time quite so much yesterday and today. Maybe we’re making progress.

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tummy time trouble

So Kailyn isn’t a big fan of tummy time. She is quite content to spend her days in a swing, front carrier, or in mommy or daddy’s arms. She needs to exercise those arm and back muscles, so we put her on her tummy a few times a day. This is the progression. It usually takes about one minute from starting to screaming.

So far so good.

Getting tired now

OK. I’m done.

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two beauties

Melia and I were able to see a community theater production of Beauty and the Beast on Feb. 8. She decided to wear her Belle princess dress which she hadn’t tried on in months. It still fit, so she was excited. We had such a good time together on our “date”. The show was really good, and Melia was enthralled when watching the stage production even though she isn’t a big fan of watching the princess movies. They are still a bit scary to her. You know, the whole Beast thing. Not to mention the wolves who appear a couple of times. She only hid her eyes once during the show, though, so it wasn’t very scary. Anyway, we decided to splurge on tickets to see it because we know the lovely lady who played Belle. Way to go, K-OH! Melia was thrilled to go “backstage” to meet Belle after the show. It was a fun night.

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happy valentine’s day

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cute baby

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packing on the ounces!

Kailyn had a doctor’s appointment yesterday. It had been three weeks since her last visit, and we were really excited to see how much she had grown. She didn’t disappoint us. Three weeks ago she weighed 7 lbs. 8 oz. Yesterday she was up to 9 lbs. 1.5 oz.! That gain is without the assistance of extra calories from formula! We had noticed that her thighs and cheeks were getting nice and pudgy, and we were pleased that she had gained so much in a short time. The doctor gave her a really great report. She said she is exactly where she should be developmentally, and she’s even a bit ahead with her “talking”. She continues to be a very sweet baby, and we are all really enjoying her. Because our freezer supply of milk will likely run out in about a month, we are beginning to transition her to formula. The doctor suggested beginning the transition by giving her two ounces of formula at her last feeding of the day then waiting a couple of days before trying it again. We are a bit nervous to start her on formula since she had quite a bit of reflux when we were supplementing her milk with it. As soon as we stopped using formula, the reflux disappeared. Well, last night was the first time we gave her straight formula. So far she has had no reflux at all. We pray that the transition will go smoothly and that her reflux doesn’t return.

Sara’s mom was here for a visit this week. We had four glorious days of extra help, and we were able to get a lot of projects done. I even cleaned the hall closet! That’s been on my list of things to do for over a year.

In other news, Melia is still committed to stop sucking her thumb. She’s doing an amazing job. I think we’ll be making that trip to Build a Bear before too long.

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the final count

Well, the count is in. 250 bottles lost in the accidental defrost. I’m referring to the post from a couple of weeks ago where my freezer was accidentally left open and 250 bottles of defrosted milk had to be thrown out. That’s an unexpected number, by the way. It’s strange that it turned out to be a nice even number. I expected something like 193 or 207. Anyway, I kept the empty bottles in a big plastic garbage bag until I could clean them all. I’m too much of a recycler to just throw them away. The biggest part of the job was scraping off all the labels. Each bottle had a label on it with Kailyn’s name and hospital ID number. I might have been able to recycle them without removing the label, but I didn’t want some weirdo having access to her medical records. I got blisters on both thumbs during the first round of label removal. I took a couple of days off to allow the thumbs to heal, then I found the secret of quick, easy label removal. Just get the label wet. Oh, and use a butter knife instead of your thumbs. MUCH easier! It still took about four days for me to get them ready to recycle since I had to clean them in small batches. I’m so glad it’s done. Now the bottles are on their way to being made into something else, and I don’t feel guilty for just tossing them out with the trash to take up space in a landfill somewhere. Which reminds me . . .I bought some fuzzy fleece fabric a few days ago for a project for Melia’s upcoming birthday party. The saleswoman mentioned that I was helping the environment by purchasing that particular material. When I asked her to explain, she said that it had been made out of recycled water bottles and other plastics. I smiled. Maybe Kaily’s bottles will end up on someone’s head after being made into Hello Kitty ears. (That’s my plan for the fabric I bought.)

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wakenya pamoja (unity for Kenya)

Things in Kenya are still very volatile right now. This unrest is having huge effects on the people of Kenya. We pray for peace in Kenya.

The pictures in this slide show are from the BBC Africa website from the last couple of weeks and our friend Daniels’ blog, http://dlipparelli.blogspot.com/. The music is a collaboration of Kenya’s biggest Gospel stars who came together after violence broke out to promote unity in Kenya. Most of you probably won’t be able to understand the song as it is in Swahili, but it is talking about the people of Kenya coming together to bring peace.

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