Kailyn's First Thanksgiving

We had a nice Thanksgiving this year, Kailyn's first. She had a nice time at one of Helen's relatives' place and even tried a little turkey for the first time (she liked it.)

It's hard to believe that a year ago, the baby wasn't even here yet, and this year she weighed more than the turkey. Gobble Gobble!

Welcome to 1997

As the elder statesman of my department at work, my coworkers like to razz me every now and then (or everyday) about my oldness. A couple of examples:

I recently discovered the free online music source Pandora. If you've never used it, it's basically like a radio station on your computer where you can choose the genre(s) of music you want to listen to. It's nice to listen to songs while I'm at work (of course my choice of music, singing out loud and the resulting ridicule I receive for it, is a story for another blog.) I was excited to share that I'd caught onto this phenomenon, since I know Martha and Jordan are also fans. But when I went to tell the gang about my find, no one was very impressed. Sheppard even said to me, 'Welcome to 2007,' a not-so-subtle reference about how long others have been using Pandora.

My new obsession as of late has been eBay. I've known about it forever but never had any interest in participating either as a buyer or a seller. What I did instead was troll Craigslist for decent deals on clothing and other stuff (remind me to tell you the 'following a strange man into his garage' story sometime.) Anyway, it's likely a combination of my addictive personality, love of a bargain and gambling-like adrenaline rush that has gotten me hooked on eBay and buying things I don't really need. Once again, when I told my coworkers about it, they laughed at me and Sheppard this time said, 'Welcome to 1997.'

As I regress further and further back, I expect my next find will be something like 'cassingles' or pagers.

Song Du Jour

Here's another great version of one of my favorite songs. It has a lot of meaning for me because not only is it a beautiful rendition (I'm especially feeling this version b/c of the amazing harmony) but it's also a song I sing to our baby girl on a nightly basis as she drifts off into dreamland. (Music begins at :38 of clip)

Daylight Saving Time

We just moved our clocks back an hour but the way Kailyn has reacted, you would have thought we jumped seven time zones. She has not slept well at all since the switch, and as a result Helen and I have gotten up many times through the night to attend to her after she cries.

I've spoken to other parents and they all seem to be going through the same thing with their babies right now, so at least we're not alone in this transition. But I must say that I'm surprised at how challenging it's been for us all especially since Kailyn has actually traveled to places with different time zones and done just fine sleep-wise.

Hopefully this will only last a little while longer. In the meantime, if you see some bleary-eyed people at your office, be nice to them because they may have had a rough night with a crying baby.

Bumps -N- Bruises

We are now at the stage of Kailyn's life and development where we are witnesses to the new things she's learning seemingly every day. One day she'll be crawling like a pro, the next she'll go from a sitting position to a standing one by pulling herself up on something and yet another she'll lie down next to a stuffed animal and hug or kiss it. My favorite thing she's done recently is mimicking Helen or me by speaking into the little plastic Jack-o-lantern/candy pail to hear her own echo. It's hilarious.

What's less funny is the assorted bumps and bruises that Kailyn is now getting thanks to her increased mobility. As one might expect, a wobbly baby + endless energy and curiosity = lots of falls. Most of the time she'll land on her butt, but every now and again she'll face plant or land on her head. We've taken to adding a gate at the top of the stairs so she won't fall down and have had to take cords out of sockets for fear she'll go after them.

It's a pretty neat time to be a parent since we get to see all these fun new things through Baby K's eyes. We just hope she uses those eyes to watch where she's going.