two front teeth for Christmas

Overdue for an update, so much to tell!!

First, Kyla had her 6 month check-up on the 13th (a day after her 6 month birthday) and here are the stats:
19.1 lbs
27.5 inches tall

Yes, still in the 90-something percentile for both, so she is growing fast!

And speaking of growing fast, she is now the proud owner of 2 new teeth! Poor thing. At her 6 month check-up she had a couple of immunizations including the flu shot. That night she developed a cough and runny nose (from the flu shot or from one of the sniffly, miserable kids in the waiting room, don't know) and was not happy at all. On that Saturday morning we noticed a small white thing peeking through her gums -- first tooth! (Don't know how much of those symptoms were due to the teeth and how much was due to the flu shot or a cold -- she is finally doing better now) About a week later it's pal appeared, so there are a pair of sharp little chompers in there now.
We attempted to take a picture but the tongue keeps getting in the way. This is the best so far, and it's not the most flattering shot of her! (will try to post a better one later)




The other milestone also has to do with her mouth. We've started on solid foods, an idea she has quickly accepted! We started rice cereal a few weeks ago and just offered sweet potatoes this past week. So far she has been quite receptive and happily opens her mouth to allow the spoon feeding.
It's not the neatest process, as you can see:






Being from a mixed religion family could make for confusion, but meanwhile we'll celebrate all the holidays. Here she is celebrating two December holidays:








We've had Rachel's family here to celebrate one of the two. Here are Kyla and Kirk watching a pre-holiday Seahawks game and decked out appropriately:




Here she is with Grandpa. No, we didn't give her a rubber chicken for Christmas, but somehow she has decided it is hers. She spent a long time carefully studying each of the chicken toes... and then trying to eat it! Not something we are allowing since those little sharp teeth could help her really eat the chicken. (and we should get through a few vegis and fruit before she starts with meat!)




The original plan was to spend Christmas at Kirk's house in Seattle, but we decided not to travel in case we were able to finalize our adoption this month. Unfortunately there were hold-ups at several stages in our paperwork so we aren't going to be able to finalize until January. The finalization is really just a formality (accompanied by much paperwork and social worker meetings) that typically takes place about 6 months after placement, but it means that we apply for the revised birth certificate (to replace her birth name with the name we gave her) and means that we are pretty much done with the adoption process. It'll be nice to be done with all of this. Who needs legal mumbo jumbo when you just want to play with your baby!
We were pretty disappointed in the delay, partly for that reason, but also because a big advantage to finalizing by the end of 2007 would have been that we could have applied for the adoption tax credit. The credit is a generous reimbursement of some of the costs and would have been extremely useful to have now rather than a year from now.
Oh well. What are you going to do. More importantly, we have this beautiful little girl at home with us.

So, we are enjoying hosting for the holidays and San Diego is cooperating with beautiful warm weather.

Hope the holidays are treating you well!
(our holiday greeting cards are late, as usual, but coming!)

tennis anyone???

We're having trouble locating a small enough racket....




...no surprise this very stylish dress, with matching sandals (not shown because they are still a bit big), was chosen by auntie Nan :)

KG update

Little mini miss is getting bigger and continually developing her nutty personality. She loves to grab things and unfortunately hair is on the top of the list. Funny story from the other morning: We often bring her into bed in the morning (in attempt to get a few more minutes of sleep!) and on this occasion Kyla was lying calmly on her back and playing with her hands the first time I looked over. The next time I glanced, she had turned her head and was looking at Dan (who was asleep lying on his side facing her). She was like that for several minutes (and I was thinking, "how sweet, she's gazing at her daddy") but then she couldn't stand it any longer and attacked. She grabbed Dan's hair with both hands and attempted to get some part of his head in her mouth and woke him up and startled him! Now, this kind of behavior is not out of character for her but is usually preceded by some kind of obvious excitement to clue us in to watch out for ourselves. :)



The beautiful mass of curly hair that is just about right for barrettes:









Really big smile!



Going for a ride in the laundry basket:







Posing (literally!) in a nice embroidered dress that used to be her grandmothers. Looks like it needs a slip! We took it off quickly anyhow to avoid slobber on the antique, I mean, slightly older dress (sorry mom!!) :)




Snuggling in the blanket with mommy!

Baby's first thanksgiving

We certainly had something to be thankful for this year! How amazing to become parents (and have your life change drastically...). Last year at this time we were pretty sad about our childless state, but clearly it was worth the wait. :)

Here's the munchkin in her turkey day finery. This was before dinner so you don't see any stuffing on her face yet. Okay, so stuffing is a bit too "solid" for her just yet, but not for long. (we've about to crack open the box of rice cereal and enter the realm of not-so-simple and not-so-neat baby meals)








Those of you in places north will be jealous of the next few photos. These were taken during our burn-off-the-pie hike. Yes, short sleeves and sunglasses!

We got to the trail and realized that we had forgotten a hat for Kyla, so with some creativity sheik baby was assembled! She enjoyed the backpack (okay, well she mostly napped).


No, we didn't feed her nuts -- she made those cheeks herself !!

reclining...

Now that she can sit up she can more comfortably lounge in chairs. See for yourself!


oops! Still more fun to be in a position to grab your feet!!




This is a rocking chair that grandpa and grandma just passed along that used to belong to Kyla's great grandmother (who she visited in Minnesota in September). The chair is probably 80 years old and the pillow is about a month old (but made by the same great grandma!).




Here she is (dressed in her Seahawks getup for general luck) getting ready to see the San Diego Chargers absolutely cremate the Jacksonville Jaguars. We have been having a discourse on whether Chargers special teams players like kick returner, Darren Sprowles, and cornerback Antonio Cromartie can rescue the waning prowess of the green QB, Philip Rivers. Kyla's position was that a sustained running game with a minimal air attack should be optimal in reducing unwanted turnovers.

We agreed. Good going, Kyla!

sad for Rachel; good for the planet...

A brief digression from kylanet to share the sad news that I had to bid farewell to a dear old friend today. Many of you have probably met my trusty little red car who joined me on the east coast in 1990 and faithfully transported me all across the country for so many years. She was still going strong at 180K miles but, alas, was not doing so cleanly enough for the state of California. After two failed smog tests and an offer of $ by the state to get her off the road, the decision was made and the paperwork was filed. I knew that I would have to drop her off at a place called a dismantler but felt better thinking that she would become an organ donor, if you will. As I signed the paper today and told the guy he was getting a good car he shared with me a detail I didn't want to hear -- part of the deal with the state is that the cars that are "retired" must be crushed. I was crushed.
I suppose it was just a machine -- and the new machine who replaced her will keep me and my baby girl safer on the roads -- but she was a big part of my life and I miss her.

Here we are shortly after we first met, back in the fall of 1990 (I miss the pretty fall colors of the east coast too!):

The Toppling of KG - An empire, a ruler, and Ovis aries

Hello Again!

Welcome back to KylaNet, home of the adorable baby girl of the new millennium.

So much to say, but so few keystrokes to utilize. Kyla is sitting up quite well these days and is quite a happy baby. She is a very tough baby, consuming nothing but White Russians (virgin): 6-8 ounces every few hours. But then she conks out by around 8-9 pm and sleeps in till about 6-7am. Then she wakes up in a fabulous mood and we tickle the heck out of her.

This is a nice photo series Rachel took with KG on the couch. Pic3 is our desktop wallpaper right now...very pensive, a foreshadowing if you will. The yellow thing is a little duck toy, but the white toy she is playing with is Sheldon Sheep, a soft fuzzy sheep that opens up into a little fabric book. The covers are made of crinkle paper, which she grabs at. She generally manhandles Sheldon in a raucous series of wrestling maneuvers, but Sheldon is unequivocally and unilaterally compliant. He's a good guy. Note at the end of the photo series KG starts to lose her balance and topples to one side. In searching for this photo on our desktop Rachel informed me that it was entitled "Topple.jpg"

How appropriate.

Five months old today!

Checking out the goats with Corinne!





How quickly five months have passed! And Kyla is just itching to be mobile... we have been encouraging her standing up and even getting her legs moving in a walking motion, but we'll probably regret it when we are running after a little thing who can somehow run faster than us even though her legs are about 1/8th the size!!








The baby shining???

She likes seafood!!




Today we tried out a new fun thing -- the jumper that hangs in the doorway. She needed no instruction as you can see on the video!






I think the girl likes to dance!!

more pictures

What a pretty pink dress Auntie Tina picked out!!
(Dan hasn't seen this yet -- haha!)







Big eyes!

funny girl in action!!

Rolling, rolling, rolling on the blanket

Welcome Kyla fans, to the site of neverending cutitude:

Kyla is definitely progressing by leaps and bounds. Today I came home from work a little early, primarily because little gnomes from the firey depths of the Earth's core have decided to make a surprise landing in random dry brush fields in San Diego. Luckily people water their lawns a lot near us and we are well away from the mayhem, but work has been spotty this week. So I returned home to play with KG and shortly after I did we started tummy time.

Then it got good.

Kyla was getting pumped up, kind of getting frustrated but kind of making progress getting her knees partially under her waist and then, wham! She toppled over onto her back. She was kind of crying, but we were both so excited we whooped and cheered and kissed her all over. She was a little confused, probably thinking "Here I was suffering on my face and you guys just watched...and now you are happy about it??" What the heck is the matter with you?"

I am sure we will rue the day we urged her to be more mobile sooner, but it was fun for the moment.

Kyla also had her 4 month doctors appointment last week. She is growing quite well.
-26.5 inches
-16.5 pounds

Oh, and with a little help she can stand up!