Visit to Gma and Gpa Keller's!

This past week Kaia and I visited Grandma and Grandpa Keller! We had a great time! We were able to see a lot of family and made a trip to the Children's Museum, which Kaia loved!

At the museum: Kaia loved this tunnel. She crawled back & forth for about 10 minutes. I finally had to pull her away so other kids could play too. It played music inside, which she loved.

At the museum: Kaia had so much fun playing on this mat! A projector overhead showed pictures of lily pads and fish that moved around and she enjoyed crawling from one end to the other and trying to catch the flowers.

Shopping with Grandma: Kaia was so proud of her bag of clothes!

Reading the newspaper with Grandma Hazel

Having a chat with Grandpa Vernon

Kaia LOVED Paige! She's my cousin Colleen's daughter. We were so happy she could come over and play!

Kaia was very happy to see her Daddy when we got home! (And so was Mommy!)

First Steps

Kaia Mae took her 1st steps Monday night! And I was not there to see it. =( Needless to say I was more than a little upset. I am with my darling daughter 24/7 and finally took a night to myself and she reached this huge milestone without me. But I am happy that she's started making this step toward independence (no pun intended). Here's what happened: my wonderful husband suggested I take the evening and go to a movie since I haven't had a night to myself for a long time. At the last minute I decided to go. After I left, Josh took Kaia downstairs to the office to see his mom and brother Justin. While there she let go of a chair and took a few steps to Julie. Then she took a few steps to Josh! This is huge because she previously refused to let go of anyone's hands. Instead she'd just sit down and refuse to walk. The last couple days she has continued taking a few steps, and has done so for me, which makes me feel a little better. It'll be interesting to see how long it takes her to work up the courage to take a few more!

Wedding Fun!

This weekend I was in my friend Sara's wedding to Tony. We are friends from college and she was in our wedding as well. It was beautiful and we had such a great time! Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Rakaric!!

Kaitlyn and Sara

Mommy and Kaia after the ceremony

At the reception!

Welcome Back, Drew!

Josh's brother-in-law Drew made it home from Iraq! He got back last Thursday, just in time for his sister's wedding rehearsal! We're all thrilled to have him home safely, especially Mandy and the kids. Thanks to all who kept their whole family in your thoughts and prayers!

11 Months Old!

Kaia Mae was 11 months old yesterday! I'm disappointed because I had this post all ready to go last night and then my internet stopped working and I lost it! So here I am typing it again! I know we say it every month, but it's so hard to believe how fast she grows! Only 1 more month until the big 1st Birthday! She's still just walking while holding onto our hands, I think she's still apprehensive about letting go. That's fine with me, since I know that it'll be even harder to keep up with her when she finally takes off! Right now she's just busy rearranging the chairs in our kitchen! Her favorite toys are dolls, stuffed animals (especially her Grover and Maisy bear), books, and balls. She also loves to go to the pool, swing at the park, and play with the dogs. She loves music...she dances with the fast songs and sings along to the slow ones. She loves to laugh and tease her uncles by acting like she's going to give them a kiss and then turning away and laughing. She seems to have mostly inherited our best traits, although we're starting to see glimpses of that Keller independence and Swaim temper. One issue we are having is that she gets mad when we tell her no. She'll arch her back and then she'll bite. So of course we're trying to stop that habit. But other than that she is a very sweet girl. She loves to give hugs and kisses to people, her toys, and the dogs. She's learning about faces and right now loves to point to my ear. On other people she knows "ear", "mouth", "eyes", "nose", and "hair". She'll also open her own mouth to show her teeth, of which she now has 8. 6 of them have come in during the last month and a half. Kaia is definitely a girlie girl...she loves clothes, shoes, belts, wallets, and purses (which she puts over her shoulder just like Mama). Daddy's going to be in trouble! She's also learned some new words. Her favorite syllable is "da", which she repeats over and over again. It also means "that", "dog", and "doll". She also says mama, dada, "gla" (glasses), "ba" (ball), and "duh" (done). I can't wait to share what she's doing next month!

Feeling better!

Kaia Mae is feeling much better today! She finally got a good night's sleep last night, which was good news for all! She's been playing, laughing, and eating just like normal. This is great because I'm in my friend Sara's wedding this weekend and we need Kaia to be feeling better for the event! I got her in her 4th of July outfit on Sunday and I posted a picture. She's not smiling because she still wasn't feeling the best, but she looks so cute in it! And she got to get out of the house to visit Grandma Julie, so I posted that picture too. Hopefully we'll have more smiley ones to post soon!

Kaia in her 4th of July outfit...still not quite feeling happy.

With Grandma Julie on Sunday.

A not so happy first 4th of July

Our poor little Maisy hasn't had the best 4th of July experience. She woke up early Thursday morning with a fever that kept getting worse throughout the day despite giving Tylenol. I could tell she was just miserable and her fever got pretty high, so we took her to the hospital Thursday night. The diagnosis: strep throat. We got her on an antibiotic right away and apparently caught it decently early. She'd been refusing food but taking a bottle all day, but that ended after we got home from the hospital. She refused to eat or drink anything and had a terrible night. Her fever finally broke early Friday morning, but she still refused to drink anything. You could tell she just couldn't even swallow. She finally started to drink water yesterday afternoon and some pureed fruit. She didn't have a very good night last night either, but she's started taking her bottle today and is eating a little better. She's actually taking her medicine without fighting us today, so that's making it much easier. We feel so awful for her! It's just terrible that they can't tell you what's wrong and she doesn't understand why she can't eat or drink anything. We've changed our 4th of July plans...just staying inside so that she doesn't pass it along to anyone else. But on a positive note, the parade passed right by our apartment this afternoon, so Kaia didn't have to miss that! Here's a picture of her watching the horses, which she loved!