The Sweetest Sound

This video just makes my day! I hope it brightens yours too!

How old is Kaia?

1 year!! We haven't even been working on this with her, but on Saturday when our friend Stacy asked Kaia how old she was, she held up 1 finger and said "one"! So she's picked it up somewhere!

1st snow!

Kaia watching the 1st snow. She was so excited since this is the first one she's old enough to appreciate.

So big!

Kaia loves to sit on the stool and play on the computer! Don't worry...we stand close by. But don't even try to have your hands within a foot of her to try to hold her...screaming ensues. She has to do it by herself!

Modeling her new sweater!

Pumpkins!

We went to Iowa Orchard thinking it would be like the other orchards we've been to- we'd go walk through the trees and pick our own apples and also get some pumpkins while we were there. We were really excited to go, and then were very disappointed when we got there. Apparently this orchard does not allow you to walk through it. You're only allowed to purchase the apples at the store and pick a pumpkin from the ones sitting out in the front yard or in a bin. Luckily Kaia didn't know the difference and was just very excited to see all the big pumpkins. She had a great time running around and trying to say "punkin". She was so busy that I had a hard time getting a good picture of her, but we're glad she enjoyed it and here are a couple pictures that did turn out ok.

Kaia measuring her height on the big apple! She wouldn't stand on the other side, but would go up to the apple and then turn around and put her back against it to get a picture like this.

She loved putting her face in and it was just the right height for her!

What a big pumpkin!! Trying to pick it up...

Kaia loves pumpkins!

new pics

Reading on her couch

Listening to Daddy playing guitar

With her hawkeye bear!

Let's Go Hawks!!

Kaia was eating her snack this morning and saw my Hawkeyes sweatshirt and started saying "let's go hawks"! She's been doing this the past couple weeks, but this is the first time I've been able to catch it on video..she usually stops as soon as I get out the camera!

Daycare Dilemmas

The week before we moved Josh and I spent a day touring several daycares (in-home and centers). We decided to go with a center and found two that we really liked. Both were close to home and very similar. We decided we liked one a little better than the other and chose that one for Kaia to go to. At the time they were all full and had a wait list started. Apparently it's more difficult to get your child in once they've passed the newborn stage because each class has to have enough spots for the kids that already attend when they move up. And it gets tricky because you have to navigate that moving up process. This is the time when daycares move kids into the next age group, which happens about 3 times a year. For example: the kids who are 2 or almost 2 move into the 2 year olds and the babies who are around a year and already walking move into the 1 year olds. We were told we were #2 on the list and the director said we should be able to have Kaia start in the middle of October. This was about 6 weeks away, which was at the limit of how long we could wait for her to start. But we decided it was worth it for her to attend this daycare and we would manage until then. I called the daycare this week to confirm her start date and was informed that the October start date was not going to happen and now the earliest time she could get in, even going part time, would be December. We were so frustrated and upset that we weren't told of the change and we have been juggling having Josh stay home with her and trying to work when, had we known, we could have started her somewhere else already. Fortunately, the other daycare we really liked is moving their 1 year olds into a larger room and so they have an extra spot opening up. Kaia is going to start gradually next week and then start full time on the 12th. I'm confident she's really going to like it and will do great. Most likely better than me in dealing with this new change. So far it hasn't been bad leaving her to go to work because I've known Josh has been there with her and taking good care of her. As have Josh's mom Julie and sister Mandy when he's had to work, which has been so awesome of them! (Thanks!!) So we'll see how I do the first time I have to drop her off!