From Sunsets to Bluegrass: Weeks 42 & 43- Fun and Friends

These past two weeks have been much calmer compared to the rest of the month, but not without some fun new skills. Here is what Karis has been up to lately:

Week 42

Family Day
With the gorgeous spring weather we had a great family date day with an outing at the park followed by everyone's favorite, Menchies!

Hello, goodbye!
Karis somehow taught herself how to both open and close doors (when they are partially cracked open). She almost gave me a heart attack when I didn't yet realize she had learned this skill and she jetted off opening the door out of the bedroom in search of daddy and made a b-line for the stairs. Yikes! I now will be closing doors tightly in the future for my little escape artist.

Buuuzzzzz
One of Karis' current interests is playing with the door stopper which she thinks is both fascinating and terrifying to twang.

Crackdown
I have lately been rethinking and considering my current practices and training with Karis and realized a couple areas that I need to be firmer on. She used to love playing with my cell phone and keys, but in retrospect, for the keys, they are just too sharp and dirty and for the phone, while she is gentle with it now, I'm imaging the day where she decided to put all her toys, my phone included, into the toilet. Plus I want her not to demand my phone to play games or whatnot in the future. Also, I had to start putting my foot down on some eating habits, namely Karis pulling at her bib and intentionally dropping her food on the floor. I used to not be sure whether or not she dropped her food by accident or on purpose, but now it is pretty evident that most of the time it is on purpose because she doesn't want to eat it and won't even tolerate it on her tray. What a picky girl already!

Nap Dropping
Since probably 5 months or so till now Karis has been consistently taking 3 naps. Two longer (1.5 hours) naps followed by a short 45 minute power nap around 4:00. This week the last power nap has been hit or miss as Karis has started trying to drop it. I first noticed when I would put her down and she would seem tired but instead of going to bed within a few minutes she would fuss around, then stay quiet for a bit then fuss again, off and on for a good 20 minutes after which I would just get her up and she would be happy until bed. Other days she would sleep like normal. I think if she takes two good long naps (over 1.5 hours) she more likely doesn't need the power nap, although once I tired to skip it and she ended up a fussy mess! For now, I'll just keep trying to put her down and see if she complies. I will be sad to loose this vital dinner-prep nap time!

More New Teeth
Two more teeth cropped up this week! Lateral incisor 10 (top left) and lateral incisor 26 (bottom right) both came pushing through all at once!

Squatter
She is getting more steady on her feet and can now squat to pick things up off the floor (while still holding on with one hand) as well as switch hands and kind of swivel. Walking is not too far off!

Snuggle Buds
I was always super paranoid about SIDS so I never let Karis have a stuffed animal to bed, but now that she is older and actually can appreciate it more I started giving her a stuffed animal to cuddle with for naps and night. While I think it is so sweet if she has one favorite stuffed animal, I also want to avoid the mass panic and breakdown should the favorite ever get lost. Thus, I give her a few different stuffed animals on a rotating basis so she is happy with whichever. The cast of cuddlers includes Milton the Monkey, Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger.

Week 43

Squeeze Meals
These food pouches have been all the rage, but they are rather pricey and I was always unsure if Karis would enjoy the interesting food combinations or know how to eat out of them. However, I thought they would be good for future travels or on the go, so I bought a few to see how she would do. She loved the yogurt blends (of course!) but even really liked some of the more crazy combos like mango spinach and peach millet! I may be inspired to start blending some more veggies to add to her smoothies now.

Dangerous Diet
Since Karis has been so good with trying new foods and handling textures really well, we tried over the course of the week to open her up some of the more "forbidden" baby foods. New standards have been introduced as of late that say it's may even be good to prevent food allergies! Here is what has been on the menu: strawberries, shrimp (she loves shrimp!), tiny bit of peanut butter, eggs. She has done great with all of them which makes it even easier to prepare meals for her.

Tarzan Noise
Karis has been experimenting more with pitch and has started making a little tarzan noise changing from low to high to low pitches all in one breath.

Thunder
With Karis having stranger anxiety, we haven't been out too much without her. However, I really wanted to attend Thunder Over Louisville, the biggest fireworks show in North America and part of the KY Derby Festival. We were able to put her to bed and then have friends come over and stay with her while we snuck out. We enjoyed the show and the date and when we returned Karis was none the wiser!

House Guests

This week we also had the special privilege of hosting a dear friend, Meredith and her baby boy, Benjamin as they prepared for their move to California.