May Update

We don’t remember life before Kayli, and it has only been 3 months!  She is such a sweetheart, very charming, still stubborn and funny also! 

Unfortunately Kayli has had 4 colds in the 3 months she has been home.  I keep saying she just isn’t used to our germs yet, so I hope she gets used to them soon!  Actually this cold ended up being a double ear infection.  She started waking up at night, crying, but was fine the minute we picked her up and then started tapping the side of her head.  After two nights of this I took her into the Dr, and they confirmed the ear-infection.  The first antibiotic didn’t work well so after 1 week on it, and still crying out at night, they switched her to Augmenton.  Kayli is so funny, she LOVES taking medicine.  The pharmacist even warned me that the 2nd medicine doesn’t taste as good, but she loves it.  She actually gets excited when I say “Kayli, its time for your medicine.”   She comes right over to me, waiting for me to pick her up.  Her nose also runs constantly, and she DOES NOT LIKE having it wiped.  We did buy special “lotion-Kleenex” just for her since her little nose area was getting raw.   

Kayli is talking more.  She now says “more, mama, dada, upupup, buh-buh, Bot is bottle, bir is bird, Ten-ta is Trenton, No no , Sssss for yes, Numnum and babababa” for everything else.  At dinner one night at the end of May, we were working on “more” and the sign for it is putting your finger tips together.  She was struggling with this so clapped instead.  It was kind of confusing for me since she just claps a lot also, so all 4 of us (Evan, Trenton, Daddy and I) said “more” to her, and she repeated it for the first time.  Then we all clapped, and she thought that was soooo funny.  She still signs all done (hands waving in the air) and upupupup (and she puts her hands up to you some of the time), so she is making great progress.  She also pays a lot of attention to the birds during our walks and at the end of June said “Bir” and flapped her hands like wings.  We talk about birds a lot, she has one hanging from her ceiling that she watches, and we watch them out the windows.  She seems to be learning at least 1 new word a week lately, and it is very exciting for everyone.  Our next one to learn is “Evan!”

She now has 7 teeth.  The top 3 came in on the same weekend when we were camping.  I don’t think she reacts poorly to teeth coming in.  Unfortunately she has had so many colds; I am not sure if she gets a cold due to her teeth coming in or just because.   We joke because they are about as crooked as they can get but we hope they straighten out, just like the boys teeth did as they grew older. 

At our last Dr appt, she has lost a little weight.  Switching her to whole milk went well, but she isn’t as interested in eating as she first was.  She is still over 20 lbs but the Dr doesn’t like the babies to ever lose weight.  I told him she ate like a horse when we first got her, but Dr Heyrman likes to be safe so we are going in for a weight check in 2 months.  Unfortunately she doesn’t eat as well when she isn’t feeling well, so that hasn’t helped either.  She is still a pretty good eater, not too picky.  We first thought she may have been allergic to chocolate, so we didn’t give her any for 2 months.  Then last weekend she accidentally ate some and she didn’t have any hives.  I am still going to hold off, but gosh I hope that girl isn’t allergic to chocolate!  Her favorite food is still mandarin oranges, but mac-n-cheese is also on her favorite list.  She also feels anything we are eating she can have.  She was fussing so much the other night when Jeff was eating pizza that he just gave her a piece.  And don’t you know, she took bites off of it.  She loved it!  She also really likes cheese, Dream-sicle popsicles, watermelon, baby fruit chews, beans, peas and graham crackers.  She is rather specific about what she is eating.  I have learned to only let her see one thing at a time, until she is done, otherwise she will not want the original food, just the new item she sees.  She still doesn’t seem to eat huge amounts of food but we are still giving her 4 bottles a day where she drinks anywhere from 4-8 oz.  She likes to hold her own bottle and still plays with it a lot when drinking.  She seems to take more breaks than anything, says Bot, and tries to feed me the bottle and smiles.

Kayli is very affectionate.  If any of us are lying on the floor she will come right over and lay her head (usually on our tummy) and sort of hug us.  She also likes to give kisses.  She now closes her mouth and makes an “mmmm” sound.  I have tried to make a big deal with goodnight and goodbye kisses, and she seems to like it.

Jeff and I finally went out!  We introduced Kayli to a new sitter whom we love.  She is a college student who was referred to us by fellow adoptive family.  Anna seems to be able to handle anything, even when Kayli has her 2 nights in a row (due to a baseball game and then Jeff and I going out) and once Anna was holding her, Kayli said “nono” and swatted at her!  We are still working on being gentle at times.

I took the 3 kids up camping last weekend (alone), and we did pretty well.  Kayli did wake up with a cold, and at first I thought she might be allergic to something in the camper.  But the cold symptoms persisted once we arrived home so thankfully that is not the case.  We have run into some bad weather the last 2 camping trips.  We actually had to spend 2 hours in the shelter because a tornado was headed our way; thankfully it missed us.  But spending 2 hours in a shelter with at least 50 other sweating people is not fun, so I will be watching the weather more carefully for each trip.  Kayli is doing a wonderful job sleeping, sitting in her stroller during our 2 walks each day and playing in the camper.  I am SO thankful we moved up to a larger camper (pop-up to 30ft travel trailer) I feel cramped in what we have now; I couldn’t imagine anything smaller.  It has finally warmed up enough to swim, but Kayli has no desire to test the water, and I am ok with that.  She actually watches the boys and me, usually about 45 minutes from her stroller with someone getting her a snack or new toy every 5-10 minutes.  She has never sat that long at anyone time before, so it works well for all of us.

Daycare at Mandy’s is still going well.  She is starting to cry some more when I leave in the mornings, but she is done before I am in the van. I can hear her.  She still enjoys playing with Julia and is fascinated with the bigger kids.  All the kids at Mandy’s really seem to like her which adds to her interest in them.  The little girl Ella, right next-door has the least interest in Kayli, which is odd because Kayli will actually follow her around.  We will have to see how that friendship grows.  Ella is exactly 1 year older, and I had hoped they would be good friends someday.

Playing outside is still a struggle.  She started drawing with chalk at 13 months.  She is also eating it, but the drawing was a big step.  Prior to that all we did was try to eat stones.  Unfortunately she is still going for those darn stones daily, so I started putting her in the middle of the backyard (about 20 feet away from me) after I had asked/told her not to eat stones a minimum of 3 times.  At first she would stand there and look at me and fuss for me to get her.  As of today she will now walk ½ way around the house, barefoot.  I am sure she is still in a quest for those yummy stones, but at least the grass isn’t as scary as it first was in spring.  And she is really moving now on her little legs.  She has mastered walking over things (like the hose) and up slight inclines (like the neighbors/Fitzgerald’s) backyard. 

By the time Kayli’s first Birthday came around, we were all pretty exhausted with family events and Birthday parties.  So we decided to have her join our current family Birthday tradition, which is going out to eat at Red Robin’s and having them sing “Happy Birthday” to her.  We invited the grandparents and had a nice time.  I also made her a Birthday cake (vanilla cake, raspberry filling and lemon frosting.)  She put her whole face into the cake.  She had a blast!  Trenton actually took a picture of her fork because it was all full of cake!  We all laughed with her.

I honestly believe the chocolate allergy I was worried about is not there.  The other morning as we were all rushing around getting ready to leave, Trenton asked if Kayli could have a cereal stick with him.  He broke it into pieces and she loved it.  I never thought a thing about it until I was putting her into her car seat and I noticed she had brown around her mouth.  Darn those cereal sticks (that I never eat) were Coco puff flavored, no wonder she loved them!  But the really good news is she did not have any hives that day.  I still do not plan to feet her oodles of chocolate, but now I do not need to be as concerned as I first was.

The transition to whole milk has been a 2 month struggle with constipation.  At this point we are giving her 1 cup of apple/prune juice daily to keep everything working correctly.  Not my favorite subject, but it has been a learning area.

To end our adoption blog, I would like to say what a wonderful, joyous journey this has been already!  Kayli makes us smile many, many times a day, even the boys, when they are having a fuss.  She can walk right up to them and lay her head against their lap, and they usually stop, mid complaint.  I rarely have time to read the adoption chat rooms that I have been a part of for 3+ years.  We are just focusing on our family and trying to slow down in life and enjoy what we have. 

We hope you have enjoyed our family story!

The Bloms
Jeff, Kimberly, Evan, Trenton and Kayli

 

My First Asian Buffet Restaurant

Opening my Birthday Presents

My Party at Red Robin

Trying to Be Content at my Brother's Baseball Game-- Snacks are Good

Touching my First Fish from Grandpa Seitz's Pond

Bumming with My Mom

My First Taste of Cake for My 1st Birthday-- YUM

I think I LOVE cake!

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