Out of the army

All that army training has finally paid off. After weeks of army crawling around the place, Kaylani finally realized that she can pop herself up on her forearms and knees and move just a little bit better. To be fair, she was pretty darn quick with the army crawl (and still is), but I'm thinking she's going to be a lot quicker now.

She actually still does the army crawl most of the time now. But every now and then she'll pop herself up and take a few awkward crawls from her knees. She hasn't quite figured out that she can just move one knee and the opposite arm, and then repeat that. Instead, she's decided that she'll still do the one leg push, just from her knees. So now her crawling looks more like a normal crawl with a straight leg limp. HI-larious!

The good thing about Kaylani mastering the art of crawling (whether it be army crawling or normal crawling with a straight leg limp) is that she is developing nicely and on pace (as far as I know). The problem with this is that she's getting herself into all types of trouble. Sure she's always been able to grab at an electrical socket (which has been covered up), and sure she could always make her way over to the humidifier and try and pull it over. She could even get herself to a drawer or a door and open it into herself. But now she does it so much faster, and that's not even the scary part yet.

Tonight while she was exploring the house, she made her way past the coffee table, into the hallway, to the doormat, even to the A/C vent on the floor, before she finally found what she was looking for...the stairs. Now, the top of our stairs has been gated off for over a year already (and not because we thought Kaylani would fall down the stairs while she was still in the womb, but more that we thought her cousins would). The bottom of our stairs is currently open access, not that Kaylani would have cared if it was or not anyways.

I finally realized why babies like playing on stairs. Stairs are the perfect height to use to stand up. She can reach the first stair and still be in crawling like position. Then she can even scoot a little closer and reach the second stair to stand up. Once she's standing up, and leaning over the first stair, that's when she gets stuck. Today, she plopped back down on her little butt, but soon enough she'll be putting one leg up on that first stair, and bam, we've got ourselves a climber.

So now we can add the bottom of the stairs to the list of things to babyproof in the house. I think we'll move it to the top of the list too, right in front of the entertainment stand with glass, the bar with exposed wine bottles, and the door stopper without the rubber padding. I'm sure there are a few other things, but those are the ones at the top right now. Ahh the joys of a mobile baby. Seriously though, wouldn't trade it for anything in the world! Well, maybe a mobile baby who stayed out of trouble.

Flip Flop

Flip. Flop. Back. Belly. Flip. Flop. Back. Belly. Repeat that sequence about 10 more times and you have Kaylani's nighttime performance. Luckily she doesn't wake up every time she flips or flops, but she has been trying to escape her crib around 4am each morning. Even luckier for us is that she'll usually go back to sleep for another 3 hours if Mommy nurses. Since she's getting 11 hours of sleep in total during the night, she can flip and flop as much as she wants in her crib. Kinda.

The great crib escape is something Mommy and I have been dreading for quite awhile. She can't exactly pull herself up yet, and she's barely getting from down to sit as it is, but the way she's developing we just never know when it'll happen. A few nights of waking up to Kaylani whining to get out of her crib, and seeing her tugging on her bumpers trying to either get up or get out was enough to cause us to take action. Tonight, we lowered her crib one more level. Now her mattress is a a good 1.5 feet from the top which means she'll have to work pretty hard to get out. There's only one more level to go. Hopefully our backs won't give out before we get to that next level. So far so good.

Taking care of the worry around flipping and flopping in bed was the easy thing to do. Figuring out what we're going to do with her on the changing table is a completely different story. There, it's not flip, flop, back, belly. Instead it's flip, crawl, bang head on wall, grab edge of table, pull, roll, and try and jump off the 3' ledge. Now repeat that 10 times and you have Kaylani's diaper change routine. No matter how many times we pick her up and put her on her back, she'll immediately flip over and try and make a break for it. In bed? Kinda cute. On a changing table? Not so cute. On a changing table without a diaper? Definitely not cute (okay, still kinda cute, but don't tell Kaylani that).

A few months ago we laughed at our friends Steve and Lisa when they showed us that it took 2 of them to change Aidan's diaper. One of them would hold him by the arms and belly while the other changed his diaper. At the time, it seemed ridiculous that they would need 2 people to overpower their baby. Now, I'm thinking that we need 3 of us, or perhaps a restraining strap attachment for the changing table to keep Kaylani still. Karma sucks.

Kaylani's new diaper change routine is still new enough to us that we're okay avoiding any type of restraining device for the moment, but if she keeps it up, that all might change. After all, safety comes first, and giving her the chance to pull herself off the 3' ledge and onto the ground (or into the garbage can/diaper genie that happens to be on that side of the table) doesn't sound like a good thing. We'll see what happens, but in the meantime, check out these pictures from the last couple of days. Unfortunately none of them are of Kaylani hanging off of the changing table because we can't spare a set of arms for a picture during diaper changing time!

And when you're done checking out those pictures, don't forget to check out Dad-Blogs for the latest installment of Fatherhood Fridays! There's always a great bunch of reads over there to keep you busy for the weekend. You'll love it. Trust me, or your money back!

Here comes trouble

"You never know how good something is until it's gone." Truer words were never spoken (except maybe "God is great, beer's good, and people are crazy"). In our case though, the something that was gone was good that it was gone, but not good that it's gone. Get it?

The something in this case is Kaylani being stationary (as in, not mobile, and not like you know, paper). The good thing about Kaylani no longer being stationary is that she has reached another developmental milestone. The part that we never knew how good Kaylani being stationary was is now gone. We know exactly how good it was to have Kaylani be stationary. That being said, we wouldn't change it for the world, but crawling has brought on some challenges that we weren't exactly ready for.

Kaylani crawling has opened up a whole new world for her. She's able to move around and get her own toys, go explore around the house, and even flip over and check out the different corners in her crib instead of sleep. The flip side is that she gets herself into a lot more trouble now then she could before. Now she can do things like trap Daddy in the closet, grab wires, open drawers, or just bang her head into different things. And for the last 2 weeks, every day she's been getting herself into more and more trouble, with today being the worst (for Mommy).

Mommy found out the hard way that easy tasks aren't easy anymore. For example, trying to make the bed with a crawling baby means that you have to try and finish before Kaylani gets involved. And since Kaylani's a little speed demon now (even though she's still in the army crawl phase), she was able to get from the hallway to the bed in time to grab the sheets, pull on Mommy's leg, or just try and crawl under the bed (and smack her head several times in the process). And all of this was while Mommy was right there watching her.

When she's alone is when she has the chance to get into even more trouble (kinda obvious right?). At one point today, Mommy put Kaylani sitting outside the bathroom for a minute (no need for detail here). Kaylani, having decided that 8 months of sitting outside the bathroom was enough, took off down the hall. So with little options on what to do, Mommy went after Kaylani as quickly as she could and caught her down the hall trying to pull herself up on a bench. Great. Luckily nothing happened to Kaylani, but it did help us out with 3 things.

The first is that Kaylani is independent and quick. That much we knew. The second is that our house isn't remotely close to being childproof. Knew that one too. The third is that Kaylani can't be trusted with even a little bit of freedom yet. Maybe someday in the future she'll be able to act on her own, but now is not the time. I guess 8.5 months is a little too young for her to make her own decisions well. Maybe we'll try again in 30 years. If she's lucky...

Trapped!

I'm not a fan of enclosed spaces. I'm not claustrophobic or anything, just not a fan. I don't hyperventilate in elevators (unless it gets stuck...which has never happened to me thankfully). I even think I'd be okay if I was trapped in an entertainment set for a few hours (Friends anyone? No? Just me?). But this morning, I was feeling trapped. I was boxed in with nowhere to go. And somehow this was all orchestrated by my precious little girl.

It happened around 7:04am this morning. I had just finished taking a shower under the ever watchful eye of Kaylani from her bouncy (there's no such thing as privacy anymore when you have a baby...just ask Mommy) and we were all done in the bathroom. Kaylani came out of the bouncy and I put her on the floor of the bedroom so I could get changed. Then, I opened my closet door (it swings outwards) and stepped in to pick out my outfit. I could hear Kaylani crawling towards me so I stuck my head out. "Peekaboo!" I screamed. She giggled. Back into the closet I went. We did this about 3 more times, but each time I peeked out at her, she was just a little bit closer. And everytime I said "peekaboo!" she'd freeze and giggle. Little did I know she was such a great actress.

When I went back behind the door and into the closet (which is about 5 feet from where Kaylani was) to finish getting ready, she made her move. She started to push the door closed with her little hands. My closet door, having my robe, 3 sweatshirts, and a pair of shorts hanging on hooks inside, closes pretty easily. I mean, I was standing right there so I was able to stop it, but it didn't need to close all the way to trap me in. In fact, it wouldn't even have locked had it shut, but I was still trapped.

Kaylani had crawled directly in front of the door by this point. Not only could I not push open the door without bowling her over, but she was also trying to stick her fingers in between the door and the frame, as well as underneath the door. If I tried to push her with the door then chances were that I would have pinched her fingers at the same time. So here I was, all dressed up and nowhere to go. I decided that waiting for Kaylani to get bored with the possibility of pinching her fingers was going to take too long. Instead, I decided on a plan of action. It was the only thing left that I could do. "Moooommmmmmyyyyyy!!"

That's right, I called for Mommy. She was laying in bed trying to steal an extra 5 minutes of sleep before I left for work, but I had no choice. I mean, I could have waited Kaylani out which would have given Mommy an extra 30 minutes to an hour of sleep, but I didn't like being trapped. After Mommy picked Kaylani up, I stepped out only to see Kaylani smiling and giggling to herself. I swear she winked at me and said "MUAHAHAHAHA" but I can't be sure.

I'd like to think that it was a fluke accident, but it happened again tonight when I got home from work. I stepped into my closet to change out of my clothes and Kaylani sped over to try and trap me again. Luckily this time I kept one foot out of the closet and behind the door so she couldn't get the jump on me. She still tried to pinch her finger between the door, but at least I didn't get trapped.

I'm hoping she grows out of this phase pretty soon. Rushing to get dressed so I can get to work is one thing. Rushing to get dressed while worrying about being locked in the closet is something completely different. Luckily Mommy is always only a scream away.

Christmas in July!

I've been hearing a lot of Christmas in July sales going on lately. Our local Macy's even has inflatable Christmas trees adorning the front of their entrance. I used to think that all of this was just another marketing gimmick, but now, I'm not so sure. It kinda felt like Christmas in July today.

For starters, Kaylani woke up nice and early as if it was Christmas morning and she was too excited to sleep in anymore. The first time she got up was around 11pm, likely because she sensed that Santa was going to touch down on the roof any minute. And instead of just lying there awake, she did what any excited kid trapped in her crib would do...she flopped over on her belly and started crawling around while looking for a way out. After being flipped back over (by Daddy...not Santa) and falling back asleep, she made it all the way until 2am before she was on her belly again. Around 5:30am, she had enough and she was determined to sneak out through the corner of her crib. After being unsuccessful for 30 minutes, she called for Mommy and Daddy to come get her so she could see what Santa brought her.

Fortunately for us (and unfortunately for Kaylani), Santa missed our house last night, so Christmas in July was not going to involve any presents at home. Instead, we packed her up and hit the road at 7am so she could nap (in the car of course) before swim class. After a nice 45 minute nap, and a quick nursing, it was into the pool we went. This time, Kaylani received a present from Daddy...in the form of another underwater dunking. The first one went better than last week, and the 2nd time was definitely much better. We didn't take any video so you'll have to take my word for it...as cruel as it sounds.

Next on our day of activity was Sloan's 2 year birthday party at The Harrison's. This is where it really felt like Christmas in July. Not only did Kaylani get presents from Santa Danika (2 more of Darby/Sloan's toys), but she also got something even better...her first pony ride! After all of the other kids who actually knew what was going on got a turn, Kaylani plopped herself on the pony and went for a walk around the yard. She laughed, she rode, she kept leaning forward to see if the pony would go any faster like her buggy. And to top it all off, she got to play in a sandbox for the very first time too.

But our day didn't end there. During a trip to the mall, Kaylani got a few new outfits from Gymboree, and then at Babies R' Us, she got her next presents in the form of a new pajamas, an inflatable duck bath thing, and the biggest present of all...meat! Yeah, you heard that right. We've decided Kaylani's done enough of the veggies and fruits, and we're moving on to meat. We stocked up on sweet potato chicken, vegetable turkey dinner, and country chicken apple something (can't remember the last one exactly). We also bought a few new foods like pumpkin apple, sweet potato cinnamon, and green bean casserole for good measure because we obviously don't have enough food.

Then we sped home, took Kaylani for a ride in her "broom broom buggy", or "vroom vroom buggy" in English, and finally spent some time at home. For dinner, we cracked into the sweet potato chicken and she ate it all up with little problem (only time will tell what it "looks" like on the way out). Then, Daddy got a little light-headed blowing up the duck bath, and we threw her in that too! She also seemed to like that too, with the only problem being she keeps trying to climb out of the damn duck (no real need to say "damn" there, but it just fit).

Anyways, our long Saturday is finally over and Kaylani is passed out in her crib. Mommy and Daddy are pretty beat too, and lucky have 0 plans for Sunday. Maybe we'll sleep in...or maybe we'll wake up at 6am and hang out with Kaylani all day again. Either way, it's 8pm on a Saturday night which means it's time to get this party started ready for bed. In keeping with the whole Christmas in July thing, here are some pictures from today and the last couple of days for you. Merry Christmas (in July)!

Moving on up!

We've got forward motion! Finally! After months of anticipation, Kaylani is finally on the move. She's not getting anywhere fast yet, but she's definitely mobile, and it's not backwards for a change. The very first time was actually yesterday, but she only scooted about 1 and a half Kaylani's (that's a valid type of measurement right?) during Gymboree class. Mommy credited that movement with the smooth, slippery cushion mats that they have at Gymboree, but it turns out she was just giving a preview for what was to come today.

Around 1:45pm, I got the call that Kaylani was crawling (actually, I got a text to tell me that since I was in a meeting and couldn't answer the phone). Mommy and Kaylani were in the playroom and Kaylani was reaching out for a book. Instead of what she normally does (which is reach and stretch for it as far as she can before spinning around in endless circles and ending up further from it and crying), she scooted over to it. And when she scooted 4 more times towards it (since Mommy kept moving it further away), Mommy broke into tears. We had ourselves a little crawler!

I'm sure you can guess what I did as soon as I got home from work then. I immediately took Kaylani out of the exersaucer where she was watching Mommy cook, and we headed to the playroom. I was really hoping that she would put on a show for me, and luckily she did (unlike when she rolled over for the first and second and third times just for Mommy). Her crawl is pretty damn cute to watch. It's not a full, up on all fours, type of crawl. Instead, it's more like a one leg push and crawl with the other leg in a bent, still position. A few of her movements look fully coordinated between both legs, but most of the time it's like a three legged race, except she only has two.

Anyways, I'm probably not doing it any justice, so check out this video which has a bunch of clips put together of her crawling! She's certainly not the most graceful crawler yet, but she's definitely the cutest in my book! Oh, and happy Fatherhood Friday! Don't forget to check out Dad-Blogs for some great posts!

Baby's Got Back...wards movement

Remember a few weeks ago when I told you I thought Kaylani was going to go mobile any day now? Well, I was wrong. It wasn't any day then, but it is going to be any day now. Over the past few days, she's been getting her move on more and more. It's definitely a step in the right direction, even if it's in the wrong direction.

We've had our run of Kaylani accomplishing milestones on her birthday, and today, being her 7 month birthday, we thought we might get a forward crawl out of her. And tonight I thought I might have seen a small inchworm crawl/lunge forward, but I don't think we'll count it as her first official crawl. However, Mommy did get to witness a good backward crawling exhibition put on by Kaylani this afternoon.

Today was Kaylani and Mommy's first Play & Learn class at Gymboree. It's a fun filled class that she's taking with 2 of her friends, Aadi and Aidan, where they "learn about cause and effect and build strength through play with ramps, slides and climbers." So while Kaylani's not exactly crawling herself, she is around a bunch of people who can crawl and is learning more and more each day. As proof of her development, she made an approximate 10 foot dash backwards in a flash. We're convinced that any day now she'll shift out of reverse (unlike Tommy's Saab which was stuck in reverse permanently) and hit the ground crawling.

We're ready for her to get crawling because it's the next milestone she can acheive, and a gateway to so many more. On the flip side, baby gone mobile brings on a whole new set of challenges, like the fact that she won't be where we left her, and that our house isn't mobile baby proof yet. Oh well, we'll worry about that when we get there. For now, we're just going to celebrate another month gone by and another month to come. Celebrate along by checking out these pictures from today! Happy 7 Month Birthday Kaylani!

Little Skydiver

I feel like Kaylani is on the verge of becoming mobile. I'm not 100% certain and I'm probably closer to 100% wrong, but I just have a feeling like she's about to move. Maybe she's not going to go into a 4 point crawl, but maybe, just maybe she'll do an army crawl, or a scoot (forward or backward...doesn't matter to us). Every day she just seems to get that much closer.

For example, this morning she pushed herself up in the air by extending her arms fully while she was laying on her belly. And the other day, she was kicking her legs out like a little frog after she fell over on one of our stuffed bears. But so far, she hasn't moved an inch (other than side to side). What's funny about watching her try and move is that more often than not, she does the opposite of move.

The opposite of move is obviously to stay still. And when you're laying on your belly, one way to stay still is to get all your limbs in the air so you balance right on your belly. And whenever she does that, she looks like she's skydiving. It's one of the funnier things she does because it really is the opposite of move. Not only is she not going towards (or away from) her toy, but she's in the same exact spot wobbling around on her belly.

If I could get her to do this with a backpack on, you'd see it even more. Sometimes her arm flails around like she's reaching around for the ripcord, but usually she's just in her freefall mode. We were pretty lucky to be able to grab a few pictures of her in this pose, so check them out in addition to the last couple of days. As for us, we're off to Baltimore for the weekend. Enjoy the long weekend, but don't forget to check back in! We'll be live from Baltimore from the next few days. Or as live as a blog can get at least. Oh, and if you're here for Fatherhood Friday, read the next post down. I cheated and posted yesterday. But Happy Fatherhood Friday!

What's Next?

Kaylani slept 10 hours straight last night. It was the first time in over a week that she had slept more than 5 hours straight, and more often then not, it was closer to 3 hours of sleep at a time. Needless to say that 10 hours was much appreciated by both Mommy and Daddy. What's interesting about it is that Kaylani had been sleeping 10-12 hours at a time for a 2 week period before this recent one bad week of sleep. So is it back? Is she back to sleeping 10-12 hours at a time? Or more importantly, what happened last week?

We had a lot of speculation around what caused Kaylani to wake up every 3-5 hours last week. The ideas ranged from the family we had in town, to the change in weather making it too warm for her to sleep (or cold with the A/C on), and even to the possibility that she was hungry and going through her 6 month growth spurt a bit early. Personally, I think it was the 6 month growth spurt early that was the reason, but I learned something a bit new today.

Apparently the week of non-sleep could be a sign that Kaylani is about to do something new. Her mind may be so filled with the things that she's learned that she can't sleep at night and she wakes up often to try and put it all together. If that's actually the case, then I can't blame her for waking up because Daddy is the same exact way. If there's something on my mind I can pretty much just forget about sleeping. But the question is, what's next?

I'm extremely curious to find out what it is Kaylani is about to do for us. Could it be sitting up all by herself (since her friend Aadi just mastered this skill himself after a period of sleeplessness as well)? Could it be crawling (doubtful even though she does kick like a frog sometimes while she's on her belly)? Could it be walking (unlikely although she does have really strong legs in our opinion)? Could it be her first tooth (which should be sometime in the near future)? Or could it be getting ready for her first word (which hopefully is Papa)?

Whatever it is, we're ready. Our Pediatrician may have better answers for us at Kaylani's 6 month appointment tomorrow, or maybe she'll just agree with our list of things that may or may not be next. Or then again, maybe she'll just stick Kaylani with 2-3 needles and collect our copay from us. Either way, at least I'll have an official updated height and weight to throw up on the Stat Tracker. Stay tuned for that, and much much more here on "The Daddy Diaries."