8 Months

8 month stats for Kalea:

27.25  inches, 16 pounds, 10 ounces.

Her numbers are pretty close to last month, but she is still growing like crazy.  

She is now sitting up without any support pretty much all of the time.  She is so close to crawling, but not quite there yet.  She has managed to scoot backwards, but not much.  

She has really become aware of lots of things going on around her.  Like I said in a previous post, she has a huge smile on her face when she hears either of us come in the door.  She also has started to watch for us to return when we leave the room.  

We love to make her laugh, it is one of our favorite parts of the day.  She loves to be startled so we duck behind the couch or her crib and then pop up and say "Boo!"  She shakes and then breaks out in hysterics.  She has started to catch on a bit though and now tries to look to where we went.  

Another game we love to play is with a light blanket.  We lightly toss it over her head and ask "Where's the Baby?"  She pulls the blanket off of her with a big smile as we shout "There she is!"  

Needless to say, we are enjoying life with our fun-loving, happy baby.  

And now for the pictures from earlier today.  Enjoy!  

More pics, plus some firsts

For the last few weeks, I have enjoyed coming home to a big smile from my baby as soon as she sees me.  Today, not only did I get that smile, but it was from our big girl sitting on her own next to her dad on the couch.  She heard the door open and immediately had a big smile on her face as she saw me come in the house.  You could tell she was really excited to see me, which is such a wonderful thing to come home to. 

We have had a few "firsts" during this last month, and she has handled them like a trooper.  Back on August 2nd, her first tooth finally popped through.  She has been sucking on her lower lip a lot of the time ever since.  

Another first for her has been her first cold.  She started with a rough cough, but it was only when she cried really hard or laughed really hard.  We were able to take her to the doctor, just in case, and we were told that she was just going to have to ride it out.  She was obviously not her usual cheery self; she was fussy and wanted to be held constantly (we didn't mind that part one bit!)  Luckily, we only had one tough night where she kept waking up.  I ended up sleeping with her in her room so that Pat could get some sleep.  By the time I returned home from work the next day, she was feeling much better and pretty much back to normal.  We were very lucky with her first cold since the doctor said it could take up to 2 weeks for her to be fully recovered.

Now on to some pictures.  I keep trying to share just a few for a quick post, but by the time I get a chance to share some, I have a whole bunch I want to put up....sorry!

Here are my two loves snoozing away together on the floor.

The day her tooth popped through, I took these next few pictures.  Looking at this shot, it is very difficult to see, but it is there on the right side of her front tooth.  Please excuse the food on her face...we had just finished feeding her carrots and I missed a few spots during clean-up.

Mommy and baby celebrating the tooth coming through.

Here is another shot of her enjoying her food, I think today it was peas.

She has moved up to her duck bathtub from her usual bath lounger.  She loves the quacks that the tub makes.

Wearing her Daddy's Phillies hat

Story time!  Pat is reading "The Hobbit" for the first time, and decided to share it with Kalea.

I figured it was time for another photo comparison.  Here is Kalea the day she was born with the red beanie the hospital provided.

And here she is wearing the same hat just a few days shy of 8 months old!  We did a cleaning up of her clothes that no longer fit, storing them away for the potential next baby.  It was time to "retire" this hat so I decided to put it on her and snap this shot before it was stored away.  My little baby isn't so little any more. 

 As sentimental as I get with every "retired" outfit; there is the positive side of bringing out her new outfits that now fit.  With this last cleaning, I found probably almost 20 new onesies she can now fit in.  Here is one of her "new" outfits as she sits on her "big girl" quilt that will be hers when she grows up. 

Hanging out with her stuffed animals while we clean up her room.

 And lastly, a couple of pictures from earlier today.  I was trying to get a good shot of her solo tooth, before another pops through.  It took awhile, and I did get this cute shot before a successful tooth one was taken.

 Here is the tooth!  Only 2 more days until she is 8 months old...I humbly request for time to please slow down.

Comic Con, 2012

About a month ago in July, Pat and I spent a few days in San Diego to attend Comic-Con.  This was our second year attending and we had a great time.  It is very crowded and a bit overwhelming, but despite that, we manage to have a good time.  Pat went all four days, I only went Friday and Sunday.  

Friday is typically the big TV day, so of course we had a bunch of tv panels we wanted to watch.  The big panel room to be in is known as Hall H, which seats about 6500 people.  On this day, the room had 3 great shows back to back to back.  The Big Bang Theory, followed by Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead.  We ended up getting in line at about 7:30 in the morning.  Even though the first panel we wanted to see didn't start until around 12, we ended up never making it into the room.  It seems many thousands of people in line before us had the same plan to stay for all of the panels, so the line never moved again once the room was initially filled.

While in line, we did get to see an actor from Game of Thrones.  He was schmoozing with the crowd and had a camera crew with him.  He plays "Hodor" for those of you who watch the show.

Once our day in line was over, it was time to hit the exhibit hall for some great comic geekdom.  Pat in front of the Bat-cycle. 

 Gollum looks a little weary of me...hmmm.

We came upon 3 giant stone trolls 

 And we saw Chewbacca without a head...

 Followed by a green droid.  Not sure of his official name since this is not R2-D2...

An anime Homer Simpson 

 Pat and I in front of the Iron Man 3 booth...complete with many different versions of the Iron Man suit.  We are now onto Sunday.  By this time I had already watched a few panels in Hall H with my best friend, Andrea.  We saw "Fringe," "Supernatural," and "Doctor Who."  Pat wasn't really into seeing any of those, so he spent his time buying and reading comics.  The rest of the day Pat and I walked through the exhibit hall since we hadn't really spent too much time doing it on Friday.

 A look at the craziness of the Exhibit Hall...it is very tiring to get through the craziness, which is why I like spending most of my time in the panels.  

 I don't think this one needs any explanation.

One of the walls had an area where people could decorate with lego's however they wanted.  I took this shot of the TARDIS for Andrea, since she loves "Doctor Who." 

 The Lego booth had a cool activity for everyone where you got to put together your own square that was color-coded and then it would be put into the wall to create a picture.  Here is my finished piece...

 And the spot it is going to be placed in.  My spot is the opening along the top second from the left.

 We got to see Night Rider...

 And Mattel's "new" Hover Board

Outside the exhibit hall they had a special display of all of the Bat-mobiles.  It was pretty cool to see them all in person.  Pat really loved it... 

 He got to touch the wheel!  

 Val Kilmer edition...

 Finished off with the classic Adam West edition.  They also had the Michael Keaton and George Clooney editions on display.  All-in-all we had a great time.  We already bought tickets to go for Saturday only next year.  Saturday is the big Movie day.  Pat loved that day best, he got to see some pretty awesome sneak-peeks including The Hobbit, Superman, Iron Man 3, and many others.  Looking forward to next year!

A shower for my future sister-in-law

Since it is only about 10 days until my brother's wedding, I figured I should try and share some of the pre-wedding festivities that have taken place.  The bachelorette party was really fun, but you know how the saying goes...let's just say we had a blast in Vegas.

A few weeks ago the sisters and mothers through the bride-to-be a bridal shower.  It was really fun planning the event, we especially enjoyed the trial run of our cocktail idea found on pinterest.  Popsicles in champagne!  They were so good!

 We loved using all of my moms teapots as floral centerpieces.  The dresses are the favor filled with m&m's.  

 Here is the bride with her mother, grandmother, and nephew.

 Some more decorations.

 Delicious cupcakes.  Strawberry lime for one and raspberry champagne for the other.  They were so good!  By the way, my wonderfully creative mom made the cupcake stands herself.  I love her creativity.

 I know shower games are loved by some and hated by others, but I personally enjoy them.  I like new versions of games or doing something unique.  For this shower, we decided to have a memory game with a "Newlywed Survival Kit."  Some of the items were practical, others comical, and some related specifically to John & Kristin.  I will leave it to you to figure out which is which!

 The guests trying to remember what was on that tray.  It was pretty funny hearing what some people said during this part and while the tray was shown around the room.  I won't name names, but someone in the room said about KY, "oh, that is why I had no idea what it was."  It was pretty funny, yet uncomfortable at the same time.  

I love this picture because without even trying, I was able to get the Bride in the shot.  Try and figure out where she is if you can.

 More of the guests.  I love my Grandma...she is so cute!

 The bride and her friend, Erin.

 Jacque all smiles for the camera.

 There is a tradition on my moms side of the family for women in the family to make a cross-stitch square.  My Grandma then incorporates it into a beautiful quilt.  She decided to make John and Kristin a big one for their bed.  This is the best shot we could get at the time since it was so big.  The square I made is on the top right of the quilt.

 Here is the bridal party all together for the first time!  Can't wait for the big day!