Going, going, gone!!!

Kylie has been so close to rolling over these last few weeks and yesterday, it happened! She rolled from her back all the way over to her tummy by herself. Now that she has it figured out, she does it ALL THE TIME! I find her more often then not in her bed on her tummy when I orginally placed her on her back. I have to admit this makes me nervous! But I guess this is just the first part of being a parent and learning to let go. She has yet to go from her tummy to back but I'm sure that will soon follow.

Some other things that we have learned about Kylie is that any time she starts trying to rip her ears off, she is telling us she is unhappy. She has a few favorite toys that she loves to chew and suck on. One is still her smiley faced sun that hangs from her playmat. Another is her elephant with crinkly ears. She also really enjoys her gifts from Easter, yellow rub duckies and a little carebear dressed up like a duck. She has started to show more interest in bigger toys such as her musical stacker and her doll. She loves sitting facing her doll and talking to her. It very entertaining! I will try to post some videos and pictures soon as she is almost 4 months!

Photo Album: More photos from April

So Cute!

Kylie sucked her thumb for the first time today! She did it twice for a minute or so each time. It was so cute!!

Leaps and Bounds

Our little Kylie is well into her 3rd month. She was been changing noticeably daily this last week. On Monday she learned and mastered how to pull the ring that dangles from her bouncer. That first morning, she pulled it for twenty minutes straight before she got tired of it! Every time she pulls it, it sings and makes her smile a huge grin. On the tray of her swing there are a few toys that she now immediately bates with her hands every time she is placed in there. Before she would just stare at them.



Around the middle of last week we were very amused to see her throwing her legs straight up into the air. Little did we know that it was leading to her trying to roll over. She isn't there quite yet but she is clearly well on her way. She has started to drool like crazy. She is attempts to clean up after herself by stuffing her burp clothes in her mouth constantly. It is amazing to see her now pick up her toys, hold on to them, and them bring them up to her mouth. She even grabs at our faces and tries to give big wet kisses!



She picked out her first toy at the store the other week. I held a variety of toys up for her to see and when I picked up this little purple elephant and crinkled its ears, she was totally enthralled with it. She loves to suck on its truck and any time someone crinkles its ears, she stares and stares at it. She is very vocal now - we have great conversations! She loves it when Karl pretends to eat her tummy like she is a watermelon. It actually makes her chuckle and giggle! I can't believe how fast she is growing. She is going to be sitting up by herself and crawling all over the place before I know it! She has such a sweet and fun personality. She is a joy to have at home.

Party Time

Okay, so I've been so busy attending parties, throwing parties, preparing, and getting ready for various get togethers that I haven't had time to share the fun moments and great memories that have been made. It felt like Christmas time all over again!

It all started in Morgan Hill. There was a great big bash at Grandpa Wilson's house with 7 of his 9 kids and their families. We hunted for eggs, took the kids swimming, played volleyball in the pool, there was football and badminton, and of course delicious food and barbecue. The kids were all over the playground, up on the hill, and really enjoying seeing their cousins. It had been a while for us siblings since we had seen one another so we talked and talked, catching up and laughing about old times. It was so much fun! I'm so glad everyone was able to fly/drive out to share another great Easter at the Wilson's.
Photo Album: Easter at the Wilson's

The following week entailed of preparing my own Easter party and in the midst of it visiting Manteca to see good'ole Danicia and Ryan. I had a crazy time driving kids around to karate, cleaning, buying and preparing food, staying up all night to make sugar cookies and taking care of the baby. All the run around was worth it. Friday came and I was ready to hit the road with all the kids. Stephen went to his mom's for the weekend and Natalie spent the day with her dad's family, then the night with Aunt Leah. She was spoiled rotten! I got some great visiting hours in with Danicia. We had dinner with her friend Mel's family - they were a blast to be with! Then I drove back home with just the baby and stayed up all night watching our favorite TV shows with Karl.

Saturday started way too early with a secret mission for a special person. (Details to be released at a later time..) It wasn't until noon that I was able to focus and get food going for lunch and the house ready to receive our crowd. Grandma and Grandpa Root brought Natalie back home with them as well as my favorite dessert! Aunt Deana and her family brought turkey and other very yummy food. After stuffing our faces with enough food for double the number we had, we went outside and watched the kids find Easter eggs. Then we got out a bubble maker and Karl made hundreds of bubbles with a huge bubble wand - it was crazy! The kids loved it. Once the Roots had to leave things seemed to wind down. Then the Booher's showed up and we were ready for round two! We broke out Settlers, our favorite game, and played for the next few hours while polishing off the rest of the food. Congrats to Jon as he ended up winning though not far behind was Karl and well everyone but me. I ended up with only the two points I started with! We will definitely have a rematch.
Photo Album: Easter at the Albrecht's

The next morning, after opening Easter baskets, our family hit the road again and traveled down to Los Altos to see Grandma and Grandpa Bajada and all of Karl's siblings for their Easter get together. We had lunch at a very yummy Chinese restaurant. Sadly, I spent most of the time in the bathroom feeding and changing the baby. It was great to see everyone though, we really miss being closer to them and getting together more often. On the way home we stopped in Manteca to pick up Stephen and kicked back at Applebee's for dinner. Lots of driving but we all had a good time spending time together and visiting everyone we could for the holiday. Whew, I think that was the jist of all of it. I would like to thank my husband, Karl, for taking the time out of his busy schedule to hang pictures and help host our friends and family. He also did most of the driving and still made time to help with the baby so I could try to catch up on my zzz's. Big thanks to Natalie and Kylie for being such awesome travelers. Of course the biggest thanks goes to all who came together for such a special holiday to make this year's Easter another great page in our family's book of memories. Thank you and good night.

Here Kitty, Kitty

This last winter, as I was setting up the baby's nursery, I happened to look out the window. I saw a little calico cat on top of one of our garage cans. It was ripping a garbage bag open from the neighboring can. I felt so bad that the poor little kitty was so hungry it had to eat garbage. So I ran down to the garage and got some of our cat food and put it outside in front of the garbage cans. The kitty ran away when it heard me coming so I went back into the house and watched from the nursery window. I didn't see any sign of the cat but later that day I checked the found the food bowl empty.

I set out food for the next week and keeping an eye open to see if I could catch a glimpse of the calico. Any time I would, I would tell everyone who was at home and we would all crane to see out the kitchen window to watch what the cat would do. Any time we opened the back door, the cat would dash away. A few times, it would come into the yard while I was filling the food bowl and it would just freeze, frozen in seemly fear.

After a while I moved the bowl to our back patio so it would be easier to watch whether the kitty was eating, and easier for me to feed it in the cold rainy weather. It quickly became routine for us to see the cat come onto the patio. We would reward it by bring it food and Karl would always treat it with some turkey. We would get so worried when the little kitty wouldn't show up for days in a row.

Once spring, came more than just our cute little Cali was partaking of the free food. There was a big fat orange cat, what looked like his brother but grey, and a loud collared white and black cat. Now it's one thing to help out a little kitty that seems to be struggling to find food and a home, it's another to be feeding the whole neighborhood.

We have now adopted this little kitty, calling her (might be a him) Cali. She comes very morning and multiple times a day, snacking on food and even lounges on the patio or gives herself a bath. We can now walk onto the patio with her without her dashing off. Though if we get more than three feet close to her she will start to get nervous and growl or arch her back. Sometimes she peers through the windows in doors at us and I wonder what she is thinking. Does she wonder what we are doing? what it would be like to come in? Or is she watching to see how we treat each other, wondering if we can be trusted to treat her as well? With our own family cat passing this winter, we hope that our attentions and love can go to this lonely kitty, Cali if she would only learned to let us into her circle of trust.