Santa came and visited both Kaitlynn & Willa Grace on the 23rd - sometime around midnight I'm sure! Before heading to Hayesville, we spent some time with our girls celebrating Christmas and opening gifts from Santa. He must have known that we would be out of town Christmas Eve! Christmas Eve morning was very relaxing and we enjoyed our first Christmas at home with our girls.
Kaitlynn opening her stocking from Santa!
Willa Grace's stocking from Santa!
Kaitlynn opening her present from Santa!
She got the Little People Nativity Set!
Willa Grace got lots of treats from Santa this year!
Our Family - Christmas 2009
After spending time together Christmas Eve morning, we headed to Hayesville, NC to spend time with the Crawford & McClures for Christmas. It was great seeing everyone and being able to catch up! Our visits into town are usually spent with immediate family, so it was nice seeing some of Kelly's extended family. Our time in Hayesville was quite busy, but a lot of fun. Christmas Eve was spent with the Penlands - dinner & Chinese Christmas. Always such a wild & crazy night with everyone, but filled with laughter.
LEFT: Nanny Crawford.............. RIGHT: Keith, Kelly, & Uncle Mike
LEFT: Kristen & Morgan.................... RIGHT: Kelly & Madison
LEFT: Kelly & Kevin......................... RIGHT: Willa Grace & Molly
LEFT: Pastor Jacob, Jason, & Brady.......... RIGHT: Chinese Christmas swap
Christmas Day was just as busy! It was nice being able to relax at Keith & Donna's in the morning before the busy day began. At lunch, we headed to Mike & Lori's house for lunch with the McClures - Donna's extended family. The food was amazing as always, and the company was great too! There were so many people there that met Kaitlynn for the first time. She was definitely a hit :) After lunch, we headed back to the house to have Christmas with the family - Keith, Donna, Kevin, Kelly, Madison, Morgan, Shea, Kristin, Kelly, Kaitlynn & I. Whew.... lots of names :) We spent the afternoon opening gifts and enjoying being together. Kaitlynn slept for a while, but was awake long enough to open a gift or two!
3 Generations: Keith & Donna, Kelly, Kaitlynn
Our precious family - Kelly, Kristen, & Kaitlynn (absent: Willa Grace)
Morgan & Madison - Ready to open presents!
LEFT: Kristen & Kelly......................... RIGHT: Kristin & Shea
Our girls opening their gifts!
Christmas night in Hayesville is always spent at Nanny Crawford's house - Keith's mom - everyone headed up there around 6:30pm, but I stayed at the house with Kaitlynn. Christmas Day absolutely wore Kaitlynn out, especially after just getting over her sickness. Kelly and I made the decision to keep Kaitlynn home. I told Kelly to head on over to Nanny's house and I stayed home while Kaitlynn went to bed. It was interesting being home alone on Christmas night - first time, but it was the best thing for Kaitlynn. I turned on a lifetime movie and enjoyed a glass of red wine - not such a bad evening after all :) Saturday morning rolled around and the Christmas holiday was gone! It's amazing how much time is spend preparing for Christmas, and how quickly it passes. I wish it lasted longer. Kelly, Kaitlynn, Willa Grace and I spent Saturday morning relaxing at the house. Before heading home, Donna fixed us a wonderful lunch!! Thank you!
Once we made it home Saturday afternoon, all of us crashed. Kaitlynn slept on the way home, so we let her play for a couple hours while we unpacked everything. Once we got her down for a nap around 4:00pm, we laid down on the couch ourselves - Willa made herself comfortable and laid on top of both Kelly and I. Kelly slept in on Sunday morning, so I spent some time with Kaitlynn playing with a lot of her new toys, and having some tummy time! We also spent some time at my dad & Zully's house on Sunday. Zully cooked lunch for us - pork tenderloin (my favorite!), and home-made chicken noodle soup! YUM! It was wonderful being able to spend time with them. This was Zully's first time meeting Kaitlynn. She has been very busy with work, traveling for work, and the holidays that we were finally able to have our paths meet! Kaitlynn enjoyed meeting Zully - lots of laughs and smiles :)
Tummy time! No interest in pushing up on her arms yet.
Zully, Grandpa Watson & Kaitlynn
My mom came into town Monday afternoon to spend a couple days here in Atlanta. Once Kaitlynn woke up from her 2nd nap, we headed to Cumberland Mall to do some shopping! I haven't been shopping with Kaitlynn yet, and I probably won't if it's just her and I. It's tough shopping with a 4-month old, but with my mom in town - it made it a lot easier. Monday night was extremely special for Kelly and I. We hadn't been able to spend any quality time together over the holidays, so we went out to dinner after putting Kaitlynn to bed. My mom stayed at the house for us in case Kaitlynn decided to wake up! Kelly made reservations earlier in the day for Chops. It was one of the best steaks I have had in a very long time! The entire experience and time spent with Kelly was wonderful.
Before heading out for our dinner date at Chops!
Don't I have one very handsome husband?? I sure think so! :)
Mom helping me de-lint Kelly's peacoat!! Had to get a picture....
Between Kaitlynn's 3 naps on Tuesday, mom and I were able to take down all of our Christmas decorations and get them put away. I miss having the beautiful decorations & lights up around our home, but it's nice to get things back into some sort of order! Kaitlynn had her 4-month well visit with Dr. Smail today as well. We took her last week for her re-check from her previous illness, but had to come back again for her well visit. In one week her stats have changed:
12-23-09
Weight: 11 lbs. 12 oz.
Length: 23.75 in.
12-29-09
Weight: 12 lbs. 4 oz.
Length: 24in.
We were so happy to find out that she had gained 1/2 pound in a week. While she was sick, we could barely get Kaitlynn to take 2 oz. per feeding. She is finally back to taking 3.5 - 4.0 oz. per feeding! She is also only waking up once right now (around 2:30am) for a feeding. She should be sleeping 10-11 hours straight again sometime soon!! While we were at the PED, Dr. Smail said she checked out great and was right on target for her developments. We are in the clear to start solids, but we were told to wait closer to 5 months if possible. We are definitely in no hurry to introduce baby food just quite yet since we're still working on Kaitlynn taking 4oz. of formula! We'll start her on rice cereal in the next month or so, then move into the Stage 1 foods. Should be an exciting change!! With her 4-month well visit also came her 4-month shots. My poor baby cried & screamed during her 4 shots in both legs. I held her hands while the nurse gave the shots to her. It's tough watching our daughter be so uncomfortable and having to wait to console her. Thankfully round 2 of her shots did not affect her.
Good Morning!! Wide-eyed and ready to play at 6:30am!
Time with daddy in the morning before he leaves for work!
Last minute Christmas photos of Nana Watson & Kaitlynn
Before heading to the doctor! I think Kaitlynn new about the shots....
Playtime at the PED office!
Our daughter is growing up so quickly! Oh how we wish time would slow down, but we're so excited each time we see Kaitlynn learn something new or figure out how to do something herself. She loves playing with her feet these days, and keeping them high up in the air. She is rolling onto both of her sides, but hasn't rolled over onto her tummy just quite yet. She still puts everything into her mouth, which the PED said could be stage 1 of teething - breaking through the bone! How exciting - we cannot wait to see our daughter with teeth :) When Kaitlynn is laying on a blanket on the floor, she will use her legs to turn herself in a circle! It's pretty cute to watch. We've started working on tummy time a lot more now, but Kaitlynn enjoys just laying on her stomach. She shows no interest in lifting herself up quite yet, so we have to do it for her :) We figure, the more we help her & introduce her to the use of her arms, the faster she might pick up on the idea! We'll see! She is still talking up a storm and laughing a lot these days..... we are going to have one talker on our hands as time goes on!
Kaitlynn is slowly moving from three naps a day to two naps per day! Our PED told us to watch for signs that Kaitlynn would be ready for only two long naps instead of three shorter naps. For a while now, Kaitlynn has been taking a morning nap around 7:30am, a lunch nap around 11:00am, and an afternoon nap around 3:00pm. Lately, the time between naps has increased from 1.5 hours to 2 hours to even 3 hours! We have tried putting Kaitlynn down some days after 2 hours of wake time, but she just isn't ready for a nap - but by 3 hours it's definitely time. Today - Wednesday - is the first day she has only taken 2 naps! She woke up at 6:00am, and had no interest in sleeping again until 8:30am! She went down very easily and slept for three hours. After her morning nap, I attempted to keep her awake for 2.5 - 3.0 hours! She ended up doing well, and went down for her afternoon nap (#2) at 2:15pm for two hours! Kelly and I spent Wednesday evening putting together one of Kaitlynn's new toys - her Exersaucer. Kaitlynn wasn't too much a fan - she has great head support with Kelly & I, but when she doesn't have any back support, her head support lacks as well. After our 1st attempt with it, I remembered that Dr. Smail told us that most babies are not sitting with support until around 6 months of age. We'll try the Exersaucer with Kaitlynn again in about a month or so! At least one thing has been put together :)
Playtime after Kaitlynn's morning nap!
Super Seat time!
Christmas gift from 'Aunt' Mary!
Trying out the Exersaucer from Nana & Papa. Kaitlynn doesn't have enough back
support to enjoy this yet, so we're waiting another month or so before using
it again!
LEFT: playing with a toy from Nana Watson............. RIGHT: lots of smiles!
As the New Year rings in, Kelly and I are so blessed to have our family of 4 that God has blessed us with. We couldn't imagine our life without Kaitlynn or Willa Grace! It's hard to believe that we welcomed our daughter into this world over 4 months ago! Time does go by so quickly and we're doing our best to soak in every moment with each other, our daughter, Willa Grace, our families & close friends! We're thankful for what each of you mean to us.
Happy New Year - Welcome 2010!!
