Kyllan, Laurel, and I had a great Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures. To make up for it, here are some pictures we took at the Dallas Arboretum the week before.
The Arboretum
Category: Family
Eat… Eat…. Eat!!!
I don’t know where to begin with an update on what Laurel has been up to, but let’s start with food.
Eat… Eat…Eat….
William and I hear those words all day long. I think Laurel eats more than William and I combined…seriously. How she is only in the 40th percentile with her weight is beyond me. Don’t I wish I had her metabolism! Laurel will eat pretty much anything, but her favorites are probably waffles and bread. She loves her carbs! She does eat most fruits and veggies too and has recently become a fan of bananas and strawberries.
Words…
Laurel is starting to say a few more words and is learning basic vocabulary like the sounds animals make. Her favorite animal has to be a duck. That seemed to be one of her first words. She can also say cow and dog and make their respective sounds. She cannot say horse, but she knows the horse says “neigh… neigh”. She knows her body parts and loves blinking her eyes when we ask where her eyes are :-). She also knows basics like mommy, daddy, baby, ball, milk, etc.. My favorite thing is when we read her alphabet book and we get to “i is for ice cream” and she says, “yum yum yum”. I’m telling you, the girl LOVES food. She has only had ice cream twice, but if it looks like edible… she likes it.
At daycare, she seems to enjoy reading time, music time, and outdoor time. Oh… and of course all meals 🙂 They comment on her ability to sign words and “more” is her favorite word to sign.
Well… I am running out of steam, but as you can probably tell, Laurel is staying busy. William has been begging me to post for weeks, but I can never type just one or two sentences and seem to write novels every time I make a post, but I think I will stop to keep from boring everyone.
We recently took a trip to the Dallas Arboretum to visit the pumpkin patch and see the Chihuly exhibit, so we’ll post those photos soon.
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TCI Photos
Pictures from our recent trip to Turks & Caicos are up on Flickr.
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Vacations
Earlier this month Kyllan took a girlcation with some old college friends and left me and Laurel all alone in Dallas. I won’t name any of the people that seemed overly concerned, but I did let them know that Laurel and I had a great time by ourselves. (I have been a parent just as long as Kyllan has!) There were trips to the park in her wagon, running errands with daddy, free photos, and lots of being tossed in the air.
We took a family trip to Turks & Caicos this past week. A return to the country we honeymooned in for Kyllan and me, the first trip for the Cody parents and Laurel’s very first trip to the beach. We had a great time and the beach was just amazing as we remembered. The fall semester beings next week, and I am incredibly busy right now, so I might not get around to uploading pictures and video to the blog until early next week. Maybe sooner.
Below is a picture of Laurel taken at the photography studio at Buy Buy Baby. The photographer was training someone and has no babies to take pictures of, so he offered me free photos if I let her take some of Laurel. You can see the progress of her scar from “the incident” healing.
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Laurel’s ACTUAL birthday
After celebrating Laurel’s birthday with a party on July 21st, we did also take the time on her actual BIRTHDAY of July 24th to celebrate with her. We enjoyed an afternoon at the Dallas World Aquarium and came home to cake and gifts! Laurel seemed to be in complete amazement at the moving creatures we saw at the Aquarium. She barely said a word. I think her senses were overwhelmed! Below are a few photos and as usual, more photos are on William’s Flickr page.
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1st Birthday Party
This past Saturday Kyllan and I held a party for Laurel’s first birthday. There was cake, balloons, presents, and a beautiful 1 year old girl. We had a wonderful time celebrating the occasion with friends and family at out home. Laurel had a great time too, up until the “incident.” Laurel is okay now. During the party a young guest was giving Laurel a hug when one of the two girls tripped. When they feel over Laurel hit her forehead on the entertainment center. There was a lot of blood. One of the things I learned when I became a farther was that there existed an entire range of human emotion that I had not yet experienced. For the most part these new emotional experiences have been that of joy and wonder. This was fear. It was Laurel’s first injury and while she may have quickly recovered, her mother and I did not. It was traumatic…
During a unscheduled 1 hour intermission we started discussing the items going into Laurel’s time capsule. When she emerged from her room we tried to give Laurel her first piece of cake, but she, understandably, was not in the mood. We moved on to presents and Laurel slowly begun to perk back up. By the end of the evening she was back to her old self and even gave the cake another try.
There are several photos from the party on my flickr. A large band-aid does appear in the middle of the set.
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One Year Old
Dear Laurel,
I can’t believe that you turned one year old Tuesday. This past Saturday we threw your first birthday party. I am sure the stories will be told in the Cody house for years to come. Seriously… Our trip to the aquarium on Tuesday, for your actual birthday, went much closer to plan. (I will post on the party, the “incident”, and the aquarium later, as well as post pictures.)
Your mother and I cannot believe how much you have grown over the past month. It is like you change just as much during your 12th month as you did months 1- 11 combined. We blinked and your helmet was gone, your ears were pierced, your first two teeth came in, you out grew the infant car seat, and you went from stumbling to take a few steps to walking around the house with ease. Also, you manage to grow cuter every day. It’s amazing.
You have added “Uh-oh” to your vocabulary, which previously consisted of “mama”, “dada” and your favorite snack, “mum mum.” Well, we think you are saying “mama” and “dada.” You are definitely saying “mum mum” and “uh-oh.” You continue to show a love for music and books. Earlier this month I had to move your crib after hearing crashing sounds one night, only to look at the baby monitor to see that you had reached over the side of your crib and grabbed a book from the shelf. Your mother and I sat half puzzled half amazed as we watched you turn page after as if you were reading it. You taking books and turning pages one by one has become quite common, as well as you babbling as if you were reading the story out loud. You seem to really be enjoying my children’s soundtrack playlist, being partial to the Sound of Music and anything sung by Julie Andrews in general. You grabbed hold of a big bird stuffed animal while at the store the other day. You appear to be fond of it. It is the first stuffed toy you have really shown a preference for. There was a stuffed elephant when you were a few months old, but I think you only liked the crinkly sound his ears made. Maybe if we put the two together they can be Big Bird and Snuffaluffagus.
Your favorite things at 1 year are:
- Pretending to read
- Waving bye-bye
- Walking all around the house
- Crushing cheerios with your sippy cup
- Cuddling
- People watching
Thank you for an amazing year. I will treasure these memories always.
Love,
Dad
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Finally!
Finally! After months and months, this Friday the day finally arrived. Laurel has completed her cranial band treatment. No more helmet! That things has been acting like a cuteness reducer on my beautiful baby’s head for what feels like forever. We can now give her kisses on the forehead, place bows in her hair and hug her without reviving a headbutt! After only 72 hours, I honestly can’t even tell you where the band is. I think Kyllan hid it. Leading up to the final appointment I was threatening to melt it down, but she wants to hold on to it for sentimental reasons. We took some family photos without the band to celebrate the occasion. You can find them on my Flickr. The ones below have quickly grown to become two of my favorite photos.
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Father’s Day
I thought someone else was going to make this post…
A week and a half ago I celebrated my first father’s day as a dad. It was odd. It felt like I was celebrating someone else’s birthday. It had always been a day about other people, and specifically not about me. Still, any excuse to dress Laurel up a little more than usual is an occasion worth celebrating. We didn’t do anything big. Laurel and Kyllan took me out to brunch, they gave me a few gifts and we spent an evening of family time together. It was great to break our usual weekend routine and not worry about work around the house or the coming week.
I do think that next year Kyllan and I will skip the brunch on mother’s day and father’s day. On mother’s day we ate at a swanky hotel with live music. This place had long been at the top of our list of potential staycation hotels and we were excited when we saw they were doing brunch. Excited until we realized, all too late, that the reason the line at the buffet was so short was because they barely had any food. After 30 minutes in line I did manage to get half a waffle. I think Kyllan had chicken tortilla soup, without the chicken or tortilla. We won’t be going back. Ever. We decided to learn from our mistake and made a reservation at a restaurant for father’s day. We made a reservations at a place we had eaten once before and thought had the potential to become a favorite. Like most Sundays, we rushed out the door without breakfast in the morning, so by the time we reached the restaurant we were both hungry. After waiting a little too long to be seated, we ordered and waited for our food. And waited. And waited. And waited. Everyone around was still waiting for food an hour later. When the guy two tables away found the manager and explained that none of us had received our food, he was told “you need to stop worrying about everyone else and start worrying about yourself.” We found later that when the family asked their waiter if they could speak to the manager, the manager sent him back to the table with a comment card. It was one of the oddest dining experiences I’ve had. Next year I think we will just cook for one another.
There are plenty of photos on flickr. Just not any of the brunch.
