10 Month old Karlee

Maw Maw D (Mike's mom, Debbie) came to visit us in Australia! Karlee was very unsure about her for the first few days but warmed up quickly to her. She did fuss for a while about being fed baby food by her though but now she enjoys her company. :) We have had so many adventures while Debbie was here and Karlee does great wherever we take her. She loves riding in the stroller, being packed around in the Ergo and enjoying mom's company in the back seat in the car.  When we go on picnics we have to be quick with our food because she tries to steal it all. ;)

Enjoying a picnic

Happy Momma's in the back seat with her and Karis

Once her top teeth came through she started sleeping through the night for me again! It was a great several weeks until she started teething again... Thankfully it is usually only once a night.
We started putting Karlee in the bath tub to play with Karis and she LOVES it. Karis shows her what to do with splashing, how to play with the water cups, and helps with bathing. She has a new squishy face smile and shows off her teeth. Melts my heart! :)

Trying to steal the camera!

Momma's girl! 

Karlee is a happy 9 month old!

Miss Karlee is such a sweet, playful, and silly 9 month old. She is happy with her big open mouth smile most of the time. She loves playing with Karis and with all of Karis' toys.  Her 2 top teeth started coming though this month and she does get a little grumpy from it. She is definitely more sensitive to pain and sickness than Karis. She is still not rolling, crawling, or walking. She is just happy as can be sitting and playing. If a toy is too far from her reach she just finds something else. No motivation to go get it. LOL.

I finally got her to start eating baby food. She usually starts out hating a food but slowly gives in after mixing with sweet potatoes. She breaks out with a rash on her cheeks and hands with several fruits. I have to be very cautious when giving her new foods. Hopefully she will grow out of it because she has reactions to bananas, peaches, and pears. 

We dedicated Karlee at church as a commitment to raise her to know the Lord as her Savior. Sweet Sarah, the children pastor, prayed over Karlee and our family. We didn't have any family in town to celebrate with us but we were able to celebrate with our new friends!

                                                          

After nap snuggles with Sissy

Karis reading to Karlee 

Oceaneering Open House

On Saturday, Mike's work had an open house for the families to come check out the new facility. I met a few of his co-workers and got to see where he spends all his time during the week. Mike has a pretty boring office. I need to decorate for him! ;)

An old diver suit

An ROV

Karlee is 8 months!

Karlee started sleeping a little better for me at night. Only wakes up about once or twice but will usually go back to sleep quickly if I pick her up. She also has good days and bad days with her naps. Some days 15-30 minute naps and other days a 3 hour nap. She stopped liking baby food and I can hardly get her to eat any.

I started this blog post right after she turned 8 months. I didn't finish it or post it. Since she is almost 9 months I will just add some pictures! ;) 

An Aussie version of the 4th of July

We had our own little American celebration for the 4th of July here in the down under. We decided to  go to a hot dog restaurant to celebrate! For the month of July, Run Amuck sells chili dawgs in honor of the 4th. Now these are not typical American hot dogs but Brats. No yummy, American hot dogs here in Australia. :( Actually, they have fresh hot dogs here and call them sausages. They don't taste the same because they actually have real meat in them and not full of processed junk. Anywho, we got our dawgs and they were giving away Reese's milkshakes to Americans! They also made my day because they had cherry Coke and cherry Dr. Pepper! Here in Australia there is no Dr. Pepper or anything cherry. I have found single imported cans of DP in the British section of the grocery but at $2.10 a can it only happens once in a blue moon. After we got our food we went to a near by park near the beach to eat.

After eating, Karis played at the park then we went for a walk on the jetty by the beach. There was a dog beach right next to us. I got all teary eyed thinking about how much fun Samson and Mariah would have on the beach and playing fetch in the ocean. We miss our fussy babies!

Dog beach...all the pups having fun

My little Roo hanging out

Daddy cuddles

Karis playing at the park

Happy 7 months, Karlee!

Yes, I am only 2 weeks behind in post about Karlee! I blame her because she is still giving me a hard time sleeping and only naps for 15-30 minutes at a time.
Our sweet little Karlee is now sitting up unassisted but will still topple easily. She still hates being on her belly and refuses to roll onto her belly. She is a happy baby and loves playing and chewing on her toys. We started baby food at 6 months and she didn't really like it too much to start. After adding a few things in she started liking it. I have noticed everytime I give her a fruit (bananas, peaches, pear) she gets a rash around her mouth. I'm not too sure if that is the issue so I stopped adding anything new and trying to figure out if it is another food or environmental (it is winter here).
When Karis throws a screaming fit, Karlee laughs at her! I must get it on video! ;)

Excited to being sitting in a high chair now!

Karis undressing her...She puts up with a lot!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Karis!

My sweet little Karis is two ! I can hardly believe how fast it has all gone! She is growing from a baby to a little girl so quickly.
She has pretty much always slept well for us. 12 hour nights and 2-3 hour naps a day! She has spoiled me in this area and I expect little Karlee to follow in her foot steps. Karis is still so tiny for her age. She is still in 12-18 month clothes! She is 23 lbs and 32 inches. Over the last 2 months she has started talking a lot more. People kept telling me about a language explosion that they go through and she is definitely going through that.  Most of the time she will repeat the word you tell her once or twice. Still working with her to say it all on her own. At the end of the month we visit the health nurse to evaluate her speech to see if she needs some help.
She still loves holding and playing with her sister most of the time. She will sit down beside her and play next to her and make sure Karlee has toys to play with. Her new favorite thing is to unbutton Karlee's Pj's or pull down her pants so she can change her diaper. Thankfully we cloth diaper and she can't unsnap the diaper cover yet!
She loves going to the park or creche to play in the sand or slide. The first thing she want to do is take off her shoes so she can go play.
For her birthday. we got her a play kitchen. She loves pretending to cook us some soup. I must say her cutest thing is pretend eating. I need to catch it on video!

Props to Daddy for putting the kitchen together

 Also, we got her a Teepee. She loved cuddling with mommy and Karlee in it. ;)

Since her birthday was on Friday, we had playgroup that day at church.  It was end of term so they had a bouncy castle and we each brought party food. I made some watermelon cupcakes (just looks like watermelon not taste like one) for Karis' birthday since we decided not to throw a birthday party for her. Well, something happened while trying to hand them out and the first tier fell face down on the ground! Then not 2 minutes later the second tier hit the ground! :(  So bummed about that but there were other cupcakes there and I just brought the remainder home. I scraped off the icing and took the wrappers off and iced them and enjoyed them myself! Only 2 were a little sandy! LOL Anyways, everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to Karis and she was oblivious that it was for her. ;) 

Watermelon cupcakes

Excited about sliding

The causality... yes the concrete is still green! ;)