5 months old!

Yup- She's getting cuter every month, week, day, hour, minute... you get the picture! In the past month, she hasn't acquired too many new "skills" per se, but here are few new things going on in her life, in no particular order.

1.) She's got some new toys!

A Jenny Jump-up- It's still a little too big for her, don't you think? She basically just chews on the top of the seat. Plus, her legs aren't quite strong enough to "jump." We'll try again later.

An Exersaucer- We got this for a pretty decent price at a garage sale, cleaned it up, waited for her to grow into it, and voi-la! She likes it pretty well. I think she gets frustrated when she can't put everything in her mouth since she can't pull it close enough. Funny girl!
2.) She's getting lots stronger!
With McKenna getting bigger and stronger physically, so are her "tantrums." Allow me to explain. I wouldn't say she's a super fussy baby, but when she does fuss, she's serious! She's beginning to arch her back a lot when frustrated. Therefore, I no longer feel safe leaving her in an infant seat without buckling her in. She also needs the tray on her Bumbo seat or she could wiggle right out of that too. She also started pulling on her shirt when she fusses.

"Enjoy" these two videos showing McKenna's stronger fussiness.

Shirt pulling

Back arching

3.) Lip smacking!

McKenna went through a little phase where she was learning some new tricks with her mouth. One of them was smacking her lips. Every time I tried to get this on video she would stop as soon as she saw the camera. But here's a cute video of her playing with daddy and smacking her lips at this toy.

4.) Solids!

I have recently realized with McKenna growing bigger, she can eat a lot more from a bottle than I'm able to pump. So, I thought it was time to introduce rice cereal to her so the babysitters can feed her half breast milk, half cereal for her meal with them. For her first try, she seemed to know just what to do. She opened right up and swallowed most of it.

Sorry 'bout the shot of the table; we had to place the camera off to the side so she wouldn't be distracted.

5.) Sleep!

With all of this other great news, I'm sad to say McKenna has NOT been the best sleeper lately. For a while, she was only waking up once a night (asleep by 9:30pm, eat between 2-3am, awake for the day between 7:30-8am). I was THRILLED with this schedule! Then, somehow, it all changed. She has been waking up around 1 or sometimes 12:30. Because I KNEW she could go longer between feedings, I'd send Dan up to rock her back to sleep. I'd feed her about an hour later when she woke up again. I thought, maybe this is a growth spurt or something. But now we're going on two weeks of her waking up multiple times in the night. How long can a growth spurt last? What else could be the reason? Any ideas out there?

Anyway-

Here's just a cute picture of our girl during one of her naps. I found her sleeping like this for at least 30 minutes, and she wasn't even teething. Cute thing!

New Nephew!

My (Laura) sister Emily had a baby boy on Monday! Congratulations!

Dylan Michael Smith

Born March 16, 2009 at 2:01pm

8 lbs 3 oz

20.5 inches long.

Dad (Justin), Kaitlyn (L), Kari(R), and Dylan

Grandpa Thompson and Baby Dylan

Mommy (Emily) already holding Kaitlyn on her lap after her C-section. Kaitlyn just has to kiss him all the time!

St. George vacation

Dan and I decided we needed a little vacation to "get away," and St. George was the place! It was warm and had some important people we needed to visit and introduce McKenna to. Here are the highlights from our trip.

She "helped" us drive.

First, we visited Dan's Webster Grandparents. They adored their great-grand daughter and she loved to grab their faces. :)

We also took McBaby swimming for the first time. Unfortunately, the hotel's indoor pool was closed for repairs. So, we ventured to the outdoor heated pool. The air temperature was in the low 60s, but the pool temp was nice and warm!

Oh, and just a little bright.
Check out this swimsuit babe by a beautiful waterfall!
Swimming kind of wore her out... sweet little thing loves her daddy.
We also visited the Church History sites down there. Here's the inside of the St. George Tabernacle and its pretty chandeliers.

The balcony seats were not the original seats. In fact, they were taken out of the Salt Lake Temple.
Me and my girl at the pulpit. Fun Fact- Every Prophet of the church has spoken from this pulpit! (Except for Joseph Smith and our current prophet Pres. Monson.)
This is Brigham Young's Winter Home. The green paint was actually quite stylish for the early 1870s.
We also had to introduce McKenna to Dan's Mission President and his wife,

David & LaDawn Clove.


On the way home we stopped in Cedar City to visit the statue of Dan's ancestor Francis Webster. And this is McKenna's "thrilled" face about the 3 hour drive left ahead of us.

Home!

Because I teach at a year-round elementary school, every nine weeks I get a three week break. I get to be HOME with my little girl non-stop! I haven't been able to do this since going back to work in Jan. I get to stare at this beautiful face all day! This also means I take a TON more pictures than normal. I can't resist!

Tummy time. (Blurry- cause she moves :))

"I rolled over. Now what?"

The bald spot continues. No, I didn't use scissors.

My Favorite!

In other news, I think she wants to learn to roll from back to front. What do you think?

She also loves to "help" daddy when he's on the computer.

Daddy's getting really good at making McBaby LAUGH! It's music to my ears!

I also wanted to post a video of McKenna crying- just because. She makes some pretty cute faces when she cries. This is in the evening right before bed time. Can't you tell? :)

Pow-wow

Part of Dan's job of recruiting potential foster parents is to set up booths at community events to "advertise." The latest event was a Pow-wow at Utah State University. Because this event was up in Logan, and McKenna and I didn't want to be home all day without our dad, we went with him! (AND so he wouldn't miss us so much.) :)

Here's the lovely booth. Here's the handsome man (work shirt and all) with our girl.
Unfortunately, McKenna's been a little sick this week. This is right after she sneezed. I know it's gross, but I was trying to catch a picture of a snot bubble. Those can be kind of cute. I know... still gross! One of the good things about her being sick is she's super cuddly. (She's reading the sticker on my chest that says "vendor.")
Also, because she was sick, she managed to take a peaceful nap in spite of all the LOUD drumming and chanting going on. Here she is under the car seat cover I made for her. Cool lighting, eh?She's still so adorable- cough and all!

Here are some shots of the dancers in their Native American garb.

This little girl's fabric is Dora the Explorer.

In other news, lately McKenna's tummy time has looked like this. Instead of keeping her arms out in front to prop herself up and then eventutally roll over, when placed on her tummy she immediately put sher arms to her sides and lays flat on her face. She seems content for a while. :) Silly girl!