Tummy Time = Thumb Sucking Time

Kylie is making steady progress in catching up to other babies her age. She has already caught up in weight, and she is getting there in the social and cognitive categories as well. The one thing we have really had to work hard at, though, is her neck strength. Jon and I joke that she has a Jon Barlow head on an Emily King neck! :) Anyway, she is getting stronger, but can't quite hold her head up by herself for long periods of time. The best way to strengthen her neck muscles is by doing A LOT of tummy time. I have her on a strict tummy time schedule including several TT sessions each day! Most of the time she does a good job working on moving her head around, but every now and then she just wants to sleep. She is also becoming a thumb sucker, and she easily pops it into her mouth when on her tummy. Although I am trying to fight it, sometimes it is just so darn cute, so I have to take a picture before I pull her thumb away from her! Here are some pictures of her doing tummy time! :)

How cute is that?!?!

Arizona!

Last weekend, Jon had an orthopedic surgery conference in Tucson, Arizona. He had a paper to present and I wanted a vacation (away from my vacation)! So we hopped on a plane and headed from Jacksonville to Tucson. Kylie was a wonderful flyer...In fact, she is better at flying than me! Surprise, surprise! We got to Arizona late on Thursday night and headed straight for the hotel. We stayed at the El Conquistador, which was also where the conference was held. Kylie was a little messed up from the time change so she had a difficult time falling asleep that night. Friday was a really nice day...It was sunny with temperatures in the 70s. We hung out with Catherine, Erica and Kristen and their hubbies and babies down by the pool all afternoon. It was a great way to spend the day. Jon also presented his paper on Friday, and according to my sources, he did a fantastic job! On Friday night, Kylie and I went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant called Michelangelo's with some friends while Jon went to a dinner sponsored by Zimmer with some of the other residents. Saturday was cool and rainy...I think the temperature was about 50 degrees. :( We didn't get outside at all. Kylie and I hung out with Catherine in the morning, and then the whole Barlow clan took a nap in the afternoon. We then had dinner with Catherine and Louie at Dos Locos, a mexican restaurant that was in the hotel. Sunday was another travel day. We flew back to Jacksonville...It felt great to get back!

I really like the desert landscape and architecture...It's so different from what I am accustomed to in Minnesota/Wisconsin. I especially love the cacti!!!

Here are some pictures of Jon and I with Kylie from the balcony right outside our hotel room window.

Kylie's First Beach Excursion

Sari and I try to go to the beach a few times each week. The weather has been beautiful and it feels so good to sit on the sand, listen to the waves and feel the ocean breeze. We go to this little stretch of sand called Neptune Beach...It's never too crowded and it's really easy to park our cars down there. The sand is white and soft, but the water is still a little chilly. I'm looking forward to when we can comfortably dive in the waves! Normally, we like to pack a picnic lunch and hang out while Witten plays and Kylie sleeps. Here are a few pictures from our first trip to the beach.

The sounds of the ocean lull Kylie into sleep!

Witten loves the sand! Sari is showing off her baby bump! :)

It was a little chilly that first day so I kept my jacket on. I also kept Kylie wrapped up in a blanket. We both wore our hats to keep from getting sun burned. Kylie's hat is much cuter than mine!

Our Home Away From Home

While in Florida, we are living in an apartment complex...It is a huge complex that includes about 20 buildings with around 20 apartments per building, 2 swimming pools, tennis courts, a playground, and 2 large "lakes." I use quotations because the "lakes" are actually large retention ponds.

This is the view from our back patio. You can see one of the "lakes" and some of the other apartment buildings across from our building.

Our actual apartment is pretty large. It has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. The master bedroom is a suite with a large bathroom and a walk-in closet. Kylie is in one of the other bedrooms (they provided a crib for her), and the third is a guest bedroom that probably won't get used until my family comes to visit. The kitchen, dining room, living room area is big and open. The kitchen is much bigger than the one in our house in Rochester! We are on the first floor so we have a patio door that opens to the back and we have a view of the "lake!" All in all, the space is pretty nice...The furniture, however, isn't that great. All of the large furniture items were provided for us, but they have been well used. Jon actually thinks that he has allergies from the bed and/or couch. I'm really glad we brought our own bedding because that helps make the bedroom feel more like home.

When you walk in the front door, this is what you see...The kitchen.

Here is the living room and the patio door. That's Kylie relaxing on the floor!

This is the master bedroom...We brought our own bedding and our fan!

This is the walk-in closet in the master bathroom. It's a pretty good size. I want to go shopping so I can fill it all up!

Here is Kylie's room/one of the guest bedrooms. I brought her fan too!

This is the other guest bedroom.

Here is our front door!

This is the patio door...We even have a little patch of grass!

We take walks around the "lake" on a regular basis. I usually try to do this 2-3 times each day. Our first such walk was an eventful one. Jon and I decided to take a walk with Huey and Kylie on our first night here. We leashed Huey up and strapped Kylie in the stroller and headed out. It was evening and the sun was setting...Apparently that is when all of the creatures come out down here. There were at least a million toads, which Huey loves to chase. There are tons of little lizards too, but those little guys are so quick that Huey usually doesn't even see them. AND on this particular night, there was also a SNAKE! This was the biggest snake I have ever seen in person in the wild...It was a blackish color, about the diameter of a pop can, and approximately 5 feet long!

My friend, Rebecca, warned me that there was a snake at our complex so I was on the look-out. I will say that I didn't really expect to ever see it. Jon was a few steps ahead of me with Huey, and I had Kylie. As we walked past a 3 foot high retention wall, I saw the snake and immediately screamed. Jon didn't see the snake, but heard me scream so he started running away while screaming, "Ahhhh, what is it?" I turned around and ran the other direction. Jon eventually turned around towards me and Kylie, and put Huey on the wall in hopes that he would scare the snake away. HA! That didn't happen, but we did determine that the snake was harmless. I haven't seen him since that first night.

Then as we crossed the bridge over the lake to head back to our apartment, Huey's leash somehow popped Jon's pager off his waistband. Of course, the pager bounced directly off the bridge and into the water. We watched the bubbles float to the top as the pager sank to the bottom. When I looked at Jon, it appeared that he wasn't sure if he should laugh or cry! Luckily, he laughed and was able to get a new pager at work the next day!

With temperatures regularly in the 80's, we also try to go to the swimming pool on a regular basis. The pools are shallow, but perfect for relaxing. There is plenty of shade, so Kylie can hang out in her stroller or car seat while I sit a few feet away from her in the water.

Here is a picture of me playing with Witten on our first trip to the pool!

More Florida adventures to come...

Road Trip--The final stretch!

We spent Thursday night, all day Friday and Saturday morning in Nashville at the Powell's house. We were generously given the entire basement as our makeshift home. It was a great place to stay and a nice break from the long drive.

On Friday morning, we went out for breakfast at a famous restaurant called the "Loveless Cafe." The food was delicious, especially the homemade biscuits and jam. After breakfast, we were given a quick tour of the city...We saw the Bellemeade Plantation, some great, old houses, and the downtown. It is such a beautiful city! We then went back to the house for an afternoon nap. For dinner, the Powells took us to a family style restaurant called "Monell's." They served traditional southern food including, fried chicken, BBQ ribs, corn pudding, fried green tomatoes, and much more. It was wonderful! Saturday morning, we slept in a little bit and then went to a track meet for one of the Powell boys. Friday's weather was a little cold, but Saturday was a glorious day! It was nice to spend some time outside, but it was time to hit the road again!

At Monell's with the Powells and the Hartzlers. Kylie is in her car seat behind me...She was sleeping like a perfect angel!

When we started out on Saturday, we weren't sure how far we wanted to go. We knew we didn't want to do too much driving on Sunday so we decided to push as far as we could that day. We ended up getting all the way to Savannah, Georgia, which was about 8 hours from Nashville. We spent the night in a hotel just outside of Savannah. We woke up in the morning, ate breakfast and hopped in the car for the last little stretch of highway. Savannah is about 2 hours from Jacksonville so we were able to get there around noon.

After arriving in J-ville, we collected our apartment keys, unloaded the trailer, and hit up the nearest Panera for a late lunch. The weather was warm and sunny...It was a great welcoming to Florida. After lunch, we dropped the trailer off at the nearest U-haul location and picked up Jon's rental car (a shiny, silver Nissan Altima). Then we headed back to the apartment to get settled. The apartment is pretty nice, but that's another post for another day...

It was quite the eventful trip, and we are glad that it is over and we made it to Florida safe and sound! Kylie was a road trip champ! We were very proud of her!

Road Trip--The first leg!

Jon is doing a pediatric orthopedic surgery rotation in Jacksonville, Florida this spring. So we packed up the Murano (and a small U-haul) and drove the 22 hours to Florida. With a 4 month old baby and a needy basset hound, it was quite the experience. We left on a Thursday morning, but let me begin with Wednesday so you can fully appreciate the whole adventure...

We knew we would need to pull a trailer in order to get all of our things down to Florida, so I needed to have a hitch installed on our car. I had scheduled the hitch installation weeks ago for Wednesday morning at 7:00am. For some reason I thought this would be a quick and simple process...Maybe 20-30 minutes. I was VERY wrong. First, I overslept...Oops!! I woke up at 7:30am to Kylie's cries. I immediately called and was thankfully able to reschedule for 9:00am. I was told it would take about 2 hours, which was a little longer than I expected but would still give us plenty of time to pick the trailer up from a different U-haul location at noon. Kylie and I arrived at 9:00, dropped off the car and walked over to Hy-Vee to have breakfast with the seniors! :) When I hadn't heard from them by 11:30am, I finally walked back. When I got there, I saw that my car was still up on the ramp, and I was told it would be another hour or so. Okay, so now I was going to be late to pick up the trailer, but it would still be fine. I asked if there was a place in there where I could sit and wait. The worker said, "No, there is not, but you can sit on the stairs by the storage units." By this time, I was getting frustrated...I did have an infant with me. Anyway, by 1:30pm (4.5 hours later), I was really starting to panic. Kylie was getting hungry, I still had a ton of packing to do, and I was supposed to pick up the trailer at some point. I went back in the shop and the worker told me it would be another 10 minutes. Whew...Almost done...NOT! At 2:00pm, the hitch was installed, but my car was now dead. Luckily, Molly and Kris were able to pick me up and bring me home so that I could feed Kylie. I also called my dad, in tears, to see if he could pick the trailer up for me. He was able to get the trailer, but not before driving to Rochester to yell at the guy who killed my car. YIKES! This story is getting long, so by 4:00pm they figured out that some air pump had been disconnected during the installation. They fixed that and the car started right up. So 7 hours later, my car had a hitch and my dad had picked up the trailer! Success!

Once I had my car back, I was able to continue with packing. With the help of my mom and dad, we were able to get all packed and the trailer loaded by 11:00pm. What a crazy day! The lesson I learned was to have to the hitch installed many days in advance!

A picture of Kylie snoozing in her car seat!

Thursday morning we finished our last minute packing, and hit the road at 7:30am. The plan was to drive to Nashville (about 13 hours away) to meet up with the Hartzlers who had left on Wednesday night. The first few hours were uneventful. We knew we were going to be passing by some of our Madison friends, so we decided to stop in Beloit to meet Joe Wildenberg (a college/med school friend) for lunch. We got there around 11:00am, which was good because Kylie had a blow-out sometime during the first 4 hours and needed a diaper AND outfit change. After Kylie was cleaned up, we ate/chatted with Joe until about 12:30pm. It was fun!

We needed a lock for the trailer and Jon wanted a book on tape, and there was a Walmart across the road from the Applebee's where we ate lunch. We decided to quickly stop there for the things that we needed, but I should add that I was NOT happy about the whole book on tape thing. I don't know why this upset me, but it did, so Jon and I were already bickering about that a little bit. I decided I would quickly run into Walmart and Jon would stay by the car with Kylie and Huey. About 30 minutes later (not very quick, I know) I was back with a bike lock that didn't fit on the trailer and NO book on tape...The workers were not helpful and I was even more mad because of the terrible service than I was before I went in. Because I got the wrong kind of lock (even after Jon told me not to get a bike lock), Jon was now raging mad too. Two angry Barlows is not a good combination. Jon stuffed Huey back in the car and marched back into Walmart for the "right" kind of lock...a padlock. He found it and was back within 10 minutes. I guess he should have went in the first time. Finally, at about 1:30pm, we were back on the road.

Jon continued to drive and I continued to pump (yes, I had to do this in the car) and take care of Kylie. She is such a good baby, she spent most of the trip sleeping, and I was able to feed her while driving. She just stayed in her car seat and I climbed into the back to give her a bottle. This whole routine was working well until we tried to plug the bottle warmer into the AC/DC adapter in Terre Haute, Indiana. Suddenly, the cigarette lighter stopped working and we were no longer able to use electric devices in the car...Not a big deal, you say...Well, I was no longer able to pump. This is a VERY big deal...Pain for me and no food for Kylie! Jon thought we either blew a fuse or the adapter blew up, so we found ANOTHER Walmart. Jon ran inside to buy another AC/DC adapter in case that was the issue. Unfortunately, that was NOT the issue, and during this pit stop, Kylie had a second blow-out. We needed to find a gas station immediately. So we drove to an extremely ghetto gas station so that Jon could fix the fuse and I could take care of Kylie. Once I got Kylie into the bathroom (that did not have a changing table), I took her clothes off and realized that she literally had poop up to her armpits! How does that happen?!? So I gave her a bath in the sink (did I mention this was a disgustingly ghetto bathroom!) and put her in her 3rd outfit of the day! This ordeal took about 30 minutes, and when I got back out to the car it was still not fixed. I was panicking again (because of the lack of pumping), and suggested that we just stay in a hotel. Jon refused to stay in a hotel in that town, and I remembered that the Medela pump could be operated by batteries. So I bought some batteries and off we went...All was good again!

The last 4 hours of the drive were also uneventful...We arrived in Nashville at 11:00pm. We were warmly welcomed into the Powell's home. The Powells are friends of the Hartzlers (who were already there waiting for us). They have a beautiful home and were wonderful hosts to us! More on Nashville coming up...

Kylie's Baptism--3/20/2011

Kylie's baptism was on Sunday, March 20th. It was a wonderful day spent with family and friends! She was baptized during the 10:45am service at Gloria Day Lutheran Church in Rochester. She looked and acted like a little angel. She was wearing the white, flowing baptism gown that I wore when I was baptized 28 years ago. She also wore a little, white cardigan and a white bow in her hair. She was beautiful! All of her Godparents (Mia, Tony and Ingrid) were by her side, which was amazing. After the church service, we had a celebratory lunch at her Grandma and Grandpa King's house in Stewartville. We ate a tasty meal, chatted with each other, and opened her baptism gifts. It was a great day!

More pictures to come...