StandingLast Sunday, we got to meet Baby Bryan, the newest addition to our house church. He was born on May 20, while we were still on vacation. Kaiya gladly handed over her reigning title as "Baby" Kaiya and became just Kaiya. I was shocked when I held Bryan for the first time. He is so small, even though he was born a healthy 7 lbs and 15 oz. I honestly could not remember Kaiya ever being that small. How can it be that ten short months have passed and I cannot remember ever holding such a tiny little thing? She seemed gargantuan as she crawled over to me and pulled up on my legs trying to get a peek as I was holding Baby Bryan. The advice is so true to really savor and enjoy time spent with your newborn because it is fleeting. Ten-and-a-half months later, I struggle to even remember her at that age.

Kaiya's development has skyrocketed over the last month. Her level of understanding and reactions to what she understands has been incredible and a lot of fun. During our time in SC my dad taught her to stick out her tongue (on command and not in reaction to you sticking out your tongue) and to touch her ears when asked their whereabouts. My mom taught her to wink, well blink, and it is so adorable. We are currently working on her nose, which she won't touch but instead wrinkles up and blows air in and out rather loudly. (Some of these tricks can be seen in this video.)

Kaiya is also very good at fetch. I'll tell her to go and find her bear and she immediately tears through the house in search of her most-prized possession. Nine times out of ten she returns with her bear clutched in hand. The one time out of the ten she gets distracted and returns with anything from a dishtowel to one of her shoes. She can also clap, which is so cute when she gets excited and she can wave bye-bye, but it is usually after the person has already left.

Another neat thing she learned at my parents' house was how to go down their two steps from their kitchen / dining room to the living room by turning around and going feet first. Since returning home she has applied the same principle to getting off of the couch and enjoys doing it over and over and over.

Kaiya is also our little dancing queen. If music is playing the only view of Kaiya is her backside as she is pulled up onto some piece of furniture shaking her booty and swaying to the music. She prefers music with kids singing, but will shake it down to any genre, from her Slovak kids' songs CD to Sting to Jana Kirsner to Matt Kearney and even to the classical CD Andrej's grandfather sent him as a gift (Ma Vlast by Smetana).

Kaiya wants to walk so badly and has even taken a few unassisted steps before giving up and dropping down into crawl position. She cruises effortlessly around the house using the furniture, walls and cabinets to keep her balance, and loves to walk behind her push-walker. It's the cutest thing to watch her peddle along trying to keep up with the walker sporting the biggest grin on her face.

Kaiya continues to add sounds and "words" to her "vocabulary". Her new favorites are aahhddaaa and something along the lines of iiiiiccchhhh (pronounced like the Slovak letters ch which are deep in your throat). However, da-da-da and ba-ba-ba are most often heard. Occasionally, we can get a ma or ma-ma out of her, but it is rare. Her joyous shrieking continues and keeps getting louder and longer. I can always find Andrej and Kaiya in Meijer or Target as I can hear Kaiya's shrieks from across the store. It's cute at first, and often I encourage it (not in Meijer or Target) and shriek along with her, but once she gets started it's hard to get her to stop. The worst is in the car where the shrieks are headache-invoking and make it impossible to have a conversation.

Another neat thing that I MUST brag about was her going into the nursery at church last Sunday without so much as one single protest. This was such a blessing because the last time we tried she cried through the entire service. However, on Sunday, as we stood her up in the window and they tagged her, she was mesmerized by all the other little people and couldn't wait to join in on the fun. The volunteers said she was great and had a good time. We are hoping for a repeat performance tomorrow because our pastor has started a new series that is so good, and impossible to get anything out of with Kaiya around. If you are interested in listening to incredible teaching you can download Rob's messages for free off the Mars Hill website.

EatingKaiya's independence has not only surfaced in the nursery, but in her eating habits as well. She continues to be a great eater, but she has now decided that she can feed herself and doesn't need our help. This is exciting and very frustrating at the same time. I love being able to spread out a few pieces of food on her tray and then let her go at it while I fix myself some lunch or wash dishes, but I hate how she makes such a mess as she squishes peaches in her hand then rubs them in her hair, or how she throws her black beans over the side of the chair, but gobbles up all of her bread and cheese. I hate how LONG it takes for her to feed herself. We had the spoon-feeding thing down to a science and she was done eating in no time and would come out relatively clean. Now, lunch or dinner (I still feed her breakfast) can take up to 45 minutes and she comes out covered in whatever she is eating, not to mention the mess on the floor and the high chair. I know I need to relax and let her enjoy this messy stage of babyhood, but it's hard.

Also, in regards to the past month, and for those of you who are just dying to know :-), Kaiya traveled extremely well during our vacation. Whew! The plane rides weren't stellar performances as she struggled to just sit still and not crawl, but nothing that a little cheerio-fix and an in-flight magazine couldn't handle. She did end up catching a cold and suffering through a stuffy nose during the first week or so of vacation. I'm sure she contracted the virus from the in-flight magazine she just HAD to chew on or maybe the demonstration seatbelt that the flight attendant gave her to play with, but it wasn't too bad. She also slept extremely well in her pack-n-play, something she has done only one other time, and it was back in the early months. We moved her around a lot and it never seemed to faze her, even the few nights we had her sleeping in a walk-in closet (with the door opened halfway) at the beach house. She also cut four, yes four, teeth during our three weeks away. Her mouth is now even again as she has four teeth on top and four on bottom. As fun as it was to travel and visit friends and family, and nice to have extra hands to help out, it is so good to be home! Even Kaiya went wild upon our return home as she crawled madly through the house playing with each toy quickly and moved on to the next. She was like a kid in a candy store as she entered her room for the first time in three weeks. It gave a whole new meaning to "Home, Sweet Home!"

Kaiya continues to be our bundle of joy, filling us with laughter, love and a reason to slow down and smell the roses. Over the next few weeks, I am going to try and post a few things like how we named Kaiya and her birth story. I'm trying to get her baby book up-to-date, as her 1st birthday is just around the corner, and thought it might be fun to post some of the things online. We'll see how far I get before July 26!