Andrej, Jessica, Kaiya, Tobi, Eli and Jakob

Since Kaiya passed the one-year mark we often find ourselves thinking about where we were and what we were doing during this or that time last year. We like to look at pictures of how tiny she was then and how big she is now. I’ve wanted to do a “then and now” post since her birthday, but never got around to it until now. I know Labor Day weekend was a few weeks ago, but it was such a special time and we have the perfect pictures for a “then and now” post.

The week before Labor Day weekend my parents called and declared that they could not go another week without hugs and kisses from Kaiya and that we MUST come down to SC for a long weekend. Andrej and I knew right away that would not be possible because he hasn’t been at his new job long enough to take vacation days, which would be necessary if we wanted to drive down. We also knew that we couldn’t afford plane tickets. However, that would not satisfy my parents and they started a campaign to get their granddaughter to SC. After my grandparents and a dear family friend offered up financial donations, together with my parents own donation, we were all set to book plane tickets.

We arrived in Greenville around 9:00 pm. I was really afraid of how Kaiya would do on the plane since we were flying after her bedtime. During our connection in Detroit we changed her into her jammies and boarded the plane. Amazingly she fell right to sleep and didn’t wake up until we stood up to get off the plane in Greenville. She did wake right up once her grandparents came running towards her to collect a month’s worth of hugs and kisses.

The long weekend was a lot of fun and a nice break from the ordinary. We spent a lot of time with family and friends and were able to reconnect with my dear friend Laura. We haven’t seen each other in almost two years. Kaiya had a blast swinging, riding on poppa’s tractor, “mooing” at poppa’s cows and playing with Miss Kitty and the neighbor’s dog. She loved being spoiled by her grandparents and great-grandparents and was such a trooper as she stayed up way past her bedtime every night. The most amazing thing was she actually slept in every morning, and thankfully has kept that up (somewhat) since our return home. Our first morning there, we all kept going in to check on her as she sawed logs until 10:45 am!!!!! Granted she didn’t go to bed the night before until around 10:30 pm, but still, until then Kaiya had this little internal alarm clock that went off at 7:00 am no matter what time she went to bed the night before. I was shocked!

Andrej flew back early Tuesday morning and Kaiya and I followed on Wednesday afternoon, leaving two very sad grandparents behind. The flight back was great as once again Kaiya slept through the entire first flight. She didn’t want to sit still on the second flight, but thankfully it was only 30 minutes so it really wasn’t too bad.

Now, the reason this is such a good “then and now” post is that one year earlier, my parents and grandparents piled into my parents car and began their 16-hour drive to Michigan to visit their brand new baby granddaughter and great-granddaughter. It was my grandparents first time meeting Kaiya and it was, I’m sure, the only way we would have ever gotten them to make the trek up here. It was such a pleasure to introduce Kaiya to her great-grandparents and have them hold her, talking in the sweetest baby talk, which I’m sure filled my own ears and comforted me as a baby many many times. I was so blessed to see my grandparents loving on Kaiya and to hear my precious grandfather as he gazed at the little 6-week-old baby in his arms, declare in in his sweet southern accent, “Andrej. Jessi. You done good! I’m real proud of you two!” Beaming from ear to ear, I had to blink back the tears to keep them from spilling over.

A “then and now” post is only complete with pictures to compare, so here are the pictures from Labor Day weekend 2005 and Labor Day weekend 2006.