Seeing Pink

Well, it's been about 3 weeks since we visited the doctor's office, and Kaiya really missed the great staff. So, today we took an unplanned trip to see the pediatrician - this time for a cold and pink eye! The doctor said that babies her age often develop an ear infection with the cold. So, please pray that this doesn't happen and that we don't visit the office again until the end of the month for her 6 month check up.

The good news? Kaiya weighs 13 lbs. 9.6 oz. and is 25" long.

Learning to sit

Kaiya still has a long way to go to master the art of sitting unassisted, but she is making great strides in the learning process. It won't be long!

I look like???

So, here are some baby pics. Do you see any resemblance?




Lisa came across this baby photo of herself a couple weeks ago. We think Kaiya has traits from both of us, but we think she definitely has Lisa's smile!

Long lost Kaiya

Well, the lack of posts may have tipped you off that April has been a CRAZY month for us.

Kaiya had us back at the ER in mid-April. She had an allergic reaction to something, but we don't know what. She got quite swollen, red and had hives all over her body. The doctor tested her for food allergies, as well as her thyroid levels. Those tests came back fine. He said they won't continue testing unless the reaction occurs again. (In fact, about half the time, they aren't able to identify what causes little kids to break out in hives, so hopefully this was some fluke thing that won't reoccur.)

The good news is that she was back on the scales... and up to 13.0 lbs. That means she gained almost 2 pounds in about 2 weeks. YEA! Our little girl is catching back up and finally outgrowing her 0-3 month clothes.

Now, let's get to what you really want...
Here is Kaiya laughing :-)


And here she is high steppin'


Here Kaiya and Grandpa celebrate their 5 month birthdays together!

It's Good to Be Queen

Well, I hope you are ready for a much needed Kaiya update. The last couple weeks have been quite eventful for us. So, here is a recap:

Saturday, March 24
Kaiya began the day ready to impress. She must have known it was going to be a big day. As we were playing in the morning, Kaiya decided to roll over for the very first time! Not even quite 4 months old, and she’s rolling from her tummy to her back! Now you can watch her in action.

After wowing us with her physical capabilities, Kaiya wowed us with her fashion sense. She sported cute little baby jeans for the first time. (See "Some new Weekly pics" post below.) They are still a little big, but cute none the less. Then, Kaiya made the ultimate sacrifice for beauty… yep, she got her ears pierced!

Grandma Branson and Aunt Sara came to witness the big event, too. Kaiya barely cried at all – I think the noise scared her more than anything. She was very consolable, and she was even smiling afterwards.

Monday, March 26
Kaiya figured out how one of her toys works. When she kicks it, the lights and music go off. It’s now one of her favorite things to do. Plus, she’s learning cause and effect. Watch this adorable video of her playing.

After a fun morning of playing, Mommy and Kaiya went to the doctor. (See "My Poor (Little) Baby" post below.)

Tuesday, March 27
The sitter had to take the day off, because her son was having a medical procedure. So, Daddy stayed home with Kaiya. I’m not sure what he did, but Kaiya was exhausted. She went to bed a couple of hours early – we thought she was taking a late nap, but she decided it was nighty-nighty time. In fact, she slept through her diaper change!

Wednesday, March 28
The sitter had an emergency, and her backups had to watch Kaiya a couple of hours. She was a real challenge for them when she got up from her nap. I think it is because they didn’t know the tricks to feeding her. First, they were giving her the wrong bottle and nipple. Secondly, they didn’t warm up the bottle, and our little girl is really picky – she likes her bottles really warm. And, finally, they were giving her formula! This was the first time K Bear had anything other than breast milk, so I’m not surprised she refused to take it!

I picked her up after lunch, and we went by The Western Star office. Here is our little cutie pie!

Thursday, March 29: Happy 4 Months!
The sitter was sick, so Mommy stayed home with Kaiya. This worked out well, because Aunt Sara went to the hospital. She had developed a kidney infection and sepsis. (She’s doing much better now!) Kaiya and Mommy went to visit her, and there is no doubt that Kaiya was her best visitor! We also realized that Kaiya had been in the hospital a month earlier. Here is the picture Chris sent to brighten Sara’s day.

Saturday, March 31
Daddy bought Kaiya her first pair of sunglasses. She doesn’t really know what to think of them yet, but here she is sporting the Amelia Earhart look.

April 2-4
Daddy had training in Columbus, so we all took a family trip. Kaiya enjoyed swimming in the pool, visiting with Grandpa Branson, shopping, and, most of all, being “queen.”

Notice that the King is bigger than Kaiya :) (And, look! Mommy is back into her pre-pregnancy jeans! Oh what a glorious day…)

Cold Front

Cold weather meant we had to bundle Kaiya up in April, and it gave Mommy an excuse to snap a few pictures.

Check out her cute outfit. It was a gift from our friends the Brauers, who live in Ireland. I know there are a lot of photos here, but I just couldn't narrow them down any more. Kaiya's just too cute!

Chattin' with Dad

Finger Lickin' Good

All Smiles

A detailed update with lots of photos is in the works. Hopefully, this will hold you until then!

Some new Weekly pics

Ok I took these two pics last week so they are pretty freshy fresh! Here we see kaiya chillin as her daddy is making dinner. Yeah thats right shes thinking "not only does my daddy bring home the bacon but he fries it up too!" She loves her bumbo seat and I gotta give a shout out to Jason Otoski (a co-worker of mine) for insisting I buy this for kaiya. She loves sitting in it and just feels so grown up when she does.


Speaking of looking grown up check out our little miss thing as she sports her first pair of denim. Sure their not D&G but that comes later. ^_^ Now whats cool is that not only is her outfit super duper chic but check out her accesories...Yes thats right in her front left pocket shes sporting her daddies mobile. Ok so I put her jeans on and I was like WOW these are huge pockets. Whats a baby need huge pockets for??? SO then I thought " huh I wonder if my RAZR would fit in her pocket" and it did!
Well I hope you all enjoyed some new happy pics of kaiya.

Cheers!

My Poor (Little) Baby

I took Kaiya for her 4 month check up today. The good news is she is recovering very well from the RSV. She had one oral vaccine and three shots. Poor thing cried and cried!

The sad news is that Kaiya only weighs 11 lbs. 1.0 oz. That's not even a pound more than she weighed at her 2 month check up (10 lbs. 2.2 oz.) and only about 1.5 oz. more than she was a month ago when she first got sick. So, she has dropped from the 50th percentile for her weight to just below the 10th. Had she maintained her growth rate, she would be about 13.5 lbs. The doctor said it can take up to two months for babies to recover their weight. So, Lord willing, if she doesn't get sick again, she will be caught back up by her 6 month appointment.

As for her height, she is now 24" long. So, she had a small dip on the growth chart - just over the 50th percentile to just below it.

Cute pic

I don't like to dwell on negative things, but I just had to share this photo. I hadn't downloaded this photo off my phone until this weekend. Chris and Kaiya were watching TV at the hospital. Aren't they cute?

Before She Got Sick

Life has been a little crazy since Kaiya got sick. BUT, here is the weekly pick we took before she went to the hospital. This is her new tummy time toy. She can spin herself around to play with the different areas on the mat. And her stacker plays music and lights up - much cooler than when we were growing up!





Thank you all for your prayers for Kaiya. It was pretty scary, and we know we couldn't have done it without the strength of our Lord! God willing, we will have lots more happy posts with cute photos :-)

Things are getting better

Im at work so I dont have a whole lot of time to post but have gotten some inquires as to how Kaiya is doing so heres a quick update.

We were in the hospital for 4 days total and then took Kaiya home. The following week was pretty rough. she was still not eating well from the congestion and what not. Her eating schedule totally changed after being in the hospital. She went from eating every 3 hours to every 1.5 to 2 hours which is a pretty dramatic increase but she was taking in less. Lisa got probably the sickest I have seen her in the last 10 years or so and that was really wearing on her as well. Friday of last week we really started to get concerned about kaiya. Her cry was changing. It sounded like she was in pain and she kept tugging at her left ear. SO on friday evening I took a trip to urgent care and we were right she had an ear infection. JOY! SO she has been on amoxcycilin (sp?) since last Friday and will be on that for 10 days. Sunday was the first pretty good day with her. She really started to perk up and be herself and has gotten progressivly better since then. She is still eating ever 1.5 to 2 hours but she is eating a lot more. I think shes making up for lost time! But thats really good she lost over half a pound from all this and when you barely weigh 11 pounds thats pretty huge. SO we hope that she is gaining again. She sure feels heavier! Lisa is feeling better as well I would say they are both in the 85-90% better range and have gotten back into their weekly schedules. Lisa is back at work and kaiya back at the sitter. Thanks so much to everyone for all their prayers and help. We really needed it and its so nice to have so many friends and family willing to help out.

Thanks again!

Pretty Darn Pathetic looking

So the last couple of days have been a bit rough for the Ohio based Knodels. It all started wed night / thurs morning when Kaiya throw up (like OMG WOW that was a lot of throw up throw up) twice in about a half hour. We took her to the pediatrician (for the rest of the post ped for short) and he felt that it was a stomach bug and said she should start to get over it in a couple of days. No worries. SO by Saturday our little K-Bear had added a very nasty cough and a slight fever 100ish to the mix. SO we called the ped again and explained what was up with her and they said to bring her in for a looksee. SO we did. The Ped said this time ok sounds like shes congested and has a cold. Again no worries she should start to get better in a day or so BUT if she runs a fever over 101 give us a call b/c she will need to come in again. SO we leave again and are like ok doke. Sunday comes and goes and she doesnt really seem like she is improving all that much and her coughing is getting much worse. SO after we get a temp of 101.6 we give the ped a call again and take her back on monday. The Ped says to take her to the Childrens ER to have them run some bloodwork and do a chest xray. SO lisa takes Kaiya to the ER and I meet them there shortly thereafter. The docs there do this vacu sinus suck thing on her and extract quite of bit of the "boogies" as they called it and tested it for RSV and flu. No to flu but yes to RSV with bronchitis. But again we get the No worries we will get you your own vacu suck machine and she will be fine in a jiffy but you have to see you ped tommorow for a follow up b/c she should show some improvement. Ok I gotta tell you I aint a doctor but after 3 visits to the ped and 1 ER visit I was getting tired of the no worries - shes gonna start to seem better in a day or so routine. SO here she is in the ER.



So on Tuesday we hit the ped's office and at this point we were really starting to get concerned about dehydration. We werent getting wet diaps from her anymore and she was having other issues as well as being real lethargic and just not herself. Plus she was eating about a 1/3 of what was normal with about 2/3rds the frequency. SO thats just not good at all. The ped started to say that she was on the real borderline cutoff of the seriousness of RSV. 3 months is the typical cut off of concern and she is just a few days shy. I expressed my concern and how I felt like at the current sitch was going to land us in the ER for dehydration in a couple of days and the ped was like "more like a day, I want her admitted right now" SO he called ahead and here we are on day two in the hospital. Below you can see Kaiya with her little arm board for her IV. She is getting lots of fluids now but shes still not eating as well as she should. Shes still running a fever over 101 but its less frequent and she is still really lethargic. And guess what "no worries she should start perking up in a day or so."


Cheers!

Pray for my friend

Please pray for my friend, Hannah. She is just two years old and was recently diagnosed with leukemia. She has on older sister and brother and a new baby coming this summer. Please pray for her healing and for her entire family.

I Shake My Little Tush on the Catwalk

At 10 weeks, Kaiya is ready for Vogue. Look at how stylin' she is! She's sporting the latest in Tarjay khakis, an Old Navy bodysuit and a sweater that Isaac Mizrahi wishes he designed. She's even practicing her runway walk.

Although she is a little chunkier than most models, she still wears a smaller size! It's the hours of exercise she does every day: the equivalent of 50 push ups during tummy time, all those crunches and bicycle kicks (you should really check our her six pack), leg and arm lifts... Plus, she's on an all liquid diet. (Take that South Beach!)

Can't Put My Arms Down

Last Sunday was absolutely frigid - high of only 10 degrees with a windchill of -25. Needless to say, we wanted to bundle Kaiya up for church. It was like a scene from A Christmas Story. Poor thing couldn't put her arms down!

All Smiles

After looking through Kaiya's posts, we realized we didn't have any photos of her smiling! Quite a shame, because her smile is so precious. Every time she was smiling and talking to us, we were enjoying the moment so much we never grabbed a camera. So, we decided it was time to share with you what we've been enjoying for weeks!

BTW, this outfit is from Gran Knodel. It has adorable little bear ears - now that's worth smiling about.

now with video!

ok not the most exciting clip but this is mostly just a test. But it doesnt really matter b/c Kaiya is so freaking cute even a boring clip is a treat. Enjoy!



cheers!

p.s. you tube compressed this video clip and doubled the speed. No Kaiya is not rocking that fast!

Time for a change!

Ok so since I originally set up Kaiya's blog I did it if you remember before we even knew that she was going to be...well a she. SO when I did it I tried to pick something neutral that would work for either a boy or a girl. But now that Kaiya is here and she is very much a girlie girl Lisa and I decided it was time for to change the look and feel of this blog to better represent Kaiya and her personality. SO what do you think? I hope everyone likes the new look and I hope that Kaiya likes it too. Oh and if you have noticed an increase in the amount of updates on this blog as well as a dramatic improvement in the writting and content you can thank Lisa for that. I gave her a quick tutorial about a week ago on how to upload pics and text to this site and she's been a blogging fool ever since! SO thanks honey I know Kaiya will appreciate all your work when shes gets older!

cheers!

Game On

After two months, Daddy and Kaiya have finally perfected the best gaming posture. He can just strap her on and play - great for snuggling, too! Kaiya fell asleep, Daddy enjoyed the tummy-to-tummy time, and we all played Lego Star Wars! She'll be a gamer yet.

A Sad, Sad Day

Well, Monday was a big day for Kaiya. Not only did it mark her two month birthday, but it also was her first round of vaccinations :-(

Here is Kaiya right after they measured and weighed her (and before she knew what was coming): 10 lbs. 2.2 oz. and 22 3/4". That means she gained a little less than 3 pounds and grew a little more than 3 inches in just 2 months!

Kaiya was so pathetic. She was great at taking the oral vaccination, but she screamed when they gave her three shots (Mommy cried, too!). She was a bit fussy and didn't really want to eat for a couple days. Here she is with her badges of courage (nope, not red, just Snoopy and sparkles).

But it wasn't all bad. She got a new toy. She loves to swing, and we were getting tired of buying tons of D batteries. So, she's got a cooler swing that plugs in!

Two more months until we have to do it all again (sans swing).