A new midget in the family

Keely had her 9 month check today and it would appear Ashley needs a new nickname because Keely has stolen it.

That's right, folks. Keely Q is the new Midget.

Last week I guessed that Keely weighed around 17 lbs. Turns out I'm pretty good (as if we didn't already know that) because she weighed in at 16 lbs 9 oz which is 11% on the charts.

Somebody get this baby a steak and chase it with a giant brownie! She's too tiny!!!

Keely hasn't gotten any longer in just over 2 months and comes in at 27" long, which is 23%. I'm not sure why she hasn't grown, and if she hasn't had a massive growth spurt by her next appointment, then we'll look a little more closely at that. 

So for now she's just a wee little thing, happily crawling around, pulling up to her knees, grabbing at things and singing her newest song "Ba ba ba ba ba" (this just started last night).  Dr H (our pediatrician) declared her perfect from head-to-toe, other than a bacterial rash growing in the 1 fold on her entire body (chin/neck). Lucky thing didn't have to get any shots this time, so it was a quick in-and-out appointment. I forgot to talk with Dr H about the best approach to testing if she still has the milk protein sensitivity so I sent him an email after the appointment.  Normally babes outgrow the sensitivity around this point, but you can understand my apprehension to start giving her any dairy given the absolute Hell we all went through while we figured out her issues. So we'll see what Dr H has to say/recommend and proceed from there. In the meantime I'll continue to cut out all dairy (not hard given my own dairy issues) and avoid making Keely any baby food that contains dairy.

And because I think it's fun-times to compare the girls, take a looksie at all of their 9-month stats:

Ashley: 23 lbs (95%) and 30'' (off the charts)

Natalie: 21.5 lbs (75%) and 29'' (90%)

Keely: 16.6 lbs (11%) and 27'' (23%)

Big Sis Tissy came along to help keep Keely Q happy

 Love my tiny little micro-mini

Cruising!

It finally happened....

Keely is a crawler!

Well, sort of a crawler. 

Actually it's more like a glider.

So this should read "It finally happened....Keely is mobile!", because that's more like it.

She's got just about the funniest crawl I've ever seen; the only thing that moves are her hands and yet she manages to travel across the floor. Her legs hardly move. Her feet twitch every now and again. But she makes progress. And that's all she cares about.

Now begins the arduous task of making sure every.single.itty.bitty.thing is off of the floor before it ends up down the hatch.

The fun just keeps coming!

Welcome to the wonderful world of mobility, Keely Q!

Here's a video (click here) of Keely gliding along.

And other video (click here) of what it looks like from behind.

Super summertime Saturday!

If every day is like the one we had Saturday, this is fixing to be the best summer in the history of summers. 

Ashley's been working on a book called Unicorn for the last few days. She tells me what she wants it to say, I help her sound out the words, she writes it down and then illustrates it. I'm not sure how many pages it'll have before she declares it complete, but once she's happy with it I'm going to take it and have it laminated and bound. 

We started the morning with 21 glads and this little guy just poking through...

...and by evening time we had 24 showing and that little guy grew nearly an inch!

The sugar snap peas are looking good and the strawberries are growing strong so we're ready for the next step: cherry tomatoes! Jake and Keely are the only ones that eat tomatoes and I'm not sure how much 3 plants will yield, so it's possible I'll have tomatoes to share!

We've lived on this beautiful hill for close to 7 years and Saturday was the first time I ever mowed our lawn. Of course Jake was standing close by with a critical eye (I was cruising on his Grandpa Ed's John Deere mower, something he takes great pride in), but I'm happy to say she's looking good! I certainly plan to do it again before the summer ends...but maybe I'll do it during the daytime while Jake's at work and can't hover over me.

While I watered our flowers, Keely and Natty Kat kept me company

Up in the shop Ash gave Jake a hand - she'll make an excellent foreman someday

By the time evening rolled around, watering the lawn was in order...which can only mean sprinkler time for the big minis

Natty giving me her best runway pose
PS That odd-shaped, giant shadow behind Natty is me holding Keely Q in one hand and a giant umbrella in the other. These girls don't do sunburns! 

Can't get enough of her crazy spirit

Around here if you play in the sprinkler, afterwards you get cleaned "Daddy Style"

Taking it to the face!

Who's having more fun? We may never know.

Feeling *incredibly* blessed

Mama and her baby girl

Sun-kissed 

Beach trip!

Back in February we loaded all three girly girls up for our first overnighter as a family o' 5. 

How many ways can we spell disaster?

Don't get me wrong, it was super nice seeing the Grant family and spending time with them. It was also nice cruising along the beach, collecting shells and playing in the sand. What I could have easily done without was Natty getting car sick on the car ride over, moping up vomit while Ashley screamed with upset in the background and the fact that Keely Q slept one of her worst nights EVER (this was back before she had tubes).

Yeah. Scratch all that stuff and it was a perfect visit! Thanks for hosting us Shaun, Lindsay and Pip! Maybe we can do it again sometime and we'll make sure Natalie keeps her lunch where it belongs, Ashley controls her emotions and Keely sleeps like a rock star.

Not asking much, am I? :)

Natty Kat showing Pippy how to build a tower

Keely's first bounce in the baby bouncer - had to put a pillow under her stubby legs so she could reach!

Ash teaching Pip the fine art of zooberts

Instead of napping, Keely decided it was much more fun to hang with her big sisters and watch some Saturday morning cartoons

Time to get sandy!

Didn't take Keely long to nap once she got wrapped up with Mommy

Happy mama and her girlies

So adorable!

Working on a sandcastle 

Beach girl

Treasures

Midget's booty

Time to get wet

A ride on the carousal in Seaside 

Pip doesn't look impressed 

Peeking through

If I can tame the squirrels enough to stay the heck away from my flowers, I may just get a few glads and dahlias this year! I'm not sure what's happening with the calla lilies; I went out this morning to water and found 2 of the 3 bulbs had been dug up by my ultimate nemesis SQUIRRELS. 

Good grief I despise those sheisters. 

If I can tame them, maybe JUST MAYBE I'll have some more color in my flower beds! 

Glad to see a glad!

 There's about 5 coming up but this guy is the tallest so far

This dahlia and another is coming up; hopefully the 3rd one joins them soon

It wouldn't make Martha jealous, but I'm pretty happy with our first flower bed!

Keely's 9 months old!

You read that correctly.
9 months.
Gosh.
At this point Keely has been out of me longer than she was in me.
Such a crazy concept to wrap my head around.
Keely's 9 month appointment is next week (too bad I thought it was yesterday and had everyone ready to head out the door...) but if I had to guess, I'd say she's getting mighty close to 17 lbs. There isn't a pinch-worth of fat on her, which is unfortunate. Nothing better than snuggling into chubby baby rolls.
She's made the move to size 9 month clothes, even though 6 month stuff still fits her fine. Size 2 diapers still fit her perfectly and I bought her size 3 summer sandals (but they're sorta clown-like they're so big). 
I just can't believe she's 9 months old!
On top of growing up, her development has exploded in the last few days. I'm not kidding when I say in a matter of 24 hours Keely went from sitting, falling over and getting irritated until someone sits her back up to sitting, gingerly moving herself to her knees, laying down, to sitting back up again. And even though Keely isn't crawling yet, she's --this-- close. Like so close it's insane she isn't *actually* crawling yet. I can tell she's frustrated because she can do everything that needs to happen to crawl, but she just can't do it all in the right order. 
Keely also went from one morning not being able to pick up food from her tray without palming-it to dinnertime the next day with a pincher-relfux so perfect it's like she'd been working on it for years. And now she's feeding herself like a pro!
Just 1 question; where did our baby go?!!
At this point she's sleeping 11-13 hours a night; I can't thank those ear tubes enough! Even though it means not as much fun in the swimming pool this summer, I'll take a little inconvenience to long, beautiful, uninterrupted stretches of sleep.
Precious, funny, happy and beautiful Keely Q. You've filled our lives with joy. Whatever you do, don't stop.

Self-feeding green beans...

...like a boss!

Ready...

...steady....

...almost....

...there!

This month was the first time Keely wouldn't lay flat for her month-picture. I have a feeling this may be the last time I capture her laying down for her monthly shot!

What's this I see?

Is it possible we might actually get some berries this year?

I'm pleasantly surprised. Probably because I had my expectations set so low...

Check it out, we've got fruit!

So excited