High Chair Lady!

Kinzie is almost 6 months old! She has gotten really good at sitting up for short periods of time and has been practicing a lot at daycare. She still falls to the side a lot, but she's really good at keeping her balance steady when leaning forward and backwards!



Encouraging her to crawl towards daddy.


She was really excited as we tried the high chair at Chili's for the first time. She banged on the table and smiled the whole time. She loved sitting by herself and is really gaining independence!


Hi Mommy!


Later that night we thought we'd try her first cereal since she so adamantly watches us eat our food and has been reaching for it for a while. She was really excited to sit in the travel high-chair at home too!


"I'm so hungry I could eat the bowl!"


"I have my bib on...I'm ready to go!"


"Gimmie!"


"Hhhmmm...what's this?"


"Still figuring out if I like this??!!"


"I don't know if I like this???"


"Where's my bottle?"


"Ah, now this is the GOOD stuff!"


She's still mainly getting used to the feel of the cereal in her mouth and most of it she seems to let fall down her chin, but a few times she actually seems to swallow.

Jon is doing a show at the Arvada Center (Les Miz) and we took her there to show her off between shows. All of his colleagues commented on how alert and smart she seemed to be. Of course, we fully agreed.

She's getting ready to have some pictures taken at the daycare tomorrow, so I have picked out 2 outfits. I hope they turn out nicely so I can have some "official" photos.

Much love to all!

Will post some videos soon.

SJK

Kinzie Giggles

Who doesn't love baby giggles? I finally caught a few on video!

HUMAN RIGHTS ALERT! PLEASE READ!

I'm sorry, but this legislation that's trying to be snuck in at the last moment by the Bush administration is completely unacceptable to me as a woman and should be to anyone who cares about receiving non-judgemental health care. I go to a health services center to receive safe and effective treatment, NOT to be morally lectured to or denied services because of someone else's values. If you do not want to provide health services, DO NOT ENTER THE FIELD OF HEALTH CARE.

This would allow the door for ANYONE to be denied ANYTHING for almost ANY REASON. There are religions/beliefs that don't allow blood to pass from one person to anther. Would you want your family member left to die because the staff on call "morally" objected to doing a blood transfusion?? This is absolutely absurd.

PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO SIGN THE PETITION, BUT TO ALSO READ THE PROPOSED RULE AND CONSIDER DONATING TO A HUMAN RIGHTS LOCATION OF YOUR CHOICE SO AS TO PROTECT OUR RIGHTS!
THANK YOU!

Petition

http://www.ppaction.org/campaign/frcp08_adv1?qp_source=frcp08pporg

Link to FIND YOUR REPRESENTATIVES ON ALL LEVELS OF GOVT!

http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

Link to Article

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/19/opinion/19clinton.html?ref=opinion


Blocking Care for Women

By Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democratic senator from New York,
and Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America

LAST month, the Bush administration launched the latest salvo in its eight-year campaign to undermine women's rights and women's health by placing ideology ahead of science: a proposed rule from the Department of Health and Human Services that would govern family planning. It would require that any health care entity that receives federal financing — whether it's a physician in private practice, a hospital or a state government — certify in writing that none of its employees are required to assist in any way with medical services they find objectionable.

Laws that have been on the books for some 30 years already allow doctors to refuse to perform abortions. The new rule would go further, ensuring that all employees and volunteers for health care entities can refuse to aid in providing any treatment they object to, which could include not only abortion and sterilization but also contraception.

Health and Human Services estimates that the rule, which would affect nearly 600,000 hospitals, clinics and other health care providers, would cost $44.5 million a year to administer. Astonishingly, the department does not even address the real cost to patients who might be refused access to these critical services. Women patients, who look to their health care providers as an unbiased source of medical information, might not even know they were being deprived of advice about their options or denied access to care.

The definition of abortion in the proposed rule is left open to interpretation. An earlier draft included a medically inaccurate definition that included commonly prescribed forms of contraception like birth control pills, IUD's and emergency contraception. That language has been removed, but because the current version includes no definition at all, individual health care providers could decide on their own that birth control is the same as abortion.

The rule would also allow providers to refuse to participate in unspecified "other medical procedures" that contradict their religious beliefs or moral convictions. This, too, could be interpreted as a free pass to deny access to contraception.

Many circumstances unrelated to reproductive health could also fall under the umbrella of "other medical procedures." Could physicians object to helping patients whose sexual orientation they find objectionable? Could a receptionist refuse to book an appointment for an H.I.V. test? What about an emergency room doctor who wishes to deny emergency contraception to a rape victim? Or a pharmacist who prefers not to refill a birth control prescription?

The Bush administration argues that the rule is designed to protect a provider's conscience. But where are the protections for patients?

The 30-day comment period on the proposed rule runs until Sept. 25. Everyone who believes that women should have full access to medical care should make their voices heard. Basic, quality care for millions of women is at stake.

5 months!

Happy 5 months to our little girl on Sept 9th! She went into the dr for her Dtap shot on Friday the 12th and we were told she now weighs 14 lbs 1 oz and is over 25 inches long! Her official next physical will be at 6 months, since this was just a shot visit.

She's been rolling around in her crib like crazy and now mostly sleeps on her tummy a lot - which freaked me out at first, but the dr said it's ok (I still check on her a lot)! Every now and then when we put her on her tummy for tummy time, she'll drag herself to get closer to something. It happened the other day with daddy encouraging her on, but I didn't have the camera with me to video it. She's definitely going to figure it out soon enough! She's also reaching for everything now and seeing even more around her, which is pretty cool.

She's getting really good about taking a nap in the crib and sleeps really well at night in the crib now too. After her bedtime routine of bath (with rubber ducky of course), going into her quiet bedroom for some feeding, rocking and singing, she'll usually go into her crib awake and settle down for the night without any crying now, which is SOOO NICE!!! When Jon's home especially, we enjoy a little adult time before having to turn in for the night - which comes all too quickly. We don't last long these days. Gone are the midnight nights and getting up for work. Truth be told, I'm usually almost always ready to go to bed soon after Kinzie is.

Here's some videos and pics for y'all! Remember, you can simply click on the picture to have it open to it's largest state, and then right click on it and save!

Stylin' with the Shades! Hangin' with the Kinz...

Happy Feet Time!


My parents are silly! I'm silly!


I'm so cute in my bath towel!


I always look surprised when mommy takes pictures!


I dig this blanket and reaching for things!


My mom sure loves purple...


...and I love hugs!


Kinzie sitting (sort of) on her 5 mo anniversary!


Mom tried to get me to try crawling on video, but
all I did was look cute and squeal at the cat a little!

Tubs n Tummies

Around 4 1/2 months, Kinzie started scooting around her play gym floor in basically a circle and would almost roll herself over several times. It was very amusing to watch her go in circles and come so close to rolling over. This picture shows her contemplating her next move.



This pic shows as close as she came to rolling over. She didn't want to pull her right arm out from underneath her, she she ended up rolling back onto her back, but it shows that she really could if she wanted to!



***EDITED TO ADD THAT ON 8/30/08 SHE FOR SURE ROLLED OVER FROM HER BACK ONTO HER TUMMY DURING A NAP TIME IN HER CRIB TODAY!*** YEAH KINZIE!

A good indication of what our house currently looks like...


We found this cute hat at the consignment store and had to try it on her.

We've noticed in the past week or so she's been deliberately reaching and grabbing at things. She's been able to grasp things for awhile, but only if they were basically handed to her. Lately, her focus has been more intent and you can see her putting two and two together with how to grab onto something and hold it. On Thursday, she also started splashing in the tub. Check out this cute video of her following dad's directions!! She's definitely right-handed (we think) since we tried to get her to do this with her left hand and it was a no-go.

She's also laughing a bit now! It's a little bit hard to get her to laugh by the time we see her after work since she's tired, but we're trying to catch on video and will post when do. It's just little laughs, but still so cute!

Bottles, Raspberries and an Exersaucer

Kinzie has learned how to blow raspberries lately and loves to demonstrate just how good she is at doing it, especially when we're out in public. Here's a video of her talents. Be sure to have your sound on!

Also, she has started to put her hands on her bottle more and more. I took this pic right as she was holding it for maybe 10 seconds. Just the beginning, but it's exciting the see the connections being made. She definitely recognizes the sounds of her bottle and gets excited when she's knows she's going to be fed.

We also caved in and bought her an exersaucer. We tried it out at the store and she seemed to love it, so we snatched it up, brought it home and assembled it. She likes to bang on all the toys and scoots around in circles in her seat seeing what she can bang on next. Her little feet reach the floor pretty well, but she's still pretty small in girth compared to how much room is in the seat.

Oh boy! Lots of neat stuff to drive mommy and daddy crazy!

What's this!!??

And this!!??

Her little feet reach the floor of the exersaucer now!

Her little personality is really coming through and we're loving every minute of it!

Kinzie is 4 months old today!

Well, the title says it all. Our baby is 4 months and we're loving it!! She is so darn cute that we fall in love with her more and more every day. Today we went shopping since daddy had time during the day to be with the family and we got tons of people stopping to say how adorable she was - and of course, we agree!! I couldn't help myself - I was determined to find some socks that fit (she's getting so big), and in the process, ended up buying WAYYYY too many clothes for Kinzie - all were on sale, but it still ended up to be a lot. Oh well! I'm glad we had the option. She'll be lookin' good for at least 9 more months!

Wouldn't you know it, she caught a cold during her first full week of daycare. She's had a little coughing and a little congestion, but of course, I catch it and feel like I've been hit by a truck. I'd rather have it that way I suppose. We did put a humidifier in our room and that seems to have helped a lot since now the AAP recommends against the use of over the counter cold medicines for infants now. It seems a lot of the old fashioned remedies work better anyhow. She's been feeling great the past few days, so that is wonderful.

She's going in for her 4 mo check-up on Monday. Can't wait to see her weight and how much taller she's gotten!

Oh, and I found that if you click on a picture, it brings it up to full size in a new window, so whoever is interested in saving a copy of the pic, just click on it and save it for full viewing pleasure.

Before 4 months, with a bib Grandma Denny bought for her.

Chewing on a heart chew toy.

Tummy time, looking in the mirror.

Not quite ready for the jumper yet...

4 month pics!

Am I 4 months TODAY Daddy!!??

Is that you mom!?

This pic is actually upside-down. She had such a

cute smile though, I had to turn it for everyone

to see!!! She was looking backwards at me

while being changed and smiled!

Mutli-tasking on the gym. She now grabs her feet

and holds them too!

She loves to put everything into her mouth lately!

We keep checking for teeth, but so far, none.

She really likes this musical ducky!

Some cute videos!

Kinzie playing on the gym floor! She seems to

have learned to pull the chain to make the

gym play a different song! She's not interested

in mom at all, just the gym! :P

Kinzie and the Magical Musical Duckie!