Post Aransas Vacation

Justin and I had mentioned going on a family vacation this summer but never really planned anything out. Our summer was filling up(as summers do) and we realize we only had about 2 weekends available before school started. So we decided to take a trip to Port Aransas. We planned this trip fairly last minute as vacations go. We found a place to stay, bought some beach chairs, borrowed a tent, and decided we were good to go!

We left town Thursday afternoon and arrived at our room around midnight. Woke up the next morning and headed to the beach! Stayed for a couple hours headed to a surf shop to get Justin a boogie board and super cool $3 kite. 

Then home to eat lunch and let Kaylin nap. It ended up becoming family nap time :) so instead of going back to the beach, we decided to go eat supper and be done for the night. We went to a cute little place called Moby Dicks, there was an hour long wait but the food was good and they had a cute little gift shop we walked around while we waiting. Kaylin got a bit sunburned at the beach so we bought her a little hat. 

I love the energy in Port Aransas. Everyone is so laid back and chill, it seems it is truly a vacation town. Half the vehicles on the road are little dune buggies and most of the homes you see seem like rentals.

Saturday morning we got up and headed to the beach for a couple hours, Kaylin slept most of the time so we switched off being in the water.

 Justin also flew the kite. There was lots of kites on the beach so it was pretty cool to look into the sky. 

We headed home to eat lunch and let Kaylin nap, then headed to the beach again. After swimming and hanging out for an hour or so we started packing up everything. We headed back to the room to shower and change and went to our dolphin tour! As we drove up(5 minutes late) I realized neither of us had our wallets because they were in the beach bag in our room. Thank goodness I have my debit card number memorized! The dolphin tour was super cool!

Dolphins play with their food like a cat with a mouse! It was so neat to watch.

Dolphins like to swim in front of big boats.

 We saw a ton of dolphins and our guide was very nice, informative and funny! He was missing and eye and half a finger(among other injuries) from a shark he caught then it went crazy in his boat.

We went to an old lighthouse that is no longer used however still has full time light keeper that lives there and leaves a low beam in. 

We also drug a shrimp net for a few minutes and got to see what we caught. Our guide told us what each thing in the net was and put some in a small tank on the boat for us to look at and touch.

 After the tour(and heading to the room for our wallets) we went to a cute little restaurant called Fins Grill. The food was great, we even bought logo shirts.

Sunday morning we got up, packed up, and turned in our keys and headed to Corpus. We went to the Texas State Aquarium, it was pretty neat!

 However it would have been a lot cooler had we not been on the dolphin tour the day before and got to touch and hold stingrays and other fish. Then we headed home! 

First McClure Family Vacation in the books! It will be more fun when Kaylin is older and can enjoy more activities!

Kaylin 7 Months

Weight 14.6lb

Guess with all the crawling she didn't gain much :)

Update: Weighed her tonight(twice) and she actually weighs 15.4 guess I weighed wrong a few days ago :) 

Diet: Nurses every 2.5-3 hours. Still does not like baby food. I keep trying to see if she will change her mind but she may just go straight to table food. She's still very interested in our food and lately is very interested in cups of water. She likes to drink tiny sips of water out of my cup and will make faces if it's cold :)

Sleep: Bedtime is usually between 8:30 and 9. Swaddle her, feed her,  and lay her in her crib. Right now she is sleeping until 4-6am then going back to sleep until 8 or 8:30. It has been so nice! I still put her to sleep in the swaddle blanket but she always has her arms out by morning, I think she starts waking up and puts herself back to sleep by sucking her fingers. Usually naps twice a day for about 2 hours in her crib.

Mood: Very happy and silly. She loves to make funny faces, blow raspberries, click her tongue, smack her lips, and most of all she LOVES to squeal and talk.  

She loves to look at lights and fans so if your holding her she will throw herself back and look at the ceiling sometimes. Will try to eat/chew on everything, our hair, our/her clothes, shoes, phones, laptop, pretty much anything she sees she thinks needs to go in her mouth.

Activities: Mostly she just loves to play on the floor. We give her a couple toys and she army crawls all over the living room playing with different toys. She just learned how to crawl over the ledge from the back living room into the kitchen and rest of the house. So now I will have to babyproof the rest of the house and follow her around during the day while I'm working. 

Her favorite thing to play with is the Xbox, she can turn it on and off so we have it covered up with a towel and pushed back so she doesn't see it. She also loves the laptop power cord. When I'm working and have the laptop plugged in she will crawl over and grab the cord. She's mischievous already!! She still likes her jumper, and still swings from time to time(usually I use those when we need her to stay put because I am in another room cleaning, doing laundry, ect) She loooves when we get down on the floor and play with her.

Clothes: Still wearing mostly 6 month clothes, I probably drop something in the "too small"  basket once or twice a week. We have pulled out one or two 9 month outfits that look smaller than the others and they fit her pretty good.  Still wearing size 3 disposable diapers and bum genius cloth on the medium setting.

Kaylin had her first 4th of July yesterday, she was mesmerized by the sparklers. She liked the fireworks too if I could get her to look at the sky before it went off. We went out to Nana & Pops and swam and ate and hung out before Justin coordinated a fabulous fireworks show. 

We love you sweet girl! 

Kaylin 6 Months

6 months!! That's half a year people!!

Weight: 14.2 lbs

Length: 27.5 in(I think, shes pretty wiggly :)

Diet: Still nursing every 2-3 hours. She us very interested in our food, but we have tried baby food a couple times. Shes not too impressed :) but starting to like it better, and slowly figuring out how to get the food to the back of her mouth and swallow. We'll probably start trying every other day or so until she gets used to it.

Sleep: Started going to bed a little later, closer to 8:30-9 because she was wanting to get up too early! Usually take a bath, read a book or two, swaddle her, feed her and lay her down, IN HER CRIB!! Yes, finally sleeping in the crib. Woohoo :) Probably will have to quit swaddling her soon because her swaddle blanket is getting small, I'm glad we got her sleeping in the crib before we had to drop the swaddle because I think we would have had some sleepless nights if we did those both at once :) Some nights she sleeps 6-7 hours before waking up and some nights she only goes 4-5 before waking up. But she always eats and goes right back to sleep. Sleeping till 7-8am most days. Napping about 2 hours twice a day in our bed, swaddled, on her tummy. Hoping to start napping in the crib soon but right now we'll take what we can get :)

Mood: Still such a sweetheart! Happy, Happy girl most of the time. If she is tired, or is around a ton of people then Mama is the only one that can keep her happy. We are starting to see her personality a bit more and let me tell ya, she is a goofball!!(Who woulda guessed? Right?) She just learned how to move her eyelids and she sometimes makes a funny face and like flutters her eyelids and then smiles at me. She has also discovered her nose and likes to make noises and cry through her nose lol She also has started learning to make all sorts of cute little noises, squeals, coos, grunts, and the most adorable lip smacking!

Her scrunched up nose :) and "Mom I'm stuck!" I think this is the day we put the play mat away :)

Activities: These have changed alot in the past week. We did away with the play mat because she never stayed on it :) So now she just plays on the floor, and boy does she get around! She has been able to roll over for awhile now but lately she just rolls over and over and over all over the floor. She also started ooching/scooting on her tummy a day or two ago. I'm sure crawling is just around the corner. She likes to sit up but still falls over sometimes :) Still loooves her jumper, and playing with mom and dad.

Clothes: Wearing nothing but 6 month and several outfits are starting to get small :( Cannot believe baby girl is growing so fast! Still wearing size 3 disposable diapers and BumGenius one size cloth diapers at home. Right now her cloth diapers are on the smallest setting but I think I'm about to move them all up to the medium setting.

We love you so much sweet girl! We are having so much fun watching your personality develop.

Kaylin 5 Months

Little Miss Priss is growing so fast!

Weight 13.2 pounds

Length 26.5 inches

Diet: Still EBF every 2-3 hours during the day. Excited to maybe start some fruits and veggies in a month or so! I want to make homemade baby food for her and although I know it will eventually become a pain, right now I'm very excited about it! 

Sleep: Bedtime routine starts about 8 unless were out and about or she had a late nap. I swaddle her, feed her, and lay her down. She usually sleeps 6-8 hours before waking up to eat then another 2-4 before being up for the day. She used to sleep till 7:30-8 but lately has started waking up between 6:30-7 She literally started this the week I started getting up at 6:30 to go run before she woke up. Its like an alarm went off in her head! "Mom's working out! Wake up!" :) She is still sleeping in her Fisher Price Rock N Play but we moved it into her room. The first night she slept in her room I think I got up and checked on her about 5 times before falling asleep and then woke up to check on her a few more :) But she does great in there. We are starting the transition to the crib, some nights she wakes up the moment I lay her in the crib, some nights she sleeps for an hour before waking up, and once or twice she has slept about 4 hours in the crib before waking up. She is getting too long for the Rock N Play so shes going to have to get used to the crib pretty soon! For naptime the way she sleeps the best is swaddled, on her tummy, on our bed. Since naptime is still a struggle from time to time I'm not worried about transitioning her to the crib yet, for now as long as she is napping I'm happy! She usually takes two 2 hour naps. Sometimes one 2 hour nap and 1-2 30 minute naps.

Mood: She is still a very happy baby! She is just the sweetest, she will laugh and coo and talk to herself, she likes to blow raspberries, and her new favorite thing is pursing her lips and spitting. Its hilarious! I think she just likes the noise it makes. She has started teething recently, She is still usually fairly happy even while teething, just wants to be held more. And looooves to chew on anything and everything. My mom ordered her an Amber teething necklace, we'll see if it helps!

Activities: She still loves laying on her playmat on her back and tummy. She rolls and scoots all over that thing! She talks and squeals and coos all the time! She sits in the bumbo more and more, She sits up in it for awhile, then gets tired, and leans forward to chew on the side of it :) She is starting to sit up on her own! Just for a few seconds at a time before falling one way or the other. I think the longest she has sat up by herself was about 30 seconds.  She love love LOVES her jumper! She will play in that thing for over an hour. She jumps and spins and talks and chew on her toys. If shes a little fussy the swing usually does the trick, especially when you turn on the music, that usually calms her down(unless shes hungry) Overall she is just a very fun, happy baby. We love to play with her now! Just sit her in our lap and talk to her, tickle her, ect. She is getting to be so much fun!

Clothes: We are basically completely grown out of 0-3 Month there are still a few onesies left in her drawer but they are pretty snug, and all the pants are too short :) So mostly in 3-6, a couple outfits are still big, but I put an outfit on her a few days ago that looked huge and it fit! :( she is growing so fast! Just ran out of size 2 diapers and bought a box of size 3, I was surprised that they weren't huge on her! Still wears cloth diapers at home, during the day.

I cannot believe how fast time is passing! She grows bigger, smarter, and stronger every day. Which is so exciting, yet so sad at the same time! She is so much fun to just sit and play with. I know she will be crawling soon, its hard to believe just a little over a year ago we found out we were pregnant!

"For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord. They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jer 29:11"

Kaylin 4 Months

I know I say this every month, but I can't believe Kaylin is 4 months! 

Weight:11.6

Length: 25 1/2in

Diet: Still eats every 2-3 hours, but closer to 3 than 2 which makes mama's life alot easier! Just last week I started letting her sleep until she woke up on her own at night. She still seems to be gaining great! And eats more when she does eat in the middle of the night. 

Sleep: I usually give her a bath between 8-9, then swaddle her and feed her and she falls right to sleep. I just started letting her sleep until she wakes up on her own, she usually sleeps 6-8 hours before waking up to eat, and then another 3-5 before waking up again. No matter what time she woke up to eat last,  she is up for the day between 7-8 when we start getting up and moving.  We finally figured out nap time! I swaddle her and feed her in our room and lay her on her tummy. She usually gets at least one 2 hour nap and 1-2 30 minute nap. 

Mood: Very sweet and happy most of the time. When she gets sleepy she does become a fussy  mama's girl. 

Activities: Usually likes to lay on her playmat on her back or tummy. She has started rolling over more, and likes to roll on her side then back to tummy or back(whichever way she started) which gets her moving and ooching all over the place! She loves her swing, she will just talk and talk to us while she plays. She especially likes when we talk back to her! She loves hair! She is constantly grabbing a handful of my hair, I think it soothes her because she seems to do it more when she's sleepy or fussy. She has started grabbing things, her clothes, our clothes, blankets,  and burp rags. She doesn't usually reach out for things yet but definitely knows how to grab hold if they are accessible. Has started laughing a little usually she just smiles and says "ha!" but every once in awhile we get a sweet giggle out of her. Can't wait to hear more of those! She sucks on her fingers ALL THE TIME!! I try to pull them out sometimes so she doesn't do it so much. She is starting to recognize people, if she's happy she'll let anyone hold her, but if she's sleepy or fussy she just looks at them and cries, as if to say, "You're not my mom!" I just bought a Solly Baby wrap and LOVE it! Wore her in it for about 5 hours at TLC's 15th Annual Easterfest while I *helped* cook 10,000 hot dogs(obviously I wasn't able to help much) she took 2 naps in it and was so happy! Its super comfy to wear.

Clothes: Still wearing some 0-3 but about half of it no longer fits so we've started digging into the 3-6 to see what fits. I love going to a new size and seeing all the new clothes! Why can't I get new clothes every few months? Still wearing size 2 disposable diapers at night and when we're out and about. But after we finish this box(it takes a while when you only use 1-2 a day!) I'll probably buy size 3. Still wearing cloth diapers at home. 

As she has been moving around more recently, I've been thinking about the fact that she will be mobile soon! I don't know if I'm ready for that! Watching her grow is so much fun,  I love telling Justin the "new thing" she did that day when he gets home from work. 

Kaylin 3 Months

Baby girl is 3 months old!!

Weight 10.4(on our scale) 

Length 24"

Diet: Still eating every 2-3 hours during the day. And about 4-5 at night,  I still wake her up to eat at night to make sure we keep gaining weight. She got a cold last month that lasted about a week and a half. She lost some weight and got down to 9.6lbs so she has gained almost a pound in the past 2 weeks. So doing good but still a slow gainer. 

Sleep: Sleeps really good at night! I give her a bath between 8:30 and 9:30 swaddle her, and feed her, in the dark in our room and after eating she is out! Wakes up between 9-10 every morning. She is not a good napper though! We still haven't settled into a good napping routine. If I rock her or lay with her in our bed she will(eventually)  go to sleep but if I try to lay her down or get out of bed so I can get some work done she usually wakes up. If I feed her before we leave she will usually fall asleep in the car seat when we go run errands. So if nothing else we can usually get in 1 nap.

This was one day I rocked her to sleep then laid her down in bed and she woke up, twice! I finally put her on her tummy to play and she fell asleep.

Mood: She is a very happy baby! Even when she starts getting hungry and fussy if you talk to her she will smile at you!

Activities: She loves laying on her back or tummy(most of the time) under her playmat. She hold her head and chest up for a long time! Has been able to roll over for over a month but doesn't do it very often. I guess just when she feels like it :) we have recently started sitting her up on her tummy or back on the Boppy pillow. I can't believe how big she is getting! If you are holding her she likes to be sitting up and facing out. If you try to cradle her like a newborn she will lift her head up and crunch her little abs like she's trying to sit up. We got the Bumbo out because she was constantly trying to sit up. She does fine for a few minutes then her back gets tired. We'll probably try it again in a couple weeks - a month.

Clothes: Wearing size 2 disposable diapers at night and when we are out and about. During the day,  at home we started using Bum Genius cloth diapers. So far they are working great! Still in 0-3 Month  clothes but some of then she starting to get snug :( Her swaddle blankets got too small so we had to buy the size Large.

We enjoy "talking"  to her. She is super vocal with her little squeals, coos and grunts. When she is laying on the floor she just jabbers on and on. So cute! Can't believe how big she is getting!

We love you Kaylin!

Kaylin 2 Months

Kaylin is 2 months! Wow!

Weight: 9.8 lbs(according to our scale) 

Diet: Eats every 2-3 hours during the day but goes 4-5 hours at night. No more syringe feedings! She gets all she needs when she nurses now praise the Lord! Still spits up a lot but less than she used to.

Dad was burping her then they both decided to take naps :)

Sleep: Sleeps really good at night. Still setting an alarm to wake her up to eat at night. If not I think she would sleep through the night! Since she has been gaining weight so well we will probably start letting her sleep through the night soon. She goes to bed between 9-11 just whenever she gets hungry I put her in pajamas, swaddle her, feed her in the dark in our room and she goes right to sleep! She still sleeps in the Rock N Play bassinet next to our bed. Depending on when she wakes up in the morning to eat I lay her in bed with me after she eats and she usually goes back to sleep for an hour or two.

 During the day she usually takes a few hour long naps. Almost always falls asleep in the car seat when we go places which is great when I need to run errands for work! 

Mood: She is a very happy baby! Usually only cries if she's hungry or needs to burp :) when she was about 6 weeks old I think she had a growth spurt and some colic. She was very fussy and constantly hungry for about a week. My mom gave us some Ylang-ylang essential oil and we rubbed it on Kaylins tummy and back. It seemed to help! She is back to her normal happy self 

Activities: Still likes tummy time, she can hold her head and chest up for a few seconds before laying back down but then immediately picks it up again. 

Sometimes after doing tummy time for awhile she gets tired and falls asleep. Loves to lay on her back on her playmat and look at her toys. She makes the cutest little noises! She has started sucking on her hand. Sometimes when she's hungry and sometimes I think just for fun. Usually it's her whole hand but sometimes just a finger or her thumb. 

She loves when her Aunts and Uncles come over! They are usually arguing about who's turn it is to hold her, and sometimes read her books :)

Clothes: Started wearing size 1 diapers. Kind of between clothes sizes. Still wearing some of her bigger Newborn clothes and some of the smaller 0-3 Month,  the bigger 0-3 clothes are still too big. 

We are loving watching her little personality develop. She is just so sweet! Mommy and Daddy love you Kaylin!