San Diego - Day 3

On Saturday we went to the world famous San Diego Zoo, our favorite of all the parks we went to. The weather was awesome - sunny and high 70s! It was the first time any of us had seen a panda up close. Notice the panda lurking in the background of the first picture. The polar bears are mommy's favorite animal but Kayla is not in the picture because she slept through the polar bear experience. She did wake up to see the giraffes though.

Saturday night we met up with cousin Krista. She drove us around a little to see some of the Torrey Pines and La Jolla area and then we went out to eat some "wahoo".

San Diego - Day 1 & 2

The first couple days in San Diego daddy had to work during the day :( On day 1 mommy and Kayla went to the Birch Aquarium to see some fishies and then went to see the seals on the beach near La Jolla. Day 2 was nothing too exciting, just some shopping for the girls, but daddy did get to wear shorts and sandals to work that day.

Traveling to San Diego

The trip out to San Diego went pretty smoothly. We stayed with our friend Kevin in Schaumburg the night before our flight so we would have a short drive to O'Hare in the morning. Getting through security and on the plane with a baby, a stroller, and a giant car seat was much easier than I thought it would be. Kayla did really well on the long flight out to LAX and on the quick trip from LAX to San Diego. In the first picture, that is not a terrorist behind Kayla, just a nice long-bearded man giving a menacing look. The second picture is Kayla setting a new trend in how to sit in a stroller. The third picture is Kayla pigging out on mommy's parfait in the commuter terminal at LAX.

A Big Day for Kayla

After the way yesterday started, who would have known it would be such a big day for Kayla. She got up about 1.5 to 2 hours earlier than usual and was pretty crabby. However, shortly after that she was playing with some plastic balls and she said "ball" for the first time. Then later in the day, she took some juice, and later some milk, and drank it on her own for the first time. We have been trying to get her to learn to drink on her own but she has never drunk more than a few drops that way.

Finally, just before going to bed last night she took her first steps!!! She has been standing on her own for a couple months and getting up without having to support herself on anything but had not yet been adventurous enough to move forward. But last night she decided to go for it and took 2 to 3 steps a few times! Hopefully we will be able to capture some video footage in the near future to post to the blog. Daddy expects that Kayla will be running 5k's with him in a few more months ;)

Well, we are off to San Diego for a week - I'm sure we'll have plenty of pictures to post when we get back.

Kayla's 1st Birthday!

Kayla turned 1 on Sunday Feb 15!!! We can't believe how fast the last several months have flown by. We had a party for her with mostly close family in Madison, however Grandma & Grandpa Czar made a special trip all the way from Cleveland to celebrate their granddaughter's first birthday.

Lynda made another fantastic bear cake for the party and even made a special mini-bear cake for Kayla to eat. Unfortunately Kayla was rather grumpy at cake time and just poked at her cake instead of tearing it apart and making a big mess like we were hoping for. Once we took her out of the high chair she had a great time sharing her toys with her cousin Emry and second cousin Dexter. She also enjoyed all the presents she was spoiled with, especially the ones in boxes that she could sit on.

More Mischief...

Kayla is doing a good job of getting herself into trouble. She has a slight obsession with shredding Kleenex. Although she has perfected her "I'm innocent" look, she needs to work on hiding the evidence. She has also discovered the joy of grabbing junk food out of the pantry cupboard, if only she was as good at putting things back.

Little Climber

Kayla's favorite new activity is to climb the stairs. We have to keep a close eye on her since it seems like every time we turn around she is heading for the staircase leading upstairs. She hasn't quite figured out how to go down the stairs very well so we are working on that.

Rough Week

It's been a rough week in the Ferris household. Lynda and Kayla both came down with a nasty cold near the end of last week and then Daddy finally succumbed to the cold on Sunday night. Not the best way to spend the superbowl but, Mommy was very excited Kayla and her Steeler's jersey still has some magic and led the Steeler's to a win! We've been pretty spoiled with Kayla being healthy so far so it was a new, and not very enjoyable, experience for us. To make things worse for poor little Kayla, she also has teeth number 6 and 7 coming in at the same time - one incisor and one molar, both on the bottom (2-5-09 update: make that 6, 7, and 8 - she has another incisor coming in on top).

On the more humorous side, Kayla has discovered that her little rubber ducky works pretty well as a makeshift pacifier so she enjoys crawling around with the rubber ducky's head in her mouth. Kayla has also become a big fan of eating bananas, although she has a tendency to stick her hand in her hair after getting it all full of banana mush. She was able to give herself quite the hairdo tonight with her banana hair gel.