It Takes A Village to Raise a Child

It's an old saying but I know now more than ever how true it really is. I have been so blessed with the best friends, family, and neighbors/ward members that have saved Matt and I on more occasions than I can count. There have been so many people willing to pitch in and watch Kyle on a moment's notice, often when he isn't feeling well, so that I don't miss another day of work and get written up or Matt can take a test at school. Not to mention his normal sitter that is so incredible, we are so blessed to have found her. Kyle is starting to get into that "stranger danger" phase and sometimes it is hard to drop him off but every time I pick him up I know he has had a lot of fun and is so loved and well taken care of. There is no feeling like knowing that your child is loved by someone else and is being taken care of so well, it's a blessing beyond description. 

So THANK YOU to everyone that has helped us so much. I hope you know how much I appreciate what you do for us and hope that one day I will be able to return the favor:

Rachelle Hurd

Tessa Partridge

Gloria Hair

Aunt Jennie & Uncle Greg

Grammy and Papa

Kelly Taeoalii

Aunt Cathy

Here are several pictures of Kyle with the people of his "village"

Silly Boy

Kyle is almost 11 months old and I can't believe how fast time has flown. He is growing and learning SO fast. Right now he is so much fun to play with. He definitely has a personality already. He is mostly happy and goofy but can throw a fit when he doesn't get his way or is tired or hungry. Here are some pictures and videos of what he has been up to lately.

 Taking a bath in the sink. It was nice for me to be able to get stuff done while he bathed. Him constantly hitting his head on the counter...not so much.

 Cute smile to get momma through another long day of work.

 Wearing his first big boy outfit (ie no onsie)

 Kyle likes to chew on q-tips he finds in his basket of toiletries. Not sure why. Don't worry, it's clean.

 Wrong end of the spoon bud, pretty close though!

 Runaway naked boy.

First time at the pool. Loved it! He looks so big.

Kyle learned his first "trick"! He can give high fives! A few other things he can do are turning on and off the light switch which he loves to do and then turn and look at the light, smart little guy, and if daddy is holding him and I try to give daddy a hug he will try to peel my arms off of Matt and then turn and grab him in a big hug. We checked to see if he did the same thing when I was holding him and Matt gave me a hug but all Kyle did was reach for Matt. Little punk sure loves his daddy.

Bear World

On a recent trip to Rexburg, Idaho for a baby blessing we went with Matt's family to Bear World. Matt and I went there when we were dating and it is a ton of fun. We were so excited to go again and hope to return one more time this summer with Nick. Kyle had a blast as well! We got to drive through the park that just has animals running around without cages including elk, deer, and the best of all BEARS! Most of the bears are just lazy and sleep in the shade but some of them will walk right up to your car and say HI. 

Kyle also got to go to the petting zoo where they have deer, pigs, goats, and a peacock. He got to feed the deer some leaves. He wasn't scared at all and seemed really fascinated with it.

They also have little carnival type rides at Bear World. All of the older cousins wanted to go ride so I found a nice shady place to sit with Kyle but Matt had other plans! He just took Kyle and went and got on one of the rides. I wasn't too worried because I thought for sure the ride attendant would tell him that there was no way he could take a 9 month old baby on the ride but much to my surprise and dismay she didn't! So Kyle got to go on all of the rides and loved them all.

You know your life is kind of boring when you are SO excited to go to Idaho but we had such a great time with the family. Our new baby nephew is adorable and it was impossible to imagine that Kyle was once half his size! Thank you Oyler's for letting us crash your house and for all of the fun memories!

Kyle Can Crawl

For some reason I expected Kyle to be able to crawl when he was 6 months old. So it was a long test of patience waiting for him start crawling at the ripe old age of 9 months instead! Haha. I don't know the exact date he started crawling, it just slowly went from him doing push ups, to moving one hand and falling down, to moving two hands and falling down, moving two hands and one leg then falling down, etc. until one day he was just crawling all over getting into trouble wherever it could be found...today alone he has knocked a step ladder down on himself twice and a mirror once. That's a boy for ya!

No Training Wheels!

 

Nick can already ride his bike without training wheels! He gets a little nervous on the hills by our house so he mostly rides on the flat parts but he is getting used to riding on the big, scary hills. 

He is such a cute, hilariously funny, loving kid. We can't believe he is already going to be 6 years old and be in Kindergarten this year. 

Sleepless Nights

Everybody warned me to get my sleep before Kyle was born! I tried to but there was no way I could store up enough to make up for all of the sleepless nights I have had since he was born.

I think I may have trained him to wake up a lot because I kept him in our room until he was about 4 months old and would "over respond" to him. Anytime he would make a noise I would get up and nurse him. Then when he turned 6 months old I stopped nursing and he has literally been sick ever since then. It has been awful! He has had two stomach viruses, 2 earraches, bronchiolitis, and too many colds to even keep track of. The colds are the worst. He coughs so much he throws up.

Right around 9 months he started sleeping through the night on a regular basis which was heaven. But when he is sick he just wants to be held...which means no sleep for Matt and I. We have to plan out who gets what shift and who will miss work/school which days etc. One day I am sure I will laugh about it all but right now I just keep hoping that with the warmer summer weather we will get a few weeks with a healthy baby. Even when he is sick he is still so cute, almost makes up for the sleeplessness...almost.