This is the family pic we chose to put in the paper for CDH Awareness in North Country Now... we didn't have many to pick from... it was either I looked fat, Jerry was being dumb, or Kayla was not happy! It was a tough photo shoot!This is the first time Kayla was introduced to the spoon... She says...Ok.. what is this.. hmmm and shortly after- EW MOM! haha Jerry playing doctor- dork!

Kayla seems to enjoy standing when she is not happy... and it was a bonus she got to stand on the crinkle paper! haha

Kayla just had her 4 month check up/shot appt. I hate shot days.. they make me so nervous! Like I'm not stressed out enough.. !!

Well Kayla didn't seem to mind the dr's office.. we got there, and waited and waited, she was fine... then we got into the room, and waited, and waited... finally she got hungry! Thank god we were smart and brought our "quick and easy" supply of pre-made 24 cal formula. She drank two oz!! and fell asleep.. her schedule was all screwed up. So once she fell asleep the nurse came in and wanted to weigh her.. go figure! Well Kayla weighed 13lbs 1oz 24in... yay! She is at the very tippy top of the 25th-50th percentile of weight and height.

Then our dr came in and let me ask a TON of question and told me how to start rice cereal with a spoon!! :) Kayla's first experience with a spoon was not great.. she let me put it in her mouth several times, spit everything out as I put in, and then started crying. The second attempt a couple hours later, she let me put the spoon in her mouth and she actually started sucking on it... and took some of the rice cereal with formula in. YAY! It was cute.. :) I know I'm a little ahead of the game... seeing how she is just under 4mo... but I really want her to get some solids to help with reflux.. so the label on the rice cereal says- good for babies who can sit up with support... bingo! I'm game! :) It even says she can do 1st foods- which I will wait until she gets the hang of the spoon first.

July 15 is soon approaching... i was nervous that my co-workers, family and friends would forget to send out their letters and envelopes... so I sent out an evite:

http://www.evite.com/pages/invite/viewInvite.jsp?inviteId=SOAQRNTYIGZLTSIWMRHR

This was to remind everyone to send out the blue envelopes and email Oprah! :) Charlie and Kayla make such a cute couple, how could they resist sending them out!

Father's day was a great day- Kayla was a monster but only when she was tired... she did not want to sleep so she would cry any time her eyes would start to close. It was stressful- but as the day progressed she got better little by little. However Jerry enjoyed the sliders grill pan and the picture frame of Kayla and the many faces she makes for Father's Day. He also enjoyed the card that Kayla made him- the hand print was tricky but we got it down. Kayla is doing great. She still eats any where between 3.5-6 oz. It all depends on what she wants.. and I'm still learning to be ok with that. I feel like she should be eating the 6oz all the time... but she likes to switch it up on me. She gets about 25oz a day... and she is still on the 24cal formula. We have a doctor's appt on Friday- hoping they'll reduce it to 22cal. Kayla is finding her voice and sometimes gets surprised she has one. She also is starting to love her jumper and the outdoors. When she is crabby because she has to burp.. all we have to do is go outside and she is at ease. :) She also rolls over from time to time- not every time, in fact she doesn't even like tummy time every time! :) She loves it when I tell her to say "mamamamama" or "dadadadadadadada"... or anything like that.. she just laughs!! It's so cute. On Wednesday I am finally done with work.. I will then have the whole summer with her. Yay! :) I'm super excited to be done and to be with her all the time. As for July 15- I have emailed everyone at school and told them all about this. And I got a HUGE response so I went and bought 150 blue envelopes and I will use the generic letter that was posted on Sofia's blog and letters for cdh for them to put into the envelope. I also have at least one newspaper willing to do a story about this for us. I've contacted 5 local newspapers/stations in hopes that someone will do a story about the 15th and about CDH. So far, only one reply... the newspaper I work for. :) Either way it works well. If there is anything specific I should say in this newspaper please comment and let me know! I have fixed the comment section- apparently I am not allowed to have a cute backgroud- i have to stick with the origonal. Oh well..

Daddy and Kayla after an exhausting day....:) We had a great bbq with our dads! However- we were very tired- and went to bed at 9 p.m.!! Kayla reaching for the camera- what she does w/ EVERYTHING and then brings it right to her mouth!! She EATS everything!! It's cute! But now I really have to make sure her toys are sanitized.

I dressed Kayla in her Yankee uniform yesterday, for Father's Day.. She seems happy in it!! haha (Sorry Papa- Kayla's loves the Yanks-! )

These are the collages I made for July 15- the date we are sending to Ellen DeGeneres and emailing Oprah. I'm still unsure which to use, I love how the pictures turned out on the first one, but love the words on the second one. Got an opinion? Please share your thoughts... which do you think I should send to Ellen?

Well Kayla is doing very well... I can not complain. She sleeps all night- wakes up a little earlier than I would like but really, I'm just lazy. :) She got Jerry up this morning at 6... that is amazing! We could not be happier! She is eating the 5oz that I was so frustrated about earlier- in fact she is eating 5+ oz.. even tonight- scared the living crap out of me! She ate 8oz!! My fault completely- of course my husband did play a part.. :) I split up her feeding into two bottles- 2oz for her zantac- which was supposed be 1oz.. I just poured too much, and the other bottle was supposed to be the 3-4oz... her left overs. :) Well.. Jerry grabbed the WRONG bottle from the fridge and it was full, to the tippy top, which was 6 oz.. she sucked down both bottles within 15 min. She was fast.. She never stopped sucking- we burped her after her zantac bottle only bc she was going NUTS for her second bottle- and then again the in the middle of her second bottle.. and go figure- only a TINY spit up!! I made my father in law hold her up for about 45 min!! haha!! Kayla does have an attitude! Oh my my!! She will smile at you one second- and completely go NUTS the next second. She got bored, or she wants to move... or she wants tummy time... or sleep. I never know- the book says I am supposed to be able to tell the difference between her cries- Um- no... I only know the hungry cry bc I know it's been 3-4.5 hours! So she goes nuts!! However, I did find that when she is going nuts I can walk her outside and she stops... and loves the outdoors. (except when she wants her bottle- she goes crazy!) I find that she does not CRY ... she YELLS! She YELLS a lot!! haha - I used to feel bad for her- until I saw a REAL cry... now I know she is just yelling at her mother- and I tell her all the time to stop- the little stinker does not listen. haha go figure!! :) She also does not like it when you burp her... she YELLS until you stand up and start walking around. I really blame the NICU- (haha) one of the nurse practitioners was trying to get Kayla to stop crying one day- and while the NICU looked for the miracle blanket.. she took Kayla on a stroll around the NICU- haha Kayla absolutely LOVED it. And now- Kayla does not let you just stand... or sit. Little miss attitude!! She did roll over several times- she does not do it every time we put her on tummy time- I can count how many times she's rolled over on two hands.. so it's not a lot. But it was so exciting the first time she did it... I was not expecting it. I think my reaction scared her and she cried.. I can't believe she ever did it again after that. haha I believe her Zantac is helping TONS! She has not had one of her episodes of "crying to get the bottle" and then "crying bc the bottle was in her mouth" since. So that is great.. I always felt so bad for her during those feeds!

Another fantastic visit with our friends the D'Angelos... Charlie and

Kayla sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g :) OMG the worst- Jerry was holding her- he almost cried.. first time she ever cries with her eyes open and it was when Jerry was forced to torture her. He felt awful! The second they took her out of this awful contraption they handed her to me, and as soon as they got that led jacket off Jerry he came over and demanded he hold Kayla- so she wouldn't think he was a monster.

After a bath- She spit out her binky right as I took the picture.

Being a big girl in her Bumbo chair- She can stand it for a couple minutes as long as someone is sitting right in front of her...

She loves her jumper but only for like 10 min... if that. She needed a step stool because she is not tall enough yet- but everytime she kicks her legs the jumper plays music. She loves it.

Her appt in Syracuse went well. The Dr. said she sounded good, and her x-ray looked good. He even let us come back to the office to look at the x-ray. She now weighs 11lb 14oz.. a day before she was 3mo. old, which is today! :) She was super this morning tho- I think her trip messed her schedule up and she was very tired. She slept all night long, which she normally does, and then took a 2.5 hr nap at grandma's after she ate.

She is doing very well with eating... she now takes 5oz more often than not.. but of course that can change at any moment. She had a great visit with Charlie and his parents... She loves the car- not the car seat- but the MOVING car. :) She'll go hysterical until the car starts moving. She is doing much better at tummy time- lifts her head pretty high and for a longer period of time and more often.

Love and prayers to all- Don't forget July 15!!! :)