Guess what today is

*If you're looking for my Friday Freebie and Favorite Ingredient posts they are below this one.

It's my blogiversary! So happy blogiversary to me! If you're observant enough you'll notice that my archives actually go back to Feb - those were posts I copied from the journal I was keeping on our family website and just transferred over here. The first new post I did on this blog was a year ago today. It was this simple, short post of a picture of Kayla coloring at her new easel.

I've been thinking of what I could do for my "blogiversary." I realize I am way past my 100th post (over 350 now). When I started blogging I didn't realize people did the "100 things about me" post in honor of their 100th post, so I never did that and thought I could do something like that for my blogiversary.

Except it won't be 100 things about me, because really who would want to read 100 things about me? And I probably couldn't even come up with 100 things, not interesting things, not things that would make you actually want to read it!

So it will be about Kayla, of course! and it won't be 100 things because she's only 3.5 years old. So here is:

50 Things About Kayla
1. Kayla was due on Nomar Garciaparra's birthday. That's important only to me because I'm a huge Red Sox fan and he used to play for them.

2. She signed her first word "eat" when she was a year old. I was so excited I would give her a cheerio every time she signed it just to reinforce it.

3. My first memory of her signing something without any prompting from me is of the word "dog." We were in line at the commissary when she signed this. I had a confused look on my face, wondering why she would be signing dog. I slowly turned around and noticed in the aisle facing us a display of dog food. She noticed the pictures of the dog and signed it by herself. I was so ecstatic I wanted to scream, but I waited until I got home!

4. She first rolled over from her front to back when she was about 1.5 weeks old. My mom had put her on her stomach for some tummy time. Kayla didn't like that one bit and fussed and fussed. While she was fussing she was alternately drawing her legs up and then pushing off with them. She managed to flip on her side and then over to her back. We were all so stunned that we had to put her on her tummy again so we could video tape it.

5. Next week she's going in for her 3rd set of tubes in her ears.

6. She's had her eyes probed to unblock her tear ducts. I was sitting in the waiting room hearing her scream; I don't know who cried more - her or me.

7. She's had a cardiac cath procedure to close a very small PDA. She still has mild mitral valve regurgitation and will need a dose of antibiotics anytime she has surgery, or dental work.

8. She was 2 months old when we took our first road trip. We travelled in a van with another family who had a toddler and a 1 month old. It took us about 12 hrs to get to our destination in TX.

9. That trip was also the first time she went out on a boat and wore a life vest, or the life vest wore her as she was so small.

10. Her first time on a plane was at 9 months old when we flew to Maryland.

11. Her first transcontinental flight was at 22 months when we flew to Denmark. (Hello to my Danish cousins!)

12. Kayla is our first child, and first grandchild on both sides.

13. She has 3 copies of the 21st chromosome.

14. She pretty much slept through the night since she was born. No I wasn't really lucky, I was a paranoid mom because babies are supposed to wake up and eat every few hours. She lost weight by her 2 wk check-up. From then on I had to basically set an alarm to wake her up. She probably officially slept through the night at almost 2 months old.

15. She had her first taste of baby cereal at 5 months old and seemed to like it ok.

16. Her 'best buddy' is Harrison; he's 4 months younger.

17. Her first "sleep over" was at Harrison's house when she was 22 months. Yes I cried when I left her there! (I was going to Joe's NCO Academy graduation/dinner in Albuquerque and kids weren't allowed.)

18. She rolled from her back to her front at 4 months.

19. She sat at 6 months and I can't describe to you the shock I felt when I realized she was balancing and sitting by herself.

20. One day I came out of the kitchen to find her standing up at the coffee table; she was a day away from being 9 months old.

21. She tried so hard to crawl, but would push off with her arms and scoot backwards. At 8.5 months old she finally managed to get herself forward a couple of times. It was wobbly, but she did it. Mardi gras beads were her motivation. By 9 months she was a crawling pro.

22. But she didn't crawl on hands and knees. She did the bear walk/crawl...using hands and feet with butt sticking up in the air. Everyone who saw this got such a kick out of watching her get around - and she was fast too!

23. She started cruising furniture about 10 months old. Newspaper was the motivation. Daddy was reading it and she wanted it too.

24. She stood alone at 11 months. She would go from sitting position to standing without holding on to anything, or basically bending her knees. She was sitting and would kind of "pop" up and propel herself vertically. It was interesting to watch!

25. She took her first "lunging" steps around 13 months. Once she realized she could take steps she would only do it in the living room from couch to love seat then crawl everywhere else. By 15 months she was a full-time walker.

26. Her first Halloween she was a duck, then a New England Patriots Cheerleader, and then a lady bug the last 2 years.

27. We used to go to Kindermusik (which she loved) until the instructor moved and there isn't another one in this town.

28. She used to take gymnastics, until that instructor left too and they haven't found a replacement.

29. She used to try so hard to jump. She had all the motions. She would bend down, almost to a squat and 'jump' up with all her might, but her feet wouldn't leave the ground. Sometimes she would get to her tiptoes, but no real jump. Until last Oct. She started jumping and we all celebrated with lots of cheers and clapping. Now a day doesn't go by that she doesn't jump. Walking down the sidewalk she just starts jumping. She's a jumping fool now.

30. She never used to sleep with anything in her crib, or even after we moved her to the toddler bed. She would throw out her blanket, pillow, stuffed animal, baby dolls. But now she sleeps on a pillow and pulls her blanket up to her chin, and has to have 2 or 3 baby dolls in bed with her. And they have their own mini pillow and blanket.

31. When her nose is running and she needs a tissue she says, "nose please."

32. She'll say "ouch" followed by "sorry" even if she's just apologizing to herself.

33. Signing Time is one of her favorite DVD sets. She can sign over 100 words, although she doesn't sign as much now that she speaks the words.

34. Another favorite DVD series is Boz the Bear.

35. She started preschool in Aug and goes 4 mornings a week for 3 hrs.

36. She takes the bus to school (which is really only 5 minutes away) but she loves the bus!

37. She loves eating cereal and trying to drink all the milk from the bowl afterwards.

38. She knows her colors, shapes, numbers, and letters.

39. Kayla greets everyone she sees like she is their own personal welcoming committee. She waves and says hi to anyone we walk by.

40. She loves to be outside.

41. She's 90% potty trained during the day. Still has an accident sometimes, doesn't always tell us she has to go until she starts going, and still relies on us to take her/remind her, but she's in underwear all day - even at school.

42. Still takes a 1-2 hr nap every day. Next year she'll go to afternoon preschool and there will be no naps anymore...I wonder how she'll get through the day!

43. She loves looking at books.

44. This child can not sit still. She's extremely busy.

45. She doesn't care much for noodles/pasta.

47. She loves when I get the blender out because she knows I'm making some kind of fruit smoothie or shake.

48. Her first two-word sentence was "hi daddy" at 28 months. She had put 2 signs together before, but not consistently. She could say hi and daddy and a lot of other words, but she just would not put them together. She was a one-word kind of gal.

49. Like most other kids Kayla likes to play in the kitchen cabinets. The one with the plastic Tupperware-type bowls was "hers." When she was two she would crawl all the way inside the cabinet, say "night-night" and shut the door.

50. She is a very much-loved little girl.

If you've actually read the whole thing and made it to the end - wow, I'm impressed!