5 Months Old!

Happy 5 Months Old Kiana! On Monday our little girl turned 5 months already! Time is going by so fast, but its so nice to see her change so much from month to month. We love watching her personality grow, and it's also fun to watch her slowly become more self efficient. At the beginning of last month she learned to reach and grab for her toys, so now if she wants it and it's within arms reach she can get it herself. As I mentioned before this led to her finding her toes. Now that she realized she can reach for things she attempts to reach for everything, sometimes this leads her to stretching and turning to her side if laying down, but if we have her sitting on the couch next to us this has also lead to a few nose dives into the couch. She definitely wants to move and will sometime get impatient just sitting, she just hasn't realized she can't walk/crawl/scoot/roll yet! Were working on sitting up on her own, but so far she just hunches forward so that her hands can be on the grown. She's not sitting completely on her own cause she'll still tip over or throw her body backwards, so I don't dare let go yet! She loves to talk to us more and more, she has started doing this constant humming, Grant likes to call it singing! Either way it's really cute and I love listening to her.

I took her in to weigh her on Monday and she weighed a whopping 12 lbs! She seems to be gaining only a 1/2 pound a month, but last month I was reassured my her doctor that she's perfectly healthy, just small and he has no concerns about her. Some say their supposed to double their birth weight around 4-5 months, but at this rate that won't happen till shes 9 months old. I'm sure once we start her on food next month she'll start gaining a little more. She's reaching all of her milestones, so far, a little early,she eats plenty, and has her baby rolls, so I guess we just have a little petite girl! I think her small weight actually helps her reach these milestones faster. I have done the weigh her, feed her, then weigh her again, and she gets what shes supposed to from me. We think she just has a high metabolism! :)




Last night we had some friends over for dinner, their little girl Brenna is 8 and 1/2 months old, Kiana was trying to pick up some tricks from her. She didn't seem to want to lay down and play while she was around! She also was sure interested in watching her eat...so hopefully we wont have any problems in a few weeks.

So is this the classic baby expression?

Here she is just playing, of course keeping one hand on her foot!

Here's how I catch her every once in awhile. Are we gonna have a roller soon? If only she could get that bottom arm out of the way.

It was Markie's, Grant god daughter, second birthday two weekends ago. It was Wizard of Oz themed and all little girls were supposed to wear red shoes. You know how hard it is to find red shoes for a baby? I was about to buy some glitter or sequins and make some ourselves. Well while we were home I just happened to find a store that still had xmas clearance, and the only red sparkly shoes left just happened to be Kiana's size. She's still in size 1's, a size most shoes don't come in. Kiana loves her sparkly red shoes, I'm sure she would love to wear them everyday!

Trip to IA

After a week in MN Grant flew into Minneapolis and we drove down to IA the next day. He could only take a week off and it didn't seem long enough to try to fit in both going to MN and IA in one week. Kiana got to meet many more of Grant's aunts, uncles, cousins and grandma and grandpa.

Here is Kiana playing a piano with her Great-Grandma Lois and Grammy Cindy. Since she just figured out the grabbing thing she tries to grab the keys, like with the laptop. She hasn't yet figured out to push the keys, so when she does hit them she gets excited when it makes noise.


Here are some more pictures of Great Grandma Lois and Great Grandpa Shorty.

Here's another four generation group picture.

One night of the first nights we were there her Grammy Cindy made dinner for the whole family so they could get together and play cards. A typical Brown get together. For those of you there we apologize for Kiana's outbursts, after it happened three nights in a row we realized that when she wants to go to bed she's gonna let you know it. So her fits is just her way of saying, "The party's over, I'm tired and you all need to get the heck out so I can go to sleep!"

Kiana with her Great Aunt Jolene (Moe)

She loved playing with her Great Aunt Tacy!

Here is Kiana with her great aunt Liz

Grant's cousins Wade and Tia were actually planning a trip to Colorado the same week we were coming to Iowa so it was nice of them to rearrange their plans so we could spend some time with them.

Another picture with great grandpa Shorty.

Kiana doing what she does best!

Kiana with the Maharry clan. She enjoyed watching them wrestle with each other, that if she could crawl I'm sure she would have tried to join in.

Trip to MN part 2

Below are some more pictures taken while we were visiting Kiana's Grandma Mary. My mom has a little netbook, Kiana just loved it and now seems obsessed with playing with the keys on our laptops. We just might have to find her a baby laptop at some point!

"Milk a what?"

Our E-trade baby in action!

She's definitely a girl...she loved my mom's watch. She was always trying to pull it off her wrist.

Don't let go!

We got to spend some time with my cousin Liz and her little girl Alexandra! The girls are almost exactly a year apart. Alex's birthday is only 13 days after Kiana's.

So this is the third year in a row that I haven't seen our tulips at our own house, so at least we got to enjoy the ones at my moms!

Kiana took her first trip to the zoo this week. She loved watching the monkeys swing on the ropes, but she couldn't keep up with them running around. She kept getting frustrated that she couldn't follow them and they kept disapearing. These ones below hung out to say hi for a little while.

Going back for more then just a few days meant I got to spend time with a few friends. Below are my friends Heather and Regina from high school. Unfortunately I don't get to see them too often, but I love that we still manage to stay close.

Trip to MN part 1

Sorry I haven't updated this in so long. We took a trip back to MN and IA so Kiana could meet more family, and I pretty much avoided the computer while I was away. She got to meet so many of our aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, and she even three of her great grandparents! Kiana and I took the long drive to MN together then Grant met us after a week and the three of us drove down to IA for another week before taking the long drive back home again. We were going to fly but since we were gone for so long it seemed nicer to have my car, then I could bring more of Kiana's stuff to remind her of home. She did really well...although if she was just one month younger I don't think she would have done so good. Last month she started grabbing onto her toys, so once she got tired of sleeping after the first six hours of the drive she was able to entertain herself with her toys...till she fell back asleep again of course. She has had a big month this month. The first week we were gone she learned how to reach and grab for things. So this lead to her finding her feet! Since she can reach for things now she likes to grab your face...especially your nose! There are some pictures below while we were in MN. I took them from my phone to send to daddy while we were away.

Here's the first time she grabbed her foot! Now that she figured it out it's the only position she wants to be in. Diaper changes have become a little challenging.

Good Morning Daddy! MN humidity does wonders for the hair!

Another morning picture Mom!

We saw these while at the mall and couldn't resit. We would have gotten her a pair, but she couldn't see through them and kept trying to look up through the top of them.

Kiana, my mom and I drove to Willmar for a few days so we could visit my grandma Verna, Kiana's enjoyed meeting her great-grandma. My grandma has tons of grandkids and many great grandchildren, even great granddaughters, but Kiana is actually the first 4th generation female. My grandma has six kids, but only two daughters. My aunt had a daughter, but my cousin had a son, my godson Ethan! So Kiana is the first great granddaugther of a granddaughter of one of her daughters! Did I confuse you yet? Kiana has figured out the smiling on demand yet, so she's not smiling in most of her pictures with others. Were not going to make people sit and smile for 5 minutes to wait for one.

We went over to visit with my uncle Bob and Aunt Jane the first night we were in town. She was worn out by then...too much traveling!

My cousin Kelsey and her son Ethan, my godson, came over the next day. It's always nice to visit with them when were in town!

I can't believe how big Ethan has gotten, it doesn't seem that long ago that he was Kiana's age. He'll be six in May!

4 Months Old!

Yesterday our little girl turned 4 months old. We can tell she is starting to be more interactive with us a little more everyday. She has gotten really good at grabbing on to thing, especially moms hair and lips if you get close to her face. She has also turned into our little wiggle worm, she doesn't like to just sit still anymore, she likes to stand up. I think she wants to move around, she just hasn't realized that she can't go anywhere yet unless we take her. I'm sure she'll be moving on her own, in some fashion, in the next couple months.

In recognition of Tiger Woods return to the Masters Kiana wanted to show up in her best golf outfit! She's definitely the most stylish one in the family.

Thanks to her Grandpa Frank, who recently increased Kiana's book collection to a mini library, we got a new bookcase for all her books. Thanks to everyone who has helped add to her collection, we have starting reading to her almost everyday. The top shelf is a series of Walt Disney basic learning and moral lesson books that I had as a kid. Her Grandma Mary has done a good job at storing them all these years, besides for a few coloring marks they look like new, you would never know they're over 20 years old.