The Stanford Family

The Stanford Family

"I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him." 1 Samuel 1:27

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"A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bank balance smaller, home happier, clothes dirtier, the past forgotten, and the future worth living for."



Monday, June 13, 2011

15 Months & Ready for Summer!

Our big girl turned 15 months on Saturday! It's been such a fun start to the summer, spending all of our weekends thus far being outside as much as possible, at the lake, on the boat, in the pool, running errands, eating out, and letting Kinsley just have fun with her "girl friends!"

Kinsley is busy, busy, busy! She is practically running everywhere. She doesn't want to sit in a stroller, or hold your hand to walk, she wants to explore on her own! Explore everything! One thing that we are learning about our girl is that if she is familiar with her surroundings, she knows no danger, and she is ready to explore! And anything that is not "baby proofed" is fair game! (And as a side note, we have now been through our 4th stage of baby proofing around our house...). On the other hand, if Kinsley is not familiar with something - be it people, the environment, or a particular new experience - she clings tight to mom and dad until she feels ready...we are just easing her into trying things, and so far, so good!

As far as food and beverages go, we are up and down. With food in general, things are going great...she is doing really well with the full on transition to solid foods, still downing her vegetables and fruit whenever she can at lunch and dinner and still loving her oatmeal / toast / banana for breakfast. The more we let her try with regards to new foods, the better. BUT, we are still at odds with the milk-in-a-sippy-cup thing. I mean, she LOVES milk in the bottle, and LOVES water/juice out of a sippy cup, but so far joining the two together has been unsuccessful. So, rather than make her go without any milk at all, we start and end the day with a bottle of Horizon organic milk...and I know that our goal was to be off the bottles by 15mo, but, well, that just didn't happen. But we are down to 2 bottles a day, so I am good with that for now...

Naps: still thankfully on 2 a day, and not seeing that trend let up at this time. She is on schedule to take 2 solid 1.5 to 2 hour naps a day. So until she fights me at nap time, or is only sleeping for like 30 minutes during one of the naps, I am going to keep this trend going as long as I can!

In addition to playing pick-a-boo with her hands over her eyes (a new favorite game), loving playing with balls and cars (I am waiting for "girlier things" like dolls to kick-in), Kinsley is still a chatter-box for sure...and still babbling in her own language most of the time. I know that she is telling me absolutely fascinating stories, but most of the time we still have no idea what she is saying. BUT, here are a few words that we know she's saying:
Hi = "Hi"
Cooh = "Cool"
Oh Wow = "Oh Wow"
Dohhh = "Uh-oh"
Fwah = "Flower"
Fah = "Fan"
Bah = "Ball"
Pooh = "Pool"
Sha = "Shoes"
Car = "Car"
Oooo = "Oooo" (when she sees something "new")

More teeth are on their way in, and bringing some obvious pain and fussiness with them. But guess what else is growing in??? HAIR! A full head of it - finally! It's not long enough yet for all of her cute little girly bows, but it won't be too long before she's sporting pigtails! Okay, maybe I am getting a little ahead of myself...

*Added on 6/16/11*: Kinsley's 15-month check-up at the pediatrician went really great today! We got her stats, and they are very happy with where she is! She's come so far in 15 months from starting out as a tiny-tot, and is getting soooo big...she is SUCH as toddler now!

  • Height = 31 3/4" (75th percentile)
  • Weight = 23 lbs 13.5oz (75th percentile)
  • Head = 49.1cm (97th percentile)

So anyway, here are some photos of our summer so far.......

First, it was some time up at the lake with my grandparents, mom, dad, Ang, and Dan for Memorial Day weekend and my mom's birthday!



And speaking of the lake, we've been spending a lot of free weekend time up on the water. Kinsley loves the boat (so does Hunter) and it has become a great way for us to escape away for some fun together! We've got our routine down too...she eats meals in her Bumbo chair, keeps up with her Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the iPad, plays in her tent on some of the random lake "beaches," loves helping daddy drive, and can take some of the deepest-sleep naps ever when the motor is on and we are rocking to the waves.



Here's a photo of Kinsley and her friend Eloise making the most of their baby pool at the lake!


We also took Kins up to Suwanee this weekend to play in the fountains with her friend Caroline! We got some great photos of her playing in the water in an oh-so adorable pink tu-tu bathing suit that she got for her birthday, and playing in the grassy park area before dinner.




The rest of June is relatively calm and relaxing at home...we are expecting a fun visit from out-of-state family (Jenn & Chris and Kinsley's cousins Julian, Alex, & Lilly), a kick-off to Kelly's wedding with her first bridal shower, and then rolling right into July with Kinsley's month-long weekly swimming lessons and music classes, and our first vacation trips on the horizon!

Bring on the summer!!!

Friday, May 27, 2011

"Kinsley" in Seventeen Magazine!


Ooohh-kaaay, well, sort of......

Last Fall at work, I was tasked with naming the items in one of Goody's "trend" collections, Modern Organica...giving each product in the collection a creative, catchy name that our Editor's could use if they featured one of the products in a magazine. (So, instead of saying something like "Goody brown cloth headband," they could refer to the item as the "Goody Fringe Benefits Headband"...you know, a little more fun and playful.)

Anyway, towards the end of the product naming, I was hitting a wall...stuck...and decided to name one of the final items after my favorite little inspiration, Kinsley. The item was a pair of these cute little plastic, pastel, twisty, iridescent clips. I passed the idea by a co-worker who agreed that the name "fit."

Low and behold, months later, the Kinsley Clip ended up in the pages of the June issue of Seventeen magazine!!! I just thought it was SO COOL to see my little girl's name in a national publication, on a product that her mama named after her. I figured, there not many times in life I could say that, huh?

So anyway, I had to make sure I captured this interesting little tidbit of information in the blog...this is definitely something for my "modern day baby book" that I will want Kinsley to read about one day!

The cover...

And here it is!
The Kinsley Clip is the light blue, twisty clip at the top of the page and in the model's hair!
The text reads:
"Try: Goody Modern Organica Kinsley Clip.
$5, Target Stores."

Friday, May 20, 2011

Escape from "Reality"



Tuesday, May 17, 2011

"Sneak Peek" at Kinsley's 14mo. Photos!

Here is just a little taste of of the many photos that we had taken of Kinsley this past Sunday with DL Photography in Marietta...I absolutely cannot wait to see the rest of them!





Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Mother's Day and 14 Months Old!


So much going on this past month, as Kinsley turned 14 months old today! And just one week shy of her 14 month "birthday," she finally did it - she.started.walking...on.her.OWN!!! Nope, no coercing her to "walk to mommy / now walk back to daddy"...no furniture cruising...no holding hands or fingers...she has decided that she can do it all by herself! Watching a toddler start the walking process, and then seeing her gain the confidence to do it without help has been one of my favorite "stages" yet. When she takes off, it is one of the cutest things I have ever seen...her little legs and feet get going, so fast sometimes that I think she is going to start running...and the big grin on her face! And she has naturally become even more curious than she was before - if that was even possible. Still getting into everything, of course. Here is a little example of her helping me "organize" my magazines...oh boy.


In this past month, we have also progressed off of formula and nearly off her puree'd veggies - the Beaba BabyCook has officially retired until I have to pull it out to use it again with the next one someday! Now, Kinsley likes trying all kinds of new foods - nearly anything that we are eating, I will usually let her try. In addition to all of the previous posts of solid foods that she loves to eat, we can now add pineapple, green beans, pancakes, toast, roasted carrots/squash/zuchinni, black eyed peas, and some pasta to the list...and even with those same four little teeth (there has got to be some more on the way), she scarfs it all down! And at 14mo, she is proving that she's got the ear for music, just like her mama - every time a song comes on that has a "beat" or is one of her favorite Disney theme songs, claps her hands in excitement and she bounces, upper body and knees, bouncing in unison. Makes us smile constantly!

And finally, Mother's Day - my second one as Kinsley's mom - was wonderful as we got to celebrate throughout the day with both of our moms! We had "Mother's Day: Part I" with Philip's mom...came home to a nap for one tired toddler...and then resumed with "Mother's Day: Part II" with my mom.

Not sure that we can rely on the Bumbo as our "travel" highchair anymore...Kinsley's little legs got stuck when we tried to get her out.

Philip and his mama.

The gracious hosts for our Mother's Day brunch!

The boys...and Hunter didn't want to miss out on anything...

Kinsley and her MayMay

Walking by herself!

Still holding onto the pink gift bag tissue paper...

She fell down, rolled over, and starting giggling!

Papa joined Kinsley while she took a break from all of the walking!

Me and my mama.

Kinsley and her Beebe

Her dress got stuck and revealed the cutest little monogrammed tush.

Our family photo at the end of a busy, but fulfilling day!

Sooo big!

Little girl...big yard.

My girl!

Kinsley and mommy again!

Mommy = jungle gym.

These sweet little feet belong to the reason I can call myself a mom.


Saturday, May 7, 2011

March of Dimes

We completed our first March of Dimes walk last Saturday, walking in honor of our own little "preemie-alum," Kinsley! We have so many other friends and family that have been affected by the early, unexpected birth of their babies, and now that we too have been affected, so we felt it was time to make this a family priority for giving (and a tradition to participate in) in raising money for this worthy cause! And after deciding to walk only three weeks before the event, we had a goal of raising just $500, but ended up raising $810 from generous friends and family, and Northside matched our contribution in Kinsley's name, bringing our grand total to $1,620! Kelly, Tom, and Mary met us over in Roswell and we all "Marched" on a beautiful Saturday in April! Kinsley even made it through the entire 2 hour, 6.2 mile walk - content in her jogging stroller, eating cheerios, drinking her sippy cup, and of course talking and waving to everyone!







The Northside Hospital stork!

The "Parents Partnered for Preemie's" Team from Northside Hospital.