Merry Christmas!

Are you sure I can't open just one gift early? Please?


First of all, we hope everyone had a great Christmas and we are looking forward to 2010!

This Christmas was very different from the typical Melcher Family Christmas of years past in a few ways. First and foremost, it was by far the most hectic. It used to be that we rotated Christmas with my side of the family and Kevin's side of the family since my family used to travel to Minnesota for Christmas. Now that my family stays put in Kansas there is really no reason that we can't try to see everyone during the Holidays, and that is what we tried to do this year. I say try, because Old Man Winter did all he could to try and stop us. I don't know the total snow fall on Christmas Eve, but it must have been close to a foot of snow that fell here. And that wasn't all, we got a couple more inches the following days. On top of trying to celebrate Christmas with both sides of the family, this Christmas also fell on the week that I work. Nothing like working 70 hours the week of Christmas, trying to fit in seeing both sides of the family and contending with the umm..."gift" from Old Man Winter. It didn't seem to bother Kinley at all though, she just went with the flow for the most part and seemed to really enjoy all the excitement, which made everything all worth while.

Here is how Christmas 2009 broke down:

Christmas Eve my parents and sister came over earlier than planned in order to beat the snow. They were super helpful and cooked dinner at our house while I slept during the day. We ate dinner together and then opened up presents.







Then Kinley went to bed and I went to work. My parents and sister stayed at our house so that they were there when I got home from work Christmas morning.

Christmas morning I arrived home to find a shoveled driveway, a cooked breakfast and that Santa had come and left presents for Kinley! After we ate breakfast, Kinley opened her presents from Santa.







Then it was time for her and I to take a nap. We originally planned to go over to Kevin's mom's side of the family that evening, but the weather changed those plans.

The day after Christmas we packed Kinley up and headed over to Kevin's parent's house for breakfast and to visit with his dad's side of the family. Well, those members of the family that were able to make it with the weather. After breakfast, you guessed it, more presents. (Sorry, no pics b/c we forgot to bring our camera.) Then back home so Kinley and I could take our naps. That evening Kevin's parents and sister came over to our house for dinner and presents.







Finally, on Sunday morning we packed Kinley up again and headed out to Kevin's Aunt's house for breakfast with his mom's side of the family. This time we (the adults) opened presents first and then ate breakfast. We fed Kinley as soon as we arrived to help keep her on schedule.









Shortly after breakfast we had to pack up and get home so Kinley and I could take our naps.

I do have to mention the gift that Kevin got me for Christmas. He got me a really nice new camera that takes 4 pictures per second! It was getting hard to take pics of Kinley with our old camera because she rarely sits still anymore. Hopefully with the new camera we will have more pics to upload and will update the blog more often. Maybe that should be a New Year's Resolution, or would that just go by the wayside January 2nd with all the other resolutions?

We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Kinley's 1st Trip to Texas

On Thursday, November 12th (Mommy’s birthday), we packed up the car and headed down to Texas. Dallas/Fort Worth area to be more precise. The plan, to visit (and stay with) close friends from TCU, give Kinley her first tour of her future college (TCU) and to take Kinley to her first TCU tailgate and football game. GO FROGS!!!

This drive was very different from Kinley’s previous trips (Colorado and Minnesota) because we did the entire drive during the day. Kinley handled the change quite well. She must be getting more comfortable with her forward facing car seat because she actually took two naps. She also ate decently, as well as can be expected from Kinley when she is in a new place. We made sure to feed her outside of the car to avoid any chance of “back fire” in her car seat. Kinley’s choice of dining establishments were McDonald’s (on I-35 turnpike) and McDonald’s (somewhere in Oklahoma). We were able to arrive at our friends’ (Kevin and Candice) home in time for our dinner and Kinley’s bedtime meal. Traveling during the day was not an issue with Kinley, but stopping to feed her (twice) did add 2 hours on top of the already 8 hour drive.

On a personal note, Kathy and I are not fans of the toll highways surrounding Dallas. Luckily, Kevin and Candice gave us excellent directions to follow whenever they were not actually with us in the car.

Our first day in Texas, Friday, was a pretty busy day. Kevin and Candice (only a half-day) had to work, so after breakfast Kathy and I packed Kinley up and headed to TCU. TCU, like many other colleges, tends to have some parking issues. This was not helped by the fact that it was a football game weekend and that ESPN College GameDay was on campus. Luckily we were able to find a spot in the TCU Bookstore parking lot. Once Kinley was situated in her stroller we headed into campus to take a look around and show Kinley where mom and dad went to school. TCU’s campus is pretty compact so the tour didn’t take too long, but there was plenty to see because a lot of things had changed since mommy and daddy were there plus, ESPN was setting everything up for College GameDay. In fact, there were already some students claiming spots for the next day’s show.







We also stopped to pick up our football tickets for Saturday’s game. Before returning to the car we had to stop at the TCU Bookstore, so we could all get some new TCU apparel. Before heading back to Kevin and Candice’s we stopped at one of our favorite restaurants in Fort Worth, Charleston’s, so Kinley could eat lunch. By this point Kinley had become pretty comfortable eating out at restaurants.

When we arrived “home” we found that Candice was home too. We “grabbed” Candice and headed to the local mall to do some more shopping. (Don’t worry, Kinley took a nap both to and from TCU.) I dropped the ladies off so I could take our car in for an oil change. When I joined back up with the ladies I found that Kinley had completed her shopping so Kathy and Candice were free to shop for themselves. (While in Gap, I ran into my K-State baseball teammate/roommate’s wife.) Once we had all had our fill of shopping we met up with Kevin and went out to dinner at Abuelo’s. Kinley absolutely loved their tortilla chips.

Saturday was definitely more of a day for dad and Kevin. We woke up extra early to go to TCU and be a part of College GameDay. I won’t bore you all with details, but it was an amazing experience.







Kinley hung out at “home” with Kathy and Candice and they all joined us that afternoon, once the tailgate was all set up. We set Kinley’s booster seat right on the asphalt, in the middle of a circle of chairs, and she ate/tried just about everything we gave her. She was definitely showing off for everyone. After she was done eating we let her roam around, but she always ended up walking down hill and never wanted to walk back up. We figured too much walking around (and visiting other tailgates) would wear her out and make her cranky, so we put her in her stroller and I walked her around the parking lot. Game time finally rolled around and we all headed toward the stadium. The game was completely sold out, plus TCU sold an additional 5,000 standing room only tickets. Needless to say, it was packed.






Photos above courtesy of Kevin and Candice.

We had purchased end-zone (cheaper) tickets because we were not sure how Kinley would handle the game. She made it through the national anthem and the first five minutes of the first quarter, but then she decided that was enough. We placed her in her stroller and decided to walk around the stadium. The downside of walking around was that we couldn’t see the field due to all of the standing room only tickets. We decided we would head “home” and watch the remainder of the game there, but before we could go mom and dad had to get some Dippin’ Dots. Kinley confirmed that she is definitely our daughter because she could not get enough Dippin’ Dots. Her mouth was open and ready for more just seconds after we had given her a bite.

After arriving “home” we were really depressed, for two reasons. The first was that the TCU game was not nationally televised and therefore we couldn’t watch it. We did listen to it though. The second was that we realized that we are not very experienced parents. We forgot to take any pictures of Kinley at her first TCU tailgate and football game. Here are a couple pics after we realized we were bad parents.





Sunday ended up being a day of relaxation. For the most part we simply hung out at the house, but we did take Kinley on a walk around the neighborhood. We couldn’t pass up the gorgeous Texas weather. It was 78 degrees, in the middle of November!





Monday morning we packed up the car and headed home. We all had a great weekend and are hoping to do it all again in 2010.

Our Little Dancer

I wish I had the audio for this video, but just imagine that every time Kinley presses the little button on her snow globe it starts playing music.

1st Trip to Minnesota

In early October Kinley made her first road trip to Minnesota. (Don’t worry, Kathy and I were with her to make sure she drove safely.) This road trip was around 11 hours long (not including stops) so we decided to drive through the night again, like Colorado. But to avoid the same incidents from our Colorado trip we scheduled a stop in Des Moines, to feed Kinley and visit some good friends. One of my good buddies, Brock from KSU baseball, lives in Urbandale with his wife, Liz, and their baby boy Hudson, a possible future boyfriend for Kinley. We planned the drive from KC to Des Moines to coincide with Kinley’s afternoon nap, but she didn’t sleep a single minute of the drive. The reason for her unwillingness to sleep during the drive is because Kathy and I had to turn her car seat to forward facing right before we left. Originally we worried that Kinley’s lack of sleep during the drive would make her fussy while visiting our friends. Fortunately, for everyone, she was not. Kinley ate as soon as we arrived in Urbandale and then spent the evening playing with Hudson. After Kinley’s “bedtime” feeding we loaded up the car and continued our drive. Thank you Brock, Liz and Hudson for allowing us to visit and use your home to feed Kinley. It really made our entire trip a lot easier.

Kinley’s new forward facing position continued to be an issue for her. She did sleep until around 1 am, but woke up when we stopped for gas and remained awake until we arrived at our destination at 5 am. We immediately broke out her pack & play and set it up in the guest room to try and let her get some sleep.

The main reason for this trip was to allow Kinley to meet her Minnesotan relatives, before it got too cold and too far into cold and flu season. Both sides of Kathy’s family live in Minnesota. We arrived early Friday morning (Kathy’s parents were already there), and soon after the house was full of family. In total: the three of us, Kathy’s parents, three of Kathy’s aunts, two of Kathy’s uncles and three of her cousins (all Kathy’s mom’s side of the family). Plus two dogs and one cat, we did bring Kobi. Kinley did great with the house full of people and pets. She wasn’t bothered by the crowd like she has been in the past. She was happy, played with everyone and even let family hold her.

The only rough spot of the entire trip was that Kinley had some MAJOR constipation. It was so bad we had to go out and buy her some suppositories and Miralax. Normally not a huge deal to buy, but we were in the cute, small town of Outing, Minnesota on a Friday night. The only store still open was a little grocery store that didn’t carry what we needed. We ended up driving to Brainerd, about an hour away to the nearest Walgreens to get what Kinley needed. Other than the constipation, Kinley had an absolute blast with everyone.

One of the highlights of the trip is that it snowed while we were there. That is not supposed to happen in early October, even in Minnesota.

For our drive home we were able to plan a similar driving schedule as the one we used coming up. Kathy’s aunt and uncle (on her dad’s side) live near the Twin Cities and we dropped by to say hello and also feed Kinley her bedtime meal. While Kinley was eating , Kathy’s uncle helped us find a Caribou Coffee that was still open. (We always make sure to get Caribou Coffee whenever we are in Minnesota.) Before hitting the road again, Kathy’s aunt and uncle packed us a bag of frozen venison and salmon. Kathy’s uncle is a big hunter and we LOVE venison. Kinley slept much more on the way home than on the way up. Luckily she stayed asleep when we stopped for gas. I also think that she was getting more comfortable with the forward facing position and she was probably worn out after meeting so many new people, discovering new places and traveling like a pro.

No More Medical Bills

As of November 10th, 2009 we are officially done paying medical bills for Kinley's stay at Children's Mercy! It took just about 18 months, but we finally got everything settled with insurance and the billing department at Children's Mercy. Yeah!! (sigh of relief)

The whole process actually went better than I expected considering how long Kinley was at Children's Mercy and how high her medical expenses were. I am not sure what the final total was for all her medical expenses, but I am sure it was over $1 million. The largest bill that we ever got was for $541,767.46. After multiple calls to the billing department, the insurance company, and the pediatrician's office, 18 months later it has all been taken care of and we ended up only paying the co-pays that our insurance plan requires. It it so nice to have that all behind us now.

Here are a couple pics of Kinley showing how she feels about the situation.

Those were the best pics I could get of her smiling. It is super hard to get pics of Kinley now because she is constantly on the move. And yes, that is Kinley playing in Kobi's bed in the second picture. Kobi is a great role model for Kinley because she is really good at sharing.

I also tried to get a video of Kinley's football cheer and was fairly successful with that. If you watch closely, towards the middle of the video Kinley claps once and then puts her hands in the air signaling "touchdown".

Better Late Than Never

Way back, on September 27th, Kinley was finally baptized! At 16 months old, a traditional baptismal gown would not work. We had to get a dress that would fit her as well as allow her to walk. Ever since she took her first steps she hasn't really stopped walking. She is constantly on the go! Anyway, we found a cute little white dress that was meant to be a little flower girl's dress and it worked out perfectly. We also drove all around town trying to find the perfect shoes to complete the outfit and finally found a really cute pair of white tennis shoes with pink rhinestones. They were the perfect combination for walking and dressing up, or so we thought.

Kinley's baptism was at the beginning of the service, so that worked out really well. She did great and even let the pastor hold her during the ceremony. Kevin and I were shocked. I think Kinley was just overwhelmed and didn't really know what to make of the situation. She was startled by the water, but still didn't cry. We were so proud of her! She did great and was so cute.



Shortly after her ceremony, Kinley started to get a little fussy and tired of sitting still. At first Kevin tried to distract her (picture below). Unfortunately it didn’t last so I took her out of the sanctuary to walk around and play for the rest of the service. Kinley walked/ran around for a long time and then got tired of that and started trying to crawl, but it was too hard to crawl in her dress. By this time she was getting very fussy. When the service was finished we quickly took her home and changed her into something she was more comfortable playing in. We were in such a hurry to change her that we didn't realize we hardly got any formal pics of her in her dress. What a disappointment. We really wanted some pics of Kinley with her Grandparents, and her new Godparents (Jess and Kim Adams).

Kinley texting on dad's phone

Once she was changed she had a good time playing with everyone at the little celebration we had for her at our house afterwards. She ate a little pizza, had some cake and mingled. I think all the festivities finally got to her though, because she ended up getting fussy again and called it an early night.

Oh, and just an FYI to any parents out there-once your child starts walking make sure to break in their new shoes. Since Kinley had just started walking I didn't even think about having to break in shoes for her, but all that walking she did after her ceremony in her new shoes totally gave her blisters. I am sure that is part of the reason she was so fussy. We felt so bad.

Little By Little

Well, little by little we are getting caught back up on the blog, and little by little Kinley is making progress as far as language development goes.

At one of Kinley's Infant and Toddler therapy sessions back at the beginning of October we decided that it would be beneficial for Kinley to be seen by Debbie, the Early Childhood Development/Speech Language Pathologist on a weekly basis. Prior to this all her therapy sessions had been every other week. I guess Kinley got the clue because she started to make more progress since she has been getting weekly sessions with Debbie.

Kinley is now just over 17 months and has recently started to point (on occasion) to items that she wants, she has also started to wave hello & goodbye, she can clap her hands when we say "yeah, Kinley", she can give a high five, give a hug, and on a couple of occasions she has used the sign for "more" correctly. This is a huge improvement from where we started out just a few months ago when we were concerned that she may have hearing issues because her language skills were taking a little longer than expected to develop. Debbie had said she thought Kinley was focused on gross motor skills and that as soon as she started walking, language development would be next and that seems to be the case for Kinley.

In addition to all the hand signs that were mentioned already, Kinley is also starting to babble a little more and there have been a few occasions where it looks like she is really trying hard to communicate with us, but of course all we hear is babbling, a good sign none the less. Kinley's new favorite thing to say is ba-ba. This works out great and she fools a lot of people because she will play with her ball, baby and bottle and everybody just thinks she is saying the object that she is playing with. She will also say ba-ba when waving and it sounds like she is saying bye-bye. Finally, she has been playing with her lamb a lot recently and we will say, "Kinley, what does your lamb say?" ba-ba (ie bah-bah). It is pretty cute even if she doesn't totally understand what she is saying.

Kinley is also getting a better attention span. Just recently we have been able to read books to her and she will sit and listen/turn pages for a whole book at a time. Previously we had been able to get a couple of pages out of a book and that was about all. Kinley also recently got a new craft table and she can sit and color for several minutes at a time. She actually has just as much fun coloring with the cap on her marker as she does with it off. I think she likes the sound it makes on her table. She played with play-dough for an extended period of time when her friend from Parents as Teachers came by for a visit. Kinley really liked the play-dough when it was rolled up into balls and she had a blast putting it in a little container and then dumping all the balls of play-dough out. Kinley did not like the play-dough when it was in the shape of a snake. Go figure. At least she know what she likes. Speaking of knowing what she likes, Kinley has also started to shake her head "no". We don't think she knows what it means yet because she will shake her head and have a huge smile on her face, but once she figures out how to communicate "no" we will be in trouble.

Other new developments for Kinley are that she can feed her baby a bottle, walk just about everywhere including outside on hills and up and down stairs (with some hand holding assistance from mommy and daddy of course), she has even tried to run on a couple of occasions and does pretty well with that. She will walk backwards when she has her little toy stroller to pull and she is trying more and more new foods each day. She has several toys that make noise and if she hears a song she likes she will start to dance. Unfortunately for Kinley, we think she inherited her mommy and daddy's dancing skills. It is still really cute to watch her move to sound and know that she is having fun.

Kinley is getting more comfortable around others which has made traveling with her easier. It is also a lot nicer for grandmas and grandpas, as well as aunts, and all Kinley's other relatives who want to spend time with her. It was also really great on Halloween. We didn't take Kinley out trick-or-treating, but Kinley had just as much fun watching all the dressed up kids in the neighborhood come to her door.

We really can't believe how Kinley is transforming into a little girl so quickly and is no longer our fragile little baby. Each day she amazes us and it is so much fun to watch her develop into our little girl.

In addition to strengthening Kinley's new developing skills, Debbie (and mommy and daddy) are working with Kinley to learn body parts, especially nose, mouth and eyes. We are also working on the sign for "all done".