Kalia : 13 1/2 months : Drago Family Reunion and Niceville

We've been busy, busy, busy visiting family over these past few weeks.  Kalia :

• had a playdate at her friend Aila's house before we went out of town.  She thought it was great to take Aila's cheese stick and feed it to their dog Simi.  She also thought she should get out every single toy that Aila owns to make sure that she knew what her options were.
• is huge into climbing.  We are constantly telling her "no climb Kalia!".
• took her first long road trip in her big girl car seat, and did horrible.  We left here at 7 p.m. and got to Niceville at 3 a.m. our time, and Kalia might have slept for an hour (two seperate naps) the entire time.  She was a wreck pretty much the entire trip, minus maybe the first hour.  No more night driving for us - I can deal with Kalia missing naps, I can't deal with Kalia missing almost an entire's night of sleep!  She slept for 3 hours before her internal magic alarm clock went off!
• slept three different places three different nights and actually did okay with it and slept pretty decently on our two + weeks of being gone.  She had to be put to sleep by me first nursing then Chris rocking her every night, but still went to sleep at a decent hour most nights.  She only missed one afternoon nap the entire trip (with the exception of days we were in the car, the child will not sleep in her death seat), which overall wasn't too terribly bad!
• loves to dance, dance, dance.  She was a dancing fool at her cousin Jennifer's house!
• throughly enjoyed all of the visits with all of her many family members.  She was go go go non-stop the entire two weeks and loved every minute of it!
• absolutely loves to swim and loves anything to do with water.  If she sees it, she claps, gets a big smile on her face, and says "hi" all excitedly to it. 
• ate her first fish and loved it.   So far she likes fresh trout, flounder, and salmon.  The trout was caught by her Grandpa Hoskins, flouder by her Daddy, and salmon from Publix :-).
• left with three teeth and came home with 5.  She cut through tooth number 6 on the Saturday that we got home.  Her mouth is pretty much exploading right now, and she's letting us know by being up multiple times throughout the night.  Most nights Chris can rock her and she goes back to sleep, but some nights she wants Mommy.  On our trip, she got more Mommy than Daddy (not for lack of trying though!).
• thinks it's great to move the earth.  Dirt, sand, rocks, anything that there's an excess of, she likes to pick up with both hands and throw it in front of her.
• started wiping up the ground with a towel while we were in Niceville.  I think it's from seeing everyone clean up after her cousin Maddie's spit up, but she brought that one home with us.  She cleans the floors like crazy - fine by me!
• sort of said both Kaylyn and Kodi while we were on our trip.  Kaylyn's name she repeated quite a few times, but it sounded like "Ay-yen" instead of Kaylyn!   Kodi's name was missing the K too, but that one she said pretty clearly.
• got car sick on her way from Niceville to Birmingham, and then did okay on the rest of the legs of the trip.  On the way home from Niceville, she refused to sleep, but she didn't go crazy either.  We managed to entertain her the entire almost 7 hours in the car.  Exhausting!
• knows where almost all of her body parts are.  Except her hiney and giney :-).  If you ask her where her hiney is, she grabs the front of herself.  Oops!
• puts her finger up her nose when you ask her where her nose is.
• laughs when you tell her she's funny.

I actually didn't bring my camera out at all in TN, and only for a couple of days in Niceville.  There were too many things she could get into in TN, so I'm just stealing a couple of pictures that her Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Jason took!

pre-trip pics : hanging out with the Kodi-man :

Good doggie Kodi, I love you!!!

Kodi : "Eh, maybe she's not so bad after all Mom!"  Kalia : "Wait...you thought I was bad???"

TN pictures :

Someone telling Kalia's she's funny (probably Kaylyn!).

Chris and I are getting ready to head back with Kalia to put her down, Kalia's not happy that she has to leave all the cousins!

 Daddy and the girls!

Kalia : "Uncle Jason, don't you know that you're only supposed to get in action pool shots???  We don't stop swimming for pictures!!!"

Running back to the pavilion to get her hat after she realized she forgot it.  No joke, that's honestly what's happening!

Another "Kalia, you're funny!" shot.  Yes, that's dirt in her mouth.  She likes it...I'm building up her immune system.

Great Grandpa Drago's portion of the crew for the reunion :

The Drago clan (and a few came later still!) :

Each family does dinner for one night and serves it to the other families.  For our night to serve, I strapped Kalia in the bjorn and wore her.  She's getting heavy!

Kaylyn and Kalia were stuck like glue when Kalia was up from her naps!

 "Where's your nose Kalia??"

 A few of Kalia and Grandpa Drago (yes, I'm over not posting Grandparent shots!  If they're cute of Kalia, they're getting posted!) :

 Niceville!

Playing in the playground :

Teaching Granny how to be a little kid again!

As always,

lovin the swings...

...talking it up...

...and trying to make new friends with the kids on the other swings!

Get her some Granny lovin!

And then Uncle Shawn and Maddie lovin!  A lot of times, if Maddie was being held, Kalia wanted to be held at the same.time!

We went down the stairs into a little access they had to the bayou.  Kalia was in heaven!  Luckily I had extra sunscreen in my bag because we thought we were just going to the playground, I had no idea there'd be water access there so I didn't have a bathing suit for Kalia.

 We came back another day prepared for swimming!

Hey Daddy, what are you doing up there, come down here and swim with me, this is so fun!"

 Daddy listened!  She loved being able to walk out into the water, and then she'd jump in and start swimming.  We had to be right on top of her because she thinks she can swim all by herself these days!

Picking up the dirt and tossing it sideways behind her.  She loves to dig in the sand too!

Kalia was on cloud 9 when we got back those days - she had so much fun!

 

The day after we got home.  Kalia wanted to know where her entertainment was!

  

She won't stop wiping the floors up either.  I think it's from everyone wiping up after her cousin Maddie who has a laundry problem with spitup (:-), she'll outgrow it soon enough!).

  

With Kalia's teeth hurting her so bad, I can't get her to eat much, 'cept frozen greek yogurt bites.  I just take a spoonful of greek yogurt, freeze it, and then give it to her.  She goes crazy for it!

...but it is kind of messy!!  She's happy though!

...whew!