I’m not sure how it started but I’ve been more and more aware of the very real, very prevalent existence of human trafficking.  Specifically, young teenage girls being sold as sex slaves.  I had no idea that this existed in the western world today.  I was blissfully ignorant of the fact that even here in the US it is going on,  that Houston is one of the human trafficking capitals.  WHAT??!!? How can this happen!??!?!  It is so shocking and disturbing to me. 

Brady gets to enjoy our Christian radio station more that I do while he battles Houston rush hour traffic, so he heard this song and told me about it knowing that it had been on my heart.  I must confess that the music is rather annoying to me, but the lyrics are almost haunting as they describe one scenario and how huge the problem is. 27 Million- give it a watch/listen:

There is so much that I still don’t know but it has become increasingly obvious that God is stirring my heart and preparing me to take some sort of action.  I’ve been praying about what that action might be for a couple months now and this past Sunday, I learned about an organization here in Houston through a friend (Amy Bettis) who has recently become involved.  It is called Exodus Cry.  Their mission is “to abolish modern day slavery through prayer, awareness, and reform, while assisting the victims of human trafficking and slavery through rescue, rehabilitation, and reintegration into society”.  I am absolutely itching to jump it and get involved.  Amy is planning a few events to increase awareness and I’ll likely be hosting something in the next couple weeks if it all works out.

-Katie

Standing up is so much fun but can also cause lots of crying. ; Kayla is pretty adventurous and don’t shy away from things just because she got hurt last time… she has had plenty of falls as she navigates around, pulling up and walking along furniture. ; At the beginning of the month she started standing up in her crib and crying for me to come get her. ; It is amazing how quickly she can pull herself up after I have laid her down!

Everyday she is doing new little things and showing her personality more and more. ; As I get to know her better, I am realizing that she is not the 100% sweet girl I first thought I had (“yes she is!!” Brady is saying as I type this). ; Now, there is definitely some super sweetness going on, but I think she has more spunk than we originally suspected. ; She is very confident, comfortable around people, quick to smile (once she has thoroughly analyzed a new situation with a furrowed brow), but also will not hesitate to let us know if she doesn’t like something.

Here are some high and low lights from the month:

• Attended Christian’s First Birthday Party with the fun Dino theme
• Starts to do some traditional crawling but usually drops to the ground for her army crawl if she wants to get somewhere fast
• Tooth #5 comes in
• Grammy and Pops (Brady’s Parents) visit and Mommy and Daddy get a very nice date night
• Tooth #6 comes in
• DOUBLE ear infection + teething make for the roughest nights EVER
• First trip to the Zoo but she’s more interested in the people and especially the kids
• Kayla loves to look at the baby in the mirror and has started to say “ba ba” when I take her to look! Such a smartie!
• First pictures with the bluebonnets (a Texas thing)

Some other new things this month (in chronological order):

• Tooth # 3
• Says Ma-Ma
• Tooth #4
• Turning pages while reading books
• Kisses!  Open mouth, but still sweet
• Says “Hiii”
• Starts refusing bottle from babysitters
• Waves bye-bye
• Claps hands
• Pulls up
• Says Na-Na (Brady: “why before Da-Da?!”)
• Goes from laying to sitting on her own
• Says Da-Da
• Frequently refuses the bottle even for the dreamfeed

At her nine month check up we found out that (compared to other girls her age) she is in the 96th percentile for height: 29 1/2 inches!  She weighs just over 20 lbs, which puts her in the 85th percentile.  She’s doing all of the developmental things that the doctor asked about and he gave us a sheet of activities we can do with her to help her explore and learn.

These days she is eating 3 solid meals a day in addition to nursing 5 times a day.  I have been having fun making lots of fruits, veggies, and turkey for her and we will start introducing more variety and giving her more table food.  She loves to feed herself Puffs, bananas, and even tiny pieces of chicken!  Mid-month she went through a crazy growth spurt and was eating crazy amounts of solids and waking up in the middle of the night to nurse.  Cra-zy!  Thankfully, that has passed and she is back to eating normal amounts: 1/2 cup fruit, 1/2 cup veggies, 1/2 cup protein, and 4 tablespoons of oatmeal (daily, not at each sitting).

With the exception of the couple weeks of the growth spurt, she naps well twice daily and sleeps through the night pretty consistently.  She has started displaying signs of separation anxiety and that has caused some sleeping disruptions as well.  Sweet little girl loves to explore, but needs mommy to hold her lots too.  It’s hard to get things accomplished at times, but I love being able to be with her and we try to get out of the house for a couple hours each day to mix things up.  She has two little friends, Christian (12 months) & Noah (10 1/2 months), who live very close by and most days we get to have play dates or take walks together.  There is a park a couple blocks away that is perfect to walk around and sometimes we stop to swing!

Kayla is so much fun!!!  It feels like everyday she is doing something new and this last month was full of firsts.  She started sleeping through the night consistently, said her first word: “ba-ba”, had her first earn infection (sad), and started to army crawl!  Here is a short video of her on her first day of crawling.  She’s even faster and more coordinated now!

California Christmas

We flew out to California the Monday before Christmas so that we could partake in all of the Tankersley traditions and get some good family time.  Emily was home from China/Italy/other various countries and Lisa & Kevin came up from LA.  It was so much fun to have everyone together for the first time since Lisa & Kevin’s wedding last September and it was Emily’s first time to meet Kayla!  The night we arrived she was so over-stimulated from the day of travel but we let her come out and see everyone for a little while since she wasn’t going down for bed very well.  I have never seen her so excited and happy!  She was the center of attention and everyone wanted to hold her and play with her and that pretty much continued all week

On Wednesday we did our annual High Tea & Yuletide Fest.  The food was amazing and we played Christmas charades and had a special verse added to my Dad’s ever-evolving family Christmas song.

Thursday all of the girls went to a quaint little town in the foothills called Murphys to have lunch, do a little shopping, and see a family friend.  The guys kept themselves occupied at a scenic golf course.

We spent Christmas Eve with the Moores (my dad’s brother and his family) having a big dinner and a White Elephant gift exchange.  Christmas morning we opened gifts at my parents house and enjoyed our delicious Christmas brunch featuring my Grandma Maxine’s Stolen (a german bread similar to fruitcake).

Kayla had a cold the entire time we were traveling, but managed to have a lot of fun regardless.  We feel so blessed to have such wonderful families on both sides.  It makes for really enjoyable holidays!

A few of my favorite things at 7 months:

• When she see’s herself in the mirror of her activity jumper, she squeals with delight!
• Daddy found a ticklish spot on her tummy and she has the funniest little giggle
• She is starting to look for things… for example, if she drops something on the ground, she realizes where it is and turns her little head to see where it went
• When I take her to her room and hold her close while whispering “it’s nap-time” she puts her her head on my shoulder, closes her eyes, and sucks her thumb…sooo sweet!

We were in California for Kayla’s 7 month birthday, so these pictures are a few days afterwards.  She is growing so fast!  Kayla enjoys various fruits and veggies and we even had a bit of a nursing strike for a week or so!  Hopefully we will make it to a full year with nursing, but if not she does great with her solids and is gaining weight really well

Since it was dead I had to do something because it would rot and eventually start to lose branches which would hit our roof directly beneath.  This past weekend I got a company to cut it down.  It was hard to bring myself to do it, honestly.  Not only because I had some emotional attachment to this tree (stop laughing) and did not want to admit it was dead but because the cost to cut down large trees is absurd.

Anyway, I went forward it  and here are the pictures.  R.I.P. Gummy.

Some new things she is doing:

• Sitting on her own
• Eating rice cereal
• Laughing and squealing
• Blowing bubbles and making the “brrr” sound
• Jumping in her bouncer
• Sucking her thumb

Kayla did okay with the travel.  We drove up to Longview Thursday morning (4 hrs) to be with Brady’s mom’s side of the family at Aunt Sally’s.  As always, it was very relaxing, and full of delicious food and good company.  Becky took some pictures of the group and some of Addisyn and Kayla together.  Isn’t Addisyn adorable!?!?

On Saturday we got together with Brady’s Dad’s side of the family.  There are 4 (including Kayla) little baby cousin girls that were born all within a few months of each other!  It was fun getting them all together so they could meet and play (i.e. poke each other in the face) .  We had some good food and caught up with the rest of the family.  It was a nice time.  Check out this picture of Kayla sizing up her little cousin Addisyn.  She doesn’t look scared though.