21 months old and 22 lbs 9.5oz

Since several people have yelled at me about not posting an update in quite some time, I decided it was time.

Let's see if I can remember what we have been up to since the last post.

In June Kayla hung out in her pool a lot. She really likes to play with her toys.

She also had her first tractor ride with Dada.

In the beginning of July Kayla ended up getting her first real illness since she left the NICU. She got a very high fever after a party we were at. I thought she may have been in the sun too long and overheated but the fever lasted a few days. We took her to the doctor and they said that most likely she would get a rash in a few days. Sure enough 2 days later she got little red rashes all over her body and the doctor confirmed that she had Roseola. Thankfully Kayla didn't seem fazed by the illness at all.

In July Kayla went to the beach for the first time. We went to North Wildwood, NJ to stay at my father's friends place. Our trip started a little rough but we had a great time. We planned on leaving early (~6:00am) so that Kayla would sleep on the ride and we would not get stuck in traffic. We actually left on time but realized shortly after leaving that we didn't have Kayla's glasses. We turned around and realized when we arrived home that we didn't know where her glasses were. We searched the entire house for over an hour (it looked like we had been robbed) until we decided that she would have to go without her glasses for a few days. Unfortunately we ended up sitting in traffic for a few hours. Thankfully Kayla behaved herself, mainly because her Aunt Tricia kept her entertained. I'm pretty sure Kayla handled the drive better than I did. Once we arrived we headed right to the beach which Kayla loved. She had a blast in the sand and had no fear of the ocean at all. She was shocked when she fell in the ocean and got a little taste but didn't cry. She did end up having a temper tantrum at one point which involved her rolling her entire body in the sand. She got a much needed bath after that! We went to the boardwalk at night and Kayla made sure to have a little bit of every tasty treat we had. She had pizza, fries, ice cream and polish ice. Overall we had a great time!

We never found Kayla's glasses. We are pretty sure that Kayla hid them in an attempt to not have to wear them any more. Ironically a few days before she lost them I had started to look into getting her a new pair (since her current pair was a little mis-shapened). It took a few weeks but we got her a new pair of glasses. I'm sure it is just the first of many times that she will lose her glasses!

At the end of July we had the Forry Family Pig Roast at our house again. We had a great time! There were ~180 family and friends from our church, my work, neighbors, etc... Kayla had a great time hanging out with the other kids. At one point our living room turned into a daycare. We collected over $500 again for the March of Dimes.

Last week Kayla stayed with her Mummum and Grandpa Moore in Willow Grove for a few days. Dwight's mom and dad are on a trip in Alaska and since Dwight's mom usually watches Kayla while I'm at work, we had to find a babysitter. Of course my parent's gladly volunteered. Kayla had several visitors while she was there to entertain her and she had a great time! She apparently is a big fan of sidewalks and enjoyed walking around the block. Of course, she was quite tired from her exciting time in the city and ended up falling asleep during dinner.

Kayla is still having a Special Instructor, Gladys, working with her every other week on her communication skills. Kayla still isn't verbalizing much but she gets her point across most of the time. She now says 'daddy' and 'uh oh' a lot. She uses several sign language gestures to let us know what she wants. She has an evaluation next week so we will see what they think. Her motor skills have developed very well, since she spends most of her time running circles around us. She is also very good at outsmarting us too!

Kayla had a doctors appointment on Tuesday. She now weighs 22lbs 9.5oz. She is officially in the 10th percentile, which we are very happy about. She basically eats non-stop so we figured she had gained weight. She got her flu shot and the doctor said that we shouldn't have to be in quarantine this year. She just advised that we still be careful with her and if she starts getting sick a lot we may have to stay in again. Kayla has an eye exam on Tuesday to check her prescription.

Kayla has enjoyed hanging out with her cousins this summer. I think she is bummed that school started already.

We are looking forward to our upcoming trips to the shore and to Connecticut.

Here are a few funny Kayla stories:
She watched me try to kill a fly with my hand. When I missed and said 'ouch' she laughed at me and pointed at the flyswatter.

I asked her the other morning if her nose was stuffy and if she wanted it cleaned. She reached in her diaper caddie, pulled out the nose suction bulb and put it in her nose. Guess that was a 'yes'!

When she helps with the laundry, she takes the lint filter out, takes it to the trash and cleans it. You never know where it will end up after that, usually in the drier or on the floor, but least she is helping!

The other day I was checking to see if the towels were dry in the drier. My hands were wet so I touched the towel to my face and I also smelled it to make sure it hadn't been sitting too long. Kayla saw me do this so she started to smell all of the towels as she put them in the laundry basket. Monkey see, monkey do!

Finally another post

Sorry for the delay again. We bought a new computer so I thought I would be able to post more often, except the new computer didn't like this website. I think I managed to fix it for now though.

A lot has been going on the last 2 months!
Kayla got her last (for this winter at least) RSV vaccine at the end of March. She weighed 19lbs 10oz. The doctor was very happy with her progress. She doesn't have another appointment until the end of May.

In March Kayla graduated from her physical therapy since she was walking all over the place. She was then assigned a 'special instructor' to help with her communication skills. The instructor comes every other week and does various activities with Kayla to help encourage her to communicate verbally and by using sign language. Kayla still isn't talking much but is getting pretty good at signing what she needs. She definitely understands us so we figure it is just a matter of time until she decides to talk to us.

At the end of April Kayla came out of 'quarantine'. First we had 2 Kuyasa kids come stay with us for Palm Sunday weekend. The Kuyasa choir is a group of 18 kids from South Africa that come to the US to sing and dance to raise money for HIV/AIDS orphans. We had Sive (aka Jason) and Luanda stay at our house. Luanda is 16 years old and Sive is 22 years old. He is the choreographer and assistant music director. He told us several times that 'he cannot sing' but then he was one of the lead singers during the concert. He was quite a good singer!! It was an amazing experience to meet these kids and to hear them sing and see them dance. They have amazing passion! Very moving! Check out their website http://www.horizoninternationalinc.com/kuyasa.asp. Kayla got to go to church and hang out with the kids and see their concert. She was quite entertained by the kids and loved hanging out with them and hearing them sing.

Kayla then had the opportunity to go to our local Kmart and share her story with the employees. Kmart raises a lot of money for March of Dimes so a representative (Scott) from March of Dimes asked if Kayla could share her story with the employees to encourage them to continue to raise money. Kayla enjoyed meeting everyone and was very excited to see everything in the store.

Kayla also got to go to church and hang out with our family for Easter. She had a great time in the nursery at church and then spent the afternoon hanging out with her cousins. We were worried that she might be shy around people due to her quarantine, but to our surprise she is quite friendly and outgoing! We are quite happy!! Kayla painted Easter eggs with Grammie and Grandpa and also had an Easter egg hunt. She really liked finding the eggs that Grammie hid with treats inside of them.

We all enjoyed the March of Dimes walk on 01-May. Kayla’s Krew ended up being ~40 people and we raised ~$2500. Kayla got to go up and receive an 'award' during the preemie parade for being a 'Miracle baby'. She proudly wore her 'metal' during the walk. Our team also walked in memory of Cole Alan Millhouse. In the beginning of April, our friends Scott and Liz had their son go to be with the Lord after only a few days of life. He was born at 25 weeks gestation and weighed 1 lb 13 oz. He unfortunately had bleeding around the brain that could not be stopped. It is extremely sad to hear their story and it is a reminder of the struggles other families with preemies face. We never forget how very lucky and blessed we are that Kayla is with us today and that she has been doing so well. Hopefully the money raised for March of Dimes will continue to fund research that will find ways of preventing preterm labor and find treatments for the babies born to early. For more info on March of Dimes, check out www.marchofdimes.com. Thank you to everyone who walked and for all of the donations!!

We also had a very fun Mother's day. We went to the cemetery to go to the graves of Kayla's Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Drake. Then we all went out to lunch. Kayla made friends with everyone in the restaurant. She was waving at everyone and trying to share her toys with others. She even gave the waitress a hug and kiss. Thankful she stayed happy at the restaurant and behaved herself for the most part. Apparently she is not afraid for strangers at all!

Having fun!

Sorry for the very long time lapse since the last post. Kayla is becoming more and more active which is limiting my time on the computer.

Here's a short recap of January.
In the beginning of January Kayla mastered clapping and high fives. She took a few steps but was very very cautious about letting go. At her 14 month doctors appointment she weighed 18.5 lbs. Towards the end of the month Kayla started saying "Baa Baa Baa" and an occasional "Ma Ma Ma". She doesn't say them in relation to anything but it's a step in the right direction. Probably the most exciting part of the month was playing in the snow. Kayla wasn't crazy about all of the layers of clothes but she was very interested in the snow. We took her for her first 'Forry style'(aka tractor pulled) sleigh ride. Apparently she wasn't very impressed since she fell asleep halfway through the ride.




In the beginning of February Kayla had an evaluation by her Physical Therapist to see how she was developing. There were a total of 6 test that looked at her mental and physical skills. She did good on all the test, scoring around the age of a 1 year old, except for the communication test. She scored around the age of a 5 month old, though I think we scored her a little low. At the end of March her Early Intervention coordinator will be coming to discuss if we want to look into speech therapy.

A couple of weeks ago Kayla started to take more steps. She started out taking 3 or 4, then 10-12 and now she is moving all the time. She is still wobbly but she is getting better everyday. I think her Physical Therapist will be very happy at her next appointment!


Kayla now has 4 teeth. She has two on the bottom and on the top she has one front tooth and the tooth next to it. We are still waiting for the other front tooth to come in since she looks a little unbalanced with one front tooth. It is pretty cute though!!


At the end of February Kayla had her 15 month doctors visit for her RSV vaccine. The doctor said RSV is high right now so we will definitely be continuing Kayla's quarantine. Kayla weighed 19lbs and 1 oz. The doctor is still very happy with her health and progress!

On March 1st, Kayla went to the eye doctor for her 6 month check up. Thankfully the exam wasn't quite as bad as the last time since they didn't have to put drops in her eyes and it wasn't as invasive. They said Kayla's eyes look like they are straight and they think the glasses are working well for her.

This weekend we celebrated Kayla's 1 year of being home anniversary and her 1 year from her due date birthday (aka her corrected 1 year birthday). She was very excited about having cake!


Last week Kayla, Mugsy and I went for a walk for the first time in a long while. I joked that Kayla is preparing for the March of Dimes walk in May. Speaking of which, we created team Kaylas Krew to walk in the March of Dimes March for Babies walk on May 1st. The walk is 3 miles long at the Greenfield corporate center in Lancaster. We are still looking for team members. Check out the website if you are interested or let me know. If you are unable to walk but would like to support us, please check out the website to make on-line donations. http://www.marchforbabies.org/KaylasKrew

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

December was a busy month!! We had a great Christmas with family. My family came to our house on Christmas day and watched Kayla so that Dwight and I could spend time with his family. Then my family celebrated Christmas the day after. Unfortunately my sister and her husband could not come due to the snow but we are hoping to see them this weekend (weather permitting). Kayla had a great time opening all the gifts and loved being the center of attention. Kayla even ended up getting her two front (bottom) teeth for Christmas!



Kayla wasn't able to go to the mall to see Santa due to her quarantine so we decided to dress my father up as Santa. Unfortunately, Kayla took one look at Santa and started crying. We were able to calm her down a little bit for some pictures but she was not happy. So then we decided that I would dress up as Santa to see if we could get a picture with her smiling. Well she thought that mommy dressed up as Santa was hilarious. The hardest part was getting her to look at the camera instead of at me. The things a mom will do for a picture of her kid!

Of course Kayla's favorite 'trick' to do now is to show everyone 'how big' she is. She really stretches to show she is 'sooo big'!

She figured out how to crawl on her hands and knees in the beginning of December and can move quite fast now! She is doing a wonderful job of baby proofing the house for us. She also walks along the furniture now and is getting pretty good at standing on her own. She had a physical therapy appointment before Christmas and the PT doesn't think it will be very long till she walks which means she will be done with physical therapy!
Kayla also had a doctors appointment last week. She didn't gain much weight (now she is 18 lbs) but the doctor wasn't concerned. With her increased mobility she is burning a lot more calories. She got another RSV vaccine and had blood draw to test her lead and iron levels. The blood results were good and the doctor was happy with her overall health. Per the doctor we have been decreasing the amount of formula she gets and increasing the amount of 'normal' food she gets. Kayla so far seems to like almost everything we feed her. She recently started eating Cheerios which she seems to really like. Of course she thinks she should also eat everything that mommy and daddy eat.


Mugsy is a bit confused about why the baby and Mummum are in the pen and he is not.



The three of us enjoyed a quiet New Years Eve at home. Kayla even stayed awake till midnight!


Kayla now has 2 goats of her own, since her first goat from last year decided she wanted to have a baby (which I think makes Kayla a grandmom already!). Kayla really likes going to the barn to see the goats.