A New Cousin!!

The Engfer family's newest member made his entrance into the world late last night. Jeffrey David Engfer was born to proud parents Brad and Mary at 11:30 p.m. on Sunday, weighing exactly 6 pounds and measuring 18 1/4 inches long (he is quite the little peanut). Both Mom and baby are doing great!!

Of course, being the proud Auntie that I am I have about a million pictures the little man so far, but here are just a few from his first 24 hours ...

Literally just about an hour after birth.

All snuggled up with Mommy around 3 a.m. this morning.

Taking a late morning snooze today.

Then, this evening we took Krysten to the hospital to meet her new cousin ...

Checking him out at first.

Shaping up to be best friends already :-)

Krysten actually was kind of indifferent about her new cousin as this video shows. We are pretty sure that she is trying to say "baby," but that could just be wishful thinking. I'm sure that she will find him much more interesting in about 3 months or so when he starts perking up a bit.

Musical Baby

Krysten had her 1-year check-up with the pediatrician just after her birthday and is coming along just fine (new stats are on the left). We were given the green light to switch from formula to baby food (thank goodness) and Krysten is 100% on table food now. We are very fortunate that she is fond of fruits and vegetables. In fact, if you put her entire meal on her tray at the same time she will usually eat the fruit or veggies before anything else. Her favorite fruits are watermelon, bananas and grapes. For veggies she loves carrots.

Krysten's walking ability seems to improve each and every day. She still has a bit of a wobble in her walk, but can sure get around now using those two little feet.

Krysten has begun to show a bit of her musical side and has taken to tinkering with Dave's electric keyboard. I took a video of her one night as I found it very interesting how she alternates between banging on the keys to gently pushing on individual keys.

She also started to outgrow her bathing suit from last summer, so I bought her a new one at Target. Even though I bought an 18 mos. size, I don't think it will last through this summer. Regardless, she looks so adorable it it I had to take a picture.






Other than that, not much has been going on around here. We enjoyed a wonderful spring-like weekend over the last two days and hope that it hangs around. And, of course, we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Krysten's first cousin (actually, Mary is in labor as I write this post!) ... we will be sure to have more info on that very soon.

Krysten's 1st Birthday!

Krysten turned 1 last weekend!! I know is sounds very cliche, but my goodness, it's hard to believe it has been a year already. It's amazing at how much can change in such a short period of time.

Here is Krysten just hours old last year ...

And here she is one year later enjoying a nice birthday breakfast ...

Last Saturday was a big day for Krysten, as we had her birthday party on the actual day of her birthday. We started the day with attending our swimming class at the YMCA and Krysten received her very first report card with rave reviews. Then, shortly after we got home, Grandmom Ulmer arrived from New Jersey (despite the snow in Chicago that day) and we got to work preparing for the big event.

Krysten was actually sleeping when her guests began to arrive, but soon woke up from her nap to join the fun. We opened Aunt Liz and Uncle Brian's present before dinner because Aunt Liz had to leave for work.

Then after dinner we had cake. Krysten did very well with her smash cake, as you can see for yourself.

Even though it was obvious that Krysten thoroughly enjoyed her chocolate cake, she was able to make time to stop eating and say goodbye to Rachel.

And finally, just in case anyone didn't know, Krysten decided she needed to remind us how big she is now.

After cake we opened the rest of the presents, and per usual Krysten was a very lucky girl. She received lots of clothes for the summer and some new toys and stuffed animals too. Unfortunately I was busy with opening the gifts and didn't get any pictures of this production on my camera.

One of Krysten's most favorite presents is her little girl chair from her Grandma & Grandpa. Here Krysten tests it out the morning after the party.

Later in the day, she took a break from playing and relaxed in her chair while taking in an episode of Super Why!

Just as the chair is the perfect size for a little girl, it also appears to be the perfect size for 2 fat cats ...

Krysten does not like it when the cats are in her chair, but I guess she needs to learn to share sometime :-)