May Letter

Dear Family & Friends,

Hello! How are you? I am great! Just as sweet and happy as ever!

This month I have learned a lot. I can walk like a pro and go both up and down the stairs all on my own. I have seven teeth and enjoy eating.

I LOVE to be outside, enjoying the fresh air and exploring.

I love the cabin.

I love being with my family.

I love splashing around in the bath and could stay in there all day. I love being on the tramp and don't even mind my brothers bouncing me a little bit although mom and dad certainly don't let them bounce me too much!

Hope you are all happy and healthy! I love you!

Love Kyle Patrick Barnhisel

April Letter

Dear Family & Friends,

Happy Spring! How are you? I am doing great! What a great month April is.

In April I got to celebrate my first Easter. I love all the candy that is around for Easter.

I also love April because it starts to warm up. I love to play outside. I can sit outside playing with my trucks forever.

And of course, April is my birthday! Yeah! Birthday's are great. I think I am going to like them. I got to eat chocolate cake which I LOVE! And I got lots of presents which are super fun. Presents and cake ... I like it!

I am so close to walking. I can stand on my own for a few seconds and am very seriously contemplating walking on my own. I walk along everything and soon I will just let go and take off. Mommy says then I will be even more of a handful. Mommy has to always put the coloring book basket up on the table when I am in the kitchen because I like to rip the books up. She has to make sure that the bathroom doors are closed because I have discovered how fun it is to unroll toilet paper. I like to dump out cups and bowls of food. I am into EVERYTHING these days. But I am so cute, no one really minds. :)

I have FOUR teeth now. I am small for my age, not quite 20 lbs yet, so I guess I do have some of my mom in me after all even though I am the spitting image of my dad. I am quite a talker ... anyone surprised? I jabber on all the time although not much makes any sense. I am going through that "cling to mommy" stage right now where if I am even a little bit sad I will cry if mommy is not in site. What can I say, I love my mommy!

That is what's going on with me. Hope you are all well.

Love Kyle Patrick Barnhisel

March Letter

Dear Family & Friends,

Happy Spring! Although it doesn't feel like it here. We have had quite a snowy end to the month. What is up with all this snow? I have discovered how great it is to be outside, crawling around on the grass and enjoying the outdoors but lately, every other day it snows! We are ready for a real spring around here!

This month we celebrated my cousin Koen's 1st birthday. We celebrated it on March 1st since he is a leap year baby and his birthday didn't offically come around this year. It was a fun party. I love the treats and playing with him and his new toys. Soon it will be my turn!

I am very much a daddy's boy. When I see my dad come in from work my legs start to kick and I smile from ear to ear and I just get so excited! I have learned to say dada and say it often!

I got my second tooth this month. But it's not where you'd expect it. I have a fang. It's my upper right fang. Weird huh?

I love to stand. Last month I had just started to stand but now it's all I want to do. I stand up and walk along everything. I am sure it won't

I am very content to sit and play. I will play in my room or the play room for hours without any trouble. I am such a easy, contented baby.

I hope to see you all soon.

Love Kyle Patrick Barnhisel

February Letter

Dear Family & Friends,

Hello there! How are you? Are you learning as many new things as I am? I hope so. I decided to do what Eric did this month and tell you some words that describe me.

I am an EATER: I love to eat! I could sit in my high chair forever and just eat. I love pineapple and bananas. I love daddies spaghetti (ground up). And of course I love chocolate. I don't get it too often but when I see it coming I get so excited I start to twitch!

I am a PLAYER: I love to play toys. I will sit in my room and play toys forever. I am a very content and easy baby. I love to play with my play table and ... don't tell Brandon ... but when he is gone to school I love to play with his dinosaurs! :)

I am a ONE TOOTH WONDER: I got my first tooth this month. And in true Kyle fashion, it didn't even bother me. I am looking forward to getting more choppers and eating more foods!

I am a CRAWLER: I also learned to crawl this month. I started out slow and am now finally starting to move around more quickly. I am an excellent army crawler but I can also crawl up on my hands and knees too. I usually do this on the hard wood floor and army crawl on the carpet.

I am a STANDER: I am starting to try to pull myself up to things. I usually just end up on my knees and not all the way standing up yet but I am close.

I am TRICKY: I often spend the time in my bed when I am supposed to be sleeping sitting up and playing. I don't fuss about it, I just play until mom lays me down again and tells me it's not play time but sleep time. :)

I hope that you are all doing well. I would love to hear from you!

Love Kyle Patrick Barnhisel

January Letter

Dear Family & Friends,

Happy New Year! How are you? I am doing great. I have learned all sorts of new things this month. Just recently I have learned to crawl. I am still very slow at it and so I am not getting around very fast (mommy is fine with that). I can army crawl a little, get up on my hands and knees and really crawl a little and supplement with rolling to get to what I need. I am sure that by the next time I write to you I will be an expert crawler and mom will have to have put up the gates and other such barriers to keep me safe.

I have sitting up mastered and I can even sit myself up on my own now. When mommy comes in my room to get me in the morning I am usually sitting up, with one leg hanging out between the crib slats, just waiting for someone to come and release me, like a little jail bird.

I love the bath. Since I can sit up on my own now I sit in the bath and scoot around and splash and have so much fun. I love it!

My Barnhisel/O'Berry strong willed jeans are already starting to show (much to mom's dismay). I love to argue with mom by shaking my head "No" at her. If mom says yes to me I smile and shake my head to disagree. And if mommy tries to give me my next bite of food when I am not ready for it, I shake my head at her. Speaking of food, if I don't like what mom is feeding me or I am done, I rip off my bib and throw it on the floor. My personality is definitely starting to show!

I love to say "Ma-ma-ma", usually in a whiney voice when I want my mommy.

I go to bed at night between 5:00 and 5:30 and sleep until about 6:00 in the morning. Then I get to watch cartoons with my brothers for a little bit since mom doesn't think there is any reason for anyone to get up that early.

Well that is about all from me. I hope you are all happy and healthy. I would love to hear from you.

Love Kyle Patrick Barnhisel

December Letter

Dear Family & Friends,

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! This was my first Christmas and it was totally fun! I had a great time. We had a Christmas party at Grandma Norberg's house on Tuesday, a Christmas Eve party at Grandma Chris' house and then got to open presents at home on Christmas morning.

I am quite a chatter box these days. My most used line is "Ah-gee" said in whatever tone that suits my mood.

I have also decided that laying nice and still in my crib is boring. Now I roll all around in crib. It's now more then just a place to sleep, now it's a place to play! When I wake up in the morning mommy gives me some toys in my bed and I will quitely play in my crib for an hour or so and she gets to rest longer (I am very sweet to my mommy!)

Being a baby is a hard job. It can be very tiring!

I also LOVE to eat. I will eat anything! Mommy says that I am her first baby that actually eats his meals instead of drinking them. Eric still drinks so much milk that milk is his primary source of nourishment. Not me ... I love to eat. I would stay in my high chair eating practically all day if mom would let me.

I had an ear infection this month but no one would've known it if my ear drum didn't burst and my ear start to drain. Mommy took me into the doctor and they said that my ears were definitely infected and that I must just have a really high pain tolerance and things don't really bug me because I was completely happy all through it. I proved that point again on New Years Eve. Dad snuck into my room to get the swing out for my cousin Collin and found that I had thrown up all over myself but was just lying there quietly waiting for someone to come and take care of me. Not a single peep out of me, just patiently waiting. I am such a happy guy, nothing really bothers me.

I am finally learning how to sit up on my own. I know, I am 8 1/2 months old and should be able to sit by now but you do have to take into consideration that Barnhisel's have large heads and that makes it harder to keep my balance. I actually would sit up just fine on my own if I wasn't so wiggly and curious about looking at everything. It's hard to sit up straight and not tip over when you are constantly looking all around. But I am doing much better and will have it down very soon.

I hope that you all have a wonderful new year. I know that I will. This will be a big year for me with learning to crawl, walk, talk and so many other new things. Mommy says it will be fun to see my grow throughout the year.

Love Kyle Patrick Barnhisel

November Letter

Dear Family & Friends,

How are you? I am doing great. I am liking my new method of sending out my letters because mom can add as many pictures as we want without worrying about the size of the document. This has been a great month with every sort of weather and lots of fun events.

I am a very smart baby. I already know what I want and what I don't! Mom started feeding me baby food at the beginning of this month. The first few times I cried, hoping that mom would get the hint and stop torturing me. When that didn't work I came up with another way to show her that I don't like it. I refuse to open my mouth. Now for anyone who knows me you know that I am a very happy smiley baby who always has my mouth open in a huge grin. All the time except when I am eating that is. I still smile when needed, I just do it with my lips closed tight when I am in my high chair. Towards the middle of the month I started almost eating willingly and even started opening my mouth a little bit if what mom was trying to feed me wasn't too gross. Now, at the end of the month I am loving eating and eat really well. I definitely prefer to feed myself finger food though. Thank goodness for wagon wheels and little puffs!

I love to jump in my jumperoo as you may have seen in my blog video. I jump so long and so high I should have some pretty cut calf muscles (for a baby anyway). I love the bath. If you ask me, there is nothing better then kicking the water and making as much splash as possible. I could stay in the bath forever if only mommy would let me.

I have a new sleeping schedule that for the most part works out really well. I go to bed at 5:30 now and sleep until about 6:00 in the morning. The only time this schedule gets tricky is when we are out somewhere and it gets to be time for me to go to bed, then I do get a bit cranky. But it works great most of the time.

We celebrated Thanksgiving twice this month. First we got together with the Barnhisel's at Grandma Chris' house and then we travelled to Colorado to have Thanksgiving with the O'Berry's. They were both fantastic feasts and I enjoyed seeing all my cousins in the course of a week!

Love Kyle Patrick Barnhisel