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I wasn’t sure I could pull of my annual National Novel Writing Month tradition with a 2-3 month old baby at home, especially since I went back to work in the middle of the month, but with the awesome support of family, lots of typing on the iphone, the laptop and in random emails to myself, and a seriously productive last week, I did it! (50,881 words in 30 days, and a semi-coherent story about a teenage boy taking a semester off from high school, moving to Collinsville, and discovering that his neighborhood is affected by mine subsidence, and falling in love right at the end, of course.)
Luckily for me, Kivrin is a wonderful baby and I was able to write while she was napping, or eating, or amusing herself, or playing with her daddy. I’ve heard from my friend that even though this year seemed challenging, trying to do Nanowrimo with a one-year old will be even more difficult! Anyone want to do some babysitting next November?
Now that all of my computer time won’t be sucked up by frantic fiction writing, I’ll fill in with as many photos and videos as I can from the past month — we were still taking cute pictures, I just didn’t get many of them shared yet!
This is Kivrin’s first snow– she’s in her carseat and zipped up in the “bundle me” but hopefully she can enjoy snow more when she’s older!
Aunt Leigh Anne has lots of experience with snuggling cute babies, and Kivrin appreciated all of the snuggles they shared during Leigh Anne’s visit. The only question is — did Leigh Anne snuggle Kivrin to sleep? Or was it the other way around?
Up until this point, we were always concerned about our two cats taking an interest in the baby….
now we are starting to pay attention to the interest that Kivrin is taking in the two cats. She doesn’t notice them all of the time (they don’t have flashing lights, rattles, or play music) but when nothing else is going on, her eyes follow them across the room, and if they happen to get close, she does her best to pet them.
I’ve been reading her the book “Touch and Feel Kittens” to practice, although the real kitty fur is much softer, and easier to grab, than the little fake patch of fur in the book.
Who is that cute baby in the mirror? It’s Kivrin!
Simple though it seems, this is the best game ever. She loves it!
This mirror is above the changing table, which makes diaper changes take longer, but they always end happily in play.
Unlike money, babies do in fact grow on trees. (As made evident by this photo.) Alternately, we got camera-happy over Thanksgiving….
Kivrin playing “So Big” with her Grandpa and Grandma while we visited them for Thanksgiving.
Kivrin had lots of fun when her Gramma Mary visited– especially reading and laughing and snuggling together!
Since our friend Kate’s parents live close to Dan’s parents in Kansas City, we were all able to get together on Thanksgiving night. 
Kivrin and Avery get reaquainted.
Dan played with Avery and got a preview of the skills Kivrin will be learning in the next few months.
While Kate was holding Kivrin, Addison stopped coloring long enough to get in on the action, and into the picture!
Kivrin loves to sit in this chair in the kitchen and coo and shreik at us while we cook or eat or wash bottles!
All together for Thanksgiving makes for an excellent family portrait opportunity.
Is Leigh Anne really that funny? Yup, Kivrin thinks so!!
What more is there to say?
A few tricks for making cookies with a baby in the house:
1. Let her watch the mixer and the measuring
2. Let her “help” by playing with her own measuring cup.
3. Talk to her as much as possible, teaching her about fractions (measuring) and chemical change (baking) and traditions (grandma’s recipes).
4. When the time comes to preheat the oven, make sure there are 2-3 extra adults around to help juggle baby and oven timer and dirty dishes!
Trying to get a good picture to use for Christmas cards can be a challenge — especially trying to get a baby (and the parents) to all smile and look at the camera at the same time. Here are some of the best pictures from our photo shoot/
Kivrin Anne 
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