Monthly Archive

We busted out the sun hat and stroller for a walk around the block (yes, that is the Dairy Queen in the background of the first photo) in the abnormally GORGEOUS weather on Saturday. Kivrin loved being outside, looking at the cars, feeling the wind, and generally enjoying the day.

Later, when I had to go to work for a few hours (for those silly people playing trivia when they could have been outside in the sun!) Dan and Kivrin took a blanket outside in the yard.

Here’s baby’s first handful of grass, and a happy Kivrin playing with toys and looking around at the neighborhood.

We let Kivrin begin experimenting with foods over the weekend. Specifically, breastmilk on a spoon, followed by a bit of very liquidy rice cereal.  She loves the idea of foods, after watching us for all of these months, but isn’t that interested after a few bites. We’ll keep trying every day until she gets the hang of it though!

We survived Day 1 of baby food, so we went on to Day 2 with similar success! We added washable toys for her to play with, so that she wouldn’t grab for the spoon as often with her hands. We forgot to buy a washable plastic mat for under the highchair, but we will be adding that to our feeding ensemble real soon!

As Kivrin grows up, we adapt the house to her needs. In the kitchen, she now watches us from the high chair while we cook and wash dishes. With a few toys, and someone in the room to talk with her, she can amuse herself for about 20 minutes.

I’m learning just how mobile Kivrin is becoming. I laid her on her tummy on the center of this blanket, exactly where the toy tiger is in this picture. Three minutes later, she had rolled over and then somehow rotated and wiggled completely off the blanket onto the hardwood floor. Babyproofing is going to become a priority in our house, and soon!

Kivrin likes to sit up on her own (with either a person or a pillow behind her, just in case!) and reach for all of her toys. She plays with one for a moment and then moves on to another one. If she only has one toy and can’t see any others, she can play with it for 10 minutes quite contentedly. If she can see other toys, then she likes to have them all!                   

Speaking of reaching, she is sitting on my lap while I type this and she wants a turn on the keyboard:

                                  ggggb                             nnnn         nnn  t             mb j m ,d ztmmmmm               

(she was really into the space bar today)

As Kivrin practices babbling and moving her lips around, she has discovered this weird lip-sucking maneuver. Sometimes she uses it to make little smacking noises, and other times it is silent.

It was “hat day” at school, so Kivrin wore this outfit that came with a matching hat. Or, we dropped her off in the hat, and I saw it on the floor when I came at lunchtime, and it was packed in her cubby when we picked her up after work! But she looked cute in the pictures we took at home in the morning before school anyway!

In addition to expressive vocalizations lately, Kivrin has been making a variety of  facial expressions as well. I resisted the urge to add thought bubbles and captions to some of these photos, because I just can’t imagine what she is thinking!

  Kivrin discovered those cute baby noises where you wiggle a finger across your lips while you talk…. I don’t know that it’s called, but it sure is hilarious.

Kivrin has mastered cause and effect, at least if it involves people entertaining her…..

Now that Kivrin’s 5 months old (on the 23rd!) we are starting to think about, read about and talk about introducing solid foods in a few weeks.

While she was sitting with us at the dinner table, she and Grandpa discovered that he could reuse the dinner packaging for a delightful game of peekaboo.

She recognizes the cup and reaches for it (mmmm. tasty water.)

With the high chair finally in our kitchen, we let Kivrin play with some thickened sweet potatoes before her bath — and boy, did she ever need a bath after she was finished making a big mess!

Grandpa visited to help us catch up around the house (and exchange a truckload of borrowed baby stuff between his grandkids!). Kivrin loved playing with him, especially when he blew on her neck!

 Kivrin got to ride up high on Dan’s shoulders, and she definintely enjoyed the view…

Here Kivrin is reading a bedtime story with Grandpa, and also picking out some new books in the giant bbook-filled boat at the library.

Kivrin poses for a picture in Lissa’s lap — I can’t remember why we were dressed up, but I’m sure we had somewhere to go!

It was favorite sports team day at Kivrin’s school, so she dressed up in her best Illini outfit! Since it was casual Friday at the library, I dressed up too!

NOTE: When I went to visit her at lunch, she was wearing her “My First Cardinals TShirt” which I packed as a backup…apparently her first outfit hadn’t worked out!

Ahh– the car trips with a baby are so much more exciting, especially with a cold and snowy start. We went to Collinsville for an extended weekend.

Friday night, Kivrin charmed everyone at the dominoes table at MHBC. She is full of social smiles for friends & relatives & anyone else who catches her eye!

No, she hasn’t started solid food yet, but we did let her play with a slimy mashed banana just for fun!

Saturday morning, Dan drove to the Apple store for a new computer fan, and Kivrin went through four outfit changes with mom and grandpa at home. We’re not sure why her milk wasn’t sitting well in her tummy, but luckily Grandpa doesn’t mind doing laundry!

Kivrin visited with Denise and Grandpa, and posed with Dan.

Almost 5 months old, Kivrin can sit up unassisted for a few minutes at a time before she falls backwards or sideways or sometimes even forwards onto her belly.

We are starting to offer water in a sippy cup for practice — she thinks it is great!

Kivrin pounded on the keys of Grandpa’s piano. She mostly plays the black keys, we think they are easier for her to see/reach/press down.

Putting Kivrin’s socks back on her feet is one of our favorite new activities, since she likes to kick them off and pull them off now.

We were pleased to spend MLK with Kate, Addison and Avery at Nana and Lee’s house. The little girls are too young to really play together, but the big girls had fun catching up!

Nana enjoyed snuggling the baby, even after a huge diaper blowout that necessitated that both Kivrin AND Nana get new outfits!

On Tuesday morning, we stopped at Uncle Gary’s house on our way out of town to visit his gaggle of granddaughters — Kiera, Riley and Kaitlin are all adorable and Kivrin was happy to meet them!

Our drive back to Topeka would have been uneventful except for an astonishing amount of throwing-up in the car seat right around Booneville, Missouri. After a lengthy cleanup in the parking-lot of this combination gas station and fireworks store, we finally got back on the road. (Since Lissa and Dad were both getting over a stomach virus, I guess we are lucky that Kivrin was the only one to get sick on the way home!)