Monthly Archive

This past Sunday we packed up the car and drove for a visit to Grandma and Grandpa in KC. It was quite the fun visit!

Grandma and Kivrin practice rhythm and the finer arts of percussion banging on things!

Grandpa and Kivrin learn about colors work on Summer Reading together!

Kivrin practices going in circles her walking skills by chasing after toys on the coffee table!

It’s called QuadCam, and if you have an iPhone, I highly recommend it.

Kivrin was helping trim the ivy along the sidewalk.

Kivrin was standing with Daddy and very excited about seeing the kitty in his arms.

Dan and I take turns spelling with the bath letters. Kivrin and I sent her daddy this message one night while he was stuck at work.

Is there anything cuter than this sleeping baby?

Maybe this sleeping baby is cuter?

We bought Kivrin a shopping cart to help her practice her walking. Of course, trying to assemble a new toy with the baby around is always a challenge. Luckily we had three adults on hand to get the job done. Kivrin especially liked showing off and smiling at Gramma Mary. She can’t quite walk with the cart yet, but she is getting closer every day!

The temperature on Sunday was in the 80’s so we blew up the new baby pool, got out the swim diaper, and headed outside to the yard to enjoy the weather! Kivrin loved the water, and splashing with her toys. She eventually disocovered that she could crawl out of the pool into the grass.

Kivrin’s new pink outfit was just begging for some color accent photography.

Friday night Kivrin tried kiwi fruit – she really liked it but it made her mouth pucker every time she fed herself a piece.

On Saturday, Grandma and Grandpa came from Kansas City to spend the day with us. Grandpa Steve and Dan assembled Kivrin’s tricycle (a gift from Uncle Gary and Aunt Carol) and I pushed her around the kitchen on it, much to her delight.

Kivrin is all smiles, especially when getting lots of kisses from Mommy!

Kivrin and Grandpa Steve looked out the window together.

My teeny tiny baby isn’t so little anymore. When she’s snuggling in my lap, she stretches out and dangles her arms and legs everywhere.

Today when I went to pick Kivrin up from day care, she just wanted to play in the “garden house”. After a few minutes, I grabbed the video camera since no one else was around and she was being pretty cute. Look at how close she is to walking!

While I worked Saturday and Dan worked Sunday at the library, Kivrin spent the weekend throwing up about half of what she ate. We kept her home Monday. Dan and I alternated between caring for the baby and working the library’s Media Desk all day. Of course, Kivrin’s preferred place to get sick seems to always be right in the center of our bed, so we have been doing lots and lots of laundry. On the bright side, it’s like a baby-mandated spring cleaning to have to wash your comforter, your mattress pad (and spare mattress pad) and all of the sheets and pillowcases in your house!

Not many new pictures, since we were each taking care of Kivrin solo (and everyone was going through multiple outfit changes), but here is a cute one of Kivrin looking serious with her daddy.

“That’s right, it’ a new car!” Or at least a loaner from her cousin Colin. Kivrin likes to sit inside and be pushed gently around the driveway. Sometimes she slams her palm on the horn, just like a real driver!

Our dear friends Margaret and Carlee gave us their breadmaker so that we could make healthy bread for the baby — and she loves it. Our first loaves have been basic delicious whole wheat bread. In her high chair this week, Kivrin is also experimenting IsaacNewton style with the effects of gravity. She seems amazed that her food/spoon/cup always go straight down to the floor when she drops them over the side.

This aquarium is perfect for Kivrin’s underwater-themed bedroom. It was a baby gift from her “Uncle” Brian, who loves to spoil her. She is really getting into the “fill and spill” toys and enjoys reaching in to pull out the plastic fishes. Sometimes she even puts a fish back inside…but she excels at the “spilling” part and usually it is mommy or daddy who “fills” the aquarium again. In these pictures she is banging the fish together and singing to them.

Kivrin likes to keep things exciting for her parents so this weekend while we worked opposite days at the library, she spent her time making more laundry by throwing up on everything. We assume this is just a stomach virus; Kivrin is cheerful and silly even when she is ill. In fact, she spent Sunday blowing raspberries constantly and all weekend she played a game of clapping her hands twice and then putting them on her chest and waiting for a parent to repeat her action before she did it again (and again and again). I know this is the age to teach her “so big” and “pattycake” but the things she is teaching us are fun too! We are hoping Kivrin’s tummy feels better real soon. I’ll post more pictures when we get caught up on the laundry!!

Clapping excitedly

Passed out in mama’s arms

Rolling the ball back and forth

Going for a walk

Playing with her baby doll and blanket

🙂 Since Grandpa isn’t archiving facebook photos, I’m making sure to post the cute mobile uploads here too!

I know that Dan would prefer I stop taking photos of him and the baby sleeping, but honestly folks, if you saw something this cute wouldn’t you want to take a picture? I just saw an AWESOME photo spread in Mothering magazine about bedsharing, and it had dozens of pictures like these of different familes snoozing together.

Watch out walls and doors and windows — Kivrin can pull up on a vertical surface now, and she is thrilled with herself

When Grandpa was visiting last weekend, he worked in the yard and Kivrin helped him. Specifically, Grandpa ripped out weeds and Kivrin ripped up flowers. Lots of late spring blooms were available and she enjoyed destroying (I mean…experiencing…) the snowball bush, the lilac bush, the phlox and the irises. And yes, I had to watch her closely so nothing went in her mouth.

Grandpa said “I had to come out to visit now, so I could see Kivrin crawling. I couldn’t wait, because don’t think it will be long before she is walking.”

Kivrin is doing her best to prove him right. She is now (at 8.5 months) pulling up on kitchen chairs, the couch, flat surfaces like a wall, and sometimes even crusing around while holding on to a chair or the couch, usually in pursuit of something fun.

Other new things this week include more foods — beets (which stain everything magenta, but seem to wash off of plastic and skin pretty easily) and  kale (which she loves to feed herself). She also tried yogurt over the past few weeks and steamed zucchini and slices of fresh ripe pears. I’m grateful that Kivrin is starting to eat table foods in spring so that I can find the fresh foods in season. Dan and I will definintely be eating more healthy foods this summer, since Kivrin wants to eat what we are eating and we don’t want to be “cookies/icecream/cheetos are grownup foods” hypocrites.

Kivrin has invented an adorable snuggly hug that is sort of a head-butt, a face-first-nose-wiping-dive and a baby hug all combined into one. It’s scary at first, because you think she will hit her head too hard on your shoulder/collarbone, then the middle is cute and snuggly with the warm baby head cradled against you, then her head pops up and she grins at you and the end is kind of gross when you see the snot smear she has left on your shirt. So….watch out and enjoy!

Kivrin made me a present at school, and I waited until Mother’s Day to open it. She helped me. It was a framed picture of her, with a handprint and footprint. I love it!

I had to work 2:30-6:30 at the library on on Mother’s Day, so in the morning we went to the zoo and then out to lunch (I picked Qdoba and had nachos twice in one weekend!)

Even though we got to the zoo around Kivrin’s morning nap time, she stayed awake while we walked everywhere, and she fell asleep right as we got to the orangutan house at the very end. I also got a white rose from the zoo, for Mother’s Day!