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I kid you not, Kivrin purposefully threw handfuls of food on the floor, then signed “all done” in the middle of dinner to get down, then proceeded to use the broom and dustpan to try to clean up after herself on the floor. As cute as this all obviously was at the time, if it never happened again, I would totally be okay with that, too. (But just in case, we picked up a kiddo-sized broom and dustpan from the toy store.)
Kivrin’s first birthday was wonderful, more pictures to come soon!
Here are somepictures of Kivrin’s birthday party on flickr.
We are visiting the pet store to see the hamsters and the puppies and the birds.
At the park, Kivrin likes to walk around but mostly she likes to sit and pick up pieces of mulch and throw them.
Kivrin discovered the tunnel at the park. She can’t crawl through it without help, since it goes uphill, but she sure likes to try!
Kivrin and Mama sometimes take a walk together in a baby carrier when Kivrin has trouble falling asleep for her nap.
Dan sent me this picture at work today. Apparently Kivrin fought taking a nap all day, until she was overpowered by the stroller!
I’m been frantically skimming some books on toddlers from the library to prepare for Kivrin’s new toddler attitude. Today she was all about pushing buttons. Not pushing my buttons, exactly, but pushing the buttons on the fan, the dishwasher, reaching for the buttons on the computer keyboard and the garage door opener, and of course her toys.
“Look mama, I can reach this junk on the table now. I’m pulling it down onto my head.”
“I can’t believe you let me sleep through my first Perseid meteor shower. It was only 2 in the morning, I could have stayed up for it!”
(Dan and Lissa put the baby in the car seat and drove outside the city limits to see the Perseids at their peak. She didn’t wake up.)
Kivrin eating (or picking at) the vegetables from the Sutton farm.
Kivrin has been crawling in and out of this chair all week.
She likes to combine tasks, like climbing in the chair with the baby and a cloth, or in this photo, she climbed in the chair and then put on her hat.
I’m not sure that *I’m* ready for this, but Kivrin has started feeding herself with a spoon sometimes at dinner. She is pretty good with cottage cheese, if I put it on the spoon for her.
Kivrin loves to climb on and off of her car. This week I started gently pushing her back and forth on it in the living room. She likes it, but insists on getting on and off each time we change directions, so it is slow going.
Kivrin was fussy in the car but then I gave her this travel mirror and she was enthralled with the baby in the mirror. Several times here she is kissing the baby she sees in the mirror.
Since she is getting good at walking, Kivrin wants to do it all of the time now. Some evenings I get her out of the house by taking her to a store where she can run around for a while. Here she is running toward me in J. C. Penney’s. She shrieked and squealed with glee and ran all over the store for over 20 minutes — she finally settled down when I carried her out into the mall for a quick walk to help her calm down before we drove home again.
Nothing like a good wrestle and some giggling.
Kivrin has started the cutest little dancing thing when her toys make music. I love it! Plus she is very independent now that she is toddling around and she loves to climb in and out of her chairs.
Here is a brief video of Kivrin playing a piano toy and dancing at her school today
Our dear friend Carrie grew up on a farm west of Salina. Her parents have been sharing fresh produce with us all summer, and they invited us out to enjoy their farm for the weekend.
The vegetable patch is hidden out between the other fields and the late summer weeds.
Kivrin and I with our hats and sunscreen, admiring the green fields and blue skies of Kansas!
Kivrin posing with the Suttons at their farm. A tomato greenhouse is in the background.
Dan and Carrie picking eggplant with an irrigation pump in the background.
Kivrin loved playing with this plastic washing machine. She kept hiding her doll in the top and then “finding” it again.
Kivrin and I were wrestling and tickling on the floor – we loved the big open space to play together!
Kivrin and Mama rolling across the floor together.
Kivrin helped pick this red pepper and then carried it around the fields, sometimes holding and patting it like a baby doll.
Family photo in the garden patch.
“I’m as corny as Kansas in August….” Here’s how Kivrin measures up to the corn.
Carrie’s dad picked up twenty dozen corn first thing Sunday morning and we all worked together to shuck it. Carrie’s brother Allen put the corn in boiling water for a few minutes using a propane powered turkey fryer and then we dunked it in an ice bath, cut the corn off the cob and bagged it in quart freezer backs. I can’t remember the final count but I think it was more than 50 bags of corn in one afternoon!
Kivrin loves corn on the cob, especially the delicious Sutton bicolor sweet corn!
The beautiful fresh produce from the garden.
Since most of the “green” clothes I see in stores are horrid, I made Kivrin her very own sustainable library shirt. “Read – Renew – Return” that’s the way the library sustains the community with great books!
Kivrin has been cracking up lately with laughter. Here she is playing with a silky scarf, a dirty sock, her first and favorite baby doll and her new blue bracelet, all at the same time!
Kivrin loves to take my phone and walk around with it. Apparently Dan and I have used our phones a little bit too much in front of her over the last year because she has defininte ideas of what she wants to do with the iPhone. (Although mostly she likes for me to play music, or to help her with the “Wheels on the Bus” interactive song app.)
Little Miss Independence wants to run like the wind, or at least walk freely as much as possible. We’ve been going out almost every day to places Kivirn can walk in wide open spaces — the zoo, the mall, the library, Target, etc. She doesn’t want to hold our hands, just walk on her own wherever she wants to go!
Kivrin was showing off at the zoo with her new walking skills and a zookeeper even stopped to notice!
A random selection of the best Kivrin clips from the last few weeks. Kivrin is really moving fast now, and laughing and babbling more. Watch for some dancing and singing to music and imitating others. She is learning to express herself, for better or worse! Some clips include our dear friend Laurel who was visiting us from California. You’ll notice I’ve gotten over my efforts to have a clean house in any of these videos. Now you know what it looks like before we clean for company.
This video isn’t super exciting unless you want to see Kivrin feeding herself dinner, and then it is delightful!
Kivrin Anne 
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