You are currently browsing the monthly archive for September 2009.
Kivrin is obsessed with some Melissa and Doug animal magnets we got at the Toy Store. Favorite things — animal pictures, little things to move and carry, toys to play with while standing and walking, toys that make grown ups make animal noises, toys to put in a bucket or bag, toys to get in trouble for putting in mouth, toys to stack, toys in a set to carry and leave all over the house, toys that stick to some things but not others — all in one!
“hi!”
“playing in a box is delightful, of course”
“I’m ready to play outside!”
“Watch me with this wheel, I’m fast.”
“I love reading my animals book, even upside down”
“I can carry all my dolls at once, or one at a time.”
“I’m helping mama set up trivia night, I was in charge of patrolling the floor.”
“It works even better with mama’s spoon.”
“i don’t know where it is”
“What’s on my head?”
“I can do it myselfm just this once”
“look at me on a walk around the block”
“faster please”
“I’m excited to try sitting in the tub without the baby bathtub.”
“I miss my baby bathtub, please go get it right now”
What a prodigy. On her 13 month birtday, Kivrin took the camera from Lissa and started making her own video. This is the result, completely unedited. Maybe when she is older than 13 months she can use the editing software to make some improvements to her raw footage. Also, maybe she will learn to use a tripod. Big goals for such a little girl.
Lissa brought home a cardboard box from work.
Kivrin really likes it.
Kivrin at one year mid September 2009
Kivrin is giving swinging high fives, crawling through a box tunnel, looking at animals on the computer with daddy, reorganizing the kitchen cabinets, and playing hide and seek with her milk cup.
Seriously folks. Besides the constant support of my darling spouse, and great advice from the local La Leche League leaders, and my kid’s ongoing desire to continue our breastfeeding relationship, the best thing that has helped me continue nursing my baby for an entire year is my iPhone. If you can swing it financially, I highly recommend it. Instead of long hours alone in the dark, hoping the baby will nurse quickly so I can get back to getting things done, nursing with the baby in one arm and the iPhone in the other has meant that I cuddle the baby longer, and snuggle her long after she has nursed to sleep. I know this isn’t the typical image of staring blissfully into my baby’s eyes while she takes nourishment from my body. I can check email and stay connected. I can play some games, especially CrackCode, Geared, Toobz, reMovem, Blocked, Solebon, StoneLoops!, FlightControl, Bejeweled 2. I can edit and email photos to family, upload videos to youtube, and read google news. And of course, for everyone who has ever read my status update on Facebook when it is about nursing, I can nurse my baby while I update my Facebook status….
As Kivrin enters her toddler years and nurses a bit less, especially during the day, I am finding I sure miss my iPhone personal time. I’m not saying that continuing breastfeeding into Kivrin’s toddler years is not a way to keep checking my work email while bonding with my baby. But having my iPhone handy during the 6-8 times she nurses a day had certainly made the experience more enjoyable…
The La Leche League organized a fabulous afternoon at the zoo to celebrate World Breastfeeding Week. Dan and Kivrin and I had a great time eating lunch and visiting with other families.
Before we went into the Education Center, we took a quick trip over to the orangutans. Obviously, Kivrin enjoys them.
Kivrin played hide and seek with the curtains — if she was inside the curtain she could see zoo out of the big window. If she was outside the curtain, she could see us and all of the other families!
A stage at the front of the education center had a wheelchair accessible ramp. If you had just learned to walk recently and couldn’t walk up steps yet, this would be pretty much the coolest thing you ever saw before. And if you had some people your own age to chase you up and down the ramp, even better.
Thanks to everyone at La Leche League of Topeka for a fabulous afternoon!
On Saturday morning, September 12, Kivrin picked out a new concrete animal for our yard, a small cat. She insisted on carrying it home in the car, and she was singing a happy song to the cat the whole way home.
When Kivrin wants to go for a walk, she is becoming very capable of demonstrating what we need to do to make it happen for her.
After a Sunday morning walk, Kivrin fell asleep. She kept sleeping in my arms for awhile longer. Usually sleeping photos are in the dark, so I took advantage of the sunshine to get this picture of her.
After she woke up, she loved to show me her concrete cat!
Monday night. Of course, if I’m honest, the main advantage of Kivrin in the back carry position in the mai tai is that we can still walk to Dairy Queen and eat ice cream without having to share any with her. Just remember, it looks selfish, but we’re good parents for NOT giving the baby ice cream. Even if we love it ourselves a little too much.
Tuesday night. Kivrin is a very serious artist. Of course, she enjoyed painting her belly a lot more than she painted the paper.
Kivrin was probably cute the rest of the week too, and by Sunday night we finally found the camera. It was underneath a pillow on the couch all along.
On Labor Day night, late, Kivrin started throwing up.
Here are some excerpts from messages to our families:
Tuesday, September 8, 2009 2:13 AM Kivrin seems to have a sixth sense when she has a doctor’s appointment scheduled– she’s supposed to get her 1 year old shots tuesday morning and instead has spent the last two hours throwing up the contents of her stomach. When she finished puking, she was wide awake at 1 am and ready to play! She is finally back asleep now and hopefully she is feeling better.we will keep you posted about her progress tomorrow!
Okay, I better try to get some sleep!
Love, Lissa
Sent from my iPhone
Tuesday, September 8, 2009 11:00 AM
Probably just a virus, still got her checkup and shots, no milk or nursing for 24 hours so I’m pumping (darn it, hoped I was done with that!).
She weighed 21 pounds and that was 50th percentile. She didn’t cooperate on the height but was about 29 inches, which was 35-40th percentile. We got some pedialyte and are all taking it easy (I.e. taking turns doing laundry and holding the snuggly tired fussy baby) today at home.
It turned out Kivrin hated pedialyte in every form (frozen, mixed with juice, melted, on a spoon, through a straw). So we spent the rest of the week trying to convince Kivrin to take sips of water.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009 10:16 AM
Don’t worry, she’s just playing, not drinking. 😦 She likes to hold all of the cups, but could care less that they contain lovely hydrating liquids…
Wednesday, September 9, 2009 11:19 AM
a small success in drinking a sip of water while on a walk.
Thursday, September 10, 2009 8:48 AM She’s eating a ton of pancakes and eggs
Thursday, September 10, 2009 9:36 AM Super epic fail
We are at the zoo anyway in spare clothes but my carseat is a mess. Maybe you come here at 10:30?
After worlds biggest puking incident in the car seat first thing this morning, which led to Dan leaving work at 10:30 am to pick up the baby because my car was gross and me taking my boss up on his offer to let me stay home sick, we basically all had a great day of playing hooky and are in good shape for going “back to normal” tomorrow (we hope)
It is surprisingly hard to take good photos of people on a swing…
I have the pic of the carseat incident that I sent Dan but I refrained from sending it to anyone else. It was classic “I feel better, I’m hungry, eat too much stomach overload” apparently. Only took about an hour to clean up!
Once the carseat was clean again, Kivrin was thrilled to try it out!
After many many loads of laundry and cleaning up messes all week, on Friday Kivrin was finally back at school and we were all back at work!
On our Labor Day trip to the Topeka Zoo, Kivrin loved the bears, the playground and WALKING everywhere on her own!
Lissa shared her playmobile circus with Colin — Aunt Lissa was the trapeze artist under the big top once we got it put together! Kivrin helped from her chair!
., 
posing on the bench at Collins Park
Colin and his Uncle Dan try out the teeter totter together
Kivrin loves swinging at the park swings
This was the first day that Kivrin went down the big slide on her own, she loved it and insisted on doing it a dozen times!
Merry go round family photo (thanks to Aunt Leigh Anne for snapping this tricky pic!)
Kivrin has also discovered public water fountains, which she adores. I don’t think she gets much water, but she likes to try.
With Leigh Anne and Colin in town, we had one last birthday party for Kivrin’s 1st. Dan made the whipped cream pie for Kivrin to enjoy and we all had fresh whipped cream on brownies.
The whipped cream was a success — Kivrin tasted some, then had fun playing in the whipped cream goodness.
Colin and Kivrin formed a rock band and played us a concert.
Kivrin sings lead and Colin plays guitar.
Kivrin was reaching for this new concrete lion from the sling!
We went for a ride on the Gage Park mini-train, although Kivrin snacked on green veggies the whole ride.
See the rest of the photos from this fabulous trip on flickr.
Oh yeah! Cute cousins, Colin and Kivrin, took time out of their busy Labor Day weekend vacation to pose for the cameras. Prints to come for relatives and friends, or preview more adorableness on flickr now.
Kivrin Anne 
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