Author Archive

Although Grandma Staley and Kivrin did not have the opportunity to meet each other, several people saw me holding Kivrin at the visitation and told me stories about Grandma showing them Kivrin’s newborn pictures when they visited her. Read Grandma Staley’s obituary in the Belleville News-Democrat here.

Grandma Staley – the originator of the yarn stash, the woman who taught me to crochet.  Coupon cutter, piano player, windowsill gardener and birdfeeder. Prolific correspondent with grandkids, missionaries and just about everyone else she ever met and liked. A watcher of tv game shows and spoiler of babies. When I was a little girl, I didn’t know if I liked red apples or green apples, because I had never seen the skin on the perfectly sliced apple pieces that Grandma would give us in small margarine tubs.

Kivrin will most definitely grow up hearing stories about her Grandma Staley.

Colin was excited to meet his much anticipated “new baby cousin.” He sang her “Happy Birthday” and “Twinkle” and he tickled her toes. While he was holding her, she reached up and touched his face, then turned her open mouth towards him, making him worry that she was trying to eat him!

We tried to take a picture to show the size difference between the cousins — Kivrin is about 2 weeks old here and Colin is about two and a half years old. Colin was enamoured with this hanger though, telling us all that he was “going to hook us”, so this was the best photo we got.

Nana Herring and Kivrin were quite content to spend the afternoon enjoying each others company.

 Kivrin loves to smile at her Papa Staley. He has a theory that babies like him because his beard and bald head make it look like his face is upside down, but we think Kivrin just knows a good thing when she sees it!

 Lissa’s cousin Jon was visiting from Hawaii and happy to greet the newest Staley. Kivrin is swaddled up in a receiving blanket that Nana sewed for her.

Kivrin spent longer in her carseat this afternoon than in the entire rest of her life combined as we drove to Collinsville for Grandma Staley’s funeral. Overall the baby caravan went smoothly, since she slept most of the time but sitting in fast food parking lots to nurse adds a lot of extra minutes to the formerly 5 hour drive. I also survived a spectacular diaper changing failure and Dan came out of Panera’s to find the baby’s outfit soaked, a big mess of stuff scattered in the backseat and mommy in dire need of assistance. A funeral was a sad reason to come home for a visit, but everyone was pleased to meet the newest Staley.

New pictures coming soon.

Our friend Scarlett is a baby-wearing advocate and she recommended the wraparound baby carriers at Cotton Cradles where we picked out our Hug-a-bub. It’s basically a long stretchy piece of fabric that you use to tie the baby on to yourself, but we already love using it to take walks around the neighborhood and Kivrin immediately falls asleep when she is snuggled up next to us inside it.

My favorite part is the instructional DVD – because the Hug-a-bub is from an Australian company, the woman in the video has a lovely accent and she makes tying on the fabric seem sophisticated instead of frustrating, especially the very first time.

Our family doctor had a special treat for us for Kivrin’s two week check-up. He and his wife made a home visit, he examined the baby right in our living room, plus they brought us a wonderful dinner.

Kivrin didn’t realize how awesome this was —  she was fussy during their visit, but as new parents we very much appreciated this extra special care!

Dan vetoed my suggestion for an inspirational quote for our daughter’s birth announcement, so I am including it here instead:

“Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies—God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.” — Kurt Vonnegut in God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater

Here are a few of Kivrin’s current favorite poses —

Stretched out fully to reach for something

Snuggled up in a little baby bundle

Arms flung above her head while sleeping

Relaxing in mommy’s arms

Sleeping on Aunt Leigh Anne’s lap

So, we named our baby after a character in one of my favorite books. When I try to summarize the book in my own words, I tend to use words like “doomsday” and “time-travel” and “the plague” –which don’t exactly capture the essence of the literary reference. People who have read the book before, including a few fellow librarians and my father-in-law, seem to understand why we choose to name our baby Kivrin though.

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
Copyright 1992 and winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards

Here is the (more eloquent than mine) description from the back of the book:
“For Kivrin, preparing for on-site study of one of the deadliest eras in humanity’s history was as simple as receiving inoculations against the diseases of the fourteenth century and inventing an alibi for a woman traveling alone. For her instructors in the twenty-first century, it meant painstaking calculations and careful monitoring of the rendezvous location where Kivrin would be retrieved. But a crisis strangely linking past and future strands Kivrin in a bygone age as her fellows try desperately to rescue her. In a time of superstition and fear, Kivrin – barely of age herself – finds she has become an unlikely angel of hope during one of history’s darkest hours. Five years in the writing by one of science fiction’s most honored authors, Doomsday Book is a storytelling triumph. Connie Willis draws upon her understanding of the universalities of human nature to explore the ageless issues of evil, suffering, and the indomitable will of the human spirit.”

Although I haven’t seen any targeted advertising for new parents, the iPhone is the perfect technology tool to stay connected with friends, family, news, e-mail, games, music, videos, life, etc. when you only have one free hand and are trapped in a chair or on the bed by a sleepy, fussy or nursing baby for hours at a time. Kivrin was only home from the hospital for a few days before I had borrowed Dan’s iPhone so many times that we decided I should get my own.

Look at how little the new baby is compared to mommy’s new phone! And, see how conveniently daddy can read slashdot while snuggling his daughter.

Kivrin is 10 days old and busy exploring her world, particularly her colorful foam block.

The holiday weekend brought fun visits from some of Kivrin’s favorite people.
Our friends Kate, Aaron, Addison and Avery visited on Saturday afternoon from St. Louis.

Kivrin meeting Avery

Aunt Leigh Anne came from Milwaukee to spoil her new niece

Kivrin is actually awake many times throughout the day….and night… but some of her most photogenic moments (and also most of the times we have a free hand to grab the camera) are while she is sleeping.

Momentous though it may seem, the five minute drive home from the hospital was the easiest part of getting discharged and settling in at home with a new baby.  The first few days home were a new-baby blur, because unfortunately Lissa’s spinal headache returned on Monday with a vengeance. After a brief return visit to the hospital, by Tuesday evening we were back on track and feeling fine…or, well….just a normal amount of new parent exhaustion.

Grandpa Steve checking out his first granddaughter on Saturday afternoon.

Papa Staley drove from Collinsville, IL on Saturday morning after his 5 am wake up call.

Grandma Sandy came to Topeka on Tuesday afternoon to help out (and spoil the baby!)

On Sunday, Sara and Jon brought their son Thomas to meet the newest member of our family. In this photo, Thomas is 178 days old and Kivrin is only 1 day old.

Kivrin weighed 8 lbs, 5 oz at birth (photo cropped for modesty!)

Dan holding Kivrin just after delivery.

Lissa snuggling Kivrin in the recovery room.