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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!
Grandpa asks, “Where’s Kivrin?”
“There she is!”
Kivrin says, “Look at me. I’m crawling out of this tunnel.”
“I’m going back in now.”
“Here I am. I’m back. And I’m coming to get you… Unless I turn around again.”
The circus was in town, and Grandpa Staley was in town, the very SAME weekend. How could we resist…
Lissa and Kivrin at the circus, posing before we walked down to the pre-show activities. We attended the Saturday afternoon show at the Kansas Expocenter.
Kivrin and Dan watching the pre-circus jump rope athletics.
Kivrin watched everything with interest, sometimes laughing and smiling but sometimes just looking surprised!
Kivrin got excited with the music and the crowd clapping. She waved her cloth around in the air! The lighting at the circus is designed to draw your attention to the action, and it really helped her focus on the acts in the ring. After enjoying the clown antics, a woman climbing a rope, and a funny guy on a bicycle, Kivrin decided to nurse and take her afternoon nap during the trained dogs, the elephants, the intermission and the tiger acts. She woke up right after the animals were gone, and excitedly watched the rest of the show. She especially loved the gymastics and the opening parade and the music.
Kivrin slept through these elephants.
(not really) funny story about trying to breast feed during the circus — Kivrin is still using the silicon shield to nurse, so I got it out and we started nursing, and then a loud noise distracted her and she popped off and turned her head, sending the shield flying…somewhere…in the dark…at the Expocenter. I usually have an extra shield in my purse, but I left my purse at home so that I wouldn’t have to keep track of it at the circus. Losing the shield momentarily happens regularly at home at night, and I quickly ran my hand across Kivrin, my lap, and everywhere else I could reach. Kivrin wanted to keep nursing but without the shield she can’t, so she started to fuss. Dan got his phone out and used the light from the screen to try to find the (small, clear, silicone) shield in the dark of the crowded seats. After a few minutes of frantic searching, I spotted it…down the seat in front of me, behind the super-cool tween girl with the multi-colored hair extensions (which Kivrin had tried to pull earlier in the afternoon). Not wanting to freak out the girl by accidentally grabbing her butt, I let her know my daughter had dropped something and then quickly reached down to retrieve it! We were back in business for nursing, Kivrin was asleep a few minutes later and our trip to the circus was saved!
Kivrin slept through these tigers.
Our family at the circus!
NOTE: those nachos in Dan’s hand are actually a present that he just bought for me. What a wonderful spouse!
The (only) good thing about getting behind on editing baby video is that I have more video to choose from when I finally stay up really late to catch up. These are the best short clips from three weeks of baby video. Prepare yourself for messy self-feeding, with lots of shrieking and play– Enjoy!
This messy messy photo shows a few of Kivrin’s new foods all at once — hard boiled egg yolks, and pasta circles, plus some green smears of her favorite baby food – peas!
In recent weeks, she has really been expanding her food options, especially things she can (try to) feed herself.
Kivrin’s new favorite foods list includes:
Storebought Baby food: sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, green beans, spinach, potatoes, squash, apples, pears, blueberries, peaches, raspberries, mango, rice and oatmeal cereals
Home made Finger foods: banana, avocado, frozen green peas, hard boiled egg yolk, tofu, asparagus, broccoli, carrots, sweet potatos
Grains: rice puffs, wheat puffs, cheerios, brown rice, pasta rings
Juices: apple, pear and prune
Here are some photos from our trip to the zoo on Sunday afternoon. I’ll spare you the individual captions, although you can mouseover for descriptive titles. We sure do make good use of our zoo membership though!
How cute is this? Daddy and Kivrin carefully examine the train tokens while we wait to board.
The bar at the front of our car was just the right height for Kivrin to hold and stand up (while the train was parked, of course!)
Kivrin sitting on Daddy’s knee
During the train ride, Kivrin stayed snuggled on Mommy’s lap, looking around but pretty seriously.
On Mommy’s bath night, we spell words like “Kivrin” and “cat”. Suspiciously, this was the word on the wall during Daddy’s bath night….
While I was fixing dinner, Kivrin crawled out of the kitchen. I followed her, from a distance, and was amazed that she went all the way into the bathroom and knocked some toys off the edge of the tub!
Since it was bath night, I let Kivrin get extra messy at dinner. (DON’T believe Dan. Just because he is super-neat when he feeds the baby doesn’t mean that I am ALWAYS this messy. Just sometimes. And besides, it makes the baby happy!)
We started with pureed sweet potatoes. Kivrin took a spoonful, and then took another spoonful. And she wouldn’t give them back!
“Wow, this is a big piece of food. How should I eat it?”
“Oh, I see. I can break off a piece.”
“I like when it squishes in my hands.”
“I’m still discovering my personal preferences, but I think I’m a two fisted eater.”
“I can bang pieces of banana together. Awesome.”
“Sometimes, when I am playing with this banana, I actually put a bite of food in my mouth.”
“What was that, Mommy? You are running the bath water now? Well…..okay.”
First at home since Mommy doesn’t work until noon on Thursdays:
Kivrin insists on carrying her toys with her while she crawls across the floor.
Kivrin can pull up to her knees and often all the way to her feet while she plays with her toys now.
And then at Kivrin’s school, where Mommy always spends her lunch hour. This Thursday, Kivrin wasn’t hungry, so we just played the whole hour and Mommy took some pictures!
At Kivrin’s school, she likes playing with this “dino-cushy” in the background of this picture.
Kivrin is getting harder to photograph — when you grab the camera, she is often in a different place by the time you get the picture taken!
Kivrin’s classroom has two identical xylophones, but the babies still like to take them away from each other.
Everything in Kivrin’s classroom is interesting! Toys, teachers, other kids – she is enthralled by all of it!
Kivrin has always loved teething on celery, but now she has a new skill — carrying something in her mouth while crawling. She has also been spotted holding a block in her mouth while using both her hands to balance at her block table.
Kivrin took a spin in the big girl grocery cart. She made it a few aisles in the cart this first time before she got fussy and then Dan carried her the rest of the way through the store.
The annual Blintz Brunch at Temple Beth Shalom drew us out of the house on a stormy Sunday morning. Dan and I loved the food (blintzes, kugel and rugelah) and Kivrin loved the smiling at crowds. She also enjoyed her front row seat for the traditional Jewish singing.
Kivrin didn’t mind that the restaurant was busy…she had plenty of puffs to feed herself.
Kivrin Anne 
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