Category Archive

Kivrin and I hung out at the library this afternoon so that Dan could watch the Illinois v. Ohio State b-ball game in peace….

I swear, I was just saying “hi” to her and she was cracking up like this….Kivrin is a hilarious little baby!

Guess who loves the cats? It’s Kivrin. If only they loved her… Her affection and excitement are a bit one sided for now.  But really really cute…

Kivrin is just catching on to the idea of playing peekaboo, but already prefers to do most of the peek and boo on her own, usually lifting the cloth up and down over her face at lightning speed and expecting her audience to be ready to enjoy her antics (which we always are, of course!)

Kivrin was talking up a storm, until I turned on the video camera….

Why do babies love animatronic toys so much? The fusion of technology and personality? Or the fact that the robots show no fear?

Dan’s roboraptor and Kivrin’s TMX Cookie Monster elicit grins, giggles and squeals of delight!

Kivrin’s desire to sit up is much stronger than her current ability, but she is always grateful for assistance from a helping hand or nearby pillow. Life is so much better when you aren’t laying down all the time!

After a long day of playing, Kivrin falls asleep in Dan’s arms. How cute!

Kivrin meets a tiger (a gift from cousins Mindy, Kevin and Becka) and they get to know each other better. She has a lot to learn about how to play nicely with cats – whether big or small, toys or real….

I’m not sure why we were all wearing black and white on the same day. At least Kivrin looks cute!

Just call her Rudolph, jr.

Give her a little red nose and she is ready to guide the sleigh and help Santa bring you lots of toys and games!

(Thanks to Gramma Mary for the cute and comfy reindeer ears. I think she gave these to us before we had a baby….but apparently we saved them until we had a small helpless person with whom to play dress up!)

I wasn’t sure I could pull of my annual National Novel Writing Month tradition with a 2-3 month old baby at home, especially since I went back to work in the middle of the month, but with the awesome support of family, lots of typing on the iphone, the laptop and in random emails to myself, and a seriously productive last week, I did it! (50,881 words in 30 days, and a semi-coherent story about a teenage boy taking a semester off from high school, moving to Collinsville, and discovering that his neighborhood is affected by mine subsidence, and falling in love right at the end, of course.)

Luckily for me, Kivrin is a wonderful baby and I was able to write while she was napping, or eating, or amusing herself, or playing with her daddy. I’ve heard from my friend that even though this year seemed challenging, trying to do Nanowrimo with a one-year old will be even more difficult! Anyone want to do some babysitting next November?

Now that all of my computer time won’t be sucked up by frantic fiction writing, I’ll fill in with as many photos and videos as I can from the past month — we were still taking cute pictures, I just didn’t get many of them shared yet!

Who is that cute baby in the mirror? It’s Kivrin!

Simple though it seems, this is the best game ever. She loves it!

This mirror is above the changing table, which makes diaper changes take longer, but they always end happily in play.

And even better than swinging, playing and talking with mommy WHILE swinging!

This bathtime photo turned out artsy with the drops of water.