Category Archive

Wearing her new Dance-Bot pajamas, Kivrin posed for some silly tongue-sticking-out pictures on the couch, then settled down on the floor to see some indoor bubbles! She liked trying to pop the bubbles but didn’t really watch them while they were moving, just reached for them once they settled on the blanket.

Kivrin’s room at school is wonderful for many reasons– great teachers, nice kids, fun toys, good social interaction, and support for baby and parents during all of the changes that accompany the transition from baby to toddler. Also, they do art with the kids constantly and display it in the classroom and send it home with the parents. Here is a gallery of some of Kivrin’s masterpieces:

Kivrin started clapping on her own around 5 1/2 months. For a few days before, she slapped her open palm on everything (pillows, the floor, her legs, other people’s hands) and then suddenly she realized she could put her hands together! Of course, since we cheer for her whenever she claps, she loves clapping more and more!

And her favorite activity of all time is still…. cat watching. She laughs and shrieks, stares mesmerized, giggles and grins, all for the love of Big Kitty and Ella. Kitty started out wary of the baby, and has progressed to something closer to terrified. He refuses to be in her line of site, and will leave the room if she shrieks happily at him. We aren’t sure what will happen in our house with Kivrin starts crawling, but I’m pretty sure that chasing after the cats will be the motivation for her to get up on her knees and scooting across the floor.

“Tissue paper, my favorite!”

“Wait, I think there’s something under this tissue paper!”

“A ribbon, my favorite!”

“Wait… could it be? There seems to be a bear attached to this ribbon

“Thanks for the bear!”

“Oh, I get it. The present is attached to the bear…”

Kivrin doesn’t seem into food at all yet, despite those early bites. We still offer some every day, but this second week she has only been interested in making a big mess, and has stopped opening her mouth for bites.

Since we just want to familiarize her with the concept of the high chair, sitting at the table with us, and getting her face and hands wiped with the washcloth when she is messy, it’s no big deal that she isn’t into the actual food yet. We keep trying rice cereal, avocado and banana for now, until she shows more interest in actually eating some!

You know what I love? Unseasonably warm weather, especially on late winter weekends.  What an excellent treat! The sun, the breeze, the smell of a neighbor burning leaves. Natural light photos after a long winter of bright flashes. A walk to the local school playground.

Look really closely at these next three photos. Kivrin had been sitting on my lap in the yard. I was laying on my back talking to her and watching her look around. Suddenly, she was transfixed on something. I craned my neck, but I couldn’t see anything moving anywhere on our block. I finally sat up, and saw a dog walking slowly down the street, over a block away. Kivrin didn’t look away once, except when the dog finally meandered past our house and she had to whip her head around to look over her other shoulder. She watched him until he disappeared up the alley, at least 10 straight minutes.

And speaking of dogs, Friday night, while we were sitting on the back porch steps after work, a man walking his dog passed by and the dog (big, black, not on a leash) actually came over to us. Kivrin blabbered at the dog, who licked my hand and her hand and then rolled in front of us to get his belly rubbed. We declined to rub his belly since his owner was calling for him. When we went inside to wash our hands and tell Dan about it, he didn’t even believe me. Just because I am not a big fan of dogs doesn’t mean that the baby shouldn’t get to pet them, at least if they seem extremely docile and the owner is nearby…

Our friend Sheila came over Saturday afternoon and babysat Kivrin for an hour while I went to the grocery store. Although Sheila was prepared for an afternoon of smiles and baby laughs, Kivrin slept the whole time in her arms. After Kivrin woke up, she was all smiles! (Everyone knows that in “practice babysitting” it wasn’t Sheila who needed practice, it was really the mommy practicing leaving the baby….)

Steve and Sandy brought dinner Friday night and came for a quick “Kivirn fix.”

Kivrin showed them all of her newest tricks (rolling over, strong legs bouncing, peekaboo with the burp cloth, sitting up on her own) and gave them lots of snuggles. She is a social butterfly and she loved having her grandparents here to talk to her!

Kivrin got a giant box from Gramma Mary. It was even bigger than her! She wanted to look inside right away. The box was just the right height to help support her while she examined the contents. (She is not really standing unassisted yet.)

I’m sure these things will get more use later, but here is a preview of an adorable purple hat and an awesome dolphin-tale costume, complete with sound effects. She also got a new Sandra Boynton book. The big kids got presents too — new calendars with some of our favorite themes – Simpsons and WoW.

Kivrin also got several beautiful sweaters — fine lightweight knits that are intricate and soft. As a knitter, I have an great appreciation for knitted garments that are complex in pattern or colorwork or fine gauge, because I know I would never have the time, patience or skill to knit them myself!

A few days later, Kivrin wore her new sweater dress (over cream colored pants, of course).

Thanks Gramma Mary for the fun presents!

The new “post-baby” Saturday night date — Planet Sub, Toys ‘R Us, Target. Luckily Kivrin is usually content to ride in the cart at Target, especially with this weird crab toy — she likes to chew on his eye stalks.

Our shopping expedition was a success — we bought a nice light-weight stroller. Dan and Kivrin tried it out around the house Sunday morning, and then I used it at the library.Sundayafternoon, I was practicing balancing work and baby, with one in each hand! Kivrin helped me set up the African American Read In at the library, then she played with our friend Carrie and the Topeka Crochet Guild upstairs in a meeting room until Dan’s lunch break, then they came down to the Read In. It was a great plan until Kivrin got really talkative during the Read In, and then hungry… At least she’s real cute, so everyone still wanted to smile at her afterwards. Another mom had FOUR little girls who were collectively quieter than my single child – I was jealous!

I lifted the tv-watching-ban for babies for the 12 minutes of the Super Bowl half time show and Kivrin and I had a dance party all around the living room to Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. (She was born to the sounds of Springteen on the Seeger Sessions album, after all, so she’s been a fan pretty much since birth.) She loved the dancing around, and she stayed wound up for awhile. After I turned off the TV again and put on some music instead, she kept banging her toys and shrieking and shaking her head. It was hilarious, except of course every time I turned on the video camera, she would sit perfectly still…

We busted out the sun hat and stroller for a walk around the block (yes, that is the Dairy Queen in the background of the first photo) in the abnormally GORGEOUS weather on Saturday. Kivrin loved being outside, looking at the cars, feeling the wind, and generally enjoying the day.

Later, when I had to go to work for a few hours (for those silly people playing trivia when they could have been outside in the sun!) Dan and Kivrin took a blanket outside in the yard.

Here’s baby’s first handful of grass, and a happy Kivrin playing with toys and looking around at the neighborhood.

We let Kivrin begin experimenting with foods over the weekend. Specifically, breastmilk on a spoon, followed by a bit of very liquidy rice cereal.  She loves the idea of foods, after watching us for all of these months, but isn’t that interested after a few bites. We’ll keep trying every day until she gets the hang of it though!

We survived Day 1 of baby food, so we went on to Day 2 with similar success! We added washable toys for her to play with, so that she wouldn’t grab for the spoon as often with her hands. We forgot to buy a washable plastic mat for under the highchair, but we will be adding that to our feeding ensemble real soon!

As Kivrin grows up, we adapt the house to her needs. In the kitchen, she now watches us from the high chair while we cook and wash dishes. With a few toys, and someone in the room to talk with her, she can amuse herself for about 20 minutes.

I’m learning just how mobile Kivrin is becoming. I laid her on her tummy on the center of this blanket, exactly where the toy tiger is in this picture. Three minutes later, she had rolled over and then somehow rotated and wiggled completely off the blanket onto the hardwood floor. Babyproofing is going to become a priority in our house, and soon!

Kivrin likes to sit up on her own (with either a person or a pillow behind her, just in case!) and reach for all of her toys. She plays with one for a moment and then moves on to another one. If she only has one toy and can’t see any others, she can play with it for 10 minutes quite contentedly. If she can see other toys, then she likes to have them all!                   

Speaking of reaching, she is sitting on my lap while I type this and she wants a turn on the keyboard:

                                  ggggb                             nnnn         nnn  t             mb j m ,d ztmmmmm               

(she was really into the space bar today)

As Kivrin practices babbling and moving her lips around, she has discovered this weird lip-sucking maneuver. Sometimes she uses it to make little smacking noises, and other times it is silent.

It was “hat day” at school, so Kivrin wore this outfit that came with a matching hat. Or, we dropped her off in the hat, and I saw it on the floor when I came at lunchtime, and it was packed in her cubby when we picked her up after work! But she looked cute in the pictures we took at home in the morning before school anyway!