Category Archive

Our friend Carrie just got a kiln and she came over to show Kivrin (and us) the beautiful glass she made.

Kivrin enjoys her class at schoo – there are bouncers, and play mats, and activities, and swings, and sometimes daddy and mommy visit during the day! (Actually, Mommy visits every day for lunchtime.)

Busy thursday! Since I didn’t work until noon, Kivrin and I were able to do some of our favorite things together, including Baby Bookworks and a snack break with Daddy at the library, and a trip to the Breastfeeding Clinic.

Her first three days of school, Kivrin went through at least one change of clothes every day, but wearing her fancy new outfit from Aunt Leigh Anne, (and a bib) she was beautiful all day in the same clothes she started in. We’re guessing it’s a fluke, or that the thicker sweater knit is just more absorbent of drool than her other clothes…

We wouldn’t hand the baby off to just anyone, but Marta and Susan are some of our very favorite librarians and Kivrin loves to goes visit them!

Kivrin loves books! Thursday mornings the library offers Baby Bookworms storytime with Elaine.

 Of course, we read to her at home as well. She likes to look at the pictures, touch the pages, and hear mommy or daddy’s voice reading the story.

Kivrin is doing great at her child care center, and Dan and I are surviving this transition as well. Everything went smoothly on my first day back to work (okay, we left the pump on the living room floor, but I realized I didn’t have it and Dan brought it in for me). Kivrin is adjusting to taking a bottle at daycare and I’m able to go over my lunch hour to nurse her, which is a nice break for me. The first day, Dan had the day off, so he picked her up early. When I came home, they were snuggling at his computer.

Both days so far Kivrin has taken a LONG nap after she gets home– I think the excitement of new people, including 5 babies her own age, is keeping her excited all day. So many people to smile at and talk to!!

But she still wakes up for a few hours of playtime before bed. I’m sure we will all continue to adjust to this change over the next few weeks…

The pictures turned out AWESOME — I posted them on flickr, but we will get the prints back around Thanksgiving and get them out to family then, so don’t go printing your own quite yet!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lysistratagirl/sets/72157609088711759/

My favorite part is that she actually looks good in color in these photos, so I didn’t have to make everything black and white to make it look okay! Dan was very sad that she didn’t get to wear her orange outfit, but when we changed her into it, she immediately drooled all over the front and it would have messed up the pictures too much.

Originally uploaded by lysistratagirl

Since Dan took Thursday off work, Kivrin got some good daddy-time!

Here she is climbing “Mt. Daddy” — either that or they are wrestling, it’s hard to tell.

Kivrin likes to try to put things up to her mouth, or lick them with her tongue, and it doesn’t seem to matter to her whether they might fit inside of her mouth or not.

Snuggling with Daddy is the perfect end to any day — (I taught her that!)

Kivrin and I began our last week home together before I go back to work. Of course, I started the week by heading in to work for the afternoon for my favorite book group. (and bringing Kivrin with me for the social time before, to visit with everyone!)

Kivrin is really getting strong, lifting her head and giving her neck muscles a real workout in her efforts to not miss out on anything going in around her.

Kivrin’s cousin Thomas was baptized at Gloria Dei Lutheran church on Sunday. Dan is one of Thomas’s baptismal sponsors. We enjoyed a nice soup and sandwich luncheon afterwards and there was even some cake!
Kivrin was happy to see her Fogt family in Kansas City, and Grandma Sandy was glad to be able to show off both of her grandchildren to her church and choir friends!

Mommy survived Kivrin’s first shots today- the baby got stuck three times and she cried louder and more distictively in pain than any time I have ever heard her in her whole life before, including right after her birth.

The pictures were all taken with my phone before the shots — for someone who doesn’t know the meaning of the word innoculation, I thought she looked surprisingly nervous.

We followed our friend Scarlett’s advice and administered some baby Tylenol right before and some comfort nursing right after, so that by the time we left the office, Kivrin was grinning at her favorite nurse again, even though Diane gave her two of the shots a few minutes earlier. Everyone marvelled at her excellent neck/head control and her alertness. She weighed 13 pounds and measured 23 inches long.

Kivrin charmed them all with her “social smile” including a tween with an ankle sprain in the waiting room who was upset to think that such a little baby was sick (and she didn’t feel better when I explained that Kivrin was healthy and just due for her first round of immunizations!)

We don’t have to go back until January for her next round of shots- although we have to play health-insurance-roulette before then to guess whether lower premiums or a lower deductible will be a better deal for us in the coming year. The optimist would pick lower premiums and hope for a safe and healthy year, but the realist is about to send an infant to a child care center…

The nurse put a “hello, kitty” bandaid on each of Kivrin’s thighs to cover up her injection sites. It’s been 12 hours since her shots, and besides taking two long naps today, she hasn’t seemed to be sore or fussy (for which I am VERY grateful!)

November is here and with it comes more family holidays, getting ready to return to work, getting Kivrin ready for her child care center, getting ready for Christmas, trying to write a novel in 30 days — and I thought we were busy before!

I have lots of cute pictures (and video!) from the past week and I’ll get it posted as soon as I can. Kivrin is awake more during the day now, which means I take more pictures, but have less time to share them with you…

This morning we taught Kivrin about elections, beginning with reading about the candidates online and considering our choices. Dan and I went to vote together and just handed the baby off between us so that no one had to vote one-handed. The picture is outside of our polling place – Kivrin is modeling a new outfit from her Gramma Mary.

Grandma Denise knows just what to do with baby girls-hug them and play with them. She and Grandpa even tricked Kivrin into taking part of a bottle (although using a football game on television might be considered cheating!) Kivrin loved spending the afternoon with Denise before our long car ride back home.

Kivrin was happy to get snuggle time with all of Papa Staley’s family.

Uncle Jim and Aunt Gwen held her when she was sleeping.

Aunt Carol got some smiles – (Uncle Gary held her too, but I didn’t get a picture – will have to get one at Christmas!)

Aunt Gloria brought Kivrin a little Illini teddy bear!

This picture was taken right before Kivrin hit her cousin Allan in the face while flailing around. He didn’t even get upset!

We got together with Lissa’s friend Dave from high school, plus his wife Shannon. We were especially excited to meet their daughter Kaitlyn! It makes me feel so grown-up to be arranging play-dates for our kids (although with babies this young, this play date was arguably still mostly for the enjoyment of the grownups).