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Kivrin and Daddy on the slide at Boswell Park.
Kivrin playing with baby dolls and full sized blankets (instead of diaper cloths).
Kivrin playing with Mama’s baby doll and blanket from when she was little.
Kivrin and Daddy in the snow (notice her coat, hat and good, and Daddy’s shorts and short sleeves!)
Kivrin LOVES to be lifted up to kiss the “Mistle-Toad” hanging from the living room light pull.
Kivrin and Mama on the bridge at the park.
Kivrin climbing the stairs at the park all by herself.
Kivrin is learning new things every day! But they don’t all photograph very well. Since this is basically Kivrin’s online baby book, here is list of things she has been enjoying doing lately at 13 months old.
- Pointing to her nose or ears when we ask. Pointing to our noses.
- Pulling up her shirt to show her belly button. Wanting to be tickled on the belly!
- Sticking out her tongue when we talk about tongues or we stick out our tongue first.
- Playing chase by tagging us then running away and looking back at us expectantly
- Shaking her head “no” and sometimes saying “nyeh”
- Vocalizing more, although not specific words
- Pointing and vocalizing when she wants or does not want something
- Singing/shouting along with music, dancing and clapping
- Almost making the animals sounds for goat “meh” and lion “rawr”
- Trying to run or walk really fast
- Crawling up on the couch
- Trying to carry all of her dolls at once
- Stacking all of her dolls in her lap
- Cuddling her baby and rocking it
- Pointing to animal pictures and enjoying mama and daddy making animal sounds
- Pointing to the cat, the rabbit, etc. in the book when we ask her to
- Collecting animal magnets or other small items in bag or bucket and carrying around
- Understands that doorknobs and the baby gate handles are the key to opening things, also knows keys are needed for door and car
- Opening her mouth wide and saying “aaahh”
- Bringing a book to mama or daddy and sitting in a lap to read, repeatedly
- Walking around the library looking at all the books and people and playing in the kids areas
- Going down the slide and swinging high on the baby swing at the park
- Stacking things, fitting containers inside each other
- Riding in the stroller on walks outside or inside
- Throwing balls across the room (and throwing toys and food too)
- Sometimes eating part of her meal with a spoon or fork, especially with some assistance
- Climbing up on the step stool to wash her hands in the bathroom (she would do this all day and is upset when she has to stop)
- Fussing when she doesn’t get her way, with a peculiar “whinny” noise sort of like a horse
- Drooling (hopefully new teeth are coming, she still just has 4 on top and 2 on bottom)
- Standing up in the bathtub, every bath, the entire time
- Drawing with crayons, markers, ink pens, anything…
- Sticking stickers on paper
- Petting the cats, trying to snuggle the cats, chasing the cats trying to pet them more
- Fake talking on the phone (or anything small like a booklight, remote control, iphone, toy phone, etc)
- Drawing on the magna doodle
Current favorite foods that she seems to enjoy include frozen peas, plain tofu, whole wheat rotini with red sauce, whole wheat waffles, graham crackers, bananas, pieces of cheddar or colby cheese, cottage cheese, almost any pureed baby food vegetables, oatmeal, scrambled eggs, blueberries, raisins, sesame crackers. We only offer her water or whole milk to drink and she likes both.
Some of the artwork Kivrin has made at school lately
Piling her baby dolls around her on the couch
She had a big pile and I asked her to hug her baby dolls for this picture. She was happy to oblige.
On the popup toy, she can now push the center buttom to make the panda pop up all by herself, but she likes it better when someone sees her do it and cheers for her “You did it! You pushed the button all by yourself!” and claps for her.
Our first attempt with playdoh was not a success — Kivrin kept trying to eat the playdough. After I showed her how to smush it a dozen times, she finally got the hang of it, at least for a few seconds.
“Here Comes Science” by They Might Be Giants came in a package from Papa Staley this week — and has been played constantly ever since in our kitchen!
Kivrin wants to help in the kitchen now, and one of her favorite ways to help is by making music with the pots and pans!
Kivrin showing off her dolls
Huge grin and showing off her “girl truck” which is like a car but shaped like a happy ladybug
Cute kiddo at the library in her Halloween jacket from Aunt Gloria
Kivrin helping out at the library with her mama
Collins Park swings go nice and high, just the way Kivrin likes them! Grandpa and Grandma Fogt even got some high fives from the swing.
Kivrin playing peekaboo with mama at Collins Park
Kivrin playing with the gel window clings and rearranging them. This was before she figured out that she could rip them into small pieces and destroy them. 🙂
Taking a Sunday afternoon walk with Grandpa and Grandma Fogt visited from Kansas City.
Kivrin showing off the animals pictures than came in the package from Papa Staley.
View all of the pictures on flickr here.
Leigh Anne and Colin flew in from Milwaukee and we drove from Topeka to meet up for a fun weekend at Papa Staley’s house in Collinsville!
We visited Nana Herring for lunch on Friday, and although we missed her Cahokia Mounds retirement party by a few days, both great-grandkids enjoyed playing with her party balloons! Uncle Lee brought out his remote controlled helicopters which were a HUGE hit with everyone. Kivrin even got to color a picture for Nana, and I don’t think we got crayon on the coffee table!
On Friday night we met the Staley Family at Alfonzo’s in Maryville for some pizza and fun! Kivrin enjoys the flashing lights and sounds of course. She isn’t exactly skilled at the games yet, but she has fun trying to play!
Into an already full weekend we added some extra excitement on Saturday, including a trip to Shaw’s Garden for a children’s fair and to meet up with Dave’s family, a baseball game (the Cardinals beat the Brewers which made Colin happy at least), and a visit from Kate’s family in the evening.
We enjoyed walking to Woodland Park together, and playing on the playground. Kivrin is a brave one and likes to go down the slide on her own, she just needs help getting up the steps sometimes and getting seated before she slides, so she doesn’t go head first! The weather was warm enough to play baseball outside in Grandpa’s yard, and enjoy his flower garden. Kivrin especially loved playing in the back of Papa Staley’s pickup truck. Her hard soled shoes made a satisfying loud noise when she stomped her feet, she was tall like the grownups, and Mama kept playing peek-a-boo over the edges and through the windows.
Kivrin is obsessed with some Melissa and Doug animal magnets we got at the Toy Store. Favorite things — animal pictures, little things to move and carry, toys to play with while standing and walking, toys that make grown ups make animal noises, toys to put in a bucket or bag, toys to get in trouble for putting in mouth, toys to stack, toys in a set to carry and leave all over the house, toys that stick to some things but not others — all in one!
“hi!”
“playing in a box is delightful, of course”
“I’m ready to play outside!”
“Watch me with this wheel, I’m fast.”
“I love reading my animals book, even upside down”
“I can carry all my dolls at once, or one at a time.”
“I’m helping mama set up trivia night, I was in charge of patrolling the floor.”
“It works even better with mama’s spoon.”
“i don’t know where it is”
“What’s on my head?”
“I can do it myselfm just this once”
“look at me on a walk around the block”
“faster please”
“I’m excited to try sitting in the tub without the baby bathtub.”
“I miss my baby bathtub, please go get it right now”
Seriously folks. Besides the constant support of my darling spouse, and great advice from the local La Leche League leaders, and my kid’s ongoing desire to continue our breastfeeding relationship, the best thing that has helped me continue nursing my baby for an entire year is my iPhone. If you can swing it financially, I highly recommend it. Instead of long hours alone in the dark, hoping the baby will nurse quickly so I can get back to getting things done, nursing with the baby in one arm and the iPhone in the other has meant that I cuddle the baby longer, and snuggle her long after she has nursed to sleep. I know this isn’t the typical image of staring blissfully into my baby’s eyes while she takes nourishment from my body. I can check email and stay connected. I can play some games, especially CrackCode, Geared, Toobz, reMovem, Blocked, Solebon, StoneLoops!, FlightControl, Bejeweled 2. I can edit and email photos to family, upload videos to youtube, and read google news. And of course, for everyone who has ever read my status update on Facebook when it is about nursing, I can nurse my baby while I update my Facebook status….
As Kivrin enters her toddler years and nurses a bit less, especially during the day, I am finding I sure miss my iPhone personal time. I’m not saying that continuing breastfeeding into Kivrin’s toddler years is not a way to keep checking my work email while bonding with my baby. But having my iPhone handy during the 6-8 times she nurses a day had certainly made the experience more enjoyable…
The La Leche League organized a fabulous afternoon at the zoo to celebrate World Breastfeeding Week. Dan and Kivrin and I had a great time eating lunch and visiting with other families.
Before we went into the Education Center, we took a quick trip over to the orangutans. Obviously, Kivrin enjoys them.
Kivrin played hide and seek with the curtains — if she was inside the curtain she could see zoo out of the big window. If she was outside the curtain, she could see us and all of the other families!
A stage at the front of the education center had a wheelchair accessible ramp. If you had just learned to walk recently and couldn’t walk up steps yet, this would be pretty much the coolest thing you ever saw before. And if you had some people your own age to chase you up and down the ramp, even better.
Thanks to everyone at La Leche League of Topeka for a fabulous afternoon!
On Saturday morning, September 12, Kivrin picked out a new concrete animal for our yard, a small cat. She insisted on carrying it home in the car, and she was singing a happy song to the cat the whole way home.
When Kivrin wants to go for a walk, she is becoming very capable of demonstrating what we need to do to make it happen for her.
After a Sunday morning walk, Kivrin fell asleep. She kept sleeping in my arms for awhile longer. Usually sleeping photos are in the dark, so I took advantage of the sunshine to get this picture of her.
After she woke up, she loved to show me her concrete cat!
Monday night. Of course, if I’m honest, the main advantage of Kivrin in the back carry position in the mai tai is that we can still walk to Dairy Queen and eat ice cream without having to share any with her. Just remember, it looks selfish, but we’re good parents for NOT giving the baby ice cream. Even if we love it ourselves a little too much.
Tuesday night. Kivrin is a very serious artist. Of course, she enjoyed painting her belly a lot more than she painted the paper.
Kivrin was probably cute the rest of the week too, and by Sunday night we finally found the camera. It was underneath a pillow on the couch all along.
On Labor Day night, late, Kivrin started throwing up.
Here are some excerpts from messages to our families:
Tuesday, September 8, 2009 2:13 AM Kivrin seems to have a sixth sense when she has a doctor’s appointment scheduled– she’s supposed to get her 1 year old shots tuesday morning and instead has spent the last two hours throwing up the contents of her stomach. When she finished puking, she was wide awake at 1 am and ready to play! She is finally back asleep now and hopefully she is feeling better.we will keep you posted about her progress tomorrow!
Okay, I better try to get some sleep!
Love, Lissa
Sent from my iPhone
Tuesday, September 8, 2009 11:00 AM
Probably just a virus, still got her checkup and shots, no milk or nursing for 24 hours so I’m pumping (darn it, hoped I was done with that!).
She weighed 21 pounds and that was 50th percentile. She didn’t cooperate on the height but was about 29 inches, which was 35-40th percentile. We got some pedialyte and are all taking it easy (I.e. taking turns doing laundry and holding the snuggly tired fussy baby) today at home.
It turned out Kivrin hated pedialyte in every form (frozen, mixed with juice, melted, on a spoon, through a straw). So we spent the rest of the week trying to convince Kivrin to take sips of water.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009 10:16 AM
Don’t worry, she’s just playing, not drinking. 😦 She likes to hold all of the cups, but could care less that they contain lovely hydrating liquids…
Wednesday, September 9, 2009 11:19 AM
a small success in drinking a sip of water while on a walk.
Thursday, September 10, 2009 8:48 AM She’s eating a ton of pancakes and eggs
Thursday, September 10, 2009 9:36 AM Super epic fail
We are at the zoo anyway in spare clothes but my carseat is a mess. Maybe you come here at 10:30?
After worlds biggest puking incident in the car seat first thing this morning, which led to Dan leaving work at 10:30 am to pick up the baby because my car was gross and me taking my boss up on his offer to let me stay home sick, we basically all had a great day of playing hooky and are in good shape for going “back to normal” tomorrow (we hope)
It is surprisingly hard to take good photos of people on a swing…
I have the pic of the carseat incident that I sent Dan but I refrained from sending it to anyone else. It was classic “I feel better, I’m hungry, eat too much stomach overload” apparently. Only took about an hour to clean up!
Once the carseat was clean again, Kivrin was thrilled to try it out!
After many many loads of laundry and cleaning up messes all week, on Friday Kivrin was finally back at school and we were all back at work!
Kivrin Anne 
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