At 31 weeks, I have reached the stage of pregnancy where I inadvertently emit a small grunt of effort when standing up, sitting down, bending to pick something up, or rolling over in bed. Basically shifting position in any way. Plus the steady forward expansion of my belly means that I have to twist slightly sideways to get close enough to the sink to wash the dishes. All in all, I am not feeling very graceful these days. N00b Baby is due March 6, so there are about two months to go. How on earth do elephants stand being pregnant for 22 months?
We are currently attempting to recover from colds contracted at some point near the end of our vacation. We spent two weeks in Oahu visiting Matt's sister Sasha and her kids Brooke (4) and Ethan (7). Husband/Dad Greg is currently deployed in Iraq and we wish him a safe and speedy return.
We had lots of rain (including thunderstorms that knocked out power across the whole island), but lots of beautiful sun as well, with the side benefit of seeing rainbows just about every day. We got to see a whole range of beaches, from the legendary surfing heaven of Sunset Beach on the North Shore to gentle, reef-protected beaches where the kids could play in the water and we could snorkel around to see green sea turtles and lots of beautiful tropical fishies.
Apparently Kara is a surfer girl at heart. She got the world's cutest tiny pink
Of course, the highlight of the whole trip for the kids was waking up Christmas morning to the Santa-visited living
We flew back to San Francisco on the red-eye (sorry, Kara, that was rough!) just in time to celebrate New Years with Tammy, Olli, Max, Jeff & Denise. We made moules mariniere, fresh sea bass, golden couscous and spinach/orange/jicama salad. Various lovely bottles of wine and dessert wine were consumed by those of us not pregnant or breastfeeding. Kara slept through midnight but Max just couldn't stand being away from the party, so he stayed up with us until we all variously collapsed of exhaustion or decided to stumble home. All in all, my absolute favorite way to ring in the New Year: good friends, good food and lots of laughs.
May 2009 be full of many blessings and much love for all of you.
After the August fog clears and the tourists go home, September is really the heart of
Kara is getting more and more confident in so many ways- she doesn't hesitate to voice her wants and preferences ("want monkey, want!" or more simply "NO!"), and she squirms and protests mightily if someone picks her up when she is engaged in something interesting.
She is, of course, the center of the universe (as she should be), and has not quite grasped the tsunami of change that is about to come into her world when her little brother or sister arrives in March (you all knew that already, right?). Her current favorite book is "Waiting for Baby" which is about a little toddler whose family is preparing for a new baby (it brings tears to my hormonal eyes). She pats my growing tummy and says "Listen... baby" ever since we took her to a prenatal appointment and she watched while our midwife Judy listened for the baby's heartbeat (FYI, a very healthy 140 bpm). I'm sure the reality of sharing the center of the universe with a squirmy little newborn will be a bit of a shock, but she has surprised us in the past with her adaptability. I really do trust in her innately sunny and loving disposition to make room for the newcomer. Now it will just be up to Matt and me to display some of that adaptability, along with extra helpings of patience and tolerance for chaos.
In the meantime, we have spent lots and lots of time this month trying to find a house to buy that has enough space for us, the kids, our gear (not inconsiderable tonnage), and visiting grandparents. As much as we adore our current digs and neighborhood, we have definitely outgrown the space. So far we feel like Goldilocks- every house has some disqualifying defect- too small, bad neighborhood, too expensive... but we are cautiously optimistic that we'll be able to find a good bargain in a decent neighborhood before the baby gets here. Navigating the real estate market right now is a daily exercise in stress and uncertainty (yes, you can get a mortgage... no wait...). Anyway, I promise to keep you all updated.
How did it get to be nearly Labor Day already??!!! We thought that things would slow down a bit in August, giving us some relaxed family time and a chance to go househunting, but obligations just kept popping up.
And of course Little Miss Kara has been growing awfully fast and hitting lots of milestones over the past few months as well. At her 15 month check-up, she had sprouted like a little beanpole:
Height: 32.5 in (90th percentile) - 82.5 cm
Weight: 23 lbs 4 oz (50th percentile) - 10.55 kg
Head circumference: 48 cm (90+ percentile)
I guess that answers my question as to whether she's been eating enough! She's also talking up a storm- among other things she already knows the difference between one and two, and between big and little. She asks "Doing?" to her baby doll and then says "busy!".
In July we celebrated my Grandma Rainie's 80th birthday down in Simi Valley. Great party with lots of relatives (like my great aunt Ditty) who I hadn't seen in years. Kara had LOTS of fun playing with her cousin Emmett Orion and tiny little 2-month old Sadie Lorraine. At Grandma's insistence we took lots and lots of family portraits- you can see some here. When we were waiting at the Burbank airport to come home, Kara took her first independent steps - just a few wobbly ones between me and Matt.
For the next couple of weeks she was content just doing that- no more than a couple of steps between collapsing into someones arms. Then suddenly last week she stood up and walked around for a good 30 seconds. She's been getting more and more confident ever since.
Just as a little taste of how time flew by in the intervening month or so, we went to the 12th annual "Friends 'n Family" campout up in Willits, CA and also celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary (and 7th anniversary of first meeting). Its amazing what can happen in six years, isn't it??
Anyway, I need to get this post published so I'll sign off with a really short video I just took today of her toddling like a little drunken sailor:
I swear we didn't coach her to say this. One day she found some dollar bills and asked what they were, and the next day she decided that they were really fun to shake while saying "Money Money Money!"
At first I wrote this as part of the previous post about our vacation in general, then realized that it really needed a post of its own.
One of the key reasons we went to Rhode Island in June was to attend the memorial for Matt's maternal grandmother, Molly Howe Lynn (aka Omie), who passed away earlier this year. It was a loving tribute with lots of her family and old friends. Everyone told stories about her adventurous life as a dancer and teacher. She was an inspirational, independent spirit who was biking across Minnesota in her 80's and teaching Pilates and movement to seniors until very recently. A dancer and traveler all of her life, she really never stopped moving until the end. She visited us in San Francisco in 2006, arriving with no luggage, just her little scarcely-filled backpack. We took some wonderful walks at Chrissy Field and visited the fantastic deYoung Museum. We hope that some of her fierce independence and grace lives on in her great granddaughter Kara.
We scattered her ashes in the lovely Rose Garden at Berry Hill, a place she loved and where she can rest peacefully and be remembered with love.
Ah, finally we're all back home after an epic summer journey consisting of about 10 days at Matt's family's house ("Berry Hill") in Newport, Rhode Island, then 4 days in Washington DC, then separate flights home for me and Kara, and to Helsinki, Finland for Matt. He finally came back home today.
Lots of fun times in all locations with the adaptable Miss Kara Michelle; she weathered a 104 degree fever for a couple of days, and temperatures from bone-chilling cold for the first week in Newport to extremely hot and muggy days East-Coast style.
It was especially important for Matt to have her spend some time in Berry Hill, which has been in his Mom's family since 1887, because the family is planning on selling the property pretty soon. He spent all his summers there as a kid, and has glowing summer memories of romping in the woods and at the beach with his dog Sherlock. Sherlock is buried under a big tree at Berry Hill; every time we visit we clean off the big flat rock with his name on it and say hi. More often than not Matt gets a little tear in his eye remembering his old pal.
And now the downside of travel with a toddler: the POOP.
As if that wasn't enough, the day after the two of us flew back to San Francisco, I plonked her down in the bathtub just before bedtime, and not 5 minutes later she smiled at me and gave that little grunt. I panicked, tried to drain the water before anything came out (no luck there), and then tried to pick her up and put her on the potty. Needless to say, there was a huge mess and a gagging Mama trying to shower off an unhappy baby. My main thought as I was scrubbing out the tub with various noxious disinfectants later was how much I missed Matt being there.
Anyway, the house and Kara are all back to normal now. I remain traumatized.
We've been having a heatwave here in San Francisco- on Thursday it must have been around 95 degrees. It gets miserably hot in our greenhouse of an apartment because we're on the top of the building, have huge south-facing windows, and a really sucky ventilation system. On the very few days of the year when it is honestly hot in the city, the only cure is to leave the apartment for most of the afternoon. So I took my laptop to the closest shady cafe with decent coffee and free wifi, the "Bean There," to get some work done.
The year is just flying by. Last Sunday we celebrated my second Mother's Day (the first is just a blur... I hardly remember) with a visit to Grandpa Kentyn up in Forestville. He actually gets a proper summer there- hot and sunny and beautiful. We brought up the cheap little kiddie pool from BabiesR'Us and Kara had a blast splashing around on the back porch...
Yesterday (Friday) afternoon, Kara and I I escaped the heat by going to the beach at Chrissy Field. Its just inside the Bay so it has waves that are smaller and more baby-friendly than Ocean Beach. As soon as I put Kara on the sand, she started crawling toward the water as fast as she could. I held her hands so she could stand up as the waves washed over her feet and legs, and despite the water being absolutely freezing, she was grinning and babbling (wa-wa! wa-wa!). I literally had to hold her back from walking all the way into the water. I've never seen a small baby so fearless about waves. A couple of times I picked her up and brought her back up to the dry sand, and she turned around and high-tailed it back for the water. I was laughing so hard I almost cried- I really wish I had had a free hand to take some pictures. She didn't want to give up, even when she was so cold that she turned all pink and goose-pimpled.
Hooray for a successful first beach experience- I can't wait for June when we're headed to Rhode Island to visit with Matt's family!
At Kara's 12 month check-up all went well. She's growing and developing beautifully and is generally in splendid health
Weight: 20 lbs 14 oz (9.5 kilos) = around 50th percentile
Height: 30.5 inches (77.47 cm) = around 75th percentile
Freakishly Large Head circumference: 47 centimeters = above 95th percentile
One of the most beautiful presents we got at Kara's birthday party was a CD of gorgeous professional photo portraits by Araya, taken back in July when Kara was just under 3 months old. Here are a couple good ones; a few more are posted up on my page on Flickr. Let me know if you want a print, and by all means if you need some professional portraits done, I wholeheartedly recommend Araya!
p.s. Remember that half the fun of keeping a blog is getting comments from your readers! So if you are reading this or any other post, go ahead and let us know you're out there!
I've always been a little conflicted about first birthday parties... I mean, the poor little tykes are bound to get overwhelmed by all the people and the schedule disruption, not to mention the sugar in the cake. But there's nothing like the reality of parenthood to make you do things you never thought you would do. ;-)
We decided we needed a party to 1) celebrate making it through the first year of parenthood without breaking the baby, and 2) give us a chance to invite friends over to our house who we haven't seen in a long long time.
It was actually really fun and and Kara took to it like a little party animal. She only had one brief breakdown when we brought out the cupcake (carrot cake with cream cheese frosting) and everyone was staring at her. (Apologies for the dark video)
It seriously took us a month to prepare... we spent a couple of weekends moving Kara into her own room, which was formerly the office. We moved the office into our bedroom- not necessarily ideal, but that's the reality of a two-bedroom apartment. She started sleeping MUCH better at night almost immediately. I think having the sight and smell of Mom in the same room at night made it really difficult for her to settle herself back to sleep. Kind of like having a nice hot plate of fresh bacon by your bedside- imposible to resist! We got really merciless about our piles and piles of miscellaneous STUFF saved for no apparent reason, and moved about 12 boxes to our storage unit. The apartment feels so much lighter and bigger now. Its wonderful.
For the party, both of Kara's doting grandmas visited. Kate spent a week with us then Kathy came out for a long weekend as well. They were amazing, taking the girl on lots of walks to the park and working incredibly hard to whip the house into shape and make yummy food for all the party-goers. there's no way we would have been able to do it without them! Thank the stars for Grandmas! Seriously... how does anyone raise kids without 'em? I just wish ours were closer so we could regularly abdicate parenting responsibilities to those who are older and wiser.
So Happy Birthday my little sweetie! I am so proud of you and so amazed at what an amazing, happy, loving, adventurous soul you are. It's been a wonderful year getting to know you and I can't wait for more. Kisses and hugs from your Mama.
Lots of people have been bugging me to update the blog, especially since the last post only had the monkey baby and no pics of the girl. But you know how the longer you leave your every-growing laundry basket unwashed, the more daunting it is to get started? Baby updates are very similar- the list of new things she is doing just gets bigger and bigger the longer I go without updates.
But since she is now officially one year old, I am putting my foot down and doing the laundry... I mean updating the blog (although the laundry situation DOES require my attention as well). First, a quick catch-up of activities over the last month or so. Later: the first birthday party.
Back in March we had back-to-back cousin visits- my cousin Maureen came to visit us inSan Francisco and Kara thought she was the coolest thing since sliced bread. The Kara and I flew down to Simi Valley for my cousin Sheila's baby shower. We stayed at Maggie, Brett & baby Emmett's house, and enjoyed hanging out in their yard. It makes me realize how nice it would be to have some outdoor space- not really possible right now in our little urban apartment.
Maureen's daughter is already 18 years old, but the three younger girl cousins (me, Maggie and Sheila) are all having babies about 7 months apart. We can't wait to get them all together for summer beach trips. When we were growing up, we spent a lot summers hanging out together, with the result that all of the cousins on my Mom's side are really close. There is just no substitute for shared childhood memories. It won't be easy to create that kind of closeness with all of our family members spread out all over the country, but we are certainly going to try.
Here's a little video clip of Kara giggling as she swings and Brett throws her magic lovey blanket at her...
In about the last month, Kara's communication skills have just exploded. She is learning new words and new signs all the time. It is really exciting to see how pleased she is when she successfuly communicates with us.
The words she can say now more or less intelligibly: Hat, Hot, Up, Mama, Daddy, Go, Wow, That, Flower, Bow wow (doggie), Baby, Cheese, Avo (avocado), the monkey sound, the bird sound...
The signs she makes or understands: More, All done, nurse, up, train, computer, book, Mama, Daddy, Thank you, Me, change...
And the most exciting development of all (from my perspective)- she is learning to dance! When we sing a song she knows or play music, she bops up and down- generally even getting the rhythm right! She also gets a huge grin on her face and sometimes even tries to sing along a little bit. Maybe Grandpa Kentyn's musical talent has skipped a generation?
OK, that's it for now. I'll close with the cutest picture ever, in her new cowboy hat and flowery knickers. Notice that her smile is JUST like her Daddy's. Also notice the unusually large number of teeth- at 12 months she has 12 teeth, including the four first molars.
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katherynmiller said:
my little pal, i can feel her little body and want to plant kisses on her sweet little head! read more
on Kara likes Grandma's sunglasses -
CHEERS to late summer! My favorite time of year as well....glad to hear things are happy and fun for team... read more
on Late summer is our favorite