Oh, Kira is making her first trip to the children’s room at the local science museum on Saturday.   I can’t wait!!

Ready to go on a walk!	Daddy is confused about where my pants go
Learning to color	Reading
Daddy did my hair today

Where did my pretty baby go???

Here is Kira having a blast walking around, jabbering, and holding her two new dollies – courtesy of Walmart for $1 each.

Who says treasure has to be expensive?

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Kira had already eaten her breakfast before we went, so she just snacked on bits of everyone else’s food.  The owners asked if they could give her a cookie and brought her a huge fresh chocolate chip cookie.  Needless to say, she had one bite and the rest of us finished off that yummy cookie.  However, Kira managed to make a serious mess with just one small bit of that cookie.

Note to self:  Toddlers and chocolate = mess

I set her up with no clothes and non-staining food and let her go at it.  She did surprisingly well.  She did eat a lot with her fingers, but she gave the spoon the old college try.  I was really pleasantly surprised at how little mess she made, although she did require a dip in the tub afterwards.  We’ll try lesson #2 next weekend.

We got somewhere around 18″ of snow on Tuesday/Wednesday.  Since Kira hasn’t been out in the snow yet and we went through the trouble to buy her boots, we decided to bundle her up and get a few shots.  She was fine with it as long as we stayed close by.  She was probably out for all of 5 minutes though; it was really cold and windy.

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Well, now it’s here.  Now she’s 13 1/2 months and she definitely is holding her head steady and grins and giggles all the time.  She thinks she’s pretty funny actually.  She interacts with us, talks to us, roars at us, chatters about 97% of the time.  She walks all over the place, says about a dozen “words”, understands basic things like “sit down”, “go get”, and “where is”.  She can point to her tummy and feet. 

She’s recently taken to closing doors, which is a bit of a danger not only of pinched fingers, but that she’ll go into a room somewhere and close the door and we won’t know it.  Aside from the worries of these two things, it’s also just annoying.  Every time we walk into a room, she follows behind and shuts the door.  I suppose next is opening doors, which means we need to get a lock on the door leading to the basement ASAP!

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Today’s subject:  Bathtime

Bathtime is a mother’s answer to the last-hour-before-bedtime-crankiness dilemma.  By 6:45 pm, Kira has had supper, is tired of every toy she owns, and is either starting to get clingy/whiny or is starting to just get into things.  I, of course, am exhausted and hungry and counting the minutes until 7:30 so she can have the bottle and go to bed.  Sigh – I hate being a working mom.  So what is a tired mommy to do when she has a baby who wants attention that she’s too tired to give?  That’s right – bathtime!

We walk hand in hand into the bathroom and I start the water running.  She immediately leans over the edge of the tub to hold her hand under the faucet while I get her undressed.  She helps me undress her, stepping out of her pants and everything.  As soon as the diaper’s off, she turns to me and holds out her arms to be put in the tub.  Once there are a few inches of water, I settle onto a cushion on the floor and she splashes happily with her toys.  We babble and giggle at each other, bonding away, for 20-30 minutes until the inevitable battle that is basically “Kira stands up”, “Mommy says sit down”, “Kira sits down”, repeat.  Then it’s time to wash up and get the jammies on.

Lesson of the day:  Bathtime = moment of bonding with baby and relaxation for mom.

Picture?  Well, I was so gung ho to write a breezy blog that I have none handy.  So next time….

By the way… the move into the new house went very well.  It was tiring, but we’re happily [almost] settled and we love the house.  I did just realize that I don’t really have any pictures since things were moved in and set up, so that’s my next project and post.

Kira celebrated her first birthday on December 19^th and we had a grand little party for her.  I had gone back and forth on the theme and cake style for months and had counted on being settled in the new house with weeks to spare so that I could practice my ideas and techniques.  Well…we ended up getting into the house a mere 5 days before the party and there went all my time to practice.  She ended up with a basic little cake decorated with fondant and adorned with a kiwi bird (to celebrate her ½ New Zealand-ness).

 We had a lot of guests (about 16 adults, 7 children, and 3 babies) and it was a really nice party.  I was able to scrounge enough time to serve the menu that I wanted, although it was exhausting.  Here’s the spread:  apricot-bbq kielbasa, bacon-wrapped smoky links, creamy bacon-filled crescents, fruit-mascarpone bruschetta, olive/prosciutto/provolone on rosemary skewers, ham & cheese balls (for crackers), fruit and cheese skewers, fluffy fruit dip, cake & ice cream, and an assortment of little delectables like toffee and fudge.  Yum!

 Kira wasn’t too sure about the whole opening presents part.  She was very interested in all the new stuff she was being handed by the kids who opened the presents for her, but she had no interest in trying to unwrap.  Too much trouble maybe…she’ll grow out of that!  Haha

And then….Kira had started getting a runny nose a few days before her birthday, but had no other symptoms, so I didn’t think there was anything to be alarmed about.  Her party started at 4:30.  At exactly 4:00 she started running a fever of about 99 degrees.  I still figured it was just a cold.  She was happy and pleasant the whole party, crawling around and playing in such a good mood.  But her cheeks were getting rosier and nose runnier.  By 7:00 her fever was 100.6 and she had developed a barking cough.  Just like that!  Guests started leaving around 7:30 and by 8:00 Joseph and I decided (at my parents’ urging) to take her to the emergency room to get that cough looked at.  My mom and dad (bless them!) stayed behind and cleaned up the whole party for us so we could go right then.  By the time we were triaged at 8:30 her fever was 101.6 and less than an hour later spiked to 103.6.  She was pretty pitiful but SO good.  She just laid on our shoulders and dozed in between interferences from doctors and nurses.  She got a chest x-ray (to rule out pneumonia) and a nasal swab (to rule out RSV).  They diagnosed her with bronchitis and croup.  They started her on albuterol breathing treatments, steroids, an antibiotic, and Motrin.  We had to stay for nearly 4 hours because they wanted to get her fever and heart rate down.  We got her home and in bed by midnight with a brand-new vaporizer.  When I checked her in the middle of the night, she was cool and feverless and sleeping soundly.  Whew!  Her cough and runny nose are still a bit lingering but now, just over a week later, she seems to be recovered.  Poor little birthday girl!

In other Kira updates, she is taking steps now 2-3 at a time and is saying a couple words:  “pretty” and “fishy”.  She got a goldfish for her birthday and every time we go in her room it’s “fishy” “fishy”. 

I will blog in a few days about Christmas, once I gather up all those photos. 

PS:  Grandma made that pretty party dress.  Thank you Grandma!

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I was intending to get one of the “mini-trees” that you see at all the craft stores, but when I went to Walmart, I found this little 8″ tree, pre-lit!  Well, you can’t pass up the opportunity to never have to string lights.  I set it all up in her room and when I took her in there for bed the first night and she just grinned and grinned at “pretty”.  Now when you put her to bed, even for naps, she looks over at the tree, waiting for it to be lit up.  Normally she sleeps in pitch black, so I’m astonished that she sleeps just fine with the rather bright light from this little tree.