Suprises abound in the Moore household..

It's been a wonderful few days in the Moore household. Frank is winding down from his semester, I'm waist deep in work, and Kira, bless her heart, is in the throes of a flu bug.
That's right, a flu bug. So yesterday, I wake her up in the morning. I smelled a hint of ick that made me think she had spit up. Then I felt wet..all over my sweatshirt. That's right, Kira threw up in the night and then rolled around in it. She was totally fine with this, but I was not. After a bath and a complete wardrobe change for us both, she looked and seemed to feel fine. However, last night she threw up right before bedtime. So we are back on vomit watch and pedialyte.
None of this has stopped K from her usual. We got our first "incident report" from daycare yesterday, notifying us that Kira pulled herself up on a piece of furniture and launched herself into a sharp corner. When she came home, she proceeded to recreate the situation multiple times for us. I'm hoping that a good part of her 90% head is cushion, because I don't see the climbing/falling/crying stopping for a while.

Binky herding and other nine month antics

 

Sorry for not a lot of posting. Two of the clan have been sick, namely, me and MissK. A week ago, I got a call from daycare to pick up Kira, who had been running a fever and was generally not herself. A doctor's visit quickly identified baby's first ear infection, and we got some lovely tasting antibiotics for her. I'm so glad we took her to the doctor, because she immediately started to get better.

K is changing every day. Yesterday was the first day, ever, that I walked into her room to find her sitting up -- meaning, she sat herself up by herself from a laying down position. It's like suddenly that light just turned on in her head, and now she's doing it all the time.

She's also very much into exploring the world around her. Today, she found the DVD player and was so happy with herself, touching all the buttons, until Mom pulled her away, at which point she showed one of her new tricks -- a blood-curdling protest wail. Yikes.

I spend a lot of time during the weekend watching her, and trying to figure out what she's working on. For the last few days, she has gathered a bunch of binkys around her. She then carefully picks one up, inspects it carefully by turning it around in her hands, then puts it in her mouth. Then, she puts it back down on the ground, carefully, and moves onto the next. Last night, she expanded on her binky-herding repetoire by pulling over her other toys and hitting them with her binkys to make sound. She did this over and over, carefully putting down one binky, picking up the next, and repeating the hitting routine.

The big outing for the weekend was going to powerline pass to ski yesterday with friends. This was the first time we used the burley and ski kit, and, after a bit of wrangling with the parts, we were on our way. Frank pulled Kira most of the time, and Kira went to sleep after about two minutes of skiing. I think we were out for about an hour and a half. I'm so happy that we're able to involve Kira in our ski outings, and that we've gotten good at keeping her warm and toasty.

Anyways, K's waking up, but I thought I'd write something on the blog while I had some time :)

Yikes!

Kira wants to remind you to go out and VOTE!

What an eventful weekend! I spent Friday and Saturday sick as a dog, and then on Sunday we went to the fun that was early voting! It was like a queue with no ride at the end...except it was through a tiny little building. Like we almost always find up here, people are very cordial and friendly, especially when it comes to baby. Kira became really irritated around the hour mark (and who wasn't), but she hung in there with help from all the friendly early voting people. All in all, it took an hour and a half to vote on Sunday!

Kira is doing great. She is now purposefully crawling to objects that she wants (video is being uploaded as we speak). Weekends are wonderful but also exhausting, as Kira is still learning to play by herself at home. She is a flurry of babbling, clapping, smiles, curiosity, and gestures from morning to nighttime. Luckily, this does tire her out, and you can count on her sleeping peacefully by 8pm (knock on wood).

In holiday news, I am debating what fru-fru outfit Miss K requires for her holiday cheer. I am goofy over the on sale sweater dresses and crazy matching tights (like here). They would make such a fantastic picture for our christmas cards! When I am in a really goofy mood, I think of getting us all matching outfits -- now that would make a REAL super-fantastic card, don't you think?

Touch me!

So I am writing this from my new itouch! Besides the interface for typing being a little hard to use it is pretty darn neat! Iwould write more but my eyes are starting to cross from this tiny tiny screen!

Weekend Update

We are enjoying our weekend after a very hectic week. Kira is at my feet playing with an old purse and some juggling balls, chirping as she explores the mystery of "bags can hold other things" and of course the miracle of velcro. She started this week by waving to me, and she's decided now that everyone, even the mona lisa in the office, requires a big wave. She started clapping on Wednesday, so now everything done requires a good clapping as well. It's kind of like having a very tiny but friendly chearleader in your house.

Beyond developmental milestones, it was my birthday (and Anne's birthday) this Friday. While Anne was listening to OC music and sipping Zinfandel, I was eating bad tofu, admiring a beautiful arrangement of roses, talking to family, and enjoying a fantastic champagne. Honestly, it was a great day.

We went to trick or treat town this weekend, which is an event staged in a parking garage for children to get candy in a safe environment. Kira and her friend Elyse seemed to enjoy the festivities as well as they possibly could for infants from their vantage point baby wraps. We felt weird getting Kira candy, considering she can't eat any of it yet. So we looked a bit like creeps getting candy for ourselves, using our child as a crutch. Ah Well. There were 50 stalls of candy-giving volunteers from various businesses in town, and at the end there were Taiko drummers, hot dogs, and popcorn.

Today is a beautiful, sunny day, which in the winter means it is insanely frigid. It's about 13 degrees out there. Yikes!

The sick house

Here is a picture from last weekend, when all of us were not sick.

Frank's been sick with chills and a chest cold since Thursday, and spent a good amount of time on Saturday in bed. I've had a bad sinus cold since Friday, and of course you know what happens next -- yes, that's right -- Kira woke up today with her first bona fide cold. I would say she woke up crying, but she had lost her voice in the night, so the cry came out more like a tiny bullfrog ("yaak, yaak"). She has been having as good a time as she can, and even managed to sneeze out a massive pile of snot onto daddy's shirt with a huge smile.

Last night, I made tomato soup and grilled cheese for Frank. Miss K has discovered a deep love of tomato soup to go with her pickle spear fixation. She has decided not to eat any vegetables -- although I have to tell you, Gerber peas taste icky anyways. She will eat fruit if there is cinnamon in it. I tried whole milk baby yogurt with her this morning, and she gave me this look like "Seriously? Are you trying to kill me?".

Anyways, that's what is happening in the fun Moore household this weekend.

2

Kira woke me up this morning with a thwack to the head and a "ta-da!". Ta-Da for sure -- Miss K now has 2 teeth!

Ah-Ha for your Tuesday

(Pipe Wrench Fight!)

Update

Kira would like to warn everyone there is a chance of SNOW this evening. Make sure you have a proper snow hat!

In other news, there is not too much new news. Let's see...

--We had been waiting for a good day to go to powerline pass, and finally got our chance last Friday. The pictures are in the 6month album above -- Kira had a great time in the Baby Bjorn.

--I have been doing the Tuesday night trail runs, which are fun. It's the only time I get to go trail running, since I don't especially want to get eaten by bears and the burley stroller doesn't do well on rough terrain. The runs are rugged -- tundra in the fall, I was suprised to find out, is kind of like running on a sponge sitting on top of a trampoline.

--Frank installed one of our new fancy baby gates! We don't need it yet, but we want to get these in before K gets mobile.

--Speaking of mobility, Kira is getting really close! She can now easily go backwards, and is on all fours now. She also has lots of new sounds -- Ga, Ba, Da, Buh, Duh, Ta, Fa. She poked her eye with a metal spoon at Sunrise Grille which set up a really bad Sunday, but thanks to her ever-expanding brain, looks like long-term memory has kicked in enough that she hasn't tried it again...yet.

Anyways, that's all I have today...hope you have a great day!

Sleeping in Circles

Tuesday Night

Baby goes to sleep
Puppy goes outside at 9:30pm
I go to sleep
Frank goes to sleep
Puppy goes to sleep
Baby wakes up
I wake up
Frank wakes up
Puppy wakes up
Can puppy go outside at 2am?
Frank goes to sleep
Baby goes to sleep
I go to sleep
Frank wakes up
Puppy wakes up
Can puppy go outside at 3am?
Baby wakes up
I wake up
Can puppy go outside at 3:15am?
Baby goes to sleep
Baby wakes up
I wake up
Baby goes to sleep
I go to sleep
Baby wakes up
I wake up
Puppy CANNOT go outside at 4am! Do not ask again!
Frank goes back to sleep
Puppy looks at me with sad dejected eyes
Baby looks at me with wide awake eyes and smiles
I give up and lay down with baby
Baby goes to sleep after thwacking me on my head with her talon-like fingernails a few hundred times
Puppy curls up on the floor
I go to sleep
I wake up to the alarm at 5am
Can puppy go outside at 5am?
Baby gets transferred back to her crib
Can puppy go outside at 5:02am?
Baby starts to rustle
Puppy GOES OUTSIDE at 5:03am
I wake Frank to warn him baby wakeup is imminent before I go to work

Videos are up!

From Kira Month 6

Babies on a Plane!

So, I guess there are a lot of cool things to talk about...first of all, Kira has a new baby cousin Mackenzie! We are all very excited.

Kira went to Denali and got to ride on her first flightseeing plane...she had a great time and fell asleep. Denali is cool, and big, and a great place for a labor day drive!

That's about it for now but thought I'd try to write something down here while I had a few minutes...

This is Kira Marie, and I approve this message....

Now, to be fair everyone, we did look high and low for a McCain cutout at the state fair, but there was no McCain booth in sight. I can only assume that this is because McCain believes he can win AK with very little investment.

More state fair pictures on the right...

On the 5 month book

So everyone wants to know, where is Kira's five month book? Well, it should be coming...soon. I *just* found the rest of my pictures from the midwest trip -- I was smarter than I thought and moved them to an extra special place on my hard drive. Look for a book out this week or weekend :)

P.S. MissK's sixth month appointment is tomorrow. It's your first and last chance to guess correctly how big she is. Extra brownie points go for correct percentiles for height, weight and head size.

Meme Monday

Anne made me do it....

Apparently someone came up with a list of the one hundred things that you should aspire to eat as an omnivore. There's a lot on this list that I should have eaten but have avoided up to this point. Roadkill of course is one of them (at least as far as I know).

Here’s what I want you to do:
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette mmm...kare kare
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe (recently legalized in the US!)
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill (hell no!)
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

54/100 -- not too bad :)

Hippy dippy baby-food making yuppie momma stuff

So baby's first "real" food is...avocado. Why -- you may ask -- would you feed your daughter a first food that you yourself don't really like? Good question. The responsible answer is that it's chock full of essential ingredients that will help her build a useful brain and sharp eyes. The culinary answer would be that I would like my daughter to have a broader and more refined palate than her parents. The other answer is it's probably the easiest thing to ever make.

The hardest thing is to determine when the avocado is ripe. I think it's when you squeeze it will all five fingers and it's mushy. You crack open the avocado in half and pop out the seed. Then, you get your trusty melon baller out (yes, another use for my mad melon balling skillz), and start scooping. Once it's all out, one must mush the mushy avocado into green goo. The first time, as you can see, I used a mortar and pestle. Simple yet suprisingly ineffective. I now use my good friend the immersion blender which is a godsend (seriously, go get an immersion blender). To save, you just put these guys into ice cube trays (use your mini offset spatula to spread the goo evenly -- you do have a mini offset spatula, right?) and voila - you have made ice cubes of avocado for many months of enjoyment.

All in all, it's a 20 minute job -- 25 minutes if you do two avocados.

Now, what else can I make that's easy -- uh, nutritous -- for baby's next food? I'm thinking peaches because they are in season -- and if there's anything a hippy dippy baby food making yuppie momma knows, it's that you should serve your baby something in season (or grown locally -- but she's not allowed to eat rhubarb yet).

In other news, the university officially granted Frank tenure yesterday. Unlike what I thought, there is no tenure fairy or a secret ritual with cloaked professors chanting in latin. He was recognized in an assembly and shook hands with the powers that be. It's fantastic, and a great accomplishment to be a tenured faculty member, so please give him a hand in your comments.

Speaking of fairies, I was reminded of brownies today. Brownies are not only chocolate treats but girl scouts of course, but they are named after a little fairy who picks up the house. Brownies (the girl scout variety) are supposed to pick up the house secretly for their parents a few times before they are inaugurated into the girl scout collective. It will be nice when MissK is a Brownie and stops hiding Daddy's keys in the morning.

Happy Friday!

Guess who is the boss now?

I guess it's Kira, because the bib won't fit over my big head :)

On Growing up...

So, day care wound up being great. Miss K took about four days to really warm up to the team, but now she's just fine. She has learned a lot of new sounds and "tricks" from daycare -- like whining when she wants something, sticking her thumb in her mouth, etc -- but on the other hand, these are all things she would have learned anyways. I've been really impressed with the day care folks, they seem to really be attentive and seem genuinely concerned about MissK's welfare.

Two fantastic milestones have flown past in the last week -- Kira sits up on her own (as you can see), and she also rolls over on her stomach easily. Because of this, we have stopped swaddling her at night, which brings all sorts of problems. You see, MissK is flipping onto her stomach in the nighttime and does not find it a happy place yet. So, this morning, at 4:55am, Kira woke mommy up for assistance. Yikes, or should I say paraphrasing Avenue Q -- sucks to be mommy.

On the other hand, Daddy got Mommy a cappucino this morning, and mommy got to watch a half hour of Meet the Press. So now the day is good.

However, Miss K has flipped herself over again..MommyTime!

Day Care Day 1 revelation -- Miss K is not sentimental

So, Frank and I dropped off Miss K to day care today. She instantly sat down in a bumbo seat and proceeded to play with new toys while I fumbled around with paperwork. When I got up to say goodbye, all she did was grunt. We'll see how she actually does during the day though -- she can be pretty stubborn.

Suddenly, I'm all by myself. Does it feel good? I'm not sure. It's quiet. I can get a lot more work done with actual focus. On the other hand, it's eerily quiet...the type of quiet I haven't really been in for five months. I'm sure I will get used to it, but it's unnerving to say the least. And of course I worry about her -- what she's doing, whether she's throwing a fit, is she crying, does she miss her mom and dad -- but that's not constructive worrying.

Either way, I will let you know how things go. By the way, new pictures in the five month album -- I know, we should turn another month, but I haven't done a five month snapbook yet :) Maybe with all this extra quiet I can get it done...

We/re BACK!

Sorry for the lack of Blogging. We are back from our various vacations, which Miss K thoroughly enjoyed, as you can see. Pictures of New Mexico are below...

Touchdown!

Both of Kira's feet finally touch the ground!

Miss K does go outside.

Baby is wearing her Alaska Grown t-shirt (it's a 12 m - gah!) to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Alaska Statehood, being celebrated this weekend. Festivities include Wynonna Judd, Arctic Thunder (air show), the Glacier Pilots vs. Taiwan, and the Scottish Highland games, including the Kilted Mile. Oh, and they will reenact the "starring" of the US flag downtown in the midst of jugglers and all other sorts of street entertainment.

So sing with us and enjoy your weekend!

PS. What is funny about the Alaska Grown t-shirt is that it recreates the sticker that identifies alaskan produce at the supermarket.

This Baby...

...greets me post-"OMG I have to go in 20 minutes and I'm in my robe" hair appointment by spitting up all over my perfectly coiffed hair and the cardigan I so carefully chose to replace said robe. Thanks kid!

Kira addresses her fans

nmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmdfrjjesjwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwa'SZDddddddddd mm qaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaEQEV

I believe that is dolphin, since that is the language she appears to be speaking lately.

Kira update

This week, Kira has been working really hard on vocalizing and grabbing things with two hands. Yes, this means the days of being able to eat at a restaurant peacefully without having to juggle an infant are OVER. When this week started, Kira was talking like an old modem (Gee...Ahh..chrshhhhh) and today she has started calling like a hoot owl (hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!). In These new babbles really throw mommy and daddy for a loop, since we don't know what these new sounds mean.

Her best friend continues to be the lights in our living room above the changing table. When I layed down next to her, I noticed that they do look a lot like a smiley face, so maybe that is what she is reacting to.

She is more cranky, more fussy, and more insistent every day. On the other hand, she is more interactive and socially excited every day, so I guess with the parent thing you must take the good with the bad.

In non-Kira news, it is summer in Alaska. When it is sunny, the light is just so incredible that it's very hard not to think this is the most beautiful place on earth. When it is cloudy, like today, the air feels really chilly and you start wishing for Hawaii. However, today we did get a good rain, and you should see the garden! It's going to be incredible this year. I'll try to get pictures one of these days :)

More pictures

Happy Tuesday! More pictures to the right...

The Miss K update

Sorry for the long gap between posts -- now that I'm back to work, it's hard to find time to write (much less read, etc.). Any time I'm not taking care of Kira, I feel like I'm only getting ready for the next time I need to take care of Kira (washing bottles, flipping laundry, taking a shower, etc). It's like being a step ahead and a step behind all the time.

But here I am, writing while Frank entertains K on the exersaucer. Kira is growing up so fast! Today, we went out to Sunrise Grill, and she was just not having any of the car seat. So I put her on my lap and she stared at the tabasco for a few minutes. Soon, she was hitting the edge of my plate, which I had wisely kept out of (what I thought) was her reach. All of the sudden, she had my parsley, and was waving it around! It was very cool.

The picture here is our test run of the Moby wrap in anticipation for the midwest tour. You can see she likes it very much, and that she likes to hold on to her toothbrush, eventhough she has no teeth.

Well that's all the time I have -- Miss K is hungry again!

More Pictures!

In an effort to find increasingly annoying toys for Miss K, we found the "Jumperoo"!

More pictures to the right!

"If this is the worst thing that happens to her.."

UPDATE: VIDEOS are now in the three month album to the right.

Kira is growing up so fast! Sometimes I look at her and realize that she's not a newborn anymore.

Last night, she found a cardboard box and could not stop feeling the edges with her hands, leaning forward on it like she wanted it to support her weight. It occupied her for about a half hour. This morning, she was fascinated with a rattle, and finally was successful in grabbing for it. When she got it in her mouth, though, she was so angry to find out it was hard.

In trauma news, while trying to tame her "talons" with the baby nail clippers, I took a little bit of Kira's finger out. She was very very upset, but probably not as upset as I was -- all I could think was "look at me, I'm a terrible mother, cutting off my daughter's fingers". As I was apologizing tearfully to my screaming baby, all these awful scenarios kept going through my head about blood clot disorders, blood poisoning, emergency rooms and stitches. Perhaps that was a little bit of an overreaction considering the wound stopped bleeding within 10 minutes, and Kira gave me a huge smile. By the morning, everything looked great and by today (48 hours post-trauma) you can hardly notice a thing.

In non-trauma news, we have a garden again this year! Lots of beans, herbs, strawberries and raspberries will be on our menus this summer. We are definitely in summer now, with our long nights. This morning, we even had one clap of thunder, which is really unusual for Alaska.

We've already got a good crop of rhubarb, and I'm busy making weekly deserts to keep up with it. This week, we're going to have rhubarb-berry crumble pie.

I also know that the link below doesn't work to youtube, and am working on it :)

Have a fantastic Memorial Day weekend!

Baby talks back

(more pictures too on the right...)

Back to the Grindstone

I know I haven't written this week, but we all are still getting used to my new work schedule and all the juggling that's required.

Frank is doing a fantastic job with Kira and is really enjoying his time with her, despite some "setbacks":


In addition to our hectic schedule this week, we got the news yesterday that my grandmother died. To say she will be missed is an understatement. I'm not very good with words or feelings, but eventhough we live far away, I can feel her missing in the world, and that makes me sad. I'd sit here and write some "but on the other hand, it happens to all of us" stuff, but I don't feel like writing about that just yet.

Photoshop fun!

Dwight the Bobblehead, I'm awfully fond of you...

Meet Miss K's new business associate, Dwight Schrute the bobblehead. She discovered him in the bathroom mirror yesterday, and was fascinated by what I can only guess is not only his bobbly-headedness, but his good looks and charms. I know this because she totally ignored Michael Scott the bobblehead, standing right next to Dwight. Maybe it's the glasses?

In other news, the bumbo seat has become a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing, as Kira can have fun watching us do things, like eat, for more than 10 minutes at a time. However, this peacefulness comes at a big stinky price. You see, something about the bumbo seat's configuration makes Kira poop. A LOT. So much so that it's magic made us dub it the "Sit and...well..."Poop"". After this set of pictures, we had a blowout so massive that baby got a complete wardrobe change, and mommy almost needed one too.

Anyways, more pictures for you all at the rgiht. I've got the video camera ready for the next time Kira gets talkative.