The cost of stuff and Kira update

Juneau lost her power lines to the Dam last week, causing a five-fold increase in the cost of electricity to the town. In response:
"Now members of the Graves family eat dinner by candlelight, do dishes by hand, plan to dry their clothes on a rack by the wood stove, and limit their time on the computer."
Can you imagine what it's like? It's got me thinking about the amount of electricity we use on a daily basis, and what we'd do if we had something like this happen.

The price of food has really risen due to rising fuel costs -- ten percent during the first three months of this year. Luckily, if it stops snowing and raining, the farmers and families like us can start growing our own vegetables to keep costs down.

In Kira news...our little chicken slept for 8 HOURS last night! In total I got the most contiguous hours of sleep I have had in two months! Anyways, very exciting for the Moore household today, and almost makes up for the fact that it's snow/sleet outside today.

22 inches! 64wpm!

So, as I said, perhaps the sunhat is a bit premature. We got 22.5 inches at last count last night! Poor Galileo was really stumped this morning, considering the snow is as tall as he is.

In other news, do not try typeracer. It's addictive, although on the other hand it's fantastic to keep up your typing speed.

Perhaps getting the sun hat out was a little premature...

Yesterday, it was 60 degrees. I went on a walk without a jacket, and started working on getting the jog stroller in shape.

Today we have big wind gusts, icky cold rain, and...snow! They are predicting 2-3 inches. So Miss K and I are retreating to the water park., where we can pretend it's spring for a little while.

By Popular Demand...

More pictures on the right-hand side!

In Kira news, she went to the pediatrician, which was great, because we found out she was growing just as expected. She also had her first round of shots to keep her safe from all sorts of diseases. She then proceeded to sleep (it feels) for three days. Then, all of the sudden on Monday, she woke up and frankly has not had a real nap since.

It's beautiful outside here in AK, and I think it's time we run some errands. But I wanted to make sure I first got some pictures up since people were looking for them...

Kira update

Kira perfecting her Elvis impersonation

Kira's had a very exciting day! On Wednesday, she went back to the water park and sat in the water without crying once! In fact, she smiled at everyone and everything (especially the four year old that came up, touched her feet, and said "Where are the baby's socks?").

She also spent her first few hours at the neighbors (Thanks T!) while Frank and I went out to the opera. Miss K did us proud by being very very good and not throwing one fit.

Then, to top it off, she slept -- get this -- for six hours straight. That's after two nights of getting up every 3 hours, being irritable, and not sleeping hardly at all during the day.

Today, she is sleeping a lot, but in her awake moments, she did play with the bouncy chair (pictures in the gallery at the right) and also played with her keys, but this time, she suprised herself by putting them in her mouth. It sounds like a little thing to you or I, but it was pretty startling for Kira and I, since she's not supposed to be doing that for a while (I thought).

Now, we are off to the pediatrician for our six week visit!

And for my next trick...

Look, I can hold stuff! So that's what these hands are for....

In other Kira news, we went swimming on Wednesday! Ok, well I went wading into the kiddie pool holding Kira. When I tried to get her into the water, she was pretty upset, but she loved be held near the water -- so much so that she fell asleep.

It was probably all for the better -- the swim diaper didn't fit her very well anyways. But next week, we are going to try again..this time with a swimsuit!

More Video!

Here

Six Weeks!

Dear Kira --


You are six weeks old! Can you believe it? It went by so very quickly -- first, you were just a little peanut of a being, and now, you are more of a butternut squash-sized being who is starting to display a personality.

So far, you are not a morning person. Around 7:30am, you wake us up with a wail that seems impossible to come out of your little body. Your little eyes are scrunched up so tightly on your very angry face while your tiny fists are crunched up, and you remain that way until you are fed. Diaper changes, baths, and waking you up when you do not want to be woken up ellicit a similar response.

You like to be held as much as possible, and love to sit while mom and dad type on the computer. This is probably because it reminds you of the womb. Right now, you are leaning on my left hand while in your sling and making cooing sounds and grabbing for my hair. Closets, especially messy closets, are also fascinating to you probably due to the bright colors.

In particular, your favorite object (other than us) is the Matisse poster in our living room. You can stare at that for ten minutes at a time. Your second favorite thing is the skylight in the living room -- I suspect this will continue to be a source of interest especially since the sun is starting to interfere with bedtime.

You continue to sleep (mostly) through the night, with one feeding around 4am, although occasionally you decide to be wide awake at the 4am feeding. The problem is, you don't like sleeping in your crib and also sometimes want to stay up until 1am. Although I would prefer an earlier bedtime (like 9, please!), your dad and I are still very grateful for the sleep we do get, and realize it could be much much worse.

In the last week or so, you have learned how to smile and coo! It still is pretty infrequent, but when you do smile it is fantastic! You look so much like your daddy, especially in the eyes (and, as I usually joke, especially when you're angry :)).

The other big news this week is that you are consistently hitting things with your hands! You aren't grabbing yet, but the fact that you can hit things seems to please you very much.

Today, we finally let the nursery at church take care of you for an hour, since they have been begging for it. In the nursery, you proceeded to pee, spit up, and poop (a cornucopia of baby goo!) all over your clothes, requiring a complete change. Of course they didn't care because you were so gosh darn cute doing it :).

All in all, you are a good girl!

Love,
Mom

Bullwinkle's demise

It's a sad day in Anchorage as our beloved moose is no more.

For Your In-car-sideration...

Today I came upon a slew of inconsiderate drivers in Anchorage. I'm usually pretty calm about these things, but certainly today I just hit the jackpot.

It all started when I walked to my car after lunch to realize that some ginormous SUV had parked so cocky-swabbled and close to my driver side that I could not get the baby carrier into the car. So, I had to get the dog out of the car, crawl through the passenger side with a big old car seat, get the dog back in the car, wedge myself into the car, and drive off. As I'm wedging myself into the car, the SUV lady walks right past me, scales the Mt. Everest of her car, and drives off without any acknowledgement of the situation she put me through.

Then, as someone else was turning into the parking lot, I turned on the main road. As soon as I did that, a lovely suited gentleman in another huge SUV is on my bumper, honking, flicking me off and of course talking on his cell phone. He had flipped into my lane without turning on his signal while I was turning. Now granted, I am not getting a lot of sleep these days and fully acknowledge that I may be a slower-than-normal, but I don't think I was so slow to warrant such an awful response.

On a good note, at the next parking lot I went to, a raven was sitting on top of the car next to mine, picking at something on the top of the car. Now that was cute.

However, while I was trucking my baby carrier from the very back of the parking lot, I got to see a solo burly guy get into a huge SUV that was parked in the "Expectant mothers and families with small children" space. Argh.

Usually I find driving in Anchorage to very non-stressful and full of relaxed but generally friendly drivers. Frank found a poll that said 43% of Anchorage drivers at any time are on drugs -- maybe the lunch crowd today is taking a different cocktail than the normal afternoon crowd? If so, we should change their meds.

Rocking the Vote at one month old...

 

Kira got her first sticker yesterday from the voting center!

In other news...this is funny!