Welcome To Our New Site... Again

We took a hiatus from the website maintenance and blog for the past several months. First of all, I was sick as a dog with morning (all-day) sickness for 4+ months of this pregnancy. Secondly, we have had a very busy fall with overseas house guests for 2 weeks, work travel, house improvements (planned and unplanned), and chasing a very active, very mobile toddler. We realized that the website Jason created, while very cool, took too much time to maintain. We’re going the simpler Picasa route with a blog for a much less time-consuming way to keep family and friends up-to-date on the latest news and pictures. The good news is we should be more prompt about publishing updates. Theoretically… We’ll see when our family grows by one member in a few months.

The main focus of our lives is Kira, of course, followed closely by trying to get a bunch of projects complete, including the baby’s nursery, before the baby comes. Since I haven’t blogged in a while, I’m going to ramble on below quite about about Kira, so if that’s not your particular brand of chai, just skip it.

Kira is a riot. I have never been around a funnier, cuter, smarter, cooler kid. She cracks us up daily. She has a really wicked sense of humor already, which is trouble. She is very, very good at not giving us what we want. Her current favorite things to do are read stories, sing songs, spin around in circles, and play with Elmo and her baby doll.

She was a ladybug for Halloween. Cutest. Thing. Ever. All the neighbors agreed. You can see for yourself, but believe me when I say the pictures don’t do her or the costume justice.

Her favorite books are pretty much anything by Eric Carle (Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See and From Head To Toe lead the list), Plaza Sésamo Listo Para Escuela (Spanish Sesame Street book), and Gimme Cracked Corn and I Will Share. From Head To Toe is a book about animals and the movements they make (like gorillas pounding their chests), and Kira does all the motions for each animal before I even read the text on the page. We were at the zoo last week and she did several of the motions when we saw the animals, including shaking her head back and forth at the penguins and waving her arms around at the monkeys. She’s on top of things…

She can’t get enough of my singing, which means we probably need to take her to a hearing specialist. I know a lot of kids’ songs from my camp counselor days but I am getting really sick of the same ones over and over. We sing a lot in Spanish too. She does the hand motions for itsy bitsy spider in English and Spanish, which is pretty much the cutest thing I have ever seen.

She’s still not really talking much at all but she’s gotten very expressive with pointing and shaking her head yes and no (with actual meaning). Also, she’s not shy about going after what she wants directly if her mom and dad are too thick to figure out what she’s asking for. The best is the face she makes when she’s filling her diaper with the nasty stuff. She holds her breath and her face turns all red and she grunts. If you ask her if she’s pooping, she nods her head very solemnly. Also, lately she constantly blows out her mouth kind of like she’s trying to blow bangs off her forehead (straight-upish). It’s bizarre but very funny. She started it after she saw me blowing on hot food before giving it too her. Now she blows on everything she eats (cereal, yogurt, strawberries, etc.). And she blows out a lot of the time she’s not eating too.

If I may, I’d like to take a tangent briefly on how much I hate daylight savings time. (Actually, daylight savings time is the good one – they should get rid of standard time.) But the time change is really, really dumb for little kids who are very used to going to bed at a certain time and getting up at a certain time. She adjusted to the new bed time the very first night. However, despite the fact that she’s actually going to bed an hour later, she still wakes up at the old 7 – 7:30 AM (now 6 – 6:30 AM). Also, she has gone from a regular and predictable 2.5 – 3 hour nap to a 1 – 1.5 hour nap ever since the change. This does not work for her mother. It’s been a couple of weeks and this is still going on. I imagine we’ll get her back to a good routine just about the time we need to change the clocks again.

The kid does not eat. I don’t know how she maintains that big round belly and those cute ham hocks she calls thighs. She has gotten very picky and hardly eats anything for any meal. The pediatrician and other parents tell me this is completely normal for the second year of life, as metabolism slows down and tastes become more refined and picky. They tell me she’ll eat more variety and amount down the road and not to worry or make meal time a battle. That said, I do concern myself with the fact that my 17 month old daughter eats less than half the amount she did at half her age and size. It’s pretty stressful. And she would eat nothing but fruit if I let her. She’s a strawberry fiend. The good news is she’s so into fruit she doesn’t know what she’s missing on refined sugar products.

A couple people have asked me when I think we’ll start thinking about potty training. Honestly, I don’t think she’ll be potty trained any time soon and quite possibly after most kids her age. I have never known another human being more content to drag around soggy, poopy pants all day with no complaints like that kid. Unlike lots of kids who cry for a dry diaper once they poop, she could care less about sitting in it and walking around with it. For that reason, I doubt she’ll be trained early unless she decides to take a real interest in it, which is certainly possible.

Ok, if I hadn’t already lost you, I’m sure I did on the last paragraph. I think maybe my mom is about the only person who would read through that smiling and eager for more Kira details. Anyway, that will do it for this installment of our family (read Kira) news. Until next time…