Happy Birthday Daddy!

Of course she will always be my baby, but really… where did my baby go? The year has just flown by. I was at the playgroup tonight [which we’ve cleverly named MUMS for Mercy & Unity Moms], and realized that we don’t have little babies anymore. We have older babies, and some toddlers! It was entertaining watching them explore their own little world, and discover eachother.

Kirra has been pretty healthy these past few weeks which is wonderful. I hope she stays that way!!! She competed in the Diaper Dash this past weekend for my work at Twin Cities Marathon. She did rather well, except she was mad at me for taking a snack away from her. I will learn my mistake for next year. She can compete in the Toddler Trot then!

We’re taking Kirra out for Halloween, which actually means that we will go to the “important” neighbors, Grandma & Grandpa’s, and Aunts and Uncles houses to show off Kirra’s costume. Which is absolutely to die for! We will post pictures after halloween! Of course she doesn’t need any candy yet, but we can and will eat it for her!

We’re slowly weaning Kirra off the bottle, so that she can go to the sippy once her first birthday hits. We gave her a teeny tiny taste of milk too, and she liked it. We’re not planning on really giving her milk until her first birthday though. We are using the Avent Sippy Cups, and you can also use the Avent nipples on them, so we use them as bottles as well.

Kirra is now standing for several moments without assistance. She has “thought” aobut taking a step, but hasn’t quite got there yet. We know that it will be sooner than we think, or probably want. Then it’s time to baby proof the house again!

Well yesterday (Tuesday) Kirra had a really rough day at daycare. We immediately knew something up when Kirra cried blue-bloody-murder when I handed her to Tally. She was very fussy all morning, and didn’t want to eat or play. She napped most of the day, and when she was awake she was very withdrawn and sad. Tally called me at about 2:30pm to pick Kirra up. She spiked a fever (which she did have the night before), and was making a strange face once in a while. Kirra even threw up. I wasn’t able to get her in at our regular clinic, unless I wanted to sit around and wait in Urgent Care. Instead I made an appointment at the clinic Jason and I go to, which is open late for appointments.
She saw a family practice doctor named Dr. Severt, and he was really great with Kirra. Her ears were kind of pink, and she had a really red throat. The doctor ordered a CBC (which came back slightly elevated with WBC, but was still WNL). She didn’t even cry when they pricked her finger. He also ordered her a throat culture. Kirra didn’t think that was too awesome, but she was a trooper. It came back negative for rapid strep, and the 24 hour test came back negative too. So she has viral pharyngitis. I feel sad for her. Poor thing. Hopefully her ears are just a part of her throat, and that it doesn’t turn into an ear infection.
I was really satisfied with the Dr. Severt, and decided it might be worth swtiching clinics, because this one is open so late. During my lunch break today I met with the only pediatriian there, Dr. Kuku (even tho it sounds the same no, she is not Coo Coo). She seemed really nice, and really to the point. So even though we really like Dr. Evans, I think we’re going to switch. She is even there until 6pm on Wednesdays, and Dr. Severt is there until 8pm most days, so tha is very helpful! Now all 3 of us will be at the same clinic.

Well poor Kirra has a bad diaper rash. It came on suddenly at daycare yesterday, and Kirra even cries when we whipe her bottom. We feel so sad for her. Yesterday she was in a daze, and was just sad for most of the day. We’re going to try soaking her bum in a baking soda bath to see if that helps her out at all. As you know we’re camping day after tomorrow, and we hope that it clears up mostly by then, so that she is more comfortable.

I’m grocery shopping tonight for our camping trip, and tomorrow I will pack! We’ll load/stage everything next to the opening of the garage door, so on Friday we can just pull it all out, and fill up the truck and be on our way hopefully by 6pm at the latest.

We’re going to just grab some fast food on the way up so we don’t have to worry about setting up our tent and cooking all right away. I’m very excited to get into the great outdoors and enjoy myself. We might have to stop by Fleet Farm and grab a life jacket for Kirra, or perhaps I can see if my co-worker can borrow me one again. Now that Kirra is more visual, and can do more I think she would LOVE going out in the boat and seeing the fishies!

Well poor Kirra is battling a cold. She is all stuffed up. It is affecting her sleeping and even eating. Because she is so stuffy it’s hard for her to drink out of the bottle, so we’ve been offering lots of table foods, and finger foods as well. Also I think babies by nature are nose breathers, so I think she gets frusterated needing to breathe out of her mouth in her sleep, so sometimes she will start crying in her sleep, we just feel so bad for her.

We’re definitely going to keep our other bike trailer for long bike rides to put extra stuff in, and also for grocery shopping, we can put our food in the “spare” (aka Garage Sale Buggy). It does ride well, and we can use it, but we definitely feel better with the “new” one for longer rides. The new one however doesn’t fit on my bike, because the back axel is shaped weird on my bike. Jason wants to pull Kirra anyways, for a “better work out” um… more power to him!

We’ve decided not to sell my car at all (at least this year) Having the next step car seat in my car has really helped my shoulder, and I am not in pain anymore. My car runs well, and everything in our price range now, is a bit of a step down for me, so we’re going to hold out for a few more (other) bills to be paid off first.

Hopefully Kirra will feel better soon. We have the vaporizer going full steam, with vics aromatizing her room. We’re going camping on Friday, and hopefully she isn’t sick anymore for that. We’re planning to bring our high chair with, so that we can feed her, it just seems like we need to bring SO MUCH stuff for such a tiny little person. I will have my Mei Tai for hiking, but this time I am staying on the road. I have a real discust for ticks after me and pams jaunt thru the woods at Lydick, if you hadn’t heard I had over 40 ticks on me at one time…. sadly i am not exagerating!

Cheers.

Well just last week, Jason bought a new bike (bicycle), and we’ve been biking since Thursday! It’s our new family time, and it’s very fun. Our bike trailer that we got at a garage sale has been a little sketchy, the right wheel appears bent, and Jason’s parents were planning on buying us one before the garage sale, so they bought us a new one. It’s very nice. We’ve figured out a way to actually strap Kirra in there, even though she is technically too young for it. Next weekend we’re going camping for Labor Day. I’m a bit nervous since the last time we went camping with Kirra she was imbobile, now she is crawling and standing up on everything. Hopefully it will be a peaceful trip! Cross your fingers!

Well no new tricks lately, but Kirra is becoming an olympic climber on furniture! (If there was such an event, she would definitly win Gold.)

We gave her some cut up hot dog tonight, and she loved it! Our pediatrician gave us the ok, so we’re trying new things besides just purred baby food.She really seems to like feeding herself.

We think she is getting more teeth, but she is such a trooper,that we can’t really tell. It doesn’t seem to wake her up at night, so we’re never really sure. She doesn’t have any “clasic” signs right before hand, so we just have to sit it out.

Her other teeth that are popping thru haven’t come all the way up yet, but they are working on it. We’re not giving her anything because it doesn’t seem to bother her at all.

I just installed our “next step” car seat in my car. I wasn’t toting the other one in and out anymore anyhoo, so I figured why not move up. It’s probably safer for her anyways. This one even has the fancy latch system. I got Kirra sized up in it, and I got it in my car, so we’ll see how it goes tomorrow. I hope it’s not hard to get her in and out. It shouldn’t be, but it definitely doesn’t recline as much, and now she won’t be able to look over her shoulder and see me. Such is life. Three more months she can face foward (if she gains 3 pounds) and see the world!.

Well, we survived our first outing to the indoor playyard. It went very well, even though Kirra mouthed a few of the balls. And then against my better judgement I put her in the ball bit, and that was kind of funny. She only liked it for about 5 minutes, and then it was too hard for her to sit, and crawl in, but I got a few good pictures. She even spit up in the ball pit, which is one of my main reasons for thinking they are kind of gross, because you know the people who work there aren’t sanitizing every single ball….. BUT…She really enjoyed climbing on different things, and going down the little slide.

We also decided to go down the BIG BIG slide… let me tell you about this… we had to climb about 14 flight decks to the top, and it was very hard, because the platforms were sooo close together, but somehow we got to the top without too much fussiness… then Kirra and I went down the biiiigggg slide. This sucker was HUGE!!!

I tried to go as slow as I could but the S-bomb came out of my mouth a few times. 

We have a big week with hanging out with friends. It should be a blast!!!!!

Well Kirra is nearly 9 months old already! I absolutely can’t belive it! I feel like she was just born yesterday! I look back at pictures and think WOW, she reallly was that little. Now she is climbing on everything, and crawling so well! Today she crawled over to her toybox, and there is this bucket with a lid on it, and Kirra (sneaky girl) figured out how to open the lid!!!! and dump out her toys! We couldn’t belive it. It was awesome. (And very scary too).

We’re so happy to have Jason back home. That was the longest we’ve spent apart since we were in the Navy. Things are definitely easier when there is a pair to take care of Kirra.

Teeth are breaking thru and Kirra is being a trooper! Not the typical crying and crabiness that you would expect, it’s like nothing is happening, although now when she bites you it really hurts!

Today I ran in a 5K in New Brighton, and Jason & Kirra came to cheer me on. I did much better on this 5K than my last one, so I was very pleased about that. I got 4th in my age group. If i would have ran 30 seconds faster I would have gotten a medal in my age group. Oh well, there is always another race.

After the race we did some housekeeping, and even test drove some cars. I really want to get into a 4 door car, but we need to sell my car first (because a trade in, isn’t enough…) I test drove a 2003 Ford Focus and really really liked it! Hopefully I can get into this car sometime! I will put my car on Craigs List and see what happens!

I went on a bike ride with Kirra in the bike trailer, but I either screwed up how to strap her in, or she isn’t big enough yet… maybe a combo. I biked to the bike shop just down the road to ask for advice, but they were closed. Maybe I will stop in tomorrow, or some other day.

Tomorrow I am breaking one of my biggest rules! Indoor playground! I’m meeting my friend at one. I think Kirra will be fine, even if she does mouth everything. I will just help her NOT mouth everything… haha wish me luck! I just think it will be fun for her. She is in this climbing up on furniture phase, and exploring, and this will be good to practice all of her skills. Hopefully it’s not crowded!

Well Kirra might not have been totally teasing! She does have “rock” like feeling on her bottom gums, and they are pretty white. So we think this is it. They haven’t broke thru yet, but I think in the next week or so.

She is getting really good at climbing on furniture, and trying to go from one piece to the next. We went to Heidi and Ed’s wedding shower today, and she showed off all of her new tricks including climbing up one stair. They have a one step sunk in living room, and she climbed up the step! It was amazing.

Jason is off to Flordia this week for some training for work, so it will be just Kirra and I. I guess I will get a small taste of what a single parent feels like. Everyone is so gracious to help, and I will definitely take them up on their offer if need be.

Hopefully Kirra doesn’t learn any new tricks with her daddy away, I don’t want him to miss a thing!

We ended up “scoring” a bike trailer for $20 at a garage sale too! I haven’t put Kirra in it yet, but I think this week we will go for a few rides anyways!

We also traded the old truck in for a brand new one. It’s a 2008 Dodge Ram. It’s also a 4 door, quad cab, and really easy and nice for getting in and out etc…