Zorklife: October 2009

This has been a really fun month. So much fun that I didn't want to take a break to write this blog update! Kyveli is such a fun age right now. She is becoming more and more independent and can happily entertain herself playing with toys on her play mat or in her crib, which has given our arms a nice break. But even though she's getting to be a big girl, she still gets lots of cuddles from mom and dad. And she has started cuddling back! Sometimes when we're holding her, she'll lay her head down against our chests and just hold it there, as if she's giving us a hug. I can't wait until she starts giving those big, open mouth kisses! Here are some of our favorites from her 7 month photos (the rest, as always, can be found here):

Playing her new favorite game: peek-a-boo!

It's getting harder and harder to take these pictures, since she just wants to grab the camera instead of smiling for it. We end up with a lot like these:

Still, we managed to get a few decent ones:

Dear Kyveli,

We took you to your 6 month checkup a few weeks ago. We weren't crazy about your original pediatrician, so when I found that the one I had chosen before you were born was once again accepting new patients, I jumped on the opportunity and switched you. We love Dr. Gruver! She didn't make you cry once during your exam, which was a very welcome change. And it's not just our imagination - you really are growing like a weed. Since your 4 month checkup you have shot up from the 55th percentile to the 90th in height, and now measure 27.5" tall (up nearly 3" since the last visit and almost 10" since birth!). You're definitely a chunker now at 16lbs, 14.5oz - up 2.5lbs since last time and almost 10lbs total since you were born. Seeing you healthy and growing is so gratifying, especially since up to that point all of your nourishment had come from me. You had to get 2 more shots, which we always dread for weeks beforehand, but you did just fine.

On the eve of your 6 month birthday, we fed you your first solid food. We chose avocado, because you're such a California girl! You played along at first, even though you had no idea what was going on. You seemed to enjoy the fun new props the best:

Here you are tasting your first bite of non-breastmilk food:

What ensued was, of course, hilarious:

Since then, we've realized that you're kind of particular about textures. You like your food pureed smoothly instead of mashed into chunks. In addition to avocado, you've now tried bananas, sweet potatoes, apples (both baked and steamed), pears, butternut and acorn squash, green beans, zucchini, carrots, plums and mango, plus baby oatmeal and multigrain cereal, and whole milk yogurt. Your favorites are sweet potato and squash. Next up will be peaches, peas, tofu, and in honor of your upcoming first Halloween, pumpkin! We've been making 99% of your food at home, which has been easy and fun. Once or twice a week, we just make a few extra servings of whatever veggie we're having for dinner or bake up some fruit, puree it using the hand blender, and freeze it in our super cool covered ice cube trays. All of this attention to your growing nutritional needs has helped us to eat even healthier than normal as a result, so thank you for that!

I mentioned in last month's letter that we were planning to go camping with our good friends Coco and Louisa and their daughter Jane at Big Basin in the Santa Cruz mountains. It was so much fun! You and Jane really are two peas in a pod. You both napped and went down for the night at roughly the same times, which made things very easy on the mommies and daddy.

Here are the mamas in the morning, happy because we have coffee. You're napping on me in the Moby (and giving me an idea of what it might feel like to be pregnant with a 17 pounder) while Jane naps in her tent.

Being a happy camper in Jane's Bumbo chair:

You and Jane had fun playing in the pack-n-play during the day and you both slept great at night. We went on a couple of hikes through the beautiful redwoods, and as usual you were mesmerized by the light filtering through the treetops. Despite a very loud and obnoxious troop of Boy Scouts who were up and making lots of noise so early in the morning that they actually WOKE UP the babies, we had a wonderful time. We wished we could have spent a few more days there but alas, we had to return to our regular lives when the weekend was over.

Oh, and remember that little tooth bud that was *just* on the verge of popping through? Well, it still hasn't! In fact, it disappeared completely one day. Just vanished. I've read that teeth can "float" up and down beneath the gums for awhile before surfacing for good, and apparently that's what happened. I can't even feel a bump anymore, and it's been well over a month. Not that I'm in any particular hurry for that first tooth, but it keeps teasing us and I'd just like to get it over and done with already.

And finally, to leave this month's letter on a fun note, here are some pictures of one of your first experiences with swings! Lets just say you're a big fan.