Thirteen Months Old

Karina and Daddy on her thirteen month birthday

Karina is now thirteen months old and can do so many things on her own it's amazing. Shortly after learning how to crawl up the stairs it became obvious she'd need to know how to come down and she caught on surprisingly quickly...although she needs to be reminded every time..."Turn around and go backwards!" She turns her the pages of a book on her own...and has done so for some time but has recently gotten very proficient at separating even a single page from another. She'll sit and play in her "playroom" for thirty minutes, and completely entertain herself with her toys. She loves to feed herself puffs and Cheerios. Whenever we leave the changing table, she flips the light switch off and pushes the closet door closed. She's extremely fast at standing up now and no longer does the arduous "pike" up but rather uses one leg to step up like a big kid.

Feeding herself a bottle

On the flip side, she's still having trouble getting a handful of other skills mastered. For example, drinking independently. Even though she almost immediately understood how to drink from an open cup...she of course, couldn't do it without pouring the vast majority on herself. So to avoid a mess, I tried getting her to give herself the bottle, but all she does is sit there with the bottle upright and the nipple to her lips and drinks air...so it seemed that a straw cup might be just the thing. And she did use the straw cup for a little while until she got sick but then she wasn't willing to drink much of anything unless it was in the bottle. So then I tried giving her the bottle but only when she was laying on her back, because she would lift the bottle to a level even with her mouth (i.e. straight out from her mouth), which actually worked pretty well...that is until she takes a break from drinking. Because if there's still milk left, she doesn't put the bottle down but rather leaves it up while milk slowly drips on her face or down her neck..ugh! So then I tried the sippy cups again...I'd tried them a long time ago but she only played with them...but because they are so spill resistant one has to suck really hard to get any liquid, she still mostly just plays with them. Then I read that it can take up to six months after drinking from any cup before a baby will take all their daily liquid from a cup. Yeesh!

Karina being fed by Mommy...still!

Another trouble spot is feeding herself...and this one is also primarily my fault because I was trying to avoid messes by always feeding her myself. She's great at feeding herself anything of the size and consistency of a Cheerio or Goldfish, but give her anything mushable...and she will mush it, not eat it. This is a problem! As in the post about the bananas and pears, she will eat softer foods that aren't pureed, but only if I feed them to her. If I put some banana on her tray, she literally wrinkles up her nose, pokes at the banana with one finger until it's pretty much spread all over the tray in a thin coat...and if possible she'll throw some of it on the floor. I even tried bread thinking that might be a little firmer and therefore less nose-wrinkling, but again she just poked at it until it was a tray and lapful of crumbs. So we've got some work to do in the eating and drinking arenas...unless I'm content to still be feeding her myself at Kindergarten!

The Babysitter

Well, last night we jumped a big hurdle and finally had a babysitter who was not a family member! We've been so fortunate with such loving family...and coincidentally also such a boring social life...that it hasn't been difficult to stay away from the teenaged babysitter. Last night we hired a 15 year-old daughter of a friend of Bonnie's, to babysit Karina for a few hours while Mommy and Daddy went to a late starting basketball game. Mommy wrote out a short novel of information...reminiscent of the novel I wrote out for Beth's first day when I first went back to work...and got Karina all fed and dressed in her jammies...ready for bed with the babysitter.

Erin, the babysitter, had to be a little late so her mom, Kim, helped out during the 45 minute absence...and although we tried to sneak out...Karina was wailing as we left. However, we had a bottle, the pacifier and Sesame Street all prepared for the occasion, and according to Erin, when she arrived Karina was snuggled up in her mom's arms watching Sesame Street. We called home about an hour and a half later and Erin said that Karina was still awake and had been crying while she put up a good fight to get the sleep sack on, but had stopped crying right before I called. When we got home Karina and Erin were both asleep...and neither one worse for the wear. I guess Karina quietly laid down and fell asleep at about 9:00 pm. Yet another milestone uneventfully passed!

(Standing) Up, (Crawling) Up and Away!

Karina after standing up on her own to look out the window

Today, Karina and I were playing the Upside-Down Game...a very complex game in which Mommy dangles the baby upside-down, ahem...and while looking up Karina's nose and at the roof of her mouth...which is the view one has in this game...I thought I saw something. So I turned her upside-down again, moved into better light and looked more closely. Then I touched her top gum with my finger, and felt all sorts of swollen bumpiness...a complex dental description, I'm sure! Anyway, it was very clear that there were teeth coming...and it looked like all four top teeth would be in soon! No wonder she'd been cranky lately! I'd thought her appetite was finally improving, but has wondered why she still seemed easily upset...I guess this could explain it! So with multiple additional viewings, it seems that the top left tooth will be her third tooth and I'm guessing the top right tooth won't be far behind!

On the locomotion front, we knew it wouldn't be long before the crawling became climbing, but I'm still impressed with how quickly Karina learned to climb the stairs. She tried once a few days ago and then didn't try again until today when she made the complete ascent...albeit slowly...to the top of the stairs. Now we have to decide what to do about blocking off the stairway! Here she is climbing to the top of the stairs...

"I think I can, I think I can..."

"Just gotta get my knees up here..."

"Okay, I can see over the top now..."

"I'm almost there..."

"Whew! I made it! Yay!"

Meanwhile, her crawling continues to get faster and faster and she's get better and better at standing up. However she seems to make standing up an even bigger challenge than it is to begin with, by using an arduous technique. Instead of kneeling, getting onto one foot, pulling up with her arms, pushing up on that leg and then bringing the other foot up alongside, Karina crawls all the way up to the couch (for example) until her head has smooshed into it, puts her hands on the top of the seat, straightens her arms and legs so that she's practically in a piked position (downward facing dog for those of you familiar with yoga positions), a very difficult position requiring a lot of strength, and then manages to walk her legs forward until she's got them underneath her enough to stand. Whew! It makes me tired just to describe it! But we're so proud of how grown up our little girl is getting!

Going Bananas!...and Pears!

Karina having a bite of pear...Yum!

Lately Karina's appetite hasn't been very good, but the other day when I was feeding her she made the "Uh" noise while pointing at something on the counter top...a fairly common occurrence these days that helps explain why it's taking longer and longer to feed her...ah, but I digress. Anyway, I started picking up different things to show to her and she made it clear that what she wanted to see was a banana. This banana was very ripe and not too much longer for this world so I went ahead and peeled it...figuring Karina would just look at it and push it away. To my surprise she opened up her mouth and took a little bite. Then she took a bigger bite, happily mashing the banana in her smiling mouth! I kid you not...she almost ate the entire banana in one sitting...it was impressive! Since then I've offered her slices of ripe pear...and she loves this, too...eating about half of a pear at one meal. I find this even more interesting because she's really not eating much of anything else, but apparently these fruits seem to hit the spot!

Here's how happy she is after eating some pear

Happy Valentine's Day

Now that Karina is so mobile, it's very difficult to take a great picture of her because as soon as you do something to make her smile she immediately begins to crawl toward it/you and then the picture taking is no longer optimal! Anyway, here's what I was able to get for some Valentine's Day photos!

Smiling and just starting to go into motion

Smiling and crawling, but while looking at the camera (an uncommon combination!)

Sitting but not smiling

Standing while laughing hysterically

Happy Valentine's Day from all of us to you!

Slapstick

Our little comedienne!

Okay...I'm not even quite sure what to make of this new found character trait of Karina's, but Karina absolutely loves slapstick comedy!...live slapstick comedy that is. The other day, while I was holding Karina in my arms, she pushed at Daddy when he moved towards her for a kiss. For some reason, Daddy made a exaggerated movement responding to the push and pretended that Karina had knocked him to the side. She giggled! (Something she doesn't do very often. She smiles a lot, but giggling...not so much!) She leaned forward to push Daddy again, and because we wanted to hear her giggle again, he pretended that her shove had caused him to be flung into the wall. She giggled harder!...and immediately leaned forward to push Daddy again. Daddy was even more dramatic this time, adding a wail and a sound effect of him hitting the wall. She laughed like crazy and it was so darn cute we only wanted to hear it again and again! The game continued until Uncle Joe, who was getting ready to leave, unsuspectingly leaned in for a kiss only to find a palm smacked against his face! It was then that we realized we had created a monster! Interestingly, we've come to find that even though Uncle Quentin will offer the most over-the-top performance by actually falling to the ground with a thud...that Karina finds it the most hysterical when Mommy is the object of her muscle! Is that an Oedipal type thing?

Unfortunately, as cute as it is...and as little discomfort as it causes us adults, we realized it won't be so funny when Karina tries it on another little kid and completely knocks the kid over! So, we'll have to stop the game for now...and find the giggle another way!

One Year Appointment

Karina weighed in at 22lbs 1.4oz or for those of you who use the metric system, she weighs exactly 10 kilograms. This was a gain of about 3.5 pounds which was reassuring, especially since she's been eating so poorly the past month. I had figured she'd have barely gained any weight at all, so I was very glad when I heard the numbers. She had dropped off her weight curve with her 9 month weight, but now she's back on track. Yay! She measured 31 inches tall so she's close to the 65% for weight and the 95% for height. I don't care what the numbers say...she still looks skinny to me!

Unfortunately, her overall experience was less than enjoyable and she cried through almost the whole appointment. I don't think anything really hurt her but she seemed to have a bad feeling about the situation from the start and began crying when Daddy just tried to place her on the scale. It was down hill from there...imagine how unpleasant the ear exam is if you don't even like sitting on the scale! I guess the timing is right developmentally for her to start complaining about things like this...I just hope she's not like her Mommy was when she was a kid and begins crying on the way to the doctors appointment because she's so afraid of the shots!

Speaking of shots, she got a new one, the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella), which is good especially since there was that outbreak of mumps last year and she got to enjoy yet another lab draw...luckily the evil troll lab tech lady was nowhere to be found...for mandatory lead testing. At 15 months she gets a few more shots then none until she's 4 years old! Wow!

Karina's First Birthday Party

For Karina's first birthday, we kept it simple and got a few party supplies, like balloons and party hats and a birthday cake. We dressed Karina, Mommy and Elsa...the only child guest...and in party hats, lit the candle and sang "Happy Birthday."

This was Karina's expression while we were singing...

and here she is clapping...probably because we stopped singing! No actually I thought we sounded pretty good!

Then it was time to eat cake and although Karina had never tasted cake or frosting, we assumed that she'd love it and shove it in her mouth like all of the pictures we've seen of other babies on their first birthday. But Karina just pushed the plate away...even after I put a little frosting in her mouth to taste, she's still didn't want any cake. I guess we shouldn't have been too surprised at her response given how poorly she's been eating lately.

Karina's Baptism

Great-Uncle Father Joe, with Daddy, Karina and Mommy

Karina's Great-Uncle Joe is a priest in Omro, Wisconsin...about 2 hours north of Milwaukee...and was kind enough to come to Milwaukee to Baptize Karina into the Catholic Church. Her Godparents were Uncle Quentin and Great-Aunt Beth.

Here's Karina all dressed up for her Baptism

Here's Karina being doused with Holy Water...

...and here's Karina trying to drink the Holy Water!

Here's Karina having the Holy Gown...or in this case Holy Sash (no blasphemy intended)...draped around her shoulders...

...and here she is trying to eat the Holy Sash! Apparently Karina thought ingestion of all things Holy was the way to go!

It was very cute, Karina was very involved in the ceremony...obviously much more than the typical baptismal baby of a few weeks or months old...and she really seemed to understand that everyone was there for her. Gammy said that Karina was just looking around from face to face smiling, and Gammy felt that Karina seemed to recognize everyone. On the flip side, she also understood that it was very fun to splash in the Holy Baptismal Fountain, that she wanted to be the one to hold the candle...even when it was lit...and that the candle didn't really need to be in one piece, ahem! Having an older child baptized was special but also held additional challenges!

Smiling at Daddy

Hangin' with Aunt Beth

At one point she wanted Great-Aunt Beth to hold her (above), and as you can see in the next picture, she's holding her Daddy's hand. She's holding it in the Sash eating photo, too! She's loves her Daddy!

And when the ceremony was over, Karina clapped right along with everyone!

And last but not least here's Elsa being extremely mature by congratulating Karina on her Baptism with a hand shake! Hee, hee, hee...just kidding...but seriously doesn't Elsa look like she's looking Karina in the eye and giving her a firm hand shake? Maybe her Daddy has started interview skills training already!

Winter Fun?

I just had to include these photos because they crack me up. First of all, Karina looking like a pastel mummy, and then the coincidence that Karina and I are in the exact same position in both pictures...I don't think we could have done a better posing job if we'd tried!

Here's what we do during a frigid Wisconsin February day. We get all bundled up and go to a Marquette Basketball Game!

Bundled...

...Unbundled!

Sick

My sick little baby...doesn't she look skinny!

I think this photo pretty well illustrates how Karina's been feeling for the past month. It started with a cough way back in early January, and she hasn't been herself since then. She had a couple of days where she seemed a bit feverish and then I thought she was getting better when the coughing almost stopped, but then her appetite went away. I could barely get her to eat one serving of anything at one sitting, and even then only if Sesame Street was on. Luckily, she was still drinking her milk, so she wasn't getting dehydrated. At least not until she got the loose stools that cause a mess all over her clothes every time she has a bowel movement! It's to the point that Karina cries when I even head for the changing table! And even after the new diaper is on, she'll cry so hard that I can't put the rest of her clothes on.

A day when Karina would only let me put on her onesie

The first photo was a day where she wouldn't let me put anything on her on the changing table, so I just wrapped her little sobbing body in a blanket and carried her downstairs to watch Sesame Street. That show has been our saving grace...it's one of the only things that will sooth her when we can't be right there with her. And that's not like her either...usually she's very good at entertaining herself and can be left to play while I'm making her cereal or whatever, but lately unless Sesame Street is on, she starts crying whenever I walk away. It's not that she spends the whole day crying but she's just whimper-y and more needy than usual. Nonetheless, during this past month, Karina has made progress with her crawling...she's much more coordinated and therefore much faster.

Karina's cute behind as she crawls away from me

She's getting better at clapping so that now it actually makes a noise. She's gotten heavy enough (even without hardly eating) that we've switched to the bigger car seat and now she's facing forward...to which she adjusted very well. We were also able to celebrate Uncle Quentin's birthday...unlike last year when I was feeling too crummy to even call him...but it didn't go very well, because at the restaurant Karina was just not content to sit in her chair. She was only happy if I had her on my lap or was carrying her, so we had to leave early. Again, this is just not like her to be so needy. We're hoping she's feeling better soon...and when she does, she'll probably eat non-stop for two weeks!

Karina giving us a beautiful smile