Tid Bit

Here's Karina sitting in her favorite position in her high chair...

...with her right foot propped up against the tray.

Oh by the way, Karina's right upper molar has cut through the gum. Let's see that makes eight teeth now, because the last of her upper front four is still not "in" yet.

Great Gramma Kathryn and Cousin Alex

Alex and Gramma

My cousin Alex was in Illinois today, so Karina and I went to visit him while we all went to Great Gramma Kathryn's Nursing Home. It was a beautiful day, so we were able to sit outside on one of their decks.

Alex mentioned that he and Karina were in a similar hair situation...I think he's checking out Karina's hair in this photo

I like these two photos because Karina is acting silly...

...and even got a smile out of Great Gramma Kathryn!

Apple of Daddy's Eye

Could she be the apple of his eye any more than this?

"Hey Dad, when do we get to go to a Brewer's Game?"

To The Zoo

Karina and Mommy in front of the giraffes

It was a beautiful day, so we took our first trip of the year to the zoo. Karina enjoyed looking at the sea otters, grizzly bears, polar bears, elephants and giraffes among many others. The temperature was in the 60's so all sorts of animals were outside for us to see! It was fun!

Looking at the polar bears

The polar bears

Enjoying a ride past the pond

Looking at the elephants
(I never thought Karina and I looked more alike than in this profile shot of us!)

Almost Fifteen Months Old

Outside with her "walker" on a gorgeous day

As Karina approaches fifteen months old, she continues to seem more and more like such a "big girl." She has two molars protruding through the gum far enough that last week she began grinding her teeth...something that Mommy is not particularly thrilled about. Actually, I'm not sure that Karina likes it either but she's just used to being able to press her gums together and now when she does it, she hits tooth on tooth. (Shudder!)

She's having a lot more fun eating now that she can really take a bite of something. She has bitten into bananas, strawberries and crackers. She still doesn't get how to bite into a sandwich or something like that, but I'm sure that will come. And I certainly haven't been brave enough to even try her feeding herself something with utensil! Soon enough!

Eating a banana like a big girl

Although she's still not walking, she's completely ambulatory and loves to stand. She has multiple rocking-horse-type toys and she began enjoying rocking on them a couple of months ago. But until last week she'd needed help to get up onto the horse...or zebra...or keyboard (yes, she actually has a rocking "horse" that has a electronic musical keyboard as a "head." See photo below.)

Karina on her rocking keyboard...with the pacifier in her mouth before throwing it to the ground

The other night, Karina began trying to lift a leg over the "back" of the keyboard "horse." Her foot got stuck and Daddy had to help her get it over the "back," but apparently Karina was paying attention because she was able to do it on her own a few seconds later. (She's much better at swinging the right leg over than the left leg, interestingly.)

It was really cute, because then Karina did something that was reminiscent of my childhood. Apparently one day when I was young, I was determined to climb up onto our sofa. I tried and tried and tried and eventually I made it up. However, instead of basking in the glory of achieving my objective, I immediately climbed back down and proceeded to practice climbing up and down over and over again.

Well, Karina must have inherited this trait from me...because she didn't stay up on the "horse" for very long before she climbed back off, either. However, unlike me, she made her repetitive behavior seem to have more of a purpose than just practice. Karina chose to take her pacifier out of her mouth and throw it to the ground so she would need to get off of the "horse" to get it. Then she'd climb back on the "horse," rock a few times and throw the pacifier again...and repeat the whole thing, again and again. It was hilarious!

Both set of Grandparents had mentioned their intentions to help teach Karina how to walk, and had discussed the idea a "walker." Grandma and Grandpa Mattern came to visit yesterday and brought an official "walker" and, boy, did she take right to it. She had so much fun tromping around that now she uses her little riding airplane that has a raised back as a walker, too.

Walking behind her "walker"

As a big girl of fifteen months old, Karina usually won't keep any hat on her head that isn't tied to it...so when she actually kept her cute Brewers hat on we had to snap some photos.

Our Little Rebel

So cute with the baseball hat on backwards!

One of the words Karina can say is "ball"...and here she is with her inspiration. Incidentally, she has a really good arm, too.

Our Good Luck Charm

A few weeks ago, while looking at patio furniture, Karina and I were out at Laacke & Joys. I was waiting for the salesperson to return with some pricing information and noticed they were having a raffle for these really cool French (as in "made in France") chaise lounge type chairs. We'd been thinking about getting a couple of them down the road anyway so I figured I might as well enter the contest. So I wrote out my name, then Tom's name...and since I was still waiting I decided to write down Karina's name, too...I did draw the line at Bart (our cat.) I know it's easy to say after the fact, but I swear I had this feeling that we were going to win. When I looked at the caller ID number when the phone rang on Tom's Birthday (coincidentally) and saw Laacke & Joys, I knew we had won. But what I didn't expect was that Karina had won. After stammering a bit following the caller's request to "...speak to Karina Heinrich, please?" I finally said, "Um, she's isn't in right now...may I take a message?" Smooooth, Tanya...

Karina in her prize chairs

Our lucky charm!

Karina and I went out the next day, got the chairs and set them up in the house with big red bows to surprise Daddy with his special birthday presents! Karina is now officially our good luck charm! Anyone up for Potawatomi?

Karina playing around with her bunny blankie

Enamel Everywhere

"I have almost ten teeth!"

Just a quick update on the teething progress. Once again, I'll start by declaring that although I sometimes think that I know what's going on...in fact, I have no clue about what is happening in Karina's mouth! I'd noticed the left upper molar coming through about a week ago and thought that this was her first molar. However today I was checking on the progress of that tooth and the remaining top front tooth that hadn't quite come in yet when I felt that her left lower molar was already poking through! The upper one was palpable too, but the lower one was definitely ahead of its upper counterpart! Sneaky little bugger!

Karina sucking in her bottom lip like she did when she was only a few weeks old

Regarding other teeth, the last top front tooth still isn't all the way through yet, but it looks like it should be clear any day now. Also, I can feel the beginnings of the "swollen bumpiness" in the area of the right upper molar which would be Karina's ninth tooth (counting the last top front tooth as number eight.) However, given my inability to successfully predict much of anything so far, I guess I shouldn't be surprised if the lower one beats the upper one in on that side, too, huh?

Cold #7

Today Karina got Cold #7. So far it seems like a minor one, with only a little bit of a "runny nose" and a bit of a cough. Hopefully, it won't progress much further and will not be anything like her illness from the winter when she lost her appetite! Our fingers are crossed!

Our Easter Bunnies

I just had to borrow this photo from Elsa's website...

...the girls just look too cute playing together in their Easter outfits!

And thanks to Grandma Mary for the great basket of toys to play with at Grandma and Opa's house!

All Things Oral

A few weeks ago I mentioned that Karina was getting her fifth and sixth teeth...two more teeth on top...so she'd have her four top front teeth. Apparently, I didn't know what I was talking about because the fifth tooth, the right upper tooth finally came through March 27 (not March 13 as I'd thought) and the "sixth tooth," the upper left tooth still isn't through!

On March 30th, Karina had the worst fever she'd ever had and I was quite sure that she was getting sick. Grandpa Jim had come to visit that day...with Grandma Joy...and suggested that if we weren't seeing other signs of illness that perhaps the fever could be related to more teeth eruptions. So I felt around in the areas where I thought she'd be getting them (the front bottom teeth or any of her "eye" teeth) , but I didn't feel anything. Interestingly...and thankfully...the fever lasted less than one day and she did not get additional "cold" symptoms. Since there weren't any new teeth, I wasn't sure what to think. But today I was rubbing Karina's gums and not only felt a new tooth, but a new molar tooth! I was shocked...I thought all of the teeth in the front would come in first. Apparently...as I admitted earlier...I have no idea what I'm talking about! If I was smart I'd consult with Dr. Opa, our own dental expert!

On the culinary side, Karina continues to improve at feeding herself...which is perhaps made possible by Mommy's dedication to keep trying new foods and new preparations of foods that will be safe and easy for Karina to eat. It's really challenging to find foods that are soft enough to "gum" but not too soft pick up, but our repertoire is expanding. One of the most notable successes came with oranges. After a good sized meal the other day, I cut an unpeeled orange into slices figuring the rind would give Karina something to hold on to while she ate the orange flesh. It worked! She was able to manipulate the slices fairly easily and she absolutely loved the taste. I couldn't believe how many slices she ate...she just wanted more and more and more! As a mother, it made me very happy to see her enjoy something so much...especially since she was able to feed it to herself!

Orange eating techniques, according to Karina Eliese:

"First open your mouth really wide, like this..."

"...then shove it in there as hard as you can so you can get all of the orange juice..."

"Yummy!"

This it how many orange slices Karina ate the first time she tried it!

Karina's also done well with cantelope...

...spaghetti (actually marinara sauce on rotini because spaghetti noodles are very hard to pick up) ...

...and she's really gotten better with independently using
the sippy cup.

Lastly, I just had to show you these pictures of what happened after Karina "asked for" (read said "Uh...Uh!" and pointed at) a stale loaf of Italian bread sitting on our counter and I handed it to her...

(Her expressions are just too funny!)

First she simply tried to eat it...

When that didn't work well, she studied it...

Contemplated it...

Turned it all around and studied it again...

Considered a new method of attack...

Paused to glance at the papparazzi feverishly snapping photo after photo...

Then tried to eat the bread again! Too cute!

Sometimes feeding herself works well, other times...not so much!

School Of The Arts

For any of you who have seen Karina dance, you know that she is already a talented dancer. We captured a few images of her other performance skills in action.

Acrobatics...

Singing...

Playing the piano...

Acting...

Note the following dramatic interpretations...

Expressive Longing

Intense Emotional Outburst
(Or as Daddy calls it, "The Screaming Prairie Dog")

Serious Dramatic Pose

Surprise

Joy

Great Grandma June

Great-Grandma June and Karina
February 2007

Karina's Great-Grandma June Voelker passed away earlier today, and our hearts are heavy because of it. She was a devoted mother, grandmother and great-grandmother...and I'm sure Karina will wish that she had gotten to know her better. Thankfully, June was able to leave this world with dignity and at a time of her choosing. She'd had a stroke and a heart attack almost one week ago and was needing a ventilator to help her breathe. She was likely facing a long and difficult rehabilitation if she ever left the hospital. This morning the doctors had just told her that she was going to need the ventilator again and at that point she choose to stop treatment. She died about 6 hours later. Her husband had passed away many years ago and her sister died just last year. We pray that she is with them and is happy and at peace.

Great-Grandma June holding Karina only a couple of weeks old