words I say and sign - II

Continuing the record keeping of Naiya's vocabulary development, this month she added:

December, 2007:
signs only: "bath"
signs & says: "all done, more, milk, apple"
says only: "up, Golem (for all cats), balloon, belly button, nose, dada, hi, polar bear, eye, ear, all gone, squirrel and bird"

a special tree

This year Ryan went out wood cuttin' with the boys.  Along the way they decided to get a permit and chop down their own Christmas trees from somewhere deep in the forest as well.  In the end Ryan was unsure about the wisdom of this decision and asked if we ought to fetch ourselves a more proper tree instead.  Personally, I think it's one of the best I've ever had.

curls

I don’t know anything about that face but check out those curls.

winter

It's been pretty cold but we still like to go out for walks down the street. I think it might be a little more difficult to walk when you're wearing three layers of clothes. Her coat won't even button up over all the sweatshirts. Maybe mommy went a bit overboard?

words I say and sign - I

For the sake of posterity, you know, for when she's five and she asks me, "Mommy, what was the first word I ever said?" I thought I'd keep a record of Naiya's language development. We're signing basic ASL signs to her pretty consistently and starting back in September, she exhibited her first comprehension and contextually correct usage of language. I also talk to her incessantly, mostly to keep myself company. Perhaps this will help with her acquisition as well.

September, 2007:
first sign: "finished" or "all done"
October, 2007:
first spoken word: "bye bye" (along with a wave)
November, 2007:
sign only: "milk"
say & sign: "duck"
say only: "ball, hot"

waldorf playstands

Okay, I didn’t actually build these. I’ve seen them in many a Waldorf classroom and I drew up a pattern and took it over to Tim’s house so he could “help me” build them. Of course, he just built them and I looked on in awe. I’m not a huge fan of power tools.

...and then to the zoo

We recently became members. We're not sure how long this Northwest Section of the zoo has been there but somehow we had always passed it by. We were literally ten feet from the black bears.

the pumpkin patch

We went to the Pumpkin Patch again this year. The sun shone for about 3 minutes. Just long enough for us to take these pictures... so we went to the zoo...

the wedding

Married happily on the 13th of October, 2007.
In one of our favorite places, with almost all of our favorite people on the most beautiful day in Autumn.
Many thanks to all for so many kind words and thoughts.

-Ryan and Dionne

the push cart

She loves to ride almost as much as she loves to walk.

her actual birthday

It being Naiya's ACTUAL Birthday today, I made another cake! (Okay, I did have this huge bowl of leftover frosting... what's a mommy to do?) This time Naiya ate a whole piece and a half. Yum yum. She cracks me up.

She has these two odd habits lately that I wanted to mention lest I forget about them when she starts some new and more peculiar habit next week. The first one is this weird sniffing of her fingers. She holds her fingers up to her nose and then jerks them away like she's blowing a kiss. She mostly does it right after I wash her hands. She has not explained the meaning of this and wishes I would stop asking.

Secondly, she's started pulling the hair on the back of her head. This makes sense though. The hair thing is fairly new for her. (She still doesn't have a lot.) I think she thinks someone has stuck something to her head or applied some strange kind of hat and is just trying to get it off or at least get a good look at it. Unfortunately, it's not long enough for her to see and, luckily, she's not pulling hard enough to actually pull it out.

birthday number one

Today we had a little party for Naiya's first birthday. Just a small gathering of family and no pinata. Our big girl had her very first sugary sweet treat. Before attacking the cake though, she ate all the kiwi garnish! That beautiful child loves her kiwi. Mostly she patted the cake (just like the song says) and licked the frosting off of her hands.

at the zoo

We went to the zoo today. We thought Naiya would like the lorikeets but those colorful little birds are really loud and I don't know if she thought they were attacking her mommy but they made her cry and daddy had to take her out of the atrium.

books

Naiya is standing up a lot today. She holds onto furniture (the desk, couch, cabinets, etc.) grabs some object and then gets so involved holding it and investigating just standing there that I think she just forgets she's standing...hands free. When she realizes it she usually plunks down on her bottom. She has stood there though for as long as a minute or so.

Lately her favorite game is pulling all the books off the bookshelf. She does this upstairs in the hall with her board books and also in the front living room she has cleared off the entire two bottom shelves of its, hmm...40 or 50 or so books.

In other news, our little lovely had her first taste of meat the other day... canned cat food that she got off the floor. Yummy.

oregon coast

Last week Ryan had his "bachelor weekend" (is it possible to still call it that?) camping on the Oregon coast. On the last day, after all the boys had gone home, Naiya and I joined him for our first camping trip as a family. We only stayed one night (Naiya woke up about every hour) and the next day went to the Aquarium in Newport. I'm not sure if she liked camping but Naiya did seem to really enjoy the fish and sea critters. Unfortunately, it is not easy to photograph underwater through double plexi-glass or in the dark exhibition halls, but we ended up with some interesting pics.

first bubble bath

We gave her her first bubble bath the other day. She likes to stand up in there and she's very good at plopping down safely onto her bottom with a little splash. She doesn't actually seem to notice the bubbles as much as she just wants to play with her water dinosaurs.

seaside

We took a day trip yesterday to Seaside and Cannon Beach. It was a bit windy so we didn't stay long, but did have the obligatory saltwater taffy run and lunch at a place that we heard about on Splendid Table... not sure what those folks ate, but, as usual, we were not impressed with yet another mediocre coastal seafood restaurant. (We're still looking...) Naiya got to put her toes in the water though and then we played some in the grass by our parking lot. As so often is the case, however, all good things come to an end (when, of course, the screaming began) and we headed home...

swim lessons

Naiya is in swim lessons last week and next. Sometimes I swim, sometimes daddy, sometimes both. Actually, these so called “swim lessons” are kind of silly. I think the intention is just to get the kids used to the water. They aren't really learning anything (just singing and playing), and Naiya already really likes the water and has swum at the open swim in this pool before. She does really enjoy the other kids though.

She's crawling at a speedy rate these days and has started pulling herself up on everything. Today she climbed two stairs (trying to get to Frodo) and has begun to reach for things on the surfaces upon which she holds... coffee tables, the drawer of the desk, etc. She's doing better with the solid foods (she's eaten cereals, cheeses, beans, tahini, tofu and all manner of vegetables and fruits) but seems to much prefer picking up small bits off the tray to having anything spoon fed into her mouth. This makes a huge mess every time we feed her of course. I think our average is three baths/showers per day.

go beavs

Yes, in fact, for the second year in a row, our Beavers won the College World Series!
Go Beavers.
That's baseball friends. And The Beavers are the Oregon State team (Ryan's alma mater) for those of you who, like me, don't know a damned thing about sports. Ryan isn't much into baseball either actually (he's more a football man), but this is something like only the fourth time in history that a college team has won a world series two years in a row. I know. I know. What could be more exciting, right!?
In celebration, he and Naiya donned their super Beavers fans garb and had a romp in the backyard.

the second day of summer

On the second day of Summer the good Earth gave to me... a baby and a clover kitty.

not picking

Today went much like the day Ryan and Matthew spent building the fence. This time they picked berries on Sauvie Island in 100° heat while we, once again, sat in the shade.

locomotion

Naiya has been rolling over to almost-but-not-quite-sitting-up. This is as close as I can get to showing what it looks like in still photographs. While I was converting these pics, she sat up to full upright on her own for only the second time (that we know of). Of course my back was turned. I just glanced back and there she was, smiling at me, balanced on her little bottom. She promptly moved to crawl for me and fell over.

not building a fence

On what I believe has been the hottest day of the year, Ryan and Matthew built the fence in our back yard. Naiya and I sat in the shade - not building a fence.

my own room

Naiya has started rolling about as a method of mobility. Tonight we moved her crib into her own room. Mommy is... hmmm... a little sad... or maybe nervous?

cat and babies

Frodo likes to sleep on Naiya's changing table. It's soft and fuzzy. Why not? They get along well but as punishment for laying on her things we lay her on top of him... as he doesn't seem to mind, it isn’t very effective.

camp sherman again

We had a lovely visit in Camp Sherman this weekend with Naiya's grandma and grandpa. The weather was perfect and afforded us a nice walk from their house, through the grounds of Lake Creek Lodge and down to the river. Naiya fell asleep while her daddy carried her, and I was surprised his arms didn't fall off with the massive 21 pound burden after 45 minutes or so. Still, it was a beautiful walk.
Restoration at the Lodge is coming along nicely with two new natural stone/wood bridges spanning the creek and all of the recently planted vegetation greening in fairly rapidly. We sat out in the sun for a bit and actually took some photos around the house and on the walk. The Metolius is one magical river. I couldn't say exactly why...

what to eat

Naiya has tried rice cereal, oat cereal, avocado and yams. Next is maybe peas or yogurt. What fun! It is still more an experiment for her than a nutritional experience. Today she gagged and threw up the yams. Maybe they were too thick or perhaps she was just not hungry. She's interested in the process but doesn't seem to connect it to eating. She has started drinking some water from a cup but mostly she puts some in her mouth and then it dribbles down her chin. Still... she does it over and over and that's something. She laughs so perhaps it is yet another fun and exciting game?

She's not pulling herself up to a sitting position yet, but does lean on one hand while she plays with something in the other. A few weeks ago I had thought she would start crawling soon, but now I am not so sure. She seems quite content with her current repertoire of movement... as if she doesn't see the need to get anywhere she isn't already.