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.