Bushes

Katherine Talking and Walking

Katherine is officially mobile. When we left for our biking trip, Katherine could walk 4 or 5 steps between me and Steve. When we came home, after much practicing, she could walk 8 to 9 steps. Now she can easily wobble in Frankenstein fashion 14 or 15 steps. We play a game of “go to mommy” and “go to daddy” where she will beam and walk between us. Not only is she mobile, she can now squat and then stand back up again. For instance, if we duck behind the coffee table, she will grasp the table with one hand, squat down, peer at us from under the table and laugh at us. Tonight, I caught her walking to Bisco who was lying on the floor. She leaned down, grabbed his head, ears and then nose – at different times. I tried to explain that she needs to be gentle, but that didn’t work out too well. It’s fortunate that Bisco is very patient. He just stayed on the floor looking very resigned.

Katherine is also expanding her vocabulary. Today, I came home and Patty informed me that Katherine says “Up.” She confirmed this by lifting her arms up, looking up at me and saying “Uph.” It was very sweet. So, I spent the rest of the evening saying Up and Down. And we’re continuing to say Thanks (which I’ve heard a couple times as “Tanks”) and we think she is trying to say Bisco as “Bith.” She babbles a lot now, talking to herself as she plays with her toys and walks around.

Everyone Sings in Our House!

With Steve out of town this week, I’ve taken the opportunity to practice my violin warming up for a few minutes each night with some nursery songs and a few scales. For some reason, Bisco has real issues with the violin. He simply purses his muzzle and howls “AWHOOOO” non-stop. Even when I play simple songs, he’ll hop on the couch and moan.

Last night, I took my violin out for the first time in months. Katherine spied it and clung to my leg looking at the violin curiously. When I started to tune, Bisco rushed over and started to howl. Katherine really enjoyed the show – Bisco howling next to me as I tuned and played the violin. Tonight, I took out a harmonica that we got at Sid’s birthday party, and the same thing happened. I want to make sure that Katherine grows up with music (As they say at Tiny Tots “it’s a musical life!”), so hopefully she’ll develop a love for stringed instruments. I took her hand and let her touch my violin and bow, she was so curious!

Curious Katherine

We call her “Curious Katherine” because she wants to check everything out. Tonight, she wobbled behind one of our chairs and found the gymboree parachute that was collapsed. She picked it up (strong!) and dragged it from behind the chair as if telling me “Mom, I want to play with this!” I opened it up and she crawled through. After staring at it, she grabbed the tag and one end and started to roll the parachute back and forth watching it roll across the floor.

During our trip to the Bay Area, she investigated everything around her. On the plane, she would check out her roundabout seat (not that she doesn’t sit in it everyday!) and she would peer at the people around her. She even stood on Steve’s lap and giggled at the people behind her over his shoulder. At the hotel, she checked out all the rooms and found bath salts next to the bath tub. I moved them to a nearby table, thinking she couldn’t reach them. Not only did she reach them, but she also then dropped the bag scattering the bath salts everywhere. I turned around from filling the tub and saw her stick a salt granule in her mouth. Holy Cow! Yes, we managed to get it out of her mouth.

Katherine goes to her first wedding

My previous roomate from Tempe, Sueling, got married this past weekend, so we all headed down to Los Gatos on Friday and came home on Sunday. Katherine was a trooper on the plane rides and drank lots of water to relieve her ear pressure. I’m not sure how parents travel with children, because she only slept one hour on Friday. With all the new experiences, Katherine didn’t want to miss a minute and stayed alert thru the airport, flight and to San Jose. She did sleep to the hotel, but promptly woke up as we carried her to the room. Coincidentally, Steve’s parents were in town too for the Stanford homecoming weekend, so they visited Friday and saw Katherine’s new developments. For dinner, we went to the California Cafe in the old town shopping center, sat out on the patio with other families and then walked back to the hotel room to watch the last out of the World Series first game. It was a beautiful evening, and Los Gatos is a very “tony” town as Steve’s mother described it.

On Saturday, we had breakfast with Steve’s parents at a local, Southern establishment. We headed back and stopped at the first annual glass art pumpkin festival. Local glass artists sold all sizes, colors and types of glass pumpkins to help raise money for hosting schools. Since we were staying right across from the Los Gatos High School, we stopped by and found a large, colorful pumpkin created by a Stanford grad only several years ahead of us. Since they wouldn’t ship, Steve had to visit a local store to double box the pumpkin for delivery home (it arrived in one piece!). It’s about 18″ in diameter and while orange in color has all sorts of blobs of colors all over it. The artist, when she found out we were from Seattle said, “bringing glass back to Seattle…that’s like taking coal to Newcastle!” I’m not sure how many people can afford the glass art she was referring to! Also, when Steve and I were debating one largely orange pumpkin and the one we bought, another woman explained that the colorful one was better because we could display it all year and it would go with more stuff. Pretty good rationale, so we bought it.

We returned to the hotel. Katherine took a nap, and we headed off to Sueling’s wedding only 6 or 7 miles up highway 17. The wedding was held at a small and tucked away facility with english cabs, a train, play houses and a refurbished barn! The ceremony was beautiful and in front of a lake with fountain with us sitting amongst the trees. (Katherine and Steve stayed outside the ceremony area so she wouldn’t disturb anyone – although it turned out she was quiet throughout.) We ate appetizers, rode in the train, and talked with others at the wedding. For dinner, we partaked in a 9 course dinner; we were just stuffed and Katherine was bleary eyed, so we had to leave prior to the cake cutting for nap time. She slept for 45 minutes in the car, and then we headed later to Mountain View to synch up with old friends, James, Lily and Kristina. After a short visit, we drove back to the hotel and hit the sack.

On Sunday, we woke early and headed to Albany for a visit with family. We visited with my Uncle Richard, Aunt Susan, and cousins Henry and Ronald. It was good to see everyone, after 7 years! Katherine played or banged on their piano, walked around their house and we enjoyed catching up. Unfortunately, we had to leave after only an hour and a half to make it back to the San Jose airport in time for our flight.

Brunch at the LeVines

On Saturday, Katherine, Christine and I trekked across the Lake to have brunch at the LeVines. Katherine loved playing with Sidney and his toys. It was fun to see them play together and attempt to “share” toys. Sharing means bonking each other with their toys. 🙂

On the way back from the LeVines, we stopped by Zanny Brainy to pick up a tricycle. Christine and I researched tricycles and found this one to be the safest and most versatile: http://www.mytoybox.com/product/KETT88521000.html. We selected the Brummi model which is only sold through Zany Brainy. I just discovered that it’s for a 3-6 year old. Hmm… Maybe another trip to the toy store is required…

Katherine loves her tricycle though her feet don’t quite touch the pedals. She loves being pushed around in the tricycle and watching the effects of steering the handle bars. After a demonstration by dad and a little bit of practice, she was able to turn the handle bars. I wouldn’t say she could steer the tricycle but she realized moving the handle bars altered the course of the tricycle.

In downtown Redmond there is a cool park, Anderson Park. It has a great jungle gym with plenty of things to play on. Katherine loves to watch the other kids play. It’s almost like she’s studying them to see if she can do what they do. Sometimes, I think she’s just willing herself to grow up so she can go play with the other kids.

On Sunday evening, the Fialas, Ramsays, Olbrights, and BushChangs got together for dinner at Cucina, Cucina. It was a fun time to talk about the newest members of the family and to swap stories.

Birthday Dinner for Grandpa Orr

Aunt Pat and Uncle Art graciously hosted the family tonight to celebrate Grandpa Orr’s birthday. Both Grandma and Grandpa Ramsay were in town to meet Grant – the newest member of the extended family – and to spend some quality time with family.

We really enjoyed catching up with everyone and watching the babies and toddlers interact with one another. Both Kevin and Will were active, playing with all the wonderful toys in the backyard, from the sandbox to the basketball hoop to the swings. Katherine spent much of the evening watching the two toddlers (especially from the high chair) and socializing with the adults.

Grant, who is a month old, snoozed, ate and generally hung out with Trina, Aunt Pat and Grandma. He is a very adorable baby, with a wonderful disposition. Mandy managed to sneak some food when folks weren’t watching, although she didn’t get any carrot cake…this time. 🙂

Highlights for Katherine:

Steve and I took turns pulling Katherine along in a plastic wagon. The faster we went, the more she would clutch on to the side of the wagon and kick her legs. We could tell that she really enjoyed this because she would start panting (this is her new “thing”) sort of “ha ha ha ha” and give us a big smile.
Katherine enjoyed the kiddy swing. Dad pushed her several times and then would grab and release her feet. Katherine thought this was extremely funny and would laugh at dad every time.
Katherine got to play on the teeter-totter with Will and Kevin. Will was initially a bit concerned that Katherine shouldn’t be on the teeter-totter (perhaps being too young), but Aunt Pat convinced Will to get on the other side and play with Katherine. Afterwards, he and Kevin both huddled around Pat and Katherine saying “Hello, baby Katherine” and peering into her face. It was a very cute moment. Katherine then crawled over to the basketball hoop, which she managed to face-plant into (mild crying) the pole, but she recovered fairly quickly.
The adults all took pictures of Grandpa Orr with the children. Kevin and Will both held plastic balls. Katherine eyed Will’s red plastic ball and grabbed Will’s shirt to try and get to it. Once Will lowered the ball, both children grasped the ball and stared at each other for several moments. I think we managed to capture this on film …er …RAM.
Grandpa’s birthday cake had a rainbow with the birthday inscription. This is perhaps a testament to how much we’ve read the “What makes a rainbow” ribbon book, but Steve and I listed off to Katherine all the animals that make a rainbow- Red/Ladybug, Orange/Fox, Yellow/Baby Chick, Green/Grasshopper, Blue/Bluebird, and Purple/Butterfly. Yep, we’ve read this book wayyyy tooo many times!

Many folks in the family were sporting new cars. Jason and Amy just bought a mini-van and Art and Pat a SUV. Both are great for kids. It seems like our children now drive so many of our decisions. It was great seeing everyone. Between us we shot 244 pictures the best of which appear to the right.

Other New Developments This Week…

Katherine’s teething continues in earnest. Patty told us that Katherine has a new tooth about to emerge on the bottom right gum and another up top. I stuck my finger in Katherine’s mouth last night, but didn’t have much luck finding them. The problem is that Katherine would chomp down, and those teeth really hurt!

We’ve got a new game in the morning where Steve and I take turns showering while the other plays with Katherine in the bathroom. She’s now learned that if she crawls to the shower and stands up (with palms on the glass) she can sometimes see the person in the shower. She also crawls to the drawer and pulls it out and pushes it in. yes – we’ve got to put in the drawer locks.

We took Katherine shopping last weekend (or maybe the week before?). Anyway, we hit the Nordstrom Anniversary sale, where we got a couple autumn outfits and some much needed 12 month jammies. She should be all set for the next several months or two more major growth spurts. We also stopped by a toy store, and picked up a toy that Steve and I had been looking at for a while. It’s kind of like a bead maze where the beads move on these wires (this toy’s been around for a while, so you’ve likely seen this thing). Katherine’s still a bit young to grok it entirely, but she does like to spin the beads around and move them up and down a bit. Nevertheless, it’s a great toy for the rest of the family. It’s also a nice change of pace from the other two standing toys that she plays with which are battery operated. (Speaking of which, we think the Leap Frog table is possessed. It will randomly start playing music at weird times of the day, even if we haven’t touched it in hours.)

Our Trip to Orange County, CA

Steve and I have often said that having Katherine has taught us patience and empathy. After this trip, we feel like we’ve gone through a rite of travel passage that we hope to never go through again. And, the next time we ever have to sit near a screaming baby on plane, we will sooooooo empathize with its parents.

Our trip started out well. Katherine snoozed all the way to the airport. She was a trooper as we progressed thru security & boarding. She even played with her toys as we ascended into the sky and fell into a deep slumber as the plane approached Southern California. However, when the plane starting descending into Orange County, she awoke rubbing her ears. Within seconds, she started to scream. Nothing would alieve the pain. She was so upset that she wouldn’t take a bottle or feed from the breast. Katherine screamed for 20 minutes non-stop – during the entire descent – and only calmed down after we de-boarded the plane. Fellow passengers approached us at baggage claim to inquire as to her well-being, which was very nice but reinforced our worst nightmare that Katherine was “that baby that screamed on the plane.” Since this experience, I’ve talked to our pediatrician and gotten a few handy tips involving over the counter medication to avoid this situation in the future.

Grandma and Grandpa Bush met us at the airport. We went back to their house and Steve whipped up dinner while I bathed and then put Katherine to bed in her Pack and Play. Given that this was the first time she had ever slept in a playpen, she did extraordinarily well and made it thru the entire night.

Visiting the Vasvarys

The next morning we played, got around, met Steve’s dad at Polly’s for lunch and then went to visit the Vasvarys, Steve’s maternal grandparents. This is the second time that the Vasvarys have seen Katherine, and they seemed to enjoy watching Katherine walk around and play with their plastic ambrosia container. Great-grandma Vasvary explained to Katherine how she puts Katherine to bed at night by lying down a picture of her that we sent for Christmas. In the morning, she turns the picture vertically, so Katherine wakes up. She’s done this every day since Christmas, which is quite remarkable.

Just to set context, we’ve been trying unsuccessfully to get Katherine to “wave” for the past several days. As we left the Vasvary’s home, Katherine gave her first wave. It was kind of like an arm movement coupled with a finger moving. Since then, she’s wiggled a couple fingers – which is extraordinarily cool.

Katherine’s First Trip to the Beach

After a very nice visit, Steve, Katherine and I headed to Newport Beach. Steve used his Boogey Board to surf the waves. Katherine walked around on the sand using my hands to stabilize herself and her little toes to grip the sand. She sported her cool Baby Banz hot pink sunglasses, which were essential since it was a hazy and windy day. She had a blast sitting down and grasping the sand in her hands. Unfortunately, she did manage to stuff sand in her mouth (twice!), which I wiped out with a towel.

Once Steve returned from wave surfing, we introduced Katherine to the surf. She loved it!! The wave would come towards her, and she would wobble towards it holding our hands. She also loved to be held above the water, so she could kick it as it raced over her feet and ankles. Despite the water being very cold, she was fearless and stomped in puddles mimicking Steve. We managed to capture a few video vignettes using our little Canon digital Elph camera. After our sandy adventure, Steve rinsed Katherine off in the cold beach showers (she howled), we packed her in her car seat and we drove back to Fullerton for a quick bath.

For dinner, we went to Great-grandma and Great-grandpa Ramsay’s house. The Ramsays had us over for an impromptu, but very nice, dinner of lasagna, salad and fruit. Katherine had fun during the meal with Grandpa Bush, as you can see in the pictures. We also found out that Aunt Amy is pregnant (congrats!) and that made the dinner quite a memorable occasion. We waded thru Steve’s growing collection of digital photos from the trip, and had fun catching up with family.

The Happiest Place on Earth & Almost Meeting Mickey (Twice)

Just about everyone in Steve’s immediate family has worked at Disneyland at some point or another. So, it was inevitable that we’d take Katherine to the Happiest Place on Earth at the tender age of 7.25 months. Many folks have asked me “did she get it? did she enjoy it?” Yes and Yes. She showed her grandparents why we call her swivel head. She sat in her little stroller, leaning forward and looked at all the sights, people. Because she was too young for many of the rides, we spent several hours walking thru Disneyland – taking pictures, visiting characters and pointing out changes that have occurred over the last 10 or so years.

One of the highlights of the morning was “It’s a Small World.” Katherine was exhausted at this point, having skipped her morning nap. We could see her try her best to keep her eyes open to watch the characters in the ride. Halfway thru, as the ride got dark, her eyes drooped shut and she snoozed for the next 20 minutes or so. You can see a picture that I took leaving the ride with Katherine asleep in the Baby Bjorn and in her pink “First Minnie Hat” embroidered with her name. Of course, we got her some Minnie ears which she just detests wearing. 🙂

We managed to get pictures of Katherine with Snow White and Goofy….and Mickey sort of. We caught sight of Mickey on Main Street and patiently waited to take our picture with him. As our turn approached, Mickey’s handler started to say that Mickey had to leave. Of course, we were courteous and took the pictures for the people in front of us. Just at that point, Mickey took off – probably to cool off backstage. (Our second Mickey sighting was later that night during a parade. We got to see his backside since we arrived just as the parade ended.)

As you can imagine, it was HOT and we went home around 2PM to cool off and give Katherine her nap. We had to work very hard to get her to nap, as she really was over-stimulated from Disneyland. But, we did get her to sleep for 2.5 hours and later we took her back in the evening for Fantasmic. Overall, she was a champ at Disneyland – and we had a great time watching her in this environment.

Mother’s Day

Sunday was Christine’s first official Mother’s Day. Last year Christine was pregnant with Katherine but this is the first year Katherine could actually give Christine a Mother’s Day gift (with a little help from Dad). Surprisingly enough, Dad coordinated Mother’s Day gifts for Katherine, Bisco, and himself. Christine is a great mom to Katherine and Bisco in addition to being a loving wife. After a lazy morning, we spent the rest of the day running errands.

Mother’s Day at the Fialas

The extended family got together to celebrate Mother’s Day at the Fialas. In addition to Art and Pat Fiala, Dave, Trina, and Will Fiala were there. Trina is 8 months pregnant with their second boy and looks great. Their first boy Will has grown up and loves to run around and play with Kevin and his grandparents (Art and Pat). Amy, Jason, and Kevin Olbright also attended the family gathering. Kevin is Will’s age and the two of them had a great time playing together. The Fialas have turned their house into a kid fun zone complete with toys, sandbox, swings, mini-basketball hoop, and of course their golden retriever Mandy. Kevin and Will immediately wanted to play on the swings. Both were experienced swingers and loved to have someone yell “boo” or give them a high five when the swing reached the apex of it’s swing.

Katherine patiently waited her turn for the swings (actually she had no clue). After the boys were done Katherine played on the swing. Katherine loves the swing. She likes having dad or mom stand in front of the swing yell “boo” when she comes close. Katherine has 15 minutes of pure joy of the swing before she’s ready to get off.

After the swings, we decided to line up the kids for a group photo shot. Will Fiala sat in the left chair, Katherine in the middle, and Kevin Olbright on the right. Kevin and Will have obviously done this before, sat patiently, and smiled. Katherine slowly sank in the chair and had to be readjusted a couple of times.

It was good to see everyone. Kevin and Will are growing up and hopefully someday soon Katherine will be able to play with them.

Birthday Party for Aunt Pat and Mrs. Chang

We had the extended family over to celebrate Aunt Pat and Mrs. Chang’s birthdays. We had 13 people over for dinner: Agnes Chang; Amy and Kevin Olbright; Dave, Trina, and Will Fiala; Art and Pat Fiala; Bill and Dottie Bush; and Christine, Katherine and I. We roasted 4 chickens and ended up only serving 3. We plan to use the extra chicken meat to stock our freezer full of Chicken Noodle soup.

We got a late start with dinner as we spent too much time at a cool children’s bookstore in Issaquah. Everyone arrived around by 6P and we sat down to a chicken dinner. By this time, Katherine was completely exhausted. She had a long day, being entertained by Grandma and Grandma Bush and wandering around Issaquah. She didn’t get in her full nap schedule. By the time dinner arrived she was so worn out she couldn’t fall asleep. Christine and I took shifts trying to get Katherine to sleep but there was just too much going on. Katherine wanted to be social and hang out but she needed her sleep. Christine and I need to manage her sleep schedule better when guests are in town so this doesn’t happen again.

This was the first family gathering that Will and Kevin played with each other. They used to play with each other’s toys but this was the first time they actually played with each other as playmates. It was fun to watch though it increased the decibels in the house a couple of notches.

After dinner, Christine took her mom to the airport for her red-eye flight back to Dulles. Mrs. Chang was an invaluable help and we thank her for helping us take care of Katherine while we went to work.

« Previous Page