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Vasvarys

What a Week!

What a Week!

Christmas was chock full of family meals and get togethers this year! We kicked off our week with Christmas Eve dinner with our immediate family and grandparents. My mom, the Bushes and Great-grandpa Vasvary visited for a potluck dinner featuring ham, potato buds, beans, salad, rolls and cheesecake. Katherine was so wound up and managed to convince the Bushes that she should open just one present Christmas Eve. This morphed into two gifts…a Bodyworks book and gift card. Anyway, we managed to get her to bed after reading the “Night before Christmas.” She gave me one last instruction before going to sleep, “Mama, be sure and tell Santa not to put a candy cane in Allison’s stocking. She’s still a baby!”

The next morning the crew arrived at 8:30AM (what dedication!) to see the girls open their presents. Katherine was agog at the stockings which were stuffed the night before and at the plate of oatmeal cookies which were nearly gone. We first tackled the stockings and the gifts wrapped by Santa (aka Steve who insisted on wrapping half the stocking gifts at 1:00AM the night before!).

Then…on to the gift opening!! One of my goals this Christmas was to keep the number of gifts under control. We sort of accomplished this, as Steve and I gave the kids only a small handful of gifts. Between all the family members, the girls managed to receive clothes, instructional DVDs and music CDs and toys. Katherine was super happy to get her candy cane and Carl book. One disappointment came when she took a Hallmark Lambey out of her stocking, “This isn’t Lambey…”

We then ate brunch which included a strata, more ham (see a theme?), fruit and a Christmas bread. Katherine fell asleep several hours later with Bisco, both sprawled on the couch for two hours. To cap off the excitement, we headed off to the Fialas for dinner and play with the cousins. This Christmas was eventful in that Katherine really interacted with her cousins for the first time. We attribute this to her Montessori learning environment. Or, it could be her natural development as a three year old.

That week we also hosted a brunch with the broader set of great-grandparents and Fialas. Brunch included….ham again, yogurt/granola, quiche, yummy breads, fruit, bagels, etc. A subset of folks played bridge before dispersing.

Eating More Solids

Allison has continued to expand her eating repertoire to include peas and brown rice (oh yumm!) and cereal finally. Patty’s key learning today: warm the food! We’re really trying to feed her at least 2-3 times a day. She’s grown as a result to 14 lbs and 9 oz – a 1.5 lb increase since her 6 month appt – and 36.25 inches. She still lags many of her peers at 5-10% weight and 25-50% height. She’s going to be a skinny kid!!

Dorothy Elizabeth Vasvary

Dorothy Elizabeth Vasvary

Steve’s grandmother Dorothy Elizabeth Vasvary passed away today (Dec 13, 2005). Grandma Vasvary has been battling Alzheimer’s disease for the last seven years so the family is mourning her passing but thankful she’s no longer suffering from dementia. My grandfather is a wonderful husband. For the last seven years, he has cared for my grandmother almost to the point of exhaustion. Alzheimer’s patients are a lot of work because they cannot function for themselves and are often confused and irritable. My grandmother was spared the extremes of the disease but the family still had to watch her slowly slip away.

We were fortunate to have Grandpa and Grandma Vasvary visit the family in Redmond in August of this year. Grandma Vasvary got to meet a 3 month old Allison and spend some quality time with Katherine. Katherine had a hard time understanding Grandma Vasvary because she never had experienced a grown up with dementia. I explained Grandma Vasvary’s condition to Katherine as “sometimes old people have trouble with words just like babies”. Katherine enjoyed string Cheerio necklaces with Grandma Vasvary.

I wanted to close by saying some words about my Grandma Vasvary. My grandmother was a very independent, curious, and unique individual. Grandma Vasvary would babysit me a lot in my early years as I can credit a lot of my personality to spending quality time with her. She had a lot of patience for my thousands of questions and would often take me on outings to local parks, museums, or her favorite, garage sales. A lot of my personality I can trace back to my Grandma Vasvary: independence, curiosity, shaping yomyur environment to mybeliefs, having strong beliefs and not caring too much about what other people think. She taught me to question things and not accept the status quo. Grandma Vasvary grew up in the South and had a disarming southern charm. She could strike up a conversation with anyone and make them feel comfortable.

We will miss her deeply but her spirit lives on in me which I will pass along to our children. The family is looking forward to spending more quality time with Grandpa Vasvary over the Christmas holidays.

The photos are from a visit to Fullerton in June, 2003 with Katherine and a visit by the Vasvarys to Redmond in August, 2005.

Bush / Vasvary Family Visit

Steve’s grandparents are visiting this week. Katherine has been busy entertaining them with Allison observing. Tonight we hosted them at our home. Katherine appeared downstairs in her bathing suit after asking “Mommy, you wash my bathing suit?!” She then dragged her sand toys and aqua shoes to the deck and pretended to serve sand as a dinner. Hm.

Staying Dry at Night!

Katherine has now stayed dry in her underwear at night several times. We’ve held out incentives like ice cream (only the first few times) and a Push-up pop at Grandma’s house. We just need to make sure that she goes to the bathroom before bed, and she’s all set!

What DID you do?

We’ve told Katherine numerous times not to lift her sister. What did she do last night? While I was picking up after dinner, Katherine tried to lift her sister who was playing on her mat and ended up hitting her on her head. All of a sudden I heard Allison wailing and found Katherine looking somewhat remorseful next to her. The next few minutes were tough for everyone. Allison took a few minutes to calm down and Katherine ended up in her room. We all learned a hard lesson last night…

More Berry Picking

Unlike last year, I wasn’t too enthusiastic about driving an hour to North Bend to pick blueberries. Instead we visited a small farm in Duvall only 20-25 minutes away. We picked the type of blueberries you’d find in the supermarket – not the big juicy ones that we got last year. Our yield – 7.5 lbs of berries. This wasn’t too bad considering Katherine poured some of our berries into her bucket and ate / dropped them on the ground. ๐Ÿ™‚ Thankfully we were able to leave Allison with Patty given the intense heat and overgrown bushes that we tromped through.

Grandparents Visit Friday

Katherine got up early, and Steve and I debated how to spend our last day in LA. We finally decided that between the record heat and our tight schedule not to visit Disneyland. Instead we visited with both sets of grandparents. Katherine was a treat during lunch, asking to “drive drive” incessantly. We held firm, and she ended up taking a long nap before we headed to the airport. Several hours later, we arrived at LAX, where we lugged Katherine to the gate. Steve and I took turns carrying her around the lounge on “shoulders” to see “airplanes.” By the time we were about to board, Katherine was convinced that the 737 was “tata’s plane.” The flight back to Seattle reinforced the joys of toddler travel. She must have spent 30 minutes playing with our seat belt. I showed her how to open the seat belt, and she kept practicing and practicing. We eventually arrived home, way after bedtime, and she collapsed in to her crib.

 

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. ๐Ÿ™‚

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.